Decisions concerning radio frequencies

In both cases, the winner of the tender procedures announced for the community use of the Balatonfüred 96.2 MHz local and the Győr 88.1 MHz regional frequencies was Karc FM Média Kft., which will use the rights for the extension of its coverage. Following the formal examination of the bids submitted for the invitation to tender for the commercial use of local frequencies Dunaföldvár 106.5 MHz, Szekszárd 91.1 MHz, Baja 94.3 MHz and Paks 107.5 MHz, the Media Council also registered both Alisca Network Kft. and Lajta Rádió Kft. as bidders for each of the above frequencies. The tender announced for the community use of the Szombathely 97.1 MHz local frequency was unsuccessful as all bids were found invalid.

The Media Council finalised and published on its website on Thursday and Friday the invitations to tender for the commercial use of the local frequencies Budaörs 104.8 MHz and Sátoraljaújhely 104.9 MHz, for the community use of the local frequency Hatvan 94.0 MHz and for the community use of the regional frequency Eger 91.8 MHz. Bids may be submitted on specific deadline days in September as specified in each tender invitation. The Council also finalised the call for tender for small-community radio media service provision rights to expire in 2019 without the option of renewal, and published the document on its website on Thursday. Bids for the tender announced for the Miskolc, Szentendre and Gyomaendrőd sites, which have expired this year, will need to be submitted to the Authority on 2 October.

Media supervisory decisions

The Media Council imposed a fine of HUF 2.8 million on the operator of TV2 for airing footages at an inappropriate time and without the “age 12 circle” in the May 9 broadcast of the gameshow Bezár a bazár! and in the morning show Mokka the next day. Bezár a Bazár presented a distorted and harmful behavioural pattern, as one of the players was rewarded for performing one of the tasks naked, although the intimate body parts were blurred. The same programme section was shown during a studio talk in TV2’s Mokka morning show the next day, where the participants discussed the events and praised the player in a humorous fashion. In view of previous court rulings, the Media Council established that the programming section could only have been aired as content not recommended for persons under 16 years of age, and in its decision the Media Council also noted that the humorous nature of the studio talk did not offset the harmful message.

The board imposed a fine of HUF 10,000 on the operator of the local community radio station Friss FM of Kisvárda for airing less text, Hungarian music, news, public service broadcasts and those dealing with local public life and providing help in local everyday life, and more reruns in a programming week in April and May than its contractual commitments. During a broadcast day in April, KolorTV of Kazincbarcika broadcast the radio programme of the local commercial station Rádió TOP without having obtained an authorisation for networking, and, therefore, the Media Council imposed a fine of HUF 50,000 on the operator of the television station. The radio operator was unaware of the networking.

Review of radio and television programming quotas

The Media Council reviewed compliance with radio and television programme quota obligations during 2018 and identified violations in the case of 3 radio and 18 television operators. They include Digital Media and Communications Zrt., the operator of national channels TV4 and Story4 as well as regional channel Galaxy4, which received a fine amounting to HUF 780,000, with the others being local and regional media service providers that received fines of a few tens of thousands of forints.

When imposing a fine, the Media Council always determines the form and extent of the penalties with due consideration to all the circumstances of the specific case and employing the principle of progressiveness and proportionality.