Regional TV Licenses First, Radio to Follow – A New Shift in the Greek Government’s Media Roadmap
Regional TV licenses: The government is finally returning to the licensing plan for television and radio stations, but once again changing the order of submitting the draft laws. Under pressure from the business triumvirate of Bakos, Kaimenakis, and Exarchos and after the contacts that government officials had with the representatives of the television stations, it reached the decision to proceed first with the issuance of regional licenses and then with the issuance of radio licenses.
The regional stations, which expressed complaints to other ministers – resulting in the project being frozen two months ago – received assurances that the financial consideration for the license would be low and that there would be a subsidy for the transition from standard to high definition. The extensions for the licensing of regional stations, radio stations, and exclusive broadcasting in high definition expire on December 31, 2025, and, as happens every year, an extension will be granted for the next one, as is expected to happen with the decision for the broadcasting of all private stations with the DVB-T2 transmission system.
The implementation of this system, which allows the broadcasting of more stations on a single frequency, was to begin on January 1, 2026. An unpredictable factor is the ESR. The issue of its legal constitution or not will be decided by the Council of State (StE). The law stipulates that the Authority is formed with the vote of 3/5 of the Conference of Presidents of the Parliament.
The ESR, with its new composition, was voted in by the Conference of Presidents of the Parliament, chaired by Konstantinos Tasoulas and with the votes of only ND and Kyriakos Velopoulos’ Hellenic Solution. There, the government’s proposal for the eight members of the ESR failed to garner 17 votes, corresponding to the required 3/5, but 16.2 votes.
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