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Global Brief
The latest news from the international broadcasting industry
DRM launches
Ahost of international radio stations, includingDeutscheWelle, RadioNetherlands, theVoiceofRussia,
Radio Vatican, and AIB members BBC
WorldService, RadioCanada International
and Swedish Radio International and the
Voice ofAmerica took part in the launch of
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) on June
16th. The DRM system will make it
possible to transmit around the world in
near-perfect quality. It is not expensive to
instal or run, but there is just one snag –
there are no radios out there yet. It will
take two years before any radios are
ready, and when they do come out, they
are likely to cost at least $220. DRM
was to have been one of the “cheap radios
for the masses” enterprises, but once
again this crock of gold seems elusive.
There is an existing small audience for
DRM among enthusiasts who have
bought software add-on for their radios.
Following the launch came an enigmatic statement from the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
noting that theVoice of Russia had become the first digital radio station in the country, broadcasting
to Europe four hours a day in digital format. VOR was using only one transmitter for digital
broadcasts at present, but according to ITAR-TASS “all others are expected to go digital in the
very near future to cover all continents by the end of the year.” Complete transition to digital
should be completed by 2015 said the agency.
In digital television, Berlin will soon become a digital-only city for television, and BBCWorld
will be the only non-German channel to have been granted a frequency. BBC World has been
broadcasting on terrestrial analogue television in Berlin since 1996, when it broke new ground as
the first and only overseas station ever to be given such a licence. Sweden announced its
analogue shut-down date as 1 February 2008.
IntheUK,wheretheanalogueshut-downiscurrentlysetfor2010,theBBCisunderliningitscommitment
toDABdigital radio, with amajor on-air promotional campaign for its complete portfolio of digital radio
stations - 1Xtra, Five Live Sports Extra, 6 Music, BBC 7 and the Asian Network. The BBC also
confirmed details of the upgrading of its digital radio transmitter network from65 per cent to 85 per cent
coverage of the UK population in 2004. JennyAbramsky, Director of BBC Radio &Music and Vice-
ChairoftheDigitalRadioDevelopmentBureau(DRDB)commented“Forthefirsttimedigitalradioison
its way to becoming a mass market proposition, rather than the preserve of audio enthusiasts.
Simon Spanswick, Chief Executive of the AIB, clarified the advantages of DRM and DAB:
“DRM technology is complementary to the already established Digital Audio Broadcasting
(DAB), which is best suited to local and national broadcasting rather than supra-national. You
can imagine Australia, with its population centres concentrated around the coast, using DAB
there, but covering the continent with DRM.”
China launches digital pay-tv, looks to export more
programming
Shanghai is running an experiment with digital pay-tv. Launched at the beginning of July, a four-
hour daily programme is broadcast to a modest 20,000 subscribers in the city - perhaps all of
whom are lawyers. Called
Legal World
, the programme covers legal news, police reports and case
studies. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television says that this is the first step in
moving to complete digital TV by 2005. (See the article on page 40 of this issue of
The Channel
.)
The international unit of the Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) says it
plans to double its profits on international programming sales in two years. The unit, China
International TV (CITVC) wants to increase profits on sales of content to
€
54 million by 2005.
CITVC is mainly engaged in selling advertising space on CCTV’s channels 5, 8 and 12 as well as
providing Channel 12’s content. As overseas broadcasters make limited inroads into the Chinese
market, CITVC believes it can sell CCTV’s content to foreign channel providers. CITVC vice
president Zhao Jian said Chinese communities inAsia andAustralasia will be the first target for the
increased sales drives, followed by NorthAmerica and Europe. CITVC also hopes that interest in
China generated by its economic development amid the world recession and the build-up to the
2008 Olympics in Beijing will increase desirability of Chinese content.
DRM Consortium chairman Peter Senger at
the launch of DRM in Geneva on 16 June
People
Andres Ilves
, a veteran broadcast journalist,
has been named director of
Radio Farda
,
the US Persian-language service aimed at
young listeners in Iran. Ilves has been director
of Radio Free Afghanistan, which broadcasts
in Dari and Pashto. A graduate of Princeton
University, Ilves started working for US
international broadcasting in the 1980s.
Radio Farda was launched in December 2002,
and broadcasts news, information, public
affairs and entertainment to Iran 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. Based in Washington
DC and Prague, Radio Farda is a collaboration
between RFE/RL and VoA. The radio’s target
audience is listeners under 30 who make up
about 70 per cent of Iran’s population.
Teleradio-Moldova
has a new chairman, 32-
year old
Artur Efremov,
who succeeds Ion
Gonta. Efremov is a TV news journalist and
has also worked as Director of a cinema
network in Moldova for the past two years.
Michelle Guthrie
is the new executive vice-
president, regional distribution and business
development at
Star Group
. Guthrie has
responsibility for Star’s distribution business
across Asia, except for India, China, Taiwan
and the Middle East.
Achala Sharma
, head of BBC’s Hindi Service
has been awarded the
World Hindi Honour
at
the seventh World Hindi Conference held in
Surinam. Sharma has been recognised for her
“significant contribution to the development
and popularity of the Hindi language in the
field of broadcast and literature”. For 18 years,
Sharma has been instrumental in turning BBC
Hindi into a leading Hindi-language radio
and online service. Among other
achievements, she has to her credit two
collections of radio plays,
Passport
and
Jaren
(Roots) which were recently released in
London. She has also authored two novels
and three collections of short stories.
In a surprise move, Taiwan’s
Central
Broadcasting System
– the AIB member
that operates Radio Taiwan International
– has appointed a new chairman.
Lin Feng-
jeng
was elected by the CBS board to
succeed
Chou Tien-rey
. The replacement
of Mr Chou is contrary to an undertaking
by the Taiwanese premier, Yu Shyi-kun, who
said in June that Mr Chou would remain
at CBS for a second term of office. The
news came after Mr Chou had contributed
his view from Taiwan in
The Channel
’s
By
Invitation
column. This appears in this
edition on page 44.
AIB member
Quantel
has appointed
Daan
Kim
as the new president of its Korean
company, Quantel Korea. Kim is charged with
the indtroduction of the generationQ range
to broadcasters in Korea.
Digital Radio Mondiale
