Radio Market

During the course of 2018, there were 314 registered radio stations in Serbia. Relative to other media, radio can count on the least advertising revenues, just €9 million in 2018. As a result, radio seeks to achieve sustainability through a reliance on musical and entertainment programs, with news content reduced to a minimum (typically very short news bulletins).

Radio is seeking to develop its new, creative ways of expression through integration with the internet, with an increasing number of podcasts and live program transmission online.

Unlike television, the digitalization of radio has still not been completed, with the media community arguing that the analogue signal should not be abolished and that digital frequencies should be available to broadcasters who seek them and are interested in this kind of investment.

Regardless of the number of broadcasters, only a few of the biggest stations reach more than half the radio audience in the highly concentrated radio market. These are the two radio stations of the public service broadcaster RTS and commercial radio broadcasters – Radio Play (formerly B92), Radio S, Radio S2, Radio S3 (S Media group), Radio HIT FM and Radio TDI (owned by the Krdžić family) are among the most listened to in the country.

In the small and controlled market, radio stations for good measure resemble each other, as they mainly broadcast pop music and entertainment programs.

In the current context of strong political influence, even control over the media, radio has lost the important informational role that it had in the 1990s. A good example is former radio B92, once a symbol of the independent media and the permanent struggle for its defence. During the 1990s and 2000s, it was known for its news content and reporting on current events. After it was sold to an international media company in 2010, B92 was turned into a radio station which broadcasts only music, despite the strong ratings that it previously had thanks to its news content. The overlapping effect of these two trends – global commercialization and strong political influence – have encouraged this sudden change.