Painful lessons from Poland in the digital age

“I may outlast conventional TV,” Slawomir Zielinski, the Polish public broadcaster’s director of programming who has been in the industry for 34 years, said during an interview. “We are under a big force, to lose viewers to the Internet.”

Beaming 12 channels to 12 million households in a country of nearly 40 million people, TVP has witnessed dramatic changes in recent years, introduced by the digital age. As social media proliferate, the audience is split into two categories – those who just sit and watch and the others yearning for interactive experiences. 

While conventional TV is a basic service for those in the first group, those in the second group flock to view programmes on YouTube or other apps.

“Before, we had the theory that people wouldn’t watch from small toys [mobile phones]. Now, it’s increasingly common to see people who don’t want TV.”

Zielinski said it appeared that older people were the ones saving conventional TV from demise. According to a survey, people aged over 37 still refrain from posting comments on social media. They thus consume information from TV. 

“The age barrier should be lifted soon,” he said, showing concern that once that happens, fewer people will stick to conventional TV.

Consumers have also adopted new habits when consuming news in this new era. “Now, people don’t even know who were the prime ministers in the past 10-20 years. They just search Wikipedia or other websites.”

Aside from smaller audiences, TVP and other broadcasters in Poland are seeing increasing competition among themselves. After digital TV was introduced in the country last year, the number of channels swelled by 100 to 240. Competition also comes from foreign outfits like the British Broadcasting Corporation that also produce some Polish programmes. 

Zielinski believes all the Polish channels have to launch new programmes to boost ratings, which results in the audience spreading thinly, as well as revenue from commercials and sponsorships.

About a third of TVP’s income comes from broadcast-receiver licences, while the rest is covered by advertising and sponsorships.

“New channels result in greater competition. [In terms of audience numbers], our market share [has] dropped from 25 per cent 10 years ago to 20 per cent,” he said. 

Audience tastes have also changed quickly. Once, they were big fans of foreign series. Now, they prefer movies from Hollywood and from other countries in the European Union. But the screening date must be close to the movies’ launch date. While TVP’s news channels have lost money, channels focusing on dramas have witnessed an increase.

“Other companies haven’t lost their audience as much as us, as they redirect content to match advertising,” he said, pointing out that some TVP programmes feature content that may not attract advertisers, such as education, culture and national sports.

He is also concerned about increasing production costs. A programme shot properly in a studio now wins an audience of 6 million per episode. But just as many people might watch a show that costs a tenth as much to produce, using a few cameras to follow a family travelling to different destinations, for example. 

More programmes have been uploaded to the Internet, just to ensure that they find audiences even without generating revenue.

Another dilemma for TVP lies in subsidies. Zielinski insisted that public TV was important to ensure free access to content that is avoided by commercial channels. But TVP will need higher government subsidies to produce more interesting programmes in light of greater competition. The peril is that greater subsidies will mean more allocation of time to government matters, which could further drive down market share.

Zielinski’s fear is that when TVP’s market share drops further and something big happens that is not covered by other broadcasters, too few people would learn about the incident through the TVP network.

“It’s a dilemma if the public broadcasting company is dissolved now. One day, if we have enough funds to restart it, there may be no audience to watch it,” he concluded.