Lenka Hrivnáková, Author at The Association of Commercial Television

MEDIA CLUB TO KEEP ONLINE ADVERTISING PRICES, CANCEL BONUSES

The acquisition of Impression Media will see Media Club increase its reach in the online advertising market. Advertising prices will remain unchanged in the joint offer, but agency bonuses will be removed.

The joint commercial offers for selected products from 1 May will bring Media Club and Impression Media together following the property merger in March this year, when Prima Group acquired an 80% stake in online media agency Impression Media. The flagship is the newly created Add Up package with almost 190 websites reaching 6.4 million real users per month, making it the number two on the Czech Internet (source: NetMonitor, traffic from the Czech Republic). In addition, there are also thematically targeted new packages on offer. The advertising prices remain, but the agency bonuses have been abolished.

Thanks to the acquisition of Media Club, online advertising inventory is also increasing its reach. Impression Media is looking to focus more on programmatic sales of audio, video and, prospectively, television thanks to the partnership with Media Club. The two companies will continue to operate independently, say Petr Hatlapatka, commercial director of Media Club’s online division, and Roman Stolejda, CEO of Impression Media.

Why did you consider acquiring Impression Media in the first place? For what reason is it interesting for Media Club?

Petr Hatlapatka: Primarily we were interested in how we can increase our reach. That was decisive in our thinking about whether or not to enter Impression Media. We are the largest representation in the TV and radio market and have similar ambitions online. But perhaps even more fundamental in the decision was how Impression Media’s sites complement our sites. Because even if the overall increase in intervention was high, but we would have overlapped with Impression Media’s offering in the end, the acquisition would not have made much sense. Even from an offer perspective, we complement Impression Media well. Media Club has a large video production thanks to Prima, while Impression is strong in banner advertising and delivers content that is not as well represented here. So the main thing was the shape of the final product and how it can help us increase sales.

I would like to clarify that we have joined Impression Media with an 80% stake, but Impression Media is not joining the Media Club. The companies remain separate and operate side by side. We completed the acquisition in March and the client contracts are set for this year and remain in place as such. Each company has its own products and we will only link products where it makes sense for us to do so.

For Media Club, the hit that the Impression Media acquisition will bring was interesting. What will the ownership tie-up bring to Impression Media?

Roman Stolejda: We realize that Impression Media cannot grow without a great partner. We have reached a ceiling as a media agency, we have 153 sites in our portfolio, which is quite a lot, but to continue to grow, joining with a strong partner was a necessity for us. Prima has a lot of ambition in the online market and we can help each other.

The second thing is that with the departure of CSFD.cz two years ago, we basically lost our video inventory and thanks to the merger with Prima, we can now bring it back in a big way. Plus, by combining our offerings, we can offer something that nobody here has. That’s interesting for us. Media Club is also interested in developing other projects – we have introduced audio programmatic at Impression Media and we are in talks to expand it here. This would mean that we would be the only ones to offer programmatic audio nationwide. And there are other possibilities. My colleague David Bauckmann has talked at length about television programmatic. That is definitely the future, and we are ready to introduce programmatic TV.

Photo: Roman Stolejda, Source: TV Prima

How does the Media Club feel about programmatic TV?

Petr Hatlapatka: We are closely following the development of programmatic TV spot advertising sales in the world. In a very simplistic way, we can say that in countries where a large part of TV distribution is done over the Internet, programmatic buying is also developed. In the Czech Republic, the situation is very different due to a very strong terrestrialization. In terms of programmatic, we are closest to IPTV operators. So we are very interested in this, but it is a question of when it is realistic to bring programmatic to life so that it makes not only business sense, but also product sense – towards clients.

It has already been mentioned that Impression will stand next to Media Club. Is it the case that you remain at the helm of Impression Media and are responsible for running the business?

Roman Stolejda: The fact that we are staying with David Bauckmann was part of the terms of the transaction in order to maintain the continuity of the company. And we are glad for that. The goal is to build a business group way larger than it is today. We have always tried to do local business, but next to Radiohouse (it belongs to Media Bohemia as well as Impression Media, ed.) we could no longer develop the business as we imagined. Here, on the other hand, there is a will to develop the local business in a big way and the advantage is that there are radio and TV salesmen available alongside online salesmen.

You mentioned that the acquisition of Impression Media complements the reach well. What exactly are the overlaps between the users of the two entities?

Petr Hatlapatka: We have already presented clients with advertising packages that we have created together. The biggest one is called Add Up and it reaches 6.4 million people on the Czech market. It has reached 6.5 million RU and 305 million page views. This makes it the second largest on the Czech Internet after Seznam.cz. It goes across all Impression Media and Media Club websites. It is our flagship site and both Media Club and Impression Media have it in their price lists. It includes formats like DLB branding, pre-roll, interscroller etc. Thematic packages consist of sites focused on cars, housing and hobbies, video, women, entertainment and news (see details below).

More targeted offers in addition to the main Add Up are also offered by Media Club and Impression Media?

Petr Hatlapatka: Yes, but only packages. For example, as Media Club we have the Autosalon.tv website, which is already sold out. The moment we create an auto package, we incorporate Impression Media’s sites into it and that increases our capacity to sell. So we are increasing the advertising space, which is one of the main benefits.

Source: TV Prima

Source: TV Prima

From which date are the price lists for these packages valid?

Petr Hatlapatka: They came into force on 1 May. The important thing is that we are keeping the same prices, i.e. we are not increasing prices. By combining them at the package level, we are getting closer to TV and we are abolishing agency bonuses for 2023. So for Media Club we will have the same terms across our media types. We are not raising prices, even though the inflation rate signaled by the CSO shows an increase of about 30% over the last two years.

So from 1 May it is possible to buy packages from Media Club or Impression Media. However, Impression Media will not sell advertising on CNN Prima News or Prima, for example. We will sell it together. Impression Media has its own portfolio of sites, and so do we, and we’ll only interact at the level of joint packages.

One thing is how many real users the merger will bring, the other thing is what opportunities the merger will bring at the level of advertising capacity. Does it help you in eGRP capacity, for example?

Petr Hatlapatka: If we talk about overall capacity, Impression Media is bigger than Media Club in terms of page views. Page views is a relevant metric for display advertising. However, in the case of video advertising, we are interested in video views and viewing time. That’s a different metric. When it comes to eGRPs, they have strict rules regarding viewability, audio on and content quality. If these rules are met on Impression Media sites, we can run eGRPs there. To simplify, these standards are so strict that they de facto apply to TV content uploaded to the web.

Could this have any impact on Media Club’s business policy regarding eGRP representation in the bundle?

Petr Hatlapatka: Not at the moment. We’re not even talking about running eGRPs on Impression Media sites yet. We’ll probably talk about it, but in the case of eGRPs, what we’re most interested in right now is that they can be deployed to IPTV operators where we’re replacing spots with online advertising. But that’s not related to Impression Media.

Will the combination of your products affect the rate of space sold programmatically?

Roman Stolejda: We cannot provide specific numbers, but Impression Media sells more than half of its space programmatically. Media Club, on the other hand, builds a lot on private deals. I think our know-how in programmatic sales could help the whole Media Club. We would be happy to get video on as many of our sites as possible with Prima’s help. This would help us grow higher.

Petr Hatlapatka: We are preparing a video platform project based on Prima videos, which we are able to offer to websites using an embedded player. We are discussing how much video content and what type of video content we will be releasing towards these sites. All 153 sites represented by Impression Media will have access to the video and will be able to take videos from Prima and use them on their own site. This would increase the reach of the video. With Prima’s sites we will reach about 3.5 million real users per month. If we can expand video to at least a third to half of Impression Media’s sites, we can increase the reach of video by leaps and bounds. This makes us much more interesting for video advertising clients. If we have 4.5 million or 5 million users, that’s a substantial increase. Our basic calculation shows that we will grow the video advertising market by about one million users.

Roman Stolejda: That’s money that these sites can’t touch right now, practically.

Is the video advertising market ready for this, isn’t it just filling an already saturated space? Is there enough money in it and will it be possible to monetize so many videos?

Petr Hatlapatka: In the period from September to Christmas, video advertising across the market is mostly sold out. We see that the sell-out rate is increasing. Even though we’re increasing video inventory every year, the sell-through is increasing. We’re already having a little bit of trouble meeting all the demand in the spring. So far, we’re doing well, but if the demand for video advertising goes up by, say, 20%, we won’t meet it.

So you are counting on online video inventory to increase quite significantly. What will you do with it?

Petr Hatlapatka: It will mainly increase the reach, which is what we’re primarily interested in, and that will increase the inventory. But we don’t expect to put long videos on the upcoming video platform. That’s why people come to prima+ and why they pay for it. But we are thinking about news videos or hobby or car videos. We have a lot of content.

Would it be videos created in addition to the ones you already have for Prima?

Petr Hatlapatka: No, it would be content that is produced for Prima. For example, in the production of Autosalon, we cut reports for online that are often longer than for TV.

Roman Stolejda: There are two possibilities: either the web editors themselves will take the videos from the central video platform and put them on their websites, or we will assign them according to topics.

Will the agreement with the Media Club change the portfolio of Impression Media, or will some Media Bohemia sites drop out of it?

Roman Stolejda: The only website that remains in Media Bohemia is Radia.cz. It has never been part of Impression Media. Radio websites, such as Hitrádia, were not part of Impression either. But as far as audio programmatic is concerned, we continue to handle that for Media Bohemia.

And do you offer audio formats like podcasts?

Roman Stolejda: Not yet, but we are planning to create them.

Petr Hatlapatka: For example, on CNN Prima News we are already preparing a lot of podcasts. We just need to figure out a more user-friendly solution and then we could monetize the podcasts better. We have the content here, but we need to prepare it so that we can sell it through the Impression Media software.

At Impression Media, you were focused on programmatic audio sales. What plans do you have for it at Media Club?

Roman Stolejda: We see an opportunity to really create a product for programmatic audio buying across the country. That’s not available anywhere in Europe. European broadcasters usually have only a part, but never the whole market. It would be possible now because the whole market could be linked – Evropa 2, Frekvence 1, Media Bohemia are already ready and Kiss and Impuls could join them. At that point the possibilities for big orders from Europe are already opening up. We know there would be interest. The magic of audio programming is that the ad spot can be inserted into the audio at the moment the listener is actually listening to it, and the ad system will target those listeners it assesses as relevant. Thus, each listener may hear a different spot.

Source: mediaguru.cz

ACT DEPLORES LACK OF POLITICAL COMMITMENT IN TACKLING ILLEGAL SERVICES DRAINING EUROPE’S CREATIVE HUBS

The Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services wishes to express its dismay at the Commission’s Recommendation on combatting online piracy of sports events and other live content.

While there is no question that several items within this recommendation are absolutely adequate and necessary; this is eclipsed by the unjustifiable length of the review procedure.

While we remain committed to a dialogue with the Commission we are rather puzzled as to how this aligns with the repeated calls from Members of the European Parliament, Member States and stakeholders across Europe for action on this matter.

Allowing European creative, cultural and sports industries and creators to ensure their investments are protected is the very expression of ensuring the Commission’s digital credo is followed: What is illegal offline should be illegal online.

The support for a dedicated instrument remains very high and required given the impact of piracy on Europe’s creative economy[1]. Europe can and should act expeditiously. Particularly where this is separate to the DSA implementations process which sets a horizontal set of rules but does not address the required expeditious measures to tackle piracy of live content. Further there are no barriers, whether technical or legal (particularly as pertains to fundamental rights), which hinder a speedier review.

This is unfortunate and we can only encourage the next Commission to ensure new political guidance is given to alter this timeframe.

Commenting on the result, Grégoire Polad, ACT Director General stated:

“This essentially allows the present Commission to deliver little to nothing on this issue (despite a clear Parliamentary mandate to do so) before the end of this mandate; and, simultaneously makes it very improbable for the next legislature to have the required time to adopt hard legislation if the recommendation is deemed inadequate. This is a political and unilateral decision that will cost Europe’s creative economy dearly at a time when it needs it most.”

[1] VAUNET: Television piracy study 2022/2023 report on the economic loss inflicted on media diversity by the use of illegal tv services “5.9m people in Germany watched illegal live TV signals in 2022. This resulted in losses of €1.8bn, and foregone taxes and social security contributions of €390m”

AAPA: Illicit IPTV in Europe, a report for AAPA

Source: acte.be

HEADS OF ČT, TV NOVA AND TV PRIMA AT DIGIMEDIA 2023

The meeting of TV and radio broadcasting experts will take place for the 18th time this year on Wednesday 14 June in Prague.

Participants of the 18th annual DIGIMEDIA 2023 conference, which will take place on Wednesday 14 June 2023 in the Congress Hall of Czech Television in Prague’s Kavčí Hory, will have the unique opportunity to watch a discussion between the CEOs of the three largest Czech television groups, i.e. Czech Television, TV Nova and FTV Prima, and to participate in a panel debate with them. Among others, Petr Dvořák, CEO of ČT, Daniel Grunt, CEO of TV Nova, and Marek Singer, CEO of FTV Prima, have already confirmed their participation in the event.

“The cast of this year’s DIGIMEDIA will be even richer. Štěpán Wolde, CEO of the Óčko TV group, and Michaela Suráková, Managing Director of Atmedia Czech, will also be present. As well as representatives of the largest TV and radio broadcasters in the Czech Republic, the CEO of Czech Radio Communications Miloš Mastník and the co-owner of Digital Broadcasting Nikola Chrenčíková Pařízková,”

says Pavel Brabec, President of the Association of Czech Advertising Agencies and Marketing Communications (AČRA-MK), which is organising the DIGIMEDIA 2023 conference in cooperation with Czech Television.

The Chairman of the CTU Council and the presidents of AKTV and APMS will also be presented.

The conference will traditionally be divided into three thematic blocks focusing on television broadcasting, streaming services and the digitalisation of radio broadcasting. In the first block, DIGIMEDIA 2023, in the presence of the new Chairman of the Council of the Czech Telecommunications Office, Mark Ebert, representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and terrestrial TV network operators and TV stations, will focus on preparations for the autumn World Radiocommunication Conference WRC-23, which will address the future of terrestrial TV after 2030, when the guarantee of the 500 and 600 MHz frequency bands for TV broadcasting is due to end. It will also focus on the issue of financing public service television, the development of new broadcasting standards as well as terrestrial TV broadcasting designed for 5G Broadcast mobile devices.

The second session of the conference will focus on streaming services, IPTV and other forms of TV content distribution beyond terrestrial broadcasting. It will include representatives of the largest domestic streaming platforms Voyo, iBroadcast CT, prima+, as well as representatives of operators who provide the necessary infrastructure for them, such as Marcel Procházka, Director of the Regulatory and Legal Department of Czech Radio Communications. The hot topic will be the introduction of new tariffs for streaming services with advertising, the fight against content pirates and illegal sharing of films and TV series on Internet storage sites, and the preparation of applications for smart TVs and other smart devices available on the Czech market.

What will be the exact procedure in the auction of frequencies for DAB+?

In the third session, the DIGIMEDIA 2023 conference will focus on the development of digital radio broadcasting in the Czech Republic, in particular on the auction of frequencies for DB+ networks intended for commercial radio. The session, which will be attended by René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio, Jiří Duchač, Head of the Frequency Spectrum Management Department of the Czech Radio Office, Jakub Juhas, Managing Director of Digital Broadasting and Progress Digital, and Miroslav Pýcha, Managing Director of Joe Media, will also touch upon the introduction of electronic radio listenership measurement, the improvement of the in-door coverage of the Czech Radio’s digital network, and the plans of commercial radio stations to create new thematic stations for digital distribution.

The DIGIMEDIA 2023 conference is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Culture, the Czech Telecommunications Authority and the Broadcasting Council. The general partner of the event is Czech Television, which traditionally provides the venue for the event and will broadcast the entire conference live on iVysílání.cz, where a complete recording of the event will also be available. Among the partners of the conference are also Atmedia Czech, Media partners of the conference are Marketing and Media weekly, MediaGuru.cz, Televizníweb.cz and AVERIA titles – ICT Network News, B2B Network News.

The detailed programme of the DIGIMEDIA 2023 conference and registration forms for participants can be found at www.acra-mk.cz.

Source: televizniweb.cz

AKTV INVITES FOR THE CZECH SPEAKERS IN NEXTV CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

The Association of Commercial Television invites for Czech speakers in the programme of Nextv Ad Europe and Nextv Series Europe conferences. The conferences will bring news from the advertising and media industry and will take place in Prague on 10th – 12th May 2023. You can look forward to topics from advertising, OTT and VOD. The Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) is the media partner of the event.

Don’t miss these panels featuring speakers from ACPV members:

10. května – Nextv AD Europe:

Iva Dohnálková, Business Development Manager, TV Nova – Advertising innovations from FTA broadcasters
Petr Miláček, Director of Analyses, FTV Prima – Audience measurement in the OTT Era

11. května – Nextv SERIES Europe:

Daniel Grunt, CEO, TV Nova – OTT competition: Is there room for new players? / The changing landscape of the TV and OTT market in CEE
Jakub Strýček, Marketing Director, TV Nova – OTT competition: Is there room for new players?
Jan Vlček, Group Revenue Officer, CME – FTA´ s role in the streaming landscape

12. května– Nextv SERIES Europe:

Josef Beneš, VOD Director, TV Prima – The Changing Landscape of the TV and OTT market in CEE
Daniel Grunt, CEO, TV Nova – The changing landscape of the TV and OTT market in CEE
Silvia Majeská, Program Director, TV Nova – Surge of SVOD: Content Strategies of Pay TV and Brodacasters

Detailed program here:

Nextv Ad Europe – https://events.nextvseries.com/NextvADEurope2023?lang=en#/
Nextv Series Europe – https://events.nextvseries.com/NextvSeriesEurope2023#/?lang=en

CZECH TV STRONGEST IN APRIL, NOVA IMPROVING SHARE

The Czech Television stations remained the strongest in the general audience in April. However, the gap at the top has narrowed, with Nova improving the most among the top three groups in April.

Czech Television stations recorded a cumulative share of 28.97% in all-day broadcasting in the audience group over 15 years of age in April this year and maintained their leading position in TV viewership. The Prima group remained a close second in this group, while the Nova group improved the most among the top three. At the same time, the Nova group remained the strongest in prime time 15+ in April, as well as in the 15-54 and 15-69 audience categories in both daytime and evening. This is according to official ATO-Nielsen measurement data.

Alongside the Nova group, Atmedia’s representation has been the most successful year-on-year, as well as Television Seznam, which reached a market share of almost 2% in April (15+, all day). Television Seznam’s growth is also helped by Atmedia, as Atmedia is also a seller of advertising space for this TV channel.

In prime time, the Nova group grew the most year-on-year, with Atmedia and Television Seznam also posting higher gains.

Source: ATO-Nielsen, 1.4.-30.4. 2023, TV live+ TS0-3 ke dni 2.5. 2023, prime-time = 19:00-23:00Among the individual TV stations, besides the aforementioned Television Seznam, which benefited from its Easter broadcast, the sports channel CT Sport, the main channels Nova and CT1, and the thematic channels Nova Cinema, Nova Gold, Nova Action, Prima Zoom, Prima Krimi and CNN Prima News had better results this April than in the same month last year. FilmBox and FilmBox Stars also performed well.

The most watched programmes in April were the series Volha (CT1), Specialists (Nova), Odznak Vysočina (Nova), Cuckoos 2 (CT1), Televizní noviny (Nova) and ZOO (Prima).

Source: mediaguru.cz

AKTV CONGRATULATES ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE LAUNCH OF TV BROADCASTING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The Association of Commercial Television, whose founding members are the Nova, Prima and Óčko television groups, joins the celebrations of the launch of television broadcasting in the Czech Republic. Television broadcasting in the Czech Republic was launched on 1st May 1953. To mark the occasion, AKTV is publishing a timeline with an overview of the most important milestones of television broadcasting.

1st May marks seventy years since the launch of television broadcasting in the Czech Republic. Since its inception, the television screen has become an integral part of living rooms, a place where generations of viewers have kept a keen eye on important events and significant milestones in world history. But television is also a centre of entertainment and amusement. Even the advent of the internet has not brought a decline in the popularity of television.

Television remains the most popular medium in today’s digital age. Its unrivalled advantage is its huge reach (95% of the TV population per month), its huge viewership and the fact that it appeals to all age groups.

AKTV joins in the congratulations and happily wishes the broadcaster many happy viewers and many more successful decades. To mark the occasion, it is releasing a timeline with an overview of the most important milestones of the broadcaster.

THE MEDIA IS A SPEEDBOAT. OPPORTUNITY AHEAD IS HUGE, SAYS THE DEPUTY CEO OF CME

Is media a field in decline? Few will refute that as forcefully as Dušan Švalek. The man who already largely runs the operations of CME, the multinational group that operates the Czech Republic’s most-watched commercial television and has huge plans for the Voyo video library.

The movements he indicates with his hand are telling enough in themselves. But to make it clear, Dušan Švalek will complement his gestures with words. “Telco is like a tanker, you turn the helm to the right and for two more years the ship goes in the same direction before it slowly starts to turn,” he says. “Whereas media, that’s a speedboat. In media, you change direction in a picosecond.”

The experienced manager started at the Boston Consulting Group, then held senior positions in telecommunications at Deutsche Telekom and most recently at Slovak Telekom in his home country. But he is now finishing his first year at CME, the PPF-owned media giant. Officially in the role of Deputy CEO. However, even the group’s first man Didier Stoessel admitted during a meeting with journalists: “I certainly couldn’t have done it on my own, and Dušan is taking over a lot of my responsibilities, certainly more than half of them.”

Švalek himself just smiles when asked if this trend can be translated as him heading to the role of CME boss. The fact that Stoessel, a Frenchman, is already the chief investment officer of the entire PPF could theoretically indicate that.

“All I can say is that I work very well with Didier and I feel comfortable in our tandem. I appreciate his experience in the business and corporate world and his work with numbers,” says Švalek. “In media, you need to be able to use both the right and left hemisphere, which I really see in him. I’ve learned a lot of new things in my year here, my personal ambition is to enjoy my work.”

And he probably does enjoy working at Barrandov, although it is still only the beginning. Švalek came to CME at a time of radical transformation, when Voyo had already become the cherished project of the future. This SVOD service – short for a video library with paid content that can be watched anytime and anywhere – has already amassed over half a million subscribers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

A third of Nova’s viewers are watching new series either on Voyo or via delayed viewing. And this ratio is only going to rise.

“It’s terribly interesting! The opportunity is huge, no one can even say how big, because everything is being redefined,” Švalek recounts with obvious enthusiasm. “The change in the way we entertain ourselves and spend our leisure time is so radical that it’s really exciting. We can be part of it when something completely new is being created.”

Among other things, Švalek’s contribution is that he was used to operating in multiple markets at the telco business, which suits CME’s spread across Europe. “But I had never thought about the complexity of media before. I really enjoy it and the dynamics of the business are something else,” he compares.

For telecoms, for example, he estimates an investment cycle of five to 10 years, typically for 5G technology or fibre networks. “For fibre optics, it takes at least two years from the first idea to the moment the first digger starts digging. It takes another three quarters to a year to build – and the technology is there for another fifty years. The cycle is awfully long compared to media,” says Švalek. “For us, developing a new title from first idea to implementation can take six months to a year, sometimes even less. And you have immediate feedback from customers.”

The bet on the trend set by the world’s giants such as Netflix, HBO and Disney+ dates back several years, to the time when PPF was ruled by Petr Kellner. Significant investments were and are associated with it, Stoessel talked about hundreds of millions of crowns in an interview with Forbes last year.

“It’s a long-term project. You have to believe, you have to be committed to the idea and you have to invest,” agrees Švalek. “And I feel that PPF really believes in us. My feeling is based on various discussions and probably the best way to measure it is by the investment decisions they make to support us. That’s where it always shows up.”

King of Šumava, Iveta, or even the paranormal series Vědma… Dozens of new series a year are produced, often either purely for Voyo or for viewers to see in advance. “PPF believes that we have assembled a team at CME that has the skills and ambition to handle such a business well. At the same time, there is also a certain social issue. The emphasis on quality is really taking the culture in those countries a little further than in the past,” says Švalek.

This is not self-praise; the quality TV trend is also appreciated by critics. As long-term and strategic as the Voyo project is, Švalek returns to his speedboat metaphor. Speed is needed above all in decision-making. “Whether you put a title on Voyo or on linear broadcasting, you know the answer the next day. That’s why it’s routine for us to look at the previous day’s numbers in the morning. And we can react to them,” Švalek explains.

Regarding to this, they are in agreement with the owners. “PPF has an entrepreneurial spirit, is agile and knows how to take risks, which is not exactly the rule in larger corporations and multinational companies, where decision-making processes are much more difficult – lots of floors, lots of time, but little action,” Švalek says. “Here I feel there is a reasonable balance between action and risk.”

That’s why he and Voyo are starting to venture into more uncertain areas. After blockbusters, including one about the fate of Iveta Bartošová, they created Vědma, a series on the edge of the supernatural and sci-fi genres. “As time goes on, we’ll have to segment more and more so that people can watch it everywhere, anytime. Because it’s standard even within a family that its members watch different things in different rooms. We will even go beyond the mainstream,” says Švalek.

Two things are key in this regard, he says. Not only what is hidden under the term household penetration, which can be understood as the number of subscriptions per household. Perhaps even more important is something else: “The mental capacity of the people we can occupy. This is something we pay particular attention to when competing with global players.”

He zooms in on this by claiming that the biggest competitor for Voyo is not so much rival streaming platforms, but people’s leisure time itself. Indeed, the expected state of affairs for the not-too-distant future is that households will subscribe to multiple services.

But international production relies on similar practices and genres, logically selecting from a portfolio of international stars. Voyo, on the other hand, wants to be essentially based for the Czech-Slovak audience. So that it can always be their first complementary choice to Netflix, HBO and others.

“What is important for us is the ambition to grow,” agrees Švalek. “We still believe there is room for good local content and our strategy is to occupy that space. But this is not about marketing. What we do will never work without a very high quality product.”

Which is fun. “Awful fun,” agrees Švalek gleefully. “Art is about emotion, and our products are emotional. Plus, as an analytical type, I like complexity, and media is a very complex field. Producing a series like Ulice is no different from planning an elaborate project.”

One example of a complex – and therefore, for Švalek, fun – issue is the content selection process itself. “We have a lot of data on what viewers want, what type of content, storylines and cast they prefer. At the same time, when deciding what title to invest in, it’s always about emotion, personal judgement, feeling. The winners are those who can combine these two things,” he says, referring back to the need to connect both hemispheres of the brain, the intellectual and the emotional.

But the process does not end there. According to Švalek, building a program also offers a huge number of combinations. Thinking about the habits and requirements of the audience is only the beginning. “You immediately add another layer, advertising space and sales,” he says. “What target do you choose to match not only the audience need but also the advertisers? How do you profile the product to fit the advertisers who are strongest in that economy? How does it all come together? That’s the essence of it, being able to connect different things and think about them in context.”

So far, CME has been able to do this thanks to a boss tandem in which Švalek is becoming more and more busy.

Source: forbes.cz

VOYO WANTS ONE MILLION USERS, PLANS DOZENS OF NEW PROJECTS

The viewership of the Nova Voyo streaming service is growing. It attracts viewers’ attention mainly with new original series. At the end of February, the service already had half a million active and paying users in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But the goal of the managers is higher, Voyo wants up to a million subscribers.

“Voyo is a lovebrand,” Didier Stoessel, head of CME, which includes Voyo and Nova TV, told reporters. In fact, a survey commissioned by CME found that 34 per cent of Czechs think of Netflix and 30 per cent of Voyo before HBO max and Disney+ when pay-TV is mentioned. In Slovakia, the result was an even 34 percent for both Voyo and Netflix. The increase in Voyo viewers is helped in part by current trends in TV viewing, where viewers are moving away from watching shows in real time and using more delayed viewing.

In addition, executives are betting on content. “We want to be the most watched platform with local content,” CME Chief Operating Officer Dušan Švalek outlined the strategy.

CME is therefore investing in original productions such as series or miniseries filmed directly for Voyo, such as The Roubal Case, Guru or the latest King of Sumava, Sex O’Clock or the continuation of the series about singer Iveta Bartosova. Seventy more projects are in the pipeline.

CME management would like to reach the million paying viewers mark in two years.

Voyo appeared on screens in January 2020 and its reboot began in early 2021.

CME, which has been part of PPF since 2020, operates TV stations in Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, in addition to the domestic Nova and Voyo, and is one of the leading media and entertainment companies in Central and Eastern Europe. CME reaches 45 million viewers.

Source: idnes.cz

AKTV A MEDIA PARTNER OF THE NEXTV AD EUROPE AND NEXTV SERIES EUROPE CONFERENCES

The Nextv conference series moves to the heart of Europe in May. The conferences will be hosted by Dataxis from 10 to 12 May in Prague, and the Association of Commercial Television has become a media partner.

Both events will feature experts from AKTV member companies as speakers, such as Daniel Grunt, CEO of TV Nova, and Josef Beneš, Director of VOD services at FTV Prima.

At the third edition of the Nextv Ad Europe conference on 10 May, experts from the world of TV advertising will focus on the latest developments in TV advertising and how to integrate programmatic and TV strategies.

Nextv Series Europe will then look at the trends, innovations and strategies that are driving the connected ecosystem of TV, telecoms and OTT.

“AKTV aims to bring the best of the TV world and new trends to advertisers and media agencies through its ScreenVoice brand. We are therefore very pleased to be a partner of the prestigious Nextv conferences this year, following the success of last year’s HbbTV Symposium.”

says Klára Brachtlová, President of AKTV.

The detailed conference programme is available on the website of each event.

Attendees who use the special discount code “AKTV15” will receive a 15% discount on the entrance fee.

Association of Commercial Television (www.AKTV.cz)

The Association of Commercial Television represents the most important commercial broadcasters in the Czech Republic. Its aim is to defend, support and promote their common interests.

AKTV actively participates in the preparation of national and European legislation related to commercial television broadcasting, personal data protection, journalistic work or commercial communications. It is a partner for public authorities, EU institutions and other stakeholders. One of ACPV’s main activities is to protect the copyright of its members and to fight against internet piracy.

In addition, AKTV is also active in promoting television as an advertising medium. To communicate with advertisers and media agencies, it runs the information website ScreenVoice.cz and regularly organises industry conferences.

ScreenVoice (www.ScreenVoice.cz)

On ScreenVoice.cz readers can find inspiration, trends, research and news about what is happening in the television world in the Czech Republic and abroad. Each month is dedicated to one topic, for which original content is prepared. Thus, readers can expect a magazine reading about the first ever TV advertisement, a Christmas or Valentine’s Day special, or a reflection on advertising during the covid or the war in Ukraine. The theme of the month is complemented by a calendar of industry events, a glossary of terms from the world of total video, or the popular Myths and Facts about TV section, which provides a range of data to debunk the most common myths about TV. A separate category is the archive of AKTV events, where those interested can find all the recordings of performances and speaker presentations from the last six years.

PARKS: TOTAL PIRACY LOSSES FROM STREAMING SERVICES TO REACH $113BN BY 2027

Piracy rates for US streaming services are expected to rise from 22% in 2022 to 24.5% in 2027, according to Parks Associates.

In an announcement at NAB in Las Vegas this week, the research firm said it was estimating a cumulative loss from piracy of $113 billion by the end of 2027.

Parks’ new study Streaming Piracy Market & Ecosystem Strategies shows visits to pirate hosting websites increased by 31% in 2020 and industry leaders seek new piracy policies to stem revenue losses.

“While there is some optimism that emerging countermeasures and best-practices may see piracy begin to plateau by 2027, there is no consensus among stakeholders as to when it may begin to decline,” said Steve Hawley, Contributing Analyst, Parks Associates, and Managing Director of the Piracy Monitor industry newsletter and consultancy. “This research provides a much-needed understanding of the issues at hand and the technologies and approaches available to fight piracy.”

Parks Associates’ research indicates that video service providers may reduce the motivation for password sharing by restricting the number of users who can stream the service simultaneously. However, this will have a negative impact on the user experience for online video users and act as a deterrent to password sharing. Netflix is introducing a feature that will allow users to share accounts for an extra fee, and Adobe launched “Prime Account IQ” to help providers identify when viewers are sharing credentials.

“The number of households who share account credentials and consume pirated content is rising. People are increasingly looking for new ways to satisfy entertainment needs,” said Sarah Lee, Research Analyst, Parks Associates, and contributor to the report. “Participation in sharing account credentials increased 48% since 2019.”

Source: broadbandtvnews.com

WHAT ARE THE LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS OF AI IN THE TRADEMARK LICENSING INDUSTRY?

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has several benefits for the trademark licensing industry: creating images of new licensed products, developing creative assets, and conducting market research. However, there are also a number of legal issues that brands must be aware of.

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is generative AI?

Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content or data. It uses machine learning algorithms to scan, review and learn from large volumes of data and then generate new content based on that learning. The generated content can include text, images, music and video.

Some of the current applications of generative AI include chatbots, language translation software and recommendation engines. However, generative AI has the potential to create entirely new forms of content that would be impossible for humans to produce on their own.

Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in, and use of, new generative AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and DALL-E 2. Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI and is using ChatGPT to enhance its Bing search engine and Edge web browser. Google has launched its own AI chatbot, Bard. And AWS (Amazon Web Services) has partnered with Hugging Face to make Hugging Face’s products, which include an AI language generation tool named Bloom, available to AWS’s cloud customers who want to use the tools as the building blocks of their own applications. As the technology continues to advance, we will see greater adoption and more applications of generative AI.

Use of AI in the trademark licensing industry

Trademark licensing is an important commercial tool for trademark owners, enabling them to derive significant rewards by allowing third parties to use their marks. There are several ways generative AI can be a potentially game-changing technology for the trademark licensing industry.

One of the key ways generative AI can be used is in the development of images of proposed new licensed products based on generative AI system inputs of brand owner logos and trademarks, style rules and guidelines, and the desired categories and products.

Other possible uses include the development of creative assets such as style guides and sales materials, as well as market research, licensing plan development outlining potential categories for extension, retail channels and territories, and identification of potential licensee partners.

Legal issues with generative AI

There are several legal issues that can arise with the use of generative AI. One of the main concerns is that it can create content that may infringe on someone else’s intellectual property rights. For example, if an AI system generates an image of a proposed new licensed product that looks substantially similar to a competitor’s existing product, there could be questions about whether or not it constitutes copyright and/or trade dress infringement.

Similarly, if an AI system generates a design for a licensed product that is similar to an existing patented product, there could be patent infringement issues. In the event of infringement claims, who is liable? Is the owner of the AI system that scraped the Internet for huge volumes of data responsible, or is the user who queried and prompted the system and used the output liable? Although case law in this area is scarce, owners of AI systems are imposing terms of use that seek to shield the owners against liability and shift responsibility to the users. The success of this strategy is not certain as, again, case law in this area is scarce.

Another legal issue with generative AI is whether the output is protectable by copyright. Most copyright laws worldwide are based on an assumption that works of authorship are the creative output of human beings. With generative AI, the law has fallen behind reality. One argument in favor of protectability is that corporations are routinely recognized as the author of a work. Unfortunately, in connection with purely AI generated works, that argument has not yet been embraced, by either the US Copyright Office (USCO) or the courts.

On February 21, 2023, the USCO decided to register a work that was generated by both a human (i.e., the text) and AI (i.e., the images), specifically including the human-generated text and the selection, coordination, and arrangement of that text with the AI-generated images. The USCO conditioned its decision on the copyright applicant’s explicit exclusion of the non-human authorship contained in the work. In reaching its decision, the USCO reasoned that “[b]ecause of the significant distance between what a user may direct the AI system to create and the visual material the system actually produces,” the applicant did not have enough control over the final images generated to legally be considered the “inventive or master mind” behind them.

On March 16, 2023, the USCO issued further guidance stating that AI-generated works can indeed “contain sufficient human authorship to support a copyright claim. For example, a human may select or arrange AI-generated material in a sufficiently creative way that ‘the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship’… What matters is the extent to which the human had creative control over the work’s expression and ‘actually formed’ the traditional elements of authorship.” However, human generated AI system prompts do not meet the human authorship requirement and are, therefore, not registrable. According to the USCO, prompts “function more like instructions to a commissioned artist—they identify what the prompter wishes to have depicted, but the machine determines how those instructions are implemented in its output.” The USCO’s guidance advises that copyright registration applicants have a duty to disclose the inclusion of AI-generated content in a work submitted for registration and provide a brief explanation of the human author’s contributions to the work.

Regulatory guidance and enforcement

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued guidance on the use of AI and algorithms in business practices. The FTC recommended that companies should take steps to ensure that their AI systems are accurate, transparent, explainable and fair, and that they should be mindful of the potential for these systems to perpetuate fraud or amplify biases.

On March 3, 2023, FTC spokesperson, Juliana Gruenwald, told Business Insider,“The FTC has already seen a staggering rise in fraud on social media…AI tools that generate authentic-seeming videos, photos, audio, and text could supercharge this trend, allowing fraudsters greater reach and speed.”

In June 2022, the FTC recommended that Congress pass laws to prohibit the use of AI tools to commit fraud and cause consumer harm. The FTC has also brought enforcement actions against companies for deceptive or unfair practices and privacy violations related to AI.

In March 2022, the FTC reached a settlement with a company for AI privacy violations by requiring the company to destroy algorithms and models based on wrongful data collection and processing. It is important to note that the field of AI and machine learning is rapidly evolving, and the regulatory landscape is likely to change, as well. Therefore, it is important for users of generative AI to stay informed of the latest developments and best practices in this area.

Minimizing legal liability

When using generative AI, there are several steps companies can take to minimize liability:

Be transparent:Clearly communicate that AI generated content was, in fact, generated by an AI system. If appropriate, provide information about the prompts used to elicit the AI generated output.
Review output:Monitor the output of the AI system to identify and address any issues or errors. Have a process in place for company personnel to review, search for and remove infringing, inappropriate or harmful content generated by the AI system.
Engage counsel:Consult with legal counsel to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations, and to develop appropriate policies and procedures for using generative AI.
Implement safeguards: Implement safeguards to avoid violations of applicable laws and regulations and maximize compliance with companies’ established policies and procedures.

Generative AI can be a valuable tool for the trademark licensing industry. However, its use can create legal and regulatory issues. Given the legal implications and risks, it’s important to think about a framework for employee use. To minimize the risk of claims and damages, companies should consider developing appropriate policies and procedures that mitigate potential risks and address legal and ethical concerns arising from the use of generative AI.

Source: thedrum.com