ITC Digital Decision May Be Challenged

British Digital Broadcasting is reported to be considering legal action if the Independent Television Commission awards the rival Digital Television Network consortium the licence to run digital terrestrial TV services.

The wrangle concerns the announcement last week (see UNM Joins Digital Bid) that United News & Media would take a stake in the DTN bid if it won the digital TV licence. ITC rules state that no changes or “enhancements” can be made to a bid once the deadline has passed, which in this case was 31 January, which are considered to be “unfair” to the other bidders. A legal challenge could therefore be mounted on the argument that the late arrival of UNM, which would mean a cash injection of around £120m for the DTN application, was unfair to BDB.

A spokeswoman at the ITC told Newsline that it would need a legal ruling to assess whether UNM’s involvement was unfair or not and it would not be for the Commission to decide. BDB was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

ITC: 0171 255 3000