3 November 2015
ABS and Arab Satellite Communication Organization (Arabsat) announced that they have signed an expansion capacity agreement on ABS-3A for a multi-transponder, multiyear deal for Ku-band payload. The additional capacity will be used for different customer networks within the Middle East and North Africa regions in particular Saudi Arabia. Under the agreement, Arabsat will use the new bandwidth on ABS-3A at 3W, mostly for data services for enterprises, banking and government institutions.
ABS-3A, an all-electric propulsion satellite entered commercial service on 31st August. The satellite features 48 C and Ku-band transponders (96 x 36MHz equivalent) and is equipped with high performance beams to support rapidly growing markets in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions. ABS-3A provides expansion capacity to reach markets servicing high-growth data, video, mobility and government applications.
“We are very pleased to be collaborating again with Arabsat as a reliable valued partner in supporting their business growth in the MENA region. This new contract reiterates Arabsat’s confidence in ABS to support their business plan for this expanding market. We look forward to continually strengthening our relationship with Arabsat in the future,” said Tom Choi, CEO of ABS.
Khalid Balkheyour, President and CEO of ARABSAT said “We are very pleased to be working with ABS again and further build on our fruitful partnership. This agreement will enable ARABSAT to expand its customer base and provide more options and solutions.”
3 November 2015
In a unique collaboration – the first of its kind for the BBC outside the UK – a prototype media player, designed and built by digital innovators from Africa, is now live online. BBC Minute CatchUP – can sit within any online page and will let users hear and share the latest edition of BBC Minute. Specially created to work well on smartphones, BBC Minute CatchUP was designed in Cape Town, and comes from one of the development studios (aka ‘hackathons’) held earlier this year by the BBC World Service and BBC digital innovations team, Connected Studio. Teams of African tech experts were invited to think of new ways to reach young Africans through social and digital media and this selected idea can now be tried and rated by the potential audience themselves here.
Dmitry Shishkin, Digital Development Editor for the World Service, says: “African audiences have become ‘mobile-first’ before the term has become mainstream for western media, and World Service has a very impressive record of growing mobile and social segments of our digital reach. While planning these hackathons our task was to find new ways of reaching digital audiences in Africa – to offer them a huge array of great content, relevant to them. It is extremely important for us that we are taking selected pilots from ideas into live products, developed from scratch by the audience – for the audience. It is exciting that the BBC can be at the forefront of these developments in Africa, and we hope the ideas can be used in other regions of the world. The team can now see their idea performing in real life and we hope the audience enjoys trying it out”.
And coming soon – a further pilot from the Connected Studio project in Africa – BBC Drop which was designed in Nairobi and will launch online in the coming weeks.
These pilots continue the BBC’s initiative to invest in digital innovation across Africa. This year has already seen the launch of the Africa edition of the bbc.com website and the Africa live page on the BBC News website. Both of these have provided African internet users on the continent and in diaspora communities with dedicated digital spaces where they can find more African news stories and features. In addition, the BBC continues to focus on Africa’s massive online audience via many social media outlets, creating clickable and shareable content delivered by the BBC’s reporters across Africa.
BBC Minute CatchUP
What is it? A simple media player designed to sit within any online page that will let users hear and share the latest version of BBC Minute. Specially-designed to work well on Android smartphones.
What is BBC Minute? A fresh way of staying up to date with news from all over the world– a one minute bulletin that gets updated every 30 mins, everyday. Made by the BBC and utilising our high-quality journalism to curate the best stories.
What makes BBC Minute CatchUP good for young audiences? It allows anyone to hear short clips of current BBC news audio at the click of a button. Users will access the news headlines their way and on any type of internet enabled device – whenever they want.
Who made it? A social enterprise hub called RLabs from Cape Town in South Africa.
Technical stuff – The pilot will be available for 3 months via BBC Taster (bbc.co.uk/taster) and works well on all screens and devices. Users can add the link – bbc.com/minute to their mobile home screen and the player can be launched by simply tapping on the logo.
What is BBC Taster? Taster is the home of new ideas from the BBC – an experimental area where the latest innovative and collaborative ideas are available for the audience to test and rate.
Coming soon – BBC Drop
What is it? A responsive website that shows users BBC news content specifically tailored to them. BBC Drop asks the user for a few favourite topics, or social media preferences, and then continues to learn what they like and dislike from what they swipe on screen. There is also the option of an even more personal news feed which incorporates the user’s own social feeds.
What makes BBC Drop good for young audiences? A vibrant easy-to-use design, successfully user-tested in several African countries, and the ability to swipe away anything you want to ignore makes it the perfect way to access BBC news for the smart-phone generation.
Who made it? A Kenyan start-up called Ongair who develop products that make it easier for companies to engage their audiences on instant messaging platforms.
Technical stuff – The pilot is coming soon (also to BBC Taster) and will be available for 3 months. It works well on all screens and devices. The site collects news content from across the BBC. The aggregation and tagging is made possible using BBC Juicer, a tool created by BBC News Labs, which takes in news sources from across the globe and automatically tags specific topics.
29 October 2015
EUROVISION AND AFP, VIA ITS SUBSIDIARY AFP-SERVICES, ANNOUNCED TODAY THEY ARE JOINTLY DEVELOPING A BRAND NEW SERVICE, MYWORLDREPORTER. THE NEW OFFERING WILL HELP BROADCASTERS AROUND THE WORLD TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BY BEING ABLE TO INSTANTLY ACCESS A WORLDWIDE NETWORK OF VIDEO JOURNALISTS.
Sourcing high-quality footage from the most remote places will become easier than ever by using a new, simple online booking tool available around the clock on the eurovision.net portal. Each Video Journalist has unified training by AFP-Services to combine the roles of cameraman, editor, reporter and producer. Understanding local culture and languages in remote geographical areas is no longer a hurdle.
“Joining forces with AFP-Services to address one of broadcasters’ most complex needs, obtaining footage from around the world, seemed like an obvious move,” says Stefan Kürten, Director of Sports and Business at EUROVISION.
“With MyWorldReporter we are able to complete the portfolio of broadcast services we already offer to our customers. Today, with AFP-Services, we are delighted to be addressing our customers’ needs together and, with this new service, aim to remain the best source of quality footage worldwide”.
“We’re really happy to further our partnership with EUROVISION”, says Jon Dillon, Managing Director of AFP-Services. “We’re very excited to put our global network of video journalists within easy access to broadcasters worldwide. The MyWorldReporter platform allows any broadcaster to book quickly and easily a video journalist anywhere in the world, within minutes. This new system takes away the difficulties of organizing coverage away from the usual territory of operations.”
29 October 2015
Reuters-TIMA – which launched in February this year – is expanding its network by adding studio hubs in major international cities in order to meet the demand for news services among its global clients.
The new studio locations will be based in Moscow and Rio de Janeiro and will provide unprecedented access to breaking news and events, together with logistical and editorial support. This will improve services for clients in the run up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and the 2018 World Cup in Russia, as well as coverage of other major stories from the region. This comes hot on the heels of the opening of an office in New York’s Times Square, the heart of the city’s commercial district, to complement Reuters-TIMA’s existing UN facility in New York.
Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news agency, teamed up with TIMA (The International Media Associates) – a global facilities and content services provider – in order to deliver state-of-the-art location services, including studio facilities and logistical support, to broadcasters and online publishers. Over 30 major media outlets have used the service to date, including CNN, Nippon TV, Euronews and Seven Network.
Recent stories covered by Reuters-TIMA include the twin bombings in Ankara during the pro-Kurdish and labour activists’ rally, the Papal visit to Cuba and North America in September and the European immigration crisis. Upcoming events booked by global clients include the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) which will be held near Paris and the UN General Assembly in New York.
The partnership brings together invaluable local knowledge with strategically placed broadcast and mobile resources. From robust satellite uplinks in America, Europe and Asia, to live feed services via dedicated fibre circuits, Reuters-TIMA has the technical facilities in place to greatly improve services for clients.
Reuters-TIMA is set up to cover every major world event with a network extending from Washington to Singapore, with a number of Middle Eastern offices, including TIMA’s facilities in Tehran.
Tim Santhouse, Reuters’ Global Head of Video Products, says: “We are committed to providing a comprehensive international broadcast service which is well-placed to cover all major international stories. At a time when many news organisations are reducing their resources, we are actively investing in our services so we can effectively respond to our clients’ needs.” Alla Salehian, CEO of TIMA, says “We are creating an infrastructure to help broadcasters cover the news more cost-efficiently and are therefore proud to unveil the new studio hubs. Once these are fully operational, we will be looking towards Asia and Africa.”
Reuters-TIMA services include:
Breaking news facilities: Reuters-TIMA provide every aspect of newsgathering facilities and support services on the ground during breaking news stories throughout the year.
Event facilities: The partnership also provides coverage of key global events and unprecedented access to events that are also of regional significance, as well providing logistical and editorial services and dedicated customer support.
Studio space: The service also offers clients access to high-tech live studio facilities around the world, many with stunning city backdrops.
www.reuters-tima.com
28 October 2015
SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), one of the world’s leading satellite operators, announced today that lifestyle content producer Scripps Networks Interactive has signed a strategic agreement to expand and migrate its North American distribution platform to a pair of SES satellites at the centre of the North American orbital arc.
Scripps Networks Interactive has joined other media and entertainment leaders already leveraging SES’s optimized cable distribution neighbourhood – built on three reliable satellites (SES-1 at 101° degrees West, SES-3 at 103° degrees West, and AMC-18 at 105° degrees West ) and ideally located to serve the North American market. With a full line-up of popular network brands, including HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, and Travel Channel, Scripps Networks Interactive is utilizing a full transponder of C-band capacity on SES-1 to deliver HD content, while another C-band transponder aboard SES-3 is facilitating the distribution of standard definition (SD) feeds.
The centre of the arc cable distribution platform is a vital component of SES’s fleet optimization over North America. Scripps Networks Interactive is among the early movers to relocate to the platform, which enables programmers to reach more than 100 million U.S. television homes through virtually every cable TV, IPTV and direct-to-home provider across the region.
“Scripps Networks Interactive is looking forward to being part of the SES centre of the arc satellite fleet and home to the next generation of cable distribution for North America,” noted Mark Hale, Executive Vice President, Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer for Scripps Networks Interactive. “This new heart of the orbital arc platform location is an essential part of our distribution strategy going forward.”
“This important agreement opens a new chapter in a longstanding partnership between Scripps Networks Interactive and SES, which is dedicated to the reliable delivery of great programming to millions of television viewers across North America,” said Elias Zaccack, Senior Vice President, Commercial Americas for SES. “Leading networks and content developers such as Scripps Networks Interactive are signing on to join this new, vitally important cable distribution platform at the centre of the arc. SES has optimized this trio of spacecraft to meet the needs of cable operators, broadcasters and programmers for years to come.”
