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New RCI agreements with DW and RNW
Radio Canada International is expanding its reach in the major capitals of French-
speaking Africa through an agreement with German international broadcaster,
Deutsche Welle. Under the agreement, DW will allow its 100-plus local partner radio
stations to use its receivers to pick up RCI programming.
“This initiative fits perfectly with Radio Canada International’s repositioning, which
puts greater emphasis on building meaningful partnerships with large-scale
international radio services. Our agreement with DW will enable us to reach a larger
French-speaking audience in Africa,” said Jean Larin, director of Radio Canada
International. According to DW’s distribution director, Heinz Pianka, “RCI
programming will enrich our current radio offering by providing a Canadian
perspective on the major issues of the day.”
On 26 March RCI launched newPortuguese programming specially tailored to Brazilian
audiences. Journalist Hector Vilar will host the new weekly programme, a prestigious
news and information magazine covering key current affairs in Canada and Brazil.
Through an agreement with Radio Netherlands, this half-hour programme will be
broadcast on 300 AM and FM stations throughout Brazil. It will also be aired live on
RCI short-wave and via satellite and Internet.
Radio Canada International and Deutsche Welle are Members of the AIB.
Investing in China’s media – the door isn’t fully open
China has eased its ban on foreign investment in the production of TV programming,
with the exception of news programmes. The move forms part of reforms intended to
revitalize the country’s state-dominated media, regulators said on 9 February. Foreign
media firms may hold minority stakes in joint production companies, and local private
companies are allowed to jointly develop pay channels and to help fund plans to expand
pay TV and digital TV services. Direct stakes by foreign firms in Chinese media
companies remain forbidden, as does foreign investment in news programmes.
In an analysis of the current situation, BBC Monitoring Media Services say Chinese
officials are pushing for a big expansion of pay-TV to fund their ambitious plans to
switch completely to digital TV by 2015. The need to attract the private and overseas
capital and talent to fill the burgeoning number of planned new channels with quality
content for which viewers are prepared to pay lies behind Beijing’s decision to scrap
its ban on overseas investment in local production companies. China’s current
broadcasting is mainly limited to basic public channels. State-owned China Central
Television (CCTV), the industry leader, has 14 channels and is said to be undergoing
a major restructuring under which it will spin off production units and non-broadcasting
departments, some of which may later be listed on overseas markets.
China currently allows six foreign firms, among them News Corporation and Viacom,
to broadcast in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong, next to Hong Kong. US
media giant Time Warner’s Mandarin-language China Entertainment Television
Broadcast Ltd (CETV) won rights in April 2003 to be carried nationwide in China.
The state also permits 31 foreign channels, including BBC World, to broadcast to
hotels graded three-star and above and to approved housing compounds.
But for the investor China’s huge and fast-growing media market remains a challenge. As
theUK’s
Financial Times
reported, fewforeigners get inon themedia act. Beijing’s landmark
decision in 2001 to grant landing rights to broadcasters such as News Corporation’s Star TV
andAOL TimeWarner has not led to rapid expansion of such privileges. AOL last year sold
its controlling stake in its mainland Chinese TV station. This suggests that while China’s
decision todrop its banon foreign investment inTVor filmproductionunits is abreakthrough,
itmaynot immediately translate intobigbusiness breaks. Initial deals are likely tobe restricted
to the less sensitive sectors, and it is worth noting that smaller regional broadcasters could
offer more immediate possibilities for partnerships.
Output cut at VoA
VoA News Now, the Voice of America’s
global English-language service, reduced
many of its transmissions at the end of
March. The cuts were required by the US
Broadcasting Board of Governors as part
of a budget reduction. Affected are News
Now transmission to the Americas, to
Africa (where its audiences are largest),
to the Pacific region, to the Middle East,
South Asia and North Africa. Europe is
no longer a nominal target area for News
Now. All News Now transmissions via the
Munich medium wave relay have been
eliminated. With these reductions, the
shortwave output of VoA News Now is
18.5 hours per day Monday through Friday
and 17.5 hours per day Saturday and
Sunday. Further cuts to VoA News Now
are planned for the end of October, when
it will be reduced to 14 hours per day.
In February, VoA stopped broadcasting
in Bulgarian, Estonian, Czech, Hungarian,
Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian,
Slovak and Slovenian. In addition,
programmes in Ukrainian and Armenian
were reduced. VoA Director David Jackson
says VoA must shift its focus to “new
audiences and new priorities”. He says
he is sad the agency must say good-bye
to loyal colleagues, but that he is proud
that their professionalism and dedication
to freedom and truth have played an
important role in spreading democracy.
News Centre opens; radio and TV merge
VoA inaugurated its new high-tech
newsroom - known as VoA Newscentral -
in its Cohen Building headquarters in
Washington DC on 3rd March. The
newsroom is equipped with a range of radio
and TV studios to allow bulletins to be
transmitted live on VoA radio and WorldNet
television services worldwide. The opening
of VoA Newscentral came shortly before
the announcement that VoA and WorldNet
are to merge on 16 May. In a message to
VoA and WorldNet staff, VoA Director David
Jackson said, “ With this process, we are
combining two great institutions to create
a powerful multimedia broadcast
organisation that can more effectively
reach our diverse audiences through radio,
television, and the Internet.”
The new Voice of America will be made
up of three directorates — Technical
Operations, Central Programming, and
Language Programming — with each
directorate headed by a new Associate
Director. Ted Iliff is Associate Director for
Central Programming and Kelu Chao is
Associate Director for Language
Programming. The Technical Operations
job will be filled soon. Under the merger,
the current Eurasian and European
Division form a new Eurasian Division.
Viacom and Shanghai Media Group in historic deal
US media giant Viacom and the Shanghai Media Group have formed a joint venture
production company to provide content for nine million television viewers in China’s
most cosmopolitan city. The deal is the first of its kind since the country opened the
door to foreign investment in the tightly controlled sector late last year.
Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone outlined plans for the joint venture production house
as part of a raft of new deals reached with partners in China, including the state-run
national broadcaster, China Central Television, aimed at tapping the country’s fast-
growing TV audience. Viacom’s stake in the venture with SMG would be significant
but not a majority, Redstone told reporters in Beijing. The venture will make educational
and animated children’s’ programmes. Viacom owns MTV among other TV properties.
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