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Another billionaire has arrived on the Russian media scene. Oil producer RussNeft owner Mikhail Gutseriev has acquired radio stations owned by fellow billionaire Alexander Lebedev Mr. Gutseriev has, best anybody can tell, only tangential media interests. He’s written a few songs that occasionally appear on the airwaves. He also owns other energy companies.
In recent months private ownership of radio channels in Russia has shifted and more is expected. Siberian Business Union, also an energy company, picked up the radio assets of Lagardère and seems to have an appetite for more. Rumors abound of ProfMedia exiting its radio operations. (See more on media in Russia here)
Mr. Lebedev bought Moscow radio stations Pioneer FM and Good Songs in 2008. According to unnamed sources reported by Kommersant (May 16), he’s been looking to exit the radio stations because of “the crisis.” Mr. Lebedev continues to share ownership of newspaper Novaya Gazeta with Mikhail Gorbachev as well as the Evening Standard and the Independent in the UK. (JMH)
After losing its broadcast license in April, Moldova television channel NIT TV is “resuming its activities through the internet,” said station manager Adela Railean in a statement (May 14). The Moldovan Audiovisual Coordination Council revoked the channels license for “breaching the Audiovisual Code.”
“It became apparent that our justice system is politically biased and we decided to bring back the news,” said Ms Railean. NIT TV is considered close to the opposition Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova and broadcasts mostly in Russian. Ms Railean plans to take the channel’s case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will formally charge (May 15) former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, her husband Charles and four others with perverting the course of justice by concealing information from investigations of corrupt payments to police. Several individuals, including Ms Brooks, have been arrested in the ongoing investigations that began with allegations of phone hacking by employees of the UK tabloid News Of The World, owned by News International. Ms Brooks resigned from News International and News Of The World was closed last summer.
The various investigations, including the continuing Leveson Inquiry on press ethics, have dragged everybody who’s anybody in the UK media business to one oath taking or another. Much of it has revealed little more than posturing among the aggrieved and the accused. Last month a committee of the UK House of Commons reported that Rupert Murdoch was not a “fit” person to run a big media house. (See more on Rupert Murdoch and News Corp here)
Three years ago the position of News International, which is wholly owned by News Corporation, was that phone hacking was limited to a “rogue” reporter. That has evolved. With formal charges filed, usually meaning a trial will take place sometime unless bargains are struck, the likelihood of the world discovering the grand bargains between a big media house and public officials rises measurably. (JMH)
Private and public broadcasters in German are always in one sort or row or another. It’s usually about money. Private broadcaster association VPRT took its swing last week over advertising on public radio channels. Private sector radio broadcasters want a rules change to limit ads on public channels.
The agency that determines license fee support – the KEF – should “again deal with the issue,” said a statement from VPRT vice president for radio Klaus Schunk (May 11). So, too, should the politicians “so that the already existing economic gap between (public radio) and private radio stations not open even further.” (See VPRT statement here – in German)
The VPRT favors “harmonization of (public radio) advertising,” limited to 60 minutes per weekday. The association also wants and end to sponsorship revenue as well as local and regional ad windows. (See more on media in Germany here)
From the public broadcasting sales-house AS&S came a different message. ”Radio is more than just a powerful sales medium with transparent performance data,” said Managing Director Adrian Oliver in a statement (May 14). “Radio advertising works extremely quickly and accurately.”
AS&S is pitching its system of using German weather service data to adjust spot advertising regionally according to the weather conditions. (JMH)
Denmark’s Politiken and Canada’s Globe and Mail are the next big newspaper to put online news sites behind the paywall. Both publishers cite the paywall triumph of the New York Times.
Politiken.dk will go behind a metered paywall by the end of the year, said chief editor Bo Lidegaard in a note on the website (May 14). “Journalism costs, whether in print or in the digital world and we think it is fair that you pay for a product that you use a lot.”
Globe and Mail said (May 10) its metered paywall, further details pending, will take effect in the fall.
Revenue from paywalls, metered or not, remains measured in pennies. But publishers of big brand name titles are finding that data gleaned from subscribers is a bonus for ad sales. In five years this will not be a news story. (JMH)
From Last Weeks ftm Tickle file
Journalists confident about media, newspapers most
Concerned about jobs, ethics not so much
Media ethics is a major of recent discussion, the Leveson Inquiry in the UK tasked to flesh out whether or not the words ‘media’ and ‘ethics’ can be used in a complete sentence. Some journalists – and their employers – chew seriously on ethical issues. Others not so much.
A study of Scandinavian journalists presented at the Nordic Media Festival (May 9) shows the differences among Danish, Norwegian and Swedish thinking on media ethics and the health of the profession. For example, “Swedes are firm on source protection and the Danes are softer,” said University of Bergen political scientist Frank Aarebrot. “Norwegians are located in between.” Naming a person accused of an economic crime when charged is considered acceptable by 41% of Norwegian journalists but only 14% of Swedish journalists. The survey was conducted in February among 1,800 Scandinavian journalists, roughly equally among the three countries.
All Scandinavian journalists find newspapers serving their interests best (42%), followed by online media (27%), then television (14%). Swedish journalists are most positive about newspapers (47%), least about television (10%). Danish journalists were less positive about newspapers (38%) and more positive about television (18%). Norwegian journalists were most positive about online media (27%). Radio was well regarded by 18% of Swedes but only 8% of Danes.
Without surprise, only 6% of Scandinavian journalists give little or no confidence to media in general. About half the Swedish journalists (49%) thought printed newspapers will be around more than 30 years. Danish journalists were less convinced. A large majority of Swedish journalists (77%) believe staff reductions brought on by the international financial crisis is negatively affecting “to a large extent” the quality of news reporting. Danes are less concerned. Norwegian journalists were least concern about losing their jobs. (JMH)
Spinning digital radio, future or else
“People buy a benefit, not technology”
A clear path to a digital radio transition has existed only in the eyes of a few. The logistics – not to forget the laws – have not come easily. And, pushing into a third decade of pushing digital radio, none of it gets easier.
The four horsemen of French commercial radio broadcasting – Lagardère’s Denis Olivennes, NRJ’s Jean-Paul Baudecroux, NextRadioTV’s Alain Weill and RTL’s Christopher Baldelli – have made no secret of their opposition to any speedy remedy to digital radio, particularly media regulator CSA’s plan to let the licensing begin. Last month the CSA opened digital radio applications for Paris, Marseille and Nice. Applications for digital channels in twenty more cities opened this week (May 10).
“There is no economic model (for digital radio),” said M. Olivennes in a group statement (May 9), quoted by Les Echos. “Nobody has proved that there is.” The four major French commercial radio broadcasters have a combined 53% market share. (See recent French audience survey trends here) What’s needed, say the big guys, is an economic impact study and another round of debates on standards.
And, too, “it’s strange,” said M. Baldelli, to go forward with these digital radio applications before President-elect François Hollande takes office. Out-going President Nicolas Sarkozy helped keep digital radio on the back-burner and M. Hollande has stayed out of the discussion except to note that French public radio hasn’t the funding to take on such a project.
“It is very unlikely that we will respond to this call for applications,” concluded M. Olivennes.
That digital radio has found scant success in other countries, audience shares are still tiny, is part of the argument posed by the big French commercial broadcasters for keeping digital radio on ice. In Germany, for example, broadcasters face a similar divide; public broadcasters favoring a push toward DAB+ and private sector broadcasters participating only tepidly. (See more on digital radio here)
At the Central German Media Conference (Medientreffpunkt Mitteldeutschland) in Leipzig (May 8) broadcasters and policy makers peered into the future, post-DAB. Because the FM band has been exhausted, said Bremen State Media Institute (Bremische Landesmedienanstalt ) director Cornelia Holsten, DAB+ is “certainly an interim technology.”
Platform doesn’t matter, said Deutschlandradio technical director Chris Weck, because it’s all about the money. Digital radio transmission costs, he said, about one-fifth that of analogue radio transmission.
“If newspaper publishing keeps going as it is, radio will be the last local medium, “offered Regiocast spokesperson Boris Lochthofen. “People do not buy a technology; they buy a benefit.” (JMH)
A non-linear model for pay radio
Different from FM
It’s possible that a subscription-based radio service will appear in France sometime in the next year. Onde Numérique president Franz Cantarano told Les Echos (May 8) more than 50 channels will be offered first via the Web then, if media regulator CSA approves, its on to the L band and nationwide 3G/4G coverage. He’s looking for 4 million subscribers.
“We really want to differentiate ourselves from FM in the formats we offer,” he explained. “We want to go with formats the FM (broadcasters) cannot go with because they do not interest advertisers. The subscription business model gives us greater editorial freedom.” The plan includes linear streaming plus, for some channels, the more interactive pause, skip and fast-forward functions. Introducing subscription radio in France would compete with the yet to be discovered terrestrial digital radio. (See more on satellite radio here) (See more on digital radio here)
Whether or not radio by subscription is a viable business has challenged some of the toughest, smartest and most entrepreneurial minds. WorldSpace founder Noah Samara raised a lot of money, developed specialized technology, launched satellites and, after twenty years, gave it up. Cantarano was WorldSpace Europe director.
The two struggling American subscription radio services were allowed to merge and now, under the leadership of legendary US broadcaster Mel Karmazin, SiriusXM is considered quite the success. Spanish company Ondas Media made plans in 2007 for a pan-European satellite radio offering but recently abandoned the idea due to current economics. (JMH)
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The vital truth about democracy is its disregard for the conventional. Trends, though, form and reform without regard for the way things have been. There’s a thread connecting the popular rejection of austerity economics and internet freedom.
Broadcasters regularly complain about audience surveys, unless the numbers are really good. Economic stress has all managers on edge. Survival is success, say some. And now the “blades” are out, too.
