Central European Media Enterprises (CME)

CME started out in what was then Czechoslovakia, but its big step-up came in 1995, when it entered the Romanian market through a partnership with MediaPro, one of the largest media groups in the country – which owns a number of entertainment and news channels, and the country’s largest movie and film production company, along with radio stations, newspapers and the MediaFax news agency. CME was founded by Adrian Sârbu, who started out as a filmmaker and knew how to make use of business opportunities that arose after the fall of the Iron Curtain. His Pro TV channel went on the air in 1993 and quickly became the market leader, and still is. For 22 years Sârbu was considered the most powerful man in the Romanian media – with the ability to “crown prime ministers” in Romania – until he was arrested in 2015 on charges of tax evasion, money laundering and embezzlement.