Hot topics click link for more
Taking aim at public broadcasting for one reason or another is a predictable pastime for politicians, typically of the right-wing variety. Cutting budgets and work-force at public radio and television channels allows, they say, market forces to deliver without encumbering taxpayers. And all politicians want to dabble in programming.
Entertainment shows should be struck from public broadcasting, envisioned Netherlands State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science Sander Dekker, reported news agency ANP (October 13). He doesn’t like Animal Crackers, Ranking the Stars and Bananasplit, currently offered by Netherlands public TV NPO. “If (entertainment) is the purpose of the program, you have to wonder if it doesn’t belong to commercial broadcasters.”
Public broadcasting in the Netherlands is unique, a multi-association collaboration funded by the State budget and advertising. Half that financial support should, said Mr. Dekker, be funneled to the private sector. “The public broadcasters do little to make themselves stand out and that damages their legitimacy.“ The government has mandated a reduction in the number of non-profit associations providing content to NPO channels in the spirit of efficiency, of course. (See more on media in the Netherlands here)
Mr. Dekker’s proposals would the NPO into “a narrow, elitist public broadcaster,” said KRO media director Taco Rijssemus to volkstrant.nl (October 17). “What the State Secretary doesn’t seem to understand is there’s not one set of public values. Precisely because those differences are significant, it is important that a public broadcaster give audience to pluralism.” KRO (Katholieke Radio Omroep - Catholic Radio Broadcasting) is one of the public broadcast associations.
German public broadcasters will finally be getting a national TV channel targeting young people 14 to 29 years. Approval from heads of government in the German Länder came with a caveat: the new channel can be broadcast only on the Web. The ARD and ZDF chiefs were a bit sad.
The political decision was “future-oriented,” said ARD chairman Lutz Marmor, noting a turn on new internet development for public broadcasters. Without broadcast distribution the launch will be “more difficult, but we’ll do everything to develop a good project to the net with ZDF.” The concept as presented to politicians would have merged all youth-oriented output of ARD affiliated regional broadcasters – including radio – into a single brand.
The State Ministers decided ZDFkultur and the WDR produced youth channel Eins Plus, currently on digital multiplexes, must go. The new and yet unnamed youth channel will have an annual budget of €45 million and largely rely on programming produced within the German public broadcasting system. Because it will be available only on the internet the three-step test for approving programming changes will not apply. Last March the State Ministers rejected the previous proposal for a national channel targeting young people as poorly thought through. (See more about media in Germany here)
German private broadcaster association VPRT was “relieved” by the decision complained of ARD and ZDF getting a “blank check of €45 million.”
The remaining foreign owners of Russian media outlets continue official silence on the fate of their businesses. As expected Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin this week signed into law deeper restrictions on foreign ownership and executive control. From the sidelines there’s considerable speculation.
Media watchers, mostly Western, have been focused on the fate of influential business newspaper and portal Vedomosti, owned by publishers News Corporation, through Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Pearson, through the Financial Times (FT), and Sanoma. Each hold one-third stakes in Vedomosti. Under the new Russian ownership law, foreign shareholding of any media outlet will be limited to 20% by the end of 2016. (See more on media in Russia here)
“The Kremlin sees Vedomosti’s shareholders as foreign governments,” said editor-in-chief Tatiana Lysova to Bloomberg (October 17) “The WSJ equals the US and the FT the UK. They want a Russian owner so they have someone to call.”
German media house Axel Springer publishes business magazine Forbes Russia and Sanoma publishes Russian editions of Cosmopolitan and Esquire. These will likely close as trademark owners retain editorial control under license agreements, not allowed in the revised Russian media control law. Television broadcaster CTC Media will almost certainly be nationalized, if it exists at all, as Swedish media house Modern Times Group holds roughly a 37% stake and another 36% is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange.
Who or what may finally take control of these remaining foreign-owned media outlets in Russia is up for speculation. Not in doubt is the effective end of media voices with any independence from the Russian State. Perhaps seeking advice on media issues, President Putin paid a visit to former-Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi while in Milan, reported ANSA (October 17).
Radio listeners in Portugal are increasingly attracted to just two channels. In the May to September Bareme Rádio Marktest audience estimates Radio Comercial holds the top spot with 24.1% market share with RFM following with 21.6%, both showing year on year increases. Doing the math, that’s an aggregate market share of 45.7%. A year ago those top two channels had a combined market share of 40.5%.
Radio Renascenca, the general interest channel of Grupo R/Com, held 3rd place but dropped to 7.7% market share from 10.3% one year on. Radio Comercial is owned by Media Capital Radio and RFM is owned by R/Com. The two companies are tooth to tooth in the Portuguese radio market.
Public broadcaster RTP main radio channel Antena 1 placed 4th, up slightly to 6.4% markets share. Contemporary channel Antena 3 was also up slightly. (See Portugal national radio audience trend chart here)
Hit music Cidade FM moved to 6th place in the national rankings, 4.6% market share, sharply up from 3.8% year on year. News-talk channel TSF continued a long slow decline to 3.5% market share from 4.9%.
|
