The Channel | 2009 | Issue 2

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IN BRIEF
State-run broadcaster China
Central Television set up French
and Spanish channels before the
2008 Beijing Olympics and is now
following up with a Russian and
Arabic channel.
The 24-hour Arabic
international channel launched
by CCTV in July reaches some
300m people in the Middle East,
North Africa and the Asia-Pacific
region. CCTV Vice President
Zhang Changming said the
channel would serve as an
important bridge to strengthen
communication and
understanding between China
and Arab countries. CCTV Arabic
produces news, features,
entertainment and education
programming.
In June, CCTV changed the
format of its flagship nightly
news programme to include
more human-interest segments
and critical reporting. This
comes in the wake of a study
which showed the audience is
turning away from dry reports on
government announcements.
CCTV news faces strong
competition from Hong Kong's
Mandarin-language Phoenix TV,
from pirated satellite news
channels from overseas and
from news on the Internet.
Eyewitnesses break the news
As often as once per second and
throughout Iran’s election crisis,
Iranians flooded Voice of
America’s Persian News
Network and Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty’s Radio Farda with
e-mails, videos, tweets, and
images. VOA deployed an uploading
service, Yousendit, to help shield
the identity of those sharing
photos and videos and both
broadcasters offered
circumvention software to help
web users evade censors.
To combat increased signal
interference, VOA’s satellite TV
distribution channels were
increased and RFE/RL’s
shortwave radio and satellite
transmissions were multiplied in
order to report back to Iranians
by drawing from the masses of
citizen-generated media.
Highly interactive, live
programmes from multiple
locations worldwide are bringing
news closer to audiences as US
international broadcasters tap
advanced technology and exploit
a global news network.
Alhurra TV’s Al Youm (Today)
originates simultaneously live
from five cities on three continents
and incorporates interactive
tools including Facebook to
engage its audience. The show
employs new digital compression
technology, converting signals
China state media
reaches out
THE CHANNEL | MEDIA MARKETS
from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4.
A live VOA discussion of
President Obama’s first 100 days
in office used a high quality
Polycom system and Vbrick
encoder to weave together
commentators in Washington,
Pakistan, Kenya and China for
the programme carried online,
on satellite TV, FM, AM and
shortwave.
NEW DG FOR EBU
Following an international
search, the EBU has
appointed Ingrid Deltenre to
succeed Jean Réveillon as
its Director General in 2010.
EBU President Jean-Paul
Philippot of RTBF/Belgium
welcomed the appointment
by saying that Ms. Deltenre
is a high-calibre
professional under whose
leadership the EBU will help
Members to overcome the
technical, editorial and
financial challenges of the
digital age and the current
economic climate.
TV IS ON AGENDA
By acquiring TSI Broadcast,
international broadcast and
transmission company WRN
is now able to offer clients a
comprehensive product
offering in ingest, playout,
streaming, encoding and
transcoding in addition to its
existing radio and TV
broadcast services. WRN
MD David Treadway says the
acquisition of TSI sends out
a clear message to the
industry that TV is on the
agenda. All services will
operate from WRN's
established base in
Vauxhall, London and WRN
welcomes new clients Top
Up TV, Camelot, Ocean
Finance and others to its
growing TV client portfolio.
FIRST IN INDIA
RadioAsia will be held for
the first time in India in
February 2010. RadioAsia -
the only international radio
programming event of its
kind in the region – is
organised annually by the
Asia-Pacific Broadcasting
Union (ABU), Asian Media
Information and
Communications Centre
(AMIC) and Singapore
Exhibition Services (SES).
The organisers have now
decided to rotate RadioAsia
among different countries in
the region, with the 2010
event being the first outside
of Singapore.
010/
12 | ISSUE 2 2009 | THE CHANNEL
Read by
millions
The Associated Press says that
more than 55m local stories have
been read on AP Mobile, its
award-winning multimedia news
portal , since
its May 2008 launch as the first
product released by AP's Digital
Cooperative.
It's a big success story, with
more than 1,000 trusted local
sources choosing to distribute
their news on AP Mobile. "The
AP Mobile readership places a
high value on news that is
increasingly local and relevant to
their communities,” said Jeff
Litvack, AP general manager for
mobile and emerging products.
AP Mobile Reader
Demographics show 63% of
users are aged 18-34, 53% of
users earn $75,000+ per year,
men represent 78% of traffic to
all subject areas, users include
members of all ethnic groups.
Recognizing the demand, AP
forged relationships with
handset manufacturers including
Nokia, RIM and Windows Mobile
as well as wireless carriers such
as AT&T and Virgin Mobile USA.