Don’t Believe the Hype!
There is a lot of talk about some “boom” in Central and Eastern Europe, but to anyone who knows the region well things have not changed much in the past two years: it is still hard work and hard-earned cash, and nothing glamorous about it.
If there was something like a spike in production, it actually happened back in the 2021-22 period, because after the war in Ukraine started overall there has been a decline in the number of productions of both series and entertainment shows due to increased inflation, lower content budgets, less funding and unstable ad income.
Just the fact that two multi-national streamers decided to produce their first original series in the region and launched big PR campaigns to promote them is no reason to take out the fanfares. When you have uncertainty due to war, any growth is a true achievement. For now, the big CEE players focus on stability and preserving their positions, while taking their time when making and realizing important decisions because the situation could change very fast in the region, both politically and economically.
The ones trying to enter the market with a “big bang” will soon realize that this is not possible, and despite the lower production costs (when compared to the Western markets), CEE is a tough region where you must make big and consistent investments in a lot of quality content to start gaining ground.
Marketing campaigns are a cool thing for the eyes to enjoy, but just the hype will not do the job. As May One, the producers of Netflix’ first original Romanian series Subteran, commented for CEETV recently: “You are always pushing for best in class, and sometimes pushing creators in a different direction than the film industry historically has – in a region where film has had a longer track record than drama.”
One of the key qualities of all players coming out of CEE is there quick adaptability to any type of conditions. The words of Nova TV Croatia’s CEO Dražen Mavrić echo that as well: “We have a lot of experience in crisis situations, and regardless of various situations and circumstances beyond our control, which have arisen in the past few years, we achieve remarkable success. It is important to continuously monitor the market and respond promptly to the needs of all our stakeholders.”
We have yet to see if “the new gang in town” in the face of Netflix, Max, Disney+, SkySkowtime and Amazon Prime Video, will be able to show the same resilience in the region. For now, their ambitions have slumped greatly in Turkey while on the new playground which is Poland things do not look that rosy as well, with both TV and streaming time decreasing this spring. For example, between April and May Netflix lost 100.000 Polish users down to 2.67 million, while the average streaming time per user dropped by almost two hours to 6 hours and 27 minutes, according to Mediapanel.
If there was something like a spike in production, it actually happened back in the 2021-22 period, because after the war in Ukraine started overall there has been a decline in the number of productions of both series and entertainment shows due to increased inflation, lower content budgets, less funding and unstable ad income.
Just the fact that two multi-national streamers decided to produce their first original series in the region and launched big PR campaigns to promote them is no reason to take out the fanfares. When you have uncertainty due to war, any growth is a true achievement. For now, the big CEE players focus on stability and preserving their positions, while taking their time when making and realizing important decisions because the situation could change very fast in the region, both politically and economically.
The ones trying to enter the market with a “big bang” will soon realize that this is not possible, and despite the lower production costs (when compared to the Western markets), CEE is a tough region where you must make big and consistent investments in a lot of quality content to start gaining ground.
Marketing campaigns are a cool thing for the eyes to enjoy, but just the hype will not do the job. As May One, the producers of Netflix’ first original Romanian series Subteran, commented for CEETV recently: “You are always pushing for best in class, and sometimes pushing creators in a different direction than the film industry historically has – in a region where film has had a longer track record than drama.”
One of the key qualities of all players coming out of CEE is there quick adaptability to any type of conditions. The words of Nova TV Croatia’s CEO Dražen Mavrić echo that as well: “We have a lot of experience in crisis situations, and regardless of various situations and circumstances beyond our control, which have arisen in the past few years, we achieve remarkable success. It is important to continuously monitor the market and respond promptly to the needs of all our stakeholders.”
We have yet to see if “the new gang in town” in the face of Netflix, Max, Disney+, SkySkowtime and Amazon Prime Video, will be able to show the same resilience in the region. For now, their ambitions have slumped greatly in Turkey while on the new playground which is Poland things do not look that rosy as well, with both TV and streaming time decreasing this spring. For example, between April and May Netflix lost 100.000 Polish users down to 2.67 million, while the average streaming time per user dropped by almost two hours to 6 hours and 27 minutes, according to Mediapanel.
