RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 64, 1 July1997

HUNGARY AWARDS PRIVATE NATIONAL TV LICENSES. The Hungarian Television and
Radio Commission has granted national television licenses to two Western-led
consortia. One consortium is headed by CLT-Ufa, which has interests in 19
television stations across Europe and in which the German media giant
Bertelsmann owns a 50% stake. Most of its stations operate under the banner of
RTL. The second consortium is led by the Scandinavian Broadcasting System
(SBS), of which the U.S.-based Walt Disney owns 22.8%. The tender is seen as a
setback for Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which had hoped to add a
Hungarian license to its Central and Eastern European portfolio. That porfolio
includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Ukraine, and Poland.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               Copyright (c) 1997 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx