(In)Dependence in Bulgaria: Risks and Trends the Bulgarian Media Market
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Media (in)dependence in Bulgaria: risks and Trends policy Brief no. 60, May 2016 The role of Bulgarian media in public life came under key poinTs scrutiny after several media outlets were used as an instrument for triggering political crises and for → As a result of the economic crisis of 2009 and the rise in internet usage, print media in Bulgaria lost a signifi- political engineering (2013 – 2014). At that time, cant portion of its traditional financing and became the Bulgarian media market was experiencing the an easy target for external influence. impact of two negative trends. On the one hand, the → At the beginning of the 2010s, oligarchic groups ac- economic crisis of 2009 – 2013 had cut advertising cumulated a ‘media empire’ (including print and on- line media, TV, printing and distribution facilities) that revenues by half. On the other, the old models of engaged in political engineering, utilizing media as a media financing were diminished by the use of digital direct tool for state capture during the political crisis technologies and the explosive growth of social of 2013 – 2014. networks and mobile communications. The loss → While print media could no longer be financially attractive, they preserved their status of an important of financial sustainability by the media presented potential source of political influence thanks to the unique opportunities for Bulgarian oligarchic capacity to generate media content on a regular groups. By accumulating a significant share of the basis. media market, they reached an unprecedented → Bulgarian media market is dominated by TV, and level of political influence (including direct influence TV usage is the highest among the 28 EU Member States. on the legislative, executive and judicial powers). → Media content analysis indicate that a wide spectrum The media was used as an instrument for state of political and economic positions are reflected in capture that could present severe security and Bulgarian media. Coverage, however, is often biased economic risks. and unbalanced, depending on the ownership and control of specific media. → One of the major threats for media’s independence are the PR contracts with government agencies and The Bulgarian media market with large business groups, and the tight control of media content in private media, leaving limited space before the 2009 – 2013 crisis for critical coverage and investigative journalism. → The growing importance of social networks as an al- The effect of technological innovations on the ternative media presents a unique chance for inde- traditional media market was particularly pronounced pendent journalists to create media content and to in Bulgaria. The hike in the number of internet users get paid (through sharing a portion of the revenues generated by social networks), thus bypassing the after 2006, when media content became easily traditional media outlets. With the financial support of the Bulgarian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe and Open Society Foundations no 60 POliCY BRiEF May 2016 MEdiA (in)DependEnce in BUlgariA: RiSkS And TrendS accessible on mobile devices1 (Fig. 1) had a devastating The turmoil in the print media market started long impact on the circulation of print media (Fig. 4). before the hike in internet usage and the economic crisis of 2009 – 2013. The fall in circulation was first Eurobarometer data for 2014 suggest that newspaper felt when national private TV stations entered the audience in Bulgaria is one of the smallest in the EU, Bulgarian media scene.4 Until then, the only public with only 11 % of the population perusing newspapers TV in the country, BNT, avoided any controversial daily (greece is the only Member State with a smaller topics, as well as political or criminal investigations. overall number of newspaper readers, Fig.2).2 The emergence of the first national private TV,bTV , in June 2000, followed three years later by the second As a comparison, media surveys for the period private player, Nova TV, opened the door for all 2001-2013 indicated that about 50 % to 55 % of the taboo topics to finally reach the TV screen, placing population read and purchased newspapers every an enormous strain on printed media. newspaper day. One of the main reasons for the record low level journalists, whose articles appeared in print only the of newspaper readership seems to be the dramatic fall next day, could hardly compete with their colleagues of trust in the print media. Another factor is the low in electronic media. Furthermore, the morning TV personal disposable income in the country.3 That said, programmes provided reviews and comments of the many Bulgarian readers face the dilemma of indulging newspapers that were yet to be purchased by readers in the old habit of paging through a newspaper (much from kiosks across the country. Along with the loss of like the germans and Scandinavians), or reading the circulation,print media started to lose its share of the easily accessible/free news on the internet. advertising market. in the period between 2002 and Figure 1. internet users as per cent of total population 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2011 2013 2015 2001 2007 2002 2002 1998 1996 2003 2005 2005 2005 2005 2005 2009 2006 2006 2004 2004 2004 2004 2000 2000 " " " " " " " " " " " " " 11 05 01 05 02 09 06 04 12 10 09 04 08 Source: Vitosha Research; Digital Agenda; GFK. 1 Due to the belated development of the telecommunications infrastructure in Bulgaria, the impact of the free media content is only felt 7-8 years later than in Western Europe and USA. 2 Eurobarometer, Media Use in the European Union, 2014. 3 Bulgaria has the lowest GDP per capita in the EU, and one of the lowest in Europe (iMF 2014 data). 4 Monitoring of audience ratings shows that Bulgarian listeners (just like populations in all other EU Member States) prefer predominantly musical radio stations. This may explain why, despite the arrival of private radio stations as early as 1993 their influence over public opinion and political decisions appears to be limited.d ue to a lack of solid data one may only guess why public radio stations (and BnR’s Horizon programme in particular) seem to be the only ones to have some political leverage. 2 no 60 POliCY BRiEF May 2016 MEdiA (in)DependEnce in BUlgariA: RiSkS And TrendS Figure 2. print media readers in the EU, 2014 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 0 3 0 1 0 1 1 6 4 3 10 9 6 17 9 11 15 15 20 11 10 17 14 33 28 14 12 12 31 19 26 18 28 17 5 6 8 8 12 19 11 17 15 22 27 23 23 14 25 24 19 17 23 18 21 34 14 21 27 30 23 28 26 25 20 40 41 22 31 26 33 44 13 29 33 32 35 41 71 70 33 44 43 45 28 34 63 32 31 31 42 56 39 55 54 30 47 26 42 39 27 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 26 26 22 21 21 20 19 19 17 12 12 11 7 FI SE LU DE AT NL DK EE BE IE SI EU28 UK FR LT HR IT PT MT ES HU LV SK CZ CY RO PL BG EL &WFSZEBZ"MNPTU 5XPPSUISFFUJNFT 5XPPSUISFFUJNFT /FWFS /PBDDFTT %POhULOPX FWFSZEBZ BXFFL "CPVUPODF BNPOUI -FTTPGUFO UPUIJTNFEJVN BXFFL 410/5"/&064 Source: Eurobarometer. 2008, the overall advertising market in Bulgaria rose lost profits in the order of 30M to 40M BGN. Even by 235 %. Print media maintained a healthy growth greater was the threat from the loss of revenue from in advertising revenue: while market share fell from classified ads that small companies and citizens used 33 % to 21 %, net receipts from advertising more than to publish in local and national papers. There are no doubled, from 51M BGN to 110M BGN. hard data on the impact of the decline in this segment (caused by the replacement effect of internet sites despite the rising revenues, however, shrinking and web search engines), but most probably the circulation remained a major challenge for the lost revenue nationwide is in the tens of millions. newspapers. Precise data on the circulation of print To cope with the falling circulation (and despite the media proves very hard to find. Still, expert estimates rising revenues) print media strived to boost sales place the circulation of dailies at about 1.0 to 1.1M by being as extreme and aggressive as possible.6 at the beginning of the century,5 while in 2008, the not to be left behind, TV news and commentary year preceding the crisis, circulation fell to 300 to 400 programmes were forced to follow the same style. thousand copies. if we assume that the estimated The outright “yellow press” experienced a boom and profit per sold copy used to be about 25 % to 35 %, took away some of the readers of the more serious declining circulation in 2008 notably translated in newspapers.7 However, its overall impact on the print 5 Data provided by the national Statistics institute n( Si) seem to overestimate the circulation. According to nSi, circulation of dailies was 1.221M in 2000 and 864,000 in 2014. 6 This style of print media was dubbed “yellow and black” by georgi lozanov, a Bulgarian media expert and long standing chairman of the Council on Electronic Media (http://www.lentata.com/page_6128.html) 7 Медиите и политиката (Media and Politics).