Agora mulls WSE listing to grow media empire
According to press reports, the company will decide whether to go ahead with the offering at its general shareholders meeting May 8 - exactly nine years after Agora began publishing Gazeta Wyborcza, which now has a 700,000 daily circulation. As a first step, however, the company is talking about raising its share capital of zl. 44.1 million ($12.78 million) by 25%. Executives with the company refused to discuss a possible WSE listing or the share capital increase.
While Agora had experienced significant success with Gazeta Wyborcza, the company has set its sights on many other things outside of the print media range.
Through its daughter company AC Radio, Agora holds stakes in five regional stations: Wroclaw's Kolor, Warsaw's Pogoda, Sopot's Trefl, Ole of Opole and Elita from Bydgoszcz. It also has a 29% stake in recently launched talk radio station Inforadio, which broadcasts in nine Polish cities. In addition to its radio presence, Agora holds a 20% stake in television station Canal+ Polska, the No. 1 pay television station here with 250,000 viewers. Through this, the company now has a piece of the digital television station Canal+ Polska and @Entertainment plan to roll out in September.
@Entertainment originally planned to set up a digital station, Wizja TV, while Canal+ was busy creating its own digital approach. The two companies decided 10 days ago to combine their efforts under the name Wizja+, owned by Telewizyjna Korporacja Partycypacyjna (TKP). Agora will also take a 10% stake in that company.
If Agora does raise extra cash, it wants to use the money to expand its media reach - a move its competitors hardly embrace. They say Agora already has its hands in too many pies. Competitors also grumble that small radio stations with Agora backing are winning new licenses, while larger companies are missing out. "We are currently involved in talks over several (radio) frequencies with the National Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV), but all the answers we get are negative," said Wojciech Reszczynski, president of supraregional radio network WaWa. WaWa wants to add more cities to its current network of 13 locations.
"However (the answers) are positive for completely unknown local companies, that happen to have Agora as a shareholder," he said. "I know nothing about the press so I stick to the radio, and Agora should stick to (Gazeta) Wyborcza."
But not all radio stations agree. "Media shareholders, such as Agora, understand better how the business works," said Eugeniusz Smolar, editor-in-chief of Inforadio. Agora holds 29% of Inforadio.
The anti-monopoly office also could not care less. Last year the Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) decided that radio, television and press markets will be treated as separate markets, UOKiK's spokeswoman Jolanta Micel-Thor said. "In this respect, this decision is beneficial for companies such as Agora, when they invest in different media markets," she said.
Shooting for 6%
Three-month-old supraregional television station Nasza TV is still struggling for market share and recognition with advertisers.
Some 90 days after launching in mid-January, the station holds 1.5% of the total viewing market here. That market share is minuscule, however, when Nasza's reach is taken into account. With its TV affiliate TV Odra, Nasza pipes its programs into 40% of Poland's 12 million households. Within its reach, the station boasts a market share of slightly more than 4%.
"If (by the end of the year) we have something around 6%, we'll be really happy," Maciej Kosinski, Nasza's general manager said three days before the station's launch.
While Kosinski claims he will be pleased with 6%, advertising agencies said the station needs to get hungry and expand its reach further if it wants to attract top ad zloty. The station expects to have a 7-8% viewership share by the end of the year.
"The share of advertising revenues should be similar, although probably slightly below that level," said Tomasz Biegala, development director at Agencja 35, a media house affiliated with Nasza that has exclusive rights for the station's advertising time.
Nasza's main competitor, tvn, already hit that level. The station controls 6% of the viewership market and reaches 55% of the population. Six-month-old tvn wants to have 10-12% of all viewers watch its station by the end of the year.
Well-established tvn is attracting more media-buying zlotys and competing effectively with Telewizja Polska's (TVP) Program 1 or Polsat, media buyers said last week. While they said Nasza still lacks critical market share to fight for advertisers.
"What counts at the end of the day is how much (it costs us to) reach viewers," said Monika Kolasinska, media director at Gruppa 66 advertising agency. "Nasza still has a too low market share to constitute a serious item on a media plan."
And being small makes a station less competitive on price. Both tvn and Nasza are expensive when the advertising cost is figured out for reaching 1% of the viewing audience, called the cost per point (CPP).
In March, tvn's CPP was zl. 6,569, and Nasza's was zl. 8,011, according to data complied by market research agency AGB Polska. Nasza's average CPP is almost zl. 5,000 higher than that offered by TVP1 or Polsat, indicated AGB Polska's data.
But the ratio is based on the stations' official price list, which rarely is used in real negotiations, media buyers said last week.
"I cannot imagine that anybody would pay this kind of money," said Kolasinska, whose Gruppa 66 recently signed a deal with tvn for a client at a cost per point of zl. 1,700, almost zl. 5,000 less than the rate card.
Regardless, Nasza is still managing to attract a decent amount of ad money. According to AGB, Nasza in March pulled in total ad revenue of zl. 8.08 million ($2.32 million), which represents 2.7% of the total ad revenue the industry reported that month. According to AGB, tvn managed to attract zl. 44.62 million ($12.93 million) in advertising revenue in the same period.
While Agora had experienced significant success with Gazeta Wyborcza, the company has set its sights on many other things outside of the print media range.
Through its daughter company AC Radio, Agora holds stakes in five regional stations: Wroclaw's Kolor, Warsaw's Pogoda, Sopot's Trefl, Ole of Opole and Elita from Bydgoszcz. It also has a 29% stake in recently launched talk radio station Inforadio, which broadcasts in nine Polish cities. In addition to its radio presence, Agora holds a 20% stake in television station Canal+ Polska, the No. 1 pay television station here with 250,000 viewers. Through this, the company now has a piece of the digital television station Canal+ Polska and @Entertainment plan to roll out in September.
@Entertainment originally planned to set up a digital station, Wizja TV, while Canal+ was busy creating its own digital approach. The two companies decided 10 days ago to combine their efforts under the name Wizja+, owned by Telewizyjna Korporacja Partycypacyjna (TKP). Agora will also take a 10% stake in that company.
If Agora does raise extra cash, it wants to use the money to expand its media reach - a move its competitors hardly embrace. They say Agora already has its hands in too many pies. Competitors also grumble that small radio stations with Agora backing are winning new licenses, while larger companies are missing out. "We are currently involved in talks over several (radio) frequencies with the National Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV), but all the answers we get are negative," said Wojciech Reszczynski, president of supraregional radio network WaWa. WaWa wants to add more cities to its current network of 13 locations.
"However (the answers) are positive for completely unknown local companies, that happen to have Agora as a shareholder," he said. "I know nothing about the press so I stick to the radio, and Agora should stick to (Gazeta) Wyborcza."
But not all radio stations agree. "Media shareholders, such as Agora, understand better how the business works," said Eugeniusz Smolar, editor-in-chief of Inforadio. Agora holds 29% of Inforadio.
The anti-monopoly office also could not care less. Last year the Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) decided that radio, television and press markets will be treated as separate markets, UOKiK's spokeswoman Jolanta Micel-Thor said. "In this respect, this decision is beneficial for companies such as Agora, when they invest in different media markets," she said.
Shooting for 6%
Three-month-old supraregional television station Nasza TV is still struggling for market share and recognition with advertisers.
Some 90 days after launching in mid-January, the station holds 1.5% of the total viewing market here. That market share is minuscule, however, when Nasza's reach is taken into account. With its TV affiliate TV Odra, Nasza pipes its programs into 40% of Poland's 12 million households. Within its reach, the station boasts a market share of slightly more than 4%.
"If (by the end of the year) we have something around 6%, we'll be really happy," Maciej Kosinski, Nasza's general manager said three days before the station's launch.
While Kosinski claims he will be pleased with 6%, advertising agencies said the station needs to get hungry and expand its reach further if it wants to attract top ad zloty. The station expects to have a 7-8% viewership share by the end of the year.
"The share of advertising revenues should be similar, although probably slightly below that level," said Tomasz Biegala, development director at Agencja 35, a media house affiliated with Nasza that has exclusive rights for the station's advertising time.
Nasza's main competitor, tvn, already hit that level. The station controls 6% of the viewership market and reaches 55% of the population. Six-month-old tvn wants to have 10-12% of all viewers watch its station by the end of the year.
Well-established tvn is attracting more media-buying zlotys and competing effectively with Telewizja Polska's (TVP) Program 1 or Polsat, media buyers said last week. While they said Nasza still lacks critical market share to fight for advertisers.
"What counts at the end of the day is how much (it costs us to) reach viewers," said Monika Kolasinska, media director at Gruppa 66 advertising agency. "Nasza still has a too low market share to constitute a serious item on a media plan."
And being small makes a station less competitive on price. Both tvn and Nasza are expensive when the advertising cost is figured out for reaching 1% of the viewing audience, called the cost per point (CPP).
In March, tvn's CPP was zl. 6,569, and Nasza's was zl. 8,011, according to data complied by market research agency AGB Polska. Nasza's average CPP is almost zl. 5,000 higher than that offered by TVP1 or Polsat, indicated AGB Polska's data.
But the ratio is based on the stations' official price list, which rarely is used in real negotiations, media buyers said last week.
"I cannot imagine that anybody would pay this kind of money," said Kolasinska, whose Gruppa 66 recently signed a deal with tvn for a client at a cost per point of zl. 1,700, almost zl. 5,000 less than the rate card.
Regardless, Nasza is still managing to attract a decent amount of ad money. According to AGB, Nasza in March pulled in total ad revenue of zl. 8.08 million ($2.32 million), which represents 2.7% of the total ad revenue the industry reported that month. According to AGB, tvn managed to attract zl. 44.62 million ($12.93 million) in advertising revenue in the same period.
