Invitation to tender
Nationwide terrestrial television broadcasting licence in
Norway
1. Introduction
In 1990, the Norwegian Storting
(Parliament) announced that a licence for the establishment of a
television channel to transmit via analogue terrestrial
transmitters in Norway nationwide programmes financed by
advertising might be granted. This licence was granted in 1991 to
the company "TV2 AS". The licence is to be awarded again for a
period of seven years with the effect from 1 January 2003. The
Ministry of Cultural Affairs thus invites applications for the
licence.
The Ministry has outlined below the
information that the applications must contain and the conditions
the Ministry is expected to make in respect of the licence.
As there is limited bandwidth
available for analogue transmissions, only one licence will be
granted in this round.
The Ministry would like to point
out that other regional analogue frequencies may be awarded to
other parties for television transmissions. This primarily concerns
frequencies in western and northern Norway. The authorities may
also award licences for the broadcasting by satellite of television
programmes, which may be received by satellite dish and/or cable by
a significant part of the population. The Ministry also wishes to
point out that a television channel may acquire nearly nationwide
coverage by transmitting via the local terrestrial network (see
Section 7-6 of the Regulation No. 153 of 28 February 1997
concerning Broadcasting (the Broadcasting Regulations)). Following
any development of a nationwide, digital, terrestrial network for
transmissions, further television licences for nationwide
transmissions may be awarded. The licensee must accept the
establishment of such competitive television channels and other new
applications of bandwidths without any amendments to their own
licence terms.
This invitation is available in
Norwegian and English. In case of divergence in meaning between the
two versions the Norwegian version shall take precedence.
2. Parties entitled to apply
Any Norwegian or foreign
enterprise, company under formation etc., is entitled to apply for
the award of the broadcasting licence, provided that the company is
established in such a way that transmissions will come under
Norwegian jurisdiction in accordance with Council Directive
89/552/EEC, as amended by the European Parliament and Council
Directive 97/36/EU, cf. Section 1-1 of the Broadcasting
Regulations.
3. Contents of the application
a. Information about the applicant
The application must state the name
and address of the enterprise, and the name and address of the
contact person the Ministry is to deal with. The telephone and fax
numbers and the e-mail address of the enterprise and the contact
person must also be given.
The application must state the
registered headquarters of the enterprise, its ownership structure,
the name of its owners and where it is registered. Details of the
enterprise’s capital, its articles of association and any
shareholder agreements must be submitted as appendices to the
application.
b. Broadcasting competence
The applicant and/or its
co-operative partners must be able to document considerable
competence in the field of television broadcasting and programme
production, or describe how it plans to develop such a level of
competence before the start of the licence period.
c.Information regarding fulfilment of the public service
broadcasting obligations
Applicants must provide a detailed outlined account
of how they expect to meet the public broadcasting obligations as
outlined in section 4 below, and of the frequency and scale of
the various categories of programmes and TV services. Applicants
are also required to give detailed information on how other aspects
of broadcasting activities will be organised and operated.
d. Financing plan
Applications must include a
specified list of estimated costs to fulfil the terms of the
licence as well as estimated costs to fulfil its own plans for
operations. Applications must enclose guarantees for the financial
obligations the applicant will undertake to finance the
broadcasting activities. Applications must contain a detailed
financing plan for establishing and operating the broadcasting
company throughout the licence period, and describe all relevant
aspects of this financing.
e. Other information provided by applicants. Status of
applications
The Ministry may request further
information from applicants.
If the applicant presupposes
certain conditions or reservations, the application must describe
this in distinct terms.
The application is binding in the
sense that every matter concerning plans for programming, technical
development, payment for taxes etc. described in the application
might be included as a part of the terms for awarding the licence.
Other conditions might be set according to the Broadcasting
Act.
If, during the handling of the
application or the remainder of the award process, an applicant
merges or enters into any form of cooperation that affects its
planned broadcasting activity, the Ministry must immediately be
notified. The Ministry shall also be notified in the event of any
other matters that may affect consideration of the
applications.
Pursuant to the Norwegian Freedom
of Information Act, the contents of the application shall be made
available to the public, with the exception of the information
considered to be business secrets, cf Section 5a of the Freedom of
Information Act and Section 13 of the Public Administration Act.
Applicants must state which parts, if any, of the application that
should be considered as business secrets. It is expressly pointed
out that the Ministry of Cultural Affairs may carry out an
independent assessment of whether such information should be
regarded as business secrets.
f. Submission of applications. Application deadline.
Assessment of applications.
Five copies of the application, in
Norwegian or English, are to be sent or delivered to:
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs
P O Box 8030 Dep
0030 OSLO
Norway
by 30 May 2001 at 2 p.m.
The Ministry is under no obligation
to consider applications that fail to meet the requirements with
regard to organisation, content, etc.
The licence will be awarded before
the end of 2001.
The Ministry will primarily
emphasise applicants’ plans for operating the public service
obligations. The Ministry will also consider of particular
importance the applicants’ plan for financing and operating the
broadcasting company.
The mode of payment chosen (cf. 4f)
will have no impact on the evaluation of applications.
4. Terms of the licence
The Ministry will lay down
conditions for awarding the licence in compliance with Section 2-1
of Act No. 127 of 4 December 1992 relating to Broadcasting (the
Broadcasting Act). The terms will be finalised at the time the
licence is awarded and will be based on Proposition No. 55
(1989–90) to the Odelsting (the larger division of the Norwegian
parliament), Recommendation No. 2 (1990–91) to the Odelsting and
the parliamentary debate of these documents. The following terms
will govern award of the licence. Further conditions may be
stipulated.
a. Programming
The profile of programmes must be
based on the principles of public service broadcasting. This means
the programmes must be suitable for, and of interest to, the
general public, and that programmes must be offered for both large
and small viewer groups. The following categories of programmes and
services must at least be included in the transmissions:
- Daily news bulletins offering national and international news,
and presenting and commenting on Norwegian and international
news;
- Current affairs programmes;
- Documentaries;
- Norwegian-language programmes with a wide variety of themes and
genres especially intended for children and adolescents;
- Programmes in Sami for the Sami community as well as programmes
for other minorities;
- Cultural programmes covering a broad spectrum of Norwegian and
international culture;
- Programmes on religious beliefs and other systems of
belief;
- Norwegian-language drama and entertainment covering a wide
variety of themes and genres;
- Use of both official Norwegian forms of language and
dialects;
- Subtitling in Norwegian, or the provision of other services to
enable groups with impaired hearing to enjoy the programmes;
A minimum of 50 per cent of
programming shall consist of programmes in the Norwegian
language.
The licensee is bound to comply
with the regulations governing European television material (cf.
Section 2-6 of the Broadcasting Act, and Chapter 2 of the
Broadcasting Regulations).
Conditions might be laid down to
govern the frequency and scale of the various categories of
programmes and services.
Programmes must adhere to the
principles of freedom of expression, editorial autonomy and
independence.
b. Notices from the authorities, etc.
The licensee may be instructed by
the relevant authorities, at no charge, to broadcast notices from
the authorities in accordance with Section 2-4 of the Broadcasting
Act, and Section 1-7 of the Broadcasting Regulations.
The licensee may also be instructed
to execute emergency measures in accordance with Section 2-4 of the
Broadcasting Act.
c. Technical development and provision of services
A long-term goal is that the
transmissions shall reach the entire population of Norway.
The Ministry will require that
coverage at least equivalent to TV 2’s current coverage via
terrestrial transmitters be maintained during the licence period.
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs may accept a deviation from
this provision for the analogue transmissions if a significant part
of the population locally, regionally or nationally receive the
licensee’s transmissions by digital technology.
The licensee for the operation of technical broadcasting
facilities is NORKRING AS. It is expected that the television
licensee itself will enter into the necessary agreements in order
to achieve the stipulated level of coverage.
d. Start of transmissions
The Ministry will require that
transmissions start on 1 January 2003.
e. Financing
The channel may be financed through
various means including advertising and sponsor income within the
bounds of the Broadcasting Regulations (enclosed). Public funds
will not be made available for establishing or operating the
licensee’s activities.
f. Taxes
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs
will propose an amendment to Act No. 127 of 4 December 1992 on
Broadcasting, which will give access to charge a tax to the State
Treasury for allocation of the licence to broadcast nationwide
programmes financed by advertising. On condition that the Norwegian
Storting adopts the Ministry’s amendment bill, the licensee is
obliged to:
i) Either pay NOK 150 million upon
allocation of the licence, in addition to an annual tax consisting
of two elements – a fixed element and an element the size of which
will depend on the licensee’s income of advertising revenues:
- The fixed tax is NOK 25 million.
- The annual income-based tax shall be calculated as follows:
7.5 per cent of advertising revenues between NOK 1 billion
and NOK 1.5 billion
10 per cent of advertising revenues between NOK 1.5 billion
and NOK 2 billion
20 per cent of advertising revenues over NOK 2 billion - The fixed part of the annual tax is deductible from the
income-based tax. However, the total annual tax shall be at least
NOK 25 million.
- The fixed annual tax and the revenue intervals will be
regulated annually during the licence period based on changes in
the consumer price index from the month the licence was
awarded.
- The Government might lay down further provisions concerning the
basis for calculation of the annual tax.
ii) Or pay NOK 500 million to the State Treasury upon
allocation of the licence.
The two models for payment of taxes
are of the same standing. The applicants have to document financing
of the tax according to the chosen payment model.
A part of the tax, NOK 25 million,
will be earmarked annually for Norwegian audio-visual
productions.
g. Ownership
The ownership of the channel will
be subject to Act No. 53 of 13 June 1997 relating to Supervision of
the Acquisition of Newspaper and Broadcasting Enterprises, and the
Media Ownership Authority’s enforcement of this.
h. Localisation
The Norwegian Storting (parliament)
decided 20 November 1990 that the channel's head office and main
news editorial office must be in Bergen. This condition will apply
for the new licence period.
i. Licence period
The licence will be granted for a
period of seven years, effective from January 2003. The licence is
not transferable.
j. Annual report
The licensee will be required to
submit an annual report on the year’s activities and plans for the
subsequent year. The report must also contain programme statistics
in compliance with the guidelines for this issued by the European
Broadcasting Union (EBU).
k. Sanctions
In the event of any breach of the
terms of the licence or of any other rules relating to broadcasting
operations, sanctions may be imposed on the licensee in accordance
with the currently applicable system of sanctions.
l. Amendments in the terms of the licence
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs
may amend the terms of the licence in disfavour of the licensee in
the licence period, owing to international obligations, amendments
in national law, or such amendments is considered to be appropriate
owing to other important public interests.
Appendices:
