30. 06. 2008

A PLATFORM FOR SERBIAN BROADCASTING SECTOR DIGITALIZATION

Media Sector Reform Group that was established and made up of the representatives of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (Nezavisno udruženje novinara Srbije, NUNS), Association of Independent Electronic Media (Asocijacija nezavisnih elektronskih medija, ANEM) and Association of Independent Local Printed Media Local Press (Asocijacija nezavisnih lokalnih štampanih medija Lokal Press), while expecting the introduction of indispensable institutional, technological and regulatory reforms to enable adequate transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting of signals, have adopted a joint Platform for the issues of broadcasting sector digitalization in Serbia.

This Platform is to announce our support for urgent establishing of an all-inclusive advisory body for broadcasting sector digitalization process, which should include the representatives of the relevant state institutions and agencies together with the representatives of media industry and telecommunication companies, as well as the representatives of the mass of users of their services.

Advisory body for digitalization process should start working by defining the aims of terrestrial broadcasting digitalization process. These aims should revolve around improvements of media pluralism and diversity of media contents through strengthening the offer of free-to-air (FTA) television channels and its enrichment with new digital broadcasting services.

Advisory body for digitalization process should also suggest a transition model for achieving the digital terrestrial broadcasting. Media Sector Reform Group shall insist on the solutions that will provide healthy competition coupled with effective barriers to unchartered media concentration and vertical integration, which will in turn enable digital terrestrial broadcasting to become strong competition to the basic cable and satellite direct-to-home (DTH) offer, before all through providing the possibility to receive both the analogous and digital broadcasting of all the national terrestrial channels in the initial stage, both those broadcast by the public service and those broadcast by the commercial televisions.

The stage of simultaneous analogue and digital broadcasting should be as short as possible, in order to quickly free the air for a richer offer of regional, local and specialized programmes, as well as for eventual introduction of Pay TV channels, all in order to swiftly make the range of programmes' offer in the digital terrestrial broadcasting richer than the range of programmes' offer in the analogue broadcasting.

Media Sector Reform Group is aware that the adopted model for transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting will comprise of the implementation in the densely populated areas first, and the Group shall thus support pilot projects in the biggest urban centers.

In Belgrade, on June 30, 2008   

Media Sector Reform Group 
NUNS, ANEM and Local Press