CEETV’s Georgi R. Chakarov met in Kiev with Oleksandr Tkachenko, CEO of 1+1 Media. In this exclusive interview the top exec explains how his company is adapting to the drastically changed media environment in Ukraine following the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in the Donbass region. 1+1 is now focusing on the development of local talent and formats hot on the heels of recent super hit comedy series The Last Muscovite. Tkachenko also touched upon current relationships with Russian partners and plans for co-productions with Polish broadcasters and producers.

CEETV: The Last Muscovite recently became the highest-rated Ukrainian series in the past six year. How do you explain the success of the series?

OT: We have a slogan in the new season, ‘While we are laughing we are not defeated’. So I think in the time of hardship and war which we are facing now, the best way from one side is to say the truth, and the best way to show to the people that life continues, and there is a place also in this life for laughter, jokes, even if it is jokes about ourselves. Because from a mental point of view we’re still healthy; we can joke about ourselves, about complexes, habits and so on. Also, there is no politics in the series and the concept is very simple: a stranger came to an environment which at the beginning seemed conflicting, but in fact there are more conflicts within himself and in local community itself which can be used as jokes. So there’s a mixture of reasons why the series is so successful.

CEETV: Do you think it is also because it is an original Ukrainian language production?

OT: First of all it’s about the expectations of the audience, which has definitely changed over the last year or two, because if before to watch Russian series wasn’t confusing now many people refuse to watch them because of the war and Russian aggression.

Another issues that there were a lot of discussions last year that Ukraine needs its own series and in fact it’s the first big example, real example, not for a Ukrainian-produced series, but Ukrainian series in Ukrainian language, and that probably fills the expectations of the audience. Apart from the very obvious reasons – the story is good, the film is good, the promo campaign was good, so that brings a result.

We already started to invest in local productions almost a year ago, after the Crimea annexation, we realized that there is no more place and time for such type of series where the main heroes are police or military people from Russia,, so we started investing in our local production. Currently, there are more than 8 projects of different genre in production – melodrama, romantic comedies, 2+2 is now about to premiere two military series, so we believe that this shift is the first remarkable change of the environment we see in Ukraine. And if one year ago our colleagues from other channels were skeptical about this, now we know that everybody is investing in local production - economically it works now, because of inflation, because of the currency downfall, and second – because of the expectations of the audience.

CEETV: There was data that acquisitions of Russian series dropped by 50% last year. Are those budgets now being used for local productions?

OT: The general economic situation on the market is that it is quite small, it’s the size of years 90-98, and in terms of hard currency there is no possibility for us anymore to invest so much as it was before in input – second political reason. So even if we want, but we don’t, there is a logical reason to invest in local production and definitely there is a big shift as well. I think this year even more Ukrainian channels refuse to buy Russian product at alland those who continue to buy, for them the prices have dramatically dropped. So from our belief the only way is to speak with our audience directly, to create own characters, own heroes, own stories, and as in any European nation you can see that the most successful series are produced in Croatian language, in Czech language, in Polish language and so on. That will happen here as well.

CEETV: Since you mentioned Poland, there have been reports that there were meetings between you and Polish TV players. Can you tell us more details about those meetings?

OT: I visited myself Warsaw meeting TVP officials and TV people came here to Kiev. We discussed a lot of possibilities on cooperation and started once again from series, entertainment shows, TV news and documentaries. Now in discussion are at least two drama projects and one entertainment show for co-production. We are discussing also co-producing formats for the two countries and there are already several examples of exchange of materials of live (insert) of both Ukrainian channels with Polish news and the opposite. For example recently it was quite interesting that two journalists – one from our channel and one from TVP took an interview together with Donald Tusk.

CEETV: Talking of various languages, I am very curious why Ukrainian television speaks in two languages even in original productions – both Russian and Ukrainian languages are used. For me as a foreigner this is confusing. Are you planning to move fully to Ukrainian language or stick to this mix? Or does it have to be a political decision?

OT: I think it’s a time of big changes here in Ukraine. 1+1 is primarily a Ukrainian language channel. The majority of our programs are in Ukrainian and now also our series are in Ukrainian. But in general, in the future if people continue to use Russian I think there might be a sort of division which we can see in some other countries; you can have Russian language channels, and you can have Ukrainian language channels. Now it is a mixture; as you noticed on each channel you can see both Ukrainian and Russian and for a stranger it can look strange, but we used to have it for many years so it’s no difference since there are regions where Russian is the pre-dominant language.

But I think that you are right from a logical point of view there should be a division but probably it will take time, it will take some changes in the legislation because right now there is a strict obligation of some per cent of Ukrainian language which needs to be broadcast on the channels. I would say it’s a long term policy whether to be a more Ukrainian language. At that moment I have no resolution for that.

CEETV: Yes, you recently also said that you are ready to start airing foreign series with subtitles.

OT: We want to develop this initiative, it came from some of our celebrities, from our journalists the idea that at least we need to start to develop an area in the night slot to broadcast English-speaking series with original sound and with Ukrainian subtitles. We’ll start doing it hopefully this year, will see how people will react. From my point of view it’s good and for many especially young people who already speak English it is normal and it is the best way for people to learn this language for international communication.

CEETV: How about the success of Turkish series in Ukraine? You basically created this trend here.

OT: For me it’s a phenomenon. Because you can’t find such a big success of foreign-made series especially in South and Eastern Europe. I visited two times Turkey, and there is a big reason why this is happening, because Turkish nets invest so much in the quality of production, in the stories, so it’s obviously understandable why they can have big success also in Ukraine. We will continue the cooperation with our Turkish colleagues but once again we’ll also invest in such types of series which will be produced locally. So we will try to mix mainly Ukrainian, some foreign series, including some Russian series, Turkish, American series, etc.

CEETV: Going back to local productions, here your main partner is Kvartal-95. What projects are you preparing with them?

OT: We are now discussing two series, one is a politically-driven comedy, the other one – I don’t want to specify the details but it is very interesting combination of technical solution and once again – humor. We are also developing our in-house production and there are 2 or 3 more players in Ukraine with whom we are now discussing developing a cooperation. We are very happy about corporation with Kvartal 95 because from our belief it’s the best company in this part of the world who understand the sense of humor, how to create humor, how to make the best programs in the comedy genre.

CEETV: You are also very strong in reality and talent show, but basically the acquisition power of Ukraine has diminished greatly. In the past, whatever comes out on the market Ukraine is first to acquire now the situation has changed; how has your policy changed in this respect?

OT: I was a bit late for our meeting because I was watching another program which we are developing; it’s about quality of product. So it’s local design permit, the same as with Inspector Freimut there are two more formats like The Family and now we are discussing one more product, which is also designed here, so if you look in our lineup for next season, probably you will see only one format, which we acquired.

CEETV: So is the reason you don’t want to invest or don’t have the money or you prefer to develop your own projects?

OT: It looks like locally designed formats which are on the ground work better. It’s a combination between public affairs and reality so it’s very hot topics, which are now in the mind of people and which reflect their interest so it’s a combination of entertainment and information. And on this level it’s hard to find a format which can fit the interest of the Ukrainian viewers. Some of our new formats were inspired by different combinations of ideas we saw before or local producers and our in-house teams are coming with ideas which have been waiting for years to go on air. But we still continue to produce such successful formats as Four Weddings, Wife Swap and entertainment shows like The Voice and recently we acquired one big format in the entertainment genre.
CEETV: You also acquired Rising Star but are you going to produce it?

OT: No, we didn’t. We were in talks but we need to also look to our books.

Continues at: http://www.ceetv.net/readItem?code=25493