Prva

World media conglomerate News Corporation came to the Serbian market in December 2006 with Fox TV, which received a national frequency in a competition organised by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (now REM). In Serbia, Fox TV aired an entertainment program focusing on old and low-budget American comedies, dramas and telenovelas, such as The Bold and the Beautiful, ALF or One Tree Hill, with two news shows. Later, it introduced franchise quizzes, as well as reality shows, which contributed to the increase in viewership. However, Fox operated at a loss in 2007 and 2008, which led to reorganisation and mass layoffs, after which the television was sold to the Greek Antenna Media Group in August 2009. TV Fox changed its name to TV Prva and Dejan Jocić, a Serb from Germany and former director of ProSieben, came to its helm. TV Prva is rapidly increasing its share of viewership with various entertainment programs and is expanding into Montenegro. One of the biggest controversies regarding TV Prva is probably the best-kept public secret that Prva TV and B92 TV had the same owner for several years and thus violated the then law that prohibited owners of TV stations with a national frequency from having more than 5% share in the ownership structure of another TV station with a national frequency. With a new law from 2014, this case ceased to be an example of illegal media concentration because it allowed one owner to have multiple media outlets as long as it did not exceed 35% of the audience share. TV Prva and TV B92 were never fined for unauthorised media concentration that lasted four years. In December 2018, the Kopernikus Corporation, owned by the brother of a senior official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, bought all media from the Antenna Group, including TV Prva and O2, for 180 million EUR, after selling its cable operator subsidiaries to the state-owned telecommunications company Telekom for about 195 million EUR. The Antitrust Commission approved this sale because the Antenna did not exceed the market share of 35%, the threshold for concentration according to the Law on Electronic Media. According to the data from the BIRN database on public competitions, from 2019 to 2023, Prva Televizija received about RSD 2.8 million (approximately 26,000 USD) for three projects in the competitions for co-financing media content from state institutions and local self-government bodies.

Key facts

Audience Share

9.48%

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

The publisher of Prva TV is the company Prva TV, which is 100% owned by Nova Broadcasting. This company is 100% owned by Kopernikus Stream T.V. from Cyprus since 2019. The Decision on television broadcasting, adopted by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media in 2022, states that the founder of the Cyprus-based company is Kopernikus Serbia from the Netherlands with 100% shares. The owner of 100% shares in Kopernikus Serbia from the Netherlands is Cyprus-based Kopernikus Corporation. The owners of Kopernikus Corporation are Srđan Milovanović and Kopernikus Corporation from the Netherlands. The owner of 100% shares in Netherlands’ Kopernikus Corporation is Srđan Milovanović.

Voting Rights

Missing Data

Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups
Facts

General Information

Founding Year

2009

Affiliated Interests Founder

Theodore Kyriakou

A Greek media mogul and shipowner, his family business for more than 150 years old. He graduated with honours from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a degree in international business and physics and a prestigious medal in physics. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for International Business and Management at the University of Cambridge and a board member of the global non-profit organisation Endeavour Greece. He is also a director of the Raine Group in New York. He was also the majority owner and CEO of the Antenna Group.

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Srđan Milovanović

the owner of the Kopernikus Corporation and the brother of Zvezdan Milovanović, until recently a longtime trustee of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party for the city of Niš. The owner of local and cable TV Kopernikus, Milovanović became the owner of TV stations with a national frequency in December 2018, when he bought the media owned by the Antenna Group - TV Prva and O2, as TV B92, Prva TV Montenegro, Play radio, six cable channels and three portals Prva.rs, O2tv.rs and B92.net were called at that time. About a month earlier, he sold the company Kopernikus Technology, a cable operator, to Telekom Srbija for about EUR 195 million. Media experts then assessed that with this purchase, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party monopolised the media market. Previously, he was in the media spotlight several times. During the 2012 election campaign, he sold eight hours of programming from one Kopernikus channel to Sens marketing, a close Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which broadcast its own program. The Republic Broadcasting Agency announced that the parties, however, could not lease the program in that way. Milovanović was also reported in 2016 when the controversial businessman Predrag Ranković Peconi was wounded at the Hotel Prague in Belgrade. He was sitting at the table when Peconi was shot, and the media wrote that the reason for the gathering of the society was precisely the celebration organised by Srđan Milovanović for the purchase of the Prague Hotel. The Milovanović brothers are the owners of several offshore companies. According to business documentation, Srđan Milovanović has been operating through offshore companies for years. Among other things, Milovanović is the owner of the record label KCN Records, founded in 2009. The first album released by this house was an album by folk singer Jovana Tipšin, Milovanović's then girlfriend. At a public tender, Milovanović bought land in New Belgrade at the Directorate for Construction Land and Construction of Belgrade, where there was a market known as a flea market, for about 20.2 million euros, as Nova.rs reported. The Kopernikus Company should build Kopernikus Tower on this site, "the most modern and largest office complex in the country and the region" of 100,000 square metres. Data from the Business Registers Agency show that Srđan Milovanović is the owner, director or representative of 15 companies, including hotels and restaurants, such as the Belgrade Hotel Prague, companies engaged in construction, real estate sales, road freight transport and trade in tobacco products. KCN televisions with local frequency are owned by his brother Zvezdan.

Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief

Katarina Pavlović

Registered in the media register of the Business Registers Agency as the editor-in-chief of Prva Televizija. She has been on this television since its inception in 2006 when it was called Fox. Pavlovic is listed on the television’s website as the director of the program, and her biography states that she has been in charge of the development of the cable channels of Prva: Plus, Max, World, Kick, Life and Files since 2013. From 2002 to 2006, Pavlović worked as a translator and assistant editor of the film programme on BK television.

Contact

Ikarbus 3 Nova br. 19

11080 Belgrade

T: +381 11 209 1000

W: www.prva.rs

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

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.

  • Project by
  •  
    Global Media Registry
  •  
    Funded by European Union
  • Funded by
    BMZ