RTL7 strives to improve ratings
RTL7 has vowed to do better this year in the ratings game by improving its programming and expanding its reach, the company's chief executive said last week.
Owned by a combined Belgian-German company called CLT-UFA, RTL7 attracted a relatively low viewership of 3.6% last year, which dropped to 3% during prime time. RTL7 reaches 44% of all Polish households.
By comparison, the average daytime viewership for TVP last year was 28%, while TVP2 attracted 18% and tvn got 10%, said Osrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (OBOP), a media surveyor.
"At the moment it's in a lousy situation; that's true and it's basically the result of two years of wrong decisions that blocked the potential development of the channel," Dirk Gerkens, chief executive of RTL7 said last week. "The first step will be to change the programming, and we have decided to do a programming strategy that is based on local Polish productions."
RTL7 plans to invest zl. 20 million ($4.88 million) in Polish television production in 2000, he said. The first wave of locally produced programs will be launched in mid-April. The second phase will start in September. "We are confident that with this new programming we are able to double the audience from now until the end of this year," Gerkens said. "The objective is 7%" viewership.
Among its new programming proposals, RTL7 is pushing a Polish version of the show "Candid Camera." In RTL's version, Polish celebrities will be videotaped in intriguing situations without their knowledge.
"In Hungary we've reached almost 60% of viewershare with this kind of program," Gerkens said.
