The public broadcaster Radio Television Serbia (RTS) operates five television channels and five radio stations. It also runs a music records house, a symphony orchestra, a jazz band, and a children’s choir. RTS’s history goes back to 1924 when Radio Belgrade was founded. Radio Television Belgrade (RTB), the first television station in Serbia, launched broadcasting in 1958.
Media assets
Television: RTS1, RTS2, RTS3, RTS Svet, RTS Nauka, RTS Drama, RTS Life, RTS Classic, RTS Kolo, RTS Trezor, RTS Music, RTS Poletarac
Radio: Radio Belgrade 1, Radio Belgrade 2, Radio Belgrade 3, Radio Belgrade 202, Radio Pletenica, Radio Rock and Roller, Radio Jukebox, Radio Vrteshka
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu)
Ownership and governance
RTS is a government-owned broadcaster whose highest governing body is a management board. According to information from local experts and journalists interviewed for this report in May 2024, the board elects the director general of the RTS and the station’s top editors. Its nine members are appointed by the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), the Serbian media regulator whose members are appointed solely on political grounds.
Source of funding and budget
RTS receives a significant part of its annual budget from the government. Legal provisions state that the license fee (a fee for public media, included in the monthly electricity bill, paid by all households in Serbia, which was introduced in 2016) should be RTS’ main funding source. The Law on the Public Broadcasting Services, the main legal act regulating RTS, adopted in 2014, states that the fee, set at RSD 500 (US$ 5) a month, should cover most of the expenditures of the station. Yet, a much lower fee was charged in the first years after the law was introduced, forcing the government to spend much more than expected.
In 2020, RTS operated with a total budget of RSD 13.3bn (US$ 118m). The license fee accounted for more than 64% of it, and advertising, the second largest source of financing, generated over 22% of the total. According to a broadcaster’s annual report, the state subsidy represented 12% of the yearly budget.
In 2021, RTS’s budget remained roughly the same: RSD 13.2bn (US$129 m). However, in 2022, local currency slightly increased to RSD 13.8bn (US$110 m) in local currency, according to a company business report. The license fee accounted for almost three-quarters of the total RTS budget for 2022.
In 2023, RTS reported a total revenue of RSD 14.7bn (US$ 136m), RSD 10.4bn generated by license fees, and RSD 3.4bn by ad sales. According to data from a company report, the broadcaster’s costs amounted to RSD 15.1bn.
Editorial independence
No legal provisions require RTS to produce propagandistic content about the Serbian government. Yet, through the management board, staffed with government loyalists, the government exerts significant influence in the editorial decision-making process at RTS. Journalists working for the broadcaster interviewed for this report in May 2024 said that editors are continuously subjected to pressures from government and party officials who have an important say in how the station’s news content is presented. The news content is biased in favor of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has been in power since 2012, according to content analysis carried out by the Novi Sad School of Journalism.
During a series of street protests in May 2023, considered by observers to be the largest revolt against President Aleksandar Vucic, who had been in power for more than a decade, vast crowds of protesters encircled the RTS building, criticizing the station for being pro-government. Research conducted in recent years also found that RTS programmatically spreads sophisticated pro-Russia propaganda in its news programs.
No domestic statute establishing RTS’ editorial independence has been identified.
RTS has a Programming Council composed of 15 members. Its role is to advise the station’s management on editorial matters. However, the council is not independent and hence fails to fulfill its role, as many of its members are appointed along political lines and have ties with the government.
August 2024