Today we publish the second continuation of the recapitulation of the most important events in the media and telecom industry published on the Media daily portal in the past 2020. The announcements refer to the period from the fourth to the sixth month.

April 2020

  • Due to the inability to move (lockdown) due to epidemiological measures, more and more media outlets started working from home. The growth of internet use has grown significantly, as have all kinds of digital information, entertainment, and business. The media began broadcasting advertising messages urging citizens to remain responsible.
  • Nielsen has published data on television ratings in the region since the onset of the coronavirus crisis. The largest increase in viewership was in Cyprus, followed by Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia.
  • We have written many times about the preservation of jobs in the media and the necessary assistance of the state to preserve jobs because in such a crisis we saw how important professional media are to obtain timely and accurate information.
  • The transition to the DVB-T2 broadcasting system in Croatia, which was later scheduled for the end of last year, has been postponed.
  • There has been a change in the editorial board of one of the leading Slovenian portals, Siol.net, owned by the state-owned Telecom. Peter Jančič, former editor-in-chief of Delo, became the editor-in-chief.
  • The public RTV service Macedonian Radio and Television (MRT) has launched as many as four new specialized television channels (MTV 2-5).
  • We have started publishing a series of articles on media financing from the state budget of the Republic of Croatia for 2019. In January this year, we start with the announcement for 2020.
  • Due to the cessation of organizing sports events, there was a cessation of live sports content broadcasting on television, so sports platforms such as Planet TV decided not to charge for the service.
  • Hayat TV aired its prime News at seven for the first time from a new TV studio, Magyar Telecom launched a 5G service, Google established a Journalism Assistance Fund, and Sarajevo journalist and publicist Raif Čehajić published the book “Radio Zenica: 50 Years of Global Media”.
  • At the proposal of the Ministry of Communications and TransportRAK was asked to postpone the release of the digital signal of Multiplex C. The deadline for the commissioning of Mux C was 31.12.2020. but nothing happened.
  • In BiH, he started broadcasting BIR TV, a television that nurtures Islamic values. Facebook also launched the Journalism Fund, United Group announced the takeover of the Greek Forthnet and the Croatian Football Association (HNS) announced a tender for the sale of TV rights for another 10 years.

May 2020

  • The World Press Freedom Day was marked, on which our portal started working in 2018. The 25th anniversary of the Sarajevo Mediacentar was also marked.
  • After a year-long preparation, the first streaming music platform in Serbia called Youbox was launched.
  • Four private commercial national radio stations HIT FM, Play radio, Radio S1, and Radio S2 have started broadcasting in DAB + mux in Serbia. Before that, only three radio programs of RTV Serbia were broadcast: Radio Belgrade 1, Radio Belgrade 2, and Belgrade 202.
  • Telecom Slovenia, A1, and T-2 have eliminated from their offer all the channels of Sportklub, Grand, Pikaboo, Vavoom, Lov i Ribolov, and IDJ. At the same time, information appeared about the launch of the Arena sport channel in Slovenia.
  • The company Robur, a broadcaster of Adriatic TV from Zadar and Velebit TV from Gospić, also went bankrupt.
  • The Management Board of RTS has decided on announcing a public competition for the appointment of the General Director of the Radio-Television of Serbia. The director has not yet been elected, and the competition has been annulled and re-announced because no candidate has received a sufficient number of votes.
  • We conducted a large EBU analysis of trust in the media in several sequels, BH Telecom started testing the 5G network, and we published information about threats to journalists several times.
  • The tape about copyright respect in Northern Macedonia continued, and the United Group also announced the launch of the Newsmax Adria channel.

June 2020

  • Serbian Cable Networks (SBB) has announced the shutdown of its D3i platform, and all users have been provided with a free replacement of the D3i device for the EON Smart Box with EON packages.
  • We started with the announcements of the largest media by country according to revenues in 2019. First in line was Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • TV Istra in Croatia has also shut down, and Euronews has appointed Bojan Brkić as the editor-in-chief of Euronews Serbia. The program has not yet started broadcasting.
  • We exclusively wrote about the fact that the United group did not submit an offer for the purchase of Optima telecom and that the Jugoslovenka TV Pink series will be filmed on Hvar.
  • The HNS executive committee has accepted an offer from Swedish company Endorphin Magine, which is offering 103m euros for HNL TV rights for ten years, and the Champions League is moving to Arena Sport, which won a competition for TV rights across the region.
  • The launch of RTV Podgorica and Radio S in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been announced. We published Reuters’ Digital news report and announced the launch of the Shoppster TV channel and web store.
  • The expansion of the Disney + service to eight more countries have been announced, and we have criticized the behavior of the Transmitters and Communications (OIV) administration for paying bonuses while the media is shutting down.
  • Hayat Television has, for the umpteenth time, warned of the illogicalities arising from the results of the measurement of television ratings in Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted by Audience measurement Ltd.
  • Žikina šarenica, a well-known Serbian television show, which has been broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays on RTS since 2005, and then in 2018 on Pink television, has stopped broadcasting.
  • We also wrote about whether Telecom Serbia will succeed in buying the Kosovo operator Ipko, and why Nina Obuljen Koržinek does not deserve a second term as Minister of Culture in the Republic of Croatia.
  • Towards the end of this month, the broadcasting of Kurir TV started, the decision on the appointment of the General Manager of BHRT was postponed, and a new online platform for professionals from the TV industry was announced, NEM Network, designed as a virtual edition of NEM Dubrovnik and NEM Zagreb.

TOMORROW AT 2 PM: Looking back to 2020; Forget it as soon as possible! Part 3 (7-9 month)