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The debate over commercial
radio stations in India being
allowed to carry news and
current affairs continues. FM
radio operators - which now
number several hundred across
all major cities in India - met
with the Asha Swarup, Secretary
at the Information and Broad-
casting Ministry in December
pointing out once again that they
had been singled out by the
government’s restriction on the
carriage of news programmes
while TV owners face no obstacle
to carrying news. The govern-
ment’s view is that radio is far
more wide-reaching than TV and
therefore there needs to be a
continued restriction on news
that could potentially cause
unrest in the country. It is
unlikely that commercial radio
will succeed in its goal in the
short term, but the stakes are
high. There is currently little to
differentiate commercial
stations, a majority of which have
very similar formats with many
playing back-to-back popular
Bollywood music.
At the same time, All India
Radio’s Director General of
News, Mr P K Bandopadhaya,
has said that the national public
broadcaster is looking into a
dedicated news station to
counter the onslaught of TV
news channels which are having
a detrimental effect on radio
audiences in urban areas. Radio
remains very important in rural
areas, Bandopadhaya believes,
with little change in listening
figures.
Initial research by AIR has
found that running a full-time
news channel is viable, although
the broadcaster faces a problem
as it has an ageing workforce
resulting from the ban on
recruitment to both All India
Radio and Doordarshan that has
been in place since the mid-
1990s.
EuroNews has won the European
Union's call for tenders to extend
its offering to include Arabic.
EuroNews already broadcasts in
seven languages simultaneously
(English, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish).
With the launch planned for
2008, a team of 35 people will
work at EuroNews' head office in
Lyon, France. In parallel, the
channel will adapt its technical
facilities (production,
broadcasting and distribution) to
host this new language version.
The Arabic service will be
broadcast across EuroNews'
entire network of 35 satellites,
making the Arabic-service signal
available worldwide.
Philippe Cayla, Chairman &
CEO of EuroNews, says the
addition of Arabic is an important
milestone in EuroNews' multi-
language strategy. With Arabic,
the channel will be able to grow
its audience among Arabic-
speaking populations in Europe and
in the Mediterranean basin. In
Europe, the fact that EuroNews
is available in Arabic will
definitely help Arabic-speaking
populations to better understand
the framework of European
policies and the issues at stake.
In the Mediterranean basin, and
in the Arabic-speaking world in
general, where EuroNews already
has a substantial audience for its
English and French versions, the
channel will be able to grow its
audience very significantly and
become the standard-setting
international news channel.
EuroNews hopes that its
Mediterranean shareholders in
the Arab world (ENTV in Algeria,
ERTU in Egypt, ERTT in Tunisia)
will help to raise EuroNews'
profile in their respective countries,
and that the Arab States
Broadcasting Union will be able
to extend this effort to the other
countries in the Arab world.
SES ASTRA gives high speed to Poland
SES ASTRA is extending the
distribution of its high speed
internet access product
ASTRA2Connect in Europe by
making the product available in
Poland from January 2008.
The contract partner for the
Polish service is the Euro
Marketing Group, who will offer
ASTRA2Connect through its
partner networks, retailers and
web-shops. The Euro Marketing
Group is a service provider and
distributor of IT equipment,
including TV tuners, in Poland,
Ukraine and Russia and is
experienced in providing
broadband Internet services via
satellite for the residential
market.
Around 2m Polish households
are still without DSL coverage.
SES ASTRA CCO Alexander
Oudendijk said ASTRA2Connect
is an innovative product for these
customers offering a highly
attractive solution to access
high-speed internet also in
regions where terrestrial
infrastructures are not available.
ASTRA2Connect is a fully
satellite-based solution for
broadband access that delivers
dual- and triple-play services
without any terrestrial support.
SES ASTRA's new SIRIUS 4
satellite which was launched in
November will be made
commercially available from
January 2008, after extensive in-
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EuroNews adds Arabic
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GLOBAL BRIEFING
orbit testing. The satellite will be
located at 5° East, SIRIUS'
orbital position for delivering
broadcast and broadband
services across Europe, and will
also transmit HDTV channels.
SIRIUS 4 will also carry an
African beam which will be
marketed by SES ASTRA. Håkan
Sjödin, MD of SES SIRIUS said
that SIRIUS 4 will extend
coverage and service in Eastern
Europe. The success of the
SIRIUS 4 mission is a milestone
for SES ASTRA, and Sjödin
stressed the very good
cooperation with their launch
partners, International Launch
Services and Lockheed Martin
Commercial Space Systems.
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