Television in Serbia

Television in Serbia was introduced in 1958. It remains the most popular of the media in Serbia—according to 2009 survey, Serbian people watch on average 6 hours of television per day, making it the highest average in Europe.^[1]

Free-to-air terrestrial television

Digital television transition has been completed in 2015 with MPEG-4 compression standard and DVB-T2 standard for signal transmission.^[2]^[3]

National broadcasting

Serbia has a total of 7 national free-to-air channels, which can be viewed throughout the country. These are RTS1, RTS2 and RTS3 from the country’s public network Radio Television of Serbia, as well as private channels TV2, Prva, B92, Pink and Happy. These free-to-air channels require a subscription, which is paid via the electricity bill.

Regional and local broadcasting

There are 28 regional and 74 local television channels.^[4] Serbia’s northern province, Vojvodina, has a public broadcaster, Radio Television of Vojvodina. It airs 2 channels throughout Vojvodina – RTV1 and RTV2. Via pay tv services those 2 channels can be viewed throughout Serbia, like many regional broadcasters. One of the largest and most watched regional broadcasters is Studio B, which airs across Belgrade's metropolitan area.

Pay television

Some 67% of households are provided with pay television services (i.e. 38.7% cable television, 16.9% IPTV, and 10.4% satellite).^[5] There are 90 pay television operators (cable, IPTV, DTH), largest of which are SBB (mainly cable) with 48% market share, Telekom Srbija (mts TV) with 25%, followed by PoštaNet with 5%, and Ikom and Kopernikus with 4% and 3%, respectively.^[5]

Cable television

Nearly 39% of households in Serbia have cable television. As a result there are many cable television companies, by far the largest of which is SBB.^[6] Cable operators offer not only Serbian channels in their packages but also foreign channels - on average there are 90 channels in basic cable packages.^[5]

Internet protocol television

About 17% of households have IPTV.^[5] First IPTV was successfully launched in 2008 by Telekom Srbija and its IPTV service, called mts TV, is today by far the largest IPTV platform in terms of numbers of subscribers. In 2013 SBB has launched an OTT service called D3i.

Satellite television

There are 10.4% of households equipped with satellite dishes.^[5] Three dominant DTH services are: SBB platform called Total TV, followed by Polaris (owned by Bulgarian Bulsatcom) and Digi TV (owned by Romanian RCS & RDS).

List of channels

Public channels broadcasting nationally

Channel	Notes
RTS1	First television channel in Serbia launched on 23 August 1958 as Televizija Beograd or TVB (Television Belgrade).
RTS2	First colour channel in Serbia launched on the last day of 1971 as Televizija Beograd 2 (TVB2).
RTS3	Channel began broadcasting on 26 November 2008 in DVB-T format in Belgrade and Novi Sad area, since 21 March 2012 it was available across Serbia over trial DVB-T2 network.

Private channels broadcasting nationally

Channel	Notes
B92	Launched on October 6, 2000. From 2017 to 2020, it was rebranded as O2.TV.
Happy	Happy is Serbia's youngest national broadcaster, launched on September 27, 2010.
Pink	RTV Pink launched on September 16, 1994 at 8pm. It has since become significant media group which owns several television networks across the Balkans.
Prva	Prva launched on December 31, 2006 at 7pm as FOX. It is part of Greek Antenna Group since December 2009. On September 20, 2010 at 6pm it changed its name to Prva.

Public channels broadcasting regionally

Channel	Notes
RTV 1	First launched as Radio Television Novi Sad (RTNS 1) the network was renamed to Radio Television of Vojvodina in 2006. It is broadcast across Serbia's province of Vojvodina. It can also be seen throughout Serbia via pay television services.
RTV 2	RTV 2 caters mostly for the minority groups living in the Serbian province of Vojvodina with a large number of foreign language content. It can only be seen in Vojvodina and is not broadcast via pay television services to the rest of Serbia.

Private channels broadcasting regionally

There are 27 private channels broadcasting with a regional licence.^[4] Due to pay television services being widely used across the country, many local and regional channels can be viewed throughout the country.^[7]

Channel	Notes
Regionalna TV	Airs from Novi Pazar
SAT TV	Airs from Požarevac
TV Banat	Airs from Vršac
TV Belle Amie	Airs from Niš
TV Bor	Airs from Bor
TV Enigma	Airs from Prijepolje
Info Kanal	Airs from Subotica
TV K23	Airs from Subotica
TV Kanal 9	Airs from Kragujevac
TV Kikinda	Airs from Kikinda
RTV Kragujevac	Airs from Kragujevac
TV Kraljevo	Airs from Kraljevo
TV Kruševac	Airs from Kruševac
TV Leskovac	Airs from Leskovac
TV Lav plus	Airs from Užice
TV Most	Airs from Novi Sad
TV Palma Plus	Airs from Jagodina
TV Panonija	Airs from Novi Sad
Pannon RTV	Airs from Subotica
TV Pirot	Airs from Pirot
TV Podrinje	Airs from Loznica
TV Raška	Airs from Raška
TV Santos	Airs from Zrenjanin
TV Studio MT	Airs from Leskovac
Sremska TV	Airs from Šid
TV Studio B	Airs from Belgrade
TV Šabac	Airs from Šabac
TV Vranje	Airs from Vranje
TV Vujić	Airs from Valjevo
TV YU Eco	Airs from Subotica
RTV Trstenik	Airs from Trstenik

Viewership

Following is table of viewership for 7 national free-to-air channels:

Audience share % (4+)^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]
Channel	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
RTS1	19.5	20.1	22.4	27.4	26.5	26.2	26.0	25.1	23.6	23.6	19.9	21.7	18.5	19.2	20.2	19.4	19.3	18.4	17.6	17.5	16.3
RTS2	7.4	8.2	6.3	6.7	6.8	7.6	5.7	4.6	4.2	3.6	3.0	3.1	2.3	3.1	2.5	1.9	1.6	1.2	1.2	1.0	1.0
Pink	21.9	20.0	22.5	23.3	23.5	21.7	23.7	25.6	20.4	19.7	21.4	19.0	15.8	14.8	14.1	16.7	17.6	17.2	16.9	16.4	15.7
Fox / Prva	—	—	—	—	4.7	6.4	7.8	10.6	15.1	16.1	16.0	13.2	10.7	9.7	9.0	10.9	10.5	11.7	10.7	10.0	8.1
B92 / O2.TV	3.4	5.3	6.8	9.1	9.3	8.7	8.0	6.3	7.6	8.2	7.7	7.3	6.8	5.8	4.7	4.6	4.1	3.5	3.0	2.5	2.2
Happy	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5.4	4.3	2.8	4.1	4.7	9.8	7.9	9.4	8.3	6.9	6.8	7.8	7.9	7.5

References

^ "Televizijske serije kao obrok". danas.rs. December 2009.
^ Jovanka Matic and Larisa Rankovic, "Serbia", EJC Media Landscapes; accessed 11 March 2016.
^ "Završena Digitalizacija!". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
^ ^a ^b "Aktuelnosti statistike 2015" (PDF). webrzs.stat.gov.rs.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Pregled tržišta" (PDF). ratel.rs. Republic of Serbia Regulatory Agency.
^ "Pregled tržišta" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
^ "Private television stations broadcast regionally". rrs.gov.rs.
^ "Godišnji udeli u gledanosti najznačajnijih kanala u poslednjih 10 godina". rtvforum.net. Archived from the original on August 20, 2013.
^ "Radio TV Forum-Mesečni i godišnji udeli u gledanosti za 2017". rtvforum.net. 4 January 2018.
^ "Radio TV Forum-Mesečni i godišnji udeli u gledanosti za 2018". rtvforum,net. 22 January 2019.
^ "Radio TV Forum-Mesečni i godišnji udeo gledanosti TV stanica u Srbiji u 2019. Godini". rtvforum.net. 3 February 2020.
^ "Гледаност ТВ програма с националном покривеношћу у 2020". rts.rs. Archived from the original on 2 February 2021.
^ "Gledanost TV programa s nacionalnom pokrivenošću u 2021". rts.rs.
^ "Gledanost TV programa s nacionalnom pokrivenošću u 2022". rts.rs.
^ "Gledanost TV programa s nacionalnom pokrivenošću u 2023". rts.rs.

External links

Republic Broadcasting Agency Archived 2011-06-10 at the Wayback Machine
ANEM - Asocijacija nezavisnih elektronskih medija

[1] "Televizijske serije kao obrok". danas.rs. December 2009.

[EJC-2] Jovanka Matic and Larisa Rankovic, "Serbia", EJC Media Landscapes; accessed 11 March 2016.

[3] "Završena Digitalizacija!". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-10.

[statistike2015-4] "Aktuelnosti statistike 2015" (PDF). webrzs.stat.gov.rs.

[Pregled-5] "Pregled tržišta" (PDF). ratel.rs. Republic of Serbia Regulatory Agency.

[6] "Pregled tržišta" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2016-09-23.

[7] "Private television stations broadcast regionally". rrs.gov.rs.

[8] "Godišnji udeli u gledanosti najznačajnijih kanala u poslednjih 10 godina". rtvforum.net. Archived from the original on August 20, 2013.

[9] "Radio TV Forum-Mesečni i godišnji udeli u gledanosti za 2017". rtvforum.net. 4 January 2018.

[10] "Radio TV Forum-Mesečni i godišnji udeli u gledanosti za 2018". rtvforum,net. 22 January 2019.

[11] "Radio TV Forum-Mesečni i godišnji udeo gledanosti TV stanica u Srbiji u 2019. Godini". rtvforum.net. 3 February 2020.

[12] "Гледаност ТВ програма с националном покривеношћу у 2020". rts.rs. Archived from the original on 2 February 2021.

[13] "Gledanost TV programa s nacionalnom pokrivenošću u 2021". rts.rs.

[14] "Gledanost TV programa s nacionalnom pokrivenošću u 2022". rts.rs.

[15] "Gledanost TV programa s nacionalnom pokrivenošću u 2023". rts.rs.

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