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Looking to radio, digital expansion
“Why not?”
Reviewing for financial analysts the 2009 results (March 23), Mondadori Group CEO Maurizio Costa was expansive. Many new ventures, he said, “could see the light this year.”
When analysts asked about radio, Costa said “Why not? Radio could be a growth area for external development.” Mondadori, owned by Berlusconi family investment house Fininvest, operates national radio channel R101. (See more on media in Italy here)
Mr. Costa is also studying e-books and digital broadcasting. Last year was “the most difficult in twenty years,” he said. (JMH)
New children’s radio channel licensed
Digital for kids
Radio Junior, a digital radio channel for children, will take to the airwaves in June from Slovak public radio. The channel will be the 3rd digital-only radio channel from SRo, which was granted the license this week (March 23). It is SRo’s 9th radio channel.
The broadcaster is taking a cautious approach to the new endeavor. At first programs will be taken from SRo archives. Early next year original, new programs will appear, some hosted by children.
The channel will be available on the Web and satellite, like SRo’s other two digital channels – Rádio Litera and Rádio Klasika. When the Slovak public TV digital multiplex opens at the end of June the radio channels might be included.
Another vote for 3D TV
Very soon, says Dracula
Is 3D TV the next big thing? Will the funny glasses become a fashion statement? Central European Media Enterprises (CME) CEO Adrian Sarbu is a believer.
“Next year you will see the 3D in this country,” said Mr. Sarbu to the Czech magazine Proc ne?! (Why Not?!) “You'll still need special glasses but 3D will come very soon.”
Sarbu compared 3D TV development to the advent of color broadcasting. “Promoting the new 3D technology will affect the production of content,” he said.
Asked about CME’s Czech powerhouse TV Nova, Sarbu said “classic television stations will survive and grow. TV Nova in five years will be mostly news and non-fiction entertainment… but not so many films. They will be on other channels, like Nova Cinema.” (More on CME here)
Sarbu was also asked about his arrival in Prague, CME’s headquarters, from his native Romania. “I got nicknamed Dracula,” he admitted. “And I'm doing everything I can to get it confirmed.” (JMH)
Business station increases local news
Looks for advertisers
St. Petersburg, Russia radio station Business FM hopes an increase in local news will bring in more listeners and advertisers. The station increased local content to about 40% on March 22, reports AdLife (March 24), with more focus on St. Petersburg and northwest Russia.
"We have high hopes for the St. Petersburg team,” said station manager Leonid Saveliev, “and we want these people to find contact with representatives of local businesses.”
Business FM has suffered, at least in perception, by the Moscow orientation of its primary platform. (See more on media in Russia here)
Business FM is owned by United Media Holdings (UMH), which released positive 2009 results. Net revenue increased 150% over 2008 to US$ 11.6 million. UMH owns 4 national and 2 local radio channels plus newspapers and magazines in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. UMH is publicly traded on the Frankfurt exchange. (JMH)
Public broadcaster can be privatized
But not just yet
A black-hole of controversy opened when Portugal’s Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos suggested (March 22) public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) could be privatized. The Portuguese government is looking at several State-owned enterprises for possible privatization.
Minister dos Santos reported to Parliament that the Budget and Finance committee saw no reason for a public broadcaster, but for now, RTP wasn’t on the list for privatization because of its poor state of financial affairs. “First, the company must rebalance itself financially before a hypothetical privatization.”
In Parliament the next day (March 23), Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jorge Lacão stepped back sharply, explaining that the Finance Minister was only saying the RTP’s financial recovery is so important every new idea should be considered. “The government has neither the intention nor the will” to privatize RTP, said Lacão on the Parliament floor.
Minister Lacão told the Parliament a revision of the law on television is being readied and a revised law on radio will moved to public consultation next week.
Social Democratic Party (PSD) presidential candidate Pedro Passos Coelho proposed RTP’s privatization in February. (JMH)
Flying Off The Sinking Ship
It has the smell of jumping from a sinking ship although everyone says it isn’t so. Carolyn McCall is quitting as CEO of the UK’s Guardian Media Group to become CEO of Easy Jet, the European low-cost airline. Of course, there are all the customary plaudits from Guardian executives wishing her well, and she, in her parting statement, emphasizes she is leaving the company “with complete confidence that its financial position is secure” (See more on UK newspapers here)
But, still, she’s leaving after having recently gotten rid of the Guardian’s regional newspapers at a fire sale price, and while the Observer has just undergone yet another relaunch the gauntlet there seems to be if it doesn’t make it this time then it gets dumped, too. Everything is aimed at financially protecting the jewel in the crown, The Guardian. The newspaper business isn’t much fun these days and to be left with just one or two titles is not much of an empire to run.
Not that she is going to have an easy time at Easy Jet. Its top three executives have announced in recent months they are leaving and the conflict is with the company’s largest shareholder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who started the airline in 1995 and oversaw its going public five years later. He, with his family, owns some 38% of the shares and the public still sees him as the airline’s public face. He was asked once whether a low fare airline company could afford high maintenance costs to which he replied, “If you think safety is expensive, try a crash!”
He wants to cut back on the airline’s expansion during these difficult economic times and there is a signed huge Airbus deal at stake. Current executives wanted to go full speed ahead but grew weary of fighting the founder; doubtful McCall would have gotten the job if her views didn’t coincide with those of the dominant shareholder.
Ringier and Springer Join Together Their E. European Operations
It was a marriage just waiting to happen and now it has – Switzerland’s Ringier and Germany’s Axel Springer are combining their considerable east European media operations into a joint venture that the two hope to take public in the next three to five years when print’s economy should have hopefully improved. (See more on Axel Springer here)
Ringier, based in Zurich, and Springer, based in Berlin, are family owned, they have the same mother tongue (well, Swiss German is different but they speak high German, too) and both got into eastern Europe early after the fall of communism and when times were good they cleaned up. But the global recession has really rocked E. European economies and the huge media profits have disappeared. So combining these operations is a neat trick to reduce costs, particularly management costs – the venture will be run out of Zurich.
There is surprisingly little overlap in the business -- even though both expanded quickly into east Europe when communism fell it’s as though each thought it would not be financially prudent for the most part to invest in the other’s back yard – so the norm is mostly that whereby Springer may be dominant in one country (say, Poland) Ringier may be dominant in another. Bringing it all together makes very good sense.
IPO delayed, or pulled or something
Alternate financing found
The previously planned London IPO by Russian media company Prof-Media is off… for now.
The float was cancelled after the company secured a credit line from Sberbank of RUB 7 billion (about €175 million), the Financial Times reported (March 23). Prof-Media owner Interros is sitting on a pile of debt – more than €2 billion – to VTB Bank, which was secured by shares of another Interros company, Norilsk Nickel. Yep, it’s complicated. Interros owner Vladmir Potanin hoped to raise about €400 million floating about 40% of Prof-Media. (More on complicated Russian media here)
The IPO is just postponed, maybe a year, says RBC Daily (March 23). After the credit facility was secured the somewhat more distant IPO may float 10% of the company in hopes of raising between €60 and €75 million.
Financial analysts in Russia simply shrug. An IPO might not be the best way to raise cash, whether for “development” or simply paying down the VTB loan.
“We have received several proposals from market participants on the development of Prof-Media,” said Interros Deputy General Director Larisa Zelkova to RBC Daily. The usual suspects - Renaissance Capital and Troika Dialog – were mentioned. (JMH)
Britain’s Libel Laws “Chilling”
The UK government is proposing libel reform legislation making it more difficult to start libel proceedings in the UK – especially by “libel tourists” from outside the UK – and that “public interest” should be an allowed defense in the hope it will encourage more investigative journalism.
But there is a catch – the proposed legislation will have to wait until after the next general election expected in early May. If Labor wins then the legislation gets introduced to the new Parliament; if the Tories win – well, no word yet whether they will pick up the mantle.
Justice Minister Jack Straw said, “Our current libel laws need to achieve a fair balance between allowing people to protect their reputations from defamatory allegations, and ensuring that freedom of expression and the public’s right to know on matters of public interest are not necessarily impeded. At the moment, we believe the balance is tilted too much in favor of the former.”
“Libel tourism” has become a major media cri de coeur in Britain. Foreign claimants are pursuing libel cases in the UK against foreign publications just because the offending article appeared on the Internet and therefore was available in the UK. The chief judge for England and Wales said last year that Parliament needed to take a look at that.
Do You Show The White House Or The UK Parliament?
You’re the CNN International producer sitting in the control room in Atlanta with the network showing from The White House live the Obama health care signing ceremony – the biggest US domestic story since Obama’s election -- when a continent away up pops the British foreign minister in Parliament to announce the UK is expelling an Israeli diplomat because of forged British passports. Do you stay with Obama or switch to Parliament?
If you’re an American domestic network it’s easy – you stay with Obama – but if you are an international network what event is more important? CNNI made the right decision and switched to the UK Parliament while keeping a small mute box at the bottom of the screen showing Obama talking.
The network cutaway from Parliament just when the Opposition had its chance to question the foreign minister – a pity because some of those questions were the kind that the foreign minister found difficult to answer which makes live TV news coverage so riveting – but at least CNNI went to its correspondent standing outside the Israeli embassy in London and got his instant analysis. And then it was back to the White House.
Actually the timing wasn’t too bad – all international viewers missed was Obama back-patting all those involved in getting the legislation passed –not riveting TV -- the actual Bill signing with 20 pens had yet to come.
Recently on the BBC’s The Weakest Link quiz program a contestant was asked what the “C” in CNN stood for and the best the contestant could come up with was “Continental”. Why not?
Keywords are fair game, almost
Trademarks not a exclusive right
Google’s AdWords do not infringe on trademark owners, said the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on a case brought by luxury good marketer LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The brand owner is one of many challenging search engine’s business of selling keywords to anybody with the highest bid. The ECJ ruled that Google’s AdWords practice does not violate European Union laws. It is considered a major victory for the search giant.
“Google has not infringed trademark law by allowing advertisers to purchase keywords corresponding to their competitors' trademarks,” said the ECJ statement (March 23). Google must, said the ECJ, remove ads when brand owners complain.
This particular case was referred to the ECJ for guidance by French courts after several French branded goods marketers, including Louis Vuitton, sued Google for trademark infringement. The whole ruling, which returns the case to French courts, is a bit more nuanced than an outright dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims.
“If a trademark has been used as a keyword, the proprietor of that trademark cannot rely, as against Google, on the exclusive right which it derives from its mark,” said the ECJ statement.
“By contrast, it can invoke that right against those advertisers which, by means of a keyword corresponding to its mark, arrange for Google to display ads which make it impossible for average internet users to establish” the logical brand ownership.
Google appears to be winning another victory - in the court of public opinion – as it prepares to redirect its Chinese portal to Hong Kong after prolonged discussions with the Chinese government on censorship and hacking failed. (JMH)
Murdoch’s Times & Sunday Times Lose More Than £1 million Weekly
Times Newspapers, publisher of Murdoch’s Times and Sunday Times in the UK lost £72 million (€80 million, $108 million) in the last fiscal year ending in June, 2009, and while his tabloid Sun and News of The World posted a £40.3 million pre-tax profit (€44.7 million, $60.5 million), the net still leaves an annual loss of more than £31 million (€34.4 million, $46.5 million) for his four UK nationals with the final figure depending on the tax bill.
For the so-called quality papers, the year’s results were truly shocking – a 60% rise in operating losses. And while the tabloids showed a decent pre-tax profit, that was down 10% from the year before. (See more on UK newspapers here)
It’s numbers like these that might give credence to the rumors a couple of months back that the two Times’ were being shopped around, although no one said anything for the record. James Murdoch runs News Corp.’s European operations and, unlike his father, he does not have printer’s ink flowing through his veins.
The Times has yet to make a profit under Murdoch, but the Sunday Times has been hugely profitable, and usually its profits more than smother the daily’s losses. But in this economic world it would appear that both newspapers have been hit so hard that a new business plan is probably needed.
A Reason Why Canadians Surf The Web More Than They Watch TV
A poll has reported for the first time that Canadians spend more time online (18.1 hours weekly) than they do watching TV (16.9 hours weekly), although one reason for that may be that there’s some TV viewing happening on the Internet, too.
Guys are spending more time on the Web than gals, but the difference between age groups is minimal, according to the Ipsos Reid survey.
Alfred Hermida, a journalism professor at the University of British Columbia, told the Montreal Gazette he sees that Internet usage will continually increase in the future. “We're socialized by the media we grow up with. If you grow up with newspapers, then newspapers are part of the fabric of how you live your life. If you have a generation that grew up with television, then TV becomes part of your life. The younger generation is used to getting their news, information, entertainment online. That doesn't mean TV doesn't play a role there, but it isn't as dominant as it has been for other generations."
Stop dat jammin’
“really fast”
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels (March 22) communicated “grave concern” over the Iranian government’s jamming of Western broadcasters satellite channels.
A draft of the statement had been circulating since last week, reported Foreign Policy (March 17). In it French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle asked EU foreign policy Baroness Catherine Ashton to approve strong language, telling the Iranians to stop it or, well, we’ll do something.
Through the weekend “something” started to take shape. The French government is not pleased that the Iranian government has targeted satellite operator EutelSat. One punishment might be denying the Iranian government and its subsidiaries use of EutelSat. Another would be blocking European technology companies from exporting to Iran, including the Nokia Siemens mobile phone equipment joint venture.
“Time is running out with Iran and time is running out really fast,” said Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb in a statement.
Iranian jamming is believed to be on the agenda of top level meetings at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) this week in Geneva. (JMH)
Twitter, Web TV are gimmicks
Tricks are not even for kids
Digital options added to websites – from RSS feeds to Web TV – aren’t viewed as added-value, says a TNS Emnid study of German Web users. If Twitter links and such mean to attract young people, they don’t. A mere 2% have ever used them on newspaper websites.
The study, released March 19, focused on online users who visit newspaper websites. Rather than expect all the new digital tricks to pump up website visits, “newspapers should focus on… their perceived strengths,” said TNS researcher Michael Voss in a statement.
Online users of newspaper websites seem to like “latest news” and “frequently read” side-bars. The rest, not so much. About 4% have ever accessed video streams on news websites.
It seems, according to the study, news websites need to reflect “all the journalistic qualities of a classic newspaper.”
There could be a message here. And it’s old. “Stick to the knitting,” said Bob Waterman and Tom Peters in In Search of Excellence a generation ago. “All that glitters isn’t gold,” also comes to mind. (JMH)
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