20 August 2015
Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of satellite services, today announced that its Intelsat 34 satellite was launched successfully from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 vehicle. Liftoff occurred at 4:34 pm EDT. The Intelsat 34 satellite separated from the rocket’s upper stage 40 minutes after launch, at 5:14 pm EDT, and signal acquisition has been confirmed.
Intelsat 34 is a C- and Ku-band satellite to be placed into service at the 304.5ºE orbital location. It will replace Intelsat 805 and Galaxy 11 as the third in Intelsat’s leading Latin America, pan-regional video distribution neighborhood (which includes Intelsat 11 and Intelsat 21). Intelsat 34 includes a C-band payload which will deliver media distribution services for blue chip media powerhouses including Fox Sports and HBOLA. The satellite also hosts a leading Direct-to-Home (“DTH”) platform in Ku-band as well as a specialized Ku-band payload serving the North Atlantic that will support broadband services for the fast growing aeronautical and maritime mobility sector. Intelsat 34 was built by SSL.
“Intelsat 34 is a great example of the breadth of services that Intelsat’s satellites are able to provide to communities around the world,” said Stephen Spengler, Chief Executive Officer, Intelsat. “With services spanning from DTH and cable programming distribution, to broadband for vessels and planes traversing the North Atlantic, Intelsat 34 demonstrates our role in delivering broadband infrastructure and media distribution with superior reliability. We are thrilled with today’s successful launch and look forward to our next two launches which are scheduled for the first quarter of 2016, including the first of our Intelsat EpicNG® satellites, Intelsat 29e.”
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17 August 2015
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the independent federal government agency that oversees all U.S. civilian international media, today announced the appointment of John Lansing as Chief Executive Officer and Director of the BBG. Lansing will begin his service at the BBG in September.
Lansing joins the BBG with nine years of experience as President of Scripps Networks, where he is credited with guiding the company to become a leading developer of unique content across various media platforms including television, digital, mobile and publishing. As President of Scripps Networks, Lansing was responsible for strategic and operational oversight of the $2.5 billion division of Scripps Networks Interactive, including the company’s portfolio of six cable networks – Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, DIY, Cooking Channel and Great American Country – and the $100 million Scripps Networks Digital division. Prior to joining Scripps Networks in 2004, Lansing was Senior Vice President for Television in the broadcasting division of the E.W. Scripps Company, managing the company’s portfolio of 10 network affiliated television stations. Earlier, he held various senior management positions at Scripps-owned affiliates, including WEWS TV in Cleveland, Ohio and WXYZ TV in Detroit, Michigan.
Most recently, Lansing was President and Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), a marketing association comprised of 90 of the top U.S. and Canadian cable companies and television programmers. There, Lansing oversaw the development of business strategies and marketing initiatives that position cable television companies for continued growth as they compete with emerging digital content platforms.
Lansing also brings a deep understanding of journalism from roles as an award-winning Photojournalist and Field Producer, Assignment Manager, Managing Editor, and News Director at several television stations earlier in his career.
Lansing is currently Vice Chair of the Bellarmine University Board of Trustees and was named to the Bellarmine Gallery of Distinguished Graduates in 2010. He serves on the National Advisory Board of the Bellarmine University’s Institute for Media, Culture & Ethics; National Council for Media and Public Affairs of George Washington University School of Media & Public Affairs; and, until recently, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies Foundation, one of the nation’s top schools for professional journalists.
“John is a proven executive and a remarkable, transformative leader in multiplatform content strategies, development and distribution,” said BBG Chairman Jeff Shell. “With his journalistic sensibilities and success in leading media companies through periods of challenges and growth, John is the ideal person to lead the BBG as we accelerate efforts to shape a global, world-leading media organization that is up to the challenges of the 21st century.”
“We are very fortunate to have John take on the CEO role at this critical time when U.S. international media is on the front line of the United States’ most important and complicated foreign policy issues,” added Shell. “From eastern Ukraine to China to ISIL and Iran, the programming of the BBG is the most important, and in many cases, the only voice of honest and open journalism. John also understands that conveying and critically assessing official U.S. policy is a key component of BBG’s mission. American leadership in the world depends in part on international audiences knowing where the United States stands with respect to their countries and the issues that affect them.”
“I thank Chairman Shell and the Board for this opportunity to help lead this fantastic organization,” said Lansing. “As one of the world’s largest media enterprises, the BBG provides balanced, reliable and authoritative news in the face of partisan media and heavy propaganda from repressive nations and extremist groups. I am honored to enter into public service and to join a team of world class journalists and media professionals who are dedicated to expanding freedom of information and expression worldwide. I also welcome the opportunity to work with this distinguished Board, which has steadily guided the BBG forward.”
Chairman Shell also thanked André Mendes for his service as BBG Interim CEO. “On behalf of the entire Board, I would like to express our deep appreciation for the tireless work of André and his dedicated team. During this transition period, André and his colleagues have worked diligently to produce outstanding results and to spur on forward momentum at the BBG.”
BBG’s Critical Importance in a Fragmented World and Rapidly Changing Media Environment
U.S. International Media (USIM) operates today in a challenging environment in which global audiences have vastly increased access to information from both public and private sources and in which modes of communication are changing in fundamental ways.
The global information space has become a battleground, where new international actors have “weaponized” information to try to undermine not only Western values but also Western resolve to confront the challenges of the 21st century. The emergence of well-funded state-sponsored broadcasters have demonstrated how propaganda can directly influence events on the ground. Elsewhere, non-state actors including al-Qaeda, ISIL and Boko Harem are using social media to recruit fighters and sow fear.
The BBG is sparing no effort to bring global audiences alternative narratives – built on accurate, fact-based journalism – to foreign propaganda in Ukraine and across the former Soviet Union as well as in the Middle East, South Asia and the African Sahel. MBN’s Raise Your Voice, an interactive audience engagement initiative on TV and radio in Iraq exemplifies BBG’s response, empowering moderate secular and religious voices to discuss the root causes of ISIL while providing Iraqi leaders with constructive feedback on the lives and hopes of the Iraqi people.
Gallup research underscores impressive results, most notably where extremism is a palpable threat; BBG networks boast weekly adult audiences of 44% in Iraq, 53% in Afghanistan, 28% in Iran, 51% in Somalia, and 18% in Nigeria. Globally, BBG networks increasingly are engaging new audiences, reporting on issues of human rights, government corruption and other issues, which contributes toward an all-time high measured BBG weekly audiences in excess of 215 million and rapid growth across all media platforms including social media and mobile.
Telling America’s story is a significant part of BBG’s statutory mandate. BBG covers the United States in all of its complexity, reflecting the nation’s democratic process, so that the countries that are struggling to nurture their own democratic systems might learn from the American experience.
BBG has also developed a robust portfolio in Internet anti-censorship. The agency focuses not only on disseminating content, but also on expanding access to the Internet, and offering to citizen and professional journalists the tools to report safely without detection by government surveillance. Increasingly, this work is important in countries such as China, Venezuela and Iran that are bolstering their firewalls to stop the free flow of information.
About The Broadcasting Board of Governors
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is the independent federal government agency that oversees all U.S. international media. BBG is also the name of the board that governs the agency.
The BBG Board is focused on how to best leverage the combined power of the five media networks it oversees – Voice of America (VOA), Radio and TV Martí, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) – in countries where vital U.S. interests are at stake and freedom of the press and freedom of expression are under attack.
All current BBG Board members have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to their positions since August 2013. Board members are well-respected leaders in U.S. foreign policy, media, and government and operate in a collegial bi-partisan manner.
Current Board members include: Jeff Shell, Chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment; Matthew Armstrong, author and former Executive Director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy; Dr. Leon Aron, Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, whose 37-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service included service as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon; Michael Kempner, founder, president, and CEO of MWW, one of the world’s top five independent public relations agencies; Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, Executive Vice President of External Affairs for Nielsen and former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and Kenneth Weinstein, President and CEO of the Hudson Institute. Secretary of State John Kerry is represented on the Board by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel, former managing editor of TIME.
(Source: BBG press release)
5 August 2015
German broadcaster expands internationally by delivering two channels using ASTRA 4A, ASTRA 5B and SES-5
SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that German broadcaster Deutsche Welle has signed a new long-term capacity agreement on three SES satellites to broadcast two channels in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Deutsche Welle will be broadcasting its German-language TV channel DW via the ASTRA 4A satellite, allowing more than six million direct-to-home households in Eastern Europe and 40 million cable and IPTV households in Europe to receive the channel directly and indirectly.
Deutsche Welle will also broadcast its new English-language channel across Eastern Europe and Africa via the ASTRA 4B and SES-5 satellites. The 24-hour news and information channel, which broadcasts events from Germany and around the world, was already launched on 22 June via ASTRA 19.2 degrees East.
Guido Baumhauer, Director of Distribution and Technology at Deutsche Welle (pictured right), said, “Deutsche Welle produces high-quality content in 30 languages for the whole world. We are very pleased that we have found, in SES, a reliable technical partner that complements our global satellite portfolio and helps us to broadcast news and information to two of the most important regions in the world.”
“We are very pleased that Deutsche Welle is once again relying on SES to expand its coverage. The latest agreement with Deutsche Welle is an example of how our global satellite network can enable broadcasters to expand beyond their domestic markets to reach international audiences on all continents,” said Norbert Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Commercial, Europe at SES.
Related story
Watch the interview with DW Director General Peter Limbourg here.
4 August 2015
RT has handed over information on the Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane’s fragments to the Dutch agency heading the international probe into the crash. The investigators earlier contacted the network over the footage shown in a recent RTDoc film ‘MH17: A Year Without Truth’.
The film showed fragments of the crashed Boeing and pieces of luggage were still scattered in the area at the time of filming, many of which have since been collected by the administration of the nearby village of Petropavlovka. The contacts of the local officials were also handed over to the Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the international investigation.
In MH17: A Year Without Truth, which premiered on RT on July 17, 2015 – the one-year anniversary of the tragedy – tracks the course of the still-ongoing investigation into the possible causes of the crash, and features testimonies from experts the relatives of those who had perished in it. (Source: RT press release)
3 August 2015
Stockholm-based Newstag, the ‘mobile-first’ video news service, has been selected as one of 15 top start-ups in an international contest to recognise the most innovative use of mobile technology in business.
The entrepreneurial ventures were picked during this year’s GSMA Mobile World Congress – the premier event for the global mobile industry – by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the not-for-profit foundation established to promote the latest mobile technology globally. The selection criteria included a high level of innovation, potential for growth and global positioning and economic or social impact.
The award forms part of Mobile World Capital Barcelona’s programme of entrepreneurship designed to promote international innovation in the mobile ecosystem, called 4 Years From Now (4YFN). The business platform, established to help start-ups grow is focused on building ideas and forging lasting relationships for international start-ups, investors and corporations. The highlight of the programme is a 4YFN event devoted to innovation in the mobile ecosystem.
Alongside the other finalists, Newstag will be joining the 4YFN delegation to exhibit at DLD Tel Aviv this September (7-9). At the three-day conference Newstag will take part in the programme designed to showcase the innovative platform to the tech entrepreneurship community.
“We are delighted that our new platform for creating and sharing video news content has been recognised with this award. It’s a huge endorsement and a great honour to be selected as one of the most innovative companies using mobile technology by the world’s largest mobile organisation,” says Camilla Dahlin-Andersson, Newstag Founder and Chairman.
Newstag’s pioneering and innovative approach to the distribution and consumption of news brings together video news stories from professional content producers around the world, including AP, AFP and Reuters, as well as top brands. By radically rebalancing the traditional relationships between industry stakeholders, Newstag aims to make journalism sustainable through a proper funding stream. Newstag launched a public beta version of the platform in mid-June 2015 and has grown rapidly since, now reaching a global audience of users in more than 200 countries consuming nearly 2 million streams per week.
“At this important point in Newstag’s development we’re very excited to be joining 4YFN in Tel Aviv as it’ll be a great opportunity to meet and learn from fellow entrepreneurs and potential investors,” says Victor Alexiev, Director of Research & Development and Co-founder.
The ‘mobile-first’ service enables users to create their own ‘tagstream’ (or personalised TV channel) in seconds, organising, consuming and sharing the stories that they care about among their social networks using the latest web and mobile technologies. The wide variety of stories from trusted sources ranges from entertainment to current affairs.
These stories are available from a number of different perspectives, putting users at the heart of the experience and in complete control. The result is a platform that allows converging viewpoints to be presented side by side, creating contrasting frames of reference.
But that’s not all. Newstag is not just about understanding the world, it also offers users a unique opportunity to make a difference. Consumers can take action by supporting causes and research they think are important. A part of Newstag’s revenues are available for users to allocate to charitable, NGO and NPO partners, such as WFP, the Red Cross and Oxfam. The more they watch and share, the higher their impact
Charities, NGOs and agencies joining this new media model will also be able to provide video news content to users on international initiatives, using the platform both to fundraise and communicate.
Newstag, currently in beta stage, is continuously bringing new users onboard. To sign up, visit www.newstag.com.
