Notice favors TV contested by Bolsonaro supporters – 11/05/2023 – Panel SA

The Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho, authorized the publication of a notice that favors an open TV station from Patos de Minas (MG) in the dispute for channel 42 in São Paulo, which is now vacant.

According to employees involved in the process, the notice will be published this week.

In the past, groups linked to Jair Bolsonaro have already tried to buy the Patense Broadcasting System at the beginning of the Lula government in the expectation that it would win the tender.

But the rules for the auction — now defined by Juscelino — were suspended at the request of the president’s emissaries during the transition.

As reported by Panel SA, the event will have rules that direct the notice from channel 42 in São Paulo to the Patense Broadcasting System.

The ministry says that there are six TVs qualified for the dispute. However, according to technicians from the department and Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency), the Patense System has an advantage due to the preconditions defined by a department ordinance.

For them, channel 42 will fall into the lap of the Minas Gerais group, which will be able to generate its signals in São Paulo and no longer in Patos de Minas. Currently, the network already has retransmitters (repeaters) in four cities in São Paulo.

Background

These repeater stations were granted last year, by the then Communications Minister of the Bolsonaro government, Fábio Faria. These antennas already operate on channel 42 frequencies in the São Paulo cities of Avaré, Cananeia, Cajati and Juquiá.

Frequencies are avenues in the air through which broadcasters make their signals travel without interference.

This measure made the broadcaster, registered in the name of businessman Oscar Santos de Faria, a network channel and became worth R$20 million.

A network channel is formed by a generator and at least three relays (RTVs), which can be in other states. In the case of the Patense System, the generator is in MG and the relays are in SP.

The ministry then opened a public call for channel 42, vacant in São Paulo for generators, to be granted.

However, on the eve of the auction, during the transition government, President Lula’s emissaries asked the ministry that the notice be suspended, postponed or redone.

The ministry then decided to cancel it.

Forcinha

Recently, Minister Juscelino Filho published an ordinance with the rules of the so-called Grants Plan, which provides for notices to reorganize the use of frequencies by radio broadcasters.

According to the ordinance, in cases of competition for a channel, preference will be given to the broadcaster that has a network channel with retransmitters in the requested location — something that, in the last government, the Patense System achieved.

The second tiebreaker criterion is the distance of the relays installed in the state in relation to the capital in which the channel is requested.

Technicians from the ministry and Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) state that, among the groups that currently operate with 42 in São Paulo, the Patense System retransmitter is the one closest to the capital of São Paulo.

Other side

The Ministry says that there are six groups – all classified as network channels – interested in the channel in São Paulo and that it will be the subject of a public notice. It also informs that the new rules for the National Grants Plan were a way to “treat, in a systemic way, all procedural liabilities related to this service [pedido de canais]which today exceeds 9 thousand processes in stock”.

Businessman Oscar dos Santos Faria, owner of the Patense Broadcasting System, says that he has no connection with political groups linked to former president Jair Bolsonaro and that the retransmitters’ request was “backed by a project to expand the coverage area of ​​Rede Patense for the entire southeast region of the country”.

With Diego Felix

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