Gazprom Media Has Taken Part in the National Association of Broadcasters Congress

The XXIV International Congress of the National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters (NAT) took place in Moscow from November 24 to 25. The forum was held with support from the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media and its general partner was the National Advertising Alliance (NRA).

The official topic at the forum was “Television in a Pandemic: Gains and Losses. Struggle for Leadership”. Participants included heads of federal and regional TV channels, government officials, top managers of media sellers and index companies, advertising agencies and foreign media companies. Together they discussed the global changes on the market, the effects of the pandemic on media consumption, lifestyle changes among consumers, problems with media operations during emergency situations, government support and other issues.

Several representatives of Gazprom Media held presentations at the forum, including Deputy CEO Ruben Oganesov, Head of the Sales Department at Gazprom Media Sales House Ekaterina Sivoratchenko, General Manager of Red Media Roman Stolyarsky, and General Manager of Gazprom Media Radio Yuri Kostin.

Oganesov took part in the plenary discussion on television’s prospects in the pandemic: Global Changes on the Media Market: Consumption Patterns, Audience Profiles across Different Media, Structure of Advertising Revenues.

The deputy CEO noted that, even though classic TV viewership increased during the pandemic, Gazprom Media had to try some new things out. For example, it offered programs in a new format without a studio audience, made shows in a video conference format, filmed screen-life series, and held cyber tournaments while there were no live sports broadcasts. There is a broader transformation on the media market—more and more content is consumed on different media platforms, and large content studios will inevitably go to these new platforms as a necessary step in making progress in the media industry. According to Oganesov, people working in TV have to adjust to the development of these new technologies and figure out how to work with an audience “that consumes media content in a different way”.

Ekaterina Sivoratchenko, head of the sales department at Gazprom Media Sales House, took part in the discussion “Methods of Making Sales and Attracting Advertisers during a Crisis”. In her presentation she spoke about how the advertising industry has changed during the quarantine and how Gazprom Media Sales House was able to quickly adapt to these changes and successfully carry out advertising campaigns. All of the Holding’s television channels launched anti-crisis content and new programs, which received high ratings. Sivoratchenko also shared examples of outstanding sponsorship media splits. To conclude, she noted that today it is more important than ever to make the business more resilient to outside factors and put this time to good use.

General Manager of Red Media Roman Stolyarsky took part in the discussion titled “Specialty Television: Growth Prospects”, which looked at the effect the pandemic has had on specialty TV channels, ways to stay competitive on the market, and what changes and growth prospects are expected in this segment.

General Manager of Gazprom Media Radio and Vice President of the Russian Academy of Radio (RAR) Yuri Kostin talked about the development of regional radio at the NAT congress. He noted that radio revenues are very dependent on the macroeconomic situation—it is one of the most volatile factors when making forecasts.

Kostin added that the hardest hit regions in the radio segment were those whose advertising revenues fell 70–80%, and, in some cases, as much as 100%. However, the radio industry is recovering quickly, and we can already see the market evening out. Aside from specialized companies and departments, national radio companies continue to support local radio stations. For example, Gazprom Media Radio offered an 80% discount on franchise payments during the most challenging months of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Vladimir Zworykin Prize for members of the television industry was also awarded as part of the congress. The prize in the new nomination For Introducing New Technologies during a Pandemic was given to Match TV, with the director of sports broadcasts, Alexey Balaban, accepting it on behalf of the channel. Match TV received the award for the virtual visual and audio effects it produced to accompany broadcasts of Russian Premier League matches, which helped to fill the void of missing spectators in the stands. Balaban noted, “This [award] is due entirely to the efforts of Match TV’s creative team, which is able to respond to the challenges of our time quickly and with creativity.”