Pressures and Attacks against Independent Content Providers: Serbia

The independent Belgrade based FM radio-station B2-92, which from December 1996 on also broadcasts over the Internet, repeatedly has been the target of suppression and attacks by the Serbian government.

B2-92 offices have been raided on numerous occasions and members of staff have been repeatedly harassed or arrested. In March 1999 the transmitter of radio B2-92 was confiscated yet again by the Serbian authorities and editor-in-chief, Veran Matic, was taken and held in custody at a police station. Ten days after the confiscation of B2-92's transmitter, Serbian police entered and sealed their offices. All members of staff were sent home and a new General Manager was appointed by Serbian officials. Although by closing B2-92, the Serbian regime may have succeeded in softening the voice of the independent content provider, with the distributive nature of the Internet and the international help of media activists, the regime will have little chance of silencing the entire flood of independent content coming out of former Yugoslavia.

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The Advertising Industry

The advertising industry is dominated by three huge advertising networks, which offer their services throughout the world. Gross income of the three leading agencies is twice as much, as the one of places four to ten.

Table: World's Top 10 Advertising Organizations 1999

(figures in millions of U.S. dollars)

Rank 1999

 Advertising Organization

 Headquarters

 World-Wide Gross Income 1999
1

 Omnicom

New York, USA

 $ 5,743.4
2

 Interpublic Group of Cos.

 New York, USA

 $ 5,079.3
3

 WPP Group

 London, UK

 $ 4,819.3
4

 Havas Advertising

 Levallois-Perret, France

 $ 2,385.1
5

 Dentsu

 Tokyo, Japan

 $ 2,106.8
6

 B Com3 Group

 Chicago, USA

 $ 1,933.8
7

 Young & Rubicam Inc.

 New York, USA

 $ 1,870.1
8

 Grey Advertising

 New York, USA

 $ 1,577.9
9

 True North

 Chicago, USA

 $ 1,489.2
10

 Publicis SA

 Paris, France

 $ 1,434.6


Table: Top 10 Global Marketers 1998

(figures in millions of U.S. dollars)

Rank 1998

 Advertiser

 Headquarters

 World-Wide Media Spending 1998
1

 Procter & Gamble Co.

 Cincinnati (US)

 $ 4,747.6
2

 Unilever

 Rotterdam (NL)/London (UK)

 $ 3,428.5
3

 General Motors Corp.

 Detroit (US)

 $ 3,193.5
4

 Ford Motor Co.

 Darborn (US)

 $ 2,229.5
5

 Philip Morris Cos.

 New York

 $ 1,980.3
6

 Daimler Chrysler

 Stuttgart (GER)/Auburn Hills (US

 $ 1,922.2
7

 Nestle

 Vevey (SUI)

 $ 1,833.0
8

 Toyota Motor Corp.

 Toyota City (JP)

 $ 1,692.4
9

 Sony Corp.

 Tokyo (JP)

 $ 1,337.7
10

 Coca-Cola Co.

 Atlanta (US)

 $ 1,327.3


On the other hand the three biggest advertisers only spend about US$ 2 millions less than places four to ten together. Whereas money spent on advertising in traditional media comes from very diverse categories, companies offering computer hard- and software, peripherals or Internet services mainly pay for on-line advertisements.

Table: Top 10 Internet Advertisers 1998

(figures in millions of U.S. dollars)

Rank 1998

 Advertiser

 Internet Spending 1998

 1998 - 1997 % Change
1

 Microsoft Corp.

 $ 34.9

 9.4
2

 IBM Corp.

 $ 28.5

 58.6
3

 Compaq Computer Corp.

 $ 16.2

 169.8
4

 General Motors Corp.

 $ 12.7

 84.8
5

 Excite

 $ 12.4

 1.5
6

 Infoseek Corp.

 $ 9.3

 22.3
7

 AT&T Corp.

 $ 9.3

 43.5
8

 Ford Motor Co.

 $ 8.6

 46.7
9

 Hewlett-Packard Co.

 $ 8.1

 102.9
10

 Barnes & Noble

 $ 7.6

 280.2


Source: Advertising Age

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MIRALab

MIRALab is a research laboratory attached to the University of Geneva. Its motto is "where research meets creativity". MIRAlab's objective is to model human functionalities, such as movement or facial expression, in a realistic way.

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NSFNet

Developed under the auspices of the National Science Foundation (NSF), NSFnet served as the successor of the ARPAnet as the main network linking universities and research facilities until 1995, when it was replaced it with a commercial backbone network. Being research networks, ARPAnet and NSFnet served as testing grounds for future networks.

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