Mapping Digital Media: Serbia

Abstract

Over the past five years, digitization has impacted significantly on the range and consumption of media content in Serbia. An increasing number of Serbians go online, and most media outlets invest in their online presence. Serbia has a strategy for switching over from analog to digital broadcasting, prepared with broad public consultation. Th e basic legal framework is in place, but implementation is not yet underway. Moreover, if fair access to digital licenses is to be ensured, a new media law—harmonized with the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive—is still needed. For switchover has suff ered from a series of delays in the adoption of regulations necessary to advance the process, for updating switch-over timelines and implementing subsidy schemes for households to purchase devices capable of digital television reception. As a result, Serbian households are still unprepared for analog switch-off . Digitally equipped television sets and DVB-T2 MPEG4 decoders are still not available in retail outlets. Th e only digital television output to date is a test program about culture from RTS, the public broadcaster, available through cable operators as well as via terrestrial signal. Broadband internet has had by far the most significant growth among the available distribution platforms over the past five years. More than 23 percent of Serbian households had an internet connection at the end of 2009—more than doubling the number of such connections just four years earlier. Of those connections, almost 82 percent were broadband in 2009, eight times more than in 2005. Mobile penetration has also spiked in the past five years. While only half of Serbians had a mobile subscription in 2005, the penetration reached 132 percent by 2010. All that said, Serbia remains a television nation, with almost all households owning a TV set and three quarters of the population still using television as their main source of information. But the internet is catching up: 29 percent of persons between 12 and 29 years of age now use it for many of their information needs, though it must be added that there is a marked digital divide, with rural areas lagging behind cities when it comes to computer ownership and internet connections. Television tastes have not changed significantly in the past five years. Th e public service broadcaster, RTS, continues to command the highest ratings in the television market, and in particular still leads in the newscast segment with its program Dnevnik 2. The digital migration has negatively impacted the circulation of most print media in recent years. On the positive side, that migration has increased the readership for those print media that have expanded online. Serbia’s best-selling daily, Blic, for example, lost some 50,000 sales over three years, so its paid circulation stands at 150,000; but its website now draws 1.5 million unique visitors per month. Although search engines and social networks draw the highest visitorships on the Serbian internet, established news media Blic and the private TV station B92 have achieved high rankings as well. RTS was given a leading role in promoting the digital transition. It hopes to reach a wider audience in the digital market by increasing the number of its specialized channels.Th e station has also been pro-active on the internet, developing a modern website where viewers can watch most of its programs on-demand. Despite this progress, almost half of the population remains reluctant to pay the license fee that supports RTS. Serbia’s private media sector continues to be plagued by opaque ownership structures, with the owners of various media hiding behind off shore-registered businesses. Additionally, there is no publicly-available register of media owners. At the same time, a number of media outlets, some of them large and influential, such as the Tanjug news agency and Politika newspaper continue to be heavily influenced by the state, because the privatization of publicly owned media, which should have been accomplished by 2007, remains uncompleted. Without mechanisms to render media ownership transparent, Serbia’s media sector will not achieve its potential for independence and diversity. Th e internet as a platform for activism is rapidly expanding in Serbia, with the number of petitions, initiatives and debates online growing considerably. The internet has also led to more diversity and to a plurality of voices in political life. Social media are popular and are being used increasingly by the media as dissemination and marketing vehicles. For journalists, however, digitization has necessitated more legwork, as media companies struggle financially and have had to make cuts in human resources. In parallel, media outlets have had to step up their content production to respond to the increasing demand for information.These pressures have led to what has become known as “Google journalism,” that is, the trend to quick-recycle internet content into media products. Despite these digitization-related changes for journalists, newsroom convergence has been slow, with most media outlets still operating separate newsrooms for their online production. Digitization has also resulted in more violations of ethical norms by the media, as the internet remains largely unregulated. On the other hand, digitization has had a positive impact on investigative reporting, as the internet has given journalists access to a huge range of information and sources. However, investigative journalism continues to encounter a number of barriers, including political control of the media and state ownership of numerous media outlets. Telecoms operators have not attempted to purchase any traditional media outlets, but they do have a major, albeit indirect, presence in the media as the largest advertizing spenders in the market. To date they have not attempted to exploit this presence by pressuring such media. EU funding for media development in Serbia has helped to raise the standards of transparency in the allocation of state funds to the media. Th is marks a welcome break with past habits, which were criticized as non-transparent. Further improvement in this respect, by the Ministry of Culture, is still needed. Th e government finally adopted the Media Strategy in September 2011. It introduces guidelines for the development of the media sector in Serbia until 2016. Th e most important part is an action plan that prescribes clear deadlines for the adoption and/or amendment of new media legislation, privatization of state owned media, new rules on state aid, and transparency of media ownership. However, a cause of concern remains the introduction of six new regional public services; the Strategy does not give the clear answers on how new outlets would be financed or managed, or on the criteria for defining areas of coverage. However, bearing in mind that this was the first media policy paper written in close cooperation with the European Commission, there is a good ground to hope that it will be effectively implemented.