Media Study - Medija centar Beograd

1 BACKGROUND
This study is intended to provide the basis for the Ministry of Culture’s development of a national media strategy.
The study includes a needs assessment for Serbia, a comparative study involving three EU-Member States, which
are presented below, and finally recommendations for future measures concerning the creation of a national
media strategy.
Three EU Member States have been chosen for direct comparison and inspiration to demonstrate European best
practices and solutions to the key issues identified in Serbia.
The Nordic countries with Sweden, Finland, and Denmark have very similar markets, media landscapes and
populations. Of these Denmark has been selected because it has a dual public and private system and a long
tradition for local and regional broadcasting, which could provide a feasible model for the future media structure in
Serbia. Denmark would also be relevant because its daily newspapers are primarily owned by independent funds.
Austria has been chosen because its cultural context and its size are familiar to Serbia. Another similarity is that of
overlapping language territories. Austria has strong German language media distributed from Germany and
Switzerland and has experienced a controlled transformation of a public service monopoly to a dual system with
regional TV and Radio.
Germany is included because its legislation is very clearly structured compared to other large countries as United
Kingdom or France. The market and population is obviously very different from Serbia but the principles of its
legislative, ethical and public service fund provide useful inspiration.
More than 40 interviews with stakeholders have been carried out during the three weeks mission to Serbia in
addition to the economic and legal analyses.
To address the identified needs in a focused manner the study is divided into six themes all analyzed in an
economic, a legal and a media policy perspective.
The first thematic chapter discusses the fragmentation and weakening of local media, their lack of financial
sustainability and in many cases questionable editorial independence. The chapter looks at new regional
structures following the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting in 2012.
The steep decrease in revenue from license fees and advertisements harms both public and private
broadcasters. The second thematic chapter discusses the economy and methods to prioritize among the
commercial broadcasters in relation to the limited Serbian market.
In the third thematic chapter on regulatory bodies the study deals with the Republican Broadcasting Agency
(RRA, English abbreviation RBA), RATEL and the newly established Press Council.
The consequences for Serbia and the choices following the digitalization in 2012 will be dealt with in this
thematic chapter. Also discussed are the consequences for local, regional and national broadcasters as well as
the general structure of the media market.
The fifth thematic chapter focuses on distribution of media contents via different channels, cable and IP
broadcasting and retransmission, and issues related to intellectual property rights issues, new media and
related regulations.
The different principles and modalities for public support to local, minority, regional and national media are
discussed and new solutions proposed in the sixth thematic chapter.
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