Income of forty biggest media in Serbia in the last year increased by 7 %, amounting to EUR 387m, the “Media Daily” regional portal reports. “Radio Televizija Srbije” (RTS) public broadcaster is still the leader on the list, with nearly EUR 5m higher income, which makes it a record holder among public broadcasters in the South East Europe.
This is the third year in a row that RTS’s income rises, but at the same time RTS’s earnings are sinking. In 2017 its earnings were slightly higher than EUR 12m, whereas in 2018 its earnings amounted to the “slim” 1.3 million Euros. The broadcaster reduced the number of workers by 69 and now employs 2.927 workers. The second on the list, “Pink International”, registered a tremendous rise in income by EUR 14m. “Pink” obviously had an amazing business year, taking into account that its earnings increased too, and now amount to “respectable” EUR 10.2m in comparison with EUR 7.3m in 2017. Furthermore, “Pink” now has more employees, namely 730, which is more than in any other television broadcaster house in the Balkans. Another two television broadcasters are included on the list of the biggest media houses, “Prva” TV with serious rise in income of EUR 6.6m is the third on the list, whereas HD WIN, the daughter company of “Telekom Srbija”, which manages the channels “Arena Sport”, “Superstar” and others, is on the fourth position.
Interestingly enough, HD WIN has nearly 10x higher income than UMP (“Sport klub”), its direct competitor on the field of TV sports rights. The first publishing house on the list is “Ringier Axel Springer”, publisher of the “Blic daily”, which is placed the fifth. “Ringier” is far above other publishers, and although registers a drop in income for the third consecutive year, it registered earnings amounting to almost one million Euros. The most severe fall on the list is registered by TV “Happy”, with almost 50 % drop in income, which fell from the eleventh to the sixteenth place, and newspaper publisher “Politika” newspapers and magazines, whose income was halved. Accordingly, it dropped from the seventh to the tenth place.
Serious drop in income is registered by “Adria Media” magazines, 100 % owned by “Adria Media Group”. The year of 2018 was not bright for TV N1 either. In addition to income stagnation, this television broadcaster is faced with losses which over the previous three years amounted to EUR 1.5m in total. On the other hand, during 2018, “Color Media International”, led by Robert Čoban, publisher of a number of magazines and weeklies, such as “Gloria”, “Story”, “Lepota i zdravlje”, and many others, registered a rise in income. “Color Media” is present on all markets in the South East Europe and is strongly expanding. Among the Internet portals, “Internet group” registered a nice rise in income. It manages “Telegraf”, which rose from the 25. to the 22. position. “Telegraf” is right behind “Kurir” and “Blic” when it comes to visiting Internet portals, and is positioned third.
