The readers of the online magazine Spletni časopis responded very critically to the public radio’s joining of the campaign, started by Domen Savič, to stop the advertising by state enterprises in the opposition media. This is putting pressure on these advertisement-dependent media, which do not automatically receive money from all the citizens that have electricity, like the public RTVS does. The state controls or has an impact on many large companies and on most of the banking system as well. The public radio, financed by all citizens, has joined the campaign of pro-government activist Domen Savič, so that state companies such as Telekom stop their advertising in the opposition media. This was announced on Vroči stol, find out more about the show here.
Politics or Competition?
The majority of the respondents in the survey has confirmed that the motive for the unusual behavior of the public radio is a political one, that is, an attempt to silence the opposition. A large number of respondents also chose the answer that it is an attempt by the public radio to stop a competitor from acquiring important viewers and readers, as well as a good portion of the advertising cake. In the second second part of the article, I present the popularity of Nova24TV among the readers on the internet, although it cannot be compared with the publicly available RTVS, considering that the latter is financed by public contributions. Nevertheless, Nova24TV is approaching the popularity of the web portal RTVSLO.SI. A very small percentage of readers support the claims that Radio Slovenia, in a somewhat covert way, is right to be involved in the Domen Savič campaign, since Nova24TV supports the SDS Party and spreads hate speech. An even smaller percentage agrees with the last response, mirroring a statement by the Guardian of the Rights of Viewers and Listeners of RTV, Ilinka Todorovski, who said that there should not be any taboo topics for a public institution, therefore the RTV can publish and do anything. The answers to the survey questions are published below, each respondent could choose two responses (but most only chose one):
(The respondents are critical of the public radio campaign against the opposition media:
238 respondents participated in the survey
199 – This is abuse of power, attempting to disable the opposition through its influence in the media and state enterprises
57 – This is unfair, the opposition media should be given a part of the contribution for RTVS, while RTVS should prohibit the publication of advertisements
8 – This behavior is correct, since Nova24TV supports the SDS Party and spreads hate speech
5 – This behavior is correct because there should be no prohibited topics on public TV
The public radio joined the campaign against the advertising by state companies on Nova24TV, what do you think?)
You can still vote:
The public radio joined the campaign against advertising by state companies on Nova24TV. What do you think?
This is abuse of power, attempting to disable the opposition through its influence in the media and state enterprises (74%, 237 Votes)
This is unfair, the opposition media should be given a part of the contribution for RTVS, while RTVS should prohibit the publication of advertisements (19%, 60 Votes)
This behavior is correct, since Nova24TV supports the SDS Party and spreads hate speech (5%, 16 Votes)
This behavior is correct because there should be no prohibited topics on public TV (2%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 285
The data on the gross advertising value of publishers, summarized from daily newspaper Delo’s Annual Report, shows what is happening on the advertising market, where there is no data yet on Nova24TV. The “digital” trends were not the best for the public RTV:
Table 5: The gross advertising value of publishers in the segment of digital advertising in the years 2016-2017, in euros:
The data should be read carefully, because it shows what the revenue from all posted ads would be if they were charged at official price lists. Actual prices, and thus actual revenue, can dramatically deviate down due to discounts and free postings. Most likely, they are much lower.
An additional dimension is presented with measuring the popularity of Nova24TV and RTVSLO websites.
