RTVS Creative Centres
The largest investment project in the history of RTVS.
The creative centres in Bratislava, Banská Bystrica and Košice combined extensive building alterations, procurement and commissioning of specialist technology with educational and creative programmes. More than a refurbishment, the projects established facilities for film, television, radio and digital production, professional training and collaboration in the cultural and creative industries.
Facilities in each centre
Bratislava
FilmLAB: a cinema, a sound-mixing hall and colour-grading facilities. TVLAB: a television studio with video and audio control rooms. MediaLAB: two audiovisual editing suites, four 2D/3D graphics workstations and a small cinema also used for training.
Banská Bystrica
The Hurbanova premises house a radio studio and control room, a broadcasting workstation, two editing suites, graphics and colour-grading facilities, a cinema and a television studio with a control room. A separate dubbing facility is located at the studio on Profesora Sáru Street.
Košice
The Rastislavova Street centre includes four editing suites, colour-grading facilities, coworking space and a multimedia hall with a cinema. Its television facilities comprise a studio, video and audio control rooms and a make-up room.
Three interdependent strands
Construction readiness, technology deliveries and the subsequent programmes had to be aligned. Spaces needed adaptation to specific equipment, systems required installation and commissioning, and facilities had to support training, workshops, mentoring and creative collaboration. Each city was a separate project with its own deliveries and procedures.
A fixed deadline and interrupted cooperation
The short delivery window ended with the programming period, with no extension available. A change of government and personnel changes on the funding-provider side brought almost six months without the necessary cooperation from the intermediary body. Delayed reimbursement of payment claims added pressure to project financing and the schedule.
The pandemic, war and chip shortages
COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and the chip shortage affected availability and delivery times. Most equipment was not off-the-shelf stock. Specialist systems required carefully coordinated manufacture, delivery, installation and integration; a missing component could delay the commissioning of an entire facility.
Procurement and successive checks
Numerous above-threshold and below-threshold public procurement procedures created parallel administrative and scheduling dependencies. Under the arrangements applicable to these projects, procurement could only begin after the required ex ante review, and contracts could only be concluded after the subsequent ex post review. Review times therefore directly affected ordering, delivery and commissioning.
A separate initiative: a more energy-efficient studio
During the notice period before leaving RTVS, an opportunity was identified to reduce energy consumption in its largest Bratislava studio while replacing outdated lighting equipment. An application for approximately €4 million in support was prepared and approved. This was a separate initiative outside the creative centres’ budget above. As of 23 October 2026, the project had not been implemented.