TV Nova’s TN Live online news channel underwent a significant transformation last year. The original online stream has become a fully-fledged channel within the Oneplay platform, where it has its own programme slot. “Oneplay has really fundamentally changed our approach to TN Live, and we see TN Live as having a great future,” says Kamil Houska, Head of News at TV Nova. According to him, the channel is positioning itself as a news and lifestyle channel and is intended to reach specific audience groups through themed magazines.
Oneplay allows detailed monitoring of user behaviour, and it is thanks to this data that Nova has decided to make TN Live even more professional, from a modernised studio and an expanded team to 24-hour broadcasting. The station’s ambition is not only to provide live coverage of current events but also to create content for catch-up viewing.
New technologies also play an important role: artificial intelligence helps with video editing, social media analysis and fact-checking, but always under the supervision of editors. “Nothing we send out in any form can go without human oversight,” Houska emphasises, referring to the importance of credibility. In the interview, he also discusses preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections, which will be a major test for TN Live.
Mr Houska, you have always resisted labelling TN Live as a news channel. However, after the launch of Oneplay, TN Live has indeed become a classic television programme with its own position in this service. What is TN Live’s current position? Is it a news channel, or is it a news platform, or what is it exactly?
It is a news and lifestyle channel. We do not want to be purely a news channel, because we believe that lifestyle is a very interesting area for many people and many potential viewers. We want to combine both, or we are trying to combine both. You are right that the situation has changed with the launch of Oneplay. It is now difficult for users to distinguish between a classic linear channel and an online channel, because from the viewer’s perspective, they are practically the same. We realise that Oneplay offers us a whole range of possibilities for getting our news and lifestyle content to as many people as possible in the future. That’s why we have changed our studio, expanded our team, are creating more and more new programmes and are broadcasting 24 hours a day.
How does Oneplay influence TN Live? Oneplay is not only a video library but also a classic internet television service, so you get accurate viewing statistics. What did the data show for the first six months since Oneplay was launched?
I will mention two basic facts. First, Oneplay users generally include people who watch news programmes. And now we are talking about news programmes in general, not which channel they are on. Among the most watched programmes on Oneplay, let’s say in the top few positions, there are always Televizní noviny or other news formats. So we assumed that there was some demand for news. The second thing is that Oneplay has also changed TN Live in the sense that we must and want to gradually make it more professional.
If you only broadcast on standard internet and social networks, a less expensive studio will suffice. However, if you want to target a larger audience, the studio needs to look more professional and modern, and you need to have better resolution of the screens placed behind the presenters. We switched to 24-hour broadcasting seven days a week, we had to change our workflow, and we now operate in shifts. So yes, Oneplay has really changed our approach to TN Live fundamentally, and we see TN Live as having a great future.
If you are asking about figures, we are growing continuously week after week on Oneplay, and we are getting hundreds of thousands of video views per week thanks to Oneplay. Yet I think we are still at the beginning.
Can you elaborate on how TN Live should develop further in connection with Oneplay? You said that TN Live has become much more professional now and that the studio is already properly equipped. Overall, TN Live looks like a classic news television station. So, what will be the next development? What is the plan?
We don’t just focus on viewers who are watching us at that moment, i.e. live. We are creating more and more different themed programmes because we want to target specific groups of people who will watch the broadcast live or time-shifted. This means that the channel’s philosophy is not just about what is happening right now and what people are watching. We also focus heavily on themed blocks, which viewers then consume with a time shift within the next 24-48 hours on Oneplay.
And when I talk about thematic issues, we have found that there is a big gap here. There are large groups of people for whom we make special programmes. Teachers, for example. It probably wouldn’t be made for large full-format television, but we can have it here. And we find that thousands of people watch it every fortnight. We produce a specialised magazine for or about the army. This means that we want to target specific groups and communities of viewers. We know that perhaps only some of them will see the programme live, while most will watch it later from the archive on Oneplay.
Will TN Live need to change in any way in terms of the technical side of broadcasting? On the one hand, TN Live is a brand within Oneplay, but it is also a brand within the red HbbTV button, where it is split into several streams. Will you continue to work with this in some way, or are you planning to harmonise the two platforms?
That’s a good question. But I can’t answer it at the moment. It’s not that I don’t know, but we have some development plans that we don’t want to reveal yet. I’ll just say this in general terms. For us, TN, like Televizní noviny, is a key brand under which we want to produce all our news and current affairs content in the future, whether on social media, Oneplay or HbbTV. This means that we will also use other channels, but I cannot tell you the specific direction we are heading in at this point because we are preparing the next steps. However, I believe that they will be attractive to viewers.
So, is it a matter of months?
Yes, I can say that within a few months, TN Live will undergo further changes in quality and content. In this sense, our overall approach to how we want to address people may change a little.
For us, TN, like Televizní noviny, is a key brand under which we want to produce all our news and current affairs content in the future, whether on social media, Oneplay or HbbTV.
Editor Lukáš Polák and TV Nova Head of News Kamil Houska; Source: MediaGuru.czIf we look at our historically closest neighbour, Slovakia, the JOJ group has now significantly strengthened its JOJ Play video library and launched a special news section. It occurs to me that something similar could be done on Oneplay in connection with TN Live.
I will answer you in more general terms. We want to expand the news we produce to as many platforms as possible because we simply believe that the days when viewers only watch Televizní noviny are coming to an end. Today, our philosophy is to produce content and get it to as many viewers or listeners as possible. We don’t really care whether they watch it on social media, on the internet, on TN Live or in the evening on Televizní noviny. You know that the world has opened up considerably in this sense, and we want to go in all these directions.
Including HbbTV and so on.
Yes, exactly.
Last November, I interviewed CTO Josef Uher, and in addition to technical matters, we talked about the use of artificial intelligence. At the time, he said that Nova was monitoring developments and was in some kind of trial phase. Have you already implemented artificial intelligence in your news reporting? Or do you know in what direction you will be using it?
We currently use a whole range of AI-based tools, and we are testing a whole range of others. Generally speaking, we edit videos. AI prepares articles from the videos we produce on TN Live. We use it for analytical search capabilities. Of course, we also analyse social networks using artificial intelligence. There are many areas we already use or are working on and want to start using in the near future. We have a special department for this, but there is one more thing that is sometimes forgotten.
Not only do we want to use artificial intelligence, but we also deal with the ethical and journalistic dimensions. We have clearly defined rules that whenever anything is processed by artificial intelligence, the recipient of the news should be transparently aware of this. Anything we send out in any form, whether it is an article or a video, must not go out without human control. In other words, it is not the case that viewers directly watch reports, whether in text or video form, prepared by artificial intelligence without human control. There will always be a human being, an editor and a check. We believe that this is essential at a time when the media worldwide is facing a loss of trust. If we as journalists want to regain that trust, we must build on editorial policy, journalistic standards and clearly defined rules. In my opinion, this is the only way we can win the fight against disinformation and ensure that our work continues to be truly meaningful to people in the future.
So yes, we already use artificial intelligence today, and we want to incorporate it even more in the future. However, there must always be a human being supervising its output, because I believe that is key to maintaining credibility.
Artificial intelligence will always be there only as a supplement, an assistant.
An add-on that speeds up work and streamlines a whole range of processes. For example, now, before the elections, we are preparing questions for politicians and proceeding in the same way as all television stations, where the questions are prepared by the presenter. At the same time, we are collecting opinions from people on social networks and other platforms to understand their attitudes, tone and what is currently bothering them. In the third phase, we also involve artificial intelligence, which, thanks to its analytical search capabilities on the internet, can identify the most pressing issues and what people are likely to ask about. The presenter then combines these suggestions with their own preparation.
I know that René Zavoral, CEO of Czech Radio, said that artificial intelligence would certainly never replace presenters in public service broadcasting.
We have also asked ourselves this question. Firstly, we would never want to convey serious news using avatars, not even inventing an artificial person or cloning Rey, for example. (Editor’s note: Rey Koranteng, presenter of Televizní noviny). This is absolutely unacceptable to us because we would lose credibility and the presenter’s personality.
The only exception is that we have horoscopes prepared by artificial intelligence, but we consider this to be merely a form of entertainment. In the field of serious news reporting and journalism, you will never see an artificial presenter or even a digital copy of a real person. The news will always be presented by a real person.
Won’t this even happen on TN Live?
Not even on TN Live. For the sake of credibility, there are boundaries we do not want to cross. That would be a dead end.
On Wednesday, Nova invited journalists to its Media Day ahead of the elections, as there is less than a month remaining before the parliamentary elections. News reporting plays a very important role in connection with the possibilities now offered by Oneplay. However, it is still true that content should take precedence over visuals, as it is the king. So my question is simple: What is Nova doing to ensure that everything is not only visually perfect, but that the content and preparedness of your entire team are of the same high quality?
Firstly, we have been preparing for the elections since at least January, and our presenters have been training regularly. Each editor has been assigned a specific area, which they have been preparing for over a long period of time, studying materials and so on. As we talked about artificial intelligence, we are preparing an AI that will fact-check the statements made by politicians during debates. Finally, although this is not directly related to the elections, we have significantly strengthened our editorial process over the last two years. Every video we broadcast on Televizní noviny is checked by at least three, and in some cases five, people to reduce the error rate and ensure the greatest possible accuracy. Of course, errors can never be completely ruled out. Given the speed of the media and the amount of information we process every day, they are bound to occur from time to time. But I must say that we have a minimum number of them, and I believe that we will be able to maintain this standard in the long term.
Source: mediaguru.cz