As you may recall, in order to grant the rights of use 6 digital tv frequencies (5 DVB-T and 1 in DVB-H or T2) , the Ministry of Economic Development started a so called beauty contest procedure. A commission of experts appointed by the Ministry shall draw a ranking of the applications of the applicant broadcasters (according to higher or lesser compliance to some requirements) and grant the frequencies according to such ranking.
The deadline to file the application has expired since many weeks but to date no frequency has been granted yet. Actually, in the meantime, 4 appeals has been filed before the competent court and, above all, a new government installed. It is a fact that almost contemporarily to this beauty contest procedure the LTE frequencies have been granted against almost 4 billions of euro paid by mobile operators to use and exploit such frequencies. Vis-a-vis such success that meant a lot of income for the state, many criticized the choice of the previous Ministry for the Economic Development to grant these tv digital frequencies for free.
In the light of the above, now the new Ministry for Economic Development, who is delegated also to manage communications field, will have to decide what to do with this procedure for granting tv frequencies. To date we have no strong elements to foresee whether this beauty contest procedure will go to an end or it is on a road to nowhere. We wait and see and keep you updated. If you want to discuss the above, feel free to contact me, Gianluigi Marino (gianluigi.marino@dlapiper.com).