THE CHANNEL
|
ISSUE 2 2014
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43
ther international
news agencies
have been
providing video
for a lot longer
than AFP, so as a
worldwide
provider of breaking news, AFPTV
is a relative newcomer. It wasn’t
until 2010 that we were fully
deployed, and our expansion really
took off about two years ago. Today
both our production and our
television client base are global, and
the number of stations that use our
videos continues to grow more
quickly than our output.
As for our signature identity, AFP
is the only alternative with a truly
global footprint to the Anglophone
agencies we compete with. This is
important for a lot of media around
the world who value a plurality of
sources and perspectives, especially
in the context of an increasingly
globalised media landscape. AFPTV
brings this difference, combined
with a guarantee of complete global
coverage in real-time.
What is the relationship between
AFPTV and the rest of AFP’s news
production?
AFP is the oldest
news agency in the
world, founded in
Paris in 1835 as
Agence Havas and
reborn 1944 as
Agence France-
Presse during the
liberation of Paris.
Today, global news
agency AFP is
delivering photo,
text, multimedia,
graphics and
video. We asked
Marie-Noëlle
Vallès, Head of
AFPTV, how
quickly the agency
is scaling up on
the video front
O
From the very start, AFPTV grew in
synergy with our bureaux around
the world, which today number 200.
Our television production is also
part of our multimedia strategy,
which means that the news editors at
AFP headquarters, or the heads of
news output in Bangkok, Rio, Dakar
or Kiev are thinking video from the
moment they start organising news
coverage. When it is especially
relevant to the story, we’ll put video
at the centre of that coverage. In that
sense, AFPTV makes the most of the
agency's global footprint.
It is precisely because our teams
on the ground are thoroughly
integrated across video, text and
photo that we can be efficient and
fast, as was the case for the exclusive
images we distributed recently of the
helicopter shot down in separatist
Eastern Ukraine. If we were first on
the ground after Typhoon Haiyan hit
the Philippines, it's also because AFP
has a deep historical presence there,
and a lot of logistical contacts in
Manila. Likewise, we are able to
have staff VJs [video journalists]
operating in Damascus and in
Teheran because we’ve had bureaux
in these countries for decades.
By the same token, because of our
SCALINGUP
VIDEO
©BULENT KILIC / AFP
