The fight over moving "Impression of the Week" from terrestrial to cable channel B92 info opened another dilemma in Serbia - antenna or cable? Although cable signal reception is already dominant, measured by the number of viewers, especially if we look at urban areas where the purchasing power of viewers is somewhat higher. The network of cable distributors, if you have the opportunity to see it, cruelly confirms that TV capillaries are denser where there is more money, while in the poor areas of southeastern Serbia there is generally no signal.
The belated digitization is announced by an incredibly uninventive and primitive spot on TV channels, which suggests that the image will be like after the windshield wipers of a car. Maybe the message of the video is sincere, the content of that crystal picture will be equally meaningless, old-fashioned and old-fashioned. The authors seem to have set themselves the goal of making an animation in the style of ZX spectrum from the 2014s in 80. complete success, Bolji zhivot in digital version!
Cable distribution is certainly the future, but it has set new rules in the market. The government is already announcing that it may provide digital signal receivers for free to hundreds of thousands of viewers. Those poor voters are also important, it is good to invest in the poor when it comes to TV reception and TV programming.
Before digitization, a war for the distribution of cable networks was raging in Serbia. Wires hung from building to building, canals were dug, and cable was pulled through PTT lines. I remembered a report on RTS about a specially trained dog (I think her name was Aska) who could smell the best route from shaft to shaft. Aska sniffs, and then the workers pull the cables through.
The race began, and the first lap in taking up space on the cable was, of course, done by Pink. Dozens of their channels, from erotica to politics, appeared in the offer, so the frequencies were occupied. The struggle for prestige in cable is the struggle for the position "in the basic package". Let me clarify. It is important that the signal of your TV station reaches the basic offer of cable distributors, so that subscribers can see you without paying extra. Well, you're not pornic, are you?
The next battle is about the position in the channel list, because not all users know how to make their own schedule. If you can, it's great that you're in the single digits.
My cable provider (a nice Serbian word), not to mention a dealer, grouped the channels so that digital ones are at the end of the list. However, among the domestic programs, I noticed some anomalies that are not the result of chance.
All major dealers offer you, for example, Palma plus from Jagodina or Best from Zaječar in the basic package, which gives these local TV stations a viewership equal to national programs. Miraculously, Palma and Mirković, both important officials of the ruling coalition, are sitting in those municipalities. What is visible on the TV programs in question is complete control and absolute devotion to the President of the municipality, to the point of worship. Mali Vučići on local and cable channels. These channels, in terms of number and treatment, are placed ahead of the highly professional television Al Jazeera Balkans, which is not included in the basic package, and whose program includes correspondence and news from the entire region.
Cable television was also a challenge for Grand production. Although they opened their own channel, they still decided on the terrestrial channel and TV Prva. Popović did not have time to wait for the development of the cable market, and I believe that the intention was to see the Grand at every point and without an antenna. The main competitor, which is Pink, is still fighting the battle with Grand on the ground, where they have control over the marketing. Cable TV is still seen as a privilege there. An example of this attitude is the failure of the megalomaniacal project of TV Nova, which failed to enter the national airwaves from cable.
Today it exists only as a cable exotica. The only area that has been followed on cable channels since the beginning is sports. The rule literally applies here that you watch as much as you pay from Sport Club, via Eurosport to Arena Sport. A man's story.
Channel N1, as an informational channel offered by the SBB distributor, will soon start broadcasting. Since it is a company with American capital, we will see how the government treats Americans in Serbia. Especially if they show the need to engage in critical discourse. N1 experienced its premiere even before the start of broadcasting, when it was signed as the owner of the famous video of the beating of Vučić's brother. It turns out that a new TV channel is always born in Serbia around October 5.
To remind the forgetful, the battle for "Impression of the Week" takes place this October 5, on the 14th birthday of Television B92. The television whose first image was a shot of Belgrade with smoke visible above and which broadcast images of freedom from the streets of Belgrade, today has no space for Olje Bećković's show. To make it even more bizarre, SBB decided right around his 14th birthday to remove B92 info from his basic package, which was offered to Olja as a "great alternative and professional challenge". Without distribution through a major provider, B92 info is virtually invisible. Water in the cable channel again, what irony!
