PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION IN THE DIGITAL AGE Strategies and Opportunities in Five South-East European Countries Sarajevo, 2008. Title: PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION IN THE DIGITAL AGE: STRATEGIES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN FIVE SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES The project was carried out within the framework of the South East European Network for the Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) project "Collision and Cooperation; Media Business Interests and the Public Needs in South East Europe," which is supported by International Media Support/The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affaires. Publisher: MEDIACENTAR Sarajevo, Kolodvorska 3, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, www.media.ba For Publisher: Borislav KONTI] Edited by: Miklós SÜKÖSD and Adla ISANOVI] Authors: Adla ISANOVI], Miklós SÜKÖSD, Marko MILOSAVLJEVI^, Orlin SPASSOV, Zrinjka PERU[KO, Helena POPOVI], Mirjana MILO[EVI], Tanja PETROVI] Project coordinator: Adla ISANOVI] Technical editor: Sanela HOD@I] Proofreading: Michael MEHEN, Florence GRAHAM Design: Samira SALIHBEGOVI] Printing: Bemust, Sarajevo Circulation: 500 copies The views and opinions presented in the book are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Mediacentar Sarajevo or its donors. CIP - Katalogizacija u publikaciji Nacionalna i univerzitetska biblioteka Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo 316.774 : 654.197] : 004 (497.1/ .6) (082) PUBLIC service television in the digital age : strategies and opportunities in five South-East Europian countries / [authors Adla Isanovi} … [et al.] ; edited by Miklós Sükösd and Adla Isanovi}] . - Sarajevo : Mediacentar, 2008. - 324 str. : graf. prikazi ; 17 x 17 cm The authors: str. 316-319. - Bibliografija: str. 311-315 i uz tekst ISBN 978-9958-9417-7-1 1. Isanovi}, Adla COBISS.BH-ID 16536070 This book is published within the SEENPM South-East European Network for the Professionalization of the Media www.seenpm.org The publishing of this book was supported by International Media Support / The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affaires CONTENT Adla ISANOVI] & Miklós SÜKÖSD: UNCERTAIN FUTURE: PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION AND THE DIGITAL AGE IN FIVE SOUTH-EEAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 7 Marko MILOSAVLJEVI^: CAN TECHNICAL NEEDS DICTATE CULTURAL AND PUBLIC INTERESTS? PUBLIC SERVICE PROGRAMMING AND THE DIGITAL AGE IN SLOVENIA 39 Orlin SPASSOV: PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION IN BULGARIA AT THE END OF THE ANALOG AGE 99 Zrinjka PERU[KO & Helena POPOVI]: FROM TRANSMISSION TO THE PUBLIC GOOD: MEDIA POLICY FOR THE DIGITAL AGE IN CROATIA 141 Mirjana MILO[EVI] & Tanja PETROVI]: THE LATE BEGINNING OF DIGITAL TELEVISION IN SERBIA 191 Adla ISANOVI]: WILL THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION BE TELEVISED? CONCERNS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC SERVICE PROGRAMMING IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 239 THE AUTHORS 316 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 320 UNCERTAIN FUTURE: PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION AND THE DIGITAL AGE IN FIVE SOUTH-EEAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES By Adla ISANOVI] & Miklós SÜKÖSD Adla ISANOVI] Miklós SÜKÖSD The Digital Challenge for Television Broadcasters Although the rise of new technologies has not ended TV viewing, it has certainly transformed it. The interplay of technological changes (in the production, distribution and reception of media content), market changes (internationalisation, commercialisation and concentration), and the changes in audience behaviour, all of which together create new conditions for traditional media players, challenging the very idea of communication and changing every aspect of how programming is provided, received or used. We are witnessing and living amidst a fundamental process that changes the relations between technologies, industries, markets, genres, and audiences. Some of these challenges are promising, bringing advantages to consumers, media/communication industries and states. Advantages for audiences include increased choice and better technical quality of transmision of image and sound for consumers, portable and mobile television reception, interactive and participative media technologies, transfering power from schedulers and broadcasters to audiences/users of media content and services. The media/communication industries are also seen as beneficiaries of the digitalisation process: digital compression and universality of formats created prospects for both hardwares and programmes, convergence of services, lower transmission costs, globalisation of digital content distribution. The benefits for states include more efficient use of frequency spectrum 8 and the possibility to reach the population that lives in areas that due to spectrum UNCERTAIN FUTURE: PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION AND THE DIGITAL AGE IN FIVE SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES limitations is currently not able to receive a signal; heightened access to programming by minorities may be among the added value of digitalisation. Other challenges of digitalisation may be seen at the same time as threatening. The possible drawbacks include social exclusion (i.e., it might not be affordable for some members of the population), extreme audience fragmentation as well as fragmentation of the public sphere, the diminished social and national integrative role of the media, shrinking advertising revenues due to extreme fragmentation of the market (which could force media companies to look for other sources of revenues), media concentration, etc. When speaking of broadcasting in the digital age, discussions mostly concetrate on the issue of the introduction of digital television. The digitalisation of broadcasting, the replacement of analogue television, is set to finish in many European countries by 2012, and others by 2015 the latest. After June 17, 2015, countries in Europe will no longer need to protect the analogue services of neighbouring countries. The analogue signal will be switched off, which will inevitabely impact the entire media industry chain, from the content and service providers to the audiences. New trends that reconfigure the whole media landscape are especiallly challenging for public service broadcasters (PSBs), since they not only change the technical condition under which they are to operate, but also make necessary the re- conceptualisation of their traditional role and remit. ”Even the very notion of PSB is being challenged. The "public" is in the process of becoming consumers. The kind of "service" which should be offered is under debate and "broadcasting" now accounts for only a part of the activity”1 (Nissen, 2006) Several periods of European public service broadcasting featured debates on the definition and justification of public service and now such debates are infused with 1 Nissen, C. S. Public Service Media in the Information Society. Report prepared for the Council of Europe's Group of Specialists on Public Service Broadcasting in the Information Society (MC-S- PSB), 2006, p.8. 9 Adla ISANOVI] Miklós SÜKÖSD arguments about the impact of digitalization2. Furthermore, there exist external pressures from domestic and transnational actors (e.g. commercial media enterprises) as well as international institutions such as the World Trade Organization "which seem to want to treat television, and indeed, culture, as just another commodity."3 Fragmentation of the audience, decreasing audience share of the PSB, weakening of the integrative role of the PBS, and the decline in public support for PSB might lead to the further questioning of the mandatory licence fee and of public funding. That puts a big question mark over the future of PSB, and leads many to ask themselves, is public service broadcasting finished? Nevertheless, there are also those who argue that the need for public service media will not disappear in the new context. As Marko Milosavljevi~ reminds us, "the plurality of channels doesn't automatically bring plurality of sources and content. The reasons for the existence of PSB will stay the same as they are today."4 The starting assumption of our research was that we will continue to need public value and represent public interest in media services, an agent for social, cultural and political cohesion in a democratic society. We also presumed that commercial providers of media content are not capable of fulfilling that mission alone and that the PSB must therefore strategically confront new challenges in order to enable its sustainability and development in a digital environment. The two main questions of our research were 2 For more see Nissen, C. S. Public Service Media in the Information Society. Report prepared for the Council of Europe's Group of Specialists on Public Service Broadcasting in the Information Society (MC-S-PSB), 2006. 3 EUMAP, "Television Across Europe: Regulation, Policy and Independence", (Bosnia - Herzegovina). Open Society Institute (EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program- EUMAP), 2005, pp. 38-39. 4 M. Milosavljevi~, "Can Technical Needs Dictate Cultural and Public Interests? Public Service Programming and the Digital Age in Slovenia", in M. Sükösd and A. Isanovi} (ed.). Public Service Television in the Digital Age: Strategies and Opportunities in Five South- East European Countries. 10 Mediacentar Sarajevo, 2008. UNCERTAIN FUTURE: PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION AND THE DIGITAL AGE IN FIVE SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES as follows. To what degree are PSBs in the five selected Southeast European countries ready to meet the new challenges? What actions and policies are needed to ensure the existence and development of public service TV programming in a digital environment? Challenges for Public Service Television in Central / Southeastern Europe In many Central and East