The sale of SBB changes everything, but nothing for N1 and Nova S

After at least a year of speculation and rumours, United Group, a large media and telecommunications concern, sold the company SBB, its golden cock in Serbia.

The customer is e&PPF Telecom, a kind of Frankenstein created by powerful corporations.

That group was created by the merger of the Czech PPF group, which is the owner of Jetel in Serbia, as well as the Emirates Telecommunications Group from Abu Dhabi.

United Group: Agreement reached on the sale of SBB

It will come. United Group sold all rights to sports broadcasts for the entire region to Serbian Telekom. In practice, this means that the Sports Club is shutting down, and that all broadcasts will be broadcast on Telekom's Arena. Telekom will also become the owner of Eon (Net TV plus), which will dominate guest workers' televisions.

United Group's mainstream media, such as N1 and Nova S, do not change hands. According to the company's announcement, they will remain on offer on SBB and Eon, and will also be offered on Jetel's cable television network.

What's changing?

The United Group collects 1,5 billion euros for these two deals. But what does all this mean for consumers in Serbia and, especially, for the media image?

"Nothing changes," a well-informed source told Vreme when asked what the N1 and Nova S will look like in the future.

It has been known for a long time in the media bazaar that part of the deal is that these two televisions have a guaranteed place in the offer of SBB in the coming years, and they receive a certain amount of money per connection so that they can be financed.

So far, no changes have been announced even in the smaller media owned by United Group, such as the daily newspaper "Danas" or the weekly "Radar".

According to our sources, neither the editors are changing nor are there any pressures to "give in" in critical reporting towards the authorities in Serbia.

Sports club without sports broadcasts

Things should change drastically for Sport Club, which is left without all rights to sports broadcasts and practically becomes a shell. Their website will continue to operate as part of the United Group, but the television will have nothing to broadcast and will probably not even exist.

Sports channels were the main magnet for people to subscribe to SBB's or Telekom's network.

Due to the price of TV rights, these channels are insanely expensive and pay off only if they attract new users to pay a monthly subscription to cable television and the Internet. And since the United group has now sold the operator, then the sports broadcasts would be just a waste of money.

This means that the Serbian state Telekom will broadcast all sports events everywhere in the region, after a few years ago it "took away" the Premier League football broadcasts from Sport Club with a record offer - by far the most watched broadcasts in the region.

Will Telekom shut down the big TV stations?

It was part of a major offensive by the government of Aleksandar Vučić on the telecommunications sector, in which the United Group was then gaining strength in the market.

With huge state money, the purchase of several smaller operators, the establishment of numerous television stations and the financing of others, as well as cheap offers for consumers - Telekom "won" that battle.

At the moment, the state-owned company delivers a television signal to over 50 percent of households, while SBB has a little over 40 percent. The rest falls to small bidders, such as Jetel, which has a much better position in the mobile telephony market.

It remains to be seen whether, after this acquisition, Telekom will stop financing the big televisions on its cable network, some of which were supposed to be counterparts to N1 and Nova S, and others belong to tabloids.

Most of them have viewership at the level of a statistical error and would not survive without Telekom's money, that is, indirectly, the money of the citizens of Serbia.

Business is business.

As "Vreme" first wrote last March, the investment fund BC Partners, the majority owner of United Group, was intensively searching for a buyer of the entire group even then.

Even though the regime's tabloids are still writing this Wednesday that Dragan Šolak "sold out the company", that entrepreneur has long had only a minority stake in the United Group and hardly asked much here.

From the point of view of BC Partners, the matter was logical - investment funds market, raise the value and resell.

However, apparently no buyer was found for the complete grouping, which extends from the market of Slovenia to Greece. Maybe because it's too expensive.

That's why parts of the business are now being sold "piecemeal". Apart from this deal in Serbia, the United group recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Sarajevo Telekom, with the intention of selling the Telemah operator in BiH and Montenegro to them.

As for the consumers in Serbia, the only good news for them could be if the Czech-Emirati corporation enters a lively market competition and opposes Telekom with better prices and offers.

It is not far from logic that the entry of Emirati couples comes with the blessing of Aleksandar Vučić. That is why the worst news for consumers could be if it is a cartel sharing of the cake.

The whole deal will probably take effect in the first half of this year, when it passes the Antimonopoly Commission.