Parliament to name winner of web TV bid

The European Parliament will announce next week which company it favours for a €725,000 contract to provide footage for the assembly’s planned web TV service, according to Parliament officials.

The announcement will be the second time the Parliament has named its preferred bidder after it was forced to rethink a decision in September following complaints from other rival firms.

The Parliament initially announced it favoured a Belgian company to provide content for the first stage of the new TV service which will stream coverage of Parliament events and extra footage on the internet from next year. But rival bidders complained that the company was ill-suited to provide the service Parliament was looking for.

A Parliament official said that the decision to rethink the initial decision followed recognition that there had been "errors of assessment" in making the initial award.

Another Parliamentary source stressed that the rethink was part of the normal procedure and that quite often "in particular in cases with big budgetary implications, a second or even third analysis of the bids is undertaken".

The assembly has allocated a budget of €1 million for the prototype stage of the web TV project, with €275,000 of that earmarked for the infrastructure to webcast the service and the rest for content. The contract to supply content calls for 300-700 hours of original programming a year. The web service will also broadcast footage of plenary sessions, major debates, committee meetings and delegations visits.

If MEPs approve the prototype, which is expected to be ready next year, the project will have a bigger budget in future years.

The European Parliament will announce next week which company it favours for a €725,000 contract to provide footage for the assembly’s planned web TV service, according to Parliament officials.

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