Panels that dealt with regulatory problems of operators, ever growing industry of eSports and the popularity of free channels, as well as interesting presentations about audience satisfaction marked the second day of New Europe Market. Among panels and presentations, with esteemed speakers who are experts in their area, Michael Weatherly held a press conference where he revealed more about his projects in the future.

The first panel of the day was dedicated to FTAs which are existing strongly on very dynamic and channel full market. Pete Smith, Managing Director of Antenna International simply put it – free is powerful! Matthias Settele, General Director of Slovakian TV Markiza, explained:
„It is not easy to make content for broad audience, but if you do your homework and tell the stories that interest them, everything can be great. The key ingredient is to know your audience.“

Petr Dvorak, Director General of Czech Television, added that lucky circumstance is that public broadcasters have more independence than the other ones, but that also brings a lot of problems when coming to the topic of expenses. Kazimir Bačić, General Director of Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) said: „Two thirds of viewers are receiving signal from terrestrial network, but we don’t want to stop there. We want to be on all the platforms. Our mission is to be the emissary of all channels, on everything.“ The conclusion was that FTA channels are not threatened by the newcomers in terms of existence, but definitely have a harder job, since they constantly have to follow new trends and audience reactions.

The panel that certainly raised most interest was that dealing with eSports. Michiel Bakker, CEO of Ginx TV, the biggest international eSports channel, suggested that it is not the next big thing since it already is big thing in the world. More than 400 million people are watching live streams of gamers competing in some of the most popular video games, such as Dota, LoL or some of FPS’. Johannes Neuschmid Founder, CVO & COO of eSport Verband Deutschland, explained eSports area is one of the fastest growing today, not only among the players, but with viewers.

Certainly the most important panel for the CEE region was the one that raised the question about why operators in some countries cannot own their own TV channels and why regulatory bodies are controlling some operators more vigorously than others.
Mario Weber, Director at HAKOM, Croatian regulatory agency, stated that telecom operators in Croatia cannot do anything with media production, but they always find their way around the regulations. Weber said that he doesn’t see the problem in owning TV channel, but if that happens, there should be exclusive rights for operators. He pointed out that you can have your own TV channel per se, but if somebody else is doing it for you. Slovenian example was carried out by Simon Slonjšak, Head of Smart Living from Telekom Slovenija, who said that in Slovenia, regulators are focusing on operators, but, unlike Croatian operators, Slovenian ones can own their channels and it has proven to be a good practice. Nikola Francetić, Head of Group Content, Media and Broadcasting from Telekom Austria Group, said: „To produce a good channel, it takes a lot of energy and time. It is not easy, but there are a lot of models to look from! Producing the content that serves the channel and operators’ business plan is connected to the mission. I strongly believe that situation in Croatia will change!“

Interesting presentation came from Claire Harris, Commercial Lead for Watch Business in the Emerging Markets Group at Nielsen. „Total Audience: Understanding of Media Consumption Beyond TV Channels Today and in the Future“ offered us rare glimpse into audience behavior. Before, it was simple to reach audience via TV, radio or newspapers. Today, media does not follow traditional ways and consumers have more choices than ever to engage with the content. „Marketers are moving budgets to where their consumers are: digital spend is outpacing TV, while mobile catches up. The most popular is VoD, which allows the consumers to watch the content at their own pace. Content is no more married to the screen!“ said Harris.

One of the most interesting and inspiring stories at this year’s NEM 2017 was that of Izzet Pinto, Founder and President of Global Agency. The secrets of Izzet Pinto’s success can definitely be explained in terms of marketing strategies and the quality of content, as well as persistency. 10 years ago, Pinto was just a regular shoe seller in a family business, when his cousin talked him into the selling formats, after several failed business opportunities. After he managed to sell the first format, which turned out to be a success in some countries, he turned to Turkish dramas and collected tapes from Turkish producers.

„At first, I thought that Turkish dramas were too local for them to be a selling point, but I tried. Among the first ones was 1001 Nights, which soon became number one in many countries. I had diamonds in my hands and didn’t realize it!“, explained Pinto. When Pinto acquired the rights for selling Magnificent Century, he almost went bankrupt since he put all of his money into promotion stunts all over Turkey. The risk paid off, since the series became an instant hit in more than 80 countries of the world.
„Today, we are proud that we are the first company to sell the remake right for the series Game of Silence in the US. We have also started with format creating and we had decent success with it – our first two formats were sold in 30 countries“, said Pinto at the end of the presentation dealing with his success.

The panel „Customers First“ raised a question – who are the customers that formats are bought for and how stereotypical is the audience in general. Guy Bisson, Research Director at Ampere Analysis, pointed out that television is just no longer about millennials. The population is aging and media companies are starting to realize that and are waking up. Bisson’s research showed that today’s homes with young kids are watching a lot less linear TV and much more online content; the age group 18 – 24 are watching even less linear, so the main question is: what do custumers want? Carmen Alzner, Co-owner and Director at murphy+alzner, said that the industry needs to focus on creating something that makes people want to pause whatever they are watching:

Boris Trupčević, General Manager for Croatia at Styria Media Group, pointed out that everything is in constant change and that „FANG“ (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) want to kill traditional broadcast TV. Styria’s response to this was foundation of „Joomboos“, a YouTube channel that represents YouTube stars from Croatia:
„Teenagers want to become like their idols – YouTubers. They are being treated like celebrities! This is the proof that you must go to the audience and meet your customers, because you cannot see everything from research“.

„From Affiliate Sales to Content Distribution Management“ dealt with the way of distributing content and making marketing strategies for it. Gabor Harsanyi, Vice President of Content Distribution Management for Viacom, explained how Viacom is functioning on different platforms with different business models. From linear and nonlinear television, affiliate marketing and consumer products, to program sales, OTG events and sponsorships, Viacom showed their wide range of promotional strengths.

One of the most interesting persons who managed to pack the room for his closed workshop was Goran Vlašić, Council Chair at the Innovation Institute. The Q&A session with Vlašić saw a wide range of subjects, but it was mostly focused on the CEE mentality: „We have a lot of Nikola Teslas, but a lot less people who know what to do with their creativity! There is a strong aversion to risk in our regional culture. Companies shouldn’t have nationalities or locations!“

CEETV's Stanislav Kimchev, moderator of the Q&A session, asked Vlašić why everybody is trying to make a copy of Silicon Valley in their country. Vlašić noted that it is much easier for the human brain to copy things than to make up something new. The topic of piracy was also on the menu, where Vlašić pointed out that finding a new business model to incorporate it is better than fighting piracy per se – YouTube has found a good business model based on the ‘everybody makes money’ philosophy – including content and advertising.