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Heavy pressure on journalists
“about to lose a profession”
It was a phone call he had expected “for a long time,” said well-known Turkish journalist and columnist Can Dundar when fired from daily newspaper Milliyet by owner Erdogan Demirören, quoted by Hurriyet (August 1). He had worked for Milliyet since 2001. “It was no surprise.”
Two days earlier Milliyet editor-in-chief Derya Sazak was replaced by Ankara bureau chief Fikret Bila. Mr. Dundar’s columns had been spiked for three weeks after writing about Kurdish peace talks. It was never published. Since the Gesi Park demonstrations in June he had written several columns critical of the Turkish government. Milliyet has been editorially supportive of nationalistic positions. (See more on media in Turkey here)
Can Dundar’s 18-year old son Ege, working as an unpaid intern for Milliyet in Beirut, was also dismissed. He had been writing a regular Sunday column about pop music. He plans to study in the UK this fall.
The Turkish Journalist’s Union (TGC) counted 22 media workers fired and another 37 forced to resign since the Gesi Park protests. “Journalists trying to do their work are under threat of litigation and prison, on the one hand, and under heavy pressure from the sackings,” said the TGC on its website (August 19). Television channels NTV, Show TV, HaberTürk and SkyTürk have recently reduced staff due to restructuring by owners old and new.
“We are not only losing our jobs,” said Can Dundar, quoted by Bianet (August 1), “but we are about to lose a profession.” (JMH)
Doomed station wins award, again
language, platform matters
At the end of every August, on the Thursday before school starts, radio broadcasters in Switzerland gather in Zürich for the annual RadioDay. There are speeches, presentations and lunch for networking. Private commercial broadcasters plead poverty. Public broadcasters try to appear humble. After the lunch the group reassembles for the Radio of the Year presentation. One award is given to one station, public or private, from the dominant Swiss-German region and another for the rest of the country. It’s all based on year to year audience reach increase by percentage; very objective. This is Switzerland.
So the big winner this year in the non-Swiss-German regions was public channel WRS – World Radio Switzerland – the only English-language channel in Switzerland. Its year to year increase was 130%. No other station was even close. It won Radio of the Year last year, too. At the end of next week, the station will be turned over to a commercial operator because WRS did not fulfill the SSR-SRG objectives, never completely illuminated and audience reach certainly not one of them.
The English language, for many Swiss-German speaking politicians, is just not politically correct. The station, in various iterations, has been offered on FM in the Geneva area, populated with thousands of international civil servants, bankers and traders who interact all day in English, much to the chagrin of many Swiss-German speaking politicians. The WRS predecessor, joint public-private Geneva station WRG (World Radio Switzerland), won Radio of the Year in 2005, just before the SSR-SRG took it completely into its family because they said it couldn’t compete.
The new commercial operators of WRS, AngloMedia, will have a one month reprieve before the station is relegated to DAB, insuring that it will not likely receive next year’s Radio of the Year award. The only DAB channel with significant audience in Switzerland is public Swiss-German folk music channel Musikwelle, once only available on AM/MW. Swiss dairymen, so the story goes, bought DAB receivers because the folk music appealed to the cows.
Winning for the Swiss-German region was Radio 105 for an audience increase of 38%. It has won Radio of the Year in each of the last three years. Owned and operated by the remarkable Giuseppe Scaglione, Radio 105 was denied an FM license until 2009 before which it was a cable station. Platform, it seems, is important. and so is language.
Lots of music on private stations, little bad news
Regional effect
Privately owned radio broadcasting in Switzerland was first authorized 30 years ago, a generation by any measure. There are now 38 private local stations, not including a scattering of non-commercial stations or the ubiquitous channels of public broadcaster SSR-SRG, and media regulator OFCOM has carefully evaluated program content, details released coincident with the annual Swiss RadioDays in Zürich. Private local radio concessions require minimum amounts of public service content; news, public affairs, weather reports and the like.
And most Swiss private local radio stations do their part admirably, according to OFCOM’s study of program content during “prime-time” morning, midday and afternoon hours. Of all stations, the average amount of local news was 25 minutes. Some stations carried considerably more and these were more likely to be stations serving communities outside the main metropolitan cities. The private local stations tend to present news in bulletins, long form reports and live interviews being quite rare. On average 62% of “prime-time” programming is music on Swiss private local stations, the range being from 78% to 46%.
Local politics occupies 26% of news content, on average, but by station the amount ranges from 55% to zero. Softer subjects – education, health, religion and pets – average 21% of news content, the range being from 38% to 8%. Bad news – crime, catastrophes, wars and accidents – account for only 10% of news content on average. A few stations relate more bad news than other subjects and, too, some stations broadcast no bad news.
Advertising, obviously, supports Swiss private local radio, without which there would be no good news or bad. The average amount of advertising during these “prime-time” hours was 6%. The two private stations in the Italian-speaking region – 3iii and Fiume Ticino – broadcast the most advertising, 17% and 12% respectively. (JMH)
Public broadcaster transition takes form
Coming soon
A two-hour news program was broadcast on transitional Greek public television EDT, the first produced by the temporary service. Coming ten weeks after the Greek government shuttered public broadcaster ERT under pressure from international lenders to cut state spending it was something of a watershed moment. The New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television service (NERIT), replacing the EDT, will begin operation “in the next two months,” said a government spokesperson, quoted by naftemporiki.gr (August 21).
As the EDT news program aired, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) cut satellite and web distribution of a Greek language service, some of which had been produced by volunteers from dismissed ERT staff. After the EBU made public its decision (August 19), unions representing ex-ERT staff launched a petition drive hoping to keep what the government called “a pirate” service operating. Roughly 2,700 ERT employees were given their walking papers and NERIT will employ about half that number. According to local media watchers about 9,000 people have applied for the new jobs. (See more on media in Greece here)
NERIT will have a digital future. The government assigned two DTT frequencies that could accommodate about a dozen SD and HD channels, one fewer than previously assigned to ERT. (JMH)
Digital TV takes time, lots of time
Lawyers have their say... always
The long awaited national digital television channel auction in Turkey has been placed on further delay. Media regulator RTüK unceremoniously halted the process (August 15) following a court challenge. According to the RTüK statement the auction wasn’t cancelled, it just won’t be “executed.”
This latest stumble along Turkey’s digital TV path comes after Ankara radio and TV broadcaster Ask FM successfully appealed to the local Administrative Court (July 18) arguing that the procedure time limit had expired by the date the RTüK announced winners in the DTT auction. Language in the enabling legislation that came into force March 3, 2011 limited the tender process to exactly two years and the RTüK named the winners in April. Ask FM lawyers also complained that the auction process lacked “openness, reliability, transparency… contrary to law,” reported Turktime.com (August 15). (See more on media in Turkey here)
A total of 33 digital TV licenses were awarded in various categories to the highest bidders, raising just under €180 million. The RTüK digital migration plan sets analogue switch-off for March 2015 and several of the new operators hoped to fire-up DTT channels this November. For now, the immediate future for digital TV is in the hands of the Turkish Parliament when it reconvenes. (JMH)
Big broadcaster collects websites
small deal
Buying market share is a strategy common to media companies with deep pockets. Modern Times Group (MTG) is paying an undisclosed amount for a 70% share of online business of Bulgarian broadcaster Darik Radio. Baring unforeseen competition authority difficulties, MTG will become Bulgaria’s biggest provider of online services.
This past spring Darik Radio, a national radio channel privately owned by Radosvet Radev, acquired the assets of Net Info, which included email service abv.bg and video portal vbox7.com, merging with its Darik News portals for 33 information and service websites. MTG owns television channel Nova TV and has added several complimentary websites including the video on demand (VOD) portal Nova Play.
According the Gemius Research, reported by capital.bg (August 6), abv.bg and vbox7.com are the top two web destinations in Bulgaria, the MTG sites failing to make the top 30 list. Web advertising in Bulgaria for 2012 was estimated at about €12.5 million. Both Darik News and Net Info were profitable in 2012.
In June MTG launched its MTGx digital initiative “to turn the grey corners of the internet into amusement parks,” said Chief Digital Officer Rikard Steiber, recently snatched from Google. MTG generates about one-quarter of its revenue from Eastern Europe, the vast majority of that from the CTC Media shareholding in Russia. The deal in Bulgaria is “very small,” said Carnegie Investment Bank analyst Michael Lassen. (JMH)
Ratings edge up for DJ-less station
Very retro
Top 40 channel Radio 538 held its top spot in the Dutch national radio audience estimates for May-June 2013, released August 6. Market share for the Talpa Media owned market leader slipped to 11.0% from 11.9% one year on. The aggregate market share for regional public sales network ORN rose to 11.7% from 10.9%.
Hot on the heels of Radio 538 is Sky Radio, which moved rather dramatically into 2nd place – not counting the ORN group – with 10.5% market share, up from 8.7% year on year. Sky Radio is an automated pop music jukebox with no DJs owned by Telegraaf Media Group and modeled on low cost American format stations. (See Netherlands national audience trend chart here)
Hot hits channel Q-music also scored well, rising to 7.9% market share from 6.7% one year on. Regional commercial sales network E Power Radio took the biggest loss, dropping on aggregate to 4.6% market share from 6.0%. All-Dutch music channel 100%NL climbed to 4.6% market share from 4.2%.
Public radio youth channel 3FM placed 4th in the national survey with 10.3% market share, up from 10.1% year on year. Oldies music channel Radio 2 slipped to 5th spot, posting its lowest market share in several years, 8.0% from 9.0% one year on. News and sports channel Radio 1 was lower, 6.9% market share from 7.3%. Classical music channel Radio 4 was also lower at 1.6% market share from 2.0%. Radio 5, the public easy listening channel, was unchanged at 2.6% market share.
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