4 |
the
channel
Global Brief
The latest news from the international broadcasting industry
BBC World gains award and bigger audiences
The BBC’s 24-hour international news and information television channel has won the award
for Best News Channel in the fifth Hot Bird TV Awards. BBC World was the only English
language channel to win an award this year and was awarded the prize specifically for its
coverage of the attacks on the USA on September 11th 2001.
The sixth Pan Asia Cross Media Survey (PAX) has found that unlike other news channels,
BBC World has held onto the audience it gained in 2001 as well as showing annual growth in
some of Asia’s biggest urban centres. BBC World’s monthly audience grew year-on-year to
993,000 - the fastest growth for any of the top ten international channels.
BBC World enjoyed particularly large growth in Kuala Lumpur - up 79%, Bangkok - up 41%,
Hong Kong - up 17% and Taipei - up 16%. According to the study, BBC World also attracts a
further 590,000 monthly viewers in Seoul and in India which combined with the rest results in
a total panel viewership of 1.58 million. In particular, BBC World’s investment in business
programming is attracting a loyal audience of senior business people
CASBAA forecasts 45% growth for cabsat TV
According to CASBAA, the cable and satellite industry in Asia-Pacific is set to grow from the
current 157m C&S subscribers to over 228m subscribers in the next eight years, registering a
45 per cent growth rate from 2002 to 2010. China and India will continue to be the key markets
in 2010, with 128m subscribers in China and 53.35m subscribers in India.
Digital TV has been singled out as the hottest industry development for the next decade.
CASBAA forecasts that there will be a dramatic growth in the number of households with
digital TV from the existing 7.9m homes in 2002 to 166m by 2010. Subscription TV revenues
are forecast to rise by more than 58 per cent, from 13bn US dollars in 2002 to almost 31bn US
dollars in 2010. Japan, China, India and South Korea will account for 81 per cent of the total
subscription TV revenues in 2010.
Indonesian law threatens international stations
Indonesia’s newBroadcasting Bill could have major consequences for international broadcasters.
The bill “limits the replay of regular foreign programmes on local television and radio, with the
exception of certain sports and some international events”. Arange of international broadcasters
have Indonesian-language radio services, including BBC World Service, China Radio
International, NHK Radio Japan, Radio Australia, Radio Cairo, Radio Korea International,
Radio Singapore International and Voice of America. Radio Australia, which has traditionally
been strong in the country, says that the
law could mean the cancellation of relays
to 24 local affiliates in Indonesia.
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of Radio
Australia’s Indonesian service, ABC’s
Director of Radio Sue Howard said on the
station’s
Feedback
programme “Our recent
survey in Indonesia reveals that no less than
8 per cent of Indonesians use international
radio as a source of news, as opposed to
about 3 per cent who use the other medium,
television. Meanwhile, international
broadcasts in Indonesian continue to
deliver audiences 10 times larger than those
of broadcasts in English.
“Our latest surveys indicate that the audiences for the Indonesian service for the BBC, for the
Voice of America and Radio Australia have all grown in the past 12 months. The BBC is leading
the pack, but you’d expect that. They also put, I guess, the most financial resources behind it.”
Meanwhile, the Voice of America’s Indonesian Service has launched a new, fast-paced
programme called
VoA Direct Connection
(VoA DC)
. Aimed at the 60 per cent of Indonesia’s
population under the age of 30, the new show features popular music as well as news and
information on the latest developments in pop culture around the world.
VoA’s newDirector David Jackson stressed that
VoADC
is part of Voice ofAmerica’s broader effort to
reach out to younger audiences around the world. In many places where the US has strategic interests,
he said, “young people form the majority of the population, and we need to do more to attract them”.
The scene of last year’s bomb at the Sari
nightclub in Bali, Indonesia
International TV on cable in Taiwan
At the beginning of the year, Taiwan’s Eastern
Multimedia Group introduced a range of
foreign international TV channels to its cable
subscribers. BBC World, TV5, Deutsche Welle,
ABC Asia Pacific and Channel News Asia are
included in the new offering.
Not all areas have access to the service since
local cable cartels have divided up territories,
with only Eastern Multimedia Group offering
the service. “The policy of local system
operators has been to create cartels,” Nic van
Zwanenberg, head of network development
in Asia for BBC World, told the
Taipei Times
newspaper. “There are three big multiple-
system operators in Taiwan that control over
60 per cent of the system operators.”
Multiple-system operators provide content
and infrastructure to system operators, who
then sell their services on to local cable
services. Eastern, one of Taiwan’s largest
multiple-system operators, has said it will
offer a new digital set-top box service via 13
cable operators in which they hold a majority.
“We are expecting to reach a target of
150,000 to 200,000 subscribers to the new
digital service in 2003,” president and CEO
of Eastern Multimedia, Charles Wu, said.
Eastern Broadcasting Company, the company
responsible for the content of the new digital
service, went global last year. ETTV, Eastern’s
flagship TV channel, is available across North
America, south-east Asia, and Australasia. The
company plans to begin a new service in North
America in March, followed by a service to
Europe in 2004.
Number 2 in the Arab world
A new television channel called
2
and aimed
at Arab youth launched from Bahrain in early
January, backed by MBC.
As’ad al-Jadayil, group chief executive of MBC
said studies show that the Arab world lacks
English-language entertainment channels.
“The new English channel 2 is being opened
to fill that void,” he said. “Most of the
investors for this 24-hour channel are from
Bahrain and the channel is also being
transmitted from its Bahrain station.”
Mr al-Jadayil said MBC is running the project
because of its experience in the area. “The
decision to name the channel
2
was because
everyone claims to be number one,” he
continued. “We stand alone in claiming the
position of number 2. The channel is provided
to viewers free of charge and features Western
movies, entertainment and news
programmes.”
Croatia to launch new world service
Croatian Radio plans to launch a 24-hour
station called Voice of Croatia on 15 May 2003,
designed for Croatians outside their homeland
and national minorities in Croatia. News and
other programmes will also be broadcast in
English, Spanish, German and French.
The programme will reportedly be broadcast
by satellite for Europe, and on short wave for
the Americas, Australia and New Zealand as
well as on the Internet. Croatian TV news
reports that preparations have been going
on for 18 months and the experimental
broadcasting will begin in April.
4
|
the
channel
