Prva TV

The global media conglomerate News Corporation entered the Serbian market in December 2006 with Fox Televizija which gained a national frequency as part of a tender organized by the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Media (REM). Fox TV broadcast entertainment programs with a focus on old, low budget American comedies, dramas and telenovelas, such as The Bold and the Beautiful, ALF and One Tree Hill, with two news programs. Later, it also introduced franchised quizzes, as well as reality programs, which helped to boost viewership.

However, Fox operated with losses in 2007 and 2008, which brought about a reorganization and mass redundancies before the company was sold to Antenna Media Group in August 2009. Fox TV changed its name to Prva TV, with Dejan Jocic, a Serb from Germany and former director of ProSieben, coming to the helm. Shortly thereafter, Prva TV increased its viewership share with various entertainment programs and expanded into Montenegro. One of the biggest controversies surrounding Prva TV is probably the well-kept secret that Prva TV and TV B92 had the same owner for several years, something that was in violation of the relevant laws at the time, which explicitly banned owners of television stations with national frequencies from possessing more than a 5% stake in the ownership structure of other TV stations with a national frequency. Thanks to the new law from 2014, this situation ceased to be a case of illegal media ownership concentration, as the new law allowed owners to own several media as long as they did not surpass a 35% viewership share. Prva TV and TV B92 were never punished for the illegal media concentration which lasted for four years.

In December 2018, Kopernikus Corporation Ltd from Cyprus, owned by the brother of a senior ruling SNS official, bought the entire Antena Group in Serbia, including the television stations O2 and Prva for €180 million, having sold its cable operator to state-owned telecommunications company Telekom Srbija for nearly €200 million. The Antimonopoly Commission approved this sale as Antena Group did not exceed 40% of the market share, the threshold of media ownership concentration defined in the Law on Electronic Media.

Prva TV is today the third most popular TV station in the country with a viewership share of 11.04% according to the Nielsen data for the period 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2018.

Key facts

Audience Share

11.04%

Ownership Type

Private

Geographic Coverage

National

Content Type

Free content

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

Kopernikus Corporation

Ownership

Ownership Structure

Kopernikus Corporation Ltd from Cyprus is the 100% owner of Antena Group, of which TV Prva is a part. The man behind Kopernikus Corporation is Srdjan Milovanovic as a physical person with a share of 50% and Kopernikus Corporation BV from the Netherlands with a 50% share in the capital, whose 100% owner is also Srdjan Milovanovic.

Voting Rights

Missing Data

Individual Owner

Srđan Milovanović

100%

Media Companies / Groups

Kopernikus Corporation

Facts

General Information

Founding Year

2009

Founder

Theodore Kyriakou

Affiliated Interests Founder

Theodore Kyriakou is a ship owner and a shareholder of a global oil shipping business that can trace its history back over 150 years and has been owned by the Kyriakou family throughout. Furthermore, he was a principal shareholder and Chief Executive Officer of Antenna Group. He also set up and oversees an investment team that manages the financial assets of the Kyriakou family. He holds degrees in International Business and in Physics from Georgetown University, where he graduated cum laude and was awarded the Treado medal for Physics. Mr. Kyriakou is a member of the Advisory Board of Cambridge University’s Centre for International Business & Management (CIBAM) and a Board Member of Endeavour Greece, a global non-profit organization supported by international business leaders. He sits on the Board of Raine Group, the New York based global merchant bank focused on technology, media and telecommunications. Raine Group manages Raine Partners and Raine Venture Partners, private equity funds focused on entertainment, digital media and sports, where Antenna Group is a cornerstone investor.

Ceo

Manja Grcic

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Manja Grcic is CEO of Prva TV. Previously, she worked as CEO of B92, deputy general director of FOX TV, PR of G17 political movement as well as in marketing of Pink TV. She is married to Vlada Grcic, famous Slovenian golf player.

Editor-In-Chief

Katarina Pavlovic

Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief

Katarina Pavlovic began her career on BK TV, later moving to Fox Televizija and then to Prva TV, where she worked in the program sector. Before becoming the Program Director of O2, Pavlovic was the director of cable television Prva Plus within Antena Group. Currently, she is employed as the Managing Editor of Prva TV.