TV channel Viasat3 has moved its headquarters to the UK to avoid its obligations to provide public service broadcasts, Index.hu reports. The move comes about after a court ruling in February re-categorized the channel, obligating it to provide news and other public services. The move will not effect viewers or advertisers, who will continue to receive the same services. All of which begs the question: What is the point of the National Radio and Television Board (ORTT), Hungary’s media watchdog?
From May 1, the channel will be operated by Viasat Broadcasting UK. Modern Times Group parent company’s men’s channel Tv6 is already registered in the UK for the same reason and the corporation is mulling over moving all its European channels to the UK.
Elsewhere, CoolTV, Sportklub and Film+ are registered in Romania, while HBO and Minimax are run from the Czech Republic. Viasat is the largest company to move out of Hungary to date.
Without the move, the channel would have been obligated by the ORTT to provide news programming. Had it not done so, it would have also faced large fines.
I would think that HU doesn’t want more private, non-gov’t influenced news services as it would only add to sense of futility here.
So good I don’t live in Franz Kafka’s God forsaken land. Like over here in North America, not every TV station (on cable and satellite, even over the air) is broadcasting news. Maybe only 99 or so do. The rest are news-free. But I guess dumb Hungarians and their even dumber “regulators” have gotta be so well informed, each of their (foreign owned) TV channels have to give them the bad news in Hungarian, telling them over and over and over that their country is now in the bottom of the league of nations courtyard latrine.
Just another example of what happens when you offer crap business conditions in your country. Companies vote with their feet.
We only now need National Geographic to run a documentary piece on “How to dismantle an economy bit by bit, the Hungarian way.”