No beauty contest for television frequencies. This was confirmed by the Minister of Development Corrado Passera to the newspaper La Repubblica, wiping out the controversies that followed the postponement of the decision on the allocation of frequencies. In times of hardship, it was above all the controversy of Italia dei Valori that pushed for the onerous sale of the state property, arousing the clear opposition of the Pdl and Mediaset, which allegedly won the frequencies not on the basis of a regular tender but other requirements, not determined from a market perspective.
The frequencies will therefore be sold and, in spite of what former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi claimed, the sale could yield around 1,2 billion euros. However, we will not proceed with the sale en bloc, but rather by degrees: an unpacking is foreseen based on the concession times.
It was a Mediobanca study that quantified the possible revenues for the state coffers, but the current value actually hides a potential treasure: the packages could be resold in the future at much higher prices, which depend on the future choices of the operators in based on EU regulations that will come into force from 2015: after that date, the United Nations decided that some networks will be transferred from TV to the Internet, occupying two or three of the six multiplex channels.
A real digital highway that will be able to host new content capable of enticing operators to invest in new products. In essence, based on the beauty contest, he would have given himself – today – what tomorrow represents potential loot.
The hypothesis predicts that a part of the broadband (the 700 multiplex network) is awarded for a three-year period, right up to 2015, after which the new mechanism decided by the UN would come into play, which would give a significant boost to the market. The rest of the channels could be granted with longer times.
