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Slovak Telekom’s Exclusive Folklore Channel More Popular Than VH1 or MTV

Slovak Telekom’s Exclusive Folklore Channel More Popular Than VH1 or MTV

Slovak Telekom said that its folklore music channel Folklorika has become a success one month after being launched. Among the music channels in the basic offer, Folklorika recorded the highest viewership, leading by 15 percent before the second most viewed music channel. The measurements of viewership of the operator’s IPTV offer Magio counted all viewers who selected the channel on their set-top box at least once and watched it for at least three minutes.

In June, Folklorika outplaced even such music brands as VH1, MTV in terms of viewership.

Tarifica’s Take

The perhaps incongruous success of a folklore-oriented IPTV channel illustrates a point we have often made: That operators benefit greatly from offering exclusive, original entertainment content that is specifically and sensitively tailored for demographics that they understand well. In this case, Folklorika posted impressive viewership almost immediately after launch, surpassing other, more mainstream entertainment offerings such as MTV and VH1. It is worth noting that these offerings are not exclusive to Slovak Telekom, nor is their content culturally specific to Slovakia, as Folklorika is.

On the whole, operators in most, if not all, markets will be well served by launching content offerings that closely track with the tastes and expectations of their customer bases. Such offerings are an excellent way for operators to supplement traditional services deliver value-added features.