How to survive in a global market?
Eva DEKANOVSKA (SK) Head of Acquisition -- TV Global (Kosice)
TV GLOBAL is a commercial TV station that does not broadcast from the country’s capital but from Kosice, the second largest city in Slovakia. It was founded against the competitive background of two state television stations (STV1 and STV2) and two commercial television stations (TV MARKIZA and TV LUNA).
To be able to cope with this kind of competition, TV GLOBAL had to offer a distinctive concept and philosophy.
The founders based their thinking on the fact that local broadcasting would become increasingly popular and that its topics related more closely to the viewers compared with the broadcasting aims of the so-called «big television» networks.
The financial resources of local television in Slovakia are limited. This results in irregular, time restricted and frequently repeated broadcasting. As soon as the local broadcasting time is over, viewers switch to other channels that offer formats such as country news, sport, feature films, series, entertainment shows, etc.
TV GLOBAL offers viewers both local and global broadcasting on one channel. TV GLOBAL broadcasts a full format programme from one centre, 22 hours/day via satellite. For a period of two hours daily (6 p.m. and 9 a.m.), the local television stations (terrestrial and cable) have the opportunity to disconnect and broadcast their own programmes.
Both global and local advertising time is fixed and contractually based. The local television stations contribute to news and sport. The production of documentaries is also becoming very promising.
The income of local televisions is generated from the sale of their programmes and from the share on global sales of commercials. All local television stations are members of the Association of Local TV Broadcasters that provides training, study courses, professional and legal advisory services and other types of assistance. Today, it can be stated quite clearly that the founding of TV GLOBAL contributed to the survival of local television in Slovakia and improved the quality of broadcasting.
In its own way, TV GLOBAL became «the largest TV school of the world».
The question as to whether TV GLOBAL will survive remains unanswered...
Circuit de Televisions Locals de Catalunya: Local TV stations and Public Administration working together for the benefit of local media, and -Sharing a daily weather forecast information programme.
Joan VILA (ES) Manager-Director -- Gavà Televisió (Gavà)
It is probably the most important step taken to improve Local TV communication in Catalonia : more than 30 Local TV stations, members of the association, Televisions Locals de Catalunya (TLC), have formed a syndication structure with the assistance of the «provincial» public administration of Barcelona (Diputació de Barcelona), by means of a public company set up to support Local Media (Agència de Comunicació Local, ACL). This experience is known as Catalonia’s Local TV Circuit (Circuit de Televisions Locals de Catalunya).
Sharing news and programmes to enrich every member’s own production, this is the main objective of Local TV Circuit. All the TV stations have their independence to use the pieces of news and the programmes they consider more appropriate to their programme style.
Everything is sent by satellite from a central node in Barcelona to all the stations. News is provided by a TV news agency twice daily : at 1.15 pm and 5.30 pm. Programmes are produced by TV stations or by independent private producers. All of them are selected with the agreement of the majority of the members in a content commission. Some of them are sponsored by the ACL itself or by other public and private companies. Programmes are sent by satellite every day, from Monday to Friday, 4 pm to 5.30 pm. At 5.45 pm, TV stations receive the weather forecast information programme.
Gavà TV (the local TV station of Gavà, a city of 40,000 inhabitants near Barcelona) has, since April 1999, produced several daily three minutes’ weather forecast programmes that are sent by satellite to other TV stations all over Catalonia, some of them more than 1000 kilometres away.
As at June 2001, the number of TV stations that broadcast Gavà TV’s programme «El temps» increased to 12. They pay a monthly fee of about 180 euros for the service. The satellite system of distribution is part of what we call «Circuit de Televisions Locals», an experience of sharing news and programmes made by some 30 Local TV stations in Catalonia, with public administration support.
The programme consists of 2 parts: the first explains the weather situation in Catalonia as a whole using the Meteosat satellite images of the previous hours and predicts the weather for the next day using a Catalonia map (this part is identical for all the TV stations); the second part is personalised for every TV station, with all the local data, maximum and minimum temperatures of the previous hours, amount of rainfall, if any, and local or zonal weather predictions for the next day.
Two people work at this task - one meteorologist who prepares the weather information in advance and then explains it to the TV viewers with the help of very simple graphics; and one technician who records it and packs it. A chroma-key system to incorporate the graphism (symbols and maps) is used during the process. The meteorologist retains the information received by ‘phone or fax from different weather observers living all over Catalonia and also via Internet from several weather information webs. The programme is recorded daily in the Gavà TV studios at 4 pm, despatched by car to Barcelona and sent finally by satellite to all receivers at 4.45 pm. The local TV stations broadcast it between 6 and 9 pm.
Gavà TV and the official Weather Service in the Autonomous Government (Servei de Meteorologia de Catalunya) came to an agreement some months ago to cooperate in the preparation of «El temps», especially in the area of information exchange and notification in the event of severe weather alerts.
Gavà Televisió is dependent on the Town Council. It began operating in 1998, broadcasts 18 hours daily from 8.00 am to 2.00 am. It introduces every day one and a half hours of new content from its own production and a half hour more from what we call the Local TV Circuit, mentioned above. These 2 hours are repeated every evening from 8.00 pm to 2.00 am and the next morning from 8.00 am to 7.59 pm (multidiffusion system). Its daily audience is approximately 10,000 viewers.
Gavà Televisió has an annual budget of 115,000,000 pesetas (691,000 euros) There are 14 full-time employees - journalists, technicians and other professionals. Seven digital camcorders and three non-linear edition systems (Media 100) form the technical basis of its broadcasting production.
Gavà Televisió produces programmes also for other local TV stations. In September 2001, it will produce a weekly 15 minutes’ programme on the «territorial economy» called «Impulsos».
OLA - Onda Local de Andalusia, the Andalusian Network
Manuel CHAPARRO (ES) Manager -- Ema RTV
EMA-RTV was founded in 1984 in response to the lack of law for public radio and tv stations and a non-recognition by the autonomous government of the importance of these small local media.
It was in 1991 that public, associative and community broadcasters in Andalusia finally obtained a specific law. Since then, around 120 radio and 30 television stations broadcast legally, in a similar number of counties and towns, all over the South of Spain.
Presently, with more than 90 associates, EMA-RTV is recognised as one of the most dynamic and revitalising local media movements in an Autonomous Community (along with Catalunya), involved in municipal broadcasting. EMA-RTV plays a useful role within social collectives where the need for local information is not fulfilled by private media due to its unprofitable nature and the non-speculative objectives of its service.
Satellite 24 Hour Programming :Onda Local de Andalusia - OLA
Conscious of the need for a vehicle that would allow better integration of municipal broadcasting at an independent level, and the need to make our own productions, EMA-RTV began a pilot experiment in 1994/95 : OLA, a daily two and a half hours’ programming, broadcast via satellite (HISPASAT), for all its members. Today, OLA offers eight hours with programmes of local information. The aim of this model is to get closer to the people who are familiar with the everyday events of the «global village» and ignore the minorities who appear mainly in the news when they are part of a catastrophe. The proposal is to establish an open circuit and relay information between counties and towns that, in many cases, are far from each other.
MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
-Direct access to our 24 hour programming by satellite
-Technical assistance
-Legal consulting
-Local and external representation
-Reduction of equipment and administrative costs
-Continuous free workshops and seminars for professional broadcasters
-Promotion in media directories and in the Radio and TV local media map
-Participation in provincial and regional publicity campaigns
-Participation in EMA-RTV’S web site, and access to Internet
EMA-RTV is a member of the World Association of Community Broadcasters, AMARC, and of the European Audiovisual Association CIRCUIT!
ANEM Network - more than just a network
Nebojsa RISTIC (YU) Coordinator -- ANEM TV Network (Belgrade)
ANEM (Association of Independent Electronic Media) is not just a simple group, society of local and regional TV stations.
There are deeply rooted common values of press freedom, objectivity, impartiality and balance. These values are even more important when times are at their hardest in South Eastern Europe; despite the pressure of the former régime, and the lack of resources, the members of our Association achieved a great deal and made a lot of good programmes.
And, because they had to survive, they developed, at the same time, many forms of cooperation.
When one and one is more than two.
Lars JESPERSEN (DK) Managing News Director -- TV Denmark 2 (Aalborg)
- Synergy and integrated cooperation in the newsroom
- Value added network, sharing your content
Multi-skilling and content sharing are buzzwords in media cooperation. US companies build large million dollar media centres to fulfil the dream of the modern newsroom. But it does not have to be complicated and expensive.
Local radio and television broadcasters in Denmark have found a way to cooperate. Content sharing is not something they talk about, it is daily business. It is controlled from Aalborg, where Radio ANR and TV Denmark Aalborg are located.
Lars Jespersen is Head of News at the station. In this workshop, he will describe content sharing, value added chains and multi-skilling done « the Danish way » and how computer newsroom systems are integrated. He will discuss the convergence newsroom staff, and coopertation between television, radio, internet and newspaper media. One project is to broadcast through news media mobile screens, webpads, and handy pda’s.