CEE TV industry news stories

Chris Dziadul, May 30, 2024

 

 

Hungary’s TV2 seeks Polish licence

The Hungarian national commercial broadcaster TV2 is one of four bidders for the two channel frequencies on the Polish terrestrial TV multiplex MUX 8. It is planning to launch an entertainment-based channel this coming autumn named PTV that would be aimed at a mostly female audience. TV2 was launched in 1997 and for the last five years has been owned by the Hungarian entrepreneur József Vida. The other bidders for the MUX-8 licences are TV Republika, Fratrii and MWE Networks. Interestingly, the latter plans to launch a channel on the multiplex that would, according to MWE Networks’ owner Michal Winnicki, counter disinformation.

 

Digi Romania to buy Telekom Romania Mobile

Digi Romania, formerly known as RCS&RDS, has entered into a preliminary agreement to buy Telekom Romania Mobile from Greece’s OTE, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, for an undisclosed fee. The transaction is being undertaken by West Network Invest, an investment vehicle majority owned by Digi Romania and minority owned by Clever Media Group. Digi Romania is part of Romanian-owned Digi Communications and the leading provider of pay-TV services in the country.

 

Viasat True Crime debuts in Poland

Viasat World has announced the launch of a new crime-themed TV channel. Known as Viasat True Crime, it has made its debut in Poland in partnership with Canal+, which is offering the channel in its RELAX+ and higher packages. Viasat World says it has secured the SVOD and FAST rights for much of Viasat True Crime’s launch content. The channel joins a Viasat World portfolio in Poland that also includes Polsat Viasat Explore, Polsat Viasat History and Polsat Viasat Nature, as well as the premium series channel Epic Drama.

 

M7 Group inks Slovak Prima deal

Canal+’s M7 Group has signed an agreement with the Czech broadcaster Prima Group for the satellite distribution of the channels Prima COOL SK and Prima LOVE SK in the Slovak market. The former channel is now available on the M7-owned Skylink platform at Astra 23.5 degrees East. Prima COOL SK features original comedy series, entertainment shows and travel magazines targeting mainly younger and male viewers, while Prima LOVE SK, primarily targeting a female audience, will be launched later this year. Skylink has distributed Prima Plus (renamed Prima SK) to its customers in the Slovak market since 2017 and CNN Prima News since 2020. Furthermore, M7 and Prima Group have a long-standing partnership for the distribution of a wide range of Prima channels in the Czech market.

 

Lithuanians favour streaming services

Although 42.2% of Lithuanians opt for traditional national TV channels to watch films and series, a significant number also use streaming services. According to a study undertaken by Kantar this May for the regulator LRTK, 31% choose Go3, 15.3% Telia play, 10.8% LNK Go, 10.5% Netflix, 6.3% Epika, 3.6% HBO and 21.7% other services. The study also found that only 14% recently watched TV channels broadcast in Russia. Furthermore, four out of five respondents said they did not miss such channels, with the largest number (90%) expressing this view being under the age of 29.

 

Bulgaria’s Nova promotes Marta Evimova

Nova Broadcasting Group has appointed Marta Evitomova its chief producer of news and current affairs. She is a well-established professional with over 20 years of extensive TV experience, 10 of which have been at Nova. Over the last three years, she was responsible for the quality content and development of the current affairs programmes and special journalistic formats of the media as the current affairs chief. Nova is owned by United Group one of the leading broadcasters in Bulgaria.

 

Problems mounts at Bosnia pubcaster

The main Bosnian public broadcaster BHRT cancelled 15 TV shows earlier this week due to growing financial pressures. According to local reports, these have resulted in its workforce of around 700 not being paid for almost the last two months. Aside from BHRT, which operates at national level, Bosnia has two other public broadcasters, namely Federation Radio Television (FTV) and Radio Television Republika Srpska (RTRS).

 

TV viewing in Russia: the stats

TV remains the most popular media in Russia, being watched by 98% of viewers aged 4+ at least once a month and 65% on average each day. According to Mediascope, quoted by Telecom Daily, the average TV viewing tome per day in January-April this year was 3 hours 35 minutes. The most popular genre is series (28% of viewing time), followed by entertainment programmes (19%), films and socio-political programmes (12% each), news (11%) and children’s content (5%).

 

 

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© Chris Dziadul, 2024