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TV news monitored for propaganda
Another country on edge
Moldova’s media regulator has begun monitoring rebroadcasts from Russian television channels. “Information programs” on PrimeTV, TV7, RTR Moldova, RenTV and Rossia 24 will be viewed for compliance with rules against propaganda, announced the Audiovisual Coordinating Council (CCA), reported by news portal unimedia.info (April 17). CCA president Marian Pocaznoi is asking the Moldovan parliament to revise the Broadcasting Code to “allow prompt action in case of violations.”
Earlier this month Moldovan MP Ana Gutu asked the CCA to take action as the information war intensifies. “Russian media channels indulge in aggressive propaganda by which public opinion is fed lies… to justify aggression in Ukraine,” she wrote, quoted by unimedia.info (April 1). “There is evidence that these channels are feeding biased information inciting separatism, ethnic hatred and war.” She asked that stations rebroadcasting Russian programs replace them with locally produced news and entertainment programs.
Moldovans have been on edge watching events in Ukraine as two semi-autonomous regions – Transdniester and Gagauzia – continue to push for separation from Moldova and alliance with the Russian Federation.
Broadcaster moves quickly into next phase
Employees get cake
The next board of directors meeting of Central European Media Enterprises (CME) will gather several new faces. A new chairman and three board members were appointed at a special general board meeting in Bermuda, where CME is tax domiciled, last week (April 14). The appointments follow the mid-March exit of company founder Ronald Lauder as non-executive chairman and board member.
Former Time Warner Cable COO John Billock was named non-executive chairman. The three new directors are Time Warner people: Gerhard Zeiler from Turner Broadcasting, Iris Knoblock from Warner Bros. France and Doug Shapiro from Time Warner. Time Warner has increased its shareholding in CME through several capital injections and holds a voting share of 49%. (See more about CME here)
Operating television channels – plus production houses and a few radio stations – in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Slovenia has been a challenge between recessions and digital transition, certainly not specific to CME. Finding a stable footing has been a struggle. Company CEO Adrian Sarbu was discharged last August and replaced by co-CEOs Michael Del Nin and Christoph Mainusch, both known as change agents with ties to Time Warner.
Country directors have been replaced, some managers and staff following. In Romania, where CME owns the Pro TV franchise, new director Aleksander Cesnavicius irritated the news department by taking up an office next to award winning news director Gabriela Popescu. More impolitic, last week, was informing staff members that the traditional Easter bonus, RON 500 (about €110), must be returned or it would be deducted from the next pay period, reported reportervirtual.ro (April 17). Those who returned the money were given nice cakes. Some staff members responded by making equal donations to an orphanage.
Former CME board member Igor Kolomoisky made a bit of news in Ukraine this week. After being named governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Mr. Kolomoisky offered cash to pro-Russian militants in return for their guns and buildings seized. In 2007 Mr. Kolomoisky, a banker by trade, invested US$110 million in CME, brought along TV channel Studio 1+1 and took a board seat. He exited the CME board on acquiring 100% of the Ukraine broadcast assets in 2010.
Digital switch criteria almost met
Automobiles tough to crack
Digital radio of the DAB variety is “well on its way” to reaching the required 50% listening threshold triggering a shutdown of the FM platform for national and regional broadcasters,” said DAB support group Digital Radio Norge director Ole Jørgen Torvmark, in a statement quoted by Kampanje (April 11). The Norwegian government approved a switch-over from FM to DAB for all but local radio stations in 2017 if the threshold is met by next year. A TNS Gallup survey conducted between October 2013 and March 2014 for Digital Radio Norge indicated 45% of radio listeners using DAB receivers.
Public broadcaster NRK has led the DAB charge, adding coverage and channels. Commercial broadcasters have followed, clearly seeing the handwriting on the wall. Local radio stations will remain on the FM band regardless and, interestingly, newspaper groups have acquired several, clearly seeing the handwriting on the other wall. (See more on digital radio here)
Norway’s Culture Ministry set four basic requirements for DAB migration: national and regional commercial DAB coverage must reach 90% of the population, “digital radio services must represent added value to the public,” half of Norway’s radio listeners must be using DAB services daily and radio reception in automobiles must be “reasonable and technically satisfactory.” If all are in place, including the rather vague automobile reception requirement, Norway will be the first to, more or less, switch off FM.
Buyer found for newspapers in challenging market
Probably not the last
A purchase and sale agreement for the assets of New Bulgarian Media Group (NBMG) has been signed, according to local reports, with Dublin-based Media Maker Limited. NBMG publishes several newspapers and is principally owned by one of Bulgaria’s most colorful media owners, Irena Krasteva. Media Maker Limited is linked to former Communicorp CEO Paddy Halpenny, said Capital.bg (April 11).
Bulgarian media watchers have long had their eyes on Mrs. Krasteva, who entered the media business after running the state gambling agency. She may or may not have controlled television channel TV7. And she may or may not have financed NBMG through Corporate Commercial Bank, owned by the equally colorful Tsvetan Vassilev. Everybody denied all entanglement after the Economist (March 4) published a description of former TV7 news anchor Nikolay Barekov’s political entry with an anti-corruption and populist platform. (See more on media in Bulgaria here)
Mr. Halpenny exited Communicorp at the end of 2012 after leading expansion through acquisition in several Eastern European markets. The company has exited almost all non-Irish broadcast holdings, stations in Bulgaria and Latvia remaining. Media Maker Limited registered for business in Dublin two days before the agreement for NBMG assets was announced with Mr. Halpenny and Irish hotel owner John Raymond Phelan as directors.
Media subsidies not helping journalists
Cows get more
The economics of journalism, more times than not, is a subject near and dear to media owners. Journalists, too, think about economics, in a personal way. Media watchers have long witnessed the negative effect on journalism from practitioner’s economic insecurity, integrity at odds with the “brown envelope”.
Media owners in Slovenia benefited from €500 million in government subsidies in the ten years from 2002, said media watcher and academic Sandra Basic Hrvatin to a recent meeting of journalists in Ljubljana. ”Only cows have been more subsidized,” she added, reported by public broadcaster RTV SLO (April 12). “Where did this money go?”
Slovenian journalists working full-time earn €1,200 monthly on average, the conference of the Association of Slovenian Journalists and the Trade Union of Slovenian Journalists was told, while some media owners take home significantly more. Part-time status, always criticized by unions, has become the norm for many media workers, benefits and pension contributions disappearing.
“Precariousness has become a business model,” suggested Ljubljana law professor Luka Ticar. “For employers, it’s cheaper.”
Big broadcaster to outsource makeup artists, others
Independence to privatization
Poland’s public television broadcaster TVP has selected an outsourcing firm to take at least 400 employees, between 12% and 15% of its workforce. For a decade various TVP management teams have attempted to reduce the full-time headcount, more often than not falling to stiff union resistance. A final agreement with outsourcing vender LeasingTeam is under construction and is expected to take effect in July.
Employee outsourcing is relatively common in the private sector, commonly used to reduce benefit and pension costs for lower-level workers. According to local sources, the outsourcing firm will employ graphic designers, makeup artists and some newsroom staff under a two-year contract, intention being to persuade workers into independent contractor status. TVP is officially owned by Poland’s Treasury Ministry, always under pressure to reduce public service costs, and reported a €4.9 million loss in 2013. First year savings is expected to be about €1.5 million. (See more on media in Poland here)
Unions aren’t pleased, criticizing the TVP Board for choosing the outsourcing option over negotiations. “It’s a scandal on a global scale,” said trade union Polish Vision chief Barbara Markowska-Wojcik, quoted by Wirtualnemedia.pl (April 11). Unions staged a one-hour work stoppage in February when the outsourcing tender was announced.
In parallel with attempts at reducing TVP’s workforce have been suggestions of eventual privatization. The bulk of TVP’s revenue stream is from advertising and program sales. Despite a recent history of top management turmoil TVP continues to produce a world-class output and enjoys considerable popular support.
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