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Membership has privileges, so goes the song
Oh, the pressure
The confirmation deadline for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest has passed. Public broadcasters not signing the appearance agreement – and sending the required deposit – by last Friday, November 22, will not be sending their chosen performers to Denmark in May. There is, it seems, an exception to the deadline: Greece.
Making the rules for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the support and lobbying group for public broadcasters. The primary requirement for ESC participation is EBU membership. Last June the Greek government shutdown public broadcaster ERT, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras calling it “sinful,” and since faced the grim faces of public broadcasting advocates. (See more on media in Greece here)
“The interim scheme entitled Public Broadcaster (DT) is definitely not a public broadcaster,” said EBU president Jean-Paul Philippot in a statement released by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) (November 20) following a meeting with ERT union and EFJ representatives in Athens earlier in the week. “It is not and cannot become a member of the EBU. As such, Greece will not be represented at the EBU's General Assembly on December in Geneva.”
“Without a public service broadcaster it will be very difficult for Greece to participate in Eurovision,” he said, quoted by Greek media sources. (See more about the Eurovision Song Contest here)
After firing all 2,700 ERT employees and transferring asset ownership to the government agency charged with disposal, DT was launched as a stop-gap measure while politicians argued about the promised new Greek public broadcaster NERIT. In the meantime, ex-employees squatted in former ERT facilities, continuing to broadcast via satellite and the Web. Bright and early one morning in the first week of November, the Greek public prosecutors office sent riot police to the former ERT headquarters and chased out the “pirates,” who resumed broadcasting from the Technical University of Athens.
“Police forces and arms have no place in public broadcasting stations,” added Mr. Philippot in the EFJ statement.
Greek singers have participated in the ESC 34 times since 1974, Elena Paparizou winning the contest in 2005. ERT’s precursor, EIR, was a founding member of the EBU in 1950. Bulgarian public broadcaster BTN is the latest to withdraw from ESC participation, according to a press statement (November 22), “due to the rising fees, the competition charges and the reduced budget of the national television channel.”
The 2014 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Copenhagen, hosted by Danish public broadcaster DR.
News and ‘quality foreign music’ at Olympic host city
Sochi Today
Visitors to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games lacking proficiency in the Russian language will have an FM radio station to tune-in to. State-owned international television channel Russia Today, also known as RT, is producing an English language station, which powered up this week, called Sochi Today. The station will offer half-hourly news bulletins complimented with “quality foreign music,” according to the RT statement, reported by RAI Novosti (November 21).
“Thanks to Sochi Today, millions of foreign visitors to the Olympics will be aware of the most important and interesting events of the Sochi Olympics and around the world,” said RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan in the statement. “Sochi Today will continue the success of RT in the radio industry.” Since 2012, RT has provided English language content to Moscow radio station Moscow FM. RT’s culture editor Dmitry Mirimanov is directing the Sochi Today project. (See more on media in Russia here)
Olympic Games host cities often provide multi-lingual media services targeting visitors, athletes, officials and, of course, other media people. They typically close with the event. About 20 AM/MW and FM radio stations operate in the Sochi region, most national networks. (JMH)
Online piracy should be fought in court, expert
and transparency is a good thing
Copyright holders have waged war on those insufferable downloading pirates since the beginning of the digital age. Successful lobbying has led to equally insufferable politicians drafting laws meant to protect rights and, it seems, privilege. Civil libertarians along with advocates of a free and open World Wide Web have managed to scupper most of these efforts arguing privacy rights of individuals and, where applicable, legal limits to prior restraint.
A new provision of Italy’s copyright law set to take effect in February will give media and telecom regulator AgCom authority to compel internet service providers (ISP) anywhere in the world to take down websites deemed to be hosting pirate sites after a complaint from a copyright holder. ISPs would be given three days to comply or face a stiff fine. There are strong arguments for it and against it. Italy’s politicians are divided, as usual. (See more on media in Italy here)
But legal opinions seem to favor a less draconian means of disincentivising online piracy. Borrowing punitive intent from the French Hadopi law that promised to cut-off internet service of suspected pirates, several national legislatures passed similar laws only to have European Commission lawyers suggest other means might be more appropriate. The Hadopi law, itself, disappeared. (See more on copyright here)
“Removing online content is the responsibility of judicial authorities,” offered United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue, following a fact-finding mission to Italy. “AgCom has the power to adopt their own administrative regulations only with the purpose of applying the provisions in force provided for by law,” quoted by La Repubblica (November 18). Italian consumer groups and ISPs were delighted. The European Commission is examining Italy’s anti-piracy legislation.
Other aspects of media rules and practices, as the post-Berlusconi era arrives, caught Mr. La Rue’s attention on his first Italian visit. Radio and television licensing rules should be reviewed, he said, to “allow Italy to overcome the excessive concentration of media and the possible establishment of monopolies, which limits diversity and plurality of freedom of expression and challenges democracy.” He also suggested public broadcaster RAI be “transformed into a completely independent service by transferring it to an independent institution or a national trust fund,” said the United Nations Regional Information Center (UNRIC) statement (November 18). Mr. La Rue will present detailed findings on Italian freedom of information and expression to the UN Human Rights Council next June.
Staff in frenzy as commercial broadcaster tapped for public radio post
Different games and contests
Job changes across the public/private radio divide are quite common, particularly in the biggest national markets. Duty descriptions are similar and salary levels are, shall we say, competitive. But when the new director of Germany’s biggest regional public broadcaster recruited a senior executive at the biggest private radio broadcaster as head of radio everybody had something to say.
Following the precedent of incoming chiefs, Tom Buhrow nominated new TV and radio directors about six months after taking office as Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) General Director. Herr Buhrow, long a fixture in German TV news, replaced highly respected WDR General Director Monika Piel, who resigned earlier this year for health reasons. WDR operates a regional television channel, contributes to several others and produces the Das Erste news program on national network ARD. There are six radio channels under the WDR mantel.
WDR news director Jörg Schönenborn would become TV director and Valerie Weber, program director of private channel Antenne Bayern, was chosen as radio director. Herr Schönenborn’s nomination was not controversial. On the other hand, Frau Weber is inextricably tied to private radio; Antenne Bayern, principally owned by RTL Group, being the biggest in Germany. (See more on media in Germany here)
Frau Weber was nominated as a “versatile, passionate and analytic strategist,” said Herr Buhrow’s statement (November 15). There can be no arguing Antenne Bayern’s rating (and revenue) success under Frau Weber’s leadership. But the current WDR crew wasn’t impressed and dozens, according to Die Welt (November 18), have petitioned against the nomination, saying Frau Weber is “too commercial”
The WDR board will consider the nominations this week but is unlikely to challenge Herr Buhrow’s decision. (JMH)
Research Note – GDP and GNI
additions to Market Data pages
On the Market Data pages in the Resource section we have been showing per capita GDP and GDP growth rates as general measures of a nation’s economic health. We are now adding per capita GNI to the Market Data pages as they are updated. Per capita GNI, we believe, is a better measure of national living standard, which more directly affects media consumption and productivity.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is, arguably, the most widely quoted statistic in economics. In a very broad sense it states the total wealth of a nation; production plus investment plus government spending plus all exports minus imports. Several models are used to calculate GDP yielding, more or less, the same result. GDP growth rate is also widely used to give a standardized number to rising or falling national wealth.
GNI – Gross National Income – is different. While GDP measures gross production, GNI measures gross consumption. Per capita GNI is the whole of consumption divided by resident population. Consult your friendly, local economist for more complete definitions. For sake of consistency, we use GDP and GNI statistics from the World Bank and IMF.
You can see per capital GNI statistics added to the Greece – Market Data, Bulgaria – Market Data, Romania – Market Data and Moldova – Market Data pages. We are also adding, when available, the 2013 IREX Media Sustainability Index (MSI) as well as updated internet and mobile penetration figures.
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