MMA and MRT accuse Arena M channels of operating without a domestic licence

The Macedonian Media Association (MMA) and the public broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) said in a written statement that they are seriously concerned by indications that several new television services linked to Serbian companies close to the state are circumventing and abusing Macedonian law.

According to the statement, MMA and MRT say they hold material evidence that the sports channels Arena M1, M2 and M3 Premium have been operating for an extended period without a domestic licence. The broadcasters accuse the national regulator, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMU), of treating those channels as foreign programme services that are merely re‑transmitted into North Macedonia, despite the production, journalists, commentators and guests being based in Skopje, studio shows being produced locally and the programmes broadcasting in the Macedonian language.

Records and regulatory discrepancies

The statement notes that the Serbian regulator's registry, the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), contains no entries for Arena M1, M2 and M3 Premium — which, the MMA and MRT say, indicates they are not domiciled Serbian channels. At the same time, operator records approved by AVMU list the same channels as foreign services broadcasting in Serbian.

MMA and MRT asked state investigative bodies and relevant institutions to determine whether the requirement to obtain a domestic licence has been circumvented, whether the state budget suffered damage through unpaid licence fees, and whether there is responsibility on the part of the channel owners, the responsible persons running the TV services and AVMU officials.

They also requested checks into possible unauthorised use of premium sports TV rights — a form of TV piracy — and warned that they will not allow the same model of alleged circumvention to be applied to the announced Euronews Macedonia, nor for AVMU to treat that service as a foreign channel in the same way as it reportedly does with the Arena Premium channels, as announced by their owners and structures from Belgrade.

"The lawlessness that is tolerated today as an exception may become the rule tomorrow," the MMA and MRT statement says. The two bodies said they will file appropriate submissions with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) so that the actions and possible responsibility of AVMU officials can be investigated.

Photo: press material from the event