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Prima bumps back newscast

Broadcaster fails to make dent in Nova news viewership

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 23rd, 2008 issue

You can’t fault TV Prima for trying.
Just months after the commercial broadcaster trumpeted its decision to place its revamped news show in direct competition with TV Nova, Prima has announced that, due to fading ratings and fixed viewer habits, it is returning its newscast to its traditional, earlier timeslot.
“The feeling in the company was that the news program is first-rate, and [by broadcasting earlier we] would not have to challenge established viewer habits that Nova’s Televizní noviny has formed in the past 12 years,” said Pavel Zuna, Prima’s star anchor, as he announced the change April 18.
In February, Prima moved its main newscast to 7:30 p.m. in direct competition with Nova’s market-leading Televizní noviny (“TV news”) broadcast. Prima’s newscast will return to airing at 6:55 p.m. May 5.
For the first week after the revamp, the viewership for Prima’s newscast jumped to 949,000, but it has continuously dwindled since. In April, the newscast averaged less than 400,000 viewers. This forced Prima Director Marek Singer to abandon the experiment.
“People like our news program, but they had reservations about the timing,” he said.
TV viewers were curious at first, “but Prima promised more than it could deliver,” said Jan Potůček, a media commentator at DigiZone.cz.
Going head-to-head with Televizní noviny just made no sense, Zuna said. “We reasoned that it would be better for the channel as a whole if the news went back to 6:55 p.m.”
Nova’s newscast, which averages 2.5 million viewers daily, maintained a comfortable lead in ratings throughout its run against Prima.
“We are glad that viewers remained loyal to Televizní noviny,” said Nova spokeswoman Veronika Šmítková.
Prima’s choice of anchors for its newscast, both of whom got their start on Nova, might have contributed to its problem of forever trailing its more popular competitor.
“I would not say that [the anchors] are unattractive, but they confirm the impression that Prima is sort of a ‘secondhand’ Nova,” Potůček said. Those whose time is up or have already left Nova move to Prima, he said. “That’s not a good business card for a network that wants to compete with Nova,” he added.
The programming scheme did outlast some of Prima’s management, however. Executive Director Petr Chajda left the station Feb. 26, by mutual agreement, and his position was subsequently eliminated. On April 1, Gordon Lovitt became Prima’s new program director.
Under the revamped schedule, Prima’s evening news will return to its idiosyncratic time slot while keeping its new title and set. Replacing it at 7:30 p.m. will be reruns of the time-tested and popular sitcom Friends.

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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