Hungary’s media landscape - overview

Stability in the Hungarian media landscape

After the political changes in 1990, an era of press freedom began throughout the whole of Hungary. New media products seemed to explode out of the ground. At first, these were print media of all types, which were then joined on the Hungarian media market by electronic media after the National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) was set up in 1996 by Parliament. In the meantime, the media landscape in Hungary has stabilised for the most part. Newspapers, however, especially the quality papers owned by various publishers, are struggling with constantly falling numbers of readers and advertisers, and decreasing circulation.

Foreign investors conquer the market

Soon after the fall of Communism, the first financially powerful foreign investors – many of them from German-speaking countries – appeared on the scene in the Hungarian media market, names like Springer, Maxwell and Hersant or Bertelsmann and Ringier. The Swiss publisher Ringier was a comparative late-comer, first appearing in Hungary in 1994, but it gradually cornered a substantial share of the market. Today, Ringier owns the most popular tabloid paper, ‘Blikk’, 49% of the biggest national quality newspaper, ‘Népszabadság’, the highest-selling sports paper, ‘Nemzeti Sport’, and various magazines. Bertelsmann offloaded ‘Népszabadság’ in order to be able to retain its stake in the private TV channel, RTL Klub, the reason for this being that the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) does not allow a single company to own more than 65% of the entire media market.




Grund: Das Wettbewerbsamt (GVH) lässt eine Beteiligung von mehr als 65 Prozent am gesamten Medienmarkt nicht zu. Der Axel Springer Verlag erwarb 1990 neun Regionalzeitungen und führte danach zahlreiche Frauenmagazine ein. Die deutsche WAZ-Gruppe gibt in vier westungarischen Komitaten 5 regionale Tageszeitungen heraus und hält 75 Prozent am angesehensten Magazin für Politik und Wirtschaft HVG. Das österreichische Unternehmen Inform Media verlegt drei regionale Tageszeitungen in Nord- und Ostungarn. Der finnische Sanoma Verlag hat sich auf dem Monats- und Frauenmagazinmarkt etabliert, führt aber auch das zweitstärkste Wirtschafts- und Politmagazin Figyelö im Portfolio.


Hungary´s media landscape - print media
Hungary´s media landscape - electronic media