Battle of the boob
By : Anna Kocinska
Couch potatoes take heart. Last week four of the nation's commercial TV broadcasters, TVN, Polsat, TV4 and RTL7, offered a glimpse of their new fall fare, which they hope will keep viewers glued to the tube.
The stations are counting on the new programs to beef up their audience figures and grab a juicier chunk of the lucrative TV advertising market. It's also a sign that the young, commercial TV industry is maturing, finally emerging from the shadow of state TV in a battle for domination. "This fall will be like a TV arms race," quipped Edward Miszczak, a member of TVN's board, referring to the station's fresh programs intended to attract more viewers.
This year has been a coming of age for the babies of Polish TV. Already in the first six months, TVN bolstered its revenue as more advertisers spent larger amounts of their budgets with the station. This fall, TVN hopes to add to its success by being recognized as a major player on the television market. "Fall will be a competitive time for us with Polsat and public television (Telewizja Polska TVP)," said Ryszard Sibilski, a member of TVN's board.
However, Andrzej Muszynski, head of Polsat's advertising office, Pai Media, which also handles the TV4 account, said: "A programming revolution has taken place at TV4." He said the station's programming changes would lead to stiffer competition with larger stations such as TVN.
"The new programming, to be introduced in the fall, will help TVN compete with TV4, and Polsat will be free to compete with TVP," he said. RTL7, owned by CLT-Ufa, a Belgian-German company, sees TVN as its direct competitor. "Our audience and our viewers' profile are very close," said Piotr Gotowski, the head of programming at RTL7.
The price is right
Game shows are the staple diet of prime-time viewers, according to recent research. And this year, all the broadcasters are looking to the tried-and-tested game show as their not-so secret weapon to bolster audience ratings. This has not been lost on investors in private TV stations who have pumped in heavy investment dollars to increase output.
According to Gotowski, RTL7 is working on a series of "surprise" quiz shows for the coming season. RTL7 plans to launch "Gra w przeboje," one of two new music game shows airing Aug. 14. "Our important evening programs will be game shows," he said.
TVN plans to add to its already successful quiz program, "Milionerzy," ("Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"), the station's best-selling product. "We try to show and provoke emotions in our programs," said Piotr Tyborowicz, sales director at TVN.
And "Milionerzy" does manage to stir up emotions, among show contestants and ad providers. The quiz program, in which participants have so far won zl. 6 million ($1.4 million), reached a record 35.1% market share on March 5 among viewers of more than 4 years old, according to AGB Polska, a market research agency.
Ad spots of 30 seconds cost zl. 25,300 before and zl. 38,200 after "Milionerzy." The show is based on a similar program purchased from Endemol, a Netherlands-based TV producer. Such foreign-based programs, including the forthcoming "Big Brother," are produced for TVN by Endemol Neovision, a production company established by ITI Holdings, a media and entertainment group. ITI owns both TVN and Endemol.
TVN wants to add to its repertoire of foreign-based programs such as "Milionerzy," which has proved to be a cash cow worldwide. "We want to be different from our competition, that's why we have (shows like) "Milionerzy," "Big Brother" and "Agent," Miszczak said.
Meanwhile, RTL7 is also busy implementing an expansion strategy. At the start of this year, RTL7 vowed to change its programming and invest zl. 20 million ($4.65 million) in Polish television production. RTL7 attracted a relatively low audience share (4.01%) in 1999, which dropped to 3% during prime time. After the first wave of locally produced programs were launched in mid-April, RTL7 was eager to introduce its fall lineup. "Our plans to improve RTL7 viewer figures haven't changed," Gotowski said. "We still want to achieve 5-6% by the end of the year."
In spring, the station introduced a Polish "Candid Camera." In RTL7's version, celebrities are videotaped without their knowledge. "The format of the program worked out, but we are not happy with some episodes," Gotowski said. For the fall season, RTL7 is preparing "Gra w przeboje" ("Playing with hits") and will be hosted by Wojciech Malajkat, a well-known young actor. "It will be more of a program and not a quiz, with prizes waiting for contestants who correctly guess the music that is being performed," he said.
The new show will be aired five days a week. He also said that a new comedy would be introduced this autumn. "We're putting a particular emphasis on entertainment, not on quiz shows (like 'Milionerzy' or 'Zyciowa szansa')," he said. Gotowski said that RTL7 was also working on a show that could be as successful as "Big Brother" or "Milionerzy." "It could be launched next year," he said.
Enter big boys from abroad
TVN's bid for ratings was given an added boost last week when the station announced international giant SBS Broadcasting was buying a 33% share in the Polish station for $170 million, according to Jan Wejchert, president of ITI Holdings. The acquisition was paid for with $92 million in cash and with ITI senior convertible notes worth $40 million. SBS is a European commercial television and radio broadcasting company with operations in Western and Central Europe.
"We're already closely collaborating with SBS. We will surely use their (program) formats," Wejchert said. The new formats, according to TVN, are intended to add to the station's success achieved earlier this year. "We're pretty sure that this fall's programming will help us (in the sales department) to keep what we gained in the first half of this year," Tyborowicz said. From January to June, 26% of advertisers' budgets went to TVN, compared with 15% during the same period last year, according to data gathered by AGB Polska.
A star is born
While TVN is poised to make gains, other stations are not sitting idly by. According to Pai Media's Muszynski, TV4's programming would be strong enough to compete with the growing trend to advertise on TVN. "Since the world soccer championships, TVN's (market) share has dropped below 10%," he said. "If we make TV4 double its share to 6-7% of the market, that means TVN will be down to 8%."
TV4 was launched in April this year and within three months it reached a 3.5% viewer share, according to AGB Polska. It also managed to attract 1.61% of TV advertising spending during those 90 days. "It's possible to double its (TV4's) turnover in the fall because so far it's been small," Muszynski said. He said a better share this year could also be a good beginning for next year's budget talks with advertisers. "And I expect that advertisers will have some reservations, but they will bet on the underdog even though it wasn't running from the start of the year," he said.
Muszynski is counting on TV4's fall lineup and in particular its new game show, "Zyciowa szansa" ("Chance of a Lifetime"). "It's a real revelation and revolution at the same time," he said. "It's what will make TV4 a real competitor to TVN."
"Zyciowa szansa" first aired on Polsat in June and is produced by the Wroclaw-based Studio ATM. It reached a 27.9% market share on July 6, according to AGB Polska. What made the competition even tougher was that "Zyciowa szansa" was hosted by Krzysztof Ibisz, a former TVN celebrity. "It (the show) simply flattened TVN's 'Milionerzy,'" Muszynski said.
According to TVN's Tyborowicz, "Zyciowa szansa" was an imitation, but it was effective enough to provoke a reaction from TVN. "We're planning a promotional campaign to remind our viewers who was first," he said. "It will be the kind of campaign that will help our fall programming."
Secret weapons
While smaller broadcasters are busy planning their programming strategies, there were no surprises last week when Polsat, the country's largest commercial TV broadcaster, announced its fall lineup. "It's continuing to move its way," Muszynski said. "It has 27% share of the market and 2-3% changes are something the market is expecting."
Change is something Polsat needs. Despite its hold on a large chunk of the market, it did experience losses in ad revenue. Polsat's ad market dropped by 4%. TVP will also undoubtedly try to come up with a formula that will allow the state-owned mammoth to regain the ad revenue it lost last year. TVP's ad revenue fell by 6%.
But how things will change at TVP is still uncertain. Couch potatoes and potential advertisers won't learn that until next month when the station unveils its fall lineup.
While TVN has opened the curtain as far as its programming goes, to keep ad revenue coming in it will have to manage to keep viewers in front of the TV during commercial breaks. "It's time to do something to keep our viewers during ad breaks when he usually goes to make his tea," said Mariusz Walter, TVN's president.
Walter is tight-lipped about when TVN would unveil its secret weapon. But Tyborowicz would also not reveal details of the plan prepared by TVN's marketing team. "Only a few people know about it. We will try, in a very original way, to convince our viewer to stay through the commercial breaks," Tyborowicz said. "It will have its premiere this weekend (mid-August). Let's wait and see."
