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Where Two Television Broadcasters Are Fighting‚ the Third Wins
January 5, 2007, Mlada Fronta
Prague – Unhappiness at Prima Television, relief at Kavèí hory and joy at Nova - these feelings are dominating the seats of the three nationwide broadcasters a few days after the launch of the new structure of the main news programmes. Czech Television moved the beginning of its "Události"” from 19.15 to 19.00 hours thus directly causing a significant decrease in Prima’s audience.
The fight of the two rivals, however, resulted in benefits for Nova. The Czech Television news bulletin “Události” ends just before 19.30 and no longer clashes with the beginning of "Televizní noviny" transmitted by Nova. The Czech Television regional news ("Události z regionù") broadcast in three versions – from Prague, Brno and Ostrava –immediately after the main news block, however, did not affect Nova audience numbers. On the contrary, the New Year’s edition of “Televizní noviny” was watched by 3.5 million people and in the next two days their number settled at around three millions. These figures are a success even for the traditionally most popular news programme.
Prima Faces a Problem
On Tuesday morning Zdenìk Šámal, Director of the News Department, was on tenterhooks. He impatiently awaited the viewership ratings of the New Year’s edition of “Události”. “I have to say that the first day I was anxious to have the viewership ratings. It is a rather important step, so until the first broadcast we were all under great pressure,” Šámal admits.
The first figures speak in favour of Czech Television –1.7 million people watched “Události” on New Year’s Day. MF DNES has also collected details on audiences of all the three broadcasters from 19.00 to 20.00 hours on 1 to 3 January. The most interesting shift can be seen in the period from 19.00 to 19.15. While in December the CT overall viewership share in the above-mentioned period did not exceed twenty percent, since 1 January it has not dropped under thirty percent. On the contrary, the Prima seven o’clock news programme previously watched by approximately 35 percent of spectators, now - after the move of “Události” to the same broadcasting time – has only a twenty-percent share. Czech Television has thus “bit off” almost one third of the followers of “První zprávy” on Prima, which is quite a painful wound in prime time.
Jiøí Závozda, Prima’s Managing Editor of News, refuses to admit that the broadcaster is in crisis. “There is no panic. On Wednesday the audience increased back to one million, which is not bad for this country, is it?” Nevertheless, his subordinates are much less optimistic. “The newsroom staff feels low,” a member of the Prima news team who wants to stay anonymous told MF DNES.
According to the unofficial information, the broadcaster’s management is discussing the possibilities of dealing with the drop in audience numbers. Czech Television is not directly dependent on the number of audiences, but for Prima the viewership at the beginning of prime time (i.e. between 19.00 and 23.00) is essential. It influences its income from advertising, which is usually the main financial source of commercial television channels.
At present Prima is not considering changing the broadcasting time of the main news bulletin. It is likely to follow the example of Nova Television and fill the pre-news slot with a regular programme to keep the spectators tuned in until the news. Nova Television has opted for the “Ulice” series shown daily from 18.45 and followed by “Televizní noviny”.
This is exactly what Prima experts recommend. “They can try to fill in the time before the prime time to lure television viewers who will then stay to watch their main news programme,” Jan Jirák from the Department of Media Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, assumes. However, Prima Television may not implement such a scheme unless it comes to an agreement with the Regional Television Agency (RTA) associating all regional television broadcasters that are, according to the licensing terms and conditions, entitled to a three-hour broadcast on Prima each day.
Broadcasting times of small television broadcasters on Prima were laid down in a contract concluded between RTA and Prima Television. The contract expired at the end of last year and the attempts to enter into a new one have not been successful yet. Thus on 1 January RTA stations in six regions started to interrupt Prima’s broadcasting and such interruptions also occur before the prime time.
CT: Longer News Stories
Besides the new starting time of “Události”, the watchers have to get accustomed to some other changes in the evening news. “Our news reports are broader in scope, we are trying to integrate analyses and other relevant information. We have started to use contributions from our virtual studio,” Šámal summarises. In his opinion, the longer footage of stories and the move from a quarter past seven to seven o’clock means the restoration of the “European standard”. As regards the initial summary of key news reports, now extended by quotes of the interviewed, Czech Television has been inspired by foreign broadcasters. To keep viewers’ attention, it has also introduced (based on the Nova model) “news trailers” presented by the moderators before the last third of the programme.
According to J. Jirák, a media expert, the new face of “Události” has to “settle in”. “Currently it seems a little jumbled. The core of the programme lacks clear structuring into home and foreign news. Neither are there distinct rules as regards the content of the main and regional coverage,” Jirák concludes. Furthermore, he is rather sceptical that spectators will stay tuned to CT for the regional news block (“Události v regionech”) commencing just before 19.30. “This would require major improvement of regional coverage. So far Czech Television has been considerably Prague-centric,” he adds.
He also said that it was evident that after the move of “Události” to 19.00 prime time viewers would be split between Czech Television and Nova. Now the scramble for audiences will take place after the main evening news. In other words, the strongest weapons deployed in the fight for “evening watchers” are no longer news, but films, series and entertainment shows.
Audience History
For additional information, please contact:
Romana Tomasova
Director of Corporate Communications
Central European Media Enterprises
+44 (0)20 7430 5357
romana.tomasova@cme-net.com
