“We’ve been forced to such a radical step by the situation in Slovenia’s media market determined by monopolies and a lack of competitiveness,” TV3’s head Gregor Memedovic said in a statement.
MTG entered Slovenia’s media market in 2006 and created TV3, which currently employs 39 people and has 11 percent of the country’s viewers.
“Despite that, TV3 could not win a proportional share (to the number of viewers) in the advertising market and has been registering large losses,” Memedovic said, adding there were no prospects of the situation improving over the next years.
In 2010, TV3 and state television RTV filed a complaint before the Competition Protection Authority against media house Pro Plus for allegedly forcing advertisers to sign exclusive contracts with its commercial television channels POP TV and Kanal A.
The competition authority opened an investigation in 2011 but has yet to make a ruling.
According to Pro Plus figures, POP TV and Kanal A together have a 60-70 percent market share in Slovenia.
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