Duna Televizio
www.dunatv.hu
dunatv@dunatv.hu

MTM SBS (TV2)
www.sbsbroadcasting.com

RTL Klub
www.rtlklub.com
rtlklub@rtlklub.hu

Hungary (population: 10,195,513)                      

Hungary operates four terrestrial frequencies, one of which is for military use; hopefully we won’t be starring on that one! The other three are shared between public broadcaster m1, and private concerns TV-2 (which belongs largely to Scandinavian Broadcasting), and RTL Klub, the Hungarian arm of German giants RTL. Programming is generalist across the board.

There are also two other public channels in operation, namely m2 and Duna TV, both satellite broadcasters. m2 concentrates on minority and religious viewing, whereas Duna is for Hungarian ex-pats, and retransmissions of m2. Cable operators are legally bound to offer public TV to customers, given the rarity of satellite dishes across Magyar territory.

Public TV in Hungary is heavily state-subsidised because licence fees and advertising provide for only a fraction of operating costs. The result, perhaps predictably, is an often blatant political slant on programming, to please the powers that be.

The two commercial operators, both launched in ’97, are in stark competition, and it is noteworthy that soaps imported from Latin America have lost their prime time slots, as local people demand local viewing.

There are officially 170 cable operators in existence, but half of these are owned by the same three companies, namely UPC (30), Matáv (21) and Fibernet, which owns 48. UPC covers 13, and Matáv 9 of Budapest’s 23 districts. UPC is an affiliate of the Dutch multinational, and is aggressive in its approach to keeping customers. Matáv is backed by Deutsche Telekom, which follows since it is Hungary’s telephone provider. The duopoly here is strong, and despite a colossal number of complaints from customers about soaring prices for somewhat unpredictable packages, little can be done to change things.

Regionally, there are 50 local terrestrial broadcasters, of which Antenna Mikro is of most interest to eSCape tv, since it is the largest, and transmits to households around Budapest. Antenna Mikro offers 22 channels plus sport and HBO, which is considerably fewer than UPC have mustered, but correspondingly less pricey.

Of 24 TV channels in Hungarian, five are free via satellite, with the remainder relayed via cable. The majority are actually foreign imports with voice over or subtitling, e.g. Discovery, HBO, National Geographic. German favourites Pro-7 and Sat-1 feature in every package, alongside MTV Europe, TV-5 (France), RAI Uno (Italy) and ORF-1 (Austria). Dubbed or subtitled versions of Nickelodeon and Minimax keep the kids happy, with teenagers and pop fans served by Viva+, which is in Hungarian to start with.

Globally, public channels continue to lose out to private competition:

Public terrestrial

M1                   11.2%

Private terrestrial

RTL Klub                    33.3%

TV-2                            30.5%

Public cable

Duna TV                     <1%

M2                               <1%

Satellite                     0

Source: AGB Hungary.