The national train operator Czech Railways received the award for the Most Viewed Digital Project in Transport in 2021 in the Czech Republic. A record 30 million views and more than 100,000 subscribers were attracted by the content of the online platform Pohled z vlaku (View From Train), developed and operated for Czech Railways by Dialog Media. The record results were achieved organically without any paid promotion.
The online platform pohledzvlaku.cz offers a catalogue of videos of interesting railway lines in the Czech Republic, recorded from several cameras installed on Czech Railways trains. In parallel with watching the video footage, the viewer of the portal can see in real time the stops, signals and points of interest on each documented line. In addition, the platform provides a range of other information, such as the engineer's commentary or tips for interesting excursions.
Dialog Media's programming and content team created its own online platform pohledzvlaku.cz in 2015 on behalf of Czech Railways. To date, 147 videos have been produced as part of the pohledzvlaku.cz project, with more than 30 million views and 101 thousand subscribers. In the field of railways, it has long been the most watched digital project in transport, not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad, where it has been ranked among the world's top projects. In the past, various variations on this theme have appeared online, but none of these projects has achieved the level of viewership of the portal pohledzvlaku.cz.
"We are very pleased with the audience's interest so far and are working to create interesting content for viewers and rail fans. On the occasion of surpassing the milestone of 30 million views, we decided to present Czech Railways with the award for the most watched digital project in transport as a thank you for its cooperation and trust," said Pavel Mojžíš, CEO of Dialog Media.
The award was received by Jiří Ješeta, Czech Railways Deputy General Director for Business. "The modernization of passenger rail transport is our priority and includes its presentation in popular electronic channels, which are followed by an increasingly important target group. The award received today is a confirmation for us that well prepared and modernly presented content about railways can generate a very positive public response even without the need for campaign promotion costs," said Jiří Ješeta when receiving the award.
Czech Railways also appreciated the feedback it receives from the public. "Thanks to the View from Train project, Czech Railways succeeds in naturally involving the public in the creation of corporate content. Our department responds to numerous comments, questions or suggestions for lines that the public thinks should be included in the project," said Václav Rubeš, head of Czech Railways print and online periodicals department.
Although in the early days of the project the core of the community was made up of employees and railway fans, the current indicators of viewership and number of subscribers confirm that the platform is popular with the wider public. "Thanks to the View from Train project, the Czech Railways brand is naturally becoming more widely known. We have real experience that the View from Train portal contributes to making the railway profession more attractive in the eyes of potential job seekers," added Václav Rubeš.
