CEETV continues its series of exclusive interviews with CME executives today with TV Nova CEO Daniel Grunt who answered Yako Molhov's questions about the latest developments and trends on the Czech market.

As CEO at TV Nova, Grunt's task is to strengthen the company's position as number one in the television market and digital transformation with an emphasis on the growth of Voyo. He also works as Chief Digital Officer at CME and is responsible for digitalization of CME and developing the Voyo streaming platform in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Slovenia. Within only two years, Daniel has transformed Voyo to the second most popular streaming service in the Czech Republic.



Daniel, you became Nova's CEO in January this year. What have been the biggest challenges in 2023 and what is your strategy to keep its long-term market leadership?

I believe our biggest challenge in 2023 has been adapting to the rapidly changing media landscape. Our strategy for keeping our long-term market leadership is to continue investing in quality programming, expanding our digital presence, and innovating our advertising offerings.


What is your forecast for the Czech TV ad market?

The COVID pandemic, war in Ukraine, and economic recession have certainly had an impact on everyone, including the Czech TV ad market. However, from the media market perspective the negative impact wasn’t as visible as expected. During COVID, people in general spent more time at home watching TV so our clients weren’t afraid to invest within ad market. TV ads are still considered extremely effective and essential part of media mix.


How have TV Nova's channels performed this spring and what were your most successful programs?

TV Nova channels have performed very well this spring, thanks to the success of our top-rated programs. TV Nova was the only TV group in the Czech Republic growing as far as share. We have seen strong viewership for our news as for example the presidential election special “Road to the Castle” which as a great success and included the most watched presidential debate. Overall, TV Nova's presidential election coverage reached 5.423 million viewers over the age of four. We plan to continue investing in quality content that resonates with our audience. Saturdays belong to knowledge competition Superlov (Beat the Chasers), which is the most viewed show in the Saturday primetime. Sunday’s and Monday’s crime series work great as well and Odznak Vysočina (The Highlands Badge), Specialisté (The Specialists) are the most popular formats in the Czech Republic. We also launched new series Jedna Rodina (One Family) and Zlatá labuť (The Golden Swan) which have both a very good viewership base and positive feedback on social media.


What will Nova viewers watch this fall?

We're planning to announce our fall schedule in early August, which will feature a mix of new and returning programming across our channels. We'll be continuing with successful formats like Chase and The Street (19th season by the way), and we're looking forward to The Nightingale Music Awards, which we helped revive last year. We're confident that our fall programming will deliver engaging and entertaining content for our viewers.


What are the latest content trends? What are viewers watching, alongside crime series and talent and cooking shows that have been the staples in Czech TV broadcasters' schedules?

You are right, detective or crime series have long been one of the most popular formats for viewers, and Czechs are among the most loyal viewers. Currently, we can see that every Monday and Sunday on TV Nova. On Monday, more than one million Czech viewers won´t miss our crime series Specialisté, which is for many years one of the most viewed programs on the market. And on Sunday, again, more than one million watched the second season of crime series Odznak Vysočina. We are happy with its results; therefore, we have just announced we would start shooting the third season.

The content trends indicate that viewers are interested the most in local original Czech formats. That’s why we build strong line-up with Czech local program throughout all genres such as dramas, comedies, more crime series and true based stories. Reality shows work extremely well, and viewers enjoy not only culinary shows as MasterChef but shows as Survivor or Love Island as well.


There are nearly half a million Ukrainian refugees seeking asylum in Czechia, the highest number of refugees per capita in the EU. How is Nova reacting to this and to the war in Ukraine? What have been your initiatives?

The situation in Ukraine, as well as the influx of Ukrainian refugees seeking asylum in the Czech Republic was a significant concern for us. Among our main initiatives are strengthening our news, supporting humanitarian organizations, creating children’s corner in asylum centers, and charity collection named “Boxes from the Heart,” during which we were able to collect almost 30,000 packages filled with games and toys for children fleeing the war in Ukraine. The goal of this fundraiser was to prepare care packages for children to keep them entertained while their relatives were dealing with paperwork in refugee centers.


TV Nova operates a plethora of niche channels. Have you planned expanding your channel portfolio with new networks in 2023? What about the so popular FAST channels?

We have repositioned and redesigned some of our niche channels recently, also adding a brand new one called Nova Lady. We are currently focusing on programming and positioning of the current ones.


You are also CME's Chief Digital Officer. Tell us more about CME's digital strategy and targets?

As Chief Digital Officer at CME, my primary focus is on developing Voyo, our streaming service. Our digital strategy for Voyo was centered around expanding our subscriber base, improving the user experience, and increasing engagement through original programming and content partnerships. Voyo is the leading local steaming platform bringing the strongest stories to our subscribers. And our target for Voyo by the end... well, you will see but we are very confident that we’ll reach our goal of 1 million subs by 2026.


Voyo recently announced an extensive slate of new original shows and also started offering shows acquired from CT. What is your commissioning and acquisition strategy?

Voyo’s key pillar is local content. We produce a lot of our own (Voyo Originál production and our TV content we provide the viewers in advance), currently, 24 projects of various genre are being filmed and other 22 projects are in pre-production. However, that would not be enough to profile Voyo as the best and biggest place for the best Czech content. Therefore, we have a strong acquisition strategy which includes also some titles from the Czech TV production and also old Czech and Czechoslovak movies, we also support the brand-new ones.