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The web has taken over radio. Or maybe radio has taken over the web. It’s all quite social and very digital. At the recent Social Media Week in Rome fans of radio and radio on the web made their pitch for a new framework to define it all. “Radio is no longer just FM with official websites a showcase,” said Radio Italia commercial director Marco Pontini, “but a place of interaction and involvement; not a watertight compartment or only the result of a single theme,” quoted by wired.it (September 26).
The presentations were organized by the Social Radio Lab, almost a year old project founded by Stefano Chiarazzo of Osservatorio Social Vip in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome and several big Italian broadcasters. The Social Radio Lab monitors about two-dozen Italian radio stations for their new media approach. In their monitoring report, Radio Italia, Radio Deejay and RTL 102.5 showed the most Facebook fans. Rome station Radio Globo had the most YouTube views, more than 25 million. All monitored stations have websites and Facebook pages, most all have mobile apps and Twitter accounts. About three-quarters have YouTube channels and more than half use Instagram and Google Plus. That’s a lot of connecting. (See more about social media here)
“Over the last twenty years there have been at least three times when everybody gave up on radio,” noted Sapienza communications lecturer Paola Panarese. “All those events, including iPod, had strong repercussions but didn’t destroy anything. Radio has held up better than other media, especially print.” (See more about media in Italy here)
The Social Radio Lab must not be confused with the recently founded Social Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a generous grant of US$ 10 million from Facebook.
These are certainly exciting days for media regulators. And that excitement has been both thrilling and raw every day of this century. So it was hardly unexpected for UK media, telecom and all points in between regulator OFCOM chief executive Ed Richards to announce this week his departure. He’s been with OFCOM since it was created, combining platform-specific agencies, and seated in the corner office since 2006.
Overseeing it all has been “a privilege,” he said in a statement (October 2), “during such an exciting and dynamic period in the evolution of the UK’s communications sector.” In 2012 he put forward his name to lead the BBC and was passed over for an insider who lasted but 54 troubled days. Blessings counted, Mr. Richards will continue to supervise OFCOM, more or less, until a successor is found, approved and hired.
Of late the work of OFCOM has been centered on wireless broadband spectrum, mobile phone numbering and customers complaining about phone and internet contracts… about as exciting as watching golf on TV.
Slipping off the OFCOM radar is digital radio, specifically setting a hard date to shutdown the FM transmitters. OFCOM’s annual report on digital radio, released in late September, cast further question on digital inevitability, noting a sharp fall-off in DAB radio sales and digital platform listening “broadly stable” over the last year. In 2009, when DAB receiver sales peaked, a UK radio executive called for OFCOM to “force” that digital switch, just like TV. “There’s no point in doing something the audience regards as a disaster,” said Mr. Richards. (See more about digital radio here)
Last year OFCOM’s digital radio report pushed FM switch-off into the next decade.
The lucrative business of licensing reality TV formats one country to another depends on mutually understood intellectual property law. Disputes arise occasionally but, rights being controlled largely by well-heeled producers, lawyers are always at the ready.
Endemol’s Spanish production house Gestmusic licensed to Russian producer WeiT Media format rights to the “One To One” reality-talent show. WeiT Media produced the show for Russia’s First Channel based on the format guide provided by Gestmusic and Endemol. It became a huge hit.
The particular contractual arrangement lasted one year, after which First Channel started broadcasting a suspiciously similar show – called “Exactly” in Russian – exactly in the former time period of “One to One.” First Channel lawyers said the two shows are different. Endemol lawyers asked for compensation. Another courtroom drama began.
Moscow’s Arbitration Court ruled that while the two shows are “almost” identical Russian copyright law does not protect the idea of a show, only the concrete elements of the show, reported lenizdat.ru (October 2). Appeals are expected.
Turmoil continues at Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE as the public contribution is again frozen, strikes appear imminent and the general director quits. For its part, the government says RTVE’s “present and future is guaranteed.”
The RTVE board approved the 2015 budget of €940 million, same as this year, with a State contribution of €293 million, same as the last three years. What remains will be a “structural deficit” of about €100 million. (See more about media in Spain here)
Successive Spanish governments have reduced RTVE’s financial resources, work force and overall footprint never quite finding balance financially or politically. An early retirement plan in 2006 meant to cull the work force has cost more than €700 million by this year, reported El Mundo (September 30). General Director Leopoldo González-Echenique had asked for an additional €130 million for 2015. It was refused. He quit.
“We believe in the public media,” said Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro, “and I want to pass on the added peace of mind about the present and future of the corporation. A revenue stream from advertising, slashed from RTVE three years ago, will not be returning. “We are looking for another type of supplementary financing,” said Minister Montoro to Cadena Ser (October 2).
The fall television season in Bulgaria got off to a rousing start with the two big national channels premiering new and improved reality shows, talent shows and talk shows. CME (Time Warner) owned bTV presented their best audience grabbers to hold off a serious challenge from Nova TV, owned by Modern Times Group (MTG). This modest Eastern European media market, graced by two big competitive broadcasting groups, is “on the verge of having a nervous breakdown,” headlined capital.bg media watcher Vesislava Antonova (September 26).
The stress, as always, is about ratings. And from ratings comes money. The money, mostly, is distributed by media buyers. Decisions on rates, discounts and the ever-important audience guarantees are determined by ratings. Bulgaria’s TV market is served by two quite separate measurement providers, both with distinct metered household panels and, obviously, results. Locally owned GARB is used by bTV and Nova TV uses Prague-based Mediaresearch, principally owned by Nielsen. In 2011 GARB, a subcontractor for big market research house GfK, bought out the TNS measurement franchise in Bulgaria. Measurement in Bulgaria has been something of a battleground for nearly a decade. (See more about media in Bulgaria here)
“The situation is very unpleasant…and at a most inopportune moment,” said media buyer Desislava Olovanova. The various channels of bTV and TV Nova take 88% of all TV ad spending.
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