News Corp’s decision to pull out of no fewer than five countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was unlikely to have been taken lightly. It remains surprising all the same.
From an outside perspective, there seems little wrong with most if not all its operations in the region. In Bulgaria, bTV has been a well-established market leader for a number of years and the country is itself attracting growing interest from outside investors. Indeed, only last month both CME and MTG entered the market, acquiring stakes in the two other national commercial stations.
In Poland, News Corp has poured money into TV Puls and even gone to the trouble of having the terms of its licence changed in a bid to become a real force in a market dominated by the big three broadcasters TVP, Polsat and TVN. While the station’s ratings are still low, it will be boosted, certainly in terms of coverage, when Poland’s long-awaited DTT operation finally makes its debut.
News Corp has been performing well in Latvia, where its flagship station LNT is the market leader, claiming an audience of 21.6% this July in what is a highly competitive market. TV5 Riga, in which it became the sole shareholder as recently as this June, accounted for a further 5.5% of viewers.
Although Fox Televizija, News Corp’s operation in Serbia, has undoubtedly made less of an impact than its sister stations, it, too has looked well established. However, in the case of Montenegro, the company chose to return its licence rather than launch a national TV station.
It now appears, if reports from Bulgaria are correct, that bTV, arguably News Corp’s most lucrative TV interest in CEE, will be the first to be sold.
While News Corp’s decision to exit the region as a whole is questionable, it offers other investors a good opportunity to enter the market or expand their existing operations. Interest in most if not all the stations is likely to be strong.
