NEM: United Group to target streamer-friendly young audiences with local content

Victoriya Boklag

Southeast European telecommunications services provider, United Group is in the process of putting its produced content in a format targeted to younger generations, according to chief executive officer, Victoriya Boklag.

In a keynote discussion at the New Europe Market (NEM) today in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the United Group boss said the telco provider’s advantage over its competitors in attracting new and younger audiences is its local content.

She said, “Netflix, and similar platforms will never start producing local news or local entertainment” in the same way United Group does.

Boklag said that though sports plays a key role in attracting young audiences,“when you think about how the whole ecosystem will play out, what will definitely be coming from us [United Group] is local news and local entertainment.”

United Group have since launched TikTok accounts for all of its news outlets which includes Nova News and N1 and is developing more short-form style content, according to Boklag.

She said in its aim to engage with younger audiences, the company is seeking out younger talent who will “teach us how their generations are consuming content and which kind of content they are consuming.”

“The whole integration is moving a lot to short form,” she adds. “We need to be ready so we are even thinking about how in the next 10 years, how will future audiences consume TV content. Will those audiences be consuming long-form content or will they ever watch news at seven, which is now one of the most watched shows on television, probably not they prefer much shorter.”

Boklag added the group is considering using technology and AI to further adapt long-form content and short-form for younger audiences’ viewing.