THE ONEVISION consortium bidding for the three digital terrestrial television (DTT) multiplexes expects to post its first profit in the year ending 2012 if it wins the three-horse race for the licences.
OneVision's application to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) forecasts revenues of €54 million in 2013 when the consortium expects to have secured 257,000 customers. This is the most bullish forecast of revenues and subscriber numbers of the three groups who submitted bids.
The financial information is included in OneVision's bid document to the BCI, which has not yet been made public. OneVision is chaired by Fintan Drury, chairman of Paddy Power and founder of the Platinum One event management and sports sponsorship agency.
It is backed by TV3, Setanta Sports, Eircom and UK DTT specialist group Arqiva.
OneVision is bidding for the DTT licences against Boxer DTT Ltd, backed by Denis O'Brien's Communicorp group and Swedish DTT operator Boxer TV Access, and EasyTV, which is being promoted by RTÉ and Liberty Global, the parent group of the NTL and Chorus cable TV operators.
OneVision is the only one of the three consortiums not to have put its financial projections into the public domain at this point.
Boxer has said it expects to attract 215,000 customers and achieve revenues of €50 million by 2013. It plans to launch in the first quarter of 2009 and break even by year five.
EasyTV said it expects to have a minimum 200,000 active subscribers by 2012. It forecasts to break even that year on projected turnover of €29 million.
EasyTV has said its set-top boxes will be capable of carrying high-definition broadcasts and will include digital video recorders.
The commission is expected to make the full submissions from the three groups available to the public in the next week or so.
It has already published the consortiums' executive summaries while the bidders also provided additional details about their applications at a public hearing in the Westbury Hotel in Dublin last Monday.
The commission said it would announce the winner of the DTT licences on July 21st.
