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Where the Christmas holiday is widely celebrated radio broadcasters, regardless of music format, begin salting in seasonal tunes around the first of December. Some begin earlier and some eventually play all-Christmas music all the time. Radio sales managers favor this to encourage holiday ad sales. The music industry always supplies new gift-giving ideas.
A local UK commercial station is making a big deal out of not playing Christmas music until the very last. Morning DJs at Jack FM in Berkshire have “refused” to play songs of the holiday, reported localberkshire.co.uk (November 25). The well-orchestrated “protest” has had a life on social media, of course. (See more about radio audience here)
The syndicated Jack FM brand originated in North America and is based on a television commercial – “We play what we want” – meant to differentiate from tight playlist stations. There are six in the UK, many in the US and Canada, but the format hasn’t translated to the wider world.
From a quick survey of different radio sources it appears that Sweden’s top rated A/C station Lugna Favoriter is the earliest to add Christmas music, starting November 21st.
An official investigation into corruption by four former Turkish government ministers is out of bounds to journalists. An Ankara Magistrate’s Court banned all reporting of the parliamentary commission of inquiry until the end of December. The ban on reporting activities of the Turkish parliament is “unprecedented,” said Hurriyet (November 26), though court ordered news coverage blackouts have been issued.
The ban is necessary to protect privacy rights of the accused, said Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag at a press conference, reported by turkiyegazetesi.com.tr (November 26). “The investigation is confidential.” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the bribery investigation into former ministers aligned with his AK Party a “judicial coup” by opponents. (See more about media in Turkey here)
Some leaders of Turkey’s news media did not take the reporting ban lightly. “We will continue to convey to our readers, in a sober and honest way, any information about an event important enough to warrant an investigation in Parliament,” said Cumhuriyet Publishing CEO Akin Atalay, in a statement. “This decision is clearly contrary to law.” Several news portals vowed to continue following the corruption scandal.
It is as it has always been. Radio listening in Paris is like radio listening in France, except when it isn’t. Measurement institute Médiamétrie released this week audience estimates for Ile-de-France (IDF – greater Paris), one week after the national survey results. Some trends are apparent in both. But, then, “Paris will always be Paris,” noted La Lettre Pro de la Radio editor Frédéric Brulhatour (November 26).
First, RTL is still first. Market share jumped to 14.3% (Monday-Friday) from 12.6% one year on and the national general interest channels’ best result in more than two years. Other national channels in the same category were punished, rankings unchanged. Public channel France Inter dropped to 10.1% market share from 10.6%. Europe 1, which lost to RTL a show host at the beginning of the September-October period, plummeted to 9.3% market share from 10.5%. With few good sports stories to fuel the talk shows, RMC dropped to 7.0% market share from 8.0%. (See September-October IDF survey chart here)
But 5th place in the IDF listening estimates went to public all-news channel France Info, up to 5.2% market share from 4.1% year on year. National hit music channel NRJ tumbled to 4.3% market share from 5.1%, quite similar to recent national results. (See details of September-October national survey here) National rap and hip hop channel Skyrock dropped to 3.8% market share from 4.1%, rather different from the national results.
Two oldies channels, of a sort, posted big gains among greater Paris listeners. Radio Classique – oldies, like Mozart – ranks 8th with 3.4% market share, up from 2.3%. In 9th place is Nostalgie, 3.3% market share from 2.2% year on year. Aggregate market share for French national channels dropped to 23.3% from 24.8%. Big losers include RFM, RTL2 and Rire & Chansons.
Tenth spot in the IDF went to FIP, the local public station formerly known as France Inter Paris. FIP is mostly a music station, well distributed on FM through the IDF, beloved in Paris for its jazzy and somewhat eclectic programming. Folks in southern-most parts of the UK have been known to hoist huge antenna to pick it up. Now they have the internet. Well, FIP posted its best showing in four years, 2.7% market share from 2.3%.
As the internet’s web of possibilities extends its reach into the four corners of our planet, most everybody is happy. In its annual Measuring the Information Society report, released this week, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shows an ever shrinking non-connected world with fewer people isolated from YouTube and Facebook. Developing countries are developing information and communication technologies (ICTs) faster though still significantly less-connected than richer North Americans, Europeans and Asians.
Within the report is the annual ICT Development Index (IDI) ranking 166 UN Member States by a composite score on access, usage and skill. At the top are the wealthy – high GNP – countries of Northern and Western Europe, North America and Asia/Pacific. At the other end of the list are the UN-designated Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in central Africa. (See ITU presser here)
Moving up in the rankings year on year are the UAE, Oman and Qatar in the Middle East, Fiji in the Pacific region, the Atlantic island nation of Cape Verde, Thailand in Southeast Asia plus Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina and Georgia. Pushed down the list in the surge from developing countries were Ireland, Croatia, Greece, Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland and Montenegro. Fiji and Cape Verde are routing points for undersea cables.
Countries ranked highest have not only have well-developed ICT infrastructure but, said the report, “relevant content.” Much of that content is tied directly to big data, the economic driver internet and mobile technologies. “The steadily growing number of Internet users has been reflected in a steep increase in the volume of online content,” said the ITU presser. “Social media applications are contributing significantly to driving Internet use, as more and more people create, share and upload content onto social sites.”
Denmark tops the new IDI ranking, bumping off high bandwidth South Korea, now number two. The Central African Republic is in last place. In the UN’s 2013 Happiness Index Denmark along with Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands and Sweden topped the chart with Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi, Benin and Togo at the bottom. As every statistician knows, correlation is not causation.
Government movements to reform public broadcasting endlessly swirl like the falling autumn leaves. Italy’s government has floated a plan to shrink public broadcaster RAI’s board of directors and, perhaps, shrink the household license fee. Last week 35% of infrastructure subsidiary RAIWay floated in an IPO on the Milan Stock Exchange.
Details of the reform plan include redefining the general director’s role to that of a company chief executive named by the board of directors then elected by the board of supervisors. There will be fewer directors, from nine to five. Governance and decision making at RAI has long suffered from political infighting.
Financing issues being top of mind in Italy, the most daring proposal would reduce the household license fee from €113 per month to just €65. The caveat – a big one – is the license fee will be charged through household electric utility bills making it rather inescapable. As a significant number of Italians – roughly 30% - shirk their responsibility to support public broadcasting this could raise an additional €1.8 billion a year. The overall intent, colorfully observed La Repubblica (November 23), is for RAI to “no longer (be) an assisted-living company with short-range planning hanging on to the udders of the (State) treasury.” (See more about media in Italy here)
“We need a parliamentary debate, not a decree,” said RAI supervisory board chairman Roberto Fico, quoted by La Repubblica (November 24). “It looks like a campaign ad, typical of (Prime Minister Matteo) Renzi. He knows it is the most hated tax (and) in this way can say it is halved.” Mr. Fico is a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies aligned with the eurosceptic anti-corruption Five Star Movement political party.
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