Belarus/EU/Radio Programmes


RFE-RL: EU holds another tender for radio broadcasts to Belarus.

"In November, the European Commission is going to announce a winner of its tenderfor organizing radio broadcasts to Belarus as of 1 January 2006, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported on 9 September. The winner is to obtain 2 million euros ($2.5 million) for organizing and sending radio programs to Belarus during two years. European Parliament Deputy Speaker Janusz Onyszkiewicz told RFE/RL that a bidder for the EU tender is required to have no less than 1 million listeners in former Soviet countries and report no less than 3 million euros in its yearly turnover. "This means that the tender will be decided in a circle of such giants as Deutsche Welle, BBC, Radio France International, and Euronews," Onyszkiewicz said."

East Europe/RFL-RL/Internet

The Prague Daily Monitor: Radio Free Europe looking for new methods to spread information

"The goals of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE) remain similar to those in the Cold War times and only methods and strategy are changing, adviser to the station Ross Johnson told the Czech News Agency (CTK) yesterday. RFE is marking its tenth anniversary of broacasting from the Czech capital."

"Following extending of its broadcasts to include the countries of the Middle East and Asia the station is now seeking to improve its Internet offer. Televised versions of some of its programmes have even appeared in Ukraine and Bosnia, said Johnson, adding that although there were many information channels in the world that did not necessarily mean better access to information. He said that the use of RFE's websites was rapidly growing also in such countries as Belarus, Uzbekistan or Iran, adding that spread of the information via the Internet was maybe one of the most important moments in its development, but only one of the many methods that compete with other sources of information."

Russia/The Gazprom-Media/Weekly

RFE/RL: Gazprom-media buys political weekly in St. Petersburg

"The Gazprom-Media holding company has purchased a controlling stake in
the weekly "Peterburgskii Chas pik" for an undisclosed sum,
"Vedomosti" reported on 5 September, quoting the weekly's new general
director, Aleksei Turchenko. An unnamed source at the newspaper told
"Vedomosti" that Gazprom-Media acquired 70 percent of "Chas pik"
shares, while a Gazprom-Media subsidiary called Aura now owns the
other 30 percent. A St. Petersburg-based consultant, Kirill Nikolaev,
told "Vedomosti" that the deal was likely politically motivated."

Slovenia/New Sport Daily

Editorsweblog: Second sports daily launched

"Delo, the biggest newspaper publisher in Slovenia, launched a new sports daily called As yesterday. The 24-page paper will appear Monday to Saturday, reports Der Standard. As will be a competitor to the existing sport daily Ekipa that has a circulation of about 22,000 copies and belongs to Salomon. Slovenia, which has a population of around 2 million, has now seven daily newspapers."

East Europe/News Corp./Outdoor Advertising

Reuters: News Corp. may buy out ad partner-NYT

"Media giant News Corp. is in talks to buy out the minority partner in its growing outdoor advertising business in Central and Eastern Europe for an undisclosed sum, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing a person involved in the venture."

"The unit, News Outdoors, has been built as a joint venture with the London-based private equity arm of the fund manager Capital International Inc., said the newspaper. Since 1999, the unit has been building a presence in advertising venues like billboards and bus shelters in eight countries that it refers to as "emerging Europe," said The New York Times."

East Europe/Outsourcing

Vnunet.com: Outsourcers move to central and eastern Europe

"Locations in central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa are emerging as strong markets because of the advantages they offer in terms of cheap manpower, inexpensive real estate and sound infrastructure, a study published today has claimed."

"Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan said that the total market size of contact centres in the EMEA region was 34,674 in 2004. The market is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate of five per cent to 44,574 by 2009."

"While the firm noted that western Europe is ' approaching saturation' in terms of agent positions, eastern Europe holds great potential to attract new business especially as the trend for outsourcing gains momentum."

"The contact centre market is expected to experience maximum growth in eastern Europe, followed by parts of the Middle East, Africa and southern Europe."

Bulgaria/PR

Sofia Echo: Advocating the need for PR

"BULGARIA’S PR industry needs to educate local blue-chip companies of the need of public relations to operate successfully, Ian Herbison, country manager of Mmd for Romania and Bulgaria, said in an interview with The Sofia Echo."

"In the past 12 months there has been a strong growth in the PR services’ market in Bulgaria, he says. ' I expect this trend to continue, as more and more businesses in this country realise the need of efficient PR for their operations.'

"He believes that there are mainly two key drivers to the success of the PR business in Bulgaria and the South-East European region and its faster development now and in the near future. The first driver for Bulgaria is related to the 2.5 billion euro foreign investment the country has registered. As more money is poured into the economy, companies are more open to options that will help them build their image and reputation."

Belarus/Radio Station

RFE/RL: POLISH PLANS TO LAUNCH RADIO BROADCASTS TO BELARUS REPORTEDLY MOVING AHEAD.

"Gazeta Wyborcza" reported on 2 September that a business plan
for creating an independent radio station to broadcast to Belarus
from Poland is to be ready by mid-September. According to the
Warsaw-based daily, Poland will ask Brussels to sponsor broadcasting
to Belarus from the sum of some 2 million euros ($2.5 million) that
the European Commission has recently allocated to support democracy
in Belarus. In August, Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka decided to
earmark 950,000 zlotys ($290,000) for the Polish nongovernmental
organizations planning to create an independent Belarusian-language
radio

Russia/Tv/Foreign Media Giants

The Guardian: News Corp fails in bid for Russian TV station

"Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has been thwarted by an oil giant in its bid to enter the Russian television market.News Corp executives held talks last month about buying a 35% stake in Ren-TV, the only remaining major television channel in Russia that is not under state control."

"The media giant, parent company of the Sun and Times newspapers as well as the Fox TV and film business in the US, wanted to gain a foothold in Russian TV for the first time, adding to the street-advertising business and popular radio station it already owns in the country."

"But today it emerged that oil group Surgutneftegas, which has strong ties with the Russian government, had agreed to buy the stake."