MASS MEDIA
by Stelios Papathanassopoulos
Professor, University of Athens
Looking back on recent Greek media history, one observes various
periods of dramatic change in the sector. The most recent took place
in the mid-1980s and, especially, in the late 1980s with the deregulation and privatization of the broadcasting system. Regarding the
last 25 years, one observes a first shift in the mid-1980s in the newspaper market. A second one took place in the broadcasting sector
in the late 1980s due to the deregulation of the state monopoly of
broadcasting frequencies, resulting in a plethora of private TV channels and radio stations, both national and local. There are at present
160 private TV channels and 1,150 private radio stations. In the mid1990s, there was also a boom in the magazine sector, which resulted
in a surge of new magazines.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Greece is preparing to enter
the digital era, which will result in further changes in the media sector
in general and the field of television in particular.
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In addition, the country’s broadcasting sector has undergone commercialization, adopting a marketled approach, resulting in more
channels, more advertising, more
program imports as well as an explosion in new home-made productions for the needs of the
plethora of TV channels. As in
other countries, publishers and
other business-oriented interests
have entered the broadcasting
landscape in large numbers. Since
the mid-1990s, there have been
various efforts on the part of the
state to regulate the sector (regarding radio and television licenses,
advertising time, program quotas,
protection of minors and media
ownership).
Although developments in the
Greek media sector have resulted
in upheavals, the media system
has proved surprisingly adaptable
and flexible in the face of change.
To appreciate this, one must keep
in mind that Greece has worked
under Western democratic rule for
only 30 years now, and its media
system has suddenly had to deal
with all the obstacles that its Western counterparts have taken years
to overcome.
PRINTED MEDIA
The newspaper press
Traditionally, the press in Greece
observed all developments in political life and played an important
role on the political scene. However, since the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1974, the
press has been going through a
process of modernization. The development of advertising as one of
its main sources of revenue in
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the 1960s has worked as a catalyst
concerning newspapers’ political
choices, and especially neutralized
the partisan division approach.
Moreover, the entry of new printing
technologies in the 1980s, the
entry of entrepreneurs and businessmen in the media sector, as
well as the stiff competition from
television have changed the field
since the 1980s. As a result, the
content of the press has become
more objective and the traditional
close association with particular
parties or individuals has been superseded by a tendency to identify
more with a political camp, right,
left or center. This has arisen partly
out of the need to attract a broader
spectrum of readers to increase circulation at a time of economic
difficulties, while it has also reflected a drift within the political community itself towards larger parties.
However, the political stance of the
newspapers is always present,
especially in periods characterized
by a politically intense climate
and, of course, during elections.
Regardless of the fact that the
level of literacy among the population is high, newspaper readership is low. Since the arrival of private television and radio and with
the plethora of magazines, newspaper advertising and readership
have come under pressure. There
are about 280 local, regional and
national daily newspapers in
Greece. However, the biggest 22
nationally, daily and Sunday, circulated titles in 2006 were located in
Athens. The regional press has
limited sales, with the exemption
of the regions of Thessaly, the
Peloponnese and Crete. Moreover,
in Athens and Thessaloniki, people
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have access to free daily and
weekly papers. These papers are
mainly found at metro and bus stations.
Another characteristic is that there
is a strong Sunday press, again
mainly based in Athens, since almost all dailies have a Sunday edition. Most of the Sunday papers offer a supplement or they increase
their number of pages in order to
cater to the interests of a wider
readership. By and large, due to
the competition of the electronic
media, the Greek press has tried to
cope with the new conditions by
redesigning their titles and/or
publishing new ones. In 1989
there were 13 dailies with a total
average circulation of 1.27 million
copies, while in 2006 there were
23 titles with a total average daily
circulation of approximately
417,000 copies. On the other hand,
the press share of advertising revenue has increased in the last
decade (from 18 percent in 1988 to
19.3 percent in 2006, according to
the annual reports of the advertising monitoring agency Media Services SA (1988-2006). Additionally,
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Source: Athens Daily Newspapers Publishers Association
Greek newspapers present two
further paradoxes. Firstly, while
the average circulation of newspapers in Greece is falling, the same
cannot be said for the number of
daily titles. Though a number of established newspapers suspended
or ceased publication over the
last 10 years, new titles, or old
ones under new ownership, seem
to be springing up all the time. Examining the annual data of the Association of Athens Daily Newspaper Owners, one sees that in 1979
there were 12 morning and afternoon dailies published in Athens
with an average daily combined circulation of 713,000 copies. In
1989, the best year for dailies in
the last 20 years, there were 22 titles with an average daily combined circulation of 1,128,589
copies. However, with circulation
declining since 1999, the number
of papers increased marginally to
23. Secondly, since 1993, when the
publishers saw that the sales of
their newspapers were declining
rapidly, almost all newspapers
started offering free gifts to their
readers, ranging from books, cars
and houses to music CDs and film
DVDs. These offers seem to have
halted the decline of circulation,
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and since 2005 there has been an
increase in sales, especially as regards the Sunday editions.
Periodicals and magazine
Press
The Greek market has a wealth of
magazine titles, with more than
900 popular and special-interest titles. However, there are about 50
consumer magazines – mostly
monthlies – of real importance.
While circulation of the general-interest weekly magazines has declined, the special-interest monthlies are gaining the upper hand.
The TV listings market has expanded as well to reflect the increase in
programming and now comprises
nine titles. The highest-circulation
magazines are linked to TV game
shows and offer cash prizes. During
1995-1996, there was a new explosion in the magazine sector with
new titles entering the field and
competing for the attention of
Greek readers. This growth was
also reflected in their advertising
revenues. However, the Greek magazine sector has entered a period
of reshaping in terms of titles and
publishers in order to cope with the
new and highly competitive media
environment.
MASS MEDIA
By and large, the main developments in the Greek magazine sector during the last five years are the
following: first, the “old” weekly information-oriented magazines
have perished. Some years ago,
this category represented the bulk
of magazine sales. This is also related to the entry in recent years of
the Sunday newspapers into the
magazine market, through supplements that could be considered
magazines in their own right. Secondly, there has been an increase
since 1992 in the volume of specialized magazines, which have
tried to attract the interest of
younger Greek readers. Thus, one
notes new titles in women’s and
men’s interest magazines, music
and computer magazines, sports,
business and financial magazines,
motorcar and motorcycle magazines, technology, history, home
furnishing and decoration magazines and so on. Third, TV guide
magazines still attract the highest
sales in the magazine sector but it
is questionable as to whether the
market can support new titles.
Fourth, there has been an increase
in light-entertainment magazines,
which cover gossip about celebrities and their personal lives. Fifth,
in the period 1995-1999 there was
a major increase in monthly general and specialist magazines,
which combine the lifestyle of
younger people with politics and
social issues. In terms of sales, TV
guide magazines come first and
are followed by monthly women’s
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Source: AGB Nielsen Media Research
magazines and monthly consumer
and life-style magazines. However,
the total bulk of sales in the magazine sector has increased.
AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA
Terrestrial Analogue
Television
Private TV
The deregulation of Greek broadcasting, as in other European countries, represented more than the removal of certain rules and regulations. As in most countries, it was
rather the outcome of the internationalization of broadcasting in
addition to pressure from domestic
economic forces. As in most European countries, broadcasting
deregulation commenced through
the radio frequencies (in 1987)
and then moved to television
(1989). In effect, transmitters
sprang up across Greece and, apart
from the national TV channels, regional and local stations flourished
all over the country, some of them
very successful in their respective
regions, and their number today
stands at about 145.
However, both imported TV programs and domestic production
have soared, thanks to massive in446
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creases in TV advertising revenue.
Although the terrestrial market is
overcrowded, with a plethora of
national and local stations, and
the regulatory structure of Greek
TV remains cloudy, most attention
is focused on five private channels. While the dominance of two
of the private networks – Mega
Channel and Antenna TV – was
clear from very early on, challenges from other private channels, including Alpha TV, Alter
and Star Channel, have made
quite a dent in Mega and Antenna’s audiences. In the 2005/2006
TV season, for the first time since
deregulation, the cumulative
monthly shares of the two leading
private television channels (Mega
and Antenna) did not exceed 37
percent. In 2006, they attracted
36.8 percent of the TV market
share, while Alpha, Alter and Star
attracted 35.6 percent.
The five mainstream private channels are pitched at a mass-market
audience. Sitcoms, satire shows,
game shows, soap operas, movies
and made-for-TV films as well as
tabloid-style news and informational programs dominate their
output. As the private channels’
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entertainment-dominated schedules have waxed stronger, there
has been a parallel decrease in educational and documentary programs. Though they initially relied
to a high degree on cheap imports,
private TV channels swiftly built up
the level of local and in-house
production. The share of domestic
production is now larger than imports and this is mostly transmitted during prime-time programming, while imported programs
dominate the rest of the broadcasting time. For example, the oncepopular Latin telenovelas have
been purged from the schedules of
most channels.
Viewership of national terrestrial TV
channels in prime-time slots:
(September 1, 2005 - August 31, 2006)
Private channels TV viewership (%)
Mega Channel
18.6
Antenna TV
18.2
Alpha TV
16.0
Star channel
10.0
Alter
8.8
Others
11.0
Public channels
ET1
NET
ET3
4.2
10.0
2.4
Source: AGB Nielsen Media Research
Public TV
A major element in the Greek
broadcasting scene used to be
the decline in viewership for the
public service broadcasting services. Few other public broadcasters
in Europe suffered as badly from
the introduction of private TV. The
Greek public broadcaster, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation
(ERT), saw a sharp decline in its ratings and advertising expenditure
due to the advent of private television. ERT’s problems stem from
the public broadcaster’s one-time
role as a mouthpiece of government propaganda. This led to the
erosion of its credibility in the
eyes of the Greek public and was
in effect the entry ticket for private
television and the total deregulation of the TV sector. In fact, ERT
had to pay for the democratization
and increased number of television
channels, since it was unprepared
to meet competition from the private broadcasters.
However, in the last few years, the
public broadcaster has implemented a long-overdue reorganization
which is now starting to bear fruit,
although there is still a long way to
go. ERT’s management aimed to
turn a new page in the public
broadcaster’s troubled history. In
1997, the first channel, ET1, became a general channel with more
emphasis on entertainment. The
second channel, ET2, has been relaunched under a new name, NET
(Nea Elliniki Teleorasi – New Hellenic Television), and is mainly a
round-the-clock information channel with news bulletins, information programs, talk shows and
documentaries. On the other hand,
ERT has had to reduce labor costs
with a system of voluntary retirement for some of its personnel.
In terms of financing, ERT appears
to be in better condition. Its management claims it will break even
for the first time in its 41-year history next year, thanks to higher licensing fees and advertising revenues. One has to note that ERT’s
main revenue comes from the license fee, which is collected
through household electricity bills
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(€51.84 per annum). Advertising
accounts for about 10 percent of
the public broadcaster’s income.
However, by focusing on a series
of high-profile sporting and other
events in the last two years, ERT
aims to attract both audiences
and advertising money. As concerns television, ERT channels’
viewership in 2005-06, according
to TV rating company AGB Nielsen
Media Research, rose to 16.8 percent (ET1 4.2 percent, NET 10 percent, and ET3 2.4 percent). In
2004-05, the total TV market share
for the public broadcaster was
14.9 percent.
The public broadcaster consists of:
• Two national coverage channels (Elliniki Teleorasi 1 [ET1]
and NEA Elliniki Teleorasi [NET,
previously ET2]) which are
based in Athens.
• A third channel, ET3. This is
based in Thessaloniki and has
a stronger coverage in Northern Greece but can also be
seen in other parts of the
country. In effect, it is the regional channel of ERT and emphasis is given to Northern
Greece, the arts and culture.
• Hellenic Radio (ERA), which
broadcasts four national radio
channels (ERA 1 through 4)
originating from Athens
through relay stations. There is
also a fifth radio station, the
“Voice of Greece”, which is
aimed at Greeks abroad and
includes regional programs.
•
•
ERT World, which is the public
broadcaster’s worldwide satellite service, broadcasting free
to air all over the word.
It also publishes its weekly
TV/radio listing magazine Radioteleorasis.
ERT looks to the future with ambition. In the digital era, ERT has already started operating its terrestrial digital channels (see below).
Finally, since January 2004, a new
public broadcaster has been established on the UHF frequencies.
This is Vouli TV, a national channel
with programming produced by
the Hellenic Parliament and which
covers the works of the Parliament.
Analogue Pay-TV
While cable TV is virtually non-existent in Greece, pay-TV has found
a niche in analogue terrestrial television. It nowadays reaches about
70 percent of the Greek population. Pay-TV officially entered the
Greek UHF frequencies on October
15, 1994, when the Greek authorities granted permission for the operation of Filmnet, the country’s
first pay-TV channel, owned by
Multchoice / Netmed Hellas and a
member of the Netmed NV group.
Netmed NV provides administrative and consulting services to
the group, Netmed Hellas is the
channel provider, and Multichoice
Hellas offers subscriber management services.
To enter the terrestrial TV universe
of Greece, Multichoice / Netmed
Hellas leased one of ERT’s UHF frequencies, offering a selection of
blockbuster movies and live league
soccer and basketball games.
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In August 1996 Multichoice/
Netmed Hellas launched two additional pay-TV services, Supersport
(sports) and K-TV (for children,
now supplied by Jetix TV), using
and sharing a second frequency
leased from the public broadcaster, ERT. In fact, Supersport is the
first and only terrestrial Greek
sports channel. K-TV broadcasts
daily from 9am to 3pm, after which
time Supersport takes over on the
same frequency. With the launch
of the two new channels, Multichoice / Netmed Hellas hoped to
increase the number of its subscribers. To do that Multichoice /
Netmed Hellas followed an aggressive marketing approach and
bought the TV rights of the premium soccer and basketball leagues.
In fact, this programming strategy
responded by offering three live
soccer games of the Greek Premier
League every week, the European
basketball games of domestic
popular teams as well as soccer
games from the premier leagues of
England, Holland, Spain, Germany,
and Latin America. As a result, the
number of subscribers reached
290,000 in 2000. Since the international environment was in favor
of the development of digital television, the company decided to
enter the digital age without, however, abandoning its terrestrial
analogue frequencies.
Radio
As noted above, the radio sector
was deregulated with the entry of
municipal and private local stations. Nowadays, private stations
dominate the radio sector (see statistics at end of chapter). Around
1,200 radio stations broadcast
regularly throughout Greece; the
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Source: Focus Research Bari –compilation HELLENIC AUDIOVISUAL INSTITUTE (I.O.M.)
most important ones are located
in Athens and have networking
arrangement with local stations.
Generally, each of Greece’s 52
administrative regions has two
or three local commercial radio
stations, with more in the largest
cities. However, most of them do
not have an official license to
broadcast. In 1997 the government
invited radio stations operating in
the regions of Athens and Thessaloniki to apply for a license. In
March 2001, the government announced the 28 most desired radio licenses for the Attica region,
causing anger among those stations not granted a license. The issue still remains open for seven
more licenses in the Attica region,
while a similar situation is expected when the new licenses
are granted in the other major
cities, especially in Thessaloniki,
which is the country’s second
largest city.
There are three categories of radio
stations in Greece: state-owned,
municipal and private. The vast
majority are privately owned and
of a local character (transmitting
via the FM frequencies). State450
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owned and municipal radio stations have exhibited a sharply declining trend in audience figures
and advertising revenue. As concerns the use of radio, Greeks listen to the radio for approximately
four hours daily, while those between the ages of 25 to 54 are the
most loyal listeners.
Digital TV
Satellite
Greeks have not paid much attention to satellite television, although
the deregulation of the Greek television system started through
the re-transmission of satellite
channels via the UHF frequencies.
However, at the beginning of the
new century, digital satellite television seems to be the new love affair in the world of Greek television.
In 2000, there were two digital
satellite platforms (Nova and Alpha
Digital) while a third one (Interactive) holds an official license to
broadcast.
Greek digital satellite television
started in March 1998, when Multichoice / Netmed Hellas announced its intentions to operate
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its own digital platform, called
Nova. Eventually, after some disputes with the government at the
time, on May 20, 1999, the NBC
awarded Multichoice / Netmed
Hellas a license to broadcast. Each
household that subscribes to Nova
had to pay a subscription of 15,500
drachmas (€45.50). Nova officially
launched operations on December
16 by securing three transponders
on Eutelsat’s Hot Birds 2, 3 and 4
respectively, all located at 13 degrees East. The cost of the reception equipment (a satellite dish of
60cm in diameter, access card, decoder and installment equipment)
was 149,000 drachmas plus VAT
(€467). In the first month of operation, NOVA attracted 15,000 subscribers. In 2006, the start-up
pack for the Nova basic package
cost €369 for decoder, dish and
smart-card. Subscription fees were
€53.90 a month. In March 2000, a
second company, Interactive SA
(member of the Intersat Group)
was awarded a second digital
satellite license. The platform,
however, never started transmission, and the NBC on October 28,
2002 decided to recall the license.
One and a half years after Nova’s
launch, the private TV station
Alpha TV announced its plans to
enter the digital television market
with its platform, Alpha Digital. The
second digital satellite platform in
the Greek world started operations
on October 29, 2001. In November
2000, the government granted a license to Alpha Digital Synthesis SA
to operate its own digital satellite
platform. Those consumers who
wished to buy the decoder only
had to pay 108,000 drachmas
(€317). Each household that subscribed to Alpha Digital had to pay
a monthly subscription of 14,850
drachmas (€43.6). The main aim of
Alpha Digital was to offer its services to the subscribers at reasonable prices, considering that the
cost of pay-TV in Greece was extremely expensive. Keeping in
mind that football was the most attractive offering of pay-TV, it offered
much higher contracts to the football companies of the premier
league, and thus 10 out of 18
broke their previous contract with
Multichoice / Netmed Hellas.
The result was a battle between
the two digital platforms and Greek
premier league games became
one of the most expensive broadcasts in European television. However, after a year of intense competition, Alpha Digital, with only
35,000 subscribers, on September
9, 2002, announced the suspension of its operations due to its failure to meet its economic obligations. Its collapse brought the
woes caused to soccer by the television rights problems that affected other European countries.
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television (DTT)
seems to be the country’s next big
move, as well as a priority for the
present government. While there
is no digital or analogue cable TV
service in Greece, the reason to go
for “terrestrial digital” is due to international developments and especially the EU, which has called
on its member states to switch
from analogue to digital by 2012,
and to the fact that the main part
of the population lives in the major
cities of the country.
Specifically, the public broadcaster
started three digital terrestrial
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channels (Prisma plus, Cine plus
and Sport plus) within the first half
of 2006. ERT broadcast its first digital program on Prisma plus on
March 20, 2006. Prisma plus is a
channel with broad-based appeal
that is fully accessible to the deaf
and broadcasts programs with
sign language and subtitles for
seven hours daily. In May 2006,
ERT launched the two other channels, Sport plus and Cine plus. During the pilot stage, which will last
one to two years, each channel will
broadcast a new program for 6-10
hours daily. The reception of the
signal is free-to-air, advertisements
are not broadcast and the programs are different to those of NET,
ET1 and ET3.
PROSPECTS
FOR THE FUTURE
Although it can be said that the
media market is saturated, media
companies showed satisfactory
growth rates in their revenues in
2005, despite initial estimates of
a tough post-Olympics year. According to data from the companies’ financial reports, compiled
and processed by Hellastat, the total sales of 100 companies (broadcasting stations and publishing
enterprises) came to €2.2 billion
in 2005, against 2 billion euros in
2004, an increase of 10 percent
year-on-year.
On the eve of the digital era, new
opportunities may arise for media
companies in the country. Many
believe that digital TV is in its infancy and the market will create
vast business opportunities during
the years of the realization of
convergence and that there is
room for major investments in
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the market. The public broadcaster has already planned its transition from analogue to digital television, while the government
has expressed its desire for most
private broadcasters to switch
from analogue to digital transmission by 2012 and digital satellite has increased its client base.
The government aims to regulate
the new sector (with resource allocation, licenses, timing of
switchover) before it becomes
deregulated, as in the case of the
analogue frequencies, and also to
prevent the dominance of private
broadcasters by defending the
public broadcaster, which was
left helpless back in the late
1980s. The government has already put forward its proposals for
discussion with the industry and
has expressed its willingness to
present its new legal framework for
the industry’s regulation. The
Minister responsible for the media, Theodoros Roussopoulos,
has publicly said that “the modern
age demands our cooperation
and commitment to improving
the quality of the broadcasting industry,” and has also outlined
plans for companies to meet certain financial and professional
criteria before they are granted licenses.
USEFUL LINKS
Secretariat General of Communication
Secretariat General of Information
www.minpress.gr
The National Broadcasting Corporation
(Hellenic Radio Television - ERT)
www.ert.gr