Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Giorgos Gerasimidis

Dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MSc/Dip. in Media Management, University of Stirling

Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Declaration

1. This work is composed by me.

2. This work has not been accepted in any previous application for a degree.

3. The work of which this is a part is done by me.

4. All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks and the sources of information have been specifically acknowledged.

Signature:

Registration No:

Date:

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Acknowledgements

The following people helped me greatly, each in his/her own personal way:

Vasilis made my life easy.

Ben & the Immigrants gave me back my music.

Simon inspired me.

Brent, Dean, Dina and Amanda made this study possible.

Dimitris, Maria and Agapi just gave me everything else I needed.

Thank you.

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Abstract

T

he aim of this study is to examine the conditions under which a global television network like MTV Europe takes the decision to launch a localized

service on a new market and at the same time investigate MTV’s intentions towards launching a channel in the Greek market. The methodology employed uses a mixed method approach, gathering the primary data from interviews with MTV top executives, Greek music TV executives and media practitioners. Through the analysis of the acquired data, and under the theoretical background of globalization, localization and global television networks, MTV’s expansion strategy is analyzed. In addition, it is revealed that the low penetration of digital TV in Greece is the main factor that has deterred MTV Europe from launching MTV Greece.

Keywords: Globalization, Localization, MTV Europe, Greece, Digital Television.

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Table of Contents Declaration ............................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements................................................................................. iii Abstract ................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents .................................................................................... v Chapter 1 – Introduction .............................................................................1 1.1 Defining the Problem ............................................................................ 1 1.1.1 MTV and its Localization Strategy ..................................................... 1 1.1.2 MTV and the Greek Market ........................................................... 2 1.2 Setting the Question ........................................................................... 4 1.3 Dissertation Outline ............................................................................ 5 Chapter 2 – Literature Review .................................................................... 8 2.1 Introduction....................................................................................... 8 2.2 Globalization ................................................................................... 8 2.3 Localization vs. Globalization ............................................................ 10 2.4 Multinational Organizations and International Expansion ........................ 11 2.5 Global Television Networks ............................................................... 13 2.5.1 Economics of Global Television Networks ...................................... 13 2.5.2 Cultural Globalization ................................................................ 15 2.6 MTV Networks Europe Profile ............................................................ 17 2.6.1 The History ................................................................................ 17 2.6.2 From Centralization to Regionalization .......................................... 18 2.6.3 From Regionalization to Localization ............................................. 19 Chapter 3 – Methodology ....................................................................... 22 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 22 3.2 Research Purpose and Objectives ...................................................... 22 3.3 Research Nature and Approach ........................................................ 23 3.4 Sources of Data .............................................................................. 24 3.4.1 Desk research ........................................................................... 24 3.4.2 Interviews ................................................................................ 25 3.5 Data Analysis ................................................................................. 26 3.6 Limitations ...................................................................................... 27 Chapter 4 – Findings .............................................................................. 29 4.1 Introduction..................................................................................... 29 4.2 MTV Europe – A History of Expansion................................................. 30 4.2.1 The Launch of the pan-European Channel MTV Europe ................... 30 4.2.2 The Reasons for the Initial Success ................................................ 31 4.2.3 MTV Europe Going Local ........................................................... 32 4.2.4 Summary ................................................................................. 34 4.3 Factors Examined Before Going Local ................................................ 35 4.3.1 Distribution ............................................................................... 35 4.3.2 Advertisers ............................................................................... 37

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

4.3.3 Audience ................................................................................. 38 4.3.4 Local Partners ........................................................................... 39 4.3.5 Socio-political Factors ............................................................... 39 4.3.6 Strong Local Music Scene........................................................... 39 4.3.7 Competition ............................................................................. 40 4.3.8 Summary ................................................................................. 40 4.4 The Localization Process into Practice .................................................. 41 4.4.1 Acquisition................................................................................. 41 4.4.2 How Local is Local Programming? ............................................... 42 4.4.3 Attracting the Advertisers ........................................................... 43 4.4.4. Summary ................................................................................ 45 4.5 MTV and the Greek Market .............................................................. 46 4.5.1 MTV’s Perception of the Greek Market.......................................... 46 4.5.2 Deterring Factors of the Greek Market ......................................... 47 4.5.3 Digital TV Penetration in Greece .................................................. 49 4.5.4 Summary ................................................................................. 50 4.6 Future Prospects for MTV Europe ........................................................ 51 4.6.1 In Greece .................................................................................. 51 4.6.2 And Internationally .................................................................... 52 4.6.3 Summary ................................................................................. 53 Chapter 5 – Summary and Conclusions ...................................................... 55 List of references .................................................................................... 57 Appendix ..............................................................................................61 Interview with Brent Hansen, President MTV Networks Europe ...................... 61

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Chapter 1 – Introduction 1.1 Defining the Problem

1.1.1 MTV and its Localization Strategy

M

TV (Music Television) is described by Media Week (2004) as ‘the envy of media brands around the world’. Being a division of Viacom Inc., it

first launched its service in the United States in 1981. After six successful years, in 1987 MTV Europe started broadcasting for the European audience. The growth in the numbers of viewers has been impressive ever since. From 2.2 million households which were reached in 1987 to 56 million by 1996 (Bekaert, 1998a, cit in Roe, 2000).

The initial MTV slogan was ‘one planet one music’ and it was expressed not only by the similarities of the musical content of the different programs, but also by the use of the English language for the presentation of the music shows and the music news. Having English as exclusive language did not seem to bother the young European audience, at least until the launch of the German-language music television station VIVA in 1993, followed by the launch of the Dutch-speaking TMF (The Music Factory) in the Netherlands in 1995. Both of these channels soon displaced MTV Europe as the most popular music television station in their domestic markets (Meyer, 2003).

The response of MTV Europe was to create zones of regional programming and launch a number of localized channels in various European countries. The main difference of a localized service compared to the original one, is that it ‘speaks’ in the native language of the country it is aired, it employs local people and features

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a fixed percentage of local programming. The European countries that currently receive a localized MTV service are the UK and Ireland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Portugal, with MTV Denmark being the latest, launched in May 2005.1 The division of MTV that is responsible for all the different European channels, based in London, is called MTV Networks Europe (MTVNE). At present, Greece still belongs to the group of 24 countries that only receive the multicountry channel ‘MTV European’, which broadcasts in English.

1.1.2 MTV and the Greek Market The recent launch of a localised MTV channel in a country like Portugal, which has similar population and relative income figures with Greece, could lead someone to the prediction that MTV Greece should be under way (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1 - Relative incomes in EU countries and Central and Eastern Europe

2

1

MTV Party in Denmark! News Story 13/05/2005 (http://www.mtve.com/article.php?ArticleId=5597) 2 Source: European Commission, cited in Hawksworth 1999

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

This study is designed to portray the expansion strategy and planning of MTVNE and also to discuss the reasons that have kept the Greek market out of MTVNE’s expansion strategy so far. At first glance, it seems that the Greek television market has the potential to respond successfully to the requirements of the contemporary communication environment of the digital era: 

According to AGB Hellas, member of the AGB group, which is a major producer of television audience data in Greece since 1988, the size of the Greek audience was estimated to 9,245,326 individuals on 1/9/2003. In addition to that, it seems that TV viewing is a favourite habit of the Greek population. The Greek audience was measured to have the highest average daily viewing time (243 minutes) among European Union memberstates in 2001, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory (cit in Kliamaki et al, 2003)



The Greek households that own a TV set reached an almost absolute percentage of 99% in 1997, following the United Kingdom by just four years (Kliamaki et al, 2003, see Figure 2 below).



TV advertising has also shown a boost since the emergence of private television channels in 1989 (ibid, 2003).

Figure 2 - Penetration rate of TV, video and DVD devices in Greek households

3

3

Source: European Audiovisual Observatory, cit. in Kliamaki et al (2003)

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

However, there are also some noticeable drawbacks in the Greek TV industry for a potential foreign media investor: 

TV regulation is a particularly complex issue in Greece, where most of the commercial channels currently on air are unlicensed.



Distribution could prove problematic, since the penetration of digital TV in Greece is the lowest among EU member states, with a percentage of approximately 9% of Greek television households.4



Mad TV, a music channel located in Athens and a local competitor of MTV Europe, is already present and successfully operating. Since it first went on air in 1995, Mad TV has established itself as the most popular music channel in Greece, targeting the 15 to 25-year-old demographic. Offering a split of 65% foreign and 35% domestic repertoire, Mad TV claims to reach 30% of Greek households on a daily basis; a penetration three times greater than that of MTV Europe, which also has a free-to-air service in Greece.5

1.2 Setting the Question Taking into consideration MTV Europe’s commitment to ‘a long-term regional expansion strategy’6, and the current landscape in the Greek media field, the

4

Netmed ‘Mediterranean Pay Television Platform’ (found at http://www.naspers.com/english/pay_tv.asp) 5 Maria Paravantes, ‘Greeks Go Mad For Music TV’, Billboard, July 27, 2002 6 Viacom press release, ‘MTV Europe Set To Launch Channel Exclusively For Portugal’, 30 June 2003

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question that arises is under which conditions would a global media network like MTV launch a localised version, in Greece.

This study therefore aims: 

to present the main timestamps in MTVNE’s history of regional expansion and portray the reasons why such strategies have been applied,



to provide insight on the main factors that are taken into consideration by MTVNE executives prior to the launch of a localized MTV service,



to illuminate the reasons that have kept Greece out of the expansion strategy of MTV Europe so far,



to present the main considerations of rival specialist channels in Greece surrounding any possible launch of an MTV Greece channel and



to display a general picture of the Greek television market and music industry and assess whether it has the potential to respond successfully to the requirements of the contemporary communication environment of the digital era.

1.3 Dissertation Outline The second chapter of this dissertation provides the necessary theoretical background that it needed for the understanding of the nature of this survey. It is therefore a review of a segment of the available literature on the concepts of

globalization, localization, multinational organizations and global television

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networks. It also provides a compacted profile of MTV Europe, since its initial launch in 1987.

The third chapter describes and validates the methodology that was used to obtain and analyse the data that was needed in order to answer to the research questions. The research purpose and objectives are portrayed, as well as the nature and approach of the research and the sources of the data collected.

The fourth chapter presents and analyses the findings of the research conducted and features the following sections: 

MTV Europe – A History of Expansion



Factors Examined Before Going Local



The Localization Process into Practice



MTV and the Greek Market



Future Prospects for MTV Europe

The fifth and final chapter of this thesis summarizes on the whole survey and draws the final conclusions.

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Chapter 2 – Literature Review 2.1 Introduction

T

his chapter provides the theoretical background that is necessary for the deeper understanding of the research topic. The key concepts that are

analyzed are the ones that lay in the core of the research topic and also gave birth to the research question. These are: 

Globalization



Localization



Multinational Organizations and



Global Television Networks

This chapter also presents a profile of the organization that is the core of this study, MTV Europe.

2.2 Globalization Globalization, if defined at a political and economic level, is the process of denationalization of markets, politics and legal systems, resulting in the rise of the so-called global economy. The effects of this political and economic reform on local economies, human welfare and environment have been heavily debated and – in some cases – caused huge controversy among international organizations, governmental institutions and the academic world. At a business level, globalization is expressed with companies deciding to take part in the emerging global economy and establish themselves in foreign markets.

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Haynes (2000) refers to globalization as ‘the ever-increasing integration of national economies into the global economy through trade and investment rules and privatization, aided by technological advances’ (p. 4). But since it is a phenomenon that expands beyond the boundaries of economy, it has inspired a significant amount of different approaches. Holbert’s (2000) own viewpoint on globalization is slightly differentiated: He views globalization as ‘the process in which the world is shrinking virtually while growing with real opportunities’ (cit. at McAuley, 2001, p. 158).

The phenomenon of globalization has motivated a number of civil protests around the world over the last couple of decades, which have reached their peak during international meetings such as the Seattle WTO meeting of 1999, the Genoa G/8 summit in 2001 and the one at Gleneagles in Scotland being the most recent, in July 2005. The supporters of the anti-globalization movement are opposed to international financial institutions and transnational corporations, in their struggle for – among others – fair trade, cultural diversity and labour rights.

However, Suter (2000) argues that those that oppose globalization will have problems gaining public support, arguing that there should be fewer goods on sale. ‘People like their clothes, Coca-Cola, McDonalds pop music, television and movies. These are unlikely to give up to oppose globalization’ (cit in McAuley, 2001, p. 241). Apparently it is not easy to reach to an agreement on whether globalization is something that should be fought, supported or just accepted, and it will not be attempted here, as well. But even though as a term it has been demonized heavily, globalization is unarguably the driving force of economic and social evolution over the last decades. As Suter (2000) argues explicitly, ‘all this

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

opposition is 50 years too late. Globalization has started and the challenge now is to make it better for more people.’ (ibid)

2.3 Localization vs. Globalization While globalization is considered by some as the disease, localization is by others the offered antidote. Haynes (2000) defines localization as the ‘process which reverses the trend of globalization by discriminating in favour of the local’ (p. 4).

By ‘local’ he refers to a part of the nation state or the nation state itself, or even occasionally a regional group of nations. In simpler terms, it could be described as the process of adapting a product to the requirements of a local target market.

This dipole of localization vs. globalization is further analysed in marketing terminology by the terms adaptation and standardization. Adaptation, according to Pickton & Broderick (2001) is when marketing communications messages and media are ‘changed from country to country to better suit the particular requirements of individual markets’ (p. 127). Standardization, on the contrary, is ‘the use of similar or identical marketing communications across countries. (Pickton & Broderick, 2001, p. 127). According to the standardization point of view, because people everywhere want the same products for the same reasons, companies are able to achieve economies of scale by unifying marketing communications around the globe.

On the other hand, because of the increase in the presence of ethnic minorities and nationalism worldwide, ‘economies and cultures tend to differentiate and the need for differentiated communications arises’ (Pickton & Broderick, 2001. p. 127).

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Summing up, the choice between standardization and adaptation is seen as an issue of strategic and financial importance since ‘excessive adaptation imposes loss of control and extra costs while rigid standardization threatens local customer appeal and global market share’ (ibid, p. 128).

2.4 Multinational Organizations and International Expansion In practice, the companies that apply such strategies of adaptation in different local markets are called transnational or multinational organizations. According to Johnson g. & Scholes K., (1997) multinational organizations are the ones that ‘have developed structures that attempt to combine the local responsiveness of the international subsidiary with the advantages available from the co-ordination found in global product companies’ (p. 384). The typical model of a multinational organization displays the following features (Johnson G. & Scholes K., 1997, p.

384): 

Each national unit operates independently, but is a source of ideas and capabilities for the whole corporation.



National units achieve global scale through specialization on behalf of the whole corporation.



The corporate centre manages a global network by first establishing the role of each subsidiary, then sustaining the culture and systems to make the network operate effectively.

Multinational organizations adopt strategies of expansion into foreign markets for reasons – among others - such as the saturation of their current markets, their 11

Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

potential opportunities in new markets if they exploit their resources, or the need for competitive action, following similar decisions by their competitors. In marketing terms, multinational organizations focus on the following points, prior making a decision to adopt a strategy of expansion (Ayal and Zif, 1979, cit in Mas-Ruiz et al, 2001): 

identifying of potential markets and establishing of an order of priority for their entry into these markets;



deciding on the extent of the marketing effort to which they will commit themselves; and



deciding on the timing of such expansion.

Depending on the outcome of the environmental analysis that is specific to them, multinational organizations are using one of the following four key strategies when operating internationally (Pickton & Broderick, 2001, p. 130): 

The global strategy, based on cultural similarities rather than differences, which is adopted in cases of a high degree of homogeneity both within a culture and between cultures.



The global niche strategy, based on the identification of similar groups of people across countries (e.g. students).



The multinational strategy, based on the premise of cross-cultural differences and guided by the belief that each foreign market requires its own culturally adapted marketing communication strategy.

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?



The customization strategy, which identifies the differences in consumers both within and between cultures and, therefore, communicates on an individual basis.

In chapter four it will be portrayed how MTV in its history of expansion has adapted at least three of the above strategies.

2.5 Global Television Networks Global media are the multinational organizations that operate in the media field, also referred to as transnational media corporations. According to Demers (1999, p. xxiv) ‘a global medium is a media organization that generates print or electronic messages or programs for dissemination to large numbers of people around the world.’ A brief study of some of the available literature suggests that global media – in our research area, global television networks – operate under similar rules as the multinational organizations described above.

2.5.1 Economics of Global Television Networks Global TV networks are not in fact operating in any different way than the multinational organizations in other business sectors are. In fact their reasons for international expansion are similar to the aforementioned ones concerning the multinational organizations. Since the production of television programming usually implies very high initial costs for development and equipment (Doyle G, 2002, p. 27), TV channels might not be able to cover their costs by transmitting their programs only domestically, because of the saturated domestic market. In

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

addition, by expanding into foreign markets, TV channels are able to spread among these markets the risk of failure, a risk as high as the production costs.

The arrival of digital technology had two major, possibly contradicting, consequences. On the one hand it has meant the end of spectrum scarcity, by freeing frequencies and creating space for more and more channels to enter the market and raising the levels of competition and market saturation to an all-time high. On the other hand, digital technology through satellites and transponders has lowered the costs of launching a new digital service, on a new market.

Indeed, over the last two decades ‘the development of relatively low-cost satellite distribution of television signals permits economies of scale in distribution to be realized over larger geographical areas’ (Collins et al, 1988, p. 108).

Many media firms have become transnationals, in that sense, with a presence in many countries and - in some cases - a decentralized management structure. As Doyle (2002, p. 23) states, ‘globalization has encouraged media operators to look beyond the local market as a way of expanding their consumer base horizontally and of extending their economies of scale.’

The localization strategy has offered a new, powerful tool to the television networks, called local advertising windows. A network of channels can offer advertisers the following three options: advertise in one region through a local campaign, advertise in a selection of regions through an international campaign or advertise throughout the entire network. Local advertising windows offer many advantages. For instance, advertisers can run locally produced advertising spots simultaneously across Europe, ensuring that a pan-European campaign is always relevant to local markets’ (Chalaby, 2002, pp. 192-193).

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

The aforementioned advantages that the localization strategy offers to television channels justify – to a large extent – their eagerness to do so. However, strategies of expansion are also justified by the less sophisticated perspective of absolute numbers. As Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone stated in a speech in March 1998: ‘The need to go global can be summarized in one statistic: Four percent. That’s the share of the world’s eyeballs located in the United States.’ (cit in Demers 1999, p.

35)

2.5.2 Cultural Globalization The globalization of television networks is paralleled by the world-wide spread of key television narratives and genres, including news, soap opera, music television, sport and game shows, set within a growing promotional culture. As Barker (1999, p. 59) argues, ‘the globalization of television has enabled the dislocation of ‘culture’ from place leading to juxtapositioning of a variety of global discourses.’

Barker however believes in the relativity of the terms global and local. According to him, the idea of global ‘is produced within and by a globalizing discourse which includes capitalist marketing and its increasing orientation to differentiated local markets’ (ibid, p.41). Haynes (2000) concurs that globalization doesn’t bring total homogeneity. ‘Business when it invests abroad adapts to some extent to local conditions in order to maximize local demand for their products or services and to minimize the chance of their being discriminated against by trade or investment barriers.’ This process is known as glocalization, in origin a marketing term that expresses ‘the global production of the local and the localization of the global’ (Barker, 1999, p. 41).

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Today’s culture industry is dominated by the large, globalized media groups.

Eisenmann & Bower (2000) argue that cultural industries are rich with expansion opportunities that require large resource commitments in relation to an industry participant's asset base. Furthermore, these opportunities can be exploited most effectively when diversified media firms move decisively to capture first-mover advantages and, in doing so, coordinate the activities of multiple existing business units.

However, while there is an existing trend in mass consumption of popular culture products in Western industrialized countries (particularly in the fields of film and music), there is no evidence for concluding that there is a trend towards homogenization in other cultural activities. Moreover, even the global firms in the culture and media industries are obliged to take account of specific tastes and cultural preferences in other countries and regions. The whole idea of globalization has been heavily challenged by some. Wind (1986, cit at Pickton & Broderick, 2001) states it as the ‘myth of globalization’.

Nonetheless, the producers and market strategists employed by global cultural enterprises, are well aware of the cultural variety and differentiation of their global audiences, and, perfectly ‘in tune’ with other business sectors, have long given their products and programs a ‘regional touch’ with a view to stabilizing or enhancing their global market success. Under the localization directives, they have adapted their products and programs to specific regional or national tastes and cultural preferences.

Kraetke (2003) refers to the example of MTV as a successful global television music broadcaster, which ‘does not simply reproduce the content of the MTV

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

program in the US for consumption in all the other regions of the world, but has set up a series of ‘regional’ MTV channels...’ ‘...which produce and vary the program in accordance with regional tastes and preferences.’

This trend towards cultural market differentiation seems to be a driving force for the global media networks in the culture and media industries. MTV seems to illustrate it quite successfully in Europe, where there is considerable cultural diversity. The following subchapter provides a profile of MTV Networks Europe and its expansion strategy.

2.6 MTV Networks Europe Profile

2.6.1 The History MTV was launched in the United States on 1 August 1981, originally as a television channel devoted to music videos. MTV later became an outlet for a variety of different material aimed at adolescents and young adults. Since 1985, MTV has been owned by US-based Viacom, which is the third largest media company in the world.7 Six years after its successful launch in the United States, MTV crossed the Atlantic and on 1 August 1987 it started broadcasting for the European audience under the name MTV Europe (MTVE). In the years that followed MTVE saw its distribution booming from 2.2 million households in 1987 to 56 million in 1996 (Bekaert, 1998a, cit in Roe, 2000).

7

Viacom: ‘Old and New Media Part Ways’, Jun 16th 2005 From The Economist print edition (found at http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4085664)

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2.6.2 From Centralization to Regionalization MTVE though soon was faced with local music television stations that copied its format. Music channel VIVA in Germany and music channel TMF in the Netherlands, as described in the first chapter, outdid MTVE because they communicated in the local language and had a better understanding of their audience. It was then when MTVE recognized the need for a change in its commercial strategy. Having in the meantime upgraded its broadcasts to digitally compressed transmissions in 1995, MTVE split its continental feed and began to adapt programs to local audiences (Chalaby, 2002). MTVE introduced in 1996 three zones of regionalized programming: central, southern and northern, followed in July by a separate service for UK and Ireland (Roe, 2000, p. 149).

MTV Central would serve the German-speaking countries with a big part of the programming being presented in German and 20 – 25 % of the video clips featuring local artists (ibid). Similarly, MTV Southern aimed at the Italian audience, particularly after its relaunch in September 1997, when it included a significant number of programs in Italian. Moreover, a 30 – 35 % of the video clips featured local acts (Bekaert, 1998b, cit in Roe, 2000).

MTV UK acquired a more British character and featured Anglo-American music, while it was left to MTV Northern to cover the rest of the areas that were not served by the other three channels: 25 European and three non-European countries, Egypt, Israel and South Africa (Roe, 2000, p. 150).

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

2.6.3 From Regionalization to Localization The success of the first regionalization attempt in 1996 indicated that the only way for MTV to remain on top of the game in the long run was to launch even more localized services. In 1998 MTVE launched its fifth dedicated service, MTV Nordic, covering the Nordic territories Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, among others. Today MTV Europe has evolved into Europe’s largest 24-hour music television network, reaching more than 146 million households in 52 territories via terrestrial, cable, satellite, digital and broadband.

Today MTV Networks Europe (MTVNE) includes the following channels brands: MTV España, MTV European (an English language channel serving 24 countries including Czech Republic, Israel and Turkey), MTV France (serving France, Belgium & French speaking Switzerland), MTV Central (serving Germany, Austria and German speaking Switzerland), MTV2 Pop (pop channel in Germany), MTV Italia, MTV NL, MTV Nordic, MTV Denmark, MTV Polska, MTV Classic (a second bespoke music television channel targeting Polish viewers aged 25-40), MTV Portugal, MTV Romania, MTV Russia, MTV UK & Ireland, Digital channel brands available in the UK include MTV Dance, MTV Base, MTV Hits, MTV2, VH1 Classic, VH2 and TMF UK with MTV Base, MTV Hits, MTV2, VH1 European and VH1 European Classic available in Europe. The MTV Networks Europe portfolio also comprises TMF in Holland, TMF Flanders and French video game channel Game 1 plus 10 Nickelodeon branded kids’ channels and Paramount Comedy in the UK, Italy and Spain.8

8

MTV Polska (http://www.mtv.pl)

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

The expansion strategy of MTVE has been impressively effective and the boost in the number of households that receive it has been consequently translated into a boost in the interest of advertisers towards it. However, with the launch of every new localized service, with the most recent example being in Denmark, MTVE chooses another level of communication: ‘The launch of MTV in Denmark is part of MTV Networks Europe’s regionalization strategy to ensure that MTV audiences in the Nordic countries will have a channel that fully reflects the cultural sensitivities that make up their day-to-day experience of music and entertainment. With dedicated local language productions, locally tailored music programming, scheduling, on-air promos, local presenters and local language subtitling, MTV in Denmark will be able to focus more heavily on local artists and mirror the tastes and nuances of Danish youth culture.’9 Having reviewed some concepts that are necessary for the better comprehension of the research area, the following chapter describes the methodology that was utilized in order to obtain the needed data.

9

MTV Polska (http://www.mtv.pl)

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

Chapter 3 – Methodology 3.1 Introduction

T

his chapter portrays the purpose and the objectives of the research. It also describes the nature and approach of the chosen methods and justifies their

use in relation to the research topic. Finally, it informs on the sources that were used for the collection of data.

3.2 Research Purpose and Objectives The initial motivation for selecting this particular subject area was my professional experience at BTV, a local music TV station in Thessaloniki, Greece and my love towards music that has proved itself a driving force for most of my ventures so far.

The reason I chose to focus particularly on MTV, is much more profound and straightforward; It may have been criticized as ‘fetishistic materialism and political passivity’10, as ‘more effective than pornography’11 or as ‘fast food for the eyes of a new generation of illiterates’12 (cit in Sturmer C., 1993). But at the same time its rapid penetration in the young audience and its phenomenal expansion rate has made MTV ‘the most compelling global catalogue for the modern branded life’ (Klein, 2000).

The reason why I chose Greece to apply the case study is not only my Greek nationality. Greece has as a country some individual characteristics that make it a

10

J. Heileman, ‘Rebel Without a Cause’, The Modern Review, Autumn 1991, p. 5.

S. Jhally, Daily Mail, 28 February 1992.

12 W. Hobel, ‘Eine Kulturschande’, Newmag, Germany, August 1991.

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special case when it comes to issues like the launch of a localized medium like MTV: 

the Greek language that is only spoken in Greece and Cyprus;



the strong cultural identity, which also extends into the music taste;



the geographical and - to some extent - cultural distance from mainland Europe; but also



the complex – if not chaotic – regulation of the audiovisual sector.

The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate the reasons that have kept Greece out of the expansion strategy of MTV Europe so far and to display all the different factors that can play a role in such kinds of decision-making; population size, national GDP, cultural differences, infrastructure, domestic competitors. Under the theoretical framework of globalization and localization, an attempt is made to illuminate the regional expansion strategy of MTV Europe; whether it would launch a localized station in Greece, the time when that would be appropriate and the way it could operate successfully, in terms of program management.

3.3 Research Nature and Approach The chosen topic falls under the category of case studies. ‘A case study is one which investigates the above to answer specific research questions and which seeks a range of different kinds of evidence which is there in the case setting, and which has to be abstracted and collated to get the best possible answers to the research questions’ (Gillham, 2000). Another key characteristic is that, in case

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studies, ‘you do not start out with a priori theoretical notions (whether derived from the literature or not) – because until you get there and get hold of your data, get to understand the context, you won’t know what theories (explanations) work best or make the most sense’ (ibid).

Because of the very nature of the research question, the study utilizes a mixed methods approach where the researcher ‘tends to base knowledge claims on pragmatic grounds’ (Creswell, 2003). The mixed methods approach employs strategies of inquiry that involve collecting data either simultaneously or sequentially to best understand research problems. The data collection also involves gathering both numeric information as well as text information so that the final database represents both quantitative and qualitative information (ibid).

The research therefore involves desk research and semi-structured interviews, which generate both quantitative and qualitative data.

3.4 Sources of Data

3.4.1 Desk research In order to build the theoretical framework of this survey it is essential that terms like globalization, localization, global media networks and expansion strategies are defined. Also, in order to make some useful correlations with the Greek case, an extensive study of the articles and literature about the launch of other regional MTV channels was undertaken (e.g. MTV Portugal).

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The desk research also generated data for the Greek TV market and industry, in order to create a full picture of the environment of the case. Finally, in order to portray the way regional music channels in Greece already operate, statistical data regarding their programming, their play lists and their audiences’ needs were collected and analyzed.

Sources of the desk research were: academic literature on international marketing and global media, related journal articles as well as press releases and news articles from selected newspapers and internet sites.

3.4.2 Interviews The main ambition of this thesis is to offer insight regarding the research question, and it is strongly believed that face-to-face interviews with top media executives and practitioners is the best available method in qualitative research for this purpose. The primary research was conducted from 16 May until 14 July 2005 and featured interviews with the following people: 

Brent Hansen, President of MTV Networks Europe, Creative MTV Networks International (16 May 2005, face-to-face interview, duration 40 mins)



Dean Possenniskie, Vice President, General Manager Emerging Markets Group, MTV Networks Europe (16 May 2005, face-to-face interview, duration 25 mins)



Thanasis Moraitis, Program Director BTV13 (16 June 2005, face-to-face interview, duration 15 mins)



13

Andreas Kouris, CEO MAD TV14 (29 June 2005, email interview)

BTV is a regional music TV channel operating in Thessaloniki, Greece.

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece? 

Konstantinos Papavasilopoulos, Media Researcher, Head of New Technologies Department, Hellenic Audiovisual Institute (IOM)15 (14 July 2005, phone interview, duration 20 mins)

All face-to-face interviews were recorded using a digital video camera, while the phone interview was recorded on a tape recorder.

It is also worth mentioning that the initial planning of my research only involved interviews from MTV, MAD TV and BTV executives. However, some of the data gathered from my first two interviews with MTV executives made me reconsider my initial plans, which had an effect both on the agenda of the interviews that followed and the final number of interviewees.

3.5 Data Analysis All video and tape recorded interviews were fully transcribed into printed text. The information contained in the interviews was reduced to concise and comprehensible points, by removing potential overlapping or repetitive statements. Through an interpretive analysis, the transcribed and edited material was juxtaposed with the theory and the data of the secondary research and conclusions were drawn.

14

MAD TV is the main music TV channel in Greece, with both terrestrial and satellite distribution throughout Greece and the Balkan area.

15 Ινστιτούτο Οπτικοακουστικών Μέσων

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3.6 Limitations Although the primary goal was to conduct face-to-face interviews with all my interviewees for the aforementioned reasons, this did not prove possible in the course of the research, because of the tight schedule of my interviewees as well as the limited time that is – typically – available for the research purposes of a Masters Degree thesis.

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Chapter 4 – Findings

4.1 Introduction

T

his chapter presents and - where applicable - analyzes the findings of this research, giving answers to the research questions as these were articulated

in the first chapter: 

it portrays in detail MTVNE’s history of expansions and displays the reasons that lead to the launch of a localized MTV service;



it reveals the conditions that a local market should meet to make such a launch possible;



it exposes the way a localized service is launched after the decision is taken.



it illuminates the reasons that have kept Greece out of MTVNE’s expansion plans so far;



it provides the viewpoint of the Greek rival music TV channels on a possible launch of MTV Greece; and



it discusses the weaknesses of the Greek media sector and makes a forecast on its future prospects.

For the sake of simplicity, I declare that all quotations used in this chapter derive from the interviews of my primary research, unless otherwise stated.

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4.2 MTV Europe – A History of Expansion ‘MTV invented music television, has an annual budget over $500 million and is therefore driving all developments ahead’ (Andreas Kouris, CEO, MAD TV).

‘It is the mother of all music channels; we all regard it as a model’ (Thanasis Moraitis, Program Director, BTV).

‘MTV has re-written the rules in terms of television, we completely changed the way all television – certainly in Europe – approached imaging itself’ (Brent Hansen, President, MTV Networks Europe).

‘It is a really great, diverse mix of people too, which I think brings out a lot of different thinking and approaches by bringing that talent together from across the world’ (Dean Possenniskie, Vice President, General Manager Emerging Markets Group, MTV Networks Europe).

4.2.1 The Launch of the pan-European Channel MTV Europe According to Brent Hansen, President of MTV Networks Europe, the initial theory upon the launch of MTV Europe in 1987 was ‘to replicate the American experience that we had since 1981, in terms of creating a television channel which had no beginning, no middle and no end.’ MTV Europe was indeed launched as a very targeted, niche television channel, featuring high-end graphics, experimental filming, strong imagery surrounding the music and VJ’s that quickly evolved into pan-European icons. More than that, MTV also featured a vibrant club aspect; youth, music, styles, clothes and trends. As Brent Hansen points out, MTV ‘...allowed young people anywhere in Europe as they got added to our

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distribution to feel part of a club, to feel the mobility; that was such a powerful presence in the mid to late 80’s; what else was going on, the ability to cross cultural boundaries, to belong...’

Initially the whole of Europe was treated as a club of different cultures, making use of English as the default language. However, Brent Hansen claims that they were already aware of the fact that the pan-European channel could not go on in the long run: ‘...[W]e knew that that would be just in the short-term while we built our distribution and we gained a foothold.’

4.2.2 The Reasons for the Initial Success Brent Hansen, being at MTV Europe since 1987, has successively – and successfully - held the positions of Director of News, Head of Production and Director, Programming & Production, MTV Networks Europe, before becoming President of MTV Networks Europe in January 1997.16 He is therefore the most relevant person to speak about the reasons for MTV’s initial success: ‘We completely changed the way all television – certainly in Europe – approached imaging itself, approached the focus on the font and the letter, the size and the graphic; those were things all very much MTV-driven. The fact that art could sit alongside information was also very much an MTV thing. So that was part of it, and obviously another part was the sexy, American brand.’

Brent Hansen confesses that MTV Europe back then was pretty low-budget and rough around the edges at times. ‘But it was inspired and inspirational. That was 16

New Zealand Trade & Enterprise ‘Thinking Out Loud: Brent Hansen’ (http://www.nzte.govt.nz/section/14165/11461.aspx)

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really the reason why we kicked off initially. We just made a better job than other people have been doing locally.’

4.2.3 MTV Europe Going Local As digital technology in broadcasting became available MTV Europe quickly took advantage and changed the nature of its broadcasting by launching its first regional channels. Dean Possenniskie, Vice President and General Manager of Emerging Markets Group, MTV Networks Europe believes that MTV has been a very entrepreneurial network in the way they have ‘...digitalized first, regionalized first and taken on new challenges.’

According to Brent Hansen, the theory behind this second phase in MTVE’s history is that ‘we allow each new market to schism away from the big pan-European channel to become much more focused on their individual market.’ Two were the main reasons that pushed towards this change in strategy. Firstly, the fact that different markets tend to operate into different speeds, which becomes problematic when promoting – for instance – fresh music acts and their new releases to such a broad audience. Secondly, there was a fear that the panEuropean MTV was becoming irrelevant in local markets. ‘People love seeing something exotic;’ says Brent Hansen, ‘...for five minutes’. And he goes on: ‘But exotic after a while becomes irrelevant to your regional lifestyle. And broadcasting essentially is about a relevance to a marketplace.’

Signal piracy was another reason that pushed things into that direction, Brent Hansen points out: ‘There was the risk in the medium-term days, after the first 5 or

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6 years, that a lot of people, especially in the Eastern Europe, would be pirating our signal. And if they are pirating our signal, essentially we can not report those numbers back, the labels do not really know how many people we are broadcasting to, they can guess a number much larger than the one we are actually reporting, it could lead to a conflict.’

However, to decide on such a drastic strategic change has not been an easy decision, not even for MTV. Dean Possenniskie reveals: ‘I think it was probably a tough decision to make at the time, because previously the channel was free-toair and we had strong distribution and when we localized it meant that we were going to need to encrypt our channel and therefore take MTV away from many people and set up more regional services. I think at the time there would have been a lot of thought regarding the risks involved but I think at the end of the day the benefits have been fantastic and I think what has been achieved now is this network with these strong, local channels, connecting up as one network and still being able to talk to labels or advertisers on a pan-European basis. It has been very successful’.

Indeed, the benefits of the move towards regionalization were visible shortly after.

Not only was the piracy issue dealt with, but MTV also expanded its operational capacity in one single move. Brent Hansen explains: ‘...[B]y going into that of course you needed a card to get MTV and by getting a card to get MTV you had to digitize the signal to be able to encrypt it. Once we digitized the signal we were then able to use those satellite transponders and we had – I think – 5 or 7 of those to get a whole footprint. Suddenly when you encrypt it you can compress your signal. So for one signal which was going to all different places around

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Europe we suddenly could go 7 on each satellite. So we suddenly had 35 potential television channels. So technology allowed us to move into that phase which we had always planned to do, which was to be locally relevant, reaching for the market.’

In the long run the success of the regional MTV channels has been such, that the move towards even more local markets – and therefore more channels – has been constant until today. Dean Possenniskie concurs: ‘I think, looking back, it was certainly the right decision and it has been an exciting time with Portugal recently launching, Denmark has just launched, we have got MTV Adria coming up, we are looking potentially at launching MTV Turkey later this year. I think it has been the right decision. It is fantastic to see the success of these local channels.’

4.2.4 Summary Summarizing on this section regarding MTV Europe’s expansion strategy, it is apparent that MTV initially implemented the global niche strategy for its panEuropean channel, and then moved into the multinational strategy for its localized services.17 Today, MTV is already applying the customization strategy in selected markets.

The UK is such a market, as Brent Hansen explains: ‘In the UK for example there are nine channels in the music space [...] Talking about the music space, we cover pretty much the whole big of what is available in terms of popular music. You can

17

See Chapter 2, section ‘Multinational Organizations and International Expansion’

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jump from one MTV to the other to bespoke your own channel in digital and I think that is kind of the way the future will be.’

4.3 Factors Examined Before Going Local ‘I probably receive anything up to 20 business proposals a year to launch in markets, from Ukraine to Bulgaria, to Turkey, to Israel, to other places... When you actually go back and present a business case format or a plan format to these entrepreneurs or local people to look at, I think it kind of brings reality home then...

The idea of creating MTV is fantastic but creating the right business platform does at the end of the day, probably across a five year period, need to get to a breakeven point, to actually create a profitable channel going forward.’ (Dean Possenniskie, Vice President, General Manager, Emerging Markets Group, MTV Networks Europe) This section displays the conditions under which MTV selects where to expand locally. It reveals the attributes that make a local market attractive for a global network like MTV.

4.3.1 Distribution Both MTV executives agree on the fact that distribution is the key factor that they take into account before launching into a new market. Distribution, handled by the local cable and satellite operators, determines the number of households that eventually the local MTV channel will reach, adding up to the total number of households that make MTVNE’s potential audience.

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‘It is pointless launching it if you can not get any distribution’, Brent Hansen says.

‘We have been in France for quite some time and there is not actually a lot of satellite and cable in France. So it is very dominated by the terrestrial players. We are never going to be a major player in France until we become a terrestrial player or when the legislation changes. In some markets, you are just going to have to live with those things. But, you know, the Netherlands is not a large market and it is sustaining four channels. It is sustaining pretty good business out of that. It is just a matter of how sophisticated the infrastructure is, locally.’

However, even if the necessary infrastructure is present in a local market, it is not always certain that the local operators will agree on the distribution of a localized MTV channel. According to Dean Possenniskie, MTV’s cable operator partners ‘are the ones distributing the channel so we got to know that they would prefer to take a local channel rather than the European channel. Sometimes they actually like the idea of having a very strong international channel and they are a little bit worried about the quality of a local channel. So we definitely need to ensure we have their buying first.’

Dean Possenniskie reveals that distribution is most usually the tricky part of the equation of launching a new local branch: ‘A lot of people come to us and they are more involved in the creative side, the programming side. But when you actually sit them down and look at how you are going to distribute the channel, which satellite are you going to use, which transponder... These are the things that start adding millions of dollars of cost to the project.’

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4.3.2 Advertisers As most would suspect, the advertising community of a local market is another essential factor that MTV considers before launching a new channel. Dean Possenniskie says that his team, MTVNE’s Emerging Markets Group, always need to look at the state of the local economy as well as the advertising economy ‘because you are going to need to create much stronger ad sales to fund a local channel.’

So what his team does is having conversations with the advertising community over the potential launch of a local MTV service. Dean Possenniskie considers this as important, ‘...even if it is not contractual, at least talk to them about the interest and the support for a local MTV service.’

However, there is always a factor of risk involved in the launch of a local channel.

In some cases MTV executives proceed into their expansion plans based on their expectations from a local market, relying on their obtained – and ever-growing – experience in international expansions. Dean Possenniskie reveals that ‘there is always some risk there because we try to be conservative when we build the plans but we are relying that we can sell the channel further down the track.’

Nevertheless, the risk factor described above can be minimized by serious business planning and coordinated activities prior the launch of the new channel.

Dean Possenniskie uses the example of the upcoming MTV Adria to support this point: ‘We completed the contractual piece of MTV Adria in September last year.

We had the press announcements which are attended in the different markets in December. The channel is not launching until this September. So that gave the team of MTV Adria 9 months to go into the market and build up the relationships

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and start selling the channel. Before launching you do need to get into the market for a good par of six months and build those commitments going forward. MTV Adria have been very smart, they have launched a local website in March, they are running their promotions with advertisers now to find the presenters for the channel in June. So there is a real build-up of activities to when the channel actually launches and they all involve advertisers.’

4.3.3 Audience The audience is another important factor that MTV looks at before launching into a new market, according to both MTV executives. In some small countries, as Brent Hansen says, the audience actually prefer not to be too localized because that would make them feel that they no longer belong to the international world. It is very essential for Brent Hansen that the local culture wants a relevant local MTV: ‘We are not creating an empire. We are trying to create businesses. And those businesses in the end have to be self-fulfilling.’

More specifically, since MTV is a niche television channel, it focuses its audience research to the youth in local markets. Dean Possenniskie explains that their researchers aim at the 15 to 25 year-olds in local markets and they try to spot their needs by ‘actually talking to them about the desire for a local channel, what the content should be, all of these aspects in terms of really building the right picture of how this channel should launch.’

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4.3.4 Local Partners Finding and employing the right local people seems to be another major issue for MTV in its attempt to be as relevant as possible to the local audience’s tastes and needs. ‘Because when we launch in Romania or Poland or in the Slovenia and the Balkan countries we can not really send someone from London to do that. We need to find local people’, Dean Possenniskie says.

4.3.5 Socio-political Factors Despite the aforementioned factors that are crucial for the launch – or not – of a local MTV channel, Brent Hansen warns that a good understanding of the social and political environment is also essential: ‘Dynamics, nationalism, the European Union, all those sorts of things change peoples’ perceptions. [...] As we know of the 20th century, those things go on quite a sequence. So part of launching a channel is making sure that you are doing it at a time that is not just jumping on some kind of populous bandwagon. Because then I think you are under risk that you do not sustain your business.’

4.3.6 Strong Local Music Scene A strong local music scene is something that would definitely justify a local MTV channel, trying to serve the local audiences special tastes and needs. However, even if a local music market is weak, that would not be a reason for MTV to drive its eyes away. Dean Possenniskie explains: ‘... [T]here is got to be a local music market but in some respects I think creating a local MTV channel can really help

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that market and the labels flourish. So it would not be something that we would say it is not strong enough, we would hope to go there and make it stronger; that is really the positive influence of having a local channel.’ ‘If you look at T.A.T.U from Russia or O-zone from Romania,’ he adds, ‘these bands were broken on MTV and then taken to an international level. So you can see there that localizing a channel brings the local music to the forefront of the local channel, but then potentially, internationally.’

4.3.7 Competition Surprisingly enough, none of the interviewees referred to competition when asked about the main factors that they take into consideration prior the launch of a channel in a new market. However, when asked in particular, Dean Possenniskie stated that the effect a strong competitive environment can have on their expansion plans can be twofold: ‘... [S]ometimes because there is so much competition we feel the time is right to localize because if we do not, our European service will eventually not be relevant. [...] [S]ometimes competition can be keeping you out, other times it can be a very good reason to localize because it is getting so competitive that we need a local channel to compete.’

4.3.8 Summary The major factors that MTV considers before entering a local market are four: Ensuring the distribution, attracting the interest of advertisers, spotting the audience’s needs and finding the right local partners. Social and political trends seem also to be an important issue to be aware of. A strong local music scene is

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something that can both help and get helped by a local MTV. Finally, competition is taken into consideration but looks like something MTV can tackle, in case all the aforementioned conditions are met.

4.4 The Localization Process into Practice This section refers to the ways MTVNE’s localization strategy is put into practice, following the decision of launching a new, local channel. More specifically, it portrays the pros and cons of the method of acquisition in order to launch into a new market, it features MTV’s viewpoint on local programming and it reveals what makes MTV so attractive to advertisers worldwide.

4.4.1 Acquisition Brent Hansen claims that one of the advantages of acquisition is that it can help the channel build its base pretty quickly. In addition to that, as Brent Hansen says, acquisition ‘allows you to have channels that are not called MTV, which can do things that MTV is not capable of doing.’ In some specific cases that MTV is found to be too avant-garde for the local market, with acquisition they can still enter that market without spoiling MTV’s forward-thinking image. Because, as Brent Hansen says, ‘MTV should not be looking backwards, it should be looking forwards. So acquisition can sometimes allow you to be local, aggressive, interactive, focused; and bigger international, more long-form, more artistic, more aspirational MTV.’ There are, however, considerable drawbacks in the acquisition method. Indeed they are such, that make MTV generally to prefer not to acquire the channels. As

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Dean Possenniskie says, they prefer to go there with their team and find the right local people and create a channel on their own perspective. That is mainly because as Brent Hansen says, they have to deal with cultures: ‘The difficult types of acquisitions are the ones that you have to deal with cultural clashes and it is a painful process, more than building a new organisation.’ Morever, he points out that it is generally cheaper to start a new channel from scratch. It is therefore no surprise when Dean Possenniskie concludes by saying that according to their experience ‘...it is better to carry out a channel the way we want to rather than inherit another channel.’

4.4.2 How Local is Local Programming?

Brent Hansen clarifies that generally it is very important to him that MTV stays focused in music as a part of the overall set of the channel. However, when it comes to the programming of a local MTV channel there are three different levels.

At first level, local play lists, presenters and programs are all controlled by each market.

The second level is the production of programs that are outside the day-to-day schedule, which is carried out by a group of people – within the individual business – who are taken from different parts of Europe. This team works on ideas which go to pilots that Brent Hansen would fund, and most often be screened firstly to the US. Brent Hansen explains: ‘If the US picks up something then it becomes a global property and that will be great. But not everything seems to be relevant to the US, obviously part of the process is to create free thinking, big

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ideas which will exist to complement the US program and that would be more relevant to the European market essentially. So that is the second level.’

At third level, if the program does not go to the US then MTV programmers will look to see if there are enough channels in Europe to go for it. If eventually none of the channels want the idea and it is a good idea, then they might sell it to a broadcaster.

In addition to the above, says Brent Hansen, they also try to establish properties like the ‘MTV Europe Music Awards’. These programs, produced at international level, generate large revenue but also empower local channels because, as Brent Hansen states, ‘...when every channel networks onto that program it reminds the audience and the people that work on MTV that they belong to something bigger which has a massive reach. Sometimes you want to be small, flexible and local, colloquial, parochial sometimes, but sometimes you want to be big; event, strong, massive artists. So you can do both of these things. Otherwise, if you do everything too local there is never enough cash to be able to do those things which obviously we all know MTV is well known for.’

4.4.3 Attracting the Advertisers One of the reasons that MTV is attractive to advertisers, says Brent Hansen, is that MTV is a niche television channel with a very targeted audience: ‘You will find that a lot of advertisers do a lot of research with their core audience to get a sense of the kind of environment that they feel is much relevant to them. And there are usually two strategies for them. One is you do the big, highly expensive

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broadcast, ITV, Channel 4, Channel Five kind of advertising which is at a very general audience but has big numbers. The other side is that go you for a very targeted, niche audience. MTV is a good example of a blue ribbon, targeted, niche channel, aiming to a core 18 – 25 year-old very important audience. A lot of advertisers want that specific audience and that is why they come to us.’

Another important factor that makes MTV even more attractive is its ability to offer local advertising windows,18 or multi-layered advertising, as Brent Hansen names it: ‘...[T]he advertising is multi-layered, you can design a campaign, you can go local, you can just sell gelato in a particular town, you can do it all over Italy, you can do it Italy - Germany, you can do it Italy – Germany and the UK, you can do one market or the other, you can do it all at once, you can sponsor an event. So we provide a lot of different layers and we are clearly much cheaper than a broadcaster to come to. So you can get a lot more exposure in each individual market and target your audience more effectively.’

MTV can also offer its clients sponsorship opportunities on shows like ‘MTV Europe Music Awards that might get seen even beyond Europe. Brent Hansen explains: ‘So you pay a premium for it, but you get attached to the property and you are allowed to use the logo and lots of different things which actually give you value on point of sale, other ways of bringing in the people you are targeting.’

According to Dean Possenniskie, in the quest for advertisers the challenge is to make them overcome the psychology of just buying media as a commodity. ‘So to overcome that challenge we need to be very creative. Obviously on air, our programming needs to be creative and new and all of the formats coming 18

See Chapter 2, section ‘Economics of Global Television Networks’

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throughout, but also our applications when we are bringing together advertising we really do try and combine a much larger partnership with advertisers rather than just on-air spin’, Dean Possenniskie adds.

Yet Brent Hansen mentions that at MTV they are not using their air-time just trying to sell things, there is an effort to give back to the audience as well. ‘We do a lot of HIV awareness programming’, he adds, ‘things that we feel that while you are watching MTV you are going to be entertained, you are obviously going to be pitched by some advertisers but we also want to tell you that we are treating you seriously, that we see you as an individual; as an intelligent individual, not just as one blobbing on the couch watching television. And we expect you to have a point of view. We will not necessarily tell you what to believe because that is not our job, but we feel we have a responsibility to try to be more than just ephemeral popular culture.’

4.4.4. Summary This section offered some insight into the way MTV channels are set and operate, as part of MTV Networks Europe. It was clearly stated that acquisition is not the preferred option when launching into a new market. In terms of the programming of the local channels, it is carried out on a three-level basis; daily play lists and programs are controlled by each market individually, while bigger properties (like the MTV Europe Music Awards) are produced and managed centrally. Finally, it was stated that MTV’s attractiveness to advertisers is due to its niche, targeted audience and its ability to offer local advertising windows.

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4.5 MTV and the Greek Market This section is the core area of research, since it provides a direct answer to the central question of this thesis. It presents MTV’s viewpoint on the Greek market, reveals the factors that have prevented MTV from launching in Greece so far and makes a special analysis on the main deterring factor, the penetration of digital TV in Greek households.

4.5.1 MTV’s Perception of the Greek Market Greece is a market that has yet stayed out of the focus of MTV’s localization strategy. According to the current expansion plans of MTV regarding the Adriatic counties and Turkey, Greece tends to become the white spot on MTV’s regional expansion map. Having considerable GDP figures, a siginificant 10.5 million population and a strong cultural identity, it looks at first sight as a sitting duck for a dynamic international television network like MTV. Brent Hansen agrees: ‘Greece certainly has a point of view. It is attractive, I think. [...] ...it certainly is a market which I think would probably be well served by having a local MTV because it would allow local artists to sit alongside with international artists and that obviously helps bring visual standards, it allows you to do a lot of different things that you can not do on a local basis. So in general a country like Greece is an important place and I would love to have a channel there. [...] I think in general yes, we have a channel in Portugal, why should not we have a channel in Greece?’

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It has been quite comforting, I must admit, that the president of MTV Networks Europe actually posed my research question back at me, ensuring me at least that the answer to my research topic has not been something too profound in the first place. The answer however was given to me a few minutes after by Dean Possenniskie, being more appropriate to speak on future expansion plans, as Vice President and General Manager of the Emerging Markets Group, MTV Networks Europe.

4.5.2 Deterring Factors of the Greek Market Although Dean Possenniskie agrees with Brent Hansen on the attractiveness of the Greek market, he reveals that the major factor that holds MTV back from expanding there is the very small penetration of digital platforms. He adds: ‘Greece is a market of significant size and strong music culture and market there and I think it has got real possibilities. But as I said, distribution sometimes can be the tricky part of the equation as opposed to creativity and music and so on. At the moment there is not the distribution in the Greek market for us to be successfully launching a channel and feeling that the distribution in advertising would be strong enough. Because obviously we need distribution before we get advertising.’

MTVNE’s General Manager of the Emerging Markets Group clearly states that Greece is certainly a market MTV wants to localize to, however he admits that this prospect in not yet visible: Insisting on the problem of the small distribution, he adds: ‘As that builds, as we try to find opportunities for terrestrial partnerships or whatever it may be, I think it will come forward as an opportunity in the future.’

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Dean Possenniskie did not mention any other deterring factor for the Greek market.

The Greek interviewees however, do have a few more to suggest. Andreas Kouris, CEO of Athens-based music channel MAD TV, believes that another deterring factor of the Greek market is the fact that there is no regulation in the media sector generally, neither regarding intellectual property. He also considers the size of the Greek TV market small, which he finds a bigger problem for a music TV channel than the size of the local music industry, which is more satisfactory.

Thanasis Moraitis, Program Director of Thessaloniki-based music channel BTV, believes that one more problem for a music TV channel operating in Greece could be the local branches of the record labels. He says: ‘[I]t takes too much time for them to send the videos. Moreover, the videos they send are the ones they consider important, and in many cases they are not. They also encourage the making of sponsored videos, which has ended up being a little tiring, and you should point that’.

Media researcher Konstantinos Papavasilopoulos, Head of New Technologies Department of the Hellenic Audiovisual Institute adds one more negative aspect of the Greek TV market, the number of the existing television channels: ‘We have a very large number of channels when you think about it – nothing compared to Britain’s five terrestrials – a very large number of analogue terrestrial channels and there are some marginal channels that constantly air music videos. Unfortunately we have to do with a chaotic situation that is by itself deterring for someone to invest.’

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4.5.3 Digital TV Penetration in Greece As mentioned above, the main reason why MTV has not yet launched a localized service in Greece is the low penetration of digital TV in Greek households. Digital TV was firstly introduced in Greece in 1999 by Multichoice Hellas,19 who provides subscription digital satellite services under the logo ‘NOVA’ and its current penetration is about 9%.20 In absolute numbers this equals to approximately 300,000 households. When MTV launched in Portugal in 2003, it was distributed to 1,537,000 households.21 According to Dean Possenniskie, digital penetration in Greece will have to reach 40% in order for MTV to consider launching a localized service there. He adds: ‘If we could get higher that is great, but I think somewhere around the 40% would be a critical point to be launching a new channel there.’ However it seems very unlikely that the penetration of digital can reach such levels in the next few years.

A study by Screendigest forecasts that in year 2006 the penetration will not exceed 9.2%.22 Andreas Kouris believes that digital TV should have received some form of state support: ‘The lack of support from the state, which has even been described as domestic sabotage in foreign investment, has been both time and money-wasting and the opportunity to present a much more interesting and cheap program that would attract more Greek viewers has been lost.’

19

Greek Media Landscape (http://www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/greece.html) Netmed, Meditteranean Pay Television Platform (http://www.naspers.com/English/pay_tv.asp) 21 Portugal wants its MTV – and gets it (http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/archive_uk/030703.html) 22 European Digital Pay Platforms: Market assessment and forecasts to 2006 (http://www.screendigest.com/reports/edptvp04/greece/edptvp04_9_1/view.html) 20

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However, he feels that now it is too late for any form of governmental intervention: ‘Digital TV is on its way now and the market has its own tempo and rules. Any kind of state intervention, just like in any case in Greece, will be disastrous. It would be better for the market to be left alone to find its balance.’

Konstantinos Papavasilopoulos seems to agree: ‘There will definitely be governmental intervention, if we are talking about regulation. But if we refer to something equivalent to what Berlusconi did in Italy, who essentially funded the set-top box market, I do not believe and do not wish that something like that will happen, because the cost for the national economy will be huge. Here in Greece I do not believe it is wise for a government to fund the Greek companies with the set-top boxes.’

4.5.4 Summary In this section it has been revealed that the Greek market is interesting for MTV, however the launch of a localized MTV channel has not yet been made possible, due to the low penetration of digital television in Greek households. Moreover, the rate of growth of digital TV is so slow, partially due to the numerous free-to-air terrestrial channels available, that it is very unlikely – in the next few years – to reach a 40% penetration that MTV would desire in order to consider entering the market. The Greek TV market also suffers by lack of regulation, which makes a potential foreign investment an even more problematic issue.

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4.6 Future Prospects for MTV Europe This section looks into the future of MTV in relation with the Greek market and examines the viewpoints of the local music TV channels on a potential launch of MTV Greece. It also refers to the future of MTV, at a more general and international level.

4.6.1 In Greece Dean Possenniskie is quite positive that MTV could launch in Greece in the next few years: ‘I think maybe 3 to 5 years would be a timeframe to at least, maybe in the next 2 years, find a partner and really look at a business plan and see if there is an opportunity. [...] I think as other markets localize now, Turkey, the Balkan markets and so on, Greece is one of the most interesting markets certainly, not localized yet, so I think it is an opportunity that will become more visible in the next 2 years.

Andreas Kouris also believes that an entry of MTV to the Greek market is possible.

He warns though: ‘It is possible, but it would be expensive for the way MTV operates, inefficient for the size of the advertising market and hard to reach the total of services we have in the local market.’

According to Thanasis Moraitis, it would be more difficult for MTV if it launched on a subscription basis. However, he states that ‘...a Greek MTV with a 50 – 50 program would be something more unique and I guess it would present better shows, it would feature things that here we still either improvise, or try to copy from MTV’.

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4.6.2 And Internationally At MTV life will apparently keep on going, with or without Greece on the expansion map. Dean Possenniskie reveals: ‘We are looking still at channels, even opportunities in the Middle East now to create an Arabic MTV service so I do not think MTV has any limitations, it terms of politics, religion, these types of things.’

Brent Hansen predicts that they will be pretty much digitized in a lot of markets in ten years’ time: ‘Digital will allow you to be much more a free flower. So I personally see you being able to have your own MTV which essentially means that you control certain parts of it; more music, more certain kinds of music, excluding certain things and allowing that to happen on a one-to-one basis with you as an audience.’

Dean Possenniskie believes television will become probably less important in the future: ‘So I think we are already there in terms of moving forward and building businesses across the full digital media platform. So I think that is what we will be seeing in 10 years’ time, television MTV will have inherited the name but I think it will become more than that, for sure.’

Brent Hansen leaves us with a promise, at his final encore: ‘We will always keep creative standards up; we will always hit you with something new you did not know about, we will always provide this. Because I think that is one of the things that, whether you like or you do not like it, what MTV is able to provide you is not just the hit you know. There is always going to be something interesting and new and hip. And I think our brand is sustained by being able to do those things.’

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4.6.3 Summary The opportunity for the launch of MTV Greece could become more visible in the next 2 years. Local rivals believe it can happen, although there are some doubts on whether it could sustain on the current Greek market. On the other hand, MTV keeps making expansion plans and promises to always keep creative standards up, as television will be becoming less important and new types of businesses will emerge across the full digital media platform.

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Chapter 5 – Summary and Conclusions

M

TV Europe is dynamically implementing its localization strategy over the last decade. This study, initially motivated by the absence of Greece

from MTV Europe’s localization plans so far, has attempted to outline MTV’s expansion strategy, from the launch of the first pan-European channel in 1987 until today. It has also attempted to illuminate the basic elements around the localization process. In addition, it has provided some answers regarding the probability of MTV launching a localized channel in Greece, while it has also displayed a condensed picture of the Greek TV market. Finally, the study has thrown some light onto MTV’s future plans. The following conclusions have been reached: 

Four are the main factors that MTV takes into account before entering a local market: Ensuring the distribution, approaching the advertisers, researching the audience’s needs and finding the right local partners to cover them. The size of the local music scene and the level of competition seem to be secondary issues.



In terms of how the localization process is put into practice, it is clearly shown that acquisition is not the preferred method when launching into a new market. The programming of the local channels is carried out on both locally and centrally; daily play lists and programs are controlled by each market individually, while bigger properties are produced and managed centrally. MTV looks good to advertisers mainly due to its niche, targeted audience and its ability to offer local advertising windows.

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

MTV is generally interested in the Greek market; however the launch of a localized MTV channel is not yet possible, due to the low penetration of digital television in Greek households. In addition, it very unlikely – with the current growth rates – that digital TV reaches in the next few years 40% of the Greek households, number that MTV regards as critical in order to consider entering the market. Moreover, foreign investment becomes even more unlikely because of the lack of regulation in the Greek TV market.



MTV estimates that the launch of MTV Greece could become more visible in the next 2 years. However, local rival channels seem doubtful on whether MTV could sustain a local service on the current Greek market.

MTV for the time being keeps making expansion plans and promises to keep creative standards up in the future, as new types of businesses will emerge across the full digital media platform and television will become less important.

I feel the need to point out that due to the nature of the research question, this study is not meant to provide results that can be generalized, in any way. Its main target is to provide an answer to a current, and most probably ephemeral, question. However, in case MTV Greece is launched in the forthcoming years, it is hoped that this study could still prove relevant to someone interested in MTV Europe’s history of expansion and its localization strategies.

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List of references AGB Hellas ‘Survey Characteristics’ (found at www.agb.gr/gr/data/default_en.htm) Barker C. (1999), ‘Television, Globalization and Cultural Identities’ , Buckingham, Open University Press Broadband TV News Website, ‘Portugal wants its MTV – and gets it’ (found at http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/archive_uk/030703.html) Chalaby J. (2002), ‘Transnational Television in Europe: The Role of Pan-European Channels’, European Journal of Communication, Vol 17(2), pp. 183-203, London, Sage Creswell J. (2003), ‘Research Design’ 2nd edition, London, Sage Demers D. (1999), ‘Global Media: Menace or Messiah?’, New Jersey, Hampton Press, Inc. Doyle G. (2002) ‘Understanding Media Economics’, London, Sage Eisenmann T. & Bower J. (2000), ‘The Entrepreneurial M-Form: Strategic Integration in Global Media Firms’, Organization Science: A Journal of the Institute

of Management Sciences, Vol. 11 Issue 3, p348, 8p European Journalism Centre Online, ‘Greek Media Landscape’ (found at http://www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/greece.html) Gillham B. (2000), ‘Case Study Research Methods’, London, Continuum Hansen B. (2005), Interview with author, May 16th Hawksworth J. (1999) ‘Four scenarios to 2010’ London, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Haynes C. (2000), ‘Localization – A Global Manifesto’, London, Earthscan Publications Johnson G. & Scholes K. (1997) ‘Exploring Corporate Strategy’, 4th edition, Hertfordshire, Prentice Hall Europe 57

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Klein N. (2000), ‘No Logo’, London, Flamingo Kliamaki O. et al (2003) ‘The Audiovisual Sector in Greece’ Athens, European Commission – Representation in Greece Kouris A. (2005), Interview with author, June 29th Kraetke S. (2003) ‘Global Media Cities in a World-wide Urban Network’

European Planning Studies, Vol. 11, No. 6, September Mas-Ruiz F. et al (2002) ‘Foreign Expansion Strategy and Performance’,

International Marketing Review, Vol 19(4), pp. 348-368 McAuley A. (2001) ‘International Marketing’, West Sussex, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Media Week (2004) ‘The making of MTV’ August 17.(found at www.mediaweek.co.uk) Meyer G. (2003) Report from the conference ‘The Power of Pop’ held at Goethe Institut, Brussels, May 23-24 (found at www.dkibenelux.org/dansk/powerofpopkl.htm) Moraitis T. (2005), Interview with author, June 16th MTV Europe Website, ‘MTV Party in Denmark!’ News Story 13/05/2005 (found at http://www.mtve.com/article.php?ArticleId=5597) MTV Polska Website (http://www.mtv.pl) Naspers Website, ‘Netmed Mediterranean Pay Television Platform’ (found at http://www.naspers.com/english/pay_tv.asp) New Zealand Trade & Enterprise Website, ‘Thinking Out Loud: Brent Hansen’ (found at http://www.nzte.govt.nz/section/14165/11461.aspx) Papavasilopoulos K. (2005), Interview with author, July 14th Paravantes M. (2002) ‘Greeks Go Mad For Music TV’, Billboard, July 27, p.37

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Pickton D. & Broderick A. (2001), ‘Integrated Marketing Communications’ Essex, Pearson Education Possenniskie D. (2005), Interview with author, May 16th Roe K. and De Meyer, Gust (2000) ‘Music Television: MTV Europe’ edited in Wieten, J. et al (2000) ‘Television Across Europe’ London, Sage.

Screendigest Website, ‘European Digital Pay Platforms: Market assessment and forecasts to 2006’ (found at http://www.screendigest.com/reports/edptvp04/greece/edptvp04_9_1/view.html)

Sturmer C. (1993), ‘MTV’s Europe – An Imaginary Continent?’, cit in Dowmunt T. (1993), ‘Channels of Resistance’, p. 50-66, London BFI The Economist Official Website, ‘Viacom: Old and New Media Part Ways’, Jun 16th 2005 (found at http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4085664) Viacom Inc, ‘MTV Europe Set To Launch Channel Exclusively For Portugal’, press release 30 June 2003 (found at www.viacom.com)

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Appendix

Interview with Brent Hansen, President MTV Networks Europe What was MTV Europe’s vision back in 1987 and how has it evolved until now?

MTV Europe was launched 1st August 1987 and the theory was to replicate the American experience that we had since 1981, in terms of creating a television channel which had no beginning, no middle and no end. A very targeted, niche television, focusing very much on high-end graphics, experimental films, lots of strong imagery around the music videos and VJ’s who would serve as panEuropean icons. The theory was that we would do that treating all of whole Europe as a club of many different cultures, we would be using English as the default language, but we knew that that would be just in the short-term while we built our distribution and we gained a foothold. So the theory was to launch a television channel which allowed young people anywhere in Europe as they got added to our distribution to feel part of a club, to feel the mobility; that was such a powerful presence in the mid to late 80’s; what else was going on, the ability to cross cultural boundaries, to belong... So the idea was very much to build that.

And as the distribution grew and grew, then obviously we had to refocus at some point in time what our editorial would be. So the short-term game was distribution.

What we did creatively was very much a club aspect, something that allowed people to get a sense of a snapshot of what was great and hip around Europe.

The second phase, the mid-to-long-term, was when technology allowed, we would clearly change the nature of our broadcasting by broadcasting to specific regions and new teams of people would be brought in to that point in time, who

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would have grown up with MTV, who would reach from their market as far internationally as we want that brand to be. Then obviously MTV will always be seen as an international brand, even if it’s very local. Some markets are very local, while others are much more international. The theory is that we allow each new market to schism away from the big pan-European channel to become much more focused on their individual market. Different markets go different speeds, all shorts of compromises by being one-stop shop. Germany is a big market that has a medium speed; the UK is a very fast market, so probably you would have a second or a third single for the time still Germany is working on the first single.

France would probably be a year later and Italy possibly the same. So we were forcing a lot of issues which we knew in the long term were not going to work.

Secondly, people love seeing something very exotic – for five minutes. But exotic after a while becomes irrelevant to your regional lifestyle. And broadcasting essentially is about a relevance to a marketplace. So the game always was to be something much more specific and focused but cost-wise it was going to be impossible. So until digital technology was going to arrive, analogue technology was really only going to allow us to have one signal and maybe start to have optouts, but not to do anything more sophisticated. So that was the game. A big channel, big vision, exciting, creative, international, non-specific, something you belong to. And then the middle game would be that some of you would be able to be hired by MTV to start MTV in your market and to have a change, a morph into a colour, feel, flavour, language according to your marketplace.

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Which were the main reasons for MTV’s initial success?

The brand is powerful, it made such a big splash in 1981 in America, MTV has rewritten the rules in terms of television, we completely changed the way all television – certainly in Europe – approached imaging itself, approached the focus on the font and the letter, the size and the graphic; those were things all very much MTV-driven. The fact that art could sit alongside information was also very much an MTV thing. So that was part of it, and obviously the part was the sexy, American brand. That was the initial thing, it was exotic and new and nobody had seen television quite like it in Europe, even though it was pretty low-budget and rough around the edges at times. But it was inspired and inspirational. That was really the reason why we kicked off initially. We just made a better job than other people have been doing locally.

MTV’s initial slogan was ‘one planet one music’. It later changed to ‘I want my MTV’. What would be the ideal slogan for today?

I guess it’s ‘my MTV’. The way MTV will work in the future is towards a more bespoke service for each individual customer. You got to take a brand like MTV and think of it as being something beyond television, even if that is its natural home. Its ability to touch people on a mobile phone, or on broadband, on the web, or in whatever format... Those things are all part of the experience of being a part of MTV, it will come back to the TV, but I think more and more you will interact with it and more and more you will be able to bespoke a flow of music and style of programmes that more fit you. That will be the digital future world. So I think it is more about ‘my MTV’. In the UK for example there are nine channels in 63

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the music space. We also have obviously the Paramount comedy channels and we also have Nickelodeon. Talking about the music space, we cover pretty much the whole big of what is available in terms of popular music. You can jump from one MTV to the other to bespoke your own channel in digital and I think that is kind of the way the future will be. The UK is the fast market, we all thought it was going to be Germany, but it actually ended up being the UK. And it is pretty much driving a lot of our business. But at the same time, in Italy we are a terrestrial broadcaster, in the UK we are very digital, in Germany we are a big analogue broadcaster but we have a massive presence, we have four channels there. We have different experiences in different markets which allow us each time that we launch a new channel to learn from the experiences of any individual market so we are a little more flexible, we are not reinventing the wheel every time we go to a new market.

There is always the risk when you launch a new channel that people you hire will have a very strong belief that what has until currently been done is wrong and how are they going to change it, it is a personal editorial thing. You got to make sure you separate subjectivity from objectivity about what is required. So the more the system can provide different playing fields, opportunities to look at and to learn from, then the more sophisticated our channel will be.

How would you describe MTV’s corporate culture?

I am the head of the corporate group I guess, so it is very informal, as you can probably tell. If you disregard people like me essentially it is a very young culture.

A lot of people that are working in the programmes of each individual market are in the demographic, obviously. I am obviously much older than that, but I have the

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experience and I don’t programme the channel. So the culture is very much one of relevant people doing the relevant jobs. People with experience being able to guide philosophically and more directionally how individual parts of the business operate. We have established a very decentralised position since 1997, when I took over and I broke down the channel. I created a network group which has something like a centre of excellence; with strategy, finance, legal, sitting at corporate level with me. Also the people who do ‘Unplugged’, the ‘MTV Europe Music Awards’, you know, big events, they are kept centrally just because there is an expertise which we have aggregated there. That expertise is also able to be aligned with any other channels around the world now who need some help, to create a slipstream to get them up to speed, so we do not have to end up constantly going back and starting again. Each market, however, hires relevant people to that market. Once again, it is very informal, but it is a very aggressive business, there are big business targets, we are expected to deliver a lot back to our parent company, Viacom and the international group is under a lot of focus.

So we can not sit back relaxed, we have to generate enough cash to be able to self-sustain our businesses and pay for each new channel that comes out. We do not want to put ourselves in debt of our own system. So it seems very informal, but people are under pressure. I don’t wear a suit and tie at work, but I have to be a professional businessman at the same time. I think it is a duality that suits very comfortably; people feel they are getting away with a little bit of something, which is, you know, the spirit of rock and roll. But at the same time we have to keep the business growing and we have been going for a long time now. And we have been on top of our game for most of the time. So that is an important thing to remember, that you got to constantly look to the future as you go.

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How do you come up with the content of regional programming? Is it designed by the local management teams or by the London headquarters?

Both. There are three different levels. Each market obviously designs programmes according to their own needs. It is important to me, also within the European context, that we are very focused on music. Not just music, but focused on music as a part of the overall sell of the channel. So, local play lists, presenters and programmes are all controlled by each market. Then I control pretty much everything that they do day-to-day. The European group has a group of people who are taken from different parts of Europe who come in and are able to work outside the day-to-day schedule within the individual business and work on ideas which go to pilots, which I would fund. The pilots would then be screened often to the US firstly, because if the US picks up something then it becomes a global property and that will be great. But not everything seems to be relevant to the US, obviously part of the process is to create free thinking, big ideas which will exist to complement the US programme and that would be more relevant to the European market essentially. So that is the second level. If it does not go to the US then we will look to see if there are enough channels in Europe to go for it and whether there will be places in their property as when each schedule can take it. Each market, if they have a strong idea they can pitch in for a budget for the next year and can fulfil their own programme at a local level if they wish to. Otherwise we use the European money to pilot good ideas and try to take them to series. We also try to establish event properties like ‘I love MTV’, ‘MTV Europe Music Awards’, which are not series, but will bring a large revenue, will become a network property for everybody so when every channel networks onto that programme it reminds the audience and the people that work on MTV that they

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belong to something bigger which has a massive reach. Sometimes you want to be small, flexible and local, colloquial, parochial sometimes, but sometimes you want to be big; event, strong, massive artists. So you can do both of these things.

Otherwise, if you do everything too local there is never enough cash to be able to do those things which obviously we all know MTV is well known for.

So under this scheme for example, MTV Italy does also benefit from a programme of MTV International, but they can also contribute to it.

Both ways. We are in early days doing this properly, so we have not had a lot of big successes and we have tended to initially try to launch some of the new properties through the UK because outside of America UK properties are the ones that travel the most internationally. But clearly I do not want to foist Englishspeaking properties on everybody. And one of the things we can do with these programme ideas is that for example, Italy might like the idea but they really want to do it in Italian. It is a very powerful tool, the Italian language. It is a very emotional audience, we have a very relevant point of view with the young audience in Italy and therefore sometimes putting it in English is going to seem too exotic and not relevant enough. So we can also format these ideas. And we will also sell the formats to other people and terrestrial broadcasters as well. So if none of the channels want the idea and it is a good idea, then we might sell it to a broadcaster.

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What is it that makes MTV so attractive to audiences and advertisers?

You will find that a lot of advertisers do a lot of research with their core audience to get a sense of the kind of environment that they feel is much relevant to them.

And there are usually two strategies for them. One is you do the big, highly expensive broadcast, ITV, Channel 4, Channel Five kind of advertising which is at a very general audience but has big numbers. The other side is that go you for a very targeted, niche audience. MTV is a good example of a blue ribbon, targeted, niche channel, aiming to a core 18 – 25 year-old very important audience. A lot of advertisers want that specific audience and that is why they come to us. They also come to us because we can manage – if they want to... If they are a centrallycontrolled advertising agency or business they can come to us generically and we can actually put together either a network release of an ad or channel by channel, over a period of a year, if necessary, if a campaign is getting to be released. We can offer them sponsorship opportunities on a big property which might get seen even beyond Europe. So you pay a premium for it, but you get attached to the property and you are allowed to use the logo and lots of different things which actually give you value on point of sale, other ways of bringing in the people you are targeting. So you can do all those things with us and they come to us because it is a place where people may not watch for a long period of time, but they come back to MTV and come back and come back... Even if they do not like what they see and they go away, they will come back to us. It is not like broadcast TV where you tend to watch individual shows. MTV is more than individual shows that you might want to pick off, you also watch MTV for its general ambience, for its creative atmosphere, for its moments with you. We also, to complement that, we are not just trying to sell things, we also try to use that space for the same reason

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the advertisers do, but for a different end, to actually talk about environmental issues, nationalism, we put Tony Blair on and get kids from around the world to come and talk to him and pitch him as to why he was supporting America in the Gulf War. We do a lot of HIV awareness programming, things that we feel that while you are watching MTV you are going to be entertained, you are obviously going to be pitched by some advertisers but we also want to tell you that we are treating you seriously, that we see you as an individual; as an intelligent individual, not just as one blobbing on the couch watching television. And we expect you to have a point of view. We will not necessarily tell you what to believe because that is not our job, but we feel we have a responsibility to try to be more than just ephemeral popular culture. We feel we can tap into a young mindset and that is what we do. And I think that we do it in a way that does not beat people out of their head and quite often it is quite entertaining. So that audience pitches, the advertising is multi-layered, you can design a campaign, you can go local, you can just sell gelato in a particular town, you can do it all over Italy, you can do it Italy - Germany, you can do it Italy – Germany and the UK, you can do one market or the other, you can do it all at once, you can sponsor an event. So we provide a lot of different layers and we are clearly much cheaper than a broadcaster to come to. So you can get a lot more exposure in each individual market and target your audience more effectively.

What are the challenges in finding advertisers at local markets?

There are no challenges in finding advertisers; the difficulty really is making sure that you can have consistent advertisers, the big fast-moving consumer brands,

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who will be with you for a long time. Sometimes you tend to get people who are there for five minutes advertising their new product and then they may come back so you have churn. So the issue really is to make sure you do not have a whole a lot of people trying to use that young audience; it is cheaper, they are going to get on MTV and try it out... What you really want is the next year and the year after and the year after. So the challenge really is to stop too much churn. You want churn because it refreshes the advertising and it makes it a more palatable experience for the audience while they have to deal with it, but you also want a consistent, loyal advertiser base to allow you to build your business so that you can help them by continuing to improve the relationship you have with them.

Especially if they move into a sponsorship position they are going to expect quite a lot from you. They will expect a lot of event strategy, they expect us to be able to throw great parties for them, they expect MTV to add real sex appeal to their brand. And we got to make sure we do that. We have to really focus on that. So we have people who specialise just in a client fulfilment part. Not just getting their heads on the screen but making sure that the client realises what the environment of MTV is able to do – and what it can not do – and make sure we do the best value we can for the things we can do.

Which are the main reasons for MTV’s rapid penetration in different world markets?

Like I said before, we never planned to be a one-stop-shop channel. We did, however, grow our distribution very quickly over the first ten years of our existence. And there were times when I was a programming guy that we were

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growing by a million households a month. So every month, even if you lost a few people, you always had a new group of people and that let us be very challenging creatively and do a lot more out there, which you probably remember from the early days. It was a different time, more edgy time for all television, I think. But two things happened. One was, at a certain period of time it was very clear that our distribution was getting up to the 60 million mark. And the labels, for example, wanted to know the exact number of households we were going to because we pay per video, per play. There is a certain right that we pay and so it is really important that they know what our distribution is. There was the risk in the medium-term days, after the first 5 or 6 years, that a lot of people, especially in the Eastern Europe, would be pirating our signal. And if they are pirating our signal, essentially we can not report those numbers back, the labels do not really know how many people we are broadcasting to, they can guess a number much larger than the one we are actually reporting, it could lead to a conflict. So we need to find a way to actually close that off. The opportunity really came when big players like Murdoch decided that this was the time for their big push. And the big blue ribbon brands tended to go to the next tear of cable and satellite, which means that you pay a little bit extra but you are getting the “quality channels”.

And that is how they built their business. We went in to that and by going into that of course you needed a card to get MTV and by getting a card to get MTV you had to digitise the signal to be able to encrypt it. Once we digitised the signal we were then able to use those satellite transponders and we had – I think – 5 or 7 of those to get a whole footprint. Suddenly when you encrypt it you can compress your signal. So for one signal which was going to all different places around Europe we suddenly could go 7 on each satellite. So we suddenly had 35

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

potential television channels. So technology allowed us to move into that phase which we had always planned to do, which was to be locally relevant, reaching for the market. So that point in time I broke Europe down to UK and Ireland, German-speaking markets, Italy and then everybody else was left over, which was MTV Europe still. And then that group has become the Nordic channels, which is now becoming Denmark, which will become Sweden, which will become Finland and Norway. France split off, Eastern Europe became a separate field, Spain became available, Portugal... So bit by bit we have schismed off that channel. So basically it was technology that drove it, secondly the ability to hire new people that our brand would generate, thirdly, if someone in the system, an entrepreneur, thinks that they can prove to me that I can build a business that would be self-fulfilling, paying for itself in two or three years, then we would consider that and allow it to split off. We think that diverse-natured MTV allows us to get much more happening in each market. Not everything is going to be international all the time. People like the big brands but some markets really like local music. And local music is not going to necessarily translate. It is pretty hard for an Italian act, for example, to do that well outside of Italy. We can do our best to help them and some we have done – Eros Ramazzotti and people like that – but essentially it does not translate to a lot of markets. So by being more local allows each market to really super-serve the local. And MTV Italy for example, one of its stronger properties is a thing called ‘MTV Day’. ‘MTV Day’ is just local artists, it is a free concert, it is like a festival we put on every year and we can do that because we have that credibility in the market to do the local thing and not just bring an American artist all the time. So that has been part of it. The ambition is to make sure we can plat new teams of people and hire new stuff and contract and

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

make smaller the central part and make each local part bigger. And that really has been the game. Germany for example, with the acquisition strategy we bought ‘VIVA’, that is now part of our frequencies. It is a big market. Four channels of around 30 million households – if not more – each... That is pretty much a self stand-alone property. So all we can do is add big, sexy properties to give that MTV push to it. But otherwise, it is German. It is the kind of music that Germans like. See, I come from a little country, from the bottom of the world. It is tiny, when I left it was 3.5 million households, now 4 million households, so it is tiny. It is next to a bigger country, which is 20 something million households. We have always been confused with each other, when I open my mouth people think I am an Australian. So being from a little market I am always mindful of not being patronised. I hate the idea ‘here is a video from little New Zealand to make you happy’. It is not like that. So my idea is to make it the other way; let us empower those markets and allow them to stand alone and allow them to reach out. But obviously you are only going to launch a new channel on a market if you feel you can make the business survive. I am not going to turn it into a debt situation. So that is generally the theory.

Which are the main factors you consider before launching a localised MTV service?

You got to have distribution first out. Is the market big enough in itself to sustain the business? Can I bring in enough advertising; can I create its own relationships in such a way? Secondly, in some markets, the audience prefer to feel much more international and do not like being too localised because it makes them feel –

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

especially some smaller countries – that they no longer belong to the international world. So you got to somehow balance that up. And I think, more than anything else, that the business itself or the people that are setting the business up have got to have a very strong argument that this culture wants a relevant local MTV. It is pointless just doing it for the sake of doing it. We are not creating an empire. We are trying to create businesses. And those businesses in the end have to be selffulfilling. So it is really just the ability to put a strong enough business case. I think it generally has been quite successful but we did it logically; the big markets, the UK is very powerful, it is the digital forefront, we have a large revenue from this market. Germany is massive and we would overbalance the rest of the services if we did not allow the split-off. Italy is a terrestrial broadcaster and comes with a whole of different issues from editorial, legislation point of view. So you got to allow it to go separately. And then from then on it is just ambition. “I think we can make this work in France, let us do it!� And I think that hunger and desire for individuals here to create something new that they can be part of, under a brand that they think it is going to have the success; that drives you. It is not like putting out cookies everywhere, it is actually to create something new.

So is there actually a critical point regarding the size of the market? A certain number of households?

Not really. Obviously you have got to bear in mind what the infrastructure is going to allow. I mean, are there cable and satellite operators? It is pointless launching it if you can not get any distribution. We have been in France for quite some time and there is not actually a lot of satellite and cable in France. So it is very

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

dominated by the terrestrial players. We are never going to be a major player in France until we become a terrestrial player or when the legislation changes. In some markets, you are just going to have to live with those things. But, you know, the Netherlands is not a large market and it is sustaining four channels. It is sustaining pretty good business out of that. It is just a matter of how sophisticated the infrastructure is, locally. Or what the opportunity is. For example, Scandinavia we have always treated as a whole Scandinavian feed because the Swedes especially have had such a powerful presence in the rest of Europe and in America, breaking artists by singing in English, that by going too local we could have made them feel that we pulled the plug on their international feed. But, like everywhere, dynamics, nationalism, the European Union, all those sorts of things change peoples’ perceptions. Look at Holland, when I first came to live in Europe Holland was the quintessential trader nation of Europe. They reached out, they were aggressive, they were about trading, they were always about reaching out to someone else. Then we get Pim Fortuyn and we get a very right-wing period where the laid-back, open-minded, liberal country appears to be much different.

Everybody goes through cycles, it is about how do I feel – not about MTV now, I am just talking about in general, how do I feel about my relationship, my country’s relationship to everybody else’s? As we know of the 20th century, those things go on quite a sequence. So part of launching a channel is making sure that you are doing it at a time that is not just jumping on some kind of populous bandwagon.

Because then I think you are under risk that you do not sustain your business.

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

What is usually the preferred option; starting a new channel from scratch, or the acquisition / licensing of an already operating local music TV station?

It is generally cheaper to start a new channel from scratch, but acquisition can actually build your base pretty quickly, if in the right circumstances, and we have done that in both Germany and Holland successfully. So it depends on the market really. Acquisition brings other issues, because you have to deal with cultures. And even if their television culture has reason because of your presence as a more local, more national alternative, it does not necessarily mean that culturally the two fit. The difficult type of acquisitions are the ones that you have to deal with cultural clashes and it is a painful process, more than building a new organisation.

On the other hand, acquisition at this point in time in our existence – we have been doing it since 1987 – allows you to have channels that are not called MTV, which can do things that MTV is not capable of doing. MTV has a very aspirational forward-thinking, a higher input. Some people just prefer all heads, back to back, nothing else, nothing more than that, just right, in your face, speaking my language, do not give me any more than that. And MTV should not be looking backwards, it should be looking forwards. So acquisition can sometimes allow you to be local, aggressive, interactive, focused; and bigger international, more longform, more artistic, more aspirational MTV.

How attractive is the Greek TV market for a global network like MTV? Greece certainly has a point of view. It is attractive, I think. I do not know where our plans are for that, we have had a lot of conversations about Greece. But I think it certainly is a market which I think would probably be well served by having 76

Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

a local MTV because it would allow local artists to sit alongside with international artists and that obviously helps bring visual standards, it allows you to do a lot of different things that you can not do on a local basis. The thing with MTV is that cross-pollination between the biggest – and sometimes the hippest – and local which can be even hipper, but does not have this kind of position. And you can give it credibility by setting it together. So in general a country like Greece is an important place and I would love to have a channel there. You will have to ask the guys that you will be talking to later about how they could make that business sustain, how the infrastructure works and what is the capability for distribution. But I think in general yes, we have a channel in Portugal, why should not we have a channel in Greece?

Does MTV’s expansion strategy have any limitations?

We are not just going to expand for the sake of being everywhere to stop everybody else being there. We are never going to be the only channel. Look at the UK, there are 25 music channels. I have slowed down the process because the big process was to get the big ones free of each other. It just allowed them to be liberated and get on with it. So Germany could be in German, for a start, it is just crazy not to be. So I think the limitations are really just that we are fast running out of markets where we can make the business sustain itself quickly. And we may just have to wait now and pick them off as and when the market conditions allow us.

So we are not just going to run headlong into launching everywhere just for the sake of having a local MTV, for the sake of saying we have got one on the market.

Sometimes you just have to wait and be more specific about it. And we also

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

control more brands now. We have Nickelodeon which is a very powerful children’s brand. We have the comedy channels which are now part of the MTV Networks Europe group, which could also be an opportunity because there are not many good and sophisticated comedy channels around Europe, so we could do those things. We own Game 1 in France, which is a channel that just talks about video games, Playstation, Nintendo and those sorts of things. We have lots of opportunities in either way so MTV in itself will exist regardless of those and we should just make sure that as we allow a new MTV to deliver that it is adding value over above what we could be doing through putting Nickelodeon there or whatever. So the expansion strategy is now at a point where we got to make sure that our bouquet gets value. You can not really have a great kids’ network across Europe until you have Germany. So that is a big priority. You got to have strategic priorities which will give you a roadmap to where you go to.

How do you see MTV in 2015?

We will be pretty much digitised in a lot of markets. It will be digital media, which means there will be a lot more television channels and harder to sustain in business. The business will have reached beyond television. I do not know whether you will see MTV running the way you see it now on your mobile phone and I wonder whether you actually want to see MTV like that, I am questioning that. On the other hand, there are things that MTV can do; provide you with downloads, I am not just talking about videos; I am talking about programmes or imagery or art or different parts of MTV that you like. Digital will allow you to be much more a free flower. So I personally see you being able to have your own MTV which

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Is it time for MTV Europe to launch MTV Greece?

essentially means that you control certain parts of it; more music, more certain kinds of music, excluding certain things and allowing that to happen on a one-toone basis with you as an audience. We will always keep creative standards up; we will always hit you with something new you did not know about, we will always provide this. Because I think that is one of the things that, whether you like or you do not like it, what MTV is able to provide you is not just the hit you know.

There is always going to be something interesting and new and hip. And I think our brand is sustained by being able to do those things. So we keep a certain control over standards but we allow you, as an individual, to exclude or include other things which you allow the offering to you to be more personalised. But I certainly believe that to a degree people still they do not want everything to be interactive.

Look at the web, it creates no loyalty at all. How often do you go back? I go to different radio stations, I listen to Arab stations, I listen to all sorts of things... But I get something different every day. That is the beauty and the freedom. But that does not create a business for anybody. And I think that people still want a certain degree of proscenium arch into time. So the basic parameter of MTV should always be one that is more professional that you could do yourself. It is not just a matter of cobbling the things from wherever you can find them. So we should provide a framework and a set of clothes, a quality of cloth which are important to the audience and makes them feel good about being part of our brand. But we should also be flexible within that. And that is my vision for MTV in the future.

Thank you very much for your time.

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