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It was a long, hot summer. French holiday makers tuned in to their favorite radio channels more than ever… at least the last decade. Research institute Médiamétrie indicated 41.5 million French people, 77.9% of the population, listened on average 2 hours and 50 minutes a day during July and August. A change in methodology, definitions of vacationers and second homes, caution comparisons with previous summer radio audience estimates, say their statisticians.
Be that as it may, some national radio channels benefitted from increased listener activity. RTL led, as usual, with 11.3% audience share (Monday-Friday, 5h00-midnight, persons 13+). Indeed, most all news and news-talk channels were in the top ranks: public channel France Inter 8.7%, regional public network France Bleu 7.5% and Europe 1 6.9%. Excusing comparisons with previous summer surveys, RMC took a hit, dropping to 5.3% audience share and 6th place. Public all-news channel France Info ranked 13th. (See French national radio summer audience trend chart here in Resources)
Iconic hit music channel NRJ placed 5th in the summertime national audience estimates, 6.3% audience share, perhaps affected negatively by the methodology changes. Oldies channel Nostalgie ranked 7th, Fun Radio 8th, RTL2 and RFM tied for 9th. Skyrock was next.
Suffering legacy Italian radio broadcaster Gruppo Finelco will have a respite, however brief, from bankers demanding money. Earlier this week RCS Media Group sold its “non-core asset” 44.45% stake in the radio broadcaster to the founding Hazan family exercising right of first refusal through a Portuguese holding company for €21 million. Within hours Mediaset announced it had snapped up 50% of non-voting and 19% voting shares in Gruppo Finelco. Mediaset, principally controlled by the Berlusconi family, made a financial contribution of €19 million, reported Corriere Della Sera (September 16).
Mediaset’s statement referred to the arrangement as a partnership with the Hazan family “with the aim of giving further development to its activities.” The investment “fits into a new line of investment focused on radio broadcasting.” The Berlusconi family recently shifted a majority stake in Monradio subsidiary of family owned publisher Arnoldo Mondadori Editore to Mediaset. Monradio operates radio channel R101. The Monradio/R101 acquisition was loan financed sufficient to pay for the Finelco deal. (See more about media in Italy here)
The Hazan family, with the aid of Mediaset, will be renegotiating Finelco’s bank debt estimated at €34 million. Much of Italy’s private sector radio broadcasting business has been in torment over unpredictable ad revenues and even more unpredictable radio listeners.
Digital platforms have unlocked opportunities for radio broadcasters to try new ideas. Traditional FM distribution, licenses being limited, is less and less a gatekeeper. Selling listeners on digital platforms succeeds, it seems, when multiplex operators offer channels different from those accessible on analogue platforms. A memorable name, the marketing basic, helps.
Czech Republic media regulator Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) has authorized a nationwide digital license for jamesdean.fm, currently an online radio channel. The station is operated by the James Dean Company, proprietor of the Prague bar of the same name. The current webstream of jamesdean.fm offers non-stop music, largely from the 1950’s and 1960’s, with no ads and no voices. (See more about media in the Czech Republic here)
This month 60 years ago film legend James Dean died in an automobile accident. Everything and anything related the James Dean name and image worldwide is controlled by CGM Management, a US licensing company. The apparent licensee of the Czech digital radio channel, Kristina Nesvadbová, previously attempted to develop a theme park, Krtkoland, based on the Krtko cartoon character but trademark owners prevented the project from going forward, according to digizone.cz (September 11).
The James Dean bar in Prague’s Old Town is a thematic American-style diner with jukeboxes, pictures and even old cars.
Relations between Turkey’s current government and segments of its media sector have never been warm and friendly. Critical news coverage is very unwelcome, satire even more. With November general elections on the horizon tensions are rising.
Long critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nand the Justice and Development (AK) Party, Dogan Media Group is facing yet another investigation from a public prosecutor, reported todayszaman.com (September 15). Dogan Media Group’s Hürriyet daily published unpixilated photos in August of Turkish soldiers killed in a bombing attributed to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and another earlier this month after a battle between security forces and the PKK. Pro-government daily Günes last week called for an investigation of “terrorist propaganda” and prosecutor Idris Kurt complied. (See more about media in Turkey here)
Relations between the government and the Kurdish minority being contentious in parallel media regulator RTÜK pulled off the air more than a dozen pro-Kurdish television channels, as well as the Digi Medya DTT platform that offers 40 channels. The RTÜK said the operators violated broadcasting licenses. Over the weekend State broadcaster TRT, reliably compliant, offered a nine and a half hours non-stop broadcast from the AK Party annual congress, noted MedyaTava (September 12). (See more about press/media freedom here)
Police in Istanbul raided offices of magazine Nokta (Point) looking for incriminating evidence of “terrorist propaganda” and “insulting the president,” reported AFP (September 14). The magazine posted to Twitter a photoshopped cover page showing a smiling President Erdogan taking a selfie in front of caskets. Copies of the magazine were seized. Twitter access in Turkey was also suspended. Opinion polls in Turkey, reported by Hürriyet (September 14), show President Erdogan’s popularity fading.
“Tolerance is a difficult art,” noted Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar on the social media network.
Research into media habits reveals, quite often, a little good news, some bad and a lot of head scratching. The Danish Culture Ministry this month issued its data-rich report on how Danes have been using television. Most interesting in the study is the longitudinal data; trends over longer periods tend to be more robust, year to year changes not so much. Much of the data was collected by TNS Gallup, which measures television and radio audiences in Denmark.
More Danes are doing without a TV. Between 2001 and 2011 around 3% of Danes reported not having a TV receiver in the household, give or take a fraction. In 2012 the percentage moved up to 3.8%, then 4.7% in 2013 and 6.7% in 2014. One TV households were more or less the norm in Denmark in 2001; 51.6% having one, 15% had 3 or 4. By 2007 46% had one TV and 18.5% of households had 3 or 4. But that seems to have shifted again; single TV households have steadily grown to 49.7% in 2014 as 3 and 4 TV households dropped back to 15%. In general, larger and wealthier households have more TV sets. (See more about media in Denmark here)
A huge change in the number of available TV channels began in 2008 when most could receive between one and four. By 2014 the percentage of households that could receive 50 or more channels rose by 300%. Through the same period the percentages of household that could receive between one and four channels plummeted by 90%.
Between 1992 and 2007 average daily time spent viewing ranged from 143 to 162 minutes. Time before the TV increased rather rapidly thereafter, reaching 201 minutes in 2010. Since daily viewing time has dropped steadily to 173 minutes in 2014. “One can obviously have suspicions that viewing has been diverted to other platforms, especially for the younger age groups, but consumption on these other platforms is not yet documented in the same way as traditional TV,” noted the accompanying report.
Once upon a time when public broadcasters needed money the appropriate request was submitted to the authorities so vested and, voila, there it was. Those days are long gone. Today financing public broadcasting is a matter of lobbying the appropriate politicians and hoping for the best.
French public broadcasting is financed like many others; household levy plus a bit of revenue through advertising plus government grants to cover short-falls. Each element, then, becomes a battle. The politically astute and ever powerful French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin pronounced the government’s preferred position in an interview with Journal du Dimanche (September 13). Some will be happy, others not so much.
French householders will see in 2016 their public broadcasting levy increase by one euro to €137 annually. This is line with the inflation rate, said Minister Pellerin. That will bring in about €25 million. French viewers will not see advertising returned to France Télévisions after 20h00 (8 pm), certain to please private sector broadcasters.
Totally unhappy are French telecoms, who will see the “Copé tax” - their contribution to public broadcasting - bumped from 0.9% of profits to 1.2%. Telecom Orange CEO Stéphane Richard, in La Tribune (September 14), called the increase “contemptuous.” Telecoms in France, for a variety of reasons, are not held high in public esteem. The government, for its part, will continue a contribution from the State budget, between €80 and €100 million. (See more about media in France here)
France Télévisions CEO Delphine Dermotte, but a few weeks into that job, also isn’t pleased. She wanted a bigger increase in the household levy and a return of evening advertising. It’s not just to balance the budget. In 2017 that State contribution goes away.
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