Media
Media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina operate within an impoverished, oversaturated and captured market, under unfavorable political and economic conditions. The political climate is marked by divisive rhetoric and continuous disputes among ethno-national political elites. Accordingly, most media outlets are divided along ethno-national and political party lines. Although television remains the primary source of information for the general public, online media and social networks are more popular among younger generations, a trend which impacts the broader media landscape in terms of both production and quality.
The sample of the Media Ownership Monitor comprises a total of 39 media outlets: 11 TV stations, 10 radio stations, 10 news websites and 8 print publications.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the register of the Communications Regulatory Agency, there are almost 80 television stations, including those that are part of the public service at the state, entity, district and canton levels.
Television in Bosnia and Herzegovina is assessed as a high-risk category of political control, which can come both from ruling parties and the opposition. Three public broadcasters are part of the sample. Despite the financially dominant position of the public broadcasters (revenue exceeding 100 million convertible marks (50 million Euro)), viewers prefer private media like Nova BH owned by United Group, with 10.43 percent of audience share. One of the most watched television stations in Republika Srpska, Alternativna televizija, is on the sanctions list of the US State Department.
147 private radio stations are holding licenses from the Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Radio remains a rather popular medium: 56 percent of 15-64 year-olds consume radio on a daily basis (source: BrandPuls). The most popular radio station Radio BIG2, owned by Ljubiša Kragulja with more than ten percent audience (source: IPSOS). A radio station owned by the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Radio BIR - is the ninth most listened to radio in the country. No public broadcasters are among the ten most-listened radio stations.
In 2022, 80.9 percent of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina used the internet to read portals, online newspapers or magazine content. This is reflected in the continuously growing number of online media. The Council of Press and Online Media mapped 615 online portals among which 490 with daily news and 22 weeklies and 12 monthly published content. Klix and Avaz have by far the highest reach in the period of March 2022 to March 2023 (source: IPSOS).
According to the Press council and online media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are more than 120 printed publications in the country, most of which are weekly or monthly magazines. This research is focused on seven most read daily newspapers and one weekly political magazine. Despite the relatively large number of printed media, only every third citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina between the ages of 15 and 64 reads printed news. By far the most read newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Dnevni Avaz owned by Azra Radončić, former wife of the newspaper's founder, Fahrudin Radončić (source: IPSOS). Three of the four most read newspapers in Bosnia and Herzegovina are newspapers from Republika Srpska and their central editorial offices are in Banja Luka - Glas Srpske, EuroBlic (owned by the Ringier office in Belgrade) and Nezavisne Novine.
