Polish media now getting attention from the big fish
We're off to Australia's Sydney Morning Herald this week, and a short article that raised more questions than it answered. Entitled "Murdoch eyes stake in Polish TV group", it reported a story in Rzeczpospolita which said that News Corporation is in negotiations to buy 33 percent of Polsat, Poland's only private television company. Although Polsat denied that talks were going on, sources "familiar with the situation" also claimed that local media firm Agora is interested. Similarly, a News Corporation spokesman would only say that the Australia-based company never comments until a deal is signed. Polish law currently forbids foreigners from owning more than third of Polish media firms, but this of course will change when Poland joins the EU in May.
So what is going on here? Why is Murdoch suddenly taking an interest in Poland when his UK papers feed their readers a diet of anti-European vitriol? Murdoch's media empire does indeed span the globe but, with the exception of the Star satellite TV channels in Asia (which have been a bottomless pit of money in recent years but give him access to that most important of emerging markets: China), News Corporation has driven its aggressive expansion in exclusively English-speaking countries. For example, to break into the US market, Murdoch ditched his native Australian citizenship and got an American passport because U.S. law said that only American citizens could own media companies. Expansion there has been rampant and now includes, among many others, the odious Fox News, purveyors of the most biased reporting and lowest journalistic standards during the Iraq war.
In the UK however, citizenship is not an issue. There, it was enough to persuade the British government to amend its media-ownership laws to allow newspaper proprietors to buy terrestrial TV companies (Murdoch already owns Britain's only satellite TV broadcaster). In the UK's own, and very British, version of Rywingate, the non-Murdoch press constantly inferred that this change in the law was brought about by Murdoch suggesting his papers would switch allegiance at the next general election unless News Corporation was allowed to start gobbling up under-performing private TV stations. It wouldn't be the first time. Back in 1996, after years of supporting the Conservative Party, Murdoch's British papers did a volte-face and swung behind Tony Blair in a staggering leap of hypocrisy. That change was widely credited with ensuring the Labour Party's huge parliamentary majority, something it still enjoys today. In UK politics at least, the rule is: What Murdoch giveth, Murdoch can taketh away.
However, Murdoch's disdain for Europe is both business and personal. Firstly, the major countries of the Eurozone already have well-developed media and, with the obvious language barriers, he sees no opportunities to expand his operations. Secondly, countries such as France and Germany enjoy vastly superior social welfare systems compared to the US and UK which, to a hard-line capitalist who is not known for his largesse to his employees, must be an anathema.
Which, if the Rzeczpospolita report is accurate, brings us back to the questions of why Poland, and why now?
It may be that News Corporation sees something in the future of the Polish media, whether imagined or real. Or it may be that they're doing their sums: Membership of EU plus right-wing election victor in 2005 equals lax media-ownership regulations.
In any event, Polsat seems to be a good choice, and not just because it is the only one. Viewers who subsist on a constant stream of cheap-pap pop-shows, wooden Mexican soaps, turgid third-rate American "dramas", and repeats of mindless Chuck Norris shoot-em-ups must be among the most easily-pleased audiences in the world. The perfect outlet for Murdoch's stock-in-trade.
So what is going on here? Why is Murdoch suddenly taking an interest in Poland when his UK papers feed their readers a diet of anti-European vitriol? Murdoch's media empire does indeed span the globe but, with the exception of the Star satellite TV channels in Asia (which have been a bottomless pit of money in recent years but give him access to that most important of emerging markets: China), News Corporation has driven its aggressive expansion in exclusively English-speaking countries. For example, to break into the US market, Murdoch ditched his native Australian citizenship and got an American passport because U.S. law said that only American citizens could own media companies. Expansion there has been rampant and now includes, among many others, the odious Fox News, purveyors of the most biased reporting and lowest journalistic standards during the Iraq war.
In the UK however, citizenship is not an issue. There, it was enough to persuade the British government to amend its media-ownership laws to allow newspaper proprietors to buy terrestrial TV companies (Murdoch already owns Britain's only satellite TV broadcaster). In the UK's own, and very British, version of Rywingate, the non-Murdoch press constantly inferred that this change in the law was brought about by Murdoch suggesting his papers would switch allegiance at the next general election unless News Corporation was allowed to start gobbling up under-performing private TV stations. It wouldn't be the first time. Back in 1996, after years of supporting the Conservative Party, Murdoch's British papers did a volte-face and swung behind Tony Blair in a staggering leap of hypocrisy. That change was widely credited with ensuring the Labour Party's huge parliamentary majority, something it still enjoys today. In UK politics at least, the rule is: What Murdoch giveth, Murdoch can taketh away.
However, Murdoch's disdain for Europe is both business and personal. Firstly, the major countries of the Eurozone already have well-developed media and, with the obvious language barriers, he sees no opportunities to expand his operations. Secondly, countries such as France and Germany enjoy vastly superior social welfare systems compared to the US and UK which, to a hard-line capitalist who is not known for his largesse to his employees, must be an anathema.
Which, if the Rzeczpospolita report is accurate, brings us back to the questions of why Poland, and why now?
It may be that News Corporation sees something in the future of the Polish media, whether imagined or real. Or it may be that they're doing their sums: Membership of EU plus right-wing election victor in 2005 equals lax media-ownership regulations.
In any event, Polsat seems to be a good choice, and not just because it is the only one. Viewers who subsist on a constant stream of cheap-pap pop-shows, wooden Mexican soaps, turgid third-rate American "dramas", and repeats of mindless Chuck Norris shoot-em-ups must be among the most easily-pleased audiences in the world. The perfect outlet for Murdoch's stock-in-trade.
