Colombia. The Council of State annulled the auction process for the third channel that had begun in 2008, because it was intended to be awarded with a single proponent, after a tortuous path in which the other two interested parties decided to withdraw alleging partiality.
After more than a year of discussion, the magistrates, in the Full Chamber, ruled on the nullity lawsuit filed by one of the proponents. Magistrate Jaime Alberto Santofimio, rapporteur of the ruling against the third channel, said that being granted by auction with a single proponent would be violating Law 80 of 1993, which speaks of the principles of objective selection of State contracting.
Now what? To award a third channel, the process must start from scratch again. The Minister of ICT of Colombia, Diego Molano, has stated on several occasions that the government has the interest of awarding not only a third channel, but also a fourth.
But despite the political will that the Minister has expressed, the outlook for new competitors of RCN and Caracol, the current private channels, is not clear, because the process must be started by the National Television Commission, but the entity is in the process of liquidation and before the middle of the year the new National Television Agency must begin operations.
We will have to wait for an official pronouncement from the government on what its action plan will be on this issue, if it will let the current Commission in liquidation start the process and hire studies or accelerate the formation of the new entity and that it starts the process from scratch, which would be the healthiest.
