Consultants love to hear the phone ring and personal referrals make the world go ‘round.
Following an early 2012 phone call, and many phone calls and Skype conversations later, Moscow’s first and only All Sports Radio Station – “Radio Sport” – is closing in.
Moscow is one very large radio/media market and station owner EMG (Europa Media Group) is a big company making a big commitment for the long term. But nothing about this project is either easy or simple. We’ve now been working on it the better part of the year and the mid-January launch date is less than 60 days away.
Take a look at Russia – all 9 time zones wide – and especially Moscow’s huge audience – in the neighborhood of 14-million, that’s Tokyo size! Kantar Media is the European Audience Measuring company and Kantar knows the market. With 800 stations jostling for audiences, the Russian radio market is one of the most competitive in the world. Moscow alone has more than 50 traditional stations. Other big cities in Russia all boast between 15 and 40 — and the number keeps growing.
The emergence of these diverse stations is driving competition for listeners’ time and fragmenting the audience. Five years ago, the top10 radio stations in Moscow had a 60% share of the market. That’s now down to 45%.
However, Russian people aren’t spending more time listening to radio. Actually, quite the opposite. Recently there’s been a decrease in listening numbers and duration primarily due to a reduction of listening at home however, in-car listening is increasing.
(Here’s a personal note about Moscow traffic: You simply have to see it to believe it! We’ve seen traffic in just about every major city in the world and there simply is nothing to compare! Radio listening in Moscow is big and TSL is growing.)
Kantar Media reports that radio attracts listeners of all ages, social status and lifestyle. The structure of the radio audience in Russia is almost identical to the structure of the country’s general population. There’s something on the airwaves for everyone.
On average, 64% of the Russian population listens to the radio for at least five minutes each day. Around 90% tune in for at least five minutes a week. The average Russian radio listener switches between three stations a day and seven stations a week.
The majority of the radio stations in Russia are part of big holdings reinforcing the various groups’ prominent market positions. Currently, the country’s five largest media holdings are Gazprom Media, Russkaya Media Grouppa, VGTRK, VK Profmedia and EMG. Combined, these groups own 25 radio stations. In Moscow, their share of the market tops 60%. The market share of all radio stations belonging to groups now stands at 80%.
Music and entertainment radio stations generally attract a lot more listeners than news-talk stations. Their total share recently hit 70%. News-talk station listening has increased over the past couple of years. For ages 20 to 40 it’s a relatively modest 14%, 40-60 year olds – 30% and among listeners older than 60 it’s 70%. (Look familiar?)
Broadcasting on a national level is growing fast. More than 20 stations have now built extensive networks throughout Russia. On average, more than 9.5 million Russians are tuning into these national stations every day. Favorites include EMG’s ‘Sister Station’ to the new ‘Radio Sport’ we’re working with, a CHR station, Europa Plus and it’s one of the most popular stations in Russia today. Local stations leading the way in a region is a comparatively rare phenomenon.
According to an estimate by the Association of Russian Communication Agencies, radio accounts for around 4% of all advertising budgets in Russia. The most popular categories for radio advertising are ‘trade organizations, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, transportation, real estate, financial services, clothing and footwear’.”
So that’s an overview of the Russian/Moscow market and to say that Moscow is competitive is an understatement. We began this project by first listening to Moscow radio via the Internet. Believe me our CC Crane Internet radios are getting a real workout! WE also began working on some language lessons and, of course, critical listening with help from Russian speaking Moscow natives who understand the market and the sports format.
Working in Moscow has been an eye opening experience. The Russian culture has adapted readily over the past 20 or so years to American tastes and interests. Even Russian police are being encouraged to learn English. You see billboards in English and Russian language everywhere! There are even some restaurants in the city that are offering complete Thanksgiving meals this week for those Americans looking for a little piece of home on ‘Turkey Day’. The English language newspaper – ‘The Moscow Times’ – is a must read for any English speaker over there.
There is also an English language radio station that started up operations just a week ago for English speaking ex-pats now working in the Russian Federation capital.
But, if you want to do some monitoring of Russian/Moscow radio stations then you may want to keep track of programming points and format structure used there. If you use http://www.moskva.fm/stations then you’ll find an interesting web-site that will link you to scores of the most competitive stations in the Moscow market.
If you’re into music formats then look closely at each of the link squares and see the information available. News/Talkers are also there and if you spend a few minutes searching you’ll find ‘Radio Sport’ at 93.2FM.
Personally speaking, we continue to hear from friends and colleagues who caution extreme care while working in Moscow. The reality is that we have had nothing but positive, pleasant times while we’ve been working on this project (with the possible exception of the changing weather as winter nears). We’ve been forewarned!
EMG is a world class organization that operates six radio stations in Moscow and there are many more on the way. Five of the six stations are music formats and the sixth is our project, ‘Radio Sport’, now transitioning from a partial music and sports combo format to full time sports. How does a station transition from that hybrid format to a pure ‘All Sports’ format? Ah, now that’s the tricky part isn’t it?
Having been working in the world-wide radio scene for years there’s been ample opportunity to deal with plenty of issues over that length of time and the process narrows down to the basics that include new imaging, new positioning, new direction, new programs and new hosts to work them. New sound/voice imaging will wrap it all up surrounded by a new jingle package creating the new format for both weekdays and weekends.
A long time ago, at a time when we were relatively new to this business, an savvy colleague once said that weekdays are for ratings and weekends are for sales, marketing and revenue generation. Weekends offer unlimited possibilities to create new and different programming, to develop unique talent and obviously to sell the results! That means selling direct in a way that offers sales people new opportunities to climb the mountain in different and successful ways.
Sports is truly a world-wide language that is understood everywhere and the timing is right for a total sports formatted radio station to arrive on the Moscow radio scene. Will the format be successful? Absolutely! And, being the first will give EMG’s ‘Radio Sport’ a leg up on future competition. Being first does have its rewards!
Don Watson
Managing Partner
NewsTalkMedia, llc
Pensacola, FL.
[email protected]
www.newstalkradio.com
