Boring ratings, another reason to forget 2011
Shrug. Snore.

Total radio listening fell slightly in the Ile-de-France (Greater Paris) region, according to the September-December Médiamétrie audience estimates (January 24), 79.2% of the population 13 years and older, down from 80.0% one year on. Shrug. Time spent listening was also down, 162 average daily minutes vs. 172 minutes.

The rest of the numbers are much the same. Shrug. General interest national channel RTL held first place but lost market share, 11.9% from 12.6% year on year. Public channel France Inter remained number two, up to 10.5% from 9.6%. And Europe 1 is still slip sliding away, down to 8.6% from 9.6% (See Ile-de-France audience trends here)

Following trends from the French national survey, national news and information channel with a business twist placed 4th, rising to 8.0% from 6.3% one year on, the survey’s biggest gainer. Also up significantly was public all-news channel France Info (6th place), 4.8% from 4.2%.

Taken together national music channels were off slightly, except for Skyrock, still 5th place, up to 5.6% from 4.7% one year on. NRJ and Nostalgie, 7th and 8th place respectively, were up slightly as were Fun Radio and Virgin Radio. On the negative side were Cherie FM, down to 1.9% from 3.3%, Radio Classique, down to 3.0% from 4.2%, and RFM, down to 2.2% from 2.6%.

On the local side, Radio Latina rose to 2.8% market share from 2.0%, the highest rated local station. Radio Nova was up to 2.0% from 1.6%. The aggregated market share for local stations dropped ever so slightly to 19.9% from 20.0% one year on. (JMH)

Prime-time audience sinks, broadcaster gasps
Blame the measurement

There’s a reason broadcasters are slow to change measurement services. Inertia is certainly one but the more important is that risk of unwelcome news.

Last October the Romanian Audience Measurement Association (ARMA), a joint industry committee, awarded the television measurement contract to Kantar Media after several years with GfK Romania. Kantar Media, owned by WPP Group, bought audience research company TNS in 2008 and many of the measurement services have been rebranded under the Kantar Media name. (See more on audience measurement here)

The Kantar Media contract came into effect at the first of the year and, wouldn’t you know it, some of the TV audience results have come out. Public broadcaster TVR complained to the ARMA of “some inaccuracies,” reported hotnews.ro (January 25). When compared with figures from December, under the old system, several prime-time TVR programs suffered as much as 40% drops in audience.

“We are surprised by sudden decreases in audience for TRV programs made by the Kantar Media measurement,” said TVR Director General  Alexander Lazescu, quoted by adevarul.ro (January 26), “as we are surprised by unexplained jumps for other stations.”

“Naturally, we ask how the declines in audience in just a few days from a traditionally faithful public can be explained,” he added. “We do not necessarily agree that the previous audience figures were correct and the new ones wrong but, from a methodological point of view, change should be predictable…around three to five percent.” (JMH)

From Last Weeks ftm Tickle File

Too many spots, ozone therapy draw fines
Over the top and out there

Broadcasters, generally, comply with the European convention on television advertising. Twelve minutes per hour is the limit even if some might argue about what, indeed, constitutes a TV spot. The point isn’t to keep broadcasters from making a lot of money but to keep viewers from tossing TV sets out the window, potentially injuring passing television executives.

The Greek media regulator National Council for Radio and Television (ESR) passed a €20,000 fine (January 24) to TV channel Mega for broadcasting 26 minutes of spots in one hour back in September. Other television stations received fines for more egregious offenses. For allowing a minor to participate in a game show TV channel Antenna was fined €15,000. Tileasty was fined €15,000 for broadcasting an ad for “ozone therapy,” considered an illegal medical product by the ESR. (JMH)

Ad spending inversion continues
Oh, my aching head

Ad spending in 2012 will drop to late 1990’s levels in Spain and stay there until mid-2013, says a panel of marketing and media managers, reported by Zenith España (January 23). The Zenith Vigía panel predicts a 2.1% drop in ad spending due to a drop in consumer spending blamed on lower public sector salaries, higher taxes and high unemployment.

Digital transformation as “analogue euros are converted into digital pennies” will continue to move ad spending from traditional media to new media. Daily newspaper ad revenues are expected to fall 7.2% as internet search advertising rises 7.8% and mobile ad spending rises 9.7%. All traditional media will feel the pain: network TV down 3%, local TV down 6%, magazines down 5.1%, radio down 1.8%, outdoor 1.5%. Ouch! (JMH)

Wheels coming off US anti-piracy bills
No speed bumps for internet

In what was described as “an unusual intervention,” European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes took to Twitter (January 20) to describe the two draft US anti-privacy measures as “bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net.”

Protests over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA - US House of Representatives) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA – US Senate) drew the attention of US politicians, mainly right-wing Republicans who exited co-sponsorship of the bills. The US entertainment industry has supported measures to robustly prosecute internet piracy. Internet and venture capital firms – worldwide - are opposed. US right-wing Republicans have had decades long battles with the entertainment industry over cultural and religious issues.

“Speeding is illegal too,” tweeted Commissioner Kroes separately (140 characters only, you know) “but you don’t put speed bumps on the motorway.” Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and US movie industry lobbiest Christopher Dodd both used wheel analogies (as in reinventing the wheel) in criticism and support, respectively, for the US legislation.

By mid-day Friday (January 20) US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a vote on the PIPA bill and US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith postponed committee consideration “until there is wider agreement on a solution,” reported CBS News (January 20). (JMH)

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