Natives of distant lands, from the Eskimos of Greenland to the Dayak of Indonesia must all be talking about the wealth of the Hungarian nation, which can support four public-service broadcasters at once. But subscribers will be less overjoyed when they realise that the new channel will make it necessary to replace old analogue filters in TV equipment. That will be costly, and it will be the viewers who pay.
 
But for fearless journalists like ourselves, there are some other questions worth raising. The government is always talking about cutting back the state and running a tight budget. So why do they want to create some kind of giant public broadcasting empire which will inevitably put the commercial channels under pressure? How will a new  channel help a system which is prevented by idiotic media laws and political interference from carrying out its task?
 
Rather than further inflating a public service sector that is already verging on collapse, it would be better to slim it down and decide exactly what we need our public broadcaster for. Currently, the commercial broadcasters are obliged to behave as public broadcasters while Mayar Televízió dives into the gutter.