Prva Srpska Televizija
Prva or Prva Srpska Televizija, is a Serbian commercial television network with national coverage. It was launched on 31 December 2006, at 7 pm, as Fox Televizija.
From its inception until December 2009, it was majority-owned by the global media conglomerate News Corporation, which attached its Fox brand to the operation, naming Dan Bates as the CEO. During its time under News Corporation, Fox televizija closely co-operated with News Corporation–owned networks in neighbouring countries, such as bTV in Bulgaria and Fox Turkey, sharing production capabilities on specific projects and making use of their experienced staff. Though quickly establishing itself on the Serbian television market and improving its viewership stake year after year, Fox televizija was a money-losing operation, posting an annual loss in both 2007 and 2008. By August 2009, major restructuring was initiated at the network, with 60% of its news division staff being laid off in preparation for the network sale that occurred several months later.
From December 2009 until December 2018, the network was owned by the Greek media company Antenna Group. Following the December 2009 sale of Fox televizija to Antenna Group and a transitional period of several months during which Bates continued as CEO, the job was handed over to Dejan Jocić in March 2010. The Fox televizija name continued to be used until the start of the next television season on 18 September 2010, when the network was rebranded as Prva srpska televizija or Prva. Jocić, a German-born Serb and former ProSieben managing director, presided over Prva's expansion into the Montenegrin television market with the August 2012 establishment of its sister channel – Prva TV Crna Gora. Three years later, on 16 April 2013, the network's editor-in-chief Dragan Nenadović was promoted to the position of Prva's CEO.
History
Fox televizija
News Corp was one of the five commercial groups that won the national broadcasting license in Serbia at a public tender organized by the Serbian Broadcasting Agency in April 2006. In doing so, they beat out stiff competition from German RTL Group, which also wanted to start a Serbian operation. News Corp named Dan Bates, an experienced television executive to be the CEO of its upstart Serbian operation.Approximately three months later, on 6 September 2006, an entity named Fox televizija started broadcasting a test signal consisting solely of the superimposed Fox logo. Three days later, on 9 September 2006, at precisely 8 pm, they aired their first actual program—a nature documentary that lasted about 45 minutes—before reverting to the Fox logo test signal. This setup continued for the next ten days or so. Their primetime lineup was then somewhat expanded to include a few Latin telenovelas, occasional feature films, and a weekly ULEB Cup basketball game featuring Serbian teams. During daytime hours, they broadcast a test signal, old episodes of canceled Croatian talk-show Sanja, and music videos. On 5 December 2006, before the ULEB Cup match featuring Red Star Belgrade vs PAOK basketball teams, a riot broke out between two sets of fans in Pionir Hall and the footage shot by Fox televizija was shown across the world.
On 22 December 2006, Fox televizija aired its first news programme featuring live reports from Belgrade's Republic Square during the decorative tree lighting ceremonies. Then on 31 December at 7 pm, Fox televizija finally launched officially with a live-to-air broadcast called Fox stiže as part of their newscast Fox Danas, hosted that day by Zoran Baranac and Jovana Jakić. Amongst other things, the programme featured News Corp's chairman Rupert Murdoch wishing the citizens of Serbia a Happy New Year 2007 and an unsuccessful attempt to link up with Fox News' studio in Baghdad via satellite.
During its initial period of official broadcasting, Fox televizija's entertainment programming mostly relied on old and inexpensive American sitcoms, dramas, and soaps such as The Bold and the Beautiful, ALF, Hollywood Safari, El Cuerpo del Deseo, and Police Academy, with One Tree Hill, Cold Case, and The Amazing Race being the only possible exceptions to the "cheap & old" rule. As far as locally produced content, in addition to the evening newscast Fox Danas at 7 pm and the nightly one Fox Fokus at 10 pm, Fox's news division covered the Serbian parliamentary elections on 21 January 2007 with a one-off programme Ubedi pobedi hosted by news division head Tanja Vidojević.
During April 2007, in co-operation with Adrenalin production, the network started its most ambitious project up to that point with an hour-long entertainment talk-show hosted by actor Marko Živić airing nightly on weekdays at 10:30 pm. Pretty much simultaneously, a daytime lifestyle talk-show Katarina hosted by former model Katarina Rebrača began to air daily at 10 am as well as the morning 7 am programme called Fox i prijatelji.
2007–08 season
For the new season, its first one in earnest, Fox televizija revamped the lineup with a locally-produced franchised quiz show, Da li ste pametniji od đaka petaka? They also discontinued the Marko Živić Show and Katarina, meaning that both shows ended after just a couple of months on the air. Other new programs included WWE Wrestling with local commentators ; U tuđoj koži, in which local celebrities swapped lives for a day ; and Ludi kamen. Another new show was Ne daj se, Nina, produced in cooperation with Croatian RTL Televizija.Fox televizija created a minor controversy in early September 2007 when it decided to take its late-night program, Marko Živić Show, off the air. Despite becoming fairly prominent over a short period, the official statement from Fox explained that the cancellation was "a temporary measure aimed at freeing up Fox televizija's fall schedule for more movies and series." However, some Serbian print media questioned why a network struggling for viewership would remove its highest-rated program from the air.
The network started flexing its muscle in sports by obtaining the rights for Spanish football's Primera División, and, in October 2007, the rights for the Adriatic Basketball League.
November 2007 saw the premiere of a late-night talk show, Oralno doba, hosted by Lane Gutović. On 31 December 2007, the first anniversary of official broadcasting, Fox Danas and Fox Fokus newscasts both were canceled and were replaced by two editions of Fox Vesti.
Then in spring 2008, in cooperation with its sister networks bTV and Fox Turkey, Fox televizija started airing the local version of the French reality show Fort Boyard. Around the same time, the daytime programme Posle kafe began airing on weekdays at 11 am, hosted initially by Danka Novović, Olja Rakić, and Bojana Kesić who were soon joined by other hosts as well. In early summer 2008, the morning programme Fox i prijatelji was canceled.
For the summer 2008, while its regular programmes were on hiatus, Fox televizija shifted its lineup a bit and aired as Fox Non-Stop nightly, from 9 pm, with a succession of movies and mini-series. During the same summer, on 21 July 2008, the network got a scoop by first reporting the arrest of Radovan Karadžić late in the night and interrupting its regularly scheduled programming to go live on-air in breaking-news format until the early morning hours.
Rumoured 2008 sale
In mid-July 2008, speculation appeared that News Corp was considering offers to sell all its Eastern European assets including Fox televizija. The company reportedly hired the Lehman Brothers financial-services firm to ascertain the value and strategic options of its three Eastern European stations after being approached by multiple suitors.By early September, the activity reportedly intensified with various Serbian press outlets reporting that German RTL Group and Bermuda-based Ronald Lauder-managed CME were the most interested parties in buying the three Fox stations based in Serbia, Latvia, and Bulgaria.
However, by late October, both parties pulled out of the deal. CME left due to the 2008 financial crisis, while RTL decided to pursue other courses of action as far as entering the Serbian television market was concerned, with their interest turning to buying TV Avala.
2008–09 season
Starting its second full season on 22 September 2008, Fox televizija introduced a variety of changes, the most noticeable being a new visual identity similar to other News Corp stations around Europe. Also on the same day, Fox Vestis evening newscast at 7 pm was moved to 6 pm and extended from 30 minutes to a full hour, while the 7 pm slot was taken over by the hit American drama Lost that thus premiered on the network. Also Fox Vesti at 10 pm was moved an hour later to 11 pm. In the morning, the news programme Fox 900 sekundi premiered at 7 am as a replacement for Fox i prijatelji. About a month later Survivor Srbija started airing. In late December, Fajront Republika, a weekly entertainment talk-show premiered, and right away established a devoted youth following that translated into strong ratings.On 14 February 2009, the first-season finale of Survivor Srbija aired live, bringing the network its biggest audience share ever. After the end of the Survivor season, the network introduced a Japanese sports entertainment show Ninja Warrior, which has managed to post strong ratings as well.