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Turmoil in the Greek media sector continues to boil as major privately held TV channel Mega looks to land in the hands of bond holders. A month ago the Athens Stock Exchange suspended trading shares of Teletypos, owner of Mega, after the company was unable to persuade shareholders to agree to a capital increase. Shareholders will meet again this week to chip in a few million to cover current operating costs, including salaries, some of which were only partly paid last week.
Big Greek media houses Pegasus Group and Lambrakis Press Group hold a bit more than half the shares in Teletypos. Then there are a few banks. The other significant question on the shareholders agenda this week is inviting new shareholders. One possibility is Attica Publications Group president Theo Filippopoulos bidding with new media specialist 24Media president Dimitris Maris. And another is the Berlusconi family, reported typologies.gr (April 5). (See more about media in Greece here)
“The future of television station Mega is in the interest of millions of Greek citizens, acts as a catalyst in the lives of hundreds of workers and affects the whole media landscape,” said Mr. Maris.
As it would happen the Greek government is proceeding, slowly, with licensing TV broadcasters, a first. Conditions for getting one of the four national TV licenses include financial solvency. Obviously, present or prospective shareholders are seeking clarity from the government about the Mega license status. Then, too, banks holding overdue bond payments, guaranteed by the shareholders, want their money.
New technology is certainly rockin’ TV land. The European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) reports in its latest yearbook 5,370 TV channels established in the European Union (EU 28) during 2015. One-fifth (21%) were high-definition (HD) channels.
In 2009 there were 3,615 TV channels in EU 28. HD channels accounted for 57% of the increase between 2009 and 2015. The number of sports channels increased 11%, entertainment 6% and news 2%. HD channels generally simulcast otherwise available offerings.
“Digital transmission has increased network capacity allowing multi-channel broadcasting at a lower cost,” explained EAO Department for Information on Markets and Financing director Gilles Fontaine, quoted by cineuropa.org (April 5). “The launch of channels in high definition is now the main driver of growth in the number of services. In the long term, channels transmitting in standard definition will progressively cease, probably giving way to a new transition, toward ultra-high definition.”
In a separate report released in March the EAO estimates 2,370 TV channels operating in the Russian Federation in 2015. Two-thirds of Russian households subscribe to pay-TV services, up 8% year on year.
Italian radio broadcasters have a new organization to undertake audience measurement. This has been a major undertaking since AudiRadio, the last joint industry group, went away in 2011. The GfK RadioMonitor has provided irregular national audience measurement.
The new company Tavolo Editori Radio was incorporated in Milan last week, a board named and general particulars enumerated. RAI Radio director Nicola Sinisi was named chairman. The company aims to “achieve from 2017 an objective and unbiased proprietary research system to measure listening to radio and radio stations, with all their technological and territorial features, on all transmitted platforms,” said the statement, quoted by primaonline.it (April 5). (See more about media measurement here)
Sometime this year prospective suppliers will be invited to bid their services. Tavolo Editori Radio shareholders include most national radio broadcasters and the association of local broadcasters. On the sidelines, so far, are advertisers and media buyers.
Laments have been written in Ireland about the imminent closure of Dublin alternative rock station TXFM. The owners recently announced they would not be asking for a license renewal, effectively putting the station off the air in October. Other potential operators have hesitated.
“The news of the closure should serve as a stark reminder of the challenges of operating in the Irish media market and the very thin margins between commercial viability and closure,” said commercial broadcaster association Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI) chairman John Purcell in a statement, quoted by Radio Today Ireland (March 31). “The incoming Government must act to introduce sensible reforms that will secure the future of all broadcasters. Although Independent Radio commands almost 70% market share of Irish radio listening, policy makers tend to be almost entirely pre-occupied with the welfare of (public broadcaster) RTÉ. The closure of TXFM is a sad reminder of the cost on jobs in sector and choice and service for listeners of this negligent attitude towards policy making.”
TXFM came into being two years ago, March 2014, as principal owner Communicorp rebranded former alternative music pirate station Phantom. “It is with great regret that we have come to this decision,” said Communicorp chief executive Gervaise Slowey, quoted by Irish Times (March 30), “however despite a recent rebranding and a restructuring of the business, it has not been possible to make the station commercially viable.”
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) contracts with commercial radio operators for rather tightly defined licenses. The TXFM license is for “Music-driven (Alternative Rock)” for “Dublin County and City” targeting “18 to 34 year olds,” noted on the BAI website. Competing in the Dublin market are eight local stations plus five national channels, three public and two commercial. In the Q4 2015 JNLR/Ipsos MRBI audience estimates TXFM posted a 2% share for the 15+ Dublin audience.
Local commercial radio stations - everywhere - occasionally fail. New stations, like any new business, face particular risks. What seems to be a good radio idea at one point, even with smart and resourceful operators, is at the mercy of the market. It happens. The good news for radio fans is that an idea was given a chance.
Anybody in the news business not on internet-free holiday or awaiting the next Trumpism is excitedly following the latest leak story, the Panama Papers. German publisher Süddeutsche Zeitung obtained through an anonymous benefactor a “2.6 terabyte, 11.5 million document” data trove from the files of Panama-domiciled law firm Mossack Fonseca, a specialist in off-shore intermediaries (read: tax havens). For a little perspective on scale, it’s about 1,500 times bigger than the Wikileaks of 2010 that kept reporters busy for months, embarrassed governments and, ultimately, put Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on a semi-permanent basis.
News outlets have become much smarter about leaks and revelations therein. The story broke Monday morning (April 4), actually Sunday night, led by Süddeutsche Zeitung with invited partners and coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Headlines and downwind coverage was guaranteed. About 370 reporters representing more than 150 news organizations are pouring over those emails, docs and PDF files intent on connecting names and numbers with corrupt practices.
Initial Panama Papers reporting has named several dozen rich and powerful, mostly dictators and family members long suspected of fleecing their humble subjects. Essential for giving the story legs, reactions have been trickling in. Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stormed out of an interview with Swedish public TV when asked about an off-shore secret. "There is nothing wrong with it,” said a family member of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when asked about the London Mayfair district homesteads owned through off-shore intermediaries. Then, true to form, the Russian presidential spokesperson said it was all a “CIA plot.”
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