Management at a failed Swedish bidder for Portugal’s pay-DTT licence have slammed the government’s decision to award the licence to incumbent telco Portugal Telecom as "subjective, superficial and not clear". 

AirPlus TV's executive president Michael Werner (pictured, left) and head of the Portugese operation Luis Nazaré (on right) also critiziced the method by which the licences were given alleging "this never happened in a European country".

Part of AirPlus TV’s argument stems from what it’s management said was the government’s failure to take into account the €154 million the company had in it marketing and communications budget, in contrast to what it claimed was its competitor’s €13.5 million. Part of this was Airplus TV’s proposal to offer DTT equipment for free, at least in the preliminary phase of DTT implementation, contrary to its competitor.

The Swedish company also criticized Portugal Telecom’s winning bid for proposing three DTT national channels while its own offering consisted of 16 national channels.

Airplus claims that on three other of the seven criteria by which the submissions were judged, it also won. These were: technological solutions and interoperability; technology plan; provision of Portugese-language services.