Ibrahim Helal, editor in chief at Al Jazeera based in Doha, Qatar, has stepped down from his post. He is joining BBC World Service Trust to work on media training projects over the coming two years.
Helal has been with Al Jazeera since 1996 when it was formed with many of the staff who had worked on BBC World Service Television’s Arabic language service.
The Association for International Broadcasting is delighted to welcome new members to the organisation.
Harris Corporation, ABS-CBN, Deutsche Welle, ITN International and TV New Zealand have joined the AIB and will benefit from the full range of AIB Member services.
See the full story in AIB News and find out about the benefits of membership by clicking on AIB Membership to the left.
The co-production partnership between the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) and Doordarshan (DD) has been extended for a year.
The partnership was established to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and support through mass communications. It is under this partnership that detective series like Jasoos Vijay, the youth show Haath Se Haath Milaa and a range of TV spots designed to convey HIV/AIDS messaging, are being broadcast by DD nationally and regionally (in chosen areas, with appropriate language versions).
The new project extension will see both programmes produced for a second run and will also extend the number of languages in which the output is broadcast. The public service ads are mainly produced by DD producers, while the programmes are produced from BBC WST’s base in New Delhi using local technicians and talent and drawing on the expertise of both of its partners and the Trust’s small international staff.
BBC World Service Trust Director India, Colin Rogers, said “Research has shown that our mass communications campaign has achieved significant impact in raising audience awareness of the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS particularly in the area of care and support and in removing stigma. The campaign run by this partnership is the largest of its kind in the world and is a model which is being replicated already in South East Asia and in Africa. We are very proud of our association with NACO and Doordarshan and delighted that the success of the first year’s output has led to their enthusiasm for continuing and expanding the project.”
As part of its European expansion in 2004, ESPN Classic Sport has launched a new English-language service that offers viewers a mix of the greatest sporting moments from Europe and around the world, from the last fifty years. The service is available to cable and satellite subscribers in more than fifty countries across Europe. The network will initially be available on systems in Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Russia, Scandinavia, and Switzerland, rolling out to additional European territories throughout 2004. A separately produced English-language network for the U.K. is under consideration.
ESPN Classic Sport already has widespread distribution among multi-channel homes in France and Italy, and is also available as a three-hour branded block to 2.3 million subscribers in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.
Roch Pellerin, Managing Director of ESPN Classic Sport, said: Were excited about launching our third full-time network in Europe. An English-language service will give us additional programming flexibility at a time when sport will be a top viewing priority in 2004, with great anticipation building up around EURO 2004 in Portugal and the Olympic Games in Athens.
GlobeCast WorldTV, the third-largest direct-to-home satellite television service in America, delivers the first Bulgarian television station in North America via its platform on Telstar 5.
TV Bulgaria is the satellite channel of Bulgarian National Television. Since 1999 it has broadcast news, current events, top shows and the best of Bulgarian movie and television productions to Bulgarians living in North America.
GlobeCast provides TV Bulgaria with an end-to-end satellite distribution of its channel including encryption, uplink and space capacity. GlobeCast receives TV Bulgarias feed at its Paris gateway and sends the feed via fibre to its Los Angeles teleport for uplink to GlobeCast WorldTV on Telstar 5.
GlobeCast is also managing TV Bulgarias DTH Call Center Services in North America, including equipment sales and subscription management.
GlobeCast, the worlds leading satellite services company operating a global network of satellite distribution platforms for broadcast and advanced content delivery, is a member of the AIB.
Vectone Entertainment Network has teamed up with satco GlobeCast to deliver its community channels: Vectone Urdu, Vectone Bangla, Vectone Tamil and Vectone Hindi on its proprietary Eurobird and Hot Bird platforms.
The four Asian community channels Vectone Urdu, Vectone Bangla, Vectone Tamil and Vectone Hindi are free to air and are broadcast in the language identified by the channel titles. Vectone’s channels are totally interactive and allow the audiences from the UK, Europe and the Middle East to interact live with the presenters in their London studios. This capability will be extended to their interconnected Asian and European studios in the future as well.
GlobeCast is a member of the AIB.