The Media Council published this year as well its call for tender addressed to local and regional televisions to support the production of regular news programmes as well as public affairs and cultural magazine programmes, which can be applied for by operators in Hungary and beyond the borders. This year it will be possible to apply for a budget increased by HUF 20 million, a total of HUF 520 million, in four rounds, with the first deadline being April 15. The maximum funding that can be obtained in the case of public affairs programmes is HUF 60,000 per programme, and in the case of news programmes and cultural magazine programmes HUF 40,000, which cannot be more than two-thirds of the planned total cost.

At the request of the media service provider Pentafon Kft., the council extends the local radio media service licence of Rádió 24 on the Dunaújváros 102.9 MHz frequency for another seven years, until 9 September 2028. The Media Council asked NMHH to develop plans for the 103.9 MHz and 100.3 MHz frequencies in Budapest, and also approved the draft calls for tender for the community use of the local frequencies of 97.1 MHz in Szolnok and 98.3 MHz in Veszprém. The drafts will be available on the authority’s website from Friday.

The Media Council warned the service provider of TV Szentendre about surreptitious advertising because it had provided such detailed information about the cookbook presented after the six November broadcasts of the programme entitled Creative chef that it encouraged viewers to buy it. This is only permitted by law in an advertising block.

The Media Council adopted the NMHH study examining the locations of classical radio broadcasting between 2018 and the end of 2020, which expands on the previous document on the subject. This shows, among other things, that although the number of radio users has not changed significantly, listeners have started listening to radio programmes in more locations than before, presumably due to the increased demand for information due to the coronavirus epidemic. Namely, 77-79% of the total sample was listening to radio programmes from home and 30-34% at work, while in the same period of 2019 these proportions were around 71% as well as 19% and 20%, respectively. The whole document is available on the NMHH website.