Don’t believe all you read: it’s not all gloom and doom at Poland’s TVP.
Away from the controversial political appointments, widespread international condemnation and upcoming EC investigation, the public broadcaster is performing much better than many might have expected in one crucial area – technology, or more specifically HbbTV.
Earlier this week I had the privilege to attend what is now an annual conference in Warsaw on hybrid TV. Focusing very much on the local market, it served to underline the spectacular success TVP has had in the four years since it introduced HbbTV services in the run-up to Euro 2012.
From modest beginnings, when they started off with 1,000 users, these services are now received on over 1.8 million devices. In short, thanks to TVP, and indeed its competitors, HbbTV is no longer a novelty in Poland. What is more, the country is now seen as one of the leading HbbTV markets in Europe – something that would have probably been unthinkable even a couple of years ago.
My gut instinct tells me that the managerial changes that have just taken place at TVP will not have a negative impact on its HbbTV activities.
Indeed, the broadcaster is acutely aware of the developments taking place in the market and is keen to continue playing a leading role in hybrid TV.
So, what can we expect? Clearly, TVP now has one eye, or more probably two, on the upcoming HbbTV 2.0 standard and the opportunities this will bring to offer users even more advanced services.
It also now has key agreements in place with the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communications (PIKE) and the cable operator Toya. These allow it to extend its HbbTV services beyond DTT and it would ideally also like to see them available to DTH subscribers, though this may be a difficult goal to attain and could require the intervention of a regulator.
TVP can also expect to see continued growth in ad revenue from HbbTV services. Having increased by only 11% in 2014, it rose by a much more impressive 150% last year and the forecast for 2016 is an even higher 180%.
In the advertising space, its plans for this year include demographic studies on HbbTV users; using the synergies of HbbTV and mobile in ad campaigns; and educating the market about TVP’s HbbTV services.
Despite the difficulties now surrounding TVP, these all point to a promising future, at least in the HbbTV sector, for the Polish public broadcaster.
