The Romanian Lottery, a state-owned company, has put up for auction the broadcasting rights for its lottery draws looking to get RON 2.18 million (EUR 474,000).

The public television TVR, which has been broadcasting the lottery draws for many years, risks losing the contract to private news station Romania TV, controlled by controversial Romanian businessman Sebastian Ghita, according to government sources quoted by local G4media.ro. Romania TV has been promoting lottery draws on its website for some time but the Lottery’s representatives say they don’t have a contract with this station.

The public tender for the broadcasting rights was announced on June 19. The offered price will account for 50% of the final score and the average audiences on certain intervals will account for 40%, while the remaining 10% will reflect the national coverage of the TV stations.

Romania TV was the fourth-biggest TV station in Romania in terms of viewership in 2017, with an average daily audience of 256,000 people. Meanwhile, the public TV station TVR 1 had an average viewership of 95,000 people per day.

The Romanian Lottery’s draws take place twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays.

editor@romania-insider.com