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Tasty chips for the digital platter
Movable (mobile) feast
The holidays upon us, the eating season engaging one and all nothing makes the mouth water, figuratively, more than chips. Even if regulators (and others) are timid toward the inevitable digital radio switch-over (see recent article here), chip makers are replenishing the bowl.
In the all-important quest to satisfy desires for cheaper digital radio ingredients, chip designer Imagination Technologies and chip handler Frontier Silicon have a new morsel on the plate – called Chorus 4 – that costs less, uses less power and works with mobile devices. (See more on digital radio here) The name has something to do with 4th generation and, maybe, the famous part of the famous Handel oratorio often heard this time of year. But I digress…
There’s also a new licensing deal with STMicroelectronics intended for a digitally-enhanced car radio.
Public broadcaster support group European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has added new supporters for its Euro-chip initiative. SkyRadio in the Netherlands, RTL in Belgium and radio association APR in Germany have signed up. The euro-chip melds FM, DAB and internet radio into one package designed for every possible receiving application.
Companies want license fee relief
All in the calculation
Ever since a windfall for German public broadcasters from the restructured license fee became clear there have been persistent calls from many quarters to again revamp the financing system. Petitions are being circulated and lawsuits filed. Austerity conscious Germans are wondering how the license fee keeps pumping more money into public broadcasting services.
“Due to the change in the charging system, the 3,500 member companies of our association have to bear an additional burden of about €1.5 million annually, said Bavarian constriction industry association general director Andreas Demharter, quoted by trade publication Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung (December 17). “In some case the fees have more than tripled.” The new license fee system taxes businesses by location and every vehicle is counted.
Public broadcasting executives have been expressing sympathy. Relief for “companies with many branches of large fleets…would probably be widely accepted,” said Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), general director Ulrich Wilhelm. But, he said, any decision would come “not from the director, but the legislature.”
The household license fee, no longer counting each and every receiving device, came into effect last January at €17.98 per month. Germany’s biggest car rental company Sixt filed a lawsuit saying its contribution to public broadcasting had risen this year to about €3 million.
More TV news channels coming
Vive la différence
Calling the possibility “destabilizing,” French news channel BFM TV reacted negatively to a Ministry of Culture and Communication request for a terrestrial frequency in Il-de-France (greater Paris) for state-owned international TV news channel France 24. Calling the market “already full,” owner NextRadioTV appealed to regulator CSA for relief. Another all-news TV channel “will help to split the audience of channels that only rely on advertising.”
“This project is particularly inappropriate because France 24 was created to broadcast the French point of view abroad and not for viewers residing in France,” said the NextRadioTV statement, quoted by capital.fr (December 11).
After nearly six years broadcasting France 24 is going through a major overhaul. France Médias Monde CEO Marie-Christine Saragosse, who replaced the ever-squabbling executives of predecessor Audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF), described the revamped France 24 as “understandable, fast-paced and stylish.” (See more on media in France here)
First on the scene with all-news TV in France was LCI, owned by TF1. It has remained a pay-TV channel but, with liberalized rules for digital terrestrial TV, it may become free-to-air. Canal+ launched all-news channel i>Télé in 1999, now available on every platform. According to the Médiamétrie national TV surveys, i>Télé draws about half the audience of the more business-oriented BFM TV.
Naturally, these four expected TV news competitors will need some differentiation. It’s a marketing thing, right? BFM TV has come into some question as possibly bending its editorial position to the right, opposing the socialist government of François Hollande. Not at all, said station manager Guillaume Dubois in an interview on Europe 1 (December 13). “BFM TV is not a channel in opposition. It is a channel of journalists doing their jobs. However, news media and journalists like to challenge the powerful.”
Publisher establishes permanent mission to geeks
Not a lot of money in Facebookistan
Further to the article about publishers quest for new digital meaning (see here), big German publisher Axel Springer will soon have a permanent mission in Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, California. The company has sent several executives on extended forays to the land of high tech and venture capital, notably Bild editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann. There will soon be an office, led by CEO Mathias Döpfner’s personal assistant Anton Waitz.
The object of this outpost, according to Handelsblatt (December 16), is to find “relevant business models and technologies.” The publisher is not, however, “prepared to spend more than single-digit million euro sums.” That is, of course, barely lunch money among Silicon Valley luminaries. But there networking opportunities; Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg lives nearby.
Second measurement service junked, shares soar
End to all controversy
Czech television broadcaster Nova TV has abandoned a measurement venture with AC Nielsen that would have competed with the MediaResearch-ATO measurement used by all other broadcasters. CME co-CEO Christoph Mainusch informed clients at a little holiday gathering, reported mediaguru.cz (December 13). Central European Media Enterprises (CME) owns Nova TV, the television market leader in the Czech Republic.
The new CME executive has charged into the mire left by exiting CEO Adrian Sarbu, severing nearly all regional department heads and even locally originated Czech and Slovak language programming for the MTV franchise. Mr. Sarbu controversially raised ad rates for the Nova TV channels as the Czech advertising market collapsed in 2011, sending the CME share price lower than principal owner Time Warner could stomach.
News that Nova TV would be a returning subscriber to the MediaResearch-ATO service sent CME shares up 11% (Friday, December 13) on the Prague Stock Exchange on a day when average share prices were lower.
No more reality, says regulator
No more regulator, says broadcaster
It was to be simple re-branding - name change, logo change and schedule change – for Romanian TV channel Antena 2. The channel, already steeped in reality TV shows, would be called Antena Star. Every broadcaster looks for competitive advantage and usually everybody understands.
“The evolution of the TV market in recent years has shown us that we do not have enough force to increase the channel’s market share so I decided to relaunch the station,” explained station manager Cristian Ionescu to the National Audiovisual Council (CNA), reported paginademedia.ro (December 11). “We are talking about introducing some news slots and some guy reality shows on the weekend.”
Pushed for a bit more detail he described one new reality TV show called ‘Nurses’ as “ a wicked show,” offered only late night. Another would be called ‘Bianca Academy’, an obvious riff on the big international hit reality show, staring well-known Romanian model and TV star Bianca Dragusanu.
“I will never support the tabloidization of television as you suggest,” said CNA member Narcisa Iorga, quoted by ziare.com (December 11). The Council by large majority rejected the proposed changes.
With something of a shrug, Antena TV Group CEO Sorin Alexandrescu said things would probably work out. “We want to bring viewers closer to the stars they admire, in a way that only American stations have done. I am confident that the work of this team…will be appreciated and that Antena Stars will arrive in the homes of Romanians by the beginning of the year.”
But there’s more. On reflection, it appears, other Antena TV Group luminaries felt the CNA had overstepped its mandate. “They cannot have personal opinions, “said Mircea Badea, host of a satirical news show on Antena 1. “They are put there for law enforcement. They are not able to say when there are enough tabloid (shows) on TV.” And then there were the routine calls of CNA president Laura Georgescu to resign. Colorful Romanian millionaire and politician Dan Voiculescu owns Antena TV Group and has had run-ins with the CNA and other authorities over several years, including a bit of jail time.
So heated was all this that a press conference was called by the CNA president, which added even more incandescence when she noted public complaints about news programs on Antena TV Group channels. “The Council is the guarantor of the public interest in audiovisual communication,” said Ms Georgescu, reported by hotnews.ro (December 14). “The CNA is the voice of the viewers and listeners. The minute we talk of such a large number of complaints, this represents the people.” After the press conference, two CNA members called for her resignation.
Obviously, there will be another meeting.
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