09-07-2009

Chello Zone takes over Romantica TV

By Iulia Blaga
    Chello Zone has fought off a competitor for control of the Romanian station Romantic TV.

    Realitatea-Caţavencu (http://www.gruprc.ro ) trust tried to take over the package from the international group Chello Zone (http://www.chellozone.com/ ), which had 51% of the shares.

    Chello Zone declined and the call option was eventually exercised, according topaginademedia.ro. No financial information on the transaction was made public.

    In December 2008, Realitatea-Caţavencu froze its investments at Romantica TV (www.romantica.ro) channel. All local productions were taken off the schedule, and only foreign productions remained.

    Romantica TV was launched in 2007. In 2008 year it had an average between 13,000 and 15,000 daily viewers, but in 2009 the rating dropped dramatically to an average of 10,000 viewers (a 0.1 rating).