Balkan TV in Switzerland: the Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian packages compared

As named on the providers' pages:

Among the services checked, only Zattoo sells a Croatian package: six channels, CMC, HRT 1, DM SAT, Klasik TV, HRT Int., HRT 4, with a 30-day free trial and monthly cancellation. Check the channel list against what you watch before the trial ends.

Zattoo's Pink package has nine channels from the Pink family, among them Pink Plus, Pink Extra, Pink Reality, Pink Music, Pink Koncert, Pink Folk 1, Pinkids. Swisscom's Pink Plus is described as the package with the attractive Serbian broadcasters of TV Pink, and Salt's Serbian package as music, films, cartoons and sport. Zattoo's package needs no operator subscription; the other two work only with their own service.

Swisscom's Bosna+ is described as the best-known Bosnian private channels with news, documentaries, sport and music; Salt's Bosnian package as the best of Bosnian channels for the whole family. Zattoo has no Bosnian package. The choice follows your base provider, since each add-on works only with its own service.

A package carries what the provider licensed. National public channels such as the broadcasters of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia are sold separately country by country, so you may find a private channel family but not the public one you grew up with. Compare with Zattoo's overview, which lists single channels such as RTS Svet and RTCG Sat among its international channels.

Sellers of unlicensed lists advertise "all Balkan channels" for a small monthly sum. A licensed package names or describes its channels and shows its terms before you pay. IPTV scams and red flags lists the checks before you pay, and IPTV illegal or legal in Switzerland sets out the law.

HRT Int. in Zattoo's Croatian package, and RTS Svet and RTCG Sat in its channel overview, are feeds made for audiences outside their home countries. Such a feed is not a copy of the domestic channel: its schedule is built for viewers abroad, and some programmes are left out for rights reasons.

Pink's family of channels works differently, since the Pink package is made of separate channels with their own schedules. Whichever route you take, test it for a few evenings in the free month and note which programmes you actually missed.

See also Albanian TV in Switzerland, Turkish TV in Switzerland and Foreign-language TV. For the whole picture, start from IPTV Switzerland: licensed providers compared.