Portugal’s Cofina interested in DTT channel
September 23, 2013
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Portuguese media group Cofina, owner of TV channel CMTV and dailies “Correio da Manhã” and “Jornal de Negócios” among other titles, has formally expressed interest in taking part in a future DTT tender.
In a letter to the Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC), the group “manifests and formalises the desire to compete for the future concessions for free-to-air channels on DTT, pledging to present a project of national interest, with technical quality, favouring domestic production and the Portuguese language”.
Cofina also makes clear that it “disagrees with the opinion that the market, in the current recessionary conditions, does not have space for more FTA channels”, a view publicly expressed on several occasions by the owners of commercial broadcasters SIC and TV. According to Cofina, “only the appearance of new proposals may continue to captivate the interest of the public and advertisers and prevent the migration of both to other formats.”
Cofina recalls that, “despite the adverse conditions”, it recently launched on the Meo platform a general entertainment channel, CMTV, which broadcasts daily 12-14 hours of original productions, in HD and in Portuguese, creating 80 jobs in the process.