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Media Landscape - Luxembourg

INTRODUCTION

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Luxembourg is with its size of only 2,500 square kilometres and a resident population of 464,000 (2006), out of which only about 240,000 hold citizenship, the second smallest Member State of the European Union, after Malta.

The country is a founding member of the European Communities and hosts important EU institutions such as the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank. It enjoys the highest per capita income worldwide with a thriving economy based mainly on services such as banking and insurance. The economy is oversized thanks to the presence of the headquarters of major global players such as Arcelor-Mittal, the world’s largest steel producer, RTL Group, Europe’s largest private broadcaster and SES Global, the world’s leading satellite operator.

The working population of 310,000 reflects this. It includes some 130,000 commuters from neighbouring countries. Altogether 67 per cent of the working population are foreigners, either immigrants primarily from Portugal, Italy and Spain or commuters. Three official languages are being used: Luxembourgish, French and German plus of course the languages of the most important immigrant groups. The linguistic diversity is also present in the media. The country enjoys a remarkable political stability. The main political party is the Christian-Social CSV with about one third of the vote.

It forms coalition governments alternating with the Social-Democratic LSAP or the Liberal DP as partners. The integration of the large foreign part of the resident population does not create too many difficulties thanks to the fact that over 90 per cent of the immigrants come from EU countries.


1. WRITTEN PRESS

The written press distinguishes itself with a great diversity and strong readership. There is a surprisingly high number of newspapers (six altogether) for such a small country.

The main reasons for this atypical situation have to do with the support from political parties and generous public subsidies. Ten publications (the six dailies plus four weeklies) benefit from this public aid scheme. It amounts to over 10 million Euro per year, one third is evenly divided between the ten beneficiaries and two thirds of the public subsidies are proportional to the volume of printed pages carrying original content, the so-called „pages rédactionnelles“.

The largest daily newspaper, Luxemburger Wort (circulation ca. 79,000), belongs to the Catholic Archbishop of Luxembourg and has close links with the dominant political party, the Christian Social Party (CSV). The Imprimerie Saint-Paul, the country’s largest printing outfit, publishes d’ Wort. The second largest newspaper, Tageblatt (ca. 26,000), belongs to socialist trade unions and it has close links with the Socialist Party (LSAP).

In 2005, the advertising market in Luxembourg was estimated to be worth around 90 million Euro (source:IPL). The market share of the press, although declining, following the broadcasting liberalisation of the early 90ties, is still at around 70 per cent despite the multiplication of commercial radio and TV stations. Competition from other media on the advertising markets is thus limited since press revenues are protected and free press sheets have not yet materialised


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

Audiovisual media used to be dominated by the local radio and TV programmes produced by RTL. The monopoly RTL enjoyed on a contractual basis since 1930 was formally abolished by the media law of 1991. The liberalisation introduced in the early 90s produced a certain diversification, especially as far as radio goes.

Broadcasting franchises were allocated in 1992 to four consortia involving the written press to some extent. Eldoradio, the most successful of the new radios with an estimated audience share of 15 per cent, is indirectly controlled by RTL. Other shareholders are newspaper publishers such as Editpress, the Lëtzebuerger Journal and the d'Lëtzebuerger Land. Den Neie Radio (DNR), with an estimated audience share of 7 per cent, has amongst its shareholders the Groupe Saint-Paul, Luxembourg's leading press group, some Catholic associations and some business interests. Radio Latina, with an estimated audience share of 10 per cent, addresses itself primarily to the foreigners residing in Luxembourg (39 per cent of the country’s total population).

Radio Ara (estimated audience share is 4 per cent) is the only radio station that tries alternative programming, taking into consideration the needs and desires of all kinds of marginal groups and English-speaking foreigners living in Luxembourg.

The law identified a third category of radio stations, the so-called local radio. In 2006 15 were in operation, most of them broadcasting only for a few hours a day or week. These local radios have to respect strict technical limitations (power of 100 Watt, radius of 5 kilometres) and they are subject to tight restrictions as far as advertisement financing is concerned.

However, RTL continues to dominate the Luxembourg audiovisual landscape. Its radio programme, RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg, remains the most popular with an audience share of above 50 per cent. Its local television programme, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg, has no real challenger and enjoys an audience share above 40 per cent for its daily one-hour broadcasts.

The law enables the government to grant TV franchises besides those held by RTL. Two franchises have been granted to regional initiatives carried on cable networks in parts of the country a few hours a month (Uelzechtkanal, a non-profit undertaking and Nordliicht, a commercial operation with limited ambitions). In 2002 a licence was granted to Tango TV, a national commercial programme operated by Tele 2. In 2004, an Open Channel, called DOK (“Den openen Kanal”), started broadcasting on cable networks. It is used by some associations and individuals, but has no ongoing programming. The Luxembourgish Parliament broadcasts life plenary sessions and background information about legislative activities via Chamber TV since 2000.

Full-fledged programmes for local audiences suffer from the smallness of the country and the strong demand for foreign programmes, which is being fostered by the near complete coverage of the country by cable television and satellite reception.


3. NEWS AGENCIES

Owing to the smallness of the place, there is no news agency permanently represented in Luxembourg and the country is not very well covered by correspondents from foreign news agencies, except for Reuters with a Financial Monitor unit and the French AFP, which has a permanent stringer.

Other news agencies cover Luxembourg including European affairs taking place in the country via their Brussels offices. The government’s communication department, the “Service Information et Presse” (SIP), which is attached to the Prime Minister’s office, compensates in a very efficient way the absence of regular coverage of Luxembourg affairs by news agencies or correspondents from foreign papers.


4. ONLINE MEDIA

Online Media are slowly taking off. Most media operators have their web sites and the content of newspapers is available online, but most of the time restricted and not free of charge. Except for the d’Wort, which employs 4 Internet journalists, there are no separate newsrooms for online offerings.

The most popular sites are those operated by d’Wort, paperJam and RTL, http://www.wort.lu, http://www.paperjam.lu and http://www.RTL.lu. These sites attract most of the advertisement on the net, which represents less than 4 per cent of the advertising pie. Luxembourg has a very high Internet penetration with over 60 per cent of households connected, out of which some 20 per cent have high-speed connections of the DSL kind.


5. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

The main employers’ organisation is the “Association luxembourgeoise des éditeurs de journaux”, which regroups the publishers of the daily newspapers, a very efficient lobby in matters of concern to its vested interests (its share of the advertising pie and the level of public subsidies).

Journalists are organised in three separate associations, the largest and oldest being the “Association luxembourgeoise des journalistes” regrouping some 150 professional journalists. The “Union luxembourgeoise des journalistes” is the platform of journalists working for the media controlled by Groupe Saint-Paul (some 60 affiliates). Altogether there are more than 400 professional journalists, i.e. holders of a press card. About two thirds of them work for print media. One third of all journalists are foreigners living in Luxembourg or neighbouring regions and one-third women.


6. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

Media developments in Luxembourg have been almost exclusively the affair of private initiative. The government has encouraged through subsidies and regulation (new broadcasting law of 1991) some developments, especially in the field of print media.

A new franchise agreement signed in April 1995 between the government and RTL Group (called at that time CLT-UFA) established a contractual relationship for the next 15 years. All the existing radio and TV licences are prolonged for that period and RTL continues to enjoy a certain commercial exclusivity for its international operations out of Luxembourg. The government pledges to grant licences to third parties only if they do not compete with RTL activities. RTL succeeded in being freed of most of its public service obligations, including the requirement to maintain a symphony orchestra, as well as franchise fees. In return for these favours RTL has pledged to keep some activities in Luxembourg and to offer TV and radio programmes for local audiences.

Content regulation and ownership rules have been for most of the time inexistent, except for cross-media ownership. The 1991 law on electronic media has limited the stake one single shareholder can have in one of the commercial radios to 25 per cent. It is only with the advent of a regulatory framework at the European level that some measures have been taken. In the absence of specific legal provisions, the press is subjected to general legislation and litigation before ordinary courts remains the preferred means to call the media to account.


7. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

Contain regulation of the media is not very well developed. Self-regulation, also encouraged by the 2004 Press Law, is supposed to deal with contentious issues.

Journalists’ unions have their code of conduct, albeit vague, and a Press Council (“Conseil de Presse”), composed of editors and journalists, is supposed to police the profession. It is guided by a “Code de déontologie” and has a complaints’ commission chaired by a magistrate. The 1991 law established supervisory or regulatory bodies such as the Independent Broadcasting Commission (“Commission indépendante de la radiodiffusion”) in charge of granting broadcasting authorisations and controlling applications, an advisory Programme Commission (“Conseil national des programmes”) and a consultative Media Commission. Only the Programme Commission has taken up issues of accountability, but it is not empowered with sufficient authority to have any real impact.

The new Press law adopted in 2004 redefines the right of reply andt introduces the right for journalists to protect their sources. Regulatory matters are hampered by the government’s policy to promote the country as host to international media developments and vested interests of local media.


8. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE TRENDS

Despite a remarkably lively media landscape, Luxembourg’s media will have to take on sooner or later the market test of their viability.

The amazing diversity of the Luxembourg press can be attributed to the generous public subsidies but also to the links between political parties and newspapers. Provided these two requisites stay in place, Luxembourg will continue to enjoy pluralism in the printed press, which is unusual in the European context and a remarkable endeavour by itself.

The audiovisual media are rapidly switching from analogue to digital modes of transmission. This should be achieved by early 2007, even though analogue transmission will go on for some time. Luxembourg has been for decades at the forefront of media liberalisation in Europe (RTL and the Astra satellite system). It could become a victim of developments it has initiated so successfully for so long.


9. REFERENCES

  • On the press: Hilgert, R. (2004) “ Les journaux au Luxembourg 1704-2004”, Service Information et Presse, Luxembourg.
  • On the media landscape and in particular audiovisual media, see the chapters on Luxembourg written by Mario Hirsch in the Internationales Handbuch für Rundfunk und Fernsehen, Hans-Bredow-Institut, Nomos, and Baden-Baden 2001 and in The Media in Europe: The Euromedia Handbook, Sage, London 2004.


10. AUTHOR

Mario Hirsch was the Editor in chief of d'Lëtzebuerger Land between 1998 and 2006. He is now director of the Institut Pierre Werner (http://www.ipw.lu) in Luxembourg. ()


11. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Television

Radio

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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