The Czech pay video content (SVOD) market should not be negatively affected by rising inflation and more frugal behaviour of Czech customers. This emerged from a discussion at the Czech Internet Forum 2022 (CIF) conference, organised by Internet Info and attended by representatives of the main commercial TV stations - Prima Group CEO Marek Singer and TV Nova and CME Group's new media director Daniel Grunt.
According to Daniel Grunt, Nova, which is developing its pay platform Voyo.cz, is the cheapest way of entertainment for the whole family for a whole month.
"Look at how much a ticket to the cinema, theatre or a sports match costs. I believe they will be cutting back on things other than subscriptions,"
Daniel Grunt mentioned at CIF 2022. A monthly subscription to Voyo.cz will cost CZK 159.
Voyo recently announced it crossed the 400,000 subscriber mark and still plans to have one million subscribers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia by 2026. It also estimates that it will rank among the top three most used SVOD services in the Czech market, alongside Netflix and Disney+. It has Czech content to play for it. "People will rotate the different services depending on the offer, but they will always have us because we are the representatives of Czech content," he added.
Grunt estimates the current penetration of paid online video (SVOD) at 25% of the Czech population over 15 years old. This would represent about 2 million subscribers. "In Scandinavia the penetration is 60% and in the US it is about 80%," he also said, adding that the number of services people subscribe to in the Czech Republic is gradually increasing - currently it is supposed to be 1.4-1.5 services per household.
Marek Singer, Prima's CEO, agrees that Czech customers can rotate between the various pay-per-view services. However, this considered behaviour is not limited to international services, but also to local services. It is this local segment that Prima is targeting with its new SVOD service, which it plans to launch later this year. Exactly when this will happen has not yet been announced. "We will launch it when we have tested it. The testing will take 14 days and we will decide accordingly. So far it looks like it will be later this year," Marek Singer outlined at the conference.
Speaking further, he added that the total number of people visiting the platform could be 600-700,000, with more than 100,000 people subscribing to the service. In fact, Prima expects to offer three options for watching its news: with advertising (free), without ads and with subscription only, and a combined model with advertising and subscription. The total reach of 600-700 thousand people should be those who will regularly visit Prima's new service.
Source: mediaguru.cz
