These are tough times for CME, one of the largest and longest established players in Central and Eastern Europe’s TV industry.
The company’s latest set of results was hugely impacted by a troubled ad market, itself suffering from such factors as the euro crisis and general lack of confidence in the European economy. Worse still, the company predicted that there would be no recovery in the fourth quarter, traditionally the strongest in the year, due largely to multinationals cutting their spending.
In a conference call, the company revealed that it has been in touch with Time Warner, now its main shareholder, about the possibility of a public or public equity offering. It also dismissed comparisons in Q3 revenues between itself and Prima in the Czech Republic, claiming that the latter’s growth, compared to its own fall, were probably down to the MTG company quoting gross rather than net figures.
Yet all this aside, there are some positive things for CME to hold on to what is clearly a challenging situation. Having followed its activities for nearly two decades, one cannot but help being impressed by the manner in which it has restructured its business in the last handful of years by transforming itself from simply a broadcaster into a vertically integrated media company.
They keys to its future success undoubtedly lie in its Media Pro Entertainment and New Media divisions, both of which continue to perform well despite the company’s general financial woes.
Mention should also be made of CME’s push to launch new thematic channels in all its six markets and, of course, the success of the subscription on demand (SVOD) service Voyo.
Launched at the beginning of last year in the Czech Republic and subsequently rolled out to its five markets – initially as a free offering, though subsequently paid-for, in all but one of those markets – it is now well established and as of the end of Q3 had 79,000 subscribers.
Interestingly, it appears to be doing particularly well in both Romania (in terms of average monthly unique visitors) and Bulgaria (average monthly video views per subscriber).
Despite its current problems, CME has still much to look forward to and will undoubtedly continue to be a leading player in the region for many years to come.
