Television channels to re-vamp image to appeal to younger viewers

Although the Polish television market is currently facing a recession, TV st ations are doing their best to attract more viewers. For this autumn, privat e channel TVN is preparing eleven new programs coupled with a spectacular ma rketing initiative which is being compared with that of the Big Brother real ity show. Currently, the younger viewer living in a city is the most attract ive for TVN as generally this kind of a viewer has more money. Therefore, TV N's management has decided to move programs targeting older viewers to later hours. "We will need a slightly younger viewer during prime time," said TVN president Piotr Walter. At the same time he admits that the change may have a negative influence on the channel's image. Another private station, Polsat , is also planning to drastically change its image, starting this autumn, in order to win viewers from big cities. To achieve this, the station has decid ed to replace programs promoting disco, with which Polsat has always been id entified, with popular music shows. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1) A.Z.