The 14 applicants include Pink TV, National Happy TV, Vesti, BK TV, Una, Nova S, N1, Prva, TV B92, K::CN National, TV2, Tanjug TV, K1 and Kurir TV.
In deciding on which applicants would be issued licenses, the Regulatory Council took into account all the facts that would affect the achievement of better quality and variety of content and, by means of a comparative quality analysis of the fulfillment of criteria, arrived at the conclusion that applicants TV Pink, National Happy TV, Prva and TV B92 would, to a greater extent than the other applicants, justify the existence of multiple benefits for viewers throughout the Republic, primarily through an objective and timely approach in transmitting information, through their own production of program content as proof of their overall production capacities and diversity of offered programing genres in a way to satisfy the needs of the widest audience and strengthen media pluralism, said the Council.
It is said that, in the process of deciding, the Council also had in mind that the difference in the decision–making was also provided by the fact of the four applicants’ previous work and their economic sustainability, as well as by the fact that they have been broadcasting their program since 2006 and that, in the course of 2015, they fully complied with the manner and schedule of the transition from analogue to digital program broadcasting and distribution (the digitalization process) and invested funds in order to make a technological step forward towards digital transformation.
The Council said that it especially appreciated the guarantees given by the applicants in their program presentations that will become an integral part of the issued license, that in the coming period they will additionally improve the existing program, address important social issues, work towards the protection of media pluralism and be open to different opinions, arguments and ideas with the aim of encouraging a broadest social dialogue and contributing to the further improvement of media standards in the field of information, culture and education.
Bearing in mind all of the above, the Council passed the decision with the required majority of votes, in accordance with Article 96 of the Law on electronic media, said the REM on its website.
