30 April 2018
The Association for International Broadcasting has announced a major new award that is dedicated to discovering and supporting new talent in the factual production sector.
The inaugural AIBs Breakthrough Talent award will pay tribute to an individual whose emerging talent marks them out as a future leader in the factual media industry.
This new award is reserved exclusively to those working in factual productions who are under the age of 30. It will reward someone who is making a real difference in their chosen career – whether in front of, or behind, the camera or microphone.
“Factual story-telling is a vital part of the international media industry,” comments Simon Spanswick, chief executive of the Association for International Broadcasting. “This Association wants to encourage new generations to work in the sector that doesn’t always attract the same level of glitz and glamour of the entertainment side of broadcasting. We plan that this new breakthrough talent award will serve as a launchpad for all the nominees as well as the winner.”
The breakthrough talent award will be presented alongside the rest of the 2018 AIBs at the gala dinner in London on 7 November. Hosted this year by Bloomberg’s Mark Barton, the AIBs gala is attended by executives, producers, editors, journalists and key opinion formers from across the world. It’s an event where the world’s best factual productions across television, radio and online are showcased, and it’s somewhere that jobs have been secured in past years. Inaugural sponsors of this year’s AIBs are Celebro Studios and Signiant.
The new breakthrough talent award sits alongside the other 20 categories in this year’s AIBs. The AIBs are a truly international competition as work in any language can be entered. Over the past 14 years, winning entries have been in languages as varied as Czech, Arabic, Nepali, Hindi, Russian, Filipino and Spanish, as well as English.
The AIBs has a panel of independent judges who come from over 30 countries around the world, adding a further international dimension to the competition.
The AIBs are open for entry until 30 June 2018. Full information is at http://theaibs.tv.
24 April 2018
In March and April of this year, European public broadcasters in Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland have come under the spotlight as drastic funding changes are announced.
April: Sweden votes to replace licence by a “public service fee tax”
Following a proposal put forward in October 2017 by a parliamentary committee set up to look at the country’s funding of public service broadcasting, Sweden’s Culture and Democracy Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke announced on 12 April that the government was backing the idea of replacing the licence fee with an income-based tax. The new funding model would be introduced in 2019. The current system, which has been around for 60 years, is no longer considered adapted to the new media environment with programmes being accessed through a variety of devices, not just TV sets.
According to Bah Kuhnke the tax will be set at one per cent of taxable income but would be capped to a maximum of 1,300 Swedish kronor (SEK), the equivalent of $154 / £108 / €125 per person per year. Individuals earning less than SEK 13,600 a month ($1,610 / £1,130 / €1,307) will pay a lower fee. But all those over 18 who pay taxes will pay the new fee, whether they have a TV set or not. Currently only those who have a set have to pay the licence fee, and an estimated 11-15% who have one do not pay the fee, according to the parliamentary committee findings. In addition, companies, will no longer have to pay the licence fee.
The current fee (for radio and TV) is SEK 2,400 ($285 / £200 / €230) per household and is the same for all with no reduced fee for students or retirees. It funds both Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR).The tax will be collected by the Swedish Tax Agency, and the need for the specialized licence fee collecting agency, Radiotjänst, will disappear.
The new tax is meant to strengthen independence from politics as the new public service fee is earmarked specifically for funding public service broadcasting and will also be reported separately on tax returns.
March: Denmark scraps licence fee and cuts budget of its public broadcaster by 20%
As reported in the press on 16 March, a majority of Danish parties have decided to scrap the licence fee (currently £300 or €339) and to cut the budget of DR, the Danish public broadcaster, by 20%. The cut equates to a shortfall of 740 million kroner a year (£87m or €99m).
DR’s director general Maria Rørbye Rønn warned that savings of this scale would result in DR producing and broadcasting fewer hours of Danish-language television.
DR TV programmes, such as the widely-acclaimed crime series The Bridge (Broen / Bron – coproduced with Sweden’s Sveriges Television), the political drama Borgen or the police series The Killing (Forbrydelsen), to name the best-known series only, have won many international awards and nominations. DR collaborate with other public service broadcasters within the Nordvision regional partnership, which produces and distributes programmes in the region and abroad. The cut is likely to have an impact on Nordvision.
March: Switzerland votes against change as it votes to keep the licence fee-funded model for broadcasting services.
23 April 2018
The future of digital media in the Western Balkans will be the main theme of a major conference in Belgrade organised by the BBC’s Serbian service. The Balkan media market is facing serious challenges such as the proliferation of fake news, the fragmentation of the media scene and financial instability.
The Director of BBC World Service Group, Jamie Angus and senior BBC journalists will come together with leading media representatives from around the region at the one-day conference. They will discuss some of the key issues facing the region’s digital news industry, and how the BBC’s standards, experience and insights can help serve the regional audiences on digital platforms.
Jamie Angus will open the conference, the Future of digital news in the Western Balkans, at Belgrade’s Hotel Zira on Tuesday 24 April. UK Ambassador to Serbia, Denis Keefe, will join Jamie Angus to greet participants. First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, will join Jamie for the closing of the conference.
Jamie Angus says: “Just as our newly launched service, BBC News Serbian, is establishing itself on the regional media scene, I am very happy to welcome our colleagues from Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to join us in a very timely conversation about reaching and serving digital audiences.”
The subjects to be discussed at the conference include:
- Rising to the global challenge: quality news in the age of fakes, fragmentation and financial uncertainty
- Future of digital news – regional voices
- The Serbian diaspora and digital news – what are they reading and why?
- The BBC Newsroom stylebook – creating a standard style for online journalism
- The business of digital news – where does the money come from?
BBC News Serbian (BBC News na srpskom) digital service was launched on 26 March 2018 and in its first week reached over 95 thousand people through its website, bbc.com/serbian and social media (Twitter and Facebook). BBC News Serbian was the last of the 12 new language services launched as part of the expansion of the BBC World Service between 2017 and 2018.
20 April 2018
International broadcasts to Belarus – summary, April 2018
Prepared by AIB media analyst Morand Fachot
The media environment in Belarus is ranked as “Not Free” by independent media watchdogs, such as Freedom House or Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), a non-governmental, non-profit and non-partisan association of media workers reports that 69 fines were given to journalists in 2017 for working without accreditation for foreign media (mainly with Belsat TV), some 40 fines have been already given this year (as of 02 April 2018).
A number of foreign-based radio and TV services broadcast to Belarus. They include:
– Belsat TV, the Polish-based TV channel for Belarus, which will air BBC TV news content in Russian and BBC series; Belsat TV was formed in 2007 by a group of Belarusian and Polish journalists as part of Telewizja Polska S.A. in partnership with Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several European governments. Itbroadcasts nearly 20 hours a day. Its original content is prepared by more than 100 associates from all over Belarus supported by around 80 editors, managers and technicians in Warsaw. Belsat TV has so far failed to register a bureau and obtain accreditation in Belarus. During British Prime Minister Theresa May visit to Poland in December 2017 it was reported that, in an effort to counter Russian propaganda, the UK planned to provide £5m ($7.1m) for the Belsat TV project, with Poland expected to contribute a similar amount.
– RFE/RL’s Radio Svaboda (Liberty), which was established in 1954, is based in Prague. It broadcasts 2.5 hours daily and is distributed via radio (mediumwave, satellite) as well as on Belsat TV (30 minutes weekly), Internet (website, mobile, YouTube, social media).
– In 2006, the EU launched European Radio for Belarus (Euroradio.fm). Euroradio’s programmes can be received on FM in some of Belarus’s border regions, via relays on stations in neighbouring countries, in Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. Euroradio is available online and on the Astra 4A satellite.
– Polish radio external service Belarusian broadcasts are available on FM and on mediumwave (Radio Baltic Waves, 1386 kHz) in border regions, as well as via satellite and online.
– Radio Racyja, which broadcasts from Bialystok, is funded and supported by Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Polish aid agencies and NGOs, and the US embassy in Poland.
– Russia’s Sputnik has a Belarusian service, which offers online text and multimedia content, including audio.
It is worth noting too, that many Belarusians listen to, watch and consult Russian-language radio and TV broadcasts, and online content from all major international broadcasters (such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, RFE/RL, RFI or VOA), and naturally from Russian broadcasters and online media outlets as well.
Related story:
http://cfb.d5c.myftpupload.com/bbc-news-features-on-belsat-tv-at-prime-time/
18 April 2018
Abdullah AlNajjar, Executive Director of Global Brand and Communications has been elected as a Chairman of the Executive Committee at the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) based in the UK. The board consists of a six-person Executive Committee which is comprised of public figures from leading media organizations including Klaus Bergmann at Deutsche Welle, Simon Kendall at the BBC, John Maguire at France Médias Monde, Anastasia Ellis at Bloomberg Media EMEA, and Alexey Nikolov at RT.
Commenting on his appointment Mr. AlNajjar said: “It is an honor to be elected as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Association for International Broadcasting and to serve the members of AIB along with board members and senior executives. I look forward to bringing our diverse perspectives and insights from the Al Jazeera brand to the issues affecting international broadcasting organizations across the world – particularly those that impact press freedom – and advancing the cause of broadcasters and journalists across the world.”
This is the first time that a Chairman for the AIB has been appointed from the Arab world and also from Al Jazeera, the first independent international broadcaster based in the Arab world.
AIB is not-for-profit, non-governmental trade association that represents and supports international television and radio broadcasters and online broadcasters. It also defends, protects, and supports the media professionals.
18 April 2018
Berlin,Germany
“Ruptly Live” enables online, broadcast and individual media publishers access to live events produced by the multimedia news agency. The innovative platform allows up to nine events to be distributed simultaneously to multiple destinations. Ruptly is the first b2b news agency to offer 360-degree and drone live video direct to client social media pages. Launched in October 2017, the live platform challenges seven other projects for the title of “Technical Innovation of the Year”. Other nominations in this category include projects by Facebook, CNN.com and Telegraph Media Group.
Ruptly’s efforts in business development are recognized by the Drum Online Media Awards’ esteemed panel of judges in the category of “Commercial Team of the Year”. As of today over a thousand media brands in 89 countries are sourcing video content from the five-year-old agency,
Speaking at the NAB Live Show in Las Vegas last week, Chief Executive Officer Dinara Toktosunova emphasized the importance of the nominations.
“This means a lot to us”, she said. “We are all having fun, we are very enthusiastic and we love our jobs. It is very important for us to be recognised as a creative young team”.
Chief Commercial Officer, Matthew Tabaccos, added that Ruptly is able to provide a service not only to big broadcasters, but also to fuel the output of new voices that don’t necessarily have the “cash to spend”. “We are keen to be able to scale a global agency in a collaborative process” he said. “ This is the only way to offset what is the revenue problem these days in online media, particularly with news”.
The winners of the Drum Online Media Awards will be announced on May 22 in London.
About Ruptly:
Ruptly is a global multimedia news agency that provides visual content to a diverse range of media, from large broadcast networks and online publishers, to a diverse range of social media vloggers and brands. Ruptly supplies impactful content on a variety of topics including politics, sports, and entertainment.
About Drum Online Media Awards:
The Drum Online Media Awards identify the cleverest, boldest and most original purveyors of news and views from around the world. From politics to sport, finance to film, the aim is to find the best application of talent and technology online. Large and small. Corporations and individuals.
