24 January 2011
The creators of a Voice of America TV program broadcast to Iran called Parazit, which has drawn comparisons to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, are to appear on Stewarts Comedy Central show Thursday to discuss their programs satirical look at Iranian politics and politicians.
Audiences cant seem to get enough of the Farsi language program, which airs for 30 minutes every Friday and is produced at VOAs Persian News Network (PNN) headquarters in Washington and sent by satellite directly to Iranian homes.
Last month, about 19 million people went to Parazits Facebook page to catch the irreverent humor of host and writer Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi the co-creator and executive producer, who in the past three weeks have been profiled by the Washington Post, CNN International, and National Public Radio.
VOA Director Danforth W. Austin says he is not surprised by the attention Parazit (it means static in English) is getting. He says, The show resonates with people in Iran, because it talks about issues and policies that are not discussed in the government-controlled media, and it does so in an entertaining, humorous way.
Despite Iranian government efforts to block the VOA website and satellite signal, Iranians find ways to see the weekly program, most notably via the internet with proxy servers and through social media sites like Facebook and YouTube.
Since October, the number of Parazits Facebook friends has doubled to nearly a quarter-million. The number of page views for the shows Facebook site in December also nearly doubled to nearly 19 million, up from about ten million in October.
24 January 2011
Vizrt Ltd. supply production tools to the digital media industry and announced today that the Swiss multi-national company, Ringier, has chosen its Escenic Content Management System (CMS) to run its Blick Internet News Portal (www.blick.ch), Switzerlands most-visited news site.
Martin Burkhalter, CEO of Vizrt, said, The fact Blick chose our system to provide its core online publishing platform is very rewarding. Market-leaders like Blick have a clear vision of the future. They are very aware that media-rich functionality will play an increasingly important role in the distribution of their online content. It is satisfying to see that their vision matches our own. This deal clearly endorses our investment in the development of efficient workflows, enabling publishers like Blick to accomplish their ambition.
Blick will use Escenic Content Engine, Vizrts online publishing software, widely used for multi-site publishing. Blick journalists, working on Vizrts newsroom user interface, Escenic Content Studio, can simplify and speed up publishing their stories to multiple websites, directly from their desktops. The latest multi-media widgets include text, images, graphics and video which are published simultaneously to online, mobile and tablet devices in the most appropriate format for each device. Blick will publish its content directly to handheld devices, using the single code base of Viz Mobile Expansion, a module of the Escenic publishing software.
Escenic Content Studios intuitive and functional back-end system was one of the highlights of the evaluation process while looking for a new CMS solution for blick.ch. This, along with other major advantages with Vizrts solution, has convinced both the publisher and the editorial environment that we can run the number one news platform in Switzerland using Escenic Content Studio, said Martin Fessler, Head of IT & Operations at Blick Group.
Vizrts online content management system currently powers around 600 media websites worldwide, including Axel Springer (die Welt, Hamburger Abendblatt, BZ, Bergerdorfer Zeitung, Berliner Morgenpost), N-TV, WAZ (der Westen), News International, St. Petersburg Times, FL, Cox Newspapers, NC, Canadian Globe and Mail, UK based TimesOnline, The Sun, News of the World, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Scandinavian Schibsted, Bonnier and TV 2 Norway.
24 January 2011
The Supreme Education Council of Qatar (SEC) and Al Jazeera Childrens Channel (JCC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) giving all Independent Schools working under SECs umbrella access to JCCs VoD educational website Taalam.TV launched by JCC in early 2010.
The agreement was signed by SECs Director of Education Institution Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous and JCCs Executive General Manager Mahmoud Bouneb at SECs headquarters in Doha, Qatar in the presence of delegations from both parties.
The educational portals database is rich with thousands of audiovisual materials extracted from the Channels library and further more enriched with curricula-based tutoring documents to assist educators in offering more stimulating and engaging classes subjects. According to the MOU, JCC is committed to providing the necessary teachers training, resources, and technical installation for Taalam.TV in schools.
Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous said: Encouraging creativity in students and enabling them to deal with and benefit from ICT are among the educational development priorities we aim to achieve. We believe that the partnership with Al Jazeera Children Channel, through Taalam.TV website, will provide the Independent Schools a very reliable and authenticated learning resource. We hope our schools will use these resources effectively to achieve excellent performance in the teaching and learning process.
JCCs Executive General Manager, Mahmoud Bouneb expressed his gratitude to the Supreme Educational Council represented by the Director of Education Institute Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous for putting their trust in Taalam.TV and for their continuous support. I would like to seize this opportunity to express our commitment to work hand in hand with the SEC to revolutionize and reform teaching and learning practices in Qatar, by continuously providing schools with the latest audiovisual educational materials made possible by the States devotion to education and innovation. Bouneb also expressed his gratitude to Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser for her support to such progressive initiatives.
Taalam.TV has been designed in collaboration with a group of Arab teachers and educational experts making it the first educational Video-on-Demand online platform in the Arab World.
JCC has recently signed a similar agreement with UNRWA in December 2010, and previously signed an MOU with the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman in April 2010. Taalam.TV is currently being used by more than 500,000 Arab students in more than 500 schools from 28 countries across the globe including Qatar, KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, France, Britain, USA and Canada.
The Supreme Education Council has previously signed similar agreements with many institutions, Aiming to support the educational process and achieving Qatar Vision for the year 2030, and contributing to establish learning societies in schools and elevating teachers academic performance in Qatars schools.
24 January 2011
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd., a leading provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries announced today that it has signed an agreement with BabyTV, a FOX International Channel, to distribute the channel throughout North America on the Galaxy-23 satellite (121.0°W).
BabyTV targets the youngest members of the family, infants and toddlers, and provides services that range from 24/7 TV channels to VOD and broadband offerings. RRsat currently distributes BabyTV to Europe via the HOTBIRD satellite as well as to Asia via the MEASAT 3A satellite. This expansion into the North American market will open up BabyTVs viewership to a new and wider audience.
Our work with BabyTV illustrates how RRsat is capable of opening new geographical markets up to any channel and bringing that channel to several continents, said Lior Rival, Vice President, Sales and Marketing of RRsat. We are excited about making this channel available to North America, providing BabyTV access to thousands of cable headends representing up to 90% of the American cable market.
BabyTV continues to rapidly grow its TV-watching audience, said Liran Talit, BabyTV Managing Director and Founder. RRsat has played a key role in the expansion of our reach in the past and continues to do so. RRsats services allow us easy access to international markets in multiple languages the world over.
24 January 2011
The latest AIB industry briefing has been published. Delivered to the in-boxes of more than 25,000 media leaders globally, the regular industry briefings offer snapshots of developments across the world’s media industry.
