Greek owner Evangelos Marinakis has expanded into the television business, adding to his well-known involvement in shipping, football and Piraeus city politics.

The chairman of Capital Maritime has won one of four national television licences auctioned in Greece after spending EUR 73.9m ($82.8m) in a highly unusual competitive bidding process that ended at about 3am Athens local time on Friday:

Marinakis and representatives of seven rival groups spent almost three days locked up in a government building in Athens, reportedly without telephone, e-mail or internet access with the outside world.