CEE 2011 > Channels
Digital TV Europe June 2011
– it’s a niche that has been underserved by our competitors,” says Robinson. As the channel gains traction its buying power grows, he says – giving an international player such as KidsCo an advantage over local channels that are restricted to one particular market. One issue that faces the channel in Poland is a growing requirement for HD. “Poland is a very advanced HD market – more than some western European countries,” says Robinson. “Poland is a special case in that sense but we are increasingly being asked for HD in other markets too.” While kids themselves are not necessarily interested in HD, the demand of operators for HD channels presents some- thing of a dilemma to a programming genre that associates HD with high costs and few tangible commercial or creative benefits.
not only localized linear feeds to the party, but also local content, joint marketing initiatives with distributors, and non-linear content to complement the main channel.
Led by forward-looking companies includ- ing UPC Broadband, video-on-demand has been gaining traction across CEE as cable operators and a few IPTV players try to upsell their subscribers to digital services. As far as non-linear distribution is con- cerned, BBC Worldwide has delivered video- on-demand programming to UPC in Poland. While the BBC has yet to announce which international territories will be targeted for its forthcoming international iPlayer service, McDonough says that “over-the-top is not something we are really looking at in this stage”. In central and eastern Europe, he says,
“The next step is local production and we have started talking to local producers both for History and C&I.”
Tom Davidson, AETN
While some channels seem ripe for local- ization in depth, other providers prefer to rely on the strength of their existing content libraries. So far BBC Worldwide has held back from local production and acquisition, prefer- ring to market itself on the basis of access to the BBC’s vast library of content. McDonough says the group has “an ambition to do [local production] – but not at this stage”. In the future, he says, it is possible that the company will look at exporting formats that have worked well in the UK and developing them in particular territories.
Non-linear distribution
The impetus towards greater localization is one sign of the growing maturity of the mar- kets of central and eastern Europe. The time when international channel providers could simply pitch up with a proposition and expect to win carriage on distribution platforms is long past, but the degree of sophistication required of content providers’ offerings is rap- idly converging with the demands of platform operators in more highly developed pay TV markets. Channels are increasingly bringing
the group still has a lot of work to do to catch up with more established international play- ers in securing linear distribution for its chan- nels with pay TV operators. BBC Worldwide is open to launching branded blocks – it has just launched a Cbeebies block on the Canal Plus Family premium channel in the Nordic mar- ket – but McDonough says that for much of the central and eastern Europe region, the story will be one of securing carriage on basic cable and on the basic tier of DTH services. “We are still at an early stage in our develop- ment and there are lots of basic cable and DTH [platforms] we should be launching on before we get into [premium],” he says. Like most channel providers, AETN believes that online and non-linear distribu- tion only makes sense in partnership with a pay TV operator. “We are lucky to have a broad rights ownership situation across most of our shows,” says Davidson. “Compared to some of the other entertainment-focused channels we own most of the rights because most of the content is produced by our parent in the US, and we have been able to give consumers a lot more ability to access non-linear content. Demand has increased significantly when it comes to VOD particularly.”
This is also a view taken by KidsCo, which plans to introduce its VOD-based recommen- dation engine MyKidsCo soon. KidsCo already has one deal in the pipeline with a European cable operator. “It will launch this summer and we are very excited about that,” says Robinson. “I think personalization is a trend that’s not going to go away.” However, he says, the company is currently not actively negotiating to launch this service in central and eastern Europe.
On the premium side, HBO Central Europe is rolling out its recently launched HBO Go service in the region on a market-by- market basis, initially in Poland, followed by Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and, most recently, Hungary. HBO aims to make its services available across mul- tiple platforms, including tablets and other internet-connected devices as well as PCs. Adult specialist Marc Dorcel meanwhile has invested significant amounts in develop- ing adult 3D content – €1.5 million to date – but Gregory Dorcel says that there are relative- ly few operators in central and eastern Europe geared up for this type of content yet. “We do not believe that 3D suits for a linear consump- tion. We prefer to reserve it for the premium universe in our SVOD offer,” says Dorcel. “First, for comfort reasons, our clips have a maximal length of 30 minutes. Then 3D remains an exceptional experience.” The com- pany launched its 3D SVOD offer in November 2010 in France for €30 a month and has attracted few thousands subs on each of the platforms where it is available. The appearance of 3D services – particular- ly sports, thanks in part to recent efforts by Eurosport – are one more sign that the more advanced markets of central and eastern Europe (including, once again, Poland) are rapidly converging with those of the western half of the continent. In many cases, providers in these markets are already leapfrogging their peers in western European markets by launching online catch-up, multiscreen and 3D services. It is true that the socio-economic profile of the region remains significantly apart from western Europe, with a much larg- er proportion of very low-income households for which pay TV services are either likely to remain out of reach or for whom specific low- cost or pre-paid offering must be tailored. Nevertheless there is also clearly a sizeable demographic for which such advanced servic- es are increasingly attractive. ●
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