Media Landscape - Bulgaria
INTRODUCTION

Bulgaria is an industrial country with a population of 7.9 million, including a Turkish minority of 746,664 people or 9.4 per cent, a Roma minority of 370,908 people or 4.7 percent and small minorities of Russians, Armenians, Jews etc. Almost 83 per cent of the population are East Ortodox Christians.
The area of the country is of 111 000 km2. 69 per cent of the population live in urban or semi-urban municipalities.
The share of the aged population is increasing –9 per cent is in the age group from 0 to10 years, 13.4 per cent from 11 to 19, 14.7 per cent from 20 to 29, 41.8 per cent from 30 to 59 and 22.7 per cent are over 60 years old. ((National Statistical Institute – Bulgaria))
Bulgaria is a member state of NATO. On January 1, 2007 Bulgaria has become a member of the European Union.
The use of media is an important part of the time of Bulgarian people. The data from 2002 show that the average duration of TV watching is 246 minutes daily. Women spend 250 minutes daily watching TV, men 242 minutes. The average time listening to radio programmes is 213 minutes daily (women – 215, men – 209). The inhabitants of small towns and villages spend more time watching with TV programmes. The readership audience of the newspapers and magazines is the lowest in the small towns and villages. ((Representative survey, Media Links Agency, 2002))
From the outset the democratic changes in Bulgarian society after 1989 had considerable influence on the development of the media. The entire range of different media began to appear completely differently. Market liberalization and free competition very quickly entered the field of the media. Market development in the media preceded the development of private enterprises in other economic spheres.
The process of change and transformation is very dynamic. It radically transformed the media landscape in the country.
1. WRITTEN PRESS
Until 1989, Bulgaria had seven national dailies. After 1990, the market was flooded with new periodicals. Since there is no law governing the press in Bulgaria and newspaper publishing is entirely liberal and unregulated, it is not possible to establish the exact number of publications currently coming out. According to estimates, there are currently over 900 print media outlets in the country.
The dominant type of newspaper is defined as “hybrid tabloids”: it combines and integrates elements of both tabloids and quality press. One of the explanations of this phenomenon is the fact that several attempts have failed to create a quality press in Bulgaria. None of the “quality” newspapers initiated in the 90’s survived.
There are many dailies in Bulgaria. According to some statistics there are 25, including the regional dailies. As of October 15, 2006 there were 15 national dailies. The only quality daily, for the time being, is Dnevnik established in 2001. Though first published in broadsheet, it switched to tabloid format after conducting an opinion poll among its readership. It seems that the broadsheet format cannot establish lasting positions on the Bulgarian market.
In 2006, there were four national weekly newspapers of relatively substantial circulation. Two of them, namely Capital and Banker are largely business- oriented, and can be described as quality press. The other two: 168 Chasa and Politika are addressed to the masses. There is one more specialized quality weekly with limited circulation namely: Kultura.
The successful launching of the Tema magazine should be singled out among the efforts to establish a quality weekly social and political magazine. It has secured steady market positions and won prestige. Another social and political weekly magazine, Lider, established in 2005, is also developing successfully. There are magazines with specific profiles targeting women, lifestyle, etc. The magazine media market, however, continues to be dominated by magazines dealing exclusively with domestic and foreign gossip, celebrities and sex.
The biggest owner on the Bulgarian newspaper market is the German media group: Westdeutsche Algemeine Zeitung (WAZ). It owns the two dailies with the biggest circulation in Bulgaria: Trud (which is the only title of a newspaper that survived the changes in 1989), and 24 Chasa (which was the first private paper in Bulgaria). WAZ’s share of the market amounted to 41.7 % in 1997. Their monopoly led to legal procedures under the Protection of Competition law. After a series of ownership transfers, WAZ emerged as a winner and has carried on further developing its advertising policy guaranteeing its position as market leader, with the highest annual revenue in the whole media industry: about 48 million EUR in 2001.
One of the characteristics of the print media market is that the newspapers that used to be openly dependent on political parties gradually disappear. In 2002, the daily of the Union of Democratic Forces, Demokratsiya, disappeared putting an end to the era of party papers.
The tendency towards reduction of the circulation of print media is seriously affecting Bulgarian dailies. The overall single daily circulation of daily papers has considerably dropped in recent years.
2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA
There are currently three national terrestrial televisions: the Bulgarian National Television (BNT, which is the former state television, defined in the broadcasting law as a public service TV ) and two private televisions: Murdoch’s Balkan News Corporation owned by bTV and the Greek Antenna Group owned by Nova Televisia. All three televisions broadcast round the clock and compete for larger shares of the advertising market. Recent surveys show that currently bTV has the largest audience.
The former state radio was transformed successfully into a public service broadcaster and still has the largest audience. According to the Council of Electronic Media Register of licensed operators, 111 private terrestrial regional and local radio outlets are currently in operation. In the capital (Sofia) alone, with a population of 1.5 million, there are 32 FM radio stations.
There are 184 registered cable operators in the country (at the national, regional and local levels) broadcasting their programmes. The cable network has been developing comparatively quickly and most recent data show that 55% of households in the country are cable operator subscribers. Digital services are beginning too. All programmes currently broadcast by satellite are digitally coded. According to estimates of telecommunications experts, terrestrial TV will be fully digitalized by 2015 at the latest. As far as cable TV is concerned, experts are aiming at 2012 for digitalization.
Licensing was stopped, in 2001, when parliament passed amendments to the Radio and Television Law requiring adoption of a strategy for the development of broadcasting before any new licenses could be issued. Because of this particular situation, more than 110 radio outlets are operating with temporary permits and many are outspoken pirates.
Efficient market-driven activities of the Bulgarian electronic media are compromised by the lack of reliable ratings.
3. ONLINE MEDIA
Internet penetration was 28.5 per cent in 2006. The user growth in the period 2000 – 2006 was an estimated 411.6 per cent.
The number of on-line media is continually increasing. Their information is uncontrolled and unregulated, but they have been establishing themselves ever more firmly as news-making sources.
Almost all mainstream newspapers have on-line versions.
4. NEWS AGENCIES
The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) continues to be the most reliable and professional news agency in the country, operating for over one hundred years.
Along with BTA, web-based private news agencies like BGnes (http://www.bgnes.com) and Focus news (http://www.focus.bg) as well as Internet news portals like SEEnews (http://www.SEEnews.com) and novinite.com (http://www.novinite.com) are very active as information sources for the newspapers.
5. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS
The Bulgarian Media Coalition (BMC) established in 1999 is the joint body of different non-governmental organizations. BMC has maintained a considerable public authority, as well as a good record of media assistance and effective public actions. It has alerted the public when attempts to violate the freedoms of national and regional media took place. BMC has influenced public policy and the process of decision-making in the media.
Associations representing the interests of media owners are very active. In 2005, the Union of National Media emerged bringing together associations of media owners in print (Union of Publishers) and broadcasting (Association of Bulgarian Broadcasters).
6. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES
After the adoption of the Radio and Television Law in 1998, a number of amendments to the Act were passed. There are several shortcomings of the existing legal framework for the electronic media but there is no political will for changes. The lack of adherence to professional standards (particularly in regional and local media), and excessive focus on sensation, crime and violence are continuously criticised both by the audience and from within the professional community.
7. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS
The Bulgarian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of the press and of other mass media and prohibits censorship.
In compliance with its functions, set by the Radio and Television Law, the regulatory body (previously the National Council for Radio and Television and now the CEM) monitors compliance with statutory requirements on advertising, sponsorship, copyright, protection of youth and minors. CEM considers cases of violations established by its experts and complaints by citizens and organizations.
There are no special statutory regulations of printed media. Texts from other laws, such as, for example, laws about slander and libel (under the Penal Code) can be applied both to printed and electronic media.
An ethical code of Bulgarian media was drafted with the participation of EU experts was approved in 2004.
In the end of 2005 two self-regulatory bodies, the Ethics Committee for the Print Media and Ethics Committee for the Electronic Media were established and started their work in 2006.
8. MAIN RECENT MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS
A strategy for the development of the audiovisual media was adopted in 2005.
In the next few years, the most important goal of national media policy will be digitalization. Its development largely depends on technical and economic development and on the interests of broadcasters and customers. Bulgarian society is still not aware of the new opportunities of digitalization and currently there is a lack of public interest.
9. PRIME SOURCES FOR MEDIA INFORMATION
Financial difficulties of printed publications, dealing with professional analysis and self-reflection in the field of journalism and the media led to the disappearance of the quarterly journalism and media magazine, Chetvartata vlast (The Fourth Estate), published by the Free Speech Civic Forum. The monthly magazine, MediaMarketing, also disappeared from the market. The only MediaSviat magazine, existing in the beginning of 2006, disappeared in June 2006. The Capital weekly has a media section, publishing analyses of phenomena and tendencies in media development paying particular attention to business and management aspects of the media industries. Dailies also devote articles to media although they lack analyses and issues related to the media appear mostly in connection with possible scandals. The BMC website: http://www.bmc.bulmedia.bg, as well as other organizations’ sites, such as: http://www.media-cij.org, the Access to Information Programme: http://www.aip.org, etc. provide other sources of news and analyses about professional discussions related to media legislation; compliance with professional standards; and accountability, as well as regarding a series of other problems, relevant to the development of media in Bulgaria.
10. AUTHOR
Dr. Vessela Tabakova is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication of Sofia University “St.Kliment Ohridski”. Her teaching and research work is in the area of media coverage of politics, political communication and ethical standards in journalism. She is a member of the Ethics Committee for the Electronic Media, chairperson of the Centre for Independent Journalism, author of seven books, as well as over 60 media studies and articles.
11. MEDIA RESOURCES
Newspapers
- Dnevnik
http://www.dnevnik.bg - 24 Chasa
http://www.24chasa.bg - Kapital
http://www.capital.bg - Trud
http://www.trud.bg - Novinar
http://www.novinar.net - Monitor
http://www.monitor.bg - Sega
http://segabg.com - Standart
http://standartnews.com - Struma
http://www.struma.com - Vyara
http://viara-online.com
Audio/Visual Media
Television
- bTV
http://www.btv.bg - BNT
http://www.bnt.bg - Nova TV
http://www.ntv.bg - TV 7
http://www.tv7.bg - BBT
http://www.bbt.bg - TV Evropa
http://www.tvevropa.com - Eurocom TV
http://www.eurocom.bg - MSAT TV
http://www.m-sat.bg - Diema TV
http://www.diema.bg - MM
http://www.mmtv.bg
Radio
- BNR
http://www.nationalradio.bg - Darik
http://www.darik.net - Inforadio
http://www.inforadio.bg - FM+
http://www.fmplus.net - Retro
http://www.retroradio.bg - BG
http://www.bgradio.net - Radio 1
http://www.radio1.bg - Radio Fresh
http://www.radiofresh.bg
Media Institutions
- Focus.bg
http://www.focus-news.net - BTA
http://www.bta.bg - Dnes.bg
http://www.dnes.bg - Mediapool
http://www.mediapool.bg - Novinite.com
http://www.novinite.com - BGNes
http://www.bgnes.com - Netinfo.bg
http://www.netinfo.bg - News.bg
http://www.news.bg - Sofia Echo
http://www.sofiaecho.com - Bulgarian Post
http://www.bulgarianpost.com
Blogs/Civil Media
Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).
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