Nova editor on Yettel’s removal of N1 and Nova S: They carried out orders, a trial run for what could happen to us

Ranko Pivljanin, editor of the Nova daily, described Yettel’s removal of N1 and Nova S from some customers’ television packages as a warning for the two channels. He said the company had effectively conducted a trial of what could happen to their reach.

Yettel presented the move as a pilot project for a modular television model. Under that approach, customers could choose which channels they wanted and potentially pay extra for them. The company did not explain why particular users lost access, however.

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That hotbed of media toxicity, spreading hate, indecency, banality, and everything else that is wrong, they continue to be broadcast.

The decision also singled out N1 and Nova S, identified as the only news channels available exclusively through SBB and Yettel. Pivljanin criticized the operators for reducing the value of the channels to an additional 300 dinars while continuing to carry Informer TV.

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Why didn’t they test this experimental modular model on Informer? Why didn’t they say: Anyone who truly wants Informer can pay an extra 300 dinars?

He questioned why the operators had not applied the same experimental model to Informer, asking why viewers who wanted it were not simply required to pay an extra 300 dinars. He also argued that cable companies should bear responsibility for the media content they distribute, not pursue profit without accountability.

Zoran Gavrilovic, executive director of the Bureau for Social Research, sent an open letter to SBB, Yettel Serbia and Telekom Srbija. He urged them to review the contracts governing Informer TV’s distribution and to say publicly whether its content and rhetoric meet their ethical and corporate social responsibility standards.

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Yettel has already carried out the orders, or rather, they’ve conducted a trial run of what can happen to us.