20 April 2004
At NAB, Panasonic Broadcast Europe was able to announce growing support and commitment by a number of key European broadcasters for Panasonics DVCPRO P2 memory card technology and ING, the tapeless IT news gathering system.
RFO in France, Réseau France Outre-mer, the French public broadcaster with responsibility for serving French territories round the world has decided to use Panasonics P2 solid state technology. RFO was one of the first European broadcasters to adopt DVCPRO technology in the late 1990s. Sogecable, Spain’s leading pay television group and a major European media organisation, is studying the adoption of P2 technology for a future replacement of its ENG DVCPRO equipment. DVCPRO equipment is widely used across Sogecable media organisations including Canal+,CNN+, and Canal Satélite Digital. ZDF in Germany will be purchasing P2 to fully evaluate the technology. ZDF is a major user of DVCPRO equipment. Danish Broadcast , a major user of DVCPRO equipment announced that it would also be purchasing a first set of P2 units to fully evaluate the technology. Swedish Television (SVT) which purchased 72 DVCPRO50 camcorders in the autumn of 2003 for its news operations announced at the time that the purchase decision was strongly influenced by developments on P2, which it was closely monitoring.
Panasonic has also been working closely with a number of other key European broadcasters, which form part of the global P2 Partners Programme to help in the development of the technology and products. The broadcasters involved include: TF1 in France, ZDF and MDR in Germany, the Sogecable Group (including CNN+ and Canal+) in Spain and ITN, BBC and Reuters in the UK.
16 April 2004
Max Uechtritz, Executive Director of News and Current Affairs at ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is to join commercial broadcaster Nine Network.
The ABC’s Managing Director, Russell Balding, said that he had accepted Max Uechtritz’s resignation with much regret.
“Max has served the national broadcaster with great distinction over the past 18 years, both as a correspondent and more recently as an Executive Director.
“Throughout his outstanding career at the ABC, Max has upheld the highest traditions and unmatched reputation of the Corporation’s news and current affairs reporting.
“His commitment and contribution to public broadcasting and his leadership of the News & Current Affairs Division will be greatly missed.”
Uechtritz said that it had been a great privilege to have been a part of the ABC’s news and current affairs team.
“I will always look back to my years at the ABC with great pride and a sense of real achievement. I would like to pay tribute to Russell Balding for his personal and professional support and encouragement, and also to my News & Current Affairs colleagues for their loyalty and dedication.
“The ABC’s reputation for delivering news and current affairs programmes of quality and relevance to Australian and international audiences has never been higher.
Max Uechtritz has been at the ABC since 1986. Prior to his appointment as Executive Director of the News & Current Affairs Division in 2000, he had served in a number of positions within the Corporation, both in Australia and overseas.
14 April 2004
The AIB Global Media Business Conference – taking place in Prague on 12 and 13 May 2004 – offers a limited number of sponsorship and exhibition opportunities.
Download the sponsorship pack
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7 April 2004
Eutelsat and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s largest professional association of national broadcasters, today announced the signature of a contract for four wideband transponders that will be used by the EBU for television coverage of the upcoming Athens Olympic Games.
The contract is for the equivalent of 306 MHz of Ku-band capacity on three Eutelsat satellites: ATLANTIC BIRD* 3, e-BIRD* and W3A, the latest addition to the company’s fleet which is planned to enter into commercial service in May. For the duration of the Olympic Games this agreement will double the EBU’s capacity leased on a full-time basis to the EBU by Eutelsat.
This additional capacity will allow the EBU to provide private direct point-to-point circuits between Athens and the headquarters of television channels that will have their own TV crews and content aggregation facilities in Athens. In addition to these private circuits, the EBU will simultaneously deliver 800 hours of live coverage of the sports events with ambient sound to its 71 members.
The distribution and exchange of programmes relating to sports events is a major part of the EBU’s activities. In view of the exceptional worldwide coverage of the Olympic Games the EBU is setting up an infrastructure fully dedicated to the event, with the deployment at the Olympic site of a new teleport to deliver a total of 36 non-stop programme feeds, 32 of which will be carried by Eutelsat.
Services from the EBU teleport in Athens will start on 2 August with technical tests. On 11 and 12 August there will be coverage of the football matches scheduled as an avant-première to the Games schedule. These will be followed on 13 August by the Opening Ceremony and the start of the Olympic events, which will continue until 29 August. The EBU’s services in Athens will also be deployed to cover the Paralympic Games from 17 to 28 September.
7 April 2004
Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s largest cable network operator launched its new digital TV service this week using set-top boxes from Pace Micro Technology. Kabel will use Pace’s DC220* set-top box to provide new digital pay-TV programmes, foreign channel packages and enhanced digital TV services for the first time.
,p>On 6 April it was announced that Kabel Deutschland Group has agreed to buy its three main rivals for a total of E2.7 billion in one of Europe’s largest leveraged buy-outs. KDG connects 10 million households in Germany and is acquiring regional operators in Baden Württemberg, Hessen, and NRW. The combined group will have a customer base of 17 million, the largest in Europe. The deal represents a key step in the consolidation of Germany’s fragmented cable industry. Kabel has been pushing for months to acquire its smaller rivals to gain the critical mass with which to roll out across Europe’s largest TV market. It plans to offer the type of digital television services and multimedia products that are already available in many other European markets. These acquisitions will reunite the cable assets owned until 1999 by Deutsche Telekom. It sold the businesses to meet cartel office objections to its near-monopoly position, and to lower its debt levels.
Roland Steindorf, Kabel’s CEO, said he expected to receive the approval of Germany’s cartel office, in spite of the fact that the office blocked US cable group Liberty Media’s efforts to acquire Deutsche Telekom cable assets in February 2002. The antitrust decision will take at least half a year again leaving the German cable industry’s future uncertain for the time being.
7 April 2004
The British Government announced on 2 April that Michael Grade has been appointed BBC Chairman for four years from 17 May 2004.
Welcoming the appointment Richard Ryder, Acting BBC Chairman, said: “The Board of Governors warmly welcomes the appointment of Michael Grade. We are delighted that he will be the BBC’s new Chairman and we look forward to working closely with him. He will find a united Board which is optimistic about the future. The Board is conscious of the importance of the tasks it will tackle under his leadership, including Charter Review, the appointment of the Director-General, the Graf Review of bbc.co.uk, the first stage of the Ofcom PSB review and the DCMS reviews of new services.
Mark Byford, Acting Director-General, said: “Michael Grade is one of the major world figures in broadcasting and the wider creative industry, with an outstanding record of achievement. He has a deep understanding of broadcasting, and firmly believes in the BBC and its place at the heart of national life. He is passionate about creativity, talent and ambition in programmes. That is why everyone in the BBC will warmly welcome this exciting appointment. It’s great that Michael is coming back to the BBC and he will enjoy the full support of the whole organisation.”
Michael Grade said: “This is quite a day for me. Apart from my obvious pride and delight, I also feel my experience has prepared me to step into the role at a difficult moment in the Corporation’s history. I would like to thank those who appointed me for having the courage to break the mould. I would also like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Gavyn Davies, who gave so much to support the ideals of the Corporation and who showed great courage and dignity in the manner of his departure. The editorial independence of the BBC is paramount in maintaining the support of the viewers and listeners. Without it, there is no point to the BBC. It is my job, and the job of the whole board, to ensure that the BBC can continue to earn public and parliamentary support so that the provision of universally available, value for money, public service broadcasting is neither jeopardised nor marginalised. Nothing must be allowed to deprive our children and our grandchildren of the rich experience we have come to expect and enjoy these past decades from the British Broadcasting Corporation.”
