PROGRAMMING, PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
Euronews plans major new initiatives
As it celebrates its 20th birthday, Euronews has announced ambitious new plans including the launch of the first 24/7 Greek-language news channel. Operating from a new bureau in Athens, Euronews Greek will launch in December, with Euronews Hungarian following from Budapest in Q1 2013. The channel is currently recruiting 100 journalists to its existing staff and will add radio to its portfolio of media services. Euronews Radio started on 2 October with news bulletins every 15 minutes from 0600-2200 CET and every 30 minutes during the European night.
During a press conference in Paris on 2 October, Euronews CEO Michael Peters said that the broadcaster is looking for new partnerships and issued a "marriage proposal" to Germany's PSBs.

Al Jazeera launches tablet magazine
Al Jazeera has launched a monthly digital magazine showcase the best of the channel's journalism. With analysis, graphics and video, the magazine is available on the iPad free-of-charge. The first (110MB) edition focuses on the environment. The magazine is designed to complement Al Jazeera's TV and online services.

European channels feel the pinch
Romania and Greece have both seen channels close recently. TVR, the PSB in Romania, has closed TVR Cultural. The channel launched ten years ago and has been the only cultural channel in the country. TVR faces what its CEO says is a "critical financial situation". Some of the channel's programmes will move to TVR2. In Greece, the Communist Party (KKE) has said that it is shutting down the party's TV channel 902. The political party blames the high cost of operation resulting from digital switch-over in Greece.

Channel NewsAsia debate series begins
As Asia continues to make headlines, Channel NewsAsia launches another season of its high profile programme, Bridging Asia – the Singapore Debates, where experts and thinkers from diverse fields come together to exchange perspectives on the most pressing issues confronting the region.
This season, Bridging Asia goes “live” to give voice to five topics demanding our attention today. Some eminent experts include Professor Mark Thompson of the City University of Hong Kong, Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim of Transparency International Malaysia, Mr Xu Sitao of the Economist Group in China and Mr Andrew Bruce of the International Organisation for Migration. (See Annex 1 for details). Each episode will feature two teams comprising two speakers a side. The debate will be moderated by Mr Gaurav Keerthi, former president of the Debate Association Singapore.
More on this at www.aib.org.uk

AIB recommends...events and more
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, Google's Claude Ruibal 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 confirmed they'll be at Wimbledon for the Post-Olympic Broadcast Briefing on 12 October - join them.
See www.aib.org.uk for more information and to reserve places.

NewsXchange 2012
Barcelona, 14-16 November 2012
The agenda for News Xchange 2012 is nearly complete and already there is an outstanding group of speakers and panellists. With the overall theme of Journalism Matters, this year's agenda comprises four main parts: Stories, Tools, Connectedness and Transformation. Sessions include an opening keynote address from journalist Sonia Nazario, whose work covering "el tren de la muerta" -- Central American migrants risking life and limb on the so-called death trains up to Texas -- won her the coveted Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism; a look at the ongoing story of The Arab Spring from both Middle East and Western perspectives; a presentation on the climate change story from the viewpoint of indigenous Sami journalists; the new Eurovision Thought Leadership Lecture featuring global guru Ethan Zuckerman; a keynote address from the BBC's Director of News, Helen Boaden; plus a wide range of fascinating panel discussions, debates and interviews.
AIB will be present at this annual meeting of the broadcast news industry and we recommend the event to you.

DISTRIBUTION, TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS
Saving Africa's archives
Radio France Internationale is helping Radio Lome, the state broadcaster in Togo, in its archive digitalisation project that started in February.
RFI has provided Radio Lome with a number of Tascam open reel tape decks to enable the African broadcaster to continue the work of digitalising its tape library. The machines were presented by M Etienne Cazin, director of the French Institute of Lome.

Star Times "proud" to be helping Africa as digital timetable flounders
As AIB has reported, China's Star Times is rolling-out digital TV services across Africa. Now William Lan, CEO of Star Media (Tanzania), has told the People's Daily newspaper that he is "very proud of what he is doing" as his company becomes the dominant player in Tanzania's digital TV market. Lan said that the company, which was founded three years ago and officially launched its services last September, is now providing digital TV content to more than 220,000 people in Tanzania, or 21 per cent of the country's population.
Lan said that that his company's services cover seven regions and include 54 high-quality channels in multiple languages such as English, Chinese and Kiswahili. The channels, including for example CCTV-9, BBC World and MTV Base, provide news, music, film and TV shows, sports and children's shows. "It is a great boost to local people's cultural consumption," he said. Chinese culture plays an important part in those programmes. The newly introduced kung fu channel, which plays martial art TV series, movies and documentaries, is one of the most popular channels, Lan said.
Star Times operates across nine African countries and has licences to operate in 13 countries and had a reported revenue of US$50m in 2011. At the same time, the East African Community Council of Ministers has warned that countries in the region risk failing to meet the December 2012 deadline for digital TV migration. It blames conflict over signal distribution and a weak regulatory framework for the problems. Added to this are the woes of state-owned broadcasters such as Kenya's KBC which has extensive debts and reportedly needs an injection of 7bn shillings (around US$84m) to stay afloat.

VoA Chinese boosts satellite coverage
Voice of America TV programmes in Chinese, Tibetan and English can now be watched on two DTH platforms. VoA programmes have been added to the line-up on Telstar 18, also known as ApStar 5 [138 degrees East], rated as one of the most popular direct-to-home satellites in China, according to Dishpointer.com. The programmes are also available on the AsiaSat 3 [105.5 degrees East] C-band.
"Earlier this year we completely revamped our flagship Chinese TV news show, expanding it to two hours a day, and adding fast-paced programme elements and features," says VoA director David Ensor. "Now we have the programme on two satellites, including Telstar 18. We hope these changes will make it easier for our audience to get the news and information that they have come to expect from the Voice of America."
In addition to Mandarin TV, VoA's twice-weekly Tibetan news show, and shorter news updates, will be broadcast along with VoA English features aimed at the Chinese audience.

PEOPLE
Sam Taylor has been appointed Controller of the BBC News Channel, the domestic 24 hour-news channel, and of BBC News at One. Taylor replaces Kevin Bakhurst, who crossed the Irish Sea in September to become managing director of news and current affairs at Ireland's PSB RTE.