Inside CEE Television

chrisdz3
18 hours ago
4 min read

Chris Dziadul, June 25 2026

Telekom leaves Romania

Deutsche Telekom will officially exit the Romanian market on June 30, when Vodafone Romania assumes the rights and obligations of Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TRMC). Vodafone Romania took over the core business of TMRC, including all postpaid subscriptions and network infrastructure, while Digi Romania acquired its prepaid customer base, selected mobile spectrum rights and some of its tower infrastructure, in a transaction worth around €70 million in October 2025. Four years earlier, Orange Romania completed the acquisition of a majority (54%) stake in Telekom Romania’s fixed-line business, with included its TV services, for €268 million.

All change for Czech Prima

The Czech Republic’s Prima Group will introduce a modified organisational structure on July 1 that it says, “reflects the further development of the group and its activities in the areas of television broadcasting, streaming, news, sports and radio.” Under it, the current CEO Marek Singer will move to the company's supervisory board to the position of chief strategy & new business officer, where he will focus on the group's strategic development and new business opportunities. Meanwhile, Lukáš Kubát will move from the position of executive director to that of CEO of the Prima Group. The changes also include adjustments to top management positions. Alex Ruzek is moving from programme director to chief broadcasting & radio officer, and in addition to TV broadcasting, he will now also manage the group's radio activities. Together with Jan Wykrytowicz, he will also become a member of the company's board. Prima Group is one of the leading commercial broadcasters in the Czech Republic.

Newsmax to partner with Polsat

The upcoming channel Newsmax Polsat is set to partner with Poland’s Polsat Plus Group. According to local reports, the latter’s Polsat Media will act as a broker for the channel, which will be distributed by Polsat Box and Netia. The reports note that Newsmax Polska is already undertaking test transmissions on a transponder on Eutelsat’s Hot Bird used by Polsat. Inside CEE Television notes that Newsmax Polska’s launch is imminent.

Cable and Digi dominate Romanian pay-TV

Romania ended 2025 with a total of 7.84 million pay-TV subscribers. This, according to the regulator ANCOM, was virtually unchanged (+0.01%) on a year earlier. Cable remained the main transmission technology, accounting for 7.19 million (+2%) subscribers, while both DTH (640,000, -19%) and IPTV (10,000, -62%) continued to lose market share. ANCOM notes that DTH remains popular in rural locations (12%, compared to 5% of subscribers in urban areas). Furthermore, as of the end of 2025 the number of pay-TV subscribers per 100 households was 102 (of which 93 were via cable networks), and per 100 dwellings was over 77 (of which 71 were via cable networks). It also says the market is dominated by Digi, with 77% of subscribers as of the end of 2025, followed by Orange with over 12% and Vodafone with over 8%. In the cable segment, Digi accounted for 80%, while Orange and Vodafone claimed 10% and 9% respectively.

Ekstraklasa partners with IMG

Poland’s leading football league Ekstraklasa has signed a cooperation agreement with IMG, a global agency specialising in the sale of media rights. IMG will support the Polish league in a tender - planned for this year - for domestic broadcasting rights covering the period from the 2027/28 season onwards. As part of the partnership, IMG will help shape Ekstraklasa’s media rights sales strategy and collaborate with the league’s operating company to finalise the rights packaging and tender procedures. IMG will also play an active role throughout the sales process, engaging with potential broadcasters during the bidding and contract negotiation stages.

Growth for Russian ad market

The Russian ad market was worth R220 billion (€2.59 billion) in the first quarter, or 5% more than in the same period last year. According to the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (AKAR), the video market accounted for R67.5-68.5 billion, or 1% more than in Q1 2025. At the same time, internet services were the strongest performing, growing by 8% to reach R117-118 billion.

Vantage channels expand across CEE

Four music channels operated by the Estonian-based company Luzly Broadcasting are now available in three additional CEE countries. The channels in question – Vantage Music, Vantage Dance, Vantage Rock and Vantage Classic – can be received by subscribers to Lepší.TV in the Czech Republic, Lepšia.TV in Slovakia and Gonet.tv in Poland.

EBU expresses Czech pubcasting concerns

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has issued a statement expressing concerns over the Czech government’s plan to abolish receiver licence fees and replace them with state budget funding for public service media. It listed four particular areas of concern as funding levels, safeguards for independence, lack of consultation with the public broadcasters ČT and ČRo and the need for public debate. Signatories of the statement include the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), European Federation of Journalists, International Press Institute (IPI) and several CEE public broadcasters.

New sports channel for Czech Republic

The Czech Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (RRTV) has awarded FTV Prima two 12-year licences to operate a new national TV channel named Prima sport. One of the licences is for terrestrial (DVB-T2) distribution and the other for special transmission (internet) distribution. The channel may also be rebroadcast via satellite. Prima sport will be on air for 15-24 hours daily and directed principally at the Czech market. Although FTV Prima has a large number of thematic channels in its portfolio, this will be the first one dedicated to sport.

Key regional appointments at the EBU

Andrea Beranová has been re-elected the coordinator at the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) regional group of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for another two-year term. At the same time, Ana Blažević from Croatian Television (HRT) and Elene Gabashvili from Georgian Public Television (GPB) were also elected as deputy coordinators. Beranová is the head of international relations at the Czech public broadcaster Česká televize (CT). The CEE regional group is the largest regional group within the EBU.It brings together public service media from Central Europe, the Balkans, Baltic States and the Caucasus region.