The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting has stated it is ready to hold a repeat competition to assign additional frequencies after the first became the subject of court proceedings.
"The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting is ready to hold a repeat, transparent, public and open competition for the frequencies that became the subject of court proceedings. This could be done after the submission of a relevant decision by the Cabinet of Ministers, for which the National Council will immediately appeal… The competition will be open, and all television organizations of Ukraine will be able to take part in it, including the TVi Channel and Channel 5," the National Council said in a statement on Monday.
"A decision [by the government is needed], taking into account the resolution by the Cabinet of Ministers of June 9, 2006 under which the assigning of analogue frequencies to information channels was halted according to the Geneva 2006 international agreement," the press service of the National Council reported.
According to the statement, Channel 5 will have an advantage, as it is purely information channel, and the development of information broadcasting was the main condition of the competition.
As reported, on August 30, Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal declared unlawful and canceled a decision dated January 27, 2010 of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting to assign additional frequencies to the TVi Channel and Channel 5.
Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal considered appeals by Channel 5 and TVi Channel against suits by the Information Television Service Ltd (NTN television channel) and the Kino TV Television and Radio Company Ltd (owned by Inter Media Group media holding) regarding the deprivation of frequencies for broadcasting and the cancellation of broadcasting licenses.
Earlier, the district administrative court of Kyiv satisfied a claim by the Inter group of TV channels, which protested against a January 27, 2009 decision of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting to assign additional frequencies to TVi Channel and Channel 5.
According to the results of a competition held by the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, 33 frequencies were assigned to the TVi Channel, 26 frequencies to the Fifth Channel, and 20 frequencies to the U.A. Inter Media Group (Kyiv).
The U.A. Inter Media Group refused to take up the frequencies in April, as according to it, the competition had been unfair.
