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Follow the bouncing show host
There’s always the satellite
BBC talk show host Jonathan Ross has left the building. His days as BBC radio and TV entertainer are over, he announced, via the Press Association.
There was much doubt Ross found himself in difficult contract negotiations. Reportedly the BBC’s highest paid at nearly £6 million a year, he has been dancing with fate since the infamous ‘Sachsgate’ incident. (See background here) Ross took a short suspension and his partner in the radio show Russell Brand left the country.
BBC critics aimed at Ross and every other on-air personality for their occasional antics and huge pay deals. Contractually unable to deflect the lightening bolts, General Director Mark Thompson may have been quite willing to sacrifice Ross, who clearly had the support of a particular audience. Ross’s PR agent floated a story a few days earlier that he’d take less money. In today’s statement Ross said money wasn’t the issue. That’s probably true; the BBC hadn’t even started contract talks.
Ross will find a broadcast home, most UK media observers agree. He’s been a hot property and bidding will be interesting, to say the least. Any deal with commercial broadcasters – yes, expect more than one – will likely require more hours for healthy compensation. But he’s also more than 20 years in the spotlight.
In some respects, Jonathan Ross is as close as possible to being the UK’s answer (oh, my) to the original American shock-jock Howard Stern. Moments of brilliance, which everybody remembers, are easily eclipsed by years of puerile tastelessness.
Howard (How-Weird), once the darling of New York radio, took a deal for US$100 million a year to ply his trade on satellite radio. That contract, too, is about to expire at a time when broadcast CEO’s only pay that kind of money to themselves. And nobody talks about Howard any more, a fate worse than death. So it’s up (literally) to the man with the satellite covering the UK. Ross jumped, alright; probably into thin air. (JMH)
Political network subsidy renewed
Less is, well, better than nothing
News radio network channel Radio Radicale will continue to benefit from an Italian government subsidy, reports giornaleradio (January 7). The channel faced dire consequences when the previous agreement expired in December.
Radio Radicale is and has been unique in the Italian media landscape, a full-time, independently financed political news channel. Based in Rome, the channel can be heard throughout much of Italy. (See previous article on local radio in Rome)
The agreement reached with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development provides €9.9 million a year for two years. The previous subsidy gave the channel €10 million per year for three years. (JMH)
Increasing Newsstand Price Seems To Work
The Chicago Tribune, flagship of the bankrupt Tribune Company, is increasing its newsstand price to $1 on January 18 – that means a doubling of its price over the past 24 months. It went from 50 cents to 75 cents on December 31, 2007.
Everyone knows that increasing prices means a drop-off in readership but how goes the math – does the increased revenue more than make up for the loss of sales? Tribune says it does. A spokesman admitted the last increase caused a circulation decline but that revenue loss was “more than offset by revenue gains” from the higher price.
Janet Jackson’s Nipple Obscenity Case Back In Court … Again
Can you believe it was six years ago – at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show – when a “wardrobe malfunction” showed America and the world a Janet Jackson nipple for a fleeting second? The FCC hit CBS with a $550,000 fine with the case being appealed all the way to the Supreme Court which basically sided with the FCC and told the lower court to think again, saying the fine was okay as the FCC had applied its rules correctly, but it left the door open that perhaps those rules themselves were not Constitutional. (More on Janet's fleeting moment here)
So back to the Third Circuit Appeals Court it all goes February 23 and each side has been allotted 30 minutes for oral arguments. The court could decide that it still feels the FCC rules were not applied correctly, although that’s a tough one considering the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Thus CBS wants the court to go the extra step. "This Court should embrace the Supreme Court's invitation to assess the constitutionality of the indecency rules given current realities and find that most applications can no longer survive First Amendment scrutiny," the network said in a legal brief.
Who says justice is slow? Six years and counting.
Hungarian license renewal ruled ‘unlawful’
Winner takes nothing
A Budapest Municipal Court ruled “unlawful” the controversial national radio license tender that stripped two long-standing broadcasters of licenses. (January 5). The result, however, remains unclear. The Court also refused to take away the licenses awarded in the contested tender.
Danubius Radio owner Accession Mezzanine Capital brought the case before the Budapest Municipal Court against Hungarian media regulator ORTT. Danubius Radio’s national radio license was not renewed in favor of a politically connected applicant, which the litigant claimed was, under current license requirements, unqualified. The Court also suggested in its oral decision that ORTT board members aligned with two political parties should have abstained from participating in the licensing decision. Slager Radio, owned by Emmis International, will have their day in the same court-room in two weeks. (see earlier report here)
Among Hungarian media observers there is universal agreement that neither Danubius Radio nor Slager Radio will return to the airwaves, legal jeopardy for the succeeding applicants being overwhelming. More likely is a compensation award, in effect paid by Hungarian taxpayers, to be determined under appeal. (JMH)
Journalist union drop-outs rise
General trend
Norsk Journalistlag, the Norwegian Union of Journalists, lost 188 members during 2009, reports Journalisten.no (January 6), “the greatest decline in the union’s history.” On top of that, 485 previously full-time paying members are now either part-time or unemployed.
Corresponding with Marc Gruber at EFJ some weeks ago, he mentioned that might stop keeping track of employment in journalism “since the general trend is very repetitive, less money, less jobs.” (JMH)
Reflecting on copyright
Look both ways before crossing
Copyright and privacy will likely be the two major European Commission issues affecting the media sector this year. In fact, the two are tied tightly and inextricably. As an intellectual exercise, it will be as frustrating as herding cats.
Last October the EC offered a ‘reflection’ on various aspects of copyright, needs and wants authored jointly by DG Info Society and DG Internal Markets. At the very outset, in the introduction’s first sentence, the EC stumbled, saying, “Copyright is the basis for creativity.” Explain that to Shakespeare or Mozart; neither benefited from copyright law. Today they’d be mere servants of Rupert Murdoch.
Fortunately, the bulk of the ‘Reflection Document’ is delicately crafted to avoid either confusion or great controversy. The EC is both defender and definer of the European single market. Harmonizing copyright law, one of the major talking points, has certain appeal. The digital transformation of the creative content marketplace, then, gives it a reason to take on the complicated and contentious task.
Stakeholders were invited to comment, deadline January 5th. Those comments offer a range of opinions. Association of Commercial Television Europe (ACT) director general Ross Biggam, for example, argues for a ‘go-slow’ approach.
“Our experience is that existing copyright regimes have proved quite adaptable to the new media environment,” said Biggam in the ACT statement (See full release here). The current rights licensing system is based on long standing commercial practices, jurisprudence and international, European and national regulation. We do not regard the fact that some negotiations have broken down as anything other than a normal commercial reality and it certainly does not in itself justify a complete overhaul of the copyright framework. This is a matter for negotiation, not for legislation.” (JMH)
You Think Your Newspaper Subscription Is High?
The New Year is always a good excuse for raising prices and Swiss newspapers are no exception. They are really buying into the strategy that dependence on advertising revenues is a broken business model and readers themselves need to shoulder more of the cost.
So, apart from higher newsstand prices up go subscription costs as well. For example, a one-year subscription to tabloid Le Matin and 24 Heures in the French speaking part of the country will now set you back 389 Swiss francs – about $380 or put another way, around $32 a month.
The country’s most prestigious newspaper, the German language Neue Zürcher Zeitung will now set you back 512 Swiss francs annually – yes, some $40 a month. month.
So what’s the difference between paying some $40 a month for NZZ and some $50 a month for the New York Times? With NZZ your dog can still clutch the paper between its teeth and deliver it to you in bed whereas with the NYT it takes a couple of power hands to bring the Sunday edition in the house.
Super Bowl and Olympics Struggling To Fill Ad Inventory
Pepsi has let loose a bombshell with its announcement that for the first time in 23 years it won’t be advertising in the February 7 Super Bowl, Pepsico saying it has better use for the $20 million or so for other ad platforms. Fed Ex also absolutely, positively will not be advertising, either.
CBS says it has about four spots left in its Super Bowl inventory asking for each 30-second ad close to $3 million, but to get that kind of money its sales folks are real busy packaging deals that include the pre-game and post-game shows at hefty discounts.
And the International Olympic Committee will be watching NBC’s fortunes at the Vancouver Winter Olympics that starts February 12 and runs for 17 days. Word is that NBC is asking for less than it got for 30-second spots in the 2006 Beijing Summer Olympic Games because of the much worse advertising economy, and the network is said to be looking at an overall loss of some $200 million on its $820 million rights investment.
That’s why the International Olympic Committee is delaying for as long as possible the US rights auction for the 2014 Winter Games in Russia and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, hoping the advertising economy will recover enough for US networks such as NBC and probably ESPN to make decent bids.
Live sports have always been ratings winners – the 2014 Games will be prime time tape but Rio is just one hour ahead of Eastern time so that should allow a lot of live primetime there. But big advertisers have been walking away from the big-ticket items, seeing far more value with various digital campaigns, and so networks trying to get some $500,000 to $800,000 per Olympics spot four years down the road as in the past may find those figures to be yet another Olympic dream.
Radio host murdered in shootout
Wouldn’t stop writing
Bullets finally took the life of controversial radio show host and journalist Bobby (Boris) Tsankov in front of his lawyer’s office in Sofia. (January 5). Police say two men opened fire on Tsankov, his lawyer and a bodyguard. Tsankov was struck several times and died on the scene.
Apparently the bodyguard got off several shots because hours later two men appeared at a Sofia hospital with gunshot wounds. The lawyer and bodyguard were also shot. The shooting took place about 1230 local time. By late afternoon several reputedly well-known crime figures had been arrested.
Last November Tsankov was confronted by local drug-dealer Stefan Bonev, also known as The Jacket, according to Darik News. Bonev warned Tsankov to “stop writing” about a local mobster. Bonev was arrested but later released.
Tsankov was 31 years old. Over the years he appeared on Radio +, Radio 7 and others. He recently wrote a ‘tell-all’ book about the Bulgarian underworld. He survived a bombing in 2006 and a shooting in 2004.
Tsankov's exploits - colorful, to say the least - would make a great movie if somebody were brave enough to write it. (JMH)
Farewell Editor & Publisher
They put the final print edition to bed Monday afternoon and then cleaned out their desk drawers – Editor & Publisher, the bible of the American newspaper industry for 125 years, then closed its doors. There is some hope that a deal to buy the trade magazine from Nielsen & Company might come about in a couple of weeks, but that hope plus $1 right now buys half a cup of coffee.
The headline on its web site gave some hope – 'E&P' Suspends Operations--Good Chance for Return – but in the meantime the web site will remain without updates, the final print edition will be mailed out next week.
And American journalism will be much poorer for the loss.
Tiger Not Faring Too Well In The Woods
How fast the mighty can fall. Since that Thanksgiving car accident when Tiger Woods backed out of his driveway into a fire hydrant at 2:30 in the morning, the double-digit number of women (last count was around 17) who have since come forward saying they had relationships with him that a married guy shouldn’t have, his dropping out of golf for the foreseeable future, the loss of major sponsors, Accenture and AT&T with even Gillette throwing in the shaving towel at least temporarily, now comes the really cruel blow – he has lost his monthly column in Golf Digest.
January Magazine Ad Pages Disappointing
The popular advertising feeling seems to be good riddance to 2009, that 2010 will be pretty stable, perhaps a bit better towards the end of the year, and the hats really come off for 2011. So even though bad news is expected to continue for a while it still hits nerves with the news that ad pages in US monthly magazines for January have come in pretty dismal – falling some 7.7% over January of last year.
The Media Industry Newsletter says it tracked 115 monthlies and 54% had less ad pages than last year. About 26% saw reductions of more than 20% and that has to hurt.
Mind you, there are some out there who figure that all things considered maybe that 7.7% drop is a sign of good things to come. How come? Because the Publishers Information Bureau says ad pages for the first nine months of last year declined by 27%, so compared with that a 7.7% drop is positive news, at least to those willing to grasp at any straw out there.
Iran be jammin’
Pickin’ up the dishes
Somebody in Iran is jamming satellite signals from several international broadcasters. Viewers of the BBC, Voice of America (VOA) and German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) are finding scrambled eggs instead of regular programming.
In early December DW’s signal was disrupted, reported French monitor Agence Nationale des Frequences quoted by Der Spiegle, by jamming from an uplink located near Tehran. BBC and VOA continue to be disrupted. Signals from the HotBird satellite with a footprint over Iran seem to be targeted.
According to blogger Persian2English (January 2), quoting Human Rights Activist News Agency, authorities in Golesant province have gone house-to-house confiscating satellite dishes and receivers. (JMH)
Dr. House Leads TV Ratings…Again
Primetime prescription
American exports continue to lead French television ratings, to the benefit of TF1. Of the top 100 shows by Médiamétrie ratings for 2009 TF1 broadcast 96. Of the top 50, 38 were American exports; Dr. House, CSI Manhattan, et.al. The March 25th episode of Dr. House topped the French charts with 10.2 million viewers.
TF1’s audience share, evaluated by Médiamétrie, keeps dropping. More channels means more challenges. Audience share as of December 27th was 26.1%, down 1.1% from 2008. There’s good news: it’s better than the 3,5% loss over 2007. TF1 still leads the French primetime ratings. (JMH)
Safe room saves Danish cartoonist
Terrorist invades home with axe
A Danish cartoonist whose depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005 sparked outrage among both Muslims and free speech advocates took refuge in a safe room when his home was attacked (January 1) by a Somali man linked to a terrorist organization, reported major news organizations.
Kurt Westergaard was one of 12 cartoonists commissioned by Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten editor Flemming Rose to illustrate free speech. His drawing, published by several newspapers, famously showed a male figure with a nuclear bomb. (See background here) Islam prohibits all visual interpretations of the Prophet Mohammed. Thereafter, Islamic organizations offered $1 million bounty to whoever killed Westergaard.
Danish police identified the attacker as a 27 or 28 year old Somali man who entered Westergaard’s fortified house by breaking a window. Westergaard, who is 74, and his 5 year old granddaughter fled to a safe room and alerted police. The attacker attempted to break into the safe room with an axe. Police shot and superficially injured the man. He was arrested for attempted murder. (JMH)
Fill time with news
absorbing
As Spain’s public television broadcaster TVE becomes ad-free among the serious questions is what to do with all of those minutes once occupied with commercials. (See more about ad-free RTVE here) The plan, according to El Mundo (December 31), is to fill the time with news.
TVE newscasts on main news channel La1 are being lengthened, a late night news program added as well as a sports news show. “Most anticipated,” says El Mundo, is 'Un país para comérselo’ (literally 'A Country for Eating'), mixing a travelogue with gastronomy. Another new show highlights the hometowns of well-known Spanish celebrities.
Like many public broadcasters, TVE is going through a major shift in financing. The cut in advertising is estimated to cost the broadcaster about €500 million, much of which commercial and regional broadcasters want to absorb. (JMH)
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