Radio Television of Serbia
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Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (Radio television of Serbia, Serbian: Радио-телевизија Србије, Radio-televizija Srbije) is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. Sometimes, the TLA PTC is used to refer to it due to the Cyrillic acronym. RTS is since July 2001, together with Radio Televizija Crne Gore (RTCG), a joint member of European Broadcasting Union. Formerly, it was called "Radio Television Belgrade".
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[edit] History
Radio Belgrade started broadcasting in 1929, and this is considered the founding moment of the Serbian broadcasting system. The first news announcer in 1929 was Jelena Biblija. After World War II, Radio Television Belgrade (RTB), consisting of Radio Belgrade and Television Belgrade (TVB) was established as a result of the decision by the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Serbia on February 13th, 1958. This came after the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's government decision of 1956 to invest in a television network.
23 August of 1958 was the date of the first televized broadcast. It was the Dnevnik (Journal) news programme. The first people to appear on the new TV station were Miloje Orlović, Branislav Surutka, Olga Nadj, Olivera Živković and Vera Milovanović. The first RTB program was broadcast from Beogradski sajam and from a new TV Studio build there. As of 1961, RTS used the delayed airing equpment (quadruplex VTR). Sixties saw dramatic development in all genres of TV programs. TVB became famous by its sitcoms (directed and written by Radivoje-Lola Djukic,Novak Novak and others (unfortunately, only a small percentage of this production is preserved, due to implicite censorship and lack of tapes). Also, TVB had excellent documentary program (series Karavan, Reflektor and others) and quizzes. By 1970 the entire territory of Serbia was covered by the RTS signal. On December 31 1971, TVB started with broadcast in PAL color system on its second network. A new AM broadcast equipment in Zvecka, Obrenovac, with 2000 kW transmitter was erected 1976.
After the political turmoil in seventies (against the "liberals") the program of RTB became more sterile, however, in eighties it reached the zenith.
[edit] The Slobodan Milošević era
The establishment of regime of Slobodan Milošević led RTB to the worst days in its history. Hundreds of experiences journalists and other creative people were first sent to lay-offs and then fired since they could not agree with propaganda broadcast on RTB frequencies. 1992 RTB, together with Radio Televizija Novi Sad RTNS and Radio Televizija Pristina RTP became a part of Radio Television of Serbia, centralized and closely governed network aimed to be a loudspeaker for Slobodan Miloševic and his policy. The worst part of TV programming during the nineties was "Dnevnik" (Daily news) which was used to glorify "wise politics of Slobodan Milošević" and to attack "servants of Western powers, forces of chaos and desperateness",i.e., Serbian opposition.
On April, 23, 1999, the RTS headquarters in downtown Belgrade were bombed by the NATO airforce, killing sixteen people, mostly technical staff. In 2002, Dragoljub Milanović, the general manager of RTS, was sentenced to 10 years in prison because he ordered the workers to stay in the building despite the knowledge that the building would probably be bombed.[1]
On October 5, 2000, the same RTS building was demolished and partly burned during the riots against Slobodan Milošević. After October 5, 2000, RTS was sometimes called Nova RTS (New RTS) to symbolize the liberation from the control of the Slobodan Milošević regime.
[edit] RTS Today
The system is officially divided in the Vojvodina and Serbia public broadcasting systems as of May 2006. This is to mark a transition from a state-owned to a public broadcaster. This bears legal and practical connotation, in terms of control and financing. RTS now consists of two channels instead of three. These changes were imposed on May 5th, 2006 when RTS was divided in two parts: JSS (Public Service of Serbia) and JSV (Public Service of Vojvodina).
Televizija Beograd, a part of RTS with headquarters in Belgrade have several TV studios: in addition to two largest studios on Kosutnjak (studio VIII and IX), there is also TV studio (Studio IV) on Belgrade Fair, historically the first TV studio in Serbia, and several studios in Aberdareva St. (some of these studio have been destroyed during NATO attack).
Televizija Beograd has large archives of TV programs. In addition to 5000+ old VTR quadruplex tapes, the archive contains tapes in VTR-C (helicoidal), umatic, beta-SP and digital formats. Also, the archive contains extensive collection of newsreels, short filmed stories, and feature films on 16mm and 35mm tapes. This archive required urgent protection, since tapes are not kept in proper conditions, and since Televizija Beograd does not have proper equipment to tranfer the programs to newer media (the situation is especially critical for quadruplex and film archive).
A part of Televizija Beograd is also PGP-RTS, production of gramophone records (now produces CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs). PGP-RTS started with production 1958, with LP record of Đorđe Marjanović, and used to be one of two largest record factories in former Yugoslavia.
RTS is now one of the most watched television networks in Serbia and has a large satellite network covering Europe, North America and Australia.
[edit] 3K/RTS 3
RTS has recently decided to shut down one of its television channels. It was 3K (Treći kanal RTS-a), which was a music and sports channel.
[edit] Channels
- RTS 1 (Prvi program TV Beograd) is mostly covered with news and domestic production.
- RTS 2 (Drugi program TV Beograd) is mostly covered with older domestic and foreign TV shows
- RTS Satelit is the satellite service.
- TV Most from Kosovo (a small TV station which broadcasts for the Serb minority in Kosovo) is supported by RTS.
[edit] General-directors throughout history
- Aleksandar Tijanić (2004-present)
- Aleksandar Crkvenjakov (2000-2004)
- Dragoljub Milanović
- Milorad Vučelić
- Dusan Mitević
