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ftm Radio Page - July 29, 2016

Names are valuable real estate
acronyms and acrimony

The (dot) radio Top Level Domain (TLD) name administration has been awarded to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN). TLDs are internet pointers, used in Universal Resource Locators (URLs), directing the flow along the internet superhighway. ICANN authorized new TLDs - actually generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) - a few years ago, (dot) radio being one.

“The EBU has fought strongly to obtain administration rights for (dot) radio and we are very pleased that ICANN has approved our application to run this extraordinary CommunityTop Level Domain,” said EBU director general Ingrid Deltenre in a statement (See EBU presser here). Community TLDs are a special category determined by ICANN. Administering a gTLD is a lot like operating the drawbridge to a gated community, fees being involved.

The fight to administer (dot) radio raised several issues along the way. Another applicant, BRS Media, objected to EBU being named to ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) as a conflict of interest. EBU is a trade association for European public broadcasters and many of its members are directed and funded by governments. EBU also acquires and administers sports and event rights for the benefit of member public broadcasters. It is also holder of the Eurovision Song Contest trademark.

BRS Media also complained that as administrator EBU would be empowered to restrict (dot) radio access. Amateur radio and commercial broadcasting organizations saw the same red-flag. A review of all this took two years and along the way EBU amended its application to be more inclusive. Sometime in the next few months EBU will establish a World Radio Advisory Board to manage (dot) radio “together with the representatives of the main radio organzations which supported the EBU application.”

More fallout in up-side-down ratings period
motion to strike

The statistical souls at French media measurement institute Médiamétrie dutifully released this past week April-June radio audience estimates for the Ile de France (IDF) - greater Paris - region. Correspondingly, results for RTL Group’s national dance music channel Fun Radio were expunged, as with the national results released a week earlier, as punishment for breaking rules about interfering with the survey method. As with the national April-June results, many French broadcasters learned about unexpected consequences.

If anything, IDF audience estimates for the period, compared with the national results, were magnified. Market leaders RTL and France Inter rose significantly, year on year; RTL (1st) to 14.6% market share from 12.4%, France Inter (2nd) to 13.2% from 8.7%. Both channels are heavily invested in news coverage and events during the period would have logically attracted listener interest. All-news France Info rose to 5.0% market share (5th) from 4.3%. Regional public channel FIP increased to 3.0% market share (9th) from 2.3%.

General entertainment channel Europe 1 (3rd) dropped to 8.3% market from 8.7% one year on. Unrelated, a new scandal erupted involving a Europe 1 show host. News and sports talk channel RMC was thrashed; 5.9% market share (4th) from 9.0% (2nd). (See France IDF radio audience trend chart here) Overall listening Monday through Friday fell to 74.1% of the population from 78.0%.

Eliminating interview data suspiciously crediting Fun Radio appears to have affected most the national music channels. NRJ (6th) was down to 3.9% market share from 5.2% year on year. Skyrock (7th) fell to 3.35 market share from 3.9%. RFM (10th) was down to 2.5% market share from 3.2%. Virgin Radio fell to 1.3% market share from 1.8%.

On the other end of the musical dimension classical music Radio Classique (8th) rose to 3.3% market share from 2.6%. Most local IDF stations were lower.


Radio Page week ending July 22, 2016
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Radio Page week ending July 15, 2016
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Radio Page week ending June 17, 2016
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