19 November 2015
Doha, November 15 – Al Jazeera’s Technology and Operations Division scooped two Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) BroadcastPro Television Awards for 2015, during the award ceremony in Dubai on November 10th, 2015.
The division was awarded “MENA Broadcast Trendsetter” for their innovative approach to re-configuring Al Jazeera’s bureaus around the globe, including state of the art technology for newsgathering and broadcast.
The second award, “CTO of the Year”, was presented to Mohamed Abuagla, Al Jazeera’s Executive Director for Technology and Operations, for having led the transformation of the Technology and Operations departments after combining them into one division.
Abuagla was also the keynote speaker at the BroadcastPro Summit & Awards annual flagship event where he walked the audience through Al Jazeera’s journey, having moved from the old ways of working on tape to becoming an industry leader.
18 November 2015
: Below is the text of a press release from the BBC Press Office:
The BBC is today setting out details of how we plan to save £150 million to address a shortfall in funding identified earlier this year.
The shortfall has arisen because as more people use BBC iPlayer, mobiles and other online catch-up, the proportion of households owning a television is falling, while a loophole allows viewers to watch catch-up TV without a licence.
We have welcomed the Government’s firm commitment to close this loophole, and will continue to urge Ministers to legislate as swiftly as possible.
An independent study by PwC has already shown the BBC to be among the most efficient organisations in the public sector and regulated industries, and our record betters that of Government. However, in July we committed to doing everything possible to protect programmes and services by making further savings from back office functions, cutting management and management layers and reducing historic levels of BBC bureaucracy. This is part of delivering a simpler, leaner, BBC.
Despite this, we always said that cuts to programmes or services would be unavoidable. Even after today’s measures, the BBC faces a long-term challenge to identify a further £550m of savings by 2021/22 and we will set out broad plans for this in the spring. We will inevitably have to either close or reduce some services.
The £150 million of savings detailed today will be delivered in the following way:
- £50 million will be saved by creating a simpler, leaner BBC, with fewer divisions and senior managers, fewer layers between the top and bottom of the organisation and cutting 1,000 posts. Strong progress is already being made – the first phase of work is now complete and subject to staff consultation and further detailed work:
- c£25m will come from reducing back office and professional support services
- c£10m from reducing management layers in content areas. Discussions are now beginning with those affected
- The remainder from the merger of technology and digital divisions, and changes to expenses, payroll management and other areas
- In total, we are on course to deliver the 1,000 reduction in jobs by 2017. Since July, we have already closed or are consulting on over 300 of these posts
- £35 million will be saved from the BBC’s TV sports rights budget. Meeting this savings target will be tough, particularly given the high levels of inflation in the market. We therefore anticipate this will lead to the loss of some existing rights and events. We have already made some tough choices which have contributed to the savings, for instance around the Open Golf. However, we have also recently secured a series of important rights – including Wimbledon, Premier League highlights, live coverage of Euro 2016 and 2020 football championships and Six Nations rugby shared with ITV
- Beyond Sport, a further £12 million will come from the BBC’s TV budget. Drama will be protected, including the prioritisation we have already announced, but a range of other genres will face cuts. This will mean some reductions to factual, comedy and entertainment, although we remain committed to making popular Saturday night shows and will use the savings from The Voice UK to develop new, home-grown formats
- £12 million will be cut from BBC Online. This will involve rationalising new features, innovation and development across the BBC’s digital services and focusing on those with greatest impact
- £5 million will come from News. This will include efficiency savings from a review of working practices, terms and conditions, and commercial income or cost reductions in BBC Monitoring (subject to approval from the BBC Trust)
- £20 million of savings will come from long-term contracts and other costs, due to the current lower levels of inflation
- The final c£16m will come from cross-cutting areas, including
- Savings in distribution costs
- Exploring a phased exit from the broadcast Red Button service and focusing our interactive TV offer on connected televisions and iPlayer
- Exploring further savings from BBC Online.
Director-General, Tony Hall, said:
“The BBC has and is doing everything possible to make sure the impact on the public is minimised. Wherever possible we’re targeting savings by creating a simpler, leaner, BBC.
“But cuts to budgets for programmes and services are unavoidable. No Director-General wants to announce reduced spending on services that the public love. This is very tough, but the BBC’s financial position means there is no alternative.”
The £150 million set out today is part of the £700 million overall savings the BBC must find due to the flat licence fee agreed in the summer and the need to fund the transformation the BBC must undertake for the future.
We will announce how the remaining £550 million savings to be met by 2021/22 will be made in the spring. These are likely to include broad service and major structural changes to how the BBC works and fulfils its mission to inform, educate, and entertain.
Notes to Editors
- In July, the BBC announced that the licence fee income in 2016/17 was now forecast to be £150m less than it was expected to be in 2011. This is because as more people rely on devices like BBC iPlayer, mobiles and online catch up, the percentage of households owning televisions is falling faster than predicted. This means they don’t always pay the television licence fee.
- A loophole means households watching only catch-up TV are not subject to the licence fee. The Government has agreed this loophole should be closed and committed to legislate by July 2016. We will continue to urge them to do this as quickly as possible.
- In July we announced £50 million savings – mainly through reductions in the scope and scale of back office functions. Details of the announcement are available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/simpler-leaner-bbc
- Today we are providing details of how we will meet the remaining £100m and updating on progress on the £50m we have already announced.
- A report by PwC found that the BBC now spends under 8 per cent of total costs on general overheads in 2014/15. Completing the Delivering Quality First savings programmes will put the BBC into the current top tier of the public and regulated private sectors, cutting overhead costs to 7 per cent – well below the public sector average of 11.2 per cent. The BBC is also above average among a media and broadcasting peer group despite its public service remit and restrictions. The full PwC analysis is available here.
18 November 2015
SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), a world-leading satellite operator, and Intersat announced today they have signed a multi-year contract to expand Intersat’s internet service offerings to East Africa.
Intersat, one of the largest and most respected providers of internet solutions in Africa, is utilising the Ku-band capacity on SES’s NSS-12 satellite via the SES Djibouti teleport. The company will offer shared and dedicated internet services delivered via the latest and most advanced iDirect VSAT technology, with a capacity of up to 70Mbps. Intersat currently serves over 200 VSAT terminals using the SES service.
“Intersat is in the business of breaking down the price barrier that has held back the majority of Africans from benefiting from the internet. Not only have we connected businesses, government organisations, internet service providers, educational institutions and hospitals, but we have also brought affordable broadband internet via satellite to rural Africa,” said Subrata Roy, Chief Technical Officer at Intersat. “The new deal on NSS-12 satellite’s Ku-band will allow us to double the number of terminals we serve by 2016.”
“The agreement with Intersat allows us to better serve customers in the East African market who have little or no access to terrestrial based connectivity. The combination of premium and high-powered satellite capacity, and the use of the latest iDirect technology and high-grade teleport, will give Intersat an added advantage in the marketplace,” said Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, Senior Vice President, Commercial, Africa at SES.
16 November 2015
The Broadcasting Board of Governors today released its annual impact numbers, including an unprecedented weekly measured audience of 226 million. The increase includes substantial gains in digital and television audiences in highly competitive media markets that are of strategic importance to the United States.
Digital audiences increased from 25 million to 32 million, driven in part by social media and circumvention tools used by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America to evade the Chinese firewall and engage audiences in China, as well as a new multi-platform campaign launched by the Middle East Broadcasting Networks aimed at engaging Iraqi audiences and providing them an opportunity to voice their opinions.
Thanks in part to a successful customized affiliate strategy, especially in Latin America, Africa and the Russian periphery, television audiences saw a substantial increase, growing 18 million in the last year.
“This audience increase – while it is just one of many impact measurements — shows the hunger for accurate and reliable information around the world,” said BBG CEO and Director John Lansing. “As propaganda and misinformation continue to saturate media markets globally, more and more people are turning to the networks of the BBG for trusted, fact-based reporting. But even as we reach more people, we will hold ourselves accountable to ensuring that our content has measurable impact in the parts of the world where free speech and expression are inhibited or denied altogether.”
In addition to weekly audience size, the BBG measures its impact using quantitative, qualitative, digital and anecdotal data on a wide range of factors including program quality and credibility, engagement with the news process, and audience understanding of current events. Examples of impact include:
- Ramped up coverage of Russia and the periphery by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America with a daily co-produced television program carried by 25 affiliates throughout the region that is watched by nearly two million people weekly online in Russia.
- Continued and expanded reporting by Voice of America during the upheaval in Burundi – the only international source of news and information in Kirundi after the government shutdown private radio and social media
- The successful launch of a news program by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting dedicated to informing the people of Cuba on the process of normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
To learn more about the BBG’s performance measures, the 2015 Performance and Accountability Report, along with the BBG’s 2015 audience overview and explanation of research methodology are available on the BBG website.
11 November 2015
Over the course of 2015, Intelsat S. A. (NYSE: I), the world’s leading provider of satellite services, has forged strategic partnerships with leading networking hardware and antenna manufacturers as it implements its strategy to drive performance, improve economics and simplify access to the company’s next-generation high throughput satellite platform, Intelsat EpicNG.
Building on that momentum, the company announced that it has appointed long-standing Intelsat executive Jay Yass to Vice President of Business Development and named Hazem Moakkit to the newly created role of Vice President of Corporate and Spectrum Strategy. Mr. Yass and Mr. Moakkit will report to Bruno Fromont, Intelsat’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Asset Management and be based in the company’s McLean, VA office.
In his new role, Mr. Yass will add to his market development responsibilities and lead Intelsat’s global business development initiatives. He will oversee the company’s business development team and work closely with Intelsat’s corporate strategy, product management as well as its innovation and service architecture teams to identify and establish partnerships that will complement the type and value of the services delivered to customers. Prior to his current position, Mr. Yass served as Intelsat’s Vice President of Global Accounts and Strategic Sales as well as Intelsat’s Vice President of Network Services Product Management. Before joining Intelsat in 2003, he held senior sales and business development management roles at Telogy Network (now part of Texas Instruments) and GTE Satellite Corporation.
In his newly created role, Mr. Moakkit will lead the corporate strategy and spectrum teams, analyzing shifts in market trends to guide the strategic direction of the company. He will also be responsible for optimizing Intelsat’s orbital spectrum rights to support the company’s overall business plans. Bringing more than two decades of industry experience to Intelsat, Mr. Moakkit has held executive regulatory and spectrum affairs positions at O3b Satellite Networks and Yahsat.
”As Intelsat continues to look for innovative approaches that will drive value for our customers, Jay’s and Hazem’s leadership and expertise will be essential to accelerating our business development initiatives and delivering new services to the marketplace,” said Bruno Fromont, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Asset Management, Intelsat. “Jay is a long-standing Intelsat executive with a proven track record of developing strong ecosystem partnerships, enabling him to effectively lead our Business Development team. Similarly, Hazem’s wealth of experience in spectrum strategy and development will prove invaluable as Intelsat analyzes and identifies new applications where our satellite-based solutions will play a meaningful role in the continuing expansion of broadband connectivity everywhere.”
11 November 2015
Arabsat’s first satellite of the 6th generation, “Badr-7” , was launched successfully this morning from Kourou base, French Guyana, in South America by the Ariane 5 rocket.
The Ariane 5 rocket blasted off at 21:34 GMT on Wednesday 11th ( 12:34 Makkah time) , carrying Badr-7, a Eurostar satellite, manufactured by Airbus Defense & Space with Thales Alenia Space, to be placed in ARABSAT’s exclusive orbital hotspot 26° East.
This step comes as part of ARABSAT’s ambitious expansion projects, and it is the 6th satellite launched during the past seven years on three different orbital positions to provide diverse TV broadcasting and telecommunications services . Badr -7 will join Arabsat satellites Badr – 4, Badr-5 and Badr -6 on its exclusive TV broadcasting orbital position 26° East.
This successful launch comes 30 years after the launch of Arabsat first generation satellites, which was supervised by the first Arab Muslim astronaut, His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, now President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), during his famous Space journey aboard the Shuttle “Discovery” in 1985.
On this occasion, His Royal Highness Prince Sultan extended his congratulations to Arabsat for the successful launch of Badr-7, stressing that Arabsat has been playing a vital role in connecting the Arab World since launching its first satellite in 1985. Over the past years ARABSAT has developed and adapted to the latest advanced technology in satellite broadcasting and the telecommunications field to become one of the leading satellite operators in the world.
Eng./ Khalid bin Ahmed Balkheyour, President & CEO of Arabsat, said “We are very pleased with the successful launch of Arabsat’s first 6th generation satellite. Badr-7 has great satellite capacities with a wide range of coverage on a variety of different frequency beams including Ka band to provide broadband and internet services as well as direct TV broadcasting and satellite telecommunications services. “
Balkheyour added “ ARABSAT currently has three new satellites under manufacturing within the 6th generation project, they will be successively launched over the next three years, with about US $1.5 billion investments, part of which Badr-7 manufacture and launching share is 400 million.
Balkheyour concluded ” Arabsat success was not possible without the hard work of a group of Arab engineers from our headquarters in Riyadh and our two control stations in Riyadh and Tunisia, where these young dedicated Arab engineers are operating and controlling the satellites. They also participate fully in the designing and supervising during the stages of manufacturing of these satellites, so I dedicate to them my highest regards and appreciation”. (Source: Arabsat press release)
