THE CHANNEL
|
MEDIA MARKETS
Al Jazeera doc angers
Kenyan authorities
The Kenyan government has
ordered that Al Jazeera be
investigated and face possible
charges, over the network’s
recent report alleging that the
Kenyan police had been running
death squads, with the
knowledge of Western powers.
The Al Jazeera documentary,
Inside Kenya’s Death Squads
,
asserted that the most high-
profile assassinations were
aimed at Muslim leaders,
including those with links to the
al-Shabab militant group and
that Western intelligence
agencies provided some of the
information needed to carry out
the killings.
Al Jazeera, said it was deeply
concerned by the Kenyan
government's threat against
those involved in making the
documentary."Al Jazeera urges
the Government of Kenya (GoK)
not to attack journalists or to
curtail freedom of speech, but
instead to confront the serious
allegations that its agents
commit extra-judicial killings,"
the channel said in a statement.
The controversy comes just as
Kenyan lawmakers in the
country’s National Assembly are
fiercely debating new security
laws, which include proposals to
limit picketing and holding public
meetings.
IN BRIEF
PLAYBOX MOVES
INTO EUROPE
PlayBox Technology has
expanded its UK-based
sales operation to
encourage partnerships
with broadcast systems
integrators and resellers
across Europe. The advance
will be spearheaded by
Kevin Salvidge who has
joined PlayBox Technology
as manager of Business
Development, Channels.
RED EXPANDS
RED Digital Cinema has
extended the reach of their
global support through the
addition of new Authorised
Rental House and Dealer
programmes. RED selected
authorised dealers to create
a support network extension
in a variety of genres including
stills, cinema, broadcast,
inflight videography, and TV.
Customers can access
services such as product
demos, technical assistance,
product purchases, and
mail-in/drop-off for repair
services.
RTÉ SELECTS
LIVEU FOR NEWS
Irish national broadcaster
RTÉ has chosen cellular
uplinking technology from
LiveU to play a central
newsgathering role. RTÉ
News has already deployed
LiveU’s LU500 portable
uplink solution and has
ordered a LU200 for use
with its Ka-band flyaway kit.
In addition it’s using LU-
Smart smartphone app
licences. Piotr Kaszynski,
Technology Manager with
RTÉ, said, “We began testing
systems with the arrival of
4G, which in turn has
improved 3G availability.
That led us to choose LiveU
for several reasons, specifically
for its superior performance
and the range of products.
We wanted a small, very
portable solution that could
fit on the back of a camera.
The LU500 does exactly this
and overcomes the issue of
cameramen having to carry
a heavy backpack.”
TVC News, the pan-African 24-
hour TV news channel based in
Lagos, Nigeria continues to rack
up the awards for its reporting
on a variety of issues across the
continent. Again short-listed for
the AIB Awards in 2014 for its
reporting from the Central
African Republic, TVC News
correspondents and
programmes have also been
honoured for their coverage of
stories on maternal and child
healthcare, disease prevention,
industrial security and African
arts and culture. One of the
channel’s chief reporters,
Kelechi Emekalam, recently won
the Wole Soyinka Award for
Investigative Reporting for
War
Without End
, her look at the
legacy of the Biafran War.
Recent additions to its
distribution network include
FreeView in the UK, Post TV in
Germany and StarTimes in South
Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda
and Uganda.
Audience reach across Africa
and beyond is now approaching
20 million households.
TVC News
expands
Ooyala: small screens for long-form
In its Q3
Global Video Index
Report
, Ooyala showed consistent
daily patterns in the way people
consume TV and video across
different devices throughout the
day. The report also shows that
mobile and tablet devices
reached 30 percent of all online
video views during the quarter,
representing a 114 percent year-
over-year increase. At this rate,
Ooyala predicts that mobile and
tablet viewing will reach 50 per-
cent of all online views by late 2015.
Viewers increasingly are
turning to the Internet for their
daily content, driven in large part
by increased access to premium
and live video content, especially
international sporting events and
news. The result is unprecedented
growth rates in mobile and tablet
video consumption. Broadcasters
and publishers who have access
to this kind of consumption data
for their own content have a
unique opportunity to capitalise
on this trend, particularly in
mature markets where video-
capable devices and wireless
broadband are ubiquitous.
The report also showed
substantial growth of long-form
video consumption across
devices. Connected TVs -
whether connected directly to the
Internet or via game consoles
and other devices - were central
to long-form content consumption
during the quarter. Viewers
watched long-form content,
videos longer than 10 minutes,
four times more than on tablets
and almost 10 times more than
on mobile phones.
More surprisingly, the report
shows that all screens are
becoming popular for watching
longer video. Tablet viewers
spent 68 percent of their time
watching video exceeding ten
minutes, indicating that tablets
are becoming nearly inter-
changeable with TVs for long-
form video. Even mobile phone
users spent 48 percent of their
total viewing time with long-form
content, which tends to be
premium content such as TV
shows, movies, news and sport.
This trend points to new
monetisation opportunities for
premium video publishers.
10
|
ISSUE 1 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
