briefsports.net
Media · Serbia

РТС — Радио-телевизија Србије

Serbia's republic-level public media service, the sport it carries on РТС 1 and РТС 2, and the audience figures its own research centre publishes.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
TypePublic media service, republic level
InstrumentЗакон о јавним медијским сервисима, „Службени гласник РС” бр. 83/2014, 103/2015, 108/2016
Sport siterts.rs/sport.html
2022 shareРТС 1 at 17.5 per cent, per the broadcaster's own research centre

What is РТС?

РТС writes its name in Cyrillic as Радио-телевизија Србије and in Latin as Radio-televizija Srbije, and its site runs in both scripts.[1] Its own institutional pages describe it as the Јавна медијска установа Радио-телевизија Србије, Serbia's public media service, and carry its governing structures — an Управни одбор and a Програмски савет — together with published regulations and financial reports.[2] The instrument that names it is the Закон о јавним медијским сервисима; the consolidated text published by the Регулаторно тело за електронске медије carries „Службени гласник РС”, бр. 83/2014, 103/2015, 108/2016 on its cover.[3] Article 2 of that text defines the category rather than the institution: „Јавни медијски сервис је независан и самосталан правни субјект који, обављањем своје основне делатности, омогућава остваривање јавног интереса у области јавног информисања”.[3] The same law names two such services, the Јавна медијска установа „Радио-телевизија Србије” at republic level and the Јавна медијска установа „Радио-телевизија Војводине” at provincial level.[3] Article 7 lists among the objectives of the public interest „задовољавање забавних, рекреативних, спортских и других потреба грађана” — the satisfaction of citizens' entertainment, recreational, sporting and other needs — which is a statement of purpose rather than a quota or a must.[3] РТС's own pages describe its funding through the такса за јавни медијски сервис and set out the conditions for exemption from it.[2]

What does РТС cover?

РТС operates the television channels РТС 1, РТС 2 and РТС 3 together with a set of specialised channels, nine radio stations including Радио Београд 1 and Радио Београд 2, an online portal, and services it states are available to the diaspora.[2] Its sport desk publishes at rts.rs/sport, organised into фудбал, кошарка, тенис, одбојка, рукомет, ватерполо, атлетика, ауто-мото and остали спортови, with a Меморијал РТС section and a Eurovision sport section, and an archive of past rubrics.[4] Live output is routed through the РТС Планета streaming service.[4] The breadth of the sport desk's own section list is the clearest published statement of its scope: it is a general national sports desk rather than a single-sport operation.[4]

How large is РТС's audience?

The recognised currency for television in Serbia is peoplemeter measurement; weekly viewing tables published in the Serbian trade press are credited to Nielsen Audience Measurement.[5] The figures РТС itself publishes come from its own in-house unit: on 20 January 2023 the broadcaster reported that, according to the Центар за истраживање јавног мњења, програма и аудиторијума РТС-а, the 2022 share of РТС 1 among the population of Serbia aged four and over was 17.5 per cent, with TV Pink at 16.4 per cent and TV Prva at 10 per cent.[6] Those are the broadcaster's own numbers about itself and are reported here as such. For a single sporting event, РТС reported on 29 November 2022 that its broadcast of the Serbia v Cameroon match of 28 November 2022 drew about two million viewers and a share of 67.6 per cent, and that more than 3.5 million people watched РТС 1 that day.[7] An independently audited figure for РТС's sport output specifically could not be retrieved for this page.

Since when has РТС existed?

The dates that can be fixed from retrieved primary material are legal rather than institutional. The Закон о јавним медијским сервисима under which РТС presently exists as a јавна медијска установа carries the gazette numbers 83/2014, 103/2015 and 108/2016 on the consolidated text published by the regulator,[3] so the current legal form dates from that law rather than from any earlier broadcasting statute. The broadcaster's own institutional pages describe the установа, its Управни одбор and Програмски савет and its licence-fee financing, but carry no founding date for the organisation.[2] What РТС does date on its own site is its radio predecessor: in a piece published on 9 February 2022 it writes that Radio Beograd first transmitted from the radio-telegraph station at Rakovica in October 1924.[9] That is the broadcaster's own dating of the start of radio broadcasting in Belgrade, attributed here rather than adopted, and it is not a founding date for the Јавна медијска установа. Rule of thumb for a reader comparing sources: the date a broadcaster was founded, the date it was given its present legal form and the date it was renamed are three different dates, and secondary summaries of Serbian broadcasting frequently run them together.

Why does РТС matter in Serbia's sport?

Three things are documented. First, it is one of only two organisations the Закон о јавним медијским сервисима designates as a public media service, and sport is named in Article 7 among the needs whose satisfaction the law places in the public interest.[3] Second, its own measurement unit's 2022 figure put РТС 1 first among Serbian channels on annual share at 17.5 per cent,[6] and its reported 67.6 per cent share for a single national-team football match in November 2022[7] indicates the scale a free-to-air national-team broadcast reaches in this market. Third, on media independence the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom's Media Pluralism Monitor for Serbia 2026 scores political independence at 81 per cent, its highest-risk area, and states that „the gravest threats to the public interest in media stem from entrenched clientelist networks linking media company owners with political authorities” and that „state advertising continues to operate in a grey zone, where public money is distributed without transparency, fairness, or accountability”.[8] That is the monitor's finding, quoted and attributed; it is not a finding about any particular broadcast.

References

  1. РТС — насловна страна. Accessed 2026-09-22.
  2. РТС — Јавни сервис. Accessed 2026-09-22.
  3. Закон о јавним медијским сервисима, консолидовани текст (Регулаторно тело за електронске медије). Accessed 2026-09-22.
  4. РТС — Спорт. Accessed 2026-09-22.
  5. Advertiser Serbia — Седмични преглед гледаности телевизије, 3-9. новембар 2025.. Accessed 2026-09-22.
  6. РТС — Гледаност у 2022. години, 20. јануар 2023.. Accessed 2026-09-22.
  7. РТС — Поново најгледанији: уз РТС 1 и орлове три и по милиона гледалаца, 29. новембар 2022.. Accessed 2026-09-22.
  8. Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom — Media Pluralism Monitor, Serbia 2026. Accessed 2026-09-22.
  9. РТС — Радио Београд, како се развијао најстарији електронски медиј на Балкану, 9. фебруар 2022.. Accessed 2026-09-22.