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Swiss may dump license fee
There is no escape
Switzerland’s Federal Council has recommended to the Federal Parliament (January 21) scrapping the existing license fee system financing public broadcaster SSR-SRG in favor of a universal tax.
The recommended plan “solves problems with the current system that links fee payment to possession of a receiving device,” said a statement from the Swiss Department of Energy, Transport, Environment and Communications (DETEC) (See here – in French) “it can also significantly reduce the costs of collection.”
The DETEC statement notes that the current license fee is “perceived by many to be unpleasant.” Under the proposed tax “there will be no free riders.”
Public broadcasters have called the household radio and television license fee the “worse, best system.” (See more on public broadcasting finance here) In the last decade many countries have scrapped the license fee altogether in favor of direct State aid or continued to raise the license fee by requiring payments for owning every possible media access device. (JMH)
UK Libel Lawyers To Get Less
The UK media has complained long and hard that Britain’s libel laws need an overhaul because not only is the UK known as the “libel capital of the world” for the ease by which foreigners can bring libel cases when the UK is not even involved, but also for the huge bonus fees lawyers earn if successful in “no win, no fee” cases. On the latter, at least, the government has taken notice and has proposed cutting “no win, no fee” success bonus fees by 90%.
The usual costs payout in winning a “no win, no fee” case is 200% -- the 100% the lawyers would have charged their own clients plus an additional 100% from the loser and all of that is paid by the loser. The media says those costs have often totaled more than £1 million and forces them to make the financial decision to settle out-of-court even though they didn’t think they did wrong, just in order not to get hit with possible enormous legal fees. In addition, the fear of such costs also means that “iffy” stories get tossed just to play it safe. If the government proposals go through the 200% legal fees will become 110%.
The media is happy, of course. The lawyers not so much. They say it will be more difficult for less wealthy people to sue because lawyers will look even harder in deciding to take on such a case. Is that really so bad?
None of this tackles the “libel capital” problem” on which the Lord Chief Justice for England and Wales said back in September, “We need to look closely at why it (London) is called the libel capital of the world and if it is, we have to try to persuade Parliament to change the law." Nothing on that will get done, however, before elections which will probably be held in May.
Google Gets Rid Of Advertisers Yet Ups Its Revenue
Google purged about 30,000 advertisers last quarter, according to AdGooroo, a keyword tools provider, but that seemed to increase competition among those remaining with the outcome that revenue actually increased.
Spending in the quarter by the largest 80 US retailers grew some 13%, the Web marketer said, and revenue benefitted from unusually high click-through rates. (More on Google advertising here)
And how many active advertisers does Google have? AdGooroo says those ditched 30,000 advertisers equaled 5.3% of the client base so if we have done our math right that means Google still has around half a million active advertisers. National newspapers – eat your hearts out!
Court rules license renewal illegal, again
Regulator “stunned”
The contentious license renewal for Hungarian national radio channels is winding its way through the courts. Eventually there will be an end but not soon.
The Budapest Municipal Court ruled (January 19) the context of the radio license renewal illegal. Slager Radio brought the lawsuit in November (see details here) contending wrongdoing on the part of Hungarian media regulator ORTT. Danubius Radio’s national license renewal was also denied. Slager Radio is (was) owned by Emmis International and Danubius Radio is (was) owned by Accession Mezzanine Capital. Both are principally foreign owned and both sued the ORTT seeking to reverse license awards to, they contend, unqualified and politically connected companies.
In the verbal ruling, the Municipal Court agreed that, under the rules, NeoFM was awarded Slager Radio’s license illegally, principally because NeoFM’s owner holds a 75% stake in a local Budapest radio station. In early January the same court made a similar decision in the lawsuit brought by Accession Mezzanine Capital against the ORTT.
The ORTT, reportedly “stunned” by the ruling in the Danubius Radio case, announced it would appeal both judgments.
Resolution of the radio license dispute, brought to a wide international audience because of corruption charges against the Hungarian government, is likely to drag on for months if not longer. The Municipal Court, while granting legal faults to the license award process, also said it had no jurisdiction to overturn the license awards to the new radio channels. That decision, after ORTT appeals the first-instance rulings, will go to the Hungarian Administrative Court. Then there’s the Hungarian Supreme Court. Then there’s the European Court of Justice.
The Municipal Court ordered Slager Radio to pay about €30,000 in court fees.
We know who wins this one. (JMH)
If You Are Looking For Some Good News …
Two tidbits out of the US could indicate that the worst in advertising is over, and that the overall US spend this year may even reach the same as last year (yes, that’s good news because most were forecasting it would be less than last year’s disastrous performance). Also Lee Enterprises has come out with positive news about advertising revenues at its newspapers.
Magna that had been predicting a 1.3% drop in US advertising this year now says it believes 2010 US ad revenue will be about the same as 2009’s $161 billion (not including political campaigns and the Olympics).
And Lee Enterprises, publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch among other newspapers, posted its second consecutive quarterly profit Tuesday, not just from cost cutting but benefitting from ad revenue stabilizing. CEO Mary Junck said ad trends started improving in December and that trend has continued into January and looks like continuing into February.
Could the worst be over?
…And There’s More
Borrell Associates forecasts that real estate ad spending in newspapers will increase 16% this year. It fell 34% last year so clawing back 16% still is lower overall, but at least the arrow may start pointing in the right direction.
It seems that online banner ads cost far more than one might think to produce and realtors may start considering newspapers as a better financial deal, especially if they can work with their local newspaper to get some good deals.
The problem for realtors and newspapers to overcome, however, is that some 90% of real estate searches are said to start online so there has to be some intense marketing to get people to start looking again in their local paper real estate sections. Maybe suggesting, for instance, that a combo of print and online might be the best way forward.
But hey, that’s why marketing gets paid the big bucks!
Yippee!! E&P Has Arisen From The Grave
Editor & Publisher is back. Buried two weeks ago by the Nielsen Company, the trade magazine bible for the US newspaper business has arisen under new management – the Duncan Macintosh Company of California, that until now had concentrated mainly on boating magazines. The web site is already alive and well and the new owners say the monthly print routine will continue with February’s issue already being worked on.
Former editor-at-large Mark Fitzgerald, who has been with the magazine for 26 years, now takes over as editor with neither former editor Greg Mitchell or senior editor Joe Strupp returning. There may be some bad blood there, for Mitchell and Strupp have their own web blogs and over the weekend Mitchell posted this, “If you haven't, go on over to E&P In Exile blog where Joe Strupp and I are posting. As the ‘new’ E&P slept over the weekend, we've posted 15 stories and items.” That sounds a might competitive and none too friendly!
How Much Is All That Dodge Talk Worth?
Remember Chrysler, the US automaker that took $7 billion in a taxpayer bailout and is now managed by the Italian Fiat car company – well, it’s gone and committed more than $3 million for one 60-second ad for its Dodge brand in the February 7 Super Bowl football game – the highest rated US TV event by far year after year .
So there’s a huge amount of chatter in Digital Land – those who can’t see straight with what they see as a waste of taxpayer money versus those who say if you want to sell cars then you’ve got to market them so why not showcase a brand before an audience that usually includes about 65% of the men of America.
We’ll leave it to you to decide if it’s a good use of the money – we don’t know exactly how much money because neither CBS or Chrysler is saying, but a 30-second ad has been going for anywhere between $2.5 million to $ 3 million so a 60-second ad, given that CBS is not yet sold out, is probably somewhere between $4 million - $5 million.
But what may be the biggest value to Chrysler is all of that chatter, plus articles such as this one, buzzing brand Dodge all over Digital Land and beyond. Hard to put a value on all of that plus the fact that with all the chatter the masses will want to watch particularly that ad to see what all the noise was about. Now that’s marketing!
Polling Problems Perplex
Right or wrong, somebody complains
Opinion polls are essential for television news. Audiences seem drawn to them and news directors like drawing pictures with them. Just like TV ratings, when they point the wrong direction, pollsters are blamed.
Swiss public broadcaster SSR-SRG was soundly embarrassed last November when a public opinion poll released ahead of a politically charged ballot proved demonstrably wrong. The poll predicted – probably an inaccurate term – Swiss voters would defeat a referendum on banning construction of Islamic Minarets by 53%. In the referendum, the ban was approved by 57% of Swiss voters.
SSR-SRG was not pleased with results so off the mark. So much so, the broadcaster will no longer report polling results from Swiss pollster GfS, said SSR spokesperson Daniel Steiner to NZZ am Sonntag (January 17). The contract with GfS to deliver surveys to SSR-SRG hasn’t been severed, results simply won’t be used on the air. SSR-SRG news editors made the decision in consultation with General Director Armin Walpen.
Polling results can swing wildly, particularly during election campaigns, as Ukraine Inter channel talk-show host Savik Shuster complained over this last weekend. A campaign spokesperson for presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko charged that exit poll results were changed “under pressure,” reported in Ukrainian Pravda (January 17), and were “paid by Yanukovych.” As results from the election passed 50% (January 18) Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych will force Ukrainians back to the polling stations for a run-off on February 7th.
Shuster denied the charge. "When Inter began to carry (the exit polls), I said that something is not right,” he explained on his program Shuster Live (January 17). Now they are engaged in sociology.”
The problem, said the National Exit Poll Consortium, was lack of funding, which forced them to use fewer interviewers. (JMH)
Top firms offer Haiti aid
Free ads, free service
International aid group Médecins Sans Frontiéres has been offered free ads by Norwegian publisher Schibsted, the publisher announced Friday (January 16). The ad space is available on Schibsted websites.
“I hope the force of our site traffic can make a difference for MSF’s activities in Haiti,” said Aftonbladet Tillväxtmedier managing director Mats Eriksson.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation announced it will be offering a free information service to the people of Haiti. The text message service will be provided through mobile operator Digicell, owned by Irish broadcaster Denis O’Brien. (See Thomson Reuters statement here) (JMH)
International broadcasters in Haiti
local media “…in ruins.”
Information is vital in disaster zones. Last weeks 7+ earthquake in Haiti disrupted the tiny country’s infrastructure, including much of its media.
Radio France Internationale (RFI) has been operating several FM frequencies and, apparently, has emergency power supplies. The international broadcaster has turned over its frequencies to international aid organizations an hour each morning.
BBC World Service is offering special news and information services via its local Haitian affiliate Radio Lumiere. Voice of America (VOA) Creole service has set up an internet ‘hot line’ service to help locate families. Satellite internet access appears intact.
"There is very little local news,” said Haitian government advisor Gabriel Varret to PBS Newshour (January 13). “Most of the local news stations are off the air. I heard two all afternoon or evening since the quake. One station continues to work normal and that is radio RFI.”
Most radio and television stations were rendered quiet, said Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) (January 15). Offices of newspapers Le Matin and Le Nouvelliste survived the quake though, sadly, Le Nouvelliste director Max Chauvet was killed. Local radio stations Signal FM and Caraïbes FM continue to operate.
“The Haitian press is in ruins,” said RSF Canadian president François Buguingo. Offices of the National Association of Haitian Media were destroyed. (JMH)
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