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ftm Radio Page - June 8, 2012

Yet another Hungarian radio station in trouble
“embarrassing”

Hungary’s media regulator NMHH has given the owners of national radio channel NeoFM one last chance to settle its franchise fee debt or else. The station owes about HUF 700 million (about €2.3 million) in fees and fines, none of which the owners have paid toward since the license was granted in 2009. The Media Council offered to take HUF 40 million (about €135,000) “within the next few days” with an agreement to pay off the remainder within a year or, at its July meeting, the license will be revoked, reported Index.hu (June 6)

The backstory to this, of course, includes the murky ownership of NeoFM, which succeeded national radio channel Slager Radio in 2009 in a questionable license renewal process. Hungary’s two national commercial radio licenses, conspicuously owned by foreign investors, were awarded to Hungarian companies with suspicious links to the two major Hungarian political parties. Econet, owned by Est Group, was awarded the Slager Radio license and the channel was rebranded NeoFM. A year later Gabor Szekely, former head of the Hungarian state lottery, acquired 75% of NeoFM, Est Group becoming the minority shareholder. When the government changed in 2010 NeoFM was punished with the loss of state advertising.

Last year the NMHH pulled the license of Budapest station Radio Café for non-payment of fees. Only a few days earlier Est Group sold that station to a local taxi and bar owner. (See more on media in Hungry here)

International criticism of Hungary’s media laws began with the Slager Radio and Radio Danubius licensing scandal in 2009. It hasn’t ended. In an interview with Budapest newspaper Figyelo, reported by Bloomberg (June 7) European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes referred to the Hungarian government’s failure to deliver promised changes to media laws as “embarrassing.” (JMH)

Doom and Goom for Virgin Radio?
Suffering nears end

Yet another change appears in store for Lagardère’s suffering French national music channel Virgin Radio.  Former NRJ programming chief Roberto Ciurleo has been commissioned, through his web radio company Goom Radio, to review the channel, reporting back to Lagardère CEO Denis Olivennes by mid-July, tells Les Echos (June 5). Since rebranded from Europe 2 in 2008, Virgin Radio has gone through several programming and marketing iterations, none moving the ratings needle.

Virgin Radio ranked 14th in the most recent Médiamétrie national radio audience survey (January-March 2012) with a 2.2% market share. The brand’s debut market share (January-March 2008) was 3.3%, tied for 11th with sister music channel RFM, which has also tracked lower over four years. Lagardère’s radio cash-cow, full-service Europe 1, ranked 3rd in the most recent national survey with a 7.2% market share, lowest in years. (See recent Médiamétrie audience survey trend chart here) Rumors that Lagardère might jettison its French radio channels, vigorously denied, persist. Top Lagardère radio executives have exited.

Indeed, reported Les Echos, the appearance of Roberto Ciurleo in the building further fueled that rumor mill. M. Ciurleo left NRJ Group in March 2007 and 18 months later formed web radio portal Goom Radio with another former NRJ person, Emmanuel Jayr, and €9 million in venture funding. Goom Radio, which has embraced mobile distribution, claims more than 4 million users. The company has applied for digital terrestrial radio authorizations. (JMH)

MPs propose swapping broadcast fees for more news
And weather, too

Commercial radio stations might provide more local news and weather if franchise fees are reduced or eliminated, suggest Swedish MPs Lars Beckman and Carl-Oskar Bohlin. They noted that radio owners have paid SEK 2.1 billion (roughly €230 million) in franchise fees since 1993 when private radio was made legal.

“2.6 million Swedes listen daily to one of the 80 private radio stations and web radio stations,” they wrote in media portal medievarlden.se  (May 31). “However, private radio stations are often criticized for having too little news and weather. Could it be changed if the private radio stations were exempt from fees they pay for their licenses?”

“For an average medium-sized city in Sweden today, it is often one or two newspapers that convey news but just a government radio station that broadcasts local news,” they argued. “We think there is reason to contribute politically that we get a better and more inclusive community and news coverage in Sweden, even at regional level.”  They also noted that newspaper circulations are in decline while “radio and television play an increasingly important role.”

To be sure, private sector radio broadcasting in Sweden has changed considerably since 1993. National networks are now dominant, allowing those broadcasters to reduce local content and the cost of it all. And there has been considerable consolidation of ownership. Radio advertising as a percentage of all ad spending in Sweden is around 2%, far lower than the European average of 5.5%. (JMH)

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