Greeks Go Mad For Music Tv

Greek 24-hour free-to-air music channel Mad TV is looking to carry its success in its homeland and the surrounding Balkan region into new areas.

Buoyed by net profits of 300,000 euros ($298,000) on a consolidated turnover of 2.5 million euros ($2.48 million) in 2001, Mad's 27-year-old founder and CEO, Andreas Kouris, plans to get involved within the next 12 months in local concert promotion, open a commercial radio station, create a youth-lifestyle Internet portal, and develop a licensing/merchandising entity.

Since it first went on the 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.

Currently employing 70 people, Mad TV is rebroadcast in Cyprus, Albania, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, and the U.S. through various free, pay, analog, or cable-TV deals. The station's PD is Konstandinos Borounis.

Based in the northwestern Athens suburb of Pallini, Mad TV's other activities include a music Internet portal (mad.gr), music magazine (MadVoice), a transactional Web site (madshop.gr), and a digital radio service (MadMusic).

Costadis Spyropoulos, new-media manager/product manager for EMI Recorded Music in Greece, says: "[The combination of] TV, radio, print, Web site, and e-shop all makes up a complete music group, which goes beyond Greek borders." Spyropoulos describes the Mad TV group as "a local monopoly," adding that it plays an integral role in the promotion and marketing of artists.

But Kouris says he is far from satisfied with the treatment that the station gets from local labels, describing the situation as being similar to that of an "an open-air flea market."

"Most labels in Greece work haphazardly, with short-term logic and isolated from international developments, as if mere receivers of commands," Kouris says. "Under these circumstances, they don't build long-term relationships, nor do they help put things right in order to develop the recording industry in Greece." Kouris notes that Mad TV pays to use music videos; other channels do not.

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) Greece GM Ion Stamboulis admits "that at this point, no other TV station [in Greece] pays for rights." But he stresses that all the other stations have been subjected to legal action initiated by IFPI Greece. He also points out that Mad is the only channel relying solely on music for its 24-hour programming.

TV regulation is a complex issue in Greece, where most of the commercial channels currently on air are unlicensed. This situation is unlikely to change until after the next general election in April 2004. But there are plans for a maximum of six commercial terrestrial licenses to eventually be issued to stations that meet the appropriate criteria set by the local TV and radio watchdog.

Most of the commercial TV channels in Greece are owned by the country's most powerful businessmen, mainly from the publishing sector. "Those who don't have the backing of these funds might find themselves in for a painful ordeal [over regulation]," Kouris comments. Mad TV itself is owned by the Makis Kouris Group—headed by Kouris' own father, Makis—which includes the Koryfi Publishing House.