TV2 Media Group

The TV2 Media Group, formed in 2016, is a key player on the Hungarian media landscape. The group currently boasts a portfolio of 14 TV channels covering a huge variety of genres, which reach all commercially significant target audiences.

The TV2 Group entered the international market in 2020, following the acquisition of three TV channels from the Slovenian Planet TV television network on October 1st: Planet TV, Planet2 and Planet EVA.

The Group delivered strong financial results in 2020, closing the year with HUF 45.3 billion in revenue (roughly EUR 124 million) and HUF 3.86 billion (EUR 10.6 million) net income.

The group employs about 400 permanent staff in Hungary and Slovenia.

CEO

Pavel Stantchev joined the TV2 Media Group as CEO in 2019, and also became CEO of the Slovenian Planet TV in 2020. He previously fulfilled a variety of leadership roles at the French TF1 broadcasting company.
Pavel was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and obtained his journalism degree in Paris in 1992.

He started his career in 1992 as business development manager at the largest Swiss media group, Ringier AC. In the course of his 27-year media and television career, he has been CEO of the Bulgarian BTV Media Group and Nova TV, Antenna Group South-East Europe, Planet TV Slovenia, PRVA Serbia, HBO and Kanal D. He was also the first founder CEO of RTL Hrvatska (in Croatia).

A number of successful programmes aired during his time at TV2, such as Dancing with the Stars and Farm VIP.

Channels

The Hungarian flagship channel of the TV2 Media Group is TV2, which started broadcasting on 4th October 1997 as the first Hungarian commercial TV channel.

It is home to popular programmes such as extreme sports reality show Exatlon Hungary, Ninja Warrior Hungary, Dancing with the Stars and the cooking competition Game of Chefs (Séfek Séfe).

The general entertainment channel SuperTV2 is celebrating its 10th birthday in 2022. Classic films and series and countless new shows and television releases are on offer on Mozi+, Moziverzum, Prime, Jocky and Izaura TV channels. Spíler1 and Spíler2 transmit content for sports fans, broadcasting Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga matches, among others. TV2 Comedy provides standup and sitcoms, Fem3 explores lifestyle subjects, and Zenebutik offers a colourful musical repertoire. TV2 Séf whets the appetites of the gastronomically inclined, while TV2 Kids provides entertainment to the youngest viewers.

In 2021, the network portfolio of the TV2 Media Group closed the year in a market leading position with a 24.7% viewership.

TV2 Play

TV2 Play, TV2’s streaming service, started in 2021. The market leader’s free streaming website hosts a rich catalogue of its own productions, as well as Hungarian and international feature films and additional content that accompanies current TV programmes. The advantage of the website is that the video content is easy to navigate; search results are just a click away, and the recommendation engine suggests content that is relevant and tailored to the specific user’s interests.

Over half a million new accounts were created in the platform’s launch year, and the ever-increasing user base enthusiastically consumes the varied content that TV2 offers: so far they have watched around 8.7 million hours of content. Based on user behaviour data, we can conclude that reality shows and programmes produced by TV2 are the most popular items on the platform.

TV2 Academy

The TV2 Academy has been running its television editor and reporter courses since 2009, with the aim of training television professionals who will be able to take up any type of studio work or oversee any production after graduation. Additionally, the Academy is particularly focused on providing useful theoretical and practical knowledge to trainees in all areas of TV production. Trainees obtain first-hand editing and reporting experience, as well as the foundations of industry knowledge from leading figures of the TV2 Media Group and external instructors. Numerous Academy graduates have joined TV2 or other media companies since the launch of the programme.

The TV2 Academy, run by the TV2 Media Group Zrt., has been operating as an accredited adult educational institution since autumn 2020, when the Pest County Government Office officially recognised it in a decree. The TV2 Academy is part of the Adult Education Reporting System, which entails a strict reporting obligation, and aims to raise the level of Hungarian adult education even further.

In the second half of 2021 the illustrious ranks of Academy instructors were joined by Péter Pachmann, host of the morning show Mokka, and, on a guest lecturer basis, Nóra Ördög. In January 2022 the TV2 Academy launched new specialisms: technician, editor, online editor and series scriptwriter courses are now on offer. The latter is headed up by instructor Réka Divinyi, the scriptwriter of wildly successful Hungarian films A Kind of America 2 & 3 (Valami Amerika), Just Sex and Nothing Else (Csak szex és más semmi), and Children of Glory (Szabadság, szerelem). The scriptwriting trainees have the opportunity to work on a TV2 series in the second semester.

In addition to theoretical education, the main strength of the TV2 Academy is the practical focus: after laying the theoretical foundations, trainees are given regular opportunities to gain work experience at different TV2 production offices, externally produced TV2 programmes or other partnering media companies.