HOW ŠOLAK BECAME THE RICHEST SERB: Following its owner's early works, UG perfects the practice of infringing copyright (11)

In a special series, Kurir reveals how exactly this controversial billionaire fulfilled his 'American dream' in the murky waters of the Balkan transition

Ratomir Raca Kutlešić, the man behind the children's television channel Ultra, sold a 50-percent ownership share in this media company to Dragan Šolak, followed by another, 25-percent share. Under the agreement that they concluded, SBB undertook to pay a fee to the TV channel per client. However, Kutlešić found out that SBB was deceiving him in reporting the number of its users, reducing thus the fee based on the right to rebroadcast the channel. As a result, he pressed charges against SBB and filed a lawsuit against Šolak for fraud.

His suspicions were confirmed when he received a document – a loan request – which several companies owned by the KKR fund had submitted to Unikredit Bank. The request specified that in 2012 SBB had over 800,000 subscribers, but in December that year SBB paid TV Ultra a fee claiming that only 457,000 people used the services of this operator.

Although United Media owned a majority stake in Ultra, as a result of the dispute cable operator SBB removed this channel from its offer. This is probably a unique case in the world – someone removing a television channel of its owner from its offer. Behind this seemingly senseless decision was Šolak's attempt to put additional pressure on Kutlešić to make the latter drop his charges against SBB.

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Clash with the Croatian public broadcaster

Šolak faced copyright-related problems in broadcasting the Croatian national TV channels abroad, which his companies were not legally allowed to do. In March 2006, Croatia's Radio-Television Service (HRT) gave the US company Euro World Network exclusive rights to distribute its programming. The US company in question is involved in the distribution, advertising, and delivery of television programming for citizens of the former Yugoslavian states in the territory of Europe, North America, and Australia, with the permission of all the television companies whose content is marketed. In 2015, the US company authorized Austrian GSS Media Kg to distribute HRT's content in Australia and the US. However, Šolak's company NetTV Plus, whose servers are located in Belgrade, decided to broadcast HRT programming for the diaspora in North America and Australia without any permits or fees paid.

As a result, on 1 March 2014 HRT sent a letter to UG requesting that all HRT programming be removed from the NetTV platform. The US company had to threaten a lawsuit against Šolak's company over its refusal to abide by the law.

RTS: Šolak's company ventures into the world of piracy

August 2018 saw a dispute arise with RTS as well. The Serbian public service broadcaster accused Šolak's company of multiple breaches of the law and piracy. RTS pointed out that SBB was acting like it owned RTS programming and could use it free of charge.

"Under the law, SBB cannot rebroadcast RTS programming if it does not have an agreement with us. It does not have an agreement and does not want to sign one… Under the law, SBB must broadcast all the Radio Belgrade programming, but it does not do so... Under the law, SBB must blur parts of RTS programming abroad, but does not do so at all times, putting us at risk of huge fines and turning itself into a pirate broadcaster subject to legal penalties," the RTS statement said at the time.

This media company noted then that United Group had no right to rebroadcast RTS programming on its EON platform, but that Šolak's company nonetheless did so, making it a big "pirate" broadcaster.

COMING UP NEXT: 2014 as a watershed for United Group –media laws passed in Serbia

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