Money and politics mix as Moscow radio station dumps BBC

Michael Hedges August 18, 2007

Moscow station Bolshoye Radio informed the BBC (Friday August 17) and stopped broadcasting BBC Russian immediately. For the BBC, its last FM re-broadcaster in Russia is gone. For international broadcasters it is another footnote to a changing world.

Certainly the BBC is annoyed, if not a bit shocked, at being abruptly dismissed, apparently with no warning, only weeks after receiving a new agreement. BBC Global News Director Richard Sambrook asked for a review by Russian authorities “for the original concept of the station to be respected.” (Read BBC World Service statement here)

New owners acquired Bolshoye Radio (“Big Radio”) August 2nd and it seems the paperwork was not in order, according to Russian media regulator Rossvyazokhrankultura (Federal Service for the Supervision of Mass Media, Communication and Protection of Cultural Heritage) Director Boris Boyarskov.

“The licensee who was organizing broadcasting on this frequency should have indicated the name of the mass media outlet, the BBC, in its plan, which it failed to do,” said Boyarshov to news agency Interfax. “We carried out checks on this and issued the broadcaster with a warning that it should only be giving air time to those mass media outlets which have been stipulated in the programming plan and that it should bring its broadcasting into line with this programming plan.”

In other words, according to Boyarshov, Bolshoye Radio’s new owners need to send him a new programming plan.

“We must receive this sort of statement, and so far there have been no such statements.”

Financial Analyst Investment Holding (FINAM) only recently acquired Bolshoye Radio from Russia’s State international broadcaster Voice of Russia (VoR), whose programs also appeared on the station. FINAM is essentially a stock brokerage with investments in internet services but has no other broadcast interests. The station’s license indicates an all-talk format. Conventional wisdom suggests it plans a business news radio channel. FINAM’s 2006 revenues were €52 billion (US$70 billion) and it acquired Bolshoye Radio for about €5 million.

Europa Plus, a subsidiary of Lagardère Active, acquired a Moscow radio station named “Big Radio” in 2003. That license was folded into the Europa Plus group and renamed.  Lagardère, as the remaining foreign commercial radio broadcaster in Russia, assiduously avoids non-music formats.

The BBC squared off on the Russia authorities; logical as the former license holder, with whom they had an agreement, was Voice of Russia, assuming Russian authorities all talk to each other. FINAM, according to the BBC, received a warning from the regulator Rossvyazokhrankultura to broadcast only programs produced by Bolshye Radio or the license might be revoked.

Confusing this rather telling point, FINAM spokesperson Igor Ermachenkov told the AP the company was acting on its own. “It’s no secret that the BBC was established as a broadcaster of foreign propaganda,” he went on to say providing headlines referring to the cold war’s return.

And the headline merged with Russian President Vladmir Putin sending strategic – though aging – bombers across the Atlantic and Pacific. A fine narrative was set up, though somewhat overblown.

The BBC has lost its FM re-broadcasters in Russia, leaving only AM/MW, shortwave and, of course, internet distribution. Russian authorities have functionally chased out US international broadcaster Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from Russian territory and likely influenced friendly neighboring countries to do the same. Quite often the same argument is used: regulations require local program origination.

Western government-financed international broadcasters collected FM re-broadcasting agreements in the States of the former Soviet orbit after that orbit was set spinning and well before, in many cases, regulators were in place and certainly before FM radio licenses had much financial value. On average a Moscow radio license is worth €8 to €10 million, said one Russian broadcaster representative. There is logic to the suspicion that FINAM wanted to abrogate the BBC agreement for financial reasons. The Russian authorities facilitated, perhaps to the point of finding the right buyer.

The AP story quoted Deutsche Welle Russian service deputy Alexander Varkentin saying the German international broadcaster has had only minor problems operating in Russia. Voice of Russia has operated a 24-hour AM/MW radio station in the German capital Berlin since 2003. Mr. Boyarshov gleefully suggested that the BBC might make an application for its own FM frequency in Moscow, though he added that none are currently available. Voice of Russia programs are not offered on a London FM frequency, nor one in Washington DC. Imagine the shrieking from commercial broadcasters in those cities.

Certainly relations between Russia and the UK are tenuous, each country dismissing diplomats recently. With presidential elections scheduled for next year and no clear successor to Mr. Putin in sight, Mr. Putin himself boisterous as ever (and ever popular in Russia) and a heightened insecurity about all things Russia, the West has every act under its microscope. And don’t forget winter is just around the corner and Russia controls Europe’s natural gas prices. And Russians have bought up the UK football teams.

Mixing media, politics and money is common in Russia, as it is everywhere. The lesson for international broadcasters like the BBC and governments engaged in public diplomacy is simple: the cost has gone up. And there’s always the internet.

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