TV3 megaproject surprise rise to TV top

Photo: TV 3

Week after week, the TV 3 springtime megaproject Your Face Sounds Familiar (Su nägu kõlab tuttavalt) keeps getting tremendous ratings. These past weeks, viewers come above quarter of a million.

Last Sunday, the parody show was, according to TNS Emor data, watched by 272,000 people. The second best, ETV’s Õnne 13, lost by 80,000 viewers. Success of such calibre has lasted for weeks.

«We hoped for success, for sure. But to have a program like we haven’t had for six years… we couldn’t foresee that,» said  TV3 chief executive Priit Leito. According to him, the hit program has pulled up audience levels of the entire channel.

«It’s not only that people watch TV3 for two hours Sunday nights, but it glues the finger to the three for the entire week, and has lifter the entire channel’s image,» he remarked.

But why is Your Face Sounds Familiar such a success?

«I think it mostly for the well known participants. And that they all do it with sincere joy,» said Mr Leito.

Winks to women

Mr Leito also underlined the Estonians’ liking towards parody and singing. «Even historically, say from the Narrow Shoe (Kitsas king) times, we saw Peeter Oja and Andrus Vaarik doing Modern Talking or Valeri Leontjev... It’s always been popular and this is the good old stuff, rediscovered,» he said.

Another strength, he thinks, is the lack of voting people out: «If we have ten artists, rather equal, and all viewers have their established favourites, then no-one will be saddened by their favourite dropping out.»

Indeed, Mr Leito thinks generating positive emotions to be key to TV programmes’ success. «TV as such cannot move too far away from the word entertainment. First and foremost, people land in front of TV to relax. As soon as you start doing overly serious TV, or distancing from entertainment, you miss both target groups,» said Mr Leito.

The target group most sought after by commercial TV channels are, according to Mr Leito, aged 18-49. And it is in this very range that TV3 shows good results. In last week’s viewer results, TV3 made top 10, in that age group, with six programmes.

«Both us and Kanal 2 are mostly after that target group. About 75 per cent of advertisement money moves according to that group’s ratings. This group is very vital for commercial channels, naturally,» he confessed.

And within that age range, women are top priority. «Again, we come to ad money. Ladies have a great role in purchasing the goods that are being advertised on TV,» explained Mr Leito. «TV3 is very aware of that. So, we have to be feminine, rather than masculine.»

To keep the lead, the 7-9 pm time slot is most important, says Mr Leito. «Therefore, we made the news to last for an hour, also, and have increased the news audience by half. Every day, growth on account of news is at least as important as the success of Your Face Sounds Familiar».

«The battle between TV3 and Kanal 2 will continue, of course. They are also thinking what to do. But our position has been significantly improved,» said Mr Leito, also predicting improvement in economic results. «It’s not instant, that spring season comes great and economic results up and improve. But I do believe we might improve by, say, a million euros.»

Most popular TV programmes

All viewers, starting 4 years of age:

1. Your Face Sounds Familiar, TV3 – 272,000

2. Õnne 13, ETV – 192,000

3. Under Clouds (Pilvede all), Kanal 2 – 190,000

4. Eyewitness (Pealtnägija), ETV – 185,000

5. Revenge Office (Kättemaksukontor), TV3 – 167,000