Media Concentration
The European Commission has repeatedly highlighted Albania’s high concentration of audiences and media ownership in its annual country reports, as an issue of concern regarding media freedom, as it stifles the plurality of voices needed for an informed populace. New data collected and analyzed by the MOM Albania team shows that little or no progress was made in the past five years (2018-2023). While there is generally a lack of trusted audience data for most markets, it remains clear that revenues and control are concentrated in the hands of a few family-owned groups, which dominate the media market, in broadcasting as well as print.
Lack of audience data
In the Albanian media market only one research agency remains active and provides audience data, Idra Media. The previous competitor, Abacus and Telemetrix, stopped operations in recent years due to lack of market demand. Idra Media provides data only for television. Their data on television audiences are available for the country's main urban areas, including the capital Tirana and the cities of Durres, Korca, Fier, Shkodra and Elbasan.
Data from Idra Media evaluated by the MOM Albania team, show that that the free to air TV market has a high audience concentration risk with four major owners (Frangaj family, Hoxha family, Hysenbelliu family, Carlo Bollino) reaching an audience share of 86.94%, in the year to 8 May 2023. The audience share of these four largest owners in the free to air broadcast market in Albania has increased since the previous MOM evaluation five years earlier. In 2018, where the data of two since defunct research agencies - Abacus and Telemetrix - showed that the top four owners had between 48.93% and 58.6% of the free to air TV audience share. The concentration of the top four owners is nearly twice as large in 2023, according to the numbers from Idra Media.
Differently from 2018, no data were available on press readership or radio audiences, while data on online media readership are once again missing. Since the veracity of the audience data for the television market is contested and the data for all other markets is missing, the risk for audience concentration is evaluated as high.
High horizontal ownership concentration
While audience concentration looks at the reach of media, market concentration reflects the revenues of the underlying companies. The analysis of market shares for TV and print provides more evidence of concentration. According to MOM’s calculations based on 2022 financial reports, the four largest major owners of free-to-air TV stations have a combined market share of 72.47%, which is considered high. If the revenues from the pay per view market - digital TV networks DigitAlb, ADTN and Tring - plus the public broadcaster RTSH are included, the clout of the four major owners rises to 84%. Although the current market concentration in television is rated as high risk, it's smaller than five years ago (2018) when the Top 4 owners in free-to-air TV had a combined market share of 89.6% (compared to 72.47% today), while including digital tv and public broadcaster it reached 94%.
The four biggest owners in terms of market share in the free-to-air commercial market are: the Frangaj Family with Klan Media, the Hoxha Family with Top Media, Media Vizion with Vizion Plus and the Ulaj Brothers with G2 Media. The two major owners in this segment alone - the Frangaj family and the Hoxha Family - have a combined market share of 58.27%. In the total TV market, including digital distributors and the public broadcaster, the Hoxha family controls 36.12% of the market.
The overall size of the print market has shrunk since the last report in 2018. In 2023 MOM evaluated only eight print outlets, seven daily newspapers and one weekly business magazine. The print market in Albania is small, with annual turnover of all outlets at 328 million Lek (2.9 million USD) with one big owner that runs two newspapers and the remaining owners have rather modest revenues. The market leader, Irfan Hysenbelliu, alone controls nearly half of the market with 48.55% of market share. All Top 4 owners have a combined market share of 93.85%.
The MOM team could not calculate the market share of the four major outlets in radio and online, for lack of financial data.
The high concentration of revenues and audiences in the media market is due to the fact that Albanian law regulates only the audiovisual media market. Furthermore, this law does not define media monopolization and concentration.
The only concepts that the law introduces are those of the limitation of the owner’s shares and voting rights in respect of a second media company. Regarding audio-visual media, restrictions are imposed on the percentage of the total capital (20%) in a second company holding a national license, while for analogue audio broadcasting media, the maximum amount of participation in a third media with a national license is 10% of that media company’s capital. The audio-visual media law also provides for a restriction of a commercial nature, which concerns the prohibition of occupying a share of more than 30% of the advertising market by a company that holds a national audio or audio-visual broadcasting license. However, this is not easily applied in practice, as the law does not specify how to measure the advertising share - by the value of the advertisements or the advertising airtime.
High Cross-Media Ownership Concentration.
There are no provisions in the Albanian laws to prevent a high degree of cross-ownership between different branches of the media. As a result ownership across the different sectors – TV, print, online and radio – in Albania is also evaluated as high risk. MOM calculated the cross-media concentration using data collected from financial statements downloaded from the National Business Center for the Top 8 companies/groups with the highest revenue across all media sectors (TV, radio, newspapers and internet content providers) and the ratio between the Top 8 revenues and the whole revenue market across media sectors were calculated. The data shows that Top 8 companies/media owners have a cross media concentration of 87.13% of the market. The biggest media house in terms of revenue is the public broadcaster with 25.21 % of the market, which is financed through a tariff paid through electricity bills - similarly to the tariff applied by the BBC in the UK - and the state budget. It has assets in radio and television and online. The public broadcaster is followed by the Frangaj family that owns the Klan Group, which controls private national TV broadcaster TV Klan, regional TV channels Klan Plus and Klan News and Radio Klan, Top Media group owned by the Hoxha Family and the Hysenbelliu Family with assets in broadcast, print, radio and online markets.
High horizontal ownership concentration
While audience concentration looks at the reach of media, market concentration reflects the revenues of the underlying companies. The analysis of market shares for TV and print provides more evidence of concentration. According to MOM’s calculations based on 2022 financial reports, the four largest major owners of free-to-air TV stations have a combined market share of 72.47%, which is considered high. If the revenues from the pay per view market - digital TV networks DigitAlb, ADTN and Tring - plus the public broadcaster RTSH are included, the clout of the four major owners rises to 84%. Although the current market concentration in television is rated as high risk, it's smaller than five years ago (2018) when the Top 4 owners in free-to-air TV had a combined market share of 89.6% (compared to 72.47% today), while including digital tv and public broadcaster it reached 94%.
The four biggest owners in terms of market share in the free-to-air commercial market are: the Frangaj Family with Klan Media, the Hoxha Family with Top Media, Media Vizion with Vizion Plus and the Ulaj Brothers with G2 Media. The two major owners in this segment alone - the Frangaj family and the Hoxha Family - have a combined market share of 58.27%. In the total TV market, including digital distributors and the public broadcaster, the Hoxha family controls 36.12% of the market.
The overall size of the print market has shrunk since the last report in 2018. In 2023 MOM evaluated only eight print outlets, seven daily newspapers and one weekly business magazine. The print market in Albania is small, with annual turnover of all outlets at 328 million Lek (2.9 million USD) with one big owner that runs two newspapers and the remaining owners have rather modest revenues. The market leader, Irfan Hysenbelliu, alone controls nearly half of the market with 48.55% of market share. All Top 4 owners have a combined market share of 93.85%.
The MOM team could not calculate the market share of the four major outlets in radio and online, for lack of financial data.
The high concentration of revenues and audiences in the media market is due to the fact that Albanian law regulates only the audiovisual media market. Furthermore, this law does not define media monopolization and concentration.
The only concepts that the law introduces are those of the limitation of the owner’s shares and voting rights in respect of a second media company. Regarding audio-visual media, restrictions are imposed on the percentage of the total capital (20%) in a second company holding a national license, while for analogue audio broadcasting media, the maximum amount of participation in a third media with a national license is 10% of that media company’s capital. The audio-visual media law also provides for a restriction of a commercial nature, which concerns the prohibition of occupying a share of more than 30% of the advertising market by a company that holds a national audio or audio-visual broadcasting license. However, this is not easily applied in practice, as the law does not specify how to measure the advertising share - by the value of the advertisements or the advertising airtime.
High Cross-Media Ownership Concentration.
There are no provisions in the Albanian laws to prevent a high degree of cross-ownership between different branches of the media. As a result ownership across the different sectors – TV, print, online and radio – in Albania is also evaluated as high risk. MOM calculated the cross-media concentration using data collected from financial statements downloaded from the National Business Center for the Top 8 companies/groups with the highest revenue across all media sectors (TV, radio, newspapers and internet content providers) and the ratio between the Top 8 revenues and the whole revenue market across media sectors were calculated. The data shows that Top 8 companies/media owners have a cross media concentration of 87.13% of the market. The biggest media house in terms of revenue is the public broadcaster with 25.21 % of the market, which is financed through a tariff paid through electricity bills - similarly to the tariff applied by the BBC in the UK - and the state budget. It has assets in radio and television and online. The public broadcaster is followed by the Frangaj family that owns the Klan Group, which controls private national TV broadcaster TV Klan, regional TV channels Klan Plus and Klan News and Radio Klan, Top Media group owned by the Hoxha Family, Media Vizion owned by the Dulaku Family, Ulaj Brothers owners of G2 Media and the Hysenbelliu Family with assets in broadcast, print, radio and online markets.
