Veriça Djurdjevic, Chief Revenue Officer, Channel 4, UK
“The thing that I am particularly passionate about when it comes to the world of broadcast and TV, is the power that it has for the new and emerging brands and businesses in our ecosystem. So, those disruptors, the scale-ups, the start-ups. We have seen more of those than ever before coming to test TV, whether that being through linear or indeed video-on-demand and they are seeing fantastic growth and returns for those early investments.
Once upon a time for those kinds of brands, it would have been a totally inaccessible option. But over the past few years, the reduced cost of production and the initiatives that many broadcasters are putting into place, including us at Channel 4, have really helped to scale the number of new-to-TV brands that we see when we watch our screens every day. So, whether it be through testing through video-on-demand or regional testing through linear, or indeed through match funding or equity ventures, we are seeing greater numbers of those brands and we are seeing that they are able to show really concrete business effects, both in terms of growth but also in terms of giving confidence to their investors and backers.
What we have always known, that TV is a hugely effective medium at building fame and business results for those big, national brands. I think it’s so encouraging to see that so many new-to-TV brands are coming now and seeing real growth, real scale and real opportunity. And not just in the acquisition part of the funnel, but indeed that ability to build big scale brand fame has accelerated the number of them to be major listed company. So, for me, the power for the new-to-TV advertisers is absolutely a cornerstone of what we should all be driving for.”