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.
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.Jovanka Matic and Larisa Rankovic, "Serbia", EJC Media Landscapes; accessed 11 March 2016.
National broadcasting Serbia has a total of 7 national free-to-air channels, which can be viewed throughout the country. These are RTS 1, RTS 2 and RTS 3 from the country’s public network Radio Television of Serbia, as well as private channels Prva, B92, Pink and Happy.
Regional and local broadcasting There are 28 regional and 74 local television channels. 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). 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.
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. Cable operators offer not only Serbian channels in their packages but also foreign channels - on average there are 90 channels in basic cable packages.
Internet protocol television About 17% of households have IPTV. 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. 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 Logo Notes RTS 1 First television channel in Serbia launched on 23 August 1958 as Televizija Beograd or TVB (Television Belgrade). RTS 2 First colour channel in Serbia launched on the last day of 1971 as Televizija Beograd 2 (TVB2). RTS 3 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 Logo Notes B92 Launched on October 6, 2000. From 2017 to 2020, it was rebranded as O2.TV. Happy Launched on August 22, 1998. Rebranded as Happy in 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 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. Due to pay television services being widely used across the country, many local and regional channels can be viewed throughout the country.
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 TV Jasenica Airs from Smederevska Palanka
Domestic pay-tv channels
Arena Sport (available in HD) N1 (available in HD) Nova (Serbia) (available in HD)
International pay-tv channels
Star Channel (available in HD) Star Crime (available in HD) Star Life (available in HD) Star Movies (available in HD) Star Comedy (available in HD) AXN AXN Spin CBS Drama Comedy Central Extra Universal Sci Fi HBO (available in HD) HBO 2 (available in HD) HBO 3 (available in HD) Cinemax (available in HD) Cinemax 2 (available in HD) CineStar CineStar Action Viasat Kino AMC Klasik TV Viasat Explorer Viasat History Viasat Nature Viasat Nature/History HD National Geographic (available in HD) Nat Geo Wild (available in HD) Discovery ID X (available in HD) Discovery Science (available in HD) Discovery Showcase HD Discovery World Animal Planet (available in HD) Travel Channel (available in HD) History (available in HD) H2 CI CBS Reality Nickelodeon (available in HD) Nick Jr. Nicktoons Disney Channel Disney Junior JimJam Minimax Cartoon Network Cartoonito Duck TV Baby TV Eurosport (available in HD) Eurosport 2 (available in HD) Eurosport News Extreme Sports Motors TV Motorvision Fight Channel Fight Sports (available in HD) Fight Network (available in HD) Outdoor (available in HD) Trace Sport Stars HD Fashion TV (available in HD) World Fashion FLN E! TLC 24kitchen (available in HD) Food Network (available in HD) Ginx MTV MTV Live HD MTV Dance MTV Hits MTV Rocks VH1 VH1 Classic Trace Urban (available in HD) Trace Tropical (available in HD) Mezzo Mezzo Live HD
Viewership Following is table of viewership for 7 national free-to-air channels:
Audience share % (4+) Channel 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 RTS 1 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 RTS 2 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
See also Media of Serbia List of Serbian language television channels
References
Further reading
External links Republic Broadcasting Agency ANEM - Asocijacija nezavisnih elektronskih medija