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Branding is an essential element in the media world. It’s the same with every part of consumer interaction. People want to know and be comfortable with the products and services they use. The brand delivers this information; clearly, simply and, of course, often. It’s quite elegant, actually.
Stockholm-based NENT Group officially changed its name this week to Viaplay Group after shareholder approval (May 18). It’s in the streaming video business. Viaplay has long been the name of its primary consumer product. The name change was announced earlier this year. The NENT corporate name was simplified from Nordic Entertainment, which was split off from Modern Times Group (MTG) with the broadcasting and studios components separated. MTG is now, mostly, in the gaming business.
“Viaplay is present in all our markets, our most recognisable brand and our largest single revenue-generating unit,” said president and chief executive Anders Jensen to the annual general meeting. “This change will benefit our whole company by making us more visible and our strategy even clearer. Today is a milestone for our people, partners, investors and everyone connected with Viaplay Group, the international streaming challenger.” (See more about streaming media here)
And NENT, now Viaplay, is quite visible. From primary offerings in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, not to forget Iceland in 2020, the company then expanded into Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia last year, then Poland and the Netherlands. A UK service is planned for later this year, followed by Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Canada in 2023. Whew! That’s moving right along, yes? The company also operates radio stations in Sweden and Norway. Let’s not forget a robust TV production operation and that all-important ad sales house.
The biggest brand name in the streaming world is Netflix. Its share value crashed recently as the coronavirus stay at home and be entertained bubble burst. It made its name on big name, big budget series and films delivered by subscription. Now Netflix executives are warming to advertising and lower budget fare. The streaming media business today is not what it was two years ago. David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros Discovery, took some notice of this reality this week, noted Deadline (May 18), by declaring it is a television channel and not a streaming service. Viaplay Group, the “international challenger,” sees opportunity.
Viktor Orban said the quiet part out loud, media control is essential for power. The recently re-elected Hungarian prime minister explained the dictator’s playbook at a special Budapest event of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) this week (May 19). CPAC is a US-based far-right wing lobbying group aligned with former US president Donald Trump.
Media coverage was tightly controlled, reported independent Hungarian news portals 24 HU and Telex HU (May 19). Foreign reporters, with the singular exception of a AFP photojournalist, were not allowed within the venue. Only reporters from state broadcaster MTA and those under the KESMA umbrella, tacitly controlled by the right-wing nativist, populist FIDESZ political party, were permitted inside. Those denied entry, including reporters from the Guardian, Vox, New Yorker and Reuters, were relegated to watching the video feed online. (See more about press/media freedom here)
PM Orban’s address to the group Thursday morning featured the “recipe of success for the right.” A dozen items were enumerated for the audience with a slide, number four was “own the media,” noted Hungarian media news portal Media1 HU (May 20). Other points were the usual litany of far-right grievances. “Hungary is the laboratory where we have managed to come up with the antidote for progressive dominance.” Mr Orban called for “troops” to align for future elections. “We have two years to prepare.” (See more about media in Hungary here)
The Budapest event was organized by the Center for Fundamental Rights, whose owner and managing director is Miklos Szantho, conveniently chairman of KESMA. Punctuating the video livestream were special appearances, remotely, from favorite US far-right figures. In a pre-recorded message former US president Donald Trump extolled PM Orban’s virtues as “a great leader.”
Another short video message came from US far-right TV commentator Tucker Carlson, regularly seen on Fox News, subsidiary of News Corporation, principally owned by the Murdoch family. “I can’t believe that you’re in Budapest and I am not,” he said before ripping into “hysterical” enemies. Other far-right US political luminaries also spoke at the event.
Small countries can have strategic international importance beyond their size. As they say in the real estate business: location, location, location. Transaction being similar, broadcasters in these countries struggle with local conventions and expectations.
Georgian broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi TV director Nika Gvaramia was sentenced to three and a half years in jail, reported news portal Civil GE (May 16), for certain “managerial decisions.” He was charged with “misappropriation or embezzlement” through “abuse of power.” In simple terms, while director of a different TV channel in 2019 he affected a barter agreement with a local Tbilisi Porsche dealer for personal use of an automobile in return for ads on the TV channel, Rustavi 2 TV. In many places such barter arrangements are commonplace, though usually taxable.
Fired from Rustavi 2 TV after an ownership change, quite common in Georgia, he founded Mtavari Arkhi TV. It is considered editorially critical of the current government, which favors tidy relations with the Russian Federation. Georgia is seeking European Union (EU) membership. Last year the EU found “five setbacks” in “the area of judiciary and rule of law in Georgia.”
“In democratic, western-style states directors of critical media outlets are not arrested and persecuted for having different opinions,” said attorney for Mr. Gvaramia, Dimitri Sadzaglishvili, on the court decision. He said an appeal would be filed. “We saw today the Government make a clear decision in favor of Russia.” The Tbilisi office of Transparency International said the Court ““fulfilled a political order by punishing Nika Gvarama.” (See more about corruption here)
Georgia’s ranking in the RSF 2022 World Press Freedom Index dropped to 89th from 60th one year on. RSF observed that “media owners often keep their hand in controlling editorial content.” Also noted was “an unprecedented number of physical assaults on journalists.”
TV audience estimates are tricky in these multi-platform times. Providers of these services, still, do their best. After all, keeping the happy advertising people happy is the important task.
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) continues to draw viewers, this year aided by TikTok streams. “Nearly” 200 million tuned in to all of part of the three broadcasts, estimated the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) (May 14). For the Grand Finals 40 EBU member public TV channels carried the show live. Public - and bookies - favorite Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine placed first with the flashy, mixed-genre tune Stefania. But you knew that, probably.
Audience estimates country-to-country varied. A national contender in the Grand Finals drew large, often record breaking audiences. Without that hook, not so much. (See more about the Eurovision Song Contest here)
The Grand Final audience drove Italian public broadcaster RAI to the largest ESC audience since 1991, 6.5 million. Italian duo Mahmood and Blanco placed 6th in the final rankings. ESC 2022 was hosted in Turin, Italy. In Spain viewers enticed by singer Chanel, who placed 3rd, flocked to public channel La1, 6.8 million viewers for the Grand Final, biggest audience since 2008. Local favorites WRS propelled Romanian public broadcaster TVR 1 to its biggest ESC audience in several years. WRS was the first Romanian act to perform in the Grand Final.
At the other end, Austrian public broadcaster ORF had its lowest ESC Grand Final audience since 2013. Interest has sagged as Austrian singers failed to reach even the semi-finals for three years. French duo Alvan and Ahez participated in the Grand Final but didn’t exactly garner enthusiasm. Grand Final audience on France public TV was off by 2 million viewers from last year when the French entry placed second.
Italian cyber police blocked distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks from Russian hacker Killnet attempting to disrupt public ESC voting. The potential attack was discovered several days before for first semi-final as the hackers mobile phones were surreptitiously intercepted. Russian contestants and broadcasters were disinvited from ESC participation due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Hours after Kalush Orchestra was announced as the 2022 ESC winner, the band released a new music video on YouTube. “Powerful,” said New Musical Express (NME) (May 15). The video was produced in and around Kyiv prior to the ESC, released after the contest to adhere to EBU rules.
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