Media business operations

For the past three years, the radio station Narodni Radio has been broadcasting its programme in the territory of Belgrade and beyond. A station with the same name exists in Zagreb, Croatia, and it has been airing only Croatian music since 1997. According to unofficial information published by the daily newspaper Kurir, the majority owner of the station in Croatia is Marko Perkovic Tompson, a singer and a former member of ZNG, well-known for his promotion of the Ustasha movement. The radio station with the same name is broadcasting its programme illegally, i.e. it is a pirate radio station. The Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) says that it is not authorized to act in the case. The Republic Agency for Electronic Communication (RATEL) told Kurir that the Agency has only a monitoring role, and that the Ministry of Culture decides whether it will conduct inspection at someone's request.
(Kurir, 09.08.2012, Danas, 10.08.2012)

Employees of TV Mozaik from Novi Sad intend to continue their warning strike that began in the previous week due to adverse financial and other work conditions. The president of the Trade Union Nezavisnost in TV Mozaik, Atila Moric, said that in the last year salaries of the employees, stipulated by employment contracts, had been reduced each month, and that the reductions now amounted to a two-month salary. The director of the Mozaik Foundation, Tibor Horvat, said: "We have always paid the salaries regularly, and we are now paying as much as we can. The employees are receiving 80 percent of their salaries, but we have been severely hit by the economic crisis."
(RTV, Magyar so, Beta, NUNS, NDNV, Informer, 13.08.2012, Tanjug, Pregled, 14.08.2012)

E-shopping is increasingly popular worldwide, but Serbia is lagging far behind this trend. Serbian citizens do not trust internet shopping, they lack information about the procedure and do not have access to a wide-ranging supply of goods that could be purchased – this is the conclusion reached by the E-Trading Group of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia. Although e-trading is in its infancy in all parts of the Southeast Europe, Croatia is 50 times better in this regard. It is estimated that no less than 82 percent of internet users in Serbia have never purchased anything on the internet. The reasons behind this is mostly the fear of fraud, loss of money and abuse of personal data. Experts agreed that it is necessary to educate citizens. According to sources from Banca Intesa, airline tickets are most often purchased on the Internet.
(Beta, ASMEDI, 14.08.2012)

The announced revoking of the Law on Foreign Currency Trading would increase the probability of the entry of PayPal into the Serbian market. However, experts say that this does not mean that the company would immediately decide to expand its business to Serbia. The appearance of PayPal would give impetus to e-trade because citizens would be able to buy products from numerous online shops, while domestic companies would have a much easier job selling their products abroad.
(24 sata, ASMEDI, 14.08.2012)

Common advertisements are not enough anymore. Hidden advertising and product placement in series and films is not a novelty anymore, but virtual product placement surely is, says the web portal Poslovni Puls. Although you may not have heard about the term 'product placement', you must have already experienced it. For example, while watching a film in which the main character whips out an Apple laptop and saves the universe from alien invasion, or in a domestic soap opera where family members chat while eating a box of Jaffa cakes. However, marketing geniuses have decided that physical product placement is not so cool or flexible anymore, and we can expect a wave of virtual product placement. In its quiz show "Deal or No Deal", the British Channel 4 intends to insert ads by placing advertisers' logos on TV hosts' glasses using virtual computer technology. TV producers hope that further development of virtual marketing technology will allow more diverse advertising in various countries.
(Poslovnipuls.com, ASMEDI, NUNS, 14.08.2012)

Three broadcasters from the District of Pcinjski are among the 54 who are using the radio frequency spectrum without authorization, says the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RATEL). The list of illegal broadcasters includes the local Radio Duga, which airs its programme from Trgoviste using the frequency of 92.3 MHz; TV Duga, also from Trgoviste, which broadcasts on the channel 27; and Radio Vranje, which airs without a license at the frequency of 107.1 MHz.
(Blic, NUNS, UNS, 15.08.2012)

The research company RECMA, specializing in the analysis of business operations of media agencies, confirms in its 13th report on their business results that media agencies achieved a growth of 9.2 percent. Analysts say that their success is based on the development of digital activities within the main business operations of the agencies.
(Marketing magazin, UNS, 15.08.2012)

The Journalists' Union of Serbia (SNS) has called on the Anti-Corruption Council to investigate the bankruptcy of TV Cacak and privatization the preceded it. The signal of the regional TV Cacak, which went bankrupt ten days ago after 13 years of existence, has been shut down because of unpaid fees. TV Cacak had 26 permanent employees and four contributors, who have all been fired in the previous two days.
(Beta, Danas, UNS, 04.08.2012)

Media companies RTV Pancevo, RTV Kragujevac, RTV Novi Pazar and TV Nis have signed the Kragujevac Initiative, which is a concept of formation of public service broadcasters in Serbia. The Initiative was presented in Pancevo because the Draft Law on Radio and TV Public Service Broadcasters has already entered the procedure of adoption in the National Parliament of Serbia. The editors and directors of these stations believe that many local and regional media outlets in Serbia might be closed down and the remaining media scene further commercialized if the Media Strategy were not implemented.
(Blic, UNS, NUNS, 09.08.2012)

The members of the Kragujevac Initiative have tackled the issue of the Draft Law on Regional TV Public Service Broadcasters in order to prevent further unsuccessful privatization of the electronic media. It seems that after the unsuccessful privatization of the most profitable local newspaper in Serbia, Pancevac, and its return to the Privatization Agency, no one has any idea how to proceed. At the initiative of the City Assembly, the beginning of privatization of RTV Pancevo has been suspended, while the previous city administration had discreetly but unambiguously said that it would gladly accept to finance the city radio and TV if allowed by law. This intention has been further confirmed by the construction of new premises for the local electronic media. However, even if the Draft Law on Regional Public Service Broadcasters is considered in its current form, radio and TV stations from Vojvodina are facing big problems. The proposed law says that Serbia would have five regional public service outlets aside from Radio-Television Serbia – however, they would all be located in the south of Belgrade. The Province of Vojvodina would have only RTV in Novi Sad, despite the fact that the Kragujevac Initiative proposes another three regional public service broadcasters in Vojvodina.
(Politika, UNS, 11.08.2012)

The Committee for Protection of Competition has not been contacted by the new co-owner of the company Politika Novine i Magazini (PNM), East Media Group from Moscow, which is supposed to register any concentration of media ownership. On July 16, the Business Registers Agency registered the East Media Group as a co-owner of PNM instead of the German company VAC and its Austrian subsidiary company Ost Holding.
(Danas, NUNS, 09.08.2012)

Other news

For the second day in a row, a part of Kursumlija has been suffering power cuts because of preparations for the programme "Zikina Sarenica", which is scheduled for Saturday near the Church of St. Nicholas in Kursumlija. The programme requires the power of at least 50 KW.
(Kurir, 09.08.2012)