ceetv: You came back to the channel around two years ago. How do evaluate that period?

AT: Those two years have been really unusual: we experienced the major crisis from one hand, and on the other, we had to reorganize the company due to the change in ownership. CME had decided to leave the market and Igor Kolomoisky now owns 1+1 group of channels.

We have passed thru lots of changes during those two years and I'm extremely happy that we were able to overcome the drop-off tendency and now 1+1 is recovering its market position. More than that, we have now more possibilities as in our group there are 3 more TV channels (TET, 2+2 and Citi). So we are very ambitioous and have lots of plans for the future and the coming year in particular.

ceetv: In your opinion why the situation at the channel got better following the change in ownership? Why didn't the channel work well during CME times?

AT: CME's behavior at all the markets is pretty much the same - everywhere its channels are the market leaders. But those markets are different from the Ukrainian in terms of number of citizens in each country and competition on the market. There are six channels here fighting head to head for the viewers. We learned a lot from CME in terms of business organization but the enterprise should be first of all cost-effective. And if you don't become successfull from the very beginning by investing in business it's hard to be cost-effective afterwards. And the situation with the crisis didn't allow to invest more. So those two key factors - the crisis from one hand and the very competitive market from another, were the key factors.

ceetv: 2010 is one of the most competitive years on the Ukranian TV market. Among the tendencies of the season experts are observing huge amount of talent shows and a format boom. What do you think about these tendencies? How did the taste of Ukranian viewers change over the past couple of years?

AT: The Ukranian viewer is spoiled due to the competition. You wouldn't be able to find so many formats as there are on our market, [perhaps] in 2 or 3 other European territories. So obviously, the viewer likes novelties that are very well done.

Last year we launched some reality formats, continued producing them this year and most likely this will become a real trend next year in Ukraine. If you study what types of programs get the highest ratings on Ukranian channels in different timeslots, you'd find out that it is predominantly locally produced content. This tendency is to be reconfirmed in the next year as well. Also, we started to produсe local sitcoms and as far as I know, the colleagues are also investing in fiction.

ceetv: From October the channel switched to vertical programming. How do you evaluate this new strategy? Will 1+1 continue with this model?

AT: We had the first vertical programming model in spring 2009. Toghether with our CME colleagues, we dared to be the first to make this dramatic switch from horizontal programming to partly vertical. And we learned a lot from that.

This year we have vertical programming in primetime with locally produced formats. And practice shows that if the content is done well and if the promotion and preparation for the project is carried out smoothly, the viewer is thankfully responding to such initiatives. So we will continue with vertical grids next year as well.

ceetv: We wrote recently that you have acquired such format as ‘The Marriage Ref', 'Rent-a-Mom' and 'My Ex is My Witness'. Can you confirm that?

AT: We have acquired rights to produce lots of formats. And many of them we are currently in development. The above mentioned are either bought or we are at the stage of finalization of the deals. And we hope to continue to surprise our viewers next year not only with the above mentioned but also with other projects.

ceetv: What novelties will your viewers see on the channel soon?

AT: We have already shot Endemol's 'The Money Drop' under the Ukrainian name 'Two Million'. For next year we have prepared 'My Man Can' from SevenOne and others.

ceetv: When do you plan to launch sitcoms 'House Arrest' from CME and 'Sonya's World' from SPTI?

AT: Both projects are shot already, now they are in the stage of post-production so the viewers will see them next year.

ceetv: Most of your projects are produced in-house by 1+1 Production. Is your channel still cooperating with external producers or will all your projects be developed internally in the future?

AT: We are collaborating with WeitMedia on 'The Money Drop' and with some Ukrainian production houses, but the main priority for us is development of in-house production.

ceetv: Some of your projects were made in collaboration with Russian CTC (among the last 'Margosha' adaptation of ‘LaLola'), do you plan any other co-production projects in the future?

AT: Yes, we continue to co-produce [with CTC], currently we have one project 'Amazons' and have long-term plans for the future. But we also cooperate with Russiya, TNT, NTV and other Russian channels as well.

ceetv: How do you evaluate the situation on the Ukranian advertising market? What are your expectations for the next year? Will prices continue to increase?

AT: We really hope that prices will grow as we consider them unfair. The Ukranian ad market dropped dramaticly last year - 50-60% which is probably the biggest decrease in Europe. Besides, there are subjective reasons for such a drop as some players employed a dumping behavior.

So we consider the forecasts of some colleagues that the market will grow 20-30%% the next year to be underestimated. Our goal for the next year is minimum to come back to the level of 2008 in USD not Grivna pricing.

ceetv: What are your ambitions for the future? Where do you see 1+1 in two years time?

AT: Our goal is to be the Number One group in Ukraine in our target demo 18-54. We will pay even more attention next year to our group channels [TET, 2+2 and Citi].

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