Dataharvest 2015

How did the Viktor Orbán - Lajos Simicska media empire function? The extensive study summarizes one of the primary elements of what can be called the “state capture” of the Hungarian media market between 2010 and 2014. Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party and his cooperation with construction and media entrepreneur Lajos Simicska, a long-time college friend, recently breaking ranks. This resulted in a public/state advertisement and media monopoly favoring Fidesz’s rule. Assessing a bulk of approximately 80,000 public procurement and state advertising data entries (public and bought data based on Hungarian Public Procurement Database, Kantar Media’s data and company registry data), the article establishes how this process unfolded creating the governing party associate media empire, identifies key players operating the empire itself and presents the beneficiaries of public advertising tenders. The analysis then goes on to explain the post-2010 redistribution system of state advertisements identifying the greatest winners, and concludes with a range of suggestions concerning a way out from the present situation. http://www.kreativ.hu/databanya/cikk/how_did_the_orban_simicska_media_empire_functionhttp://www.kreativ.hu/databanya/cikk/how_did_the_orban_simicska_media_empire_function