22 January 2007
SES ASTRA, an SES company, has announced that it has signed a new long-term contract with the French Pay-TV operator CANAL+ Group for the satellite transmission of its programme bouquet for the French market from ASTRA`s prime orbital position 19.2° East. Based on this new contract, SES ASTRA will transmit the full programming line up of CANAL+ Group from a single orbital position. CANAL+ Group has recently merged its pay-TV operations in France with that of TPS.
In the agreement, CANAL+ Group takes several ASTRA transponders in addition to those currently contracted from SES ASTRA. The agreement therefore provides the satellite capacity which is necessary to consolidate the complete newly merged CANALSAT bouquet on a single orbital position. It will allow CANAL+ Group to broadcast and develop its complete High Definition (HD) satellite bouquet and will also provide further room for growth for Standard Definition (SD) services. Furthermore, the agreement provides and foresees a framework for the long-term growth requirements of CANAL+ Group.
With this contract, we significantly enhance our position in the French market and further strengthen our relationship with CANAL+ as one of our most important European customers, says Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA. SES ASTRA and CANAL+ have developed a strong partnership over the past ten years, and we look forward to continuing to provide satellite services of the highest quality and reliability to the merged bouquet. Broadcasting the new offer from one orbital position is undoubtedly the best solution for CANAL+ and its subscribers and viewers. SES ASTRA once again demonstrates its strengths and shows that it is the satellite provider of choice for important blue chip customers.
18 January 2007
Teletrax, the global broadcast intelligence company, has extended its contract with the ABC Television Network to monitor usage of promotional content by all of ABC’s affiliates, it was announced today at NATPE 2007, the annual conference of the National Association of Television Program Executives.
A subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated (Nasdaq: MDLK), Teletrax offers the first and only digital video monitoring and content tracking service that provides vital television intelligence on a global scale to video providers such as entertainment studios, news organizations, sports leagues, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. Teletrax is a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG) and Medialink.
ABC Television Network (ABC), a unit of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is the first Teletrax client to contract to receive broadcast tracking and analysis across the 210 markets in the U.S. ABC Affiliate Marketing utilizes Teletrax to electronically track the broadcast of its on-air television show promotions.
With a number of new and existing clients seeking added depth to their video monitoring and analysis, Teletrax is completing the next phase of its growth with the expansion of its network to track television broadcasts in all 210 U.S. markets, from the nations largest market, New York, through the smallest measured television market, Glendive, Montana. Through this expanded network, Teletrax is able to provide video content owners with the ability to track and monitor short- and long-form programming and airings of TV promotions and advertising spots throughout all markets in the United States and the larger markets in Canada, ensuring the proper utilization of content and protection of assets.
The expansion of our network to include all U.S. markets is a significant milestone for Teletrax, making us the only global broadcast verification company to offer full nationwide coverage, said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax. Our ability to expand the network so widely is testament to our increasing momentum in the market, and further establishes us as the industry standard in the monitoring and reporting of broadcast content. We will be able to offer clients enhanced tracking and analysis capabilities, providing valuable media intelligence that contributes to significant growth in overall return-on-investment.
Launched in 2002 as a service developed by a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG) and Medialink, with an underlying technology that is patent protected both by Philips and Digimarc Corp. (Nasdaq: DMRC), Teletraxs technology embeds an imperceptible and indelible digital watermark into video whenever it is edited, transmitted, broadcast or duplicated.
A global network of decoders, or detectors, then captures all occurrences of the embedded video being transmitted via satellite, cable or terrestrially and generates tracking reports for the content owners. Reports of individual broadcast airings are delivered online in near real-time to each clients custom-designed portal or in data file transfers. Each clients broadcast activity is updated dynamically, 24 hours a day, enabling clients to respond immediately to reported results such as changes in end-user preferences or detections of unauthorized use.
Teletrax provides vital broadcast television intelligence to video content providers such as entertainment companies, news organizations, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. The company currently maintains a proprietary network of detectors that monitors the television broadcasts of 1,300 channels from more than 50 nations, and will be delivering full market coverage in the United States, representing more than 90% of all U.S. television households. Its international network covers television stations across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, South and Central America, and Canada.
Entertainment, news and media organizations both within and outside of the United States that also have contracted to use Teletrax for the tracking of news video, advertising or promotional content include ABC Television Network, BBC, Buena Vista Television, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBC News Channel, The NBC Agency, NBC Universal Domestic Television, Reuters Television, Tribune Entertainment, United Nations, A1GP, ITN Networks, Euro RSCG 4D DRTV and Medialink. A number of other companies are also in active trials with the Teletrax service.
17 January 2007
As of 2007, Arabic will be the 29th language in which the international all-music MTV television will broadcast its musical repertoire. The Dubai-based al-Arabiya Television network has just signed an accord with MTV Networks International to launch MTV Arabiya in 2007.The announcement of an Arabic channel had been made last summer but MTV reportedly lacked a local partner until now.
The new MTV Arabiya, a free-to-air channel, will broadcast 24 hours a day entertainment and music programmes for young viewers in the Middle East – a significant audience considering that approximately half of the area’s population is under 25.
Producers in Dubai have said that the channel will also broadcast local programmes. The network should be launched in the second half of 2007 and will challenge two Middle Eastern music and entertainment giants – Rotana TV and Melody Music.
17 January 2007
Daystar Television Network, the fastest growing, second largest Christian television network in the world, has selected a Quantel sQ HD/SD integrated production system for its 24-hour program production. Daystar operates more than 50 television stations in the major U.S. markets with production facilities in Dallas, Houston, Denver and Kentucky. It has a potential audience of 128 million viewers in the United States alone and can be seen over 200 countries.
The new sQ system will be housed in the networks Dallas headquarters and supports six sQ Cut, six sQ Edit desktop editing applications and three eQ multi-resolution editing, effects, color correction and deliverables systems.
Daystar chose the Quantel system after a three year evaluation process of all the available systems on the market. Quantels Regional Sales Manager, David Black, said, Quantel and Daystar worked very hard to dramatically increase their workflow production and ability to more quickly get product to air.
The new sQ server will replace the networks tape-based production workflow. Currently the network has been editing on Final Cut Pro and mastering to tape. Daystar plans on using the sQ system primarily as a production editing and storage server with occasional use for production playout. The network plans to go live with the system May 1, 2007.
The Quantel sQ system will benefit Daystars production operation in several areas. The networks primary production, Celebration, is live four days a week, and re-airs in two different timeslots daily. The workflow for Celebration is very much like a newscast, with support footage arriving sometimes minutes to air. The sQ system will give the production team a newsroom workflow while maintaining a high-quality signal path that can handle multiple resolutions and file formats with ease.
Joni is the networks talk show and is completely post produced. The graphical content and template approach to the shows format conforms tightly into the Quantel workflow. The time in post will be significantly reduced, allowing more creativity and scheduling flexibility. Some of the stations EFP for this program is HD, so the eQs seamless multi-resolution operation options are critical.
After an in-depth research process, we chose the Quantel sQ server and associated editors to provide us with the most efficient, high-quality solution to our workflow issues, said Leland Johnson, Daystar systems developer. Specifically, Quantels FrameMagic file management became the primary factor in our decision, as it presented a very cost-effective storage and archive model that fit what we wanted to accomplish.
17 January 2007
Stand No: Autocue will be represented by UBMS on stand: E1-11/D1-11
Autocue, a leading provider of newsroom automation and teleprompting solutions, is showcasing a number of new and existing products at CABSAT 2007 on the UBMS stand; Autocues new partner in the Middle East.
* QNxt: Making its debut in the Middle East, Autocue launches the first IP-based, networked prompting system. The prompting application on the PC connects to a hardware component – the QBox – over an Ethernet link, which can be wired or wireless. This means that the QBox can be controlled locally, or remotely, by the PC over an unlimited distance. In this way, QNxt moves the level of intelligence away from the central control system, and out to the prompter itself, unlocking a host of benefits for the end user, both in the studio and in the field.
Also on display:
Master and Professional Series Prompters: The Master Series is designed to meet the demanding real-time requirements of the top-end broadcast studios. Autocue boasts three unique products in this range: the smallest and largest daylight-readable prompters in the world, and the only top-mounted prompter. The Professional Series is an affordable range of prompters designed for the emerging or non-traditional broadcast markets, including smaller stations, corporate, religious and educational broadcasters.
QSmart: Designed to provide a robust and expandable solution to meet the specific NRCS requirements of smaller market and non-traditional broadcasters. It is priced to match the budget of even the smallest news operation yet provides an enormous range of functionality already proven in much larger organisations around the world.
