Media Club will increase TV advertising prices by an average of 18 to 22% for 2025. The increase reflects both the rise in the base CPP price and the increase in certain seasonal and footage coefficients. However, the portfolio of stations represented by Media Club will stay the same next year. Alongside the Prima group’s stations, which will add two new channels, Media Club will continue to sell advertising for the TV Óčko, TV Barrandov, Atmedia, and Paramount Network groups. The primary buying target group of 18–69-year-olds also remains the same. Secondarily, clients can also use 24 defined target groups.
Prima’s CCO, Vladimír Pořízek, explains in an interview that Media Club has no other option than to increase the price. “This autumn, and also in spring, we were forced to extend the length of advertising breaks to meet demand. Unfortunately, the long breaks prevent us from achieving higher ratings. That’s why we have to increase prices and optimise the space for advertising to accommodate as much demand as possible, not putting viewers off at the same time,” he explains.
At the end of August, Prima estimated that it would increase the prices of TV advertising on the stations represented by Media Club by 20%. The increase is ultimately in the range of 18-22%. Is it true again that the higher price increase applies to larger clients?
We are continuing our strategy of the past years and increasing prices more for clients with higher volumes and lower CPT. For smaller clients, the price increase is smaller, which is why we are averaging between 18-22%. The price increase is necessary because our advertising space is sold out all the time, demand is growing and there are fewer GRPs on the market. In the 18-69 target group, it is a 5% decrease, in the 15-54 group, it is a 7-8% decrease.
Increased demand for TV advertising has persisted for several years in a row. What is the cause? If we look at the performance of the economy this year, it is not growing significantly - at 0.3% and 0.4% in the second and third quarters, respectively, household consumption is up just under 2% this year. Is the growing demand driven by the changes in demand for advertising media space brought about by multinational platforms Google and Facebook?
The demand for TV advertising is growing because TV advertising works. Online alone is more likely to attract clients when people know and are aware of the brand. Online does not build a brand. You need TV and long video advertising for brand building. TV is also good at activation, and we have a number of clients who use it for activation campaigns. That’s why clients are going from online back to TV. In addition, it is television in conjunction with online that most easily delivers the desired results to clients.
As for seasonal coefficients, you mainly increase some off-season months such as January, February, June, or August, and leave the peak season months unchanged. Why?
We are changing the seasonal coefficients where we were most sold out this year - which are the months of May, June, and August, and we are adjusting July. On the other hand, we were not sold out in March and April, so we kept the coefficients for these months.
How much is Prima sold out this year?
We are 108% sold out for the autumn, which is not good for TV or the audience. There are more SVOD services on the market, and that brings more opportunities to watch ad-free audiovisual content. Viewers are getting used to it, and long commercial breaks don’t put TV in a good light. We may have shorter breaks than our competitor Nova this year, but this is mainly because Nova’s advertising space has also sold out. The number of GRPs in our buying target group has fallen by 5-6% this year, while the TV market is growing by 5-6%, taking us to a 12% “deficit”. On top of that, we are extending the break by 8%, which we need to settle, getting us to our required 20%.
Does this mean that about 12% of GRPs are not being placed in broadcasting? Or how big is the excessive demand?
The excess is around 8-10% of GRPs. We have been stretching out ad breaks all autumn, which will help us get more GRPs. Even after the rules on commercial break lengths were relaxed, we have continually strived to keep our breaks from extending. But now we are not succeeding.
Even after the rules on commercial break lengths were relaxed, we have continually strived to keep our breaks from extending. But now we are not succeeding.
Vladimír Pořízek
Has the change in legislation contributed to a greater number of advertising spots in prime time? [Editor’s note: Since September 2022, the 20% limit for the 6 am – 6 pm and 6 pm – 0 am time zones has been used instead of the hourly limit.]
Exactly, this legislative change has made it possible. This allows some of the spots or ad minutes to be moved to higher-rated times and the number of GRPs we are able to deliver will increase.
Will a price increase of around 20% bring the necessary balance?
It is always a matter of supply and demand. Agencies are telling us that if we increase prices, clients will go to other media types and Google or Facebook. We know that Google or Facebook don’t build a brand the way TV advertising does. However, some clients may shift some of their budgets, which may have an impact on us, so we need to look for imaginary intersections between demand and supply. We have to increase the price, and to be honest, it would be best for us and for the viewer if the prices were as high as possible. The advertising breaks could be shorter. But it’s always about some kind of agreement with clients and agencies.
Media Club’s commercial policy for TV, 2025
You entered this year with a modified 18-69 purchase target group replacing the 15-69 group. The 18-69 target group will also be the primary trading group at Media Club in 2025. What has the transition to 18-69 revealed?
We are always trying to identify the needs of our customers and at the same time, we see that the productive group is shifting, and the population is aging. If we shifted the start of the buying target group to 20 years old, we would cover what customers want even more. Their target demographic usually starts at the age of 20, sometimes 25 years. Of course, there are clients who demand an 18-35 year old audience, but these are relatively few. However, in addition to our primary target audience, we have 24 sales target groups defined that we are able to affinity-target. With these secondary target groups, we can further improve the affinity of our campaigns. In addition, we anticipate even higher usage of online eGRPs in the coming year. We are increasing their capacity by engaging individual operators in the issue of ad fast-forwarding in time-shifted viewing, and we have also fine-tuned targeting in HbbTv and smart apps with Nielsen.
Has the group of major TV advertisers changed? The e-commerce group seems to be strong, are there any others?
There are no major changes. More and more people in the e-commerce group want to use TV to build a strong brand.
Will the Barrandov TV group be part of the stations represented by Media Club next year?
We have a preliminary agreement with Barrandov TV and we are finalising the wording of the agreement.
You are leaving Prima, and Media Club as well, in the first quarter of next year. Is your successor already known?
The selection process for my successor is still ongoing.
Do you know what your future plans will be after you leave Prima?
I’m definitely planning a long vacation, at least six months to a year. I’ll be bound by a competition clause for a year, so if I want to continue in media, it will be possible in March 2026 at the earliest. But I’m thinking more about the financial sector. After all, I’m more of a man in finance and I would like to move somewhere else and try something new.
Source: mediaguru.cz
