THE CHANNEL
|
MEDIA MARKETS
Romania’s Antena 3
ten years on air
Antena 3 is the most watched TV
news station in Romania,
affiliated with CNN International
and part of INTACT Media Group.
When it celebrated its 10th
anniversary in July, public
figures, actors, athletes and
other Romanian personalities
joined in the celebrations. For
two weeks, all of Antena 3’s
anchors travelled across
Romania to meet their viewers
and uncovered untold stories of
cities and people. The
anniversary ended with the
“Român de 10” gala where
Antena 3 also celebrated 10
famous Romanians, rewarding
them for their achievements and
heroic actions. Finally, in what
was a first for a TV station,
Antena 3 launched its logo into
the stratosphere, at over 30.000
metres altitude.
IN BRIEF
INACTIVE SUBS
A report by India’s regulator
TRAI reveals that around
34m subscribers of DTH
operators in India were
inactive as against the total
registered subscriber base
of around 76m. The number
of active subscribers of the
six private DTH operators –
Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon
d2h, Airtel Digital, Sun TV
and Reliance Digital TV –
stands at 41.15m. of the 829
private TV channels cleared
by 31 March 2015, seven are
still not active. With the
launch of &TV, &TV HD, Star
Sports HD 3, Star Sports HD
4, Asianet Movie and
Suvarna Plus, the number of
pay channels increased to
251 by March 2015.
CHANGE AT RTHK
Leung Ka-wing, 62, is the
new director of broadcasting
at government-owned RTHK
in Hong Kong. A 40-year TV
veteran, he began as a news-
paper reporter in 1975 and
has worked at commercial
networks TVB and ATV as
well as at KTSF in the US.
RTHK’s outgoing director
Roy Tang said the feedback
from viewers over the past
four years had been highly
positive.
CONNECTED TV
30% BY 2020
The proportion of TV sets
connected to the web will
climb from just 4.5% at the
end of 2010 to 29.9% by
2020, according to Digital TV
Research. The report,
covering 51 countries, predicts
the number of connected
TVs will reach 876m by
2020, up from an expected
415m at the end of this year.
206m will be connected via
streaming devices such as
Chromecast and Apple TV;
319m via Smart TV, 111m
via pay-TV STBs. By 2020,
South Korea will have the
highest proportion of
connected TV sets at 55%. In
real terms, the US will lead
the market with 184m
connected TV sets, followed
by China with 144m.
Global news syndicator News
Republic’s free, personalised
news service publishes 50,000
unique articles daily and
generates the reading of over
half a billion articles monthly. It
has content partnerships with
over 1,100 leading news organ-
isations. New content includes
BBC World Service in Chinese,
Hindi, Russian and Spanish;
GQ
;
Vanity Fair
;
Glamour
in Spanish.
At this year’s Mobile World
Congress, the company was
winner of “Best Mobile Media &
Publishing App” and released
News Republic for Apple Watch
in April. News Republic is now in
11 countries after expansion in
India, Mexico and China. In China,
News Republic’s predictive semantic
algorithm will provide technology
support for online media giant
Sohu’s news and mobile media
content on Samsung devices
across the country. The Sohu-
News Republic News App,
preloaded on all Samsung hand-
sets, will be the first personalised
news reading experience for
Chinese consumers complete
with highly sophisticated
predictive technology.
NR for
China
Sony MSM Network reinforces position
Sony Pictures owned TV arm
Sony MSM Network has
continued to provide its viewers
with channels which have carved
out a premium position in the
South Asian TV landscape and
separated themselves from the
rest of the more generalised
networks. With recent high value
content including (on GEC Sony
Entertainment TV Asia) Indian
Idol and exclusive UK cricket
rights to India’s tour of Sri Lanka
in August as well as major
Bollywood movies airing on Sony
MAx such as PK and PIKU, the
quality and appeal of the network
has resonated amongst
international audiences.
A recent public poll on a
media industry website has
shown that Sony MAx is the most
popular Bollywood movie
channel, garnering more votes
than all the other channels
combined. Unofficial data from
sources such as BSkyB have
highlighted that the premium
subscription Sony channels
attract a very high affluent
viewership – in fact are amongst
the top five channels on the
entire platform – something
which holds great value for
advertisers and subscription
driven platforms alike.
In an industry where
subscription numbers are
dwindling, the success of the
Sony network of channels stands
out with an increase in
subscriber footprint of 30% in
the last six months.
12
|
ISSUE 2 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
Fox for NY team
In a move to strengthen their
presence in North America, IT
systems integrator arvato
Systems have appointed Rob Fox
as VP Media. He joins the New
York office where he reports to
CEo Frank Zimmermann.
Bringing a wealth of experience
to the job, one of his tasks will
be to strengthen the company’s
position in the US with
particular focus on Digital
Media Management products
including arvato Systems’
flagship MAM product, VPMS. A
new dedicated sales, delivery,
and service unit will serve the
growing demand for
professional broadcast and
media software in the US.
