N1
TV N1 is critical of the authorities in its reporting, with the government calling it an "opposition" television, while some government representatives refer to it as "treasonous", "mercenary", "American", "CIA" or a "tycoon" television. Representatives of the Serbian Progressive Party and parties participating in the government have refused to appear on N1 for years and are then found in conflict with N1’s journalists at press conferences.
Since its founding in 2014, when the last non-governmental televisions fell under the control of the government, N1 has for years been practically the only major television on which criticism of the government could be heard.
From 2020-2021 onwards, when the rapid growth of the number of televisions (Insajder, Tanjug, K1, Euronews, TV Kurir, TV Informer, Bloomberg, TV Blic…) could be observed, a number of recognizable TV personalities left this television.
There are many recognizable author shows, some of which have received the most significant journalistic awards in Serbia.
N1 TV was founded by United Group, which in Luxembourg, through Adria News Sarl, received a licence to broadcast the N1 television channel, and in October 2013, they founded the company Adria News doo in Serbia. These two companies of the same name have business and technical cooperation within which the Belgrade company produces "parts of audiovisual content from the territory of the Republic of Serbia, which are used in implementing the N1 television channel".
Since the broadcaster is from Luxembourg, N1 TV is not registered with the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media of Serbia (REM), and domestic REM does not have jurisdiction over N1 TV.
A December 2014 survey by the South East Europe Media Observatory found that the launch of this television was lobbied at the European Commission in Brussels by the KKR and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Namely, the research shows that the people who worked in the European Commission changed the Serbian version of the draft media laws after the lobbying of the KKR and the EBRD in order to enable the launch of TV N1 by allowing content distributors to be the producers of it at the same time. The separation of distribution from content is what the European Commission itself has previously advocated in the case of Serbia and other countries with fragile media systems.
The largest part of the revenue of Adria News from Serbia in 2022 (702 out of 705 million) came from related parties abroad, i.e. from the sale of services to the mother company in Luxembourg. According to North Data for 2016, 2017 and 2019, the total loss of Adria News from Luxembourg for these three years was almost EUR 10 million.
Audience Share
0.82%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Free Content
Media Companies / Groups
United Group
Ownership Structure
Adria News in Serbia belongs to Adria News, a Luxembourg-based company. The Luxembourg company also owns Slovenia Broadband, which is also from Luxembourg, and is further owned by United Group from the Netherlands. The direct owner of United Group is Adria Midco, which is owned by Adria Topco, owned by Summer BidCo. Summer MidCo is the owner of this company and Summer Parent from Luxembourg owns it.
Three companies have a stake in this company. 55.37% of the shares are held by Luxembourg Summer Invest, while 28.20% are owned by Gerrard Enterprises based in the Isle of Man. Another 8.05% is held by Gerrard MIP from the Cayman Islands. Dragan Solak possesses a 99% share in the Isle of Man company and owns a significant portion of the Cayman Islands company.
The majority shareholder who owns a 78.65% stake in the business is Summer Invest BC European Capital X LP Fund from the British island of Guernsey. No individual holds a stake greater than 10% in the BC European Capital X Fund.
According to the APR, Dragan Šolak is named as the beneficial owner of United Media Digital, with 35.89% of the ownership.
Voting Rights
Missing Data
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
2014
Affiliated Interests Founder
A company registered in Luxembourg and established in 2006 by United Media registered in Cyprus. Since 2014, the CEO of United Media in Luxembourg has been Aleksandra Subotić. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of this company. In this position, she has been responsible for the implementation of the Group's strategies and objectives since 2013. Previously, she held the position of General Manager of the company for the development of satellite and cable networks in Serbia, which has been one of the Group's key strategic partners since 2002.
United Group was created in 2007 through the merger of SBB and Telemach from Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to APR, SBB was established in September 2000. The group's website states that the founder of the group and president of the company's advisory board is Dragan Šolak. In 2013, a senior advisor to the board of directors of the SBB-Telemach group was a former US ambassador to Serbia, Cameron Munter. The following year, the majority owner of the United Group became KKR, the world's leading investment fund based in New York with a capital of 131.1 billion USD, which invested in the group together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
After this investment, the group continued to expand, acquiring Grand Production in Serbia (a production company of turbo folk music), the telecommunications operator Telemach Montenegro in 2014, the third largest mobile operator in Slovenia Tusmobil in April 2015, as well as five smaller cable operators in BiH and the majority share of the cable television operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina BHB Cable TV in July 2015. Its cable TV channel N1, a subsidiary of CNN in the Balkans, began broadcasting in Serbia in October 2014.
In March 2019, KKR sold its majority stake in United Group to a leading international investment firm, BC Partners. It was announced at the time that the former majority owner, KKR, as well as the management team of United Group would "retain a significant minority stake", but it is not known how much stake remained in the ownership of KKR and the management team at the time, as well as the stake of Dragan Šolak. Data filed with the Serbian Electronic Media Regulatory Agency show a complex ownership structure of the group. United Group is owned by a number of Dutch companies: the direct owner is Adria Midco, which is owned by Adria Topco, which in turn is owned by Summer BidCo. The owner of this company is Summer MidCo and the owner of this company is Summer Parent from Luxembourg.
Three companies hold shares in this company: 55.37% Luxembourg Summer Invest, 28.20% Gerrard Enterprises from the Isle of Man and 8.05% Gerrard MIP from the Cayman Islands. Dragan Šolak has a 99% interest in the Isle of Man company and a significant interest in the Cayman Islands company.
The majority shareholder with a 78.65% stake in the company is the Summer Invest BC European Capital X LP Fund from the British island of Guernsey. No person owns 10% or more of the BC European Capital X Fund.
Today, United Group owns dozens of companies and branches in Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and the Netherlands. Its portfolio includes numerous television stations, film and TV production, internet, fixed and mobile telephony, cable operators, DTH and OTT platforms, the United Cloud software centre, marketing companies and online commerce companies.
According to the Serbian Business Registers Agency, Dragan Šolak has a stake of around 35% in a number of companies operating within the United Group. In 2022, Šolak became one of the investors in Sport Republic, a London-based investment company in the sports and entertainment industry, which bought Southampton FC, a football club from the British Premier League, in January 2022, followed by the purchase of Goztepe in Turkey in August 2022. According to the Serbian Business Registers Agency, Dragan Šolak has a 35% stake in many companies within the United Group, making him a co-owner of dozens of companies in Serbia: SBB, Direct media, D express, United cloud, Grand production, Shoppster, Cas Media, United media production, United group RS, Adria news, Mainstream, Media point, Direct media communications, United media digital, Dan Graf, Mainstream public cloud services, City media, Dansav plaza, Holdco Adria, Netlogic, Techhill plaza, United group network infrastructure, Big print, Fortuna e-sports, Fusion communications, Ali invest, Brainz, Panelcatv, Flamactis, Grand slam group, Hiša plus, TV channel Ultra Beograd (in liquidation), N1 television, Nova S television.
The most successful of these companies in 2022 was SBB, with a turnover of about EUR 252 million and a profit of almost EUR 35 million. The second most profitable company was Direct Media with EUR 1.9 million.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
According to the official biography from the N1 website, during the 1990s, Božić worked in radio and television Studio B, on BK television and in TV production B92.
Since 5 October 2000, when the broadcasting of TV B92 began, he has been in the founding editorial college. He hosted debate shows and news, edited the news programme, and was the editor-in-chief of the cable news channel B92 Info.
He was the editor-in-chief of Blic and the editor of the news programme on RTV Vojvodina.
Since establishing TV N1 in 2014, he has been the executive producer of the editorial office in Serbia. He has hosted special shows and election programs, and since May 2021, Božić has been the program director of N1 Serbia.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
According to the official biography from the N1 website, during the 1990s, Božić worked in radio and television Studio B, on BK television and in TV production B92.
Since 5 October 2000, when the broadcasting of TV B92 began, he has been in the founding editorial college. He hosted debate shows and news, edited the news programme, and was the editor-in-chief of the cable news channel B92 Info.
He was the editor-in-chief of Blic and the editor of the news programme on RTV Vojvodina.
Since establishing TV N1 in 2014, he has been the executive producer of the editorial office in Serbia. He has hosted special shows and election programs, and since May 2021, Božić has been the program director of N1 Serbia.
Affiliated Interests other important people
Program Director
Director
Director
Advisor to the Editorial Collegium
Contact
Production Centre:
Omladinskih brigada 86
11073 Belgrade
E-mail: webredakcija@n1info.com
Publisher:
ADRIA NEWS Société à responsabilité limitée
6, rue Jean Monnet
2180 Luxembourg
Luxembourg,
T: +352 245278 1322
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Headlines
Meta Data
Missing data on market share and advertising revenue. Financial data is available only for the company that publishes the media, but not for the media itself.
The ownership structure of the ultimate owner of Nova S, i.e. B.C. Partners, is unknown.
