Even the BBC World Service, widely regarded as a reliable indicator of the industry's health, closed down ten of its language services to free up money needed for the setting up of an Arabic TV channel.
Radio Tashkent International closed down in two stages. From 1 January, it stopped broadcasting on shortwave, although the transmitter site remains on the air carrying the programmes of other international broadcasters, including Radio Netherlands. Programming continued on Internet only, but the station quickly learned the hard way that you can't force listeners to move to a different platform, and at the end of March programmes in foreign languages ended altogether.
Chinese expansion
Also in January, China Radio International launched the first of what it hopes will be as many as 100 FM stations in major cities around the world. CRI is following the lead of major western broadcasters such as the BBC, Radio France International, VOA and Deutsche Welle. But not everyone is happy, and questions were asked in the Kenyan parliament about how a Kenyan domestic FM frequency came to be allocated to a foreign broadcaster. In November, CRI opened a second FM station in Vientiane, Laos. It also started a 24-hour DRM service to London via the trial 26 MHz service operated by WRN.
Kenya is now becoming a competitive marker for international broadcasters. The Director of BBC World Service, Nigel Chapman, visited Kenya for a five-day tour that included attending the launch of BBC radio programming on partner stations Sheki 106.6 FM and Star 97.0 FM.
FM is not always the answer
Of course, having FM transmitters in foreign cities isn't a totally reliable method of reaching listeners, as the BBC was reminded when the authorities in Tajikistan suspended its FM service, saying that the media law requires international broadcasters on FM to register with the Tajik Ministry of Justice and acquire a licence. On a similar theme, the Indonesian government said it would enforce a new regulation banning local broadcasters from directly relaying news from foreign TV and radio stations.
In February, Media Network learned that the two US international broadcasting relay stations in Greece, at Rhodes and Kavala, were to be closed. This news was conveyed to staff by George Moore, Director of IBB's Office of Engineering and Technical Services. The high cost of operating shortwave and mediumwave relays, combined with the shift of audiences to other media such as FM, the Internet and television, were cited as the reasons for the decision.
Political decisions affect the broadcasters
Swiss Radio International already closed down several years ago, and its successor website, swissinfo, has been suffering an uncertain future to disagreements over how it should be funded. But in March the Swiss Parliament decided that the government should provide at least half of swissinfo's funding. Without government money, swissinfo would have been totally dependent on the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation for its funding.
However, other parts of VOA are expanding. In October, the station launched the first full news hour of a new radio broadcasting service to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. In the coming months VOA Deewa (Light) Radio will expand to six hours of daily news programming.
"Wasted taxpayer money"
Radio and TV Martí were severely criticised by Vincent Parascandolo, a research assistant at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC. He wrote in the Fort Lauderdale newspaper Sun-Sentinel that "Of all the resources spent on US policy toward Cuba, are probably two of the most egregious examples of wasted taxpayer money - nearly a half-billion dollars squandered on television and radio transmissions to the island and reaching virtually no audience." He went on to day that "TV Martí seems to be a matter of giving the BBG and its staff extra jobs and salaries, and pandering to voters in Miami, which helps win elections in Florida."
BBC scales new heights
Meanwhile, BBC World Service announced in May that it now has 163 million weekly radio listeners to its 33 language services - a record audience. The new weekly audience figure, compiled from independent surveys around the globe, is an increase of 14 million on last year's figure of 149 million. The previous BBC World Service record audience was 153 million in 2001. The BBC, with typical modesty, claimed that the new figure equates to around 50 per cent more listeners than any "comparable" international broadcaster.
As a sign of the changing market for international broadcasting, WRN launched a podcasting service on 1 May. International programme producers providing weekly downloadable shows for the WRN podcasting service include Radio Prague, Radio Poland, Radio Slovakia International, RTE Ireland and Radio Guangdong from China. This list is set to grow over the coming weeks. The WRN Podcasting Team also produces exclusive podcast-only content for the service.
Radio New Zealand launched its digital shortwave (DRM) service on 4 June. Unlike many other international broadcasters, the DRM service is not primarily intended for reception by individual listeners, but as an inexpensive way of providing partner stations in the Pacific islands with a better quality signal for rebroadcasting.
More shortwave cuts
Radio Slovakia International was the next station to announce that it would cease its shortwave broadcasts as of 30 June. Apart from the Internet, the programmes of Radio Slovakia International would continue to be broadcast via satellite. But the change also meant job losses. Instead of a staff of four, two full-time editors would produce the programmes of each language section. However, following protests from Slovaks abroad, the station decided to resume shortwave from the start of the winter season at the end of October, but still with a reduced staff.
Stations broadcasting to Zimbabwe, including SW Radio Africa and Voice of the People, suffered jamming during the year. Reports from Zimbabwe said that the jamming transmitters were Chinese, and installed at a military base. Towards the end of the year, SW Radio Africa launched an SMS service to advise listeners of its latest frequency, in an effort to stay one step ahead of the jammers.
Win some, lose some
In July, the Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) announced plans to cut radio programmes for Italian, German, Swedish and Malay speakers to shift emphasis on television programmes for its international services. The changes are due to come into effect from the start of the winter schedule in 2007. But Radio Ukraine International announced on its website that it plans to broadcast in a number of additional languages. Currently the station broadcasts in Ukrainian, English, German and Romanian - but Russian, Polish, French, Spanish and Arabic will be added.
NHK was also in the news when the Japanese government instructed it to pay more attention in its programmes to Japanese abductees believed to be in North Korea. Some commentators were concerned that this amounted to political interference in the output of the public broadcaster, although the instruction did not specify any details of what the government wanted it to do. It was just a case of "bearing in mind" the subject.
Here at Radio Netherlands, we were finally able to launch our direct-to-home satellite service on the Sky Digital platform in August. The service had been planned for nearly a year, but was delayed due to technical issues involving Sky's expanded Electronic Programme Guide. The service replaces a late-night mediumwave service of one hour a day with a 24-hour feed of the RNW2 English Internet stream. But we returned to mediumwave on two frequencies for one night only in November, to carry the Dutch General Election results.
Change of focus
Several new international news channels also launched in 2006 - France 24, Russia Today and Al-Jazeera English. Though the viewing audiences for these services are generally very small, they demonstrate the current trend of moving away from radio and towards TV to reach an international audience. We can expect more of the same in 2007, and the Media Network Weblog will be here to report it.
Coming on 28 December: the Dutch media year
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Radio Netherlands.
Tags: 2006, international broadcasting, radio, review, shortwave, television, tv