We are exclusively publishing in four sequels a dossier on how the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and its leader and Prime Minister Janez Janša follow the media strategy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in controlling the media and their political takeover. Today is the third part. The first, second, and third parts were published on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

We are publishing this research text by Lenart J. Kučić in cooperation with the Slovenian research portal podcrto.si, which systematically monitors events on the Slovenian media and political scene.

Janez Janša’s first moves in the field of media, after the beginning of his third term in the spring of 2020, indicated that the SDS wants to emulate the media strategy they started implementing in Fidesz, Hungary, ten years ago.

Another attempt to take over public RTV

In the first few months after the appointment of the new government, the SDS tried to take control of public RTV and pass a package of media laws that would subordinate public media and allegedly establish mechanisms to fund pro-government media. Also, make sure Planet TV is taken over by government-friendly owners. However, the government of Janez Janša, unlike Viktor Orban, failed to establish control over the media within one year of taking power.

The current Slovenian government led by the SDS – similar to the first and second terms of Janez Janša – first intervened in public RTV.

In April 2020 (one month after taking office), before the expiration of their term, it replaced three national supervisors (Matjaža Medveda, Irena Ostrouško, and Petra Majer) with its candidates: Borut Rončević, Anton Tomažić, and Drago Zadergal (all three supervisors are close to the SDS and the political right). In May 2020, following a vote in the Slovenian parliament, the new program council met for the first time, and seven new councilors took office. Among them were Alenka Gotar, Slavko Kmetič, Alojz Bogataj, and Janez Stuhec, who are either party members or ideologically close to the SDS.

The government’s attempt to remove supervisors before their term expires was temporarily halted by an administrative court decision. In November, the new program council did not vote for the early dismissal of RTVS  general director Igor Kadunac. Therefore, RTV Slovenia got a new general director only at the end of January this year. Thus, the former chairman of the supervisory board, Andrej Grah Whatmough, will succeed Kadunac in April this year. The SMC coalition party nominated Graha Whatmough as the supervisor of RTV Slovenia.

The government of Janez Janša thus repeated the story from the second term from 2012-2013, when they also tried to gain a majority in the supervisory and program board of RTV Slovenia and replace its management (general director and editors). However, due to the fall of the government in 2013, they ran out of time to take control of public RTV, which we wrote about in the first part of the investigation.

Such influence on the business, management, and program orientation of the national party was made possible by the current Law on RTV Slovenia, which was adopted by Jansa’s first government in 2005 and prepared by SDS MP Branko Grims. The Ministry of Culture, responsible for drafting the law, was then also headed by current Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti. However, as early as 2012, it became clear that this process could be prolonged, as the law does not provide for the early dismissal of supervisors and program councilors. Due to the composition of both bodies, the SDS also had to coordinate with coalition partners, as other parties and interest groups have the right to appoint supervisors and program councilors (employees of RTVS, national minorities …).

This still means that the SDS can gain great influence over the largest public media. In Janez Jansa’s first term, after amending the Law on Public RTV, the SDS had a sufficient majority in both RTVS supervisory bodies to appoint its general director Anton Guzej, radio and television directors Vinko Vasle and Jože Možina, and several other editors close to the political right. However, current media legislation and the balance of power in parliament do not allow him to take over public television quickly, following the example of Viktor Orban after 2010.

Planet TV for sale

The government, on the other hand, succeeded in selling Planet TV, which sold the state-owned Telecom Slovenia to the Hungarian media house TV2 last year.

Planet TV was launched by Telecom Slovenia during the second term of Janez Janša in 2012. The new television was considered a political project of the SDS party, which was a very expensive and financially unsuccessful investment for the state-owned Telecom.

In the eight years since its founding, Planet TV has never made a profit, and losses have repeatedly exceeded ten million euros a year. Since its establishment, Telecom Slovenia has invested more than EUR 70 million in Planet TV in the form of capital investments, loans, advertising, and other services. In the business year 2019, the loss of Planet amounted to almost nine million euros. The failure of the television project is also shown by the fact that Telecom estimated the value of the investment in Planet TV at zero in its balance sheets.

However, despite the mentioned business results, Telecom Slovenia did not shut down Planet TV but covered losses wrote off debts, and recapitalized it several times. In March 2020, they unsuccessfully tried to sell half the shares of Planet, and then supervisors decided to sell the entire stake in television by the end of June 2020.

In the spring, their television station was threatened with insolvency, as it would need five million euros to operate by the end of the year. In the end, the purchase price paid for Planet TV by Hungarian TV2 was exactly five million euros, and Telecom covered more than 20 million euros of Planet TV’s debts before the purchase.

When the second government of Janez Janša fell due to a vote of no confidence in 2013, the SDS lost much of its influence over the state-owned Telecom, and thus Planet TV. The sale of Planet to Hungarian TV2, therefore, suited the SDS best, as Planet TV was taken over by an interest group of media entrepreneurs close to the parties Fidesz and Viktor Orban. This interest group also funds other SDS-sponsored media. The management of the Planet was taken over by a Bulgarian citizen Pavel Stantchev, who was the director of Planet (its publisher Antenna TV SL) during Janša’s second government.

Did the SDS also influence the choice of the new owner of Planet TV, for which, in addition to TV2, four other customers were interested?

We sent several questions to the then President of the Supervisory Board of Telecom Slovenia, Aleš Šabeder, regarding the choice of the buyer and possible political pressures before the sale, but despite several attempts, he did not answer us. Shortly after the sale of Planet, Sabeder resigned as chairman of Telecom’s supervisory board because, due to the current situation and disagreements, he said, “he can no longer perform his duty with sufficient care.”

Short reach and television losses close to the SDS

By selling Planet TV to Hungarian TV2, the SDS-led government gained a share of the television market and thus a potential influence on public opinion. However, its influence on Slovenian television is currently much smaller than Orbán’s Fidesz party’s influence on Hungarian television.

TV2 is one of the two largest commercial televisions in Hungary, with a market share of about 40% in the Hungarian television market. Planet TV has a much smaller share in Slovenia. According to data obtained from Valicon for 2019, Planet TV was mentioned as the first choice among televisions by 5.4 percent of viewers (approximately 86,000) and occasionally watched by a good 43 percent or 686,000 viewers, which can be mainly attributed to some entertainment shows like the Millionaire quiz or sports shows.

Another SDS-sponsored television has an even smaller share. According to Valicon for 2019, only 0.4 percent of viewers cite Nova24TV as their first television choice (approximately 7,000 viewers). Among those who occasionally watch television, the total share of Nove24TV viewers increased to 3.7 percent, or just under 58,000.

For comparison: the most-watched Slovenian commercial television, Pop TV, was included in the first choice by slightly less than 34 percent or about 536,000 viewers – five times more than Planet TV and Nova24TV combined. Among the occasional viewers of Pop TV, there are about 1.1 million viewers or nearly 70 percent.

In the investigation of the SDS media model, we showed that Nova24TV made a loss of more than one million euros from its founding in 2015 until the official entry of Hungarian owners in 2017 because its founders underestimated the costs of starting and maintaining a television media. After the arrival of Hungarian investors, its revenues doubled, but according to the Mediana agency for 2019, it lagged significantly behind other televisions in terms of revenue.

In 2019, Nova24TV generated approximately EUR 1.76 million in sales revenue. Planet TV generated almost 14 million in sales revenue in the same period. Pro Plus, which broadcasts commercial TV stations Pop TV and Kanal A, has about 74 million – almost five times more than Nova24 and Planet TV combined.

According to Mediana’s estimates, the gross value of advertising in 2019 reached more than a billion euros. Mediana counted and measured the actual number of ads and evaluated them according to the published price lists of media houses. However, we heard from the director of the agency Janja Božič Marolt that the real (net) value is much lower due to advertising packages, discounts, fees, informal agreements, and free announcements that the media do not disclose.

How much lower? According to Mediana, Slovenian televisions broadcast almost 900 million euros in commercials in 2019. Half of this share (450 million euros) was collected by Pro Plus through the television programs Pop TV, Kanal A and three paid thematic programs Kino, Oto, and Brio.

But Pro Plus recorded only 74 million euros in sales revenue in 2019. This shows that the difference between the gross and net value is very large, given that advertisements are not the only source of revenue for Pro Plus, as they also charge a fee for broadcasting their programs to cable and telecom operators. According to several interlocutors, these revenues amount to just over ten million euros a year.

We asked several individuals who work or have worked for the largest advertising agencies about the actual values ​​of television advertising (they all wanted to remain anonymous). Their grades were very similar. We were told that the real value of television advertising is estimated at around EUR 80 million, which represents about two-thirds of the total (net) advertising cake in the Slovenian media (it is estimated at around EUR 120 million). Of that, nearly 60 million is raised by Pro Plus, 12 million by public RTV (which is partly funded by advertisements), and six million by Planet TV (the rest is shared by smaller televisions).

Due to the characteristics of the Slovenian television market, Nova24TV and Planet TV will find it difficult to increase viewership and revenue despite the entry of a new Hungarian owner, which means that their potential impact on public opinion will remain relatively limited. Therefore, it is necessary to understand in this light the desire to monitor public RTV, which in terms of viewership and range can compete with the largest commercial televisions within Pro Plus (Pop TV and Kanal A).

Valicon’s data show that the most-watched first program of RTV Slovenia was mentioned as the first choice by about 12 percent or 192,000 viewers. Among the occasional audience of the first program is about 40 percent or 644,000 viewers (the second and third programs have a smaller audience). If the SDS, in addition to Planet and Nova24TV, controlled public RTV, it would already be a significant part of the Slovenian television market, so that, of the larger televisions, only Pop TV and Kanal A would remain independent of direct government influence.

However, the SDS can increase its influence on television in two more ways, as shown by the content of the proposed new media laws introduced by the government last summer. By taking over the national news agency STA and announcing the establishment of a new fund for financing Slovenian television production.

Attempt to take over the Slovenian News Agency (STA)

From the draft Law on the National News Agency STA, it can be concluded that the SDS-led government wants to change the way the agency is managed and financed by following the Hungarian example: reduce its independence and influence the production of information provided by STA to most Slovenian media.

The bill states that the work of the STA would now be financed from the RTV subscription, for which three percent of the collected amount (approximately three million euros) would be allocated each year. STA would thus become directly dependent on RTV Slovenia, which would now have free access to STA content.

Content-control of the national news agency played a very important role in Orbán’s takeover of public media after 2010, Hungarian media researcher Mérték Ágnes Urbán explained to us.

Already in its first year, Fidesz took control of media regulators and merged public media, and turned them into a pro-government propaganda trumpet. But that was not enough, because national television had a much smaller reach than private televisions (they were still owned by foreign owners at the time).

They reached a really wide national audience with the contents of the national news agency, which they combined with other public media. Their media releases were available free of charge, so they were downloaded by many Hungarian media, especially regional, local and online.

Thus, pro-government content was also disseminated by media outlets that were not affiliated with Fidesz but filled the news program with free content from a Hungarian news agency and reduced production costs. Usually, without external (political) pressure, they fired journalists who prepared informative content because they no longer needed it, Urbán explained.

Such a centralized production of content was very important because it provided uniform messages daily on key political and ideological topics: who do the authorities consider to be true patriots, and who are the external enemies? Which non-governmental organizations, in the opinion of the ruling party, act in the interest of Hungarian citizens, which serve (hostile) foreign interests (EU, so-called Liberal elites …), which are important national issues and who are the real authorities, she added.

Therefore, the STA, which indirectly influences the coverage of the vast majority of Slovenian media, including television, would be very important in spreading pro-government messages in Slovenia.

However, the future strategy of the SDS-led government, despite the above-mentioned proposed changes to the law, is not yet entirely clear.

The head of the Office for Government Communications (UKOM), Uroš Urbanija, the first editor-in-chief of Nova24TV, has repeatedly stopped funding public services provided by STA on behalf of UKOM. Thus, in February this year, the government announced that the STA would become part of a new national demographic fund. In March this year, Prime Minister Janez Jansa publicly called on STA Director Bojan Veselinovič to resign. In late February, a new national news agency, the NTA, was established under the auspices of the SDS, founded by SDS member and Nova24 columnist Aleš Ernecl.

A new attempt to finance private media under the auspices of the SDS

The authors of the new package of media legislation also envisage a significant increase in state funding of private media, which is also one of the key features of the Hungarian media model.

Among other things, they suggested that the realization of the public interest in the field of media is now financed from the subscription of RTV Slovenia, and no longer from the budget as before.

The existing media law stipulates that the state must support the media in creating and disseminating certain content that is important to ensure plurality and diversity, to ensure the right to information, to promote creativity and similar tasks of the media in the public interest.

For this purpose, the Ministry of Culture announced a tender every year for the co-financing of media programs, which, this year, was worth about 2.7 million euros. According to the new law, this amount should be doubled, because the proponents of the law want to take five percent of the collected RTV subscription, which according to the calculations of the management of RTV Slovenia means a little less than five million euros a year compared to the collected subscription in 2019.

The state would raise even more money with the announced new fund for financing Slovenian television production, which would receive 25m euros each year. According to the government’s proposal, the money would come from telecom operators (Internet and cable TV providers), who would pay 3.5 euros a month for each subscriber (the number of subscribers to these services is estimated by lawmakers at around 600,000). The collected money would be distributed by the Ministry of Culture, as well as 5% of the TV subscription for the realization of public interest for the media. This means that the government would distribute almost 30 million euros to the media each year, the vast majority of which to television.

Such state funding of television production could benefit Nova24TV, a SDS-sponsored television station. According to the current proposal, only television companies that have the status of non-profit media of special importance, reach at least 0.3% of the average monthly share of viewers or are freely available to them through terrestrial digital broadcasting would see the money of the television production fund.

According to the Ministry of Culture, only one television program currently has the status of a non-profit program, namely the television AS Murska Sobota (such status is granted by the Ministry of Culture). However, NTV24 shareholders agreed in 2016 that Nova24TV should acquire the status of a non-profit television program. However, according to data from the media register, Nova24TV has not yet acquired that status.

If the announced new fund for the promotion of television production raises 25m euros each year, it would be big money for the Slovenian television market, which could significantly strengthen private pro-government media despite low ratings and limited advertising revenue.

For comparison: Planet TV and Nova24TV together earned about half of that amount in 2019. Only RTV Slovenia (approximately EUR 120 million) and Pro Plus (EUR 74 million) had higher annual revenues. According to Mediana, only the seven largest private advertisers (Ferrero, Telecom Slovenia, Lidl, Spar, Mercator, etc.) exceeded a total of 25 million euros in gross advertising in 2019, and their actual amounts were even lower due to discounts and fees. This means that the state, except for the RTV subscription, would become the largest financier on the television market after the possible adoption of the new media law – similar to Hungary.

Would the new laws allow that money to flow into private media close to the ruling SDS? We asked several media and legal experts for their opinion, but they replied that we have to wait for the final text of the law for such announcements because almost 200 comments on the original proposals were received during the public debate. There are also some doubts about the legal viability of the proposed changes.

The Ministry of Culture responded that the proposed amendments to the Law on Media, the Law on RTV Slovenia, and the Law on the Slovenian Press Agency “are still in the phase of coordination between government departments and coalition partners”. The exact timetable for future stages of the legislative process is still unknown.

We also turned to the SDS for comment, but they did not respond to our request to discuss their media policy.

The future of Pop TV

For the future of the Slovenian television market, the question of the editorial orientation of the largest Slovenian commercial television Pop TV, which Janez Janša declared “the largest opposition party in Slovenia” due to critical reporting, is also important.

When the European Commission approved the purchase of the media group CME, of which Pop TV is a part, last autumn, Czech entrepreneur Petr Kellner (or his investment fund PPF), Janša’s mood greatly improved, as the takeover of the “largest opposition party” was accompanied by a positive tweet. At the end of last year, Petr Kellner met with representatives of the Slovenian government in Brdo near Kranj.

Kellner is considered a strong behind-the-scenes player in the Czech Republic who has a lot of influence in the economy and politics and has most of his business interests in Russia and China.

Almost nothing is known about Kellner’s political beliefs. However, several interlocutors in the Czech Republic told us that Kellner, as a pragmatic entrepreneur, would use Slovenian domestic politics and its ideological divisions exclusively for his interests and the interests of his most important partners: China and Russia. It does the same in the Czech Republic, where it strongly supports pro-Russian and pro-Chinese policies.

This means that the new owners of Pro Plus would probably not allow the direct influence of Slovenian politicians on their actions, because they are too strong for such pressures. However, they might be willing to make pragmatic alliances if it would benefit them in pursuing strategic interests.

But Petr Kellner was killed in a helicopter crash in late March this year. His death was further complicated any predictions of Pro Plus.

When asked by the Slovenian Journalists’ Association about the future editorial orientation of Pop TV, PPF said before Kellner’s death that they “fully respect independent, objective, pluralistic and quality journalism.”

The private interests of the SDS under the guise of pluralism

In the example of the Hungarian media model, we have shown how one political party (Fidesz) completely subjugated the public and a large part of the private media. At the same time, it justified its interventions in the media (changes in the law, financing, and establishment of pro-government media …) by the ideological balance of the media space, which did not give space to the political right and right-wing governments.

But Fidesz, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, did not really strive for media pluralism, better quality media, or even the spread of conservative values, despite political rhetoric. The Fidesz-sponsored media became propaganda tools in the hands of one political party, which Orbán used to consolidate and legitimize his power and attack opponents, as well as to discipline right-wing politicians if they distance themselves from Fidesz or start competing with him.

In this way, Orbán created a media system in which criticism of the government was still possible, but in practice very difficult, as only the second-largest commercial television station, RTL Klub remained independent of the government’s television influence.

The media interventions of the SDS and Janez Janša can be understood in a very similar way. His influence on Slovenian television is much smaller than Orbán’s influence on Hungarian television. But the history of his media policy also shows that the SDS never wanted to eliminate some of the worst anomalies in the Slovenian media space, to which we have already drawn attention: misuse of public money for political propaganda, misuse of municipal media to promote mayors, concealment of media ownership, pressure on owners for reporting to journalists and circumventing media legislation.

Exactly the opposite. In the last year, they have tried to re-use the shortcomings of the Slovenian media space to take over the public media and build and strengthen their own media system, which – as in Hungary – was subordinated to one political party (SDS) and its interests.

End.

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