RTL prepared to fight Hungarian government

RTL is prepared to "fight tooth and nail" against Hungary's advertising tax, the words of CEO of the most popular Hungarian commercial TV channel RTL Klub Dirk Gerkens is quoted by portfolio.hu from his interview with the Reuters news agency.

The hidden government agenda behind the adoption of advertisement tax in Hungary is non other than to force RTL, one of the leading commercial TV channels, to leave the local market, Gerkens claimed in an interview with Reuters.

Dismissing a "war" as too strong a word to describe current relations between the govenrment and the channel, Gerkens said RTL however has "a very strong plan of campaign". He said the media giant is prepared to fight tooth and nail against the government measures.

The government is seeking to get rid of the last major independent media company, however, RTL has the necessary resources to protect itself, Gerkens said. Profit from the RTL Klub channel in Hungary accounts for only 1% of the entire group's revenue, therefore, the latter is not particularly sensitive to losses in Hungary. Gerkens said shareholders were prepared to go all the way it is necessary to achieve their goal.

RTL may bring a lawsuit in an international court, which may be a long drawn-out affair, but RTL can wait, Gerkens said.

Ever since it became clear in the past month that the real target of the advertisement tax is RTL Klub, the channel began to deal with issues and developments that are inconventient for the government and the governing Fidesz party - something that, observers say, it should have always done in order to provide balanced information for its viewers.