Advanced Television

Croatia to get two new DTT channels by Xmas

September 14, 2010

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Croatia’s Council for Electronic Media has awarded one concession each to commercial broadcasters Nova TV and RTL Televizija to launch specialised channels on the so-called Multiplex B.

Nova TV plans to air a specialized channel called Doma TV, while RTL will launch the RTL 2 channel. The concessions have been granted for 15 years, the annual fee is HRK 450,000 (E61,800) and the two new channels have to start broadcasting within 90 days of formal grant.

According to Council president, Zdenko Ljevak, the decisions were made by majority vote, but he did not want to reveal how many votes were given to each of the bidders. For her part, Council member, Olga Ramljak, added that both channels will offer entertainment programmes, “although with only some innovation, mostly recycling existing content”.

Also taking part on the tender was business news channel Kapital Network, which only half a year ago won a concession for experimental broadcasts, which has now not been confirmed. Due to incomplete documentation, the Council rejected the bid of GRP Media, which offered to air the OBN channel, which is already available in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO