Content investment gets a rethink at Serbia’s Prva TV and b92
The entrance of leading telcos into the Serbian content and channel market is putting pressure on established broadcasters, says Katarina Pavlovic, head of programming at Prva TV and b92.
Katarina Pavlovic
Intense rivalry between the Serbian incumbent telecom operator Telekom Srbija and United Group’s Serbia Broadband (SBB) is impacting the wider audiovisual industry in the country.
It is being most keenly felt by national commercial broadcasters such as Prva TV and b92, both of which were at one stage owned by Greece’s Antenna Group and are now part of Kopernikus Corporation, backed by the Serbian entrepreneur Srdan Milovanovic.
Katarina Pavlovic is the programme director and editor-in-chief for Prva TV and in charge of programming for b92. According to the exec, the big change in the industry began two to three years ago, when Telekom Srbija and SBB started getting into content and channels. This caused considerable disruption in the market, to the extent that there are now at least 20 cable channels in basic packages in every household.
“They have morning shows, they have news, formats in primetime. None of them is important enough to be our competition but combined have taken away enough GRPs (gross rating points) from us so we now must rethink investment and big shows.”
Pavlovic emphasises her point by adding that more channels are constantly appearing in Serbia. A franchised version of Euronews is already present on the market, and the US channel Newsmax is set to make its debut in October. The problem for Prva TV and b92 is that many of these new channels have been taking their “TV presenters and some shows connected to our brand.”
Prva TV is a free-to-air (FTA) channel and operates six cable services – Prva Plus, Prva Max, Prva Life, Prva World, Prva Files, Prva Kick – all launched in the last six years. According to Pavlovic, three (Plus, Kick and World) are distributed by both Telekom Srbija and SBB, with the remainder (Max, Life and Files) only offered by the former.
She adds that Prva TV was initially focused on an audience aged 18-49. However, with “a lot of competition, a lot of new channels coming up, a lot of Serbian content and domestic content being produced, we had to go for a target audience aged 15-59. Now we try to speak to our target audience, which is younger, more urban, younger families with children, but we do have to think about the total audience, we do try to create content that will be watched by the whole family.”
In practice this means such shows as Igra Sudbine (Game of Destiny), a scripted format acquired from Guinness World Records that began airing in January 2020. A family drama that is “still going strong”, it forms the “backbone” of Prva TV’s primetime schedule.
Igra Sudbine (Game of Destiny) is the backbone of Prva TV’s primetime schedule
Other primetime shows include MasterChef, now in its second season; The Weakest Link; and It’s Never Too Late, a family music show originally known as The Last Chance.
Meanwhile, b92, which has no cable channels but operates an internet web portal named b92.net, is currently being restructured. It used to have a younger and more male-skewed audience (Prva TV is more female-oriented) showing sport. However, the latter is no longer possible, according to Pavlovic as both it and Prva TV are commercial stations “and we have to deal with profitability”.
Pavlovic adds that b92 is still showing Hollywood blockbusters in primetime and domestic sitcoms, but these are re-runs, not premieres. It also shows more news programming than Prva TV, along with more programmes about politics and world issues.
Gameshows also feature on b92; Wheel of Fortune will appear in its schedule in November this year.
While Pavlovic says it is trying not to cannibalise between the two channels, she admits it is hard. At the same time, she also points out that b92 still retains a four-hour morning slot for cartoons. It has been running for the last 10 years, is doing well and will be retained. Significantly, she continues, no other Serbian national broadcaster, including publicly owned RTS, shows children’s programming.
Looking more generally at programming, Pavlovic says the two broadcasters are no longer involved in coproductions despite having previously done so, mostly with RTL in Croatia. However, they have acquired mostly foreign movies and series, and meanwhile work with independent producers in Serbia. In the latter case, one show – It’s Never Too Late, broadcast in primetime on Sundays – is bought ready-made from United Media.
She also says that although the two channels have their own primetime domestic dramas, they are made using hired external production due to lack of studio capacity. “For both our TV channels we do daily shows, morning shows, news, smaller gameshows, maybe late-night talk shows – this is what we have capacity for. Anything like Your Face Sounds Familiar or The Weakest Link we usually hire external production to do this for us.”
Commenting on streaming, Pavlovic says that unfortunately it is not yet involved in the sector. “The major issue is we must invest more in programming to deliver less GRPs. Everything is more expensive – you then cut the budget for innovation that’s going to bring a return on investment in six to seven years. This is where we are now. Of course, we know that we must get into digital, streaming, platforms and apps. We are aware of that.”
Luckily, she adds, Serbia is still behind what is happening elsewhere in the world, “so there is time to catch up.”
Looking to the future, Pavlovic expects Prva TV and b92 to “stay strong”. She also thinks there is not a lot of talk in the country about FTA being threatened by streamers or FAST channels as “in Serbia people still trust FTA stations. There’s loyalty. There are habits around watching linear TV.”
At the same time, she concedes that the two broadcasters must be innovative. She’s not afraid for Prva TV’s future as it’s “a strong brand, family oriented, has a loyal audience and big shows like MasterChef.” It is also trying to integrate some digital platforms into its programming.
In the case of b92, Pavlovic concedes “a lot of innovation has to happen. We must go for hybrid formats and try to mix digital and FTA. There is a good chance the channel can stay relevant in the future as well.”
Overall, while upbeat about where the two broadcasters stand right now, Pavlovic admits that they will have to get into areas like streaming “as soon as possible”.