Radio and media supervisory decisions

The Council finalised the call for tender for the community use of local frequency Mezőkövesd 102.1 MHz. Pursuant to the substantial review of the bids for the community use of the Cece 91.6 MHz frequency, the Media Council has requested information from Katolikus Rádió Zrt. The Media Council has concluded the formal review of the bids submitted for the commercial use of local frequencies Sátoraljaújhely 104.9 MHz and Körmend 99.8 MHz and in both cases, has registered the sole bidders: Zempén Televízió Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft. in the case of the former and Rádió 8 Körmend Kft. in the latter.

The Media Council imposed a fine of HUF 20 thousand on the service provider of Tilos Rádió for airing less spoken word content, news as well as programmes dealing with and assisting local public and everyday life and more music than stipulated in its contractual commitments during a reviewed programming week in January-February. Győr Plusz Rádió aired less music, news as well as programmes dealing with and assisting local public and everyday life and more reruns than stipulated in its contractual commitments during a reviewed programming week in March-April. In the case of public service broadcasts, it failed to fulfil its contractual commitments as well as the statutory obligations and also violated the legal provisions on the airing of advertisements, therefore the Media Council called on the radio’s service provider to observe the requirements for lawful behaviour. When conducting the inspections, the Media Council gave special consideration to the situation at hand due to the coronavirus and judged the media service providers fairly and more leniently than usual. The Media Council always determines the legal consequences – warnings, fines – in accordance with the principle of progressiveness and proportionality whilst considering all circumstances of the case.

Online televisions have fulfilled their obligations

The Authority conducted the inspection of the fulfilment of last year’s programme quotas in the case of on-demand (online) audiovisual media service providers under Hungarian jurisdiction, who are required by law to observe said quotas. The office of the NMHH has established that all thirteen services of the ten service providers have complied with the requirements, therefore the Media Council has no reason to initiate proceedings against any of the service providers and informed the Authority of this. Pursuant to the Media Act, thirty percent of the service providers’ air time must consist of European and ten percent of Hungarian works. The inspection covered the Koncertsziget, mindiGO TV, MinDig TV Plusz, www.d1tv.hu, Filmdzsungel.hu, IKON Stúdió, InviTV Videotéka, KárpátPress, TVGO, Telekom Videótéka, Tantra-Ecstasy Art House Filmek, Taoerotic Art House Filmek and TV2.hu services.