By Iain Haggis, Chief Executive of the Management Accounting Institute and BPCC Board Member
On the right wavelength?
W hen the airwaves were unshackled from state control early in the 1990's, new stations capitalised on simply being in the right place at the right time. Entrepreneurs with some radio knowledge and with political connections were able to quickly fill some of the empty spaces alongside public radio.
As the market system developed and the economy grew in the second half of the decade, the media market boomed and stations cashed in on an advertising frenzy. The market expanded rapidly, but many of the new entrants lacked sophistication and investment wherewithal. If you could finagle a broadcasting licence, afford basic studio equipment, and find a small team of enthusiastic employees, you could own a radio station in Poland at the end of the millennium.
That began to change as economic growth started to slow a few years ago. Spending on advertising and marketing was one of the first victims, and radio stations soon found themselves on the unprofitable end of the supply-and-demand equation.
Listeners, meanwhile, became more particular. The less professionally run stations ran into financial problems and either disappeared or were swallowed up by the bigger players, many of whom were already sophisticated operators utilising modern research, programming and technical expertise. The Polish market remained behind its counterparts in Western Europe and the United States, where programme formatting and (particularly) musical direction had become much more focused.
The market leaders in Warsaw (the national networks Radio Zet and RMF FM and the Warsaw-based stations WaWa and Kolor) had programming that was all but interchangeable. Radio Eska and Pogoda (owned by leading Polish media company Agora) gained market share by focusing on chart music and "golden oldies" respectively.
After a lull in new Warsaw station launches, the summer of 2002 saw three new stations appear almost simultaneously. All of them illustrate the trend toward more specific programming in order to give advertisers more targeted consumer groups.
Radio 94 is owned by the Ad.point group, which owns six local stations outside of Warsaw and is part of a wider media group involved in media broking and the Internet. The station pulls no punches with its target audience, focusing clearly on męskie sprawy (men's issues), which it interprets mainly as sex, cars and robust mainstream rock. Chauvinistic attitude aside, the station does attract a niche female market attracted by the macho image.
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Radio PiN (Pieniądz i Nowoczesność, or Money and Modernity) traces its identity to a magazine of the same name, focusing on finance. Both the magazine and the station are owned by Mediabank, a publishing house and subsidiary of the IT business Softbank.
Radio PiN has an even more narrowly defined target market, focusing on open-minded professionals interested in economic issues and a modern lifestyle. The station broadcasts on the 102 FM band and carries general news and economic news every hour. It also has a stock-exchange information service four times daily, but mellows all of the intensive economic content with upbeat cultural features. The musical format is mainly contemporary and lively, and not always very mainstream. Radio PiN is clearly not expecting a large audience. To impress potential advertisers, it is going after a niche audience of listeners with disproportionately high disposable income.
Radio Plus is no newcomer to Warsaw, but the station was off the airwaves for some time. This station is based on an interesting concept that is familiar in Portugal, Spain and (to a lesser extent) Italy, but that sometimes appears bizarre to Anglo-Saxon media markets. Radio Plus is a commercial, music-dominated station even though its local broadcasting licences are owned by the Catholic Church.
Radio Plus is the largest national network of radio stations in Poland, combining 25 local stations in a single broadcasting group. Earlier this year, the Radio Plus group attracted a financial investor in the form of Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, who joined the leading Polish IT company, Prokom, which had been involved in the business for a few years.
Since its re-launch in Warsaw in the week of the pope's visit in August, Radio Plus broadcasts (on 93.3 FM) an adult chart-music format complemented by a well-regarded information service and a positive and optimistic attitude. This is the only network able to broadcast a national programme with slots for local information and advertising.
Polish Radio's increased competition and professionalism ensures that listeners and advertisers will be spoilt for choice. With another station, Super FM, expected to hit the market in the future, Warsaw seems set for a more intense battle for the airwaves in 2003.
This article was originally published in the Contact Magazine, no.6/02 (54). |
