Top Media Group

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Top Media Group Sh.A is an Albanian media corporation based on Tirana, Albania created by an Albanian entrepreneur named Dritan Hoxha in 1998 which would later be one of Albania's most popular media organisations.

Top Media Group was primarily responsible for the creations of Top Albania Radio, Top Gold Radio, Top Channel, Top News, DigitAlb, Gazeta Shqip, VGA Studio, My Music, musicAL and Lori Caffe.

History[edit]

Top Media Group was first founded on February 14th, 1998 shortly after creating Top Albania Radio. Top Gold Radio was probably made months later in 1998 but at an unknown date.

On July 30, 2001, Top Channel was founded and experimental broadcasting started on the International Centre for Culture (Qëndra Ndërkombëtar e Kulturës), also known as the "Pyramid of Tirana". On December 20, 2001, the channel became available as a private channel to broadcast news and information for Albanians, which also includes shows, movies, etc. Shortly after the channel grew popularity due to the qualitative level of the programs..^[1]

On July 15, 2004, DigitAlb was created with its only purpose is to broadcast Albanian channels nationwide. It had became popular, especially with its own decoder "flyBOX". Despite competition from TiBO and other TV piracy, the company is still incredibly popular to this day due to high demand.

On March 13, 2006, Gazeta Shqip was founded as a newspaper and a website to allow Albanians to receive information via physical media and on the internet. In 2016, the print version of Gazeta Shqip was discontinued and it was replaced with the PDF version.

In February 2007, Top News was created to broadcast 24/7 news, mostly about Albania's status and even also world news.^[2] This was his the last ever televised channel that Dritan Hoxha made before passing away after crashing his Ferrari 599 on a pine tree on May 23, 2008.^[3]

In December 2010, the "Dritan Hoxha" Media Foundation (Fondacioni Mediatik "Dritan Hoxha") was created in honour of Dritan Hoxha.^[4]

Creations[edit]

Lori Caffe[edit]

Although Lori Caffe was made in 1995^[5] which was three years before Dritan Hoxha created the Top Media group, After the foundation of the Top Media group, Lori Caffe became part of Top Media shortly after since Dritan Hoxha is the creator or Lori Caffe and Top Media.

Top Albania Radio[edit]

Shortly after Top Media's foundation, Dritan Hoxha created Top Albania Radio on February 14, 1998, with its frequency being 100.0 FM. It had later became a successful radio spot for Albanians wanting to hear music. News information was also available hourly on the news station.^[6]

Top Gold Radio[edit]

Top Gold Radio was also created in 1998 at an unknown date as a purpose to broadcast the most popular music on this radio station, with a radio frequency of 100.8 FM (in Tirana).^[7]

Top Channel[edit]

Three years after the foundation of Top Albania Radio, Dritan Hoxha with his staff experimented with televised broadcast on July 30th 2001 at the International Centre for Culture (Qendra Ndërkombëtare e Kulturës). Since then it had a very fast growth and success due to a very high quality of broadcasting and programs.

On December 20, 2001, Top Channel started broadcasting news programs daily.^[8] Just five days before their first news broadcast on TV, Top Channel opened its website named "top-channel.tv".^[9]

On January 21, 2008, Top Channel has been awarded national frequency coverage meaning that Top Channel is now considered now on the topic of 'national television'.

On October 16, 2020, to honor Dritan Hoxha's 52nd birthday, Top Channel's OTT service named "Top Channel TV" was released on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store.^[10]

DigitAlb[edit]

On July 15, 2004, DigitAlb was founded with the purpose to broadcast channels and radio stations whilst also broadcasting some channels from AlbaniaSat's defunct platform SAT+, which went bankrupt, possibly due to financial failure or lack of demand. DigitAlb began to transmit satelite broadcasts in 2005.

DigitAlb would later co-operate with absorbing sports package SuperSport in 2006 which would later include seven sport channels.

In March 2007, DigitAlb announced that they would release a new wireless technology DVB-H cellphone named "DigitAlb Mobile" which costed 360 euros which were available in two models. One of the two models is a Samsung^[11] and one of them is an LG.^[12]

In 2013, DigitAlb launched a new decoder named "flyBOX"^[13] and later introduced a new video-on-demand (VOD) service named "Popcorn". A year later they launched a new decoder named "flyBOX mini" which was a limited time offer. The mini version was discontinued by the end of August 2014, after the offer for the flyBOX mini had expired. At the same time, they even announced that DigitAlb would transmit all channels on an audio codec named MPEG-4 on September 1 of that same year.^[14]

On July 15, 2022, DigitAlb introduced their OTT streaming service to celebrate their 18th year anniversary.^[15]

Gazeta Shqip[edit]

Gazeta Shqip (Shqip gazette) is an Albanian newspaper launched on March 13, 2006 on the print format. The print format costed only 30 lek^[16] and was very popular.

The format was discontinued on July 16, 2016, and all 3000+ publications were successfully archived in a PDF format. Gazeta Shqip Online was founded in April 2019, which was meant to relaunch the Shqip gazette in an online format. The online version reaches 20 million views per month, according to statics from Google Analytics, making it one of the top 5 most visited sites in Albania.

Top News[edit]

Top News was a 24/7 news service launched on February 12th, 2007. The channel's purposs is to inform latest information and livestream events from Albania and later around the world, especially during the 2018-2019 protests against prime minister Edi Rama^[17] and after the 2019 Albania earthquake, in which Top Channel would livestream.^[18]

In 2018, Top News began to include programs which was also broadcasted on Top Channel.

On February 10th, 2020 the idents were changed for the first time since its foundation.

On January 1, 2021 at 00:00:19, Top News changed its interface to a simplified version^[19] and later on its' idents follow suit. Another program also appeared on Top News named "Breaking", which started airing on April 5, 2021, stopped airing on August 2023 and aired once again on September 4, 2023.^[20]

MusicAL (now Melody TV)[edit]

MusicAL was a channel that broadcasts 24/7 Albanian music which was popular for some time until its shutdown in November 2017. After MusicAL was shutdown, the entire channel was replaced with a channel named "Melody TV"^[21]

My Music[edit]

My Music is a music channel that broadcasts 24/7 Albanian and English music that was founded in 2004.^{[citation needed]}

There is even a radio station named My Music Radio to broadcast My Music but on radios. There was even an advertisement in September 2015 made to recommend people to listen to this radio station.^[22] The radio frequency of My Music Radio is 97.3 FM.

SuperSport[edit]

In 2006, DigitAlb created SuperSport channels were created after the addition of the SuperSport package. This includes seven SuperSport channels.

On November 14, 2010, Sport News was introduced in SuperSport 1.^[23]

Dritan Hoxha Media Foundation[edit]

In December 2010, the "Dritan Hoxha Media Foundation" (Fondacioni Mediatik "Dritan Hoxha") was founded to honour Dritan Hoxha and to also host projects like "Summer Fest" and even a media competition for young journalists. In 2022, the organization had also made an advert saying they are contributing for a cultural, artistic, mediatic, qualitative, and comprehensive reality for every Albanian, to work with innovative ideas.^[24]

See also[edit]

• Dritan Hoxha
• Top Channel
• Top News
• Gazeta Shqip
• DigitAlb

References[edit]

External links[edit]

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