The surge of Online TV
There is an interesting fact about television. Since the dawn of the 20th century, it was considered to be a part of the media revolution which transformed informational society around the world. Now, for the first time in history, it seems that there is a need for the television to revolutionize and reinvent itself.
If you can’t fight them – join them
So goes the proverb. Internet, once seen as traditional TV’s worst nemesis is sought to help the industry expand. Only in the last few months, major Pan Baltic TV channels have launched their online TV websites.
TV3 has launched TV3Play channel in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Lithuanian LNK channel has used 2011.11.11 date to promote their online TV answer to TV3 and it seems that Latvian social network Draugiem.lv is launching DraugiemTV.
If we look at the content and the viewers segments we will see that networks are losing the wide audience of the young and prosperous. Reason: outdated seasons of favorite shows premiered by the Pan Baltic TV Networks can’t compete with downloaded torrents of the newest drama series. Basically – internet is stealing the viewers, who are the real target of the Pan Baltic TV networks and advertisers in this case.
Therefore, TV networks are embracing a new expansionist strategy and trying to secure larger, segmented audience over the connected, Online TV and specially targeted niche channels.
Ventures into unknown
So far, Pan Baltic channels have not much to offer. TV3Play channels offer viewers repeats of popular TV3 programmes and series. Therefore, main traffic drivers for TV3Play are locally produced TV series like Lithuanian “Moterys meluoja geriau” and Latvian “Ugunsgrēks” and Estonian "Kattemaksukontor". In Lithuania, TV3Play has recorded more than 300 000 unique viewers during October, Latvia accounts slightly more than 360 000 with Estonia totalling about 200 000 visitors. TV3 can boast with high average time spent – about half an hour per visitor per month with about 10% reach.
LNK, the number two channel in Lithuania, has followed TV3 and launched its new online venture with similar recipe to TV3’s - repeats of popular programmes, news flavoured with some extra online content.
Meanwhile on 11th of November this year, the most popular social site in Latvia and a second ranked webpage Draugiem.lv, has launched its version of online TV.
Different from Traditional
Draugiem.lv has 1,216,618 registered users, of whom 462,979 visit this website every day. On average, users spend 37 minutes daily visiting the website. The enormous popularity of the social network among Internet users creates the potential opportunity to launch the successful operation of an Internet TV channel.
Latvia’s leading social network will offer slightly different content than its Traditional TV counterparts. It will offer both domestically produced content, as well as the option to watch overseas channels. Draugiem.lv claims that their offer will have two unique things:
1) User will have a possibility to select the channel they want to pay for (no fixed packages);
2) Possibility to watch the online TV outside the territory of Latvia. The last thing can be problematic to introduce, but might answer the need of Latvian emigrants for Latvian content and can become a strong selling point.
Draugiem.lv also promised that it will be possible to buy a movie for online streaming with a text message. Considering the huge user base of draugiem.lv, this is definitely an area we should keep our eye on.
Niche and Smart
A lot of attention is being given to niche audience. TV3 has recently launched TV8 channel - solely concentrated on 35-59 women audience. Now, DraugiemTV will be available to the public by the end of this year and no additional registration will be required; all you need to watch the new Internet television channel will be a draugiem.lv pass.
This is not going to be television in the classic sense and therefore it is not intended to compete with Latvia’s TV channels. And nor do the channel’s representatives believe that the new channel will pose serious competition to mainstream TV channels, but it could attract a lot of attention from the youth audience, which also represents the most active user segment of draugiem.lv, thus generating interest in watching TV in the Internet environment.
So for now, all we have to do is sit back and wait for future developments, but one is quite clear - online TV might be an area of great drama in 2012.
