|
It seems nobody has told the Wall Street Journal’s marketing department that Rupert Murdoch intends to make the site free to all. The Journal has been sending out emails this week telling prospects “It’s Not Too Late to Give a WSJ.com Gift Subscription”
No sooner does Axel Springer sell its 12% stake in ProSiebenatSat for some €509.4 million ($747 million) and building up its war chest for digital investments than Bertelsmann’s new chief executive says he is ready to spend some €7 billion ($10.28 billion) over the next five years in education and service businesses and also the Internet. Should be an interesting time in Germany’s media world next year.
ITV, the UK’s largest terrestrial commercial network, says it will earn more than £200 million (€278 million, $400 million) from its digital TV channels this year, a 32% improvement over 2006. And its ITV2 actually beat the terrestrial channel 5 in the 16-34 demographic for a full calendar month in September, the first time it has achieved that. A sign of things to come?
Mr. Scrooge is alive and well and works at the BBC. Here’s an email just sent to staff at the BBC’s regional center in Bristol: “Dear All, If you will be going away for an extended break over Christmas/New Year, please can you let me know your contact details so that we can ensure that you are sent any redundancy update information. Many thanks."
Union officials have called the email “insensitive.”
The BBC’s response: “"Of course if the email caused offence then we are sorry, but we know that many of our staff want to be kept up to date with developments, even if they are on leave."
Bah Humbug!
EuroNews has announced it is adding Arabic next year to its stable of English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish audio tracks for the same video.
The station says it has good viewewship in the Arab world to its English and French language tracks, but Arabic should add to those numbers. The new service is being funded by a grant from the EU.
The BBC is to start up an Arabic language all news TV service in 2008. Russia Today started its Arabic service earlier this year..
A recent study by Arab Advisors Group showed there were of 29 “news and current affairs” channels broadcasting to the Middle East, nearly all in Arabic.
After just a short time with the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency overseeing US international broadcasting, James K. Glassman will be named undersecretary of state for public diplomacy by US President George W. Bush this Friday (December 14), according to the Associated Press. (Read ftm interview with Jim Glassman here) (JMH)
It was 1100 CET (0500EST) and having heard on the radio of bombings in Algiers FTM switched on CNN International to see what was going on. But instead of a newscast there was just a minute or so of old headlines, absolutely nothing about Algiers, and then it was onto yet another repeat of the network’s interview with the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Switch to BBC World, and they’re all over Algiers, their strap line is quoting Reuters saying there are large numbers of dead and injured, and they are talking live on-air to someone in Algiers.
Makes one question how there could be so much difference in starting up on the day’s biggest story. Could it be that BBC subscribes to more news agency sources than does CNN? As a viewer it seems we get what the news network pays for.
Companies like to clear up their messes by year-end, so Axel Springer has cleared its German TV decks by selling its 12% holding in ProSiebenSat. It is probably the clearest signal yet that Axel Springer sees its future in the online digital world, and no longer in domestic German TV.
The ProSieben situation wasn’t exactly of Springer’s own making. It had offered €2.5 billion in 2005 to buy out ProSiebenSat only for the German regulator to block the deal because it said Springer would then control too much of German advertising. Thus the dream to compete in broadcasting against Bertelsmann was dashed. And it would have been a great financial deal if it had gone forward. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Permira together eventually paid €3.1 billion just for a 50.5% majority holding.
Springer has sat on its 12% stake that it built during its bid to buy the company, and with a German court ruling recently that the Cartel Office’s blockage of the original deal should be reviewed, there was some thought that Springer might try somehow to flex its minority shareholding muscles, perhaps launching legal action over the ownership which could be unsettling to the current owners. Instead Springer has sold out to the majority holders for €509.4 million ($747 million), a 7% premium to where the shares had stood the night before. And Springer management also said they were not interested in buying Premiere, a pay TV provider as had previously been speculated, so it would seem Springer’s dream of a German TV empire are no more.
But it still does dream of a digital online empire, and its revenues this year have been boosted from online properties with Q3 up 47% over a year ago. The ProSiebenSat sale gives it a neat war chest for future online buys.
Calling Mrs Reding
…telecoms on ‘hold’ – for the moment…
EC Commissioner for Info Society and Media Mrs. Viviane Reding took a break from terrorizing telecoms last week to speak with publishers at the annual Publishers’ Forum in Brussels (December 6). Her speech ranged from copyright issues to journalism. Publishers’ response seemed rather subdued. (Read ENPA statement here)
“Copyright is a cornerstone of the information and knowledge-based society,” said Mrs Reding. And then she announced plans to push through new rules on digital publishing copyrights.
But she zinged publishers for living in the last century, warning them not to forget the cross-border dimension of online publishing. “It seems the convergent European publisher has not been born yet,” she added.
Broadcasters are still bitter, and ‘baffled,’ at Mrs. Reding’s support for the DVB-H mobile broadcast standard. But WorldDMB has found a silver-lining, they say. (Read WorldDMB release here).
By the end of last week, Mrs. Reding’s spokesperson Martin Selmayr confirmed full Commission hearings (Tuesday, December 11) on possible legal action against Italy for too many TV ads. (JMH)
The folks at Reuters Media needed some holiday cheer (in addition to their bonuses) after being dumped unceremoniously a couple of months back from CNN, but the Ho Ho Ho now comes from its leading-edge business news deal with the International Herald Tribune (IHT) that has an added non-financial bonus of hurting archrival Bloomberg.
Financials have not been disclosed for this additional relationship but it could well involve just sharing advertising revenues which Reuters says marks a new business model. For traditional media, perhaps, but when Reuters started selling to online sites sharing advertising revenues was a major part of that original business plan. That didn’t work out too well because the web sites whenever they could placed ads on pages not covered by the Reuters agreement although surely the IHT would not dream of doing likewise with its print edition!
Reuters’ negotiations with the IHT have never been easy. Some 15 years ago the Reuters negotiators were stunned in an opening round of negotiations when the then IHT editor, a former AP executive, asked, quite seriously, “How much is Reuters going to pay the IHT for daily billboarding your stories to the rest of the world?” What he meant in great earnest was that Reuters received a lot of branding from its stories run on the front page of the IHT and the IHT figured that branding deserved remuneration. It didn’t happen then, but perhaps a sign of things to come?
Under the new pact that goes into effect in January the IHT and Reuters will collaborate in producing the daily business section of the IHT’s print edition, something the IHT has done for the past five years with Bloomberg. The two will also produce a new joint online site for business and economic information.
The obvious carrot for Reuters in such a deal, probably made on the most attractive terms the IHT could extract because at the end of the day it could have just renewed with Bloomberg and that is a pretty big stick for the IHT to wave, is that if this works out okay there is the hoped-for opportunity to increase the business relationship in New York with the IHT’s owner, the New York Times Company. Wonder if the NYT offered the same carrot to Bloomberg five years ago?
The IHT will continue to pay, via the subscription model, for other services it receives from Reuters.
As mentioned above, CNN no longer pays the millions of dollars it once did for Reuters services but that doesn’t stop the cable network continuing to quote the news agency. On Monday anchor Jim Clancy gushed the breaking news just coming in that Reuters was saying that Conrad Black has been sentenced from 6 ½ years to 8 years in prison. Little problem there – Reuters was wrong and that means so was CNN.
What had actually happened was the judge told Black that according to the sentencing guidelines she was going to use he could get between 6 ½ years and 8 years in prison. That appeared on the Reuters site, apparently, as the actual sentence so CNN quoted Reuters saying it was so. The actual 6 ½ year sentence plus $6 million fine wasn’t handed down until much later after the judge heard from the prosecution and defense.
Immediately hearing Clancy’s breaking news FTM did a Google and Yahoo news search but couldn’t find any other report on Black’s sentencing. So it then went to reuters.com and there was a red bar at the top of the site with “corrected” breaking news but still saying that Black had been sentenced from 6 ½ to 8 years, sourced to the judge, so whatever the agency’s first report had said had been replaced but the correction still said he had been sentenced. Again FTM did a Google and Yahoo news search but could find no back-up report that the sentencing had actually occurred. Such exclusivity on such a story? The hairs began to curl.
About 20 minutes later and Clancy had to eat humble pie announcing to his global audience – that particular newscast goes out on both CNN domestic in the US and CNN International -- that a CNN producer was now saying that the judge had just given the parameters for what the sentence could be, but had not yet actually sentenced Black.
Well, if CNN was a paying Reuters client it could bitch a whole lot about that. But since they’re not, bah Humbug. CNN should have learned from this incident, however, that there is a reason why most credible international news outlets prefer to hold their breaking news until it is confirmed by at least two agencies.
In past breaking news situations since CNN dumped Reuters a couple of months back it has been quoting often the reuters.com web site. And it did this news break so quickly that it must mean they have the reuters.com home page up and constantly updating in Atlanta and elsewhere. Why pay for that news when it is on the web for free and often faster than their primary news provider, AP.
At least if they paid it would give them the right to complain!
Some call it close to a scandal, but BBC-TV personality Jonathon Ross earns some £18 million ($36 million, €26 million) over three years at a time that the BBC has announced that it is firing journalists as part of its cost-cutting measures.
So given that sensitivity, Ross hosted a comedy awards show Sunday night (on a rival network no less) and one of his “funny” lines was “I’m worth 1,000 BBC journalists.”
Apparently that wasn’t found so funny along the corridors of the many BBC buildings throughout the UK on Monday, with one senior union leader calling the remark “obscene”.
Broadcast journalists in London average around £30,000 annually which means Ross’ annual salary equates to 200 of those jobs, and regional journalists earn an average of £15,000 which means his annual salary covers 400 of those journalists.
Does make one wonder for a public broadcaster such as the BBC whether the one personality or the hundreds of journalists deliver the most value for the money in these difficult financial times.
It seems newspapers aren’t considered such a good stock market investment in Italy, too. Il Sole 24, Italy’s leading business newspaper, placed 30% of the company on the Milan Stock Exchange last Thursday at €5.75 a share – the low end of a pricing range – and the shares have sunk 5% in their first three days, closing Monday at €5.47.
Bedsides holding onto 70% of the shares the owning Confindustria (employers’ group) ensured it would not have problems from major minority shareholders by limiting a 2% holding on any other shareholder. The company raised some €230 million from its stock market placing, and it has a €750 million capitalization.
Nibras Media bought format rights to the Eurovision Song Contest from EBU for the Middle East and North Africa. (Read Eurovision release here)
In recent years we've heard rumblings that ESC clones were 'in discussion' for the US and Africa but nothing has yet materialized. The Eurovision release did not mention a possible production date and no contact details for Nibras Media could be found.
Médiamétrie has a run-down of the TV results for the 2007 F1 racing season. How do you spell: L.E.W.I.S.H.A.M.I.L.T.O.N? (Read the Médiamétrie release here)
The season was a blessing to UK broadcaster ITV which reports a 40% audience increase over the 2006 season. The one-time 30 second spot rate was up 43% on ITV, to £39,000, according to Carat.
2007 was generally kind to sports on TV. (Read background here) All it takes, it seems, is a superstar or 15.(JMH)
EU and African leaders meeting in Lisbon have a broad agenda. Much media attention has been given up to the appearance of serial tyrant Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s leader and no friend of journalists. While much of the summit is intended to build economic cooperation, human rights and conflicts, notably in Somalia, are inescapable issues.
Solutions for Somalia are as distant today as they have been for years. And for media workers and journalists, the strain continues. United Nations human rights expert for Somalia Ghanim Alnajjar condemned an order expelling 24 journalists by authorities in the self-declared region of Somaliland.The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reiterated calls to Somalia’s government to protect media workers.
GBC TV and Radio Mogadishu owner Dalmar Yusuf Ghelle tells of continuing violence and harassment toward media workers. (Read his comments to ftm here)
VOA's Somali service has just doubled its programming. (Read VOA announcement here) (JMH)
|
