Atmedia, a media sales house of thematic TV channels, which recently reached a significant milestone commemorating 15 years on the Czech TV market, has now brought to light its 2024 business sales policy. In response to the ongoing high TV advertising demand, the company does intend to incrementally raise the advertising rates on their thematic television channels by an average of 15%. “To provide the advertisers with a broader platform for their TV campaigns, we have made the decision to shift our focus to a different target audience and we do also plan to expand our thematic channels’ portfolio,” explains Michaela Suráková, Atmedia’s Managing Director. The company is poised to embark on the upcoming year with a portfolio comprising thematic TV channels and four sales packages.
This year, Atmedia extended its portfolio to encompass CANAL+ Action and Spektrum Home television channels. Nevertheless, the demand for television advertising has remained exceedingly high, resulting in the company’s advertising space being entirely booked for almost the entire year. “Especially during our busiest months, we are often compelled to regretfully reject many clients. By shifting our lower age limit upwards by three years, we will be able to offer advertisers a 4% increase in advertising space for TV commercials in the coming year,” discloses Michaela Suráková, providing a rationale for changing the target audience from 15–69 to 18–69. Furthermore, she highlights Atmedia’s plans to expand its portfolio of thematic TV channels in the next year, thereby offering advertisers a larger allocation of advertising space. “At the moment, we are in discussions with several clients, and I do have every reason to believe that we will unveil a new thematic TV channel as part of our portfolio next spring,” says Michaela Suráková.
Alongside the shift in the target audience, Atmedia intends to implement increased rates for TV advertising in light of the heightened demand. “This course of action is shaped by more than just our consistently full advertising space. The substantial inflation rate has led to increased costs for both ourselves and the thematic TV channels that we represent. Therefore, we are left with no choice but to enact an average 15% rate hike for advertising space in the upcoming year,” clarifies Michaela Suráková. She further emphasises that the company is increasing its investment in advertising campaign management to ensure the most efficient utilisation of advertising space across all thematic TV channels.
Four Sales Packages as the Cornerstone of Our Sales Offer
Following the pattern of previous years, Atmedia will offer its advertisers four commercial sales packages. These cover atmax, atadults, and atchoice packages for the 18–69 target group, while the atkids package is tailored for the 4–14 age group. “Sales packages are the core of our corporate strategy and business offer, and we currently don’t foresee any changes in this aspect for the upcoming year,” states Michaela Suráková, while adding, “Our clients do have a similar perspective, as they consider these sales packages to be straightforward, easily understandable, and providing them with the freedom to choose according to their specific marketing and business targets.”
The atmax package does cover all 24 measured TV channels, enabling clients to maximise the reach of their advertising campaigns. The atadults package, which includes 22 measured TV channels, ensures maximum reach within the adult target audience. The atkids package offers a unique chance to connect with child viewers and their parents in a secure and regulated environment.
The final sales package is atchoice, composed of a minimum of 9 measured TV channels. “The atchoice package is an ideal choice for clients who need to effectively reach a narrowly profiled target audience, or potential customers. We can place their advertising campaigns on the thematic TV channels frequented by their target audience, which will reflect in the resulting affinity of the advertising campaign,” describes Michaela Suráková.
Summer Olympics in Paris, Grand Slam Tournaments, or Cycling Races
Apart from conventional television advertising, Atmedia extends a range of alternative advertising formats, such as sponsor messages, product placement, and teleshopping. Atmedia presents advertisers with the unique opportunity to align their brands with global sports events, a substantial portion of which receive exclusive broadcast coverage through TV channels within the Atmedia portfolio. The most sought-after sports events include cycling races like Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and La Vuelta, as well as Grand Slam tournaments Australian Open, Roland Garros, and US Open on Eurosport 1. “The year 2024 coincides with the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, offering TV advertisers the opportunity to connect with an audience of up to half a million viewers aged 18–69 on Eurosport 1,” points out Michaela Suráková, and concludes, “Global sports events do offer television advertisers the chance to connect with desirable demographic segments, particularly focusing on younger men with greater disposable incomes.”
The Largest Number of Thematic TV Channels on the Czech Market
Next year, Atmedia will step into the market with a portfolio of 28 thematic channels, with 24 of them being part of the official television audience measurement. These encompass both locally owned channels and those belonging to multinational television groups. From Czech channels, it is specifically Rebel, Relax, television channels from the Czechoslovak Film Company group (CS Film, CS History, CS Mystery), and Seznam Televize. Atmedia collaborates with multinational television groups such as Warner Bros. Discovery (Discovery Channel, Eurosport 1, TLC), AMC Networks (AMC, Film+, Minimax, Spektrum, Spektrum Home, Sport 2, TV Paprika), CANAL+ (CANAL+ Action, FilmBox, FilmBox Stars), The Walt Disney Company (Disney Channel, National Geographic), and Antenna Group (AXN). The Slovak television group JOJ (JOJ Family, JOJ Cinema) also holds a significant position in Atmedia’s offering.
At present, Atmedia’s TV channels do monthly attract an average of 5,3 million television viewers aged 4 and above, constituting 57% of the total television audience. They achieve an average audience share of 5,8% within the 18–69 age bracket and 4,6% among the 4–14 age group.[1] “With the forthcoming expansion of our thematic TV channels portfolio at the start of the next year, we anticipate a growth in our audience share. I am confident that in the coming year, we will approach the 7% milestone,” reveals Michaela Suráková.
About Atmedia
Atmedia Czech s.r.o. is a media sales house of almost 30 thematic TV channels, which has been active on the Czech market since 2008. Atmedia does handle the selling of TV advertising, and it currently represents many local as well as most of the international TV channels and TV groups on the Czech TV market, in particular AMC Networks, Warner Bros. Discovery, The Walt Disney Company, Antenna Group, or the Slovak JOJ group. At the beginning of 2010, Atmedia introduced the market to a very unique way of selling the advertising space via sales packages. Since 2021, has been regularly publishing the Atmedia Index, a valuable resource providing extensive data, information, and insights in three key domains: (1) the evaluation of television channels’ quality through the eyes of their viewers, (2) adoption and usage of Pay-TV and Free-to-Air services, (3) adoption and usage of subscription Video-on-Demand (SVoD) services.
[1] ATO – Nielsen, Live + TS0–3, Q1– Q3 2023, Reach, TG 4+; Share, TG 18–69, 4–14; Atmedia + AMC Networks + Seznam.cz TV
