17 May 2007
The Polish parliament [Sejm] unanimously passed a resolution on 10 May to mark the 55th anniversary of the first programme aired by Radio Free Europe.
“The Sejm thanks Radio Free Europe authors, employees and associates in Poland and in the West on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the RFE first broadcast from Munich,” the resolution reads.
“Their daily, arduous work allowed many of our compatriots to get to know the world during the decades of communism, allowed them to get to know the uncensored truth about Poland.”
The resolution recalls that Radio Free Europe spoke about Stalinist crimes, helped to understand the Solidarity trade union and raised hopes during martial law.
16 May 2007
The AIB recommends…
events, shows, content
Hometech Middle East
Dubai, UAE
15-16 May 2007
A major conference and exhibition looking at the development in home
entertainment, technology and systems. AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick
will be speaking at the conference.
11 May 2007
Al Jazeera is continuing its efforts to gain clarification on the UK Daily Mirror newspaper report of a leaked memo alleging “President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station Al Jazeera”. The Doha-based broadcaster has repeated its call to see a copy of the relevant section of the memo.
British civil servant David Keogh and parliamentary researcher Leo OConnor were jailed on 10 May for leaking the secret four-page memo. Press and public were banned from the trial which has been heavily criticised by MPs and civil rights groups. The memo is purported to have recorded discussions regarding the events in Falluja between Tony Blair and George Bush in the Oval office in 2004. Former defence minister, Peter Kilfoyle, stated that “There remain unanswered questions about the discussions about the attack on Falluja and subsequent deaths of many hundreds of civilians.”
Al Jazeera submitted a Freedom of Information application early in 2006 requesting the disclosure of the contents of the memo but the request was denied. Any substantiation of the contents of the memo would be extremely serious not only for Al Jazeera but for media organisations across the world. It would cast significant doubts on the US administration’s version of previous incidents involving Al Jazeera’s journalists and offices. Both Al Jazeeras Kabul Bureau and Iraq Bureau were bombed by the US resulting in the death of Al Jazeera journalist Tareq Ayoub.
Al Jazeera has urged Downing Street to clarify the Daily Mirror report on the contents of the memo.
9 May 2007
Vizrt Ltd. today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2007 with yet another record revenue quarter reaching USD 19.9M compared to revenues of USD 12.0M in Q1 2006. Revenue increased by 66%, of which 41% was organic growth.
Financial highlights for the three months ended March 31, 2007: Consolidated revenues increased by 66% to USD 19.9M compared to USD 12.0M in Q1 2006, and USD 19.0M in Q4 2006. EBIT was USD 3.9M, up 78% compared to EBIT of USD 2.2M in Q1 2006. EBITDA (excluding taxes, interest, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets and deferred stock-based compensation) went up 89% to USD 5.0M compared to USD 2.7M in Q1 2006. USD 3.7M net profit, was up 63% compared to a net profit of USD 2.3M in Q1 2006. Basic earnings per share for Q1 2007 was USD 0.18 compared to USD 0.14 for Q1 2006. Fully diluted earnings per share for Q1 2007 were USD 0.17 compared to USD 0.13 for Q1 2006. Cash and short term deposits increased by USD 2.9M to a total of USD 41.0M.
Mr. Bjarne Berg, President and CEO, commented; “The outlook for Vizrt is dependent on how well we manage to integrate the MAM products
(Ardendo) into the existing salesforce and to get enough specialists hired to answer to the worldwide demand. If we manage to do that, we believe we will continue to grow in an existing pace.
The first integrated products were presented at NAB in Las Vegas in April and were very well accepted. In the future we are looking at both smaller stand alone integrated products and larger enterprise solution that cover all the broadcasters need when it comes to media asset management and handling of digital video.
As we have told the market earlier, we are working on a downscaled version of the Viz|Engine, Multi Platform Solution (MPS), which can accommodate (profiled) 3D-graphics with a nicer look on cell phones and on web-sites. The MPS project is progressing according to plans and received the NAB engineering award at the show in Las Vegas in April. We are expecting to make first deliveries to customers both within and outside the traditional broadcast industry within the coming months. To explore the various options to realize the full potential of the MPS product, including the spin off option, we have decided to engage external advisors.
Viz|World is another newly released integrated product which is a
merger between Curious Maps and Vizrt Graphics. It makes maps, which is a must in every news station, much better than anything on the market and when we add Virtual Live, it is outstanding. It was shown to customers for the first time at NAB and virtually every broadcaster that saw it, said that they would like to have it. The backlog is as of today over USD 22M which is about USD 6M more than in Q4″, concluded Mr. Berg.
A conference call will be held at 10:30 (CEST) today to offer analysts, investors and media the opportunity to directly discuss the results and recent developments with Bjarne Berg, CEO, and Ofra Brown, CFO of the company. Please use one of the following dial-in-numbers: +44 20 7806 1969 (UK), +47 2316 2193 (Norway), +49
69 71044 5506 (Germany), Participant. Pass code: 515488.
9 May 2007
The Russia Today TV channel has officially announced an expansion of its coverage in Europe. Starting May 3, more than 750,000 viewers in Belgium and the Netherlands will have an opportunity to watch Russia Today.
Such leading satellite TV operators as CANALDIGITAL (Netherlands) and TV VLAANDEREN (Belgium), which broadcast via Astra 19,2 satellite, became partners of Russia Today.
According to signed agreements, RT news programmes will be included into two packages of CANALDIGITAL and TV VLAANDEREN, broadcasting on the 67th and 62nd channels respectively.
The deal in Belgium and the Netherlands will bring Russia Today’s total audience in Europe closer to a record 16 MLN viewers – more than a 30% growth in less than six months.
“The pay TV market in Western Europe is traditionally highly competitive. TV operators in Europe always choose the most interesting and actual content. The fact that RT is now available both in the Netherlands and in Belgium shows the implicit growth of the Europeans’ interest to the news coming from Russia,” – stressed Sergey Lisnevsky, the Head of RT Distribution Department.
