SNAPSHOT:
Manager: Pavel Stantchev
Company: Nova Televisia
Job: Executive Director

In brief: Stantchev was born in 1966 in Sofia. After graduating from the French language school in Sofia, Stantchev enrolled in Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski where he studied Bulgarian philology. In 1992 Stantchev graduated from  the Paris Journalism College. During this time Stantchev's articles were published in  leading French magazines: L'Express and  Le Point among others.

From 1992 till 1996 Stantchev was Manager Corporate Development at the largest Swiss media group Ringier. From 1996 to 2002 Stantchev worked at HBO, a division of the world's biggest media company Time Warner. There he launched and managed the HBO Pay-TV channels in Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, and served as Managing Director of  HBO Romania and Director of Business Development HBO Central Europe. In 2003-2004 Stantchev was responsible to develop new markets in Central Europe for the largest European TV group - RTL. He established RTL Croatia and was its first Executive Director. After winning a national broadcasting license, the group launches in 2004 RTL Televizija which became the most watched TV station in Croatia. As of January 1 2005  Stantchev was appointed  as executive director of Nova TV and Radio Express. 

Years later, he distinctly remembers with wonder all the events that led to the end of that world, the trains full of East Germans going through Hungary to the West, the Velvet Revolution in Prague, people dancing on the Wall…

In December 1989, he left for France. The changes in Bulgaria had made it easier to travel, but he would have gone anyhow. He had visited Paris a year earlier, was mesmerised by its beauty, and was determined to go back there. He had finished the French school in Sofia, and had no problem with the language. He went on to graduate from the Ecole Superieure de journalisme in Paris. He already was a journalist in Bulgaria, like his father had been – a family tradition. However, he had never thought he would not only see firsthand the transition from propaganda media to market-oriented media, but also be a full actor in the process.

On the move
And this is in fact what he dedicated his career to. First written press: he launched several newspapers in Central Europe and Asia with the Swiss group Ringier, including the Bulgarian weekly Kesh (Cash). From 1996, he switched to television: settling down in Bucharest, he launched and managed the HBO pay TV channels in Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova; he also was the managing director for HBO Romania. In 2003, he started developing new markets in Central Europe for the largest European TV group, RTL.

He established RTL Croatia and was his first executive director; under his leadership, RTL Televizija won a national broadcasting licence and became the most-watched TV station in Croatia. “All these years were incredible. I experienced lots of first times. First economic magazine, first colour magazine, first private TV… Look at Bulgaria, everything is available now.”

The process of liberalisation followed the same pattern everywhere in Eastern Europe: it first reached written press, then radio, and then television. “It was like switching from black and white to colour.”

And they came from a long way. In Bulgaria, under communism, there were two public channels. A joke had it that when Channel One was airing the Congress of the Communist Party, if you switched to Channel Two, a policeman would point his finger at you and ask: “Well, well, let’s see who is not watching the congress of the party?”

Nova TV
While in Croatia, Stantchev was approached by Antenna, the owner of Nova Televisia. They offered him the post of executive director of the channel. He accepted. It was December 2004. Why Nova TV? “There were a number of reasons. I liked the spirit of Antenna, which was family-oriented. After seven years at Time Warner (for HBO), which is the biggest media group in the world, it was nice being part of a family again – something I had experienced with the Swiss group Ringier. Then it was a good career opportunity. And after 15 years abroad, I liked the idea of going back to Bulgaria. It was an interesting time period, with the prospect of EU accession.”

Career-wise, Stantchev saw his appointment as a new challenge. He had followed developments in the field of media in Bulgaria, and knew where Nova TV was standing. The channel was losing money. “I liked the challenge, and the position of outsider.”

Nova TV had been created in 1994, but was not granted a national airing licence until 2003. It had some difficult years behind it: in 2000, bTV was created as the first private national television. Many journalists then left Nova TV to join the new channel. But brighter days were to come: the granting of the national licence was a turning point. And so was the production of Big Brother in 2004. “It was my predecessor’s decision,” says Stantchev. “A bright but risky move. In terms of finances, Big Brother – which is shot at Boyana Film Studios – was quite an investment.”

The move, if daring, was a success. Big Brother turned out to be a big bang for Nova TV, and has never ceased to improve its ratings since its introduction. Big Brother 3, which aired in autumn 2006, thus captured 37 per cent of the audience on average, and did better than Big Brother 1 and 2. How come? “At the beginning, Big Brother interested mostly kids and teenagers. But with Big Brother 3, we came to realise that the larger public was interested, including old people who were watching it as a soap opera.”

Big Brother now represents about 20 per cent of the channel’s income. Big Brother Celebrity has been introduced, and the success story continues. Two new reality shows will be introduced later this year.

So is there a life for TV outside reality shows? “The interesting thing in my position,” says Stantchev, “is that having worked in other European countries, I can judge by previous developments there. The way TV evolves is more or less the same everywhere, going from West to East – the US, then Western Europe, Eastern and Central Europe, and South East Europe. With reality shows, the author has been metaphorically killed; the actors are non-professionals and have to write their own scenario on stage. What people like about it is the unexpected, the element of improvisation. But I notice fiction works are making a comeback worldwide”.

He gives the example of Prisonbreak, “an excellent series”, which Nova TV has bought. “So I believe that in the future, reality shows will still be a part of the landscape, but should lose some of their importance.”

What is specific about Nova TV? Isn’t it just another commercial channel? “I believe television is for the general public, not just for the elite,” says Stantchev, “it has to provide the right mix of information and entertainment, and Nova TV does a good job in this regard”.

And, yes, it has distinctive features. He mentions three of them.

First: open-mindedness. “We try to take the best of everything in the world and in Bulgaria; we do not follow a given model, or the example set by a single country. This is made easier by the fact that our owner is Greek, our finance director, Thomas Coreno, an American who has previous experience in Eastern Europe, and I have been all over the place myself.”

Then: independence. “Antenna does only television in Bulgaria, and has no potentially conflicting interests there.”

And finally: responsibility. “We have a strong ethics on information, and our viewers know it.”

The channel has conducted investigations, notably on corruption, some of which turned out to be so sensitive that journalists were threatened. A bomb exploded in Vassil Ivanov’s apartment last year. “We leave our journalists full freedom to investigate, and they know we will be behind them in case of trouble.”

Apart from its own shows, Nova TV has been buying lots of series, games, reality shows, and movies… How about producing its own series? Stantchev ponders. “We are thinking about it. But having your own production carries with it heavy financial risks. You have to accept to lose money at least in the first episodes, as well as the eventuality of failure.”

Two years ago, attempts were made (Hotel Bulgaria, Sea Salt), but they did not work.

Does this leave little hope for Bulgarian cinema on the whole? Not necessarily. “I believe what is needed is more Multiplex-like theatres. Going out to see a movie, you expect a pleasant environment, parking spaces, restaurants, etc. You have those in Sofia, you need more in the provinces. In the US, a successful movie can be released in 3500 theaters simultaneously, in France in 900. We would need something like 300 in Bulgaria. The other problem is piracy.”

The seven million leva announced by the Government in support of the movie industry “is a big step forward”. And judging by the examples of Poland or the Czech Republic, Stantchev believes there might be a comeback in four to five years in Bulgaria.

Running the show: passion, public, money and news
To a large extent, Stantchev has won his challenge. Ever since he was appointed general manager of Nova TV, the channel has been improving its audience share – about 20 per cent now; it has gone from third place to second (after bTV); it was losing money, and is making some; it is expanding, in terms of airing (three million euro have been invested in new transmitters since 2004), programmes and marketing; it has also started to move into a new building near the airport. The studios still need to be installed there and this should be done by July.

Stantchev wanted to bring together the administration and the journalists – still the family spirit – and overcame the initial resistance to leaving the centre of Sofia.

As a general manager, he sees his job as teamwork. He did not start up by firing everybody around him. “The team was good,” he says. “There were highly motivated people who had been faithful to the channel throughout difficult times.”

What does he expect from his staff? “Passion. People have to feel real passion for their job. If they do, I trust them, I delegate as much as I can, just outlining the main objectives and strategy. But the prerequisite is passion.” Stantchev takes care of his staff, providing training and making sure they feel comfortable where they are. He knows that star journalists such as Milen Tsvetkov can guarantee the success of a show.

He also listens carefully the feedback coming from the public. When something important is at stake, he intervenes directly. He thus participates in the final casting phases of Big Brother (33 000 candidates for 16 places). “Selecting the right mix of people is essential to the success of the show.”

He also closely follows the finance situation. For the time being, 95 per cent of Nova TV’s revenue comes from advertising. The advertising market for television is booming in Bulgaria (+25 per cent growth in the past two years); however, he sees this as linked to a catching-up effect, and has witnessed the slowdown of the growth rate in Central European countries. His objective is to diversify the channel’s revenue sources so that, in two years’ time, eight to 10 per cent of revenue comes from avenues other than advertising. “This is a general trend for televisions.” Telephones (televiewers are invited to call or send an SMS during games) and cable operators (Evrocom sells NovaPlus, the cable channel which airs Big Brother 24 hours a day) also bring in revenue.

“And the quality of the news programmes – there are four of them a day, representing 30 per cent of the programmes – is very important to me. This is also something of which I am very careful.”

What’s coming next? Now that he’s just turned 40, is he looking for yet another challenge? “I don’t like routine, and it is true I am sort of a globetrotter,” he says, “but I still have plans for Nova TV.”

Is he going to stay in Bulgaria? “I don’t know yet, but why not? I believe in the future of this country. Younger generations, who have not known communism, have access to so much information and freedom. I remember being struck by Pope John Paul II’s words: “Don’t be afraid”. To me, this was enlightening. “Don’t be afraid”… We had known so much fear under communism, we had to be careful of what we said and to whom we were talking. Young people do not know this fear, and this can unleash so much potential... What is worrying, however, is that moral values seem to have been lost in the process.”

Stantchev, as the saying goes, keeps his eyes on the stars and his feet on the ground. This mixture of idealism and realism might account for his success.