Establishing of Georgia's media market

Abstract

The article examines the establishment of media market in Georgia – one of republics of the former Soviet Union. Today Georgia is one of the leading countries of the Caucasian region recognized in various international ratings. Georgia holds the first place in the index of freedom of mass media in the region, which demonstrates a real democratic transformation in the country. The article considers national legislation regulating mass media and analyses the key media market players. While describing the major stages of the establishment of the Georgian radio and television, authors pay attention to the fact that some media genres, for example, radio-performances, were very popular in all post-Soviet space and abroad. Nowadays Georgia is a country with the developed media market with leading world players present in all media segments (television, radio, press, cable television, satellite television, internet, blogosphere, independent TV studios). In addition, citizens of Georgia are active Internet, social media and blog users. The authors conclude that despite certain existing difficulties and problems of the Georgian media market, the country has good prospects of sectoral development in the case of a political will.