The authors of the bill – PAS deputies Natalia Davidovich and Yauhen Sienkiewicz – did not clearly state the economic component. It was only noted that “there will be money in the budget for such a good purpose as informing the public. Besides, the new channel will be able to sell advertising”.
The General Director of TRM Vlad Turcanu specified that the company took note of the initiative of the Parliament, but it is the legislative body that should allocate financial resources for this purpose.
It should be noted that TRM’s revenues are not the largest.
According to Logos Press, they amounted to 209 million lei in 2024, of which 185.7 million are budgetary funds and 24 million are own income. For comparison, the state-owned company Deutsche Welle receives 400 million euros a year from the budget. At the same time, DW employs 3,000 people, while TRM, with its modest 10 million, has 640 employees.
The structure of TRM’s own revenues is quite simple: 17 million lei or 70% is generated by TV advertising. This is almost twice as much as in 2023, when the company received 10 million from the sale of advertising time. The remaining 30% of the company’s revenue comes from joint projects, renting out small spaces, as well as selling unused property (in particular, old autotransport).
The item of expenses is not complicated either: 61% is spent on personnel. The rest is spent on the production of television content and the maintenance of the entire farm.
Under these conditions, TRM has nothing to allocate for the launch of a new Russian-language channel. As they say, it’s not a fat lot of money.
However, everyone realizes that this is a troublesome but promising business. We are talking about creating Russian-language content that is aimed not only at the Russian-speaking audience, but also at the same advertiser.
The case is unprecedented. Today, according to the law, the entire Moldovan TV and radio market must produce 8 hours of locally produced programs daily, and 80% of this content is in Romanian. An exception is made for TV channels broadcasting for territories inhabited by national minorities. In this case, the share of local programs in Romanian must be at least 25%, but the TV channels must produce content in the languages of these minorities.
If the project with Moldovan 3 goes through (and there are few doubts about it), the media market will get a tangible player. The volume of the TV-advertising market has not grown for the third year, having stopped at the mark of $7 mln (or 60% of the advertising market). Another “mouth” on such a modest pie causes anxiety among competitors. And by no means in vain: the new channel will receive not only the status of national public TV, but also the maximum coverage throughout the country, including ATU Gagauzia and the Transnistrian region. The more coverage, the more active the advertiser is – this rule has not been abolished in the advertising business yet.
On the one hand, the presence of three sources of funding in one hand can be considered as a precedent for disloyal competition with commercial TV channels, which feed only on advertising. On the other hand, we are talking about a special player with a special mission – to bring the truth to the Russian-speaking masses. And for this purpose, the authorities would not spare any preferences.
All that remains is to find a budget for the launch of Moldovan 3. According to our data, it may amount to about 60 million lei – one fourth of what TRM has in 2025.
And this money will not necessarily be budgetary. According to MP Sinkevici, negotiations are now underway with potential donors for external financing of the project. “During the next week we will organize a number of public consultations. We will also invite the leadership of the national television, discuss the budget and ask them to present the concept. In parallel, we are holding discussions and are almost at the final stage of negotiations with some potential donors who could cover all the expenses of this television with a special grant,” he said.
So far, TRM has received more modest gifts and mostly from media partners. The latest is the rebranding of Teleradio-Moldova’s public platforms, supported by the British corporation BBC. The new corporate identity was financed by BBC Media Action and cost 570 thousand lei.
Logos Press note: The public broadcasting holding Teleradio-Moldova owns the TV channels Moldova 1 and Moldova 2, as well as the radio channels Radio Moldova, Radio Moldova Muzical and Radio Moldova Tineret. The company recently announced the expansion of access to its radio products by launching a new station, Radio Moldova Comrat, aimed at residents of ATU Gagauzia, as well as the expansion of Radio Moldova Muzical’s FM broadcasting. The public radio station will cover more localities, through the acquisition of new frequencies aimed at eliminating the so-called “shadow zones”. In 2025, 210 million lei of budget funds were allocated for TRM – 25 million more than a year earlier.
