Page 8 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 2 2011

IN BRIEF
TV SALES SURGE
IN JAPAN
In the run-up to Japan's
digital switchover date (24
July), sales in the Japanese
flat-panel TV market
experienced a dramatic
increase, according to
market research firm GfK.
In June, TVs with built-in
recorders or USB connections
to external hard drives
increased their unit share to
51% from 22% a year earlier.
Blu-ray recorders registered
a 172% growth in units sold
and the sales of tuners for
digital terrestrial broadcasts
in June were eight times
higher, compared to last year.
BRAND NEW
CLIPJOCKEY
The new version 2.0 of
ClipJOCKEY, S4M’s popular
studio production tool, is now
available. ClipJOCKEY offers
broadcasters an easy and
affordable path to file-based
workflows and a way to get
more functionality from their
video server investments (e.g.
from Omneon, Harris,
Quantel, or Grass Valley).
Expanding on the success of
enabling tapeless studio
production and multi-channel
playout, S4M has added
support for Harris Nexio video
servers as well as new
functionality for hot-swapping
server ports and simplifying
advanced “Live On Tape” or
Rollback Recording.
PAY-TV
PROGNOSIS
Intelligence provider Dataxis
reports that 50% of all Latin
American households will
have pay-TV by 2015. The
forecast suggests there will
be over 80m subscribers by
2015, equivalent to a
penetration rate of 50% of
the region's households
with TV sets. DTH will be the
main service, with almost
50% of total subscribers.
Brazil will be the most
buoyant market, followed by
Mexico, Argentina and
Colombia. Together, these
countries will account for
80% of subscribers in 2015.
Bloomberg profiles
'Risk Takers'
Facebook-integrated TV
guide is genius
THE CHANNEL | MEDIA MARKETS
In its 50th year, human rights
organisation Amnesty
International is mobilising a new
generation of supporters with
the launch of its online TV
channel.
Amnesty TV is a fortnightly,
15-minute online magazine-style
show that blends satirical
comedy with documentaries and
news about human rights
campaigns around the globe.
Amnesty's Andy Hackman
said that the aim is to connect
people and unite them behind a
common belief that people
coming together can effect real,
tangible change.
Amnesty
online TV
08 | ISSUE 2 2011 | THE CHANNEL
Bloomberg TV's new series 'Risk
Takers' profiles a new generation
of entrepreneurs and leaders
who have taken a gamble, faced
down failure, and revolutionized
the way the world does business.
Among those featured is Michael
Burry who may be one of the
smartest investors of our time.
He and his investors made nearly
a billion dollars shorting the
mortgage market when the
economy collapsed in 2008.
Dan Doctoroff (pictured), who
has been President of the
company for the past four years,
has been named as new Chief
Executive Officer of Bloomberg
LP. Dan has been instrumental
in the recent growth of the firm
and in building and managing its
increasingly complex business
model. In adding the role of CEO,
Dan will manage all day-to-day
operations of the company,
reporting to Chairman Peter
Grauer.
The continued success of the
Bloomberg Terminal and
Bloomberg News plus
diversification to include new
businesses led to a record
financial performance for the
company in 2010. Recently
Bloomberg added a new tool to
its redesigned home page, the
Bloomberg Queue which works
using a browser on your PC,
Mac, tablet, or phone, and soon
across any connected device
online or offline.
TV Genius has launched its
Facebook-integrated TV guide
solution, further improving
content discovery experience for
TV viewers. For publishers and
TV operators this provides the
opportunity to capitalise on
Facebook’s powerful social
graph, and offer a new,
immersive TV guide experience.
The new solution uses TV
Genius’ award-winning content
discovery platform to
personalise TV guides; when a
user logs into the EPG with
Facebook Connect, all the shows
their friends like are instantly
highlighted in the grid. As a
Cloud solution, the content
discovery platform makes it
easy to deploy Facebook-
integrated EPGs on the web,
connected TVs, smartphones,
and tablets.
Users of the TV guide will be
able to quickly and easily find
new content to watch that is
personally relevant, as well as
connect and engage with their
friends in a new way, says TV
Genius CEO Tom Weiss. TV
Genius is already powering TV-
centric Facebook apps for ITV,
Freeview, and Tjek TV.
24 Hour
Asia
Singapore-based Channel
NewsAsia made a foray into the
3D market with the launch of an
hour-long documentary at
technology trade fair Broadcast
Asia in June.
The regional broadcaster,
which underpins its
programming with Asian
perspectives to give a better
understanding of the nuances in
an extremely complex and diverse
region, looks at three cities –
Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore.
In the programme 24 Hour
Asiathe use of 3D camera
technology makes Asia come
alive as never before capturing
the essence of Asia’s dynamism.
The documentary is now being
distributed.