B92

B92

Country	Serbia
Ownership
Owner	B92 Trust, MDLF, Dexy Co.

B92 is a radio and television station in Belgrade, Serbia. Its target audience is chiefly urban and young public, and its programs, including news programs display fairly recognizable liberal political attitudes. It can be compared to Channel 4 in UK.

The station was a rare independent outlet for news and information in Serbia under Slobodan Milošević, and was a force behind many demonstrations that took place in Belgrade during the turbulent 1990s. Due to this, B92 won MTV Free Your Mind award in 1998, and many other awards for journalism and fighting for human rights. B92 is the subject of the bestselling book This is Serbia Calling.

B92 is led by Veran Matić, one of the most respected media managers in the Balkans region.

History

The radio station originally went on the air in 1989, though it was shut down by authorities a few times in its early years. It was forced off the air for a time in 1999 when NATO bombed Serbia, and government agents cracked down on independent reporting. The government took over the station in 1999 but the team continued broadcasting in borrowed studios as B2-92. In a dawn raid in May 2000 government troops seized everything but internet broadcasting from secret studios continued until after the ousting of Slobodan Milošević in October 2000, when the two stations were unified. It has continued as a combined music and news radio station since.

Later on, TV station, Internet portal and ISP were introduced, as well as CD and book labels.

Radio

The B92 radio station was founded in May 1989 in Belgrade as a predominantly youth-oriented station. Throughout the years it has become a regional radio with wide audience. The radio station has about 400,000 listeners on a daily basis which is around 35% of all radio listeners with almost 80 stations on the air. As of recently, radio B92 covers Vojvodina and Central Serbia.

The most notable radio shows are Kažiprst (index finger), featuring usually live or occasionally live-to-tape interviews with notable public figures, Peščanik (hourglass), liberal talk show, radio blog of a sort, and the morning program Dizanje (getting up).

Television

File:Insajder.jpg

Investigative series on b92

File:Utisaknedelje.jpg

Utisak nedelje

In September 2000, B92-TV began broadcasting as a local TV station reaching Belgrade's greater municipal area and parts of Vojvodina. Over the next few years, the station expanded its network of repeaters and could be seen in most of Serbia.

In April 2006 B92 was officially given a national commercial broadcasting license along with TV Pink, Fox Televizija, TV Avala and TV Košava. Since the late 2002 when Serbian TV ratings began to be recorded in earnest, B92 consistently ranks among the top five most popular stations, not too far behind public service broadcaster RTS and leading commercial network TV Pink.

The station's most notable regular TV programmes include Utisak nedelje (Impression of the week) by Olja Bećković, Poligraf by Jugoslav Ćosić and Antonela Riha, and Timofejev by Aleksandar Timofejev. The Insajder series by Brankica Stanković runs intermittently and presents perhaps a unique case of investigative journalism on Serbian televisions. Short comedy series Mile vs. Tranzicija by Zoran Cvijanović has a kind of cult status.

In recent years, B92 has undertaken a noticeable shift towards commercialization. Since 2006, it broadcasts the Serbian version of Big Brother reality series (Veliki brat), for which it received both a huge boost of ratings, as well as much criticism from its traditional viewers. Furthermore the trend has continued with shows like Uzmi ili ostavi and Želite li da postanete milioner? quizzes (local versions of Deal or No Deal and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, respectively).

B92 also currently holds the Serbian market TV rights for Formula 1, UEFA Champions League (since September 2003) and Spanish La Liga live broadcasts.

2007/08 season

In rating seasons starting September 2007 lasting until July 2008 B92 has introduced a much more commercialised line-up. It has heavily advertised its shows during the non-ratings season of summer 2007.

The network has bought out rights to broadcast a new local show called Naša mala klinika based around a small medicinal practice on the outskirts of town. The show features many famous Serbian actors and actresses. Another local show called Vratiće se rode will be shown on B92. The network has also filmed a new season of popular comedy show Mile vs. Tranzicija. All other popular political and quiz shows will return for the year.

Internationally created shows broadcast by B92 (as of October 2007)

Original name	Serbian translation	Origin
Cobra	Kobra
The Young and the Restless	Mladi i nestašni
Medium	Medijum
Deadwood	Dedvud
Wild Card	Džoker
That '70s Show	Vesele 70-te
Extras	Statisti
South Park	Saut Park

News

In recent years the daily newscast on B82 has become popular with viewers. It’s new service is now the second most watched in Serbia after the national broadcaster. The daily new cast at 11.p.m. is particularly popular and has had a large serge in the ratings. The news provided by B92 is very comprehensive and perhaps this has made its rating go up in recent years.

Music and book publishing

B92 also runs a record label, although in recent years its releases are few and far between. Some of the notable Serbian acts B92 helped launch include: Eyesburn, Darkwood Dub, Kanda, Kodža i Nebojša, Intruder, Vrooom, Kal etc. The label also released albums by somewhat more established acts such as Boban Marković, Rambo Amadeus, Eva Braun, Jarboli.

B92's book publishing arm is Samizdat B92 featuring prominent young authors such as Marko Vidojković and Srđan Valjarević, as well as a number of foreign authors.

B92 also runs the Rex cultural centre in Jevrejska Street.

B92.net (ex OpenNet)

B92.net was established as OpenNet in late 1995 as the Internet division of Radio B92. In its first few months of operation a dial-up connection with Amsterdam provider XS4ALL was used. At the beginning of 1996, OpenNet became Yugoslavia’s first Internet provider, using an analogue leased line from XS4ALL and six local dial-up lines. OpenNet also supported the local network of Radio B92, ANEM Radio and ANEM Television by providing non-stop live Internet broadcast of Radio and TV B92 programs, together with the distribution of audio and video materials among the ANEM radio and television stations. In this way, everything produced by ANEM and Radio B92 was available on the Internet. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, when representatives of the Slobodan Milošević regime raided the Radio B2-92 premises and disabled its transmitter, OpenNet continued to broadcast the radio program over the Internet. The signal was rebroadcast via satellite and by several radio stations in neighbouring countries. All of this was done with support from RealNetworks.

Today B92.net is also an Internet service provider.

Web portal: www.b92.net

www.b92.net, the internet portal of B92, has been the most popular website in Serbia for nearly 10 years and it counts some 107,000 visitors per day. The B92 portal is ranked as the 992nd most popular website in the world http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/b92.net place worldwide according to Alexa, as of 17 December 2007.

Design

B92 is also a player in the local design scene, and has its own in-house creative team.

External links

• B92's official page
• B92: About Us
• Rex Center
• B92 - A Content Production Revolution - Poynter Online