29 March 2012
Recent data from the MAVISE TV database, developed by the European Audiovisual Observatory for the DG Communication of the European Commission, shows the current status of the European television market. MAVISE contains data on the EU markets plus the candidates Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey.
In the context of national economic crises and competition from new modes of content delivery, the development of television channels in Europe remains stable. At the beginning of 2012, the MAVISE database contains information on a total of 8900 television channels. Of these, 7400 are established in the European Union, and 7900 in the EU and the candidate countries. A further 1000 channels are available in these countries but are broadcasting from third countries (including a large number of satellite channels from outside of Europe).
Regional and local channels represent about 40% of the total channels available. Among the channels available in the EU and candidates countries, cinema (and fiction) and sport channels represent the two most predominant channel genres (when one excludes local and regional channels), with 644 and 575 channels, respectively.
In 2011, 375 new television channels were launched in the European Union. Unlike in previous years where sport was the dominant genre of new channels, in 2011 the growth of HD channels had a major impact on the overall growth of the market.
High definition channels and their distribution
According to data from the MAVISE database, at the end of 2011 there were approximately 612 HD channels available in Europe, an increase from 414 at the end of 2010 (and 274 at the end of 2009). This figure includes both HD specific channels and simulcasts of standard definition channels. Sport remains the most important genre in HD television (approximately 20% of HD channels), followed by film and generalist channels (each around 15% of the total).
The distribution of HD television channels also continues to grow. In 2011 satellite packages offered more than 50 HD channels in Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and more than 30 in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The strongest HD offers on cable are available in Portugal (40+), the Netherlands and Germany (30+). At the end of 2011, more than 30 HD channels were made available in IPTV packages in Switzerland, Poland, Portugal and the Netherlands. HD channels are now available on DTT networks in eighteen countries (as compared to three networks at the end of 2009).
There are an estimated 20 3D channels broadcasting (or testing) in Europe, and they tend to provide a mix of content such as sport, films and special events.
Growth in the number of platforms and operators
The growth of distribution platforms has also remained stable (see for example regarding the EU in the table below). The number of IPTV platforms and Pay DTT services continues to increase, while satellite packages and cable offers have declined since 2010. This is partly due to consolidation in these sectors.
Digital Switch-over 2012
As we enter 2012, the EU deadline for switch-off of digital terrestrial television is fast approaching. In 2011, a further three EU member states completed the transition: Cyprus, France and Malta, bringing the EU total to 15. A further eight EU countries are expected to complete ASO (the United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) in 2012. Delays are expected in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and possibly also Hungary. Switch-off has also taken place in non-EU countries such as Switzerland, Iceland, Croatia and Norway.
Digital terrestrial television services are quite advanced in several countries, with more than 60% of homes being DTT only in Italy and Spain at the end of 2011. In France and the United Kingdom, 62% and 74% of homes respectively, were using DTT in their homes (on primary or secondary sets).
At the end of 2011, 31 pay-TV platforms were available in 19 European countries. At the same time some planned Pay-DTT services in Spain and Portugal have not materialised, services have ceased elsewhere (Italy) and in several smaller countries the development of a financially successful model for pay DTT is proving difficult.
29 March 2012
Al Jazeera English, the multi-award winning global news channel, has today announced the launch of its exciting new iPhone app for up-to-the-minute news and programmes.
The new Al Jazeera English iPhone app features content from popular sections of the Al Jazeera English website, including: Breaking News, Opinion, Features, and same-day access to full-length programmes. The trailblazing app also allows users to watch live streaming of 24-hour news broadcasts in audio and video format completely free of charge.
As well as receiving the latest news information, the iPhone app reaffirms Al Jazeeras wider commitment to eyewitness reporting by making it easier for users to instantaneously submit and share content. Videos and photos sent by the public to Al Jazeera has been critical to its acclaimed coverage of the Arab Awakening, especially from areas where journalists could not or cannot operate freely, like Tunisia and now Syria.
Through the new app, Al Jazeera is also introducing the popular My News feature to the iPhone. This central news hub allows users to customize their personal My News home screen with their favorite topics, easily share content on social media websites, and download articles for offline reading.
Mobile is rapidly becoming one of the most important platforms for accessing breaking news, said Al Anstey, Managing Director of Al Jazeera English. The launch of Al Jazeera Englishs new iPhone app reflects the channels strong commitment to providing our in-depth and eye-witness news coverage through multiple platforms.
Moeed Ahmad, Head of New Media at Al Jazeera, added: The launch of our exciting new iPhone app ensures Al Jazeera English is widely available to our mobile audiences and continues to innovate over time across all major digital platforms.
Todays announcement comes on the back of Al Jazeeras recent launch of updated Android and BlackBerry smartphone apps. We look forward to building on Al Jazeera Englishs mobile momentum with the launch of apps for other popular smartphone and tablet devices.
27 March 2012
Al Jazeera Balkan, the newest addition to the Qatar-based broadcaster’s international portfolio, has gone live with the Mosart® newscasting system at its Sarajevo news studio. The first of Al Jazeera’s channels to base its news studio around Mosart, Al Jazeera Balkan broadcasts at least six hours of news per day, with a remit to provide objective coverage of events to audiences across the former Yugoslavia in their own languages.
Specified by project integrators Qvest Media for a news production facility that includes Sony cameras, a Snell video mixer, Vizrt graphics and an Avid iNews newsroom system, the Mosart newscasting system provides Al Jazeera with multifunctional studio control to streamline workflow, while enabling very high production quality. The all-new file-based studio infrastructure has been designed to facilitate speedy and efficient production processes, and the exceptional control and flexibility of the Mosart system will allow gallery staff to adapt easily to extended broadcasting hours when the station increases its on-air schedule.
“Using the Mosart system means we can run a very high quality news production with a small gallery team, while still being able to respond instantly to breaking news,” said Miljenko Logozar, chief technical officer for Al Jazeera Balkan. “Setting up for the launch with a completely new studio infrastructure meant our staff had a lot to learn, and the Mosart system has been invaluable in simplifying a major part of the workload. It also means that we can readily scale up our news schedule because we don’t have to train a lot of new staff for the extra hours on air.”
With its open-standards ability to integrate with the widest range of studio equipment, sophisticated device control, and ability to make powerful concurrent event triggering simple for the operator, Mosart has been adopted for newscast automation by many of Europe’s most prestigious broadcasters and news operators, including Sky, the BBC, YLE, N24, ARD-aktuell, and NRK.
“From a system integration perspective, the Mosart system offers substantial benefits,” said Johannes Friedel, project manager for Qvest Media. “The ability to provide advanced automated control of all the components used in newsroom operations from a configurable user interface makes Mosart a powerful tool for twenty-first century news broadcasting.”
Mosart is the only open newscast automation capable of working with all major video switchers (Snell, Grass Valley, Sony, and Ross), news production systems such as ENPS, iNEWS, Open Media, Dalet, Octopus, and NorCom, and most other widely adopted brands of vision mixer, video servers, graphics systems, and camera robotics systems. Mosart is based on open system IT standards and interfaces, and uses a story- and template-based architecture, which allows the broadcaster to change or add broadcast hardware devices without modifying rundowns, changing show configurations or replacing the automation. Mosart runs on commercially available high reliability client/server hardware, and a fully redundant architecture is achieved through server hot-switching and duplicated graphical user interface clients.
“As one of the world’s fastest-growing and most forward-looking TV networks, Al Jazeera sets the highest technical standards,” said John Kjellevold, managing director, Mosart Medialab. “By creating a state-of-the-art news facility based around the Mosart system, Al Jazeera Balkan has set the benchmark for productive, high quality news broadcasting, and we are delighted that they have joined the rapidly growing band of Mosart users.”
27 March 2012
Vizrt Ltd. announced today that the Company has signed a deal worth more than USD 1 million for the implementation of broadcast graphics, web and mobile products with a French television station.
Martin Burkhalter, Vizrt’s CEO, stated, “This deal is a very good example of a broadcaster signing up to our integrated technology philosophy, which is steeped in the economic realities of the media industry. Following implementation, the customer will have a cost efficient way to produce, store, repackage and reuse compelling, high quality and uniformly branded content. The station will also have multichannel and multiplatform distribution capabilities, thereby increasing their addressable audience, critical in today’s quest for advertising revenues, while at the same time protecting the bottom line.”
The deal provides the station with tools for news production, including Viz Content Pilot, Vizrt’s content management solution. Viz World is easily accessible in the newsroom, control room and design department, and will allow the broadcaster to display branded maps.
In Master Control, Viz Multichannel will handle all channel branding on multiple networks while being triggered by the stations automation system. Viz Ticker will also be in place to provide constant scrolling of news information. Real time, HD content will be handled by Viz Engine.
The company is also bolstering its online and mobile presence with an investment in the Vizrt Online Suite and Viz Media Engine. The Vizrt Online Suite will be driving web and mobile content by providing a sophisticated CMC and back-end web publishing platform. Viz Media Engine will provide transcoding for videos published to the web and mobile devices.
27 March 2012
Join the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and Gallup as they discuss how the worlds populations perceive media freedom within their countries. They will also share data on citizens confidence in their media.
A central part of the BBGs statutory mandate is to support freedom and democracy in a rapidly changing international environment. The ability of the media to communicate honestly and freely is critical in world affairs. Additionally, it is important for leaders and policy makers to understand how different populations around the globe view the quality, honesty, and accuracy of their media, as well as how free they perceive their media to be.
At this event, Gallup will present a new global analysis of such views. In addition, Gallup and the BBG will announce the details of a new global research project that advances the BBGs mission to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. This unprecedented relationship combines BBGs mission with Gallups global public opinion research. The event will take place on March 28, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at Gallups headquarters in Washington, D.C.
