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Weeks ending August 18, 2007

BBC programming to be taken off FM station in Moscow today – August 17, 2007

from Lala Najafova BBC World Service

BBC World Service has been informed by the owners of the Moscow FM radio station Bolshoye Radio that BBC programming in Russian will no longer be broadcast on the station, as of this afternoon (Friday, August 17).

This was the BBC Russian Service’s last FM distribution partner station in Russia. It follows two other FM partner stations ceasing to take BBC programmes over the last nine months.

The owners of Bolshoye Radio, financial group Finam, have told representatives of the BBC Russian Service that they are required to remove BBC programming at the request of Russian licensing authorities, or risk the station being taken off air.

The BBC understands that this will take effect in advance of its scheduled block of programmes this afternoon at 1700 Moscow time.

The BBC intends to appeal to Russia's Federal Service for the Supervision of Mass Media, Communication and Protection of Cultural Heritage. It will ask for the decision to be reviewed and for the original concept of the station to be respected.

According to official warnings received by Finam from the regulatory body, the license requires that all programming must be produced by Bolshoye Radio itself.

However the BBC said that the detailed concept documents - the basis on which the license was awarded in February 2006 - clearly state that only “60 per cent of the station's total output will be original material produced by Bolshoye Radio”.

The BBC also stated that according to the same concept documents, the station would also have up to 18 per cent foreign produced content. This percentage of foreign content is reflected in the station’s license.

The concept documents of the station include the BBC and Voice of Russia as content providers and as integral parts of the output - specifically in order to enable the station “to reflect many and often contradictory views on current affairs”.

Richard Sambrook, Director BBC Global News, said: “We are extremely disappointed that listeners to Bolshoye Radio in Moscow will be unable to listen to our impartial and independent news and information programming in the high quality audibility of FM. The BBC has invested a great deal of energy and resources into developing high quality programming for the station. The BBC has similar broadcasting arrangements with partner stations around the world. Our services are available on FM in over 150 capital cities – some 75 per cent of the global total."

He continued: “The BBC entered into the relationship with Bolshoye Radio in good faith, and the license was won in a competitive tender in February 2006. We cannot understand how the license is now interpreted in a way that does not reflect the original and thorough concept documents. We are appealing to Russia's Federal Service for the Supervision of Mass Media, Communication and Protection of Cultural Heritage. We will ask for the decision to be reviewed and for the original concept of the station to be respected.”

The BBC and Voice of Russia have been on Bolshoye Radio since May this year. The station, which was sold in July to financial investment company Finam, was currently at a test signal stage ahead of an official launch planned for the autumn.

Bolshoye Radio’s test signal included the broadcasts of BBC programming in Russian. The BBC was on air from 0700-1000 MT and 1700-2000 MT. The programmes included Utro na BBC, London View, BBSeva (hosted by Seva Novgorodsev) and a new interactive programme, Vam Slovo. A new current affairs programme is currently being piloted, for launch in September.

The BBC has had previous problems with FM broadcasting in Russia. At the end of 2006, Moscow station Radio Arsenal ceased taking BBC programming, and in early 2006 the St Petersburg station Radio Leningrad also stopped taking BBC programmes. Radio Leningrad informed the BBC that it had been required to stop broadcasting BBC programmes by local licensing authorities.

BBC Russian programmes continue to be audio streamed online at bbcrussian.com. They are broadcast on the following medium-wave frequencies: St Petersberg - 1260 MW, Moscow - 1260 MW and Ekaterinburg - 666 MW. They are also available direct to home through 'New Day' channel on NTV+ satellite, as well as Hotbird 2 satellite. The BBC’s shortwave broadcasts in Russian remain unaffected.

Médiamétrie - TOUR DE FRANCE 2007: TWO-TIER INTERNATIONAL TV AUDIENCE RESULTS – August 10, 2007

from Laure Osmanian Molinero/Médiamétrie

The last edition of the Tour de France took place in a particular context and registered disappointing audience results. This underlines the unique character of the event in the television channel’s summer schedules, as well as the importance of the nationality of the champions participating in the competition.

The international audience results are less than expected and the audiences of the Tour declined in several countries.

In Spain, the audience has been declining since 2000 and the public channels TVE1 and La2 attracted on average only 1 million of viewers against 1,7 million in 2000. The presence of numerous Spanish cyclists among the top competitors, of whom the winner of the Tour 2007 should have tended to improve the results. However, the absence of a deserving champion worthy to success like Miguel Indurain as well as the affairs that penalize cycling probably moderated the interest of the competition in the eyes of the Spanish viewers.

The Germanchannel Sat1, who decided to broadcast the Tour after the sudden withdrawal of ARD and ZDF, gathered on average during the 9 broadcasted stages 2,5 times less viewers than the two public channels in 2006. The withdrawal of the ex-champion Jan Ullrich and the Sinkewitz affair certainly contributed in the loss of interest from the audience.

However, two important points emerge from the results of the international TV audiences.

First, thanks to the strong will of the organizer to maintain a fair competition throughout the race, there has been no audience drop during the Tour. Viewers showed a strong interestand audiences registered some peaks during the last stages, including in countries which are subject to recurrent decline such as Spain.

On TV1, almost 2,7 million viewers followed the last high mountain stage in the Pyrenees, driven by the future Spanish winner.

In France, where the audience results were stable compared to last year’s edition, the last stage of the Tour allowed France 2 to realize its best performance of a finish since 2004 with on average 4,6 million of viewers and 41% of market shares.

Furthermore, in addition to stages such as the arrival on the Champs Elysees since 1975, the ascent of the Galibier or the Aubisque which have become real classics, the Tour continues its international extensionwith this year a prologue in London. The Tour is still one of the few programs that allows television channels to gather millions of viewers on summer afternoons. Several broadcasters appreciated it and took advantage from the event, providing themselves with an attractive offer during a historically weak period in terms of audience.

In France, France 2 attracted on average 3,6 million viewersand 39,2% of market share, which is much higher than its annual average for 2006.

The same situation occurred in Denmark, where TV2 obtained for the Tour an averagemarket share of 59,2%(the channel has already obtained 65,3% of market share in 2006), gathering even 3 out of 4 viewers for the ascent of the Aubisque.

Lastly, in Germany Eurosport took advantage of the withdrawal of ARD and ZDF and almost multiplied by 5 its average audienceduring the broadcasts of the Tour.

ABI Research Video to the Car Is a Non-Starter – August 9, 2007

from Nicole Fabris/ABI

The prevalence of rear-seat video screens in motor vehicles has prompted some auto industry pundits to warn of the dangers of driver distraction, should front-seat video become just as popular. But a new research brief from ABI Research has a different message: don’t worry, that isn’t going to happen any time soon.

“No carmaker – certainly no North American carmaker – will be delivering a video system other than rear seat entertainment, for a variety of reasons,” says research director Mike Ippoliti. “One is legal: in the US, some 39 states specifically prohibit the installation of DVD entertainment systems in the front seat. Chrysler had challenges with its MyGig audio system, so no OEM is rushing to develop a video system that might prove to be illegal.”

The second reason, relating to real-time video, is also non-technological: there simply is no sign of sufficient customer demand to motivate government rule-makers to change their conservative direction. Rear-seat entertainment systems will remain popular, but the market for real-time video delivery to the limited number of vehicles equipped with RSE is too small for OEMs to put forth much effort.

Another inhibitor is the lack of standards and business models – “format soup and an ecosystem jungle” is how Ippoliti puts it – multiple incompatible formats for video, changing over time, with no guarantee any one will dominate the future market. Also, there are multiple players in the distribution channel, with no clear preferred approach or team.

Such an ecosystem is a worst-case scenario for OEMs. Were the product something essential to an automobile, with huge customer demand, workable approaches would be found. But in this case, OEMs are not anxious to wade into a market still searching for the right business model, where the teams are still choosing sides.

The research does not suggest that there will be absolutely no market for TV in the car, but that lack of demand will keep its growth to a very measured pace, reaching perhaps 300,000 OEM shipments of digital radio hardware for video by 2011.

Informa - Eastern Europe promises digital delight – July 30, 2007

from Adam Thomas/Informa

Eastern European TV, a new research report from Informa Telecoms & Media, has found that central and eastern Europe is making great strides in the upgrade to digital TV. The report has found that the eight million digital homes at present will grow to 34.8 million by 2012.

Adam Thomas, Informa’s media research manager, and author of the report, said: “Several countries are becoming increasingly visible on the radar of international TV investors and I expect to see several major acquisitions and consolidations over the next few years. While high-profile markets such as Poland and the Czech Republic continue to exhibit impressive progress, other countries such as Latvia and Slovakia are also now catching the eye.”

Digital satellite leads the way, with cable making slower progress towards digital conversion. The need to compete with IPTV and cable consolidation in territories such as the Czech Republic and Bulgaria will help drive cable conversion levels. According to Thomas. “With several recent launches and others in the pipeline, IPTV is starting to emerge as a credible alternative platform in some countries. Russia leads the way in terms of IPTV subscribers, although services in places such as Lithuania, Estonia and Slovenia are also making progress.”

Russia will become the region’s digital leader over the next five years. At present it lags behind Poland in terms of digital TV subscriber numbers, but is expected to claim first place during 2010.