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The Tickle File is ftm's daily column of media news, complimenting the feature articles on major media issues. Tickle File items point out media happenings, from the oh-so serious to the not-so serious, that should not escape notice...in a shorter, more informal format.

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Week of November 4, 2013

Challenge accepted, challenges remain
“very well told”

A radio report series titled ‘Phone Farming’ took top honors from the first round of the African Story Challenge, presented at the African Media Leaders Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Reporter/producer Nana Boakye-Yiadom produced the series for Accra, Ghana-based Citi FM. The story’s theme reflects the changing African media sphere: rural farmers using text messaging technologies.

“Boakye-Yiadom’s story was very well told,” said award jury chairperson Omar Ben Yedder, quoted by spyghana.com (November 7) “You can tell he has done the leg work: there’s lots of first hand evidence, he has spoken to people on the ground and went around the country to find out the impact of technologies on farmers.”

Citi FM is no stranger to broadcasting awards. At last year’s Telkom Highway Africa Awards they were topped as the most innovative newsroom in Africa. The station’s morning program won a BBC Africa’s radio award in 2007 for most interactive program.  The privately owned station, which broadcasts on FM from Accra and across Ghana on the web, celebrated its ninth anniversary this week.

Of the 20 finalists, an eNews Channel Africa (eNCA) report on land inequalities in South Africa by reporter Diana Neille was first runner-up. Citizen TV’s Alex Chamwada’s story on food distribution in southern Somalia was second runner-up. Cable and web-based eNCA is Africa’s first 24-hour news channel. A Synovate survey in May this year showed a 50% audience share for Citizen TV in Kenya. (See more on media in Africa here)

The African Story Challenge is a grant-in-aid project of the African Media Initiative (AMI)and the International Center for Journalists, primarily funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The two-year program invites journalists from all African media “to experiment with new content ideas and ways to engage audiences through mobile technology, social media and other innovative tools,” according to the official website. The competition has five themes with separate awards: agriculture and food security (just awarded), diseases - prevention and treatment, My Africa-2063, maternal and child health and business and technology. The African Story challenge is the brain-child of former BBC Network Africa editor Joseph Warungu, now a director at AMI. Awards for the remaining rounds will be announced through the next year.

Broadcast squatters removed in Greece
“chain of errors”

Riot police entered premises of former Greek public broadcaster ERT early Thursday morning (November 7) intent on removing the last group of former employees. There were reports of teargas being used to disperse crowds outside the suburban Athens building. A few of the occupiers were arrested but released when authorities secured the building.

“The police intervention at the ERT building was done to apply the law and restore legality,” said government spokesperson Simos Kedikoglou. “The building was under illegal occupation, resulting in a daily loss for the Greek government.”

In June the Greek government closed ERT, firing all employees and transferring asset control to the Ministry of Finance. (See more on media in Greece here) Some ex-employees continued limited radio and TV broadcasts from scattered ERT facilities, distributed on the web and, for a few weeks, by satellite. The government set up an interim public channel with plans for a revamped public broadcaster next year, presumably using the former ERT facilities.

The police action concluded, the Greek Parliament erupted, ruling party MPs supporting the final eviction. “Democracy will be upgraded when law enforcement in no longer news,” said Minister of Administrative Reform Kyriakos Mitsotakis, quoted by naftemporiki.gr (November 7). “The reality is that the ERT (building) was under occupation.”

”I hope this is the last mistake in a chain of errors that began in June,” said opposition DimAR party MP Nikos Tsoukalis. “How mature or immature is a Prime Minister, a party leader, to admit that we made a mistake?” (JMH)

Public broadcaster announces VOD plan
market opportunities

Austrian public broadcaster ORF is “working on a video on demand portal,” said Director General Alexander Wrabetz to Handelsblatt (November 5). Financing would be through all the usual sources – advertising, subscriptions and phone charges. And Dr. Wrabetz is in a hurry. Popular US VOD service Netflix is rumored looking at European expansion. Amazon’s LoveFilm is already in Germany.

“We want to prevent anyone to take advantage of market opportunities,” said Dr. Wrabetz, certain to drive private sector operators and, perhaps, the European Commission. “We do not want to wait until Netflix rolls up the Austrian market.”

Netflix launched in the Netherlands in September, boosted by an exclusive deal with Disney. In the last three months cable operators in Denmark, Sweden and the UK have signed up to carry Netflix, which has first-mover advantage in rights negotiations. And, too, Netflix has 'Lilyhammer'. This week the company acquired rights to Oscar picked documentary ‘The Square’, an account of protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Competition authorities prevented German public broadcasting networks ARD and ZDF from launching a VOD service. “We expect that there will be no insurmountable legal hurdles in Austria,” added Dr. Wrabetz. Costs of launching ORF’s VOD service – from rights to technology – is estimated in the low seven euro digits and, as a for-profit subsidiary, would require regulator approval. (JMH)

Giants of publishing and technology automate ad sales
Grand coalition or devil’s bargain

Big German publisher Axel Springer has, according to some, begun a dance with the devil. From the first of next year ad sales aggregator Axel Springer Media Impact (ASMI) will begin cooperation with Google’s Doubleclick Ad Exchange platform, so the companies announced (November 4). The cooperation will be “close,” said the Google statement and “technological,” said Axel Springer’s. Essentially, remnant website ad space will be auctioned through the Google platform.

Premium space – on the Die Welt and Bild websites, for example – will still be sold by Axel Springer’s sales team. Google has long championed automated advertising auctions as many media houses have dreamed of reducing cost of sales. An auction platform for selling remnant ad space on US radio stations was withdrawn when big broadcasters refused to allow Google access to premium slots. (See more on Google here)

Websites, of course, are different and allow considerable space for banners, text and pop-up videos. The revenue split between Google and Axel Springer and Google remains a private matter. “The agreement…represents a milestone,” said Google Managing Director for Germany, Austria and Switzerland Philipp Justus, quoted by FAZ (November 4), hopeful that other German publishers will sign-up. (See more on media in Germany here)

The “cooperation,” said Axel Springer chief marketing officer Peter Würtenberger, will have no impact on ongoing intellectual property disputes between German publishers and Google. (JMH)

Suspects apprehended in jurno murders
Reporting wherever necessary

A police source in northern Mali said “a dozen suspects have been arrested since the murder of two Radio France International journalists,” reported AFP (November 4). On assignment for RFI, Ghislanine Dupont and Claude Verlon were kidnapped and shot dead after attempting to interview a spokesperson for Tuareg separatists. French armed forces operating in the area were unable to immediately track the murderers. French national radio channel Europe 1 reported five suspects arrested Sunday night (November 3) at two rebel encampments and turned over to French forces.

RFI has long had a broad footprint in Africa, where the French language is widely spoken. Lightly armed French, Malian and United Nations troops have attempted to steady northeastern Mali, which borders Niger. Troops have undertaken “operation” to “identify a certain number of people in the camps,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to national radio channel RTL (November 4). (See more on media in Africa here)

Distress at RFI headquarters in Paris was palpable, black crepe bordering windows. “We cannot comprehend the reasons for the murder,” said France Médias Monde president Marie-Christine Saragosse to RTL, in Mali to repatriate the bodies of Dupont and Verlon. “We do not want to go to Kidal (where the murders took place) but, nevertheless, it is Mali and there are elections to cover. We will be wherever it is necessary for us to be.” (JMH)

TV show suspended, host leaves town
Was it the joke about chocolate?

Egypt’s most famous TV show host Bassem Youssef jumped on a plane for Abu Dhabi Friday morning hours before the season’s second show of “Al-Bernameg (The Show)” was scheduled to air. Mr. Youssef gained prominence in Egypt – and elsewhere – for skewering all things political on national television where such things have been, shall we say, rare. After a four-month break Mr. Youssef and Al-Barnameg returned to the CBC channel October 25th and, well, did not disappoint eager fans.

For example, one segment predictably had a go at Army Commander-in-Chief General Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s supporters for “turning him into a pharaoh,” reported Ahram Online (November 1). Commenting on the general’s likeness now appearing everywhere, “El-Sisi has been turned into chocolate,” said Mr. Youssef followed by the punch-line from an actor playing a pastry chef: “We are also selling Sisi-fours,” a twist on petit-fours. The live audience howled.

And also predictably, Egypt’s Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered the following Monday (October 28) an investigation into complaints. Mr. Youssef had, said the prosecutor’s order, ridiculed “honorable national icons,” reported Al-Jazeera (October 29). Earlier this year Mr. Youssef was arrested for insulting Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, since removed by the Egyptian military. 

But the second show, taped Wednesday (October 30), wasn’t broadcast. At the scheduled hour TV anchor Khairy Ramadan read a statement from CBC’s management that Al-Barnameg would be taking another hiatus, rather unplanned. “Technical and business problems,” need to be resolved, reported Al-Arabiya (November 2), one being whether or not last week’s show is uploaded to Mr. Youssef’s YouTube channel.

TV trends flow in many directions
More TV for the holidays

The television export market is – again – booming. Part of the reason is certainly pent-up demand. Then, too, producers have adapted.

The ‘Nordic noir’ drama continues to attract attention as broadcasters snap up series rights as soon as shooting ends… and sometime before. (See latest story here) But Nordic broadcasters are buyers, too.

TV4 in Sweden (TV4 Group/Bonnier) and TV2 in Norway (TV2 Group) bought rights to the BBC/Enders series “The Escape Artist,” announced distributor Red Arrow International (October 29) the day the thriller premiered on BBC 1. “The Escape Artist” is a three-episode series produced by Endor Productions for the BBC. (See Red Arrow International presser here) Red Arrow International is a subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Media. Endor Productions is wholly-owned by Red Arrow Entertainment. The BBC is, of course, the BBC; one of the first major broadcasters to take advantage of the ‘Nordic noir’ mania.

The trend toward short-run drama series is now well-established, binge-viewing on Netflix and similar services part of TV culture. Netflix dipped into ‘Nordic noir’ as co-producer of hit series “Lilyhammer”.

Red Arrow Entertainment also announced last week that it’s LA production house Fabrik Entertainment sold a pilot for “Bosch,” based on the main character in the Harry Bosch books. The buyer is Amazon, the online retailer. Amazon is now a major competitor for Netflix and Hulu and has been buying up original short-run dramas and comedies. It’s going to be a TV kind of holiday season. (JMH)

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