21. 08. 2008

How to Ensure Independency and Financial Sustainability of Commercial Media in an Oversaturated Serbian Media Market?

Citizens of Serbia are the biggest TV consumers in Europe, while the Serbian advertising market has the fastest annual growth in the world. And yet, only two television stations with national coverage were profitable, while the other stations suffered multimillion loses in 2007. What are the reasons for such inconsistency? How can economically fragile media ensure sustainability and independence from political and economical pressures, as well as quality content for its audience?  

Author, Mr. Slobodan Kremenjak, investigates connection between the regulatory policy on one side and large number of frequencies, hyper competitive media environment and high level of broadcasting fees that characterize Serbian media market development, on the other. In the process of policy making, governing bodies failed to notice its direct influence on the market. As a consequence, Serbia has oversaturated market with large number of national, regional and local broadcasters fighting, in a relatively small market, for the same piece of advertising cake.

Liberalization of the market, thus, did not result in a greater content offer, but quite contrary, in a poor quality programs and low broadcasting standards.  Having in mind present situation, one of the positive measures to be taken is to reduce the obligatory broadcasting fees and to financially support quality content production. Find out which other measures the author suggests, by reading the entire text which you may find here... 

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