Society

Media
The media landscape has changed a lot during the past thirty years. Major developments include the deregulation and privatization of the broadcasting system in the 1980s, resulting in a plethora of private TV channels and radio stations, both national and local, as well as the switch to digital media. Nowadays, Greece counts 160 private TV channels and 1,150 private radio stations.

Television
Television is a well-established medium of information, entertainment and culture in contemporary Greek society. Following the deregulation of 1989 and the end of state monopoly, private television reached Greek households and dominated the market. Currently, there are 8 private television stations nationwide - analog and digital terrestrial broadcasting- and 126 regional and local TV stations.

The public broadcaster in Greece is ERT, which owns three TV nationwide channels (ET-1, NET, ET-3), ERT WORLD EUROPE and ERT WORLD AMERICAS & AUSTRALIA via satellite, ERT HD, three digital terrestrial channels (CINE PLUS, SPORT PLUS and PRISMA PLUS for disabled people) and VOULI TV. The latter is dedicated to live broadcasts of Hellenic Parliament proceedings. ERT also provides news bulletins in 11 languages.

Numerous Greek television and radio stations are available via satellite around the world, mainly by Hellas Sat 2, the first Greek satellite. One satellite TV and three IPTV platforms are operating on subscription in Greece, as well as two analog pay television channels.

Radio
Radio is another important source of information and entertainment in Greece. The Public Broadcasting Corporation, ERT, owns five nationwide radio stations (NET FM, SECOND PROGRAMME, KOSMOS, ERA-3, ERA SPORT), the VOICE OF GREECE broadcasting world-wide, the International Network of ERA, 21 regional and local stations as well as radio station FILIA (FRIENDSHIP) with news for expats living in Greece.

The first private radio station was Athina 98.4 FM, which went on air in 1987 Currently, around 930 radio stations broadcasting regularly in Greece, among which 42 in the Athens region. The vast majority is private and transmits locally or regionally.

Print media
Greece has one of the highest numbers of newspapers relative to the size of the market, and therefore one of the lowest circulation rates. Today, 79 newspapers circulate nationwide. There are 34 weekly and Sunday editions and 27 daily, of which 12 are financial. There are also 18 sport newspapers of which 9 are weekly.

News Agency
The two leading news agencies in Greece merged in 2006. The merger brought together Athens News Agency (ANA), which was founded in 1895, with the Macedonian News Agency (MPA), founded by the state in 1991 in Thessaloniki.

ANA-MPA collects, processes and assesses national and international news, photos, as well as radio and television material and distributes it to media in Greece, Cyprus, the Diaspora and abroad. It places great emphasis on the development of mutual relations with Balkan countries, by promoting inter-Balkan cooperation between news agencies in the region.

Part of the agency’s services is online in English, French, Russian, Chinese and Albanian.

Digital Media
Focusing on digital media, almost all of the media companies have developed portals with services like webTV, webRadio, online news etc. An extensive list of the addresses, telephone & fax numbers, e-mails and websites of media in Greece can be found on Media Directory.

Except for the public media which offer services for non-Greek speakers, some major private media networks offer similar services, mainly in English (Greek Media in languages other than Greek).