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Local owners acquire “influential” radio group
"emotional connection"

Media development is more a journey than a destination. This past week Dublin-based broadcaster Communicorp exited its Bulgarian radio assets. The new owners are former company managers. Communicorp has ended a long relationship with radio broadcasting in central and Eastern Europe.

Recently formed Fresh Media Bulgaria acquired BG Radio, Radio Nova, Radio Energy, Radio 1, Radio 1 Rock, Radio Veronika, City Radio and City TV music TV channel for €5.4 million. “One of the last two big international players, behind the most influential Bulgarian radio group, is leaving the market,” noted capital.bg (June 21). Communicorp Bulgaria Nikolay Ianchovichin is the chief executive of Fresh Media Bulgaria.

“We have an emotional connection with the radio stations, responsibility for the teams, and since 1999 we have created this business and that motivates us to acquire them and to continue to develop them," said Atanas Genov, a partner in the new company. Digital expansion, unsurprisingly, is part of the plan. (See more about media in Bulgaria here)

Communicorp entered the Bulgarian market in 2004, acquiring the assets of US-based Metromedia International. Retro Radio (renamed Radio 1 Rock) and Radio Gong (renamed Radio Veronika) in 2007 were added in 2006 with City Radio and City TV added in 2007. “Communicorp decided to sell its business in Bulgaria despite its good performance in recent years with the aim to focus on radio and digital capabilities that the company has in the UK and Ireland,” said Communicorp Media chief executive Adrian Serle in a statement. Communicorp continues to hold 8 radio assets in Ireland and entered the UK in 2014 buying several licenses from Global Radio after a sale required by the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) is the sole remaining foreign-owned broadcasting company in Bulgaria. CME is principally owned by WarnerMedia, until recently known as Time Warner, now a subsidiary of US telecom AT&T. Time Warner loosely entertained bids for its 75% stake in CME at the end of 2017. AT&T, reportedly, has made no decision on the future destination of CME.

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