Media Radar: who owns and who funds Bulgarian media
A register-based look at money and ownership in Bulgarian media: state advertising contracts, EU publicity funding, election media packages and the ownership chains outlets declare under Article 7a. Every figure is quoted from its source register, not scored or ranked.
Open the radar Free, no sign-up. The tool has a full English mode; the register data itself stays in Bulgarian.How it works
Three steps from a media outlet's name to the money and the ownership behind it.
Search a media outlet or an agency
Look up any of 272 tracked outlets or 133 advertising agencies, from national broadcasters to small local outlets registered under Article 7a of the Media Act.
See the money, split by source
Read state advertising contracts, EU publicity funding and election media packages as separate layers instead of one blended figure, each quoting the buyer, the amount and the contract.
Follow the ownership chain
When the declared owner is a company rather than a person, the radar follows the Commercial Register upward to the individuals who ultimately stand behind more than one outlet.
Five registers, one search
Every figure keeps its source register attached.
Quotes the filing, adds no score
The radar does not compute a risk index or a bias rating for any outlet.
State money, itemised
The single largest state advertising item in the tracked period, 40% of the total, was one Ministry of Finance campaign for euro adoption, quoted exactly as filed in CAIS EOP.
Five money layers, kept separate
State advertising, EU publicity funding, election packages, corporate advertisers under procurement law, and self-declared Article 7a funding are shown as distinct layers rather than merged into one figure.
Search outlets, agencies or owners
272 media outlets and 133 agencies are cross-linked with the Commercial Register, so a search for a person can surface every outlet connected to them.
No scores, no risk index
Every record reproduces the underlying filing verbatim, with a link to the source. Funder categories group outlets for display only; the real declared name is always shown.
Owning a media outlet and funding one are not the same fact
The radar tracks both, and keeps them apart.
| Ownership (Article 7a + Commercial Register) | Funding (state ads, EU, elections) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Who is declared as the outlet's owner, including the chain above a corporate owner | Who paid the outlet, and how much, through a public contract |
| Source register | Media Act Article 7a register, Commercial Register | CAIS EOP, ISUN, Central Election Commission |
| Coverage found | 213 of 249 tracked outlets have an ownership date on file | 3,856 money flows across the outlets and agencies tracked |
| What it does not prove | That the declared owner controls editorial content | That advertising money bought favourable coverage |
A media outlet can be state-funded and privately owned, privately funded and never publicly advertised to, or both at once. The radar reports each fact from its own register rather than combining ownership and funding into a single conclusion.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the funding and ownership data come from?
From five separate official sources: the Ministry of Culture's Article 7a media register for self-declared ownership and private funding, the CAIS EOP procurement register for state advertising contracts since 2024, the ISUN portal for EU-funded publicity contracts, the Central Election Commission for election media packages, and the Commercial Register for ownership chains and company filings.
How current is the state advertising data?
The state advertising layer covers CAIS EOP contracts dated 2024 or later, deliberately excluding EU-funded contracts, tracked separately through ISUN, to avoid double counting. The underlying registers were last pulled in the second half of 2026; the radar is a periodic snapshot, not a live feed.
What does the radar explicitly NOT show?
Private commercial advertising is not shown, because no public register of private advertisers exists. Journalist salaries at private outlets are excluded on GDPR grounds. Pre-2020 state contracts, a full party-by-media matrix for election spending, and bulk ownership data beyond the declared Article 7a chain are also missing, because no open register currently covers them.
Does a high advertising payment mean the outlet is biased?
No conclusion of that kind is drawn or implied. The radar quotes each contract as filed, without a bias score, a risk index, or an editorial-influence rating. Interpreting what a payment means for an outlet's coverage is left entirely to the reader; the tool's job stops at showing the filing.
How are the funder categories decided?
Categories such as party, municipality, state or private group exist only to organise the display. The declared payer's actual, real name is always shown alongside the category, and the classification is based on keywords in the contract's own subject line rather than a manual judgement call about the payer.
Can I see outlets that received public money but are not in the ownership register?
Yes. The radar lists private outlets that received public money, through election media packages or state advertising, but do not appear in the self-declared Article 7a ownership register, so their declared ownership and funding cannot be cross-checked the way a registered outlet's can.
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