AIB publishes position paper on Vietnam pay-TV regulations
AIB continues its work on behalf of its global membership of broadcasters, service providers and manufacturers with the publication of a key position paper on regulations that will hamper the operations of international channels in Vietnam. AIB is in discussion with the Vietnamese authorities, including the Ministry of Information and Communication, to ensure that the views of AIB and its members are taken into account and to help influence the legislative process in the country.
You can download a copy of the position paper in PDF format here.

PROGRAMMING AND PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
New 24 hour news channel in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has a new news channel, 24 KZ, launched on 1 September. Available on cable systems and the Otau TV satellite platform, 24 KZ is headed by Director Alexander Aksyutits and Editor-in-Chief Arman Seytmamyt. The channel is based in Astana and is part of the Khabar News Agency. Khabar suggests that the new channel is part of the country's move to digital television.
For information on who's who in Kazakhstan's media companies - and others across Central Asia - consult the AIB Global Broadcasting Sourcebook.

BBC launches first Kiswahili TV programme
BBC Swahili has launched a weekday TV news and current affairs programme that's carried on TV stations in Kenya and Tanzania. Dira ya Dunia, a long-running radio programme from the BBC (which in English means Compass to the World) now has a sister TV programme, hosted by London-based presenters Salim Kikeke and Charles Hilary, with reporters based around East African countries as well as in South Africa and Nigeria.
The TV programme is carried on QTV in Kenya and Star TV in Tanzania and follows the launch of BBC Focus on Africa, an English-language TV news and current affairs programme, in the two countries.

Major spat in India's TV ratings industry
There is a major dispute happening in India's TV industry between NDTV and TAM, the country's audience measurement company. NDTV has issued a lawsuit in New York, claiming that the audience figures on which all India's advertising sales are based, can be easily manipulated. TAM's parent company is global media giant WPP, headed by Sir Martin Sorrell. NDTV claims that the Indian measurement system is flawed and underestimates NDTV's actual audience, which has a major impact on the channel's ability to sell advertising. It's worth noting that there are currently 133 news channels in India, up from around 40 seven years ago and now the country's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is involved in the argument, calling the Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Indian Society of Advertisers to a meeting on 4 September. It has also, according to some reports, asked TAM and Nielsen to report about the way the measurement industry works within two weeks.

AIB recommends...events and more
IBC 2012
Amsterdam 6-11 September
IBC is the premier annual conference and exhibition for professionals engaged in the creation, management and delivery of electronic media and entertainment content worldwide.
Between 6 - 11 September you can mix with over 50,000 of the industry’s finest minds and wisest investors from across the international electronic media spectrum to do business, debate, share insight, network and lead.
AIB will be at IBC on stand 6.A05 - a new location for us this year. We look forward to meeting you there.

London 2012 - Post-Olympic Broadcast Briefing
A date for your diary: on 12 October, AIB is organising the post-Olympic broadcast briefing in association with Wimbledon.
A range of high-level speakers - including the BBC's Roger Mosey, Facebook's Joanna Shields and key representatives from LOCOG - will share their experiences of covering London 2012, from technology to how to weave stories around a major sporting event. There will be extensive examples of the way video conveyed the atmosphere of the Games and there will also be lots on how social media and TV interacted.
Delegates from major broadcasters across Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific have already confirmed they'll be at Wimbledon for the Post-Olympic Broadcast Briefing on 12 October.
Contact us for details about this high-level, invitation-only event.

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DISTRIBUTION, TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS
Myanmar gets first international channel
Channel NewsAsia is the first international news channel to gain distribution in rapidly opening up Myanmar. The Singapore-based channel is now carried on the country's Sky Net pay-TV platform. With a population of around 50m, Myanmar is one of Asia's last untapped consumer markets and after years of being effectively closed to the outside world, Myanmar's citizens are probably hungry for content from around the world. However, with a per capita GDP of just US$1,300, there's a limit to spending power presently. Nevertheless, this is a market that's waiting to be exploited and it's good to see an international news channel available in the country.

Star Times launches in more Kenyan cities
China continues to expand its influence in Africa. Its StarTimes digital TV platform has now launched in Kenya's major port city of Mombasa, following its launch in Nairobi and Kisumu. The platform says it will be available to subscribers in seven towns by the end of this year.
A majority of Kenya's domestic channels are carried on StarTimes, along with international channels like Al Jazeera English, BBC World News, France 24 and CCTV News. Discovery World, CCTV Documentary and Nat Geo Gold are among the six documentary channels on the platform.
In addition to in-home receivers, StarTimes offers two in-car TV receivers although it is unclear how many people have chosen to buy these devices. However, given the immense traffic jams in Nairobi, perhaps the car receivers will be an attractive proposition to subscribers.

Channel 10 lays off staff
Israel's Channel 10 is to lay off 150 staff after the company's attempts to renegotiate its debt repayments stalled. The channel's future appears to be uncertain. Avi Balashnikov, the Channel 10 board's deputy chairman, was quoted in Haaretz as saying: "We've tried to meet with the finance minister for almost a year, and have been kept away on various pretexts; and today we were told that the finance minister wants two months to study the matter. Such policy is a death sentence for the channel. Steinitz will be remembered in the history of communications in the State of Israel as the man who single-handedly killed the country's commercial network."
During an early evening news bulletin on 28 August, some Channel 10 staff barged into the studio waving placards in front of the cameras, protesting that the station's closure is imminent.

PEOPLE
Patrick Tillieux, former executive at TF1 and RTL, is to be the new CEO of Red Bee Media. Red Bee provides playout, EPG data, second screen applications and a wide range of other services to broadcasters and content owners internationally.