“Aravot” daily continues the article series which examine the applications of the digital broadcast competition winners. The applications copies were provided by National Commission on Television and Radio on the request of Anna Israelian, the series author and “Aravot” observer.
The pieces of March 25 and 29, 2011 dealt with application of the winner of competition No.11 (for Yerevan TV channels of international/current affairs profile) “ArmNews” CJSC – founder of “ArmNews” TV channel. As it has been reported, in this competition the opponent of “ArmNews” was “A1+” founder, “Meltex” LLC. On December 16, 2010 the National Commission on Television and Radio assessed the competition package of “ArmNews” with 44 points, while “A1+” received 2 points. The NCTR decision on competition No.11 stated that the financial sources, claimed by “Meltex”, “cannot be considered sufficient, given that the significant part of the supporting documents on the financial assistance (…) is forged and unjustified”. Namely, this fact rendered impossible for “A1+” to implement a complete broadcast in the digital network in Yerevan, assured the NCTR (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, December 17-23, 2010).
The series author Anna Israelian explained that while analyzing the “ArmNews” application she had not used the copy provided by NCTR, but the facsimile of the whole document package, which was granted to “A1+” founder by the NCTR in a judicial order (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, January 10-20, 2011). As the series author informed this was stipulated by the fact that “currently the NCTR considers it inappropriate” to grant the documents enclosed with the application.
By reminding that NCTR condemned “A1+” founder in having deficient and obviously forged documents in the application, Anna Israelian stressed that the application of “ArmNews” also contains “numerous shortcomings and unconformities”. Particularly, many contracts, concluded between “ArmNews” and private persons, claimed as correspondents of the TV channel, are not attested with a signature and a seal. The pieces on competition No.11 are attended by the photos of some of the contracts. It should be noted that even the first article of the series on competition No.1 winner, founder of “Armenia” TV channel (“Armenia TV” CJSC), mentioned about the presence of the same documents in applications of “ArmNews” and “Armenia”. This, according to “Aravot”, demonstrates the well-known fact – the companies have the same assets (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, February 11-17, 2011).
On March 30, 2011 “Aravot” presented the application of the winner of competition No.15 (for TV channels of Yerevan of general profile) “Shark” LLC, founder of “Hay TV” channel. Thus, the daily has analyzed all the applications of the winners of competitions for Yerevan TV channels, except the ones of No.12, 13 и 14, held for rebroadcasting companies.
Since March 31 “Aravot” started a new article series, “They Will Be Broadcast in the Regions”, dealing with the broadcast licensing competitions for regional TV channels of general profile. The first piece of the series regards the applications of competitions No.16 and 17 – “Tavush” LLC (Tavush region) and “Fortuna” LLC (Lori region), respectively. The series author Anna Israelian specifically noted that even though one of the co-owners of “Tavush” LLC Samvel Sahakian holds the smaller part of the shares, he has committed to implement a business program and to invest a sizeable sum in the development of the TV channel. Anna Israelian stressed that the documents, enclosed with the application, reveal that Samvel Sahakian is the Executive Director of “Masis Tobacco” company – part of “Grand Holding” group, owned by the Vardanian family. It is known that the Vardanian family is the owner of “’AR’ TV Company” LLC, which won at competition No.10 (for Yerevan TV channels of youth/educational profile).
