Serbian Ruling Party-Linked Company Buys Two TV Stations

The Kopernikus Corporation, owned by the brother of a Serbian Progressive Party official, purchased TV stations Prva and O2 after selling its cable operator subsidiary to the state-owned telecommunications company Serbian Telekom for almost 200 million euros, BIRN has learned.

Kopernikus Corporation's owner, Srdjan Milovanovic, confirmed that an agreement has been reached with the two TV stations' owner, Antena Group.

"Now the anti-monopoly commission has to approve it, but that is just a formality, because Antena does not have a 40 per cent market share," Milovanovic told BIRN.

Milovanovic's company has been linked to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party because his brother, Zvezdan Milovanovic, is a party official.

Zvezdan Milovanovic owns Kopernikus Cable Network, whose TV channels served as a platform for the Progressive Party ahead of the 2012 elections which brought it to power.

The purchase of O2 and Prva comes after Kopernikus Corporation and its partner, the Polish investment fund Abris, sold the cable operator Kopernikus Technology to Telekom Serbia.

Milovanovic says that his Kopernikus Corporation subsequently purchased the two TV stations on its own.

Experts have alleged that Telekom Serbia overpaid to buy Kopernikus Technology, which claims to have 200,000 users in Serbia.

The leader of the opposition Alliance for Serbia, Dragan Djilas, accused state-runTelekom Serbia of being the real buyer of TV stations Prva and O2, and the Kopernikus Corporation of being the buyer in name alone.

Djilas expressed concern that the environment for media pluralism was worsening.

"If until now there was at least a little bit of light, it will be gone now," he wrote on Twitter.