ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCIAL TELEVISION STARTED A DIALOGUE WITH ADVERTISERS AND GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES IN THE FIRST YEAR OF OPERATION

12. 4. 2018 In the first year of its existence, the Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) set two main goals: to spread awareness among advertisers about television being a key advertising mediatype and to do so through marketing activities as well as to engage in law-making processes with a direct impact on commercial television business. During its first year, AKTV also joined the Chamber of Commerce, where it has been an active member of the Creative Industry Section, and it also became an associate member of the EGTA Association, which brings together television and radio media representatives. The Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) was formed in spring 2017, in response to the growing need to defend and promote the common interests of commercial broadcasters in the Czech Republic. The founding members of the Association are the Nova, Prima and Óčko television networks and the first presidential mandate was headed by Jan Vlček from Nova. As part of its marketing activities, in response to frequent unsubstantiated statements made by global players in online advertising, AKTV focused on direct communication with the most important advertisers in the Czech Republic. In the first year of its existence, AKTV organized two educational seminars for senior management of the largest advertisers as well as for CEOs and marketing directors. The common denominator of both conferences were exceptional foreign speakers and premium and highly relevant content. Les Binet, a renowned expert and an author of marketing books from the adam & eve DDB London agency, gave a lecture at the first conference, and Karen Nelson-Field, an Australian university professor and researcher, presented the results of her latest research, which compares the performance of television and online advertising, at the second conference. AKTV will continue with its activities this year so as to respond to the demand of the advertisers for relevant and undistorted information on the current status of the individual mediatypes and the trends in their use.

TELEVISION IS STILL NUMBER ONE. EVEN TODAY’S INTERNET SAVVY CHILDREN PREFER TV

9. 4. 2018 Even though children mostly moved from the television screen to a computer monitor or smartphone, television is still number one for them. Research shows that even today’s children still prefer TV over other types of media. Lifestyle Survey of Children conducted by the Association of Television Organisations (ATO) shows that television is still a number one daily (or almost daily) media activity for almost three-quarters of Czech children aged 4-14 years. The frequency of children’s TV consumption even surpasses their watching Internet content or playing games. 71% of children watch live television broadcasts on a regular basis. Another 13% of children turn on the TV at least once a week. Number two media activity for children is watching videos on YouTube and similar sites. 30% of children watch them daily or almost daily and 38% of children watch them at least once a week. It is similar to listening to music, songs and radio. However, compared to watching television, more children do these activities on a daily basis (37%). One-quarter of children claim that they listen to music once a week. This activity is followed by reading books, magazines and comics, either daily (26% of children) or once a week (35% of children). Playing Games and Time Spent in Front of TV The fifth most common media activity for children is playing electronic games. One-third of children spend their time playing games daily and a little more than one-fifth of children play games at least once a week. As to the time, children usually spend on the media per day, the youngest children, aged four to six years, spend most of their time watching TV. Older children, on the other hand, prefer watching online videos or playing electronic games. According to the ATO Lifestyle Survey of Children, compared to younger children, older children also usually sleep less during the day, spend less time with their parents and more time at school. They have more free time, especially at weekends, and therefore spend more time using electronic devices (computers, notebooks, smartphones or tablets). The research was conducted last year and 531 children participated in it. Source: iDNES.cz

EUROPEAN SALES HOUSES URGE LEGISLATORS TO STRIKE THE RIGHT BALANCE IN THE FINAL AVMS DIRECTIVE NEGOTIATIONS

26. 3. 2018 The European Commission’s proposal for a revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive in May 2016 promised to create a fairer environment for all players, to ensure adequate protection for consumers, especially children, to sustain the production of original European content and to introduce more flexibility on the advertising rules for broadcasters. The original proposal was a step in the right direction and was welcomed as such by European sales houses and broadcasters, in particular the flexibility on advertising time as well as the simplification and liberalisation of the rules on sponsorship and product placement. As the trilogue negotiations come to a conclusion, egta members would like to urge decision-makers to keep those initial objectives in mind when agreeing on the final balance of the text. Broadcasters are increasingly concerned at the potential erosion of what was a modest evolution of the rules in the first place. Since the publication of the initial proposal, online advertising sales have been growing steadily and in 2016 became the main media for advertisements on a pan-European level, with €36.8 billion in revenue, surpassing TV advertising (€31.4 billion)1. As things stand, apart from the moderate liberalisation of the advertising time, there will be little to no discernible flexibility in the qualitative advertising rules, the articles on sponsorship and product placement and the other linear specific advertising provisions. We strongly urge the Parliament, Member States and the Commission to take the opportunity of the final trilogue meetings to ensure that this revision process delivers on its original objectives of a competitive, creative and safe European audiovisual landscape. This could be achieved by introducing measures safeguarding broadcasters’ signal integrity, simplifying the rules on product placement and sponsorship as per the Commission proposal, liberalising isolated adverting spots in article 19.2 and ensuring that no further measures adversely impact broadcasters’ current revenue streams. To secure a robust level of consumer protection, a fair environment for business and competition with other actors, all content providers, including video sharing platforms, should also adhere to the basic advertising principles in articles 9, 10 and 11. In a fast-changing market place where all content providers, both online and offline, linear and non-linear, are competing for audience and advertising revenues, qualitative prescriptions should be simplified and harmonised in order to secure a more equal environment, so that the financing of quality content shall be sustainable in the longer term. As noted throughout the studies that informed the Commission’s impact assessment, Europeans have never been presented with more choice of audiovisual content. It is in this context that broadcasters need to secure future proof revenue streams that will allow them to continue offering the content that viewers expect and are interested in. Therefore, the European audiovisual sector needs a regulatory environment that reflects the current market place, provides proportionate and balanced rules and will remain relevant as technological developments occur. We strongly believe that simplification and legal certainty in the AVMSD will match those objectives. egta is the association representing television and radio sales houses that market the advertising space of both private and public television and radio stations throughout Europe and beyond. egta counts 140 members across 40 countries. www.egta.com 1 The EU online advertising market – Update 2017, European Audiovisual Observatory, 2017.

WE WATCH MORE TV AND IN BETTER QUALITY

15. 3. 2018 95% of Czech households currently own a television. Moreover, the time we spend in front of the TV is constantly growing. Czech people aged 15 years or more watch TV for 3 hours and 45 minutes a day on average, which is 31 minutes more than ten years ago. They also watch TV broadcasts in better quality: almost two thirds of households watch TV in HD quality. Households are more often turning into smart households as people own increasingly more notebooks, smartphones and tablets and commonly use them to consume TV video content. The data regarding the use of technology in Czech households come from the Continual Survey 2017, which was conducted by Nielsen Admosphere for the Association of Television Organisations. The survey is an integral part of the Project of Crossplatform Electronic Measurement and Content Consumption in the Czech Republic. The survey was conducted in 2017 and 27,506 respondents aged 15 years or more from 19,038 households participated in it.

TELEVISION INCREASES THE NUMBER OF DELIVERED ADVERTISING TRPS

12. 2. 2018 As the results of the first month of 2018 show, the increase affects all players in the market. The Czech television advertising market had a successful first month this year. Based on the number of delivered advertising TRPs, 2018 started off favourably. Compared to the same period last year, the number of TRPs delivered to the target group of people aged 15+ increased by eight percent, in the age group 15-54 by 6.5 percent and in the age group 15-69 by nine percent. The strongest players in the advertising television market are Media Club and TV Nova. The former has a strong position in age groups 15+ and 15-54 as far as the number of delivered TRPs is concerned. The situation is more balanced in the age group 15-54. The share of delivered TRPs of all subjects increased in January of this year, compared to the same period last year. Atmedia and TV Nova scored the highest percentages. Source: mediaguru.cz

TELEVISION ADS OUTPERFORM YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK ADS

6. 2. 2018 This is the result of a research that focused on the interconnection between the attention that people pay to advertisements and the influence it has on the sales of goods. According to the research conducted by Australian professor Karen Nelson-Field, television ads command more attention than YouTube or Facebook ads. The professor introduced her research at a meeting organized by the Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) in Prague. The research showed that 58% of people actively watched an average ad second on the television screen, while only 31% of people did so on YouTube and only 4% on Facebook. "Facebook is a rather passive platform, the primary focus being on friends, not advertising. But passive consumers of ads are also somehow significant," she said. Karen Nelson-Field also mentioned that attention is a key factor influencing product selection and that it directly impacts sales. "There is a strong interdependence between the attention paid to advertising and the volume of sales. The probability of people making a purchase when exposed to a certain ad increased by 17% when compared to people who have not seen the ad," she said. Therefore, each video has a positive effect on the sale of goods. The comparison of the above-mentioned platforms (TV, YouTube and Facebook) yet again demonstrates that advertising on the television screen achieved the best results. Based on the research, the attention paid to ads is highly correlated to screen coverage (the percentage of a screen occupied by an ad) on any platform. Television advertisements, at 100% screen coverage, provide three times more screen coverage than YouTube and ten times more screen coverage than Facebook. Ad visibility is thus directly proportional to attention that people pay to ads, which in turn impacts sales. The research claims that ad visibility is more important than the time people spend watching a particular ad.

ADVERTISING ON TV GETS MORE ATTENTION THAN ON YT OR FB

6. 2. 2018 This is based on research that has found a correlation between the attention paid to advertising and its impact on the sale of goods.

THE MEDIA MARKET SUPPORTS THE NEW AMENDMENT TO THE PHARMACEUTICALS ACT WHICH GOVERNS ADVERTISING

23. 1. 2018 Media operators and advertising agencies from professional associations support the new amendment to the Pharmaceuticals Act, which will be voted on at the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies on Friday and which proposes to repeal the latest amendment to the Act on Regulation of Advertising. In the last year, the Act on Regulation of Advertising was amended as a rider to the Pharmaceuticals Act. The responsibility for the compliance of advertising content with the law was extended to the broadcasters and it concerns selected types of product – medicinal products for human use, food supplements and foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses and for infant nutrition. Until then, it had only been the subjects, which had helped create the advertising content, who had been responsible for the compliance of advertising of such products with the law, as is the case with other types of products. The amendment seeks to return to the original form of the Act on Regulation of Advertising. The problematic amendment, which introduced the joint liability of the disseminator of advertising for the compliance of the advertising content (medicinal products for human use, food supplements and foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses and for infant nutrition) with the law, has been effective since April 2017. The amendment has not contributed to increasing the level of consumer protection. Instead, it has proved to be easily misused in the competitive fight among the producers of the products concerned. In the spring of last year, the entire media sector warned that extending the responsibility for the compliance of advertising content with the law to the disseminator of advertising could not contribute to increasing the level of consumer protection. The reason for this is that the advertisers do not have any professional qualification or legal tools to gather the necessary background information that would help them professionally assess, for instance, whether the advertised product actually strengthens one’s immune system or not.

KEY MEDIA ALLIANCES CELEBRATE THE TRUSTWORTHINESS OF TV ON THE OCCASION OF WORLD TELEVISION DAY

27. 11. 2017 The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) and egta, the association of television and radio sales houses are celebrating the trustworthiness of television on the occasion of World Television Day (21 November), as declared by the United Nations. This year again, the three organisations have produced a 30-second video clip emphasising the role TV has around the world as provider of trusted content. It will be aired by broadcasters across Europe, Asia, Canada, USA and Australia on 21 November. To celebrate their love of television, viewers are encouraged to use the hashtags #WeloveTV and #WorldTVDay on social networks on 21 November. The video highlights that now, more than ever, the trustworthiness of television plays a central part in our daily lives as it keeps viewers up to date on what is going on at home and abroad and brings the world’s attention to what matters. Editorial responsibility, truthful reporting, top quality content, the safest environment and the reliable, independent measurement system are the DNA of TV. This makes it a unique medium for world-class content and a fully brand-safe environment… no matter on which device.

AKTV HAS BECOME A MEMBER OF EGTA, THE ASSOCIATION OF TV & RADIO SALES HOUSES AND THE GLOBAL TV GROUP, A GLOBAL INITIATIVE TO PROMOTE TV

25. 9. 2017 The Association of Commercial Television (AKTV), which represents the most important operators of commercial television broadcasting in the Czech Republic, has become a new associate member of egta, the trade association of over 139 television and radio sales houses throughout Europe and beyond. AKTV will represent the Czech Republic, along with the existing egta members – broadcaster groups Nova and Prima, and also the AtMedia Group. In addition, AKTV has joined The Global TV Group, an informal grouping of broadcasters’ and sales houses’ trade bodies in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and Latin America, whose joint objective is to promote television. In the 43 years of its existence egta has significantly expanded the sphere of its work as well as its membership, which currently comprises 139 members in more than 40 countries. egta offers its members support in research, networking, marketing, advocacy and regulatory assistance. It is an organizer of multiple international conferences and seminars. The association’s vast network also facilitated the establishment of The Global TV Group, a worldwide initiative which connects associations of television broadcasters and advertising sales houses from all over the world. „We appreciate the support and trust provided by egta in everyday questions of our operation. AKTV´s agenda is wide ranging - from marketing activities to public affairs, for this reason, we value close collaboration and we are happy to use the egta experts’ know-how“ says Jan Vlček, President, the Czech Association of Commercial Television. „We’re very proud to welcome AKTV to the egta family as an associate member and are looking forward to working closely together towards our common goal: the promotion of television.“ adds Katty Roberfroid, Director General, egta. About AKTV: The Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) is an association of terrestrial television broadcasting operators with the goal of defending, supporting and promoting the common interests of commercial broadcasters in the Czech Republic. AKTV was established in 2017 in response to the growing need among commercial television companies to defend and promote their interests. AKTV intends to represent their interests vis-à-vis government authorities and to be a partner in the dialogue as part of making both national and European laws. It will also focus on protecting copyrights and marketing and educational activities in the field of television broadcasting. About egta: egta is the European trade association for marketers of advertising solutions across (multiple) screens and/or audio platforms, with the aim to help its members protect, grow and diversify their business around content edited and broadcast on a linear basis by their TV channels and/or radio stations. egta's members are sales houses that commercialise the advertising space of both private and public TV and radio channels throughout Europe and beyond. egta’s strength lies in the diversity of its members: they are independent sales houses or commercial departments within a broadcaster's structure. They include large companies in major markets and medium-sized companies in smaller markets.

CZECH TELEVISION MARKET HAS GROWN BY 5% IN RECENT YEARS

29. 3. 2017 Performances of the main commercial broadcasters show, however, that the market has not returned above the pre-2008 level. The Czech television market in 2014 and 2015 rose in net investments by less than 5%. The comparison, based on economic results (performance) of the main commercial players in Czech television market (Nova Group, Prima Group, Barrandov Group), also shows that in total the television market volume has not returned above the 2008 level. On the other hand, 2015 had the second best result of the observed period of time. In 2015, which is so far the last year with available data regarding the three subjects, the total performance of the companies CET 21, FTV Prima and Barrandov Televizní Studio reached 8.5 billion Czech Crowns. Compare this to 2014, when it was almost 400 million Czech Crowns. As compared to 2008, however, the 2015 result is behind by 1.3 billion Czech Crowns. After 2013, which was affected by TV Nova´s business policy, which led to decrease in advertising investments (-5 %), the market started to grow again the following year. It continued for two subsequent years, during which the total performances of the main players in the commercial market increased by just under 5%. According to existing prognosis, growth in several percent is also expected for 2017.

THE NOVA, PRIMA AND ÓČKO TV GROUPS ESTABLISHED THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCIAL TELEVISION

2. 3. 2017 The new Association of Commercial Television (Asociace komerčních televizí, z.s., “AKTV”), established by CET 21 spol. s r.o., FTV Prima, spol. s r. o. and Stanice O, a.s. started operating in February 2017. The principal objective of AKTV is to associate commercial TV broadcasters in the Czech Republic and collectively defend, support and promote their interests in liaisons with government and EU authorities. The first President of AKTV is Jan Vlček, Executive Director and Sales Director of Nova Group. Marie Fianová is the Secretary and is in charge of running the Association. The Association of Commercial Television was founded in response to the growing need among commercial television companies to defend and promote their interests. AKTV intends to represent their interests vis-à-vis government authorities and to be a partner in the dialogue as part of making both national and European laws. It will also focus on protecting copyrights and marketing and educational activities in the field of television broadcasting