CEE 2011 > Channels
Digital TV Europe June 2011
KidsCo’s Boo & Me: KidsCo has engaged in co-marketing initiatives with operators.
AETN has yet to build in earnest, at the very minimum its channels are launched into new markets fully versioned in the local language. Greater effort towards meaningful localization is given impetus by growing competition in the region as a whole. International players are facing competition from local channel providers as well as intensified competition from each other, as they attempt to expand their portfolio and move into new genre areas. For Davidson, competition comes not only from the big international players but from national channels attempting to build their own channel portfolios, particularly as digital switchover gets under way. “What’s really making a difference and making the market tougher is a big push by local channels to launch additional services. If you talk about competitive pressure, that’s where a lot of it is coming from,” says Davidson. He says must- carry rules implemented by local regulators can push out international players in favour of the digital channels launched by local public broadcasters, for example. For other players, local production is seen as an important way of differentiating their proposition. For premium content provider HBO Central Europe, it is a way of staying rel- evant to audiences and justifying the cost of subscription. Last year, HBO produced pro- gramming in five of the 14 countries in the region which it operates and won an interna- tional Emmy award for Romania-produced documentary The World According to Ion B. Local production is also seen as a significant opportunity by adult channel provider Marc Dorcel, which aggregates content from over 60 adult catalogues from US and European studios. According to Dorcel, the company produces a significant portion of its content in CEE, using local production crews and actors. VOD and subscription VOD now account for the bulk of the company’s revenues. “Adult non-linear requires special know-how and we propose most of the time to operators to man- age their adult non-linear offerings,” says Dorcel. “We proceed with editorial, refresh the titles regularly, localize the interface. This is a real win-win partnership – all operators who have trusted us generate…at least a million euros of revenues each year.”
Localization can also involve, more simply, dedicated feeds with content tailored to a par-
ticular market. “In large and consolidated markets we have moved towards making ded- icated territory feeds available, or else regional feeds. This allows us to buy programming more specifically for individual territories,” says Chello Zone’s Cottrell. “Localisation becomes more and more important as we take our channels to an ever increasing list of countries, but it is essential to balance localiza- tion initiatives with overall channel econom- ics, advertising opportunities and platform or audience requirements.” In Poland Chello Zone has dedicated Extreme Sports Channel and Zone Reality feeds as well as JimJam Polsat; and in Romania it has a dedicated Romantica feed. “We also have regional feeds covering one or two key areas which allows us to acquire programming on a more focused basis – for example Zone Reality has a region- al feed covering four major territories, includ- ing Hungary and Romania,” says Cottrell. Regional or territory-specific feeds also open up the possibility of developing new rev- enue streams, notably from advertising. “We are some way off from advertising sales over- taking subscription revenue, but by having a multi-revenue approach to key markets it allows us to develop the brands and invest in shaping them to individual markets,” says Cottrell. “Advertising spend has increased in CEE markets amongst the multi-channel environment principally in key markets such as Poland and Hungary, also Romania, as in turn audience share to these television chan- nels has grown. Consolidation within the market has also enabled multi-channels to build strong distribution frameworks, which in turn enables ratings systems to develop to
include them and advertising sales to become firmly established in this environment.” According to Cottrell, Poland and Hungary have built strong advertising markets, enabling both domestic and international channels to get involved in ad sales, which also allows new channels to enter the market. Marketing is also increasingly key to build- ing a channel’s presence on a country-by-coun- try basis. KidsCo, for example, has already engaged in joint marketing initiatives with platforms including Akado, Orion (Russia), Toya (Poland), Romtelecom (Romania) and DSmart (Turkey). For the latter, the channel has made some films with a child psychologist based at the Tavistock Centre in London on the impact of media on child development. “We also launched a breakfast sequence in central and eastern Europe in April taking the key shows based on video game characters and aggregating them into a breakfast show pack- age,” says KidsCo’s Robinson. In order to give KidsCo greater flexibility,
Robinson recently set up an in-house distribu- tion team of five (the channel was previously sold through shareholder NBC Universal). “By having our own team we can focus on achieving our objectives although we will con- tinue to work with NBC,” he says. Robinson believes that the kids market has become more competitive, with stronger com- petition from the likes of Disney in particular, as well as from local players and international providers including the BBC. “Our strategy has been to be complementary. We are stick- ing to our proposition of targeting six-to-ten year-old boys and girls and giving them a safe environment with high-quality programming
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