The renewal of
7-year-long licences granted in the first licence-granting process (i.e.
between 1994 and 1995) constituted the most important sequence of events for the
Polish Radio within the period of 2001-2002. Owing to the fact that the
legislative regulations existing so far do not provide for the institution of
prolonging the licences automatically (if a given station has not violated the
conditions of the previous licence), the new process of licence-granting aroused
much emotions among radio-broadcasters since certain frequencies could be
obtained by other broadcasters and not only the ones who had been using them so
far (and it did take place, even in the case of licences granted to national
networks). KRRiT has worked out a new form of licence; this refers to programme
changes (uniform standards) as well as legal changes, including also those
concerning the ownership structure of radio stations.
Two national commercial
radio stations (RMF
FM and Radio
Zet) obtained new
licences, however without the right to the so-called ‘local split’ (i.e. a few minutes’ – every hour –
broadcasts, in separate frequency bands, concerning local news together with
local advertisements), though they had possessed this right from 1994 till 2001.
In the case of RMF
FM, eliminating
the ‘local split’ in 15 regions resulted in the dismissal of more
than 50 workers; whereas, Radio Zet lost its ‘local split’ in Warsaw.
In these two cases, KRRiT took a firm stand – either the station remains
national (and cannot take local advertisements away from economically-weaker
local stations) or it is local (though the latter, which will be mentioned below,
try to consolidate in order to obtain some advertisements in compaigns of
national range). What was emphasised in the new licence was the universal
character of programmes of national stations, including a detailed record on
genre structure (giving prominence to information and comments) and setting a
limit on verbal broadcasts to 20% of weekly air time (excluding night). It is
aimed at preventing the stations from broadcasting just music and from
rescheduling verbal broadcasts mainly to night hours (what happened several
times).
All local stations (commercial,
of social and religious character, or even academic) have a lower percentage of
verbal broadcasts in weekly air time: 10% in small towns, and 12% in big cities
(owing to the potential of the advertising market), and they are obliged to
broadcast local programmes. Local commercial stations can have either a
universal or music character (and then – beside local news – half of
the time of verbal broadcasts should be devoted to discussions of music
programmes, presentations of artists, etc.). There won’t be any renewed
licences granted to local government stations (owned by local councils and its
members) in the new process; previously there were several of them, but
in practice they were taken over by private companies.
A new category of a
‘social broadcaster’appeared (after the amendment of the act), which
functions as a commercial broadcaster exempt from the licence fee. In practice,
only the national Radio Maryja
asked for such a licence (and obtained it). Other Catholic stations (belonging
to dioceses, orders, parishes), as well as academic usually intend to base their
acitvity only on profits from advertising, though on a smaller scale (7.5% of
the air time), which means lower licence fees for them.
Generally speaking, with
regard to the new licence-granting process (till mid-May 2003) 3 licences to
national networks were granted, moreover, 2 (in 3) to supra-regional and
something more than 150 to local stations. Five stations which were present on
the air for 7 previous years did not get new licences (and their frequencies
were granted to new broadcasters). Apart from the stations mentioned above,
there are also 40 local stations (including 4 with the status of local
government stations, and 2 academic) present on the air – using UKF (FM)
frequencies – which started their activity in 1996-1998. In the nearest
future, some of them are going to ask for new licences (including a
supra-regional network – Radio
TOK FM), the
others – in 2004-2005. In such a way, only in the middle of the current
decade, KRRiT will fully arrange the order on the air (by this time the future
situation of local commercial television stations will have been straightened
out).
The process of
consolidation of radio stations is still in progress at the local level, and in
the last 2 years it became more dynamic. Two main rivals operating since
1996-1997 have been very active in this market, i.e. Agora SA (the owner of, e.g.
the biggest daily – Gazeta
Wyborcza, and 16
magazines; the co-owner of supra-regional radio – TOK
FM) and ZPR SA (the
co-owner of a popular national tabloid – Super
Express, and the
publisher of several magazines), but also other subjects investing into local
stations for considerably a shorter period of time have joined in. The two
‘play-makers’ have increased their ownership status (including
indirect connections – in the so-called associated stations) up to 27
local stations in the case of Agora and 24 – ZPR, covering almost all big
cities (especially the most attractive advertising markets) with their range.
Both groups were the leaders in the process of programme formating the local
stations; taking into consideration the recent months, in cities where they have
several stations, they differ in terms of the music format. And so – the
stations owned by Agora apart from their basic ‘oldies’ format (which
covers the majority of stations) also play – within the Blue FM
Group (6 stations) – some latest hits (Hot Adult Contemporary), and
sometimes (4 stations) – classic rock (furthermore – in Warsaw
– 1 station plays jazz and classical music). On the other hand, 21
stations of Eska (the main ZPR group) play current hits (CHR format), and the Gold
FM network still
in the process of creation (3 stations so far), addressed to middle-aged
audience, has a music-culture profile (format – Easy Listening). In 2001
the third dynamic subject appeared on the market – Ad.point company (having
links with the biggest radio broker – CR Media); the publicised plans (favoured
by KRRiT) of consolidating 35 local stations have only partially been executed
(9 stations). However, the stations are not formated musically in a uniform way,
but the stations rather try to find a new niche in the local market (which would
become an alternative to the music offers of Agora or ZPR). In May 2003, the
three subjects mentioned above (Agora, ZPR, and Ad.point) administered 60 local
stations of music profile (together). The Multimedia company (which is related
to the former workers of national Radio RMF,
who were dismissed after the elimination of the ‘local split’, and
also to the broker mentioned above – CR Media) constitues the fourth
subject formating the station it owns (just 4 remaining ones). Moreover, another
company – Y-Radio (which owns 5 local stations, and strives for a licence
of Radio
Jazz network) may
become powerful in the future.
Thus, if we exclude
stations owned by the county authorities and community centres (according to the
announcements of KRRiT they are to undergo privatisation in the nearest
licence-granting process) as well as academic stations – ten years after
the first attempt to arrange the order on the air – the market of local
radio stations is divided almost fifty-fifty between – on the one hand
– stations functioning in the framework of organised radio networks and
groups (usually having a music profile and narrowly formated) and operating
mostly in bigger (thus, wealthier) towns and cities, and – on the other
hand – a few dozen (a liitle more than 60) scattered broadcasters, located
either out of the limits of major cities or in most cases located in smaller
towns, which with increasing difficulty manage to surrive in the poorer and
poorer market. The latter, endangered particularly by national stations such as RMF
or Radio
Zet, (since
1996-1997) have repeatedly undertaken numerous attempts to make various
agreements, especially advertising (cooperative sale of air time in the group of
programmes). The latest initiative concerns the formation of Association of
Independent Radio Stations, which effectively created the so-called
‘Alliance of Independent Broadcasters’ concentrating presently
slightly more than 20 stations, and thinking of 50 in the future (but the group
operates in the framework of Eurozet – the owner of Radio
Zet, which
definitely signifies anti-RMF
attitude).
The Local Catholic Radio
occupies a significant position in terms of the number of stations in Poland. At
present, it consists of 43 stations, including 2 parish, 2 monastic, and 39
diocesan. The majority of diocesan stations not long ago belonged to the network
of Radio
Plus (which was
started in 1998). After a certain economic crisis (2000/2001) and after finding
a new strategic investor (from Germany) there were considerable organisational
changes in Plus (including the search for a new music format –
‘pretty hits’). Earlier financial problems, together with later
changes directed towards greater commercialisation of the network, were the
causes why several diocesan radios withdrew from the Programme Agreement Plus
and returned to their former station names (a decrease from 26 in 2001 to 20
stations in March 2003).
The public Radio in Poland still consists mainly of 4 national programmes of the Polish Radio: Program 1 (universal, with emphasis on information, opinions, and comments), Program 2 (culture), Program 3 (opinions, entertainment), and Radio Bis (education). In 2002 Trójka (PR3) underwent a thorough change of its offer (making it similar to popular commercial stations, attracting young people). Radio Parliament operating since 2001 and reporting on Sejm and Senate activity (broadcasts form sittings, including these of the special board to investigate Rywin affair) is also a novelty on the market. The radio shares the frequencies at long waves (AM) with Radio Bis (which additionally broadcasts at FM frequency bands). Moreover, there are 17 regional radio stations of the Polish Radio. However, owing to the fact that their situation on the market goes from bad to worse, the broadcasters are forced to look for new forms of cooperation both in reference to programme and advertising (as many other weak commercial stations do); the agreement called Audytorium 17 has been designed for this purpose.
The results from the research on listening (market shares) to the radio stations in 2001-2002 are shown in the table ‘The distribution of influences on the air: the national radio stations most popular among listeners’.
Generally
speaking, in 2002 public stations found it more and more difficult to compete
with the licensed stations for the listeners. At best they manage to retain a
certain group of regular listeners. It refers to both national and regional
stations. PR1, PR3 (despite thorough changes in the offer), together with regional stations
of the Polish Radio lose out much in comparison to commercial stations. All in
all, they lost 2% of shares on the market.
However,
not all national commercial stations were doing well. Only RMF
FM has clearly
strengthened its position compared to its rivals (+3% market shares); other
successful stations have increased their shares slightly (decimal fraction of
%). Nevertheless, it must be emphasised that commercial local stations all
together have increased their shares on the market at 0.5% (probably, at the
cost of regional public radio stations’ listeners).