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Diario.produ.com (translated)
(Bogotá, January 11, 2010)— Following a request by the Attorney General, the bidding process for the third Colombian channel was revoked last Friday by the National Television Commission (Comisión National de Televisión, CNTV), which found serious legal and technical flaws in the proceedings. The same arguments were made by the bidding groups, Cisneros and Prisa, as they decided to withdraw from the process, leaving only Grupo Planeta from Spain.
The Commission said it will begin a new [bidding] process within 35 to 40 days, time which will be used to amend the voids and ambiguities in the initiative. “It is hard to commit to a timetable, but certainly we are not going to start from scratch,” said Juan Andres Carreño, director of CNTV. It is expected that the process could be resolved in three or four months.
The news was welcomed by the groups that withdrew: Prisa representative, Ricardo Alarcón, said the best decision was made, adding that if the flaws are amended, they will take part in the new opening bid. Similarly, the representative of Cisneros, Diego Muñoz, said the decision reflects all of the concerns that had been raised over the course of the last few months in reference to the lack of transparency and specificity, and the poor structuring of the process.
However, Grupo Planeta said in a letter to CNTV that it opposes the revocation, that the process should have taken place with a single bidder, and does not understand why the process was suspended.