24 October 2016
Intelsat (NYSE: I), operator of the world’s first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, today announced a contract with Nine Network Australia to distribute programming to the company’s six domestic television stations as well as provide global satellite and fiber connectivity using the IntelsatOne terrestrial network to bring news content and special events from around the world to Australia for its network affiliates.
Nine Network Australia (NNA) is one of the country’s top-rated commercial television networks, with local stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, along with a regional broadcaster, NBN. The network also has news bureaus in Canberra, London and Los Angeles. NNA is a subsidiary of Nine Entertainment Co., one of Australia’s leading media companies.
Intelsat initially is providing services via the Australia/New Zealand Ku-Band beam on Intelsat 19 for the network’s broadcasting requirement. Under the agreement, Intelsat’s network support will extend well into the next decade.
“Our Globalized Network allows us to meet NNA’s needs today and to increase our level of support if the network expands over time to meet the demands of multi-platform coverage,” said Terry Bleakley, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific Sales, Intelsat. “NNA will also benefit from Intelsat’s global coverage for international contribution and distribution requirements.”
NNA previously used Intelsat for its domestic and international occasional use requirements. Most recently, NNA chose Intelsat to provide short-term services for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro using Intelsat 29e.
(Source: Intelsat press release)
21 October 2016
Regional broadcaster Channel NewsAsia launches the inaugural Channel NewsAsia SME (Small Medium Enterprise) Hackamit in Singapore today. Hackamit gathers top leaders, influencers, industry experts and middle management from regional SMEs, providing them the platform for robust discussion and collaboration.
Hackamit brings together representatives from leading regional SMEs and experts, in two sessions, as they share insights on the challenges and solutions unique to SMEs. They would discuss how SMEs can leverage innovation, social and online media in sharpening their strategies, and how SMEs can effectively identify and incorporate new technologies in their businesses to ensure maximum growth potential. Among the leading SME entrepreneurs are Mr Takahiro Yagi, Craftsman and Director of Kaikako Co. Ltd from Japan, and Mr Sunil Chainani, Senior Director of Fabindia from India.
Steven Chia, Mediacorp’s News Presenter and Editor, moderates the panel discussions. The event is attended by invited guests, including representatives and heads of local SMEs.
Vice President of Mediacorp News Segment’s Marketing, Distribution and Innovation Mr Yong Chung Jin says, “We are honoured to bring together like-minded businesspeople from around the region and provide them with a platform for idea generation and exchange. We envision the Channel NewsAsia SME Hackamit to be the select event for SMEs, and we want to bring it into other regional countries in the future.”
Highlights from the Channel NewsAsia SME Hackamit will be included in a five-part documentary series, The Big Turnaround. The series profiles five successful SMEs from different regions (India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam) and industries (fashion, food and beverage, hospitality, retail and transport). The Big Turnaround will telecast on Channel NewsAsia every Thursday from 3 November 2016, 9.30 – 10.00pm (Sin/HK/MNL time). The series will also be available for catch-up viewing online at www.channelnewsasia.com/tv and www.toggle.sg.
(Source: Channel NewsAsia press release)
20 October 2016
The 9th MENA Broadcast Anti-Piracy Coalition meeting took place in early September gathering stakeholders from the satellite broadcast (Eutelsat, Arabsat, Gulfsat) and content production and distribution industry (MBC, OSN, Rotana, ART, CNE and the MPA) to take stock of the state-of-play of piracy in the region. They agreed that continued effort between all the members remains a key priority to reduce the numbers of infringements and to prevent notoriously rogue pirate channel operators from infringing members’ rights. The coalition members also discussed statistics which clearly indicate that pirate channels are operated by a handful of individuals and agreed on how better to identify and take actions against them.
“Satellite TV piracy has relied upon everyone ignoring or being ignorant of the rules, of the individuals behind the pirate channels and of the major companies who profit by selling services to the pirates. Our coalition is step by step removing the cloak from this murky sector,” stated Sam Barnett, MBC Group CEO.
TV piracy remains an important problem in the region. Statistics show that over the past six months a total of almost 200 Western content infringements and over 4,000 Arabic content infringements occurred.
“We are very encouraged by the progress made so far by this important coalition but it is equally clear that a lot still needs to be done. It has been our experience that progress in this area can only be made when stakeholders constructively work with each other. Curbing TV piracy is essential to keep growing legitimate TV channels thereby enhancing the consumers’ viewing experience, reinvesting money into the creation of new high-quality content and securing millions of jobs worldwide.” stated Okke Delfos Visser, Head of the Legal Department of the MPA in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The Broadcast Satellite Anti-Piracy Coalition members include Noorsat, Gulfsat, Viewsat, STN, JMC, Etisalat, Du, Nilesat, Arabsat, Eutelsat, Rotana, Art, OSN, MediaGates, Motion Picture Association (MPA members include Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Paramount Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLC; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.), WWE, TNA, Spot2000, Cedars Art, Egyptian Media Production City, Egyptian Chamber of Cinema, Cable Network Egypt, Eagle Films, IAA, Almassa Art Production, Miser International Film, Misr for Sound and Light, and MBC.
The Coalition was formed in March 2014. As major stakeholders in the Middle East Satellite TV industry, the members share information and align strategies to prevent copyright infringement in the Middle East.
(Source: MBC press release)
19 October 2016
Newstag – the award-winning Stockholm-based video news service – has announced at MIPCOM plans to launch a business-to-business news service designed to offer online publishers and telecommunications (TELCOS) companies bespoke, broadcast-quality ready-to-air news programmes.
‘Newsreel’ will provide tailored news bulletins using professionally-produced video content that is curated by audiences. Using big data and machine learning, the result will be to provide top quality news programmes targeted to reflect the interests of viewers in any geographic market or demography.
Newstag co-founder Henrik Eklund, explains: “When you let the crowd curate the news agenda, audiences around the world build a picture of themselves through what they choose to watch and share. By creating packages that reflect these concerns and interests, we put individuals in control of the news they consume. This will create more democratic news programming that has greater relevance for viewers, both on a global and local level.”
Content providers, whether they are online publishers or TELCOS, are set to benefit as much as consumers from this service as the production cost is a fraction of the traditional cost of producing news programming, without any loss of quality or relevance. This will provide a sustainable solution to providers who are looking for news content but unable to fund their own news operation, while also giving existing newsrooms the opportunity to allocate resources to professional journalism, instead of overheads.
The ground-breaking model – which is a world first – is drawn from the Newstag platform, a ‘mobile-first’ news service aimed at consumers that enables users to create their own personalised TV channel or ‘tagtsream’ in seconds, organising, consuming and sharing stories that they find relevant or interesting among their social networks using the latest web and mobile technologies. All the content is drawn from some of the world’s leading professional news producers such as AP, AFP and Bloomberg.
Newstag co-founder Camilla Dahlin-Andersson added: “Audiences want to engage with and understand the world they live in and to provide a balance to videos of cats on skateboards, we want to empower people to engage and make a real difference. Newstag isn’t a shallow ‘light agenda’ platform. Users can explore breaking news topics in greater depth than ever before through personalisable tags, while news from multiple sources gives everyone the opportunity to consume stories from different angles, creating a more nuanced picture of the world.”
The platform’s innovative approach to content distribution has already been globally recognised. It was shortlisted at this year’s Content Innovation Awards hosted by Digital TV Europe and TBI at MIPCOM and is nominated for a TVB Award recognising innovation and outstanding technical achievement later this month. Earlier this year, Newstag was a start-up of the year finalist at the MEG-awards and selected as one the companies best positioned for growth in Asia at Asia Beat. In 2015 Newstag received a bronze award for ‘Best News Website’ at the Asian Digital Media Awards jointly presented by WAN-IFRA and Google. The platform was also selected as a top international start-up by Mobile World Capital Barcelona in a contest to recognise the most innovative use of mobile technology in business and won ‘Best Start-up’ at TVB Europe Awards.
(Source: Newstag press release)
13 October 2016
Mark Barton, Bloomberg Television’s longest serving presenter in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is to host the AIBs – the twelfth international awards for the best factual television, radio and online productions.
Taking place in London on Wednesday 2 November 2016, the AIBs celebrate the work of producers, editors and journalists from around the world. Work from nearly 40 countries has been submitted to this year’s AIBs, and the shortlist includes work from major broadcasters, online video companies, newspapers and independent producers.
“I am delighted to have been asked to host this year’s AIBs,” said Mark Barton. “I have been amazed by the range and quality of productions that have been entered. I am looking forward to revealing who has won in this global competition and sharing in the celebrations of success.”
“It is great that Mark Barton has agreed to present this year’s AIBs,” commented Simon Spanswick, chief executive of the Association for International Broadcasting. “His experience in live journalism means he understands the realities of getting news to audiences in challenging situations. He also has consummate interviewing skills that will bring the best out of this year’s winners as they receive their prizes.”
Mark Barton played an integral role in establishing Bloomberg Television as a global financial and business news network. Mark has witnessed at first hand three global recessions and covered five UK general elections and five US elections.
Mark has travelled the world to interview more than ten thousand newsmakers. They’ve included Presidents, Princes, Prime Ministers, members of the US Federal Reserve and most of the global business elite. Among his personal career highlights are Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the late Israeli leader Shimon Peres.
The AIBs will be presented in London at LSO St Luke’s on 2 November 2016 in front of a truly global gathering of journalists, editors, producers and directors representing countries as diverse as Argentina, Denmark, India, France, Russia, the USA and the UK, among many others. Reserve places at theaibs.tv.
Eutelsat and MediaGuru are sponsors of this year’s AIBs.
5 October 2016
France 24 has entered the South Korean media landscape thanks to a new distribution agreement recently concluded with Hyundai Cable Networks (HCN). The operator has 1.3 million TV subscribers across the country.
France 24 English version is now available on the channel 446 within the “Gold” package which brings together several foreign channels. In addition to this access via cable, the channel is also available on IPTV and mobile in the “Premium” offer.
With this first distribution agreement in South Korea, France 24 will also enhance its presence throughout the country with screens broadcasting the channel in the Alliances Françaises and at the Institut Français in Seoul (French cultural Institutes).
A few weeks before the 2015-2016 France-Korea year draws to an end (a France Médias Monde group partnership), France 24 will soon propose a special edition of its cultural magazine “Encore!” entirely dedicated to the Korean culture.
For more real-time information on France 24’s distribution worldwide, go to ► http://f24.my/2dMp36i
(Source: France 24 press release)
