Hot topics click link for more
Complaints about a children’s TV program addressing the refugee issue were dismissed by Czech media regulator RRTV. Earlier this month Czech public TV broadcaster Ceske Televize (CT) aired an episode of the Planeta Yó program meant to offer young people an ethical perspective. There were complaints to RRTV, about 80, some referring to the episode as “propaganda.”
“The council has not found any misconduct in terms of law,” said RRTV president Ivan Krejci, quoted by lidovky.cz (September 22). The complaints were referred back to CT. The episode was viewed on YouTube 145,000 times, reported digizone.cz (September 23). (See more about media in the Czech Republic here)
“What, you don’t want strangers here? You’re not serious,” said one of the program’s characters. “If we say no to those refugees, we are no better than those slimy creatures from the other planet.” (See more about kids and TV here)
“The show was not a reaction to the current situation, which could not be foreseen at the time, but built on fundamental values such as empathy, tolerance and solidarity.” explained CT spokesperson Alzbeta Plivova, who noted the episode was written and produced in May and June. “Fantasy regularly becomes a background, with comedic exaggeration, which always offers space for a clear ethical mission.”
Music streaming platforms are, despite protestations to the contrary, a concern to radio broadcasters. They’re cool. They’re what’s happening. They’re on mobile phones. They’re popular with young people. And now, they’re coming after advertising.
To amplify their status with the advertising people, music streaming service Spotify released this week a pitch piece - The New Audio - backed up with a TNS survey of listeners in ten European countries: the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain, Italy and Turkey. The point is to show Spotify competitive with radio stations in reach. And, too, music streaming listeners are “more active,” always important to media buyers. TNS surveyed online about two thousand people 15 to 64 years in each country comparing the ad-supported Spotify Free service to commercial radio stations. (See more about online advertising here)
Among the known knowns, Spotify is attractive to young people. In Germany, for example, Spotify Free users are 8.5 years younger than radio listeners. Spotify Free’s weekly reach among 18 to 34 year olds in France is 15%. Two-thirds of 15 to 24 year olds in Turkey are “aware” of the Spotify brand.
And Spotify Free is a competitor. If it were a radio station in Italy Spotify Free would be number 3 in weekly reach among 15 to 34 year olds, after RTL 102.5 and Radio Deejay. It would also be number 3 in Spain, same age group, after Los 40 Principales and Europa FM. Among 15 to 64 year olds in Norway it’s number 3 after P4 and Radio Norge and number 4 in Sweden after Mix Megapol, Riks FM and NRJ. The rankings are generally limited to commercial radio as many public broadcast channels offer significant speech content, not something that generally attracts Spotify listeners.
In Germany Spotify Free has the greatest weekly reach among other streaming services (8.8%, iTunes 7.2%). Weekly reach in Spain also leads iTunes, 27.7% vs 11.6%. In the UK iTunes leads Spotify Free, 16.5% vs 14.4%. In each country Spotify Free listening is greatest at night, commercial radio having the greatest reach during the morning hours.
Mobile media has everybody’s attention, the advertising people most of all. Delivering ads to smartphones and tablets isn’t just part of the business, it is the business. All forecasts point to more ad spending on mobile devices.
It should be, then, no surprise that digital advertising supporters are adjusting. The UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is merging its governing board and subsidiary mobile board “to put mobile at the center of everything,” said the IAB statement (see here). “It is a crucial time to ensure that mobile no longer sits as a separate discipline, and this move sets the example to the wider digital industry.” (See more about mobile media here)
The IAB UK and US counterpart Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB US) have robustly argued for protections from ad blocking mobile apps. Apple recently upgraded iPhone and iPad operating systems to enable user access to ad blockers causing a fury among ad people as well as many publishers concerned that a promising revenue stream might be diverted. (See recent article about Apple ad blocking here). There are other significant issues related to mobile advertising, like click fraud.
There is, widely accepted, a set of mobile device users who aren’t pleased with all those ads jumping out at them. The portion of folks employing ad blockers - ranging from 16% in the US and 20% in the UK to 25% in Germany and 35% in Poland, according to ad blocker blocking vendor PageFair - seems roughly similar to the portion of folks who just don’t like any advertising.
All the same, studies investigating the distress of mobile device users have popped up. Swedish mobile ad server Keymobile, reported by dagensmedia.se (September 22), reported, predictably, mobile users under 25 years far less “disturbed” (28%) than those over 45 years (51%). Most disturbing are mobile ads that take over the screen.
When responsible authorities in Sweden, Norway and Denmark declared over the last two or three years the inevitable end of FM radio broadcasting in favor of the DAB+ digital radio platform private sector broadcasters accepted, more or less, epistemic certainty if not closure. At the very least, with imposed deadlines decisions could be made. Public broadcasters were gleeful, owners as they are of DAB multiplexes.
In the ensuing months much has changed other than the passage of time. From small town mayors and automobile dealers to, imagine, voters shutting down FM radio broadcasting now carries a bit of a risk for the authorities. In Sweden there is a deadline, October 1st, for major private sector broadcasters to begin DAB+ transmission, though many have already taken the leap. In June Green Party MP and Culture Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke effectively drew digital radio transition to a halt as “associated with excessive confusion.” (See more about digital radio here)
The six major Swedish private sector radio broadcasters, including MTG and Bauer Media, formally requested from the Swedish Broadcasting Authority (MRTV) a postponement until July next year. “The prerequisites to transmit digital commercial radio has changed and there is need for greater clarity on the future conditions for a potential overall transition to digital broadcasting,” said the letter, quoted by radionytt.se (September 21). Obviously, radio broadcasters are not excited about enduring the expense of two transmission platforms. (See more about media in Sweden here)
“Ultimately, it was a political decision by the Culture Ministry in a weak government with easier decisions to make,” said the exasperated Swedish public radio (SR) director general Cilla Benkö at the Swedish Radio Day (September 19). "The Green Party had a Congress which took the decision that SR should not leave the FM band. They did not say that we must not move to DAB+. To broadcast on two platforms of all time is completely cuckoo and economically indefensible.”
Full-page newspaper ads appeared in Lebanon and Jordan this week paid by the Hungarian government warned would-be refugees to stay home or go somewhere else. When barbed-wire and armies aren’t enough, there’s the advertising solution. Denmark’s government recently mounted a similar campaign.
“Hungarians are hospitable,” said the ads in Arabic and English. “But severe actions are taken against those trying to illegally enter Hungary. Don’t listen to the traffickers.”
The ads are part of a larger campaign, produced by ad agency JWT Budapest, to dissuade people from trying to get into Hungary. Similar ads, billboards and posters have appeared from Afghanistan and Syria to Greece, Macedonia and Serbia. The Hungarian government has spent about €3.25 million and Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Janos Lazar has asked for an additional €1.25 million, reported vs.hu (August 31).
Conditions in Hungary being as they are, major media outlets refrain from criticising government policies. Online news portals are less constrained and, too, graphic artists. As it would happen, poster and outdoor graphic artists gave their annual Borz awards for creativity last week. First place went to sports artist Orsolya Kelemen for a timely poster titled Hungarian Feeling. It depicted a woman in traditional Islamic dress carrying a baby high-jumping a barbed-wire fence. Conspicuous in the upper right were the five interlocking rings and the words “Budapest 2024.”
Finding themselves on the back foot more often than not when negotiating with austerity intent politicians, European public broadcasters have noticed and are worried about a future with “a much diminished BBC.” Directors general of public broadcasting institutions in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland expounded on those fears in an open letter published by the Guardian (September 21).
“The idea of public service broadcasting was born in Britain,” said the letter. “Free from political and commercial interests, its main pillar is independence and the idea of putting citizens first.” The signatories also noted that their institutions are largely modelled on the BBC, the “mother” of public broadcasting. (See more about the BBC here)
Tirades by UK politicians of a particular stripe aimed at public broadcaster BBC have gone on for years. Feeling its mandate after winning a parliamentary plurality earlier this year the Conservative Party seems to be pushing harder than ever for squeezing the BBC into subservience, howling about market distortion largely a red herring except to certain well-known ageing publishing proprietors. The current BBC Royal Charter will expire at the end of next year.
The main public broadcasting support group, Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union (EBU), sent a representative to address the UK House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee in July. “Outside the UK we are surprised by the criticism of the BBC,” said EBU’s Roberto Suárez Candel. “It sets the standard. Everybody wants to learn from the BBC. It is regarded by other (EBU) Members as an advocate of best practices and as a trend setter.”
|
