31 March 2011
Voice of Americas comprehensive coverage of global, regional and African news is now available on Top Rádio 104.2 FM in Maputo, Mozambique.
VOA Portuguese Service Director Ana Guedes says the partnership, which officially began Monday, allows VOA and its network of correspondents in Africa and around the world, to offer a global perspective to the Maputo station. We are pleased to be working together with Top Rádio, Guedes said, and hope listeners will enjoy VOAs coverage of international news and current affairs.
Top Radio, with its mix of youth and adult contemporary music, broadcasts in three languages, Portuguese, English and Changane.
Under the rebroadcasting agreement, Top Rádio 104.2 FM will air VOAs Portuguese news and current affairs program from 1930 to 2000 hours (7:30 pm to 8 pm) local time on Monday through Friday. A one hour VOA English lesson will air at 1800 hours (6 pm) Monday through Friday, and the VOA health show Vida Sem Medo will air from 1400 to 1600 (2 pm to 4 pm) Saturday afternoons.
The agreement also gives Top Rádio full access to VOAs popular music programs.
Carlos Henriques, Regional Adviser for VOA Audience Development, says, “Mozambique is an important market for VOA Portuguese Service programs and we are delighted to be on Top Rádio 104.2 FM with a full range of VOA content.
Top Rádio station manager David Muianga, says, “We are consolidating the promotion of social values by integrating the VOA programming on Top Rádio, and therefore offering to our listeners and the general public, in particular in the Maputo City and Maputo province area, news and information that is up-to-date and credible.
VOA Portuguese brings comprehensive world and regional news and information to Lusophone Africa including Angola, Mozambique, S.Tomé and Princípe, Guiné Bissau and Cape Verde. For more information visit: www.voanews.com/portuguese. For more information on Top Rádio visit: www.topradio.co.mz.
31 March 2011
The Eurosport Group has unveiled a new brand identity across its global multimedia platform, spanning its operations in Europe, the MENA and Asia-Pacific.
Todays announcement marks the end of an 18-month branding review with new on-air graphics, a new musical identity and a soft evolution of its iconic logo.
Since launching in 1989, Eurosport has grown from a single TV channel to the leading European multimedia platform. The brand review — the biggest in the group’s history — represents a major step-change for Eurosport, and is designed to create an improved and visually engaging environment to showcase Eurosports brand values of emotion, live action and diversity of sports.
The new brand identity and graphics revamp will be deployed on-air, online and mobile and in every Eurosport office around the world from Tuesday 5th April, as well as for the groups advertising, marketing and corporate communications.
The new brand strategy also positions the group for future expansion into new territories and the launch of new products on to the market.
“We believed the time was right to modernise and energise our brand to reflect our position as the leading provider of live sports in Europe, as well as our continued expansion as an international media group,” says Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Eurosport Group Chairman & CEO.
“Live sport generates powerful emotions for sports fans, and we wanted to create an environment centred around these emotions, putting the fan at the heart of the action. Additionally, Eurosport covers the widest variety of sports of any media in Europe, over 150 different disciplines across our platforms, and we have integrated this diversity into our branding to underline that we are the brand for all sports, with a rich and compelling offer for all communities of sports fans.
The emergence of new technology has enabled us to constantly innovate, today bringing fans top live sports action wherever they are, across all screens from TV to PC, to mobile and tablet PCs. We have remained true to our sporting heritage and fans while succeeding in harmonising our new brand universe across all our media platforms.”
After over 20 years of existence, the company has achieved massive brand equity and trust, with 91% awareness across Europe*, so Eurosport decided to preserve the iconic brand logo but develop a fresher and more contemporary design. The greatest change has therefore been in the elements around the logo, creating a new brand universe.
New on-air elements, scripted and directed by Paris-based broadcast production agency, Les Télécréateurs, put the fans and the emotions felt when watching sport at the heart of the narrative. A series of six new channel idents have been filmed, drawing inspiration from six identified emotions felt by fans: Joy, Anger, Empathy, Encouragement, Surprise and Anguish, and incorporating 18 different sports disciplines.
The work includes all on-air infographics, from broadcast (ranking and standings updates and “coming up next” visuals) to commercial elements (graphic pop-ups, text banners, opening and closing titles, and advertising break bumpers). They will also make viewers visual navigation easier, providing information quicker and in a clearer format.
New audio branding was also specially commissioned to enhance the moods associated when watching sport. The new audio elements were created by award-winning Amsterdam agency Massive Music and will be heard during the channel idents and in the programme links.
A cross-media pan-European communications campaign including TV, print, web and mobile advertising, PR, dedicated micro-site, consumer competition, music downloads, viral and social media activation with blogger outreach, will launch simultaneously with the new on air look & feel, 5 April.
29 March 2011
This Monday, March 28th at 8:00 pm/GMT, Bloomberg Television anchor Francine Lacqua (@flacqua) meets billionaire Sir Philip Green 135 meters up in the sky on “Eye To Eye,” a new series on Bloomberg Television program shot on location in London inside the world’s most iconic Ferris wheel, the London Eye. Hosted by Francine Lacqua, each episode of “Eye To Eye” features a new conversation with a self-made billionaire, entrepreneur or lifestyle icon, riding with Lacqua around the highest observation wheel in the world. In the premiere episode, Lacqua speaks with Sir Philip Green, founder of the famous retailer Topshop and known for his work with iconic supermodel Kate Moss.
“‘Eye To Eye’ captures the kind of conversations you don’t have in a restaurant or boardroom,” said Lacqua. “By bringing guests like Christian Louboutin, Sir Philip Green and Bianca Jagger to an unexpected venue like the London Eye, the show offers a whole new perspective on what makes these talented individuals such a powerful force in their fields.”
The half-hour program “Eye To Eye” airs Monday evenings at 8:00pm GMT on Bloomberg Television, with additional repeats on Wednesday and Friday evenings and weekends. The first six episodes will air Monday, March 28 through Monday, May 2, 2011. This season, “Eye To Eye” will feature conversations with luxury shoe designer Christian Louboutin (April 4); Michael O’Leary, one of Ireland’s wealthiest business leaders and CEO of the low-cost airline Ryanair (April 11); Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, one of the world’s leading communications and advertising companies (April 18th); Bianca Jagger, social and human rights advocate (April 25); and Margherita Missoni, fashion icon and brand ambassador for her family’s famous Italian luxury brand, Missoni (May 2). Air dates and times in the U.S. may differ. To check air dates and time for “Eye to Eye” in the U.S., please visit www.bloomberg.com/tv
Bloomberg Television can be seen in the U.K. on Sky Channel 502, Freesat Channel 208 and Virgin Media Channel 609.
28 March 2011
Vizrt, a leading provider of digital media software for the TV and online publishing industries, announced today that Central European Media Enterprises (CME), the largest multinational media company in Central and Eastern Europe, has chosen Vizrt’s Ardome media asset management (MAM) software to store and manage its HD and SD video content across its entire group of TV channels, which address an audience of more than 50 million consumers in six countries.
“We have selected Viz Ardome after extensive research and testing of media asset management systems available for the complex workflow at CME stations. We are absolutely sure that we have made the perfect choice”, said Claudiu Paraschiv, CME’s Head of TV Technology.
Martin Burkhalter, CEO of Vizrt, stated, “We feel it’s quite telling that, after carefully comparing our system with several others, such an important customer has chosen Vizrt’s technology solution to look after their valuable video content for the entire group. This project is further proof that our MAM system is best in class. Customers producing and working with video always highly appreciate Ardome’s ease of use and the time savings due to its efficient workflow. Furthermore, this being one of the largest MAM deals to date gives a good indication of the increasing awareness with broadcasters of the importance of managing their key assets.”
The project consists of six Viz Ardome systems, one for each country CME is present in; Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Users can search, browse, rough-edit and move video and associated metadata between any CME station. Searching can be done in all local languages, and can be limited to the internal storage sources with specific local stations, or it can be extended to encompass CME’s entire archive.
28 March 2011
The Voice of Americas Tibetan Service, which began with a 15 minute shortwave radio broadcast on March 25, 1991, is being hailed today as one of the most influential Tibetan language multi-media platforms in the world.
Tibets spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, once noted that, Tibetans call VOA broadcasts their medicine for depression and exhaustion, and on days that they dont get to hear it, they say theyve missed their vital medicine.
Earlier this month the service hosted a televised debate with the three candidates vying to become Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the exiled Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamsala, India.
VOA Director Danforth W. Austin called the satellite and web-streamed broadcast a a prime example of how VOAs Tibetan Service is able to share important events with an audience that is cut off from the free flow of objective and comprehensive news.
VOAs Tibetan Service produces two hours of original television programming each week, and 42 hours of radio. The programs are broadcast on shortwave, transmitted via satellite and streamed on the services website, www.voanews.com/tibetan/news.
The Voice of America has also undertaken a number of initiatives to make the broadcasts accessible to Tibetans through a variety of social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, and with ongoing strategies to combat jamming and Internet restrictions imposed by the Chinese government.
The VOA Tibetan Service was created by an Act of Congress signed into law on February 16, 1990 to established a service to provide Voice of America Tibetan language programming to the people of Tibet.
VOAs parent organization, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, marked the anniversary with a resolution calling the Tibetan Service broadcasts, as vital to the people of Tibet today as when the Services first daily 15-minute shortwave broadcast debuted to the Tibetan plateau 20 years ago.
