CEETV continues its series of exclusive interviews with CME executives today with PRO TV CEO Aleksandras Cesnavicius and his Q&A session with Yako Molhov focusing on PRO TV's new records set this spring, the latest trends on the Romanian market and PRO TV's content and digital strategy.

Aleksandras Cesnavicius has been the Chief Executive Officer of PRO TV since 2013.


Aleksandras, PRO TV announced a ratings record in Q1 - its best result in the past 10 years. What were your most-successful programs?

Indeed, in February, we had the best share since 2014 to date. During the entire month, on a national level, over 8.5 million Romanians spent at least 10 hours watching our programs. To name some of their preferences, I would say, Romania’s Got Talent, Undercover Boss, Las Fierbinti (a local series) and of course, last but not least, our daily News program.


What is in store for the fall? Will you premiere new formats and series?

Every year, we bring novelties for our audience with every grid launch and this autumn will be no exception. Considering the highly challenging environment, driven by both competition with the development of other media channels and audience fragmentation, we’re looking for formats that will attract and retain our audience. We are preparing a proposal that combines already established formats such as Las Fierbinti (local fiction), and new international formats and we will definitely continue our commitment to investing in strong local fiction.


What are the latest TV trends in the country? What do Romanian viewers enjoy watching?

Romanians are quite specific as a society and as an audience. On the one hand, they are up to date with the latest trends in terms of technology and lifestyle, but on the other hand, there’s a highly traditional element included in their behavior. When looking at the Romanian audience in the past, we noted that it takes time for them to accept and truly embrace a format as we saw by the audience results of formats that reached their 13th or even their 23rd season. Somehow, it’s become a family appointment – the family gathers together to watch the show. It’s a habit, and, as with any habit, it gets stronger and stronger as you go along. This is why, over the years, we have been investing in both well-established formats and new entries.

This viewing habit places us in a favorable position as Romanian viewers enjoy watching linear TV to a larger degree than the rest of European countries. We do, however, have to acknowledge the fact that there’s a decreasing trend in linear viewership present in Romania.

Romanians generally tend to enjoy a mix of local productions and foreign content. They like to watch shows that are entertaining, informative, and have good production value. Additionally, Romanians are known to be passionate about sports, football in particular, and major sporting events tend to draw a large viewership.


What is the situation in the Romanian TV ad market? Do you predict growth in 2023?

The Romanian TV ad market is fully developed, reacting as normal to societal changes. Consumers are evolving, consumption habits are changing and advertisers are therefore adapting their strategies to address their consumers’ needs. As for the future, we will most likely observe a single-digit growth in 2023, in line with the expected growth of the GDP, and we foresee the development of consumer consumption.


Has the war in Ukraine affected the market and what are the main challenges for TV broadcasters in the country?

The war in Ukraine affected us primarily as human beings, then as societies and businesses. As market leaders, we had a moral obligation to consolidate the support of the people in the country. Our employees donated products and participated in blood drives to help the refugees. With our partners’ support, we designed and deployed a special project that secured accommodation for those that were passing through, for as long as was needed. We helped with the organization of the biggest charity concert in Romania and all the revenue collected from direct donations, ticket selling, and advertising, was directed to the Red Cross. The concert was made available in real-time for all broadcasters in Romania.

The emotional impact, as I said, was huge. Regarding the consequences to the TV market, we saw a switch in audience habits in the first days and weeks of the war developing. They reverted to news programs and channels. The audience was looking for information from all likely sources, be it linear TV, social media or online. As it’s been a year since the war started, we may see a swift return to ‘pre-war normality.’

Now, regarding the challenges, there are several factors to be taken into account. Firstly, the increase in audience fragmentation would be one of the factors as viewers are spread over 290 licensed channels. Secondly, TV broadcasters face difficult competition from other forms of media, including a growing number of online platforms, social media and streaming services. Thirdly, there’s a certain volatility in our business as we rely on advertising revenue linked to economic evolution and consumer behavior. The regulatory environment may also be considered one of the challenging factors as we are governed by an extremely strict set of rules and regulations related to the content to be aired and to the advertising process. Last but not least, the content cost may be a challenge as well as producing high-quality content is expensive and, as in any business, we need to balance the costs and the revenue.

Overall, we are facing a challenging environment but our ability to adapt and to be innovative will ensure that we succeed and maintain our leading position.


PRO TV is attending NATPE Budapest this year. What is the broadcaster looking for in terms of acquisitions for its channels? Will you also offer your content to international partners?

In our line of business, we have to be in touch with the novelties so we are regular representatives at such events.

Our channel’s content proposal is based on four main pillars: news, local productions, sports, and international content. When looking at the international content pillar, it’s even more important to consider the secondary channels that have a specific approach based on their targets. So, we need to know what offers are new to in turn offer our audience novelties that are relevant for them.

As for our offering to international partners, this is not our core business but there have been examples of this in the past, mainly concerning our fictional projects. The series we produce have exceptionally good production values and we have had successful sales for titles such as Vlad and The Clan.


What is PRO TV's niche net strategy for 2023? Will Romanian viewers witness the launch of new cable channels from CME?

Our secondary channels have been, and are, a focus for us as a group. Last year we went through an in-depth rebranding, based on a careful analysis of each station audience that consists of revisions of the entire graphic package and some content interventions. Currently, our focus is not on new launches but rather on strengthening our existing secondary channels that cover (pending channels and their audiences) a wide range of programs.


Are you satisfied with VOYO's performance in the country and what are your targets in terms of the number of subscribers for this year? Have you planned more original content for your service in 2023?

VOYO is a platform that comes with many benefits. Besides the original content, it offers its subscribers the opportunity of viewing our TV shows up to one week ahead. It’s also a unique destination for our audience to catch up with their favorite programs in a market in which telecom operators do not broadly offer this type of service.

Reverting now to 2022, we can say that it was a remarkable year for VOYO. From a content point of view, the platform tripled both its titles and its subscribers. The users watched over 11 million hours of content on VOYO last year alone. Therefore, the answer to your question would be yes, we are satisfied. This being said, we like setting the bar high so that there’s always room for improvement. Our expectations, therefore, are even higher for 2023. The search for and delivery of good quality content in both TV and streaming platforms is the key element to keeping our audience close to us. We are always looking for new content opportunities.