22 May 2014
Vizrt Ltd. announced today a deal worth USD 1.6 million for the implementation of media asset management (MAM) products with a broadcaster in Asia-Pacific. The purchase is an upgrade of the customer’s existing MAM workflows to enterprise-scale. The broadcaster currently uses the Vizrt Ardome Media Asset Management, which is primarily managing transmission focused workflows. The customer is now looking to leverage the platform across other parts of the business and to take advantage of functionality available in the latest Viz One version.
The initial stage of the project is the installation of a new Viz One MAM system to act as a centralized storage area for all media within the enterprise, allowing for the use of this media across all areas of the business – including web, mobile devices, IPTV, and of course, broadcast television. Media will be accessible by the various departments throughout the organisation, such as archivists, editors, producers, engineers, sales and legal staff.
Subsequently, the existing Viz Ardome system workflows will be migrated to Viz One to allow all media to flow through one system, thereby maximising content flow efficiencies.
“In making this investment, the broadcaster will be able to leverage its content across various delivery channels, increasing its economic value, while at the same time improving efficiencies,” said Martin Burkhalter, Vizrt CEO. “This project solidifies Viz One as the premiere media asset management solution available in the market today.” (Source: Press release)
22 May 2014
Graham Phillips, the RT freelancer and British national detained for a day and a half by the Ukrainian authorities, was released near midnight on May 22nd.
Following his release, Phillips tweeted some details of his detention, saying that after being stopped at Mariupol, he was “transferred to Zaporozhye where I stayed the night, under armed guard. Removed by armed guard today, questioned thoroughly on my work for [RT]. All my work in order, no charges, no deportation, no one laid a hand on me in anger, Ukrainian authorities treated me fairly. All ok.”
Graham Phillips was detained at a Ukrainian National Guard block post early on May 20th. He could not be reached for more than 30 hours. RT worked with Russian, Ukrainian, British and international authorities, watchdog groups and human rights organizations to secure his release.
“We are grateful to everyone who worked with RT to bring about Graham’s release,” said Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor in chief. “Let’s hope that the two LifeNews reporters, Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko, who are still being held captive, are freed as well in the shortest order, and that all journalists are allowed to freely and safely carry out their work in Ukraine going forward.” (Source: Press release)
19 May 2014
Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin B. Smith today announced that Adam Freeman has been appointed as the first Managing Director of Bloomberg Media for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, responsible for leading Bloomberg’s multi-platform media operation – web, mobile, television, digital video, print magazines and live events – across the regions. The new leadership structure reflects Bloomberg Media’s new strategy to expand its global media footprint beyond television to multiple media platforms across European, Middle Eastern and African markets. Freeman’s appointment will ensure Bloomberg’s consumer media content, ad products, distribution, licensing deals are carefully tailored to serve each distinct, individual market. The new management structure is part of Bloomberg’s new global media strategy, first outlined by Smith in March. Freeman will start this week and will be based out of Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London.
Freeman is the founder of Mutual Media, a digital advertising start-up, and served as Chairman for Metropolis Music Group. During a thirteen-year tenure at The Guardian – most recently as Executive Director of Guardian News and Media until 2013 – he worked alongside the editorial leadership to drive the digital transformation of its print brands and spearheaded the expansion of its global commercial operations. Freeman held a variety of positions at The Guardian, including Director of Media Consumer Media and Digital, General Manager; and leadership roles in sales and marketing, publishing, advertising and business development.
“With bureaus in 72 countries, Bloomberg’s global presence is unrivalled in the consumer media industry,” said Bloomberg Media CEO Justin B. Smith. “Adam’s appointment is a statement of our ambition to develop the world’s leading next-generation global business media company. We will be investing across every platform – web, mobile, TV, digital video, print, live events – with a powerful focus on new digital channels and audiences. Adam has a clear track record of leading digital transformations and successfully building the types of teams and cultures required for media innovation. He is going to take our operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to the next level.”
“This is a world-class organization, sitting in a unique position of opportunity as the entire media landscape is evolving everyday. And the global aspirations here are immense — so when the opportunity came, I jumped at it,” said Freeman. “An inspiring entrepreneurial spirit permeates the entire company and with a dead set commitment here to invest, we are going to expand Bloomberg’s global footprint beyond TV, and take it across all media platforms, across continents. I can’t wait to get started with the incredible team already here and be a part of what Justin has begun to build.”
Freeman is Chair of the Advertising Association’s Media Business Course for 2013 and 2014 and is an active Member of the Advertising Association’s Council. He previously served on the Board of Directors for the Newspaper Marketing Agency (Newsworks) and Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Board of Directors. (Source: Press release)
16 May 2014
The Broadcasting Board of Governors today announced an agreement with Channels Television, one of the 13 independent Nigerian TV stations. For the first time, Voice of America correspondents will report on events as they happen from around the world for the Channels evening newscasts.
“We are excited to deepen our innovative and interactive relationship with Channels TV,” said BBG Governor Matt Armstrong, who signed the agreement at a conference on ‘Africa’s digital media future’ which was organised by the Association for International Broadcasting in London. “We will work together collaboratively to cover local and global events, from Lagos, Washington, DC, and around the world based on VOA’s trusted news and information and the journalists at Channels TV. ”
VOA’s English-language reports will air on the Channels prime-time evening programs “The World Today” at 5:30 pm and “News at Ten” at 10:00 pm local time. Channels TV is popular with English-speaking Nigerians and has approximately a 15 percent audience share of adults over age 15.
This affiliate agreement is an expansion of an ongoing partnership. A Channels TV correspondent is a regular contributor to VOA’s Africa54 daily television news program. VOA has been providing Channels with correspondent reports from Ukraine, Cairo, and London, as well as feature, news, entertainment, health, and sports reports.
Speaking at the signing, John Momoh, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Channels TV, observed, “There is a trend in partnership and collaboration is needed amongst ourselves and with organizations like the Voice of America.” He added, “Nigeria’s digital future is promising.”
VOA provides news and information programming to Nigeria via radio, mobile and online platforms, in both English and Hausa. In addition to its website, radio broadcasts and popular mobile site, the Hausa Service recently launched DandalinVOA, a 24/7 mobile phone platform that provides users with the latest analyses, breaking news and information.
14 May 2014
Géraldine Filiol has been appointed Deputy Managing Director for International Communications, Marketing and External Relations at the Eurosport Group.
Filiol steps into this new role after having worked for the Paris-based sports entertainment media group for 19 years where she was most recently Deputy Managing Director for Rights Acquisitions, alongside a 3-year period as Managing Director of the Eurosport Events subsidiary.
Jean-Thierry Augustin, CEO of the Eurosport Group, has tasked Géraldine Filiol to manage the international and Paris-based teams in charge of media relations, TV channels and digital services promotion, as well as on-site branding at sporting and business events. Her role will also include the reinforcement of external relations with governing bodies and international sporting institutions.
Speaking on her new role Géraldine Filiol said: “I am very excited about this new challenge within the Eurosport Group. This opportunity to lead the Communications Department and our external relations comes at an exciting time in Eurosport’s development. Eurosport is in great shape today with an increasingly strong TV and digital offer featuring unrivalled live sport and strong editorial content. We have always enjoyed excellent relationships with our partners and I look forward to developing them further in line with our strategic objectives.”
Géraldine Filiol replaces Heather Bowler who is leaving Eurosport after seven years for a new role at the Women’s Tennis Association in London.
ABOUT EUROSPORT GROUP
In 2014 Eurosport celebrates 25 years of leadership in live sports broadcasting and digital innovation.
The Eurosport Group is Europe’s leading sports entertainment group. Eurosport, the n°1 pan-European TV channel, broadcasts in 20 languages and reaches 135 million homes across 54 countries. Eurosport HD is the high definition simulcast of Eurosport. Eurosport 2 broadcasts to 72 million households in 18 languages across 51 countries. Eurosport 2 HD was launched in August 2009. Eurosport Asia-Pacific reaches 16 countries in the region and launched an HD channel in September 2011. Eurosportnews is the sports news channel transmitted worldwide. Eurosport.com, Europe’s n°1 online sports destination, has up to 23 million unique users per month (comScore) across an international network of sports websites in 11 languages, including Yahoo! co-branded sites in Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK. The Eurosport.com free mobile applications are available in 10 languages. Eurosport Player, Eurosport’s online TV service, provides LIVE and on-demand sports to fans’ PCs in 53 countries and the Player application is available for mobile, tablet and connected TV in up to 40 countries. Eurosport Events is the group’s expert division in the management and promotion of international sporting events. (Source: Press release)
13 May 2014
Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, showed record traffic to its online offerings in March. Visits to DW’s sites were up by 47 percent compared with the average for the previous six months.
Nearly 155 million hits and interactions were registered on DW’s sites, more than in any month before. Users on Twitter and Facebook alone jumped 68 percent. Video views on dw.de and Youtube climbed 37 percent. Views on www.dw.de more than doubled, reaching over four million in March.
The dramatic rise can be mainly attributed to DW offerings in Ukrainian and Russian. The crisis in Crimea and Ukraine led to a high demand for DW’s online offerings. The total visits to dw.de/russian grew to more than 6.4 million, a 250 percent increase. For dw.de/ukrainian the total number of visits saw a rise of 260 percent, climbing to 2.2 million.
DW’s Indonesian website (dw.de/indonesian) also contributed to the record breaking figures, registering 700,000 visits, an increase of more than 200 percent. It was largely DW’s coverage of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that brought the increase in traffic to the Indonesian site.
“The numbers reflect the growing relevance of Deutsche Welle in international media markets. At the same time, these figures reaffirm the recent changes to our programming,” said DW Director General Peter Limbourg. “With new offerings and courageous journalism we can significantly expand our audience reach and increase relevance to global decision-makers,” he said.
The strong growth in online traffic also came from the show AlBernameg (The Program) by the Egyptian political satirist Bassem Youssef. The first five episodes of the show were viewed a total of 1.4 million times on the DW Arabic website. They are to date DW’s most frequently viewed web videos.
The Russian-language daily web TV magazine Geofaktor has also contributed to the record online traffic since it was launched on March 15. By the end of the month it had already been viewed 430,000 times. The program was viewed a further 50,000 times on Youtube. In total, Russian-language videos registered about 850,000 views.
The benchmark which Deutsche Welle’s Market and Media Research department used to analyze the monthly reports on online traffic was the average for the six preceding months. (For March 2014, the analysis was based on the average value for the period September 2013 to February 2014.) (Source: Press release)
