Paid streaming service Voyo is growing rapidly and is the most used local service in most markets. This was stated by the PPF financial group in the financial report for last year. At the end of last year, over 700,000 users were paying for the video library.
The largest number of Voyo subscribers are in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There were 450 thousand Czech and Slovak users at the end of the year, since then their number has increased and exceeded half a million. Voyo is also available in Romania, Slovenia and Bulgaria.
“Voyo is the number one local SVOD provider in all CME markets and remains a top three player in most of its markets,” noted PPF, which acquired CME in 2020.
“CME’s investment in creating attractive entertainment content for local markets and the company’s overall digital transformation is a response to the global consumer shift away from primary viewing of linear television to a subscription video on demand (SVOD) model. In Europe, as elsewhere, SVOD is growing at an unprecedented rate, thanks to consumers who have quickly embraced their technological changes,” the financial statement continues.
The key source of CME’s revenue in all markets remains the traditional business model, i.e. the sale of advertising space on air and fees from operators of pay TV services. However, the company is gradually expanding its offer of direct services for consumers.
“One of the principles on which CME builds its continued growth is the extensive investment in local production that increases the popularity of its television channels with local viewers. In 2022, CME had 87 projects in development, pre-production or production. This is a significant increase compared to 2018, when there were only 18 projects in the content/production preparation of CME in the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” states the annual report.
CME’s sales increased to €777 million in 2022 (€682 million in 2021). Profit also increased, from 120 million euros in 2021 to 136 million euros in 2022. CME does business in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia. In total, it owns 43 TV channels.
