The Greek government has netted almost €250m (£210m) from a controversial broadcast licence auction that will see the number of national channels in the country cut from eight to four.

Prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s left-led government claimed the auction would crack down on corruption in the media sector and enable better regulation.

But critics say the move is merely a ploy to replace established TV barons – who have opposed Tspiras’s Syriza party in the past – with others more to his liking.

State minister Nikos Pappas said the auction – the first in 27 years – meant Greece now has “TV channels which will inform Greek people objectively ... not depending on their owners’ links to the political leadership”.

A secretive auction saw Greece’s most powerful media executives locked away for more than three days with a ban on mobile phones. One top executive was seen taking a sleeping mattress into the Athens building for the multi-day process.

The four 10-year licences were won by three shipowners and a construction mogul, the latter considered close to the Tsipras government.

The government made €246m from the auction, handing licences to incumbent Skai TV for €43.6m and to Antenna TV – which has a wide-ranging multimedia deal with Vice Media including a daily TV show – for €75.9m.

“We were not contesting a licence, we came to negotiate ransom,” Costas Kimbouropoulos, Skai’s representative, said according to Reuters.

Skai and Antenna are both owned by shipowning families – the latter by Yiannis Alafouzos, who also controls Athens football giants Panathinaikos.

Two new entrants – construction magnate Ioannis Kalogritsas and shipowner Vangelis Marinakis, owner of Greek football champions Olympiakos – picked up the other licences.

Greece’s oldest private channel, Mega, failed to make the cut and was eliminated before the bidding even started.

Leading channels Alpha and Star were also knocked out in the process.

The government has claimed that four channels is enough to be viable based on a TV ad market estimated at about €280m annually.

The Athens Journalists’ Union described the process – which is likely to lead to hundreds of job losses – as a “badly written reality show”.

Greece’s top administrative court later this month will examine requests by several of the channels to annul the process.

The government has said stations that broadcast nationwide without a licence will be blocked in 90 days.

(The Guardian)