MTVA (Hungary)

Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap (MTVA) ('' en, Media Services and Support Trust Fund'')
is a Hungarian fund company owned and financed by the Hungarian state, through the State Office of Media and Communications ( hu, Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság, NMHH). MTVA was established on 1 January 2011, and from July 2015 the company's main task has been to finance and operate Duna Média, Hungary's state public company. It is an active member of the European Broadcasting Union.

History

MTVA brought together four public media companies in Hungary: Magyar Rádió (MR), Magyar Televízió (MT), Duna Televízió (Duna TV) and Magyar Távirati Iroda (MTI). At the same time, MTI was given the exclusive right to produce news content for the public broadcasters. According to Hungarian politicians, the establishment of MTVA should help clean up the country's "dysfunctional public broadcasting sector". However, the media reform received criticism from foreign politicians and media experts, who believed the reform limited the independence of broadcasters and gave the government greater control over the country's public broadcasters.

The four broadcasters continued as four divisions under MTVA, but on 1 July 2015 were merged into one joint broadcasting company: Duna Media. This nonprofit organization is the legal successor to each of the four formerly separate entities managed by the MTVA. The Duna TV channel become the main generalist channel, replacing the first Magyar Televízió channel M1, the oldest in Hungary, which changed its format/genre and assumed continuous broadcast of news related programming.

Among other things, MTVA is responsible for distributing funds and resources to the various departments in Duna Media. Most people who work for Duna Media are also employed through MTVA. According to the Hungarian National Assembly, MTVA wants to have a relationship with its British counterpart, BBC
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