16 November 2009
GlobeCast announced today that Canal 3 Benin has joined its platform on Astra 4A (Sirius 4) at 5ºE. This privately-owned channel joins other key regional and international broadcasters on the platform, such as Vox Africa, Canal 2 International, LMTV and Waladjiri.
GlobeCast receives Canal 3s signal via satellite in C band at its Paris technical operations center. The feed is then uplinked to GlobeCasts sub-Saharan Africa distribution platform on the Astra 4A satellite. Once on the satellite, the channel can be received in Ku-Band direct to millions of homes in over 30 countries, with antennas as small as 90cm. GlobeCast also offers the channel a web streaming service for its internet site.
For Canal 3 Benin, the international distribution of its channel provides an opportunity to share its country with the rest of the world, including its socioeconomic, artistic and economic realities as well as tourism information. It also allows the channel to foster and build business relationships.
For GlobeCast, the addition of Canal 3 to its platform is the latest proof of the growth of this dynamic community of regional and international broadcasters a community that is increasingly diverse in terms of the number of channels and diversity of content offered on the platform.
16 November 2009
Al Jazeera Network announces the launch of its English language global news service on the Austar Pay TV platform in Australia which will begin on the 15th of November, 2009, expanding Al Jazeera Englishs distribution reach to over 180 million households globally.
Al Jazeera English is joining 40+ other channels available in the Austar Starter Package which has a subscriber base currently of 739,000 throughout regional Australia. It can be watched on channel 651.
Phil Lawrie, Director of Global Distribution, Al Jazeera said We are delighted to be celebrating todays launch of Al Jazeera English on Austar and to be able to provide AJE to a sizeable new audience in this important market. Furthermore, were excited at the fact that this launch helps carry AJE to a global distribution reach of over 180 million households a particularly notable statistic in that we have now added 100 million homes to AJEs distribution in the three years since the channels launch.
John Porter, CEO of Austar said With the addition of Al Jazeera English to our Starter Package, now Regional Australians will be able to enjoy a wide and diverse range of international news viewpoints and discourse.
16 November 2009
The Future TV Advertising conference is being held in London on 11th December and AIB has negotiated a 20% discount for members.
The conference will bring together broadcast and advertising to analyse and debate the evolution of TV advertising. Television is inexorably losing ground to online which is gradually offering greater accountability. The conference will address how the advertising community can work with broadcast so that this threat, embodied by new technologies and user behaviour, becomes an opportunity.
The event will provide a great opportunity to hear and network with key stakeholders in TV advertising: Brands, Media Holding Companies, leading European Cable, Satellite, IPTV Pay-TV providers and Content Owners.
Key speakers include:
Benny Salaets, Vice President Product Marketing TV, Telenet
Mark Simpson, marketing Director, Ford
Rachel Bristow, Marketing Comms and Buying Director, Unilever
Casey Harwood, SVP, Turner Broadcasting
Adam Rattner, Media Manager, Coca Cola
Bartlomiej Kasiñski, Director of Strategy, Multimedia Polska
Ed Couchman, Commercial Controller, Future and Digital Media Advertising, Channel 4
Simon Orpin, Creative Solutions Director, ITV
Amanda Collins, Campaigns and Events Manager, Co-Operative
Richard Griffiths, Director of TV and Entertainment, Eircom
Visit www.futuretvads.com for further information.
For those unable to attend the conference in person, there will be a live stream of the event.
12 November 2009
GlobeCast has expanded its next-generation global fibre network with the opening of a new point-of-presence (POP) in Moscow. It has also signed new Russian TV channel STRANA as its first customer for the new link with a distribution and capacity deal to reach Pay TV (IPTV, DTH and Cable) platforms across Russia and Europe. The channel will be delivered from Moscow to Paris for uplink to HotBird via the new POP.
This latest addition to the network is part of GlobeCasts ongoing expansion of its fibre and satellite connectivity and will greater connect this key region with points-of-presence in Asia, America, Africa and Europe. It will also allow GlobeCast to continue to differentiate its broadcast delivery service by offering a hybrid satellite and fibre solution.
The STRANA channel which was launched on HotBird on 2 November, has taken advantage of this hybrid network with a combined fibre and satellite solution. GlobeCast receives the STRANA signal at its new Moscow POP before sending it via its international fibre network to Paris for uplink to the HotBird satellite. As well as fibre and satellite capacity, GlobeCast is providing STRANA with a 24 hour, 365 day a year, monitoring service across the entire network from its Master Control Room in Paris.
The new Russian-language TV channel, which is one of only a handful of Russian channels available on the HotBird platform, describes itself as Russias Voice and will provide a range of programming including factual, educational and cultural shows, classical, popular and original films as well as self-produced documentaries, talk shows and music programmes. It will also encourage independent film making throughout Russia with the STRANA Award, a competition for independent movie producers to have their works broadcast on the channel.
GlobeCasts DTM fibre network has been built to support the increasing number of high definition channels and to provide a more cost effective route for broadcasters to go global. This new connection to Moscow comes at an ideal time when a growing number of content owners are looking to bring their channels securely from Eastern Europe to the rest of the world and vice versa.
9 November 2009
Support services company VT Group has secured a contract to broadcast 20 hours a day of analogue and digital output from the Polish state broadcaster Polskie Radio using its network of European and global transmission sites.
VT will deliver the programming on short wave to listeners in Europe and Israel. Broadcasts by Polskie Radio’s External Service, Polands international radio service, will be delivered in Polish, English, German, Hebrew, Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian.
Programming, originating in Warsaw, will be brought into VTs Media Management Centre in London for scheduling and distribution to various transmission sites using VTs Global Media Network – a combination of fibre connectivity and satellite delivery. The majority of transmission will go out from VTs site at Woofferton in Shropshire, supported by other sites including Rampisham and Skelton, and partner sites in Dhabiyya in the United Arab Emirates and at Moosbrun in Austria.
Most of the programming will be analogue but there is also provision for 1.5 hours a day of digital output using DRM digital short wave.
VTs John Prior, General Manager Broadcast and Security, commented: We are delighted to be appointed as Polskie Radios exclusive short wave transmission partner supplementing their existing output by satellite and internet. The move demonstrates a continued commitment to short wave from a major European broadcaster.
The four-year contract with Polskie Radio, which started in late October, is worth some £1.5 million and means VT now has nearly 40 customers for its transmission services. Polskie Radios daily output will place it in the companys top ten broadcast customers.
