TV8

What is TV8?

TV8 is a television channel. The Media Ownership Monitor Moldova 2024, published by Global Media Registry and Media Guard, states: “TV8 este deținut de Asociația Obștească Media Alternativă”, and names as the association's co-founders Igor Boțan, whom it lists as the association's president, Mariana Rață-Vremea, Viorica Tătaru Craiţămîndră and Svetlana Buza.^[2] It classes the ownership as private and the geographic coverage as transnational.^[2] Those are 2024 records; no later ownership document was retrieved.

The Monitor describes the channel's schedule: “În iunie 2024, grila TV8 cuprindea buletine de știri, mai multe emisiuni de tip talk-show politic în limba română și în limba rusă”, and goes on to list investigative, educational and entertainment programmes by name.^[2] For 2023 it gives the channel's revenue as MDL 35.5 million, of which MDL 16.6 million, or 47 per cent, came from advertising.^[2]

The channel's website is tv8.md, published in Romanian and Russian. Its menu lists categories including news bulletins, investigations, politics, economics, external news and sport, and its footer reads “© 2026 tv8.”^[7]

What does TV8 cover?

The sport category sits at tv8.md/category/sport, a path of the same domain.^[7] Its items of 21 to 25 September 2026 combined Moldovan results with international football.^[1]

Moldovan athletes and teams appeared in headlines such as “Succes pentru boxul moldovenesc: Alexandru Paraschiv a cucerit bronzul la Campionatul European de la Sofia” (24 September), “Performanța nu are vârstă: Constantin Brânză a devenit campion mondial la judo printre veterani” (24 September), “/VIDEO/ Aur și bronz pentru luptătoarele din Moldova: Au dominat competiția din Croația” (22 September) and “/EXCLUSIV/ Veronica Cobzac cucerește Balcanii la dresaj: Cupa Mondială, următoarea țintă” (24 September).^[1]

The national football team's campaign appeared as “/FOTO/ Moldova începe aventura în Liga Națiunilor contra Slovaciei și Insulelor Feroe” (23 September). The same days carried the Nations League match between the Netherlands and Germany, Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portuguese national team, Mikel Arteta's contract at Arsenal, the Premier League, Teodor Lungu at Oțelul Galați in the Romanian championship, and motocross at Ungheni.^[1]

Those are five days' headlines, not a statement of the category's scope, and no sports-rights contract held by the channel was retrieved.

How large is TV8's audience?

Television audiences in Moldova are measured by TV MR MLD, the representative of The Nielsen Company, whose monthly overviews could not be read as text. The Media Ownership Monitor Moldova 2024 lists the most-watched channels “Conform datelor din prima jumătate a anului 2024”: Cinema 1, Mega-CTC, Pro TV, Jurnal TV, Canal 5, TV 8, Moldova 1 and others. TV 8 is sixth in that list.^[3] Its outlet page prints an audience share of 3.96 per cent, without a period.^[2] These are first-half 2024 readings, not current ones.

On the web, BATI, the Biroul de Audit al Tirajelor si Internetului, publishes a monthly ranking of the websites in the gemiusAudience Moldova panel. Its report for August 2026, published on 5 September 2026, covers 25 sites and places tv8.md fifth, with 259,362 real users, behind 999.md, noi.md, meteofor.md and point.md.^[4] Its report for July 2026 places tv8.md third, with 320,616 real users.^[5] Each is one month's reading for the whole domain, in both languages, not for its sport category.

The Monitor's online page lists tv8.md among the top news sites on September 2024 data from BATI and Gemius.^[6]

Since when has TV8 existed?

The Media Ownership Monitor gives 2017 as the year TV8 was founded.^[2] On the channel's broadcast licence it writes: “Licența de emisie pentru postul TV8 a aparținut anterior companiei Analitic Media Grup SRL, care îi aparținea lui Chiril Lucinschi, fiul fostului președinte al R. Moldova, Petru Lucinschi.”^[2] That is the Monitor's account of the licence's history; no licence decision was retrieved from the regulator.

The site's footer, as retrieved, carries a 2026 copyright line and states no founding year.^[7]

Why does TV8 matter in Moldova's sport?

It is one of the channels the Media Ownership Monitor lists among the most-watched in Moldova on first-half 2024 data, sixth in its list, and its website ranked fifth among the 25 sites in BATI's audited ranking for August 2026 and third in July 2026.^[3][4][5] Its sport category reports the results of Moldovan athletes in boxing, judo, wrestling and equestrian sport and follows the national football team, alongside international football.^[1]

Its site publishes in Romanian and Russian, and the Monitor describes political talk shows in both languages on its 2024 schedule.^[7][2]

Reporters Without Borders ranks Moldova 31st of 180, with a score of 74.77, in its 2026 index, and states: “Freedom of the press and the right to information are guaranteed by law, and best practices are encouraged by a journalistic code of ethics.” Reporters Without Borders writes, under the heading “Economic context”: “Faced with a difficult economic environment and weakened by the collapse of the advertising market due to the war in Ukraine, independent media outlets lack resources and experience financial difficulties.”^[8]