Public Tenders for Open Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Licenses

On October 8, 2015 the Argentine Executive Branch issued Decrees Nos. 2106/2015, 2107/2015, 2108/2015, 2109/2015 and 2124/2015 approving acts for the public tender called by the Federal Authority of Audiovisual Communication Services (after its Spanish acronym “AFSCA”) for licensing the installation, operation and exploitation of Open Digital Terrestrial Television Services (TDTA) in the ISDB-T standard in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, on digital channels 36.1, 36.2, 27.2, 26.2, 26.1 and 27.1 the UHF band, with category B and transmission format HD 720, HD 720, SD 576, HD 720, Full HD 1080 Full HD 1080, respectively.

Although to date, according to the above referred Decrees, certain digital channels have been awarded to different bidders, for -channels 36.2 digital (HD 720), 27.2 (SD 576) and 27.1 (HD 1080)- a new call for public tender was announced by Resolutions AFSCA Nos. 984/2015 and 991/2015, with a closing date on November 13, 2015. This tender is open to natural and legal persons for profit. The values of the statements are: (i) AR$ 250,000 (Channel 27.2), AR$ 500,000 (Channel 36.2) and AR$ 1,000,000 (channel 27.1.).

These public tenders were originally called by AFSCA through Resolution No. 39/2015 and its complementary rules, in which the bidding terms and conditions to be met by those submitting proposals for the aforementioned licenses were approved.

Basically, bidders must submit five folders containing information on the following aspects: (i) personal; (ii) corporate, (iii) financial, (iv) technical and aspects to be considered; and (v) communicational.

Proposals will be evaluated by the competent AFSCA areas, depending on the aspects and requirements of the bidding terms and conditions. "Elements of admissibility" and "relevant considerations" will be considered. Upon acceptance of the proposal, a jury will evaluate the following: the general framework of the communicational proposal, programming grid, origin and programming profile and background and origins. Then the jury will issue a report and propose an order of merit to the Board of AFSCA.

Licenses will be granted for a period of ten years as of the date the AFSCA authorizes the start of regular broadcasts. This period may be extended only once for an additional ten years, as long as certain requirements are met.

Open Digital Terrestrial Television is a platform that uses the latest digital technology to transmit high quality video and audio for free, and additionally allows interactive services.

The Argentine Republic adopted the digital standard called ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial), which should totally replace the analog television system in 2019 (in accordance with Decree No. 1148/2009).

To operate the Open Digital Terrestrial Television broadcasting the UHF frequency band between 470 and 608 MHz, that is, between channels 14 and 36 will be used.