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Broadcaster profile – Pro Plus – Slovenia
January 14, 2008, C21 Media
Local productions are becoming increasingly valuable for Slovenia's Pro Plus channels, in the face of growing viewer fragmentation and platform proliferation. Programme director Gorazd Slak speaks to Gün Akyuz.
The most important ingredients of Slovenia's TV market are local productions, claims Pro Plus programme director Gorazd Slak (left). "It remains the key issue in Slovenia - as it probably is everywhere else - and is what drives ratings and facilitates direct communication with viewers."
The results of this strategy are clear in Pro Plus's flagship channel Pop TV's top shows of the fall 2007 season. The top five slots all went to local shows, topped by the channel's established local sitcom, Our Little Clinic (Nasa Mala Klinika), clocking an average 19.63% rating and 57.6% share.
"While the likes of Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives are nice and fun to watch, most viewers want local actors and stars, whether they're scripted, non-scripted shows, or gameshows and quizzes," observes Slak. He says it's a persisting trend and has been intensifying in Slovenia.
Slak, who oversees the programming for Pro Plus's two TV channels, Pop TV and Kanal A, has an increasingly tough position to defend. Although flagship Pop TV is Slovenia's market leader, with Kanal 5 in third position after pubcaster TV Slovenia 1, their market shares are being challenged by the arrival of other content heavyweights. Not least of these is Modern Times Group, following its acquisition of Prva in 2006, now rebadged as TV3.
Slak also says the widening range of digital means of distribution is eating into the viewing levels of incumbent TV channels. "With the influx of different platforms (IPTV, PPV, VoD, internet downloads) where viewers can catch their favourite programmes in advance or watch previews, we're losing ground over exclusivity, so it's very important that we offer viewers something fresh and special, and we do this through home-made products," Slak says.
On flagship Pop TV, there has been a steady increase in the number of days per week given over to local productions. By fall 2007, Pop TV aired local shows on six out of seven days. The most recent was studio entertainment show, As Ti Tud Not Padu?! (Can U Dig It!?, above), featuring two hosts and celebrity guests. Launched at the end October 2007 on Sundays at 20.00, the show proved an instant hit with Pop TV's key audience demo (18-49s), picking up an average 40.2% share (against a fall 2007 channel average primetime share of 34.7%), Slak reports.
However, Slak says of Pop TV's output: "It's not about particular local shows, but the overall mix of local productions accompanied by the right kind of acquired programming."
The generalist channel also scored with its local flagship current affairs show Preverjeno! (Confirmed, above) on Tuesdays, its evening news show 24Ur (below), and with fall season newcomers, the entertainment show Can U Dig It?! and the launch of a local version of Strix reality format The Farm.
Acquired formats are a visible contributor to Pro Plus's local output. Formerly the home to Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, since 2006 Pop TV has aired Deal or No Deal (Vzemi Pli Pusti).
Pro Plus is also a cautious user of reality formats (The Bachelor in 2004, followed by The Bar and The Bachelorette in 2005), as Slak explains: "We are very strict and very careful with our reality shows. While we have two channels, for instance, we only air one reality show per season."
The first reality of the year was Big Brother, which premiered for the first time in Slovenia in March 2007 on Kanal A. The show went on to generate a 30.3% share average across its run between March and June among 18-49s.
Over on Pop TV, this fall was the turn of Strix format, The Farm (Kmetija), scheduled daily on Tuesdays to Saturdays at 21.45, and following in the footsteps of another Strix format, The Bar.
"We have generated two very successful shows," says Slak of the two formats. Although The Bar went on to generate better ratings in season 2 than season 1, Slak's team opted to rest the format and try something new. In the event, The Farm ended its fall run in December with the highest possible ratings for a reality show, with a 15.8% rating (48.5% share of 18-49s) and so far a record for a reality show in Slovenia, says Slak.
With a three-month rest between the two shows, Slak says the market is "not cluttered with reality." Big Brother is set to return this coming March with season 2.
Pro Plus, says Slak, will continue to prospect for reality and other formats on the international market. "Slovenia is a small market. We would love to do our own format, and we have many ideas, the creative power and the thinkers, but we cannot raise the money required to develop and test them. This is where the problem starts." Slovenia's public TV also tried with new quizzes that failed, says Slak by way of illustration. So for the time being, tried and tested foreign formats remain top of the list for Pop TV and Kanal A.
Of the two channels, Pop TV is more driven by local issues and communication with the viewer is more direct, says Slak. However, local productions are now also being earmarked over on the more youthful-skewing Kanal A.
"At Kanal A we went one step further, and for the first time on the channel, launched a special breed of tabloid populist news. This has generated great success for the channel," says Slak.
News magazine Svet (World) airs daily (Monday-Friday), at 18.00 and again at 19.45, generating both good viewer response and success for Kanal A, helping to boost the channel's image. "In Slovenia, it's now obvious that if you want a good positive image for your channel you need news," says Slak. "It's also an audience driver, generating flow into the primetime schedule."
Svet currently flanks Mexican telenovela Rebelde at 18.55, with a 19.45 news update leading into the weekday primetime schedule from 20.00 that features a mix of acquired films (eg Lethal Weapon, Douple Impact) and series (eg House, Bones, Skins, Midsomer Murders, Inspector Lynley Mysteries), sourced predominantly from the US and UK across the week.
Weekends also feature a mix of acquired reality-inspired factual (eg the UK infotainment series How to Find a Husband), movies and series (currently Veronica Mars, Rescue Me), as well as local candid camera show Pazi, Kamera!
Kanal A's predominantly acquired schedule targets younger-adult demos (18-49, with a core viewing around 18-35), with a greater reliance on acquired fare, something that Slak says will need to change in the light of market trends in Slovenia. Kanal A's younger profile also means that viewers are not so attached to the channel, making it tougher to retain them.
The same viewer profile has allowed the channel more latitude to experiment. One such move was the launch of a regular shockumentary slot on Wednesdays at 20.00 and 21.00, which has worked tremendously, says Slak. The slot airs predominantly US and UK shows, such as US documentary Brittle Bones, and US and UK doc series Seconds from Disaster, featuring in January, which Slak says has been hugely successful.
However, Slak observes that acquired finished shows are losing their value to Pro Plus day by day. "We need to be very careful with what we put on air and I believe we're going to see a further gradual decline in acquired shows.
"We're very interested in, and want to see new sitcoms and dramedies flourish," says Slak, citing strong acquired programming such as Ugly Betty. "We like it, but it generates half the ratings of Pop TV's local sitcom, which cost far less. It's a lower production value but higher ratings grabber. So you see where we're coming from and you'll see us travelling more and more in this direction. So we need to be careful about what we acquire for the future."
As well as the growing availability of content on different distribution platforms, Slak cites the Hollywood writers' strike as a factor that will affect the planning of upcoming fall schedules, given the reduced number of episodes now available.
>From a quota point of view, Slak says that Pop TV wouldn't need to produce much on the local front. However, he says: "We decided that we want to offer people flagship shows across different programming areas. We have number one shows across all these genres, and that, I believe, is the key."
With its local TV content strategy now significantly paying dividends, local remains the key to Pro Plus's plans going forward. "I always say why fix it if it ain't broke. We will continue with our current strategy," says Slak. "Both Pop TV and Kanal A are performing really well - we had the best combined weekly viewing share (in December), reaching a 57% share."
Pop TV rallied in the fall 2007 season to finish on a 34.7% share of core 18-49s in primetime (20.00-23.00, and maintaining its 2006 level), and posted a yearly average of 30.2% to December 17 (down from 33.7% year-on-year). Meanwhile, Kanal A ended on 17.2%, up 1.1 percentage share points for the equivalent period.
But given the changing landscape, Slak is not complacent. "We carefully analyse every week and every day. Our aim is to retain audience share in the face of more competition, which we've been able to do.
"We will stick with our flagship local productions, as well as look for new production possibilities, if not this spring, for sure for fall 2008, and will include a search for formats. Priorities are quizzes, gameshows and reality shows for core primetime."
The next landmark will be to localise Pop TV across seven days a week. "Within the very near future in 2008 we'll be there every night," says Slak. Kanal A's output is also being revisited, with a big plan to boost local production on the channel for this fall," Slak told C21 Media.
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
