The Tickle File is ftm's daily column of media news, complimenting the feature articles on major media issues. Tickle File items point out media happenings, from the oh-so serious to the not-so serious, that should not escape notice...in a shorter, more informal format.
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Looked at the masthead of the IHT today? The “dingbat” is gone. Dingbat? – the panorama of images featuring pyramids and camels, an ox pulling a plow, a bridge, an hourglass an airplane, a bald eagle atop a clock stopped at 6:12 – that dingbat!
In its place in nice modern type, “The Global Edition of the New York Times”.
Bah Humbug!
Big ITV Ratings For Man Utd. Win
We told you a few days back that Wednesday night would be the night to get a table at that UK restaurant you’ve always wanted to visit but which only took reservations for six months in advance. Why – because everyone would either be at home glued to their teles or in their local pub watching the Manchester United-Chelsea Champions Cup Football Final in Moscow. And what a bonanza Man United’s win via the penalty shootout turned out to be for the commercial network that has needed some good news of late.
Overnights say 14.6 million (average 9.9 million) watched at home and they don’t have a figure for the huge number of pub viewers. And because the game not only went into overtime but also into a penalty shoot-out ITV ended up devoting 4 ¼ hours from start to finish. The 30 second commercials during the regular half-time were said to have gone for £200,000 each ($400,000, €250,000) and then with the extra time commercials and then the penalty shoot-out ITV was almost as big a winner as Man United! Just going into extra time probably earned the network another £1 million ($2 million), €1.25 million). It garnered a 43.1% share.
UEFA, the governing body of football in Europe, was none too pleased that two English teams were in the final – what might that do to interest outside the UK – but within the UK the average viewership was up near 30% over last year when there was just one English team, Liverpool, that lost 2-1 to Italy’s AC Milan.
No More Selling Royal Wedding Rights?
Peter Phillips married Autumn Kelly last week and Hello Magazine paid £500,000 ($1 million, €600,000) for the exclusive rights. Why would they do that? Well, Peter is Queen Elizabeth’s eldest grandson (Princess Anne’s first child from her first marriage), he is 11th in line to the throne, and high-ranking royals and their girlfriends would be at the wedding and that’s a big deal.
Apparently too big a deal.
The media hasn’t taken kindly to royalty cashing in this way, and it appears royalty itself is not so enthralled, with Prince Harry said to be particularly annoyed (The Sun said he was “incensed) at some of the pictures in Hello taken from informal moments on the day.
The Daily Telegraph quotes a “palace insider” – those quaint terms are still used in British journalism – as saying, “It will never ever happen again. In hindsight it should never have happened in the first place.”
Hello ran a 100-page special with plenty of shots of Harry with girlfriend Chelsey and lots of pictures of Kate Middleton, Prince William’s girl friend. William was not there, much to Hello’s sorrow, because he was attending the wedding of a good friend in Kenya. Interesting to note that in royalty good friends come before family.
As for Peter Phillips, he doesn’t get any public money nor does he carry out official engagements on behalf of the royal family. Well, a bloke has to be able to earn a bob or two when he can, right? (For those who don’t know old English slang, bob was a nickname for a shilling – part of British currency before decimalization -- and now you have a feel for how old the writer is!)
Agora investors whining about investment …greed is good?…
Almost like clockwork a major institutional investor in Poland’s major media company Agora threw a hissy fit about Agora’s recently announced expansion investment. BZ WBK Asset Management, holder of 18.4% of Agora’s shares, want the company’s expansion war-chest used for a share buy-back. In other words: don’t invest in strengthening the company, give it to us.
Agora CEO Marek Sowa announced the $50 million investment in classified ad portal and publisher Trader.com. (Read those details here) Certainly, there are no guarantees in life, less in business and even less in the media business but this deal has an established asset with cash flow. Hello!
So, who are these geniuses at BZ WBK AIB Asset Management? It’s part of Bank Zachodni, 70% owned by Allied Irish Bank. It’s the 5th largest bank in Poland. In BZ WBK’s press release (May 21) it revealed its plan to present its slate of Supervisory Board members and, essentially, force Agora to give up any “reserve capital” rather than invest it forward.
So, Mr. BZ WBK, this Bud’s for you. (JMH)
Russian Newspapers Protest Increased Postal Subscription Fees …
There is some power of the press, even in Russia, with several newspapers having threatened to print only blank front pages Wednesday to protest increases in postal subscription fees. The action was called off when the Post Office said, “Let’s talk”.
The mail is extensively used in Russia for subscription distribution and the Post Office says it is losing a fortune on those deliveries. In Russia it is the Post Office that sets newspaper subscription rates when postal delivery is involved and it charges different rates depending on the delivery location.
The Post Office says it is losing some 4 billion rubles ($168 million, €100 million) on those deliveries and it says only a government subsidy can stave off the increases. The issue has landed on new President Dmitry Medvedev’s desk and he is said to be looking into it. A postal official said there would be no increases this year but 2009 was another matter.
…While Gazprom Sells Izvestia To Putin Ally
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has sold its majority stake in Izvestia to the SOGAZ insurance company, part of a group controlled by Bank of Russia, whose chairman is Yuri Kovalchuk, a very close friend to Prime Minister Vladamir Putin.
While Putin was President for eight years, many of Russia's biggest television stations and newspapers were bought by state corporations or Kremlin-friendly businessmen and in the process their criticism of Kremlin policies largely disappeared.
Izvestia is still one of Russia's most widely-read broadsheet newspapers with average readership around 371,000 according to TNS Gallup Media.
It is highly unlikely Gazprom would have sold its 50.9% stake unless it was sure the newspaper would be in “safe” hands.
Eurovision semi-finals – no turkey but fun?
The new voting plan for the Eurovision Song Contest got its first test last night (May 20). Years of whinging about ‘voting blocs’ brought about changes in the system used to pick winners. (Read about the new plan here)
If the idea is to choose a ‘great song’ the jury is still out. If the idea is to derail voting by geographic, it didn’t work.
Entries from Greece, Romania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Finland, Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Poland and Norway move on to the finals. ESC officials might want to think about the reasons people tune into the show. Maybe the fun of watching the show is more about voting for friends and neighbors and less about choosing a great song. Sometimes viewers speak volumes about what they want.
The Irish entry Dustin the Turkey, a sock puppet, failed to make the top ten. Too bad.
The 2nd semi-final will be broadcast Thursday night (May 22) with the final show May 24th. (JMH)
Chinese Continue Crack Down On Dissident Journalists
While the world’s attention and sympathy has been with the Chinese people for the horrible human tragedy from last week’s earthquake, that hasn’t stopped Chinese justice from continuing to pronounce prison sentences for dissident journalists.
And that means the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the World Editors Forum (WEF) have written to Chinese President Hu Jintao calling for the release of those journalists who had reported how a Tengzhou official had beaten a woman for arriving late for work. The reporters also posted photos of a luxurious Tengzhou government building on an official anti-corruption website.
Qi Chonghuai, who works for China Legal News in Shandong province, was sentenced to four years in prison and He Yanjie, a free-lance journalist, received a two-year sentence, in a trial that was closed to the press. They were convicted for "fraud and extortion," charges that are used by authorities to silence critical journalists. Qi said he was beaten by police while in detention.
WAN/WEF say that China remains the world's biggest jailer of journalists, despite its promise, made in its successful Olympic bid, to respect press freedom. At least 30 journalists and 50 cyber-dissidents are in Chinese prisons. WAN has called on the International Olympic Committee to hold China to its promises, and has called on all going to the Beijing Olympics -- athletes, sponsors, media partners and others -- to "exert serious pressure on the Chinese authorities to cease their flagrant and persistent abuses of human rights" and to release all jailed journalists.
Losing London Mayor Becomes Talk Radio Host; Winner Gets £250,000 For Weekly Newspaper Column
After two terms in office London Labor Mayor Ken Livingstone finally got booted out in the Conservative landslide a couple of weeks back. So where do losing mayors end up? On talk radio, of course, and he’ll be hosting a show – details still being worked out -- on LBC Radio which is on a roll with its share up in the last quarter from 3.5% to 4.5%.
“Love him or hate him, Ken Livingstone is never boring,” said LBC program director Jonathan Richards.
Not to be outdone winning Conservative Boris Johnson is resuming his weekly column for the Daily Telegraph at a reported £250,000 a year. Wonder what those journalists feeding the Telegraph’s web site, the newspaper, mobile and the like for eight hours daily for a fraction of that pay feel about that! Who says you can’t get rich writing for a newspaper?
So Ken can bash Boris on the airwaves and Boris can nail Ken in his column – there is no love lost between the two. Should be a lively time in London politics.
How 50 Years Have Changed England’s Cup Final Day
Portsmouth beat Cardiff City, 1-0, in England’s soccer cup final last Saturday in the last such final to be shown on BBC television for at least four years, having lost the rights to ITV. But does anyone really care? Only about 5 million viewers tuned in, one of the lowest audiences for many years, for a game pitting two relatively unknown teams – certainly not the stars of English football. Basically, except for Portsmouth and Cardiff fans, nobody really gave tupence on who won.
Turn back 50 years to 1958, the year when Bolton Wanderers beat Manchester United, 2-0, and it was a very different scene on that FA Cup final day and on other such days during the 50s. It didn’t matter who was playing, there would be street parties throughout the country before the game, and then nary a soul, except mad dogs and tourists could be found on London’s Oxford Street and other such shopping venues throughout the country for everyone, but everyone, was inside watching the big game on small black and white teles, listening to Kenneth Wostenholme’s play-by-play without whose magic vocal chords the cup final just hasn’t been the same since.
In those days the cup final was such a big national day both the BBC and newcomer ITV competed head-on telecasting it (the latter figuring properly that no one would watch their counter-programming anyway), but the Beeb won handily every time and finally ITV gave up the competing ghost, but for the next four years, as part of a £425 million ($850 million, €530 million) deal that includes England internationals, it gets the cup final back.
Want to experience how it used to be? If you’re in the UK Wednesday evening and you want a meal at that restaurant that won’t take reservations except for six months ahead then this could well be your night – assuming staff are willing to work. Chelsea play Manchester United in the European Champions League Final in Moscow and you can well expect UK streets to be barren. But watch out for after the game. ITV, incidentally, has the rights to that match and has already doubled its 30-second spots cost to around £200,000 ($400,000, €250,000) – still well shy of the $3 million NBC is looking for at the 2009 Super Bowl, but pretty good for the UK.
As for the FA Cup Final, the Brits may have lost interest but it still continues to be a big hit overseas with estimates that some 500 million people in 169 countries watched.
Indy Loves Billboards
Steven Spielberg is a big fan of huge posters and billboards to promote movies and thus Paramount is doing him proud in the run-up to Thursday’s global release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Besides the normal billboard splurge in Los Angeles – for many movies that’s where 10% of box office emanates – huge posters sites and billboards have been taken out in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco and other major cities as well as at major airport hubs. At one well-traveled Los Angeles intersection there are no less than eight Indy billboards.
Paramount has bought space on some 2,000 US billboards, wall messages, public transport advertising and the like at a cost said to be not more than $4 million – a mere drop in the movie’s $165 million budget bucket.
The film premiered Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival to a three-minute standing ovation – that’s considered polite but not overly enthusiastic – and the reviews have also been pretty decent, but also not overly enthusiastic – the Los Angeles Times reviewer in Cannes managing that of the now four Indy films this is “one of the better ones.”
EBRD sees GDP growth ‘moderating’ in Eastern Europe and CIS “…surprisingly resilient…”
Forecasts from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), released this weekend at the annual meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, reinforce conventional wisdom that economic growth in Eastern Europe and the CIS will moderate this year. It’s a macroeconomic picture of the broad region that EBRD says is “surprisingly resilient in the face of disruptions on the international credit markets.” Inflation, says the agency, is “the region’s most pressing problem.”
We’ve written often (and recently – read here) about the impact on media in Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS of increased rates of economic production and consumer spending power. A broadcast station owner in the Baltics recently told me that ad revenues were up 25% over last year, which was up 25% over the year before. EBRD says GDP in the region will likely remain strong in the short term.
As good economists and bankers EBRD also sees black clouds on the mid-term horizon. Central Eastern Europe and the Baltics face slightly reduced economic growth as their central banks tackle inflation. South Eastern Europe and much of the CIS is further challenged by political instability and reduced access to credit strapped Western financial institutions. Russia and Ukraine, on the other hand, continue to rock. (JMH)
US broadcaster reports worldwide audience "...performing well..."
The agency overseeing all US international broadcasting reported (May 16) an increase to 175 million viewers and listeners. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) said listening and viewing in Asia, the Middle East and Africa led the increases. (See BBG presser here)
The US government brands its international broadcast services separately, i.e. VOA, RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia, et.al., unlike the single brand BBC World Service. Yet, the figures are similar to those from other sources about other international broadcasting services. Audiences for the major international broadcasters are up.
"Our research probes questions such as whether our audiences trust our news and whether our broadcasts are helping to improve their understanding of their world and America," said BBG Chairman Jim Glassman in a recent speech. "On those two counts - and on less tangible measures - the BBG is performing well." (JMH)
Polish media law vetoed power struggle over public broadcasting
Poland’s President Lech Kyczynski vetoed (May 16), as expected, legislation changing rules governing radio, television and the national regulator. The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk adopted the law that would change the structure of regulator National Radio and Television Council (KRRiT) and public broadcasters Television Polska and Radio Polska.
“The bill is likely to threaten the public broadcasters’ role and would allow their possible privatization,” said Kaczynski in a press statement.
The bill now returns to the Polish Parliament where a 3/5 majority can overturn President Kaczynski’s veto. (JMH)
NRJ restructures, Baudecroux returns Marc Pallain out
Bad first quarter ratings and terrible first quarter financials may just have something to do with the latest news from NRJ Group )May 16). Group CEO Marc Pallain is out and Jean-Paul Baudercroux is back, as if he ever left.
It was a blunt ‘official’ statement: “If this project is adopted by the assembly, Jean-Paul Baudecroux, currently president of the board of trustees, would become chairman of the board and would exert the functions of managing director. In this context, Marc Pallain, currently president, would see his functions ending at the conclusion of the general meeting which would adopt the change.”
Coincidentally – or not – Christophe Sabot abruptly quit as head of programming for Lagardère Active the same day. Sabot had been head of programming at NRJ until 2001. (JMH)
Rolling back consolidation …”disapproval”…
The United States Senate, the upper house of the American national legislature, voted a “resolution of disapproval” (May 15), taking a step toward nullifying Federal Communications Commission rules allowing cross media ownership in the largest US media markets. The resolution was approved on a voice vote. The House of Representatives is considering a similar resolution. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez expressed “disappointment” and will recommend that US President George W. Bush veto any attempt at rolling back liberalized rules on cross-media ownership.
A generation ago, 1975 precisely, the FCC set rules prohibiting one company from owning a newspaper and television station in the same geographically defined market. Big publishers – including Time-Life and Hearst – were forced to choose. And they almost always chose to stay in the newspaper business. Times change. More market-liberal US administrations have been removing ownership rules ever since, leading to the great consolidation of the 1990’s.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants to “relax” cross-media ownership rules even further to “save newspapers.” The biggest media companies agree. Consumer groups disagree. We’ll see. (JMH)
