RTL Croatia and Antenna, which has TV interests in South East Europe, have expressed very differing views to the upcoming arrival of international SVOD services like Netflix.
Speaking in the opening panel discussion of Day 2 at NEM 2015, Henning Tewes, the chairman of the board at RTL Croatia, said that as a broadcaster the company would find it difficult to become a platform operator in its own right. However, it could make money by selling its content to SVOD providers.
On the other hand, Peter Smith, the director of Antenna International, said that although it is a challenge for broadcasters to become technology companies, it is something that they have to do otherwise they will slowly find their businesses being devalued.
Pavel Stanchev, the director of BTV Media Group, meanwhile said that he fully believed that FTA has a future as no other media can gain so many viewers. He also said that almost 30% of the company’s revenues came from non-advertising sources in 2014.
Commenting on Voyo, the SVOD service operated by BTV’s parent company CME, he said that it has been particularly successful in Slovenia.
Voyo, which is known as Oyo in Croatia, is present in six CEE markets.
