Euronews Posts €77M Revenue, Questions Persist

Exclusive interviews from Davos, new bureaus stretching from Astana to Istanbul, and a Travel channel broadcasting out of Doha. Euronews is expanding fast, posting record 2025 revenue. That’s also thanks to some of Brussels’ best reporters. But the questions about ownership remain and no bottom-line profit figure was given.

CEO and editorial director Claus Strunz is underscoring the moment with a headline number meant to silence doubters: record 2025 revenues of €77 million, marking a claimed turnaround after years in the red.

“In 2025, we achieved a turnaround — economically and journalistically,” Strunz said, framing the results as proof that Euronews’ editorial strategy and business model are finally aligned. He praised the broadcaster’s “independent, neutral journalism,” insisting that its “independence is non-negotiable” — a major assertion in a European media market where ownership, funding and politics are rarely cleanly separated.

While Euronews touts its “best net results” to date, it has not disclosed an exact bottom-line profit figure. What it does highlight are growth metrics that play well in investor and policymaker briefings: more than one billion page views, surging video consumption, and a growing physical footprint across Central Asia and the Middle East.

EU funding, Euronews notes pointedly, now represents just 16 percent of total revenue — offered as evidence that the channel is no longer financially dependent on Brussels, even as it continues to secure exclusive interviews with European Council President António Costa, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and multiple EU commissioners.

Euronews’ credibility challenge has never been about traffic, let alone the broadcasters’ top-notch journalists and editors. An own-initiative investigation in 2024 by Portugal’s media regulator ERC found no adverse finding despite recounting the complex financial structures behind the majority shareholder, Alpac Capital, and the links to Hungarian and Abu Dhabi business interests.

But the fines from the country’s securities watchdog CMVM did little to quieten concerns that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán could, if needed or wanted, exert indirect influence over Euronews’ editorial line.

Alpac, which owns 97.6 percent of Euronews, also has an investment footprint and dealings in Qatar, Hungary, the Middle East and Central Asia. Media observers easily take note of the network’s consistently upbeat coverage from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Qatar.

Strunz, a former editor-in-chief of Germany’s Bild tabloid, rejects any suggestion that ownership shapes editorial decisions. But skepticism persists — fueled in part by Strunz’s own past at Bild, where hardline commentary on immigration and Islam helped define the paper’s political profile.

After more than three years, neither Strunz’ former tabloid edge, nor the Hungarian links, have reshaped Euronews’ reporting with the broadcaster’s journalists priding themselves on being neutral referees. Their neutrality, and the broadcasters’ pan-European reach eclipsing more focused media like Politico or Euractiv, have not gone unnoticed by the European Commission. DG Connect awarded over €12mn to the network for three projects in 2025, including almost €3mn for Euronews’ Hungarian and Polish languages services that started on 1 November.

The bottom line: Euronews appears to have reached profitability in a punishing market for general-interest news outlets operating outside paywalls. And the broadcaster continues to engage with Europe’s viewers. But in Brussels and beyond, the black ink and massive audience do not close the debate. They sharpen it — raising a question that goes beyond balance sheets: independence from whom and for exactly how long?