Sports Should Be Done By People Who Can Do It

Michael Hedges December 10, 2012 Follow on Twitter

There is a vast difference between radio and television sports coverage. Some would say television gets all the pictures while radio gets all the talent. Sports on the radio will always be interesting to listeners and sponsors. What to do when the stadiums are quiet is a worry for another day.

A plan to create a national sports radio network in Russia is moving forward. European Media Group (EMG) applied to the federal agency that registers each and every mass media operator - Roskomnadzor - to use frequencies in 37 cities for the sports network. It’s possible other broadcasters might have made competing applications, though none have yet come forward. Roskomnadzor chief Alexander Zharov referred to the project as “questionable,” according to Kommersant (December 6), as the agency estimated a cost of at least RUB 500 million, roughly €12.5 million.

EMG president Ekaterina Tikhomirova called the sports network a “socially important project.” EMG was acquired from French media house Lagardère a year ago by Siberian Business Union, a huge mining company, for US$ 162 million. The company also owns Europa Plus, Retro FM, Radio 7 and Jack FM. Radio Sport, originally launched in 2006, was acquired in a separate transaction, finally approved by competition authorities in August 2012. The station primarily operates from a local Moscow FM frequency and recently added a sixth city, Tolyatti in south-western Russia.

Among privately held Russian radio broadcasters EMG is the current market leader, attracting 13.5% combined audience share, according to the August-October TNS survey. By comparison, and illustrating the competition among big owners, Russian Media Group’s stations (Maximum, DFM, Hit FM and Radio Monte Carlo) have a combined 11.9% audience share, followed by Gazprom-Media (Ekho Moscvy; Relax FM, City FM) with 11.3% and ProfMedia Broadcasting (Humor FM, Romanitka, Radio Energy) with 11.2%.

As advertising in Russia continues to rise at double-digit annual rates, radio advertising is leading. For the first nine months of 2012 all ad revenue for Russian private broadcasters rose 24% to RUB 4.3 billion (about €108 million). EMG’s 2011 revenue was reported at RUB 1.9 billion (about €48 million) with ProfMedia following at RUB 1.8 billion (about €45 million).   

The Russian government wants the sports radio network up and running ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and offered a package of frequencies and operating authority for RUB 57 million (€1.4 million) plus RUB 9 million (€225,000) per frequency. The deadline for applications was November 21st and the winner will be announced December 14th. Declining to participate, ProfMedia Broadcasting CEO Yuri Kostin said “sports broadcasting should be done by people who know how to do it.”

The head of state broadcaster RTR Sergei Arkhipov was equally pessimistic, not only because of the expense. At some point, the owner of the sports radio network might try to renew the license, sell the network or change the format, all problematic, he said to Kommersant (October 17). RTR dropped its all-sports radio channel three years ago because of costs and the “inability to regularly fill the airwaves with interesting spectator sports.”

“Interesting” sports this past summer boosted UK all-sports national commercial radio channel talkSport to over 3 million listeners. But it was a particularly rich season for sports; the Summer Olympic Games, the Paralympics, the Euro 2012 football championships plus the regular hysteria over football, rugby and cricket. Oh, there was tennis, too. BBC all-sports channel Five Live actually lost audience during the summer.

See also in ftm Knowledge

The Games People Watch

Media and sports are a powerful combination. Together they capture huge audiences and considerable money. This ftm Knowledge file looks at the competition from football rights battles and cycling coverage with new media to the Olympic Games. 82 pages PDF (October 2012)

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Media in Russia

Media in Russia is big business and big politics. Media companies are consolidating as they move into new media and new territories. At the same time independence is still questioned. It's all changing. ftm looks at media in Russia and its neighbors, includes Resources, 124 pages. PDF file (January 2012)

Order Here