Critical infrastructure to be placed under exclusive state control: 4iG sells its broadcasting company
4iG intends to sell its entire share in the fully owned 4iG Broadcast Infrastructure Limited Liability Company to the exclusively state-owned Pro-M Professional Mobile and Network Service Provider Private Company, the listed IT group said in filing on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) on Tuesday.
4iG Broadcasting Infrastructure Ltd provides analogue radio (AM and FM) and digital television (DVB-T and DVB-T2) broadcasting on its nationwide terrestrial network. Its partners include national public service and commercial channels, as well as regional and local media service providers.
The company owns critical infrastructure consisting of 137 sites in total, including 90 privately owned transmission towers. These sites play a key role in public alerting and emergency communications.
The company’s portfolio includes, among others, the Széchenyi Hill National Microwave Centre (OMK) – the central hub for the transmission and distribution of TV and radio programmes – as well as the Solt medium-wave radio transmission tower, which provides broadcasting capacity covering the entire Carpathian Basin.
The portfolio includes the Tárnok measuring station, which analyses the quality parameters of various FM radio stations, measuring and recording the signal levels and bandwidths of DVB-T/T2 channels. The station receives and processes data from several remote measuring stations. It plays an important international role as the Hungarian monitoring station for the AMOS satellite for SpaceCom and IAI, among others.
Furthermore, the company operates the National Air Raid Warning System owned by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMIA or NMHH in Hungarian), which, in the event of an emergency, is capable of reaching the entire population on all TV and radio frequencies by broadcasting the M1 television channel and Kossuth Radio.
The network plays a key role in disaster management, national defence and public communication tasks in emergency situations.
"The ongoing transaction completes the consolidation of government-purpose telecommunications networks in accordance with Government Decree 410/2024. (XII. 20.). 4iG Műsorszóró Infrastruktúra Kft. is a company that owns a unique, critical, nationwide infrastructure consisting of 90 broadcast transmission towers," 4iG said in the statement.
Following the change of ownership, they add that the company will continue to provide the free-to-air, subscription-free immerTV broadcasting service as part of One Hungary's offering.
