From Cola to Cable

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The men who give Coca-Cola a run for its money in Romania are expanding into the hotly competitive cable-television business. In October, brothers Viorel and Ioan Micula launched National TV, a general-entertainment, digital satellite cable channel that runs American shows and 22 local programs. Viorel oversees the media side of European Drinks Group and has hired seasoned help, including Douglas Fulton, who ran operations in 11 countries for Luxembourg-based SBS Broadcasting. Fulton, who now heads National TV as well as the company's 18 radio stations and three newspapers, will manage next year's launch of a 24-hr. news network and a movie channel. But they must survive a marketplace that has been flooded with local and foreign stations since the fall of communism. Romania's 3.3 million cable subscribers are split among 260 cable companies, according to the Romanian Cable Communication Association. That can't last long, says Radu Petric, the group's president: "I foresee a struggle for survival in the coming years."