Nacionalna Televizija Happy (often shortened to Happy) is a privately owned TV channel in Serbia. Happy 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.
Happy's parent company is the Belgrade-based Invej, which also owns many business entities that often serve as sponsors of the program, which is owned by Predrag RankoviÃÂ.
Happy was previously called Koà ¡ava, the latter once owned by Marija Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, daughter of Slobodan Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, Serbia's authoritarian president in power during the 1990s. Marija Miloà ¡eviàsold her ownership in Kosava TV to lawyer Borivoj PajoviÃÂ, who was at the time President of the board of directors in the daily newspaper Blic.
After a couple of ownership changes, in 2006 the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media issued Koà ¡ava with a license for national coverage, which was shared with kids channel Happy â while Happy aired exclusively kids programming in the morning, Koà ¡ava broadcast informative and current affairs programs in the evening. At that time, REM's (then RRA) 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 RankoviÃÂ, known to the public for involvement in shady business deals, bought part of Koà ¡ava, although his name was never mentioned in formal ownership documents. In 2010, Koà ¡ava bought Happy, and Koà ¡ava changed its name to Happy and started to broadcast as one program. The former kids channel Happy changed its name to Happy Kids, before closing in 2017.
It broadcasts many international and domestic movies and TV series which have resulted in large viewership not only in Serbia but also in the Serbian diaspora where Happy TV is present.
Since its beginnings, Happy TV has made several reality shows (especially Parovi) in cooperation with Emotion Production, and as result of it they broadcast a local version of the internationally well-known Wife Swap, called Menjam à ¾enu, which had been broadcast earlier on RTV Pink. They also made a Serbian version of Wheel of Fortune called Kolo sreÃÂe, and later show called Soba sreÃÂe.
Happy TV has broadcast many foreign telenovelas, drama series and soap operas, mainly from Latin America, Turkey and India.