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MTG halts IPTV project
“prevailing economics”
MTG has “mothballed” its IPTV project Viaplay, says Dagens Media (March 12). Quoting MTG Online CEO Anders Nilsson, there’s “no decision on the future” but “prevailing economic circumstances” brought the pay-TV project to a halt.
Viaplay employed about 30 people and MTG put €2.8 million in the project last year. (JMH)
Last FM in Moscow
use it or lose it
Prof-Media Broadcasting has taken over “the last FM frequency in Moscow,” reported Kommersant (March 12). The new station at 90.0 FM will be called Voyage FM.
The license for the 90.0 FM frequency is owned by Mood Network owner Oleg Chaminym. He will receive a percentage of the stations revenue, according to Prof-Media Broadcasting President Alexander Varin, quoted in Kommersant. Chaminym launched Travel Caravan FM in 2007 and Youth Radio UFM in 2008. The former becomes Voyage FM and the later was sold to Alexander Lebedev late last year.
"Prof-Media acts as a contractor to create a program policy and the sale of advertising opportunities for the station,” said Varin. “The new station will allow us to increase our radio market share.” The Voyage FM will target 20 to 50 year olds with a mostly music format. Prof-Media owns or operates four other radio stations in Moscow, several networked throughout Russia: NRG, Avtoradio, Humor FM and Alla. (Read more on Avtoradio here)
New FM frequencies in Moscow were apparently closed by regulators in April 2007 after several stations were launched. If a newly licensed station does not take to the air within a year, the regulator can revoke the license and offer it to new bidders.
“Before the crisis, radio frequencies were valued rather high,” said Russian Radio Academy’s Michael Adelman. “The radio advertising market grew by 20-25% or more annually. Now the market is falling,"
Holders of dark or dimming radio licenses benefit by “cooperation with broadcasters, avoiding license revocation and receiving a stable income," said Adelman. (JMH)
Baltic tigers caged in Q4
ad spending up for radio, outdoor and Web
TNS Emor released (March 11) the final verdict on 2008 ad spending in Estonia. In total the result was down 3% from 2007. The report notes ad spending was actually tracking higher until Q4. (See TNS Emor release here) Newspapers and magazines took the biggest hit while advertising on radio, outdoor and the Web increased.
Also noted, 2008 ad spending was up in neighboring Latvia (3%) and Lithuania (9%).
P&G was Estonia's biggest advertiser in 2008. (JMH)
Yes, It Still Happens
The UK’s Independent the other day ran a long story on an inside page about the “Swiss Gigolo” who seduced and blackmailed the heiress to the BMW fortune in Germany. Now you get just one guess, and one guess only, which German automobile advertisement appeared at the bottom half of that page!
US Air Force Likes Newspapers!
Stars And Stripes reports that the US Air Force in Asia misses its printed base newspapers and the commanding general for the region has ordered them back.
Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Howie Chandler ordered a return to print editions after touring air bases. "We discovered a drawback to discontinuing base papers is the challenge of getting news and information to our family members and those who do not have routine access to a computer," Maj. Kenneth Hoffman, a PACAF spokesman in Hawaii, said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. "As a quality of life issue, Gen. Chandler decided re-establishing base papers was the right thing to do."
The newspaper said that the Air Force in 2006 told bases to quit printing service-funded newspapers, partly to cut costs but also because it said there was declining newspaper readership and more reliance on the Internet for news and information and that thereafter only the Web would be used.
But it did allow an out by letting base commanders to continue base newspapers through "civilian enterprise" contracts that shift publication costs to a contractor in exchange for advertising revenue.
Eurovision rules on Georgia song lyrics
Try a little tenderness
The Eurovision Song Contest directors and the EBU have steadfastly kept overtly political messages out of the songs and performances. Almost anything else is OK but no politics.
The Georgian public broadcaster selected its representative, as all are free to do, a few weeks ago. The Georgians were no doubt pleased with themselves at selecting a song with a less than subtle dig at Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin. Mr. Putin is a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be hosted in Moscow. He even suggested he might vote for the UK song out of sympathy.
The Eurovision directors were not amused and informed (March 10) the Georgian public broadcaster to either re-write the lyrics or choose a new song. (Read the Eurovision statement here)
It's 8 weeks before the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. (JMH)
Murdoch Still Buying Suburban Newspapers …
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has bought The Brooklyn Newspaper for an unnamed price – News Corp seems to have a thing about the New York City borough for in 2006 it bought two Brooklyn newspaper groups, The Times Ledger and the Courier-Life -- in all 12 newspapers -- and at that time it was said that purchase would enable ad convergence with his New York Post which was weak in the suburbs. Whether that has actually been a successful tactic is not known, but certainly News Corp. seems to have a thing about Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn Newspaper is said to have been having financial difficulties of late with rumors abounding that it could close, so no doubt News Corp struck a good bargain – the question many will ask, however, is that in this environment is any newspaper sale a “good bargain”?
…While Axel Springer Sells More Regionals
Axel Springer, the German media giant that in February announced it was selling its stakes in four regional newspapers, has now announced it is selling its stakes in two more regional newspapers.
Springer says it sees its future in online -- further developing its own brands plus buying new online businesses -- and its two national daily newspapers – Bild with the largest daily circulation in Europe of some 4 million, and Die Welt. It still has stakes in two more regional newspapers in the Hamburg area which it says it is keeping, for now at least.
Digital radio delayed
From big bang to whimper
Australian public broadcaster ABC confirmed (March 4) it will not make the planned May 1st launch of digital radio. Government funding delays have affected equipment orders for both public broadcasters, ABC and SBS. Events planned around the long anticipated and oft delayed launch have been postponed until August 6th.
Commercial stations will begin flooding the airwaves with digital signals in April in Perth, continuing through May in Sydney. The Australian government has mandated the new digital stations be on the air by July 1st. Very few details of the new DAB+ channels have been leaked as broadcasters try to manage the marketing impact. Most are expected to be all-music channels. ABC has indicated it will offer an all-sports channel.
About a dozen receiver models are expected to be available at prices starting at €100 (AU$199). (JMH)
Russians choose Ukrainian singer for Eurovision
Wait! There’s more.
Singer Anastasia Prikhodko was chosen (March 8) to represent Russia by tele-vote (25%) and, borrowing new Eurovision Song Contest rules, six out of ten from the professional jury during the Channel One broadcast. Anastasia is from Ukraine. Matter of fact, she had been disqualified for selection to represent Ukraine. Russia has never selected a foreigner for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Ukraine also selected their representative, singer Svetlana Loboda, the same night but not on the same show. Both programs were broadcast on International Women’s Day, national holidays in both Russia and Ukraine.
Anastasia automatically moves to the Eurovision Song Contest finals, all of which will be broadcast around the world May 14th to 16th, as Russia’s 2008 entry won. Because of the win Russia’s Channel One is hosting the broadcast in Moscow. (More on the Eurovision Song Contest here)
Anastasia’s winning song, “Mamo,” written by a Georgian and Estonian, was performed in Russian and Ukrainian. (JMH)
IOC Delays For “Some Time” Rights Bids For 2016 Summer Games
We’ve been saying for some time that above all the Olympic movement is truly one great big business involving billions of dollars in TV rights fees. Now normally the bidding for the 2014 Winter Games hosted in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, and the 2016 games – site still to be determined – would be over by now, but as we all know these are not normal times.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) understands very well how the world’s economy is tanking. And more specifically, it understands that the US television business – at network and at local level – is being nailed with auto industry advertising, for instance, down by more than 30%. So, is this the time to be expecting big bids for those Games? Obviously not!
And it is a pretty much an open secret that if Chicago is the chosen 2016 Olympic host – the decion is to be taken in October this year, then the US TV bids will probably be much higher than if the Games are held in a time zone unfriendly to US prime time viewing, but can’t you just picture the beach volleyball on the Copacabana?
While the IOC welcomes bids from everyone – and it is said that Disney’s ESPN is looking at getting serious with a bid – the fact is the IOC has a really cozy relationship with NBC. But NBC has some problems – if it eked out a profit on the Beijing Games, for which it paid $894 million, then it wasn’t much more than petty cash, and NBC’s parent, General Electric, has seen its share price tumble this year – it rose more than 4% Monday but its closing price was still only $7.41. So it may well be that GE/NBC need time for the markets, and the television business in general, to get somewhat back to normal before they can offer the kind of bid that the IOC expects, and the IOC recognizing that has therefore postponed the bidding process for “some time”, according to NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol.
Since the 2016 site won’t be selected until October, it’s a good bet (should we use that word when talking about the Olympics?) the rights bidding process won’t begin until after then. From a business point of view, if the US TV networks, which pay the highest rights fee, have let it be known they would pay more for an American hosted site then do you think Chicago might be the favorite, or you don’t think the IOC takes such business considerations into account?
Pirate Radio With A Difference
When a European hears about pirate radio stations it is usually some music station that has set up without a license and indeed the most famous was Radio Caroline which literally took up ship in 1964 and has been on the air ever since although today it is a satellite and Internet delivered service. But in America, as we all know, they do things differently.
Thus police in Orlando, Florida have closed down a pirate radio station -- it called itself “Street Heat” -- that gave public broadcasting a whole new meaning, for it allegedly told the public where to buy drugs, where to find prostitutes, and it also gave out handy information for gang members.
The sheriff’s department and the Federal Communication Commission didn’t find that so cool, they traced signals to an antenna hidden in a tree, followed a cable from the antenna to the bedroom of a nearby residence that had no license to broadcast, got a search warrant, SWAT moved in, found two guys in the home, and also, allegedly, enough cannabis for a serious charge of possession with intent to sell. Oh yes, the station is now off the air.
Big Brother battles the websites
publishers claim right to report and review
Video clips are all the rage for website publishers. Website visitors, apparently, love them, too. Video pops up on all sorts of websites, not only YouTube. And copyright holders keep running to the courts. (More on recent copyright infringement cases here)
Corriere della Sera, Italy’s biggest daily newspaper, has a Web edition, corriere.it. As a general interest publication the Web edition reviews Italian television programs. And, being affixed to the 21st century, the website uses short video clips as illustration.
Mediaset was so unhappy about this it took Corriere della Sera’s owner, RCS Mediagroup, to court asking that the clips be removed from the website as copyright violations. The Tribunale di Milano gave its decision (March 4) and both sides claimed victory.
Mediaset demanded that the 59 video clips of programs broadcast on Canale 5 and Italia 1, including clips from Big Brother episodes, and posted on the Corriere della Sera website must be removed because permission had not been granted, thus copyrights infringed. RCS Mediagroup argued that, as a publisher, it has the right to use the video clips as illustrations in reviews and critiques of television programs. Judge Stefano Rosa decided Corriere della Sera has the right to review television programs and use short clips of video as illustration but the Big Brother clips had to go. Big Brother, he observed, is a ‘show’ and not ‘news.’ Mediaset owns Big Brother producer and marketer Endemol.
Italian law grants, explicitly, the ‘fair use’ right to excerpt (LDA art. 65): “The reproduction or communication to the public of protected works or materials used in connection with current events is permitted to exercise the right to record and to the extent of information purposes, provided that the source, except in cases that is impossible, including the author's name, if given.”
Mediaset, principally owned by the family of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, vowed to continue the fight against websites, which one Italian commentator described as a ‘fatwa.’ Last summer Mediaset filed a €500 million lawsuit against YouTube. (JMH)
TV viewing trend reverses
One minute more
Hungarians spent a minute more per day in front of the TV in 2008, says AGB Nielsen Media Research, reported by Mediainfo.hu (March 6). TV viewing declined between 2004 and 2007 despite more available channels. Hungarians four years old and older watched 260 minutes per day in 2008, compared with 259 minutes in 2007. (More on media in Hungary here)
The increase was bigger among 14 to 49 year olds, to 220 minutes from 216 one year on. (JMH)
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