Secretaria de Estado da Comunicação Social e Secretaria de Estado da Habitação e das Comunicações (Secretary of State Media and Secretary of State Housing and Communications)

Joint Order

(This is not an official translation of the law)

1. In accordance with the terms of point 2 of Article 7 of Decree-Law no. 130/97, of May 27, publication is hereby made, in annex, of the Regulation of the Public Tender for the Assignment of Licenses to Exercise the Activity of Audio Broadcasting.

2. The present order enters into force on the day of its publication.

Lisbon, on May 14, 1998 - Secretary of State of Social Comunication, Alberto Arons de Carvalho - Secretary of State of Housing and Communications, Leonor Coutinho Pereira dos Santos.

ANNEX
REGULATIONS OF THE PUBLIC TENDER FOR ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSES

Regulations of the Public Tender for Assignment of Licenses to Exercises the Activity of Audio Broadcasting

Article 1
Object of the Tender

The present Regulations concern the public tender for assignment of licenses to exercise the business of audio broadcasting in metric sound waves (frequency modulation) for local radio coverage, of a generalist nature, in compliance with the frequency map published in the Diário da República, 2nd Series, by the Joint Executive Order no. 7025/98, of April 15, of Secretary of State of Social Communication and Secretary of State of Housing and Communications.

Article 2
Applicable Legislation

1. The public tender is subject to the terms of Decree-Law no. 130/97, of May 27 and to the present Regulations.

2. A licensed operator is obliged to comply with the legal dispositions of Decree-Law no. 130/97, of May 27; Law no. 87/88, of July 30, with the wording given by Law no. 2/97, of January 18; and the present Regulations, as well as other applicable legislation for the sector.

Article 3
Tenderers

Any corporate body that is not prohibited from exercising the activity of broadcasting, under the terms of Article 3 of Law no. 87/88, of 30 July, with the wording given by Law no. 2/97, of 18 January, may bid in the present tender.

Article 4
Deadline

The bid submission period commences on 22/06/98 and ends on 04/09/98.

Article 5
Clarification Requests

1. Tenderers may request clarification of any doubt concerning the object of the public tender arising from the present Regulations, until 14/08/98.

2. Clarification requests should be made to the Institute of Social Communication, in writing, with receipt of delivery or sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

3. Clarifications will be provided by the Institute of Social Communication, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, to be sent within 10 days after reception of the requests specified in the previous point.

4. Postal delays in the reception of a clarification request or response may not be invoked by the tenderer making the request.

Article 6
Presentation of bids

1. Bids to obtain a license are to be made via a written application, addressed to the member of the Government responsible for social communication.

2. The bid applications are to be written in Portuguese in a single font, without erasures, corrections, notes between lines or words crossed out, and should be enclosed in a closed, sealed, opaque envelope, together with the documentation identified in Article 7 of the present Regulations.

3 - Bids should be delivered to the Institute of Social Communication, with receipt of delivery between 10.00 and 17.00.

4. If the bid is sent by post, via registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, the date of delivery is considered to be that of the CTT postmark.

Article 7
Bid Documents

1. Tenderers should present the following documents with their bid:

a) Legalised copy of the memorandum, articles of association, and national corporate identity card;

b) Declaration proving that the tenderer does not detain a participation in the share capital of more than four radio broadcasters;

c) Declaration on the number of licenses held by the tenderer;

d) Identification of the municipality for which the bid is being made, according to the frequency map specified in Article 1 of the present Regulations;

e) Detailed description of the activity proposed, including the respective editorial policy, broadcasting schedule and general programming strategy;

f) Demonstration of the economic and financial viability of the project;

g) Technical description of the facilities, including studios, antennae, equipment and accessories to be used;

h) Technical characteristics of all equipment to be used;

i) Exact location of the studios and the transmission centre (geographical co-ordinates) and means of transporting the signal from the studios to the transmission centre;

j) Study of the radio-electric coverage of the desired transmission station, using the propagation model specified in the ITU-R P.370-7 Recommendation;

k) Indication of the equivalent heights of the transmission antenna, based on a radial profile of the terrain, with a maximum interval of 30°, specifying the type of topographical maps or resolution of the digital model of the terrain which was used as the basis for calculations;

l) Indication of the technical expert responsible for the studies and technical projects presented;

m) Any other elements which the tenderers consider to be relevant for appreciation of their bids, especially those concerning the selection criteria identified in point 2 of Article 10 of the present regulations;

n) Document proving payment in the Institute of Social Communication of the duty of PTE 50,000 specified in Administrative ruling no. 931/97, of September 12.

2. In the event that tenderers do not yet possess a national corporate identity card, they may present the provisional corporate body number provided by the competent authorities.

Article 8
Public Act of Tender

The public act of tender for opening bids will take place in the Institute of Social Communication, at 11.00 on 10/09/98.

Article 9
Rejection of Bids

1. The following bids will be rejected:

a) Bids presented after the end of the deadline;

b) Bids presented by entities prevented from bidding under the terms of Article 3 of the present regulations;

c) That they do not fill the conditions foreseen in the Article 7.º of the present Regulation

2- Rejection of bids will be determined by a ministerial order by the member of the Government responsible for the area of social communication, based upon a proposal by the Institute of Social Communication.

3- Accepted bids are to be remitted to the Higher Authority for Social Communication, after the emission of a justified opinion by the Portuguese Communications Institute concerning the respective relative technical level.

Article 10
Evaluation of Bids

Bids will be evaluated upon the following selection criteria, in the following order of priority:

a) The quality of the project in terms of a global assessment of its programming content; correspondence to its target audience in socio-cultural terms; editorial policy; technical level; and the economic and financial viability of the chosen facilities, equipment and human resources;

b) Non-ownership of another license for the exercise of radio broadcasting;

c) Location of the main office in the geographical area in which the tenderer aims to exercise the activity of radio broadcaster;

d) The fact that the bid is presented by an entity owning a periodically-produced information publication in the region, provided that the entity has been trading for over three years and that the frequency proposed is for the coverage area in which the tenderer has his respective main office.

Article 11
Clarifications provided by tenderers

Tenderers must provide to the Higher Authority of Social Communication, all clarifications requested for the evaluation of his bid.

Article 12º
Consigning of frequencies and respective power

The definitive consigning of frequencies and power setting to be attributed is the responsibility of ICP, based upon the technical characteristics of the transmitter, the location of the respective antenna and other factors conditioning the use of the radio-electric spectrum.

Article 13º
Granting of Licenses

1. Licenses may only be granted after the emission of a favourable opinion by the Higher Authority for Social Communication.

2. Licenses will be granted via a joint executive order of the members of the government responsible for the areas of social communication and communications.