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PPF Group is an international investment group founded in the Czech 
Republic in 1991. It has grown to manage operations in 25 countries around the world.

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PPF Group

Petr Novotný, CEO Škoda Group: We will evaluate the possibility of an offer for Talgo once we have more detailed information.

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Škoda Group

&Scaron;koda Group&rsquo;s development programme encompasses a full range of mobility solutions, including trams, trolleybuses, electric buses, hydrogen buses, trains and metros, and supports these solutions with comprehensive servicing, maintenance, and the in-house production of high-level electrical components. The group is increasingly moving towards sustainable next-generation transport and solutions for the data-connected transport infrastructure of future smart cities and 5G connectivity.
Its digital division is dedicated to developing and innovating digital, control and diagnostic systems for vehicles. In the field of digital technologies, the group introduced its Smart Depot concept, opening up new possibilities for transport companies to make their depot operations more efficient. The component manufacturing business also thrived, with &Scaron;koda to be involved in supplying traction motors for Melbourne&rsquo;s trams. &Scaron;koda Group&rsquo;s vehicles are environmentally friendly, all of them purely electric and emission-free.

In 2023, &Scaron;koda Group underwent strategic restructuring, appointing Petr Novotn&yacute; as CEO, reorganising its business regions, and acquiring the Austria-based Molinari Rail and Belgium-headquartered The Signalling Company. The group&rsquo;s key countries of operation are the Czech Republic, Germany, the Baltic countries, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, and Italy. Throughout the year, &Scaron;koda Group forged strategic partnerships as it sought to expand its global footprint. Looking ahead, the group has been actively considering opportunities in North America and India.
Despite ongoing problems stemming from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's aggression in Ukraine, &Scaron;koda Group successfully secured major contracts, including orders for night coaches for the Finnish carrier VR and the Italian company Trenitalia, and completed numerous projects. The group also signed a contract to upgrade the Austrian national carrier &Ouml;BB&rsquo;s NightJet fleet. New electric trains are in the works for Uzbekistan and Estonia, while the Bulgarian capital of Sofia is set to take receipt of advanced metro trainsets. The streets of Bergamo, Italy, and Kassel, Germany, will soon welcome new &Scaron;koda-made trams. Capping off the year on a high note, &Scaron;koda Group triumphed in a major tender for the production of up to 200 trams for Prague. These will be equipped with the advanced &Scaron;koda anti-collision system, which won a prestigious Česk&aacute; hlava Award in the Industry category in 2023.
&Scaron;koda also completed the handover of an entire fleet of EMU Moravia units to the South Moravian Region, introduced &Scaron;koda 41T trams in Bonn, and delivered new trolleybuses in Czech cities. It also started trial operation of the longest trolleybus in the Czech Republic, the &Scaron;koda-Solaris 24m, which has been transporting passengers to and from Prague's V&aacute;clav Havel Airport since March 2024. Besides the Czech Republic, the group&rsquo;s extra-long trolleybuses can also be found in Bratislava, Slovakia. In addition, new locomotives with &Scaron;koda systems at their core were rolled out in Tanzania during the year.

In 2023, the group posted revenues of EUR 1.1 billion, representing a more than 46% increase in comparison with 2022. As production increased, the number of employees grew, rising by 14% to almost 7,300. &Scaron;koda reaped the benefits of its continued efforts to foster talent development, diversity and employee satisfaction when it was once again recognised in the prestigious Randstad Awards competition by being named the second most attractive employer in the Czech Republic.
During the year, the order backlog also swelled to over EUR 3.2 billion. In 2023, &Scaron;koda Group invested EUR 85.5 million in research and development. &Scaron;koda Group also published its first ESG report, in which it laid out its sustainability strategy.

Czech Republic

Hungary

Finland

Poland

Germany

&Scaron;koda Group, a leading international provider of public transport solutions, consolidates its market position through innovation, digitalisation, and the development of its portfolio of vehicles and services. Growth in order volumes has facilitated significant investment in production capacity and job numbers.

&Scaron;koda Group, as a sustainable mobility innovator, has pledged to allocate 2-3% of its revenue to research and development in this area from 2023 to 2027. One of the 2023 innovations was the Automatic Train Operation system that facilitates greater energy efficiency in rail transport by automatically guiding the train and reacting in real time to minimise energy use by as much as 15%.
&Scaron;koda Group monitors the carbon intensity of its vehicle production and operations. In 2023, an Environmental Product Declaration was awarded to its ForCity Smart Artic X54 tram in recognition of its 92.6% recyclability rate and 98% recoverability rate. &Scaron;koda Group also reached a new milestone in alternative fuels when the next generation of its H&rsquo;CITY hydrogen bus was successfully put to the test in Prague&rsquo;s integrated transport system. &Scaron;koda Group&rsquo;s anti-collision system, a key innovation in this area, helps to prevent injuries and vehicle damage, and is an important step in progress towards the development of an autonomous tram.

Sustainability and innovations

This text was translated from <a href="https://cincodias.elpais.com/companias/2024-08-06/petr-novotny-skoda-evaluaremos-la-opcion-de-una-oferta-por-talgo-cuando-tengamos-informacion-detallada.html">the Spanish original </a>and edited for clarity. Last week, the board rejected your proposal for industrial integration with Talgo. Are you planning to make a cash offer that competes with the offer from Ganz-M&Aacute;VAG?
Our plan is based on extensive understanding of Talgo&rsquo;s situation over the past few years. We want to embark on a long-term project with them to create a European leader in the railway sector. &Scaron;koda and Talgo are highly compatible in terms of products, markets and technology.&nbsp;
When you mention Talgo&rsquo;s situation, do you mean that &Scaron;koda can provide production capacity to expand the portfolio of contracts?
Recently, we invested more than EUR 300 million in strengthening our factories. We started four years ago with an annual turnover of EUR 300 million, which has now risen to EUR 1.4 billion.&nbsp;
A takeover bid (by Ganz-M&Aacute;VAG) has been registered since March, and the Talgo board has indicated its preference for it. Are you prepared to launch a cash offer?
&nbsp;We are surprised that our offer wasn&rsquo;t given due consideration. First, I assure you that our approach to Talgo presents no legal obstacles. Second, we can offer a more detailed proposal once we have evaluated the company.&nbsp;
Could a more detailed proposal include a cash bid?
We&rsquo;ll consider that option once we have some detailed information about Talgo. Our approach takes into account the perspectives of all shareholders, and we aren&rsquo;t looking to gain anything for free. We&rsquo;re an active investment group, but what matters most is our long-term industrial vision. This isn&rsquo;t about what money can buy but the value we can create.
Are &Scaron;koda&rsquo;s options dependent on the Spanish government vetoing the Ganz-M&Aacute;VAG takeover bid, or could we see a takeover battle?
Our project is independent of the Spanish government&rsquo;s actions. This is a matter between companies, and it involves sitting down with the Talgo board to discuss products, technology and markets. Our advantage is in our capability and ambition to create a European giant that covers propulsion systems, light and commuter trains, electric buses, signalling systems, and Talgo&rsquo;s major strengths in high-speed rail. &Scaron;koda has the capacity to perform critical processes from Talgo&rsquo;s perspective, such as aluminium and steel welding, which takes years to develop. We also have approvals in demanding markets such as Germany, where we employ hundreds of people. In Finland, we have a team of 800 employees producing structures for trains and trams through an investment of EUR 150 million in &Scaron;koda Transtech. In Italy, another of our key markets, we&rsquo;ve entered a major contract with Trenitalia to supply wagons, and we&rsquo;re also manufacturing trams for Bergamo and 112 trolleybuses for Genoa.
Where do you see the greatest opportunities with Talgo?
Many countries have developed plans for high-speed rail, but the most immediate demand comes from the European Rail Baltica project, where we already have positions to equip commuter lines that would connect with the new infrastructure. There are also opportunities in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. We&rsquo;re confident in our capabilities and believe we can offer support in all these geographies.
Your company lacks experience in high-speed rail. Would you be entering that field if you weren&rsquo;t able to integrate with Talgo?
We aren&rsquo;t planning to enter high-speed rail alone.
Are you collaborating with the Spanish Government? Have you informed the authorities in this country about your project?
Our offer has been communicated to Talgo&rsquo;s board and shareholders. As I&rsquo;ve mentioned, it is a negotiation between two companies. Our approach takes the shareholders&rsquo; perspectives into view, we aren&rsquo;t looking for anything for free.
Are there any politics behind it?
&Scaron;koda, Talgo and other key players in the sector are part of a critical industry that attracts significant investments. Regardless of the country, governments are always interested in these types of business. We operate in more than twenty markets, and it is absolutely normal to maintain good relations with governments.
After initially being refused, are you confident that Talgo&rsquo;s board will let you examine the company&rsquo;s books and conduct due diligence?
I&rsquo;m absolutely convinced. Talgo will be able to appreciate the benefits of our proposal. We&rsquo;ve decided to maintain communication with the company and will do so through a letter that we&rsquo;ll be sending to its CEO. We&rsquo;re insisting on opening a dialogue and will explain the project&rsquo;s benefits to various shareholders whose interests may not necessarily align. Finally, how employees and other actors in Talgo&rsquo;s environment, such as Renfe railway company, see it is important.&nbsp;
Have you contacted Spanish investors who could join your plan, such as Criteria Caixa?&nbsp;
We are aware of Criteria Caixa but aren&rsquo;t planning to collaborate with them at this time. We&rsquo;re learning about their interests through the press.
Do you consider Ganz-M&Aacute;VAG&rsquo;s offer of 619 million euros an accurate valuation for Talgo, or do you find it excessive?
I won&rsquo;t comment on the offer from another market player. It&rsquo;s important to remember that we don&rsquo;t know the details of their proposal.
In Spain, there have been reports that your company lacks financial capacity and is for sale through a mandate to JP Morgan. Is that correct? Has the company been offered to the Hungarian company Magyar Vagon, part of the consortium that made the takeover bid for Talgo?&nbsp;
I categorically deny all these claims. &Scaron;koda is not for sale, and JP Morgan has no mandate regarding this. Our owner, PPF Group, is committed to us for the long term. Concerning our financial situation, we benefit from the strength of PPF, which has assets exceeding EUR 40 billion and an annual profit of EUR 1.45 billion. We have grown from a turnover of EUR 300 million to over EUR 1.4 billion in four years. This period, despite the impact of Covid and supply chain crises on the entire industry, motivated us to focus on strengthening efficiency. In the first half of 2024, we secured EUR 800 million in new contracts, EUR 670 million in revenue, and posted a positive EBITDA of EUR 14 million. These figures speak of a clear performance improvement.&nbsp;
&Scaron;koda Transportation, the division of the group dedicated to producing trains and buses, has declared a negative net result for several years. Do you expect to reverse this situation in the short term?
We aren&rsquo;t the only company affected by recent unexpected events, but &Scaron;koda has continued to grow. Our plan is to stabilise profits in the short to medium term.
Can Talgo workers be assured in the event of potential integration, or should they fear job cuts for the sake of synergies?
They shouldn&rsquo;t be concerned. The two companies are complementary in products and markets and could benefit from savings due to greater economies of scale.
&nbsp;At what capacity are your factories currently operating?
Our annual capacity is seven million hours distributed across seven plants&mdash;five in the Czech Republic, one in Finland, and one in Turkey. We have a total production surface area of ​​300,000 square metres. Over the last decade, we&rsquo;ve developed critical processes for Talgo, such as steel and aluminium welding and quality testing. As for train maintenance services, Talgo is a main reference point for us.
The Turkish plant is for bus production. How can it contribute to Talgo&rsquo;s needs?
The plant has ample capacity and can be adapted to railway production need. Protecting the manufacturer&rsquo;s patents while also being listed in Spain is crucial for the government. How do you plan to address this?
Our approach is straightforward and transparent. Both issues are important, and Talgo, which is rightfully considered an iconic company, would continue to be listed in Madrid. We would preserve jobs and pay taxes in Spain. &Scaron;koda, Talgo and other leading industry players are part of a critical sector, and government interest is to be expected.&nbsp;
Can you provide an investment figure for the industrial plan with Talgo?&nbsp;
As someone in this industry, I would have to evaluate the specific needs first. However, I can highlight our recent EUR 300 million investment to strengthen our factories and the EUR 85 million we allocate annually to research and development.
Five years ago, you weren&rsquo;t leading the company, but &Scaron;koda had already approached Talgo.
I&rsquo;ve reviewed the documents highlighting the complementarity of both companies, and it seems that there was indeed contact.

Source: <a href="https://cincodias.elpais.com/companias/2024-08-06/petr-novotny-skoda-evaluaremos-la-opcion-de-una-oferta-por-talgo-cuando-tengamos-informacion-detallada.html">https://cincodias.elpais.com/companias/2024-08-06/petr-novotny-skoda-evaluaremos-la-opcion-de-una-oferta-por-talgo-cuando-tengamos-informacion-detallada.html</a> &nbsp; Author:&nbsp;<a href="https://cincodias.elpais.com/autor/javier-fernandez-magarino/">Javier Fern&aacute;ndez Magari&ntilde;o</a>

Our strategy is the same as Apple’s. We won’t be buying another bank, says Air Bank’s Strcula

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Airbank campaign 2024

Air Bank

Air Bank routinely introduces innovative financial services and solutions to the Czech market and leads the way by focusing on customers&rsquo; needs. Its customer-centric approach attracts new clients while increasing the lending volume and income from regular retail banking services. At the end of 2023, Air Bank was serving over 1.2 million customers via 1,061 employees at 32 branches across the Czech Republic.

Air Bank is steadily advancing the digitalisation of its services. By the end of 2023, more than 972,000 people were using Air Bank&rsquo;s mobile banking, with 57% of new accounts being opened and 90% of all loan applications being submitted online.
In 2023, the bank introduced several services, including services for the business community. It expanded its range of mortgage services to include the option of mortgages for foreign real estate and other features. It rolled out a new service designed to help people manage their household cash flow when faced with an unexpected expense.

Unity, a new brand shared by Air Bank and O2 (both part of PPF Group) that delivers benefits to clients when they use the services of both companies, received a strong market response. The number of clients signing up for this off er in the 2023 pilot phase exceeded expectations. In June 2023, Air Bank announced that it would be continuing its agreement with three other banks to share ATMs in the Czech Republic. Zonky, the P2P lending platform which has formally been part of Air Bank since 2021, continues to off er services branded under its own name. In 2024, Air Bank launched a new globally unique payment solution under the newly established Cvak brand and it plans to exounts (75% online), applying for loans (88% online), or taking out travel insurance (91% online).

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 <td scope="col">Air Bank's Values</td>
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 </thead>
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 <td>Simplicity</td>
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 <td>Truthfulness</td>
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 <td>Courage</td>
 </tr>
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 <td>Friendliness</td>
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In February 2023, the Czech and Slovak arms of Home Credit became subsidiaries of Air Bank a.s. The change was a formal switch aimed at optimising synergies, especially in operations. These companies continue to do business independently, maintaining their individual brands and distinct management structures.

Established 12 years ago to compete with conventional banks by offering straightforward, customercentric and innovative services, Air Bank is a next-generation retail and hyper-digital bank. Air Bank&rsquo;s goal is to be the first choice retail bank on the market. It is the fastestgrowing neo-bank in the Czech Republic. Globally, only a few banks of this kind can match its size and profitability.

In 2023, Air Bank attracted multiple awards for its services, marketing, and standard of customer service. The My Air mobile app, the Air Bank current account and the Air Bank loan all scooped awards in the Golden Crown competition. The bank was also named Customer Bank of the Year and in doing so reclaimed its status as the Czech Republic&rsquo;s customer-experience leader. For the fifth time, it took the top spot as the most attractive employer in the banking and insurance industry.
Air Bank has committed itself to socially responsible business, increasing transparency in the provision of financial services and cultivating the consumer lending market. Both Air Bank and Zonky loans regularly rank at the top of the People in Need Responsible Lending Index.

Multiple Awards

“We are keen to remain a friendly bank that can help people understand their money in as many areas as possible with simple and friendly services.”

Air Bank's Growth

Last year was a record year for Air Bank on multiple fronts. Which metric is most meaningful to you?&nbsp;
The idea behind the merger with Moneta was to become the most relevant retail bank. After we pulled the plug on this deal, and rightly so, we agreed with our shareholders that our future should be built on organic growth.&nbsp;
So, at a time when most of the market was retrenching, we invested even more in new product development, hired new people, and concentrated on growing our customer base organically. And that&rsquo;s where we were most successful last year, welcoming some 186,000 new customers, with the vast majority using us on a day-to-day basis.
You mentioned the Moneta deal. In hindsight, do you think that not going through with it was a good decision?
It was the right decision. The whole deal was actually underpinned by very sound reasoning. Air Bank and Moneta are both retail-centric banks, and they are both intent on doing banking well, digitalising it, investing in technology, and so on&hellip; Merging two banks like that would save you a ton of costs because you don&rsquo;t have to do those things twice over.&nbsp;
The second logical aspect was that we at Air Bank have always been committed to changing the world of banking, to modernising it. And of course, if we want to introduce a new payment method, it&rsquo;s going to be a lot easier for us if we&rsquo;re twice as big.&nbsp;
Moneta and us are similarly sized banks at the moment. We have 1.35 million customers, Moneta has 1.4 million, and although at the time we were discussing the deal those numbers were slightly less on both sides, the merger would have made us the market&rsquo;s number-one or -two bank. And that would have made things much easier to change.
Those are the reasons in the pros column&hellip;
The fact of the matter is that there are two sides to every deal, and the way we structured this one was relatively complex. To put it simply, we would first have had to be bought by Moneta and then we would have merged the two banks to transform ourselves into one big Air Bank.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s a pretty convoluted way of going about it, but it was also the only way to make it work effectively. Three years ago, though, the economic climate began to change quite drastically, with major implications for the economics of the whole deal.&nbsp;
For both sides?&nbsp;
Yes. We weren&rsquo;t too happy with the price Moneta would be buying us for, and, equally, not all the Moneta shareholders were fully on board with the terms of the deal. So we came up with a compromise, but then the process of getting everyone to approve was taking ages and the conditions started to shift so much that it no longer made any economic sense.&nbsp;
And there&rsquo;s no point in moving forwards with a deal if the economics you were projecting at the beginning have evaporated. Especially as the integration of such large banks is a three-year project. It would have stretched the teams to the limit and we would have been hamstrung as to what new things we could offer customers during that integration period. Faced with that, we figured we&rsquo;d rather focus on organic growth instead, and it was a very good decision at that point in time.&nbsp;
Does this mean that acquiring another bank somewhere down the line is not on your radar?&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s not something we&rsquo;re planning, and if you take a look around the market, we wouldn&rsquo;t have anyone to buy anyway. The Moneta merger made sense in that we are two banks that are similar in size and philosophy. The primary benefit you gain from that is economies of scale.&nbsp;
If, on the other hand, we were to merge with a very different bank, that could also make sense because we&rsquo;d complement each other&rsquo;s portfolios, even though the savings effect might not be as great. Still, we can&rsquo;t see any viable entity at the moment. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re better off channelling our energy and time into making more products for our customers.
Jiř&iacute; &Scaron;mejc, the CEO of PPF Group, to which Air Bank belongs, recently claimed that he wants to make the bank the most relevant bank for retail customers in the Czech Republic. What is this relevance?&nbsp;
The use of &ldquo;most relevant&rdquo; is a great way to describe it, because we place all our numbers in some kind of context. Two years ago we said we wanted to grow to twice the size we were then, but there are various ways to go about that. It&rsquo;s not that hard to find customers.&nbsp;
The difficult part is recruiting customers who want to use you as a bank on a day-to-day basis. Our goal of doubling in size therefore only works if we assume that new customers will behave in the same way as they did before the bank expanded.&nbsp;
How&rsquo;s that, exactly?&nbsp;
We want somewhere in the order of 1.5 million customers who consider us their main bank. That&rsquo;s the critical metric for me.
How do you find that out?&nbsp;
You can ask the customers themselves. That&rsquo;s the easiest approach, and sometimes that&rsquo;s what we do. When it comes to data, you&rsquo;ll generally see the highest correlation in indicators such as whether customers are sending their income to an Air Bank account or using one of our cards to make payments. The chances are that these customers are using us as their principal bank.&nbsp;
You were made head of retail banking when Air Bank was founded in 2011. Did the bank have this sort of ambition back then?&nbsp;
The simple answer to that would be no. No one plans that far ahead. It is true, though, that we have always been ambitious to grow into a large-scale bank. Our business model is built on simplifying banking for customers so that they can understand it and find it easy to use. And the way we have chosen to do this is that we prefer to devise one solution for one particular need and make it as perfect as possible. In the words of our product strategy, it&rsquo;s a &ldquo;one size fits all&rdquo; approach. We don&rsquo;t split services into basic and premium &ndash; we want to deliver the best possible service to every single customer.&nbsp;
Can you elaborate on that?&nbsp;
Say someone expects us to offer gold cards, they&rsquo;ll never get one from us, even though there&rsquo;s a particular group of customers for whom a card like that is important &ndash; whether for status or functionality.&nbsp;
You can picture this by comparing the product strategies of household names like Apple and Samsung. They&rsquo;re two successful companies, but Apple&rsquo;s strategy is to have a single phone that&rsquo;s going to be amazing. Samsung, on the other hand, has adopted a strategy of capturing the entire market, so it will build five different models for five different target segments.
And you don&rsquo;t want to do that&hellip;
Exactly. Sure, both of these strategies are clearly successful, but we are more like Apple in our product strategy.&nbsp;
But that strategy, by definition, has a limit to how many customers you can land&hellip;
Yes, just as Apple will never have more than a third of the Czech market, give or take, we too know that there are natural limits to this strategy. Take that one-third number more as a yardstick. You&rsquo;ll recognise the limit when you start to run out of new customers who appreciate that simplicity, in other words, your approach.&nbsp;
And at that point, it&rsquo;s easy to ask yourself whether you should stick to your strategy or switch it up and start making three of those metaphorical phones. We believe that most companies who choose to go down that path of rethinking their product strategy will fail because suddenly they start to change their DNA.&nbsp;
So your ceiling is 1.5 million customers?&nbsp;
Not quite. The banking population in the Czech Republic is 7.5 million, so 1.5 million customers is about twenty per cent of the market. I reckon that, with the current strategy, our ceiling is around the 25 per cent mark. So 1.5 million customers is not the ceiling, but we&rsquo;ll come relatively close to it.
So how do you work towards that ceiling?&nbsp;
We were established as a retail bank focused exclusively on the Czech market. This means that all anyone in our team is thinking about is how to make the best possible product for the Czech retail market. That gives us a significant advantage over other banks, which have to focus on entrepreneurs, businesses, and municipalities as well.&nbsp;
Another point is that we&rsquo;re a greenfield project. So we&rsquo;ve got modern systems that are tailored to our needs and a management system that supports it all. This gives us a lot of flexibility. This is reflected, for example, in the fact that we have eleven releases of the app per year and we are constantly changing and improving it to make it as user-friendly as possible &ndash; adding features, removing unnecessary ones, or fine-tuning them.&nbsp;
Fifty per cent of our development capacity is allocated to continuously improving what we already have, and we are constantly striving to improve. It may sound glib, but we&rsquo;ve been riding on that mindset of &ldquo;change and improve&rdquo; since the very first day we started delivering our services to customers. Looking back ten years, they may seem pretty trivial at times, but they&rsquo;ve made a huge impact on the market over time.&nbsp;
Can you give me an example?&nbsp;
For instance, at the time we were starting to build our first ATMs, people were annoyed that if they needed to withdraw, say, two thousand, their bank&rsquo;s ATM would only give them a two-thousand-crown banknote. Try paying with that in your local corner shop. We were the first to say we were going to do things completely differently and let the customer choose the banknotes they wanted. Everyone scoffed at us back then, but now, whatever ATM you use, you&rsquo;ll find a choice of banknotes. Even those of the banks who initially mocked us.&nbsp;
Most recently, we&rsquo;ve started offering the Cvak payment method. This isn&rsquo;t actually so much about Air Bank itself, but an agreement with other like-minded banks on the market. Because we know that people don&rsquo;t want to use cash. As we all know, even merchants don&rsquo;t want to take cash. And yet there are still lots of retailers who aren&rsquo;t willing to accept card payments either.&nbsp;
How come?&nbsp;
There are three reasons: one group wants cash because they have suppliers they can only pay in cash, or they&rsquo;re operating on the margins of the law and don&rsquo;t want money flowing through their accounts.&nbsp;
The other two thirds that don&rsquo;t have terminals, preventing you from paying with anything other than cash, would actually be happy to accept cards. But either it&rsquo;s expensive for them &ndash; if you&rsquo;re skimming one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half per cent of their turnover, that&rsquo;s a lot for them, or else the admin is too complicated for them.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;ve teamed up with a few other banks to launch Cvak, an app that makes it easy to pay digitally at merchants without a terminal.&nbsp;
What about the &ldquo;pay a contact&rdquo; service, which everyone has been talking about in recent months?&nbsp;&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s a feature we could have done with five years ago. But its potential to help people is now pretty much exhausted. You can use it, for example, if you pay your cleaner regularly and you don&rsquo;t know her account number or don&rsquo;t want to have to fill in her account number every time. Nowadays, however, the vast majority of banks automatically suggest frequently used accounts. Or people pay using a QR code. People have simply already found other ways to deal with these situations.
Are these new tools helping you to grow?&nbsp;
Absolutely. For example, we are now one of the first banks to let you apply for a mortgage on your mobile phone. Is this some sort of big breakthrough? Not in and of itself. But I promise you that, in ten years&rsquo; time, every bank will be doing it. Being first movers and the first to master it gives us a huge advantage because we can then apply these principles to more and more products.&nbsp;
Other banks may not need to offer it yet because they have a large network of branches where you can go in and apply for a mortgage. We don&rsquo;t have that. Our branch network is only there to help guide customers if they feel uneasy in the digital sphere for any reason.&nbsp;
Speaking of mortgages, how do you think the mortgage market will play out this year?&nbsp;
The market is bouncing back, largely because people are feeling more optimistic again. They&rsquo;re happy to invest more and go into debt for longer periods of time. Needless to say, this has given the property market a boost. There&rsquo;s more construction going on and more choice for buyers. From that angle, this year is going to be much better than last. We&rsquo;re already seeing 90% year-on-year growth in some months. Taking the year as a whole, there won&rsquo;t be such a big jump, of course, but the market is recovering.&nbsp;
How important is this to you as a bank?
We treat mortgages as a service for customers who already use us for their day-to-day banking. Different banks take different approaches. Some use mortgages as an avenue for acquisition &ndash; if I give you a mortgage, you&rsquo;ll come to me with the rest of your banking needs. We do it the other way around. If you&rsquo;re already a customer, we want you to have the best service, and that extends to mortgages.&nbsp;
But we have no interest in chasing new customers by running around the market and trying to offer the best mortgage deal. That also defines how aggressively we communicate this to the outside world and how much we&rsquo;re willing to work with third parties, who still play an important role. Over fifty per cent of that market is brokered in some way by other parties, although changes are afoot this year.&nbsp;
And at your bank?&nbsp;
For us, it&rsquo;s zero, precisely because we treat mortgages as a service for existing customers. And we&rsquo;re quite capable of helping existing customers ourselves.&nbsp;
So how important is it to you for the CNB to keep cutting interest rates?&nbsp;
Not much in terms of mortgages. But as interest rates come down, other factors come into play. In general, cutting rates encourages people to spend more, which helps the economy to grow. This pushes down some costs, so we want those reductions simply because we are keen for our customers to be better off. As far as mortgages themselves are concerned, we&rsquo;re looking at how we can pass on the rate cuts to our customers as soon as we can.&nbsp;
How?&nbsp;
Some customers already have a mortgage with us. We reach out to them off our own bat to let them know that the market situation has changed, and that, if they want, we&rsquo;ll adjust their fixed rate for the upcoming period. Then there&rsquo;s another group who have a mortgage with another bank. They can transfer it to us at the new rate, which is often lower than the rate they got two years ago with their other bank. So both these approaches usually result in our customers getting a better mortgage rate.
Source: Forbes Author: Tať&aacute;na Lyskov&aacute;

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PPF, a. s. 

PPF Gate

PPF a.s.&rsquo;s objective is to provide consulting to both the PPF Group N. V. holding company, which manages the entire PPF Group, and the various individual PPF Group companies. In delivering these services, it strives to maximize efficiencies and synergies across the group while making the best possible use of the knowledge and skills of its top-notch experts.&nbsp;

PPF a.s. is the principal consulting company within PPF Group.

PPF a.s. 

PPF 2023 – Annual Yearbook

At PPF, we are exploring various synergies and using AI to change the way the entire company operates, says O2 CEO Jindřich Fremuth

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O2 Czech Republic a.s.

Operating in a highly competitive, saturated telecommunications market, O2 Czech Republic excels by combining the most affordable fixed internet services, a superior mobile network, and exclusive television content. While mobile telecommunications services are its main revenue stream, O2&rsquo;s fixed internet covers 99% of the Czech Republic&rsquo;s inhabited territory, positioning it as the largest internet provider for both businesses and households. O2 Czech Republic is one of the biggest providers of hosting, cloud services, managed services, and ICT in the country.
Another of O2 Czech Republic&rsquo;s focuses is on developing and offering more unconventional telecommunications services such as cybersecurity and financial services, which include device insurance and mobile travel insurance. Virtual operators also offer their services via the O2 CR mobile network.&nbsp;
In response to changing trends and market demands, O2 has innovated plans for unlimited data in the 5G network. O2 Spolu (&ldquo;O2 Together&rdquo;) family service packages, combining telecommunications services with O2 TV, are the best on the market and can be tailored to the customer. O2 TV has given the company a consolidated position as the most popular IPTV service in the Czech Republic. At the end of 2023, there were 770,000 active subscribers, including customers with prepaid TV services. For O2 TV, 2023 was a key year as it acquired exclusive broadcasting rights to the Extraliga, the top icehockey league in the Czech Republic, and the Czech First Football League, providing viewers with unique content for the next five and six years respectively.
O2&rsquo;s long-term emphasis on technological development and innovation has resulted in the continuous expansion of the 5G network, which research by the Czech Technical University has shown to be the fastest in the Czech Republic. O2 enjoys a significant lead over its competitors in measured speeds because it is building a 5G network from the ground up on entirely new technologies rather than simply upgrading older transmitters. O2 customers can enjoy the best 5G experience in the Czech Republic by subscribing to the new innovative O2 Neo+ mobile data plans, all of which come with unlimited speed and capacity.
Other areas being developed by O2 include artificial intelligence and big data technology, both handled by its Dataclair.ai &ndash; Artificial Intelligence Centre. O2 is also active in smart city infrastructure and autonomous mobility of the future.

<h3>Unity</h3>
In March 2024 PPF Group announced the launch of Unity, a platform that enables selected consumer-focused Group companies to provide their joint offerings of services and products to existing and new customers. Unity is the result of a pilot project between two of the largest Czech consumer brands in PPF's portfolio, Air Bank and O2.

The range of partners involved in Unity will continue to expand. The basis for the creation of the Unity "ecosystem" is PPF Group's consumer-facing companies in the financial services, telecommunications, media, and e-commerce sectors. This will enable Unity to deepen its existing and to develop new, connected services and products for customers.&nbsp;
To date, about 300,000 customers of Air Bank and O2 have expressed interest in taking advantage of the benefits available only from Unity, which include simplified payments, exclusive offers, and regular monthly cashbacks.&nbsp;

O2 Czech Republic is among the Group&rsquo;s leading assets not only in this segment, but across the entire consumer-market sector. It provides voice, internet, and data services to residential customers, SMEs, corporations, and government. O2 TV is a major player in internet TV broadcasting.

Key Financial Statements

"With the help of the latest technologies, we are here to make the lives of all of our customers easier."

O2 Czech Republic

Our generation makes the mistake of criticizing the young. Sometimes we could try to understand them more, says PPF boss Šmejc

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PPF bekräftigt: Christoph Mainusch ist der beste unabhängige Kandidat für den Aufsichtsrat der ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE und würde im Interesse aller Stakeholder handeln.

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Als unabh&auml;ngiges Mitglied des Aufsichtsrats w&uuml;rde Herr Mainusch im Interesse aller Aktion&auml;re und Stakeholder von ProSiebenSat.1 handeln.
PPF sieht Herrn Mainusch aus mehreren Gr&uuml;nden als den bevorzugten Kandidaten im Vergleich zu der von der Gesellschaft vorgeschlagenen Kandidatin f&uuml;r die Wahl in den Aufsichtsrat an:
<ul>
 <li>Seine ausgewiesene Expertise in der Medienbranche, die im Aufsichtsrat von ProSiebenSat.1 dringend ben&ouml;tigt wird, um die notwendige Kehrtwende des Unternehmens hin zu nachhaltigem Wachstum zu unterst&uuml;tzen. </li>
 <li>Herr Mainusch verf&uuml;gt &uuml;ber eine jahrzehntelange Erfolgsbilanz in C-Level-Positionen in deutschen und europ&auml;ischen kommerziellen Medienunternehmen. Er hatte Schl&uuml;sselrollen beim Aufbau und der Umstrukturierung linearer Free- und Pay-TV-Kan&auml;le sowie bei der digitalen Transformation und der Umsetzung von Streaming-Strategien. </li>
 <li>Er bekleidete leitende Positionen, unter anderem als Programmdirektor, bei den deutschen Fernsehsendern SAT.1, Tele 5 und RTL2. Unter seiner F&uuml;hrung wurde der erste nationale kommerzielle Fernsehsender Kroatiens, RTL Televizija, gegr&uuml;ndet, der kurz darauf zum Marktf&uuml;hrer im kommerziellen Fernsehen wurde. Als Group-CEO des griechischen Senders Alpha Media strukturierte er inmitten der Wirtschaftskrise dessen TV-Gesch&auml;ft um. </li>
 <li>Anschlie&szlig;end ernannte ihn Time Warner zum Co-CEO der an der NASDAQ notierten Central European Media Enterprises (&bdquo;CME&ldquo;), bei der er von 2013 bis 2020 t&auml;tig war. In dieser Funktion initiierte und leitete Herr Mainusch einen umfassenden Transformationsplan, einschlie&szlig;lich Digitalisierung, durch den CME von einem verlustbringenden zu einem hochprofitablen Unternhemen wurde. </li>
 <li>Herr Mainusch verlie&szlig; CME nach dessen &Uuml;bernahme durch die PPF Group. Er verf&uuml;gt &uuml;ber umfassende Erfahrung im erfolgreichen Umgang mit genau den Herausforderungen, mit denen auch ProSiebenSat.1 konfrontiert ist. Dies hat ihn zu einem gefragten Berater von Top-F&uuml;hrungskr&auml;ften der Branche in Europa und Deutschland gemacht. Als Mitglied des Aufsichtsrats von ProSiebenSat.1 w&uuml;rde Christoph Mainusch an den Ort zur&uuml;ckkehren, an dem er seine Karriere begonnen hat und an dem er nach seiner langj&auml;hrigen T&auml;tigkeit im Management einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Entwicklung des Unternehmens leisten k&ouml;nnte. </li>
</ul>
ProSiebenSat.1 steht vor gro&szlig;en Herausforderungen, die dringend adressiert werden m&uuml;ssen. PPF ist sehr besorgt dar&uuml;ber, dass es dem derzeitigen Aufsichtsrat an spezifischem operativem Fachwissen im Bereich des deutschen linearen Fernsehens und seiner digitalen Transformation mangelt, und ist &uuml;berzeugt, dass Herr Mainusch dieses entscheidende Fachwissen im Interesse aller Aktion&auml;re in den Aufsichtsrat einbringen w&uuml;rde. Herr Mainusch hat keine Positionen bei PPF, CME oder einem anderen mit PPF verbundenen Unternehmen inne. Er ist ein vollkommen unabh&auml;ngiger Kandidat, der sich verpflichtet f&uuml;hlt, die Interessen aller Aktion&auml;re von ProSiebenSat.1 zu vertreten.
&nbsp;In diesem Zusammenhang widerspricht PPF den j&uuml;ngsten Versuchen von ProSiebenSat.1, die Kriterien f&uuml;r einen unabh&auml;ngigen Kandidaten f&uuml;r den Aufsichtsrat neu zu definieren. Aktion&auml;re haben das Recht, Kandidaten f&uuml;r den Aufsichtsrat vorzuschlagen und solch eine Nominierung bedeutet nicht automatisch eine mangelnde Unabh&auml;ngigkeit. Herr Mainusch ist ein Kandidat, der als unabh&auml;ngiges Aufsichtsratsmitglied im Sinne aller Aktion&auml;re handeln w&uuml;rde.
PPF fordert alle Aktion&auml;re von ProSiebenSat.1 auf, die unabh&auml;ngige Kandidatur von Herrn Mainusch basierend auf seinen Qualifikationen und dem Mehrwert, den er in den Aufsichtsrat des Unternehmens einbringen w&uuml;rde, zu bewerten.

Voyo is growing faster than we expected. It’s already running at a profit, says TV Nova boss Daniel Grunt

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CME MEDIA ENTERPRISES B.V.

CME MEDIA SERVICES LIMITED Czech Republic

In 2023, CME continued to grow by pursuing and investing in an &ldquo;anytime, anywhere&rdquo; strategy. CME&rsquo;s momentum was also driven by its high-quality local content, increased consumption of streaming services, and persistently strong performance in the TV advertising market. Since being acquired by PPF in 2020, CME has risen to become one of the CEE&rsquo;s largest, most invested-in and most significant broadcasters, well positioned for expansion and growth. CME operates in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
In Europe, SVOD is advancing rapidly in response to consumers&rsquo; rising expectations. CME continued to scale up the Voyo platform, premiering 35 new Voyo originals by the end of 2023. This content was well received and won awards across the region, notably a Czech Lion Film Awards nomination for Mathematics of Crime and Slovenia&rsquo;s Orion Prize for The Kitchen. Voyo&rsquo;s launch in Croatia expanded this SVOD brand to all CME markets and saw it named Digital Product of the Year at the 2023 SoMo Gorac Awards. By the end of the year, Voyo had 650,000 paying subscribers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and was very close to passing a million paying subscribers across all its markets. In most of its markets, Voyo is a top-three SVOD service provider and the number-one local provider.
CME&rsquo;s ability to draw on local stories that resonate with its audience is a core strength built into a strategy anchored by a comprehensive long-term content plan and digital agility. In 2023, over 100 linear and Voyo projects were in the pipeline across CME. Production hours were up 20% year on year.

News, with its significant market and audience share, remains at the heart of CME&rsquo;s programming. In July 2023, CME opened the CME News Bureau in Brussels as a hub from which correspondents from all CME stations can report on EU, NATO and other European affairs for their domestic audiences. Between October and December, CME also deployed four rotating teams to cover the Middle East conflict.
CME continued its strategy of acquiring premium sports content for live broadcast. Key acquisitions included Formula 1 for the Czech and Slovak markets and the UEFA Champions League in Slovenia.
CME advanced with the CME Content Academy, an educational two-year multidisciplinary programme for young talent to become tomorrow&rsquo;s entertainment industry leaders. In 2023, CME launched ESG initiative CME Cares, as a response to the most pressing social and environmental challenges facing the media sector. CME recognises that it engages with millions of people every day and it is uniquely positioned to inspire, raise awareness, and advocate for positive change.

Information about CME Media Enterprises B.V. can be found <a href="https://www.cme.net/about-cme" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Bulgaria

Romania

Slovenia

Slovakia

Croatia

Moldova

CME is a media and entertainment company operating leading television stations in six Central and Eastern European segments. CME broadcasts 46 television channels, reaches 49 million viewers, and operates Voyo, a leader in streaming services. The company invests heavily in in-house production, content, and distribution platforms as it consolidates its marketleading position.

"We want to be a trend-setter driving the transformation of digital media and distribution and be among the first to offer new solutions."

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) 

PPF reiterates its view that Christoph Mainusch is the best independent candidate for the Supervisory Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, and would serve the interests of all stakeholders

As an independent member of the Supervisory Board, Mr. Mainusch would serve the interests of all shareholders and stakeholders of ProSiebenSat.1.
PPF sees Mr. Mainusch as the superior candidate for election to the Supervisory Board compared to the candidate proposed by the company for several reasons, including:
<ul>
 <li>His unique expertise in the media industry, which is urgently needed at the Supervisory Board of ProSiebenSat.1 to support the necessary turnaround of the company towards sustainable growth.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 <li>Mainusch has a proven track record of several decades as a C-level executive in German and European commercial media companies. He has held key roles in establishing and restructuring linear free and pay-tv channels, as well as leading transformations into digital streaming.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 <li>He has held senior management roles, including programme director, at German television stations SAT.1, Tele 5 and RTL2. His leadership was crucial in launching the first national commercial broadcaster in Croatia, RTL Televizija, which soon became the commercial TV market leader. As Group CEO of Greece's Alpha Media, he restructured its TV business amidst an economic crisis.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 <li>Subsequently, Time Warner appointed him as Co-CEO of the NASDAQ-listed Central European Media Enterprises ("CME") where he served between 2013 and 2020. In this role, Mr. Mainusch initiated and directed a comprehensive transformation plan, including digitalization, that turned the company from a loss-maker into a highly profitable business.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 <li>Mainusch left CME following its acquisition by PPF Group. He has deep expertise in successfully dealing with challenges that are faced by ProSiebenSat.1. This has made him a sought-after senior advisor of top executives across the industry in Europe and Germany. As a member of the Supervisory Board at ProSiebenSat.1, Christoph Mainusch would return to where he started his career and, after his many years in management, would be able to make an important contribution to the development of the company. </li>
</ul>
ProSiebenSat.1 faces significant challenges which need to be addressed urgently.&nbsp;PPF is very concerned that the current Supervisory Board lacks specific operational expertise in German linear TV and its digital transformation and is convinced that Mr. Mainusch would bring that critical expertise to the Supervisory Board, to the benefit of all shareholders. Mr. Mainusch does not hold positions at PPF or CME or any other PPF entity or affiliate. He is a fully independent candidate who is committed to representing the interests of all shareholders of ProSiebenSat.1.&nbsp;
In this context, PPF disagrees with ProSiebenSat.1's recent attempts to recast the criteria for what constitutes an independent candidate for its Supervisory Board. Shareholders have the right to nominate candidates for the Supervisory Board and this does not automatically constitute a lack of independence. Mr. Mainusch is a candidate who would act as an independent Supervisory Board member for the benefit of all shareholders.
PPF calls on all shareholders of ProSiebenSat.1 to evaluate Mr. Mainusch's independent candidacy on the merits of his qualifications and the value he would bring to the Supervisory Board of the company.

PPF reiterates its view that Christoph Mainusch is the best independent candidate for the Supervisory Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, and would serve the interests of all stakeholders.

Silvia Majeská: Viewers want good stories and Nova has plenty to offer

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Nova just celebrated 30 years of broadcasting, how would you rate its history so far? That&rsquo;s a question that comes up a lot here. It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve had to think about &ndash; how someone like myself, who&rsquo;s only been here for relatively few of those 30 years, and came here from another country at that, could even begin to form a judgment on this.
But maybe that actually makes it easier to judge, because you&rsquo;ve been on the outside looking in. Maybe. But then again, I might also be biased, because it really is an honour for me to work for Nova. I think it&rsquo;s fantastic that Nova launched a TV station that people watched back then and are still watching now, 30 years later. For me, that&rsquo;s a truly amazing achievement, and it&rsquo;s mainly thanks to our viewers, who&rsquo;ve stayed loyal to us and continue to tune in. They give us the energy and the desire to keep bringing them more and more of the content they enjoy. There&rsquo;s also a huge sense of humility that comes with all this, because as a television station we&rsquo;ve got quite a history behind us.
Were you excited about Nova&rsquo;s 30th birthday celebrations? It&rsquo;s been strange in a way, because we basically started gearing up for them a year back. The celebrations are organised into different stages, with programming, marketing and communications all involved together, and we&rsquo;ll also be going out to meet our audience directly. It&rsquo;s all very complicated to orchestrate, but of course it&rsquo;s also a great experience. Hitting the 30-year mark is pretty special, a bit like stepping into adulthood. Actually, when I think about that, it fills me with hope &ndash; if we&rsquo;ve navigated these past 30 years successfully, surely we&rsquo;ll make it through the next 30 years too. Nova still has plenty to offer.
How do you see things thirty years from now? The world is evolving rapidly, especially in areas like digital transformation and technology, which are currently reshaping the whole landscape and forging new opportunities. So, of course, the way viewers engage with content is also changing, and we&rsquo;re seeing this particularly with younger demographics. I think video content consumption is going to keep on growing, and it&rsquo;s only going to fragment in terms of how viewers watch their favourite programmes. Everything&rsquo;s going to get more tailored to individual experiences and personalisation. But&nbsp;I think compelling, high-quality storytelling is always going to resonate here.
When Nova started broadcasting back in the day, it ushered in a kind of market revolution, redefining the type of line-up on offer and the way the news was presented. Over those 30 years, it&rsquo;s shown it can consistently keep up with the latest trends, and that&rsquo;s probably what we&rsquo;ve been focusing on most of all lately. Getting ready for the challenges of the future, and finding ways to keep bringing our audiences stories they enjoy watching and know we will deliver.
What are those challenges of the future? Where do you get your inspiration from? Because in the last two or three years Nova has expanded into even more new channels, and you&rsquo;ve started making your own shows&hellip; Where does it all go from here? Have you plateaued yet We&rsquo;re definitely not at the limit of our capabilities, and of course our enthusiasm&nbsp;knows no bounds (laughs). I&rsquo;d say we&rsquo;re passionate about what we do. At&nbsp;Nova you work with a team of people who really want to deliver content that viewers enjoy, so we&rsquo;re united by a common desire to keep pushing the envelope somehow.
Of course, much of our inspiration comes from abroad, which hints at what we can expect to see here too. Video content consumption is growing worldwide, along with demand for high-quality video. At Nova, we&rsquo;ve assembled one of the biggest creative teams for scripted live-action programming, our production team is really strong, and we&rsquo;ve greatly expanded the number of projects we produce. We reckon we&rsquo;re ready for the future.
The Czech and Slovak markets are small, and surveys indicate that viewers spend longer looking for something to watch on TV than they actually spend watching. Aren&rsquo;t you worried about overwhelming your audience? No, because that&rsquo;s exactly where we think our edge is &ndash; our ability to create the types of shows and projects that people are looking for and watch en masse, whether that means linear TV or on Voyo. People want to watch things they enjoy, and that&rsquo;s not going to change. So content overload on platforms actually works in favour of linear television, because this is where you&rsquo;ll find curated content tailored to specific viewers of your station at particular times of the day, fitting into the daily cycle of their lives.
How have you adapted to delayed viewing? Or do viewers still sit down at around eight o&rsquo;clock to watch TV? Thankfully, that&rsquo;s still the case. Of course, the share of delayed viewing is on the rise, but linear viewing still holds sway when you look at the 24-hour window. There&rsquo;s no comparison between the proportions of viewers &ndash; the vast majority tune into a programme within the first 24 hours, with only a few more per cent added to that in delayed viewing, but there&rsquo;s no sign of it tipping over any time soon. There&rsquo;s a kind of natural time for watching content: I wait for a new episode because I want to know what&rsquo;s going to happen next.
Or I can wait and watch maybe two or three episodes at a time. Right, and again that&rsquo;s the advantage of the modern mode of content distribution. There&rsquo;s the option of binging on a whole series packaged together, so viewers can watch it even if they don&rsquo;t have the patience to wait from week to week.
Which of your stations has the biggest audience? Is it still the main Nova station? Absolutely. Nova is the most watched station in the Czech Republic among the working-age population, so we&rsquo;re talking the 15- to 54-year-old demographic, and naturally that also comes with a lot of responsibility. Today, when everyone is focused on their individual requirements and personalised consumption, it&rsquo;s not easy to create a line-up that resonates with a mass audience.
Tell me, what does a programming director actually do? That&rsquo;s a question I get a lot&nbsp;(laughs). I still haven&rsquo;t been able to come up with a simple answer to that. Plan the programming?&nbsp;(laughs)
Do they just approve the scripts or do they come up with programming ideas themselves? A programming director actually develops the programming strategy. What&nbsp;that means is that they&rsquo;re responsible for designing the programming for each day of the week and for key time slots, i.e. deciding what content and which types of programmes will be broadcast on what day at what time. Then there&rsquo;s some more detailed work to do. Each time slot has its own specific parameters and particular focus. In these areas, I work closely with the development and production departments to make sure the programmes we need are available. A programming director is also in charge of shaping the channel portfolio, i.e. which stations are in the portfolio, who they&rsquo;re aimed at, what programming they offer, and what their programming concept is&hellip;
&nbsp;As far as scripts go, of course a programming director is also involved in vetting projects, especially those that have long been in the pipeline, because it&rsquo;s very important to get the tone right there. All projects are prepared and scheduled for production with some idea about where they will be used. We know what kind of viewer we want to reach, and that&rsquo;s a crucial factor.
If you really like a particular programme, do you push it through even if others are against it? I really welcome teamwork. Basically, no one in the world can give you a cast‑iron guarantee that a programme&rsquo;s going to be a success, because there are just so many factors at play. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s vital to truly function as a team, and work with people who bring experience and genuine insights to the table. It&rsquo;s essential to have a kind of process where you share your perspective with them and get their input on it. Then we know that as a team we&rsquo;ve reached the best possible solution we can bring to viewers.
Sure, there are some things I&rsquo;m confident about, but it&rsquo;s not as simple as me waking up in the morning and saying to myself &ldquo;I want to put this on the air&rdquo;, and the next thing it&rsquo;s playing on TV.
You broadcast a few series in both Czech and Slovak versions (for example Zlat&aacute; labuť (Golden Swan, in Czech), which is called Dunaj (Danube, in Slovak). But Mark&iacute;za over in Slovakia is currently airing the Czech version of Specialist&eacute; (The Specialists). Have you ever considered putting on a Slovak series in Slovak on Nova? That&rsquo;s a very good question. It&rsquo;s only fairly recently that Mark&iacute;za started broadcasting Czech crime series in Slovakia. This hadn&rsquo;t been done before, but a while ago we took a leap of faith and decided to try out Policie Modrava (Modrava Police Department) in particular, because it&rsquo;s one of the most successful shows on Nova. The response from Slovak viewers was overwhelmingly positive, prompting us to expand the range of Nova&rsquo;s crime series that are available on Mark&iacute;za. Now that Mark&iacute;za has launched the Krimi channel in Slovakia, this has paved the way for further collaboration in this genre.
As for content swapping in the opposite direction, Nova has already aired the Slovak series Utajen&yacute; &scaron;&eacute;f(Undercover Boss) for example, and if we look at the smaller channels, Nova Fun is showing S&uacute;sedia(Neighbours), while Nova Lady has Oteckovia (The Dads). So we are trying to incorporate Slovak content into our programming. Virtually no detective series are produced in Slovakia, because this genre has long been out in the cold there. We had some success with a Slovak adaptation of the Czech series Př&iacute;pady mimoř&aacute;dn&eacute; Marty (The&nbsp;Cases of Extraordinary Marta), which we repackaged as V&yacute;nimočn&aacute; Nikol(Extraordinary Nikol) for Slovakia. That was actually the first time in a long while that we had success of any note with a crime series.
Are Czech and Slovak audiences the same? Or are they different in some ways? Of course they&rsquo;re different. That&rsquo;s like you asking me if Czechs and Slovaks are the same. They&rsquo;re not. Every nationality has its own particular characteristics, demands and preferences, and programming has to reflect that. If they were the same, then we&rsquo;d probably be broadcasting the same programmes. As markets, though, they&rsquo;re not so very different. We do share some similarities, mainly because of our common history, I suppose.
You mentioned that crime shows are more popular in the Czech Republic, and didn&rsquo;t really catch on in Slovakia. Yes, I&rsquo;ve often said that stories with strong emotions tend to work better in Slovakia, and that became our go-to explanation for why crime genres failed to deliver for a long time in Slovakia. Slovak viewers didn&rsquo;t care much for shows where they had to solve a mystery and figure out the answer. What they needed was to cry, to fall in love. They were simply looking for something else, and I think that&rsquo;s still true to some extent. We see this on Voyo, too, which offers a lot of Czech and Slovak content, some of which is shared between them. It&rsquo;s actually brilliant that we can offer people the chance to watch the offerings of both Mark&iacute;za and Nova if they&rsquo;re interested.
Are there any differences in viewership during the week and at the weekend? Yes, the audience size varies. I&rsquo;d say it fairly naturally mirrors the cycle of the week and traditional habits. Our largest Czech TV audience is on Sunday &shy;- the&nbsp;evening especially, but Sunday is a strong day overall. In terms of prime‑time viewing, the second biggest day is Monday.
And viewership remains highest between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.? Yes, the biggest audiences have always been around 8.50 p.m., in what we call the first prime time slot, which starts at 8.20. That&rsquo;s when you&rsquo;ll have most viewers in front of the screen. Then as soon as that ends, you&rsquo;ve got your second prime time coming in at about 9.30.
So you get to work in the morning and pore over the viewing figures? That&rsquo;s right. Every morning the previous day&rsquo;s viewing figures come in, and of course these are then updated with the delayed viewing numbers, so we see how viewing figures have evolved for that day and for each programme. We look at the whole day, all the programmes, and all the stations. We can see what viewers were watching, and, if they happened to stop watching that, where they went to next. That&rsquo;s a crucial thing for us to keep track of &ndash; whether they like or don&rsquo;t like something, whether they&rsquo;re happy with our content, and whether the way we&rsquo;ve scheduled it fits in with their day. That serves as a basis if we decide to make changes.
Have you always worked in television? Did you ever give radio a go, for example? No, I actually went straight into TV pretty soon after university. It&rsquo;s&nbsp;always been my dream job, so I&rsquo;ve never even thought about looking elsewhere. And I&rsquo;ve been very lucky in that I&rsquo;ve always been given some kind of opportunity to move up in the company and learn something new, which is something I love doing.
You once said that during your MTV internship you worked in two departments at once That&rsquo;s true. The departments in question were on the look-out for students, so I said I&rsquo;d take both positions and we&rsquo;d see how it worked out in practice. It&nbsp;gave me more of a chance to find my feet and learn things, and that was actually my first encounter with the TV business. I was fortunate to have an amazing boss, who showed me how acquisitions are done, how the programming structure works, and because they were just launching a new channel I got the chance to see everything that was involved. These are things you can&rsquo;t normally learn about very easily. It&rsquo;s incredibly lucky for an outsider to get any kind of internship in one of those departments and discover how it all works. That was really a springboard for me.
Is there anything you&rsquo;re looking forward to right now, a new series maybe? I always get excited about new launches, it&rsquo;s my twice yearly adrenaline rush. Whenever a new season starts, I&rsquo;m always tingling with anticipation about how it&rsquo;s going to turn out. After that comes a period where we reflect on what we&rsquo;ve learned, and then we&rsquo;re back to preparing for the next season.
But you also have some perennial fixtures in your line-up, like the series Ulice (The Street), which has been on the air for 20 years now and still has decent ratings. We&rsquo;re actually aiming for a generational shift in our Ulice audience, so the show can keep on attracting younger viewers. Ulice is a beautiful example of how multi-generational viewing can work by having multi-generational characters and a really diverse set of stories. We&rsquo;ve got a very experienced team working to make sure the characters and stories resonate with real people and the things they encounter in their lives. The series is planned well in advance, with preparations made for specific days, weeks and months, so that it accurately mirrors the needs and moods that people are experiencing. We&rsquo;re incredibly proud of Ulice as one of Nova&rsquo;s flagships.
Another series like that is Ordinace v růžov&eacute; zahradě (Rose Garden Clinic), which incited a viewer &ldquo;revolt&rdquo; when you <a href="https://www.idnes.cz/kultura/film-televize/ordinace-tv-nova-voyo.A210608_130904_filmvideo_spm">wanted to cancel it in 2021</a>. We didn&rsquo;t want to cancel it entirely. We pulled it off the main channel and moved it to Voyo. We&rsquo;re really happy that Ordinace is continuing, because it&rsquo;s very popular on Voyo and it&rsquo;s still drawing in new viewers, which is fantastic. It&rsquo;s produced by a very capable and experienced team.
You&rsquo;re in the TV business all day. Do you still watch television when you get home? Are you able to watch it purely as a viewer? I don&rsquo;t watch TV when I get home because I have young children, so they&rsquo;re my first priority. But I love watching TV programmes of all kinds, wherever I am. I&rsquo;ve loved it since I was little, so landing a job in television has been a dream come true. And as to watching TV at home and whether I can just be a viewer? Sure, at the end of the day, some personal feelings and sympathies will always be involved in what you watch, but there&rsquo;s definitely an aspect where you become conditioned by your job too. I do also enjoy just watching to wind down, though.
Do you prefer detective stories or something else entirely? It depends. When I&rsquo;m watching with my husband, then yes, we tend to lean towards adventure series, or, as you say, detective series. When I watch on my own, though, I prefer content that&rsquo;s typically female-focused and more relaxing.
Seeing as you have young children, are you planning to add a kids channel? We don&rsquo;t have a kids channel in the Nova Group, but we do have a wonderful children&rsquo;s section on Voyo, which is full of all your favourite fairy tales to enjoy in your local language. That makes Voyo a nice and convenient environment both for kids and mums alike, because they can watch wherever and whenever they want, and the content is available ad-free.
You&rsquo;re continuously on the go, what do you do to relax? My favourite way to unwind is to spend time with my family, doing things kids their age can enjoy. I don&rsquo;t mind being constantly on the go. I always try to keep in mind how lucky I am in my life to have healthy children and do a job I enjoy and find rewarding. I try to focus on being grateful for all of that.
Sourcej: <a href="https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/mediahub/silvia-majeska-rozhovor-tv-nova.A240226_123157_mediahub_jpl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">iDnes.cz</a> Author: Jitka Venturov&aacute;