SCHEDULE WATCH CHANNEL PROFILE: Mega Channel is investing in innovative original productions to safeguard its content identity against an increasingly insecure financial climate in Greece. Paula Tsoni reports.

Overview
2014 saw Tiletipos-owned Mega Channel lose top spot among viewers to rivals Antenna and Alpha for the first time in years.

Despite Mega’s evening news bulletin being the country’s most trusted, shares for the three channels are now similar.

“We are now three networks fluctuating around the same weekly shares,” says Mega’s general director of programming, Loizos Xenopoulos. “Alpha TV has risen notably, while both us and Antenna have weakened.”

However, he adds: “Mega’s entertainment schedule has always been based on the triptych of ‘quality, feel-good and innovation’ and I believe we still have this.”

Mega’s drop in shares, Xenopoulos argues, is due to other channels having successfully opened up to both classic content and areas where Mega previously dominated. In particular, Alpha’s adaptation of Spanish sitcom format Escenas de Matrimonio, showing three times a week in primetime, has impacted competition.

“They made a breakthrough as the result of a practical strategy Alpha has followed in recent years,” says Xenopoulos, adding that Mega’s weakening is the result of its own choices as much as Greece’s new socio-political situation.

“Conditions have completely changed in our everyday lives but so have viewers’ conditions regarding the TV medium and how they see us. Before, Mega stood out from the other channels among viewers, but now it’s seen as assimilated.”

Mega’s greatest challenge in 2015, says Xenopoulos, will be to earn back the viewers’ trust as a channel and to convince them that “we are with them and we provide them with the best schedule,” with informative shows and entertainment the main routes to achieving this goal. “The weaknesses of our schedule are clear, we see what they are, and which things we need to fix,” he says.

Outside Greece, Mega is available internationally through Mega Cosmos, which broadcasts ‘best of’ Mega programming to Greek diaspora in North America, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Current schedule
Mega’s day kicks off with the current affairs programme Koinonia Ora Mega (06.45-10.00), followed by the light entertainment show Deka me Mia (10.00-13.10). Comedy repeats, short news bulletins and a cookery show alternate until the main news bulletin at 20.00. The main primetime block follows from 21.00-00.00.

Off-peak (afternoons and late night after midnight) and primetime zones remain the preserve of Mega’s own local productions – mainly sitcoms and drama series, new or repeated – while acquired foreign movies or series air in late-night slots or at weekends.

Xenopoulos says Mega’s schedule needs revamping both in late night and across the weekend.

“In the first half of the 2014/15 season we managed to get onto the viewer’s weekend map with our adaptation of Music School, which scored very well in primetime on Sundays with a 23.6% average share. But since the second half of the season Antenna has had The Voice on Sundays, and it’s difficult to compete against such an overwhelming programme.”

He also acknowledges that Mega has weakened in primetime – where the channel has traditionally claimed the top spot – compared with previous seasons and recently invested in two new primetime entertainment programmes for Friday and Saturday to address this.

Original production
Mega’s local output continues to account for around 80% of its schedule, split between news, current affairs and scripted – including drama, sitcoms and soaps – and light entertainment.

While total hours of local production on Greek TV increased this season, Xenopoulos is concerned about the future for productions in the country. “It’s like local production has been given a push this year. But now, under the new political conditions, we have cut down on the number of episodes and restricted our budgets. We are moving again towards a more conservative and not so enthusiastic programming strategy.”

A new law will soon be taxing commercial broadcasters’ advertising revenues an additional 20%.

“This law seems completely irrational to me,” says Xenopoulos. “It means the taxation of privately owned channels climbs to a total 60% or more. It will therefore be much more difficult to make a production. It will influence the entire content and production industry in Greece.”

The country’s recession has led to sizeable cuts in advertising expenditure month by month, “which means we are going to need to cut down on content and expenses,” Xenopoulos explains, noting that Antenna has already implemented job cuts.

The current climate will inevitably affect Mega’s content priorities in the upcoming seasons, leading to “a channel able to do two or three things to demonstrate its identity and make it stand out. With the rest of the schedule, it should be able to manage a very low budget for commercially exploitable, low-cost programmes of basic quality standards.”

Xenopoulos says this is likely to be a mix of programmes, noting that live shows are the least expensive but also the most commercially valuable. Drama production, however, will only be done very selectively.

He adds: “At this point, we’re on standby to see how things go for the country before we can determine how many shows we can do. It would be very useful if we could find ways to finance productions. We would certainly want to find ways of coproducing, but if the situation doesn’t become clearer, that won’t be easy either.”

Drama
One of Mega’s foundation blocks in primetime is drama, although the current climate now threatens its pipeline. Most of Mega’s series – sitcoms and soaps – are line-produced by external production companies, with Mega retaining the rights to the shows and being involved closely with the production process. A rich library of drama productions from previous years is used to fill Mega’s off-peak zones.

Dikeosi (Vindication) is this season’s primetime daily drama, showing Monday to Thursday at 21.00. Mega has shot two different versions of the series, with one featuring more daring scenes for late-zone scheduling, as the channel plans to market the series abroad.

In Greece, although it has gained a loyal core audience of about 1.1 million viewers, Dikeosi is weaker among 15-44s. Xenopoulos says this is because the series airs against Alpha’s hit Escenas de Matrimonio.

Mega is also producing four weekly series this season, scheduled Monday to Wednesday after Dikeosi. The surrealistic comedy Kato Partali, now in its second season, airs on Mondays at 22.20 and tops Mega’s most popular shows with a season average of 42.7% share of 15-44s.

Ethniki Ellados (Greek National Team) follows on Tuesdays at 22.20 on a 34.5% share. “This is a very avant-garde series in how it tackles Greece’s current social issues – warmly and beautifully, yet toughly. It talks about racism, social segregation and domestic violence, but it does it in a very penetrating and moving way,” says Xenopoulos.

Iroides (Heroines), another original Mega production, airs on Tuesdays at 23.30 to an average 21.6% share of 15-44s. “This series addresses a niche. It follows three young women who live in Athens and it’s more liberal in both content and its approach,” says Xenopoulos.

Meanwhile, family sitcom Mana X Ouranou (Mother from the Sky) airs on Wednesdays at 22.20, achieving close to a 19% share.

“With these series, we have again managed to make a difference when it comes to drama,” Xenopoulos says.

Factual
Although Mega has always been the strongest channel for informative programming, this season its evening newscasts have been achieving around the same shares as Alpha’s and Antenna’s. There are three news bulletins during the day, at 14.00, 17.30 and 20.00. The weekend afternoon bulletin at 17.20 is a one-minute show.

Information shows run from 06.45 to 10.00, including weekday current affairs programme Koinonia Ora Mega and, at weekends, Mega Savvatokyriako.

Well-known Greek journalists present Mega’s weekly evening current affairs shows. Long-standing political talk show Anatropi (Reversal) airs on Mondays at 23.30, while the newly launched Online is on Wednesdays at 23.20. Both are broadcast live, with the latter inviting viewers to submit questions to guests via social media.

Meanwhile, investigative documentary series Orizontas (Horizon, Sunday 23.30) launched in March to succeed the long-running War Zone.

This year, Mega has limited its number of cookery shows. It currently airs Kanto Opos o Akis (Do It Like Akis) daily at 16.40.

Entertainment, formats
Light entertainment starts daily at 10.00 with three-hour live show Deka me Mia (Ten to One), fronted by popular Greek satirist Markos Seferlis and his actress wife. Mega took competitors by surprise last October when they picked the theatrical couple to present one of one of Greek TV’s most competitive zones for so-called dynamic audiences (15-44s).

“It is still first in terms of shares in this zone and we are very happy with it,” says Xenopoulos. Recently, the channel trusted Seferlis with a second local show, which premiered on Fridays in primetime at the end of March. The weekly One Mark Show is a mix of comedy and gameshow.

Xenopoulos says the programme is “a bit subversive, with many games and surprises. It’s not exactly satirical but it has the logic of an evening show where everything is possible. It has a lot to do with the personality of the presenter.”

Mega has also launched a second season of Celebrity Game Night, an adaptation of Hollywood Night Game, which airs Thursdays at 22.20, scoring a season average share of 23.3% of 15-44s.
Elsewhere, multi-themed light-entertainment programme Joy It’s Inside You, airs on Saturdays at 14.50.

Mega will soon be boosting its light-entertainment line-up with a new gameshow. The channel’s adaptation of Talpa Media’s I Love my Country is set to premiere on Saturdays in primetime in April as Ellada S’ Agapo (Greece I Love You).

One area Mega is not considering for the immediate future, however, is reality-driven entertainment.

Acquisitions
Given Mega’s focus on local fare, foreign movies and series like Drop Dead Diva, Mad Love, Tower Prep, Rescue Me and The Killing generally only air in late-night slots after 01.00 or during weekend primetime.

The channel’s output deal with Sony runs until 2017, giving the channel free-to-air exclusives on movies and series in Greece and covering its foreign programming needs. “Since we have this, we won’t easily get into a process of buying an ad-hoc series such as The Boss or Game of Thrones,” says Xenopoulos.

In mid-March, Mega announced a deal with Greek movie prodco Odeon S.A., the leading film distributor and producer in the country. “We’re trying to set up a new zone on Thursdays at 23.40 that will support modern Greek cinema,” Xenopoulos explains.

Multi-platform
Mega’s online VoD service is integrated with its website, where viewers can also access behind-the-scenes exclusive content related to its shows.

Mega’s top 10 shows of 2014-15
(Rank, title, type, day, viewer numbers in 1000s, % rating and % share of 15-44s, average across multiple showings)

1. Kato Partali, local comedy drama, Mon, 712, 16.9, 42.7
2. Greek National Team, local drama series, Tue, 568, 13.5, 35.4
3. The Music School, entertainment, Wed/Sun, 358, 8.5, 23.6
4. Celebrity Game Night, entertainment Thu, 296, 7, 23.3
5. Theatre, entertainment, Fri/Sun, 288, 6.8, 20.6
6. Mana X Ouranou (Mother from the Sky), local comedy drama, Wed, 286, 6.8, 19
7. Dikeosi (Vindication), local drama series, Mon-Thu, 283, 6.7, 18.1
8. Iroides (Heroines), local drama series, Tue, 257, 6.7, 21.5
9. Monterna Ikogenia (Modern Family), local adaptation of US comedy series, Tues, 207, 4.9, 15.7
10. Histories from the List, entertainment, Sun, 189, 4.5, 15.8

Source: Nielsen