Tvi portugal

Becoming a Broadcasting Leader in 10 Years: A Case Study of Portugal’s TVI—Media Capital Group

Paulo Faustino Autónoma University of Lisbon, Portugal

Jonkonping International Business School, Sweden

The main objectives of this article are to analyse (a) some media group strategic corporate management options, especially within the television segment; (b) as well as identify critical success factors to achieve leadership. Some future challenges are also identified within the scope of new broadcasting technologies such as Internet protocol television, cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial television.

TV Market Context and Development of the TVI—Media Capital Group (MCG)

TVI and the Television Sector in Portugal

The strong influence of the Catholic Church on TVI (Televisão Independente or Independent Television) was evident in minute detail: The first TVI logo—used until 1994—was designed to look like the number four made from a Christian cross. Figure 1 shows the various logos TVI has adopted since its foundation until now.

TVI was essentially broadcasting imported programs in its early years. At a time where Sociedade Indepen- dente de Comunicação (SIC) was betting on less usual, even alternative, programs, TVI was strongly investing in foreign “family” programs and game shows that were popular in other countries. Meanwhile, SIC was betting on Brazilian soap operas, an audience phenomenon of guaranteed success, establishing a strategic partnership with Brazilian TV Globo, the largest soap opera producer in the world.

SIC equally opted for betting on bolder films and series, namely of an erotic character, which aroused the interest of an audience not used to these types of programs because RTP (Radio and Television of Portugal), as a public television station, was not allowed to show this type of content. RTP attempted to do so in 1991, before the emergence of private television stations, when The Empire of the Senses, a film by Japanese director Nagisa

Address correspondence to Paulo Faustino, Director of Media XXI and Director of Master in Media Management, Autónoma University of Lisbon, Visiting Researcher of Jonkonping International Business School, Sweden. E-mail: faustino.paulo@gmail.com

Oshima was broadcast, resulting in a strong controversy between the Church and RTP, given that the former insti- tution defended that a public television station (such as RTP) was not allowed to show films of such a nature, even at late hours. The comment made by the archbishop of Braga, D. Eurico Dias Nogueira, who affirmed to have learned more from 10 min of the film that in his entire life, became famous.

TVI as a Project Associated With the Church and a Project Integrated in MCG

TVI started its activity as the second private television oper- ator in Portugal on February 20, 1993. When Portugal joined the European Union in 1986, the debate on private television channels was brought to the forefront because only RTP had been operating in the country since 1957. In 1989, the Television Law (Law number 58/90 from September 7 revoked by Law number 31–A/98 from July 14, which was subsequently revoked by Law number 32/2003 from August 22) was approved, which “marked the end of the state monopoly and enabled private enti- ties to pursue television activities, under licensing granted by the Portugal Government, following public tender.”1

Approximately 6 years after its foundation, TVI was acquired by the communication group Media Capital in 1998, having initiated a new stage marked by the ambi- tion of becoming a new leading station in Portugal.2

When José Eduardo Moniz became the managing director of TVI, the station started presenting better results, rapidly going from a station doomed to failure to an audience leader in Portugal.

The International Journal on Media Management, 9(4), 151–163 151

1993–1994 1994–1996 1996–2000 2000–2007

Source: Company

Figure 1. Independent Television (TVI) logo evolution from 1993 to 2007.

In 2005, Media Capital (the main TVI shareholder) was acquired by the Prisa Group, a Spanish media group present in 23 countries. The MCG started with a weekly newspaper, Independente,3 having sold this weekly publi- cation in 2001 to Inês Serra Lopes and other shareholders. In the last 6 years this group has concentrated its activi- ties mainly in the television, radio, and Internet sectors. Media Capital’s press holdings consist of magazines and newspapers, including the local partner of the Metro newspaper. The complete holdings of the MCG as of 2006 are presented in Figure 2.

TVI is one of the MCG companies, presently being the most important broadcasting operator in Portugal, with leading brands in the majority of segments where it is present such as television, radio, the press, outdoor, and Internet. MCG activities may be summarized as follows:

� Television business—TVI and NBP (television and production).

� Music—FarolMúsica (record label) and MC Enter- tainment (a production company for theatre

plays, concerts, and events) and Media Capital Radio, which owns Rádio Comercial, Rádio Clube Português, Cidade FM, Best Rock FM, and Cotonete (the only online radio in Portugal).

� Media Capital Editions, which owns social maga- zines such as Lux, Lux Woman, Maxmen, and Grazia within the generalized press segment and titles such as Casas de Portugal, Briefing, Revista de Vinhos, and Auto Comércio within the specialized press segment.

� Internet—IOL portal. � Outdoor advertising—Media Capital Outdoor

(MCO). � Other business areas—several partnerships and

joint ventures in areas like cinema and the daily press.

In December 2005, the shareholder structure of MCG was as follows: The Prisa Group (Vertix, SGPS, SA) was the largest shareholder; RTL, a television company owned by the Bertelsmann group, was a close second; followed by Berggruen Holdings, Ltd. and Miguel Pais do Amaral holding. During 2006 and 2007, the Prisa Group devel- oped an aggressive strategy (involving a takeover bid) to reinforce its shareholder position, having achieved a 94.4% share in the end of the first quarter of 2007.4

TVI’s position was built in only 10 years of operation. The group has synergies with several entities, involving production of television and music contents as well as organization of cultural events. Distribution of movies and sports rights has allowed this group to reach a

Media Capital

Television Advertising Internet ISP RadioPress

TVI NBP Lux Channel Protocol with Sports TV

“mupis” MCO TV TC

IOL Vizzavi Magazines:

Lux Brand Briefing Casas de Portugal Maxmen Notícias Choque Poster Recreio Revistas de Vinho Portuguese Wine

Newspapers: Metro

Cidade FM Nostalgia Radio Comercial Rádio Renascença MCO Radios– Radio XXI

Other Areas

Movies – CMCL; Fox/MGM; Miramax; and independent north american production companies Music Fairs – Expolider Exhibitions Sports – União de Leiria

Figure 2. Media Capital Group, 2006.

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unique position within the competitive media sector, which reflects a clear growth strategy and high manage- ment dynamics. Media Capital made an initial public offer, in 2004, to the Lisbon stock market.

Conquering the Leadership and the Market Context

In the beginning of the 1990s, television market guide- lines were well defined. RTP (the public channel) enjoyed a broadcasting monopoly, with two generalist channels: RTP1 (with a market share of approximately 80%) and RTP2 (with the remaining 20% of the market). This domi- nance allowed them privileged access to the best inter- national shows and the most popular national events, such as Globo’s Soaps (the Brazilian soaps considered the best in the world) and football matches. Due to their status as a public service broadcaster, they also benefited from large sums from government support, along with advertising revenues. At this time, the penetration rate of television sets in Portuguese homes was already around 95% and, although the national population was spending less time watching television than in average European homes, average daily consumption was relatively high. This situation made it difficult for new private competi- tors to enter this industry in several ways:

1. Any new operator had to support its own activities through advertising, in direct competition with the two other channels mentioned earlier.

2. The economic recession in Europe in 1992 caused smaller global investment in advertising, with special impact on the more expensive media such as television.

3. In addition, because it did not seem reason- able to foresee a significant increase in television set sales, audiences had to be conquered at the expense of rivals.

4. Finally, the high costs of operating broadcasting stations made it impossible from the beginning to target specific market segments and would even- tually decrease the number of private projects aimed at creating new generalist channels.

Competition in the Television Market

Access to the national TVHH market was an additional imperative that potential operators had to satisfy. In this sense, SIC decided to use state company RTP’s broad- casting network from the beginning, which allowed it to ensure an initial coverage of 50% of the Portuguese popu- lation and continuous expansion with time. TVI decided to build its own network using the land occupied by

Rédio Renascença (owned by the same group), with an investment of approximately E20,000,000.

However, it was not a good idea to have such large geographical coverage when the majority of the viewers did not even know how to get the new channels on their new television sets. To reinforce its position during its initial stage (1995), SIC undertook an intense educational campaign all over the country, not only to help with the channel setting on television sets, but also to intro- duce the experience of their shows, combined with an offer consisting of a diversified program portfolio, a high- quality news bulletin, Brazilian soaps, and an aggressive campaign to acquire advertising.

In the period between 1995 and 2001, the initial effort made by SIC paid off, with this channel becoming a tele- vision audience leader, both during the day and in prime time. However, with the sale of TVI in 2000 and the complete changes made to their program schedules in 2001, TVI conquered the leadership, having maintained that position.

The main factors behind SIC‘s leadership loss were its refusal to broadcast “Big Brother” (a reality show broadcast by TVI) and bad management of program stocks concerning Globo Soaps. “Big Brother” was a show of doubtful quality and interest, besides the fact it was a rather expensive product (around E5,000,000). SIC did not quite understand its effects on the market and underestimated its impact, having refused to include it in its programs. On the other hand, TVI, although in serious financial difficulties, decided to take this step, completely changing its image with the viewers. This product was a huge success, having contributed to relaunch TVI within the television sector.

Management and Program Development and Strategies

Growth, Strategy, and Business Synergies

To Media Capital, the Prisa Group represented a strong partner for future development. The experience enjoyed by Prisa in the press, radio, and paid television segments helped the MCG continue its growth, as well as exploit synergies and develop joint ventures. Presently, Media Capital has a strong shareholder base that brought together the main media group in Spain (and one of the biggest in Latin America). According to Juan Luís Cébrian, president of Prisa,5 “Portugal is a market that we already know and we believe to have a strong growth potential. We want to work with our Portuguese colleagues from the MCG to exchange experience and knowledge, as well as develop the business.”

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When examining the structure of the group and the balance of activity in 2004 and the beginning of 2005, one finds that Media Capital has been diver- sifying its businesses within the specialized press, radio, television (including cable), Internet (access and multimedia contents provider), outdoor advertising and record industry sectors, organizing musical and cultural events, as well as business fairs and exhibitions, and extending its activities to distribution of movie rights and participation in an anonymous sports football club society.

On January 28, 2005, at the Media Capital “Investor’s Day” (shareholder meeting), the Chairman of the Board, Miguel Paes do Amaral, presented three main points concerning the organization’s growth strategy aimed at obtaining profits:

1. Structural growth of the working businesses— through market growth balance (considering price and volume variables), together with growth of the group’s advertising investment and devel- opment of new revenue areas in every media.

2. Concentration of efforts toward cost efficiency— by economy of resources involved in operational structures; maintaining of CAPEX at minimum levels; and exploitation of contents, promotion, and synergy of costs associated with the group.

3. Continuous investment evaluation—by managing program and marketing costs, as investments, and through evaluation of the group portfolio and growth opportunities through potential creation of value.

During this same meeting, the Chairman of the Board also discussed potential exploitation of contents, adver- tising, and promotion synergies across several group media:

� “Quinta das Celebridades,” a TVI reality show, “used” by MCG radios, Lux magazine, and the IOL portal.

� Exploitation of TVI’s news content by outdoor advertising; MCO; and contents exchange between Agência Financeira (financial information Web site), Mais Futebol (sports information Web site), and Portugal Diário (generalist Web site), all of which are owned by the IOL portal.

� TVI, Media Capital radios, and free weekly news- paper Metro, were encouraged to share news with each other.

On February 20, 2006, also during the presentation made on Investor’s Day, some objectives of the Media Capital general strategy for profitable growth were also defined:

1. Structural growth in current business: � Use leading positions to leverage an increase

in prices and market shares. � Achievement of additional revenue from

group content and new platforms. 2. Focus on cost efficiency:

� Keeping lean operating structures and CAPEX at minimum levels.

� Exploiting cross-synergies to reduce costs within the group.

3. Best practices in the sector: � Program and marketing investments orien-

tated toward returns. � Focus on leading, reference media assets

aimed at organic growth.

Business Area History

Television. In 1999, Media Capital acquired the majority of TVI’s capital, having relaunched a second Portuguese private channel in 2000. In the beginning of that year, TVI’s market share was 18%, with this channel having surpassed SIC in the third quarter with 33.3%. TVI’s position was due to its prime-time programs, a combination of a news bulletin of a popular character, followed by soap operas, Portuguese series, and the first edition of the “Big Brother” reality show.

In the beginning of 2002, Media Capital’s activity within the television sector was expanded with the acqui- sition of 45% of NBP’s social capital (the main Portuguese soap opera and popular series production company and supplier for TVI). In the last quarter of 2002, Media Capital bought the remainder of NBP, through the acqui- sition of VAL.

NPB integrated production companies FEALMAR and Multicena (with 5 studios employing over 500 collabora- tors); Empresa Portuguesa de Cenérios, which provides set design services—construction, assembly, decoration, and assistance; Casa da Criação, responsible for devel- oping television scripts produced by NBP; Camarins, a television and film acquisition, management, mainte- nance, and commercialization logistics platform; and EMAV, a unit orientation directed toward audiovisual equipment leasing and management. Not associated with any particular company within the NBP structure, a workshop company also exists to train soap opera actors, as well as an audiovisual creation and production area and a center to export television contents produced by NBP.

Within the television sector, TVI’s activity is supported by RETI, a network owned by TVI since its launch in 1993. Unlike other Portuguese television channels, TVI does not lease Portugal Telecom’s services to broadcast its transmissions.

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Internet. In March of 2000, Internet service provider IOL was launched as a portal, having become the place to launch other group brands and contents, as well as encourage sales of products and services including adver- tising. Overall, 20 sites were launched and linked to publications, television channels, theme contents and entertainment, personal pages, and editions of exclu- sively electronic publications such as Portugal Diário and Mais Futebol.

IOL also promoted free services or paid additional services such as e-mail, chat and search engines, and ticket purchases through Plateia IOL. Of special interest is “Cotonete.Iol,” the first Portuguese digital radio channel that allows personalization of music lists accessible to each user. Media Capital is also the owner of ISP Vizzavi, acquired from Vodafone.

Press. Since May of 2000, the MCG offers specialized titles associated with its Lux brand: Lux magazines, Lux Woman and Lux Deco (no longer existing)—which are also associated with the contents of television magazine Lux. Media Capital continues to publish media and adver- tising newspapers Briefing, Casas de Portugal (real estate), Maxmen (men’s magazine), Notícias Choque (popular photo- journalism), Poster (movies and music, aimed at young- sters), Recreio (children), Revistas de Vinhos and its English version Portuguese Wines.

In May of 2001, Media Capital sold Sociedade de Comu- nicação Independente, editor of newspaper O Indepen- dente, a weekly newspaper that had created the group years ago, which had been in serious financial difficulties for many years. The newspaper was acquired by a group of 10 investors, including directors Inês Serra Lopes and Vítor Cunha. This newspaper closed down in September of 2006.

Media Capital has maintained a more reduced activity in the press segment through Feira das Vaidades, SA, a publisher of women’s, men’s, and tabloid magazines. In October of 2003, Media Capital redirected its investment priorities to the audiovisual and Internet sectors, having almost abandoned its activities within the press sector by selling its subsidiary Económica, the publisher of news- papers such as Diário Económico and Semanário Económico, to Recoletos (a Spanish subsidiary held by British media group Pearson).

Since 2004, Media Capital, through its subsidiary Meglo, SGPS, SA, has established a joint venture with Swedish group Metro International SA. Meglo is the co-publisher of the Portuguese edition of free commuter newspaper Metro. This daily was launched in December of 2004, being distributed in Lisbon’s subway. Media Capital Multimedia, which is responsible for local contents production, holds 35% of Metro’s social capital and Metro International, being in charge of the project’s opera- tional management, also owning 65% of the publisher’s

social capital. This daily newspaper has an average number of 30 pages of news concerning areas such as society, economy, sports, international, leisure, and advertising (the only revenue source for this publication). On an international level, Metro has 61 different editions in European cities, as well as North and South America and Asia.

Radio. In 2003, radio stations owned by Media Capital (Romântica, Capital—now extinct—Cidade FM, Nostalgia, and Rédio Comercial) all underwent restruc- turing regarding their editorial and program guide- lines. Commercial strategies were also redefined for all services.

Rádio Comercial was relaunched on February 15, 2003; its programs consisted essentially of musical successes of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as information (short, every hour) aimed at the young adult segment (25–44 years of age). Best Rock FM followed Rédio Comer- cial’s tradition, becoming a successful pop-rock music station (from the 1990s until today), aimed at an audi- ence between 18 and 26 years of age. When presented to the investors, Best Rock was described as being neck- to-neck with RFM, the leading station for this particular segment, integrated in the Rádio Renascença group.

Cidade FM was revamped to play more Portuguese music, targeting young people aged 17 to 24. Nostalgia disappeared, having been replaced by Rédio Clube Português. This station was restructured to play Portuguese and International pop-rock classics of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, targeting adults between 42 and 55 years of age.

The radio production and broadcasting activities developed by Media Capital channels are complemented by service provision to advertisers and the general public, mainly recording of commercials in the radio station studios and exploitation of merchandising, through commercialization of theme CDs associated to TVI’s soap operas or other themes. On August 12, 2004, the High Authority for Social Communication authorized Media Capital to buy the entire capital of Rédio XXI, through MC Rédios/Rédio Comercial.

Advertising. During the launch period for the new TVI programs, different synergies were developed with the outdoor advertising companies acquired by Media Capital in 1999 and 2000. During this period, Media Capital acquired some of the main companies that owned a powerful network of outdoor and public transport advertising formats.6

Within the outdoor advertising sector, Media Capital owns 14,000 billboards in several areas, through MCO TV, set in the Lisbon and Porto subways, Carris de Lisboa, Transtejo (ferries across the Tagus River), Fertagus (Tagus

TVI—Media Capital Group 155

River bridge trains and Lisbon buses), SATUO (Oeiras monorail), STCP (Porto buses), TUB (Braga transports), REFER (railway network), as well as having advertising activity around city structures and fixed urban adver- tising spots (nets and big formats) and through the Portuguese bus network.

In July of 2004, Media Capital established an agree- ment with Médias et Régies Europe, SA for the acquisition of 35% of the capital of TC, Publicidade em Transportes e Meios de Comunicação SA (Advertising in transport and communication means, SA), which also operates within the Lisbon and Porto urban structure segment, MCO.7

Other areas. The remaining business areas in which Media Capital is involved are music, movies, fairs, exhi- bitions, and sports. Within the music segment, the group develops its activity through Media Capital Enter- tainment, a company aimed at booking actors, career management, and organization of musical and cultural events, especially record producing, live music presenta- tions, and other events associated to radio and television programs owned by Farol Música. In October of 2004, Farol Música established an agreement for the exclusive distribution and sale of Warner Music in Portugal, as well as encouragement of synergies with Portuguese artists represented by the national label.

Within the movie segment, Media Capital manages movie rights through a partnership with Castello Lopes Multimédia and agreements with FOX/MGM, Miramax, and independent North American production compa- nies. Within the fairs and commercial exhibitions segment, Expolider is responsible for the conception, organization, and implementation of events. The partic- ipation of Media Capital in União de Leiria’s Anony- mous Society places the group within the sports activity, through a Portuguese Premier League football club. In 2004, Media Capital, SGPS was admitted to the stock market (Euronext Lisbon).

Other General Strategy Elements

To better understand the extent of the success of Media Capital’s strategy for the television segment, Table 1 shows audience evolution since the foundation of TVI (1993) until recent years (2006).

As already suggested, the public channel (RTP) did not have a market-orientated strategy before the emergence of private channels. In this sense, it is not surprising that SIC achieved the first position in the ranking of most seen channels in Portugal only 3 years after initiating its broadcasting activity, dethroning RTP1 and sending RTP2 to the last position. On its turn, TVI occupied the third position but lost share consistently until 1997, having

Table 1. Audience Share Evolution of Free-to-Air TV Channels

Television Audience Share—Four Main Free to Air Channels (1992–2006) (Percentages)

Anos RTP 1 RTP 2 SIC TVI

1992 72,2 17,9 8,5* ** 1993 61,5 17,6 14,3 6,6 1994 46,9 9,8 28,4 14,7 1995 38,4 6,4 41,4 13,8 1996 32,6 6,5 48,6 12,3 1997 33,0 5,6 49,3 12,1 1998 31,5 6,2 49,2 13,1 1999 28,5 6,0 48,1 17,4 2000 24,3 5,6 42,2 20,8 2001 20,1 5,6 34,0 31,9 2002 21,1 5,3 31,5 31,4 2003 23,8 5,0 30,3 28,5 2004 24,7 4,4 29,3 28,9 2005 23,6 5,0 27,2 30,0 2006 24,5 5,4 26,2 30,0

Note. Source: Marktest/MediaMonitor, http://www.ics.pt/index. php?op=cont&lang=pt&Pid=78&area=330, retrieved May 2, 2007. RTP=Radio and Television of Portugal; SIC=Sociedade Independente de Comunicação; TVI=Independent Television.

only managed to increase its share by one point in 1998. In summary, TVI’s strategy was based on its character as a church-depending channel, oriented toward an audi- ence mostly comprising housewives and youngsters who watch television in the afternoon.

This acquisition of TVI in 1998 entailed not only new owners but also a new managing director, José Eduardo Moniz, who was largely responsible for all subsequent events in the life of this television station. With a new corporate management model and a new program strategy, encouraged by Media Capital, TVI freed itself from the influence of the Catholic Church and started assuming a new position within the audiovisual market.

In 1999, TVI achieved its best result ever (17.4% of share), gaining audiences both from SIC (leading channel) and RTP1. TVI resorted to the market, having bought programs from a then recent Dutch television program producer, Endemol, which had already supplied programs with good audience results to SIC (Chuva de Estrelas—All You Need is Love). In the end of the 1990s, this producer was strongly betting on an astonishingly successful television program format all over the world— reality shows, the best known of which is “Big Brother.” In just 1 year, TVI’s share increased from approximately 20% to over 30%, this being mostly due to this program and its subsequent editions.

However, this turning of tides at the station was not due solely to reality shows; TVI started betting strongly on national production, namely regarding soap operas. Todo o Tempo do Mundo, Jardins Proibidos, and Olhos de Água

156 Faustino

were the soap operas that initiated this cycle, having obtained enormous audience shares. TVI has been betting strongly on this type of program since 1999, with each soap opera proving more successful than the previous. From 2000 onward, Casa da Criação started writing the scripts for TVI novels, which represents total profession- alism. The Queluz station realizes that national soap operas represent a fundamental element to achieve its targets, on par with reality shows, directing all produc- tion means toward TVI. The Casa da Criação (soap opera scripts), FEALMAR, and NBP (producers) end up being acquired by Media Capital. Therefore, the TVI group now own all necessary means for station soap opera produc- tion, from script writing to production, casting, actor training, and so forth. Table 2 shows the most successful soap operas.

The year of 2005 represented another important mile- stone for TVI: The channel attained leadership, with a 30% share versus the 27.2% share achieved by SIC, dethroning the latter station, which had occupied the position of market leader for 10 consecutive years. Another audience phenomenon, named Morangos com Açúcar was equally important. Effectively, a very signifi- cant market segment existed that neither reality shows nor soaps managed to mobilize in favor of TVI: the adoles- cent segment. With the start of this soap in 2003 (which is already in its 4th series), TVI also managed to capture this target audience.

Two other Portuguese audiovisual sector phenomena emerged associated to this soap: manufactured music bands that rapidly reached national sales tops (D’ZRT and 4Taste) and product placement, which entails placing (advertising) brands in a subtle fashion. This had already been done in 1998 with the series Médico de Família (from Endemol), but it was with the series Morangos com Açúcar it became relevant. It is certainly a very important revenue source for TVI, as may be observed from the economic and financial indicators shown in the following section.

Table 2. List of the Most Successful Independent Television Soaps

Soap Year Share

Olhos de Água 2001 52% Filha do Mar 2002 50% Dei-te Quase Tudo 2006 49% Anjo Selvagem 2003 48% MCA II Verão 2005 47% Fala-me de Amor 2006 46% Mundo Meu 2005 46% Nunca Digas Adeus 2002 46% Ninguém como tu 2005 45% Queridas Feras 2005 45%

Concerning other general strategy elements, TVI signed a protocol with Sport TV on March 13, 2006 where it was established that TVI had exclusive broadcasting rights for the Portuguese Premier League football games during the 2006 through 2007 and 2007 through 2008 seasons. TVI will broadcast games from a major team every week, also holding exclusive broadcasting rights for all other games.

Another important aspect to be highlighted in this group’s strategy is the importance given to market rela- tions: The MCG has a market relations representative responsible not only for external communications but also for investor communications and relations. The mission of the relations representative regarding Media Capital Investors is to supply relevant information, in a consistent fashion, to all interested parties involved, in the sense this ensures the possibility of correct company evaluation any moment (regardless of the char- acter of the news in question) to minimize investor risks.

As part of this information policy, the MCG presents quarterly results (according to legal requirements), orga- nizes meetings between the Media Capital Management team and investors, as well as a visit of the chief financial officer or the Investor Relations to the sales side at least once a year, also organizing an annual event (Investor’s Day) with the participation of people responsible for the various business units. Investors and analysts are also allowed to participate in regional and sector conferences, conference calls, and visits in Lisbon, when required. Media Capital provides the following regular information and presentations: news, mandatory information, monthly audience reports, quarterly results presentation and broadcast, specific company presen- tations, general assembly communications, and yearly accounting reports.

As already suggested regarding TVI’s program strategy, a strategic approach to prime time (8 p.m.– 12 a.m.) and the hours prior to prime time (6 p.m.–8 p.m.) exists, as well as in the quarters with bigger seasonal advertising investment (2nd and 4th quarters). Regarding target audiences, TVI has defined as the segment repre- sented by housewives between 25 and 44 years of age and their families as its most relevant commercial target. To achieve market share among its target audience, TVI ensures different programs are broadcast over week- days and weekends. One differentiating aspect of TVI’s programs compared to other television channels has been a greater focus on soap operas and other televi- sion shows starring national actors. Figure 3 shows this television operator’s program strategy in a more system- ized fashion, this being based on three aspects: informa- tion (28%), fiction (32%), and entertainment (24%). Other programs (sports and international, among others) repre- sent only 16%.8

TVI—Media Capital Group 157

FOCUS ON RETURN: - Prime time - Strong quarters - Audiences in relevant demographic profiles

Market audiences with high relevance on advertising revenues

Selective key target time slot

Define priorities for programming budget

Define & fine tune programming grid

Housewives ABC 1 25/54

Housewives ABC 1 25/54

Families 4–44 Adults: > 15

Access to prime – time

Prime – time Night – different

for weekday/weekend

> ¾ of TVI Programming

investment on these time slot

Focus on most profitable quarters

News & sports done in - house

Portuguese fiction/NBP/TVI

International most acquired to majors

Entertainment is locally adapted/produced