August launch of TVN24 in doubt
By : Anna Kocinska
TVN's plan to launch a 24-hour news channel in time to cover September's parliamentary elections appears in doubt as media houses and advertisers last week said the private broadcaster has yet to approach them about doing business with the channel.
For several months, TVN has said it would air TVN24 in August to take advantage of lucrative advertising opportunities before the elections.
"They haven't come to us with their presentation," said Malgorzata Grzyb of Initiative Media, a Warsaw-based media house. "If a company introduces a new media product, it presents it to us usually a few weeks or even a few months before the official launch. Gala weekly (the new Polish edition of the German magazine to be published by Gruner+Jahr Polska) gave us its presentation more than a month ago." Marcin Boglowski, director of the TV division at Mediacom, a Warsaw-based media house, also said representatives of TVN24 haven't approached him. "We even called them up a week ago because we had a client to sponsor their business news, but they said they didn't know anything yet," Boglowski said.
TVN, meanwhile, has been tight-lipped about its plans for the channel. Anna Traczewska, TVN24's spokeswoman, said last week that while preparations for the launch are underway, she was not at liberty to say anything more. She did confirm, however, that the channel was still expected to air in August. Maciej Sojka, who is supervising the launch of the channel, was unavailable for comment at press time. But Jan Wejchert, president of ITI Group, owner of TVN and TVN24, told Reuters in May that the news channel would be the first in a series of new channels. He also said TVN24 would be launched in August for $20 million.
According to Grzyb, the strategy behind TVN24 may be to start off without inflated expectations for ad revenue. "They know that at this time of the year most advertisers have already closed their ad budgets," he said. "They might be counting on larger budgets next year."
At the same time, Grzyb and Boglowski agreed that it shouldn't be difficult to find advertisers for the nation's first news channel. "There is demand for this kind of channel," Boglowski said. "Cellular networks, banks, insurance companies, or even business magazines such as the new Profit they'll all be looking for such a channel." Grzyb said TVN24 would be geared toward "upmarket" viewers such as businessman and managers. "And they are usually hard to reach through other channels because they don't watch TV that much," he said. "So they could sell very well, arguing that they can reach usually unreachable upmarket clients."
Meanwhile, promoting the channel may not be the only problem facing TVN as the question where TVN24 will be broadcast has also yet to be answered.
"They might not start in the summer; they first have to be available somewhere," Boglowski said. According to him, the price the station will be able to charge for ad time will depend on the channel's reach. "Without an agreement with cable operators, they will have a small reach, meaning cheap ads."
Last year, Wejchert told Gazeta Wyborcza daily that TVN24 would be available via cable networks and on digital platforms. "But it won't be a cheap channel," he said. "At the beginning it might be offered in a basic package both on cable and digital platforms." According to a media source, TVN has so far been demanding too much from cable operators for TVN24, up to 25 cents per household.
Andrzej Ostrowski, president of the Zielona-Gora-based National Cable Communication Chamber (OIGKK), said he hasn't heard about any contracts being signed with cable operators. "I saw their presentation three months ago and since then I haven't heard from them," he said. Warsaw-based Aster City cable had also been in talks with TVN24, but the company's programming director, Marek Bryl, was unavailable for comment last week.
In addition, according to media sources, TVN24 has been talking to the country's two digital platforms, Wizja TV and Cyfra+, but no contracts have been signed yet. "We are talking to TVN about many different projects, but I can't provide any details," said Malgorzata Babik, communications director at Canal+ Polska, operator of Cyfra+.
For its part, TVN24 already has the technical ability to begin broadcasting. According to Bozena Sztyller, PR representative of Paris-based Eutelsat satellite operator, TVN might broadcast its news channel through Eutelsat's "Hot Bird" satellite. "They already have a large transponder and they use less than 50% of its capacity," Sztyller said. "They will use it for TVN24 and they won't even need to talk to Eutelsat about that." To boost its reach, TVN has been using Eutelsat's "Hot Bird" service to beam its signal since last November.
Meanwhile, according to TVN24's Traczewska, finishing touches are being made to the structure of the channel. About 150 people will work for the channel in Warsaw, but it will also have 10 regional offices with about 10 correspondents each. "We will have a network of 100 places in Poland to refer to when covering the news," Traczewska said. TVN24 will also have correspondents in Moscow and Washington.
