Markiza-Slovakia sro will launch the first Slovak Republic national television station, CME said.

When broadcasting begins in 1996, the channel could reach half Slovak households with television with full coverage expected by 1998.

The Slovak Council for Radio and Television approved the project on July 14.

"We are gratified to have this opportunity to work with our local partner in providing the Slovak people with a real commercial television channel and to play a continuing role in the development of television in central Europe,'' said CME chairman Mr. Ronald Lauder.

CME will hold 49 percent of the new television station company and take 80 percent profit.

Television advertising expenditures are expected to rise in the Slovak Republic, a country with a gross domestic product growth rate of five percent annually.

CME, a publicly-held company, traded on the NASDAQ, develops television projects with partners in the emerging economies of eastern and central Europe.