14 January 2015
Discovery Communications today announced two new executive appointments that will further strengthen the company’s global sports expertise and strategy. Jean-Thierry Augustin has been named President, Sports Strategy & Development in a newly created position at Discovery Networks International, and Peter Hutton has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Eurosport.
Augustin, who previously held the position of CEO at Eurosport, will report directly to JB Perrette, President of Discovery Networks International and continue to be based in Paris. Augustin will work closely with Discovery’s international leadership team and Peter Hutton to create a compelling sports business development strategy that utilizes sports as a game-changing asset and drives new growth globally.
Hutton joins Eurosport from MP & Silva Group, where he held the post of Co-Chief Executive Officer. As Chief Executive Officer of Eurosport, Hutton will oversee the negotiation of sports rights and lead Eurosport’s content strategy to bring renewed focus to programming, production, promotion and platforms. Hutton will take advantage of Discovery’s local infrastructure and global platforms to maximize Eurosport’s value across more than 70 countries and in 20 languages. Hutton also will report to Perrette and will be based in Paris, with a start date of March 1, 2015.
Perrette said, “As we approach the one year anniversary of Discovery’s acquisition of Eurosport in May, our focus is now on unlocking the full value of our must-have sports content for the entire Discovery Communications portfolio to benefit our advertisers, affiliates, audiences and shareholders around the world.”
Perrette continued, “Jean-Thierry has been at the helm of Eurosport for a number of years during which he has proved to be a tremendous commercial leader and this new role will harness his expertise to build Discovery’s global sports strategy and expertise. Similarly, Peter has excelled in the sports media business. With extensive experience in Europe, Asia and Middle East, and strong relationships with broadcasters and rights holders, he is the perfect executive to strengthen Eurosport’s position as a global leader in sports. I am excited to work with both Jean-Thierry and Peter as we take our business to an exciting new level.”
In May 2014, Discovery increased its interest in Eurosport International to 51% from 20% as part of a larger strategic partnership with TF1 Group that began in December 2012. TF1 Group continues to be the majority shareholder of Eurosport France, in which Discovery holds a 20% equity stake.
Jean-Thierry Augustin: Quote and Background
“It has been a privilege to lead Eurosport over the past several years. I look forward to applying my experience and working with JB and Peter to help utilize sports content to drive growth, and create long-term relationships with key partners throughout Discovery’s global business,” said Augustin.
Augustin joined Eurosport in 2001 as Regional Distribution Director and following various promotions was named Chief Executive Officer, Eurosport Group in June 2013. During this period, Augustin played a key role in the launch of Eurosport 2, which is available in 74 million homes in 51 countries and broadcasts 2,300 hours of live action every year. He also oversaw development of Europe’s number-one online sports destination, Eurosport.com which comprises 15 websites in 11 languages, and Eurosport Player, which provides live streaming of Eurosport and Eurosport 2 channels as well as catch-up TV around selected events in 35 markets.
Peter Hutton: Quote and Background
“After over 30 years in sports media, I can’t think of a better brand to lead than Eurosport,” commented Hutton. “I look forward to building on the great work of Jean-Thierry Augustin and his team to ensure that we further improve our line-up of world class sports relevant to our audiences throughout Europe and Asia. With the support of the Discovery teams around the world, we will deliver the best possible global and local events to our viewers and to our commercial partners.”
During his time at MP & Silva Group, Hutton oversaw a portfolio of rights that included the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championships, Formula 1, Grand Slam tennis and Serie A football. He helped launch joint venture channels with Be In Sports in Asia, and took the business into the sponsorship market and key local rights, such as Belgian and Polish football. Before joining MP & Silva Group, Hutton’s previous roles included Managing Director ESPN Star Sports, Senior Vice President Fox International Channels Sport, as well as COO and one of the founders of Middle East and Asian broadcaster Ten Sports.
Source: Eurosport press release
14 January 2015
BBC Indonesia has launched #TrenSosial (Social Trend) project which will involve the Indonesian audience in an exciting new approach to digital journalism.
Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, is the city that tweets the most in the world, and the country, which ranks Facebook’s fourth largest market, is referred to as Asia’s social-media capital and one of the most “social” countries in the world. Around 70% of mobile social-media users in Indonesia are under 25. They spend more time on social media than watching TV, reading news websites, listening to the radio or reading a newspaper.*
The BBC Indonesia #TrenSosial teams in London and Jakarta engage with audiences via social channels to identify topics that matter to them, bring in experts to talk about the issues – and create more stories for the BBC Indonesia website, bbcindonesia.com. The project will bring at least one social media-sourced story a day to the site, to be shared across other BBC Asian outputs.
BBC Indonesia Editor, Karishma Vaswani, sees #TrenSosial as a way to reach young social audiences who like to talk about news: “With our new social-media product, #TrenSosial, we will engage with more young Indonesians, attracting them to our news content. #TrenSosial will energise both the BBC Indonesia content and our interaction with the Indonesian users. Users of social media, who are looking for accurate, engaging and informative news reportage online, will love #TrenSosial.”
David Cuen, Social Media Editor at BBC World Service, adds: “Social media is no longer a distribution channel or a marketing window. It’s a space for engagement and it’s a source of original journalism. Young people consume news and engage with news on social media, through mobile devices. If that’s where they are, that’s where we as a news broadcaster need to be. There’s a huge scope to do original journalism through social media. With #TrenSosial we will be able to use social media to source original Indonesian stories – and do that based on the same distinctive values of impartiality and accuracy that the BBC is known for.”
With #TrenSosial, BBC Indonesia adds to the BBC World Service languages output that builds around social audiences, adapted to regional media consumption habits: the BBC Turkce Sosyal Meydan, the BBC Brasil #SalaSocial, and BBC Thai – a social-only service delivered as a news stream on social media. BBC Trending (#BBCtrending; @BBCtrending) on BBC World Service explains the stories the world is sharing on social media – in a weekly radio programme and a regular blog.
BBC Indonesia is part of BBC World Service.
(Source: BBC press release)
13 January 2015
SES (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that it plans to launch a dedicated satellite for governmental use in partnership with the Luxembourg Government in late 2017. A Luxembourg-based company jointly held by SES and the Luxembourg Government is planned to own and operate the new spacecraft.
The Luxembourg Government and SES would each invest EUR 50 million into the new company, which, at the same time, would receive a EUR 125 million bank loan from a consortium of Luxembourg banks to finance the satellite’s procurement and launch. This investment has been foreseen within SES’s existing capital expenditure projections. The spacecraft would be positioned in the European arc, covering Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. The capacity of the new satellite would satisfy Luxembourg’s requirements for satellite communications in military frequencies. Capacity would also be made available to governmental and institutional customers for defence and governmental applications. The multi-mission satellite will use dedicated military frequencies (known as X-band and military Ka-band), providing high-powered and fully steerable spot beams to support multiple operations.
“This new, ambitious public-private partnership demonstrates the importance of Luxembourg in the international space sector and the close and successful ties between SES and Luxembourg. SES fully acknowledges the importance of the Luxembourg Government’s participation in this future enterprise,” said Karim Michel Sabbagh, President and CEO of SES. “As a commercial satellite operator, SES is ideally positioned to deliver its know-how to this new venture, serving a large range of future governmental and institutional customers, creating significant entrepreneurial value and return for these customers and for the Grand-Duchy.”
“Emerging from the national space sector, this project is not only an important contribution of Luxembourg to European defence, but it further supports the government’s economic diversification policy in a key technology sector”, said Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Minister of Economy.
(Source: SES Press release)
8 January 2015
The European Audiovisual Observatory, the Council of Europe’s audiovisual information clearing house, is now under the Presidency of Montenegro for 2015. Montenegro takes over from Italy which held the Presidency of the Strasbourg-based Observatory in 2014.
Montenegro is represented within the Observatory’s Executive Council by Jadranka Vojvodic, Deputy Director of the Agency for Electronic Media, the Montenegrin Regulatory Authority. Vojvodic stated that Montenegro, as a recent member of the Observatory (the country joined in 2012), was “proud to be Presiding the first year of the Observatory’s 3 Year Action Plan 2015 – 2018.” She added that her organisation would be hosting a public media conference with the Observatory in Montenegro in June of 2015. The theme will be announced soon.
Susanne Nikoltchev, the Observatory’s Executive Director, paid tribute to a “very lively” Italian Presidency for 2014 and looked forward to “constructive cooperation on new initiatives” with the Montenegrin Presidency.
The European Audiovisual Observatory covers the audiovisual industries of its 40 member states as well as producing pan-European statistics and legal analysis. It has a rotating Presidency which changes annually and lasts from January to December.
6 January 2015
Nastoyashchee Vremya, a new Russian-language television program, launched yesterday in Latvia, expanding its reach to audiences in five countries bordering Russia. The show is a joint production of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America.
“The aim of the program is to provide audiences in countries neighboring Russia with an alternative point of view on current events in their countries, in their region, and in the world,” said Nenad Pejic, RFE/RL editor in chief and co-CEO. “It is committed to providing professional, intelligent journalism, and is guided by the belief in the power of good journalism to promote peace and democracy,” he said.
The 30-minute program, a dynamic mix of live news coverage, interviews, original features, and political satire, will air nightly at 11:00pm on Latvia’s private Russian-language channel, TV5. In a press release announcing the program, Baiba Zuzena, the head of TV5’s parent company MTG TV Latvia, explained, “The broadcast of ‘Nastoyashchee Vremya’ on TV5 is not an attempt to convince someone of something, but an opportunity we present to our viewers. Everyone can decide for himself or herself what information to believe, but it’s important that Latvians hear every side and be aware of every point of view.”
Nastoyashchee Vremya, or Current Time began airing in October 2014 and is now carried by TV channels and internet portals in Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, and Ukraine, in addition to Latvia.
On January 1, Latvia assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first six months of 2015, during which it has pledged actively to promote media freedom, the EU’s Eastern Partnership program, and democratic institutions.
