ftm Radio Page - June 19, 2015

Broadcaster’s future on hold, CEO out
perhaps a new plan or old plan

Flemish community radio station FM Brussel was granted a reprieve this week, temporary though it might be, after an outcry from the public, staff and politicians to its closure. Directors of the non-profit umbrella organization operating the station Vlaams-Brusselse Media terminated chief executive Michel Tubbax who a week earlier announced the station’s abrupt closure. FM Brussel is a Flemish-language news and culture station operating in French-speaking Brussels since 2004.

Vlaams-Brusselse Media (VBM) was formed in May 2014 to operate FM Brussel, TV Brussel, newspaper Brussel deze week (Brussels This Week), magazine Agenda and news portal brusselnieuws.be all financially supported by the Flemish Community. Brussels is the multi-lingual capital of Belgium, lying within the French-speaking region. VBM is independent of Belgian-Flemish public broadcaster VRT and Belgian-French public broadcaster RTBF.

Mr. Tubbax was recruited as VBM’s first chief executive in October last year. “The idea is to streamline Vlaams-Brusselse Media into a single powerful media organisation, while maintaining the particular qualities of each of the brands,” he said at the time, quoted by flanderstoday.eu (October 14 2014). The VBM board supported the “streamlining,” at least in the abstract. Unions were, of course, skeptical.

Restructuring "also means acting," said Mr. Tubbax in a statement (June 9). “We have decided that radio station FM Brussels is not viable to fulfil our mission.” Focus, he said at the time, would be on the website “and we must step up our profile on social media.” The VBM board has given editorial director Jeroen Roppe until mid-October to figure it all out.

Revolving door at news-talk station evolves
“strategic priorities”

Russian media executives do, quite often, trade seats. This week it was a new director general for radio channel Ekho Moskvy as Ekaterina Pavlova was returned to the role by major shareholder Gazprom Media. She held the position for about four months, until the end of March, when Mikhail Demin stepped into the job.

But then Mr. Demin, whose previous professional activity was handling public relations for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, was almost immediately shuffled to TV channel NTV-Plus as deputy director general. Also at the end of March Aleksander Vronsky was hired at NTV Plus CEO replacing Stanislav Rodionov. Mr. Vronsky had also worked for the Sochi 2014 organising committee. NTV Plus is Gazprom Media’s digital pay-TV channel focusing on sports owned widely expected to become a free-to-air all-sports channel this autumn. (See more about media in Russia here)

“The personnel rotation was planned and fully reflects the strategic priorities of the group,” said the Gazprom Media statement, quoted by onair.ru (June 15). During the “brief hiatus” Ms Pavlova had been reassigned to other duties within Gazprom-Media. Ekho Moscvy is considered a tough place to work as Gazprom Media holds a two-thirds stake, the remainder controlled by the editorial staff with statutory authority for personnel and editorial decisions.

Coalition partner kills digital transition
“one such occasion”

Proposed legislation to replace FM broadcasting with DAB networks in Sweden has been effectively taken off the table until, at least, the next parliamentary session. At its party congress this past weekend the Green Party, minority party in the coalition government, decided to pull the plug on pulling the plug on FM broadcasting. The proposed measure with have ordered FM broadcasting shut-down by 2022.

“The FM network will be maintained as long as the Green Party is in government,” said party cultural spokesperson Nicklas Malmberg, quoted by idg.se (June 15). (See more about media in Sweden here)

“It is very good news,” offered business publication Dagens Industri (June 16) in a scathing opinion. “Digital radio is one of the dumbest political projects.” The argument cited newer technologies available, costs and lack of consumer demand. “Quite often, politics is actually about saying no and stopping the nonsense. This is one such occasion.” (See more about digital radio here)

Public broadcaster Swedish Radio (SR) and private commercial broadcasters MTG Radio and SBS Discovery expressed disappointment. “I think DAB is a necessity if radio has a chance in the future,” said MTG Radio CEO Christer Modig to dagensmedia.se (June 15). After the Norwegian government decided to shut-down FM broadcasting for national channels DAB platform supporters have been hoping other countries would follow.

Radio Page week ending June 12, 2015
radio in Ukraine, audience measurement, Radio Committee

Radio Page week ending June 5, 2015
radio in the UK, local radio, Juice FM, Global Radio, UTV Media

Radio Page week ending May 29, 2015
radio in Denmark, Radio24syvs, talkshows, radio in Poland, digital radio, DAB, KRRiT, EBU

Radio Page week ending May 22, 2015
radio in Bulgaria, public broadcasting, BNR, radio in the UK, radio audience, digital radio, RAJAR, BBC, Radio 2, Radio 1, Radio 4 Extra, commercial radio, Heart, Smooth, Magic

Radio Page week ending May 15, 2015
radio in the Czech Republic, radio audience, SKMO Stem/Mark Radio Projekt, Radio Impuls, Cesky Rozhlas, CRo Plus, Radio Zet, Country Radio

Radio Page week ending May 8, 2015
Bauer Media, SBS Discovery Radio, radio in Denmark, digital radio, FM, DAB

Radio Page week ending May 1, 2015
radio in Spain, audience measurement, EGM, RNE

Recently added radio audience figures and resources

• Greece - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (June 2015))
  public and private broadcasting, owners, executives, market share
• Montenegro - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (May 2015)
  public and commercial radio channels, management, platforms
• UK - National Radio Audience (May 2015)
  market share, trend, sectors
• UK - London Radio Audience (May 2015)
  market share, trend
• UK - National Radio Audience (May 2015)
  BBC/commercial 'gap'
• Czech Republic - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (May 2015)
  public and private radio channels, management, audience reach
• Spain - National Radio Audience (May 2015)
  national channels, reach share, trend
• Spain - Major Media - Radio (May 2015)
  public and private broadcasting companies, channels, management, platforms, audience estimates
• France - Greater Paris Radio Audience (April 2015)
  national and local channels, market share, trend
• Portugal - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (April 2015)
  public and private broadcasting companies, channels, management, platforms, audience estimates
• France - National Radio Audience (April 2015)
  national channels, sectors, market share, reach/TSL
• FYR Macedonia - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (April 2015)
  public and private stations, management
• Malta - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (March 2015)
  public, private, educational and religious stations, ownership, management, platforms, audience reach
• Germany - Radio Audience (March 2015)
  leading stations, audience trend, daily reach
• Italy - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (February 2015)
  public and private broadcasting companies, channels, audience reach/share, management
• Switzerland - Radio listening by region (February 2015)
  public and private sectors, penetration, time spent listening
• Switzerland - French region Radio Audience (February 2015)
  share, trend
• Switzerland - Swiss-German region Radio Audience (February 2015)
  share, trend
• Switzerland - Italian region Radio Audience (February 2015)
  share, trend
• Bosnia/Herzegovina - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (January 2015)
  public and private broadcasters, management, descriptions, regulator, broadcaster association
• Albania - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (January 2015)
  public and private radio channels, national, regional, religious and community stations
• Turkey - Major Media - Radio Broadcasting (January 2015)
  ownership, management, program formats, platforms, audience estimates

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