Online streaming services have been challenging the viewership and profit of traditional TV channels around the world. In Hungary, while television remains the primary venue of media consumption, the rise of streaming already has a visible financial effect on the media market.
This is perhaps the best illustrated by RTL, the country’s leading commercial TV company that runs Hungary’s most popular station and several smaller thematic channels.
According to Nielsen’s report, time spent in front of the television increased slightly in 2020 (to 4 hours and 55 minutes per day on average, 16 minutes more than last year), which is not surprising due to the lockdown. RTL’s base has also increased. Their main station attracted 1,5 million viewers during prime time.
Financial results, however point to this increase being somewhat disappointing. Overall, the company’s income decreased by 7.89 percent in the fiscal year of 2020.
Compared to television, other forms of media consumption increased much more dramatically. RTL recently launched its own streaming service, RTL Most, which is quickly picking up pace, and by 2020 the average time spent on the platform rose to 56 minutes per day. Almost half of RTL Most’s audience is from the age group between 18 and 29 – research shows that young people now spend only 20 percent of their screen time watching TV. The rest is spent with online content, including streaming services.
Netflix, which launched its Hungarian service in 2019, remains a market leader, mainly thanks to its exclusive selection of films and series. However, local streaming services are not far behind: RTL Most is getting less than 5 percentage points fewer weekly visits than Netflix, and a larger percentage of the total population heard of RTL’s service. The streaming service of TV2, RTL’s main competitor, is almost as well-known as Netflix, even though its viewership lags behind it.
As Judit Grósz, RTL’s Director of Digital and Business Development, explained at a conference, a winning strategy for a television company today should combine two elements: integrating online and offline services and emphasizing locally relevant productions. The company has leveraged cable providers to include RTL Most in their subscription packages available for digital TV owners. She also said that local content is getting more and more popular despite global digitalization; thus, speaking directly to a local audience can give smaller companies an edge over multi-national media giants.