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Two Swiss broadcasting companies in the French-speaking region are verging on a merger of sorts. Media One, owner of One FM and LFM, and Groupe Rouge, owner of Rouge FM, Yes FM and Rouge TV, are taking early steps to combine activities. Under current Swiss law private ownership is limited to two radio stations and two television stations.
The first – and obvious – stage is combining ad sales. Privately-owned media houses in Switzerland were horrified by government approval last year of an ad sales joint venture involving big publisher Ringier, public broadcaster SSR-SRG and big telecom Swisscom. The local radio share of Swiss advertising is about 3%.
Hit music station One FM, principally based in Geneva, celebrated its 20th anniversary a few weeks ago. LFM was originally known as Lausanne FM. Rouge FM is the highest rated local radio station in French-speaking Switzerland, covering the three cantons Geneva, Vaud and Neuchatel. Geneva general interest station Yes FM is the predecessor of Radio Lac, the original local Geneva radio station. (See Swiss French-region radio audience trend chart here)
“Yes FM needs work,” said Media One principle Antoine de Raemy, quoted by Lettre Pro de la Radio (May 10). “The name will probably be changed back to Radio Lac, in a modernized form. We want to make it an information and talk station.”
Czech radio listeners can select from a wide variety of national, regional and local stations and for the past several years rarely make sweeping changes. The recently released STEM/MARK Median Radioprojekt audience estimates, a rolling average of the past two quarters, show, instead, a trickling away from legacy national channels and toward regional and specialty stations. National channel Radio Impuls (Londa) held its premiere position while falling 4.1% in daily reach and below one million listeners.
Evropa 2 and Frekvence 1, both owned by Lagardère Active CR, kept 2nd and 3rd places, respectively; the former down slightly, the later up a bit more than slightly. Public channel CRo Radiozurnal ranked 4th, again, down slightly in daily reach. CRo Dvojka, 6th place, was off slightly. Total radio weekly reach rose to 85%. (See Czech Republic national radio audience reach trend chart here)
Regional station Radio Blanik showed a significant 11.4% increase in daily reach but stayed in 5th place nationally. The pop music station has nearly national coverage. Classic rock Radio Beat, also with nearly national coverage, moved to 7th place with a 7.1% gain in daily reach. Country Radio was off 9.1% in daily reach and fell to 8th place. Radio Cas, a regional network of local stations in Moravia, lost 18.9% in daily reach. The network went through a re-branding exercise last autumn.
The big winner, at least by daily reach increase, was public news-talk channel CRo Plus, up 70.4%. Last year the channel was granted a medium wave frequency, took on digital platforms and added popular show hosts from Radiozurnal.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants to keep Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner from laughing. Lawyers for President Erdogan filed with the Cologne regional court a request for injunction because Herr Döpfner expressed in Axel Springer’s Welt am Sonntag (April 10) support for comedian Jan Böhmermann, who is under threat of prosecution for hurling insults at the aforementioned President Erdogan.
“I found the verse priceless,” wrote Herr Döpfner. “I laughed out loud.” That little verse, which the performer acknowledged as in bad taste, and reaction to it should “make us think about how a society deals with satire and, more importantly, the satire intolerance of non-democrats,” he concluded.
President Erdogan’s German lawyer is asking that Herr Döpfner be restrained from repeating his support for Herr Böhmermann. “As a society we must be careful when the thin varnish of civilization flakes off and collective disinhibition breaks loose,” said the lawyer. The Cologne regional court indicated it would kick the injunction request to the Appeals Court, reported Die Presse (May 9).
The President of Turkey has affected arrest of hundreds in his own country for insults, perceived or real, including dozens of media workers. His lawyers have invoked archaic Lèse Majesté laws, where they still exist, to pursue critics, journalists and artists outside Turkey. A exhibition near the United Nations office in Geneva (UNOG) drew a complaint from Turkish authorities for displaying a photo with a caption assumed derogatory toward President Erdogan and demanded its withdrawal. City of Geneva authorities respectively declined.
Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski is in with the social media tide. Widely considered the country’s most powerful politician, in the vein of Chairman Mao, he took to Facebook last Saturday (May 7) for a live question and answer session. Poles by the thousands demonstrated against PiS rule on Saturday and, of course, social media is just the best at reaching those who stayed home.
One Facebook user wanted Chairman Kaczynski to move forward in re-polanizing the media, reported fakt.pl (May 9). “We should step by step, in accordance with the rules of civilized countries or by buying these media, proceed to the highest possible Polish percentage in these entities,” he explained. “In great part, the media are in the hands of owners and they use it politically at a decision level… totally unacceptable in a sovereign country.” A draft law to “re-polanize” media outlets through anti-trust rules is expected in a few weeks. (See more about media in Poland here)
April Nielsen ratings for TV news channels, reported wirtualnemedia.pl (May 9), are showing the impact of the massive political purges at State broadcaster TVP. Audience reach for all-news channel TVN24, owned by US-based Scripps Networks Interactive, jumped near one-third year on year. That places TVN24 ahead of TVP Info among news channels for the first time. Reliably pro-government weekly Wprost recently added “Polish Publisher” atop its masthead. State advertising, not insubstantial, has been moved to pro-government, Polish-owned publications.
The carefully staged PR event was meant to burnish a difficult image. News crews rarely allowed near the place jumped at the chance. What could go wrong? The place wasn’t just an open-pit coal mine or chicken processing plant. It was North Korea eager, it seemed, to give the world – at least a hundred or so reporters – a look around, guided, of course.
BBC reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were detained, interrogated and taken to the Pyongyang airport to await expulsion. They were guilty of speaking “ill of the system and the country,” said event organizer National Peace Committee secretary general O Ryong Il. Mr. Wingfield-Hayes, based in Tokyo, will “never” be allowed back. On Monday the three flew out to Beijing, leaving behind four other BBC news people. (See more about the BBC here)
Reports filed last week by Mr.Wingfield-Hayes noted that a children’s hospital visit seemed “set-up” as the kids looked “remarkably well” and “there isn’t a real doctor in sight.” Then, too, he said “on State TV the young leader seems to spend a lot of time sitting in a large chair watching artillery firing at mountainsides,” referring to Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. (See more about press/media freedom here)
Like all major news organizations, the BBC has been pivoting toward Asia. Its Chinese-language department is being relocated from London to Hong Kong, reported news director James Harding in late April. Back home the BBC is under constant threat from right-wing politicians upset with reporting beyond the press release.
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