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Denmark’s Royal Library is in negotiations to acquire those 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that caused riots and more than 100 deaths around the Moslem world in 2006. For all the furor those cartoons caused they are considered to be of historical importance and the library wants to keep the cartoons secure. Not necessarily on display, but secure.
The cartoons were printed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper and by law two copies of every publication must be lodged with the library, so it already has copies of the newspapers in which the cartoons appeared originally, but the library now wants to obtain the original drawings which are still in the hands of the artists.
The 12 cartoons were first published in September 2005 with Jyllands-Posten saying it was addressing the issue of self-censorship in the Danish press vis a vis Muslim sensitivities. One cartoon showed the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that Italy's TV broadcasting system fails to foster competition, but don’t look for any change in the carve-up between Rai and Mediaset in the near future.
Italian regional broadcaster Europa 7 has tried for the past nine years to get national coverage, having received broadcasting rights but not assigned frequencies. Current national coverage is split between state-run Rai and the Berlusconi family-owned Mediaset with three channels each and one channel owned by Telecom Italia.
"The exclusive allocation of radio frequencies to a limited number of incumbent operators without any time restriction ... is in breach of principles ... on freedom to provide services," the court said in a statement. Italian legislation “has had the effect of preventing operators without broadcasting radio frequencies from accessing the market.”
Europa 7 had claimed that its frequencies had been unlawfully given to Retequattro, one of Media set’s channels, which did not initially have a terrestrial concession and was supposed to be launched on satellite, but later had provisional terrestrial licenses formalized.
A Mediaset spokesman said the court’s decision would not affect Retequattro’s frequencies since the case dealt specifically in Europa 7 seeking damages from the Italian government for not having received the frequencies in the first place. There was no question of reassigning the frequencies to Europa, the Mediaset spokesman said. A Europa 7 statement, on the other hand, said “Now there can be no more impediments from the ministry of communications or the antitrust authority, such as the ones that so far have prevented us from exercising our rights.” It said it expected to be awarded hundreds of millions of Euros from the government in compensation for not being on air nationally for the past nine years.
One by-product of the resignation of the Romano Prodi government after 20 months in office is that proposed changes to the country’s broadcast law to foster more competition are now dead. Berlusconi is favored to win new elections, so prospects of a new government proposing such changes to the law are just about zero, unless the EC really starts getting involved, which it has shied away from doing in the past.
There’s a neat idea about to be implemented at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and if it works it’s something that universities should give a lot of thought to copying. USA Today, The Washington Post, and The New York Times are going to be distributed in special vendor boxes on campus, accessible when students swipe their university identity card unlocking the box, and the paper may be taken for free.
The newspapers are not made available for free, however, to the university. The university will pay, for instance, 25 cents for each Washington Post (newsstand price 50 cents), and 45 cents for each New York Times (newsstand price $1.25). Payment will be made only for newspapers actually taken from the boxes, not delivered.
Various campus entities contributed the money to fund the project for one year to see how it goes.
For the newspaper companies who are desperately looking for ways to get the young to read print instead of deserting to the web it’s a great way to get those readers actually in the habit of reading a daily newspaper, something those newspapers hope will continue after graduation.
New York City Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty says when it comes to recycling paper, people are pretty good now about newspapers, but they seem to forget about magazines and catalogues, so the city is going to spend $3 million to remind them to recycle those items, too.
The city generates 2200 tons of solid waste a day, but only 17% of all magazines are recycled, according to a recent study. The $3 million advertising campaign, contributed by organizations outside of government, will feature ads in subways, buses, billboards and on TV.
It may still be called FT Deutschland but the “FT” will only be a license, for the Financial Times has announced it has sold its 50% share in the German business newspaper to its joint partner in the venture, Guunar+Jahr, owned by Bertelsmann. FT Deutschland’s circulation has increased by some 40,000 since its launch in 2000 and now stands at around 105,000.
Financial terms were not announced, but since the FT wanted out, and the German newspaper has never turned a profit, it’s likely the main thrust of payments will come from the FT brand license and the sale of FT content to the newspaper.
It’s another major step in the FT freeing itself up from ownership in newspapers in Europe (it sold Les Echos in France, Recoletos in Spain) so that it can concentrate on the flagship Financial Times that will have to compete globally against Murdoch regenerated Wall Street Journal editions in the US, Europe and Asia.
"The FT Group is increasingly focused on the worldwide expansion of the Financial Times and our digital financial information businesses," according to Rona Fairhead, FT Group chief executive. "FT Deutschland no longer fits within that strategy."
Digital radio is center stage this week in Europe’s two largest radio markets. The German government agency that hands out license fee money to the public broadcasting system recommended cuts in DAB funding and, horror of horrors, some sort of accountability in future funding. Concurrently, a UK House of Commons Committee Room debate took up digital radio.
Tension raised. Think of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, broadcasters being the guild of master singers. Chasing the ‘contest’ causes a riot. Critics blamed.
German broadcasters, public and private, plan a grand ‘re-launch’ of DAB in 2009 with three multiplexes, two sectors and partridge in a pear tree. The notion of further delay or, horror of horror, less money “would be fatal,” said Hans Dieter Hillmoth, radio chairman of the private broadcasters association VPRT. (Read press release here in German) He was referring to fatality, as in a terrible automobile accident where the German automobile makers give up on digital radio.
WorldDMB, the promoter and licensor of DAB related broadcast technologies, quickly realized that the German chorus would have a British refrain. Their statement reiterated the commitment by German public and private broadcasters to try one more time to roll out DAB. It also suggested that the German license fee pay-master may have overstated its authority. (Read WorldDMB statement here)
As with any high opera there’s more at play than individual actors reveal at any moment. And being the (post) modern age, the ending will be written by the listeners… with a little help from Brussels. (JMH)
The Super Bowl this Sunday has already broken one record – for the most media credentials issued and besides the fact that two major TV markets are represented (Boston and New York in case you haven’t been following the saga) the National Football League has been generous also in issuing credentials to web-based news sites.
Now, yes, we know this game, in American eyes, is the biggest sporting event in the world (Olympics, what Olympics?) but if you’re a metropolitan newspaper in those cities and are having a hard time financially and you are cutting back everywhere you can, how many people do you send from the east coast all the way to Arizona?
The Boston Herald, owned by the New York Times Company, and said to be in really dire financial straits has sent 35 staffers to cover whatever 35 staffers can cover. Newsday, the Tribune-owned newspaper in New York that also has been going through cost-cutting exercises for several years, has sent just nine.
How big a business is media? In the UK the latest Family Spending Survey for 2006 says that British households spend £76 million ($150 million, €100 million) a week on newspapers and magazines
And yes, the older we get the more we tend to read print, for those over 65 spend the most on their reading habits. The lowest spend comes from the under 30s. The average spend in 2006 was £2 a week for newspapers and £1 pound for magazines. The bad news is that in 2004/2005 the average weekly spend was £3.10 which probably means people are reading less print as the prices go up.
It’s such fun in a US political campaign to see how the master spin makers take adversity and spin it to an advantage. Take, for example, not getting a newspaper endorsement. Now it used to be in US politics that candidates would fight like crazy to get the endorsement of the metropolitan newspaper, but Rudy Giuliani didn’t do very well getting endorsements from Florida newspapers so his people turned what many might consider to be a negative into a positive in web-based video ads.
The ad promotes that Giuliani was not endorsed by such major Florida metropolitan newspapers as the Tampa Tribune and The Orlando Sentinel. “In fact,” the ad says gleefully, “he’s not endorsed by any of the liberal newspapers.” The implication being that if you want to vote for a conservative then vote for the guy those newspapers don’t like. Didn’t do him much good, but it was great spin.
Ardent followers of the Eurovision Song Contest know that the whinging of critics, sponsors and participants forced the organizers to redesign the entire program. The new plan was announced (Monday January 28). (Read Eurovision press release here)
Instead of one semi-final to whittle down the final group to manageable size, there will be two, on separate days. France, Germany, Spain and the UK are guaranteed spots in the final broadcast as is Serbia, last years’ winner and this years’ host. Germany and Spain are obligated to broadcast and vote in the first semi-final. France and the UK will broadcast and vote in the second semi-final. Serbia will broadcast both semi-finals but vote in the second. (JMH)
Radio ads are just harder to sell these days. So says NRJ group, which reported earnings (Monday January 28). The French broadcast group posted 2007 sales 9.5% lower than 2006. Radio advertising revenue fell 8.5%year on year.
It’s a tough radio market in France for music stations. (See article on recent audience survey here) And it’s a tough advertising market. NRJ Group is diversifying into mobile media and TV, both slow to move. (JMH)
Zambian PresidentLevy Mwanawasa has joined the chorus of African leaders and broadcasters questioning what they consider confiscatory pricing of television rights for the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament. (See article on Cup of Nations rights and wrongs)
"I have got the concern, but as president, where do I place my priorities? On entertainment or where people are suffering from floods?" he said, reported by AFP.(JMH)
Green credentials don’t mean that you can’t be a capitalist and make money at it, too. and Al Gore is showing just that by planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for the Current Media web site and TV network which he and Joel Hyatt co-founded in 2002. Expected payout: about $100 million for an unspecified percentage of shares, with the price not yet indicated.
That’s not too bad when one considers the network’s debt is just $36.5 million and it has yet to make a profit, losing $9.86 million in 2007 on sales of $63.8 million, most of that from affiliate contracts. After paying the debt the leftovers will be used for working capital and general corporate needs.
The company targets its messages at the 18-34 age group, and about one-third of the channel’s content comes from viewers in the form of short, non-fiction video clips sent to the web site. Those that receive the most votes from viewers on the web site make it to the TV channel.
The San Francisco-based company has nearly 400 full-time employees. It has offices in London, Los Angeles, and New York.
British national newspapers are famous for giving away DVDs, CDs wall charts, selling cheap holidays – just about anything marketing can think of to get people to buy that issue of the newspaper. Now add to that list light bulbs, and before you laugh, it was a huge success.
Energy provider Southern Electric teamed up with Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid Sun, the largest UK circulation daily, to give away two free energy saving light bulbs with last Saturday’s edition, and circulation went up on the day by more than 400,000 – about a 12% increase on the day.
To get the light bulbs the paper had to be bought at any of 17,000 retail shops participating in the promotion and that took some savvy distribution, but it worked better than anyone might have thought.
Some statistics: Around 4.5 million energy saving light bulbs were made available for free, if all were distributed and used the electricity savings would be enough to power 10,000 households, saving users a total of £20.3 million ($40 million, €26 million) annually. CO2 emissions would be cut by 387,000 tonnes over the life of the bulbs. which is equal to taking 100,000 cars off the road for a year.
A week before, The Sun published an endorsement for the promotion by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The government is keen for the public to take up the new light bulbs.
The Super Bowl is this coming Sunday; have you bought your new HDTV yet? According to the Consumer Electronics Association and the Sports Video Group the Super Bowl will be responsible in the US for the sale of 2.4 million such sets with a value of $2.2 billion.
Super Bowl XLII takes place Feb. 3 in Arizona and is expected to be more of a ratings hit than ever because the New England Patriots are going for a perfect 19-0 season and the New York Giants, who have lost twice to New England this season, are from the country’s largest TV market.
Depending on where you are, mobile TV is media’s next big thing. Where you need to be, though, is the Asia Pacific region, according to ABI Research. (See ABI release here)
Japan and South Korea are leading the mobile TV charge but China and India will lag because of structural limitations. ABI sees 462 million subscribers worldwide by 2012, 260 million in the Asia Pacific region.
Two factors are driving mobile TV: bigger screens and flat-rates. Anybody can produce bigger screens. Handset manufacturers are pushing out so many new products it’s hard to get out of the way. Rates, however, are the domain of the mobile phone operators. In Europe there seems to be no appetite for flat rates for mobile TV.
ABI Research has consistently been a voice of reason amidst the mobile TV hyperbole. (JMH)
A Senegalese court (Friday January 25) dismissed arguments by a private television operator and ordered a stiff fine for re-broadcasting Africa Cup of Nations football matches. State broadcaster Radio Télévision Sénégalaise (RTS) sued Walf TV for pirating its signals. (See earlier article on Africa Cup of Nations)
Because State money was used to acquire the broadcast rights, argued Walf TV, the State could not forbid broadcast on another channel, reported Panapress.
The court disagreed. (JMH)
Emap, the media company about to disappear, moved another step (Thursday January 24) as shareholders approved the €1.54 billion (£1.14 billion) sale of its UK radio and consumer magazines to Bauer Verlag.
At the same meeting Emap reported earnings increases of 14% in the event marketing and business-to-business division. That part is about to be sold to a joint venture of Apax Partners and Guardian Media Group for €1.35 billion (£1 billion). The radio division also reported revenue increases – 6% - with stations Magic, Smash Hits and Kiss.
The consumer magazine business, which Bauer gets with the radio stations, dumped 9%. A company release said 2008 would “remain challenging” for consumer magazines.
The Bauer deal should now close in February. (JMH)
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