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ftm Radio Page - April 29, 2016

Bad news getting you down? There’s lots of music on the air
mood enhancing?

“Paris will always be Paris,” headlined French radio business news portal La Lettre Pro de la Radio (April 27). That sums up the latest Greater Paris (IDF) Mediamétrie radio audience estimates. Results for Greater Paris are never quite like the whole of France.

RTL still leads, up slightly year on year to 13.3% market share. Other national channels offering lots of news or a news-talk mix, mostly, had a bad day similar to the national audience estimates released a week earlier. Public channel France Inter, still number 2, dropped to 11.4% from 12.0%. After suffering a huge drop in the national rating, Europe 1 moved up to 3rd place, 7.8% from 7.5%. (See Greater Paris IDF radio market share trend chart here) (See France national radio share trend chart here)

RMC took a real drubbing, dropping to 4th with 6.4% down from 8.1% one year on. All-news France Info held 6th place, 4.4% market share down from 4.9%. Also lower was FIP (France Inter Paris), 2.0% market share from 2.6%.

Similar to the national survey results, national music channels were mostly up. NRJ kept 5th place while dropping slightly to 4.9% market share. Skyrock was up a bit to 3.8% market share. After that, Nostalgie was up to 3.3% from 2.3% year on year. Fun Radio had the biggest gain and best showing ever in Greater Paris, 3.2% market share from 1.8%. Both Radio Classique and public channel France Musique were up significantly.

Local Paris stations were mostly unchanged, except for Radio Latina and Tropiques FM, both noticably lower.

Controversy seeks the greater platform… like Spotify
no business like show business

Controversy keeps show business personalities in the headlines. It is, actually, part of the business. Being sued by a reviled politician can be a gift to any comedian.

After German comedian Jan Böhmermann delivered that little verse aimed at Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a satirical TV show a month ago it seemed he’d committed a Jeremy Clarkson style career-ender. The Turkish Foreign Ministry demanded prosecution under the arcane but still on the books Lèse-majesté law protecting foreign heads of state from insults. Being between a (legal) rock and a (political) hard place, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who called Herr Böhmermann’s contribution to the small screen “deliberately offensive”, allowed the prosecution to go forward. Public TV network ZDF then suspended Herr Böhmermann’s appearances on the late night show until mid-May.

Herr Böhmermann and musician Olli Schulz have for the last three years presented a weekly radio show produced for RadioEins of regional public broadcaster RBB. The show - Sanft & Sorgfältig - has also been available of several other regional public radio channels as well as by podcast. This week they announced - on Facebook, of course - the show will be moving to Spotify, the popular online streaming service. Terms have not been disclosed.

Lèse-majesté laws mostly disappeared with absolute monarchies. Germany’s version has been on the books since the 1870’s and politicians are scrambling to make it go away. Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Spain have legal provisions to penalize insults to heads of state. Of course, Turkey has theirs and President Erdogan has over 1,800 cases currently pending against various citizens, reports Reuters (April 26).

Switzerland also has it’s version, which Turkish authorities recently attempted to invoke. A large photographic mural installed near the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva (UNOG) depicts a Kurdish teenager killed in the 2013 Taksin Square protests captioned “The police killed me on the orders of the Turkish prime minister”. Swiss authorities refused to bite.

“Switzerland has adopted the principle of freedom of expression, also for artists,” explained Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jean-Marc Crevoisier, quoted by Tribune de Genève (April 26).

Data smoothing gets researcher in deep trouble
“relic of the last century”

Broadcasters in Austria are hopping mad after revelations last week that Radio Test audience estimates for certain channels may have been overstated. A day later GfK Austria managing director Alexander Zeh abruptly resigned with immediate effect to “pursue new international opportunities.” It seems that between 2011 and 2015 GfK employees adjusted results “by gut feeling,” reported Weiner Zeitung (April 21).

Measurement is, again, top-of-mind for radio broadcasters. A major French broadcaster recently called for the Mediametrie measurement system to be “modernized” because of “illogical variations.” In Italy broadcasters have finally organized a joint industry body, notably without the advertising people, to provide a new radio measurement service several years after the demise of the AudiRadio service. Retiring CBS Radio (US) CEO Dan Mason told a broadcasters conference in March that PPM - the electronic measurement system pioneered by Arbitron - was a mistake. “I wanted to make radio the new shiny thing,” he said, quoted by Media Confidential (March 24). “I was wrong. I wouldn’t mind having the diaries back.” (See more about measurement here)

With marching orders given to their lawyers, Austrian broadcasters see an opportunity to fundamentally change the Radio Test methodology privided by GfK Austria. It’s “a relic of the last century,” said Lounge FM principal Florian Novak, quoted by der Standard (April 22). “A fair and non-discriminatory measurement of all audio use would include the independent radio stations (and), of course, audio services like Spotify. You have to put in real-time data corresponding to smartphone tracking of audio usage. Today, it’s not witchcraft.”

Public broadcaster ORF, reported business portal horizont.at (April 22), is considering a “premature exit from the current (Radio Test) contract.” ORF pop music channel O3 appears to have been the main beneficiary of the “smoothing.” GfK Austria is expected to release corrected audience estimates.

Radio Page week ending April 22, 2016
radio in Spain, radio audience, EGM, Cadena Cope, Onda Cero, Los 40 Principales, radio in France, Europe 1, RMC, France Inter, Fun Radio, NRJ, measurement

Radio Page week ending April 15, 2016
radio in France, radio advertising, public radio, France Inter, France Info, radio in Poland, radio license, RMF FM, KRRiT, Radio Zet

Radio Page week ending April 8, 2016
radio in Ireland, Communicorp, TXFM, BAI, IBI, radio license, radio in Italy, audience measurement, Tavolo Editori Radio, GfK

Radio Page week ending April 1, 2016
radio in Sweden, Sveriges Radio, P2, Arabic language, public radio, radio in Poland, Polskie Radio, Troika, Facebook

Radio Page week ending March 25, 2016
radio in Austria, digital radio, KommAustria, DAB+, ORF, Kronehit, Radio Arabella, European Digital Radio alliance, EBU, online radio, streaming audio, Spotify, Echo Nest, Gramma Music

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