1 June 2015
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), the world’s leading provider of satellite services, and BT Group (NYSE: BT) today confirmed that BT has renewed and expanded services on three Intelsat satellites, spanning the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America regions.
Under the new multi-year, multi-transponder agreement, BT will leverage capacity from three of Intelsat’s leading satellite neighborhoods to distribute programming for BBC World Service, a premier provider of global news and content. BT will have access to Intelsat’s teleport facility in Napa, California along with the company’s terrestrial network, IntelsatOne®.
The three satellite video neighborhoods, Intelsat 10-02 located at 1°W, Intelsat 805 at 55.5°W and Intelsat 19 at 166.0°E, combined with BT’s service offerings, will allow BBC World Service to increase its channel line-up and continue access to millions of listeners and viewers throughout Asia Pacific, Africa and the Americas.
“Intelsat and BT have a long and proven track record of leveraging each other’s technical strengths to help advance our customers’ business and growth objectives,” said Mark Wilson-Dunn, Vice President BT Media & Broadcast. “The high quality, resiliency and flexibility of Intelsat’s global satellite solutions, combined with the power of its regional video neighborhoods, make Intelsat the ideal partner to support BBC World Service’s global programming needs.”
Nigel Fry, Head of Distribution, BBC World Service, added, “In today’s information age, our viewers want fast-breaking, high quality and reliable content at all times regardless of location. By partnering with BT and Intelsat, we know that we will receive a seamless, integrated solution and distribution platforms that enable us to reliably reach our audience around the world.”
“BBC World Service has very specific requirements as it relates to its global programming needs, including optimizing its distribution and overall operational efficiency. By combining our distribution network with BT’s service offerings, we created a solution that provides BBC World Service with international distribution that serves its global audience, and supports its growth objectives,” said Kurt Riegelman, Intelsat’s Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing. “BBC World Service premier content contributes to the nearly 5,500 SD and HD channels distributed across our fleet and can be accessed by tens of millions of viewers across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America through our media neighborhoods.”
Intelsat is at CommunicAsia 2015 from June 2 through June 5 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, Stand 1S3-01.
Resources
(Source : Intelsat press release)
27 May 2015
Euronews benefits from increased exposure on TELUS Optik TV
With the launch of TELUS’s new packaging on Optik TV, Euronews is now available in some brand new theme packs. Euronews English can be found in the News International theme pack and is also available a la carte. Euronews French is part of the Carnet Monde theme pack. For existing Optik TV customers Euronews English is still available a la carte, and Euronews French can be found in the Savoir French pack.
For more information visit telus.com/Optik.
Euronews on MTS
MTS will carry Euronews, the most-watched news channel in Europe. The channel will be part of MTS’s French channel group “Variété” and will provide French-speaking subscribers of MTS Ultimate TV with a French feed of international news.
Arnaud Verlhac, Worldwide Distribution Director of Euronews said: “Euronews’ multilingualism is well-matched with Canadian multicultural market expectations. These new agreements are a step forward in our strategy to continue reinforcing Euronews’ strong presence on all Canadian platforms, where the channel reaches already close to one million Canadian households.”
Corine Babani, Distribution Manager North America said: “This step is a positive sign from our valued partners: adding Euronews in their most accessible packages consolidates the channel visibility and allows to expand its audience in the Canadian broadcasting scene. At the same time it gives Canadian viewers a different perspective on the news.”
Euronews has been available in Canada since 2003 and is now carried on Rogers, Cogeco, Videotron, TELUS, Ethnic Channel, GLWiz, Bell Fibe, Sogetel and CCSA association members such as Eastlink, CableCable, CoopTel reaching close to one million households.
(Source: Euronews press release)
26 May 2015
RT Arabic has launched a live weekly interview show titled “Studio Washington” from its Washington, D.C. studios. The program’s host Reema Abu Hamdieh will discuss with her guests major global political events and their impact on the Middle East.
Studio Washington, RT’s new political show in Arabic hosted by Reema Abu Hamdieh, goes on air every Friday. The program focuses on the major international events and seeks to provide a fresh, alternative perspective on these events with the help of the key newsmakers and experts invited to the studio.
“Studio Washington covers international political events while making a special emphasis on the countries of the Arab world,” says Abu Hamdieh. “We want to highlight the position and impact of the United States and its foreign policy on a wide range of issues that dominate the Middle East and North Africa today.”
Reema Abu Hamdieh is RT Arabic’s Washington correspondent. She has produced multiple on-site reports from all over the United States and conducted many high-profile interviews on political and economic subjects.
According to a recent Nielsen study, RT Arabic is among the top three most watched TV channels in six countries of the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE and Iraq. The channel enjoys wider viewership than the BBC, Sky News, Al Hurra and CCTV. RT Arabic has also been distinguished by the New York Festivals and Promax BDA awards.
(Source: RT press release)
26 May 2015
RFE/RL has closed its Baku bureau, after Azeri authorities sealed the office shut last December in connection with a government-led campaign against foreign organizations.
“Azeri authorities have acted illegally and arbitrarily, causing profound, and in several cases permanent, suffering and dislocation for our staff and their families,” said Nenad Pejic, RFE/RL editor in chief. Pejic also indicated that the company is prepared to take all steps to defend its rights and interests, and those of its staff members, against the government’s actions.
These actions include the raid of RFE/RL’s Baku bureau together with the confiscation of company documents, stamps, and equipment without due process; the interrogation and detention of Baku bureau staff without legal representation; the expulsion of the bureau’s legal counsel from court proceedings; the cancellation of previously approved tax audits; threats to staff members’ relatives; and arbitrary bans restricting the travel of some employees.
RFE/RL also challenges the government’s allegations against Khadija Ismayilova, an internationally recognized investigative reporter and contributor to RFE/RL, who was arrested on December 5 and remains in prison on charges that derive from the allegations against RFE/RL.
RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, known locally as Radio Azadliq, is continuing its newsgathering and reporting functions in Azerbaijan, and is operating on digital and satellite platforms, despite the closure of its bureau.
Said Pejic, “We will continue working to fulfill our mission, as we have for more than sixty years. We regret the actions taken by the government of Azerbaijan against RFE/RL and its staff over the past several months. RFE/RL has always operated legally in Azerbaijan. We call on the government of Azerbaijan to fulfill its obligations with regard to basic rights and freedoms and stop this campaign of repression, which is hurting its citizens and crippling its future.”
21 May 2015
New figures unveiled today show the BBC has a weekly global audience of 308 million people. This represents the combined measured reach of international BBC content – both news and entertainment – for the year 2014/15 and is the first time this figure has ever been measured in this way.
In 2013 Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC, set a target of 500m for the BBC’s global reach for 2022.
The figures – the BBC Global Audience Measure (GAM) – reveal that the BBC’s weekly global news audience, which is measured each year, has increased by 18m people, or7% since last year, to a record-breaking 283 million. This means that one in every 16 adults around the world uses BBC News.
For the first time, television (148m) overtook radio (133m) as the most popular platform for BBC international news, and it is also the first time since we tracked audiences for all three platforms – radio, TV and online (55m) – in English and 28 other languages – that they’ve all grown in the same year.
The BBC World Service’s audience has increased by 10% in its first year of licence fee funding and now stands at 210m, with the biggest boost coming from new World Service TV news bulletins in languages other than English.
The biggest growth for a single service comes for BBC World Service English, which has its highest ever weekly reach ever with an audience of 52m, an increase of more than 25%. The countries where the audience increases for World Service English have been highest are Nigeria, USA, Pakistan and Tanzania.
BBC Global News Ltd’s audience has grown to 105million with BBC World News TV’s up by 12%, and bbc.com/news growing by 16%.
Fran Unsworth, Director of the BBC World Service Group, said: “These amazing figures demonstrate the importance and impact of the BBC around the world. In times of crisis and in countries lacking media freedom, people around the world turn to the BBC for trusted and accurate information. Thanks to our digital innovation we now have more ways than ever before of reaching our audience – from the Whatsapp Service we set up during the West Africa Ebola outbreak to our pop-up Thai news stream on Facebook following the military coup.”
Tim Davie, Director, Global and CEO, BBC Worldwide, said: “Today’s audience numbers show the global reach of the BBC to be strong and growing. The consumption of branded BBC services across TV, radio and digital platforms speaks to the international appetite for premium content across all the genres for which we are best known – primarily news, but increasingly for drama, factual and entertainment. Having a robust but prudent measurement system in place also helps increase our understanding of our audiences, enabling us to serve them to the very best of our ability in the future.”
Other points of interest are:
- The World Service Group is going from strength to strength in both developed and developing markets, with the single biggest audience for any country in the USA (30m), and with more than a third of the total audience on the African continent (100m), the biggest BBC audience ever seen on any continent.
- Digital innovations from the World Service Group over the past year have included a new Africa livepage on the BBC website; the Thai ‘pop up’ news stream on Facebook; the emergency Ebola service on Whatsapp in West Africa; chat app news services on Line, Mxit, WeChat and WhatsApp; and the move of all 27 language service websites plus News to fully responsive design, which means they can easily be read on mobile phones of all sizes and standards.
Notes to Editors
The Global Audience Measure (GAM) measures the combined reach of the BBC’s international news services – BBC World Service, BBC World News, bbc.com/news and BBC Media Action. It also includes the majority of BBC Worldwide’s BBC-branded direct to consumer services, where measurable and obtainable. It excludes audience for BBC programmes made or sold by BBC Worldwide to third party broadcasters and other platforms.
The BBC’s global news figures were previously measured by the Global Audience Estimate (GAE). This year, these news figures have been combined with BBC Worldwide measured audience figures for the first time.
The GAM shows combined figures, meaning if someone watches both BBC Worldwide content and BBC News, they are only counted once in the total figure. This year’s figures have also been adjusted downwards to avoid double counting people who use multiple devices, eg both a tablet and a smartphone.
Today’s figures include Facebook and YouTube reach for the first time (measuring engaged reach on Facebook which means counting people who interact with our news content.
World Service TV news content is now available in 12 languages. (Source: BBC press release)
21 May 2015
The campaign to secure the release of Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Abdullah Elshamy has won a major PR Award. The SABRE Awards EMEA, organized by leading PR publication The Holmes Report, gave the #FreeAJStaff campaign a Gold Award for issues management at their annual ceremony in London.
There were 2,000 entries in this year’s competition, which “recognises Superior Achievement in Branding, Reputation and Engagement.” The campaigns were evaluated by a jury of more than 40 industry leaders.
The win comes shortly after the PRWeek Global Awards gave Al Jazeera ‘Highly Commended’ recognition in their Crisis & Issues category for the same campaign.
Both judging panels looked at how the situation went from being a story about journalists arrested in Egypt, to being the biggest press freedom campaign in the history of the news media. The campaign was also nominated by the Middle East PR Association earlier this year.
Mostefa Souag, acting director general of Al Jazeera Media Network expressed his gratitude:
“This recognition from the PR industry is extremely humbling. We were faced with a grave situation and this campaign rose to the challenge. This campaign has had everything: the cultivation of a hashtag that went viral; scores of events in all the continents of the world; extremely nimble and effective crisis communications; the gathering together of the entire news industry; and support from world leaders. All of this was in the noble cause of supporting press freedom.”
Abdulla AlNajjar, Executive Director of Global Brand and Communications, thanked everyone involved in the campaign:
“Congratulations are due to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been involved in #FreeAJStaff from right around the world. What’s kept us going is the vision of securing freedom for our guys who sacrificed much for the sake of journalism and fulfilling the public’s right to know. A lot of stamina has been needed to keep this going. We will not stop until the right verdict has been reached and justice has also been served for those convicted in absentia.”
Elshamy was arrested by Egyptian forces in August 2013. He was released in June 2014 after he went on hunger strike to protest his imprisonment without charge.
Greste, Mohamed and Fahmy were arrested on 29th December 2013, and were incarcerated for more than 400 days. They were convicted in June 2014 after a trial that prompted outrage across the world. The verdict was thrown out on appeal, with Mohamed and Fahmy released on bail in February 2015 before a retrial which is ongoing. Greste was deported that same month on presidential order. The campaign for their release prompted Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to say he wished that the whole thing had not happened, and he promised to release the journalists if the courts didn’t.
