Happy TV is a privately ownedTV network in Serbia. Happy TV has gained a strong reputation for its entertainment programming. The station offers a compilation of international and domestic movies, American sitcoms, dramas, Indian soap operas and Latin telenovelas, as well as locally produced talk/variety shows, sitcoms and reality shows. Happy TV's parent company is the Belgrade-based Invej, which also owns many of business entities that often serves as sponsors of the program, which is owned by Predrag Ranković.
History
Happy TV was created after the merger of Happy TV and TV Košava, the latter once owned by Marija Milošević, daughter of Slobodan Milošević, Serbia's authoritarian president in power during the 1990s. Marija Milošević sold her ownership in Kosava TV to lawyer Borivoj Pajović, who was at the time President of the Board of Directors in the daily newspaperBlic. After a couple of ownership changes, in 2006 the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media issued TV Košava with a license with national coverage, which was shared with kids channel Happy TV – while Happy TV aired exclusively kids programming in the morning, Košava broadcast informative and current affairs programs in the evening. At that time, REM's decision was disputed since neither TV stations had the capacity for national broadcasting, unlike, for example, RTL which competed for a license but was not issued one. In 2007, Predrag Ranković, known to the public for involvement in shady business deals, bought part of Kosava, although his name was never mentioned in formal ownership documents. In 2010, Kosava merged with Happy and the television changed its name to Happy TV and started to broadcast as one program. Happy TV started getting a high viewership because of its TV series and movies airing, most because of Turkish drama series and Latin American telenovelas. Since its beginning, Happy TV has been made several reality TV shows, with Parovi as most popular of them. Reality show Parovi got Happy TV huge success and big viewership, but also a big criticism.
Programming
Happy TV has been shown many of foreign TV series and movies, mostly Turkish, American, Latin American, etc. Happy TV has shown many of international and domestic movies, which have been shown great result with big viewership not only in Serbia but also in the Serbian diaspora where Happy TV is present. It has aired latest box-office hits in United States. Since start, Happy TV has made several reality shows in co-operation with Emotion Production, and as result of it they broadcast a local version of internationally well known Wife Swap, called Menjam ženu, which had been broadcast earlier on RTV Pink. They also made a Serbian version of Wheel of Fortune called Kolo sreće, and later show called Soba sreće.
