23 July 2009
Daily news from Voice of America’s (VOA) Swahili Service is available, starting this week, by text message for users of Safaricom’s “Get It 411” program in Kenya.
“We’re excited about this program, which is VOA’s first short message service (SMS) project in East Africa,” said VOA Executive Editor Steve Redisch. “We’re always looking for new ways to reach audiences with our news and information on the platforms of their choice and in the languages they speak.”
The Nairobi-based Safaricom already allows subscribers to their Safaricom Live service to download VOA-TV’s English language video and audio to their mobile phones. That program has proved to be popular, particularly with programs about President Obama, whose father was Kenyan.
The new SMS program, “Get It 411,” is a subscription service that provides breaking news alerts on a regular basis.
VOA’s Swahili Service (www.VOANews.com/swahili) broadcasts to Kenya and other countries in East Africa for 1.5 hours each weekday and one hour on weekends. Swahili, a common language in the region, is spoken by an estimated 90 million people.
Safaricom networks reach areas throughout Kenya, an East African country of nearly 38 million where mobile technology often has leap-frogged conventional landline telephones. Safaricom has over 14 million subscribers in Kenya.
23 July 2009
From the GSMA Mobile Business Briefing:
South Korean vendor LG Electronics claims it will continue to defy the general market slowdown after posting record-high quarterly net profit thanks in part to robust sales of mobile devices. It sold 29.8 million handsets in the three months to July, boosted by premium products such as the multimedia touch-screen phone Arena and steady sales of mid-range phones. In the second quarter LG’s total net profit rose 62 percent to KRW1.15 trillion (US$903 million) on revenues of KRW14.5 trillion (a 13.8 percent increase on the year-ago period). Its mobile division reported KRW5.14 trillion in sales, 25.8 percent higher than the previous year, and operating profit of KRW545 billion with a margin of 10.6 percent. Handset sales accounted for 95 percent of its mobile division revenues.
LG is the world’s third-largest handset manufacturer and aims to overtake number two rival Samsung by 2012. Although LG forecasts the global handset market to decline over 6 percent year-on-year to around 280 million units in the third quarter, it expects to enjoy its own “steady growth” with the introduction of future high-end devices.
LG – a contender in home entertainment, home appliances, air conditioning and business solutions, as well as mobile communications – said it expects total company sales “to grow over 10 percent YoY as demand for LCD TVs and mobile phones continues to expand, with profitability comparable to last year’s level.”
23 July 2009
Reuters reports:
Walt Disney Co’s Japan unit said it would sell movies on flash memory cards as small as a fingernail so that people can watch them on mobile phones and other portable devices. The movie studio plans to package pre-recorded microSD cards together with DVDs holding the same movie content, allowing customers to watch at home as well as on the go. These cards will be available in November.
Users can watch movies stored on microSD cards on mobile phones capable of showing terrestrial digital broadcasting, and other portable gear such as car navigation systems.
For new movies, the package of a DVD and microSD card is expected to retail for JPY 4,935 (USD 53), about JPY 1,000 higher than the DVD alone, a spokesman at the Japan unit said.
It is difficult to make a sales forecast since this would be the first time for Disney to put its movies in microSD cards, he said. Initial titles in the microSD format include ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘National Treasure’ series. Panasonic Corp is set to provide Disney with microSD cards, the spokesman said. (Reuters
23 July 2009
Pharos, a leading content management and workflow provider, has opened a new US office and appointed Glen Sakata as General Manager – Americas to help capitalise on strong demand for Pharos solutions.
Sakata has over 20 years industry experience in sales, marketing, and general management with technology leaders including Louth Automation, Cisco Systems and Harmonic.
Over the last decade new types of entertainment and content delivery have forced broadcasters to rethink their traditional workflows and processes, comments Sakata, Innovative and forward looking developers like Pharos understand the bigger picture and can show a proven track record helping some of the worlds leading broadcasters to improve productivity and significantly reduce costs.
Sakata will be based close to the Silicon Valley and will liaise with the US headquarters of several established Pharos international clients such as CNN, HBO, Turner, Technicolor and Viacom.
Glens experience with the best in automation and content distribution alongside his extensive network of contacts in North America will greatly accelerate awareness of Pharos Mediator in the US market says Russell Grute, Marketing Director at Pharos. This long term investment will allow Pharos to take advantage of opportunities we have identified in the USA. Many of our core customers are already beginning to look further than technology and are now investing in our productivity solutions for broadcast and new media process management.
The new US office is part of a long term strategy to make Pharos an internationally recognised brand name, and establish a leadership position in the market for content workflow management. In 2008, Pharos opened offices in Singapore leading to successful implementations of Mediator at HBO Asia and Globecast Asia.
Pharos solutions help multi-channel broadcasters and service providers quickly adopt and benefit from file based multi-platform distribution. With Pharos, organisations can simplify workflow processes, unify operational teams and better utilise the technology infrastructure across the entire broadcast value chain. Millions of media assets across hundreds of television channels are powered 24/7 by Pharos’ software architecture, integration expertise and comprehensive support services.
23 July 2009
S4M Solutions for Media has won a new contract from one of the leading Dutch media companies. After an intensive selection process RTL Nederland decided in favour of S4M: In the future, the Dutch media company will manage its advertising campaigns with S4Ms most modern S4AdSales system.
With its four TV broadcasting stations RTL 4, RTL 5, RTL 7 and RTL 8, its fast growing digital activities and the Dutch leading radio station, Radio 538, RTL Nederland is a significant player on the Dutch media market. Seven days a week and 24 hours a day RTL Nederland provides in the need of the Dutch consumer with a great variety of national and international content. Advertising has to be managed for several stations and forms of advertising. Thus the broadcaster was searching for a cutting edge media sales system that provides for complex automated booking and optimization procedures. S4Ms airtime sales system S4AdSales comes up to those needs.
Paul Siero, Chief Commercial Officer at RTL Nederland: We opted for S4AdSales, because it allows us to manage and place commercial airtime with great flexibility and transparency. This enables us to further improve client services and of course, help us in further enhancing efficiency of our stations.
The so-called spot optimizer constitutes the core of the application. It enables automated planning: RTL Nederland usually doesnt sell certain programs to its advertisers, but gross rating points (GRP). The corresponding GRP packages are individually defined. According to the desired number of contacts within the chosen target audience, the spot optimizer automatically determines how many spots have to be placed, at what time and in which programs. S4AdSales then proposes a possible scenario and also provides a respective simulation run. After this, users can amend and test the scenario several times. Of course, the underlying legal guidelines and customers specific rules can be defined individually.
The big advantage of this procedure: The simulations allow to exert influence on bookings and consequently on revenue whereas over delivery of manual GRP bookings can be reduced while keeping or improving customer placement preferences.
S4AdSales is used by private and public service broadcasters in Europe, Asia and North America. The latest S4AdSales version will be presented at IBC 2009, booth 3.A41.
RTL Nederland
RTL Nederland is market leader with four television channels: RTL 4, RTL 5, RTL 7 and RTL 8. The company entertains and informs a vast audience seven days per week, 24 hours per day. RTL Nederlands channels offer popular programmes like the RTL news, RTL boulevard and miscellaneous top movies and series. With its market leadership on television, the number one radio station, Radio 538, and growing digital activities, RTL Nederland is one of the Dutch leading media companies
S4M Solutions for Media GmbH
The Cologne based company S4M Solutions for Media, a subsidiary of arvato systems and RTL Television, develops and distributes software solutions specialized on the broadcast- and new media industry. Today, S4M systems are used in 30 countries around the world. Whether commercial air time sales or video content management; whether program planning, rights licensing, ratings evaluation or production planning: S4M has got the solution. Furthermore, the S4M portfolio includes professional consulting services to pass along combined knowledge of media and IT to customers.
