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New radio broadcasting licenses in Cyprus have been put on hold for the next decade. The Ministry of Communications informed the Cyprus Radio Television Authority (CRTA) that there are no FM frequencies available covering the island, though small local licenses might become available.
The current 17 private radio broadcasters in Cyprus have their national licenses “locked in” for “at least a decade,” reported radiofono.gr (September 24) Sometime after 2024, said CRTA Executive Director Andreas Petrides, it’s on to DAB. (See more about media in Cyprus here)
Public broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) operates four radio channels available on FM and AM/MW.
Ah, summer!! Those lazy days by now just a memory, yes? The team at French media measurement institute Médiamétrie – some, at least – spent July and August collecting radio audience data. French radio executives can now scratch their heads and try to remember exactly what they were doing during the long lost summer.
Médiamétrie’s summer radio report is distinct from the normal quarterly release, smaller sample and a few special questions. In general, slightly fewer were listening (76.3%) and with a slightly reduced time spent listening compared to summer 2013. But there were more folks not hanging around the home residence listening, 67.4% from 66.5% last summer though time spent listening was considerably less. (See French summer audience trend chart here)
The usual big national channels, as usual, attracted most listeners; RTL on top, France Inter second. Both had lower market shares over the previous summer Regional public network France Bleu increased its share – think local weather and traffic reports – as did NRJ. Indeed, hot and happening music channels Fun Radio and SkyRock bumped up over last summer. Nostalgie did not, down to 3.8% from 4.8% year on year.
Summer 2014 was certainly filled with major news, largely international, that French listeners wanted to avoid, starting with Germany winning the World Cup. There were airline tragedies, the conflict in Ukraine and continued unrest in the Middle East. By the end of summer the French government was turned upside down. And, too, the weather wasn’t all that nice. But classical music channel Radio Classique increased its audience share by more than a third.
Heroic efforts to protect citizens from the scourge of foreign influence continues unabated in the Russian Federation. The State Duma overwhelmingly passed on first reading a measure to limit foreign ownership to 20% shareholding and prevent foreign shareholders from naming executives and editors, reported Vedomosti (September 24). An amendment prepared for second reading later this week would effectively deny distribution to foreign international television channels.
Most foreign media owners in the Russian Federation have fled over the last few years, RTL Group being the most recent. Those remaining include the Financial Times, News Corporation and Finnish publishing group Sanoma, owners of the respected business daily and portal Vedomosti. Also affected would be Swedish broadcaster Modern Times Group (MTG), 38% shareholder in television broadcaster CTC Media, German publishers H Burda and Bauer Media and Swiss publisher Edipresse as well as Russian versions of Eurosport, Disney and Discovery Communications channels and Turner Broadcasting (Time Warner) owned Cartoon Network. (See more on media in Russia here)
Dmitry Gudkov, the sole MP voting against the measure, said it would “ruin” the Russian media business. One of the bills sponsors, MP Vadim Dengin, noted “huge information attacks on the country’s leadership” and events on Russia’s borders. “For me”, he said, “the security of the country is paramount and business is secondary.”
After Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin announced he would, could or might cut Russia from the world wide web, there has been considerable backtracking. That would only happen “in case of emergency,” said a spokesperson, quoted by Vedomosti (September 19). Meanwhile the Russian Defense Ministry opened a Facebook page.
The European Commission (EC) has raised the threat level to Google-Com 3. The US-based global technology giant better go “in the right direction” or it might be funding the entire EC for the foreseeable future, said outgoing Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia to the European Parliament, reported euobserver.com (September 23). “We now need to see if Google can address these issues and allay our concerns.”
That Google file at the DG Competition office would have been closed if Sr. Almunia had his preference. But, no; Google haters led by German publisher Axel Springer, French culture vultures and tech competitor Microsoft want nothing less than sanctions – with cash – and exerted a bit of pressure to keep the heat on Google. After all, without Google indexing the world wide web and introducing advertisers to cheap programmatic ads publishers would still be lathered in all the money and power they had 50 years ago.
Members of the European Parliament cheered as Sr. Almunia suggested DG Competition might begin looking at all corners of Google’s business with possible reparations as much as US$6 billion.
The Google people are waging their own ground campaign, quite literally. With far less notice they announced construction of a new data center near the Dutch city Groningen, reported Volkskrant.nl (September 23). Google will spend €600 million building a data center the size of 40 football fields and employ on completion in 2017 about 150 “well-trained technicians,” said Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Henk Kamp.
Creative industries are highly valued among nations. Those industries, obviously, include the media sector. Media usage can then be correlated with values placed on their creation, yes?
Media giant Bertelsmann set about exploring the question among German, French and British media users with UK media researcher Enders Analysis and the report was issued this week. Germany, France and the UK are European largest economies, powerhouses in the media sector and their citizens are consuming more of it all the time. Bertelsmann and its majority-owned subsidiary RTL Group have significant presence in those country’s publishing and broadcasting.
A study by TNS of media users in the three countries supporting the report shows most Germans and British consider themselves creative (72% and 70%, respectively) the French a bit less so (65%). Germans, in general, are more likely to consume traditional media – TV, radio and magazines – and less likely to surf the web, watch videos or go to the cinema. The British are more likely to read books and equally likely with the French to surf the web and watch videos. The French are more likely to go to the cinema. In each of the three countries media usage is highly correlated with age; younger people more often watching videos, older people reading books and magazines.
Four out of five Germans surveyed (81%) view the creative industries as economically important or very important, followed by the French (67%) then the British (59%). By contrast, private-sector creative industries contributed €700 per capita to the non-financial British economy in 2011 (Eurostat), €605 in Germany and €545 in France. The Enders Analysis report, noting national sources and definitions, shows differences in creative industry employment; 1.2 million in France, 1.1 million in Germany and 1 million employed in the UK.
The Estonian government is moving forward on a plan to create a Russian-language television channel within the next year. The channel will be part of Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) and will operate from studios in Narva, the country’s third largest city, on the Russian border, dominated by an ethnic Russian population. More immediately, ERRs Russian language web portal and radio channel Raadio 4 will be getting additional funding.
The Culture Ministry proposed in May a television counter-weight to channels from the Russian Federation and public broadcaster ERR suggested it might cost €6.5 million a year. Enthusiasm for the project cooled until an Estonian anti-corruption investigator was snatched by Russian agents and hustled to Moscow. Russian state television channels portrayed the incident quite different from facts known in Estonia. (See more about Russian-language media in the Baltics here)
The television channel will “provide objective and diverse information about Estonia and the world and should promote common Estonian community in the sense of providing success stories of Estonian culture and approaches to common problems,” said delfi.ee (September 19). The government noted that Russian-speaking Estonians watch a lot of TV and will be invited to participate in programming decisions. ERR executives will present budget requirements in the next few weeks.
Reality TV shows rarely draw rave reviews. Critics – highbrow and otherwise – have always been dismissive and some to a cultural absolute. Broadcasters love the format, largely for the same reasons: they’re cheap to produce and get decent ratings.
The Conference of German media regulators (GVK) and private broadcasters association VPRT reached agreement on placement of disclaimers stating “this story is fictitious” or “characters are fictitious” or something of that nature. The broadcasters wanted this “code of conduct” to be voluntary. The regulators wanted text big enough to read, like any product labeling. Both parties seem pleased with the compromise a year in the making. (See VPRT statement here - in German)
A year ago the State media regulator for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein complained that viewers – particularly young viewers – might not appreciate the difference between a scripted reality show and, say, a documentary. “When the border is blurred the credibility of television is harmed,” said Medienanstalt Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein chairman Lothar Hay, quoted by Horizont (August 22, 2013). And so commenced a long discussion resulting in agreement to place a disclaimer in the end credits.
An enduring hot topic, usually around election cycles, is funding public broadcasters. The radio and television license fee, more or less the traditional funding source for European public broadcasters, has long been attacked by those in some quarters. The specter of license fee police knocking on the door, extremely rare in reality, has caused governments and public broadcasters to think hard about a fair means of funding.
A survey conducted by Swedish public TV broadcaster STV revealed that a solid majority – 60% - would prefer a direct tax to support public broadcasting, reported medievarlden.se (September 19), with only 20% preferring the current license fee mechanism. A scant 5% like the idea of funding through advertising. SVT’s audience research department surveyed 1,200 people. (See more about media in Sweden here)
Most public broadcasters consider some variation of the license fee as the “best worst” solution to funding. Direct government funding, they say, is a bad idea. “I think it is absolutely crucial that public broadcasting retains an independence from Parliament so journalists are not afraid to criticize the incumbent government, individual ministers or used as a weapon in parliamentary debate,” said SVT General Director Eva Hamilton.
Swedish public broadcasting changed rules on license fee collections in February 2013, pushing into the digital age. Householders with PCs and smartphones became subject to the device-based license fee. Alas, Sweden’s highest court ruled last June that as computers, tablets and smartphones were not designed as radio or TV receiving devices the public broadcasting license fee could not be applied to their owners.
SVT will have a new General Director around the first of the year, Ms Hamilton announced she’d be stepping down last April. The new General Director will be Hanna Stjärne, coming from the newspaper business. Ms Hamilton’s advice to Ms Stjärne is “be brave,” quoted by dagensmedia.se (September 16). Following a center-left win in recent Swedish elections Ms Hamilton has been suggested as a possible candidate for Culture Minister.
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