Programmer Profile: Nova Broadcasting Group’s Svetlana Vassileva

June 15, 2011 World Screen

PREMIUM: As the CEO of the Nova Broadcasting Group, Svetlana Vassileva oversees the second-largest channel in Bulgaria, Nova TV, as well as the Diema bouquet.

 

 

What age groups do you target?
ADVERTISEMENT

Watch GoQuest Media’s Kuma (The Other Wife) in their Exclusive Showcase

 

Nova TV, as all the commercial channels on the market, is operating within the 18-to-49 demographic. Being the second-biggest channel on the market, we try to be as broad as possible, therefore we are not targeting specific smaller target groups within 18 to 49, but we are trying to reach all of them through diverse programming content.
When you aim to be as broad as possible, you have to be much more selective and picky in terms of the acquired content. When you look at the audience in prime time for a big national channel, it’s actually quite diverse and finding content that is fresh, interesting even groundbreaking, without being too provocative, can be quite a challenge.
 
 

What are some of the acquired programs that have performed particularly well?

 

In terms of acquired series, CSI and House are part of Nova’s identity as a channel. They are still going very strong and through these two titles we established ourselves as the channel to go to for top U.S. series.
The whole Bulgarian market also went through the phase of the Turkish series; actually we were the first channel in Bulgaria to launch them. They still perform strongly, but we have now limited them to one title per day and that is in daytime, where we have a stronger female audience.
 
 

What genres are you acquiring?

 

We are always looking for good drama and good movies. These are the two main ingredients of the acquisitions portfolio.
 
 

What percentage of your channel is acquired, and what percentage is original productions?

 

For Nova TV, it is more than 50 percent in-house productions. We also have the Diema channels in our portfolio (Diema, Diema 2 and Diema Family), which are 100-percent based on acquisitions.
 
 

Are there any overall trends that you’ve noticed?

 

As simple as it may sound, but it’s always the good content that performs. Of course, it has to be positioned and marketed correctly and most importantly, we should never forget that TV is not an exact science, so no one can predict what will work and what will not, which I guess is part of the excitement.