SOCAR Media

SOCAR Media has been removed from the State Media Monitor dataset. Its previous classification as State-Controlled Media is not sustained by the evidence available for this review cycle.

The entry treated SOCAR Media as the media arm of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, holding a portfolio of television channels and radio stations. State Media Monitor could not establish that present legal chain. SOCAR Media has been described as a public union, which under Azerbaijani law is a non-governmental, non-commercial membership organisation with founders or members rather than shareholders. Its charter, registration record and governing-body composition were not obtained, so neither its relationship to SOCAR nor its control over the listed services could be documented.

The regulator’s records identify each service as licensed to a separate company: CBC to Caspian International Broadcasting Company LLC, CBC Sport to CBC Sport LLC, Khazar TV and Khazar FM to Khazar TV LLC, and Araz FM to Araz Teleradio LLC. The service at 100.5 FM is Radio TMB, licensed to Radio Qrup LLC, and no current Dalga TV appears in the regulator’s television roster; the present Dalğa FM was licensed in January 2025 to Broadcast Media LLC. Shared branding is not evidence of common ownership, and State Media Monitor obtained no current shareholder record for any of these companies.

The historical evidence is credible but does not reach the present. In April 2013 SOCAR purchased ATV International and placed it under SOCAR Media Public Union, with contemporary reporting stating that the channel would promote Azerbaijani state policy while representing SOCAR’s business interests, that its financing would come from grants, and that the public union would have no obligations to SOCAR. In March 2020 Khazar TV’s news director said the company’s shares had passed under SOCAR Media’s control. A subsequent ownership study nevertheless recorded Khazar TV’s beneficial owner as unknown and emphasised the opacity of Azerbaijani broadcast ownership.

The funding condition is also unproved. Interview testimony describing advertising income and substantial SOCAR support does not establish that public or state-company financing predominates over commercial revenue. No amount, route or proportion was identified.

State Media Monitor will reconsider the entry on obtaining SOCAR Media’s registration record and charter, current shareholder records for the three television licensees and Araz Teleradio LLC, its governing-body appointment provisions, and accounts showing the value and proportion of any SOCAR support. Should those documents establish state-company control while predominant state funding remains unproved, the appropriate classification would be Captured Public or State Managed/Owned Media rather than State-Controlled.

August 2026