 | |
| Type | Terrestrial television |
|---|---|
| Country | Serbia |
| Headquarters | Ilije Garašanina 20 (Initially) Teodora Drajzera 19 |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Palma Ltd d.o.o. |
| Key people | Miodrag Vujović |
| History | |
| Launched | 18 March 1993 |
| Closed | 26 December 2006 (Several attempts at piracy later) |
| Links | |
| Website | www.rtvpalma.co.yu |
RTV Palma (Serbian : РТВ Палма, palm tree ) was a privately owned Serbian television station based in Belgrade.
TV Palma was owned by Palma Ltd, a company set up in October 1991 by Belgrade-based lawyer Miodrag Miki Vujović. [1] On 18 March 1993, TV Palma was launched as Belgrade's sixth TV station. Initially, it broadcast on the 39th channel from 17:00 to 02:00, and was one of the first TV stations in Serbia to play hardcore pornography (starting at a quarter to 01:00). [2] The adult segment was later moved to 02:00, but the decision was reversed after public outcry. [3]
Vujović had already been running another TV station on the 34th channel, MV Channel Real Times, from 9 January 1992. The channel broadcast mainly business news and satellite reruns (MTV, Eurosport, The Children's Channel) and was sponsored by Jugoskandik, a fraudulent bank run by Jezdimir Vasiljević, Vujović's groomsman (kum). [4] MV Channel Real Times was initially broadcast from the premises of Borba , a newspaper closely aligned with the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia. Also, TV Palma's headquarters was initially located on the premises of the SPS near Tašmajdan. Vujović had been renting the office from the party, of which he was also a member. For this reason, it was widely speculated that both TV stations were ideologically closely aligned with the socialists, which was denied by Vujović. [2] [5] By the end of 1993, TV Palma had started broadcasting on the 34th channel, leaving only the graveyard slot reserved for the MV Channel Real Times, which was eventually cancelled altogether.
In 1995, TV Palma tried to transfer to the 12th channel, challenging BK Telecom. The two stations went to court in late August 1995. [6] In October 1995, the government officially granted the 12th channel to BK Telecom. [7]
On 10 February 1997 Miki Vujović and Dragoljub Milanović, general director of RTS, signed a deal stating that the two TV stations would work on the conception and realization of a unified program. Similar deals were signed around that time by other stations, as it allowed them to bypass a public bidding for the bandwidth by aligning their programming with the RTS. [8]
Following the renovation of the Magistrate in Zemun, the Serbian Radical Party, having signed a lease to the building for 30 years on 4 December 1998, signed a sublease to TV Palma. This was considered controversial as the SRS was part of the local government in Zemun at the time, and also subleasing was illegal. [9] In May 2000 Vujović responded to accusations that the station was biased toward the SRS saying that any opposition party could pay for a show such as Radikalski talasi, and would be charged half the price. [10]
During the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on 5 October 2000 TV Palma stopped broadcasting at around 19:05, broadcasting only the message "We cannot continue broadcasting while the city is in flames". The first guest following the overthrow was Dragoljub Mićunović. [11] [3]
Following investigations by the new local government in Zemun, in June 2001 Federal Minister of Telecommunications Boris Tadić came out with information that three television networks that were "more than close to the SPS" - TV Pink, BK Telecom and TV Palma owed 2,1 million DM in total. [12]
In April 2006 TV Palma and several other TV stations applied for broadcasting rights on the territory of Belgrade. Four NGOs, including the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, put out a statement saying that the council making the decision was "seeming to lose sight of its legal powers and boundaries, manifesting a lack of tolerance and was, akin to earlier ideological commissions, not hiding its intolerance towards media outlets whose editorial policy they did not like". [13]
In July 2006 the Republic Broadcasting Agency decided that only TV Most, held by SPS member Dušan Bajatović, and TV Palma were denied broadcasting rights. The Democratic Party supported this decision stating that both stations were responsible for hate speech and anti-democratic propaganda during the SPS government. [14] The same month, the Law on Broadcasting was amended giving the RBA the power to seize any frequency that was not awarded to a TV station. [15]
On 26 December 2006 coercive measures were taken by the Republic Broadcasting Agency to prohibit the broadcasting of TV Palma. [16] [3]
During the first half of 2007, and for a short period in May 2008, TV Palma broadcast via satellite. [17]
On 14 July 2007 TV Palma started illegally transmitting from its old transmitter in Zemun on the 36th channel, causing distortions to TV Enter, the station occupying that frequency at the time. Authorities took action and stopped the transmission on 18 July 2007 on the count of piracy. [18]
In March 2009 Palma Ltd took the Republic Broadcasting Agency to court over the fact that the Council of the RBA did not have the legal capacity to prohibit the broadcasting of a TV station, a task normally deferred to Republic Telecommunications Agency. On 4 June 2009 the Supreme Court of Serbia ruled in favor of Palma Ltd. [19] [20] The RBA was forced to reexamine the request from July 2006 and, despite earlier indications, reiterated their earlier decision on 25 January 2010. [21] TV Palma had been broadcasting during this period, starting in December 2009. Vujović even announced he had been planning on a fresh start with a new slogan - "Srpska, a svetska" ("Serbian, yet world-class"). [3]
Starting in late September 2011 TV Palma broadcast via cable (Kopernikus for Belgrade proper, and Avcom for Borča and Krnjača). Its license was revoked on 8 January 2013 as a result of its large accumulated debt. [22]
Early on, TV Palma's program consisted mainly of turbo folk music videos. [23] However, after the launch of TV Pink, Palma found it hard to compete and started broadcasting pirated films and satellite TV programs, as well as telenovelas. [24]
Already in 1994, TV Palma started sporadically broadcasting a number of US TV series including Dallas, Dynasty, The Colbys, Barnaby Jones, Remington Steele, The Flying Nun, The Big Valley, Cagney & Lacey, Tales of the Unexpected, Charlie's Angels, M*A*S*H, The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, The Young and Restless, Days of Our Lives and I'll Take Manhattan. Later, Palma broadcast a few US teen TV series including Dead at 21 and Kenan & Kel.
By late 1998, TV Palma shifted its focus to broadcasting a number of political and art shows. Around the turn of 1999, the late-night adult program was cancelled. [25]
On 12 December 2000 TV Palma broadcast the first and only interview with Slobodan Milošević following his overthrow. [26] This was condemned by several MPs from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia including Nebojša Čović. [27]
In late 2001 TV Palma canceled all its political shows and started to orient itself to more commercial content. Talk show host Olivera Miletović confirmed in an interview for Ekspres in May 2001 that this was a precondition set by the US before Palma could be allowed to broadcast via satellite. [28]
In December 2015 Serbian hip hop artist Mimi Mercedez released a music video for her single Suši ( sushi ). The logo of TV Palma was featured prominently, and the image was distorted to resemble turbo folk music videos as an homage to 1990s pop culture in Serbia. [34]
RTV B92, or simply B92, is a Serbian news station and broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade.
Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, more commonly referred to as the Radio Television of Serbia, is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Serbia. RTS has four organizational units – radio, television, music production, and record label (PGP-RTS). It is financed primarily through monthly subscription fees and advertising revenue.
Branislav Ivković, known as Bane, is a Serbian engineer, academic, and former politician. He was a cabinet minister in the government of Serbia from 1994 to 2000 and served in the parliaments of Serbia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and Serbia and Montenegro. At one time a prominent figure in the Socialist Party of Serbia, he led the breakaway Socialist People's Party in the early 2000s.
Milan St. Protić is a Serbian historian, politician and diplomat who served as the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the United States, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. He was also the Mayor of Belgrade in 2000/01.
Lido is a non-residential urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zemun.
The mass media in Serbia refers to mass media outlets based in Serbia. Both state-owned and for-profit corporations operate television, magazines, and newspapers, which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. The Constitution of Serbia guarantees freedom of speech.
Vojislav Mihailović is a Serbian politician who served as the mayor of Belgrade from 1999 to 2000. As of January 2022, he has been the president of the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia (POKS). He is a grandson of Draža Mihailović, the leader of Chetniks during World War II.
Čedomir Mirković was a Serbian writer, literary critic, television journalist, publisher and politician.
The Left Coalition was a coalition of left-wing nationalist political parties in Serbia for the 1996 Yugoslavian parliamentary election and then for the 1997 Serbian general election.
Gordana Suša was a Serbian journalist. She wrote a weekly Saturday column for the daily Blic and from 2010 until her death sat on the board of the Serbian Broadcasting Agency (RRA), the country's electronic media regulatory body.
Mihailo "Miki" Ivanović is a Serbian football manager. He previously worked as a sports journalist.
Dragan Šormaz is a Serbian politician who served in the National Assembly of Serbia on an almost continuous basis from 2001 to 2022. At one time a leading member of the Democratic Party of Serbia, he later joined the Serbian Progressive Party and was its member from 2010 to 2023.
Andreja Mladenović is a Serbian politician and administrator. He was the deputy mayor of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018 and was an assistant to the mayor from 2018 to 2022. In August 2022, he was appointed as director of the Belgrade Metro.
The Party of Serbian Progress was a minor political party in Serbia.
Third Serbia – Rich Serbia is a Serbian former political party. It was created in 2015 by the merger of Third Serbia, formed in 2012 with the party Rich Serbia formed in 2011.
Local elections were held in Serbia on 24 September 2000, concurrently with the first round of voting in the 2000 Yugoslavian general election and the 2000 Vojvodina provincial election. This was the fourth and final local electoral cycle to take place while Serbia was a member of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Smiljko Kostić is a retired politician and administrator in Serbia. From 1984 to 1998, he was the general manager of the tobacco firm Duvanska industrija Niš (DIN) in Niš. He served in the National Assembly of Serbia from 1991 to 1993 and was the mayor of mayor of Niš from 2004 to 2008. A member of the Socialist Party of Serbia for most of the 1990s, he later fell out of favour with Slobodan Milošević's administration, left the party, and was elected mayor in 2004 with an endorsement from New Serbia.
Radovan Radović, commonly known as Raka, is a retired politician in Serbia. He served several terms in the Serbian and Yugoslavian parliaments between 1991 and 1997 and was the mayor of Trstenik from 2004 to 2008. For many years a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, he later founded his own Our Home Serbia party and has been a member of the Serbian Progressive Party since 2013.
Dragan Milovanović is a Serbian trade unionist and former politician. From 2001 to 2004, he was Serbia's minister of labour and employment. During his political career, Milovanović was the leader of the Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions and the Labour Party of Serbia.
| |||||||||||||
