B92
| Country | Serbia |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | B92 Trust, MDLF, Dexy Co. |
B92 is a broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia. The network's key demographic is chiefly urban and young audience. Its programs, including the news cover topics with fairly liberal political attitudes. Veran Matić is the CEO and one of the founders of B92.
The station was a rare outlet for independent news and information in Serbia under Slobodan Milošević, and was a force behind many demonstrations that took place in Belgrade during the turbulent 1990s. Due to this, B92 won MTV Free Your Mind award in 1998, and many other awards for journalism and fighting for human rights. B92 is the subject of the bestselling book This is Serbia Calling.
In April 2008, B92 launched their second TV channel with 24 hour news coverage named B92 Info. This channel is cable only.
History
The radio station originally went on the air in 1989, though it was shut down by authorities a few times in its early years. It was forced off the air for a time in 1999 when NATO bombed Serbia, and government agents cracked down on independent reporting. The government took over the station in 1999 but the team continued broadcasting in borrowed studios as B2-92. In a dawn raid in May 2000 government troops seized everything but internet broadcasting from secret studios continued until after the ousting of Slobodan Milošević in October 2000, when the two stations were unified. It has continued as a combined music and news radio station since.
Later on, TV station, Internet portal and ISP were introduced, as well as CD and book labels.
Radio
The B92 radio station was founded in May 1989 in Belgrade as a predominantly youth-oriented station. Throughout the years it has become a regional radio with wide audience. The radio station has about 400,000 daily listeners which makes up 35% of all radio listeners with almost 80 stations competing for airtime. As of recently, radio B92 covers Vojvodina and Central Serbia.
The most notable radio shows are Kažiprst (index finger), featuring usually live or occasionally live-to-tape interviews with notable public figures, Peščanik (hourglass), liberal talk show, radio blog of a sort, and the morning program Dizanje (getting up).
Television
In September 2000, B92-TV began broadcasting as a local TV station reaching Belgrade's greater municipal area and parts of Vojvodina. Over the next few years, the station expanded its network of repeaters and could be seen in most of Serbia.
In April 2006 B92 was officially given a national commercial broadcasting license along with TV Pink, Fox Televizija, TV Avala and TV Košava. The station's most notable regular TV programmes include Utisak nedelje (Impression of the week) by Olja Bećković, Poligraf by Jugoslav Ćosić and Antonela Riha, and Timofejev by Aleksandar Timofejev. The Insajder series by Brankica Stanković runs intermittently and presents perhaps a unique case of investigative journalism on Serbian televisions. Short comedy series Mile vs. Tranzicija by Zoran Cvijanović has a kind of cult status.
In recent years, B92 has undertaken a noticeable shift towards commercialization. Since 2006, it broadcasts the Serbian version of Big Brother reality series (Veliki brat), for which it received both a huge boost of ratings, as well as much criticism from its traditional viewers. Furthermore the trend has continued with shows like Uzmi ili ostavi and Želite li da postanete milioner? quizzes (local versions of Deal or No Deal and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, respectively).
B92 also currently holds the Serbian market TV rights for UEFA Champions League (since September 2003) and UEFA European U-21 C'ship, live broadcasts.
2007/08 season
In rating seasons starting September 2007 lasting until July 2008 B92 has introduced a much more commercialised line-up. It has heavily advertised its shows during the non-ratings season of summer 2007.
The network has bought out rights to broadcast a new local show called Naša mala klinika based around a small medicinal practice on the outskirts of town. The show features many famous Serbian actors and actresses. Another local show called Vratiće se rode will be shown on B92. The network has also filmed a new season of popular comedy show Mile vs. Tranzicija. All other popular political and quiz shows will return for the year.
Internationally created shows currently broadcast by B92 (correct as of July 2008)[1]:
| Original name | Local name | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| NewsRadio | Radio stanica | 
|
| Sex and the City | Seks i grad |
|
| Grey's Anatomy | Uvod u anatomiju |
|
| Numb3rs | Broj3vi |
|
| Sheena | Šina |
|
| TriBeCa | Tribeka |
|
| Huff | Doktor Haf |
|
In 2007, B92 has been 3rd most watched television in Serbia. 2007 audience share is 9.3%.
News
In recent years the daily newscast on B92 has become popular with viewers. It’s news service is now the second most watched in Serbia after the national broadcaster. The daily new cast at 11.p.m. is particularly popular and has had a large surge in the ratings. The news provided by B92 is very comprehensive and perhaps this has made its rating go up in recent years.
Music and book publishing
B92 also runs a record label, although in recent years its releases are few and far between. Some of the notable Serbian acts B92 helped launch include: Eyesburn, Darkwood Dub, Kanda, Kodža i Nebojša, Intruder, Vrooom, Kal etc. The label also released albums by somewhat more established acts such as Boban Marković, Rambo Amadeus, Eva Braun, Jarboli.
B92's book publishing arm is Samizdat B92 featuring prominent young authors such as Marko Vidojković and Srđan Valjarević, as well as a number of foreign authors.
B92 also runs the Rex cultural centre in Jevrejska Street.
B92.net (ex OpenNet)
B92.net was established as OpenNet in late 1995 as the Internet division of Radio B92. In its first few months of operation a dial-up connection with Amsterdam provider XS4ALL was used. At the beginning of 1996, OpenNet became Yugoslavia’s first Internet provider, using an analogue leased line from XS4ALL and six local dial-up lines. OpenNet also supported the local network of Radio B92, ANEM Radio and ANEM Television by providing non-stop live Internet broadcast of Radio and TV B92 programs, together with the distribution of audio and video materials among the ANEM radio and television stations. In this way, everything produced by ANEM and Radio B92 was available on the Internet. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, when representatives of the Slobodan Milošević regime raided the Radio B2-92 premises and disabled its transmitter, OpenNet continued to broadcast the radio program over the Internet. The signal was rebroadcast via satellite and by several radio stations in neighbouring countries. All of this was done with support from RealNetworks.
B92 Net has been the leading Serbian internet site since 1996. At present the average number of page views per day exceeds 1.000,000, while the daily average number of visitors peaks at 200,000. Alexa (www.alexa.com) ranked B92 site at number 917 while Google Page Ranks puts it at 7, making it the best positioned South East Europe website.
B92 Info
B92 Info is a news broadcasting channel launched by B92 on April 7, 2008. The channel is broadcasted on all major cable systems in the country and over the internet. All of B92’s most popular news-related shows, including Poligraf, B92 Investigates, Insajder, Kažiprst, Dizanje, and sports programs, will be broadcast on the channel. B92 has called Info channel launch the biggest project of the company's television segment.[2]
References
External links
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