2009: Announcement of the license
In 2009, the Ministry of Communications announced the opening of competition No. 67/2009 for the first commercial TV station generator in the interior of the State, to be operated on UHF channel 18 in the city.[2] Rede InterTV took part in the bidding[2] against 19 interested media companies.[3][4] Each company participating in this competition delivered three envelopes: documentation, project and value. The minimum quota to participate in the TV generator bidding is R$1 million.[4] At the time of the competition request, digital signal transmission was not included, as it was only present in the capitals of Brazilian states.
On December 7,[5] 2011,[4][5] the Ministry of Communications (MC)[4] announced that the winning company was Rede InterTV in a very fierce bidding process,[4][5] when presenting the "largest proposal" for acquiring the channel, with a bid of R$17 million.[3][4][5]
The president of InterTV Cabugi, Aluízio Alves Neto, in an interview with Tribuna do Norte, said: "The announcement of the winner was made last Wednesday. Now, we are in the period for the other competitors to present a request for challenge. I believe that this will not happen and the five-day deadline will be met" and that after this time, the then head of the Ministry of Communications, Paulo Bernardo Silva, will ratify the result and the president Dilma Rousseff signs the process.[4]
The station's first name was announced by Aluízio Alves Neto[4] and InterTV Cabugi's superintendent, Dirceu Simabucuru:[3][4] as TV Costa Branca,[3] aiming to start its digital signal in the largest cities of the state, outside of Natal.[3][4] According to Simabucuru, TV Costa Branca was set to cover more than half of Rio Grande do Norte, helping commerce in the interior of the state.[3] For superintendent Dirceu Simabucuru, the idea was to produce local news and other programs from Mossoró and confirmed the creation of offices in other cities, such as Caicó.[4]
In addition to R$ 17 million presented for the bid,[3][4][5] another R$ 7 million were invested to build and equip its headquarters,[3][4][5] close to Campus Central da Universidade do Estado do RN (UERN), likely at Rua Professor Antônio Campos,[5] totalling R$ 24 million.[3] There was the possibility of hiring one or two more reporting teams.[4]
Outside of Mossoró, the station would take over InterTV Cabugi's relay network.[6]
It was thought that the broadcaster would start broadcasting in the first half of 2013,[5] from Mossoró to more than half of the state and will cover the Oeste Potiguar regions (formed by the micro-regions of Mossoró, Pau dos Ferros, Vale do Açu, Chapada do Apodi, Médio Oeste, Serra de São Miguel and Alto Oeste and Central Potiguar (this one formed by the following micro-regions: Macau, Angicos, Serra de Santana, Seridó Oeste and Seridó Oriental), will receive the signal from Rede Globo through InterTV Costa Branca.[3][7]
However, with the arrival of 2014, the promise of the station's inauguration in 2013 did not occur, which led to the assumption of the probable loss of the station's concession to Rede InterTV, which did not happen.
