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Big French broadcasters threw a major hissy-fit this week about the Médiamétrie audience estimates. NRJ Group, NextRadioTV, Skyrock, Lagardére Active and the independent radio association accused RTL Group, owner of Fun Radio, of “unfair and deceptive practices.” Followers of French national radio audience trends have noted recently rather robust reach and share increases for Fun Radio. (See French national radio audience share trend chart here)
It seems “on at least four occasions,” reported Le Monde (June 16), between last November and this January the Fun Radio morning show host Bruno Guillon and/or other members of the show team “encouraged” listeners to participate in the Médiamétrie surveys. The complaint was submitted to the ratings audit bureau CESP. RTL Group countered with threats of a libel lawsuit. Business news portal Les Echos (June 16) is calling it “Fungate.”
The Médiamétrie radio audience surveys are telephone surveys, fixed and mobile, subject to all the quite obvious statistical variations, weighting applied to demographics and geography. Médiamétrie is owned by the major radio and TV broadcasters and ad agencies. Apparently, Médiamétrie does not have explicit rules about broadcasters mentioning the surveys. (See more about audience measurement here)
Everybody does it, was the initial response from Fun Radio director Tristan Jurgensen. In a general sense all radio programming and promotion is designed to affect audience surveys. Years ago and far away, US radio measurement provider Arbitron, now part of Nielsen, came up against something very similar. A certain broadcasting company, also long gone, instructed DJs to tell listeners to “write it down,” an oblique reference to the survey diaries. Offending stations were “de-listed,” removed from published survey results.
That particular practice stopped. Arbitron saw this as an opportunity to completely change radio audience measurement, dropping the diary in favor of electronic measurement. Radio broadcasting became far less “fun.”
Two things were clear after the release last week (June 8) of the German ma IP Audio streaming audience estimates. First, big regional radio channels targeting (more or less) young people are the most streamed. At the top of the list is 1Live, WDR’s pop music channel targeting 14 to 39 year olds, with 8.6 million “sessions” per average month. Second is SWR3, also a similarly targeted public radio channel, with 6.9 million average monthly “sessions.” Young people are, obviously, streaming.
Second and clearly bigger is the rise of Spotify in Germany. According to the ma IP Audio estimates the ubiquitous streaming service attracts 103 million average monthly sessions, up 4% on the previous quarter. The total of average monthly “sessions” for the 149 radio channels surveyed is 93 million. Young people have, arguably, jumped the platform. (See more about streaming audio here)
The advertising people hear this. Millennial-anything, digital-anything is their ultimate desire. Turkish Airlines has a major marketing campaign coinciding with the UEFA Euro 2016 football championships. Turkish Airlines is the Official Airline Sponsor. They have an A330-300 decorated for the event.
Taking the David Guetta Euro 2016 anthem “This One’s For You” as a starter, Turkish Airlines is sponsoring a “Europe’s Best” playlist on Spotify for each of the 24 competing countries. “Music has always been a big part of football,” said chief marketing officer Ahmet Olmustur in a press release. The London office of Crispin Porter & Bogusky is Turkish Airways ad agency. Last year their video ad for Turkish Airlines won the Webby/You Tube award for ad of the decade.
Living, breathing and spending people, we understand, are the bread and butter of advertising supported commercial media. Folks with the greatest discretionary spending power have long been targets of marketing opportunity. Like gravity, the physics is impossible to defy.
Market researcher Ipsos annually produces a set of surveys on affluent consumers. The Affluent Europe Survey was released last week detailing the habits of earners in the top 13% bracket across 21 countries, representing roughly 50 million people. Most of the detail is behind the paywall, so to speak.
There is a media section. Affluent Europeans consume media. On the news side, that means English-language TV and digital sources. CNN tops the list of affluent-favored news media, reaching 35% of them monthly. Sky News is second (29%) followed by the BBC (27%), euronews (23%) and Bloomberg (15%). Sorted for business and financial news across platforms CNBC tops, then Bloomberg, Time, Financial Times and the Economist. Among the really rich – investment portfolios exceeding €3 million – Bloomberg tops. On digital platforms the BBC takes the lead. (See more about TV news here and online news here)
Chronology, according the the Ipsos survey, matters. Affluent Millennials (18 to 35 years) consume all media more than affluent Baby Boomers (50 to 72 years), a delight to the advertising people. As a very rich banker once said: “I pay people to watch TV.”
A major investor in privately-owned media outlets challenged by authoritarian regimes has taken a minority stake in Polish media house Agora. Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) acquired shares in Agora held by other investors in a block trade valued at PLN 51 million (€11.5 million) for 11.22% shareholding. Dutch financial services firm Nationale-Nederlanden notified the Warsaw Stock Exchange (June 10) that funds it manages reduced shareholdings in Agora from 16.1% to 9.43%.
Agora is a diverse media house, publishing daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and associated websites and operating several radio outlets, including news-talk channel TOK FM, and a cinema chain. The editorial position of Gazeta Wyborcza is often at odds with and critical of Poland’s ruling right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) political party. Agora reported a PLN 5.6 million (€1.25 million) loss on PLN 288.5 million (€65.2 million) revenues in Q1 2016 with PLN 90.1 million (€20.4 million) debt and PLN 97.7 million (€22.1 million) cash on hand. (See more about media in Poland here)
Agora’s largest institutional investor remains Polish State pension fund PZU. Treasury Minister Dawid Jackiewicz indicated in January “serious doubts” about continuing investment in Agora. PiS politicians have called for “re-Polanization” of the country’s media sector and effectively dismantled public broadcasters TVP and Polskie Radio in favor of a Hungarian-model State broadcaster.
MDIF has been a significant patron of and investor in independent media serving transitional democracies since founded in 1995. The name was changed in 2013 from Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) as its investment strategy matured. It is a New York-based non-profit corporation. Investors and financial supporters include the pinnacle of media freedom support, including the Open Society Foundation of philanthropist George Soros. For right-wing and “illiberal” politicians Mr. Soros is a lightning rod for conspiracy theories.
The first broadcasts of M21 Directo have begun in Madrid on 88.6 FM. It’s a rather limited beginning, 2 one-hour programs each day. The music is diverse. There is, of course, a regular food feature. There’s a Facebook page. The first show was May 23rd.
M21 Directo is licensed to the Madrid City Council among several FM stations operated by Madrid area municipalities, already a very crowded radio market. Last December the Madrid Municipal Council proposed relaunching Canal Empleo Madrid, which broadcast for several years through the Madrid Employment Office to "train professionals and provide public service information." Council president Manuela Carmena called the dark FM frequency “a forgotten, precious instrument,” reported El Mundo (May 24). (See more about media in Spain here)
Public law in Spain, passed in 1991, allows municipalities to operate community radio stations on the FM band. Some do and some don’t. Some municipal councils have simply leased the frequencies to private broadcasters. The Madrid City Council also has a digital TV license, which it has tried and failed to sell.
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