RTL Radio appoints Baldelli

RTL Group has found a new director for its French radio stations.

Christopher Baldelli's new title is chairman of RTL Radio's executive board. He replaces Axel Duroux, who was named new director of TV channel TF1 in June. Since 2006, Baldelli has directed the thematic channels of RTL's TV company M6. Before that he was at RTL's main competitor Lagardère and in the 90's he was a public official with a focus on media regulation.

RTL is France's and Europe's biggest commercial radio company and runs full service RTL Radio, rock-oriented RTL 2 and CHR/dance outlet Fun Radio, as well as digital sports station RTL L'Equipe.

Germany: "A black day for radio"

The launch of digital radio in Germany has been put on hold, following a decision to withhold funding.

On Wednesday, the federal KEF commission said it won't provide funding for the digital radio project which was planned for later this year. The two German public broadcasters ARD and Deutschlandradio had earlier been promised 42 million euros for the period 2009-2012.

According to KEF, the broadcasters haven't been able to satisfy the criteria that were set up for the project to be realized. The commission also points to the fact that commercial radio has withdrawn its support.

Deutschlandradio's director Willi Steul says it's a "black day for radio" and fears that frequencies that have been allocated for digital radio will now be used for other purposes.

Germany has opted for DAB+ as its standard for digital radio. The system is an updated version of the European DAB standard and was recently introduced in Australia, Switzerland and Malta. It is currently being tested in Italy, the Czech Republic and Sweden, among other countries.

Radio fares better than TV and print in ad downturn

Radio is doing better than television, newspapers and magazines on the global advertising market, according to a new report from research company Nielsen.

While the worldwide ad expenditure across television, newspapers, magazines and radio dropped 7.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, radio lost just 2.5 percent. In North America radio ad sales fell 8.2 percent, but this was offset by a slight 0.1 percent loss in Europe and a 1.4 percent increase in the Asia Pacific region.

Magazines was the traditional medium that fared the worst, with a decline of 17.4 percent, while newspapers were down 9.1 percent. Television advertising fell 4.7 percent.

US online stations get royalty deal

Webcasters in the United States have secured a new deal with record labels, ending a two-year battle about royalties for online streaming.

Larger sites such as Pandora and AOL Radio will pay either 25 percent of their revenue or a fee for each song played, whichever is the biggest. The fee will increase from .08 US cent per song in 2006 to .14 cent in 2015. Smaller sites with a revenue below 1.25 million dollars will pay 12-14 percent.

In March 2007, the federal Copyright Royalty Board decided that webcasters should pay 0.19 cent a song. According to webcasters, these rates could have forced them out of business.

In the US, FM and AM broadcasters don't pay royalties, but a deal for online simulcasts was reached in February.

NRJ expands to Canada

The French hit radio brand NRJ is set to make its first appearance in North America, following a brand partnership deal between NRJ Group and Canada's Astral Media Radio.

Astral Media Radio already runs ten Énergie stations in French-speaking Quebec as well as the Énergie 2 service on Sirius Satellite Radio across North America. On August 24, these will be renamed NRJ and adopt NRJ's panther logotype. Astral will keep the ownership of the stations, but will cooperate with NRJ Group regarding brand issues, promotions and interviews.

NRJ is the most widely spread hit radio brand in Europe, with stations in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Russia and the Lebanon as well as in the French dependencies Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, Tahiti, Mayotte, Réunion and New Caledonia.