June round-up: BBC and Free Europe go off-air, political virals, legal restrictions

• BBC Romania and Radio Free Europe Romania are to go off-air on August 1st, due to buget restrictions. BBC Romania offered employees several month’s wage as a compensation

• Two senators proposed and got a modification of the Audiovisual Law that asks television stations broadcasting positive and negative topics news in equal proportions. If promulgated by Romania’s president, Traian Basescu, the law will become effective
• Evenimentul zilei, one of the leading quality newspapers and a phenomenon in the nineties, got a management: Horia Ghibuţiu as an Editor-in-Chief and Vlad Macovei as a Deputy, after Răzvan Ionescu and Grigore Cartianu’s resignal, several weeks ago
• The two candidates for the 2nd round of the local elections in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, released two viral materials in youtube. Sorin Oprescu, the winner of the June 15th vote, scored over 26,000 views:

  In the video, Sorin Oprescu, an independent (former social-democrate), pretends to keep a speech about political independence, while chasing a bulldog, his opponent’s impersonation. | More…

High ratings on the public channel, due to Euro 2008

The first channel of the public television achieved high ratings and more than 50% market share due to the Romania-France broadcast on June 9th (final result: 0-0). The first half of the match had 2,664,000 viewers in average (market share: 58,9%), and the second achieved 2,971,000 viewers (share: 57,8%) - target all urban, GfK peoplemeter data. The ratings are remarkable following the continuous drop in audience of the public television during the last year. TVR 1, the first channel of the public television, fell to the 4th or 5th place in terms of monthly averages, virtually equal to the audience of the main rolling news television in Romania, Realitatea TV. The traditional position on the market of TVR1 was the 3rd place, after the leading commercial stations, Pro TV and Antena 1.

Romania-France ratings on June 9th. Source: GfK data processed by TVR

Other matches such as Holland-Italy or Sweden-Greece, broadcast by TVR 1, also acheived good ratings.

According to some voices on the market, the drop in audience is due to | More…

The public television started to broadcast in HD

The Romanian public television started its HD broadcast on June 1st 2008, according to a press release. The broadcast is experimental and viewable on channel 59/DVB-t, or satellite with a Viaccess 2.6 card. TVR HD is the 2nd Romanian channel broadcasting in high definition, after Pro TV, the leading commercial station.

Lauders’s CME acquired Adrian Sârbu’s radio assets

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) announced today the take-over of Compania de Radio Pro SRL, owned by one of the “big five” on the Romanian media market, Adrian Sârbu, for 20,6 million US dollars (47,2 million RON or 14 million euros). Compania de Radio Pro includes two radios: Info Pro (news) and Pro FM (contemporary hits, with several recently launched spinoffs - Dance, Alternative, Black, Love). Launched in 1993, Pro FM delivered in 2007 revenues of 3,3 million euros, with an EBITDA margin of 42%. Info Pro entered the FM spectrum in 2004 and had 0,6 mllion euros revenues in 2007, with an EBITDA loss of 1,0 million.

CME is Adrian Sârbu’s traditional partner and currently holds 95% of the TV businesses run by Sârbu, with a leading position on the Romanian market (Pro TV, Acasă TV, Pro TV Internațional, Pro Cinema, MTV Romania, Sport.ro). CME also mentioned a 8,7% participation in the Media Pro Group, which operates Sârbu’s print, radio and internet businesses. Adrian Sârbu has been appointed last year as CME’s COO.

The CME press release: | More…

New superglossies on the Romanian market

Marie Claire Romania will be launched at the Romanian newsstands on Wednesday, April 16. The magazine is edited by Sanoma Romania and positioned in the upper zone of the glossies market. The Editor-in-Chief, Mara Stroe, has successfully launched the Romanian Glamour at Liberis Publications, in the Autumn of 2006.

Another international women glossy soon to be launched on the Romanian market is InStyle, published by Attica Media and run by Dana Negrilă.

The Romanian women glossies market has became rather crowded since 2005. The strongest publishers, Ringier Romania and Edipresse-AS, have launched three | More…

Tabloids are prosperous

During 2007, the uncontested leader of the newspaper market in Romania, Libertatea (Ringier România), started to be seriously challenged by two other titles, Click! (Adevărul Holding - Patriciu) and Can-Can (independent, taken over by Adrian Sârbu according to some unofficial information). According to the Romanian ABC (Biroul Român de Audit al Tirajelor - BRAT.ro), the market is as described in the following chart (sold circulation taken into account, data missing where the value is 0):

Libertatea is the traditional leader of the newspapers market in Romania and keeps its position, in spite of an important circulation decrease during the fall-winter of 2007. It sells more than twice than the next title in the hierarchy, Jurnalul naţional, whose position is now threatened by Click!. Having a formula close to the Swiss Blick (ported also on some other Eastern Europe markets), the leader is published by Ringier România, the strongest print group on the market. During the autumn of 2006, the executive director of the Ringier division in charge of Libertatea, Răzvan Corneţeanu, has left Ringier | More…

Romanian media outlet going to the Czech market

Mediafax, a press agency owned by the Romanian Media Mogul Adrian Sârbu, COO of the CME, is extending on the Czech market. At the end of 2007, a Czech company owned by Media Pro Management SA was registered in Prague, with Mihai Predescu as a GM. According to Media Pro sources, Mediafax-Prague will be more than a newswire and there are some other plans for Eastern Europe.

CME and Adrian Sârbu own Pro TV, the leader of the TV market, and various other print, new media, radio and TV assets.

Top 10 TV, February

According to GfK data processed by Realitatea TV, the most viewed 10 TV stations in Romania are:

1. PRO TV - 310.000/348.000 (CME/Sârbu, commercial)
2. Antena 1 - 228.000/219.000 (Voiculescu, commercial)
3. Acasă TV - 207.000/179.000 (CME/Sârbu, commercial, women)
4. Realitatea TV - 112.000/129.000 (Vîntu, niche, rolling news)
5. TVR 1 - 111.000/126.000 (public)
6. Prima TV - 104.000/110.000 (SBS, commercial, strong international reality shows programming)
7. Kanal D - 87.000/87.000 (Dogan, commercial)
8. OTV - 75.000/80.000 (Dan Diaconescu, tabloid)
9. Antena 3 - 73.000/74.000 (Voiculescu, niche, rolling news)
10. Naţional TV - 58.000/58.000 (Micula Brothers, commercial).

The figures are ratings in thousands of viewers (February/January), daily average, all urban. Starting January 1st 2008, the audience data have been provided by GfK Romania, which won the auction against the former audience provider, TNS-AGB Romania. The panel has been increased from 1000 to 1200 households and DTH has been taken into account according to its growing spread. The new GfK system has increased some niche station ratings by | More…

Internet ad market: 14-15 million euros in Romania, 2008

According to the two main Romanian internet advertising brokers, BOOM and ARBOinteractive, the internet advertising market will total 14-15 million euros cash in 2007. The estimate of 14,5 euros released by ARBOmedia at half-2007 has been confirmed recently by Magda Zanders, sales director at BOOM, during an ymterview [ro] (interview by Yahoo Messenger) with this author. Zander also said the faster growers in terms of money spent on the internet will be FMCG, especially Unilver. BOOM’s sales manager also expected a response from P&G.

The internet campaigns are complementary to off-line.

Internet advertising sales rose to roughly 5,5 million euros in 2006 and 8-9 millions in 2007. Common rate cards range from 7 to 30 euros CPM, discount is often 50% and the brokers’ commission is usually 30%.

Dogan has some further expansion plans in Romania

After launching Kanal D Romania in February 2007, the Turkish group Dogan has some further expansion plans into Romania. According to statements by Begum Dogan, Turkish billionaire Aydin Dogan’s daughter and the top executive of Dogan in Romania, the company is planning some other investments, both in the TV field and other businesses. In a story that is to be published tomorrow by the Money Express business weekly, Begum Dogan says Dogan will further develop Kanal D, launched as a general interest TV station, and invest into some TV niches, both taken over from existing owners and newly-launched.

Kanal D was launched in February 2007 with a team of famous TV stars transferred from the leader of the commercial market, Pro TV, and the public television, and with a tabloid-entertainment schedule. The ratings achieved were below | More…