RTL Group has decided to move the licences of its entire portfolio of Hungarian cable channels to Luxembourg, leaving only its flagship service RTL Klub still present in the country.
In a statement supplied to index.hu and quoted by Portfolio, the company said: “Having reassessed the unfavourable economic situation in Hungary we have decided to make the operation of our cable portfolio more cost efficient and move the televisions to Luxembourg where we have an appropriate infrastructure and crew.”
It added that “this measure is not new and not even unusual from the pan-European RTL Group, and it is compliant with every EU law and regulation.”
Indeed, several of the group’s channels, including those operated by Dutch and Belgian broadcasters, have been operating with Luxembourg licences for some time.
The Hungarian cable channels affected by the move, which will take place at the beginning of 2015, are Cool TV, Film+, Film+2, RTL+, Sorozat+ and Muzsika TV. Acquired in 2011, all, with the exception of Muzsika TV, have been operating under the jurisdiction of the Romanian media authority.
As of January, they will come under RTL Group’s Luxembourg-based subsidiary CLT-UFA.
Significantly, the move will not affect RTL Group’s obligation to pay the top rate of a controversial new advertising tax that came into effect in Hungary this summer.
RTL Group has also said it “will remain deeply rooted in Hungary”.
Separately, Portfolio and Handelsblatt report that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has struck a conciliatory tone in the dispute with RTL Group over the tax.
Speaking in Germany, he said that sooner or later an individual solution for the problems of the media sector can be possible.
He added: “Bertelsmann and Hungary are in the same boat. It is in our interest as well that foreign companies make as much profit as possible, in the expectation of higher taxes.”
