AIB Media Briefing


6 December 2007


Welcome to the
latest global media briefing, published by the
Association for International
Broadcasting
, the industry association and networking organisation
that focuses on cross-border media.



In this issue, reaching over 20,000 media professionals:


Visit
www.aib.org.uk for more news from
the media worldwide. AIB members benefit from our specialist member-only
market intelligence briefings. Contact us to discuss how membership can
help your organisation.


The 2007 AIB Media Excellence Awards
were
presented in London on 20 November at a glittering ceremony attended by
more than 150 guests from all over the world.
Hosted
by BBC World’s Mishal Husain (left), the winners of the 12 AIB
Awards categories collected their trophies – and there were some
surprised faces among the winners!
You can see the complete listing of winners on the AIB website at
www.aib.org.uk and see pictures from
the evening – which included two special guests: digital media guru
Tomi Ahonen
and France 24
COO Jean Yves Bonsergent – on

Flickr
.
We’ll be announcing the 2008 AIB Media Excellence Awards in the
first quarter of the new year and the Awards dinner will take place in
London in early November.

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Radio Australia

has increased its reach in the Pacific. The international broadcaster
has opened a 24 hour-a-day relay on Vanuatu‘s Santo island.

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BBC World
Service
has opened a 24 hour-a-day FM channel in Trinidad and
Tobago
. BBC 98.7FM carries the World Service in English and the
special regional Caribbean programmes.

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A new pay-TV platform launches in France on 10
December, with up to 25 channels including most national channels
currently available on analogue and DTT in the country.
BIS
will be carried on
two satellites – Eutelsat‘s Hot Bird at 13 degrees east and
Atlantic Bird 3 at five degrees west. Consumers will be able to buy a
starter kit from retailers on their local high street which will include
a Viaccess-enabled decoder and smart card. The basic subscription cost
is 4.90 Euro a month. ABSat is providing the service.

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The International News Safety
Institute
, INSI, has gained US charitable status. The non-profit
institute now has charitable status under section 501(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code which enables INSI to raise money free of tax and
for donors to set their contributions against tax. INSI says this is a
major move forward for the organisation as it depends entirely on
donations for its work to help journalists covering all kinds of
dangerous stories, from wars to crime and corruption to natural
disasters. The move comes as the death toll for news media staff around
the world climbs to record levels. Last year was the worst on record
with 168 deaths; this year so far the toll stands at 168, according to
INSI’s count.

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AIB recommends…
DLD (Digital, Life,
Design), Munich, January 20-22, 2008
Bringing together digital innovation, gaming, arts, media and
science with thought-leaders from the Middle East, America, Asia and
Europe. It’s an event by invitation only although you can ask for
registration. The AIB recommends DLD as it’s breaking the mould of
traditional media-related conferences and it offers a great opportunity
to meet key players in emerging digital media sectors.

CBA General Assembly, Bahamas,
January 23-26, 2008
The meeting of members of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association,
including directors-general and chief technology officers, editors and
programme makers from broadcasters across the Commonwealth nations. The
AIB recommends this event as it’s one of the best ways to meet and
engage with the most senior people in broadcasting organisations from
more than 100 countries.

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Hong Kong has launched a terrestrial HD service.
Asia Television

(ATV) inaugurated the HD trial service on 2 December and the South
China Morning Post
reported that electronics shops in Mong Kok were
“swamped” with shoppers wanting to buy the HD DTT boxes. Most, the
newspaper said, were put off by the high cost of the boxes – around
HK$2,000 (US$260). Around half of the Hong Kong population will be able
to receive the new DTT broadcasts by the end of the year and five new
transmitting stations are to be built in 2008.

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Acquisitive Australian finance house
Macquarie
has taken a
major stake in South Korea‘s
C&M
cable TV company. Working with investment fund
MBK Partners, Macquarie Bank
has secured 61.17% of the company from its chairman, Lee Min-joo. C and
M has annual revenues of around US$343million generated by two million
cable TV subscribers. Approval is needed from Korea’s
Ministry of Information and
Communication
and the Korean
Broadcasting Commission
.
Macquarie Bank has been actively pursuing cash-generating businesses in
the media and media infrastructure industries. It has bought the UK’s
Arqiva
transmission company
which itself has purchased
National Grid Wireless
‘s
transmission business in the UK. However, the UK Competition Commission
has said that this acquisition may not be allowed through as it could
reduce competition in the UK broadcasting transmission marketplace.

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Voice of America
has doubled the output of its
Somali-language radio service
, just ten months after the service was
launched from Washington in February 2007. The new programme is on the
air at 1600 local time in the Horn of Africa (1300GMT).

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New Indian music TV channel, 9XM,
has climbed to the top of Indian TV audience ratings just three weeks
after its launch. According to 9XM, quoting
TAM
ratings, the channel has
overtaken MTV and Channel V, the most popular music
channels in the country. 9XM is one of a range of new channels being
launched by INX led by former Star TV executive, Peter Mukerjea
and his wife Indira.

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The next
edition of the AIB’s quarterly magazine is in preparation. Around 7,000
readers receive The Channel in their offices, and more read the
magazine at key media events worldwide. See what they get – click

here
to see the online version, and subscribe
here
and benefit from this month’s special offer of six editions of
The
Channel
delivered to your office or home for the price of four.

And talk to us about using the AIB’s print and online publications to
reach an audience of 25,000 media professionals worldwide…call +44 (0)
1727 739 184 and talk to Ollie Kirkman to see how the AIB can help you.


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About the AIB

The AIB is the industry association for
international broadcasting and a networking organisation of more than
25,000 media professionals
.

We provide our members with exclusive
market-intelligence reports, networking events, relevant tender data,
marketing support and lobbying.

We celebrate excellence and reward success with
our annual Media Excellence Awards. The 2008 AIB Media Excellence
Awards
will be launched in the first quarter of the new year.
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page








The global media source








It’s on the desks of major broadcasters from TV
Azteca
to the BBC, Bloomberg to Al Jazeera. It’s been ordered by
major media companies like Tiscali, Arqiva and Google.

It’s bigger, brighter and fuller of intelligent
source material than ever before.

It’s the AIB Directory of Global Broadcasting.

More
than 147 countries’ broadcasters and media operators are included in
this year’s








AIB Directory of
Global Broadcasting
.



This new AIB Directory of
Global Broadcasting
includes more than 2,500 new names of
media executives, compared with last year’s edition

From the rapidly expanding Indian media market to neighbouring
Nepal, Ghana to Venezuela, the Netherlands to Nigeria – the

AIB Directory of
Global Broadcasting
is the
only reference work covering TV and radio, plus emerging platforms.
It’s the ultimate sourcebook.


Published
September 2007


Format
A4 perfect-bound, 228 pages, full-colour throughout
Price
£120/US$200/EUR176 (including standard delivery*)





To download PDF sample pages of this new, fully revised Directory,


click here
.

To buy,

click here
.



*We ship via the UK’s Royal Mail – first class for UK orders (taking
one to two days) and air mail printed papers for other countries.
Transit times vary, but are usually between 6 and 10 working days.
We can ship via air courier at extra charge.

Contact us for details:
+44 (0) 20 7993 2557

Also available from the
AIB: Czech-Slovak Market Report
. An in-depth analysis of the
electronic media industry in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, published
by Broadband TV News. See
here
for details.




This electronic news briefing reaches the desktop of more than


20,000

media executives, regulators, journalists, editors,
parliamentarians and media experts worldwide.


Why not use us to help you reach your clients and potential clients?
We offer cost-effective ways to maximise exposure and minimising
cost.


Talk to Oliver Kirkman today about the AIB and how it can help your
business.


From electronic to on-the-page advertising to sponsorship of major
AIB events, we can help you.


Call +44 (0) 1727 739 184, or e-mail ollie (@)
centuryonepublishing.ltd.uk to discuss the opportunities.