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Global briefing
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The people formerly known as listeners
Media futurist Gerd Leonhard
- one of the guests at the AIB’s private networking dinner in Singapore last month - said during the
RadioAsia2006 conference in the city that audience growth now lies in interactive services and broadcasters have to be quick to
capitalise on this phenomenon. Technological advancements allow users to create and even send their own content through the
Internet, which has become more of a social medium and a cheap and effective means for them to find new music and content. In
just a few years, podcasting has outgrown the number of radio stations globally, as there are currently only some 30,000 radio stations
in the world as compared with about 47,500 radio station podcasts. “The people formerly known as listeners are getting involved and
even co-creating content. They once were just receivers. Now, they are senders. They can now interact with you and make their own
contributions,” Leonhard said. If broadcasters do not provide on-demand content that can be recorded and stored by users, they risk
losing 50% of their market share. The second annual RadioAsia conference was jointly organised by the ABU, the Asian Media
Information and Communication Centre, and Singapore Exhibition Services, with Deutsche Welle as one of the sponsors.
And now the good news
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest
Global
Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006-2010
, entertainment
spending is expected to reach US$1.8trillion in 2010, fuelled by the
spread of broadband and wireless technology. Consumer spending
on entertainment through online and wireless channels alone will
more than triple to US$67bn by 2010, up from US$19bn.
Entertainment spending in the Asia-Pacific region will grow fastest,
with double-digit increases on internet, TVdistribution, video games,
and casino and other regulated gaming. By 2009, China is expected
to surpass Japan as the largest market formedia and entertainment
in Asia. The US will remain the largest, though slowest-growing,
global media consumer. US media spending will increase by 5.6%
a year, on average, to reach US$726bn in 2010. That growth will be
led by video games and the internet, the report said.
ISDB-T’s Latin foray
With Brazil’s choice of Japanese
digital television standards,
the ISDB-T format will be adopted outside Japan for the first
time. Japan’s format moves toward becoming a global standard
with the decision by the largest economic power in Latin
America to adopt it. The Japanese government has expressed its
intention to cooperate with Brazil in digital broadcasting by
conducting joint research and developing human resources.
There are currently three types of DTV standard – Japanese, US
and European. Malaysia and Singapore are going with the
European format. Brazil had initially aimed to develop its own
format, but later decided to adopt one of the existing standards.
With the US standard said to have poor reception, Brazil had to
choose between Japan and Europe.
Will it go through this time?
The Indian government is once
again trying to get broadcast regulation in
place. The latest Broadcasting Bill has been drafted after consultation with third
parties such as the FCC in the US, CASBAA in Hong Kong and consumer
groups. It is mainly aimed at domestic media companies, but one provision –
that 15% of broadcast content must be produced in India – will also affect
foreign broadcasters. India’s media giants will be compelled to restructure, and
Zee group, the largest listed media group, has already embarked on splitting
into four broadcasting units that will be offered to public investors later this year.
The other issue, which again could cause the bill to founder, is a cap on cross
media ownership at 20% and even share of voice for a TV channel or cable TV
network nationally at 15%. A newly created Broadcasting Regulatory Authority of
India (BRAI) is to monitor content on TV channels and generally oversee the
broadcast industry. The industry agrees that it is time a content watchdog was
set up but broadcasters and cable TV operators will not readily give up a position
acquired over years of operating in an unregulated environment. Information &
broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi has indicated that there will be no
discussion with the media industry on the controversial bill - the bill would
neither be “diluted” nor “polluted” and would be brought to parliament in the
coming Monsoon session.
Meanwhile, the governing body for public broadcasting - Prasar Bharati - is
without a head following the retirement of its chief executive, Mr K S Sarma.
Sarma is tipped for a senior role at the government media regulator.
What’s on the mobile?
Mobile market authority
M:Metrics has
launched M:Meter, the first commercially-
available mobile device meter designed to
measure the behaviours of mobile content
consumers across the US and UK. More than
1,000 mobile phone users have installed
M:Metrics’ patent-pending technology on their
devices, and M:Metrics is working with leading
network operators to develop custom panels to
measure the behaviours of consumers of mobile
video, mobile audio, mobile browser usage and
mobile application usage. TV audience
measurement specialist Nielsen Media Research
has also unveiled wide-ranging plans to expand
its coverage to the Internet, mobile phones and
other devices. The new testing could significantly
change the way viewing figures are calculated
and might result in major shifts in the way
advertising budgets are spent. Called Anytime
Anywhere Media Measurement, or A2/M2, it will
roll out over the next several years, starting with
test this summer.
No criticism here please
South Africa’s public broadcaster
has banned high-profile government critics from its programmes – at least six
political analysts who have on occasion criticised President Thabo Mbeki and his allies have been blacklisted,
allegedly because they were ill-informed. The decision follows a spate of censorship rows that prompted
accusations that the SABC had become a mouthpiece for the ANC, just as it was once a propaganda tool for the
apartheid regime. The blacklist was drawn up by the head of news, Snuki Zikalala, an ANC member and former
government spokesman. A spokesman for the broadcaster said it preferred professional commentators who were
attached to academic institutions and research organisations relevant to particular news stories.
in Indonesia
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Swedish public broadcaster SVT is cutting news budget in favour of more drama
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Radio Polonia in studio
quality via 192 kbps audio stream
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Broadcast Electronics deploys FM gear to Ethiopia
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German mobile communications
industry issues Code of Practice
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Brits out-connect American, French and German mobile users with 10% using social
networking applications and user-created content
•
Germany’s PSBs reject SES-ASTRA’s plans for “basic encryption”
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RTL
to broadcast itsTVservices inwidescreen
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BBCused Security ServiceMI5 to vet staff
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Berlusconi’sMediaset eyes Endemol