It’s now two decades since the violent disintegration of what was once known as Yugoslavia.
Following on from the chaos of the 1990s, we now have relative stability, though unfortunately still also some tensions and unresolved issues, in the territories that made up the federation.
Two countries (Croatia and Slovenia) are now full members of the European Union, while others, including Bosnia & Herzegovina, are finding the going far from easy. Kosovo remains a troubled place.
With the emergence of new states came rapid growth in their TV industries, built on the back of public broadcasters that had once been part of the national Yugoslav network, along with private stations and nascent cable and satellite industries.
Today, certainly looking at the more developed countries – Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia – we see TV markets that are little different, in composition if not scale, to those in most other parts of Central and Eastern Europe.
While they have to a large degree developed separately, there have been some links. CME, for instance, operates national TV stations in both Slovenia and Croatia, while Telekom Austria is now a key player in no fewer than four markets – Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia – and Magyar Telekom, backed by Deutsche Telekom, has IPTV operations in Macedonia and Montenegro.
However, the conditions prevailing in each market are quite different. In Bosnia & Herzegovina, for instance, the public broadcaster BHRT currently finds itself under severe financial pressure and faces a real threat of closure. Meanwhile, in Croatia, the telecom market, despite being quite advanced by regional standards, has found itself battling regulatory challenges and the country’s economic problems for several years.
What is particularly noteworthy is the news that the public broadcasters in Serbia (RTS) and Croatia (HRT) have decided to work together for the first time since the bitter conflict between their respective countries in the 1990s.
Admittedly, it will only be on one TV series, but hopefully it will lead to much more and perhaps provide a template for more cooperation between the TV industries of the countries that once made up Yugoslavia.