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The European Commission has issued a “suspension injunction” against the government of Hungary, preventing it from applying an advertising revenue tax that appears to selectively target television broadcaster RTL Klub, owned by RTL Group. Competition Commissioner Margarethe Vestager announced the injunction, somewhat unprecedented, as the EC opens a State Aid rules investigation. RTL Group asked the EC to examine the Hungarian tax law when it came into effect last year.
“It is very important that we ensure a level playing field on media markets throughout Europe,” said Commissioner Vestager in a statement (March 12). “Many media today rely on advertisement income to finance operations.” The “in-depth investigation” will look into whether or not the advertising revenue tax “provides unfair competitive advantages” to certain broadcasters for which the Hungarian government has failed to illuminate “appropriate objective grounds.” (See more about media in Hungary here)
Two days before the EC’s announcement RTL Group abruptly replaced long-serving RTL Klub CEO Dirk Gerkens “temporarily” with Central Europe Regional Vice President Andreas Rudas. Hungarian government officials, meeting in late February with RTL Group CEO Guillaume de Poche and Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe, demanded Mr. Gerkens ouster for the decision to pursue aggressive coverage of government corruption in RTL Klub news broadcasts. That critical news coverage may have contributed to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz Party losing a crucial seat in a special parliamentary election in February and, it seems, has emboldened a few news outlets previously cowered by Fidesz and far-right Jobbik Party operatives. Because of “threats of violence” Mr. Gerkens moved his family out of Budapest and took on bodyguards earlier this year, reported Bloomberg (January 22).
At the February meeting Minister of the Prime Minister's Office Janos Lazar offered to move forward amendments to the ad tax law, effectively creating a substantially lower rate that would apply to all media outlets, in return for RTL Group first withdrawing its complaint to the European Commission. That, obviously, did not appeal to the RTL and Bertelsmann leaders. By the end of the week, government sources were softening on Mr. Gerkens position, according to Népszava (March 13).
Hardcore fans of Swedish football team Malmö Fotbollförening (Malmö FF) are thrilled, in that very Scandinavian way, at the arrival of the teams newest acquisition. And the online television channel of local newspaper Sydsvenskanof is broadcasting every moment live. Yes, the new stadium turf has arrived from the Netherlands and sydsvenskanof.se is showing it all - for 24 hours, interrupted only once a hour for short commentary. It is yet another milestone for slow TV.
“This is the first slow tv format on the site,” news director Marcus Ekdahl, quoted by medievarlden.se (March 12). “Who does not remember coverage of the Majestic Maersk, the world's largest container ship, passing through Öresund?” That took 17 days and was broadcast live in 2013.
While slow TV moves at a glacial pace, the phenomenon is catching on. UK public broadcaster BBC plans to broadcast a week of slow TV in June on BBC 4, though they are cheating. Three well-edited 30 minute shows will offer the making of a chair and a steel knife. A longer show - 3 hours - will offer a behind-the-scenes view of the National Gallery without voice-overs.
Slow TV arrived from Norwegian public TV NRK a bit more than five years ago. The first few showed long train and boat trips. Then came National Firewood Night in February 2013. A million Norwegians tuned-in to watch 12 hours of preparation for and burning of fireplace logs. Last spring NRK offered melting snow. British Airways has been showing Norwegian slow TV on long-haul flights since last summer.
Reality TV creator John de Mol just made a ton of money selling production house Talpa Media to UK TV broadcaster ITV. The first payment is €500 million with, potentially, another €600 million due over the next eight years, dependent on the company’s continued capture of the worldwide production business. Mr. de Mol and the Talpa Media team, therefore, have great incentive to keep on with the business.
Talpa Media is best known at the moment for the music talent show The Voice, created by Mr. de Mol in 2010 for the Dutch market and subsequently sold to broadcasters in 180 countries. One of the newest creations - Utopia - was billed as “the largest, most ambitious social experiment on television,” marking the producer’s return to reality TV production and format sales. Talpa Media’s 2014 revenues were €233 million, throwing off €61 million in profits.
Last September Mr. de Mol got serious about selling Talpa Media, asking Bank of America Merrill Lynch to vet bidders. Shine Productions, owned by 21st Century Fox, bid about €480 million in 2013, which was waived off the track, noted Hollywood Reporter (September 18, 2014). The suggested retail price six months ago was €700 million total. (See more about reality TV here)
Talpa Media’s 33% holding in Dutch radio and TV broadcaster SBS Netherlands, a joint venture with Finnish media house Sanoma, is not included in the ITV deal.
The acquisition gives ITV instant access to leading broadcasters around the world and makes the UK broadcaster less dependent on advertising revenues, which are slipping mercuriously to online media. ITV has been on a production house buying spree though the Talpa Media deal is by far the biggest. Last summer big cable operator Liberty Global, through its UK company Virgin Media, acquired a 6.3% stake in ITV from BSkyB, known now simply as Sky and principally controlled by 21st Century Fox.
John de Mol’s fame and fortune was founded on the international hit reality TV series Big Brother, which was produced by Endemol, originally a joint venture between de Mol and Joop van den Ende - hence the name. Big Spanish telecom Telefonica bought Endemol in 2000 for €5.5 billion. Ownership passed on to Mediaset, principally owned by the Berlusconi family, and as debts piled up on to private equity Apollo Capital Management and, last year, to a joint venture between Apollo and 21st Century Fox subsidiary Shine Productions.
It has just been a month since an ad-hoc group of broadcasters and publishers simultaneously unlocked the HSBC money laundering data treasure trove, attracting millions of viewers and readers while embarrassing bankers and the politicians that love them. That effort - and its success - has been a major discussion point within the news business. And, so, a content sharing alliance among big newspaper publishers in six European countries has come together.
The Leading European Newspaper Alliance (LENA) includes TAMedia publications in Switzerland (German-language Tages-Anzeiger and French-language Tribune de Genéve), Die Welt in Germany, El País in Spain, La Repubblica in Italy, La Soir in Belgium and Le Figaro in France. Participating editors can scoop-up what they like, once a day, and publish under the LENA name. There’s also a plan to collaborate on mobile apps and other technology things. No money will change hands. The alliance will be “subject to antitrust approval by the relevant competition authorities,” noted a statement by TAMedia.
In the longer-term, the alliance intends to organise EU-wide investigations with coordinated release. “One of the main goals of this alliance will be to solidify European public opinion… supporting a message of economic progress and social justice,” said project coordinator and former El País chief editor Javier Moreno, quoted by Le Soir (March 10). LENA members, quite notably, did not participate in the HSBC blast of journalism. It’s also notable that no UK publishers are involved.
In keeping with a campaign promise the new Greek government is edging toward re-establishing public broadcaster ERT, which the previous government replaced 18 months ago with a stripped-down version, NERIT. A draft law meant to bring about the change has been posted to a government website (February 9), offering two days of public consultation after which it will be submitted to the Greek Parliament. The draft law sets out several objectives, financial realities remaining a “creative ambiguity,” noted news portal capital.gr (March 10).
“This draft law avoids labyrinthine legal and regulatory procedures leading to a smooth transition and operation of the public institution, which at the same time reverts to the historic name ERT, not only in symbolic terms but essential to restore its relationship to society,” said the accompanying explanatory note. A new corporate board will be established, seven members with three-year terms renewable once. (See more about media in Greece here)
The first step once the law is enacted, as expected, most of the 2,600 fired ERT employees, exception being those who have retired, will be rehired and back wages paid. After the rehiring, the new ERT management and unions will negotiate collective agreements. The bill requires an audit of NERIT accounts.
More ambiguous is exactly what the reconstituted ERT will offer. The old ERT broadcast five TV channels and 27 local and national radio channels. NERIT, employing about 500 people, offers three TV channels and three radio channels. And, of course, financing remains an open question. Currently, households are charged €3 per month for support of public broadcasting through electric utility bills. The draft law allows some adjustment once costs are ascertained.
Radio broadcasters in Bulgaria will soon have loads of luscious audience data to pour over. The Nielsen Bulgaria affiliate Admosphere and Ipsos have already started collecting survey data for nationally representative audience estimates, first report due in April. Several broadcasters have already signed up, others had no idea it was coming, reported capital.bg (March 9).
Ipsos prepared a national radio audience survey during the summer 2014 commissioned by public radio broadcaster BNR that thrilled broadcasters and advertisers. Other public opinion research institutes have periodically conducted radio audience measurement in Bulgaria. Nielsen Admosphere will take care of marketing the radio data-set and Ipsos will manage the survey details and provide analytics. Nielsen already provides TV measurement in Bulgaria and is offering free radio data to existing TV customers for a year. (See more about media in Bulgaria here)
More new data services are planned by Nielsen Admosphere - time-shift viewing and lifestyle profiles - “as soon as the market shows a real demand,” said a spokesperson. Nielsen and Gemius, internet measurement provider, are collaborating on a cross-media measurement project that will be rolled out in Bulgaria sometime after it appears in the Czech Republic.
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