After all the controversy, Anacom will finally reevaluate the tender for the allocation of a Digital Terrestrial Television license on paid channels (Muxes B to F).
According to the Lusa agency, which had access to a document from the regulator, the president of the evaluation committee was removed, which led to the designation of a legal substitute and the re-examination of candidacies.
The news was released last Friday and has not yet been officially confirmed by Anacom.
The DTT license for paid channels had been granted in early June to Portugal Telecom, but Airplus TV has been contesting the results and last week delivered a request for precautionary measures to contest the contest.
The company, led by Luís Nazaré, disputes the results of the contest, alleging that evaluation parameters that were not defined in the elements put out to public tender were used.
Even before, on 14 July, Airplus TV would have sent Anacom a request requesting that the chairman of the commission be prevented and replaced.
According to Lusa, the company reported that Carlos Salema (chairman of the DTT evaluation committee) is the administrator of the Telecommunications Institute, in which PT is a client and financier, and that his daughter and brother are PT’s staff.
The removal of the president from the competition will make the evaluation committee now operate with only two members, chaired by Pierre Antoine Lavoix.
The agency also adds that the tendering process will now be redone «from the moment the tenders started to be considered».
It is recalled that PT and Airplus TV were the only two candidates for the DTT contest for broadcast on paid channels.
The license was awarded to Portugal Telecom, which was at the top of the ranking in the technical field and in the quality of television content, earning 85 points out of 100.
Airplus TV stood at 57 points.
PT would also end up winning the license on open signal channels, where it was the only competitor.
Related News:2008-07-25 – Airplus moves forward with request for precautionary measure for DTT
2008-07-15 – Airplus Tv asks new jury for the DTT contest 2008-07-04 – Portugal Telecom guarantees free DTT channels
2008-06-27 – PT wins the DTT contest
2008-05-29 – PT competitor in DTT threatens to resort to courts 2008-04-23 – Portugal Telecom and AirPlus TV deliver applications to DTT
