4. MEDIA CONCENTRATION AND NEW PATTERNS OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP

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4. MEDIA CONCENTRATION AND NEW PATTERNS OF MEDIA
OWNERSHIP

• Dr Beata Klimkiewicz
• Jagiellonian University
• Kraków, Poland

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NUMBER OF NATIONAL DAILIES

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PRACTICES RESULTING FROM CONCENTRATION

• replacement of serious journalism with
  infotainment
• saving costs of journalistic production by
  cumulative recycling, duplicating mainstream
  content formats
• targeting majority audiences

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DEVELOPMENT OF BROADCASTING MARKETS

• significant change in quantity of TV channels
  broadcasting terrestrially and via satellite and
  cable took place in the last seven years
• thematic, mostly foreign owned TV channels
  appeared on the market (including Discovery
  channels, MTV, Animal Planet, Le Cinema, HBO,
  Eurosport, RTL and others) and digital platforms
  were established
• these developments have not challenged the
  positions of principal television players in CE
  countries

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TELEVISION AUDIENCE SHARES Poland
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PRIVATE PLAYERS

• national terrestrial commercial channels Polsat,
  TVN, TV4
• Catholic channels TV Trwam, TN Puls
• seven private local TV stations
• two digital platforms Cyfra, Polsat Cyfrowy
• 600 cable operators

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TELEVISION AUDIENCE SHARES Czech Republic and
Slovakia
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VIEWERS CHOICE

• the range and offer of national private TV
  channels in the Central European Member States is
  remote from being fully diverse
• main private terrestrial TV channels are
  predominantly oriented on entertainment
• news, education and other related genres comprise
  a small portion of programming, that does not
  surpass 10 of the total programming offer

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MEDIA CONCENTRATION REGULATORY DILEMMAS

• anti-concentration provisions enshrined both in
  media and competition laws tackle a small scope
  of the problem
• a limited scope of other regulatory measures
  (reservation of broadcasting frequencies,
  requirement of independent and original
  programming, subsidies)

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MEDIA PLURALISM REGULATORY MEASURES
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LIBERAL APPROACH

• the liberal approach towards concentration of
  media ownership
• exceptions recent judgements of the Polish
  Office of Competition and Consumer Protection
  which charged the publisher Polskapresse with
  penalties amounting to 100,000 as the company
  failed twice to notify the intention of
  concentration on the market of regional daily
  newspapers
• anti-concentration provisions have neither
  prevented media companies from establishing
  dominant positions (Polskapresse and Orkla) nor
  did they limit cross media ownership

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REGULATORY FAILURES RYWINGATE

• 2002 Draft Amendment to the Broadcasting Act
• limits on cross media ownership
• Agora was offered to pay a bribe amounting to
  17.4 millions of US dollars to the group in
  power
• disclosure investigation by the Sejm
  Investigative Committee
• consequences resignation of Millers government
• cross media ownership remained unregulated

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THE MIDDLE-SIZE MARKET POLAND

• more prominent presence of domestic media groups
• Agora control over larger circulations
• small media companies still continue to merge
  with powerful owners
• 2000 25 mergers took place on the press market
  in Poland (7 of all mergers on the press market
  in Europe )
• 2001 31 mergers (8 of all mergers on the press
  market in Europe )

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SMALL MARKETS

• more significantly affected by media
  concentration and domination of transnational
  media conglomerates
• Hungarian daily newspaper market Ringier, Axel
  Springer and WAZ
• Slovak newspaper market VGP and Ringier
• Czech newspaper market Ringier and
  Rheinisch-Bergische Verlagsgesellschaft
• Baltic countries Bonnier, Orkla and Shibsted

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MONOMEDIA CONCENTRATION

• refers to integrating ownership within a single
  sector of activity
• most predominantly used by transnational foreign
  media companies opting for thematic
  specialisation
• Ringier in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and
  Hungary national tabloid daily newspapers
  similar in its format and copying the same style
  of journalism
• H. Bauer in Poland a number of magazines
  belonging to the same thematic category 10
  womans magazines, 8 TV guides, 6 computer
  magazines, 4 youth magazines, etc.

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CROSS MEDIA OWNERSHIP
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MEDIA CONCENTRATION ON REGIONAL MARKETS

• monopolies the Czech Republic (Verlagsgruppe
  Passau VGP) and Slovakia (Petit Press)
• duopolies Poland (Orkla Press and Polskapresse),
  Hungary (WAZ and Axel Springer)
• a dominant position in regions, closing down or
  merging competing newspapers
• cooperation of competitors

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TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA CONCENTRATION

• refers to ownership of media companies in several
  countries, to media companies distributing their
  products in many countries
• ownership in the print press sector in old EU
  Member States remains predominantly national
• in Central European new Member States it is
  largely dominated by transnational foreign groups

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LARGEST TRANSNATIONAL OWNERS

• AXEL SPRINGERtabloids in Poland and Hungary,
  regional dailies in Hungary, magazines in Poland
  
• RINGIER tabloids in the Czech Republic, Hungary
  and Slovakia
• VGP regional dailies in the Czech Republic,
  Slovakia and Poland
• WAZ national dailies in Bulgaria, Croatia,
  Macedonia, Romania, regional dailies in Hungary
• BONNIER dailies in Estonia and Latvia, tabloid
  in Poland,
• ORKLA national daily in Poland, regional
  dailies in Poland and Lithuania

• CME - the Czech Republic (Nova), Slovakia
  (Markíza), Slovenia (Pop TV, Kanal A) and Romania
  (PRO TV)
• BERTELSMANN - Hungary (RTL Klub)
• SBS Hungary (TV2)
• UPC - cable networks in Poland, Slovakia, Czech
  Republic and other countries

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INCREASED LINKS BETWEEN SECTORS

• co-operation in sharing of costs and services by
  competing media and owners (Orkla and
  Polskapresse in Poland TV stations NOVA and
  PRIMA in the Czech Republic)
• agreements made to benefit from cross-sectoral
  provision and cross-ownership of disparate
  service providers (ITI, Holding FM in Poland, ARJ
  in Slovakia)

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CONCLUSIONS

• press landscapes have been continuously affected
  by decline and consolidation of newspapers
• regional press markets achieved a structure of
  monopolies or duopolies
• national markets have been divided between few
  strong transnational publishers (H. Bauer, Axel
  Springer in Poland, Ringier in the Czech Republic
  and Slovakia)
• media concentrations affecting media pluralism
  have been addressed by national policy responses
  in a very limited extent
• reasons for having a coherent set of principles
  on protection of media pluralism and limits on
  media concentrations both at the national and EU
  level
• different regulatory means may be used for
  different purposes, but the objective should be
  one securing media pluralism as one of the
  basic conditions for sustaining democratic
  communication structures within the European
  public sphere
• an individuals full rights of European
  citizenship are indivisible from his/her access
  to the media, to plurality of themes and voices,
  variety of viewpoints, values and representations