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Figures released by UK radio association RadioCentre show better than 5% ad growth in Q3 compared with the same period last year. National channels led the increases with nearly 8% growth, meaning local radio was close to even.
For all the yapping about internet advertising taking over the media, and robbing the radio sector, this could be a harbinger of things to come. Internet advertising is still hard to buy and advertisers aren’t quite sure what they’re getting.
Promotion and sponsorship revenue also grew by 8%.
The essential Médiamétrie radio audience results for September-October, released yesterday (November 15), will point advertisers toward the inevitable holiday buying spree. This years’ trend is benefiting the big, full-service channels. RTL is still number one, up to 12.1% market share from 9.7% one year on.
That trend had largely escaped Radio France, until now. France Inter, the main public service general interest channel, grew to a 9.3% market share from 8.2% year-on-year, number 2 in listeners country-wide. All-news France Info moved to 7th place from 10th, 4.2% share from 3.7%.
Music channels are also feeling the effects; some happy, some not. Fun Radio, nearly written off 3 years ago, is tied for 7th at 4.2% share, up from 3.8%.
There’s no good news for NRJ Groupe. All its channels dropped, most significantly main brand NRJ.
Skyrock also took a major hit, dropping to a 3.7% share from 5.1%.
Overall, radio listening was slightly lower compared year-on and against the previous (spring) periods.
Back in September, 2005 ftm wrote, “Private Capital Management (PCM) Has $4 Billion Invested in US Newspapers. What Do They Know That We Don’t”? Well the answer was a couple of years in coming but apparently they didn’t know anything ftm wasn’t already warning about, and PCM last quarter started divesting its newspaper holdings big-time.
In its last quarterly financial statement ending September 30, Bruce Sherman’s Private Capital Management disclosed it no longer holds its 1.6% of Gannett, its 4.6% of Belo, or its 3.9% of Media General, and that it has reduced greatly its 15% holding in The New York Times Company, and in McClatchy and Lee Enterprises.
PCM used to be the largest institutional shareholder in Knight Ridder with a 19% shareholding and it was Sherman who “persuaded” the Knight Ridder board that the chain should put itself up for sale.
Back in 2005 about $4 billion of its $32 billion investments were in the US newspaper business. PCM is known for its long-term strategy and patience, but that seems to have worn thin with the US newspaper business. PCM seldom got involved in spats with companies it invested in, although go tell that to Tony Ridder.
What do advertisers expect from newspapers in one of the world biggest newspaper growth markets? Here’s what Harit Nagpal, Director of Marketing, Vodafone in India told an INMA conference this week: “We advertise to grow business and to be ahead of the competition 365 days of the year; and at the same time, look good while doing so and earn more bucks to spend. For this, the advertiser wants a client who is sensitive to its need, trustworthy and delivers in adverse circumstances.”
He continued that, “newspapers signified connectedness, and companies advertised in print to get access, efficiency, speed, visibility and flexibility.”
Shashi Sinha, CEO, Lodestar Universal, continued that noticeability, consumer connectivity by localizing, and customizing brand message with unparallel flexibility were essential while advertising in print to ensure maximum returns.
Nagpal added, “The print medium needs to grab eyeballs as the attention span is less; the audience is now accustomed to surfing between channels and flipping pages. So as an advertiser, I want people to come to me with ideas to hold the attention of the audience, smart ideas for each section of the page, and for different audience sets.”
And are things ok as they are now? A definite “No” from Nagpal. “Print media has always been regarded as a credible medium with news on first page and views in the later pages. But now it is views on the first page and paid views in the subsequent ones. The quality of writing for certain sectors is just not meeting expectations. Print is not yet dead, but it is not moving either. Right now it needs to evolve. Someone needs to make the first move – be it media owners, media agencies or creative agencies. There is enough scope for syndication and partnership to reach different sections in an effective way.”
Although “Paris Hilton” is the most searched name on the Internet this year we have tried very very hard not to mention her on this site. But we print below an AP correction that’s just too good to pass up:
GAUHATI, India (AP) - In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India.
The AP
Some of the thinking is that The UK’s BSkyB would like to get out of its troublesome shareholding in ITV, the country’s largest terrestrial TV network, by swapping its ITV shares for a controlling interest in the Channel 5 broadcaster owned by RTL, part of Bertelsmann. But BSkyB CEO James Murdoch says it’s just not so.
“There has been this big theory that Sky is going to buy Channel 5. That is what they (Sky) really want,” he told an investor conference in Spain. “I will tell you right now it isn’t. I have said that before. Nobody believes me. I will say it again. I will say it until I am blue in the face.”
On the other hand he says he is happy with Sky’s investment in ITV which he calls long-term, but that’s a bit more difficult to digest given he is now sitting on a £318 million paper loss? He bought 696 million shares at 135p each and they’re worth 89.30 pence each at Wednesday’s close. Competition authorities are expected to rule in a few weeks that Sky should divest itself of the shares, so if his proposal to keep the shares but dilute their voting power doesn’t fly then what -- as simple as a big capital gains loss?
Big European telecoms and their friendly national regulators are facing the steel of EC Info Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding’s wrath. The rule making proposal, released (Tuesday November 13) but widely leaked (Read DG Info release here), takes specific aim at national regulators and ‘incumbent’ telecoms: “Too often, telecoms regulators are still close to the dominant operator that continues to be partly owned by the national government in many countries.”
But the proposal goes further, deep into the spectrum wars. Mrs. Reding has inflamed broadcasters by proposing service-neutral spectrum; meaning an end to any sort of ‘broadcast’ bands. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is howling mad. “Interference is not a negligible problem. Interference caused by mobile phones could involve the sudden and total loss of image and/or the sound.” (Read EBU statement here – in French)
“Frequencies are not a purely economic property,” says German Private Broadcaster Association (VPRT) President Juergen Doetz. (Read VPRT statement here – in German)
Mrs. Reding’s frustration with the cozy relationship between telecom regulators and the ‘incumbent’ telecoms is palpable and understandable. And she’s very correct that continuing this cartel relationship is contrary to the single-market EU. But…
The media sector is not simply about 1’s and 0’s.
The total US media spend this year is expected to increase by 2.1% according to eMarketer, but the Internet’s growth rate will be 26.8%, and good as that may be it is considerably less than the 34.6% growth recorded in 2006.
The Internet’s share of the ad market this year will be 7.4%, will grow to slightly more than 10% in 2009, and will be at least 13.3% by 2011, eMarketer says.
According to TNS Media figures comparing the first half spend in 2006 and 2007, national TV was relatively flat (33.1% in 2006 compared to 32.8% in 2007), magazines did better (19.1% compared to this year’s 20%), newspapers dropped from 18.8% to 17.8%, local TV dropped from 11.4% to 10.8%, the Internet’s share grew from 6.4% to 7.6% and in doing so overtook radio that dropped from 7.3% to 7.1%.
If you were interested in reading about the first cricket test match between Australia and Sri Lanka this week the likelihood is that you would have been out of luck, unless you went to the official web site or an Australian newspaper site. Cricket Australia and international news agencies have been squabbling about photo rights and there still is no resolution, so the agencies have refused to cover.
And now the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) says it approves of what the Australians are doing and may well try and impose similar rules.
"The agencies are making money by selling their photographs to newspapers. So they should pay the board also. This is only for match pictures and not for anything else,” according to Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, told Cricinfo.
"We have given television rights to Nimbus. They make money out of the telecast of matches and pay us a certain amount. Cricket Australia is applying the same to photographers. There is no problem if newspapers send their own photographers. It's only agencies that are the focus," he said. India tours Australia at the end of the year.
The agencies are telling their clients they are not covering the cricket. An AFP message said “no progress has been made in negotiations over conditions for accreditation for the season. As a result, we have suspended photo, text, and graphics coverage of all matches, press conferences or any other events held by Cricket Australia until an acceptable agreement can be reached.”
The note said that “protecting the news interests and coverage rights of our clients around the world is of crucial importance.” Negotiations are continuing but, in drawing its line in the sand, it says that “press freedom and editorial integrity are core to our business.”
Rupert Murdoch has bragged to his Australian newspaper that his Fox Network has sold a 30-second ad for the Feb. 3 Super Bowl for $3 million – an all time high – and he said there was just one advertising slot left to fill that he expected to be finalized Monday.
It is yet more proof that advertisers are willing to pay premium rate for sports events because those events are usually viewed live, rather than watching a recording later. Watching a TIVO does not necessarily mean watching the commercials in between, but viewing live and most viewers watch the commercials and that’s now worth a premium.
More and more chain newspapers are seeking cost savings by combining functionalities for their newspapers in close proximity to one another.
Paxton Media Group bought the LaPorte, Indiana, Herald-Argus October 1 and employees claim the new company gave assurances that there would be no layoffs, but now six weeks later up to 50% of the staff could be in line to lose jobs in prepress, pressroom and distribution.
Paxton also owns the Herald-Palladium in St. Joseph, Michigan some 42 miles (67 kms) north up Interstate 94, and so it figured it can save money by moving La Porte’s printing to St. Joseph. Some 30-40 of the approximate 80 employees could be let go once the move is done.
Already four sales assistants, a staff photographer, and the newspaper’s wire editor have been laid off.
So while publishers continue to extol how healthy newspapers are these days, at what human price?
Add the continuing US housing crisis to one more blight to be blamed on newspapers. The New York Times quotes home builder Robert I. Toll, “Perhaps as the presidential campaign heats up and moves to the front page, negative articles about housing will move off the front page. Then, hopefully, the positive underpinnings of low interest rates, low unemployment, and a decent economy will raise new-buyer confidence.”
He told the newspaper that only 11% of those who canceled contracts did so because they couldn’t get mortgages. He said people “who wanted to walk” made up 17% of cancellations. “Translation, they’ve read too many Times articles and decided now is not the time to buy a home.”
“After sober review,” began the RTL statement. No agreement was reached among the German broadcaster, the German Ski Federation and rights agency Infront. RTL also withdraws from Austrian ski events. ARD and ZDF will likely take up winter sports TV coverage… for about half last years’ €12 million rights fee. (JMH)
The European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) reports 82% of 16 to 24 year olds visit the Web 5 to 7 days a week, compared to 77% watching TV. The greatest growth rate for Web usage, however, is among persons 55 years and older. (JMH)
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