Large televisions add dominance to the Albanian media panorama

The country's four largest commercial television stations increased their market dominance to 79.1% in 2023, from the 75.1% they controlled in 2022. The news comes from the financial statement data of companies licensed for commercial television services, analyzed by BIRN. This is the highest degree of media concentration since 2018.

International standards suggest measuring the degree of media concentration by calculating the market share occupied by the four big operators. In the case of Albania, however, it can be observed that two are really large operators, while the third and fourth operators can in reality be considered medium and not large television stations.

If the degree of dominance is calculated as the share of the market occupied by the two big operators, then in 2023 we have Klan and Top Channel together occupying 64% of the market.

BIRN analyzed the main financial data of the twelve largest television stations in the country, of which two had not filed a balance sheet by July 31, 2024, as required by law, while ten had submitted a balance sheet to the National Business Center.

The data show that after a period of several years in which the growth of several new television stations led to a limited decline in the dominance of Top Channel and TV Klan, the trend changed again last year towards a higher degree of concentration.

The ten examined televisions had a combined income of 6.6 billion lek (about 66 million euros) for 2023, with an increase of 14% compared to 2022. Ranked by income, Klan television held the first place, just as from 2021, when it replaced Top Channel for the prime. Top Channel takes second place, followed by Media Vizion in third place and G2 Media A2CNN in fourth place.

Elections and Big Brother

Usually Albanian televisions have good years when these years contain parliamentary elections or local government elections. This comes as a result of the usual volume of ads funded by the Central Election Commission for voter education as well as political party ads. But the year 2023 has seen a significant increase in the total market, which seems to be partially due to the TV show Big Brother Vip Albania. Top Channel, the second largest television station in the country, saw a 25% increase in revenue last year, while Klan's revenue increased by 19%. There was also an increase in Vizion Plus with 25% and A2 CNN with 11%. Other televisions mostly suffered a decline in revenue.

Klan Television is also the most profitable television station in the country for its shareholders. During the last year, the net profits reached 2.7 million euros, this figure is four times higher than the net profits of Top Channel.

Relatively new televisions, A2CNN and Euroneës had somewhat more positive performance in 2023 compared to 2022. Both recorded revenue growth, but A2CNN reported a balance sheet with a low profit while Euroneës continues to exist with significant losses. During the last year, Euronea's losses amounted to 89.5 million ALL. Report TV, Neës 24 and ABC also lost.

The opposition television Syri.tv took last year 1.7% of the total revenue of the television market or 113 million ALL. Declared revenues fell by 22% compared to 2022.

The diversity of the media and the non-dominance of the media market by a few operators is considered a feature of the strength of democracy, while the lack of diversity and the dominance of the media landscape by a few operators is considered a concern for democracy.

Diversity or lack of diversity in the media market is usually measured by calculating audience shares. But the measurement of the audience in Albania is currently not reliable, so the income data reflected in the balance sheet can be used as an indirect measure of diversity.

Currently, all the main media in the country are widely considered to be pro-government, and so is the Albanian public television, which has an annual budget of over 21 million euros and whose current director is a former socialist deputy. Reporter.al