27 January 2009
Black Eyed Peas front man, writer and producer, Founder and Chairman, Dipdive, will.i.am will be among the headline speakers at Mobile Backstage, a special one-day Mobile Entertainment focused conference on Thursday 19th February, as part of the worlds leading mobile communications industry event, the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Two-time Academy Award-winning actor and director Kevin Spacey will host the Mofilm Short Film Festival, and social networking entrepreneur Chris De Wolfe, founder and CEO of MySpace lead the speaker line up for the one-day conference. Mobile Backstage brings together leading music executives, filmmakers, broadcasters and gaming industry insiders in a program that aims to get to the heart of the challenges and opportunities for the mobile phone as a global entertainment medium.
As well as star-powered keynote interviews, Mobile Backstage will feature innovative case studies and panel sessions that explore the role of mobile entertainment within the vision of a mobile lifestyle. Topics will include how to harness the potential of the mobile device as the fourth screen; creating a new mobile gaming experience; the role of mobiles in the changing face of broadcast – chaired by AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick; innovative new business models; social networking on mobile; and the power and potential of Mobile Broadband to deliver multimedia digital entertainment.
27 January 2009
The UK’s Freeview DTT platform has announced that sales of Freeview+ boxes (PVRs) have reached over 900,000, up 118% compared to December last year.
26% of all sales were achieved in a record final quarter, and throughout December, more than two Freeview+ boxes were bought every minute.
Take-up of Freeview, the UKs most popular digital TV service, continues to grow indicating that Freeviews ability to deliver quality, subscription-free TV is of huge value to consumers particularly in the current economic downturn. More than 17.2 million homes are enjoying the benefits of viewing 13 of the 15 most-watched channels without having to pay for them and Freeview+ saves viewers more than £200 in the first year alone compared to the subscription alternatives.
This growth is expected to continue as consumers rein in their expenditure in 2009 – recent research highlighted one in five plans to curtail spending on pay TV channels – and as another five million homes go through digital switchover in the next twelve months, with Freeview+ providing the most cost-effective recording solution for a digital age.
Freeview+ was given a boost with a national TV ad campaign that launched in November 2008. Throughout the campaign period, sales increased by an average of 150% year-on-year and Freeviews website traffic increased by 80% during the first month alone. The ads celebrated the functionality of Freeview+ and featured a host of British TV talent including Coronation Streets Antony Cotton, Jennie McAlpine and Tupele Dorgu, comedian Alan Carr and Chef Gordon Ramsay.
Ilse Howling, Managing Director of Freeview, said: The popularity of Freeview+ isnt surprising given that it offers outstanding value giving the same experience as + recorders from other providers, the only difference is its free from subscription.
During a downturn, TV viewing naturally increases as people choose to stay in and watch TV as a form of free entertainment. We know that Freeview is an extremely compelling proposition of high quality, subscription free, digital TV, but Freeview+ is adding a new dimension to peoples viewing experience, allowing them to take control of what they watch and when they watch it. More than half of Freeview+ users tell us they cant live without it.
With over 60 models to choose from, including boxes with integrated DVD recorders/players and Freeview+ built into digital TVs, Freeview+ offers the biggest range of digital TV recorders available today. Viewers can pause, record and rewind their favourite TV shows without having to pay a monthly subscription.
In the first of Freeviews new channel launches in 2009, CNN International is now available on channel 84 bringing viewers world news, every night from 9pm to 1am. Discovery Networks UK also plans to launch a new channel in the coming months.
Howling concludes, These new additions to the Freeview channel portfolio, coupled with the roll out of Freeview HD across the UK from the end of 2009 is an exciting prospect for Freeview viewers and gives them even more value in the tough climate.
27 January 2009
Lyon-based international news broadcaster Euronews has a new single operating company, Euronews SA. Agreed by the general shareholders’ meeting in December, Euronews SA is formed by the merger of SECEMIE SA and SOCEMIE SA, respectively the former publishing and operating companies.
The merger has also brought with it a new governance organisation, comprising a Supervisory Board and an Executive Committee.
Three individuals and nine shareholding public television channels sit on the Supervisory Board:
- Mr. Pier Luigi Malesani (President of NewCo Rai International)
- Mr. Andrey Bystritsky (Chairman of the Broadcasting Company “The Voice of Russia” and Advisor of the Director General of VGTRK)
- Ms. Stéphanie Martin (Director of diversification and thematic channels at France Télévisions)
FRANCE TELEVISIONS (France), represented by Ms. Laurence Schwob - RAI (Italy), represented by Mr. Stefano Luppi
- RTR (Russia), represented by Mr. Oleg Kuprianov
- SSR (Switzerland), represented by Mr. Willi Burkhalter
- RTP (Portugal), represented by Mr. José Lopes de Araujo
- RTBF (Belgium), represented by Mr. Pierre Couchard
- ERT (Greece), represented by Ms. Fotini Yiannoulatou
- TV4 (Sweden), represented by Ms. Kajsa Stål
- NTU (Ukraine), represented by Mr. Vladimir Nora
Mr. Pier Luigi Malesani is President of the Supervisory Board and Mr. Andrey Bystritsky is the Vice-president.
The Executive Committee has two members: the President is Mr. Philippe Cayla, the former Chairman and CEO of SOCEMIE, and the Director General is Mr. Michael Peters, the former Director General of SOCEMIE.
27 January 2009
Russia Today is spreading its network of correspondent bureaux and is the first of Russian and international TV channels to open a correspondent bureau in South Ossetia.
Russia Todays bureau is located in Tskhinval. Its journalists have mobile satellite equipment, BGAN at their disposal to organise live broadcasting and feeds. It provides an opportunity to efficiently put news on air and broadcast live reports from South Ossetia and neighbouring republics: North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan.
The chief of the bureau is Naida Azizova, a journalist with extensive professional experience.. For more than a year Naida has been working as a military correspondent for Russia Today. Naida speaks English, Arabic, Hebrew, French and Persian.
It was decided to open Russia Todays bureau in South Ossetia soon after military action ended in the region.
Russia Today provided the most extensive coverage by an international TV station of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict in August of 2008 on air, becoming the main source of information about the situation in South Ossetia for viewers and media across the world. It was possible to see the biggest world broadcasters such as CNN and others use Russia Todays video footage on air. Russia Todays correspondents provided interviews and commentaries for the BBC World Service and many other media.
During the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict Russia Today was the fourth Most Viewed among Global Partners on You Tube. In comparison the BÂÑ was at 21 for the same period.
At present Russia Today and Russia Al-Yaums correspondent offices and bureaux are situated in Washington, London, Dehli, Paris, Damascus, Baghdad and Jerusalem and other cities around the world.
19 January 2009
The Interactive Group, one of Italys leading post production companies, has purchased two eQ systems from Quantel.
When time is of the essence and the project demands the highest quality and reliability, then the only solution is Quantel, explains Interactive Romas Art Director, Elena Chiesa.
The eQs are an important step forward in speeding up all our post production processes. Since we opened for business in 2000, we have built our reputation on creativity and quality while offering a level of client service that is second to none, Chiesa continues.
Using other approaches, you waste a lot of time (and we all know time is money!) bouncing the media between several suites to carry out different parts of the post production process, both within and outside of the facility, explains Chiesa.
With the eQ, its perfectly viable to create the whole job on the system, from online editing to imported vfx, integrating titles, color correction, conforming, finishing and multi-format deliverables for every conceivable need. This multiple capability, combined with its incredible speed, means we can carry out the whole project in front of the client and make any required changes instantly as the job progresses, all without the use of any proxies.
It also means the client doesnt get any nasty surprises in the finishing sessions! eQ is the ultimate one-stop shop for all our post production requirements, Chiesa concludes.
