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MP complains of stolen radio frequencies
Use it or lose it
When the Greek government closed public broadcaster ERT in June 2013 left abandoned were about 270 FM radio frequencies as the regional radio networks were considerably downsized. What a surprise it was, then, when Turkish broadcasters, public and public, pounced, particularly on frequencies covering the Aegean islands and Crete, as reported by Greek newspaper Real News (September 13). (See more about media in Greece here)
After reading the news independent Greek MP Vassilis Kapernaros rose to complain about “radio frequencies belonging to the Greek people” and “Turks trying to invade the lives of Greek people.” People living on the lovely Greek island Paros complained about 22 of 28 radio stations broadcasting in Turkish. He blamed the government for “inaction and incompetence.” Another unintended consequence appears, like getting bumped from the Eurovision Song Contest.
Laws of physics understood, radio frequencies do not “belong” to any country. Every few years technical experts at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) assign radio frequencies by service to specific geographical areas. Broadcast frequencies in border areas – such as France and Switzerland or Greece and Turkey – are subject to a special rule to maximize spectrum usage. A frequency abandoned in one country can be appropriated by a broadcaster in another country. Bi-lateral negotiations are always helpful but Greek and Turkish government leaders don’t exactly have a good working relationship.
Pot calls kettle black, kettle laughs
No contest
Studies of corporate leadership have for decades identified “tunnel vision” as the disease rampant in top floor corner offices. CEO’s , of course, have one job: pleasing the shareholders. The down and dirty of pleasing customers is left to the hamsters scurrying about below.
Wholly without surprise, then, was the letter sent by News Corporation CEO Robert Thomson, to outgoing EC Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia reiterating publishers complaint about nasty Google being a “platform for piracy.” Last week Sr. Almunia punted down field the EC’s four-year investigation of Google’s alleged “abuse of dominant position” after robust lobbying from European publishers. Rupert Murdoch is the controlling shareholder of News Corporation, publisher of books and newspapers. (See more on Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation here)
“The internet should be a canvas for freedom of expression and for high quality content of enduring value,” argued Mr. Thomson, posted on the News Corporation website. “Undermining the basic business model of professional content creators will lead to a less informed, more vexatious level of dialogue in our society. There will be no shortage of opinions, in fact, opinions will proliferate, but they will be based on ever flimsier foundations. The quality of discourse will inevitably deteriorate and the intemperate trends we are already seeing in much of Europe will proliferate.”
Several studies of US news consumers, including from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, strongly suggest Fox News viewers are “less well-informed” on domestic and international issues. Fox News is owned by 21st Century Fox, the entertainment company formed by a strategic separation from News Corporation. Its tabloid tone and conspiracy theory laden presentation pre-date Russia Today, now known as RT, the veracity -challenged Russian Federation international channel.
Somebody at Google with a sense of gravity posted a reply: “Phew, what a scorcher. Murdoch accuses Google of eating his hamster.” It’s a parody of an infamous front page of UK tabloid The Sun, owned by News Corporation. The company once owned another UK tabloid but was forced to close it after a UK government inquiry and a multitude of civil and criminal proceedings into privacy invasions and disreputable relationships with authorities. The response from Google is more than dismissive humor.
That digital dividend means fewer people
“difficult priorities”
Budget cuts and redundancies continue to hit public broadcasters. Danish public broadcaster DR CEO Maria Rørbye Rønn announced another round of staff cuts in addition to reducing news output on one TV channel and ending company-paid lunch. Viewers to main TV channel DR1 will see fewer new shows with shorter seasons and lots of re-runs during summers. Disbanding the 37-member chamber orchestra was announced last week.
“It’s been a difficult day for everyone at DR,” said Ms Rørbye Rønn, who keeps her job, quoted by Politiken (September 17). As with every other part of traditional media, managers say shuffling budgets is necessary to tackle digital transition. “We are releasing funds to take us into a new media reality where people’s media consumption is moving all the time and where we must keep up if we are to complete our mission. That is why we have been forced to set difficult priorities and take a series of tough but necessary decisions.” (See more about media in Denmark here)
The announcement notes the firing of 101 employees and the voluntary redundancy of 49, spread throughout the organization. An agreement with the Danish government on DR’s digital future mandates DKK 161 million (€21.6 million) in cost savings by 2018. Previous rounds of job cuts at DR in 2007 and 2010 eliminated hundreds of jobs.
Membership has its privileges
just following the rules
Greek participation in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is on razor’s edge. Sign up deadline for European Broadcasting Union (EBU) member broadcasters was Monday, September 15, and it seems the application from Greek public broadcaster NERIT has been put on hold. Only EBU member broadcasters, more of less, are allowed to take part in the annual Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), considered a signature event of European public broadcasting, and EBU executives have never been pleased with the abrupt closure of former Greek public broadcaster ERT.
EBU representatives, contacted by Greek news portal tovima.gr (September 15), confirmed “only EBU members may participate and NERIT is not yet a member.” A slightly more nuanced statement from NERIT the following day suggested ESC participation might be possible if the EBU General Assembly approves “accession as a full member.” Voting on full EBU membership for NERIT – and perhaps a new public broadcaster for Scotland – won’t take place until the official GA in December. (See more about media in Greece here)
As guardian of the European public service broadcasting flame, the EBU likes member broadcasters to have statuary independence from governments and commercial interests as well as certain market presence, along the lines of the BBC in the UK, SVT in Sweden or the various public broadcast organizations in Germany. Last week NERIT president Antonis Makrodimitris and deputy managing director Rodophos Moronis resigned over “governmental interference.” The old ERT may have had certain issues with political party influence but had a markedly larger broadcast imprint in Greece, hosting the ESC in 2006.
Like Facebook, like digital radio
Don’t worry about the grannies
Dutch public broadcaster NPO will shutdown AM/MW broadcasting by this time next year, migrating the Radio 5 service to other platforms. Part of the reason is budget cuts, part environmental concerns and part, well, “everything is going digital,” said NPO radio programming director Jan Westerhof to volkskrant.nl (September 16). Radio 5 has been on the air in one form or another since 1985 programming oldies music and daytime talk shows for listeners over 55 years.
“The outdated AM/MW transmission systems are in need of replacement,” said Mr. Westerhof. “That’s an expensive proposition.” Also, those transmitters “consume a lot of electricity.”
Radio 5 will not be migrating to the “overcrowded” FM band: “There’s no more place for Radio 5.” The channel is already available on cable, the web and DAB platforms. Remaining on the AM/MW band in the Netherlands after next September will be two religious stations - Groot Nieuws Radio and Radio Maria. (See more about media in the Netherlands here)
It’s estimated that 200,000 people currently listen to Radio 5’s AM/MW broadcast, mostly folks over 60 years who might not be ready for digital transition. Not to worry, said Mr. Westerhof. “Just look at how many grandparents are active on Facebook.”
Opportunity in the carriage trade
No point waiting for a better deal
For the Netflix launch in France this week a major obstacle looming large has been the lack of carriage agreements with French internet service operators (ISPs). They all sat on their hands, noting implicitly irritation in some quarters for doing business with an outsider. (See longer report on Netflix in Europe here)
That boycott, of sorts, ended abruptly when Bouygues Telecom and Netflix jointly announced agreement for the SVOD service to be hosted through the ISPs set top box from November. None of the other French ISPs followed suit though Numericable launched their own VOD service the same day. ISP Orange moaned that the carriage offer from Netflix was insufficient.
All the expected points of view about Netflix coming to France were aired at the coincidentally scheduled TV Fiction Festival this past weekend. New Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin called the Netflix launch an opportunity, generally echoed by film producers. Groaning were broadcasters: “At this moment Netflix is trying to buy works that we funded… to compete with us,” said TF1 CEO Nonce Paolini. Mobile telecom and ISP Bouygues Telecom is owned by the giant French industrial group Bouygues, which just happens to hold a major stake in French television operator TF1.
Cost saving programming strains measurement
“ominous and detrimental”
The famous Radiocontrol Watch is back in Swiss media news. It seems audience measurement provider Mediapulse made a change earlier this year in reporting the way it reports simulcasting, the exact-time sharing of program content among stations. The result, say some broadcasters, is “distorted audience figures” and they’ve appealed to the Swiss Federal Council for a fix.
In Switzerland radio audiences – TV, too, for that matter – are measured passively using a device – the Watch – that “listens” for audio in the presence of measurement panel and, after intervention to protect privacy, compares it to audio from radio broadcasters. The dataset created is then, after requisite statistical cleansing, turned into the semi-annual reports on radio listening. (See recent Swiss audience estimates compared with previous reports here for the Swiss-German region here, the French-speaking region here and the Italian-speaking region here)
When the Radiocontrol Watch was first introduced more than a decade ago Switzerland’s listeners (and advertisers) had in total about 40 stations to choose from, most all broadcast on the FM or AM/MW bands. Well, times have changed. Swiss public broadcaster SSR-SRG offers, in addition to region-specific radio channels, new nation-wide digital channels.
And, too, private-sector broadcasters have learned the cost-effectiveness of simulcasting. In question are the three Radio Energy stations in Basel, Bern and Zürich, operating under a format license from French broadcaster NRJ Group and served by the same saleshouse but not necessarily the same owner. The three stations broadcast the same program several hours Monday through Friday and totally on weekends. Those individual stations that simulcast all or part of a day appear to benefit as estimated audience for one is a composite of all three.
“This is ominous and detrimental to (our) advertisers because they could be paying for listeners that do not exist,” said Basel local station Radio Basilisk owner Matthias Hagemann to news portal persoenlich.com (September 12). As Mediapulse is government-chartered to supply audience measurement he has appealed to the Swiss Federal Council “to correct the intolerable abuses and distortion of the market before the end of the year.”
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