Poland: TVN, a success story

Poland is a large television market that has it all: a strong traditional broadcast sector, and a high penetration of pay television, a wellestablished digital terrestrial television, and a myriad of Pay TV channels. TVN participates at all these levels and with digital platform Player.pl, delivering both SVOD and AVOD. ‘There are few markets like Poland where several strong players are able to make content available across all these platforms.’

TVN broadcasts three FTA channels: TVN, TVN 7 and TTV; and 10 thematic pay channels: TVN 24, TVN Style, TVN Turbo, TVN24 Bis; TVN Meteo Active, iTVN, iTVN Extra, TVN Fabula, Mango 24 and local NTL Radomsko distributed via cable and satellite operators. TVN24 leads in Poland among news channels, while thematic networks TTV and TVN Fabula have increased their market share over the last six months.

TVN’s advertising sales division TVN Media, which sells advertising across TVN’s portfolio as well as a number of third party networks, continues to be the leading television and digital sales house in the Polish market.

‘The main broadcast channel TVN accounts for a 12% market share, rarely seen among traditional broadcasters these days and it produces a great variety of in-house content: drama, comedy, lifestyle and unscripted. This has been such an exciting, new experience for me and working in this environment offers such a fascinating opportunity. TVN’s ecosystem has resulted in capturing audiences via traditional means with linear, but also across other various platforms like Player.pl.’

As other European companies, TVN has a dual management structure: a year ago, when Scripps Networks purchased it, Samples, as President of the International Division, also became head of the supervisory board. More recently, after Markus Tellenbach stepped down as President and CEO, Samples assumed direct leadership of the company.

‘At Scripps, it is very important for us to interact with our audiences wherever they are; at TVN we feel very happy to be able to offer content that finds viewers on broadcast, linear channels and on the Player, that aims at younger audiences.’

The Player.pl platform was launched in 2011 with an AVOD offering, later adding in 2014 a SVOD service; it reaches more than two and a half million registered users, becoming the third largest platform of this kind in Poland. The average usage time per viewer is 8 hours and 25 minutes, implying a high level of engagement. Among TVN’s latest offerings that perform well on the Player include local comedy The Single Woman (Singielka, which delivers both humor and love turmoil). The Polish version of Web Therapy and Lip Sync Battle Ustawka are also among some of the most viewed original programing created for Player.

Scripps has announced that HGTV will be available in Poland in first quarter 2017, as TVN Meteo Active evolves into the Scripps flagship lifestyle brand. HGTV is already available in 30 North American and Asian markets, being Poland its first European country. In the US, HGTV is ranked among the Top 10 cable channels. ‘We are very much looking forward to increasing our reach among women with the expansion of our lifestyle offering.’

TVN’s 2016 fall line-up includes hit series Azja Express (Asia Express), Druga Szansa (Second Chance), Na noże (A Dish to Die For) and MasterChef Junior. Polowanie na kuchnię, featuring local star Dorota Szelągowska, is the Polish version of DIY Network’s home improvement series Kitchen Crashers, which was the first series TVN adapted from its new parent company. With this kind of shows, the company addresses the expanding interests of Polish audiences, including the popular do-it-yourself approach to home remodeling.

TVN is also expanding its global content sales, including a deal for Latin America with US-based Somos Distribution regarding three series: real life story Recipe for Life (65x’60), drama Julia (195x’30) and dramedy 39 and a Half (39x’60).