Local content is the key to Pro TV’s success in Romania’s linear TV and streaming markets, says CEO Aleksandras Cesnavicius.

Pro TV is one of the leading commercial broadcasters in Romania and, according to its CEO Aleksandras Cesnavicius, stands out from other stations in the market because of the sheer variety of content it offers to viewers in primetime.

Aleksandras Cesnavicius

“Our aim is to have a very strong business that is serving the interests of advertisers well and at the same time the interest of the end consumers well,” Cesnavicius says.

Owned by Central European Media Enterprises (CME), Pro TV launched in December 1995 and quickly established itself in the Romanian TV market. It currently operates five channels in the country, namely the flagship Pro TV, Pro Cinema (movies), Acasa (female-oriented), Acasa Gold (aimed at mature women) and Pro Arena (male-focused sport and entertainment).

Alongside these, it also runs Pro TV International (aimed at Romanian communities abroad) and Pro TV Chisinau (operated by its sister company Pro Digital and serving Moldova). In addition, Pro TV has a presence in the streaming market through Voyo, a service with counterparts in other regional markets across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) served by CME.

News content is also a “very important pillar” for Pro TV, according to Cesnavicius, who adds: “This is something we’re proud of.” The main news bulletin is at 19.00, and in total Pro TV broadcasts five news bulletins and eight hours of news content daily.

“It remains the most trusted source of information in the country, even competing in a very heavy environment with five dedicated news channels that are broadcasting round the clock,” says Cesnavicius.

Romania’s version of Got Talent airs on Pro TV

Alongside this, Pro TV offers viewers a wide variety of entertainment shows, with two of the biggest studio-based ones being the long-running Romanian versions of Got Talent (which in spring has been the most popular in the country) and The Voice, both based on hit formats licensed from the international market.

But during spring, Pro TV also likes to “take people out of the studio environment and into ones that are more exotic,” according to its CEO. This year, for instance, it will feature an All Stars edition of reality format Survivor, shot in the Dominican Republic.

Cesnavicius adds that Pro TV also has a very good and growing selection of fiction shows, including Las Fierbinti, a comedy series now in its 23rd season, and action series Clanul (Insider), a local remake of Turkish prodco Ay Yapim’s drama export Içerde.

“It’s a nice habit for people to find familiar shows,” says Cesnavicius. “Linear TV hasn’t changed much over the years and people need to feel comfortable after they switch us on. I think we offer a very good, familiar feeling when deciding how to spend your time in the evening.”

Commenting on Voyo, Cesnavicius says that on the one hand it is an old brand in Romania, while on the other, the service has been receiving more investment over the last couple of years. The process first started with Voyo in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and in his view “brings good new elements into our operation.”

Its local version of The Voice is also popular

“Looking specifically at the Romanian market,” he adds, “there is no habit of catch-up.”

Voyo fills this gap of unavailable catch-up by firstly offering a unique proposition and the ability to watch the biggest shows up to seven days before they are broadcast on TV, and secondly by offering shows that may have been missed.

“It’s a consequence of cable operators not offering this functionality and the habit of linear TV consumption spent watching very long shows,” says Cesnavicius.

The exec says Voyo has traditionally shown only Pro TV’s proprietary channels in the live broadcast part of its offering. However, it has recently received approval from the Romanian regulator to also distribute all the – up to 70 – must-carry channels in Romania.

He is also keen to stress that Voyo is the home of premium sports events and this summer will offer coverage of the Euro 2024 football tournament – it will also show Euro 2028 – followed by this year’s Olympic Games in Paris and other sporting events.

Cesnavicius is appreciative of the fact that viewers still watch a lot of linear TV in Romania, typically more than four-and-a-half hours daily, and “this is something that keeps our traditional business alive and well.”

Comedy series Las Fierbinti is in its 23rd season

Nevertheless, “the main opportunity we need to seize is to see how we can build a digital presence and to establish ourselves in a better position in the future,” he notes. This is where Voyo comes into play, with the arrival of international streamers in Romania having shifted the game and made people more used to paying for services.

In Cesnavicius’s view, Voyo can more than hold its own against these streamers and has a “differentiator” in that Pro TV is the biggest producer of local content in Romania. However, he believes “local content cannot be the only thing we offer on the platform” and, given that homes will typically have more than one subscription, it is Voyo’s aim to be included in their choice of services as a “local differentiator.”

Given Pro TV’s focus on local content and limited involvement in coproductions, Cesnavicius believes it can be regarded as a “self-dependent operation.” Furthermore, while Pro TV is looking into ways of exchanging content with other broadcasters in the region owned by CME, he says the Romanian market “is more open to English and Turkish languages” than CEE languages because it employs subtitling for foreign content rather than dubbing.

Looking to the future, Cesnavicius says Pro TV has no plans to increase the number of linear channels in its portfolio. “The main challenge here will be how to combine the programming brands we have established over the years with freshness inside the programmes and also to bring some novelties into the otherwise successful mix.” A good example of this was the show Anything Goes, which Pro TV launched in one of its primetime slots in autumn 2023 and proved to be a big hit.

Action series Clanul (Insider) is adapted from Turkish drama Içerde

Cesnavicius adds that Pro TV sources a lot of information after every season using local focus groups. It uses this information, about channels and individual programmes, to adjust elements of the content and introduce “freshness” into the station’s output.

As for Voyo, however, “the clear priority is to see how we can become bigger and more successful.” This may be done by either launching unique Voyo channels or expanding third-party channels. “We know we need to increase the unique original content on Voyo that will not be yet available on TV,” says Cesnavicius.

With the experience gained over the years and the data that is now available, Pro TV can see what has and hasn’t worked on Voyo and decide what genre to invest in for additional original content.