Anton Hekimyan has been appointed director of news, current affairs and sports at the Bulgarian national broadcaster bTV.
One of two internal promotions, he has replaced Venelin Petkov, who is understood to have not received an offer to stay on at the company. In the second internal promotion, Hristo Hadjitanev has been appointed bTV’s programming director, replacing Margarita Alexandrova.
The decision to replace the two executives was made by bTV’s new CEO Martin Svehlak, who said: “In 2020, bTV had to adapt its programme to the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to less investment in content and loss of viewers. My main goal is to reverse this trend by modernising the programme and content and working for more diverse TV entertainment and high quality news on all our channels. I hired Hristo and Anton because they have the enthusiasm, expertise, energy and thirst for innovation that we need to regain our leading position in Bulgaria”.
Lubos Yetmar, CEO of CME Bulgaria, added: “PPF is determined to invest heavily in a new program and content, but needs confidence that the entire management team will accept the planned changes and work to meet business goals”.
Hadjitanev said: “Expect a lot of innovation in the content of bTV Media Group in 2021 – new shows, more local productions in prime time, diverse programming and modern content that meets the viewers’ interests of all channels and platforms of bTV”.