"Das heute in Berlin von der FDP vorgestellte Positionspapier zur EG-Fernsehrichtlinie setzt auch aus unserer Sicht die richtigen Akzente. Angesichts des enormen Wettbewerbsdrucks, dem sich die privaten TV-Anbieter in der digitalen Welt stellen müssen, unterstützen wir insbesondere die Forderung nach einer weitergehenden Werbeliberalisierung. Die antiquierten Instrumente der stündlichen Werbevorgaben, der Abstandsregeln und des Blockwerbegebots, an denen sowohl der Richtlinienentwurf der EU-Kommission als auch einige Vertreter des europäischen Parlaments nach wie vor festhalten, erschweren es dem privaten Rundfunk in Zukunft auch weiter qualitativ hochwertige Inhalte zu refinanzieren und sich im Markt zu behaupten. Im Übrigen sollten Produktplatzierungen - vernünftig eingesetzt und mit eindeutigen Hinweisen an die Zuschauer versehen - als weitere sinnvolle Quelle für die Finanzierung attraktiver Inhalte im privaten Rundfunk zugelassen werden. Die Benachteiligung der privaten Rundfunkanbieter gegenüber Print- und übrigen elektronischen Medien lässt sich im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung immer weniger rechtfertigen.

Es ist zudem zu begrüßen, dass die Selbstkontrolle weiter gestärkt werden soll. Sie hat gegenüber staatlicher Reglementierung den großen Vorteil, für einen schnellen und effektiven Schutz zu sorgen. Der Einführung eines europäischen Fernsehkurzberichterstattungsrechts bedarf es dagegen nicht. Hier hat sich die nationale Regelung, nach der den Sendeanstalten der Zugang zum Veranstaltungsort gewährt wird, in der Praxis gut bewährt. Einer Regelung, die einen Zugriff auch zum Signal ermöglicht, stehen nicht zuletzt urheberrechtliche Bedenken entgegen."

ITU - Time machines wanted: ITU TELECOM opens competition to predict the digital future – September 6, 2006

from Sanjay Acharya/ITU

ITU TELECOM WORLD 2006, the leading global ICT event, has launched a competition to find the industry's best future-gazers.

The Digital Life Theatre Competition invites companies to submit a 2-minute DVD demo that outlines their visions for the future in a digital age. The four winning demos will be displayed on giant screens as part of the Digital Life Theatre at the heart of the ITU TELECOM WORLD 2006 exhibition from 4- 8 December 2006 in Hong Kong. There will be four competition categories to capture the scope of digital life itself: Digital Life at Home; Digital Life in the Office; Digital Life in the field of Media and Entertainment; and Digital Life in Society.

With top names from the world's leading ICT companies including Microsoft, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Intel, Alcatel, HP, Qualcomm, Samsung, Toshiba, Siemens and Motorola attending the event, this is an exclusive opportunity for companies around the globe to increase their visibility and use their originality to attract new business prospects, investors, partners and industry attention.

Fernando Lagraña, Executive Manager of ITU TELECOM events, said: 'We want to challenge companies to really think about what the industry can do. Will we find ourselves in virtual workplaces in the future or will we soon live in homes where our gadgets communicate with each other? The objective of this competition is to give us inspiration and guidance in the digital age.'

Competition entrants are asked to send their demos to the ITU TELECOM by 15 October 2006. The successful demos will be selected and announced by 16 October 2006.

The Wall Street Journal Announces Two Key Editorial Appointments in Europe – September 6, 2006

from Kate Dobbin/Dow Jones

The Wall Street Journal Europe has named Ian McDonald as its new European insurance correspondent, based in London, and John Miller as Brussels-based European trade reporter.

Mr. McDonald’s appointment comes as the Journal expands its coverage of insurance in Europe, home to the world’s largest insurers.  Mr. McDonald (34), who will take up his new post next month, is a seasoned financial journalist who currently writes the Journal’s trademark ‘Heard on the Street’ column from New York.  The stories he has covered include Eliot Spitzer's insurance probes and the demise of several hedge funds. He will report to The Wall Street Journal London’s bureau chief, Paul Beckett.

Mr. McDonald joined the Journal as a mutual-fund columnist for WSJ.com in 2002 after covering funds at TheStreet.com for more than three years.  He began his journalism career as a business reporter at the Cape Cod Times in his native Massachusetts. Mr. McDonald holds a bachelor of arts from Bates  College, Lewiston, Maine and also studied at Trinity College, Dublin.  

“We're delighted to be able to put such a skilled finance reporter on this beat,'' said Journal Europe editor Michael Williams. "Ian will give our readers unparalleled insight into European insurers such as Allianz, AXA and Lloyd's of London; all titans of the global financial industry. And he will explore how trends in insurance - such as where insurers invest their money and how insurers are responding to the continuously rising cost of health care - are affecting economies and societies more broadly.'' 

John Miller (29) joins the Journal Europe from Dow Jones Newswires’ Brussels bureau, where he has covered economics and EU affairs since January 2004.  Previously, he worked as the Brussels stringer for Time magazine and freelanced for several U.S. newspapers.   He reports to Brussels and Germany bureau chief Peter Fritsch in his new role.

"John, with his language fluency and background in economics and journalism, is a great addition to the Journal’s coverage of the European and global economies”, Mr. Fritsch said.  “His job is to dig inside one of the greatest trends of our times – the explosion of world trade and its effects on companies, workers and societies in Europe and around the globe – and explain it all in trademark Journal fashion; in plain language but with great depth and sophistication”.

Last year, Mr. Miller won the 2005 Peter R. Weitz prize; the German Marshall Fund's award for "exemplary reporting and writing on Europe by a U.S. reporter", for a series of stories about the European economy.    A native of Brussels, Mr. Miller holds a degree in international studies from Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland and began his journalism career in 1999 as a staff writer for The Bulletin, a Belgian English-language magazine.  He has also taught journalism and in his spare time coaches high-school baseball and basketball.  

EBU demonstrating P2P delivery at the IBC 2006 – September 5, 2006

from Morand Fachot/EBU

The EBU will demonstrate several technology options for streaming and downloading audio/video content over Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks at the International Broadcasting Convention (8 - 12 September) in Amsterdam.

This P2P demo is part of the EBU Village activities in Hall 10 (stand number 10.411).

With rich media demand online resulting in significant bandwidth congestion, P2P can help broadcasters overcome the “bandwidth crunch”. P2P is a potential means for cost-efficient media distribution facility of radio and television programmes.

"Internet is becoming an important delivery media for broadcast content, and ‘legacy’ methods for content delivery over the Internet have grown very costly. P2P solutions have the potential to become a complementary way of media delivery to the public, overcoming the traditional shortcomings of Internet ‘unicast’ delivery,” said EBU Technical Director Phil Laven.

The EBU P2P demonstrations will show three streaming technologies at work: Rawflow, Abacast and Tribler. They will broadcast the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest "live" to internet users worldwide.

In addition, the CacheLogic P2P technology will be used to show how efficient is P2P for downloading large files such as the IBC Daily News.

“EBU Members may value an open-source P2P delivery system which could be made freely available. However, there are still a number of barriers to overcome and we hope to work in close cooperation with the Internet network providers, P2P technology providers and manufacturers in the forthcoming years," Phil Laven added.

The Wall Street Journal Expands Fashion Coverage With New Global Fashion Bureau, Headed by Lisa Bannon – September 5, 2006

from Kate Dobbin/Dow Jones

The Wall Street Journal today announced it has created a new bureau to expand its leading coverage of the $200 billion fashion industry.  Based in New York, the new fashion bureau will coordinate all global reporting on fashion, retail and luxury goods for the U.S., European, Asian and online editions of the Journal.  Lisa Bannon, previously deputy bureau chief of the Journal’s media and marketing section, has been named chief of the new bureau.

The fashion bureau was formed to unify and expand current coverage of the fashion, retail and luxury goods industry, with Journal award-winning insight and analysis of the fashion industry appearing in all global editions.   In New York, the new bureau will unite five fashion beat reporters working for different sections of the Journal under one department.  In addition, Ms. Bannon will collaborate with Journal reporters elsewhere, including in  Paris, London, Tokyo and  Los Angeles.

“The Journal will continue to bring its high standards of journalism and coverage to the business of fashion, helping readers understand this important, growing industry” said L. Gordon Crovitz, executive vice president, Dow Jones & Company, publisher, The Wall Street Journal.  “In addition, more and more fashion and luxury goods advertisers recognize that our audience is the most valuable in the world.  For example, independent surveys show that readers of the Journal buy more women’s fashion accessories than the readers of any of the women’s fashion magazines. Readers of the Journal are the most affluent, influential and style-setting and we are delighted to be able to serve them even better with our expanded coverage.”

“Fashion has become an increasingly important topic for the Journal and for our readers world-wide,” said Paul E. Steiger, managing editor, The Wall Street Journal.  “Creating this new bureau allows us to take advantage of our extensive industry knowledge by uniting all of our relevant reporters under one bureau.  Our coverage will be different from other publications in that it will encompass the business behind the fashion industry and fashion trends, which embraces traditional Journal reporting.”

The increased fashion coverage also provides benefits for luxury and fashion advertisers.

“Advertisers will have the opportunity to influence readers when they are most receptive to making both personal and business fashion choices,” said Judy Barry, senior vice president of sales and marketing, The Wall Street Journal.  “This gives advertisers a chance to embrace the Journal’s diverse content in a unique mix of both business and consumer content six days a week.”

The expanded fashion coverage will appear in Marketplace, particularly in the Style & Substance column, on page one of the global Journal, regularly in Pursuits in the U.S., in the Journal Europe and Asia’s Weekend Journal sections and periodically in Weekend Journal and Personal Journal in the U.S.

Prior to moving to New York in 2003, Ms. Bannon was based in Los Angeles, where she was a senior special writer for the Journal.  Before that, she was based in Milan for The Wall Street Journal Europe, with responsibility for political, business and economic coverage of  Italy.  From 1984 until 1992, Ms. Bannon worked for Fairchild News Service as a reporter covering business in Toronto, Paris and Milan.  Ms. Bannon has a bachelor’s degree in political science and English from Miami University in  Ohio.

There will be additional features and content in the expanded fashion coverage that will be announced at a later date.

Informa - Universal Music Group Cements Global Share In 2005 - September 5, 2006

from Kathryn Bushnell/Informa

New research published today reveals that Universal Music Group (UMG) increased its lead inthe global $33.5 billion music market in 2005. According to Music & Copyright, UMG had a market share of 25.6% followed by Sony BMG with a reduced share of 19%. EMI was third with 13.6%, up from 13.4% in 2004 and Warner Music Group (WMG) was fourth with a 12.8% share. Sony BMG was the only major record company to suffer a fall in market share in 2005.

Major record company market shares (%)

Source: Music & Copyright

According to Phil Hardy, editor of Music & Copyright, it is medium-sized outfits that are bearing the brunt of the continued stagnation in the music sector: “the two notable features of the 2005 recorded music market shares are that the largest of the majors, UMG, stabilised its market share and that the independents grew theirs. It would seem that being big or small is best in the modern music industry”.

Music publishing market shares (%)

Source: Music & Copyright

For music publishing, EMI MP maintained its lead even though it suffered a decline in share. Warner Chappell increased its share and was placed second. BMG MP and UMG MP were placed third and fourth respectively with Sony/ATV the smallest of the five major music publishers.

Note: The recorded music market shares in this release have been developed through an intensive examination of the statements of the major record companies, the views of analysts and Music & Copyright's confidential conversations with the majors.

The music publishing shares have been developed from a similar level of personal observation backed up by documents made semi-public by Bertelsmann as part of its projected sale of BMG MP.

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