Play radio
Play Radio is a station with a national frequency inherited from its predecessor, Radio B92 (the first independent radio station which was established by Veran Matic in 1989). Play Radio began operating in 2015, with a new programming approach that involved playing only music with short news of a poor quality every hour.
Playing commercial music (mainly MTV hits), Play Radio very quickly found itself among the three most listened to radio stations in the country. According to their data, in the first three months they became the most listened to radio with over 100,000 downloaded applications. Fans of the old Radio B92 were very disappointed and upset that their favorite station from the 1990s was turned into the commercial Play Radio. First the staff of Radio B92 were made redundant, of which most were well known journalists, after which the entire program conception was changed and, as the new station management described it, a new, modern, better radio was created.
This move came with the new owners, Antenna Media Group, whose business goals were for the most part focused on maximizing profits. It remains unclear how the radio station managed to retain the national frequency of Radio B92 given that it is an entirely new legal entity. The commercialization and decline in the quality of the program further escalated following the sale of the entire Antenna Media Group to the Kopernikus Corporation in December 2018. According to the research of Nielsen for 2018, Play Radio is the most popular in the country with an audience share of 10.4%
Audience Share
10.4%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Free content
Media Companies / Groups
Kopernikus Corporation
Ownership Structure
Kopernikus Corporation owns majority share of Play radio.
Voting Rights
Missing Data
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
2015
Founder
Antenna Media Group
Affiliated Interests Founder
Antenna Group Serbia is part of Antenna Group, better known as ANT1 Group, the largest media company in Greece. It started in 1988 with the radio station ANT1 97.2 FM, founded by Greek-Cypriot shipping magnate and businessman Minos Kyriakou. Over the years, Kyriakou has built up a media empire whose operations include broadcasting, publishing, Internet services, telecommunications and a record label. ANT1 has also spread its operations abroad to America, Western Europe, Australia and Asia. ANT1 launched itself into the Balkans, purchasing Bulgaria’s national channel Nova TV in 2001. Since then, its ratings have grown on the back of the reality shows and other entertainment programmes that ANT1 introduced. Seven years later, the Greek group sold Nova TV to Swedish based Modern Times Group for €620 million, thus securing a crucial line of credit for its distressed core business that experienced fallen ratings in the 2007-2008 season, they said. The Greek investors obtained a foothold in the Serbian media market when they bought Fox TV, now called Prva, in December 2009 and then bought B92 and brought Vice to Serbia.
Ceo
Manja Grčić
Affiliated Interests Ceo
Manja Grcic is CEO of Prva TV. Previously, she worked as CEO of B92, deputy general director of FOX TV, PR of G17 political movement as well as in marketing of Pink TV. She is married to Vlada Grcic, famous Slovenian golf player.
Editor-In-Chief
Dragan Karadžić
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
Dragan Karadzic came to the helm of O2 TV and Play Radio in March 2019 from the position of Deputy President of the Managing Council of RTS, having previously been an editor and journalist on the RTS third channel. On social media, he is known as a great supporter and promoter of the policies of the ruling party. Although upon arrival he promised an improvement in the program and increased viewership, one of Karadzic’s first moves was to put an end to repeat showings of the TV show 24 Minuta which treated events in the country during the previous week in a satirical way.
Contact
Autoput za Zagreb 22
Beograd – Zemun, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Tel: +381 11 301 2000
Website: www.playradio.rs
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
No financial data are available for Play Radio but only for O2 TV for 2017. It remains unclear whether these figures are including the radio station as well. O2 TV did not have an operating profit in 2017, but only losses in the amount of RSD 144,254,000.
