Deutsche Welle and Channels TV have agreed on a partnership that DW’s Director General Peter Limbourg said the deal further demonstrates the long tradition of showing a positive view of Africa.
The collaboration was announced in Lagos on 17 July at Channels TV headquarters. Speaking at the event, Limbourg said the coverage on Channels TV by DW correspondents at the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt will bring economic information not only about Germany but also about Europe to Nigeria.
“Channels is a great station and a perfect partner for us. Working together means having concrete projects,” Limbourg said. Channels is one of Nigeria’s largest television networks. Limbourg said the partnership will expand to other shows such as Africa on the Move – a programme that showcases ordinary people seeking to make positive changes to their environment. “We at Deutsche Welle think that we have to report the great things that happen in Africa, especially in Nigeria. We will like to bring another African picture into the discussion,” Limbourg said.
The head of Germany’s international broadcaster said the collaboration would include input from both sides. “We don’t want to have a one-sided picture of Africa. I am even more convinced to do more of these kinds of things,” Limbourg said. Under the partnership, journalists from Channels TV will benefit from DW training.
Solid partnership
John Momoh, CEO of Channels TV, said the relationship with Deutsche Welle looks like it was “made in heaven.” He said the whole idea is to be able to tell African stories to wider societies, specifically to Europe and then to the rest of the world.
“This is part of our strategy to tell the African story, especially that of Nigeria, from the African perspective so that we do not leave this key element of definition of who we are, what we do and why, to other people to tell on our behalf,” Momoh said.
He said the partnership will enable Channels television “to take the lead in covering Nigeria and the rest of the African continent.”
Boason Omofaye, head of business news at Channel TV, is particularly pleased about having the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on his programme. “As someone who has covered the financial market for the last 26 years, it will be nice to see the Frankfurt Stock Exchange live on Channels Television,” Omofaye said.
He said their newly-launched partnership is strategically important from the economic and business perspective, given that Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa while Germany is Europe’s largest. “For Nigerians in Germany, for Germans in Nigeria, who are interested in terms of buying stocks, buying Nigerian bonds, investing in Nigerian government treasury bills, the partnership brings something new to the table,” Omofaye said.
The collaboration with Channels TV is the latest move by Deutsche Welle to further strengthen its presence in Africa.
First-of-its-kind architecture set to accelerate Ultra HD delivery to cable households
SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), one of the world’s leading satellite operators, today announced it has initiated the first-ever live and linear Ultra HD (UHD) trial with cable MSO (Multiple System Operator) Armstrong.
Armstrong is testing SES’s camera-to-screen Ultra HD ecosystem at its headquarters cable lab in Butler, Pennsylvania. SES’s Ultra HD offering, first unveiled in April 2015 at the NAB Conference, combines broadcast and IP technologies in a fully-managed, scalable service. The solution leverages satellite’s inherent broadcast advantages and the multicasting capabilities of DOCSIS 3.0, the advanced transmission standard in use by Armstrong and other leading cable systems today.
“We have a great long-term partnership with SES that enables us to innovate with satellite-delivered content solutions and provide exciting new potential offerings, said Mike Giobbi, Chief Technology Officer for Armstrong. “We look forward to testing Ultra HD on our cable system and working closely with SES on this exciting solution.”
“We are very excited to have Armstrong as the first to test our linear Ultra HD solution in a real-world environment,” noted Steve Corda, Vice President of Business Development for SES in North America. “The outcome of these tests will support progress toward our objective of accelerating the roll-out of linear-live Ultra HD. The roll-out into cable TV households across North America will allow a very cost efficient, scalable and high performance delivery system.”
Voice of America, in partnership with AudioNow Digital, has launched an audio-only app that will allow users to listen to VOA programming over data or cellular voice connections. That option is especially valuable for VOA audiences in emerging markets where streaming audio is not available or cost prohibitive.
VOA Mobile Streamer, which is available on Apple and Android platforms, will provide broadcast audio programming in 33 languages. In addition to on-demand programming, the app also offers live 24/7 radio streams in more than a dozen languages.
“We are very pleased to add this app to our suite of mobile products,” said Kelu Chao, acting director of the Voice of America. “VOA Mobile Streamer allows us to better serve and connect with audiences in low-bandwidth countries and provide them with high-quality news and information they can’t get elsewhere. By giving our audience access to our radio broadcasts via voice VOA is now availab! le on even the simplest of mobile phones.”
“We worked with VOA and AudioNow to make a very non-traditional news app experience,” added Adam Martin, acting director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ Office of Digital and Design Innovation. “Mobile Streamer’s unique and refreshing design is particularly attractive to younger audiences, and its accessibility in low-bandwidth areas is crucial to reaching key audiences.”
VOA Mobile Streamer leverages AudioNow’s international Interactive Voice Response infrastructure and will showcase thousands of hours of VOA audio programmes that are produced each week.
SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that the leading German and Austrian pay TV-provider Sky Deutschland has secured additional capacity for Ultra HD broadcasts on ASTRA at 19.2 degrees East.
Ultra HD delivers four times the resolution of today’s HD TV, providing more dramatic action for sporting events and a more compelling experience for premium movies and documentaries.
“At Sky Deutschland, we believe in being innovative with our offerings and providing our customers with the best television experience, and have therefore been investing in Ultra HD. The agreement with SES gives us planning security in terms of capacity so that we can continue to develop Ultra HD and get it ready for the market,” said Holger Ensslin, Chief Officer of Legal, Regulatory Affairs and Distribution at Sky Deutschland.
“We are pleased to partner with Sky Deutschland as they embark on their Ultra HD journey. There is no better way to broadcast Ultra HD than on satellites: unlike other infrastructures, satellites can deliver Ultra HD programmes in the best quality available and cost-effectively all over the country,” said Ferdinand Kayser, Chief Commercial Officer at SES. “That, coupled with the extensive reach of 19.2 degrees East, will ensure that Sky Deutschland’s Ultra HD content will be made readily available to all satellite households in Germany and Austria.”
International news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has invested in Quantel’s new sQ 1800 servers for its brand new global news production solution. AFP’s Enterprise sQ system supports more than 50 simultaneous users at the Paris headquarters, a large operation in London, 10 further international bureaux and 100+ roving journalists.
The sQ 1800 servers are 100% compatible with AFP’s existing Enterprise sQ system, providing a zero-risk system upgrade with more disk space for original footage and support for more editing workstations. When the new system goes live, scheduled for late 2015, AFP expect to produce more than 100 unique video stories a day, with localized versions for six different markets, all in TV and web formats, making a total output at least 1,200 media assets every day. In addition to daily news ingest, all system users will have access to the online archive, expected to accumulate up to 3,000 hours of media every year.
Philippe SENSI, deputy CIO at AFP, said, “The new servers are an investment for the future, allowing us to take maximum advantage of the latest generation of disk and processing technologies. We have developed a close relationship with Quantel and Snell over the past year, with our support team travelling to Quantel and Snell’s Newbury, UK headquarters every two months to work with the development team to debrief and get an update on the project plan.”
Tim Thorsteinson, CEO at Quantel and Snell, said, “We’re working very closely with the AFP team to ensure their workflow has the ability to adapt and grow as future requirements in the industry change. The new servers give AFP unbeatable speed from ingest to editing to playout, maintaining its position as one of Europe’s leading fast-turnaround news production facilities.”
Following a capital increase of €35m, Media Globe Networks, a company controlled by theSawiris Family,becomes the majority shareholder of Euronews
Euronews announced that Media Globe Networks, a company owned by the Sawiris Family and managed by Naguib Sawiris, now holds 53% of shares of the international news media based in Lyon. The majority stake has been purchased through a capital increase of €35m. The remaining 47% of shares stay with Euronews’ traditional shareholders;21 public television channels and3 local authorities. The purchase of Media Globe Networks of Euronews’ capitalcomes after several months of exclusive negotiations, validated by an Extraordinary General Assembly on June 19th.
Since then, a dedicatedShareholders Agreement has been signed by the vast majority of the public shareholders, giving final validation to the entrance of Media Globe Networks to the capital.
Euronews will be governed by three distinctive bodies: The Supervisory Board, the Editorial Board and the Executive Board. The 10 members of the Editorial Board will be journalists or have a strong experience in the media area. Seven out of the 10 members of this Editorial Board, including the Chairman, will be directly appointed by the public shareholders of Euronews. The creation of the Editorial Board will allow an activepermanent control of the independence and diversity of Euronews editorial line. This new governance, validated by all stakeholders, will ensure the preservation of the mission of general interest of the international news media as well as its editorial independence.
The Supervisory Board also renewed the directorship of Mr. Michael Peters as CEO of Euronews for a term of 4 years.
“I am grateful for the consistent support that the Euronews’ Shareholders demonstrated over the preceding months throughout this project, which will definitely put Euronews in a new dimension”, commented CEO Michael Peters. “The process of capital increase started one year ago. We chose to enter exclusive negotiations with Media Globe Networks, because of its clear commitment and guarantees to respect Euronews diversity and editorial independence.We are delighted to work alongside our new investor to expand our reach and service lines in order to reinforce Euronews’position as a key-player in the media industry.”
“Euronews is a strong, global, independent and highly professional news media,” commented Naguib Sawiris, the Chairman and CEO of Media Globe Networks. “I believe that Euronews, with its unique expertise, has a huge potential for future growth and do fully support Michael Peters and his team in their aim of raising Euronews to the next level.”
“The public shareholders welcome the investment of Media Globe Networks and look forward to working alongside Naguib Sawiris to support the future growth and development of Euronews”, saidPaolo Garimberti, current Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Euronews. “The new governance provides all the guarantees regarding the editorial independence of Euronews. The public shareholders will remain closely involved alongside the new investor for the success of this unique media.”
Founded in 1993, Euronews is producing international news and magazines 24/24 in 13 language editions available to 425 million households in 158 countries.
Euronews extends its agreement with CTH in Thailand
The international news channel is now available on mobile and IPTV, in addition to cable and satellite broadcasting.
(Lyon, 7 July) Euronews reinforces its position on the Thai audiovisualmarket, thanks to an important extension of its distribution agreement with one of the major operators in the country, CTH.
Broadcast since last year via cable and satellite, the agreement includes the availability of Euronews on the CTH mobile app, on iOS and Android. The recently launched app counts more than 65,000 downloads.
Moreover, CTH subscribers can have a 24/7 access to the English service of Euronews on both ZIPtv (IPTV) and CTH Everywhere (mobile application).
Arnaud Verlhac, WorldwideDistribution Director ofEuronewssaid: “Thanks to our agreement in 2014, we immediately reached one million new households. It was a strong success for Euronews in Thailand. I’m thrilled that a couple months later, CTH chose the channel again and makes it available on its wide range of offers (cable, DTH, IPTV and mobile)”.
Sabrina Mimouni, Regional Distribution Manager Asia-Pacificadded:“In Thailand,more people watch TV on their mobile devices than on TV screens. It was crucial to join the CTH mobile app. We are proud to announce that Euronews’ launch on the app has been a great success with more than 65,000 downloads”.
VOA Mobile Streamer, which is available on Apple and Android platforms, will provide broadcast audio programming in 33 languages. In addition to on-demand programming, the app also offers live 24/7 radio streams in more than a dozen languages.