Page 13 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 2 2012

In what is effectively the
channel's first sports-based
programming, Islam Channel is
covering the Olympics 2012 from
a unique angle. The Games this
year fall in one of the busiest
Muslim Seasons – Ramadan – so
how for example will the fasting
affect Muslim athletes during the
Games?
In order to provide insight into
Muslim participation of the
Olympics during this important
month in the Islamic calendar,
Islam Channel is working with a
London-based production
company on features which will
chart the journey of Muslim
athletes as they come to London
to compete.
Satellite Broadcasting
Solutions which is the broadcast
service provider for Islam
Channel has now established
operations in Tunisia, linking
Africa, Asia and Europe.
Arqiva for digital Gibraltar
Arqiva, the communications
infrastructure and media
services company, has won a
‘design and build’ contract,
valued at around £1m, from the
Gibraltar Regulatory Authority
(GRA) to provide a digital
RT audience grows
in global markets
RT, Russia’s global multilingual
news network which is available
to more than 530m people in
over 100 countries, experienced
particularly strong growth in the
US market in 2011. More than
85m subscribers receive RT
round-the-clock and in New York
RT’s weekly audience increased
nearly three times while in
Washington, DC, it grew by more
than 60% compared to 2010.
The Nielsen study, conducted
in key US metropolitan areas,
showed that RT is ahead of other
international broadcasters in
terms of audience numbers: in
Washington RT’s daily audience
is 13 times that of Deutsche
Welle, nearly eight times larger
than that of China’s CCTV News,
and almost four times larger
than the respective audiences of
euronews and France 24. The
number of RT viewers in New
York is nine times greater than
the audience of Japan's NHK
World, and in Chicago the RT
audience is three times that of Al
Jazeera English.
In Canada, more people watch
RT daily than watch Sky News,
euronews, DW, NHK, Press TV or
France 24, according to research
by TSN Canada. One in three
viewers who have watched RT
once starts watching it on a daily
basis – a record among
international news broadcasters
in Canada.
In the UK, according to Kantar
Media, almost 2.5m viewers
watch RT – in 2011 RT’s UK
monthly audience grew by 40%.
Total viewing figures are further
boosted by the news channel’s
record-setting 700m-plus views
on YouTube.
MEDIA MARKETS | THE CHANNEL
THE CHANNEL | ISSUE 2 2012 | 13
IN BRIEF
YOUTUBE
FRENCH LAUNCH
Press reports say YouTube is
working with content owners
to release 13 premium TV
channels in France, after
launching in the US last
December. Other countries
such as Germany and the
UK may soon follow.
Potential content partners
include producers such as
Endemol and Capa, with
YouTube’s French programming
expected to be fairly varied,
from health and cooking
programmes to enter-
tainment. This is part of
YouTube’s strategy to offer a
large range of targeted
options to its advertisers.
WEB PRAISE
RFE/RL’s website (rferl.org)
was named official honoree
in the radio/podcasts
category at the annual
Webby Awards amid strong
competition, a great
accolade for RFE/RL
Internet team head Aladin
Telalagic. Behind RFE/RL’s
web interface lies its unique
Pangea content management
system, created in-house by
RFE/RL’s technology team
that is “customised for
journalists”. Used by RFE/
RL's 19 language services,
Pangea has proven so
stable, flexible and powerful
that it is now being adopted
for VoA, Radio and TV Marti,
Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV.
MYANMAR CABLE
According to press reports,
Thailand's leading
telecommunications group
True is planning to enter
Myanmar's emerging cable
TV market this year with a
1bn baht investment. The
company will apply for an
infrastructure licence and a
commercial digital TV
service licence to rent
networks to operators as
well as to operate digital TV
channels. CEO Suphachai
Chearavanont said True is
also preparing to expand
further into Vietnam when
the Asean Economic
Community (AEC) starts in
2015.
broadcasting network in
Gibraltar.
The network will comprise
multiplexing and transmission
for both digital TV and DAB
digital radio with two multiplexes
each. In 2006, at an ITU planning
conference, the GRA successfully
co-ordinated with Spain,
Morocco, Algeria and Portugal
the use of channels 30 and 56 for
digital TV and channel blocks
12B and 12C for digital radio.
The transmitters will be
located at a single site on the
Upper Rock, minimising the
environmental impact of the
Muslim
athletes
antenna support structure that
will replace two TV transmission
sites.
Steve Holebrook, MD of
Arqiva’s Broadcast & Media
business, said Gibraltar would
benefit from Arqiva's expertise
gained in the UK switchover
which has involved the £630m
re-engineering
over 1150 sites
and 1200 man-
years of work.
There are no
plans in Gibraltar
to switch off FM
radio.