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Week of August 17, 2009

Public radio asks listeners for support
Is there a free coffee cup?

Poland pubic radio channel Trójki began broadcasting appeals for money (August 10) as financial difficulties afflicting the country’s public broadcasters take their toll on the pop music channel. A listener group founded the Trojki Lovers Committee to collect funds to promote young Polish artists and try to keep the channel on the air.

“Now that our new business ideas coincided with the difficult financial situation of the Polish Radio, we decided to take advantage of this offer of assistance," said manager Magda Jethon to Gazeta Wyborcza (August 10). The fund raising will continue through December 10th.

Not all observers in Poland are keen on the idea of going directly to the public for donations. Poland’s Parliament has been unable to reach a decision on funding for public radio and TV, scrapping the license fee being a major point of contention. (More on the struggles of Poland's public broadcasters here)

"This is an ad hoc solution, period,” said former TVP supervisory board chairman Tadeusz Kowalski. “In addition, I do not have the conviction that the money currently available to the Board of Polish Radio is spent effectively.”

"There you go,” added respected public broadcasting expert Karol Jakubowicz. “We will allow the media to collect from the public, therefore we will not put pressure for the license fee or funding from the media budget. On the other hand, it is also an argument that people are willing to pay. They are willing to pay for the value that they do not want to lose. So it has many aspects."

Bauer looking for buyers
Not a good time to sell

A steep drop in ad spending is prompting Bauer Media Group’s division Broker FM to look for a buyer for mini-network Radio 4U in Ukraine, according to Gazeta Wyborcza (August 5). The report says the stations have been on the market for about two months.

Broker FM began buying individual stations in Ukraine in 2005, acquiring four, branding them under the name Radio 4U. The company was unable to buy a station in the capital Kyiv. About US$2 million has been invested in the Ukraine acquisitions and operations, according to the Gazeta Wyborcza article citing unnamed sources.

“Broker can recover the money invested if an investor looks five to seven years on,” said TRK Ukraina General Director Waldemar Dziki to onet.pl (August 9). “In a few years the network would be much more expensive.”

“This is not a good time to sell because you can not obtain a good price,” he added. But it’s a great time to shop, and Broker shall not have problems finding a buyer.” (See Ukraine market data here)

Bauer Media Group is a huge multi-national publisher based in Germany. It has become a major player in radio broadcasting in the UK and Poland and owns minority interests in German radio. (JMH)

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