14 January 2005
UK Radio Aid, the unique UK radio event that will raise money for children affected by the Asian Tsunami, will be beamed around the world via satellite by WRN, the London-based international transmission provider.
From 6am to 6pm on Monday 17th January 2005, the UK’s commercial radio stations will join together in a single, star-studded programme to raise money for the children affected by the Asian Tsunami and support them as they to start to rebuild their lives and look to the future. An estimated audience of up to 30 million listeners across 250 UK stations are expected to tune in, making it the biggest ever UK radio event.
With the support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, some of the biggest names in UK radio history alongside musicians, sports and TV stars will take part in the 12 hour live broadcast. Each hour of programming will be hosted by two guest DJs who will introduce live acoustic sets, guest interviews, competitions, auctions, pledges, messages and news breaks.
The event will be simultaneously relayed around the world via WRNs extensive global digital satellite network. WRNs Richard Jacobs says, we are pleased to be able to donate the use our worldwide network to transmit this incredible event and take it to audiences on a global basis letting listeners in other countries get involved. Tim Ashburner, WRNs Technical Director says UK Radio Aid has an international resonance and our technical infrastructure makes WRN uniquely placed to turn it into a global event at short notice.
The event will be relayed as follows:
Across North America including the USA, Canada, the Caribbean and Central America via Intelsat Americas 5 at 97º West (Transponder 5, 11836 GHz, Vertical polarisation);
Across Europe, Middle East and North Africa via the Hot Bird 6 satellite (WRN Special, Transponder 94, 12597GHz, Vertical polarisation);
Across Africa and the Asia Pacific region via Thaicom 3 (WRN Special, Transponder 6G, 3.640 GHz, Horizontal polarisation).
14 January 2005
Inmedia Communications Limited (Inmedia) has acquired Cable and Satellite Transmissions (Cas.t) Limited (CAST) from Barnes Trust Television Limited, including staff, equipment, premises and customer contracts. This significant deal ranks Inmedia second only to Sky as a playout provider and strengthens its position as the largest independent UK playout provider.
The acquisition increases Inmedias playout client-base to more than 60 channels playing out half a million hours of TV every year and expands its service capability to more than 100 channels. Following the acquisition, Inmedias major playout customers now include The Travel Channel, The Chinese Channel, ESPN, Sony and Zone Vision.
Inmedia, owned by its management and global private equity firm The Carlyle Group, makes the deal as part of its long-term strategy to grow the business through such acquisitions, as well as maintaining a strong emphasis on the broadcast, enterprise and international carrier markets.
Inmedia is to use CASTs 20,000 square foot central London premises at Newman Street W1 as its new London Media Centre with additional studio and editing facilities. The new site helps broadcasters to physically deliver content directly to Inmedia in central London and is a significant addition to Inmedias services through the entire production chain from studios for capture to editing, post-production and playout. The London Media Centre is situated less than 500 metres from the BT Tower and will allow Inmedia to offer a cost-effective solution to broadcasters for occasional-use video feeds to and from Newman Street. In turn, this enables broadcast feeds to be played live to air or recorded on site for re-use by the broadcast station.
Former CAST general manager Geoff Trickey becomes head of playout and takes responsibility for the new London Media Centre, Newman Street, and playout operations at Gerrards Cross. Inmedia anticipates the acquisition will generate around £3 million incremental turnover from CASTs playout operation alone and sees the deal as a significant part of its long-term strategy to expand its playout operations. Inmedias acquisition of CAST both enhances its services for existing customers and enables it to deliver an advanced, comprehensive offering to even more broadcasters, says Inmedia CEO Nick Thompson. Not only do we now have strong presence in the heart of the London broadcast community, we have significantly increased our capacity to help more broadcasters conduct their essential operations as efficiently as possible.
13 January 2005
Arabic-language satellite news channel Al Jazeera has launched a campaign to collect donations for the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster.
The Qatar-based broadcaster said the campaign is being organised in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
A spokesperson for the Channel commented: Al Jazeera felt that it is its duty, as prescribed by Article 9 of its Code of Professional Ethics, to actively assist in alleviating some of the human suffering caused by one of the most unfortunate disasters since Al Jazeeras inception as a news organization. We are not a charity, and hence are not equipped to handle the relief effort ourselves. We decided to take this initiative in co-operation with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. We enhanced the appeal for donations by hosting on our screen, at peak hours during the day, renowned Arab dignitaries in fields ranging from politics, social, cultural etc. calling on our audience to donate. We have had appeals from Moslem as well as non-Moslem dignitaries. Al Jazeera has been the first Arab media organisation to undertake this effort.
12 January 2005
The Radio Netherlands Board of Governors has appointed Jan Hoek as the new Director General of Radio Netherlands. The appointment has the formal approval of the Dutch State Secretary for Culture and Media, Mrs Medy van der Laan.
Jan Hoek is the successor to Lodewijk Bouwens who retired at the end of last year. Jan Hoek has been Acting Director General of Holland’s international broadcasting service since the start of 2004.
Jan joined the Dutch external broadcasting service in 1994 as Financial Controller, becoming Director of Finance and Logistics a year later. He has previously worked for the Wegener publishing group and for KLM. He holds an MBA from Webster University.
Radio Netherlands is the international public broadcasting organization of the Netherlands. Via radio, television (BVN-TV) and internet, Radio Netherlands offers news, information and culture in eight languages. With its various activities, it reaches some 50 million people a week.
12 January 2005
Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a measure that sets prison terms of up to two years for any journalist found working without accreditation from the government-controlled Media and Information Commission. On its web site, the Committee to Protect Journalists urges Mugabe and his government to turn away from such measures, including another piece of repressive legislation still pending.
The newly enacted measure stiffens the 2002 law known as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The measure, titled the AIPPA Amendment Act, took effect on January 7.
Parliament passed the AIPPA Amendment Act in November as one in a series of measures adopted in advance of general elections scheduled for March. Critics say the measures are intended to intimidate the last vestiges of the independent press: Two independent weekly newspapers still operate in Zimbabwe, and some local correspondents work for foreign news agencies.
