The combined revenue of Macedonian television and radio stations fell 2.3% to 3.1 billion denars ($56.6 million/50.6 million euro) last year, the country's Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services said on Wednesday.
MRT (Macedonian Radio Television), the public broadcasting organisation, generated 1.28 billion denars in revenue in 2015, or 41.4% of the combined total, the agency said in a report published on its website. MRT's revenues were 3.2% below the 2014 level, with the biggest share of its revenues coming from broadcasting tax.
The country's privately-owned TV stations' revenues 2.9% to 1.64 billion denars last year.
Macedonia's five terrestrial broadcasters generated a total of 1.29 billion denars, or 5.14% more than in 2014. Their revenues came mainly from advertisements. Sitel led the group with 2015 revenue of 541.8 million denars, an increase of 0.65% over 2014. In terms of revenue growth achieved in 2015, the leader was Alfa TV, whose revenues soared 21.14%, reaching 197.1 million denars.
The country's five cable TV operators recorded a 46.9% drop in revenues last year, to a total of 45.6 million denars.
Regional and local TV stations also registered a serious decline in revenue last year, according to the report. Regional TV stations' combined revenue dropped 17.6% to 250.6 million denars, whereas local broadcasters plunged 48% to 35.2 million denars.
Revenues of privately-owned radio stations rose by 11% to 175.8 million denars last year.
According to the report, Sitel was the most watched TV station in Macedonia. Most of the viewers in Macedonia say they watch TV mostly in order to get informed about daily events.
