Bulgaria: bTV celebrates 20 years honoring high quality and diverse content

bTV Media Group reaches 35.6% of audience share in prime time and 32.9% in all day (A4+, FY 2019), while it obtains the 51% share of the advertising market valued at USD 109 millions (2019). The group operates six networks: flagship station bTV, bTV Cinema, bTV Action, bTV Lady, bTV Comedy and Ring. 

Florian Skala, CEO of bTV Media Group, highlighted to Prensario: ‘Looking at the big picture, I would define 2019 as the year in which we saw a sustainable growth of our overall business results, mostly because of our content strategy. We have been focusing only on high quality TV production in diverse genres, deployed on various platforms, and strengthened by the latest hi-tech innovations’.

The group launched a new integrated news and current affair shows studio, one of the most technologically advanced in Europe. ‘It was listed among the top five on the continent in the “Set Design” category of the Promax Awards: Europe 2020. Moreover, bTV was singled out as the strongest local Bulgarian brand in the prestigious Superbrands ranking, and bTV Media Group received the “True Leaders” award, defined by criteria such as leading position in the sector, profitability, and credit rating’, he summarized.

These achievements have set a very good basis for an even more successful 2020, when the bTV will celebrate the 20th anniversary. As the audience leader for two decades, the channel has improved the results in the past few years, ‘embracing the challenges coming from a significantly changed media environment’, underlined Skala.

‘bTV released a new in-house daily late night show with Nikolaos Tsitiridis, inspired by internationally acclaimed formats and upgraded with fresh content and a host who is young, multi-talented and previously unknown to the TV viewers. Also, the weekly primetime romantic comedy, Sunny Beach, whose storyline and characters are highly relevant to international audiences as well.

Sunny Beach, the weekly primetime romantic comedy with relevant international talent

‘We will also launch a new historical documentary series, meant as special content for the viewers on national holidays, followed by new episodes of The Voice, MasterChef, Wife Swap and Home Makeover in primetime for a highly successful spring season both on TV and digital platforms’.
In Bulgaria, one of the main advantages of broadcasters is high-quality local content, especially with regards to news and current affairs, which no OTT provider could offer. ‘Local viewers rely very much on their trusted broadcasters for information and analyses on the most important topics of the day across their diverse channels’, clarified Skala. 

‘The recent efforts of the members of the European Media Alliance, to further strengthen ties across the continent would definitely improve our positions in the OTT era. We see great opportunities in setting the strategic road-map for enabling the potential of total video, and for forming industry standards for a unified measurement currency as well as addressable TV in CEE’, he adds.   

The Voice is a success on linear TV and digital platforms
 

‘We aim to secure synergies between all the channels within the group so that our productions can be equally successful in a TV and digital environment. bTV’s flagship entertainment shows have improved their digital presence with an increasing number of online extensions and exclusive videos for the web. An innovation we introduced for these formats was also the 360˚ livestream of their final episodes’.

Catch-up TV viewing is growing in Bulgaria as well. Skala added: ‘Last year our AVOD platform, bTV Plus, got a brand new, progressive design, which spurred a sharp growth in video content consumption. We are now working on a new video on demand platform that would improve the experience with our video content for many more users’.

MasterChef is a prime time leader

bTV Media Group’s VOYO subscribers are growing and the audience profile is broadening. A key reason is the high quality local content, especially with the opportunity to watch some of the productions before their TV broadcast. Naturally, football and especially the exclusive matches from UEFA Champions League and Europa League, are streamed live on the platform with great success. ‘I see the future of VOYO in more exclusive content with a focus on local. We also aim at providing maximum coverage of the entire set of connected devices, platforms and operation systems, and at establishing our VOD platform as a one stop shop for quality video content’, concluded Skala.