2020 results: TNV keeps leadership in audience among republican TV channels

The coronavirus pandemic influenced almost all sectors of the economy in 2020. The mass media market wasn’t an exception. Nearly all changes are conditioned by the crisis, but not all the changes were bad. Television and digital media saw an incredible growth of audience. According to Tattelecom, which is Tatarstan’s largest provider, TNV channel turned out to be in the top 3 with a 7,7% TV viewing rate. The TV and radio company’s total revenue in 2020 was 574,2 million rubles. Read more in Realnoe Vremya’s report.

Fall in revenue and conservation of profit at Novy Vek RV and Radio Company in 2020

The net profit of Tatarstan’s largest media holding — Novy Vek TV and Radio Company JSC — totalled 3,5 million rubles in 2020.

Moreover, due to the coronavirus pandemic and a fall in the media market as well as a reduction in the number of some state programmes, the enterprise’s revenue significantly decreased in 2020.

At the same time, the earnings profile didn’t almost change: the biggest share — 53% of the total revenue — is held by TNV-Tatarstan TV channel, Shayan TV’s share in the total volume was 28%, TNV-Planeta owns 14%, the revenue of Bolgar Radio amounted to 5%.

The positive financial results of the activity of Novy Vek TV and Radio Company JSC in 2020 amid a fall in revenue was conserved as a consequence of a temporary closure of some TV projects during the pandemic in spring and summer 2020.

Despite this, the coverage of the TV audience with the holding’s TV channels expanded in 2020. So here are the channels with the biggest coverage of cable television shown last year: TNV reached nearly 7 million viewers in 418 settlements of the Russian Federation (against 5,7 million viewers in 2019), TNV-Planeta — 4,5 million viewers in 2,803 settlements of Russia (against 4,2 million viewers in 2019), Shayan TV — over 1,1 million viewers in 90 settlements (against 0,8 million viewers in 2019).

The total coverage of Bolgar Radio is 96% of the population of the Republic of Tatarstan (3,7 million citizens).

The development of social networks and alternative ways of delivering video content of TV channels’ programmes to the TV viewer is an important area of the activity of Novy Vek TV and Radio Company. The growth of followers of Novy Vek TV and Radio Company on Instagram last year was 25%, 47% on YouTube channel. Shayan TV’s Instagram account rose by 27%, Bolgar Radio’s Instagram did by 24%.

Moreover, the TV channels of Novy Vek TV and Radio Company are present today on many OTT platforms such as ОТТ Wink (Rostelecom), Smotreshka (Life Stream), Kartina TV (Verso), TV+, Okko, PressTV, Lime HD, Yandex, 24-hour TV, Bonus TV, Wifir NetByNet-holding.

In 2020, TNV-Tatarstan, TNV-Planeta, Shayan TV channels joined the top 25 regional TV channels in number of TV viewers in Lime HD.

How lockdown and pandemic influence the media market

The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown greatly influenced the media market. Television showed an unseen rise in the audience during the self-isolation period. According to Mediascope, Russia’s citizens watched TV 25% more than in April 2019 on average. Moreover, a notable increase turned out to be in the morning and in the afternoon — from 9.00 to 17.00.

A similar tendency is seen in the dynamics of general Tatarstan TV viewing — the TV audience showed a big growth, from 208 to 262 minutes a day.

As for the most popular genres of TV programmes last March and April, series, films, entertaining programmes were in the viewers’ top. They were followed by news and social and political programmes. Moreover, in April, people spent much more time watching TV programmes than in March.

So last year, TNV channel was in the top 3 with a 7,7% TV viewing share. In general, according to Tattelecom, TNV and TNV-Planeta channels enjoy deserved popularity among the TV audience of the Republic of Tatarstan and are in the top 10 TV channels in TV viewing share. Moreover, TV channels kept leading positions throughout 2020.

We should note that the TV media market didn’t suffer seriously. In 9 months of 2020, it lost 8% of its incomes, according to the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia. Experts think that television and the Internet managed to adapt better during the coronacrisis and improved their positions in the media market.

Print media and radio suffered the most — they lost 47% and 33% respectively. While Tatarstan media lost up to 50% of advertising incomes. According to head of Tatmedia Republican Agency Aydar Salimgarayev, not everybody managed to withstand the crisis, therefore they had to leave the market.

“At the same time, the mass media received support, the sector was recognised as affected, preferential loans became a salvation for somebody. Thanks to the measures that were taken, the rise in the number of subscriptions for print media totalled 20% compared to 2019. Print media have room for growth in retail sales,” noted Salimgarayev. Incomes in the Russian media market in 2020 dropped by 5% compared to 2019, reads a report of ECI Media Management.

“The era of television is just beginning”

Besides the reduction in the market, the lockdown caused other changes too — a digital transformation of media channels took place. Various online resources and streaming platforms made a gigantic leap in development. Television learnt how to create content in a new way and compete with digital channels.

“We consider the Internet and television as broadcasting platforms. For instance, nobody cancelled Smart TV. Many of my acquaintances watch television on the Internet by programming it on their own. But the content is important here: users look for interesting programmes, high-quality documentaries, good plots. It is important that every platform including social media receive content that fits the format and requirement of a specific audience from us. We should be as diversified as possible and creatively diverse to corresponding to each of the platforms offering us their audience. Now they have one option: to get the audience where it is possible,” Ilshat Aminov, director general of Novy Vek TV and Radio Company, notes.

According to him, republican TV channels continue their development and the era of television is just beginning.

“The era of television is beginning. Today everybody is visualising content, from bloggers to children’s magazines,” said Ilshat Aminov.

At the same time, TNV continues mastering another platform — TikTok. The rapidly growing platform with more than 20 million active monthly users literally exploded the media space last year. Nowadays the TikTok account of the TV company has over 3,700 followers. Ilshat Aminov thinks that television needs multi-platforms. Moreover, the audience receives visual content better.

“The one who will provide interesting content will win. The number of platforms is rising. Every platform should create a schedule that mutually complements accounts according to interests, which requires huge resources,” he says.

So children’s TV channel Shayan TV, which was launched in 2018 with the support of Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov, is already creating a “factory of TikTokers” for children and youngsters.

Novy Vek TV and Radio Company JSC sets tasks of keeping increasing the quality of its content, expanding the geography of broadcasting, creating and promoting the content on social media as well as developing Tatar-speaking projects, which provide high TV viewing shares and are the main competitive advantage of TNV channel.

By Lyutsia Kashapova