Romania's ANCOM completes fourth auction of DTT multiplexes

ANCOM Completes the Fourth Auction for Digital Terrestrial Television Multiplexes

Two new local multiplexes, in Iasi and Timisoara, have been awarded in the fourth DTT auction held by ANCOM.

M PLUS INVESTMENTS S.R.L, headquartered in Iasi, won the Iasi local multiplex, for which it must pay a licence fee amounting to EUR 8,000, while NOVA MEDIA S.R.L., headquartered in Timisoara, won a local multiplex for Timisoara, and it has to pay a licence fee of EUR 8,000, as well.

The licence fees, amounting to a total of EUR 16,000, must be paid to the state budget within 90 calendar days from the result announcement date. The Government established these licence fees in February 2014.

Winners’ rights and obligations

The two multiplexes will be awarded for a 10-year period, the winners being able to launch service as soon as they receive their licence from ANCOM. The winners will have the obligation to launch into operation one transmitter within one year from the licence issuance.

Digital multiplexes

A digital multiplex is a group of radio broadcasting and television programmes, additional multimedia services and other associated identification data transmitted from the emission stations to the end-users by terrestrial radio means, using digital modulation within the limits of a standard television channel/frequency block.
A national multiplex will cover the whole country with digital terrestrial television services, whereas regional and local multiplexes will serve specific assignment areas, which may correspond to one county, respectively one locality.

The auction documentation is available, on ANCOM’s website.

Following the four auctions organized so far, three national multiplexes have been awarded to the National Broadcasting Company, this company winning the free-to-air multiplex and two other multiplexes in the UHF band. Moreover, twelve regional multiplexes and three local multiplexes have also been awarded.