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EUROPEAN MEDIA BUSINESS CALLS ON POLITICIANS TO ENSURE SUSTAINABILITY OF CREATIVE CONTENT BUSINESS IN THE FUTURE
30 June 2010 -Brussels, 30 June 2010 – Today representatives of the European media business –
including the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT), the Association of
European Radios (AER), the European Publishers’ Council (EPC), the European
Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), the Association of Television and
Radio Sales Houses (EGTA), the European Newspaper Publishers Association (ENPA),
the European Association of Magazine Publishers (FAEP), and the World Federation of
Advertisers (WFA) - gathered in Brussels to discuss about the future of the media in
Europe. When holding their first joint event in the European Parliament entitled
“European Media Revolution – Ensuring Viability”, the associations called on
politicians and regulators to establish a regulatory environment in which free,
independent, diverse and vibrant media will be sustainable in the future. The event has
been hosted by Mary Honeyball, Socialist MEP from the United Kingdom, and speakers
included media senior executives, several MEPs, an expert from PricewaterhouseCoopers
and Neelie Kroes, Vice-President EU Commission & Commissioner for the Digital
Agenda.
In the current changing environment advertising remains a key revenue source for the
content industry, helping to ensure high quality production and the independence of
media which is crucial to its role in democracy. The media industry works hard to
maintain advertising revenues in order to sustain the costs of production of European
content which consumers value enough to spend time with or pay for directly.
In the light of the discussions about the Digital Agenda and the creation of a competitive
EU as described in the EU 2020 Strategy, the undersigning associations call on
politicians to take into account the following points:
- The media play a crucial role in democracy by informing citizens about
political, economic, social and cultural issues, by entertaining and connecting
viewers, listeners and readers.
- Advertising funds a diverse, pluralistic media landscape. Good content costs
money and without advertising many of the world’s media would not exist.
- Self regulation across Europe ensures responsible advertising. Consumers are
protected due to the self-regulatory system established in all EU Member States
and at the European level.
- The close relationship between media and advertising benefits European
creative industries. More than 63% of Europe’s TV broadcasting programming
time is devoted to European works and over 36% to works by independent
European producers. Also the European daily and periodical press provides
quality content to its readers about relevant aspects of the everyday life.
Commercially-funded radios constitute a unique network of small and mediumsized
enterprises, contributing to cultural diversity, media pluralism, access to
creativity and social inclusion in a ubiquitous and free-to-air manner.
- A disproportionate regulation of advertising or bans on advertising of certain
products or imposition of specific advertising requirements (such as
mandatory labelling-type information in advertising) will lead to a decline in
revenues for all media across Europe. The regulatory framework needs to
reflect technological changes and allow this complex market to provide services
and content that consumers want.
Speaking at the event, Philippe Delusinne, ACT President & CEO RTL Belgium,
said: “Our vision of Digital Europe is one in which professional content – news, sports,
fiction, movies – retains its central role in the world of media and entertainment. This is
also the vision of most politicians, I assume. And above all, it is also the preference of
European citizens, watching professionally-produced content for 222 minutes every day.
So encouraging commercial enterprises to earn money from selling advertising, and then
to take the risk to reinvest revenues in content helps to shape the sort of digital economy
we want”.
Panellist Olivier Fleurot, President of EACA & CEO of MS&L Group, said: “The
big challenge from an advertising perspective is that traditional “push” marketing is being
progressively replaced by conversations generated through social media. This is a bottom
up, not a top down process. Brand perception is as much influenced by those
conversations as by traditional campaigns. To succeed, advertisers must change the way
they present themselves – they must be genuine, authentic, avoid greenwash for instance.
Our role as agencies is twofold – there is clearly a quantitative role, supplying
advertising revenues to media on behalf of our clients. Perhaps more importantly, what
agencies also have to do is ensure that the qualitative aspect of their work reflects the new
demands of the public. Themes, that are at the top of the agenda for many consumers like
sustainable development, force companies to re-invent their products, their services and
their advertising. Agencies need to advise their clients on CSR issues and advise on how
to communicate in a digital world”.
Nikos Gouraros, Vice President - OPA Europe, Director of Business Development -
Digital Media Business Unit, Lambrakis Press SA representing the newspaper and
magazine publishers associations ENPA, EPC and FAEP stressed: “In order to
maintain a free, independent, diverse and vibrant press across Europe we need sustainable
business models. Today at least 50% of our revenue in the printed press comes from
advertising, the rest from cover price sales. Online the business model is more
challenging as paying for content is less common than in the print world. This may
change but meanwhile companies that rely only on advertising for their online revenues
need to find almost 100% of their income from advertising to become profitable. The
press is extremely vulnerable in economic terms as advertising revenues for the press
online are nowhere near the levels needed to fund a viable publishing business. I
therefore really hope that politicians in Brussels do not undermine the vibrancy of the
press in Europe by bringing in any advertising bans or restrictions.”
Stefan Möller, AER Vice-President, and Finland’s Radio Media Managing Director,
recalled: “On-air broadcasting radios reach massive audience on a daily basis in all EU
Member States: between 60 and 85% of the EU population on average listens to radio for
at least 2 or 3 hours per day. Commercially-funded radios can only broadcast their
programmes free of charge to millions of European citizens, thanks to the revenues they
collect by means of advertising. The only viable business model for radio nowadays and
for a foreseeable future is analogue FM broadcasting of free-to-air programmes.
Advertising is the prerequisite to make radio the most intimate medium currently, and the
fundament to ensure its digital development”.
*****
For further Information, please contact:
Dominic Lyle
Director General
Phone: +32-2-740 07 11
E-Mail: dominic.lyle@eaca.be
*****
About the ACT:
The Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) is a trade association representing
the interests of the commercial broadcasting sector in Europe. The ACT has twenty eight member
companies active in 34 European countries operating more than 400 free-to-air and pay-tv
channels and distributing several hundred channels and new services. For further information,
please see: www.acte.be
About the AER:
The Association of European Radios (AER) is a Europe-wide trade body representing the
interests of over 4,500 private/commercial radio stations across the EU27 and in Switzerland. For
further information, please see: www.aereurope.org
About the EACA:
EACA, the European Association of Communications Agencies, is an organisation which brings
together the advertising, media and sales promotions agencies from 31 countries across Europe,
enabling international experience and issues to be shared and dealt with on a pan-European basis.
It provides an important link between agencies, advertisers and the advertising media in Europe
and around the world and participates closely in the setting of standards in many aspects of the
business across Europe.
About the EGTA:
EGTA is the trade association representing television and radio sales houses, either independent
from the channel or in-house, that market the advertising space of both private and public
television and radio stations throughout Europe and beyond. egta counts 80 TV members and 36
Radio members operating across 31 European and 5 non-European countries. For further
information, please see www.egta.com
About the ENPA:
The European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA) is an international non-profit
association, advocating the interests of the European newspaper publishing industry at different
European and international organisations and institutions. ENPA represents over 5,200 national,
regional and local newspaper titles, published in 25 European countries. More than 150 million
newspapers are sold and read by over 300 million Europeans every day, in addition to the
millions of unique daily visits to online newspapers websites. Publishing industries as a whole
constitute an important economic sector in the EU employing more than 750,000 people in
64,000 companies. www.enpa.be
About the EPC:
The European Publishers Council is a high level group of Chairmen and Chief Executives of
leading European media corporations actively involved in multimedia markets spanning
newspaper, magazine, book, journal, internet and online database publishers. Many EPC
members also have significant interests in commercial television and radio. For our list of
members and further information please visit the following address:
www.epceurope.org/about/ourmembers.shtml
About the FAEP
The European Federation of Magazine Publishers (FAEP) is a non-profit organization
representing over 15.000 publishers throughout Europe publishing over 50.000 magazine titles in
Europe, reaching on average 80% of European adults. 300 million Europeans read magazines on
a regular, consistent basis. www.faep.org
About the WFA:
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is the only global organization representing the
common interests of marketers. Through its network of 58 national advertiser associations on five
continents and over 60 of the world’s biggest marketers, WFA represents around 90% of global
marketing communications, almost US$ 700 billion annually. WFA champions responsible and
effective marketing communications. www.wfanet.org
*****
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| The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) is a Brussels-based organisation whose mission is to represent full-service advertising and media agencies and agency associations in Europe. EACA aims to promote honest, effective advertising, high professional standards, and awareness of the contribution of advertising in a free market economy and to encourage close co-operation between agencies, advertisers and media in European advertising bodies. |
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