22. 01. 2014

DECISION ON FREQUENCIES BY 1 FEBRUARY

Belgrade, January 22, 2014 (Danas) - Lead:  Representatives of "Nova" and Kopernikus held talks with RBA

Belgrade - The decision on whether to grant  the license to broadcast on the national television frequency to TV Nova.rs or TV Kopernikus the Republic Broadcasting Agency ( RRA ) should make by the end of the month, was learned by "Danas". On the RBA premises talks were held yesterday with representatives of the two broadcasters who were only ones to participate in the competition, which is the last procedural matter before making a decision.

Deputy President of the RBA Council Goran Karadzic declined to specify when the Council members could meet and decide on who will get the broadcasting license, but it is certain that it will not be before Tuesday 28 January. "After the talks we had with the broadcasters, we decided to visit the business premises of Nova.rs and Kopernikus in Belgrade, after which we will decide within a certain time period," said Karadzic  for "Danas".

The competition for a national broadcaster was announced by RBA on 25 October and was open until 30 December, and the only applicants were television Nova.rs and Kopernikus, like on the previous competition held last year. The RBA has previously in the first half of 2013 opened a competition for the allocation of frequencies that were previously used by TV Avala, when the same two television stations applied. At that time a license was granted to no one, because the competition was contested in the public having in mind that the frequency was necessary for the process of digitization . The new competition was announced then for the  frequency that was created from parts of several other (frequencies).

As previously announced by RBA, the owner of 100 percent of the capital of TV Nova is Nova.rs Media Holding Belgrade. Its majority owner with 85.1 percent of shares is the Dutch company BD Media Invest, owner of which is the Dutch company New Amsterdam Cititrust in which 99 percent is owned by a German Bernd Matthias Ditel, and one percent by Ulf Malte Iversen, also a German citizen. The Minority stake in Nova.rs Media Holding is held by production company Vision Team from Belgrade`s owner Dragan Djurkovic with 7.9 percent, while 7 percent has the GMG Media Group owned by German Ulrich Broke.

Owner of Kopernikus is Zvezdan Milovanovic, who directly owns 47.71 percent of the capital and another 47.59 percent through the company Tvinel from Nis where he is the sole owner. The remaining 4.7 percent of Kopernikus is owned by Mitra Milovanovic, the RBA announced after the first competition.

In August this year broadcasting licenses will expire for other national broadcasters B92, Pink, Happy and Prva, who were granted eight-year licenses in  2006. A new competition on which these television stations could renew their licenses should be announced six months before licenses run out, i.e. in February this year.