MAREK SINGER: AFTER A YEAR WITH PRIMA+ WE FINALLY KNOW HOW TO BUILD AND DIRECT VOD

Despite unfavourable developments in the Czech economy and Czech macroeconomic data, major TV players report favourable development of their business, both in 2023 and according to the first forecasts for this year. “generally speaking, last year was a good year for the whole tv market. The interest in TV advertising continued, which is a key source of revenue for us. We have seen moderate growth,” said long-time Prima group CEO Marek Singer in a new episode of the podcast called První liga (first league).

WHAT YOU WILL HEAR IN THIS FIRST LEAGUE’S EPISODE

• What the year 2023 was like for the whole TV industry, according to Prima’s CEO
• How advertisers respond to the current economic development of the Czech Republic and Prima’s pricing conditions
• Which directions Prima intends to take in terms of content (drama series, documentaries)
• What the progress is in the production of series to replace ZOO
• Why Roman Mrázek left the position of Prima’s Programming Director and what instruction his successor, Alex Ruzek, got
• What Prima’s business results were for 2023
• How Prima is monitoring the TV Barrandov turbulence and whether it is interested in buying the debt-ridden station
• How Prima will deal with the three booked broadcasting positions on which it is not currently broadcasting
• How satisfied Marek Singer is with the current functioning of the streaming platform prima+
• What news Prima is preparing in terrestrial TV and VOD

LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW.

According to Marek Singer, the appetite of advertisers continued in the weeks of January 2024 in terms of the concluded annual contracts. This was despite the significant increase in the price for advertising by the Media Club, Prima’s media agency. “The interest of advertisers has not diminished in spite of that. So far, the first months of this year are above expectations. Of course, the advertising market always lags behind the development of the economy. According to all expectations, the TV and radio advertising market should be affected by inflation and the latest GDP development in the Czech Republic. But it is not,” said Singer.

In terms of TV consumers, Singer thinks that the trends that started in the pre-Covid era have continued, which includes mainly the shift of viewers from linear TV to the VOD (Video in Demand) segment. There are also first examples of using AI in the TV business, for example in some processes in the news service (review, text correction, etc.) or in dubbing. In the next two to three years, Singer expects AI to be used in video production as well, which could, for example, reduce the costs of series production.

Prima’s content continues to rely on premium series and big shows. According to Prima’s CEO, the specific TV phenomenon from previous years has returned. “Prima has always been home to long-running series such as ZOO, Slunečná, etc. For a while it looked like our competition on Nova would go a different way. But I think, and you can see it from what they are doing, they have decided that this path makes sense for the TV viewer. So, we are back to the duel that last took place between the series Ordinance v růžové zahradě and Slunečná. We are back to the situation where long-running series compete against each other on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is obvious that the relaxing role of television is important to viewers. They relax with TV, and that is what long-running series are intended for,” Singer pointed out.

The competing commercial TV group will thus continue to invest in soap operas as well as more narrowly defined series, such as crime, true crime, or comedy titles. “Prima is now focusing more on series that are collectively referred to as ‘feel good’, or slightly humorous, relaxing. Because that is what viewers expect from commercial television. That is the example of our Monday series we launched - Malá velká liga and Zalez do spacáku,” Singer commented.

There is a noticeable movement in the web series segment. After a year of operation of the Prima+ streaming platform, the station has a large amount of data and insight about which things work and what did not find the necessary response or reach of the target group in VOD (for example, “crazy” series intended mainly for young audiences). As a result, Prima’s management has put together an updated multi-year development plan for Prima+ that will build on the newly acquired experience.

According to Singer, Prima Group, which includes radio, a wide family of websites, events and print magazines in addition to television, continues to build a large media group. Prima is not shying away from potential purchases in the media market, although its approach is very cautious. “In every segment in which we operate, if there is an opportunity for an interesting acquisition, why not consider it. That is clear. On the other hand, there are and will be relatively a lot of consolidation moves going on in the market. And that does not apply just to the established players, there will be new players as well. I am not entirely inclined towards buying market share at a premium price. You have to look beyond the one-year to two-year horizon and see the value of potential acquisitions,” Singer suggested.

Source: borovan.cz