MONITORING: ADVERTISING INVESTMENTS IN MEDIA ARE GROWING RAPIDLY THIS YEAR

Monitored media advertising investments grew by almost a quarter year-on-year in April. Then for the first four months of 2022 they were up 15 percent, Nielsen Admosphere monitoring shows.

Total monitored advertising investments in the media for the first four months of this year are up 15 percent year-on-year, according to AdIntel’s monitoring by Nielsen Admosphere. Their total gross volume exceeded CZK 30.5 billion for the period. The most significant increase in monitored advertising investments in the media was in April this year, when they showed a 23% growth.

Last year, the covid-19 pandemic knocked down advertising spending mainly in outdoor advertising, which is now the media type with the highest year-on-year growth in April (+77%). Radio (+35%) and television (+22%) also posted high increases in April, while the volume of investments in print also increased by double digits (+15%), according to the monitoring.

Thus, the monitoring data for the first four months of 2022 do not even suggest a slowdown or decline in investment in connection with the war in Ukraine, as some representatives of media operators have pointed out.

Comparison of price list value of advertising space January – April 2022 Comparison of total value of advertising space (Media type – TV, Print, Radio, OOH)

The Internet is not included in the overview because the monitoring of advertising investments only covers display advertising and video advertising and thus does not include all forms of Internet advertising. However, according to AdMonitoring data for the first quarter of this year, growth is registered in this media type as well, especially in programmatic display advertising.

Again, we would like to remind you that the data from the investment monitoring does not reflect the actual financial volume devoted to the purchase of advertising time and space. They are primarily an indicator of the development trend.

Source: mediaguru.cz

ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCIAL TELEVISION CELEBRATES FIVE YEARS AND BRINGS A LOT OF NEWS

This spring marks the fifth anniversary of the Association of Commercial Television whose founding members are the Nova, Prima and Óčko TV groups. During its existence, AKTV has been actively involved in the TV industry and legislative processes and has become a respected stakeholder. To support its marketing activities, it has launched a B2B brand and industry website ScreenVoice, and on the occasion of its 5th anniversary, its visual identity has been refreshed.

The Association of Commercial Television has completed its first five years of successful operation. At its inception, it set itself two main objectives, namely to raise awareness when promoting TV media and to actively engage in the legislative processes affecting TV broadcasters.

In the course of its existence, AKTV has hosted a number of major industry conferences featuring the world’s leading marketing and advertising experts. The most famous names that AKTV has brought to Prague undoubtedly include Mark Ritson, Les Binet, Karen Nelson-Field and Wiemer Snijders. After a Covid-19 break, AKTV held its first conference under the auspices of its newly launched B2B brand ScreenVoice last year. ScreenVoice aims at covering the entire world of television, TV advertising and total video.

“ScreenVoice is the new umbrella for our activities to promote total video and TV as an advertising medium. Under ScreenVoice, we will continue to organise exceptional industry conferences, and this year for the first time, we will conduct our original qualitative research, which is an activity we have only known from our foreign colleagues,“

says Jan Vlček, President of AKTV and CEO of TV Nova.

 On the ScreenVoice.cz website, readers will find inspiration, trends, research and news about what is happening in the TV world in the Czech Republic and abroad. Each month is dedicated to one topic, for which original content is prepared. Readers can expect a magazine reading about the first ever TV advertisement, a Christmas or Valentine’s Day ad special, or a reflection on advertising during the Covid-19 period or the war in Ukraine. The topic of the month is complemented by a calendar of industry events, a glossary of terms from the world of total video, or the popular Myths and Facts about TV section, which provides a range of data to debunk the most common myths about TV. A separate category is the archive of AKTV events, where people can find all the recordings of speeches and speakers’ presentations from the last five years.

AKTV’s visual identity has also been refreshed and now it uses the same colour scheme as ScreenVoice. The content of the two websites is different. ScreenVoice primarily targets advertising professionals and those interested in the world of total video, while AKTV focuses on the legislative and regulatory aspects of the broadcasters’ business.

About the Association of Commercial Television

The Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) represents the leading commercial broadcasters in the Czech Republic. Its goal is to defend, support and promote their common interests.

AKTV is actively involved in the preparation of national and European legislation relating to commercial TV broadcasting, personal data protection, journalistic work and commercial communication. It is a partner for government authorities, EU institutions and other stakeholders. One of AKTV’s main activities is to protect the copyright of its members and to fight against online piracy.

In addition, AKTV is active in promoting TV as an advertising medium. For communication with advertisers and media agencies, it operates its information website ScreenVoice.cz and regularly organises industry conferences.

PRIMA WILL START AUCTIONING OFF PART OF THE SPACE NEXT YEAR

The Prima Group is trying to counter the expected outflow of advertising GRPs in linear TV and will introduce auction sales for part of its advertising space from 2023, following restrictions on rewind advertising in IPTV. And it is already announcing price increases.

The Prima Group and its media agency Media Club will come up with a novelty in selling advertising space from 2023. Following efforts to cope with the expected outflow of advertising GRPs in linear TV, it will introduce auction sales for part of its advertising space after limiting rewind advertising in IPTV. Clients with the lowest CPP will fall into it, Prima’s commercial director Vladimir Pořízek described in an interview.

At the AdCross tool presentation, you described trends in video content viewership, predicting a decline in linear TV and an increase in video-on-demand (VOD) viewership. Specifically, how do you estimate that linear TV viewership may evolve in 2022 and next year in 2023, and what trends do you expect more specifically for VOD?

According to the numbers, we can see that linear TV viewership grew until 2017, then stagnated for a year and has been declining since 2019, also due to the large number of VOD services on the market. This decline was halted by the covid-19 pandemic, when people stayed at home and watched TV. After people returned to normal life, this decline started to show again. For the number of GRPs available in the market, the situation is even more complicated because the ad-skipping capability of IPTV operators takes away a lot of free space to air ads.

We expect the decline of linear TV to continue in the future. Firstly, the number of VOD services will grow – Disney+, Amazon Prime are due to come to our market this year alone, and there will be a joint service between Discovery+ and Warner Bross. And there will also be a growing trend towards watching TV via IPTV operators with delayed viewing services. In Sweden, for example, linear TV now accounts for only 50% of all video viewing.

How much might the number of TV GRPs decrease this year and next as a result of these changes?

Our expectations are somewhere around 3% in the 15-69 target group and 5% in the 15-54 group per year, but these are rather optimistic expectations. We’ve seen much bigger and faster inventory declines around the world, and that was when there weren’t as many VOD services in the market and there wasn’t as fast internet.

What will this mean for Prima as an important player in the commercial TV market? How will you respond to this?

We have been watching this trend for a long time and preparing for it for no less time. Leaving aside the inevitable price increases, one of the next “steps” is the cross-platform metering we introduced this year. It may not make up for all the lost inventory, but we firmly believe that eGRPs will increase and at least partially limit the decline.

So do you expect to see further increases in TV advertising prices? Since when and by how much?

That will be a reality in a declining market, unfortunately. The only question is how much prices will rise and how these price increases will happen. Many clients are convinced that tenders will always bring the price down. They often hear this from their advisors – media auditors. But this fact may have been true in a market where the media space was not sold out. This year, unfortunately, we had to turn down a few long-term clients who had a low price and listened to their advisors’ voices that they should insist on these, for us, no longer feasible conditions… So they ended up with a competitor, but at a much higher price… More than a third of our inflation this year is driven by the fact that we are limiting clients with low CPP. Then for next year, we are preparing another innovation, and that is making deals involving auction principles in the normal negotiation.

What exactly does this mean? Does it mean that you will sell the space at auction?

Yes, we will, but not all of it. We will be selling most of the space in a similar way as before. We do intend to sell the last remnants of our inventory to the lowest bidding clients by auction.

“Price growth will already be a reality in a declining market. The only question is how much prices will rise and how this price increase will happen.”

So what will it look like?

Our negotiations will be divided into several phases. The first phase is called the “preliminary round”. In this preliminary phase, all our clients can ask us for an offer. If they like the offer and take advantage of it, the deal is already done. In the second phase, the standard negotiation as clients and agencies know it takes place, with the only difference that the deal is closed not only by both parties agreeing on the price, but also another condition must be met. This condition is the profitability for the Media Club or TV group. This second phase is divided into several rounds and only a limited number of deals are concluded in each round. Which deal is concluded and in which round is then determined by the profitability for the TV group, which is determined by both the CPP and the volume. The higher the CPP, the better for Media Club/TV, and of course the higher the guarantee, the better for Media Club/TV. Usually, however, clients want a lower CPP for a higher guarantee. So this balance is a delicate thing. The last stage is then the actual auction, which is where the clients with the lowest CPP will fall. But even this stage is limited by space, so some clients may not be reached at all. This should motivate clients to close their deal in the preliminary stage or increase their CPP in the auction.

Do you really believe this will work?

Of course, it will only work if there is an overhang of client demand over TV supply, which is very difficult to predict these days. Nobody knows what will happen next. Will there be a recession? How quickly? For how long?

But we are counting on all possibilities. If there is no excess demand, we always have the option to sell the space without an auction and accept all clients. But even that would only be a matter of a year. With the decline in GRPs that we expect, the demand must necessarily climb back above the supply within one to two years at most.

“Clients with the lowest CPP will fall into the last phase of the auction. But even this phase is limited by space and so some clients may not be reached at all.”

Which type of video on demand (AVOD, SVOD, TVOD) will develop most dynamically on the Czech market and how will the development of the SVOD market be affected by the arrival of foreign players this year?

I think neither. Until now, we have been fed by advertising, so I hope that it will be the so-called HVOD models, i.e. models where clients pay a certain amount for a premium VOD service, but the amount is much less than the usual amount, because viewers are served a limited amount of advertising in addition to exclusive content. As the number of VOD services increases, so will the willingness of viewers to migrate between services. It’s a trend we’re seeing across platforms. The vast majority of viewers take the opportunity to pay for a service, test it for three months and then perhaps cancel it again. That’s why we see the hybrid model as an appropriate solution for our market. Viewers can minimize the fee and retain multiple services. According to many market surveys, more than 75% of viewers perceive advertising as payment for services and are therefore comfortable with it. Moreover, even Netflix has already announced that it will introduce this service model.

Prima also wants to enter the SVOD field this year. Do you already know whether you will sell advertising as part of your SVOD service and what monetization model will you choose?

I believe in the freedom of choice for users, so I hope we will offer all models of content monetisation. But we haven’t reached a final decision yet.

From June, there should also be an announced plan to limit ad skipping in back-viewing for IPTV operators. Last year, you reported that you lost 30,000 GRPs due to the skipping option. How many GRPs can you “save” with this move?

Our main motivation for having to take this step was to prevent further GRP loss, as the trend of GRPs starting to decline was exponential rather than linear. With the growing share of IPTV operators in the distribution of our channels and the growing share of deferred viewing/back-viewing, we simply wouldn’t have anything to sell in a couple of years. The second question is whether we will add any GRPs. I firmly believe that a smaller portion of our inventory will even come back. But we really don’t expect any big numbers.

Prima is talking about a total video strategy for the coming years. Can you give an indication of what the distribution of Prima’s trading inventory will look like for next year and how the trading will be distributed between linear TV, delayed TV or different types of video-on-demand?

We currently have about 3% of our viewership in online inventory, but we only use about 1% on average for eGRPs. The rest we sell on impression as standard. Deferred viewing is currently around 14% and we expect to see growth there in the future. Given that operators have a choice of how to limit ad rollover – for example, by shortening the ad block or replacing linear advertising with online advertising – it will be difficult to predict whether deferred or online inventory will grow faster. But as I said, the classic linear one is definitely not going to grow.

“Our goal is for the online inventory, that we use for eGRPs, to grow at least 1.5% every year. We would like to have at least 10% of inventory in online within five years.”

How will these changes be reflected in the inventory supply in about five years?

Our goal is for the online inventory we use for eGRPs to grow by at least 1.5% each year. We would like to have at least ten percent of inventory online within five years, where we can better reach users with advertising, adjust frequency and, most importantly, substantially improve the affinity of our clients’ campaigns through targeting.

Vladimír Pořízek, Commercial Director, Prima Group

Vladimír Pořízek worked at Prima Television for almost five years as CFO until 2012, after which he headed the buying association Opera of the Omnicom Media Group. In 2014, he returned to Prima as Chief Operating Officer and was later appointed Commercial Director. Before joining Prima, he was CFO of media agency PHD until 2007.

Source: mediaguru.cz

MEDIA FREEDOM DAY & MEDIA FREEDOM ACT: WHAT FREEDOM LOOKS LIKE TO EUROPE’S MEDIA

Today, broadcasters and streaming services around Europe celebrate Media Freedom Day[1]. As the European Commission drafts the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), ACT, ABBRO, ACCeS, AKTV, ARCA, CRTV, UTECA and VÖP recall common principles to safeguard media pluralism, independence and sustainability. Any new regulations impacting audio-visual media should be assessed in light of general principles, such as media sustainability, to avoid regulatory conflicts and lack of coherence that negatively impact the media landscape. The EMFA should be an opportunity to develop a more holistic approach to media pluralism.

  1. Europe’s diversity means an EMFA based on subsidiarity, focusing on principles that are not intrusive. Any restrictions should be objectively justified, transparent, non-discriminatory, and proportionate to protect media freedom in Europe.
  2. EMFA should support the growth of European TV & VoD and in no way hinder it with anti-consolidation policies. Measures aimed at restricting the consolidation capacities of European broadcasters, or preventing the sector from innovating, scaling up and seeking new sources of revenues, would ultimately limit European media pluralism and reinforce the dominance of big tech companies that do not invest in European media.
  3. Help the sector diversify and grow by revisiting & limiting intrusive and outdated rules for media. Focus where cultural diversity and investment is most at risk, notably by increasing scrutiny of Big Tech media acquisitions affecting pluralism.
  4. Existing rules for the audio-visual sector should be applied proportionately. Additional minimum requirements at EU level which would have the potential of adding greater compliance costs to an already overly burdensome framework (eg AVMSD) should be avoided.
  5. Measures to ensure the visibility of AVMS providers’ news and content are necessary. Content must be protected from interferences by big tech companies.
  6. Independent audience measurement is key. Players subject to different regulatory regimes should not be included in the same “audience measurement basket” but instead be measured with separate but comparable currencies.
  7. Transparency of media ownership and state advertising is welcome. This could be useful particularly in light of the specific situation in some Member States.
  8. A reinforced role for ERGA. The MFA should seek to make the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) fully independent, staffed up and financed for a growing list of activities.

On this day of celebration, we are reminded that media freedom, pluralism and democracy require constant vigilance and support. Even in Europe, some authorities routinely interfere with media companies’ activities, their editorial independence and freedom to operate. The primary goal of the European Media Freedom Act must be to curtail unjustified restrictions by public authorities. We must however avoid that the measures in the EMFA end up limiting our ability to grow and compete in an environment where Big Tech continues to enjoy asymmetric rules and undermines the foundations of media pluralism.

ACT – ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCIAL TELEVISION & VIDEO ON DEMAND SERVICES IN EUROPE

ABBRO – ASSOCIATION OF BULGARIAN BROADCASTERS

ACCeS – ASSOCIATION DES CHAÎNES CONVENTIONNÉES ÉDITRICES DE SERVICES

ARCA – ROMANIAN ASSOCIATION FOR AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATIONS

AKTV – ASOCIACE KOMERČNÍCH TELEVIZÍ

CRTV – CONFINDUSTRIA RADIO TELEVISIONI

UTECA – UNIÓN TELEVISIONES COMERCIALES EN ABIERTO

VÖP – ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRIAN COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS

ABOUT THE SIGNATORIES:

ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCIAL TELEVISION & VIDEO ON DEMAND SERVICES IN EUROPE (ACT)

ACT’s 29 member companies finance, produce, promote and distribute content and services benefiting millions of Europeans across all platforms. At ACT we believe that the healthy and sustainable commercial broadcasting sector has an important role to play in Europe’s economy, society and cultures. Commercial broadcasters are at the heart of Europe’s media landscape as producers and distributors of European original content and news. We embrace the digital environment providing new services, formats and content to meet the growing European demand for quality content on various distribution models.

For further information please contact: Erard Gilles | Senior Policy Officer| eg@acte.be

ASSOCIATION OF BULGARIAN BROADCASTERS (ABBRO)

ABBRO is the non-governmental organisation of commercial TV and Radio broadcasters in Bulgaria.
The association is the most representative industry body for Bulgaria for the television, radio and
on demand services. Its members operate various national free-to-air, cable and satellite TV
channels with the highest rating of viewers’ trust, on-demand services and radio networks. ABBRO
contributes to the law-making process to ensure fair and transparent market rules, as well as
favourable legal framework for the development of media services in Bulgaria.

For more information see www.abbro-bg.org Contact: Anna Tanova | Executive Director |
a.tanova@abbro-bg.org

ASSOCIATION DES CHAÎNES CONVENTIONNÉES ÉDITRICES DE SERVICES (ACCeS)

Founded in 1997, the “Association des Chaînes Conventionnées éditrices de Services” (Association of licensed channels editor of services – ACCeS) brings together 35 channels established in France, which have concluded a legal agreement (convention) with the French Media Regulator (ARCOM) for the broadcasting by cable, satellite and ADSL, digital terrestrial hertzian broadcasting, or another electronic communication network on the French territory.

For more information please contact: Eric Brion | Secretary General | ebrion@acces.tv

ASOCIACE KOMERČNÍCH TELEVIZÍ (AKTV)

The Association of Commercial Television (Asociace komerčních televizí – AKTV) was formed in 2017
as an association of terrestrial television broadcasting operators with the goal of defending,
supporting and promoting the common interests of commercial broadcasters in the Czech Republic.
The founding members of the Association are the Nova, Prima and Óčko television networks.

For further information please contact: Marie Fianová | Secretary | marie.fianova@aktv.cz

ROMANIAN ASSOCIATION FOR AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATIONS (ARCA)

The Romanian Association for Audiovisual Communications (Asociatia Româ nă de Comunicaţ ii
Audiovizuale – ARCA) joins the main radio (Europa Fm, Kiss Fm, Radio Zu, National FM, Radio
Romania, etc.) and television (ProTv, Antena 1, KanalD, Prima TV, Antena 3, RomaniaTv, B1Tv,
National Tv, etc) companies operating in Romania. ARCA works for developing an auspicious climate
for audiovisual media business in Romania by representing the interests of the Romanian
broadcasters in the relationship with the authorities, the political environment and the civil society.

For more information please consult www.audiovizual.ro. Contact: George Chirita, executive
director: george@audiovizual.ro

CONFINDUSTRIA RADIO TELEVISIONI (CRTV) 

Confindustria Radio Televisioni (CRTV) is the association of Italian radio and television broadcasters. Established in June 2013, CRTV among its members includes Italy’s major national broadcasters: CN Media (Radio KISS KISS), Discovery Italy, Elemedia (GEDI), Gruppo 24Ore (Radio24), GM24, La7, Mediaset, Persidera, Prima TV, QVC Italy, Radio Italia, Rai, RDS – Radio Dimensione Suono, Rete Blu, RTL 102,500 Hit Radio, Tivù, Viacom International Media Networks Italy. Major local TV and radio broadcasters are represented in CRTV through the Association of Local Televisions and the Association of Local Radios FRT. Aggregated members include satellite operator Eutelsat Italia. All major categories of the broadcasting industry are represented in CRTV: public and private broadcasters, national and local broadcasters as well as platform and network operators. CRTV’s goal is to represent the broadcasting industry as a whole at institutional, legislative and contractual level. CRTV collaborates on a regular basis with all relevant ministries, institutions and regulators at national and at European Union level, and with international organizations and institutions. CRTV’s goal is to guarantee and promote the growth of radio and TV industry based on fair competition, equal access and respect of users’ rights.

UNIÓN TELEVISIONES COMERCIALES EN ABIERTO (UTECA)

The Spanish Union of Commercial Free-To-Air Television (Unión Televisiones Comerciales en Abierto – UTECA), which was established in 1998, represents and defends the common interests of free-to-air commercial television channels at the national, community and international level. UTECA’s members are Atresmedia, DKISS, Net TV, Real Madrid TV, TEN, TRECE and VEO TV. The associates manage 14 Digital Terrestrial Television channels.

For more information see www.uteca.tv or contact Emilio Lliteras | Director General |  direccion@uteca.tv

ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRIAN COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS (VÖP)

The Association of Austrian Commercial Broadcasters (VÖP) represents commercial Radio and TV broadcasters in Austria. Among the most important goals is the establishment of fair competition and equal opportunities – on a national level between private broadcasters and the Austrian public service broadcaster ORF, as well as on an international level, i.e. regarding competition with international media companies and platforms. Other objectives are to show the journalistic and economic importance of the private broadcasting sector in Austria, to strengthen the economic basis of commercial broadcasters and to actively support technological development of the industry.

For more information see www.voep.at. Contact: Corinna Drumm | Director General | corinna.drumm@voep.at

[1] Today is World Press Freedom Day, you can find more information at https://www.un.org/en/observances/press- freedom-day/background