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Digital Up and Digital Down
Good news and not…
The digital radio realm has felt the pain from the economic downturn, perhaps more than the rest of the broadcast sector. Investment – from broadcasters program output to new infrastructure projects – essentially ground to a halt when money got tight. There are – and I hate this expression – “green shoots.” There are also rather brown ones.
Switzerland’s Markus Ruoss, digital consultant to the broadcasting stars, is leading a consortium of local broadcasters in HD Radio development. The five stations involved announced they will have the digital FM alternative on the air in September. (Read release here)
The Swiss broadcast regulator OFCOM and the Federal Council have taken a progressive attitude toward digital development. For all practical purposes, they say: “Try it. See what happens.”
Meanwhile, UK media consultant Grant Goddard has analyzed radio listening figures for the DAB platform in the UK. (Read here in graphic detail) It seems that those who tuned into DAB digital radio in the UK prior to 2007 have started pulling the plug. Goddard suspects – and he’s not alone – BBC Audio and Music director Tim Davie will also be pulling the plug on BBC digital channels. (JMH)
Kiss FM Brand Hot
Morning shows battle and win
The ratings battle in Romania’s radio market notched up with two pop music stations gaining listeners. In the September-December 2009 IMAS / Mercury national audience survey, released February 8, Kiss FM jumped to first place and newcomer Radio ZU reached fourth place.
Kiss FM scored 15.1% market share, up from 14.1% year on year. Public radio news and information channel Romania Actualitati placed second, 14.5% down from 16.1%. Adult contemporary Europa FM fell to 3rd place, 13.4% market share from 15.1%. (See Romania national audience chart here)
Radio ZU, on the air barely a year, has focused its branding on morning show Buzdugan and Morar, appropriated from Radio 21. Radio ZU posted 11.5% market share, persons 11 years and older. Radio 21 fell the most of all rated stations, down to 6.0% from 11.1% one year on.
Public broadcaster channels suffered market share losses. In addition to Romania Actualitati, Antena Salator dropped to 3.5% from 4.3% and Romania Culture fell to 0.3%.
InfoPro, owned by CME, was one of two other gainers, rising to 2.4% from 2.0% one year on. Sister station Pro FM fell to 5.6% from 6.3%. Magic FM rose to 2.6% from 1.8%.
Names have always been a not insignificant part of station branding. The name has to fit the product, of course. Several years ago I wrote a long piece on the Kiss radio brand name. (See here) The name certainly holds up. (JMH)
Do You Remember When It Was The Manchester Guardian?
The UK national we know today as The Guardian actually used to be the Manchester Guardian but since it had national distribution it was felt back in 1959 the name should be changed to just The Guardian, and 11 years later the newspaper moved to London. But there was always that Manchester heritage which dates back to 1821 and in recent years that newspaper heritage was represented by the Guardian Newspapers owning regional newspapers including the Manchester Evening News. But come March 28 that era ends.
Guardian Media is selling its 32 regional newspapers to Trinity Mirror, Britain’s largest regional newspaper group, at what sounds like an awfully cheap £44.8 million, especially when only £7.4 million in cash changes hands with the other £37.4 million coming from Trinity Mirror letting Guardian Media out of a printing contract. Guardian Media will still have a Manchester presence of sorts -- its Channel M local TV station was not part of the deal.
ftm readers will recall that the Manchester Evening News started an interesting experiment in 2006 with a hybrid distribution system – give away copies free downtown where it had little circulation but continue charging in the suburbs where it had the bulk of sales. There have been plenty of twists and turns since, the most recent to cut back on free copies by 75% on Monday-Wednesday while keeping to its current 80,000 free issues on the top advertising days – Thursday and Friday – but the system never really generated the revenues management had expected. No word yet from Trinity Mirror whether it will continue that hybrid system.
So why did Guardian Media sell? Read through all the quotes and it would appear the regionals were just too much of a financial drain and overwhelmingly now the goal now is to concentrate on protecting financially The Guardian.
That Hurts!
It’s not bad enough that your publication gets sold and you’re told you are no longer the editor and goodbye, but then a few weeks later you see that same magazine is sending emails urging subscription renewals and whose sign-off is on the email – why yours, of course!
But that’s exactly what former Editor & Publisher editor Greg Mitchel says is going on (he has his own E&P In Exile site) where he wrote, “Now, I could object on several grounds, but added to that, what about making me look bad as a writer? Consider the closing line: ‘We look forward to continuing your service to Editor & Publisher.’ Now that's really going too far.”
Not All Is Well In Murdochland -- Brad, Angelina Sue News Of The World
Remember that world exclusive a couple of weeks back in The News of the World, Murdoch’s tabloid that has the UK’s highest Sunday circulation near 3 million, that alleged that Brad and Angelina were splitting? Well, they say that report was based on private decuments for which truth is no defense, and besides, they say, the story wasn’t true. So they’ve hired a leading UK libel law firm and they’re suing. The original story is no longer on the newspaper’s web site.
Keith Schilling, Brad and Angelina’s lawyer, says that if private information is misused (i.e: is printed in a newspaper without permission) the very fact it gets so misused is a violation of British law and it doesn’t even matter if the information was true. But lest such an explanation might make people think there was something to the original story the lawyer added, “we can confirm unequivocally, and upon instructions” that the published account of the break-up was not true.
The News of the world story was picked up by media globally. See background here.
Government ad campaigns cut
Less for healthy habits
The Spanish government is cutting by one-eighth its institutional advertising and communications budget, reported El Mundo (February 5). The Advertising and Communication Plan, approved last week, will cut to informational campaigns to 114. The total budget is now €130.9 million.
Many governments – most, in fact – spend substantial amounts for campaigns promoting culture, citizenship, environmental awareness and healthy habits. In some countries, government is a top 5 major advertiser. (JMH)
Dissing the Winter Olympics
Think: curling
More often than not, television channels without Olympic Games rights fall back on inexpensive programming during those weeks. Viewers just aren’t there, right?
Sweden’s TV4, without Winter Olympic Games rights, is selling itself with new station promos reminding viewers that some Olympic sports have few thrilling moments. The three rotating promos focus on biathlon, cross-country skiing and, yes, curling. (See them via Dagensmedia.se)
The on-air promos are supported with print ads. The tag line, roughly translated, is “the real excitement is on TV4.” Public broadcaster SVT has rights to the Vancouver Winter Olympics. (JMH)
TV ad spending rises
Congestion?
Television ad spending – gross bookings, at least – rose in January 23% over the same month last year for Poland’s four top channels, reports AGB Nielsen Media, quoted in Gazeta Prawna (February 5).
According to the data released, TVN led with PZL 131.7 million, up 17.5%, followed by Polsat – 121.6 million, up 19%. Polish public channels booked the biggest increases; 118.6 million (up 35%) for TVP1 and 73 million (up 20%) for TVP2. (See Poland market data here)
“Congestion for our advertisers grows from week to week,” complained a media buyer at Starlink, quoted in the article. “Ad prices have risen.”
“The market revived,” said another ad buyer. (JMH)
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