Lenka Hrivnáková, Author at The Association of Commercial Television

CRITICS OF CNN PRIMA NEWS SHOULD STEP OUT OF THEIR SOCIAL BUBBLE FROM TIME TO TIME, SAYS THE GROUP’S CEO MAREK SINGER

Marek Singer has been the head of FTV Prima Group since 2008. but only after fourteen long years can he be happy that Prima’s channels are catching up with their biggest competitor – the Nova group – in terms of viewership. In certain viewer target groups, they even surpassed TV Nova in March.

“What seemed impossible years ago is now a reality,” says Marek Singer, the apparently satisfied Prima Group’s CEO in a large interview for Forbes.

The seasoned manager cites viewership of CNN Prima News, the news channel that will celebrate two years on the market on 3 May, as one of the highlights of the recent achievements in addition to the new channels Prima Show and Star. However, CNN Prima News critics often compare it to misinformation channels.

Prima’s head counters the criticism, telling them that “It is good to peek out from one’s social bubble from time to time. If we stop comparing ourselves to the opinions of others, it is the first step to fundamentalism. Ant that would be a big problem to our liberal democracy in my opinion.”

The fifty-four-year-old seasoned manager isn’t just concerned with viewership that he wants to support with a new series Pálava in the autumn. He has negotiated with IPTV operators on the ban on ad-skipping in catch-up viewing or the establishment of a new platform AdCross, which measures the aggregated reach of TV and digital ads.

Your ratings have been growing; last year, you grew for the fourth year in a row in the 15+ target group to 25.18 percent and on an annual basis, you were closely behind the channels of Nova Group, which unlike you targets viewers aged 15-54. In Prima’s commercial group of viewers aged 15-69, you managed to defeat Nova in the fourth week of March…

For the fourteen years I have been sitting in this chair I have had a dream to catch up with Nova in ratings and the dream came true in March. In our target group of economically active people, we even managed to outperform it. What seemed to be impossible years ago that is now a reality.

And will you also be successful on an annual basis this year?

That remains to be seen, of course. But trends are clear, the two groups are converging. It is certainly a never-ending struggle, Nova is naturally not going to let it go. Several years ago, we were a clear number two in terms of viewership share but now we are equal competitors.

What was the main driver of viewership growth? Did Covid-19 make an impact?

Covid-19 has made an impact on the entire TV market. When people were staying at home, they were logically watching more and the pandemic was a topic they were interested in. The interest in TV was higher and streaming platforms were also not put aside.

Now, the viewership of live broadcasting is coming back to the pre-Covid level and we expect it to go on falling because people are using more and more various Czech and global video services allowing them to watch shows whenever they want.

And in this situation, we managed to close the gap on competition through the combination of improved programming, new channels such as Prima Show and Star and the high-quality programme mix. And what also played its role was the viewership of CNN Prima News which has grown in this current crisis time. The combination of all of these factors has made up the desired effect.

The rating of CNN Prima News is above two percent after nearly two years from its launch. Is that a good result for news TV?

The share of 2.4 percent in March in TG 15+ is a good result, the breaking point in terms of profitability is 1.5 percent rating combined with the web’s contribution. It is a standard evolution of news TV, it is growing most in a crisis. The news TV channel ČT24 has the same experience, it was rising with every crisis.

In general we can say that an increased rating during a crisis will not fall to a pre-crisis level after it is over but settles somewhat higher. When the conflict in Ukraine ends, CNN Prima News will be a little higher than before in terms of viewership. And I believe that the development will go on in this direction.

So now CNN Prima News will earn its keep?

Yes, it will. Operating news TV costs hundreds of millions of crowns a year but at the current ratings combined with our website readership it is already earning its keep. We are in the black at zero in the model at 1.5 percent viewership as I have mentioned.

But we are not doing a news platform to generate a high profit. Watching news has a positive effect on viewer loyalty to the entire group of channels.

How does your cooperation with CNN in the US work? Are you in a daily contact?

The cooperation works on the basis of a standard relationship between a licensor and a licensee. There is an editorial board meeting approximately once in three months, assessing progress and recommending what we could improve. But it is not a daily contact, although they monitor our work very carefully.

When we managed to respond to the current war conflict faster than our competitors, we received a commendation immediately. They are aware in CNN that if you succeed in responding so quickly, the positive effect is felt in the following period. We were very pleased by the commendation. After all, CNN has grown up on such situations…

Do you have other objectives relating to the viewership of the news channel?

It can always be better and we definitely want to go further. But we have to be realistic. If we achieve forty or fifty percent of the viewership of ČT24, we will have achieved the first objective we have defined. If it gets better, we will not be angry at all.

Do you also perceive negative reactions to CNN Prima News? Your critics often compare you with the misinformation scene…

… which is very amusing and sad at the same time. We always want to provide all facts and views of all relevant parties. Of course, all editorial team is affected by the criticism because it is not pleasant to be accused as such.

But I always remember the time when we started CNN Prima News and I asked people from CNN who helped us set up everything how we would know that we were doing the news channel right. And their answer was: when “everyone would curse you”. When nobody is talking about you, you are either boring or not getting to the heart of the matter.

When some users of a social network criticise us that we favour one of the parties to the dispute and users of another network think that we are siding with the other party, it is good. It means that opinions of multiple parties were expressed. That is right because individual social bubbles prefer their views. And they point out to a single issue that they do not like out of the wide range of views we cover and they label us for that.

What would you say to your critics?

I would urge them to peak out of their social bubble, it is a good thing to do from time to time. If we stop comparing ourselves with the views of other people, it is the first step to the fundamentalism. And that would be a great problem for our liberal democracy in my opinion.

Of course, in the period of an aggressive war conflict, there is just one party that is in the right. But what is the solution? What are the consequences of the conflict, what would that mean for our economy – that is not black and white. There are always several ways to face the situation. And people should know all options. It is all about plurality of views. That is the core of the freedom of speech.

Let us turn to the business policy. What resonated with the public space at the beginning of the year was your requirement to ban ad-skipping in time-shifted viewing on IPTV. You had a dispute with O2 TV and there was a threat that your programmes will be removed from its offering. In the end, the matter was postponed to 1 June. What is going on now?

We are finalising technical conditions with all operators because at this stage, it is mainly a technological challenge. There is no single standard, each operator has its own video platform.

We are intensively working on fine-tuning of manuals and possible scenarios for four alternatives of how exactly we want the ban on ad skipping to be implemented. But it is not just all about us not wanting people to skip ads in time-shifted viewing.

What exactly do you want then?

There is a clear view of “Television 2.0” which is based on a foreign model. Our current local standard that on various video services you press a button to skip an ad is annoying in general. You cannot find the precise start of a show etc.

Yes, viewers will have to watch about a half of advertisements (about three minutes) compared to live broadcasting because we have to pay for the content we have produced. The growing popularity of ad skipping starts to be a crucial problem and we cannot ignore it.

Now we are in a period when both operators and we have a lot of work to get ready for the transition on 1 June.

And have you reached an agreement with all of them? Including O2 TV?

Yes, we have reached an agreement. We are no longer discussing whether it happens but how to do it.

You provided operators with four alternatives containing, for example, a certain compulsory block of advertisements of various lengths that cannot be skipped or an option that operators can “buy themselves out” and pay you for keeping ads off their platforms…

We have provided these alternatives because we are aware that any individual platform has its own degree of flexibility to make changes in the system.

Nobody wishes to make viewers angry. Our aim is to ensure that we will receive at least a minimum level of income while giving operators a chance to make their users understand when they can watch something and when they can skip something.

The rewinding and fast-forwarding of content has got the green light, it has been a standard for us.

The problem is that people skip all ads while rewinding and fast-forwarding content. And they might not be aware that we receive no money for having ads set up in shows, we get money when the ads are watched.

But operators argue that they are paying you for content.

I understand that. But if you compare how much they pay us for the option of time-shifted viewing compared to what is usual across Europe, it is relatively ridiculous. And that is the problem. Operators’ fees did not reflect the premium rights.

Moreover, foreign pay platforms used the obligation to pay for such rights to broadcasters and created premium packages of their services. They are offering ad-supported content and an ad-free package and the differences cost several Euros. This did not happen here due to competition or other reasons. And as a result the current discomfort is higher.

We also want to give our viewers a chance to watch our content without ads or with a limited number of them and we are looking for a fair business model with operators.

In the terrestrial broadcasting it is the other way around. You are paying to operators to get your content to viewers.

The Czech terrestrial broadcasting is a complete anomaly. I think that a terrestrial broadcasting operator will gradually transform into a certain hybrid form with IPTV as this is the future. It will take years but it will happen. The fact that a certain portion of population has TV for free is an anomaly that will gradually disappear.

Is terrestrial broadcasting heading for a fee?

I think so. But this is rather a question for České Radiokomunikace. I assume that they will come up with such a business model one day. People will not content themselves with live broadcasting only, i.e. linear TV, they will want additional services. And if you want to provide them, the terrestrial model is not sufficient.

Is all this we are talking about the reason for creating the new platform AdCross for measuring total ad video, i.e. monitoring the aggregate reach of ads not only on TV but also in the digital environment?

Yes, it is, to some extent. There will be fewer and fewer people in linear TV as is the case abroad because we are copying foreign trends with some delay in the Czech Republic. People abroad watch TV content more and more when they want, i.e. via various services, and less and less via linear broadcasting.

To keep the quality of our content, we also need to receive money for advertising in non-linear, non-live broadcasting. We are at the cutting edge of development in Europe in this effort. For example, in the UK, cross-media measurement has just started.

And how do other players in the market view AdCross?

Our business partners’ reactions are positive. They are aware that there is no other way going forward. We are at the beginning, operating in a pilot mode.

Everything has been going on since the start of the year, we have been selling some campaigns this way but the volume is still small. There are still more technological developments to come, we need to set up everything with all operators. With them, we are now dealing more with easing the restrictions on ad skipping.

So when will it be on your agenda?

This year. Cross-media measuring will become a standard.

Should not this be a job for the Association of Television Organizations (ATO)?

In theory, yes, it should. On the other hand, ATO has members for whom advertising is the key source of income as well as members for whom it is not so because specifically Česká televize does not live on advertising and so it is not its priority. But Česká televize is engaged in the project as it wants to use the cross-media measurement for measuring the total impact of its show promotion.

At this moment, we are negotiating with another large commercial broadcaster who is interested in cross-media measurement. That is why I think that this year, AdCross measuring will become a standard for all large TV networks.

What is the current development of ad prices in respect of what is going on? There are quite a lot of things occurring…

Exactly, there is an awful lot going on. From our point of view, the good news is that the volume of TV advertising is still growing. We will see what the rising inflation will do with ad spends.

There are no signs of any advertising budget reduction, touch wood. Prices are based on annual negotiations and they took place before the last crisis.

The price slightly increased at the beginning of the year but we will see how everything will develop, especially in the second half of the year. For the time being, it looks as if there were no crisis. The question is for how long the crisis will continue, what the value of disposable income will be, and what impact it will have on consumption.

What were your financial results last year? The last figures disclosed for 2020 reported a profit exceeding half a billion crowns at sales of CZK 3.5 billion. Was it better last year?

We have yet to disclose our financial results but I can say that they were better than in 2020. But growth will be a bigger challenge this year. For all of us.

In terms of your own production, it was more difficult to shoot something during the Covid-19 period, especially due to lockdowns and other restrictions. Are you still catching up on what was missed during the forced break?

We were intensively catching up on everything last year, shooting a number of shows to have in stock. In general, the volume of TV content production is high in the Czech market now. Local broadcasters are shooting at a breakneck pace, not only due to increasing competition.

The reason is that all large players invest in video services, be it Voyo or iVysílání. We are also preparing a new iPrima. To get everything going we start shooting earlier. We are in a very intensive period for the original Czech production.

So what news can viewers look forward to on your channels this year?

At the beginning of the year, we launched a new series ZOO, which has ratings similar to the series Slunečná. We are very happy because following in a historical success is always very difficult. The series Duch ended up as the second most successful series of all time, with which we are also satisfied.

There will be big news especially in the autumn. But I cannot talk about many of the new items. What I can tell is that we are preparing a loose sequel of our successful series Vinaři that will be entitled Pálava. There will be old and new characters and new stories but the environment and atmosphere will be preserved. I think that this will be much appreciated by viewers. The worse the mood in society and the more challenging life is, the more people prefer this type of content.

As for your own content, there should be some created in the new e-sports centre PLAYzone Arena in Prague – Chodov in which you participate and which will open at the end of this month…

… the opening is on 25 April, so we are finishing everything. Some shows will be created there but first of all, it will be a great experience for visitors. Such big centres are, for example, in London, Berlin or Stockholm but in Central Europe, we have had nothing similar.

There will be more than sixty computers and e-sports competitions including Czech championships. In short, there will be much entertainment and it will be very attractive, especially for younger audiences.

And how does such a centre fit into the strategy of a large media house?

We entered Playzone several years ago because we can see that gaming is going up. It matched our strategy at the moment we had learnt from foreign surveys that more people prefer watching someone else playing a game to playing it themselves. At that moment, it is video entertainment and that is our core business. Video entertainment is what Prima is doing.

What is the potential of e-sports in your opinion?

It is a dynamically developing area and I do not think that the sector is in its infancy in the Czech Republic. Given the investments in e-sports teams and competitions, e-sports have moved to the adolescence stage. Especially for younger generations, e-sports are experience that is absolutely comparable with watching traditional sports. Which we in our fifties do not understand. (laugh)

Source: forbes.cz

HOW TO RESOLVE THE ATTENTION PARADOX

Can attention be both the “north star to effectiveness” but also “really not how advertising works”?

In January Mike Follett of Lumen Research declared 2022 to be the Year of Attention, here in The Media Leader, which was no surprise. Media owners are investing in research and clients are asking lots of questions about it.

So, as a strategist, I’ve spent a lot of time recently immersing myself in the topic and discussing with my colleagues. It soon became clear that despite all this focus, there isn’t a clear agreement on how much it matters and when.

This is important: there is often a rush to optimise campaigns to new metrics, and there is a risk this could happen around an issue where consensus isn’t fully settled.

There are two main schools of thought:

Professor Karen Nelson-Field of Amplified Intelligence, one of the world-renowned experts in the field of attention, last year described attention as the “North Star to ad effectiveness” in her column here on The Media Leader.

However there is an opposing point of view, I think best summed up by legendary strategist Craig Mawdsley, in a recent blog post: “It has all proven that this is really not how advertising works. The main thing advertising does is to reinforce long-term brand associations. This doesn’t happen when people pay active attention… they happen when people aren’t really paying attention.”

Can both points be true at the same time? Both the “north star to effectiveness” and “really not how advertising works”?

ATTENTION AND THE BRAIN

At MediaCom our point of view is that they are both right – but in different ways.

The role of attention, and active attention in particular, varies depending on a campaign’s objectives, and for a reason that goes back to the basics of human psychology.

In Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast & Slow, he sets up the dichotomy of the brain’s modes of thought. System 1 is fast, intuitive, instinctive – and crucially largely unconscious. System 2 is slow, logical, takes time and energy – and is very conscious. It is estimated that most of the time the brain processes signals in System 1, with just 5% of mental activity devoted to conscious processing.

SO, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR ATTENTION?

For much established brand advertising, where maintaining mental availability is important, we think it works in the manner described by Mawdsley. Brand advertising works by reinforcing long-term brand associations, and active attention really isn’t necessary for that.

It shows why the type of ‘distinctive assets” talked about by Professor Byron Sharp in How Brands Grow are so important – distinctive, ownable brand assets like colours, logos, brand lines and sonic triggers – that are the type of stimulus more likely to be processed in a less conscious, System 1-type way.

For these types of campaigns, paying extra for the formats and channels with the highest active attention isn’t necessary. In fact, the relative extra impact of active attention over passive attention is relatively slight, and there is even evidence that ‘zero’ attention can still have an impact: someone looking away from the screen but processing some form of familiar sonic trigger would be seen as paying no attention, but we know still works for System 1-type processing.

ATTENTION REALLY MATTERS FOR RATIONAL CONSIDERATION AND CONVERSION

But for many other types of campaigns that require some form of rational response – such as launching a new brand or variant; where there is a clear new offer you want people to know about; where you want people to take a clear and immediate action; or trying to find people in market deciding what to do – that’s when you need to appeal to the sparse resources of System 2 thought.

That’s where attention can be the superpower that helps you cut through in the ‘messy middle’. These are the campaign objectives where you need to optimize your plan to the channels, formats and contexts that have higher attention, and applying the learnings from Lumen, Amplified Intelligence and others. We’ve seen that optimising these types of campaigns to attention drives better short-term outcomes.

ATTENTION MATTERS – SOMETIMES

So, in summary – attention does matter, and it’s important to optimise towards it for campaigns that have a clear rational message or short-term outcome. But it doesn’t matter for every campaign – for campaigns that are primarily about brand metrics such as mental availability, focus on getting your distinctive assets right and let your System 1 mode do its work.

Source: the-media-leader.com

AKA: COMMUNICATION INVESTMENTS TO SEE A DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH THIS YEAR

The Association of Communication Agencies (AKA) expects marketing communication investments to grow by 12% this year. The investment dynamics is going to accelerate compared to previous years.

Despite the ongoing presence of Covid-19, the advertising market in the Czech Republic was doing relatively well in 2021. According to data from the Activation Research, which was carried out by Nielsen Admosphere for the Association of Communication Agencies, the market achieved a volume of CZK 124.7 billion (a year-on-year growth of 4.2 %).

“The research results indicate that advertisers have become optimistic again when it comes to investment volumes. Deferred household consumption also played its role,”

says AKA’s director Marek Hlavica.

The research expects that in 2022, the total volume of the market will grow to CZK 139.4 billion, going up by 12% compared to 2021. The advertising market comprises media and non-media channels. In 2022, media investments are expected to grow 6.1% to a total of 77.1 billion, non-media 19.7% to a total of 62.3 billion.

“With the end of the pandemic, we can expect a strong growth in activation campaigns, be it in sales support, or relationship and event marketing. Advertisers’ pressure on meeting their business objectives will be enormous this year, which is supported by the total numbers of the non-media market growth. The market significantly exceeds the expected inflation for 2022,” says David Čermák from AKA’s activation agency section.

INVESTMENTS IN MARKETING COMMUNICATION

(expert estimate of net marketing investments)

in CZK billion

Source: AKA, Nielsen Admosphere

DYNAMICS OF INVESTMENTS IN MEDIA AND NON-MEDIA CHANNELS IN 2021 AND ESTIMATE FOR 2022

media non-media

Source: AKA, Nielsen Admosphere

According to Nielsen Admosphere’s data from spring 2022, retail channels have long been in the top 10 largest advertisers in terms of the volume of invested funds. Lidl, Kaufland and Albert took the top three places again last year. However, compared to 2020, their investments did not see a rapid increase. “Retail chains have maintained their dominant positions. At the same time, it is evident that on one hand, households again started caring for their equipment, and on the other, consumers started taking more care of themselves. Simply, “bread and circuses” is what applies at all times,“ describes the director of the Association of Media Agencies (ASMEA), Ondřej Novák.

Growing online and mobile support

The largest space among non-media channels is taken by online and mobile support, up 27%. It accounts for one fifth of the non-media channel spend. This trend may be expected also in the following years. Marketers expect the largest negative impact in gifts and presents while events and direct marketing have not fully recovered yet. Production of advertising and sponsorship are the main areas that have seen return on investments.

Hourly rates evolve with inflation

The average growth in hourly rates of ad and marketing agencies grew 5.5% year-on-year in January 2022. The reason is the inflation rate in the second half of 2021 and its continued rising trend. As expected, the ad market is growing especially in areas with higher rates of inflation-prone inputs (cost of labour, cost of energy and material needed for advertising production). This is based on the regular annual research of industry hourly rates, showing the average costs on the communication agency market.

State’s communication with people was insufficient

The data from the annual analysis prepared by CEEC Research for AKA and the PR Association (APRA) indicate that the volume of last year’s public contracts accounted for just 1.5% of the total communication market. In total, 686 contracts were awarded in 2021 in the total amount of 1.8 billion. According to AKA, the Czech Republic lags behind West European countries where these contracts represent 15-20% of the market.

Source: mediaguru.cz

OVERVIEW OF THE CZECH MEDIA MARKET IN 2021

Mediaguru shares a summary view of the development of individual media types in 2021, the second “covid” year.

Basic trends in media viewership in 2021

The reach of television broadcasting is still high in the Czech Republic, and both total reach in the Czech population and time spent in front of a television screen increased last year. This has climbed to more than 4 hours a day, with 8.4 million people a month being reached by TV. Czechs over the age of 15.

The reach of the internet also increased last year compared to 2020. The size of the internet population surpassed the 8 million real users per month mark. The time spent on the Czech Internet increased by 2% last year. The highest increases occurred in January (+17%) and February (+19%). The longest time spent by users on the Internet was in March.

The total reach of print titles remains above 7 million people in terms of readership over the longer term, with a total of almost 7.2 million people, down less than 2% on 2020.

In the case of radio, weekly listenership is increasing, reaching almost 7.6 million people last year, while daily radio listenership is down by around 6%.
Average radio listening time increased to 4 hours and 28 minutes per day last year. In the second pandemic year, the listenership of private radio stations also declined slightly, while public service radio stations achieved comparable listenership in aggregate to 2020. The most listened to station remained ČRo Radiožurnál.

The most watched TV stations last year were also TV Nova, CT1 and TV Prima. Last year, the return of sporting events was the most positive factor in the increase in viewership of the sports channel CT Sport.
Of the individual content categories – as measured by page views – e-commerce content sites grew the most in 2021 (+28%), followed by sports (+17%) and entertainment and games (+9%). News sites, which grew the most year-on-year in 2020 (+48%), continued to grow in 2021 (+3%).

The most visited news websites last year were Seznam Zprávy, Novinky.cz (news section) and iDnes.cz (news section).

On average, more than 456,000 daily newspapers were sold each day in 2021, down almost 10% year-on-year. Thus, the year-on-year trend in circulation sales was more favourable in the second pandemic year than a year earlier, but the decline in sales did not stop and the values did not return to pre-pandemic levels.

Readership of monthly and weekly magazines increased slightly during the year. Blesk, MF Dnes and the regional daily Deník continued to be the most widely read newspapers.
Total gross advertising investment for buying advertising space increased by 8% y-o-y last year. The monthly trend shows that the turn for the better occurred especially in the second half of 2021, when advertisers started to advertise more in response to declining anti-videos.

Source: mediaguru.cz

EUROPE’S TV BUSINESS MODEL GETS SHAKEN UP BY STREAMERS

With U.S. streamers still driving local market growth, TV producers in continental Europe are juggling between the Hollywood studio business model — under which Netflix and the likes get all rights in return for full-financing plus a fee — and the pre-existing European model based on co-productions that leave indie producers with backend and give them more creative control.

But that is starting to change.

Thanks to the E.U.’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) — currently in various stages of implementation across Europe — there are early indications that giant platforms are slowly becoming more open to flexibly structured deals. Or, at least, that’s the hope going forward.

At its core, the directive simply states that streamers must offer a 30% quota of European content to European subscribers. But on top of that, E.U. countries are introducing nationally tailored legislation to make streamers directly re-invest a percentage of their revenues in each European country where they operate. And some countries — such as France and Italy — are in the process of enshrining into law new rules that will also force Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and other streaming services to invest locally through independent producers and ensure that producers will retain a portion of the rights.

“First of all we welcome all the investments by the streamers in every country in Europe,” says Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the executive board of German powerhouse Constantin Film. He notes that platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus “are already investing a lot of money all over Europe in local-language [content] and also in international English-language shows.”

A recent report by London-based Enders Analysis says many European producers “have come to prioritize streaming platforms when pitching their best projects.” It also points out that Netflix is considered the biggest commissioner of scripted European content in 2020 — ahead of the E.U.’s major public broadcasters — and that Disney now has 60 European skeins in the pipeline for delivery by 2024.

But while Moszkowicz welcomes the streaming giants as investors, he says their business model is “ludicrous.”

“No rights are retained; there is no upside,” he notes. “There is nothing that we — and also the artists, the creative people that we employ — participate in the billions and billions of dollars of success that the streamers have.”

Moszkowicz says German producers “will use AVMS as much as we can to get a bigger part of the pie” and believes that “ultimately we will succeed.”

Here is a look at where things stand in the standoff between streaming giants and producers in four top continental European territories.

France

France, where the government recently approved AVMS regulation, leads the way.

Under the new rules, two-thirds of the streamers’ investment must go into accords for independent productions on which the rights will revert to French producers after 36 months.

That means that one-third of the streamers’ investments will continue to go into deals for shows with French producers under flat-fee pacts that instead will not allow them to hold on to rights.

But though this represents a landmark regulation, the new rules are raising questions on how these investment obligations will be applied and to whom.

The rules create competition among French producers to be included in the “two-thirds of the investment” corridor, says French producer Alexandra Lebret, who is managing director of lobby group the European Producers Club.

“How will the streamers select who are the producers who will be able to hold on to rights, and those who won’t?” she asks.

In early March, Netflix announced more than €200 million ($220 million) in investments in France as it unveiled its 2022 slate of 25 French originals, 10 of which are TV series.

These include “Standing-Up,” about France’s stand-up comedy scene, directed by “Call My Agent” creator Fanny Herrero.

Lebret points out it’s not yet known how Netflix is going to select projects that will benefit from the new rules and points out that Netflix’s biggest French original, “Lupin,” currently shooting its third season, is still being made under a flat-fee arrangement.

Germany

In Germany, where the Audiovisual Media Services Directive regulation is expected to soon be in place, there has been sporadic flexibility by the streamers when structuring deals for top-tier productions.

“The more interesting the property, the better your chances that you will get through with that [structuring a deal where rights revert],” says Moszkowicz.

One case in point is Constantin’s series “We Children From Bahnhof Zoo,” which went out on Amazon Prime Video in Germany.

It was also mounted as a co-production with several partners, including ITV-owned Cattleya in Italy, with Fremantle handling international sales.

Constantin is now mounting high-end TV series “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” based on the Peter Hoeg thriller, for which Moszkowicz is confident he will be able to assemble a co-prod combining streaming partners and other types of broadcasters.

Moszkowicz also underlines that when it comes to pitching big-budget projects, Europe’s state broadcasters and pay-TV players still rep a viable alternative to streamers.

Last year, Constantin and veteran German TV exec Herbert Kloiber joined forces to form an outfit called High End Prods. to produce event-driven shows specifically made for Europe’s free- and pay-TV market.

Moszkowicz notes that the combined resources of pubcasters, such a Germany’s ARD and ZDF, France’s TFI, Italy’s RAI and the BBC in the U.K, is way bigger than the budget of any of the streamers.

“It’s virtually billions every year and they don’t get enough product, obviously because a lot of the really interesting stuff gets bought on a worldwide basis from the streamers,” he says.

High End will soon be announcing its first slate.

Spain

In Spain, even though AVMS has not been fully implemented, there is a sense that streamers are relenting on their all-rights diktat.

“I think that at the beginning they tried to divide and conquer,” says producer-director Alvaro Longoria, who runs Spanish indie Morena Films.

But now many other players have come in, including Disney, Apple and Paramount.

“A lot of them realize that they have to be flexible if they want to get the best talent,” he adds.

Longoria, whose Christmas comedy feature “Reyes vs. Santa” has been acquired by Amazon for some territories, adds that he finds it symbolically significant that Netflix boarded “Parallel Mothers,” the latest movie by Pedro Almodóvar — who as Cannes jury president in 2017 slammed the streamer.

Netflix just took exclusive Latin American rights on “Parallel Mothers.”

“The whole business model is changing all the time and streamers are the first ones that are happy to adapt,” he says.

Italy

In Italy, where AVMS implementation is still languishing, there are small but significant signals that streamers are starting to budge.

“Some dynamics with the platforms are changing,” says Rosario Rinaldo, head of production company Cross Prods., which is owned by Germany’s Beta Film.

Cross is producing edgy Amazon Italy Original drama “Prisma,” for which Amazon will have SVOD rights in perpetuity.

Rinaldo could be allowed to sell “Prisma’s” free TV rights locally after the show plays exclusively on Amazon globally, if Amazon decides not to commission a subsequent season.

“There is more attention toward producers’ needs during development,” Rosario says, citing a willingness by Netflix and Disney to co-develop projects with Cross.

The prime example in the Italian market of a big U.S. player being willing to engage with Europe’s co-production model is HBO and pubcaster RAI’s “My Brilliant Friend,” the series based on Elena Ferrante’s novels.

In early February, the third installment of the series, “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” premiered on RAI to stellar ratings before launching stateside on HBO and HBO Max.

“As a producer, the search for forms of collaboration between various types of platforms and other broadcasters, including public broadcasters, is clearly part of what I’m seeking,” says “My Brilliant Friend” producer Lorenzo Mieli.

Recently, Mieli, through his Fremantle-owned the Apartment shingle, has been able to mount a three-way co-prod among RAI, Franco-German network Arte and Netflix.

They are making veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio’s upcoming TV series “Eastern Notte,” about the kidnapping and assassination of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists.

“The possibility of business models evolving — and disrupting monolithic models — is born from our ability as producers to propose projects that make this disruption worth it,” he says.

Source: variety.com

MEDIA LITERACY OF CZECHS IS INCREASING, ACCORDING TO RESEARCH

The level of media literacy is generally increasing in Czech society. This is according to research by the Department of Media and Cultural Studies and Journalism at Palacký University in Olomouc and the STEM/MARK agency.

The level of media literacy in Czech society is generally increasing (39/100 points in 2018, 49/100 in 2021). This is according to a survey conducted by the Department of Media and Cultural Studies and Journalism at Palacký University in Olomouc and STEM/MARK for RRTV, which focused on the media literacy of Czechs. According to the researchers, the fact that the current younger generation has already grown up with new media, that the generation of the current forty-somethings has already grown up with the Internet, and that a wider range of media activities can be found among the oldest generation may have an influence.

Source: Univerzita Palackého, STEM/MARK

The majority of media (as sources of information) are still trusted by the public (50 % or more). The exceptions are social media (35 % trust) and chain emails.

According to the survey, Czechs overwhelmingly support the view that the key issue (in terms of media use in general) is the safety of users and information about them. Nevertheless, they share the view that all information should be made public on the internet (59 %) rather than any regulation by law (35 %). Thus, the more liberal view of users, who still see the internet as a free sea, wins out in this respect. Liberality was also evident in the education of children and young people, where few parents restricted their children’s use of mobile phones, tablets or the internet.

The Czech population is mostly aware of what the public media are doing, and they can also recognise it. Only some considered Lidové noviny or Parlamentní listy to be public service media. The reason for this is likely to be the name of the media itself, which may refer to public service (this was shown in the aforementioned 2018 research).

Overall, university students, Prague residents and daily internet users performed significantly better in this area.

Source: Univerzita Palackého, STEM/MARK

According to the research, there are also more and more people who can identify fake news. Younger people under 30, university graduates, people from larger cities with over 100,000 inhabitants and people from Prague do better in recognizing fake news. In terms of preference for the type of news, preference is given to those that work with more verified sources and ideally contain commentary by an expert on the subject.

“The scope for improving the recognition of fake news is still greater among the elderly, who are often more trusting due to their different life experiences. However, thanks also to the work of many organisations, this situation has gradually improved over the last few years. The relatively positive result is probably related to the reaction to the increasing amount of fake news in the media space, where society, faced with the challenges of the epidemic or the Ukrainian crisis, is making efforts to ensure that the news about these events are accurate,” comments Jan Burianec from STEM/MARK on the results of the survey.

Source: Univerzita Palackého, STEM/MARK

Another measured area of research was self-production, i.e. the frequency and ways of contributing to the media space. Almost a quarter (23 %) of people consider themselves active media users (more often young people under 30 and students), while 71 % consider themselves passive (the remaining 6 % could not classify themselves). The most frequent activities include production on social media or other online platforms (sharing photos, stories or texts). The next one is writing user reviews of products or services (e.g. Heureka or Booking).

Self-media activity can also be helped by the perception that media offer sufficient opportunities for feedback to their consumers (in 2018, only a third of the population thought so). In parallel research with children and adolescents aged 5 to 15, it was found that own media creation is a frequent and popular activity from a relatively young age. “Teens from good socio-economic backgrounds manage their parents’ work profiles on Facebook or Instagram, for example, while those with lower socio-economic status present themselves on TikTok and look up to those who have a lot of followers and likes,” said Zdeněk Sloboda, the head of the entire research project from Palacký University.

The research divided the investigation of media literacy into four areas. One of them was technological literacy and user skills. Here the Czech population (15+) achieved the highest score (70 out of 100). The average score in this area was significantly higher for people under 45, slightly more often for men, people with higher education (high school diploma or university degree) and those who use the Internet on a daily basis. In general, people who use or combine multiple media types (media sources) do better. Conversely, the lowest scores were reported by those aged over 60 and non-users of the internet – these two groups overlap for the most part.

“There is still room for improving skills, especially among the elderly, where the epidemic crisis is leading to an increasing level of familiarity with modern technologies and the Internet,”

commented Jan Burianec.

A comparison of measured media literacy with its subjective assessment by the respondents themselves showed that in terms of socio-demographic profile, more men than women, more younger than older people and people who use the Internet more actively are considered to be more media literate. Although some of the respondents (with rather lower measured levels of media literacy) tended to overestimate or underestimate themselves in some cases (rather women and people with higher media literacy), for most people the extent of their knowledge and thinking about media corresponded with the measured values.

“We expected some variation; this is a classic example of cognitive bias. In practice, this means that people who perform poorly in a particular area, for example, tend to significantly overestimate their achievement when compared to others. This is known professionally as the Dunning-Kruger effect,” adds Jan Burianec.

Source: Univerzita Palackého, STEM/MARK

About the research

~~Media literacy is understood in research as a concept that consists of four key components combining media and digital knowledge, skills and abilities:~~

■ Access to media technologies and how to use them in everyday life
■ Analysis and evaluation of media messages (critical thinking and reading)
■ Media production: understanding the processes of media production and the actual production of media content
■ Reflection on the functioning of the media and the perception of the role of the media in society (together with the ideas and values associated with the media and its use and products)

The research on the population aged 15 years and older was carried out using a questionnaire. For each area, scores (pass/fail, know/not know) were assigned to respondents through scored (knowledge or skill) questions. For a better comparison of the results, the total score by domain was budgeted into a 0-100 index, where 100 is equivalent to the maximum possible score in a given domain, and the minimum 0 is fixed. The research on the population under the age of 15 was conducted through a series of group interviews that took the form of workshops with various activities of a receptive, creative and discussion nature. The data was analyzed qualitatively in the four respective areas.

Passport – population over 15 years of age: The research conducted by STEM/MARK and Palacký University in Olomouc (KMKSŽ) for the Broadcasting Council was carried out by a combination of face-to-face (CAPI) and online interviewing (CAWI) and involved 1240 respondents from the Czech population over 15 years of age. The sample is representative in terms of quota selection by gender, age, education, size of place of residence and region. Data collection took place during September and October 2021.

Passport – population under 15 years of age: Palacký University, Department of Media and Cultural Studies and Journalism for RRTV conducted a series of 90-minute group workshops using the focus group method, involving various thematic and age-appropriate activities (media reception – watching a programme, production – producing one’s own media image, discussion – about media activities, over magazine advertisements or social media profiles). In the 5-7 age group, four group sessions were carried out with 38 children participating, in the 8-10 age group there were also four groups with 32 children and in the 11-14 age group three workshops were organised with 13 teenagers. In total, 83 children from different areas of the country and with different socio-economic backgrounds participated. Data collection took place during June to August 2021.

Source: mediaguru.cz

ADVERTISING INVESTMENT IN MEDIA TO INCREASE BY 8% IN 2021

The advertising market has recovered from the effects of the covid-19 pandemic and will see an 8% growth in above-the-line media investment in 2021 compared to 2020, according to AdIntel monitoring.

Nielsen Ad Intel’s Admosphere monitoring data for 2021 shows that TV was again the strongest media type last year. The entire above-the-line advertising market was worth almost CZK 141 billion in gross prices last year. This is an 8% year-on-year increase. At the same time, all media types showed a year-on-year increase in the list price value of advertising space compared to 2020, which was then fundamentally affected by the situation surrounding the covid-19 pandemic.

All media types monitored in the monitoring have seen an increase in the price value of advertising space in the past year. Print and radio advertising scored the highest, while TV advertising also showed a growth trend. Outdoor advertising, which was affected slightly by restrictions against the spread of covid-19, also showed a growth trend. For example, print, thanks to this, also grew year-on-year, even by 11 %, but compared to the values in the period before the covid-19 pandemic, we are seeing more of a confirmation of the trend of stagnation or even a slight decline in the price of its advertising space,” said Tomas Hynčica, AdIntel’s Chief Commercial Officer.

Source: Nielsen Admosphere, **The total price reflects all media types including the internet, the value of which is based on published SPIR data for 2020 and has been expertly adjusted for 2021 based on the SPIR estimate for 2021.

Last year, the Lidl, Kaufland and Albert chains were the strongest advertisers, and the grocery and food chains segment was again the sector with the highest advertising investment. More in an earlier article.

The report does not include monitored spending on online advertising as it does not cover all types of advertising. Last year’s figures for the internet are traditionally published by the Internet Development Association (SPIR) in the coming weeks. However, internet advertising is included in the 2021 total reported here because it is the SPIR expert estimate that has been taken into account.

The list value is not equivalent to the real (net) investment in the purchase of advertising space (a number of factors such as the total volume of space purchased, the application of discounts, barter cooperation, etc., influence the real price that companies actually pay for the purchase of advertising space). However, the reporting of list values for advertising space captures the development and trends of the current advertising market (e.g. it allows for comparison of individual advertisers, media or sectors with each other, etc.).

Source: mediaguru.cz

ADVERTISING INVESTMENT IN MEDIA GROWS IN DOUBLE DIGITS THIS YEAR

According to data from Nielsen Admosphere monitoring, the first two months of this year are significantly better than January and February 2021 in terms of total advertising investment in media.

Nielsen Admosphere’s advertising investment monitoring records a year-on-year increase of almost 17% in gross investment for the purchase of advertising space in the first two months of this year. The increase applies to all monitored media types – most notably in outdoor advertising, radio and print. However, television advertising also posted double-digit increases.
The data for February also show double-digit growth. This may also be related to the comparative period, when strict anti-retroviral measures were in force in January and February last year, which may have weakened the investment activity of advertisers.

Source: mediaguru.cz / AC Nielsen

Investments in Internet advertising do not appear in the overview because the Internet is represented in the monitoring only in some formats and thus does not cover the complete expenditure on online advertising.

Again, we note that the monitored investments do not correspond to the actual investments that flow into the media for the purchase of advertising. However, they do indicate a trend.

Source: mediaguru.cz

OPERATORS AND TV NOVA WANT TO TACKLE “AD SKIPPING” TOGETHER

IPTV operators consider it necessary that the change in the offer relating to skipping ads in the backview is discussed in the light of customer needs and that the discussion takes place across the market. TV Nova agrees with this.

IPTV operators consider it necessary to have a cross-market discussion about a possible change in their offer, consisting in adjusting the possibility of skipping ads in the backview, in order to be better prepared for such changes. This emerged from a meeting of operators and broadcasters at the Czech Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, which is now looking to join the discussion with Nova TV, which, although it did not call for a ban on skipping ads in the backview, believes it would be good to find consensus on a single market standard. This should protect the interests of operators and broadcasters at the same time.

The meeting at the Chamber of Commerce was convened following the recent actions of TV Prima, which announced in February that it had not agreed new distribution terms with O2 because of the ban on rewinding advertising, and since the beginning of March threatened that its channels would not appear on O2 TV’s offer. However, Prima announced this week that it was pushing back the deadline for the introduction of new conditions for skipping ads in the backview to the beginning of June. Representatives of TV Prima did not attend Wednesday’s meeting. They had announced in advance that the TV group’s lawyers considered the meeting highly problematic “particularly with regard to the possibility of such conduct being considered a coordinated practice between competitors, which is one of the market practices prohibited by law”. However, the Chamber of Commerce, through its president Vladimír Dlouhy, said that the Chamber of Commerce’s lawyers did not share this view.

The discussion also revealed that the subject of possible adjustments to skipping advertising has been discussed on the market for about two years, but more on a theoretical and technical level and less on the issue of product monetisation. Moreover, the operators allegedly lacked a clear brief from Prima, the preparation was chaotic and communication was slow.

Although some operators welcomed the postponement of the deadline to June, the prevailing opinion in the discussion was that even a three-month postponement would not solve much and that the problem would resurface at the end of May. “Broadcasters have the right to adjust their business model, but we have a problem with the way it has been and is being done. It’s a reprieve, not a solution. Unless something fundamental happens, it will be the same,” Vodafone’s Jan Klouda said in the discussion. “We should discuss and find a compromised solution (acceptable to operators and broadcasters, ed.) and not let just one side win. The needs of broadcasters and our consumers must not be ignored,” he added.

“We want the discussion to continue and we want to look for a direction so that the product remains preserved, correct and we don’t destroy what our customers want,” added Anna Lenerova of O2.

The concern that viewers will start to move away from the services of the broadcasters due to disputes between broadcasters and operators and the deterioration in the quality of the product also resonated in the debate. This was also in the context that the domestic market is facing increased competition this year with the arrival of new paid video streaming (SVOD) players and that viewers may also flee to them due to dissatisfaction.

According to Štěpán Peichl, director of the legal section, TV Nova, which did not demand a ban on skipping ads in backview from operators, is aware that technological development is moving forward and that viewers use TV in a way that suits them. Therefore, he agrees to use the resulting time space to discuss a standard that will allow TV broadcasters to maintain a business model built primarily on advertising revenue, while at the same time allowing operators to maintain a product in delayed viewing in a form that is sufficiently attractive to them and leads them not to look for other alternatives. “TV and operator representatives should establish some basic parameters of what we want to agree on – whether technical or product standardisation – and we would consult these with the CAO and explain that without finding an industry standard, a number of solutions will emerge that will harm the industry and customers,” he said. He also added that while Nova has not yet built its business model on monetising ad views, it sees the growth in delayed viewership share and knows that “sooner or later” there will be a situation where GRP leakage will be borderline. He also stressed that Nova sees operators as its partners.

Representatives of the smaller operators, who have prepared themselves for the new conditions from March 1 despite their opposition to the changes in their offer, do not think that the shift to June will solve anything. They are also concerned that in the run up to June, there will be yet more standards which may be confusing for viewers.

However, the meeting made it sound like the operators will now try to find a technical solution with the broadcasters, with the approval of the Office for the Protection of Competition.

Source: mediaguru.cz

THE 10TH HBBTV SYMPOSIUM AND AWARDS WILL TAKE PLACE IN PRAGUE

The 10th HbbTV Symposium and Awards will take place in Prague, Czech Republic, on November 9 and 10, 2022. This was announced today by the HbbTV Association, a global initiative dedicated to providing open standards for the delivery of advanced interactive TV services through broadcast and broadband networks for connected TV sets and set-top boxes.

The annual key summit of the connected TV industry, targeting platform operators, broadcasters, advertisers and adtechs, standards organisations and technology companies, will be co-hosted with the Czech Association of Commercial Television (AKTV).

“After last year’s very successful 9th HbbTV Symposium and Awards in Paris, attended by around 180 visitors, we are excited about holding our next event in Prague, reflecting the important role and increasing significance of the HbbTV standard in Central and Eastern European countries. The move also values the strong engagement of local market players in launching large-scale, innovative HbbTV services,”

said Vincent Grivet, Chair of the HbbTV Association.

Information on the conference agenda, the Awards categories and participation and the opportunities for sponsorship and commercial support will be provided in due course.

GRUNT: VOYO EXCEEDED THOUSANDS OF 350 SUBSCRIBERS

The number of Voyo video subscribers was to exceed 350,000. Another milestone is reaching 500,000 subscribers.

The number of Voyo subscribers should have exceeded number of 350,000. This was stated on the social network LinkedIn by Daniel Grunt, the director of new media TV Nova and CME. This is the first officially published number of Voyo video subscribers since the television group put Voyo at the heart of its new digital strategy.

“… 350 thousand subscribers for us, another meta, 500 thousand ahead :),”

wrote Daniel Grunt on his profile, following Friday’s published TV Scheme and Voyo platform for this spring.

In an January interview with Forbes magazine, CME CEO Didier Stoessel already indicated, that the number of Voya subscribers was around 300,000 at the end of last year. Although he did not specifically mention the number, he stated that Voyo is in the third of its plan to gain one million subscribers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia within five years. In the interview, he also confirmed that next year Voyo will broadcast twelve original series according to the original plan, in the next year 23 and in 2024 it should be 33 original series. “We really believe that the growth of video content consumption worldwide, and especially here in the Czech Republic, will remain for a very long time. The only limit is how many hours we can spend, “he told Forbes.

In the first half of this year, Voyo will present five premiere projects filmed under the Voyo Original brand. In addition to the new season of Surgery in the Rose Garden 2, which starts on February 3, and the three-part miniseries Guru, which were published during January, there will be the comedy series National Handball, the family drama Morning Glow and a three-part miniseries about Iveta Bartošová called Iveta.

Estimates of the number of streaming video subscribers (SVOD) vary in the Czech market. According to the CZSO, there are 1.3 million people over the age of 16. The Atmedia Index data shows almost two million people and the MML-TGI research data 1.8 million people.

Source: mediaguru.cz

NEW INITIATIVE AIMS TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF ADDRESSABLE MEDIA IN EUROPEAN MARKETS

The 2020s are set to be the decade of addressable media as consumption continues to shift toward connected platforms, opening up new possibilities for audience targeting, measurement, attribution and optimization – not just in digital, but in TV, audio, out-of-home (OOH), games and newer media formats and platforms.

For many industry participants, addressability – as well as using authenticated datasets and identity solutions to support ad buys – is the foundation of the new advertising ecosystem, facilitating the delivery of more relevant and effective marketing communications to attention-short consumers and helping media owners to future-proof their businesses.

However, new privacy and data protection regulations, anti-tracking safeguards and the deprecation of some of the established digital identifiers have resulted in a proliferation of new rules, different frameworks and competing offerings, leading to growing complexity and confusion in many European markets – for ad buyers and sellers alike.

The situation across Europe varies country-by-country. Solutions developed to meet the needs of publishers in one market may not necessarily work in the same way in other markets, and publisher needs vary widely.

Cross-media addressability adds an additional layer of complexity, with significant variations across different media channels – for example, in terms of pricing models, the range and quality of inventory in programmatic buying platforms, and the availability of identifiers at the user, device or household level. The infrastructure required to support cross-media addressability is still taking shape.

Now the European Addressable Media Initiative (EAMI), led by founding members Amobee, Carbon, Comscore, Finecast, LiveRamp, Lotame, Neustar and PubMatic, is aiming to help advertisers, agencies and media owners navigate the new landscape of identity resolution and addressability solutions in Europe.

Working with The Project X Institute (PXI), a brand-new think tank and strategic advisory collective for the media and advertising industries, the EAMI aims to develop practical guidelines to support the development of a positive and sustainable future for addressable media in Europe’s major advertising markets. These will be presented at an industry summit later in the year.

For Dr Daniel Knapp, an advisor-in-residence at PXI, the initiative comes as the industry enters a critical stage in its development: “Macro-changes in the advertising market and a tightening regulatory environment provide significant potential for media owners to differentiate themselves through addressability solutions that satisfy consumers, compel advertisers and marry privacy and targeting in a regulatory-compliant manner. In theory, this is a new dawn for advertising. But the avalanche of technologies, approaches, regulations and market cultures in Europe means that success requires collaboration and standardization.”

Rich Astley, global chief product officer at Finecast, agrees: “We’re at an inflection point in the industry where the next chapter of addressability is just starting to be written. Dialogue and collaboration in the ecosystem are key to ensuring that we establish sound principles that balance the emerging capabilities of technology solutions with respect for consumer privacy and great advertising experiences.”

For Hugh Stevens, head of strategic growth at LiveRamp, getting addressable right has to be a priority for the industry, bringing opportunities for improved consumer trust and future growth: “Addressability helps to build consumer trust, puts the consumer and the broadcaster in control, and creates an environment where advertisers and broadcasters can work closer together to deliver meaningful outcomes for brands. And, ultimately, better audience definitions will bring more advertisers and budgets into a growing digital TV market.”

The new initiative isn’t just focused on digital, but plans to adopt a broad cross-media scope, looking at the intersections between different media platforms, as advertisers seek to leverage data across different channels. Emma Newman, chief revenue officer, EMEA, at PubMatic (one of the founding members of the new initiative) says: “The media landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift toward a privacy-first world, with consumer privacy and consent at its heart. Publishers, buyers and the ecosystem more broadly need to rethink data-driven advertising. It takes a true industry effort and collaboration to create a standardized approach to audience addressability, which will allow companies to operate seamlessly.”

Jamie West, advisor-in-residence at PXI and former head of advanced advertising at Sky Media, agrees that cross-media addressability is a critical priority for the 2020s: “Addressable TV advertising is critical for the future of the European market, but increasingly needs to be seen in the context of the wider addressable media market – advertisers are clearly looking to integrate and align their campaigns across TV, digital and other media. We have to think more about cross-media addressability during the 2020s – the connected decade.”

Overseen by industry veterans Ian Maude and Jon Watts, the initiative will be supported by a team of highly experienced advisors, including Knapp, West, Joy Baer, Fiona McKinnon, Ashley MacKenzie, Tomas Salfischberger and Benedict Evans.

Baer, advisor-in-residence at PXI and previously general manager at Freewheel Advertisers, commented: “Cross industry collaborations such as this are essential to provide clarity and help marketers and publishers drive meaningful business outcomes with addressable media.”

The new initiative is being carefully positioned to build on work already under way across the industry, according to Watts, executive director of PXI: “As a first step, we want to take stock of what’s out there, across the buy- and sell-sides of the market, providing a diagnostic assessment of the European landscape for identity resolution and addressable media, with a clear taxonomy of definitions and frameworks. We’ll be consulting across the industry to form a clear view of what’s in place – and what work still needs to be done.”

Maude, executive director at PXI, added that the initiative will be focused on identifying practical solutions: “We are very much looking forward to working with our partners and the wider industry to develop practical recommendations to help ad buyers and sellers in Europe develop a sustainable future for their businesses in a privacy-first world.”

Source: thedrum.com