In October 2015, the Greek Parliament voted on new legislation concerning, among other things, the digital terrestrial television broadcasting licensing procedure for private TV stations. The new framework aims to regulate the field, after years of private TV broadcasting on "temporary" licenses, which were issued 25 years ago. Under the new framework, the Greek regulatory Authority (the National Board of Radio and Television - hereinafter, ESR) will issue a number of licenses to television content providers, after a highest-bid auction process. The number of licenses will be determined by a majority vote of the Greek Parliament, following the Minister of State's proposal, and after public deliberation and consultation with the ESR, and both Greek and international experts. The initial price of the license is to be determined by a joint decision of the Ministers of State responsible for Communications and Media and Finance. At the request of the Greek Minister of State, the Florence School of Regulation, Communication and the Media Area, has set up a group of international experts to carry-on this independent academic study, which aims to provide a documented opinion on the above mentioned two issues, namely, (a) how many nationwide television broadcasting licenses should be issued? And, (b) what should the auction's starting price be? The study is structured as follows. The first part provides an overview of the Greek television landscape, and more precisely, of the market for digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting. In addition, it analyses the main provisions of the law that was recently approved by the Greek Parliament on the matter, and its most immediate practical consequences for the market. The second part proposes an answer to the first research question of this study, i.e., how many nationwide television broadcasting licenses should be issued by the Ministry of State. In order to do so, it looks at the current Greek frequency plan, suggests the adoption of a new one that is more in line with the relevant European and international frameworks, and, finally, it provides indications of the number of licenses to be issued. The third part focuses on the identification of the starting price for the auctions. With these aims, it uses a benchmarking methodology, that takes into account two different benchmarking possibilities, and it applies all the necessary adjustments in the Greek context. The last part of the study concludes by putting forward some general policy considerations and suggestions.
