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AG.MA released top line figures of German radio listening (Wednesday February 27) as a prelude to the complete release on March 5th.
Overall, Germans 14 years and older listened to radio 200 minutes per day, not changing from the 2nd half of 2007 figures. Persons 30 to 59 years listened 227 minutes per day. Men listened longer than women by almost half an hour (213 for men, 187 for women). Working people listened to radio about 30 minutes longer than the general population.
Young people – the iPod and mobile phone generation – listened to radio a bit longer, 160 minutes per day from 158 minutes recorded in the previous survey (persons 14 to 29 years).
I’m gathering recent radio audience figures for all European markets for a special report to be posted in April. If survey results in your market have been released, please email to me. (JMH)
Yesterday (Wednesday) was a busy day for EC Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. There was that big fine (€899 million) against Microsoft, the biggest ever. Will that effect the bid for Yahoo? Probably not.
And then two public broadcasters – Belgian (Flemish) VRT and Irish RTE – were admonished to get their transparency together.
The stronger of the two rulings on public broadcasters was against VRT. It was told to have in place a public consultation on its mandate before the government authorizes more money. The government was told to amend rules within 12 months.
Last week a special meeting of Arab States Information Ministers in Cairo issued new guidelines on satellite TV. Rather than buckling under the whinging of Western critics, the 22 governments enshrined even more restrictive rules.
So, Tuesday afternoon (February 26) Egyptian-based business channel al-Baraka went dark, turned off by satellite provider Nile Sat. The official reason, of course, was ‘missing paperwork.’
With an annual budget of €5.8 million and participation by more than a dozen public broadcasters the Euranet pan-European radio network will debut March 31. The network is open to all, public and private broadcasters and will start its news and information programming in 10 languages, ultimately expanding to the 23 official EU languages. (JMH)
A debate Sunday night (February 24) between Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and opposition candidate Mariano Rajoy scored the 4th highest audience ratings for a television program in Spain. The 90 minute program was broadcast on several channels. National public broadcaster TVE reported a 36% audience share.
Meanwhile, the annual motion picture Academy Awards show, also Sunday night, attracted its lowest US audience ever. (JMH)
Project Apollo Ends
...the sound you're hearing is a thud..
Arbitron and Nielsen officially ended Project Apollo this week (February 25). (Read Arbitron presser here) The idea behind Project Apollo was to facilitate massive collection of audience and consumer data. (Read background here)
Nielsen executive Susan Whiting also made clear that big, single source panels are still very much part of Nielsen's plan. Media buyers and marketers love giant data sets. The end of Project Apollo raises that awful question of whether or not these companies will continue to fund massive projects.
For Arbitron, getting out from under the inevitable crash of Project Apollo is like avoiding space junk reentering the atmosphere. It's unwanted and radioactive. This is good news for Arbitron as it concentrates on its 'core business.' (JMH)
At a Federation of Black Journalists (FBJ) forum last Friday (February 22) with ANC president Jacob Zuma two journalists objected to the exclusion of white colleagues and protested by leaving. Some of those remaining then referred to the protestors as ‘coconuts’ – a pejorative term for ‘black on the outside, white on the inside.’ The journalists who left the meeting have filed a complaint against the group with the South African Human Resource Council, reported by the (Johannesburg) Times.
"We are of the view that the term ’coconut’ is not only insulting, but discriminatory,” wrote Primedia head of news Yusuf Abramjee and Radio 702 presenter Kieno Kammies in their complaint. "It was clearly used in a racial context and this is totally unacceptable and is meant to demean.” (JMH)
UK media regulator OFCOM warned MTV Networks Europe to stick to the rules. On nine occasions one or more MTV channels exceeded the maximum allowable 12 minutes per hour of commercial ads by 15 seconds or less. Oh, but six times the network ran four minutes more than allowed. And, horror of horrors, once during the monitoring between June and September last year there were 8 minutes too many.
MTV said it was a technical error with the automation system. (JMH)
ftm Media Sleuth Kirsten Sparre reports that Denmark’s DAB broadcasters are quite pleased with their results from the last year. At a meeting held February 8, outgoing DABDanmark chairman Paul Samsoe revealed that 37% of Danish households have DAB receivers and 84% are aware of DAB channels and broadcasting. (JMH)
Currier International is a weekly press digest published in France. They pull stories and headlines from around the world. Kiosks in French Metro subway stations post point of sale ads for magazines, taken from covers.
Last week one of Courrier Internationals headlines – at the top of the little poster – read ‘Vu de Madrid Sarkozy, ce grande malade,’ roughly translated ‘Sarkozy seen from Madrid, this big sickness.’ Or ‘disease.’ Or ‘trouble.’ Or ‘obsession.’ It depends on where you’re standing, figuratively. The headline related to an article taken from the Spanish daily El Pais, the original title being (translated from Spanish) ‘Sarkozy, is he finished?’
Metro authorities banned the poster as inflamatory. Kiosk operator Relay, owned by Lagardère, complied. Journalist unions cried censorship. (JMH)
News Corp raised its stake in German pay-TV channel Premiere to 19.9% last week. It bought 14.6% in January for €287 million. James Murdoch said he’s “looking forward.”
Premiere’s stock price took a beating last week when it missed its 2007 €1 billion sales forecast. It blamed hackers.
News Corp also said last week it would appeal a UK competition authority ruling requiring divestiture of its stake in ITV. News Corp holds 17.9% of ITV and the UK Competition Commission wants that reduced to below 7.5%. (JMH)
Social networking websites remain the flavor of the year, attracting 17 year olds and the like minded. Nielsen figures for the UK showed a rather significant drop in traffic to both Facebook and MySpace in December, prompting questions about the fads’ end.
Well, the US comscore figures for January showed traffic declines, too.
Younger visitors, it seems, are getting tired of using Facebook and older visitors are bored with it. (JMH)
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