Australia's ABC to launch 24-hour news channel

26 January 2010

Australian’s national broadcaster, the ABC, has announced plans to launch the country’s first free-to-air 24-hour television news channel this year.

The ABC’s Managing Director, Mark Scott, said the ABC’s commitment to quality news and current affairs would enter a new era with the creation of the new digital channel.

The channel would provide live continuous news coverage of major breaking stories from Australia and around the world.

“No media organisation in the country is better equipped to deliver this channel than the national broadcaster,” Mr Scott said.

“We can draw on the investment already made in the ABC, through its major newsrooms in every state and territory, 12 international bureaux and 60 regional newsrooms, to deliver to Australians a top-quality 24-hour news service that is comprehensive, independent and up to the minute.”

Although the ABC is government funded, it said the channel would commence with no additional funds from the government for content. The channel would be paid for through cost savings the ABC had already achieved.

(Source: ABU web site)

Australian Broadcasting Summit – discount for AIB members

26 January 2010

Celebrating its 8th year the Australian Broadcasting Summit 2010 comes during a time of great change and opportunity for the industry.

The broadcasting industry is facing radical change. Digital adoption is accelerating, and the challenges of audience fragmentation, a tighter advertising climate and increased competition from new media are all contributing to a new broadcasting environment. Whilst there are many challenges, there are also opportunities. Innovative content, on-demand technology, IPTV, and new media platforms offer broadcasters the chance to continue the drive of the digital revolution and ensure a strong, secure future for the industry.

This summit is considered the annual meeting place for key influencers in Australia’s broadcasting industry and features a two day conference on television broadcasting media, and a one day conference on radio. The Australian Broadcasting Summit 2010 will offer senior stakeholders a platform to discuss these pressing issues and explore strategies for successfully developing this key industry.

Event themes include:

  • Tracking the Change in Digital Broadcasting Consumption
  • Securing the digital broadcasting future
  • Assessing Federal Government Policy Initiatives
  • How broadcasters and regulators can work together
  • 3DTV
  • Defining broadcasters’ market position in the digital age
  • Maximising branded distribution
  • Rolling out content across adittional channels
  • The forecast for advertising spend in the coming year
  • The challenges of monetising content in a multi platform world
  • Identifying the impacts of structural change
  • Making the most of premium content
  • Crafting the fully immersive media experience
  • Radio’s role in the evolving media environment
  • Maximising the reach of radio content across multiple channels
  • Delivering radio with vision: The impact of emerging media on content development
  • How are radio brands utilising social networks?
  • Identifying the potential opportunities from convergence
  • Consumer generated media
  • Understanding the benefits of IPTV
  • Bridging the gap between TV & PC
  • Tomorrows mobile channel and the mobile consumer
  • Content protection, digital rights management and intellectual property
  • HDTV broadcasting
  • Broadcasting 3.0
  • Tackling audience behavior in a consumer recreational market

Why attend?
At the Australian Broadcasting Summit 2010 you will:

  • Hear in-depth broadcasting strategies from the industry’s most senior executives
  • Unlock the potential growth opportunities for premium content in the new media environment
  • Discover the latest technologies and government policy how it will effect the industry at large
  • Learn how broadcasters, programme makers and solution providers are engaging with current and future technologies
  • Gain valuable insight into strategies, timeframes and realities for HD, mobile, IPTV and VoD platforms
  • Understand the key creative, commercial, business and technology solutions driving change and growth in the market
  • Benefit from the opportunity to meet key decision-makers at leading channels and production companies

Who should attend?
This event is a must-attend for senior executives and decision makers working in all areas of television and new media including:

  • Broadcasters
  • Production companies
  • Post houses
  • Telcos
  • Ad agencies
  • ISPs
  • Consultancies
  • Regulators
  • Mobile operators
  • IPTV companies
  • Media financiers
  • Content providers and aggregators
  • Business and technology solution provider

For full details and to book places target=_blank>click here. AIB Members apply to the AIB for your special discount code to obtain a 10% discount on new places booked.

Winners of the 2009 AIBs announced

21 January 2010

The Association for International Broadcasting announced the winners of its annual global media excellence awards at a gala event in London on 4 November 2009. The AIBs recognise creativity and innovation in global broadcasting across TV, radio, cross-media, marketing and technology.

The AIBs are unique in broadcasting because of their independence from commercial interests – an independent panel of judges consisting of respected professionals from the broadcasting and wider industries selected the winners among more than 200 entries initially submitted from 26 countries as diverse as Argentina, France, India, UAE, USA, to name but a few.

Categories covered by the ‘AIBs’ include separate awards for radio and television, in current affairs, coverage of a single news event, creative features, and personality of the year, as well as awards for innovation in marketing, use of technology and cross-media productions.

The Awards event was sponsored by Bloomberg TV and hosted by Bloomberg anchor Francine Lacqua and attended by senior executives, producers and journalists from media organisations around the world.

The AIB International Media Excellence Award winners were:

Clearest coverage of a single news event – television

Winner

BBC Persian TV (UK) for The elections that shook Iran

—“a young channel mastering a huge challenge given the reporting restrictions and the vilification of the channel by the Iranian press”—

Highly commended

TV2 (Norway) for Children of Gaza

—“painful and touching”—

VRT (Belgium) for Villa Politica

—” mesmerising political drama unfolding on your screen”—

Clearest coverage of a single news event – radio

Winner

RFE/RL (Czech Republic) for Special coverage of the Azeri referendum

—“facing some tough hurdles in trying to reach into countries where the press is not as free as it should be”—

Highly commended

Voice of America for Coverage of the war in Sri Lanka

—“reporting that’s thoroughly useful to audiences, and
creates a deeper insight into the conflict”—

Most creative specialist genre – television

Winner

Pyramedia (UAE) for The Prince of Poets

—“astounding”— —“fantastic”—

Highly commended

Luxe TV (Luxembourg) for Lifestyle

—“stylish presentation”—

VTV (Ghana) for Make me a success – enterprise challenge

—“entertainment cleverly combined with education”

Most creative specialist genre – radio

Winner

Deutsche Welle (Germany) for Family affairs – how to become a political player

—“true creativity”—

Highly commended

Voice of Nigeria (Nigeria) for Kiddies’ voices – Africa fit for the child

—“passionate, unique and engaging, with creative use of poetry and dialogue”—

BBC World Service (UK) for The trouble with money

—“highly informative and strong editing helps to convey complex issues”—

Best creative feature – television

Winner

Rockhopper TV (UK) for Love in a time of HIV – I love NY

—“sensitive treatment of a difficult subject”—

Highly commended

CBC Radio-Canada (Canada) for Sunday with Darwin

—“informative dramatisation with excellent editing”—

Deutsche Welle TV (Germany) for Walled in – Germany’s inner borders

—“excellent animation”—

Best creative feature – radio

Winner

Tinderbox Productions (UK) for The counterfeiter’s tale

—“an astonishing story – one that needs to be told”—

Highly commended

Deutsche Welle (Germany) for On skis to the North Pole

—“great use of sound to tell an incredible journey”—

Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Netherlands) for The face of forgiveness

—“great story about redemption”—

Most innovative technology – sponsored by Bloomberg TV

Winner

France 24 (France) for World pioneer on the iPhone

—“brilliant use of a particular technology to expand the channel’s audience”—

Highly commended

E4 (UK) for Skins Messenger

—“brilliant and innovative support for the programme”—

NDTV (India) for Yoda – Multi-production in a laptop

—“highly adaptable to others in the industry”—

Best mobile or cross-media production

Winner

RTHK (Hong Kong) for Deconstructing Hong Kong

—“captivating story-telling that genuinely uses multiple media platforms

in their best functions”—

Highly commended

BBC World Service Trust (UK) for Condom Condom

—“a naturally seamless production”—

Most creative marketing strategy

Winner

ABC Radio Australia (Australia) for Pacific break

—“an original campaign that delivered a small idea on a very big scale

across a huge region of the world with a compelling final destination”—

Highly commended

BBC (UK) for India election train

—“energetic and engaging campaign”—

Channel 4 (UK) for E4

—“brilliantly executed campaign”—

Best current affairs documentary – television

Winners

CBC Radio-Canada (Canada) for Baby boomers take on Mount Mera

—“simply inspiring”—

Channel 4 (UK) for Dispatches – Pakistan’s Taliban generation

—“powerful, risky and passionate”—

Highly commended

Arte (France) for Tibetan el Dorado

—“visually stunning, a great story about herbal medicines”—

United Nations for 21st century – Central African Republic: the forgotten crisis

—“an extremely engaging production”—

Channel 4 (UK) for Dispatches – Orphans of the Burma cyclone

—“a risky undertaking and very moving”—

Best current affairs documentary – radio

Winner

Tinderbox Productions (UK) for Children of God

—“a fascinating and frightening documentary about young preachers

that engages the listener from the outset”—

Highly commended

ABC (Australia) for Losing Erin

—“a well-produced insight into a much misunderstood area of mental illness”—

BBC (UK) for Lost voices of Tiananmen

—” giving a deeper understanding of events in China 20 years ago”—

Best historical documentary – television

Winner

WDR (Germany) for Tiananmen

—“informative and compelling production”—

Best investigative documentary – television

Winner

BBC World News (UK) for Korea, out of the North

—“compelling account of unfolding human tragedy”—

Highly commended

Hessischer Rundfunk (Germany) for The child, the death and the truth

—“well-crafted and well thought out – opens the debate

on one of the searing images of our time”—

RTE (Ireland) for Prime time investigates: Travellers on the edge

—“fascinating account of a culture rarely highlighted”—

Best investigative documentary – radio

Winner

Ruth Evans Productions (UK) for The new scramble for Africa

— “reminding listeners how the political and economic landscape

in Africa is changing”—

Highly commended

Radio Romania (Romania) for The poisonous water

—“a well-produced, ‘old school’ documentary”—

International TV personality of the year

Winner

Zeinab Badawi – BBC World News (UK)

—“a clear winner”—

AIB Editors’ Awards

Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (Qatar) – JCC, the first Pan-Arab ‘edutainment’ channel for 7 to 15 year olds received the AIB Editors’ Award in recognition of the channel’s innovative and inspirational approach to providing fun education television to a region of the world where children are underserved.

VRT News (Belgium) – VRT News has offered its viewers ground-breaking coverage of elections in Belgium. During the 2009 election coverage, barriers between presenters, politicians and voters were torn down, thanks to innovative and engaging presentation. For this reason, AIB decided that one of its prestigious and exclusive Editors’ Awards should go to the VRT News team.

The judges for the AIBs 2009 have a vast range of experience in different aspects of broadcasting and are drawn from all over the world. The full list is: Amir Jahangir, CEO, SAMAA TV, Pakistan; Danforth Austin, Director, Voice of America and Acting Director, International Broadcasting Bureau, US; Michael Joseph, CEO, Safaricom, Kenya; Billy Wright, Global Head Media & Games Partnerships, Nokia, UK; Hanh Tran, Chief Executive, Radio Australia, Australia; Nahida Nakad, Deputy Director, Arabic Service, France 24, France; Darby Sanchez, CEO, Globecast Asia, Singapore; Matteo Berlucchi, CEO, Livestation, UK; Alla Salehian, Director, Global Media Services – Associated Press Television, UK; Torsti Tenhunen, CEO, Hasan & Partners Oy, Finland; Dirk Beusch, Senior Project Manager, Deutsche Welle TV, Germany; Dr Nabil Khatib, Executive Editor, Alarabiya News Channel, UAE; Natasha Elkington, AlertNet Correspondent/Humanitarian Crisis Reporter & Online Editor, Thomson Reuters, London; Russell Grute, Director of Marketing, Pharos, UK; Marcus Metzner, Head of Marketing & Communications, S4M, Germany; William Bird, Director, Media Monitoring Africa, South Africa; Corne Bouman, Managing Director, ProSkope, The Netherlands; Lem van Eupen, Head of Strategy, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, The Netherlands; Julian Clover, Editorial Director, Broadband TV News, UK; Samuel Attah-Mensah, General Manager, CitiFM, Ghana; Simon Spanswick, CEO, AIB, UK.

2010 media pack now available

21 January 2010

The AIB has published the new media pack for its international media magazine, The Channel.

Rates for 2010 have been maintained and offer exceptional value for money as the magazine reaches key opinion-formers in media companies worldwide – in fact, The Channel is read by more than 6,500 people in over 140 countries.

Download the media pack here, and then talk to Judy Lund or Simon Parrish at AIB headquarters in the UK to discuss getting your brand in front of the influential readership of The Channel. Judy and Simon will also be delighted to talk to you about the 2010 AIBs, our sixth annual international media excellence awards, and about other opportunities for reaching the 25,000+ people AIB is in contact with across the media worldwide.

AIB launches LinkedIn group for members

21 January 2010

Responding to demand from AIB members for a online area where they can discuss issues with each other and share experiences, the AIB has now set up a group on LinkedIn specifically for members.

Only broadcasting professionals from AIB member companies will be allowed to join the groups, enabling in-depth discussions on key topics.

The AIB is focusing this year on improved communications with members. New tools, such as online groups and Twitter, provide ways of exchanging information rapidly to meet the increasing pace of broadcasting change. They also enhance the ability of members to collaborate with each other to address the opportunities brought by growing competition.

The AIB Members group on LinkedIn can be found target=_blank> by clicking here

The AIB can also on found commenting on Twitter under the account name target=_blank>AIBnews

Simon Spanswick’s CEO blog can be accessed by target=_blank>clicking here