Serbian television in Tirana: A dubious media investment linked to Aleksandar Vučić’s inner circle and the Milošević power structure

This television operation lead directly to the authoritarian power of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and to individuals who played key roles in the media apparatus of Slobodan Milošević’s regime

Just two months after its registration in Tirana, the Serbian television company “Arena News Channel Two Albania” drastically increased its initial capital from 5,000 Euro to 125,000 Euro, a 25-fold rise that has drawn the attention of media and analysts in Albania, Kosova, and Serbia. This rapid financial expansion, in an already saturated media market, has raised serious questions about the true nature of the investment and the intentions behind it.

The Albanian “Arena” is owned by its parent company “Arena News Channel Two DOO Belgrade”, registered in the Serbian capital and owned by the public company “Telekom Serbia”. The latter is one of the main economic and political instruments of Aleksandar Vučić’s government, used for years to consolidate control over Serbia’s media market and to expand regional influence through what analysts describe as media soft power.

The company was registered in Albania on November 25, 2025, and during January 2026 its main shareholder decided to double the initial capital twice, a clear signal that the project was not conceived as a small experiment but as a well-funded intervention in Albania’s media landscape. Media outlets in Tirana have noted that such rapid capital injections usually accompany projects with strong institutional and strategic backing, not merely editorial initiatives.

The arrival of a Serbian television channel in Albania, although legally permitted, represents a novelty that is not necessarily viewed as positive. This is especially true when public records and media reports show that the threads of this television operation lead directly to the authoritarian power of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and to individuals who played key roles in the media apparatus of Slobodan Milošević’s regime.

“Arena News Channel Two DOO Belgrade” was registered in March 2024. In Albania, its representative is Zoran Glišović, while the group’s chief executive in Belgrade is Aleksandra Krstić. Her name is not unfamiliar to the Serbian public. Earlier investigative reports in Belgrade have linked Krstić to media structures that were historically close to the Milošević family.

Krstić previously served for a long period as a senior executive at “Happy TV”, a media group derived from the former “TV Košava”, which was owned by Marija Milošević, the daughter of the former Serbian dictator. She also held important positions within the “Invej AD” media group, owned by the controversial Serbian businessman Predrag Ranković, known as Peconi, who has been suspected of links to the notorious criminal “Zemun Clan.”

Under Aleksandra Krstić’s leadership, “Happy TV” has over the years become one of the most aggressively pro-government platforms in Serbia. International media freedom organizations and investigative outlets such as BIRN and KRIK have described it as a channel that serves to defend Vučić’s power, attack critics, and relativize scandals involving organized crime and state corruption.

In 2023, when “The New York Times” published an investigation raising serious doubts about Vučić’s links to criminal networks, “Happy TV” was widely used to defend the Serbian president’s image, portraying the reporting as a foreign conspiracy against Serbia. This precedent has heightened concerns that the same editorial approach, repackaged in a more moderate form, could be imported into Albania.

According to documents submitted to Albania’s National Business Center, “Arena News Channel Two Albania” will operate as a television and digital platform, with activities including the production, broadcasting, and distribution of audiovisual content via television, the internet, digital platforms, and social media. On paper, this activity falls fully within the bounds of legal normality. However, the key questions arise not from what is written in official documents, but from the political and ownership context behind the project.

Albania and Serbia do not enjoy friendly relations, a gap historically deepened by Belgrade’s repressive policies toward Kosova. In recent years, however, this divide has been partially bridged through the personal relationship between Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, particularly through regional initiatives such as “Open Balkan.”

Analysts and media in Kosova assess that this political closeness has created a favorable environment for media outlets close to Vučić to view Albania as open ground for expansion. At the same time, comparable Albanian investments in Serbia remain virtually impossible, due to political and administrative barriers and a hostile climate toward Albanian economic interests.

The opposition in Albania, along with numerous public voices in Kosova, has for years accused Prime Minister Rama of granting the Serbian president broad political and economic access in Albania, effectively becoming, in their view, a facilitating factor for Belgrade’s interests in the country. This perception has been further reinforced by the case of “Arena News Channel Two Albania”, which is seen not as an isolated investment but as part of a broader strategy of influence.

At its core, the concern is not about a Serbian media outlet operating in Albania per se, but about whom it serves and what agenda it carries. When capital, ownership structure, and leadership are directly linked to an authoritarian regime and to the legacy of Milošević-era propaganda, claims of editorial neutrality become difficult to believe. In a region where media has historically functioned as a political weapon, the case of “Arena” in Tirana is not seen as an exception, but as a continuation of a familiar model of influence. /The Balkan Report/