TV2

Removed from the State Media Database in 2026

TV2, one of Hungary’s largest commercial television broadcasters, is removed from State Media Monitor’s active database following the change of government in April 2026.

Previously classified Captured Private (CaPr), TV2 was controlled by business interests closely associated with Viktor Orbán and Fidesz, benefited disproportionately from state advertising and operated a consistently pro-government news service. Those relationships supported its classification as a privately owned broadcaster whose editorial agenda was systematically controlled by state-linked interests.

The ownership circle remains connected to Fidesz, now in opposition, but the change of government has altered the basis of the previous classification. No continuing system of editorial direction by the incumbent state authorities has been established for this review.

Ownership and the previous capture

TV2 began broadcasting in 1997 under MTM-SBS ownership. It passed to Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 when that group acquired SBS Broadcasting in 2007; ProSiebenSat.1 announced the sale of MTM-SBS to TV2’s own general manager, Zsolt Simon, and its financial director, Yvonne Dederick, in December 2013, financed by a vendor loan; and the company was acquired by the film producer Andy Vajna in 2015. Its subsequent ownership structure became increasingly opaque.

The controlling interests are held through a chain of companies ending in Abraham Goldmann Bizalmi Vagyonkezelő, a trust manager owned by József Vida, a business associate of Lőrinc Mészáros, and investigative reporting established that Mészáros’s Talentis Group had placed assets worth HUF 28.5 billion under that trust manager. In April 2026 the Mészáros group publicly stated that TV2’s ownership circle did not intend to sell the broadcaster.

State advertising was an important source of preferential financial support. In 2025 TV2 received HUF 4.65 billion, approximately 60 per cent of Hungary’s HUF 7.7 billion state television advertising market, against HUF 4.2 billion and 57 per cent of a smaller market the year before.

Editorial control was equally important. Following the acquisition by Vajna, TV2’s news coverage became consistently supportive of the Orbán government. Its Tények programme was repeatedly criticised for politically distorted reporting and lost several related court cases. Before the 2022 election, several presenters publicly encouraged viewers to vote for Fidesz.

What changed in 2026

Fidesz lost the parliamentary election of 12 April 2026 to the Tisza Party, which won 141 of the 199 seats. The political change was followed by a rapid reorganisation at TV2.

News director Vivien Szalai was dismissed on 16 April, and TV2 Híradó replaced Tények on 3 August with new presenters and a revised format, while the magazine programme Aktív returned. In May the chief executive, Miklós Vaszily, announced the closure of Tények after 29 years, citing the deterioration of the programme’s reputation.

The group also adopted an Ethical and Operational Code on 2 August. It commits management to respecting editorial autonomy, prohibits political and commercial interference and requires the separation of editorial and advertising content. Enforcement remains internal, the company may amend the code unilaterally, and no independent editorial oversight mechanism is established.

An August review of the relaunched news programme found predominantly crime, accident and other general-interest reporting, without the overt political advocacy characteristic of its predecessor. This was a limited journalistic assessment, not a systematic content analysis. There is therefore insufficient evidence to establish whether the new editorial commitments are consistently observed.

Why TV2 is removed

The State Media Matrix distinguishes privately owned media captured through relationships with state authorities from politically partisan media controlled by private interests.

TV2’s governing business circle retains its Fidesz connections, and the broadcaster’s ownership has not become transparent. Fidesz no longer controls the national government, the former preferential state-advertising relationship is no longer assured, and the news operation associated with the previous government’s editorial agenda has been replaced.

Commercial connections with the public sector have not disappeared entirely. Atmedia and its subsidiary Media Services Company, controlled by Mészáros-linked interests, continued in 2026 to sell advertising for both TV2 and Hungary’s public service broadcaster under contracts concluded by the previous public media leadership, and IKO Broadcast Centrum, which also produces programmes for TV2, continued to produce for Petőfi Rádió. The interim public media leadership gave no answer to questions about whether those arrangements had been reviewed. This relationship warrants continued monitoring but does not by itself demonstrate editorial direction of TV2 by the current government.

Removal does not mean that TV2 has become editorially independent. Its political affiliations persist, its ownership remains opaque and the new news service has not undergone systematic independent assessment. What has changed is the available evidence of control involving incumbent state authorities, which no longer supports retaining TV2 in the Captured Private category.

The historical findings remain relevant to Hungary’s media market, particularly the concentration of ownership, politically unequal state advertising and commercial links between private and public media.

TV2’s previous Captured Private classification is preserved in State Media Monitor’s historical record. The entry is removed from active mapping rather than reclassified within the State Media Matrix.

October 2026