The owners of entertainment portals and concert halls have new business that yields hundreds of thousands of crowns. The Czechs have, above all, developed a taste for online broadcasts of pop and classical music concerts, which they can enjoy in the comfort of their home or at a crowded cinema. Betting on this new service has already paid off for TV Nova, which has broadcasted live concerts of Chinaski, Tři sestry, Aneta Langerová and Dan Bárta on its portal tn.cz in the past weeks.
The biggest interest has been aroused by the online broadcast of a boxing match at Prague’s Lucerna on 17 December. “Altogether, over one hundred thousand people have seen live broadcasts of concerts and sports events on tn.cz,” said Nova spokeswoman Michaela Fričová. Also the portal iDnes.cz has broadcasted live concert of the pop band Kryštof at the State Opera at the beginning of December.
There are two ways in which Nova makes profit from the online broadcasts. The viewers raise the total visits of the portal tn.cz, which is used by Nova’s sales people when selling advertising time on the entire Nova internet web site, and the advertisers buy advertising time specifically for broadcast concerts.
For example, Chinaski’s concert with more than 134,000 real users has resulted in the most visits per day for the portal in the whole month of November. The mobile operator Vodafone has bought advertising time for the concerts of Tři sestry, Chinaski, Dan Bárta and Aneta Langerová. The company has paid over CZK 100,000 to Nova for one online concert, according to information provided to E15 by a source from the advertising industry. All online broadcasts were therefore profitable for the biggest commercial TV station. “The price is part of our trade secret,” Vodafone’s spokesman Miroslav Čepický said, avoiding a direct reply. “We are considering further cooperation with the online broadcasts of concerts in the future.”
Also the operators of Aero and Světozor cinemas, who have been offering online concerts from the New York Metropolitan Opera since last year’s December, have hit the bull’s eye with online broadcasting. Almost 3,700 viewers have watched the online broadcasts in five towns – in Prague’s Aero, in Hradec Králové, Žatec, Chotěboř and Znojmo. Another 3,000 bought tickets for the reruns of opera performances. “These concerts represent an important step toward finding new content for cinemas. They account for one tenth of total revenues. On the whole, these activities are profitable,” said Aero and Světozor’s marketing manager Jiří Šebesta.
Both alternative cinemas are therefore continuing in their broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. Another seven broadcasts have been planned from 20 December and the cinemas will be looking for other genres of entertainment for digital screening, according to Šebesta. Nova will also continue. On New Year’s Eve it will broadcast the show from Wenceslas Square on its website, as well as Václav Klaus’s New Year speech the following day.
Translated with permission by the Prague Daily Monitor.
