24 August 2018
BBC News Burmese has launched the Burmese edition of the BBC’s flagship digital technology programme, Click. The weekly programme is aired in Myanmar by the country’s largest TV network – the state broadcaster MRTV – and is available on demand on the BBC News Burmese website bbc.com/burmese and YouTube channel.
The weekly 10-minute edition of the BBC’s TV guide to the latest technology news is produced and presented by BBC News Burmese. Click brings latest reports on apps, gadgets and games, and on technological innovations from around the world.
BBC News Burmese Editor, Soe Win Than (Min Htet), says: “In addition to BBC radio content, MRTV will now broadcast our new TV programme which will inform viewers about the most important global and regional developments in the world of digital technologies, and about the technical know-how to help improve their daily lives. This is excellent news for the BBC’s presence in Myanmar and our collaboration with MRTV. I hope our audience will welcome this addition to their weekly evening TV schedule.”
MRTV rebroadcasts BBC News Burmese weekly radio programmes: the youth show, Mobigeno (Monday at 15.15 local time), the technology and digital innovations programme, CoolTech (Tuesday at 14.20), and the programme about innovative farming methods, San Thit Tehtwin Lai Myay Ta Kwin (Thursday at 08.45).
Director of MRTV, Moe Thuzar Aung, adds: “I am really glad that, thanks to our cooperation with the BBC’s Burmese service, our channel will bring the latest technology news around the world to our audiences.”
Click will be broadcast by MRTV at 18.15 local time on Fridays and will be repeated the following Mondays at 09.20. The programme will be available on demand on the website bbc.com/burmese and BBC News Burmese YouTube channel.
In addition to collaboration with MRTV, the BBC News Burmese Monday to Friday TV news programme is broadcast by Myanmar’s digital channel, Mizzima TV (20.45). The radio programmes, Global Newsbeat, Mobigeno and the English-learning series, The English We Speak, are aired by Myanmar’s FM network, Padamyar FM. Daily top headlines from the BBC News Burmese website are directly available to users of Yangon-based website, Frontier Myanmar. Selected stories appear on the Burmese-language index of Thailand-based news website, Khaosod.
Burmese-speaking audiences can access the BBC via Facebook (over 14m followers), as well as Twitter and YouTube.
BBC News Burmese is part of the BBC World Service.
(Source: BBC press release)
16 July 2018
BBC international services reach record audience
“Reflecting the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world”
The BBC has just published its Annual Report and Accounts 2017/18. The 270-page document gives a detailed account of the BBC’s international services, radio, television, online and social media as well as their reach and their total international weekly audience which now exceeds 345 million for all services.
The success of these services is certainly the result of a long tradition anchored when the Empire Service of the BBC, precursor of the BBC World Service, was established in 1932 by the first director general of the BBC (1927-1938) John Reith.
As Gavyn Davies, Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, explained in a 2003 speech, when, Reith launched the service “he had a remarkable insight. The BBC’s foreign services, he said, must not be used as a propaganda weapon to spread the views of the British government, but must be seen as an independent voice, seeking only to speak the truth to its listeners.”
The following are excerpts of the BBC 2017/2018 report that give details of the BBC’s international services activities and expansion in the past year. The report says that the BBC plays and essential role carrying the distinctive culture, voice and values of the UK to the world
BBC global reach, news offer more important than ever
“Once again, the past year has highlighted the fact that, in many parts of the world,” the report says, “the media is less free than it was ten years ago. There has been the continued growth of big state-sponsored news organisations and from news aggregated by digital platforms. Al Jazeera, China Central Television (CCTV) and RT (formerly Russia Today) can command vast resources and, while the services offered by these organisations can be of high quality production, they also reflect a particular world-view and the agenda of their backers. With the possibility of state services from less free countries influencing global debate and news provision, the value to democracy and liberty of the BBC’s global reach is higher than ever.”
One of the UK’s most important cultural exports
The former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan once described the BBC World Service as quite possibly “Britain’s greatest gift to the world in the 20th century.”
The report says that it “inspires and illuminates the lives of millions around the world, helping them make sense of the world they live in. (…) The BBC’s two commercially funded international news services, BBC World News and bbc.com, continue to provide consumers with news from one of the most trusted and reliable news providers in the world. Meanwhile, BBC Worldwide – now part of the newly merged BBC Studios – invests in, commercialises and showcases content from the BBC around the world, to build the reach and reputation of the BBC brand overseas, champion British creativity and at the same time deliver commercial returns to the BBC to invest in public service content.
Record international audience
“The BBC once again attracted record audiences internationally, with the latest figures, the Global Audience Measure, revealing a total weekly audience of 376 million [taking into account de-duplication, i.e. ensuring that a person who consumes multiple BBC services or platforms or on multiple devices, is not counted many times in the top-level totals.]
“This includes all international content. This year has been a remarkable one for the BBC World Service, as it saw us carry out our biggest expansion since the 1940s, thanks to a £85 million investment during the year from the UK Government. This expansion is enabling us to bring trusted news to more parts of the world, including those in which access to free and impartial information is severely limited,” the report says.
Now available in more than 40 languages, increased international impact
The BBC World Service is “now operating in more than 40 languages around the world, from Pidgin to Korean, with new Government investment to increase the international impact and reach of the BBC.” As part of the expansion the BBC has opened new and expanded bureaux “in locations such as Dhaka, Mumbai, Nairobi, Delhi, Seoul, Bangkok, Yangon, Tunis, Cairo, Beirut and Belgrade and employed more than 1,000 new staff across the world. (…) This not only enhances our coverage for audiences abroad but also gives our UK news audiences a more in-depth view of areas that have traditionally received less coverage.”
“Having more journalists on the ground also means that we’re able to cover more under-reported areas and improve our offer to UK audiences. The BBC World Service saw its audience grow from 269 million to 279 million.”
Safeguarding World Service for future generations
“We’re aiming our international news at a new generation of users, to safeguard the World Service for future generations,” the report says, adding “this means focusing on new formats and new audiences. It is clear, for instance, that shortwave radio listening has declined rapidly again this year, and research has shown that with the increased global availability of cheap smartphones, audiences continue to switch to digital platforms for news. BBC World Service continues to do well with younger audiences internationally – a quarter of our weekly global audience is aged between 15-24.
Online offer proving an international success
The BBC’s “global commercial news website, bbc.com, continued to bring both news and features to a huge international audience. The audience for bbc.com is growing within the USA, the world’s largest media market. We have restructured our business to merge BBC Advertising with BBC Global News Ltd, the commercial subsidiary which runs both BBC World News and bbc.com. This means that the new single integrated business can develop our news content commercially,” the report says.
Global Audience Measure 2017/2018 (2016/2017) – details
347m: BBC News (Total international weekly audience – 2016/2017: 345m)
160m: BBC WS radio (English & other languages – 2016/2017: 155m)
279m: BBC WS (includes TV, radio online and social media in English and other languages – 2016/2017: 269m)
42m: BBC WS online and social media (2016/2017: 17.39m)
111m: BBC WS television non-English languages (2016/2017: 110m)
95m: BBC World News TV channel (English language global news channel 2016/2017: 99m)
37m: bbc.com (International English language) and social media
376m: Global reach, Including BBC News and BBC Studios
Note: The Global Audience Measure is an annual update of how many people are consuming the BBC weekly for all services in all countries across all platforms (television, radio, website and social media). Key to this is de-duplication i.e. ensuring that a person who consumes multiple BBC services or platforms or on multiple devices, is not counted many times in the top-level totals. For example, BBC World Service television, radio and online audience is less than the sum of its parts to ensure we do not count people more than once when looking at the total World Service audience.
59 % of foreign audience agree the BBC helps them to gain a more in-depth understanding of the news. Source: BBC Brand Tracker 2017 (not UK).
BBC is ranked No.1 for: Trust Independence Reliability (Source: BBC Brand Tracker 2017 (not UK).
11 June 2018
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the independent agency, which supervises the five government-funded US international broadcasting and multimedia organizations, held its latest meeting on 06 June.
The BBG 2018 Action Plan was unveiled on 14 March.
A number of personnel changes were announced and a wide-ranging overview of recent initiatives was given by BBG networks’ senior leaders.
The board meeting highlighted also the risks faced by its journalists around the world.
BBG Board Chairman Kenneth Weinstein first welcomed Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Heather Nauert to her first board meeting. Nauert, who represents Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as BBG ex officio board member, expressed support for Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Uyghur journalists, whose families are held in Chinese reeducation camps, and sympathies for those affected by the double suicide bombing that killed 25, including three Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalists, in Kabul on 30 April.
Personnel changes
Weinstein announced the following personnel changes:
The appointment of veteran journalist Tomás P. Regalado as Director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Regalado was sworn in by BBG CEO John Lansing.
The departure of BBG Deputy Director Jeffrey Trimble, who will join Ohio State University after 21 years in US international broadcasting. Trimble, a fluent Russian speaker, joined the BBG as Director of Programming in 2007 after a 10-year career at RFE/RL.
On 04 June the White House announced that it had sent to the Senate, for confirmation, the nomination of conservative filmmaker and documentarian Michael Pack to succeed John Lansing as BBG Chief Executive Officer for the term of three years.
Key initiatives and collaborative activities
Leaders of the BBG networks, known as the International Media Coordinating Council (ICC), who meet twice a month, presented key initiatives and collaborative activities aimed at maximizing their operations in today’s challenging media environment.
Yolanda Lopez, director Voice of America (VOA) News Center, presented “The Dragon’s Reach”, a project coordinating resources from the five networks to highlight Chinese construction and energy projects worth more than a trillion dollars in 70 countries.
VOA Director Amanda Bennett announced that the five networks would cooperate for joint coverage of the Singapore meeting between the US president and the North Korean leader on 12 June.
OCB Director Emilio Vasquez introduced a short video highlighting the work and programmes of the network and the challenges faced by its journalists.
RFE/RL President Thomas Kent presented video reports describing the network’s coverage of recent events in Armenia that led to a peaceful change of government and of the brutal repression by Russian security forces of demonstrations in Moscow as President Putin was inaugurated. Video reports were screened to the BBG meeting. Kent said that international news networks like the BBC, CNN or France 24 used RFE/RL reports as the network, (with 19 staff in Armenia) was the only outlet to have exclusive footage of these events.
RFA Director Libby Liu described the six-part RFA series “How the West was won: The making of a police state on China’s New Frontier’”. Liu listed the measures taken by the Chinese authorities to control ethnic Uyghurs, their “staggering scope” and harshness. RFA has the world’s only Uyghur broadcast and multimedia service and some of its journalists say dozens of their relatives have been detained or sent to reeducation camps to put pressure on them.
Weinstein adjourned the meeting and announced that the next BBG board would convene at the Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN) headquarters in Springfield Virginia, on 29 August.
17 May 2018
RNZ welcomes investment in public media
RNZ welcomes the injection of $15m to the public media sector in Budget 2018, says chief executive Paul Thompson.
“This is good news and signals the Government’s commitment to investing in a stronger, multimedia RNZ that provides freely-available, high-quality journalism and programming.”
“While we have yet to receive detail of RNZ’s share of the funding we are preparing our plans to ensure the public benefit from any increase.
“RNZ is the nation’s commercial-free public broadcaster and we will play a growing role in ensuring New Zealand is a connected and informed democracy.”
“We are also encouraged by the indication that further funding will be allocated in future budgets for full implementation of the Government’s public media policy.”
(Source: RNZ press release)
16 May 2018
O3 Productions, the drama and film production arm of MBC Group, the largest private media company in the Middle East & North Africa region, and Image Nation Abu Dhabi, one of the leading media and entertainment companies in the Middle East, announced a new partnership to co-finance and co-produce a slate of Saudi films for local, regional and international audiences.
This new deal comes in the wake of the first cinemas in two generations opening in Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announcing itself open for business for filmmakers from Saudi, the Arab world and internationally.
The country has a big presence at this year’s Cannes Film festival with The Saudi Film Council in town for the first time this year along with a Saudi Film Pavilion at the Marche du Film and a selection of Saudi short films showing as part of the festival’s industry programme. The Saudi Film Council has also announced a generous production rebate as a means to attract international productions to film in the Kingdom.
Though ImageNation and MBC/O3 are keeping specific details of the four new feature projects under wraps, genres are likely to include action, thriller, real-life dramas, and comedies. Projects will aim to film in Saudi and utilize Saudi talent in front of and behind the camera. Development has begun on all projects, with production set to commence in 2019.
Saudi comedian and writer Fahad Al Butairi, who previously collaborated with Image Nation on FROM A TO B and the upcoming RASHID AND RAJAB, is also writing a new project entitled LOVE ABOVE THE LAW, which will fall under the new deal. The film is a comedy about a middle class Saudi man marrying a girl from the Badiya, the rural community, and the two discovering they actually have a lot in common.
This MBC/O3 Saudi deal follows on from the previous film and TV deal that MBC and Image Nation announced last year.
Under that deal, O3 and Image Nation are currently in advanced development on the feature film adaptation of Saudi pop culture smash HWJN, about a devout God-fearing Jinn who forges a special bond with a talented Saudi female medical student.
Emirati filmmaker Majid Al-Ansari, who previously directed Image Nation’s Zinzana and has served as executive producer on a number of Image Nation’s other projects will direct the film, which will commence shooting in the Autumn of this year. An extensive casting search in Saudi Arabia is currently underway for the leads in the film and casting will be announced in due course.
A spin-off TV series The Delusionists which also has a unique take on modern Saudi and Arab society will also go into production back-to-back with the film.
Fadi Ismail, Group Director of O3 Productions said: “There is so much to be done in this brave new drive and we believe in collaboration with those who have the same ambitions and vision. Image Nation is a trusted and established player in the film industry and we have joined forces to launch a slate of Saudi films that will promote Saudi storytelling and talents. MBC Group – via its Drama and Film production arm – is keen to push Saudi storytelling, through Drama and Film, qualitatively and quantitatively, to new heights – thus creating premium content that not only is captivating to Saudi and regional viewers, but can travel globally and help in further projecting the positive image of KSA as an active player in international entertainment industry.”
Ben Ross, Head of Narrative Film and Television at Image Nation, commented: “As Saudi Arabia begins a new chapter in its cinematic history, this exciting partnership between Image Nation, MBC and O3 will showcase the very best Saudi filmmaking talent in front of and behind the camera. We are one of the first foreign companies investing in Saudi content and are looking forward to introducing new Saudi talent to local, regional and global audiences. We’re delighted to be working with the multi-talented Fahad Al Butairi again on Love Above the Law. This deal really underscores Image Nation and MBC’s shared commitment to producing high-quality Arab language film and television projects for the Arab world.”
(Source: MBC press release)
