Romania’s largest media company PRO TV, part of Czech group Central European Media Enterprises (CME), last year had a 62% share of the local TV advertising market. The group had about a quarter of the total TV audience in Romania and more than 30% of the prime time audience, according to CME’s financial report for 2014.

PRO TV group includes Romania’s largest TV station PRO TV, the sports television Sport.ro, the soap-opera channels Acasa TV and Acasa Gold, the film channel PRO Cinema, and the music channel MTV Romania.

The company made TV advertising revenues worth USD 126 million, in 2014, up by 5.1% compared to the previous year. This means that the whole TV ad market in Romania was a little over USD 200 million.

PRO TV’s main competitor is Intact Group, which owns the Antena 1, Antena 3, Antena Stars, Euforia Lifestyle and ZU TV channels. Intact Group had a 23% market share last year, which translates into some USD 47 million in advertising revenues, based on data presented by CME. The other larger competitors are Kanal D, with a 5% market share, and Prima TV, with 4%.

CME’s net revenues in Romania increased by 10% last year, to EUR 178.6 million. This evolution was mainly supported by the higher carriage fees and subscription revenues for its local TV channels. The group made USD 46 million from carriage fees, 85% more than in 2013.

The higher revenues helped the group increase its operational profit before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) in Romania to USD 37.3 million, from just USD 2.5 million in 2013.

Media group CME’s Romanian operations increase by 10%

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com