The streaming wars are officially at the doorstep of Central and Eastern Europe — and traditional TV is running out of time to fight back.
During a keynote at NEM in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Sam Barnett, CEO of Central European Media Enterprises (CME), delivered a sobering message to the region's broadcasters: Netflix and YouTube aren't coming — they're already here, and the old guard needs to act now or risk becoming irrelevant.
The streaming giants have already begun competing for CEE audiences, siphoning viewers away from traditional linear TV. For decades, regional broadcasters dominated their home markets through limited competition. Those days are over.
Barnett did not mince words about what's at stake: entire business models built on decades of viewer loyalty are crumbling. Without aggressive innovation, content investment, and digital transformation, CEE's traditional networks face the kind of collapse that has already gutted media companies across North America and Western Europe.
But CME is positioning itself as a challenger willing to fight back, leveraging local content expertise and regional networks that Netflix and YouTube cannot easily replicate. It's an unequal match, with the regional broadcaster scrambling to compete.
The message to fellow broadcasters is unmistakable: consolidate, innovate, or lose ground. In a market where Netflix's algorithm recommends Russian dramas and YouTube auto-plays K-pop covers, regional broadcasters cannot afford inaction.
The streaming takeover of CEE is no longer hypothetical. It is happening now, and Barnett has given the industry a direct warning.
