4 Global Brief
10 The BBC’s Brave New
World
BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies reveals the
rationale behind the Corporation’s new
Global News division
AFRICA SPECIAL
14 International broadcasting
- serving Africa, solving
problems?
Alan Heil reports on how international
broadcasters are tackling Africa
16
Reaching out across the
continent
Michel Lobelle tells how partnership
works in African broadcasting
18
By Invitation
Gerry Jackson tells the story of SW
Radio Africa, beaming to Zimbabwe
20
TV - Africa’s future media
opportunity
George Twumasi unlocks the latent
African TV market
22
AIB - Serving the
international
broadcasting industry
Find out what the AIB does, and how it
can help you. Plus details of new members
24
AIB Global Media Business
conference 2003
Advance information, speaker and
session details plus booking form
26
The hotspots
What’s coming out and going in to
North Korea and Iraq
28
24 hour news
How can the news room harness
technology in the era of 24 hour output
32
AIB Technology interview
Kerry Stevenson talks to Richard Taylor
of Quantel
26
Technology brief
Editorial
Contents
Published by The Association for International Broadcasting
a non-profit making company limited by guarantee and registered in England
The Channel - ISSN 1477-8718
© The Association for International Broadcasting January 2003
Editor
Tom Walters
Managing Editor
Simon Spanswick
Advertising
Mark White
at
PRN Media Sales
Tel
+44 (0) 1376 563 811
Editorial Office
PO Box 4440, Walton, CO14 8BX, UK
Tel
+44 (0) 1255 676 996
Design and typesetting in house by AIB
Print and dispatch by Times Printers Limited, Singapore
We start with a little self-congratulation. The AIB, now approaching its second annual
conference, is growing fast - both in terms of its membership and of its global reach.
This edition of
The Channel
is being read by nearly twice as many industry leaders
and opinion-formers as the edition of one year ago. And this magazine is bucking the
unfortunate trend in broadcasting related publications where reduced pagination or
even closure of titles is widespread. This is our largest edition – and the signs are that
during 2003, the magazine will continue to grow.
Our electronic newsletters now go out to some 8,000 readers each month.
We look forward to welcoming well over 200 delegates to our conference and exhibition
in London on April 29
th
and 30
th
, where high-level speakers from all sectors of the
industry will be discussing the latest trends and developments.
A guiding principle of the AIB has always been to look first and foremost at the
fundamental aims of broadcasting – of the communication between
broadcasters
and
viewers
and
listeners
. What are
broadcasters
trying to achieve? Who are they trying
to reach and why? The technology needed to realise the aims is of course vital, and all
improvements in the clarity and power of broadcasts are beneficial. But it’s primarily
the “programmes” that matter.
As you will see however, from this edition, in which we focus on developments in
Africa, paradoxically the technology, combined with totally new approaches to
programming, is leading to a wholesale shift in values and definitions. It is no longer
good enough simply to pump out programmes to an audience that can not respond.
The
broadcaster
must also be viewers or listeners and respond to the audience’s
viewpoint;
viewers
and
listeners
become
broadcasters
, because they can feed back
their thoughts instantly to broadcasters via telephone, fax and e-mail.
Programmes
are
not always rigid, pre-constructed monoliths, but often incorporate fluid elements in
which multi-way communication can take place. A
broadcast
becomes an arena for
open-ended participation. This is especially true of cross-border broadcasting.
Africa, developing rapidly, but often with severe political tensions, is a region that is
wide open to flexible broadcasting of this sort, in which citizens can not only learn,
but also contribute their experience directly. The words “partnership” and
“participation” become as important as the older terms. This presents a challenge to
international broadcasters, and to the technology and distribution providers – a challenge
that should be welcomed.
And during the currency of this issue, there is the probability of another challenge to
international broadcasting – to cover the course of the USA’s latest move against
terrorism, in whatever conflict occurs in Iraq. The events of 9/11 and in Afghanistan,
one of the roughest and most obscure terrains in the world, resulted in some extremely
good reportage, backed up by pioneering technology. Now the machine is likely to
swing into action once more. It is to be hoped that the results for international
broadcasting are at least as good as before.
