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Yes, Southeast Asia is still a destination
More to follow, indeed
Turner Broadcasting will soon have a new regional service for news channel CNN. The company announced (February 28) a joint venture with PT Trans Media to operate CNN Indonesia, with appropriate website, in the Indonesian language. It will be headquartered in Jakarta. Other details, including launch dates, are left to the imagination.
Trans Media is part of Chairul Tanjung’s CT Corp conglomerate, which includes banks and retail. The company owns general interest TV channels Trans TV and Trans7 as well as a controlling majority of pay-TV, IPTV and cable provider TelkomVision.
Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific is part of Time Warner. While the CNN International English-language news channel is ubiquitous there are only a few language specific joint ventures outside of Latin America. CNN Turk launched in 1999 by Dogan Media Group. The cable-distributed Japanese service – CNNj – launched in 2008, followed by CNN Chile, which is separate from CNN in Spanish. Web-only CNN Arabic arrived in 2002. (See more on Time Warner and CNN here)
Indonesia has been one of the hottest of hot growth markets, with a population of 250 million and annual GDP growth rate in the 5% range, apart from sniffles in 2013.
The incredible lightness of television
Stayin' alive
The great digital dividend for television operators is the relative simplicity of offering new channels. Technology is a wonderful thing. By consequence more channels offer programmers endless opportunities, each seeking a new and bigger slice of the television audience.
Polsat News, part of Polsat Group, is lightening up its all-news format, replacing a daytime business news hour produced for the Polsat Biznez channel with “a lifestyle program with an international theme…presented in a light, sometimes a bit humorous way,” reported wirtualnemedia.pl (February 27). In addition a feature segment will be added presenting ”colorful, intriguing or surprising statements from politicians, experts and celebrities.” It replaces a world news review that moves to the soon to launch Polsat News Plus channel, which replaces Polsat Biznez. (See more on media in Poland here)
Polsat Group offers about two dozen television channels in Poland, making it the second biggest TV broadcaster. The company reported Q4 2013 profit 4% lower year on year at PLN 92 million with an increase in overall audience share and ad revenue. “Our aim is to maintain audience share above 23% in this fragmented television market and competitive advertising market,” said Polsat Group board spokesperson Maciej Stec, quoted by telix.pl (February 27). “We expect in 2014 a single-digit increase in due to projected current positive macroeconomic indicators.” Audience and revenue increases for the television group came largely from the TV4 and TV6 acquisitions last year.
Further lightness will soon arrive as the company prepares an all-disco music TV channel.
The web delivers for radio
A question of counting
Digital radio is a broad palate. Big radio broadcasters in France have, unsurprisingly, their own view. Digital radio of the terrestrial kind – DAB and DAB+ - has largely been forsaken, web radio preferred.
The benefits of one platform over another and, more broadly, the whole of digital platforms to a broadcaster is one of those conference topics from consultants looking for clients. A study by the OJD, nominally the reporter of newspaper circulation, audited the live streams of more than 6,000 French web radio channels in January and discovered – voilà – web radio brand extensions certainly attract listeners or users or somebody. (See more on digital radio here)
The secret, also unsurprising, is having lots of those web radio brand extensions. NRJ Group, according to the data reported by Le Figaro (February 27), has an advantage with 233 web radio channels, 157 of which are direct NRJ brand extensions. NRJ claims 20% of listening attributed to web radio compared with a 9% average. Of course, this is all about advertising: more ad space available on web radio channels makes a great sales tool.
French measurement institute Médiamétrie does not currently gather listening data on all those web radio channels.
Because of TV everybody knows what’s happening
like it or not
Those following recent events in Ukraine no doubt recognize, without irony, the displeasure expressed by Russian Federation officials. Their man, caught between a rock and more rocks, did a runner, leaving the pet ostrich to fend for itself. It will come as no surprise that some of the displeasure is pointed at Ukrainian media.
“We are concerned about much of what is happening in (Ukraine’s) Parliament,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a joint news conference in Moscow with Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, reported Ukrainian Pravda (February 25), referring to an instant law change removing the Russian language as an official language. “What's happening around the media worries us too. We know what happened the other day on Inter TV channel.”
Inter is one of the most watched TV channels in Ukraine and, like the other big FTA channels, has come under criticism for avoiding news coverage of the Maidan demonstrations until the tipping point was reached then applying something of an on-air airbrush. That all came unglued last week as TV reporter Lydia Pankiv appeared on an Inter TV talk show, ostensibly to discuss reconciliation of factions in Ukraine. (See more on media in Ukraine here)
“I came here today only because I found out that this is a live broadcast,” she said as the show host became slack-jawed, reported Telekritika (February 22). “I want to say that I also despise Inter because for three months it deceived viewers and spread enmity among citizens of this country. And now you are calling for peace and unity. Yes, you have the right to try to clear your conscience, but I think you should run this program on your knees. I’ve brought these photos here for you, so that you see my dead friends in your dreams and understand that you also took part in that. And now, I’m sorry, I don’t have time. I’m going to Maidan. Glory to Ukraine.”
Vague rules OK because they’re vague
The sum of the parts rules
Private sector radio broadcasters have often marched onto the regulatory battleground to face their public sector counterparts. The war – excuse the analogy – covers considerable territory. The banner unfurled by radio broadcasters in the private sector often proclaims that public broadcasters have encroached on its territory.
In 2011, Austrian private radio association VÖP complained to media regulator KommAustria that the radio channels of public broadcaster ORF, particularly pop music channel Ö3, overstepped the public service mission by offering more music, less speech and lots of commercials. Specifically, the VÖP argued the speech percentage in ORF radio programs is too low.
After studying this question for two years the policy masters at KommAustria finally issued a decision (February 20). No, the public broadcaster doesn’t violate that public service mission because the enabling legislation, the ORF Act, is non-specific on spoken word content. And further, the ORF’s public service mission is aggregated across all radio channels. The VÖP had argued ORF radio channels should be evaluated separately.
“If the ORF Act is so porous that it misses even basic questions, it must be redrafted as soon as possible,” said VÖP chairman Klaus Schweighofer in a press statement. He also suggested the VÖP might seek redress at the European Commission even though it has long considered issues in the radio broadcasting sector best determined by national regulation. (JMH)
Social media shrinks the living room
togetherness is so last century
As the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games become a moment in history, the media analytics are dissecting it all. Big media events offer lots of numbers to crunch.
One of the earliest comes from media buyer OMD released even before the closing finale. Unsurprising as the World Mobile Congress gets underway in Barcelona, it reveals big numbers for the second screen during the Games; 30% using a mobile device while watching the curling, skating, skiing and all the rest. Almost a quarter of those surveyed (23%) interacted online.
“People do not need to be all together in the living room sofa to discuss the games,” said OMD’s Sergio Rodriguez, quoted by El Mundo (February 21). “Your friends can each be at home and comment on what's going on television, exchange ideas with each other through social networks.” (JMH)
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