Lauders’s CME acquired Adrian Sârbu’s radio assets

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) announced today the take-over of Compania de Radio Pro SRL, owned by one of the “big five” on the Romanian media market, Adrian Sârbu, for 20,6 million US dollars (47,2 million RON or 14 million euros). Compania de Radio Pro includes two radios: Info Pro (news) and Pro FM (contemporary hits, with several recently launched spinoffs – Dance, Alternative, Black, Love). Launched in 1993, Pro FM delivered in 2007 revenues of 3,3 million euros, with an EBITDA margin of 42%. Info Pro entered the FM spectrum in 2004 and had 0,6 mllion euros revenues in 2007, with an EBITDA loss of 1,0 million.

CME is Adrian Sârbu’s traditional partner and currently holds 95% of the TV businesses run by Sârbu, with a leading position on the Romanian market (Pro TV, Acasă TV, Pro TV Internațional, Pro Cinema, MTV Romania, Sport.ro). CME also mentioned a 8,7% participation in the Media Pro Group, which operates Sârbu’s print, radio and internet businesses. Adrian Sârbu has been appointed last year as CME’s COO.

The CME press release: | More…

New superglossies on the Romanian market

Marie Claire Romania will be launched at the Romanian newsstands on Wednesday, April 16. The magazine is edited by Sanoma Romania and positioned in the upper zone of the glossies market. The Editor-in-Chief, Mara Stroe, has successfully launched the Romanian Glamour at Liberis Publications, in the Autumn of 2006.

Another international women glossy soon to be launched on the Romanian market is InStyle, published by Attica Media and run by Dana Negrilă.

The Romanian women glossies market has became rather crowded since 2005. The strongest publishers, Ringier Romania and Edipresse-AS, have launched three | More…

Tabloids are prosperous

During 2007, the uncontested leader of the newspaper market in Romania, Libertatea (Ringier România), started to be seriously challenged by two other titles, Click! (Adevărul Holding – Patriciu) and Can-Can (independent, taken over by Adrian Sârbu according to some unofficial information). According to the Romanian ABC (Biroul Român de Audit al Tirajelor – BRAT.ro), the market is as described in the following chart (sold circulation taken into account, data missing where the value is 0):

Libertatea is the traditional leader of the newspapers market in Romania and keeps its position, in spite of an important circulation decrease during the fall-winter of 2007. It sells more than twice than the next title in the hierarchy, Jurnalul naţional, whose position is now threatened by Click!. Having a formula close to the Swiss Blick (ported also on some other Eastern Europe markets), the leader is published by Ringier România, the strongest print group on the market. During the autumn of 2006, the executive director of the Ringier division in charge of Libertatea, Răzvan Corneţeanu, has left Ringier | More…

Romanian media outlet going to the Czech market

Mediafax, a press agency owned by the Romanian Media Mogul Adrian Sârbu, COO of the CME, is extending on the Czech market. At the end of 2007, a Czech company owned by Media Pro Management SA was registered in Prague, with Mihai Predescu as a GM. According to Media Pro sources, Mediafax-Prague will be more than a newswire and there are some other plans for Eastern Europe.

CME and Adrian Sârbu own Pro TV, the leader of the TV market, and various other print, new media, radio and TV assets.

Top 10 TV, February

According to GfK data processed by Realitatea TV, the most viewed 10 TV stations in Romania are:

1. PRO TV – 310.000/348.000 (CME/Sârbu, commercial)
2. Antena 1 – 228.000/219.000 (Voiculescu, commercial)
3. Acasă TV – 207.000/179.000 (CME/Sârbu, commercial, women)
4. Realitatea TV – 112.000/129.000 (Vîntu, niche, rolling news)
5. TVR 1 – 111.000/126.000 (public)
6. Prima TV – 104.000/110.000 (SBS, commercial, strong international reality shows programming)
7. Kanal D – 87.000/87.000 (Dogan, commercial)
8. OTV – 75.000/80.000 (Dan Diaconescu, tabloid)
9. Antena 3 – 73.000/74.000 (Voiculescu, niche, rolling news)
10. Naţional TV – 58.000/58.000 (Micula Brothers, commercial).

The figures are ratings in thousands of viewers (February/January), daily average, all urban. Starting January 1st 2008, the audience data have been provided by GfK Romania, which won the auction against the former audience provider, TNS-AGB Romania. The panel has been increased from 1000 to 1200 households and DTH has been taken into account according to its growing spread. The new GfK system has increased some niche station ratings by | More…

Internet ad market: 14-15 million euros in Romania, 2008

According to the two main Romanian internet advertising brokers, BOOM and ARBOinteractive, the internet advertising market will total 14-15 million euros cash in 2007. The estimate of 14,5 euros released by ARBOmedia at half-2007 has been confirmed recently by Magda Zanders, sales director at BOOM, during an ymterview [ro] (interview by Yahoo Messenger) with this author. Zander also said the faster growers in terms of money spent on the internet will be FMCG, especially Unilver. BOOM’s sales manager also expected a response from P&G.

The internet campaigns are complementary to off-line.

Internet advertising sales rose to roughly 5,5 million euros in 2006 and 8-9 millions in 2007. Common rate cards range from 7 to 30 euros CPM, discount is often 50% and the brokers’ commission is usually 30%.

Dogan has some further expansion plans in Romania

After launching Kanal D Romania in February 2007, the Turkish group Dogan has some further expansion plans into Romania. According to statements by Begum Dogan, Turkish billionaire Aydin Dogan’s daughter and the top executive of Dogan in Romania, the company is planning some other investments, both in the TV field and other businesses. In a story that is to be published tomorrow by the Money Express business weekly, Begum Dogan says Dogan will further develop Kanal D, launched as a general interest TV station, and invest into some TV niches, both taken over from existing owners and newly-launched.

Kanal D was launched in February 2007 with a team of famous TV stars transferred from the leader of the commercial market, Pro TV, and the public television, and with a tabloid-entertainment schedule. The ratings achieved were below | More…

Three new niche TV stations controlled by the Voiculescu family

Intact/Antena/Jurnalul, one of the major players on the Romanian media market has plans for three or four new niche stations, according to Broadband TV News. An unofficial source confirmed for Comanescu.ro the plans are real, but, instead of the four stations mentioned by Broadband TV News (children, cooking, men, music), said there will be three niche TV’s: children, music, sports.

Intact/Antena/Jurnalul is a group founded by Dan Voiculescu, one of the richest Romanians and an ex-secret police (Securitate) informer. It includes four TV stations (Antena 1 – general, 2nd position on the market, Antena 2 – talk-shows, Antena 3 – News, Euforia Lifestyle TV – women glossy), and other important media assets, such as the 2nd more important general interest newspaper, Jurnalul, and the best sports newspaper, Gazeta sporturilor. The group is today owned mainly by Voiculescu’s daughters, Camelia and Corina. There are no foreign associates, although reports about some discussions with RTL, Permira (an investment fund) and the greeks from Antenna have surfaced.

Some other news about future projects at Voiculescu have also spread in the past, with no results so far.

Lucian Mândruţă, one of the primetime news anchors at Antena 1

Adrian Sârbu appointed as the COO of CME

Adrian Sârbu, 52, has been appointed as the new Chief Operating Officer of Central European Media Enterprises, a company owned by Estee Lauder’s inheritors and operating in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Sârbu is famous in Romania for launching, on December 1st 1995, Pro TV, the actual leader of the TV market and a revolutionary concept among the Romanian media, based on an American model. He also has developed some other TV projects, such as the very successful women station Acasa TV, and massive print and radio divisions, including a successful business newspaper, two FM stations networks, the leading press agency in Romania and several magazines.

Some allegations about uneven business practices have foreshadowed Sârbu’s career. One of them refers to friendly treatment reserved to the ex-communists in power between 2001 and 2004, in exchange for tax payments postponing. At a certain point, the tax due to the state was more than 40 million US dollars.

Sârbu is famous for his ego-oriented management and his visions transformed into reality. He very seldom appeared in the media, and has only given two interviews, at 1 year and ten years after the Pro TV launching, on his own TV station. He only owns 5% of the companies controlling the TV operations, after recently having sold two 5% stakes to CME – the last one, for 49,8 million US dollars. The ownership of most of the radio, print and internet operations is the same, but the proportions are opposite.

The radio and print operations of Sârbu/CME might become very active, due to Sârbu’s intentions to sell a big part of his participation to CME, stated by unofficial sources.

CME first six months of 2007 results: net revenues – 364.2 million US dollars, operating income – 85.8 million US dollars.

A meeting of the CME investors will begin today, in Bucharest. Some live audio broadcasts and presentation slides will be available on the site of CME, CETV-net.com, today, at 9.30 EET.

Andreea Esca, the 7 pm news anchor on Pro TV,
a face very familiar to the Romanians

The CME press release: | More…

Romanian business newspapers niche appearing

The success of ‘Ziarul financiar’, a newspaper started by one of the big Romanian media groups, MediaPro, in 1998, has been a model for ‘Business Standard’, another title launched on May 18th, this year, by another Romanian publisher, Realitatea-Caţavencu. Unofficial informations started to appear lately about a third business daily newspaper, to be launched somewhere during the first half of 2008, by Intact-Antena-Jurnalul, a group controlled by the Voiculescu family, leading the sports newspapers market (‘Gazeta Sporturilor’) and holding a second position on the general newspapers market (‘Jurnalul naţional’) and in terms of commercial general interest televisions (Antena 1).

The work title is ‘Profitabil’ (‘Lucrative’), and the project management is provided by the team at ‘Sâptămâna financiară’, an newspaper-style business weekly published by Intact/Jurnalul.

‘Ziarul financiar’, a project inspired by ‘Financial Times’, is the first successful niche player on the Romanian | More…