Television
Television broadcast stations: 130 (plus about 400 low-power repeaters) (1997)
Television sets: 11.35 million (2005)
Romanian television is dominated by a small number of corporations, owning multiple TV channels as well as radio stations, newspapers and media agencies. Their television business is structured around a flagship channel and a number of smaller specialized, niche channels. The biggest corporations of this kind are:
- Intact Media Group (with Antena 1-Antena 5),
- Central European Media Enterprises (with Pro TV, Acasă, Pro Cinema, Pro TV Internaţional and Sport.ro)
- Realitatea-Catavencu (with Realitatea TV, Romantica and The Money Channel)
- Centrul Naţional Media (with Naţional TV, N24 and Favorit TV)
- SBS Broadcasting Group (with Prima TV and Kiss TV).
Additionally, there is a public television service operated by Televiziunea Română with four channels (TVR 1, TVR 2, TVR Cultural and TVR i) and there are many localized or franchised international channels (such as HBO, MTV, Cinemax, AXN, Cartoon Network). Furthermore, there are a few independent and local broadcasters.
Two private stations, Pro TV and Antena 1, are market leaders, sharing about 32% of the market, with public television in the third place. A feature of Romanian Television after 2000 was the boom of specialized channels - such as soap opera and telenovela channels (Acasă TV, Romantica, Antena 4 - Euforia lifestyle TV), sport channels (such as Sport.ro and Telesport), talk channels (Antena 2) news channels (Realitatea TV, Antena 3 and N24), different movie genres or documentary types, and even specializing on different musical styles (UTV Romania and MTV being geared toward club, dance and hip-hop music, whereas Favorit TV and Etno TV towards folklore, and Taraf TV towards manele). Teleshopping channels, lifestyle and weather channels, and special channels dedicated for display in public areas (such as waiting areas, airports, train stations, banks, supermarkets) additionally exist.
Television broadcasts and cable television, frequency allocations, content monitoring and license allocation are done by the National Audiovisual Council (Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (CNA)).
Romania has very high penetration rates for cable television in Europe, with over 79% of all households watching television through a CATV network in 2007. The market is extremely dynamic, and dominated by two giant companies - Romanian based RCS&RDS and United States based UPC-Astral. Both additionally offer IP telephony over coaxial cable and Internet services. The national CATV network is being improved, and most households are being migrated towards digital cable solutions. Digital DTH satellite service is available throughout the country, and accounts for an additional 10-15% of the market, with only about 5% being attributed to terrestrial analogue television. Digital satellite DTH is provided by a number of companies. Most TV channels only broadcast via cable.
Broadcast television is very limited because of the high penetration of cable, only TVR 1, TVR 2, Antena 1 and Pro TV are available as analogue broadcasts. In some areas, only TVR 1 is available, and in others, there is no broadcast signal while there are cable operators. Furthermore, although the transmission systems are still functional, receiving aerials in many places have long since been dismantled or are unmaintained. Although tests are being performed in Bucharest it is possible that Romania will not migrate to digital terrestrial systems, but completely discontinue this service, and sell the available spectrum for other purposes, since the said investments provide limited appeal. It is expected that by 2010, only 5% of the population will watch television via broadcast, making it possible to completely switch off the network.
The reasons for the appeal for cable started in the early 1990s. After the fall of the communist regime, in 1989, there were only two state owned TV channels available (see TVR), one only being available in about 20% of the country. Private TV channels were slow to appear, because of lack of experience and high start-up costs (most startups were radio stations or newspapers). Thus, for the first three years, over the air, one would get one or two state channels and one or two local, amateurish private channels, broadcasting only a few hours a day. In this environment, cable TV companies appeared and thrived, providing 15-20 foreign channels for a very low price (at the time 2 USD or less), some with Romanian translation, offering high quality news, entertainment and especially movies or cartoons (one of the ways cable companies advertised was the availability of a cartoon channel, Cartoon Network, appealing to children, which in turn would appeal to their parents). The first two companies to provide CATV were Multicanal in Bucharest and Timiş Cablu in Timişoara, both out of business today. Many small, startup firms gradually grew, and coverage increased (coverage wars were frequent in the early period, with many cable boxes smashed, and new cable networks offering "half off for twice the channels" and immediately wiring the building for any willing persons). However, this period soon ended, with consolidation around 1995-1996. Some large companies emerged: Kappa and RCS in Bucharest, Astral in Cluj, UPC in Timişoara, TourImex in Râmnicu Vâlcea. This consolidation came with gentlemen agreements over areas of control and pricing, with claims of monopoly abounding. This process of consolidation was completed around 2005-2006, when only two big suppliers of cable remained: UPC-Astral and RDS. Internet over coaxial cable has been available since around 2000, and IP telephony (over the CATV infrastructure) since the deregulation of the market in 2003. Currently, cable TV is available in most of the country, including most rural areas (where roughly 40% of the population lives). Satellite digital TV appeared in 2004, providing coverage for the rest of the country, with both RCS&RDS and UPC-Astral having a stake in these companies. IPTV (over DSL) is also planned by Romtelecom through its TV service (Dolce), after offering Satellite digital DTH TV. However, IPTV will not be much of a competition, since the other two big ISPs are also the two biggest CATV providers.
Cable TV is very cheap for all standards, the standard/basic service, offering about 50 channels, is around 20-30 RON/month including VAT (about 7-10 €), with the most expensive service, offering 10-15 channels more, including some pay-per-view such as HBO or Cinemax, costing no more than 60-70 RON/month (around 20-23 €).
Romania uses PAL B/G for analogue cable and broadcast television, but see above.
Read more about this topic: Communications Media In Romania
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“There was a girl who was running the traffic desk, and there was a woman who was on the overnight for radio as a producer, and my desk assistant was a woman. So when the world came to an end, we took over.”
—Marya McLaughlin, U.S. television newswoman. As quoted in Women in Television News, ch. 3, by Judith S. Gelfman (1976)
“Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
—Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)
“So why do people keep on watching? The answer, by now, should be perfectly obvious: we love television because television brings us a world in which television does not exist. In fact, deep in their hearts, this is what the spuds crave most: a rich, new, participatory life.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)