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More smartphone apps for radio
Brand apps
Norway’s public broadcaster NRK unveiled smartphone apps on three platforms simultaneously (January 14). Two apps are offered, one for NRK radio channels generally and one for P3, the youth-oriented channel. Both are available for the iPhone, Nokia and Android platforms. All are free to download.
“Most Norwegians have mobile phones and the use of media content on mobile phones only increases,” said NRK’s digital media director Leif-Kjartan Bjørsvik. “As a license-funded public broadcaster, our aim and commitment is to be where the audience is.
In addition to the radio channels, the NRK apps offer access to all NRK websites, podcasts and weather forecasts. And don’t forget Twitter and Facebook.
According to Bjørsvik, quoted in journalisten.no (January 14), work on the smartphone apps began only in November. The software was purchased from a third-party and not developed internally. “We wanted to make the most impact for the new service,” he said. Apparently not all systems are perfect and NRK will be upgrading the compression to AAC in the spring. But some things are quite clever; on the iPhone app users can listen to the radio channels and do other things by running the sound through the Safari browser.
There’s nothing really new about broadcasters – or anybody else – developing smartphone apps. They are the rage. Simultaneously releasing the apps on the three main platforms is unusual but, again, not unheard of. And, too, radio channels from Norway are available on several apps.
What’s notable is the public broadcaster offering specifically branded services. Public broadcasters have come under fire from newspaper publishers and private sector broadcasters for all new media ventures. Germany’s ARD got a lashing from publishers for an iPhone app. (See that story here) (JMH)
RTL/de Mol consolidate Dutch assets
oldies station for "aging" Netherlands
Dutch radio station Radio 10 Gold is now in the hands of RTL Netherlands, confirming rumors swirling through the Netherlands since the end of the last year. Talpa Media, owned by Endemol founder John de Mol, transferred the asset in early January.
In 2007 Talpa Media transferred its Dutch television channel Tien and radio station Radio 538 to RTL Netherlands. John de Mol’s company received a 26% stake in RTL Netherlands. Radio 10 Gold was not, then, part of the deal.
"Looking at an aging Netherlands, it is wonderful to enrich our portfolio with a (station) that has much growth potential as Radio 10 Gold,” said Radio 538 managing director Jan Willem Brüggenwirth.
RTL operates four television channels in the Netherlands. In addition to RTL 4 and RTL 5, Tien was renamed RTL 8 and Yorin was renamed RTL 7.
Talpa Media continues to own Radio100FM in Denmark. (JMH)
Public broadcasters name change denounced
iFret heard
Ah, yes, names have symbolic value. As such, the name change at Belgian-French public broadcaster RTBF to RTBF.be, announced this week (January 13), is designed to portray a broader shift in strategy. “It confirms the importance of all versions of the digital side of our work,” said RTBF general director Jean-Paul Philippot in a statement.
RTFB is reorganizing itself to "reach new audiences who are not yet (using) our media and the digital generation of under 30’s who consume media differently,” said the statement.
Predictably, newspaper publishers and private sector broadcasters, reportedly, called it all an “unacceptable distortion of competition.”
"The efforts of private publishers to find a new business model that could fund the pluralistic journalistic content and quality are devastated by this unfair competition sponsored by the government,” said an unsourced statement attributed to private sector media groups by Belga appearing in L’Express (January 13). Private sector broadcasters and publishers “demanded the suspension of the RTBF plan and urgent consultation with the government.”
Needless to say, private sector broadcasters and newspaper publishers are on edge every time a public broadcaster claims a bit more new media space. Call it iFret or iGroan. German public television network ARD recently began offering an iPhone app for its evening news program, causing an uproar among private sector broadcasters and publishers. (Read that story here)
Among the changes announced at RTBF – or now, RTBF.be – is renaming is new media department iRTBF. Apple certainly has made its impact. (JMH)
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Star With First Haiti News
Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook with their initial reports from Haiti once again showed the world that on really breaking news that’s where to go. Cable news networks across the globe scrambled to give all-day breaking news coverage, relying greatly on citizen journalists sending in their reports as they got their own people on the ground, but it was those 150 word Twitter notes that first told of the unfolding disaster and then showed it with mobile phone attachments. No question the news game has changed forever.
The BBC’s web site showed just how important third party reports have become, declaring at the top of its main Haiti news page, “Live coverage following the earthquake in Haiti. We will be bringing you news, insights from BBC correspondents, some of your e-mails and Twitter updates, and the best of the blogs.” And that is from a news organization with whom one had to pull teeth not so long ago before it would air a report by someone who was not one of its correspondents or stringers.
Haiti may be very poor with a telecommunication network to match, but the Twitter notes and mobile phone photos quickly came out. One of the first Twitter notes came from missionary Troy Livesay. “Just experienced a MAJOR earthquake here in Port au Prince - walls were falling down - we are ALL fine - pray for those in the slums. Most people are staying outside in our area - aftershocks are still continuing ... a neighbor was in a school that collapsed.” A hotel manager messaged, “'Just about all the lights are out in Port-au-Prince ... people still screaming but the noise is dying as darkness sets. Many large buildings nearby have collapsed ... people are bringing people by on stretchers ... Port-au-Prince is dark except for a few fires.” News agency editors always used to pump their reporters for the “color” to a story but you can’t get much better than that.
Video on YouTube and Facebook soon showed the grim scene – school girls dead or injured, their classmates begging for help, people walking aimlessly in the streets. Even the British Red Cross got in the media game, setting up a picture gallery on Flickr.
The Associated Press started its own Twitter feed and launched a Facebook page devoted exclusively to Haiti coverage. The ThomsonReuters Foundation’s AlertNet Web site, which was constructed years ago for just such an occasion to offer as much information as possible to humanitarian organizations went into overdrive.
The President of Haiti has said that the death toll is at least 30,000 and could well reach 100,000.
Poll Says Only 23% Of Americans Willing To Pay For Newspapers Online
A new poll says that only 23% of Americans are willing to pay for an online newspaper, and the vast majority of those said the price had to be less than $10 monthly with only 5% willing to pay more than $10.
The Adweek Media poll from Harris Interactive also says that only 43% of Americans read a daily newspaper – electronic or print – almost every day although 72% said they read a newspaper at least once a week, with 81% confessing to reading a newspaper at least once a month.
As with similar polls, older age groups showed much more preference for newspapers than did the new generations.
TV still teaches
First Channel bashed
The opening program of a series called “School” on Russian State TV First Channel, airing Monday (January 11), ruffled a few feathers. Let there be no doubt; TV can still do that. (See more on media in Russia here)
The show is not a documentary, said a First Channel spokesperson in a statement who ask critics to watch the entire series not “just the first 26 minutes and the promos.”
“This is a well-planned sabotage against our children and youth,” said Communist Party Member of the State Duma Vladislav Yurchik, quoted by Rai Novosti (January 13). "Millions of fathers and mothers are outraged… and await action by Parliament to protect and end this outrage." He didn’t like the show. Neither did the head of Moscow’s Department of Education Olga Larionova, according to Interfax (January 12). She’d rather see stories about “the best teachers in the city and their students.”
The series portrays school-life of 9th graders, a tough crowd anywhere, in a mix of reality TV and cinema verité. There’s swearing, smoking and hints of sex. Some teachers were less than flatteringly portrayed. Monday nights’ episode was directed by 25 year old award winning (Cannes) director Valeria Gai Germanika, known for stark treatments of the difficult lives of young people. (JMH)
SWITZERLAND IN 3D
With 3D televisions the rage at the electronics convention in Las Vegas last week, not to mention the success of Avatar, the Swiss government has taken to 3D, too, posting pictures of government ministers plus a slew of other pictures in 3D on the government’s information web site.
No 3D glasses? No problem, there’s an email link on the site – provide your address and they’ll send you a free pair.
Newspapers Decry Print Restrictions On Beijing Subway
For reasons best known to those who make policy a new rule says that only the free Beijing Star Daily can be made available within the Beijing subway system for “safety purpose”. And the Chinese media is not amused.
Thus these paragraphs that one might not have expected to see printed in China Daily: “How will the sale of newspapers affect ‘public safety’? Who has the rights to deprive the public of their right to get information? Do they have the right to ban newspapers in public places? All these questions need to be answered. Now I only want to talk about a key issue: why can the government close the door to all the newspapers and magazines except for the Beijing Star Daily? “
And the newspaper, picking up the commentary that first appeared in the Beijing Times, continued, “Newspapers sold in the subway should be either banned altogether or welcomed all at once. There is no reason to give privilege to only one newspaper. Then the ban on newspapers is a just monopoly: under the fierce competition, they want to ban all except their own newspaper with the use of power endowed by the public. No matter what reason they use to defend the monopoly, how can we allow the making of such irrational policies in Beijing?”
Yeah, all of that really appeared in Chinese newspapers!
Swift Boot At Arbitron
Company policy violated
A new year brings a new CEO to American measurement company Arbitron. President and CEO Michael Skarzynski resigned “abruptly,” said US media trade sources. Last January Stephen Morris, who had run Arbitron for eight years, was booted from the top job.
Arbitron has had a near monopoly on radio audience measurement in the United States for more than a generation. Under Morris the company developed and marketed a world-wide proprietary electronic measurement system known as the Personal People Meter – PPM. A changing tide in the American commercial radio business – read: near complete revenue collapse – made strategic changes necessary. (See more on Arbitron here)
Skarzynski arrived, unexpectedly, from a high-tech company rather than from broadcasting or advertising. His strategy – and presumably that of the Arbitron board – put a priority on marketing the PPM technology beyond that traditional radio and advertising client base. In short order many ‘radio dog’ Arbitron executives and staffers were dumped.
In its statement (January 11), the Arbitron board said Skarzynski’s departure had nothing to do with the company’s financial performance. That, as we’ve seen with the banking sector, is rarely reason to sack a CEO. It appears Skarzynski may have stretched the truth a bit in testimony to the US Congress. The Arbitron statement said Skyrzynski had “violated a company policy.”
Details on that will certainly become known over the next few days. A press call has been scheduled for later (US time) Tuesday (January 12). New York Congressman Edolphus Towns said, in a statement (January 11),he had “received information that the CEO of Arbitron, Michael Skarzynski, may have provided false testimony at a December 2, 2009 hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. As Chairman, I am committed to protecting the integrity of the Committee's proceedings, and will review this matter to determine whether the Committee was intentionally misled and whether further action is warranted.”
Congressman Towns’ committee questioned Mr. Skarzynski about technical aspects of Arbitron research methods, including the impact of minority sampling on broadcasters ratings.
Coincident to Mr. Skarzynski’s resignation, the US Media Ratings Council (MRC), an independent accrediting agency, declined to accredit PPM measurement for several market areas. (JMH)
In Canada, The Mighty Fall, Too
Canada’s largest media group, CanWest Global Communications, has put its newspaper business under bankruptcy court protection and the company says it will sell its 10 major city dailies such as the Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, and the Vancouver Sun as well as The National Post, the latter not included in the bankruptcy filing. All digital media and online operations are also covered joining CanWest’s Global Television Network that went under bankruptcy protection last October.
The major creditors are Canada’s five largest banks that have agreed to buy the newspapers, but CanWest has hired advisers to see if a higher price can’t be found elsewhere. In this buyer’s market that’s a tall order.
CanWest also owns 18 specialty TV channels that are not covered by the bankruptcy protection. The company said it lost C$1.69 billion in fiscal 2009.
When You Need The Money …
The Los Angeles Times, now under bankruptcy protection, has a lucrative contract with News Corp to print the Wall Street Journal on the West Coast. The Los Angeles Times, in order to save expenses is closing a printing plant. That means that late night printing can only be covered for one newspaper so guess who gets the late night presses and guess who has to move deadlines way forward? Yup, if Angelinos complained before about stale news in their newspaper they ain’t seen nothing yet.
The newspaper says it is making arrangements for some sort of special section for late news – whatever the definition of that might be -- , but meanwhile regular deadlines are apparently being pushed way forward by several hours.
It will be up to the accountants to figure out see if the expected loss of revenue (circulation drops because of rotten early deadlines) is more than made up for by that News Corp. revenue.
No make-up in Mediaset strike
“Silvo betrayed us”
Make-up artists at Mediaset television stations took to the barricades – and the TV tower – for Italy’s first strike of television workers. The two-day strike began Sunday (January 10). Other TV employees, including technicians and camera operators, refused to cross picket lines.
“We were a family, now Silvio betrayed us,” said one sign. The 56 make-up artists, wardrobe workers and hairdressers took to the streets protesting company plans to outsource their jobs. The strike affects television operations in Milan and Rome. Some programs have been cancelled. It is the first strike ever at Mediaset, which is principally owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s family. (More on media in Italy here)
Unions are targeting sports program Controcampo and the Monday night episode of Big Brother. Journalists, engaged in their own contract negotiations, have not joined the picket lines. Organizers noted Mediaset’s recent €1 billion investments in Spanish TV channels Canal + and Cuatro. (JMH)
Getting The Story Straight
“never let the truth get in the way of a good story”
A story from Sofia last week caught the attention of major media and media watchers, albeit obliquely. Thirty-one year old Bobby Tsankov was murdered in a gang-land assassination. He had allegedly written a book on Bulgaria’s mobsters and once had a dubious attachment to radio stations.
Interestingly, many journalists and editors outside of Bulgaria – many with notable media organizations - seized on a few facts (murder, mobsters, book, talk show) and wrapped them around an attention-getting narrative: corruption in Eastern Europe kills crusading journalists. The reality is far less exciting.
Editors might want to note this article from the Sofia Echo.
Certainly there have been journalists whacked for rooting-out evil. Note the Anna Politkovskaya story here and the Hrant Dink story here. And there have been crusaders who also walked on the wild side. See the Ivo Pukanic story here.
One of the most notorious liars in American broadcasting once advised me to “never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” I left and have never looked back. (JMH)
Hungarian politicians float more media changes
“nonsense” or not
If spring elections go as predicted, opposition political party Hungarian Civic Union (Fidesz) may make new changes to the country’s public broadcaster and close the State-owned Hungarian News Agency (MTI), reported news portal Index.hu (January 7). Quoting unnamed sources, the new portal said Hungarian Television (MTV), Duna Television and Hungarian Radio (MR) would be folded into a single State-owned company and MTI would be eliminated. A Fidesz party spokesperson said the report was “nonsense.”
Parliamentary elections will likely be held in April or May. The center-right Fidesz party is widely expected to win handily as popular support for the governing Socialist party (MSZP) has fallen. Less certain is the party’s taking a two-thirds majority in the parliament, necessary to bring changes to Hungary’s media laws.
Hungary’s public broadcasting system has been unhealthy for years; funding being one side of the problem, structural issues the other. Successive government have called for more budget cuts. European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Director General Jean Reveillon called on Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and President Laszlo Solyom (November 6) to reconsider budget cuts to MTV to go “far beyond what may be justified from a financial point of view.”
An MSZP party spokesperson (January 8) charged that the Fidesz party wanted to control the country’s media “if the news is only half true”. That control would not be limited to public media, said the spokesperson who also pointed to recent controversial license awards for national commercial radio channels going to politically affiliated companies. (See related article here)
More details of the plan emerged through the week. One hundred-fifty year old MTI would be closed; individual government agencies would operate their own press services. Hungarian public broadcasting would be centralized, governed by the National Assembly. The plan, if carried out, would eliminate a significant number of jobs. (JMH)
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