The Union of Bulgarian Correspondents protested on
September 5 against a decision of the Bulgarian government to stop broadcast
of programs of the Russian ORT [Russian Public TV] television company and
the French TV-5 channel.
A statement received by Itar-Tass from Secretary
of the Union of Bulgarian Correspondents Aleksandur Angelov says Bulgarian
viewers had two wonderful and different information windows to the world,
which were directly linked to two great cultures.
The correspondents think that competent state institutions
should do everything possible from the organizational, technical, economic
and legal points of view and keep them for Bulgarian television viewers.
It has been reported that ORT broadcasts in Bulgaria
stopped September 1st by the Bulgarian government, which gave financial
reasons for the change. Some 3 million dollars have been allocated from
the republican budget in the past 7 years to cover the spending on the
channel and transmission. Nevertheless, many people think the authorities
were guided by political reasons: trying to finally separate Bulgaria from
the Russian information, political and cultural influence.
ITAR-TASS news agency, September 5, 1997
II. Contracts with ORT and Other Foreign TV Stations to be Reviewed.
There is currently no legal way for the Russian [Public
TV channel] ORT to continue its broadcasts, chairman of the Committee of
Posts and Telecommunications (CPT) Antoni Slavinski told BTA Thursday (August
14th). In his view, another Russian television with clearer status and
better financial potentials has stronger chances to be allowed to broadcast.
On the one hand, ORT has no license for Bulgaria
and on the other, if it is to receive a concession, it should make a registration
here, sign a contract with the state and settle its accounts. So far, however,
no ORT representative has come to Bulgaria, Slavinski says.
The fact that ORT broadcasts will be stopped in
no way represents an attempt to narrow the information range. The goal
is to introduce lawfulness and order in radio and television broadcasting,
added Slavinski.
With regards to CNN and TV-5, early last year, when
their licenses were still valid, the Committee of Posts and Telecommunications
could have transformed them into concessions, but it did not do that, Mr
Slavinski said. The Committee of Posts and Telecommunications is studying
a project for the establishment of a joint information channel for several
foreign televisions to broadcast legally on the territory of Sofia and
Pernik (where CNN and TV-5 broadcast now). The broadcast range has been
planned to be expanded. The project is still at an initial stage and results
are to be expected in a month, Mr Slavinski said.
The licensing contracts not only of the foreign
but also of the Bulgarian broadcasters will be reconsidered. There are
two Bulgarian television stations whose licenses are illegal, the CPT chairman
said, without specifying their names.
BTA news agency, Sofia, August 14, 1997
Ronald Lauder’s Central European Media Enterprises
(CME) is considering launching a satellite station for Hungary following
the company’s failed bid to gain a national terrestrial license.
Speaking at a gala event celebrating the one-year
anniversary of Slovak Republic commercial station TV Markiza last month,
CME President and CEO Leonard Fertig said a CME-financed satellite station
for Hungarian viewers “might” be in the works in the coming week.
Gyorgy Balo, CME’s Hungarian partner, was also on
hand at the event and elaborated that he has proposed such a station to
CME following its loss in the highly-political Hungarian tender last June.
A CME transponder on Eutelsat’s HB2, which it purchased in 1995, would
be used for the Hungarian channel if the proposal goes ahead.
Such a station would not be subject to licensing
conditions by the Hungarian broadcasting council (ORTT), which awarded
two national television licenses under 10-year franchises. One license
went to Hungarian program provider MTM Kommunikacios and Scandinavian Broadcasting
Systems (SBS) and a second to CLT-UFA and its Hungarian partners. Both
channels are required by Hungary’s media law to launch in early October.
CME applied for both frequencies and has formally
challenged the ORTT’s decision within that country’s legal system on the
grounds that the council’s eight members “breached relevant regulations”
in the tender process. CME says it offered $66.1 million and $63.5 million,
respectively, for the two channels, which is more than its competitors
bid for each channel.
The Capital Court of Budapest did find grounds to
set a hearing and the case is expected to be heard on September 12th.
A decision about the Hungarian satellite channel
will depend on the results of the upcoming hearing, as well as an analysis
of the Hungarian advertising market.
On the other hand, CME bought Hungarian dubbing
company Videovox last year and has already bought programming for the territory.
“It would make sense to use these assets somehow,”
Fertig said.
Early next month, CME will launch a major terrestrial
network in Poland using 11 frequencies: 9 in northern Poland and one each
in Warsaw and Lodz. CME also operates commercial television stations in
the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia and the Ukraine. (CME, 441/296-1431)
Phillips Business Information, Inc., September 8, 1997
II. Irisz TV to take capacity on Amos 1; CME to launch satellite channel.
More details have emerged about the launch of Hungary’s
Irisz TV aboard the Amos-1 Satellite (Interspace 624). Irisz TV, which
is part-owned by Central European Media Enterprises (CME), was locked out
of Hungary’s terrestrial commercial television market last month.
The consortium has decided to launch as a satellite-delivered
channel for two main reasons, reports our sister publication European Media
Business & Finance. Ultimately, it still hopes to get one of the terrestrial
licenses- though most observers believe this is unlikely. The Bermuda-based,
American-run company filed suit in Budapest’s High Court, maintaining that
the ORTT did not adhere to its own regulations when it failed to select
the highest bidder (CME). The case is due to be heard in September. ORTT
officials would not comment on the apparent discrepancy.
The other reason CME pursued the satellite capacity
is because it has the programming. Because of the quick turnaround times
expected (stations are supposed to be up-and-running 2.5 months after the
winners were announced), the bidders had to start preparing for the channel
before the result of the bids were even revealed. Because it is expecting
to gain at least one of the licenses, CME, which has just reported a net
loss of $41.8 million for the six months of the year, apparently purchased
several thousands of hours of programming.
Phillips Business Information, Inc. August 27, 1997
By Juraj Fuchs
The hub of anti-government and anti-Meciarite media
propaganda, the private TV Markiza company, which is financed from overseas
sources [the US company Central European Media Enterprises Ltd (CME)] and
operates in the service of foreigners, has celebrated its first anniversary.
Understandably, it did so in a manner befitting a US commercial: bombastically.
Markiza not only lives off foreign capital, it also
lives off plundered know-how, for which it has not paid a penny. When a
soccer player transfers from Slovan to First FC Kosice, then the club and
the player receive huge sums for this. TV Markiza has lured experts, editors,
dramatists and technicians away from Slovak TV [STV] and repays the latter
for this by positioning itself at the forefront of the campaign against
it.
It is stepping up this campaign, along with the
opposition, in connection with the coming elections. The so-called opposition
press does not want to see that; for example, Markiza’s reports are—from
first to last—orientated against the government and are attuned party politically
in the spirit of the scenario for five years of unrest outlined by Jan
Carnogursky. There is almost nothing original on private TV Markiza. Everything
is imported and plundered.
For example, STV has had a “Televizne Noviny” [Television
News] program for decades. But TV Markiza has had this name “patented.”
It has misappropriated it in front of the entire public. And the opposition
press has not even registered or commented on this lack of principle.
The US-owned television channel is continuing this
“moral” line and is finding lackeys for 30 pieces of silver.
The opposition press often compares the incomparable,
in this case STV with Markiza. Markiza is raking in huge profits from advertising,
while STV has to fulfill its public service obligations, first and foremost,
by supporting the development of original drama, music, science and education
programs and by giving priority to social issues, whether in the form of
documentaries, discussion programs or talks such as the regular feature
on Christian ethics presented by Associate Professor Anton Hlinko.
Instead of this, TV Markiza provides scope for the
dissemination of violence depicted in numerous US thrillers in which the
main theme is murder for murder’s sake.
TV Markiza is even capable, through the comments
of Deputy Rusnakova, of blaming the government for the floods and of speaking
in general about Slovakia, the Slovak people and the Slovak government
in the style of Ambassador Chervonenko [Stepan Chervonenko was USSR ambassador
to Czechoslovakia from 1965-73 and coordinator of the 1968 Soviet invasion],
that is, in the language of occupiers, in order to prepare the nation psychologically
for a new letter of invitation. Understandably, the issue this time will
involve an invitation to an economic occupation, that is, not by tanks,
but, nevertheless, this will be a far more dangerous occupation, because
it also threatens the nation’s identity by means of a plague of foreign
culture broadcast via TV Markiza.
Slovenska Republika, September 4, 1997