B92: Difference between revisions

For other uses, see B92 (disambiguation).

RTV B92

Native name	RTV B92
Company type	Public limited company
Industry	Media
Founded	October 6th 2000
Headquarters	Bulevar Zorana Đinđića 11, Belgrade , Serbia
Area served	Serbia Worldwide
Key people	Srđan Milovanović (General director)
Revenue	€9.74 million (2018)
Net income	€0.61 million (2018)
Total assets	€13.88 million (2018)
Total equity	€0
Owner	Srđan Milovanović
Number of employees	116 (2018)
Website	www.b92.net

RTV B92, or simply B92, is a Serbian news station and television and radio broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia.

Founded in 1990 as radio station, it was a rare outlet for Western news and information in Republic of Serbia under Slobodan Milošević, and was a force behind many demonstrations that took place in Belgrade during the turbulent 1990s. It also played rock music.

TV B92 was founded on 6th October 2000. two months after overthrow of Slobodan Milošević.

In December 2010 B92 launched secondary channel TV B92 Info for informations from politics and sports channel is still active to this day.

On September 7th 2015. TV B92 changed their television ident to purple cube.

In December 2018. Kopernikus bought rights of TV B92 and Prva Srpska Televizija.

History

The radio station originally went on the air in 1989 with financial help from the Open Society Foundations and the USAID, 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 Yugoslavia, and government agents cracked down on pro-Western 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 Milošević in October 2000, when the two stations were unified. It has continued as a combined music and news radio station since.

During the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, RTV B92 was one of the very few sources for news not controlled by the government. Although the government did everything in its power to prevent RTV B92 from transmitting its programs they failed. With the help of Dutch internet provider XS4All, RTV B92 started broadcasting their programs over the internet in 1996. These broadcasts were then also re-transmitted via the BBC World Service while several local stations on the ground made the programs available throughout Serbia In 1996 the Internationale Medienhilfe organisation awarded the title "Radiostation des Jahres" to Radio B92.

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

Radio

1989–2015: B92 Radio

Radio B92 was founded in May 1989 in Belgrade as a predominantly youth-oriented station on 92.5 MHz FM. Throughout the years it has become a national radio with wide audience. The radio station at its peak had around 400,000 daily listeners which made up 35% of all radio listeners with almost 80 stations competing for airtime. As of 2014, Radio B92 covered the whole of the territory of Serbia.

The most notable radio shows were 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, edited by Svetlana Vuković and Svetlana Lukić and the morning program Dizanje (getting up).

In the afternoon of 9 July 2015, most of the radio employees were fired. Among the people who lost their job on that occasion were all employees in the news and music section—sections that made Radio B92's trademark. On that same day all radio shows were cancelled, leaving only the radio broadcasting music and two remaining employees responsible for that.

2015–present: Play Radio

On 13 July 2015, the new Play Radio began on 92.5 MHz FM, broadcasting only music and the promo of the station, this time mentioning the B92 name. Following the name change, the B92's site's radio section now redirects to the Play Radio website, which includes a stream, which lets visitors listen to the station. However, Play Radio began as a summer schedule announcement on the now-closed Radio B92. The station began broadcasting on 31 August 2015 at 06:00.

Television

Old B92 headquarters in Novi Beograd

TV B92's first logo used from 6 October 2000 to 6 April 2010

TV B92

2000-2010

On 6 October 2000. TV B92 begun and started using shows from other countries and other things.

Show that aired in this period

-Karaoke Obračun

-Veliki Brat

-SpongeBob SquarePants

-CatDog

-Ren&Stimpy Show

-The Wild Thornberrys

-Tajni Agent Izzy

-Fiffy and Flowertots

-Bratz

-Marka Žvaka

-Yellow Cab

-Sho-be-do

-South Park

2010-2015

TV B92's second logo used from 7 April 2010 to 6th Septenber 2015

On 2010 B92 introduced newer series like Croatian series from Nova TV Larin Izbor,The Penguins of Madagascar which aired every Wednesday in 7PM until March 2011.Also the quiz Who Wants to be a Millionaire aired on from 15th May 2010 to 11th September 2012.Also japanese sports show with obstacles started on 13th August 2012. with Igor Brakus and Darko Kokorus(later replaced with Vladimir Đorđević).After Ninja Warrior is finished Unbeatable Banzuke started.Which ended in 2015

2012–2017

TV B92's fourth and final logo used from 19 March 2012 to 10 September 2017

In 2012, TV B92 got its fourth and final logo which was a purple cube with a golden flash. This purple cube had first arrived in Belgrade on 16 March 2012 when TV B92 made a discussion about the purple cube at Knez Mihailova Street in Belgrade. From 17 March 2012 to 18 March 2012, TV B92 began to air some promos with the purple cube and was advertising something. Later, Vesti B92 announced on 18 March 2012 at 11 pm, that TV B92 would implement a new logo and renewed on-air look on 19 March 2012. Finally on 19 March 2012, TV B92 discontinued its purple crystal-kryptonite logo and introduced a new logo that consists of a purple cube that has a golden flash as well as the "B92" wordmark are in the center of the purple cube, but is now spelled with a lowercase letter "b", known as b92. The purple cube was the last logo to carry TV B92's franchise and it was used for 5 years from 19 March 2012 to 10 September 2017.

On 18 March 2013, TV B92 aired the popular Croatian telenovela Larin izbor and on 11 September 2013, that same year, it started showing Turkish television drama for the first time as the last major Serbian commercial TV station to do so.

A year later on 3 November 2014, TV B92 started broadcasting in 16:9.

At last on 18 December 2016, the cable channel B92 Info has ceased to exist.

O2.TV

2017–present

In late October 2014, Serbian newspaper Blic reported that TV B92 will be possibly renamed to OTV by the end of 2014, with the result made after a petition made by former TV B92 employees telling the network to change its name, and around 1,500 people signed for the petition. One last step by that decision was the removal of the Serbian most popular political late-night talk show Utisak nedelje. Many public figures and media organizations protested stating that the removal of talk show was politically motivated by the ruling leader Aleksandar Vučić. TV B92 denied those claims labeling them as "false claims". Three months later, talk show author Olja Bećković confirmed those claims and accused Vučić as a man behind the removal of the talk show.

The planned channel OTV was said to be an entertainment-oriented TV station, but the logo of the newly tentative station OTV was unknown at the time. It was also said that the change would not affect the cable channel B92 Info, "which will continue to air with this name", and Radio B92 would continue to work in the same format.

Three years later on 11 September 2017, TV B92 completed the proposed re-branding and started broadcasting under the name of O2.TV. It was also announced that the web portal b92.net would continue operating.

As of today, TV B92 continues to operate as O2.TV, with national coverage.

Ownership

In November 2010, a Greek-Swedish joint-venture Astonko d.o.o. purchased 84.99% of shares from MDLF and NCA. B92 Trust retained 11.35% of shares and small shareholders had 3.66% of total shares. In September 2015, Greek ANT1 Group became the majority shareholder of TV B92. At the time, Greek media company ANT1 Group was also majority shareholder of Prva Srpska Televizija in Serbia, TV station with national coverage.

In December 2018, "Kopernikus Technology" former owner purchased B92 and Prva Srpska Televizija from ANT1 Group for 180 million euros, one month after Telekom Srbija bought Kopernikus Technology for 190 million euros. The transaction between state-owned Telekom Srbija and Kopernikus made public outrage in Serbia as Kopenikus' market worth at the time of purchase was several times lower than the amount it was purchased for; it was also revealed that major stakeholder in company was a close relative to ruling Serbian Progressive Party officer.

Other active segments

B92.net

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 programs of Radio B92 and TV B92, 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 government representatives raided the Radio B92 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 neighboring countries. All of this was done with support from RealNetworks.

Today, B92.net has English and Serbian version of the website. It has been the leading Serbian Internet site from 1996 to 2010s. At its peak, the average number of page views per day exceeded 1 million, while the daily average number of visitors peaked at 200,000. At its peak, Alexa.com ranked B92 site at the 917th global place.

As of December 2018, Alexa.com ranked B92.net at the 4,730th place, while also being 9th ranked in Serbia.

B92 Fond

Over the years, B92 has also been successfully running the Humanitarian Fund. One of its most notable actions were "Battle for the Babies", "Battle for the Maternity Wards", "Give blood—save life!" and others.

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 center. For more than 20 years, the headquarters of Rex cultural center and B92 Fond were in Jevrejska Street 16, Belgrade. Since December 2017, they are looking for a new location.

References

• Collin, M.: This Is Serbia Calling: Rock 'n' Roll Radio and Belgrade's Underground Resistance, Serpent's Tail, April 2001, ISBN 978-1-85242-682-8 (U.S. edition: Guerrilla Radio: Rock 'N' Roll Radio and Serbia's Underground Resistance, Nation Books, April 2002, ISBN 978-1-56025-404-1)

External links

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