1 December 2013
HRH Princess Rym Ali of Jordan called on the Arab world to fight discrimination, saying it is not the West’s role to correct “negative stereotypes” about the Middle East region.
Princess Rym, founder of the Jordan Media Institute in Amman, spoke at an event held on Saturday to mark the relaunch of the Al Arabiya News website and the 10-year anniversary of the Al Arabiya News Channel, the region’s leading news station. “I am aware of the negative stereotypes portrayed in Hollywood, but also of the discrimination in covering Arabs or Arab affairs in some Western news outlets. It remains our duty to fight every word that is anti-Arab or discriminating against us,” Princess Rym said. “When I am asked why we are given a bad reputation, my answer is to ask in turn, ‘whose responsibility is our image?’ At the end of the day, is it not our role to work on our image as Arabs, rather than expect the West to take up our battles?” Princess Rym said that people from the region should not believe the notion that there is a “systematic plot” against them. “It is my experience that there is also a lot of innocent or naïve ignorance about who we are,” she said. “And here, we have another duty, that to inform the other about whom we really are and help them stay away from stereotypes.”
Speaking at an event held at the Armani Hotel in Dubai, Princess Rym offered her congratulations at the relaunch of the Al Arabiya News website. She said the website’s new translation service of Arabic-language TV broadcasts by the Al Arabiya News Channel would help boost understanding of the Middle East. The state-of-the-art translation service, part of the Al Arabiya News website’s View More video section, will broadcast regular news bulletins and programs first aired by the Al Arabiya News Channel. “It should truly allow much better communication through the media. Its English website, launched five years ago and re-launching now… offers people around the world an opportunity to hear our stories from our perspective and in a professional manner.”
Abdulrahman al-Rashed, General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel, said the video service would help “bridge the gap” in boosting understanding of the Arab world among Western audiences. The video-translation service provides a true picture of the news that is consumed by Arab audiences – and not one tailored for a Western viewers. “Al Arabiya is not a station catered for Western audiences – this is what the Arabs see and watch,” he said.
Al-Rashed spoke of the “blood, sweat and hard work” that had gone into running the Al Arabiya News Channel, which launched in 2003 and this year marks its tenth anniversary. “It has been really quite a very difficult 10 years for everybody, but definitely the job has been done,” he said. Faisal J. Abbas, Editor-in-Chief of Al Arabiya News, introduced the new features of the website, including the View More video service.
The speeches were made at the close of the Al Arabiya News Global Discussion, which saw three expert panel sessions discuss the theme “bridging the communication gap between East and West.” The first panel explored the theme of the Arab world’s lobbying of the West. Hisham Melhem, Al Arabiya’s Bureau Chief in Washington, DC., told the forum that the Arab world has “a long way to go” in making its voice heard. Adrian Monck, managing director and head of communications and media at the World Economic Forum, said that a lack of engagement in the Arab world was holding back its lobbying efforts. “One of the things holding the Arab voice back is the lack of an Arab public sphere, and a lack of voices who are willing to stand up and be counted,” he told the panel. Dr. Adel al-Toraifi, Editor-in-Chief of the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, and Chris Doyle, the director of The Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), also spoke on the panel.
A second panel at the “Al Arabiya News Global Discussion” forum addressed the Western media’s coverage and understanding of the Arab world. Panelists included Professor George Brock, Head of Journalism at City University in London; Khaled al-Maeena, Editor-in-Chief of the Saudi Gazette newspaper; Talal al-Haj, the New York/U.N. Bureau Chief for the Al Arabiya News Channel; and Charles Glass, a broadcaster, journalist and writer with a vast experience reporting on the Middle East. Ignorance of the Middle East is partly fuelled by “inherent bigotry” among some Western media outlets, Talal al-Haj said. “There is… no conscience or acknowledgement [of Arab issues in Western media]. There is inherent bigotry between the media,” al-Haj told the panel.
The forum also hosts a special session entitled “What Does it Mean to be a Regional Spokesperson?”, with Joshua Baker, the U.S. Department of State’s regional Arabic-language spokesperson, and Rosemary Davis, regional spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
All the debates were recorded and will be made available online at http://alarabiya.net/english
29 November 2013
If you are interested in distributing your content to top cable platforms in Asia, RRsat’s new C-band DVB-S2 platform on AsiaSat 5, the most trusted contribution satellite for the Asian market, is now available at special prices.
Positioned at 100.5˚E, AsiaSat 5 comprehensive C-band footprint covers Asia and Australia and is the satellite of choice for all major Asian terrestrial broadcasters cable networks and pay TV platforms – serving millions of households.
The prime platform is used for contribution of top tier channels such as Fox Channels, TVE, FTV, APTN, Rai, Playboy and many others as well as for contribution and distribution of major live and sports events in Asia.
Thanks to the unique location of its Middle East broadcast facility and teleport, RRsat offers a convenient one-hop delivery solution via its AsiaSat 5 platform from Europe to Asia and vice versa. RRsat completes the solution with its comprehensive content management, preparation and playout services.
RRsat broadcast solution with AsiaSat 5 C-band platform highlights:
- Asia’s most established and powerful satellite platform
- Allows instantaneous access to all major Asian cable and pay TV platforms
- Wide footprint includes Asia and Australia
- One-hop delivery from Europe to Asia and Asia to Europe from RRsat’s Middle East broadcast facility
- End-to-end solution including comprehensive content management and playout services (Source: RRsat press release) www.rrsat.com
29 November 2013
WRN Broadcast today announced that it has signed an exclusive multi-year contract with CSC Media to provide playout and media management services.
A global broadcast company, WRN Broadcast provides multi-platform technology solutions across a complete range of broadcast services including multi-channel playout, media management and distribution for broadcasters, content rights holders and platform operators.
WRN Broadcast, which was awarded the exclusive contract following a competitive tender, will be responsible for CSC Media’s complete portfolio – the UK’s largest independently-owned bouquet of eighteen channels, including Chart Show TV, Tiny Pop, True Entertainment – and the social media TV channel BuzMuzik, launched in 2012. The channels, which are available 24 hours a day launched this week.
Remy Minute, Managing Director, CSC Media, said: “I’m delighted to have awarded WRN Broadcast the contract for playout and media management for CSC Media. It was of primary importance that we appointed the right partner to enable our continued growth and positively meet the demands on delivering the excellent channels we have in our network. I’m thoroughly impressed with WRN Broadcast and confident that with their first-class service and expertise we’ll be able to achieve success.”
Under terms of the contact, WRN Broadcast will be responsible for delivering 15000 hours of television services for CSC Media every month, across Sky, Virgin Media, Freesat and international affiliate partners including DSTV/Multichoice.
David Treadway, CEO, WRN Broadcast, added: “We are excited to have been chosen by CSC Media to provide these services as its exclusive broadcast partner. This is a significant win for WRN Broadcast and it is testament to our growth, ambition and reputation as it is to our excellent track record in delivering high quality, reliable and cost effective broadcast solutions. We look forward to working with CSC Media and developing our relationship further over the coming years.”
29 November 2013
The Eurosport Group has signed a multi-year agreement deal for the distribution of Eurosport HD and Eurosport 2 HD with one of the biggest Russian IPTV operators, Beeline TV.
Eurosport and Beeline TV secured a deal for the return of Eurosport’s channels onto the IPTV platform.
Beeline TV is owned by VimpelCom, and is one of the Russian leading IPTV platforms with over 900,000 active subscribers across Russia.
With this new agreement, Beeline TV subscribers can watch 1500 hours coverage of the wintersports season, including ski jumping, cross country and biathlon World Cup tournaments. In the coming year, fans can enjoy extensive live action from three tennis grand slams, starting with the Australian Open in January.
| Eurosport HD also broadcasts a full calendar of cycling with top races such as Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta. Each weekend Eurosport 2 HD broadcasts up to 5 live matches from the German football league, Bundesliga.
Olivier Bramly, Sr. Executive VP, Global distribution said: “We are delighted to be back on the Beeline IPTV Platform. Eurosport offers an unrivalled portfolio of live sporting events, which feature many famous Russian athletes, we are confident fans will enjoy.”
Anna Ryzhikova, chief of OJSC VimpelCom’s Wire Internet and TV Services Marketing Department said: “In our country sport is an important part of our lives. We are happy to offer Beeline TV users the opportunity to watch the most current sporting events through this new agreement with Eurosport.”
The deal with Eurosport completes an impressive Beeline TV HD offer consisting of more than 40 channels produced in High Definition. |
25 November 2013
Vizrt Ltd. announced today a contract worth USD 260,000 for the implementation of Broadcast Graphics products with a major broadcaster in China. The broadcaster is an existing Vizrt customer, and the new purchase is an add-on to already installed systems.
The deal includes several Viz Engines, Vizrt’s real-time graphics and video compositing engine. The Viz Engines will increase the broadcaster’s capacity to display on-air graphics for channel branding and add another graphics channel for their news character generator.
21 November 2013
Sochi Today – RT’s latest project – is the first radio station in Sochi to broadcast entirely in English. The round-the-clock station is available on the 101.5 FM in Sochi and 105.8 FM frequencies in Krasnaya Polyana – part of the Sochi metropolitan area, which will host several Olympic events, – respectively.
The station’s content consists of a current, international music mix, as well as news updates prepared by RT journalists and airing every half hour. The news block covers the most urgent stories from around the world.
Sochi Today’s reach is expected to exceed 3 million people over the course of the 2014 Olympic Games, according to preliminary estimates. This audience will be made up of athletes, government officials, journalists and fans that will travel to Sochi from every corner of the world.
“Thanks to Sochi Today, millions of foreign visitors to the Olympics will be on top of the most important and interesting events within the Olympic Sochi, as well as around the globe,” – said Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor in chief. “I am certain that Sochi Today will carry all the successes that RT has achieved in television broadcasting, online, and on social media platforms into the radio sphere.”
RT is an international news network that broadcasts 24/7 in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, and is available to 644 million viewers worldwide. RT is the first TV news channel in history to cross the one billion views mark on YouTube. It is the winner of the Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards for best 24-hr broadcast, and the only Russian TV channel to garner two nominations for the prestigious International Emmy Award for news reporting. Since 2012, RT has been broadcasting English-language news content on Moscow’s radio station Moscow FM (105.2).
