Overview Concentration of media, both in terms of ownership and audience, is very high in Bulgaria. There are no provisions on media concentration in the Radio and Television Act applying to this media sector. As for print media, the sector is not regulated by law so there are no rules related to competition either. Issues related to concentration of ownership in the sector of digital media have not been discussed yet (2016). In case of failure to report, or of concentration prohibited by the commission, it may impose sanctions. Although the Law was not conceived specifically to address the issue of concentration, it includes restrictions on cross-ownership, pertaining only to national broadcasters. According to the law, licenses cannot be awarded to legal persons (or persons related to legal persons) which already possess licenses for local radio or television stations. This amendment was introduced after discovering cases of local operators acquiring licenses for national broadcasting. The Law also stipulates that national operators cannot become owners of local and regional stations. It also requires applicants to declare that they do not hold stakes, shares or other rights of participation in radio and television broadcasters above the threshold set by anti-trust legislation. The law regulates the operation of Bulgarian broadcasters and contains some provisions restricting broadcast licenses and regulates the registration of cable programmes. Several provisions aim at protecting the media environment from the entry of dubious capital. For instance, the Law establishes that businesses connected with insurance services are ineligible for applying for a broadcast license. This provision is the result of a specific feature of the Bulgarian economy, where certain insurance companies born out of structures related to the previous regime's security services sector. However, in practice, due to the weakness of the Bulgarian media market which is unable to sustain the broadcast and print media, the opportunities for the entry of suspicious capitale into the media sphere have recently increased. Also, the law excludes from holding a license of a broadcast media telecommunications operators placed in a monopoly situation on the market (i.e. the state telecommunications company Bulgarian Telecommunications Company) and advertising agencies or companies including partners or shareholders having interests in the advertisement market. When applying for a license in the broadcasting sector, the applicant is required to submit a declaration showing who the owners are and what their shares are, including document showing the origin of the capital for the last three years. Also, the application should include a list of media enterprises in which the persons are shareholders or partners.
Press distribution Tendencies towards concentration characterise the area of press distribution as well. Some of the factors contributing to this concern the possibility for a publisher to be a distributor at the same time; the aggregation of ownership in non-transparent way; and political connections and dependencies influencing the sector. A dominant position in this sector impedes the fair distribution of small publishers' works. In 2011, the Commission for the Protection of Competition carried out an analysis on the press distribution sector. It found out that in the period from 2009 to 2011 there was a pooling of the distributors on the market aiming at optimising costs exploit the advantages of economies of scale and scope. Such integration impeded the entry of new actors on the market and led to market concentration.
The case of the New Media Group Media concentration has been widely debated in Bulgaria since the 1990s. After the change from Communism to the market economy, the country faced the issue of concentration: the monopoly positions of the state media were replaced by the domination of several private media groups. In the 1990s the problem affected in particular the print sector: two most influential newspapers at that time -
Trud and
24 hours - were purchased by the
WAZ Group. The group dominated the Bulgarian media market until the late 2000s. In the late 2000s, the creation and rapid grow of the
New Media Group were seen again as a case of media ownership concentration in the sector of print and online media. At stakes there was the group's links with politics and a bank. The group purchased local media, thus acquiring a dominant position in the local media market and in print media distribution. According to some estimates, the company gained a 70-80% share in the print media distribution market. The case of the
New Media Group lead to public debate in 2001 that forced the Commission on the Protection of Competition to make a sectoral analysis of the concentration in the print media distribution market. The study found that the concentration in 2009-2011 constituted an obstacle to new competitors wishing to enter the market . The commission also concluded that there was a lack of transparent rules in the field. However, it issued a permission for such concentration on the basis that it would not establish or increase a dominant position in the distribution market.
Concentration of media ownership in practice According to the
Media Pluralism Monitor, "concentration of media ownership is very high". The top 4 major owners in the broadcasting sector have an aggregated market share (based on advertising revenue only) of 93.35%. The top 4 major owners of daily newspapers reach an aggregated market share of 79.7%. As for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), they have an estimated market share which is above 50%. Concentration trends are also present in terms of audience and readership whose concentration is "very high" according to the Media Pluralism Monitor. In television, the top 4 major owners have an audience share that is above 70%; as for the radio sector, the aggregated share of the top 4 major owners is 83.16%. The top 4 major newspaper owners have an estimated readership share between 25 and 49%, and the subscription share of the top 4 ISPs is estimated to be above 50%.
Political and economic influence on media owners In Bulgaria, there are significant links between media owners and other actors operating in the economic landscape. According to expert
Nelly Ognyanova, there are unregulated links between media, money and power. This fact became publicly known following a joint access to information request submitted by 11 biggest newspapers in 2010, which revealed that a media group owning newspapers, internet outlets and a TV station borrowed large amounts of money from a big bank, the
Corporate Trade Bank. Also, the information disclosed showed that the same bank hosted a considerable amount of budget money of several ministers as well as bank accounts of relevant state-owned companies operating in the field of energy, public transport, defence and information service. The owner of such media group, Delyan Peevsky, also runs businesses in other sectors, such as construction, tobacco and newspapers distribution. Moreover, his businesses are allegedly involved in big public procurements. The group is also connected with the political party, the
Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) which has been influential for many years. Mr. Peevsky is the son of Irena Krasteva, the owner of many of the print media outlets within the
New Media Group. Bulgarian press revealed the existence of connections between the
New Media Group and political parties and other businesses. This is not the only case of political influence over the media in Bulgaria. For instance, there are some media which are officially owned by political figures or parties, a case that is not prohibited by law in Bulgaria. ==State Funding==