Data on the media market in Serbia is insufficiently transparent, and there is a lack of better self-regulation.

Without clearer data and better regulation, the market will develop more slowly in all areas - from its profitability to (self)regulation and transparency, it was assessed at a gathering presenting the Media Association's study "The Right Measurement of Media 2025".

The data collected for the purposes of this research encompasses a large portion, but not all media, and unlike some other countries, message distribution is fragmented by types of media (print, newspapers, radio, TV, internet), which makes it difficult to accurately track consumer behavior.

To change this situation, collaboration among all market participants is necessary, from research agencies, advertisers, and media to the state, and this data should be utilized not only by companies but also by decision-makers to enhance the public interest.

"The right measurement of the effect of money spent (on a marketing campaign) is extremely expensive. In a country like Serbia, measuring the Internet is limited by material capabilities; we cannot distribute 10,000 phones and then track the entire (user journey). In some of the largest media outlets, the number of visitors on a monthly basis remains the most important metric. This means that a person who has visited your site 30 times is valued the same as someone who accidentally stopped by. This doesn't make much sense; you need to focus on loyal audiences and how long someone truly engages with your content," said Milan Kovačević, Regional Manager for the Adriatic at Gemius (the largest European online research agency).

He added that the largest advertisers, due to a lack of adequate data, do not make informed decisions, meaning they spend money on campaigns that may not lead to increased sales.

"As in the old rule, I know that half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; I just don't know which half," Kovačević stated.

Data is also lacking from global digital platforms, which prevents them from tracking how much of the advertiser's message is actually displayed.

An example would be when they attempt to sell their products through Google campaigns, where they only have data that someone saw an ad and bought a phone, but they do not see why "that person bought exactly that phone."

"They probably saw the ad on television, on a billboard, and only the final part of the purchase becomes visible. Therefore, it is necessary to track the same person through different channels and media, and to monitor how many times they saw your message in other places to get a complete picture. We work together with Nielsen in Poland; this opportunity could exist in Serbia with certain changes. These models are expensive, but not as much as wasting money on the wrong campaigns," concluded Kovačević.

Dejan Radosavljević from Ipsos adds that researching the true image of the media market in Serbia is like "walking with a candle through catacombs," meaning that only a part of the truth is accessible to all interested parties.

He stated that solutions need to be found for how small media outlets can access relevant data and the means to evaluate it, so they can become relevant even in their "small, local market."

If they did this, for example, by collaborating and placing a joint order for such research, they could build their strategy and market niche, but the first question is how much they understand the value of that information and whether they have the resources to use it.

"For instance, in Niš, local stations play a significant role in the radio segment. Those five or six (stations) could collaborate and purchase data collectively. Who is first on the list of listenership is irrelevant; they could find out what they have and what resources they possess. They are competitors, but also partners in such a market.

According to him, the "right measurement of media" in the future should focus on attention - what and how an individual saw, heard, recognized, which could later be interpreted, and how and why people avoid news, which is also one of the global trends.

"The future will not knock on our door anytime soon, at least not until we reach a value of the advertising market of around 500 million, and cross-media measurement is definitely the future," Kovačević believes.

The reach of the internet among the domestic audience of media content surpassed television during 2025, taking on the role of the main channel of communication for media content, as stated in the results of the research for the first half of 2025 presented by Kovačević.

Although television remains strong and dominates both information and entertainment,

in Serbia, a total of 2,186 media outlets were registered in the APR Media Register in 2025, which is almost identical to the number in 2018, with around 1,180 of them being online media.

"For the first time, the internet surpassed television in daily reach and took on the role of the main communication channel; print media is losing the race and audience, while radio is holding up well, becoming a medium of entertainment, but losing its role in informing, among other things, in the competition with podcasts," he adds.

Another problem is the "fragmentation of audience attention," adds Silvija Atijas Ristić from Nielsen, referring to the "splitting" of the audience and content across devices and media consumption methods, which are trends evident worldwide.

This further complicates the collection of relevant data.

"A partnership with all stakeholders is essential for obtaining more precise data. We are currently measuring only a part of the media that we know exist, specifically those that are visible to advertisers. (An example would be) streaming in Serbia, which is occasionally consumed by around 15 percent of respondents, but this is the future - to also include streaming in viewership, for which collaboration among all is necessary," added Atijas Ristić.

Lawyer Miloš Stojković points out that this data is needed not only by advertisers but also for defining goals in public policy.

"The state has not utilized the potential of the enormous amount of data as a policy maker; agencies may have data that the state lacks, and opportunities are consistently missed to leverage them to create public policy measures, instead of letting policies dictate the market," Stojković added.

He cites as an example the co-financing of media content, which could also be improved with better data usage, but also notes that it is crucial to understand for what purposes the data is used.

"More than methodology, context is more important - what we want to achieve and for what purposes, to arrive at measurements that have (utility value) for decision-makers, but they must support the sector in standardizing the data that is collected... There has been much discussion about this before; it is just a matter of how extensive (data collection) needs to be and which players should be included: it's not just agencies, media, and advertisers; streaming and other platforms are also part of it. First, the stakeholders need to be identified and see what unites them, then we can begin," he noted.

Source: Beta