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The National Geographic Society, publisher of the iconic magazine, entered into an agreement this week to form a new publishing venture with 21st Century Fox, the entertainment company principally controlled by the Murdoch family. The new for-profit publisher of the National Geographic, its various editions, branded cable TV channels and online assets - National Geographic Partners - will be majority held by 21st Century Fox (73%) and the rest by the National Geographic Society, publisher of the magazine since 1888. 21st Century Fox is contributing US$750 million.
Similarities abound with the first-run distribution agreement announced mid-August between Time Warner’s premium cable and satellite TV network HBO and Sesame Workshop, non-profit producer of the iconic children’s TV program Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop, formerly known as Children’s Television Workshop, and the National Geographic Society need the money. Big for-profit media houses, particularly those in the traditional pay-TV business, need big brandname content to compete with intruders like Netflix, Hulu and others springing up like mushrooms. Not to be forgotten, buying content is more cost-effective than creating it.
After the announcement by 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch, who mentioned he’d been reading National Geographic, there was considerable nose-holding, largely from those aware of the Fox News channel’s climate change denying posture not to forget the particular slant of the New York Post and the notorious UK tabloid Sun. The Fox Network has been a financial and production partner in the National Geographic television channels since 1997, adding programs that include talkshows by Fox News contributors. Others noted the acquisition of Dow Jones by News Corporation, the publishing company principally controlled by the Murdoch family, resulted in a further right-wing slant at the Wall Street Journal. (See more about Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation and 21st Century Fox here)
Totally unrelated but coincident “authorities” in Saudi Arabia banned for “cultural reasons” distribution of the August Arabic-language edition of National Geographic, reported Arabian Business (September 9). The cover features Pope Francis and the objection seemed related to the headline mentioning his leading a “quiet revolution” to reform the Catholic Church.
When Swiss public broadcaster SSR/SRG, legacy telecom Swisscom and big media house Ringier announced plans to set up marketing and advertising joint-venture the country’s media community, particularly those left out of the deal, saw it as evil genius. The plan is to leverage Swisscom’s technical expertise with the SSR/SRG and Ringier ad inventory, not to forget Swisscom’s online TV channels, “to strengthen the Swiss advertising market against globalized competition,” said the Swisscom presser (August 17). The three will contribute user data. And they’ll graciously make these services available to everybody.
The Swiss competition commission (Weko, in German and Comco, in French) will be taking a deeper look, said director Rafael Corazza in a statement (September 10). Initial examination showed the Swisscom - SSR/SRG - Ringier joint venture would or could lead to a dominant market position. Weko/Comco will report back in four months. Telecom and media regulator Bakom/Ofcom is also looking at the proposed deal.
At a meeting concurrent with the big announcement representatives of the three partners informed the Swiss Media Association (Verbandes Schweizer Medien - VSM) just how this all would work. The VSM was, understandably, less than pleased and took the position that the grand plan would further distort competition as Swisscom is principally controlled by the Swiss government and SSR/SRG is a tax-supported institution. The VSM continued to insist that advertising be banned from SSR/SRG offerings.
That meeting didn’t go well. Ringier CEO Marc Walder pulled his company out of the VSM because of that “radical demand.” Mr. Walder complained that more than half of Swiss digital ad spending “migrates” to US companies. That would mean Facebook, Google and many others.
When a person with a video camera at the Röszke refugee check point in Hungary kicked and tripped people scrambling away from police and a reporter on the scene recorded the incident if not for posterity at least for Twitter worldwide media erupted in shock. Petra Laszlo was identified by Hungarian news portal 444.hu (September 8) as a contract photographer for online television channel N1TV. The clear images of Ms Laszlo kicking one child and tripping a man carrying a child in the midst of a tense and confused situation add yet another visual portrait to this humanitarian crisis.
N1TV, also known as Nemzeti 1, is “aligned,” noted Hungarian sources including 444.hu, with the extreme right-wing Jobbik political party. It is unclear exactly who or what owns N1TV but links to its website are prominently displayed on the Jobbik website. Ms Laszlo’s contract with N1TV was “terminated” a few hours after video of the incident, shared by RTL Germany reporter Stephan Richter. Ms Laszlo can be heard at the end of one video comparing her camera to a water cannon.
“The N1TV colleague today behaved unacceptably at the Röszke collection point,” said N1TV editor-in-chief Szabolcs Kisberk in a very brief statement. The camerawoman’s working relationship has today been terminated with immediate effect. The case is now closed for us.”
Mr. Kisberk and others left Hir TV “for reasons of conscience” earlier this year in response to station policy on reporting about Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Joining N1TV was his choice between reporting for a station associated with Jobbik and those aligned with Mr. Orban’s right-wing populist Fidesz party. Ms Laszlo has credits as an actress and cinematographer, including a 2010 cooking show on TV2 called Witches Kitchen. (See more about media in Hungry here)
Except it’s a bit more complicated. Hir TV, newspaper Magyar Nemzet and radio channels Class FM and Lanchid Radio are owned by wealthy political fixer Lajos Simicska, once a close confident of Mr. Orban. Mr. Simicska was quite upset when last year the Fidesz-controlled parliament passed a tax on advertising revenues largely seen as targeting television channel RTL Klub, owned by RTL Group. Mr. Simicska’s media assets might also have been touched. Mr. Smicska and Mr. Orban had something of a falling out.
Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party lost its super-majority in district elections earlier this year, Jobbik picking up one district, an independent candidate willing another. Jobbik is, reportedly, trying to soften its image somewhat. At the same time Fidesz is hardening theirs. All of this plays out in a country where the two right-wing political parties control all major news media outlets.
“We should have apologized first,” revised Mr. Kisberk, reported nepszava.hu (September 9). “Obviously, she wasn’t sent to Röszke to kick anybody. She must have known perfectly well that such a thing should not be done.”
Germany’s biggest selling tabloid Bild appeared (Tuesday September 8) entirely without photos in the online and print editions, advertising excepted. The action was to protest reader complaints about publication of photos last week of Turkish police officer Mehmet Ciplak carrying the lifeless body of 3 year-old refugee Aylan Kurdi, explained editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann. “To change the world needs to see the truth.”
“Cynical from our perspective,” said photojournalist’s union Freelens director Lutz Fischmann, quoted by meedia.de (September 8). Bild publisher Axel Springer acquires all rights in all media, including advertising, in buy-out contracts. “It hurts photographers, of course, who can no longer live on reprint fees,” he added. (See more about media in Germany here)
In the spaces usually occupied with photos, Bild published only grey boxes. The page one explanation by editors Alexander von Schönburg and Julian Reichelt “was probably the longest article ever published in Bild,” offered tagesspiegel.de (September 8). The German Press Council acknowledged receiving “several” complaints while it has yet to form an official response to complaints about recently published gristly photos of refugees bodies being removed from a truck in Austria.
The photo, part of a series taken by Turkish agency DHA photojournalist Nilüfer Demir, has been called “the saddest photo in the world.”
In the public relations match between the UK’s public broadcaster BBC and the country’s politicians Director General Tony Hall took a few good shots amidst several foot-faults. Points, of course, won’t be tallied until next year when parliament votes for or against a new Royal Charter and all the included subtleties. Most every European public broadcaster has been in a similar tournament of late. In the galleries are always the legacy publishers and other commercial competitors. Without tickets the media consuming public is left to their own imaginations.
Facing a “very tough financial challenge,” said Lord Hall on Monday (September 7), previewing a new services proposal, resources “must be managed ever more carefully.” Priorities will change. “We will inevitably have to either close or reduce some services.” In July the conservative government sawed off €890 million in funding for senior citizen’s license fee contributions. Through August said same politicians warned BBC news managers, editors and journalists not to make mistakes with coverage of the impending referendum on staying or leaving the European Union, preferring the BBC adhere to the political line.
Lobbing easy shots, Lord Hall’s report, released later in full, suggested rolling news channel BBC News, children’s TV offerings and more “may” be replaced with online services. Certain radio services may also disappear. These proposals represent a clear understanding of new media delivery, particularly mobile media, that has long placed the BBC at competitive advantage over domestic publishers and broadcasters. (See more about the BBC here)
Commercial rivals will gain access to the immensely successful BBC iPlayer, arts and cultural organizations will gain access to BBC space for their productions and local newspaper publishers could get free reporting staff paid by the BBC. “Our new, open BBC will be a true partner with other organisations,” said Lord Hall. Newspaper publishers were, predictably, unimpressed, preferring the BBC’s domestic news production simply cease.
Slightly more daring Lord Hall spoke for reversing the services decline at BBC World Service. A Russian-language satellite channel, increased services directed to China, India, the Middle East and North Africa and even a daily radio program for North Koreans will "seek to reach out to these countries creating a clarion call for accurate and impartial news that also shines a positive light on this country’s place in the world,” said a BBC spokesperson quoted by the Independent (September 7). Lord Hall will ask the government to pay for this renewed outreach.
During an interview on reliably pro-government A Haber TV Sunday night (September 6), Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was asked about the recent deadly attack by Kurdish separatists, the PKK, on a military convoy. He responded, in effect, that had his Justice and Development Party (AKP) won necessarily parliamentary support in June elections to make changes to the constitution “the situation would look very different today.” The AKP did not win that support and President Erdogan’s powers remain, so far, unchanged.
Covering all this, a Tweet went out from leading daily newspaper Hürriyet intended to paraphrase Mr. Erdogan’s words: “This would not have happened if 400 deputies had been given.” Hürriyet and other media outlets owned by Dogan Media Group generally take an editorial line critical of Mr. Erdogan and the AKP for which the company has been regularly punished. (See more about media in Turkey here)
AKP supporters took this Tweet as criticism, a misquoting of Mr. Erdogan, and between 150 and 200 gathered before the Istanbul offices of Hürriyet later Sunday night and into Monday morning. Rocks and epithets were thrown. The Hürriyet flag was lowered from its pole and burned. Social media messages attributed to the AKP mob called for the building to be burned down. Riot police arrived, later, and chased them away.
“If we made a mistake, we would admit it,” said Hürriyet editor in chief Sedat Ergin to CNN Tèrk (September 7). “We are reviewing the issue. They claim that (Erdogan’s words) were twisted. But when we listen to (the recording), we hear that those were exactly uttered by Erdogan. But what was the context? We are debating that.”
Dogan News Agency (DHA) photojournalist Nilüfer Demir took the picture that touched the world last week and changed many attitudes toward refugees. “I am having with suggestions about a Pulitizer,” she said in one of many interviews, quoted by Hürriyet (September 7). “My phone has rung more in the last four days than in the last 13 years.” Dogan Media Group, reportedly, has given her a bonus.
As the broadcast technology people sweep into Amsterdam this week for the annual IBC trade show sellers of all the cool stuff are honing their pitches, elevator and otherwise. Broadcasters, of course, want to keep up however uncertain they might be about consumer’s wants and desires. More investment, says one seller of broadcast services, is the best hedge against the vast unknown.
Patience, too, is a virtue, said Broadcast Partners director Robert-Jan van der Hoeven, quoted by Dutch media news portal mediamagazine.nl (September 6). Broadcast Partners is the leading transmitter and tower supplier in the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. Last week Dutch Economy Minister Henk Kamp proposed extending commercial radio broadcaster’s FM licenses for five years, caveat being they invest more in the DAB+ platform. (See more about digital radio here)
“We think that DAB+ maybe has a chance in the future but we do not know for sure,” said Mr. Van der Hoeven. “The picture in Europe is very variable. From the DAB lobbies there is a very optimistic image. They could be right. The consumer has, so far, not discovered the benefits DAB+ so you are having a replacement market.”
It’s all about the automobile. With the average automobile in the Netherlands held for 14 years, he said, it’s difficult. “Currently, 10% of new cars are equipped with a DAB receiver.”
While the DAB platform has had success, he warned, “I do not dare say that DAB+ is the successor to FM. It’s still too early.” He’s also not convinced mobile platforms threaten DAB. “As long as data capacity is scarce I don’t expect radio via mobile internet will be a success.”
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