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Media Landscape - Belgium

INTRODUCTION

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Belgium became a unitary state in 1830. It is a geographically a very small country (30,528 km2) but densely populated with some 10 million inhabitants. It has three officially recognized languages: Dutch (58%), French (31%) and German (11%).The dissensions between Flemings and Walloons has had a decisive impact on political life. The Flemish emancipatory movement caused conflicts but the gradual formation of a federal state in which Flemings, French speaking and German speaking citizens enjoy equal rights, has come about through parliamentary action in a democratic way.

Belgium has a multi party system and there are no clear majority parties. The emergence of a successful extreme right party in Flanders disturbed the traditional political balance but until today the majority parties have succeeded to keep this extremist party out of government.

Belgium is a highly industrialised country with a high standard of living and an excellent social security system. The population is aging, there are many families without children, the number of single-person households is on the increase and the working population is no more than 35% of all Belgians.


1. WRITTEN PRESS

The high degree of concentration resulted in that today there are 23 newspapers in Belgium. 14 of these are truly autonomous, the remaining 9 are parallel editions of the main papers, and differ only slightly from them. In Flanders the market is controlled by three groups: Corelio Media, De Persgroep and Concentra. The French language press is also dominated by three large groups: Rossel, IPM and .

The ownership structure of newspapers continues to be Belgian, with the exception of Robert Hersant’s share in Rossel (40 per cent since 1989) but the Rossel family bought Hersant’s share in 2005 so that Rossel is again 100% owned by the Belgian family Rossel/Hurbain.

Half of the newspapers are distributed as single copies; 55% are subscriptions. Readership is slowly declining; with 160 readers per thousand Belgium ranks in comparison with other European countries between high and low newspaper consumption.


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

The monopoly of the PSB was indirectly undermined by the cable networks offering an increasing number of television stations. RTBF (PSB in the French speaking Belgium) was losing viewers to RTL and the French channels, BRT (PSB Flanders; current name: VRT) to the Dutch and to a certain degree to French, German and UK channels.

The PSB radio monopoly was first undermined by the illegal local radio stations. These radio stations were legalized in September 1981 in Wallonia and in May 1982 in Flanders. The monopoly of RTBF and BRT came to an end. Advertising remained illegal at first, but the ban on radio advertising was lifted in December 1985. The television monopoly was broken in law in 1987.

In the French speaking part of Belgium CLT got the first license for commercial television in 1987: RTL has 66% and Audiopresse (Belgian francophone dailies) has 34 %. In February 1995 RTL launched a new commercial channel Club-RTL.

PSB still has the largest audience share. This is mainly the result of the PSB’ s monopoly of nationwide broadcasting until recently.

License fee has been abolished; public funding is guaranteed.

The television market is characterized by fragmentation, which will increase with the launch of digital TV.

Total advertising revenue for private TV is declining since 2004.


3. NEWS AGENCIES

The national news agency BELGA has a dominant position. It has two independent editorial departments: one for the Flemish Community and one for the French speaking Community. Belga is owned by the traditional Belgian mass media institutions: newspapers and broadcasters.

Large media institutions also have subscribed to 1 or 3 of the world news agencies (mainly Reuters, AFP or AP)


4. ONLINE MEDIA

56% of the population uses Internet and 40% is connected to broadband infrastructure.

All newspapers offer a website on which they present breaking news. Some newspapers have developed a full online version that is constantly updated.

Newly created e-newspapers and e-magazines have not been very successful. Weblogs on the contrary, have become very popular but the credibility and success of the online service of traditional newspapers scores much higher.


5. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

Most journalists, publishers and advertisers join their own organisation. There are three important organisations in Belgium: the Association of Belgian Journalists (AVBB) in Brussels, the Belgian Association of Publishers (BVDU) and Febelma, the association of magazine publishers

These organisations take care of social agreements, wages, ethics and the professional statute.


6. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

Belgium has no specific anti concentration media law.

Specific media regulations, licenses, content directives, special advertising regulations apply to broadcasting, which have to be conform with the EU directives.

Belgium has never been at the forefront as far as meaningful media policies are concerned. A lot of media laws have only confirmed situations that were already in existence.

No measures have been taken against the increasing concentration of the media.

In Flanders the government decided that direct subsidies should disappear in 1999 because all newspapers have become incorporated into the larger press groups. However, indirect subsidies are still in place: VAT on newspaper and magazines is still zero per cent.

The Flemish and the French communities are fully autonomous in constructing a regulatory framework for their broadcast system. They have different regulation frameworks and separate controlling bodies (De Vlaamse Media Regulator, VRM and the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, CSA).

In Flanders the Vlaamse Media Regulator and in Wallonia the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel give licences to new radio and TV stations, control whether the legislation is being observed and they can also impose sanctions.


7. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

The Belgian Association of Professional Journalists has a Deontological Council that considers complaints and gives advice to journalists. After many press scandals the Belgian journalists developed a new deontological code.

Recently in Flanders a new council for Journalistic ethics was founded: De Raad voor Journalistiek. Citizens can complain to this Council and they can avoid a law suit.

Advertisers also have a self regulatory body that takes care of the ethical aspects of advertising.


8. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE TRENDS

Newspaper readership is declining and the television and radio market becomes more and more fragmented. The fight for readers and audiences stimulates unhealthy competition. However, one of the major future problems for print and broadcast media, is the declining revenue from advertising. The media market has become very fragmented and the main source of revenues for all the new media players is advertising.

The advertising media market is not flexible enough .Advertisers have lost confidence in the 30’TV spot and in the digital TV market viewers can zap the ads away .The newspapers have lost classified adds to the Internet (cars, real estate, etc) and to the free dailies. Advertisers seem to be more in favour of advertising below the line (not in media but all kinds of direct marketing).

The neo liberal policies of the EU and of the European media market have triggered commercialisation. Competition has become ruinous and this stimulated a tabloidisation effect on content. Public broadcast services, free from economic pressure become more and more important.

Development of new digital services such as iDTV, mobile TV, UMTS, DVBH, wireless, etc internet have become a hype for politicians and content providers but the question is whether media consumers are ready for these new services and are willing to pay for them


9. PRIME SOURCES FOR DETAILED INFORMATION

The most useful information sources are Driemaandelijks Bulletin CIM, an overview of circulation figures, published every three months, CIM News and VRT, Studiedienst, a monthly edition with audience ratings. Both PSB’s RTBF and VRT publish a report each year with a lot of information.


10. AUTHOR

Els de Bens has been Professor at the Department of Communications at the University of Gent and Dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. She is a member of the Euromedia Research Group, co editor of The European Journal of Communication and the author of several books and articles in A1 journals. Her main focus is on media economy and media policy.


11. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Video Media

  • Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep.(VRT)

  • Radio télévision belge de la communauté française(RTBF)

    • La Une
      http://www.rtbf.be/
    • La Deux
    • RTBF Sat
    • La Première
    • RTBF International
    • VivaCité
    • Musiq3
    • Classic21
    • PureFM.

  • Belgischer Rundfunk (BRF)

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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