{"id":10640,"date":"2026-06-14T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10640"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:02:00","slug":"an-end-to-the-temporary-status-of-regional-channels-how-the-new-licenses-will-be-granted-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10640","title":{"rendered":"An End to the “Temporary” Status of Regional Channels – How the New Licenses Will Be Granted (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government is attempting to put a definitive end to the regime of “temporary legality” for regional television, with the new law passed by Parliament that completely changes the operating framework for stations. <\/p>\n

The bill by the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister and government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis, was approved by the Plenary, with the support of New Democracy<\/strong> and PASOK<\/strong>, while several provisions also received a positive response from opposition parties. <\/p>\n

The new Law 5308\/2026<\/strong> concerns the 81 regional television stations currently in operation and introduces new requirements regarding both technical operations and licensing. <\/p>\n

The main objective is the full transition to high-definition (HD)<\/strong> and the creation of a stable operating framework, following 28 years of continuous extensions and transitional arrangements. <\/p>\n

Auctions for television licenses are being abolished <\/h3>\n

The key change in the new framework is the abandonment of the model of financial bidding competitions. <\/p>\n

Licenses will no longer be granted through auctions, but through a process of institutional and quality control, with a key role played by the National Council for Radio and Television (ESR)<\/strong>. They will be valid for 10 years, and the application for participation will be accompanied by a fee of 1,000 euros. <\/p>\n

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The five stages of the process <\/h3>\n

Licensing will proceed through the following five key steps: <\/p>\n

1. Determination of available spectrum <\/h4>\n

The Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT)<\/strong> will submit a technical recommendation regarding the capacity of the available spectrum per Regional Zone. <\/p>\n

Based on this report and the opinion of the National Broadcasting Council<\/strong>, the number of licenses that each region can technically support for HD<\/strong> broadcasting will be determined. <\/p>\n

2. Public Call for Expressions of Interest by the NCRTV <\/h4>\n

Subsequently, the NCRTV<\/strong> will issue a public call for expressions of interest for each Regional Zone. <\/p>\n

This will describe the deadlines, the required supporting documents, and the method for assigning the Logical Channel Number (LCN)<\/strong>, i.e., the position of each channel on the remote control. <\/p>\n

3. Verification of basic requirements <\/h4>\n

In the first phase, the basic eligibility criteria will be reviewed. <\/p>\n

The legal form of the companies, full transparency regarding ownership structure, compliance with tax and social security obligations, as well as technical infrastructure will be checked. <\/p>\n

Transmission facilities, the availability of HD<\/strong> equipment, and financial adequacy will also come under scrutiny. <\/p>\n

The minimum share capital will start at 100,000 euros for small zones, reach 150,000 euros for medium-sized areas, \u20ac200,000 for Thessaloniki and Chalkidiki, and up to \u20ac500,000 for Attica. <\/p>\n

If the number of valid applications does not exceed the number of available permits, the process will be completed without further evaluation. <\/p>\n

Scoring when there are more applications <\/h3>\n

In cases where applications exceed the available licenses, a comparative evaluation system will be applied. <\/p>\n

Stations will be scored based on their original and local programming, the number of employees and journalists, the experience of their executives, and their continuous presence in the market. <\/p>\n

News channels will be required to broadcast at least 18 hours of programming, while for non-news channels the minimum requirement will be 12 hours. <\/p>\n

At the same time, there is a requirement to make content available on demand<\/strong> for one week. <\/p>\n

The law also sets minimum staffing requirements. For example, at least 30 employees are required in Attica and 20 in Thessaloniki. <\/p>\n

What will happen to stations that are not licensed <\/h3>\n

Once the process is complete, the National Broadcasting Council<\/strong> will compile ranking lists by zone and proceed with the issuance of licenses. <\/p>\n

For stations that do not secure a license, a three-month transition period is provided so that they can either comply or suspend operations. <\/p>\n

The role of EETT and the transition to DVB-T2 <\/h3>\n

A key role in the new system is played by the collaboration of Pavlos Marinakis<\/strong> with the Ministry of Digital Governance and Minister Dimitris Papastergiou. <\/p>\n

The technical transition to the DVB-T2<\/strong> standard is a key part of the plan, so that all regional stations will broadcast exclusively in HD<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The EETT<\/strong> is expected to submit its final recommendation on the frequency spectrum shortly, while the National Broadcasting Council (ESR)<\/strong>, which has increased its staff by 62%, is preparing for the first calls for tenders in September. <\/p>\n

Next target: radio stations <\/h3>\n

Following regional television, the government is turning its attention to the licensing of radio stations. <\/p>\n

The Ministry of Digital Governance has already requested an update of radio station data to form a complete picture before the official process begins there as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n The government is seeking to put a definitive end to the “provisional legality” status of regional television with the new law that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greece"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}