The Channel | 2004 | September

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Global Brief
The latest news from the international broadcasting industry
6 | the channel
9/11 commission acknowledges role of US
international broadcasting
Citing the “promising initiatives” of U.S. international broadcasting in the Arab world, Iran
and Afghanistan, the bi-partisan panel investigating the September 11 attacks called for
increased funding for those efforts. “The Broadcasting Board of Governors [anAIB member]
has asked for much larger resources,” the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon
the United States said in its report. “It should get them.”
The 9/11 commission recommends: “Recognising that Arab and Muslim audiences rely on
satellite television and radio, the government has begun some promising
initiatives in television and radio broadcasting to the Arab world, Iran, and
Afghanistan. These efforts are beginning to reach large audiences.”
Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the BBG, the independent federal agency
that oversees all U.S. international broadcasting, said of the report’s
recommendations, “We believe that the people of the Middle East and elsewhere
are best served by providing them the truth. That’s what our broadcasting does.”
Currently, the BBG’s annual budget of more than $550 million goes to broadcasts
around the world through various entities, including the Voice of America ;
Alhurra television and Radio Sawa, Arabic-language broadcasts; Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia
Since 9/11, the BBG has taken steps to dramatically increase its broadcasting
to key areas.
• TheMiddle East:Alhurra, a new satellite television channel launched in February
2004 (right), is aimed at Arabic-speaking viewers in 22 countries across the
Middle East. Radio Sawa, a 24/7 station, has garnered large audiences of young
people in the region with its mix of news, information and Western and Arabic music.
• Iran: Radio Farda, a youth-oriented, 24/7 radio, covers news about Iran, along with
entertainment and features. It is a joint project of VOA and RFE/RL. VOA-TV launched a
successful, daily, Persian-language show, News and Views, broadcast to audiences by satellite.
Additionally, VOA has a Persian service and two other weekly television shows.
•Afghanistan:Audiences in that country are able to listen to a 24-hour streamof news, information
and other programs in Dari and Pashto. These are run by the VOA and Radio Free Afghanistan,
which is part of RFE/RL. Additionally, the BBG arranged for two medium-wave transmitters to
be installed in Kabul - one for the BBG, the other for Afghanistan to help bolster its media.
• Pakistan: The VOA recently expanded its Urdu service to 12 hours daily to reach more
Urdu-speaking listeners in Pakistan and parts of India.
Now you see it…now you don’t
France’s plan to launch a French-language international TV network to rival existing channels
such as Aljazeera, CNN and the BBC have been put on indefinite hold. “There is no money
for the project,” France’s new foreign minister Michel Barnier has told the French Foreign
Affairs Commission. The plan, announced by President Jacques Chirac in March 2003, was
to develop CII [chaîne d’information internationale], with France Télévisions and TF1 running
the channel. The French foreign ministry announced an annual budget of € 70 million for CII
and said that the network would launch in late 2004. However, as Barnier told his inquisitors,
there is no money in this year’s budget, nor in that of 2005 – even though the
French daily Liberation describes the proposed sum as “peanuts”. French politicians
seem convinced that the plan is now doomed. Patrick Le Lay, the chairman of TF1
is quoted in Liberation as having said “categorically CII is finished”. French
parliamentarian Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres was equally unenthusiastic, saying
“all the players in international broadcasting are already on the field. This includes
AFP, RFI, EuroNews, TV5”. Essentially, thinks de Vabres, there is no room for
another French international broadcaster.
The probable stillbirth of CII follows suggestions that the BBC wants to launch an
Arabic-language TV channel. Speaking to members of the UK Parliament’s Foreign
Affairs Committee in June, Nigel Chapman, then acting director of BBCWorld Service, said
that it wants to launch the channel which would be on the air 24 hours a day across the
Middle East with news, discussion programmes and documentaries, designed to address
“the dramatically changed media landscape in the Middle East”. The plans have been included
in the British Foreign Office spending review for 2004 which has gone to the UK Treasury
for approval and are reported to be £28 million per annum. However, senior sources at the
BBC have suggested that it is unlikely that approval will be given and ttherefore it is doubtful
that the proposed channel will launch.
The BBC operated an Arabic language service via the Orbit TV satellite system but this
closed in 1996 after differences over editorial control. Many of the BBC’s Arabic TV staff
went on to join Aljazeera that launched from Qatar the same year.
Le Lay - c’est fini?
CNBC Europe names new MD
CNBC Europe has appointed Mick Buckley
as President and Managing Director. Buckley
will be responsible for all aspects of
operations and strategic initiatives
including increasing distribution,
expanding locally produced European
programming, extending live coverage from
the leading European financial centres and
developing additional local-language
affiliates. He succeeds Rick Cotton, who was
named Executive Vice President and General
Counsel of NBC Universal based in New York.
“Sperm Race” - coming to your TV soon
Dutch TV producer ‘Endemol International’ is
working on two controversial television shows
about sperm. Sperm Race is a hunt for the
man with the best sperm. Making a woman
pregnant is the main prize of Make Me a Mum.
The idea of a show about sperm dates back to
2001, but was dropped at the time as being
too controversial. The biggest Dutch political
party has already fiercely opposed the 2004
version of the idea.
PanAmSat ‘Best Satellite Operator in
Asia’; signs with NHK and Fox for HD
PanAmSat Corporation has been named best
satellite operator in the Asia-Pacific region by
Telecom Asia magazine. The award was
presented on the basis of financial performance,
market leadership, technology innovation and
corporate governance, and welcomed by Mike
Antonovich, PanAmSat’s new Executive VP
Global Sales and Marketing appointed in July.
PanAmSat offers a range of services in the Asia-
Pacific region and customers include NHK,
China Central Television (CCTV), Doordarshan,
Korea Broadcasting System, Arirang TV, ABS-
CBN, TVB, NicNet and Telstra.
PanAmSat has contracted with NHK to deliver
live high-definition (HD) sporting events and
breaking news via the company’s global hybrid
satellite and fibre network. The company also
expanded its long-term agreement with the
Fox Entertainment Group to include two
additional transponders on the C-band
platform of Galaxy 13. Fox Entertainment
Group’s Fox Cable Networks division will use
the new capacity to distribute Fox Sports Net
HD and future HD services.
New multi-ethnic TV station for Kosovo
In July, the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo
opened the first multi-ethnic private TV station
in the region. TV Herc brings together Kosovo
Serbs and Kosovo Albanians in a joint editorial
team. The OSCE Mission’s support has taken the
formof training sessions and study visits to other
Kosovo television stations, as well as purchasing
equipment. TV Herc’s 12 staff members (three
Kosovo Albanians and nine Kosovo Serbs) will
produce local news four times a day and live
shows featuring prominent figures from the local
and international community. The station will
also broadcast Voice of America news in both
the Serbian and Albanian languages.
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