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 (test signal most of the day with a single taped program at 8 pm) 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 (the basketball broadcasts were their first in-house productions). 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 (which was eventually moved to a late-night slot after viewer complaints);
U tuđoj koži, in which local celebrities swapped lives for a day (canceled after only a few episodes due to extremely low ratings, but later resurfaced on competing
RTV Pink); and
Ludi kamen (a dating game show that continues to this day). 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 (it premiered on 24 April 2007), 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 (a local version of the Fox News programme
Fox and Friends) 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 (the local version of the global reality show that was shot during summer 2008) 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.
2009 layoffs On 20 August 2009, ahead of its third full season on the air, Fox televizija initiated massive cost-cutting measures. The move had the biggest effect on the network's news division, where 60% of the employees (on-air personalities and technical staff) were laid off. On the same occasion, the network canceled the morning news program
Fox 900 sekundi that had been on the air for less than a year. Fox televizija's spokesperson said the layoffs were initiated due to the "financial consequences of the economic crisis". In total, around sixty of Fox televizija's full-time employees, including the news division head Tanja Vidojević, were laid off as well as tens of contractors as part of cost-cutting measures throughout News Corp's assets worldwide during the spring and summer 2009 following heavy losses reported by News Corp at the beginning of the year. In September 2010, Fox televizija changed its name to Prva srpska televizija.
2009–10 season A new, third full season began on 8 October 2009, with shows such as
Fajront Republika, by Zoran Kesić, and
Ludi Kamen, with Srđan Karanović, but from this season with Aleksandra Obradović as well, and the new show
Mame u štrajku. On the next day the quiz
Serbian Open began, with Serbian contestants. On 19 October 2009, the drama series
Na terapiji, recorded from December 2008 to March 2009, which contains 45 episodes, and the reality show
Survivor Serbia 2 began. The programme
Posle kafe was replaced by the programme
Važne stvari. On 12 October 2009, Fox televizija introduced an all-new visual identity. The background color is orange; in the foreground, for the television logo, the letter "X" is emphasized, instead of the letter "O". There is also new theme music. The television logo was dropped from upper right corner of the screen, less than three years after launching. The new slogan is
Uključi se! ("Tune In!"), and their website was also redesigned. On same day, the studio for
Fox Vesti was changed, with the presence of the television logo in upper left corner of the screen, it now looks very different: only the televisions are in the background, while the rest is colored in black, and some light effects in orange color were added. Instead of blue, the inscription is now orange, and there is no pipe behind the board that separated the studio from the editorial area.
2013–14 season The season started on 2 September 2013. Prva got a modified look, with the logo moving to the bottom right instead of center right, before and after commercials or promos, and dark areas except for the 'P' which stayed white. Nothing happened to the logo during the programme. On 27 January 2014, Prva redesigned its news studio, changing the background color from orange to lavender, and re-added the balustrade (the one used in late 2000s). Prva launched the cable TV channel
Prva Plus. The popular series
Kako vreme prolazi,
Plač Violine, and
Otvorena vrata continued to air. Also, the 5th season of
Veče sa Ivanom Ivanovićem started on 13 September. On 12 October, Prva started to air a new show –
Tvoje lice zvuči poznato or TLZP, the Serbian version of
Your Face Sounds Familiar. New seasons of popular shows started to air –
Domaćine, oženi se,
Galileo,
Žene,
Exkluziv,
Exploziv – and there were also two new shows:
Moja velika svadba (that was previously aired on RTV Pink) and
Volim prirodu. There were also some new TV series this season:
Ispovest,
Institut,
Sinđelići (a Serbian remake of
Los Serrano), and
Karadayı.
Papijeva ekipa and
Žene sa Dedinja would start airing. In December,
Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? started airing. A New Year program returned as the New Year special
Tvoje lice zvuči poznato, the first one being set at the end of 2011 and was the New Year special of the first season of
Prvi glas Srbije. On 20 January 2014, the rerun of the TV series
Na Terapiji started airing on every weekday except Friday, and also
Umutsuz Ev Kadınları, the Turkish version of
Desperate Housewives started to air. On 25 January 2014, the rerun of
Crni Gruja started airing on weekends.
Ples sa Zvezdama (the local version of
Dancing with the Stars) aired from 29 March 2014, until 18 June 2014. On 19 February 2014, Prva announced that
Toga se niko nije setio, the local version of the
Pointless game show, would start airing soon.
Draga Saveta and
Otvorena vrata started airing on 26 March 2014.
Toga se niko nije setio started airing on 5 April 2014. Fourteen celebrities started dancing in the new dance competition,
Ples sa Zvezdama, which started airing on 29 March 2014. The rerun of the first
Tvoje lice zvuči poznato aired during August, on weekends at 4 pm.
2014–15 season The season started on 1 September 2014, with some small changes: the news program would, as in 2010, go back to 6 pm. The network also announced that a 6th (also the second-to-last) season of
Veče sa Ivanom Ivanovićem would air, with the 2nd season of
Tvoje lice zvuči poznato. It is unknown whether the network would change its visual identity.
2015–16 season The season started on 1 September 2015, and a new visual identity was created, including a new logo, which was first shown on 1 September at 6 pm, at the same time its news program started. The new season included the 2015 regular season of
Veliki brat, airing also on channel B92, making it the first ever television show to air on two Serbian television networks. It also planned a local version of
My Mom Cooks Better Than Yours. ==Ownership==