Inside CEE Television
- chrisdz3
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Chris Dziadul, May 28 2026
United Group dispute escalates yet again
Dragan Šolak and Viktorija Boklag have filed a lawsuit in London against three entities controlled by BC Partners to prevent the sale of United Group’s media business. However, United Group, which is majority owned by BC Partners, has denied receiving any injunction or court order and dismissed claims made by Šolak. Šolak, who founded United Group and was at one stage the chairman of its board, and Boklag, a former CEO of United Group, were forced out of United Group by BC Partners in June 2025. Šolak subsequently lost an appeal against his dismissal in the Dutch Enterprise Chamber on the grounds that the case was outside its jurisdiction. Now, Šolak and Boklag, acting through the companies Gerrard Enterprises and Cable Management Company, claim that the proposed sale of United Group’s media assets to Alpac Capital is being undertaken in violation of the Shareholders’ Agreement. This gives Šolak and Boklag the right to approve or reject any material change in United Group’s business. Were the transaction to go ahead, it would transform the company from an integrated media and telecom group into one solely focused on telecoms. The two plaintiffs are also extremely concerned about the threat to media freedom in the region were the sale to go ahead. United Group’s media assets include the Nova TV stations in Bulgaria and Croatia, as well as Adria News Network (ANN), encompassing, amongst others, the N1 TV stations in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia& Herzegovina and Slovenia. According to United Group, its media assets within ANN continue to operate completely independently and there has “not been a single change in decision-making within our newsrooms.”
BHRT seeks outside support
The Bosnian public broadcaster BHRT has launched a campaign requesting financial support from “all socially responsible business entities, institutions and individuals” to keep it on air. The move follows a legally binding ruling by the Higher Commercial Court in Banja Luka requiring BHRT to pay debts totalling around €9.02 million by early June. This is far less than the €2.81 million the same court ruled last month RTRS should pay for withholding receiver licence fees. RTRS stopped transferring its legally mandated share of the fees, collected through electricity bills and meant to be split 50/50 between BHRT and the two regional broadcasters (RTRS in Republika Srpska and the Bosnian/Croat federal channel FTV) in 2017. It now owes over €50 million in unpaid obligations. BHRT’s campaign will last until the end of the year. Inside CEE Television notes that since the ruling BHRT has said that it is important to note that the court has confirmed that it is owed income from receiver licence fees dating back to 2017. However, “from a legal perspective, the ruling did not offer a sufficiently clear and logical explanation for why the Higher Commercial Court reversed the decision of the first instance court exclusively in the part that relates to the benefit of RTRS.”
Barrandov TV loses licence
The Prague Municipal Court has terminated the operation of the joint-stock company Barrandov Televizní Studio. According to local reports, the latter holds the licences to the thematic channels Barrandov Kino and Barrandov Krimi and the court’s verdict cannot be appealed. TV Barrandov has a total of three channels, include a flagship national station of the same name, and is in bankruptcy following an unsuccessful reorganisation. TV Barrandov’s owner Jan Čermák aims to keep at least the main channel on air.
Newsmax Ukraine draws closer
The Ukrainian regulator National Council has decided to consider registering Newsmax Ukraine. According to local reports, this follows the submission of documents for distributing the channel in Ukraine via internet (OTT, IPTV) technology. It was announced back in February that the US channel would make its debut in Ukraine this spring. It will be headed by Liudmyla Nemyria, who owns a 15% stake in the franchised operation.
Local content has Czech appeal
Czech viewers devote almost three-fifths of their time spent watching TV to Czech and Czechoslovak content. According to the latest research from Atmedia, the popularity of such content is evident across all age groups. In 2025, Czech viewers aged 15+ spent an average of 3.5 hours a day watching TV, with 66% of viewers turning on the TV every day. Although local content made up 31% of the programming of all measured TV channels last year, it accounted for 57% of total TV viewing. Atmedia adds that for viewers aged 15–34, local content accounted for half of the time spent watching TV. Its share of total viewing continued to grow with age, reaching 55% for those aged 35-54 and 59% in the oldest (55+) age group. It also notes that the share of local production in the programming of TV channels has been growing for a long time and stood at 31% as of last year. Significantly, this applies to paid channels such as FilmBox and CS Film as well as large FTA ones.
BBC to launch Hungarian and Romanian services
BBC World Service will launch content in Hungarian and Romanian next month in the form of pilot services named BBC News Magyarul and BBC News Romania respectively. They will deliver news and analysis via their websites – bbc.com/magyarul and bbc.com/romania – and social-media channels. The Hungarian-language website and social-media channels on Facebook and Instagram will go live from Tuesday, June 16. The Romanian-language website and social-media channels on Facebook and Instagram will be available from Tuesday, June 23. Both language offers will have YouTube and TikTok channels going live later. The BBC notes that it launched a Polish service named BBC News Polska less than a year ago and it already has an average weekly reach of 537,000. In the most recent quarter, this grew substantially, with a weekly average of 808,000. The service’s reach among women is particularly high, making up nearly 60% of audiences on average since launch.
Spin-off for Czech Oneplay
The Czech OTT and VOD platform Oneplay will be spun off from TV Nova into a separate company named CME Services on July 1. The move was announced in the Commercial Register dated May 22 and the reason for it is “the centralisation of development, operation and technological management of streaming platforms in the CME group”. Oneplay was formed by the merger of Voyo and O2 TV, both of which were owed by PPF Group, in 2025.
Key exec joins RTL Hungary
Olga Szafonov assumed the position of head of streaming growth at RTL Hungary on May 26. She was most recently the commercial retail director at Yettel Hungary, where she was responsible for retail product and service development. Inside CEE Television notes that news of her appointment was first announced by the broadcaster last month. At that time, it said it “aims to have an appropriate growth path for all tiers and business models of the entire streaming service (AVOD, BVOD, ASVOD, SVOD) and to consciously manage all stages of the customer life cycle.”
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