Romanian cable provider RCS & RDS says company administrator blackmailed to pay EUR 30 mln to re-broadcast Antena TV group channels

Romanian cable provider and media company RCS & RDS recently confirmed one of its administrators submitted a complaint to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate DNA about being blackmailed by Antena TV group director Sorin Alexandrescu. Alexandrescu was already taken into custody in this case last week. The purpose of the blackmail was, according to RCS & RDS, signing a re-broadcasting contract worth over EUR 30 million, under conditions imposed by Antena TV Group. “This blackmail is part of a negative media campaign by Antena TV Grup against our company in the last year, in an attempt to force us to pay huge amounts to re-broadcast its channels,” according to the RCS & RDS statement. The cable company also gave some explanations about a contract which has also been under the spotlight: a contract between the cable company and a company called Bodu SRL, owned by The president of Romanian Professional Football League Dumitru Dragomir. The cable company says this contract to build and furbish an events complex had nothing to do with the Romanian Professional Football League and with broadcasting football matches. RCS & RDS reminds that the contract to broadcast football games was won by RCS & RDS together with Antena 1 16 months before this contact was signed, and that the amount offered in the football broadcast bid was five times higher than in the previous contract. The two media companies, Antena TV group and RCS & RDS had together bought the rights to broadcast football games from the Romanian Professional Football League, but later on disagreements appeared between the two companies on splitting the broadcasting of the games. According to pundits, this is at the core of the dispute, which may have involved the anti-corruption case as well. RCS & RDS, which is mainly a cable provider, but with activities on the media segment as well, canceled in 2012 broadcasting the TV stations Antena 1, Antena 3 and Euforia TV from its satellite platform Digi, saying Antena TV group did not want to pay EUR 7 million to have the three channels broadcast. The president of Romanian Professional Football League Dumitru Dragomir was also heard by anti-corruption prosecutors on Thursday, May 30, but he did not say why he had been brought in for questioning. Information recently surfaced about a contract between Dragomir and RCS & RDS, worth some EUR 1.7 million, about the same time as RCS & RDS won the rights to broadcast the football games. The contract between the president and RCS & RDS consists in a joint venture between Dragomir's Crystal Palace Ballrooms and the media company, based on which he received EUR 1.7 million to advertise the media company at the events taking place in the Ballrooms. When the contract was signed, the events area was not furbished, so RCS & RDS spent the EUR 1.7 million to furbish it. editor@romania-insider.com