TV2 airs highest number of new commercials
An online media outlet published surreptitious commercial communication multiple times; as a result, the Media Council of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) imposed sanctions on the relevant media content provider. The Council also examined the sponsorship practices of television channels with the widest reach.
The online media outlet kisalföld.hu violated the statutory provisions prohibiting surreptitious commercial communication five times in February this year. The media content provider integrated information of an advertising nature into the articles under investigation without indicating that such information was for advertising purposes; as a result, the Media Council issued a warning and ordered the provider to comply with the requirement of lawful conduct immediately upon notification of the decision and refrain from future violations.
Each year, the NMHH verifies whether new commercials airing on the most-watched television channels comply with the provisions of the Media Act. For the period between 1 January and 31 December 2025, the authority registered 5,201 new spots in the programming of 82 television channels, 7.7% fewer than in the previous year. As in previous years, advertising volume was once again highest in autumn last year, peaking in October and November due to Black Friday and Christmas sales. 35.8% of the commercials promoted products, while 60.6% services. The majority of commercials were run by companies in the consumer goods and pharmaceutical sectors (44.4% and 15.2%, respectively), while commercials specifically targeting minors represented 2.1 percent last year. Spots that focus on promoting Hungarian products and services consistently grab a small slice of the advertising market, with their share showing a slight decline in 2025 compared to the previous year (9.7% in 2024 vs 8.4% in 2025).
As part of its market surveillance activities, the Media Council regularly reviews the sponsorship practices of television channels with the widest reach. The review sample consistently includes national commercial television channels with the largest audiences (RTL, TV2) and the public media service Duna. In addition, the authority monitored the sponsorship activities of ATV Spirit, Comedy Central, Cool, Film4, Life TV, M4 Sport, RTL HÁROM, Spíler1 TV, Viasat 3, Viasat 6, Super TV2, and M2 for one month each. During the period under review, messages from 1,708 sponsor companies, featured in 2,452 different sponsorship spots, appeared on screen a total of 108,014 times. The highest number of sponsorship messages aired in May 2025 (14,530 spots), while the lowest was in January 2025 (5,446 spots). From the media services with the widest reach, TV2 aired 59,051 sponsorship messages, RTL aired 27,737, while Duna aired 10,170 throughout the year, meaning that TV2 broadcast more than twice as many sponsorship spots as RTL. On average, TV2’s programming featured a sponsorship message every 8.9 minutes; for RTL, this was every 18.9 minutes and for Duna, every 51.7 minutes. For all three media services under review, the number of sponsorship messages decreased by a total of 9.5% compared to 2024.
The full agenda of the Media Council’s weekly meetings can be found on the Council’s website along with its decisions. The latest documents will become public after the necessary authentication and administrative lead time has lapsed.
