Community Media in Europe

Marko Ala-FossiUniversity of Tampere

Community Media and New Technology - where next?

June 8, 2009

Lusaka, Zambia

Community Media in Europe

Community media was introduced in Europe in the late 1960s and 1970s and it grew rapidly during 1980s and 1990s

Currently there are about 3000 community radio stations and few hundred community television stations in the EU - and an increasing number of internet-based projects

However, community media has very different situation and legal status in European countries

Community Media Forum Europe was established in 2004 to support third media sector on the European level

Community Media in Europe First official study about

community media in EU was commissioned by the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education in 2007

The goal was to get a picture of the place occupied by Community Media in the overall media landscape in the EU

What Community Media – and why should we care?

CM Activityacross Europe

Orange: very active, well established regulations

Light Orange: very active, recently changed regulation

Yellow: very active and public awareness, legal recognition but no funding

Green: comparably active, lack of legislative recognition and regulations

Blue: only limited activity Grey: no data available

The State of Community Media in the European Union (2007)

Community Media in Europe In 2008, a new report was

commissioned by the Council of Europe (MC-S-MD) to:

study the relationship between media and social cohesion

summarize the definitions of third sector media and classify its different forms

discuss the positive and negative effects of third sector media with regard to social cohesion

describe the existing measures to support third sector media

The report on community media was prepared by an Austrian MEP, Karin Resetarits.

The report was adopted by the Committee on Culture and Education in June 2008 and by the European Parliament in September 2008

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION on Community Media in Europe (2008/2011(INI))

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION on Community Media in Europe (2008/2011(INI))

The European Parliament …1. Stresses that community media are an effective means of strengthening

cultural and linguistic diversity, social inclusion and local identity, which explains the diversity of the sector;…

7. Stresses that community media help to strengthen media pluralism, as they provide additional perspectives on issues that lie at the heart of a given community;…

15. Advises Member States, without causing detriment to traditional media, to give legal recognition to community media as a distinct group alongside commercial and public media where such recognition is still lacking;…

17. Calls on Member States to support community media more actively in order to ensure media pluralism, provided that such support is not to the detriment of public media;…

23. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions, and to the governments and parliaments of the Member States.

Community Radio in the UK has been a success story since 2005

Community radio licensing was introduced by Ofcom and the first licence was awarded in March 2005.

Over 130 community stations are now broadcasting across the UK, with another 50 preparing to launch. (201 licenses granted by 05/2009)

More than 8 million people in the UK are already able to tune into community radio stations

These not-for-profit radio stations cover small geographical areas and each typically provides 81 hours of original and distinctive output a week – mostly locally produced.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/cr_annualrpt/

Community Media has now legal recognition in Austria The Austrian Parliament has

recently passed a legislation recognizing Community Media that includes a legal definition of non-commercial Radio and Television as specific form of broadcast media.

The new law also includes a "fund for noncommercial broadcasters (Radio, TV)", 1 Million Euro per year, administered by the Austrian Media Regulator RTR and financed partly from broadcasting fees.

Elsewhere in Scandinavia, private radio was introduced as non-commercial community radio (närradio) (Sweden 1978, Norway 1981, Denmark 1983) and commercial radio with advertising became legal only later (1988 -1993).

In Finland, private local radio was not introduced until 1985 – and at first, all new licenses were granted for advertising-supported stations!

First non-commercial licenses (class C and D) were granted in 1987, but by 1993 only 7 stations had applied one. Since 1994, all local stations have been granted similar licenses, which allow also advertising.

License conditions were at first rather strict, but in 1990’s most earlier regulations on local radio were removed or overruled.

Community Radio in Finland

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Muiden yksityisten radioiden tuotot Tuotot yhteensä

Lähde: Tilastokeskus. Joukkoviestintä- ja kulttuuriyksikköSource: Statistics Finland. Unit of Culture and the Media

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Profits of Radio Nova

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License-dependent radio supply 2005 (by channel according the share of music)

Finnish radio landscape 2007-2011 New 5 year FM licenses for private radio were granted in May 2006

(no private broadcasting on AM) For the first time, an incumbent broadcaster, Sävelradio (MTV3) was

left without a license. MTV3 sent an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court, but the decision hold

SanomaWSOY was granted two new semi-national licenses: for Radio Rock and Radio Aalto

The new licensing conditions are now more demanding and exact. Depending on station, they require now 15% to 30% of speech content during daytime.

Networking was restricted again, 6 new local radio stations were granted a license.

YLE operations are based on a special law -> licenses are not needed, although YLE radio competes over same frequencies

Finnish radio landscape 2007-2011 FM Radio- Layer 1

Nationwide PSB Radio: YLEYLE Radio 1 - culture, art and factual talk + classical music

YLEX - pop culture, new pop and rock & special music programs

YLE Radio Suomi - national and regional news, sports and music 20 regional units

YLE Puhe – speech journalism (almost nationwide, former YLE Radio Peili)

YLE Radio Extrem - news, sport & new pop and rock (Swedish)

YLE Radio Vega - news, current affairs, culture & music (Swedish)

YLE Sámi Radio in Lapland (Sámi)

Nationwide Commercial Radio (since 1997)Radio Nova - AC / Hot AC (Adult Contemporary)

Semi-national commercial networks (and local commercial radio)

9 semi-national FM licenses, but 10 networks :

Groove FM, Radio SuomiPop, (Communicorp)

Classic Radio,

Radio Dei

Radio Sputnik

Radio Aalto, Radio Rock (Swelcom),

NRJ Energy (NRJ)

The Voice, Iskelmä (SBS)[Iskelmä network is actually operating on 17 local radio licenses!]

Finnish radio landscape 2007-2011 FM Radio- Layer 2

- 47 local radio licensees, but in practice only about 20 independently operating local commercial radio stations !

Finnish radio landscape 2007-2011 FM Radio- Layer 3

Local non-profit and community radioLähiradio (Helsinki)Radio Robin Hood (Turku)Radio Moreeni (Tampere)Radio Iniö (Iniö)Radio Pro (Tornio)Radio Inari (Ivalo)

- Private funding (associations, religious groups, air time sales, also advertising allowed)

- Semi-public funding (university, municipality)

- No public support or funding like for example in Denmark!- No legal recognition of non-profit and community radio!

[ - > Finnish Community Radio Association was established 12/2007]

Finnish radio landscape 2007-2011 FM Radio- Layer 4

Community TV in Finland

Community TV in Finland was started 1972 in a local cable TV network in Uusikaarlepyy.

The Finland-Swedish Local TV Association was founded in 1993

Today there are 24 community TV stations in the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland.

Most community TV stations operate on cable networks: smallest one provides programming for 60 households and largest one for 14.000 households.

KRS-TV in Kristiinankaupunki and När-TV in Närpiö have also broadcast licenses in DVB-T network

There are also some Finnish-speaking Community TV projects, which are mainly internet-based (M2HZ, BassoTV) + some regional TV stations (eg.Turku TV)