Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hailed the auction as an end to backroom deals between governments and business interests seeking public influence.
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PASOK, Greece’s once-dominant socialist party, on Friday questioned the legitimacy of a government auction for four private nationwide TV licenses while warning of layoffs in the country’s crisis-hit media sector.
TBI sister title DTVE understands that the national broadcasters that did not secure licences will have 90 days to take their stations off-air, though an appeals process is now likely.
Mr Tsipras said it was the first time that the licences had been properly auctioned since privately owned stations started broadcasting in the late 1980s.
“We were not contesting a license, we came to negotiate ransom”, said Costas Kimbouropoulos, Skai’s representative.
“Using the rules of a badly-run reality show, the government is pretending to take on corruption”, the Journalists’ Union of Athens said in a statement at the start of the bidding. “It is auctioning off to the highest bidder the public’s right to be properly informed”.
State Minister Nikos Pappas, who oversaw the auction and is one of Tsipras’ closest aides said on Friday that Greece now has “TV channels which will inform Greek people objectively. not depending on their owners’ links to the political leadership”.
The process, which began on Tuesday and closed in the early hours of this morning, saw the Greek government offer four national private TV licences, down from a previous seven.
He promised to use the money raised from the license sale on state welfare programs.
The two other licences went to shipping magnate and Olympiacos FC owner Evangelos Marinakis and businessman Yannis Kalogritsas.
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The sums paid range from €43.6m for Skai to €75.9m for Antenna.
