6 Companies Bid for Bulgaria Digital TV Multiplexes

Michael Wagenhofer, ORS managing director, says the company will join the bidding for Bulgaria's multiplexes because digital networks are its main area of interest. Photo: ORS archive

Six bidders have submitted documents for the construction of two private multiplexes in the first stage of completing the national digital television networks in Bulgaria from 2009 till July 2010.

This emerged from the list of companies, published on the site of the telecommunications watchdog the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC). The regulatory body has not yet published official information about the bidders, even though the deadline for filing bids expired on May 12.

The analogue television switch-off should be wrapped up in December 2012.

The bidders include Towercom, Interactive Media Services, Techno Entertainment and Hannu Pro Bulgaria, BTC and ORS.

The Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) is running along with Austria's Oesterreichischer Rundfunksender GmbH & Co KG (ORS) more than a month after it announced a delay in the sale of its broadcasting unit.

BTC decided to sell NURTS to Austria's ORS in December last year. The price of the deal was not disclosed, but according to insiders ORS paid EUR 80 M for a majority share in the company and pledged to invest another BGN 100 M in an upgrade of the radio and television towers.

The deal for the sale of BTC National Unit Radio and TV Systems (NURTS) stumbled a month ago after the regulatory authorities, the Communications Regulation Commission, said it needed four more months to give the green light to the deal. Reports say the future of the deal will become clear after the general elections in the summer.

NURTS covers nearly all of Bulgaria with its network of radio and television broadcasting services

 

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