23 November 2016
20 years after the tragic and untimely death of Mohamed Amin, founder of Nairobi-based Camerapix, the Association for International Broadcasting pays tribute to the renowned cameraman.
Mohamed Amin was born on 29 August 1943 in Nairobi where he developed an interest in photography at school. He founded Camerapix company in 1963 in Dar es Salaam and moved the company to Nairobi three years later. During the 1970s, he became one of the most relied-upon African news photographers, reporting on wars and coups all through the continent. His pictures were often used by Western news media.
Amin’s most influential moment came when his photos, along with the reporting of the BBC’s Michael Buerk of the 1984 Ethiopian famine brought international attention to the crisis and eventually helped start the charity wave that resulted in Live Aid concerts.
Amin contributed exclusive photos of the fall of Idi Amin and of Mengistu Haile Mariam and was author of numerous books, including Journey Through Pakistan, Pilgrimage to Mecca and covered various themes such as East African wildlife and the Uganda railway.
A short film looking back on Amin’s life has been produced by A24 Media – run by Amin’s son, Salim – and Reuters. It will be screened at Newsxchange taking place in Copenhagen at the start of December.
22 November 2016
According to the results of Africascope 2016, Africanews enjoys 31% awareness across seven countries* in French-speaking Africa, where it is already watched weekly by 1.7 million viewers.
Africanews is a leading multilingual, pan-African news outlet, available in sub-Saharan Africa via its complete offering: TV and digital (website, social media). Every week, 1.7 million people in French-speaking Africa watch Africanews TV.
According to the findings of the latest Africascope survey, conducted by Kantar TNS in seven French-speaking African countries, 31% of respondents have heard of Africanews.
Barely six months after launching, Africanews has already secured the loyalty of 1.7 million viewers in the seven countries surveyed.
According to the survey, Africanews’ audience is young and more affluent than the average of the target population. A majority of its audience are men, who make up 67% of Africanews’ viewers in these seven countries.
Africascope also highlights the strong TV audience in all countries surveyed, with an average 91% of people aged 15 and over watching television daily, which amounts to 15.4 million viewers.
Strong approval for Africanews in Gabon and Cameroon
Six months after its launch, Africanews already enjoys good awareness ratings in the seven countries surveyed.
In Cameroon, 41% of respondents say they have heard of the channel. The score rises to 60% in Gabon, the channel’s highest rating in French-speaking Africa.
Gabon is also where Africanews attracts its highest weekly audience, with a quarter of viewers loyal to the channel.
In Ivory Coast and Senegal, Africanews scores awareness ratings of 34% and 29%, respectively.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 28% of respondents say they have heard of the channel, compared to 25% in Burkina Faso and 21% in Mali.
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Michael Peters,
CEO Euronews and Africanews |
“Barely six months after the launch of Africanews, we are pleased to receive the first audience data for seven key markets in French-speaking Africa. These findings – exceptional for a fledgling media outlet – are highly encouraging and consolidate our editorial position. We can already say that Africanews has found its audience, who approve of our intention to show the new face of news in a fast-moving continent. With our team in Pointe-Noire and its network of correspondents, 85 professionals fulfil their daily mission of providing independent news and promoting Africa’s rich diversity.
Many advertisers and partners showed confidence in Africanews as soon as it launched. With these first audience findings, we can assure them that Africanews is an excellent vehicle for their communications and that it will quickly make its mark as a key media source on the continent.”
KANTAR TNS and its Africascope media survey
Kantar TNS has been measuring the audiences of national and international television channels and radio stations since 2008. Africascope is the essential survey for measuring audience and awareness, and for understanding target groups’ profiles and consumer habits.
Africascope is conducted in the capitals of seven countries in French-speaking Africa, on a sample of 16.8 million people aged 15 and over, representative of the survey area. The surveys were carried out face-to-face in interviewees’ homes, using the quota method (gender, age, education and profession of the respondent).
* Countries surveyed: Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou), Cameroon (Douala and Yaoundé), Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Gabon (Libreville), Ivory Coast (Abidjan), Mali (Bamako) and Senegal (Dakar).
(Source: Euronews press release)
22 November 2016
The launch episode of motoring TV show The Grand Tour was released by Amazon on its Prime TV platform on 18 November to critical acclaim from viewers and critics. Amazon says that the new programme – presented by the three former hosts of the BBC’s
Top Gear programme – was the biggest show premiere ever on Amazon Prime, knocking its The Man in the High Castle drama off the top spot in terms of viewer numbers.
Amazon has also said that sign-ups to its Prime membership was high, beaten only by the company’s so-called Prime Day. Subsequent episodes will be released every Friday at 0001 GMT.
The Grand Tour has become the top rated TV show or movie on IMDb, the world’s most popular source of movie and TV data, with an overall rating of 9.6 and over 10,000 votes. The show is rated 4.9 out of 5 stars by more than 15,000 customers on Amazon, and currently has a score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“The guys are back, doing what they do best – the chemistry between Jeremy, Richard and James is what makes The Grand Tour so entertaining,” said Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon. “Their creativity, along with the amazing production quality and 4K HDR streaming, has Prime members responding in a big way. Kudos and congrats to the whole team.”
The first episode of The Grand Tour was released at 0001 GMT on Friday 18 November, and customers immediately started tweeting their thoughts on the blockbuster opening episode:
- @annoyingracefan: I’m more excited about @thegrandtour than I am the birth of my child. I don’t have any kids but I am sure you know what I mean.
- @DannyAllenUK: That intro sequence for @thegrandtour has to be one of the most emotion/beautiful and expensive sequences I’ve ever seen on a TV show.
- @TransAmPatrick: I’m crying. Why am I crying? What’s going on here? I’m in a glass case of emotion! #TheGrandTour
- @BTMcLeod: Started the first episode of @thegrandtour and I can’t remember the last time I was this happy to see 3 middle aged dudes.
- @Tom__Berry: I’m only 3 minutes in and I can already tell that @thegrandtour is the best thing on TV this year.
Further episodes will be released weekly over the next 11 weeks for Prime members in the U.S, U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan, and the show will premiere worldwide for Amazon customers in over 200 countries and territories in December.
In addition to the unprecedented customer response, The Grand Tour has received outstanding critical acclaim from media around the world:
- “A brilliant beautiful spectacle.” Guardian
- “Between the gear head banter and intoxicating visuals, The Grand Tour makes for a sweet escape from the real world we all live in.” New York Post
- “The trio’s chemistry remains as brilliant as ever.” The Independent
- “Fans are over the moon.” Mail Online
- “The Grand Tour is stunningly beautiful.” The London Evening Standard
- “The Grand Tour is this year’s most eagerly-anticipated TV show. And, judging by the reaction to its Thursday debut, it’s fair to say that The Grand Tour is a critical and commercial success. Together, both viewers and reviewers flooded social media after the first episode aired on Amazon Prime, and they were unified in their praise.” Daily Mirror
- “They’ve sort of somehow come up with the world’s first scripted comedy factual show, and it works perfectly.” Digital Spy
- “Critics and fans welcome Jeremy Clarkson and co back with open arms.” Newsweek
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have been filming the first season of The Grand Tour in far-flung locations across the globe. The studio portion of the show takes place in a travelling tent in locations ranging from Johannesburg to California, Scotland to Rotterdam, Lapland to Nashville, Whitby in North Yorkshire to Stuttgart and the final stop in Dubai. The first episode kicked off in California, when Jeremy, Richard and James took their famous studio tent to Dry Rabbit Lake. Thousands of fans from across the U.S. travelled to the desert near Lucerne Valley, outside of Los Angeles for The Grand Tour’s very own “Burning Van” festival which was part of the opener of the first ever episode. The Grand Tour is available to stream at www.amazon.co.uk/thegrandtour with new episodes releasing weekly for 12 weeks. The official series trailer can be viewed here and to be the first to be notified of upcoming episodes and other news about The Grand Tour, fans can follow The Grand Tour on Facebook Twitter and at Amazon.
18 November 2016
The Association for International Broadcasting has expressed its concern about the proposal to abolish the TV and radio licence fee in Romania.
The plan was included in a bill that proposes the abolition of more than 100 fiscal taxes without any public debate or discussion. The AIB notes that in no EU Member State has there been a proposal for such a fundamental alteration to the funding model of a country’s public service broadcasting that has not been subject to public scrutiny and discussion.
The AIB has written to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis expressing the Association’s concern and asking him to ensure that the proposal receives the correct level of attention within the country and its parliament.
The AIB will be monitoring developments in Romania over the coming weeks.
18 November 2016
The AIB is pleased to announce its first #iamabroadcaster Technology Masterclass in association with IABM.
This new event, taking place immediately before the IABM’s Annual Conference, aims to highlight the use of technology in creating, producing and delivering programming to consumers. It will also explore the mission-critical issue of cyber security in broadcasting, and look at the important work being done in digitising media archives to protect nations’ audio-visual history.
The event venue is the Radisson Blu Edwardian at London Heathrow. The half-day Masterclass is open to Members and non-members of both the AIB and IABM.
The cost for Members of either organisation is £55 per person. For non-members the charge is £80 per person.
AGENDA
0900 Registration
0930 Welcome and introduction
0940 Keeping the lights on
The threat of cyber-attacks against high value targets in the media industry has never been greater. In addition to the high profile attacks on Sony and TV5 Monde, broadcasters and other companies playing a vital role in the production and distribution of content throughout the world continue to be targeted by criminal gangs and rogue states.
The Association for International Broadcasting has been working to ensure that its Members are able to share information and expertise in a confidential forum to help minimise risk and ensure that networks remain on the air.
Taking part in a discussion that will explore the challenges and the way that technology suppliers can help ensure that programmes remain on air will be Jonathan Farrell, Head of Information Security at Arqiva and James Stubbs, Business Development Manager at Babcock MSS. Both have first-hand experience of how to make broadcast infrastructure resilient against attack and the need for all parts of the industry to act together to make sure that the attempts to take broadcasters off air, or to infiltrate their playout systems and online services, are stopped in their tracks.
1030 Coffee
1100 Content worth keeping
Preserving the past for the future – Private Engineering Office, Qatar
Although it’s a relatively young country, Qatar has an extensive analogue library of TV programming and film. In its original format, the content is inaccessible. That’s why the Qatari government has implemented what may be the world’s most concentrated and comprehensive digitisation project. It aims not only to preserve the content but also to analyse the material, employing historians to tag the programming and then to make it easily accessible for citizens and scholars, now and in the future.
In this session, we’ll learn about the project and how it has been implemented. We’ll find out whether the systems developed in Qatar can be replicated elsewhere as the world’s audio-visual history cries out for preservation against a backdrop of obsolescent formats and rapidly deteriorating archives.
Sanjay Salil, Managing Director of global media services company MediaGuru will explain the work that has gone into the Qatar project.
1140 Enabling story-telling
How is technology enabling story-telling? Is the equipment that’s available today meeting all the editorial requirements of programme makers? In an environment where consumers are always on and want content delivered anytime, anywhere, can technology companies deliver what’s demanded by journalists, editors, producers and directors? In a wide-ranging discussion involving key players working at the sharp end of live broadcasting, we’ll also hear from consumers in Europe, North America and the Middle East about the way they choose content and the means of consumption. Expect some surprises along the way.
Martin Davies, Founder of Between the Posts Productions will be in conversation with Wesley Dodd, CEO of Celebro Studios.
1240 Close
1300 Networking lunch
16 November 2016
The BBC’s Thai language service launched today the website – bbcthai.com – to expand on its presence in social media and further strengthen BBC’s news and current-affairs offer to Thai-speaking audience, in Thailand and around the world.
BBC Thai was created in July 2014 as a Facebook service in response to the military coup in Thailand, and is now is in the unique position of moving from being a social only offer to engaging with users directly on a BBC platform.
Via its social-media and new online presence, BBC Thai aims at attracting a digitally savvy and young audience, while continuing to be a source of impartial and independent news for a country were the media still faces restrictions.
The development is a result of the funding boost for the BBC World Service announced by the UK Government last year and is part of the World Service’s biggest expansion since the 1940s. Along with national, regional and international politics, bbcthai.com will cover business, culture, health, technology, science and entertainment – as well as women’s issues and social affairs. It offers free content from BBC Learning English.
During the past two years BBC Thai Facebook page has generated over 1.3 million interactions a month and has 1.65 million fans (November 2016), mostly in Thailand. BBC Thai also uses Facebook Live, Google Hangouts, YouTube and other social media to reach its audience.
BBC Thai has expanded its team in London and its Bangkok office, to enhance its ability to produce original digital content. Its newly appointed Editor, veteran Thai journalist and broadcaster Nopporn Wong-Anan, will lead the teams. He said:
“I am excited and proud to be part of the digital transformation of BBC Thai as it has moved from being a social-only service to its own new platform, bbcthai.com. Via this new, mobile-first website we will serve Thai-speakers looking for independent, accurate and balanced news, information and analysis, for which the BBC is known. BBC Thai’s presence on the social-media scene will continue to expand.”
The service will also bring innovative formats to engage its audience and has partnered up with BBC’s task-forces that drive the organisation’s digital innovation – BBC Connected Studio and BBC News Labs. The team explored themes of participation and interaction with the local Thai creative industry in Bangkok and Chiang Mai this summer.
BBC Thai is part of BBC World Service. (Source: BBC press release)
