I ran this by our European office manager Tony Brill and here are his comments. Tony spent most of his career managing a group of secular TV stations in the UK -

The former communist block countries (or rather some of them) are liberalising their broadcasting set-ups to resemble the commercial TV models of the US and UK of a few years ago before increased competition from satellite diluted the economic power of the big networks.

There is therefore an opportunity to own slices of stations in EG Poland and the Czek Republic and try to cash in on any advertising boom which occurs as it did in the US and UK some years ago. The consumers of those markets are believed to be ready to respond to such advertising so as well as broadcasting investors potential advertisers or sponsors may be attracted too.

There are some problems with this scenario. The economies of the former block vary enormously, Czek Republic and Poland are probably strongest but then you have Bulgaria and Rumania which are still "Mickey Mouse" set ups. The consumers in many of thses countries do not earn very much money and outside basic products may not be able to respond very vigorously to commercial campaigns. Finally there is resistance in some quarters to products and presentations which are balatently Anglo Saxon _ maybe particularly in Religious areas where the Orthodox Church has suceeded in getting governments to clamp down on Protestant "cults."

There are no easy pickings in Eastern Europe, but it is a Christian wilderness and mission motivated Ministries could do good work there. Any expectation of easy money is naive in the extreme except possibly for the Mafia.

Right now for Eastern Europe, it's a mission field.  There are some opportunities in Russia, possibly Bulgaria, but there is not a lot of openness to Christian programming in the other former Eastern bloc countries.  There is some satellite reach into those countries that bypasses locally originated broadcasts, but you're going to pay for the full reach and footprint of the satellite signal because usually there are not separate satellite feeds, especially into Eastern European countries.

It takes a real commitment to broadcast into non-English speaking countries.  Translation is expensive.  Most people just translate their American program, which shows respect for language but not necessarily culture. And a ministry should be willing to support its broadcast with live meetings in country.  It's also a good idea to establish a local office to serve your listeners and local church leaders.

You talk also about the need for strategy and I agree.  However, strategy has a prerequisite – clear goals.  An agency cannot or at least should not superimpose goals on its clients.  We can help uncover them, but ultimately if goals for media are not clear, then having a cogent strategy will never advance far beyond mere hope and broadcast schedules will devolve into a hodge podge.

On the commercial side there is money to be made, but you have to have the capital to play the game and you have to be willing to accept the risk of political instability in some of these regions.  It's not a likely mecca for infomercials but there are opportunities for certain companies to build their brand identity if they are willing to immerse their marketing in the local culture and have the staying power to wait years for a positive return to materialize.

Commercial or ministry, it's going to be harder, cost more, and take longer than you think.  If your motivation is romantic or whimsical then it's best to keep your powder dry.