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Media watchers in Turkey and internationally have been stunned - political watchers not so much - at the effective take-over of major broadcaster and publisher Ipek Medya Group after the government appointed trustees to replace company management. That was Monday (October 26). Riot police Wednesday morning forcefully entered the Istanbul headquarters of television channels Kanaltürk and Bugün TV and newspapers Bugün and Millet. Staff members assembled to protect the gates were met with pepper spray and water cannon. Live reporting from the incident was curtailed, TV crews arrested, equipment disabled.
Ipek Medya Group is owned by Koza Ipek Holding, a group of 22 companies linked to exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. The media outlets are well-known as critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Justice and Development (AK) Party. General elections are being re-run this weekend after the AK Party lost its parliamentary majority in June. (See more about elections and media here)
“All of them will be held accountable after November 1st,” warned AK Party deputy Aydin Unal, quoted by CNN Türk (October 27), referring to critical media outlets and the elections. “If you say something, it is said to the world. We are not in a comfortable environment. So why not do something now?” (See more about media in Turkey here)
"Today is a black day,” said media regulator RTüK council member Esat Ciplak, quoted by haberler.com (October 28). “The seizure of the media group is a blatant violation of the constitution. I will not accept this nor will Turkey.”
Removing itself completely from Russian Federation assets, Modern Times Group (MTG) announced closing this week of the Viasat Russia cable and satellite business to outdoor advertising operator Anatoly Karyakin. Other international channels were sold to an affiliate of Russian private equity firm Baring Vostok. Earlier this year MTG cashed out of entertainment TV operator CTC Media.
The pitter-patter of foreign media companies and investors selling off Russian assets, usually at significant discounts, has been something of a stampede in recent months. Laws restricting foreign ownership and control were passed and strengthened over the last year. Some foreign owners mistakenly believed, after international hue and cry, Russian lawmakers might roll-back the new rules. Once reality set-in MTG, Axel Springer, Sanoma and others cut the best deals they could. (See more on media in Russia here)
Baring Vostok Capital Partners has long history in Russia, once owned by Baring Brothers, the bank of the Czars. Russian business news portal rbc.ru suggested (October 27) that Baring Vostok will quickly exit the investment in favor of National Media Group as the firm has foreign investors beyond the legal share capital limit.
Baring Vostok was mentioned by rbc.ru as a potential buyer for the Burda Russia assets. Burda Russia, owned by German publisher H Burda and Russia’s biggest magazine publisher, is “considering options,” said State news agency RAI Novosti (October 13). Earlier this year Burda attempted to negotiate staying in Russia.
Danish TV broadcasters - and media buyers - will likely be the first in the world to benefit from a measurement system that collects real-time audience estimates for everything in the video space.
A new measurement pact with TNS Gallup will effectively replace the current TV meter with, it seems, something else from the first of 2017. Exactly what or how is under discussion.
“Modern media measurement is extremely complex,” said TV2 research director and measurement JIC chairperson Mette Lehrmann in a statement, quoted by digitalt.tv (October 26), who added that this will be more expensive. “Changing behavior and multiple screens, players and formats brings new and increasing demands on our measurement.” The upgrade - widely discussed in most developed TV markets - had been part of the last measurement negotiation in 2011 but no agreement was found. (See more about measurement here)
Audience measurement upgrades have always been demanded by media buyers and their clients. If ads can be placed in or around it, the ad people want to know about it right now. With people watching - or just looking - via online and mobile platforms those doing the measuring keep searching for sophisticated “grand unifying” solutions all the while testing privacy concerns.
A measure meant to reform the rather messy Greek television landscape comfortably passed a vote in parliament over the weekend. Reforms are all the rage in Greece, all the more so since recent elections gave Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras something of a mandate. “The law is part of a wider plan,” said deputy PM Yannis Dragassakis to parliament, quoted by Reuters (October 25).
Much of what’s contained received vetting in a public consultation; new ten-year licenses by auction for private sector broadcasters, financial surety for applicants, employment quotas for winners. Deputy PM Dragassakis called scandal-ridden Greek media “vampire businesses.” Other provisions within the 300 page bill include tightening governance of media regulator ESR (National Council for Radio and Television) and allowing public broadcaster ERT to form for-profit subsidiaries. (See more about media in Greece here)
Critics jumped on a provision giving Media and Communications Minister Nikos Pappas authority to determine starting bids, number of frequencies and coverage, prerogatives once held by the ESR. Minister Pappas said the measures would create “a tidy television landscape,” quoted by ethnos.gr (October 26). Private sector broadcasters, represented by the Brussels-based Association of Commercial Television Europe (ACT), said the bill “will create more insecurity and is fundamentally flawed in its approach on content licensing,” in a statement ahead of the vote.
Turmoil in the Greek media sector has been a gift to media watchers, the saga of public broadcaster ERT illustrating the insanity. And the Greeks have a way with words, a gift from the ages. Greek news portal ethnos.gr, giving background to the media bill vote, coined a new word: kanal-garchy, from channel and oligarch. It may stick.
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