Broadcasters unable to agree on measure of success

Radio broadcasters will have no common measure of listenership during negotiations with advertisers next month unless they reach a new agreement on standard research methods, according to industry officials. "In January we are still using December figures but I really don't know what is going to happen next month," said Anna Kozłowska, public relations manager at RMF FM, Poland's top private radio station. Last year, radio broadcasters, including private Radio Zet and RMF FM, public Polskie Radio and a number of local broadcasters, agreed on a standard method of measuring audience levels for 2002 and selected SMG/KRC, a Warsaw-based market research company, to conduct the surveys. Despite the obligation resulting from the September pact, radio broadcasters didn't sign a contract with SMG/KRC until late in the year and on Dec. 20 SMG/KRC announced it would withdraw from the agreement. The market research company's move was soon followed by announcements from Radio Zet and RMF FM saying that it would not be possible to implement conditions of the September agreement. With the dissolution of the old accord, radio broadcasters are far from a compromise on standard research, Kozłowska said. "We stand pat. On Monday (last week) our meeting (of radio broadcasters) was a total fiasco. There is little hope for the next meeting and we may end up communicating through our lawyers," she said. While radio broadcasters stand pat, SMG/KRC is conducting the radio audience research using methods agreed on in 2000. "We are doing the surveys and waiting at the same time for radio broadcasters to come to some agreement," said Anna Romaniuk, head of the radio department at SMG/KRC. The Radio Track research report is conducted on a group of up to 100,000 respondents with the help of computer-assisted telephone interviews. Meanwhile, some market insiders say that Poland's two biggest private radio stations never intended to implement the September agreement. "I really doubt if it's the methodology that the entire conflict is about," said one market insider who wished to remain unnamed. "Radio Zet and RMF FM withdrew from the agreement because they want to limit the scope of the research, which may affect local stations." It's simply a battle for ad budgets, he said. The remaining stations - which decided to stick to the September agreement - turned to TNS Ośrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (TNS OBOP) to conduct their audience survey. Watchdog proposes new rules The National Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV) last week handed to the prime minister's office a draft amendment to the media law. The draft includes several measures discussed during the Sejm's previous term, such as an increase of allowable foreign capital in Polish media companies to a 49% stake from the current 33%, but it also promotes new ideas such as issuing licenses for public media. Licensing would allow public media, such as Telewizja Polska (TVP), to establish purely commercial ventures apart from their public operations. Under the proposed draft, public broadcasters would be granted four-year licenses obligating them to broadcast programs that meet the so-called public mission of television, for which they would get financing from a mandatory subscription fee paid by Polish citizens. The KRRiTV will monitor such productions but the watchdog won't interfere in public media's purely commercial ventures. State-owned TVP has been trying to establish a thematic channel with France's Canal+ but the previous government was against the proposal, arguing that TVP is a public company and, with revenues from both subscription fees and ads, already had a privileged position. But according to Witold Graboś, former council member and head of the group that prepared the draft, the proposed legislation is revolutionary because it will liberate TVP from what he called a "ghetto of public media." "The new legislation will allow us to check the quality of programs, which we call the public mission lineup, and at the same time public media will be free to participate in the commercial market," he said. "This way we'll be able to evaluate what is mission and what is purely commercial, which we can't do in accordance with the present law. Public media will enter into commercial ventures and this is something that's happening all over the world." Support for the draft is not unanimous. Tomasz Wełnicki, deputy chairman of the Sejm's culture and media committee in the previous term, said that licensing public media would allow the government to commercialize it and finance its political goals. "This draft may be treated as weapon in a battle for a leading position in public media between (Prime Minister) Leszek Miller and President Aleksander Kwaśniewski. And the new legislation would allow TVP's management to legally make more money and they are in big financial trouble now," Wełnicki said. Women's magazines slimming down Axel Springer Polska (ASP), G+J Polska and Hearst-Marquard Publishing this month launched mini formats of their respective women's magazines - Olivia, Claudia and Cosmopolitan. Mini formats, to be produced along with their standard sizes, are less expensive to produce and easier to carry. Claudia's and Olivia's mini formats are zł. 0.65 cheaper than their original format. Grażyna Olbrych, Cosmopolitan's editor in chief, said the mini format should catch on because it fits into women's handbags. According to Florian Fels, managing director of ASP, which launched Olivia's miniature Jan. 8, mini formats were first launched by Vogue in Germany and were very successful. "In this business everyone copies everyone so we'll test it," he said.