Michal Strnad, Czech owner of regional weaponry and ammunition conglomerate Czechoslovak Group (CSG), is said to be in talks with the richest Czech investment company PPF Group over a sale of TV Markíza, the biggest commercial television station in Slovakia.

“The two sides have already proceeded to work on due diligence,” a source with direct knowledge of the talks told IntelliNews under a strict condition of anonymity.

In response to an IntelliNews inquiry, CSG’s spokesperson Andrej Čírtek said that “CSG is not pursuing an acquisition of any media activities”.

However, Čírtek did not explicitly rule out that Strnad could be involved in the Markíza talks in a private capacity. “On a long term basis Mr. Michal Strnad is not making public comments regarding his personal or investment activities that do not directly concern CSG,” Čírtek told IntelliNews.

PPF controls Markíza through Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which it acquired in 2020 and through which it controls 47 TV channels in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia and Slovenia, with a total reach of 49mn viewers.

Head of communications at PPF Goup Leoš Rousek stated "we don't comment on market speculation" and that "media is a core asset vertical of PPF" in response to IntelliNews queries regarding Markíza.

Amsterdam-listed CSG is a major defence contractor and producer in Slovakia. Last year its ZVS Holding joint venture with the Slovak state secured €58bn seven-year framework agreement from the Slovak Ministry of Defence.

CSG's January 23 IPO on the Euronext bourse in Amsterdam became the “world’s largest defence IPO ever recorded both in terms of amount raised and market capitalisation,” according to Euronext. The IPO also made Strnad the third richest man under 40 worldwide. 

However, CSG shares have been on a downward trajectory in recent weeks after the company was hit by a series of negative reports in the Czech and Slovak media casting doubt on the transparency of its IPO, including its links with the populist Slovak government of Robert Fico.

Markíza’s problematic ownership

The news about a potential bid to acquire Slovakia’s leading commercial TV station is certain to spark renewed controversy.

“From the systematic point of view I think it is not right that a conglomerate which has such significant activities in Slovak weaponry and also contacts with the Slovak government should own a major television,” Ivan Štulajter, veteran journalist and contributor to the Slovak daily Denník N, told IntelliNews when confronted with the news of the possible deal.

If the deal involving Markíza were to take place, Štulajter projected “it will be from bad to worse rather than some progress towards a higher quality, or more objective journalism”.

It is not right “regardless whether it is Fico’s government in power or some other government, which may be here in the future” Štulajter added and pointed out that Markíza is all the more significant an outlet since Fico moved to take tighter control of the public broadcasters.

This includes the government-backed restructuring of the broadcaster into STVR in 2024 and the appointment of its new chief Martina Flašíková –  daughter of Fico’s Smer party’s co-founder Fedor Flašík and former chairwoman of New Story Media, publisher of eReport, which Slovak debunking platofrm Konspiratori.sk describes as a pro-Kremlin disinformation website. 

“We cannot project how any new private owner would act in the position of TV Markíza owner,” Eva Mihočková, an investigative journalist at Zastavme korupciu [Let’s stop corruption] NGO, told IntelliNews.

She added, however, that “Slovakia does not have the best experience” regarding the involvement of private owners in the country’s media, pointing to the 2024 departure of prominent news anchor Michal Kovačič from Markíza after PPF installed new management at the TV station just months after Fico returned to power.

The situation at Markíza made international headlines in spring 2024 when its journalists announced a strike alert after the suspension of the country’s most popular political programme Na telo, following an unauthorised address on air by its host Kovačič, who warned against the creeping “Orbanisation” of the Slovak media, referencing neighbouring Hungary’s strongman ruler.

This affair damaged Markiza’s and PPF’s reputation in Slovakia and could give the private financial group a motive for exiting the broadcaster.

PPF’s media empire has long been a source of controversy. The 2020 acquisition of CME raised concern from international media watchdogs about the expansion of PPF’s influence, particularly given its then extensive assets in China and Russia. International Press Institute and five other press freedom groups wrote an open letter to PPF’s founder, the late Petr Kellner, urging to “uphold media freedom and respect editorial independence”.

Marína Urbániková, media scholar from the Masaryk University in Brno, pointed out to IntelliNews that “TV Markíza is the most watched Slovak television station” with the most watched evening news, and added that “whoever gets it under control would also obtain significant power”.

Urbániková projected that under the potential new ownership the situation inside Markíza “could get complicated further” ahead of the parliamentary elections next year, referring to media reports about contacts between CSG and Smer’s Minister of Defence Robert Kaliňák. She described CSG's state contracts as a "risk" from the point of view of TV's editorial independence since the contracting party is “dependent on good ties with the state”. 

Mihočková did not want to speculate on whether the passing of Markíza's ownership from PPF’s hands could have a positive influence on the editorial room, or help PPF step away from potential damage to its reputation, noting that Markíza's news reporting is currently only “minimally critical towards the ruling power”.

“CSG gets awarded enormous state contracts in Slovakia,” Mihočková also pointed out, adding that “control over the most watched television [station] in the country would certainly raise fears that it could use it as its influence on news reporting” and as “a tool in negotiations for further weaponry contracts with the government”.

Czech oligarchs playing ball with country’s media

Strnad has been rumoured to have made several unsuccessful media acquisition attempts on the Czech market.

In 2024, CSG and Strnad attempted to take over leading Czech online news outlet Seznam Zprávy (SZ), investigative website Page Not Found (PNF) reported.

According to PNF, there was a covert attempt to destabilise SZ to prepare the way for a forced sale by SZ’s owner, the internet group Seznam.  This story was denied by CSG.

Prior to that, Czech media speculated that Strnad was inquiring about a takeover of one of the two largest publishing houses in the country: Mafra, long owned by Agrofert, the food, agriculture and chemical conglomerate of billionaire politician Andrej Babiš, now Czechia's prime minister. Agrofert sold Mafra in 2023 to ex-PPF manager Karel Pražák, who later sold half of it to Czech coal baron Pavel Tykač, as IntelliNews reported last year.

Besides Markíza, CME’s portfolio in Slovakia numbers six channels altogether, and it also provides online news portal TVNoviny.sk and services of online streaming platform Voyo, which has over 950,000 subscribers in Czechia and Slovakia. The Bratislava-based elections and media monitoring NGO MEMO 98 listed TV Markíza as a key media outlet in the country alongside the state broadcaster STVR.