17 June 2013
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), the world’s leading provider of satellite services, announced today agreements with leading media customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hong Kong-based TVBI Company Limited (TVBI), the worldwide operating arm of Television Broadcasts Limited, one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of Chinese-language programming, recently renewed a multi-year agreement on Intelsat 19. TVBI will use the capacity to deliver its premier content to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition, KDDI, a Japan-based global telecommunications company, recently signed an agreement with Intelsat to deliver managed media services via the IntelsatOne network. With an IntelsatOne edge node at the company’s New York City location, the IP network will connect KDDI’s customer’s four U.S. bureaus, as well as a European bureau, with the customer’s Tokyo headquarters over KDDI’s fiber network, delivering multiple video, file transfer and voice services.
The scalable network connects seamlessly with legacy services, such as on-net video contribution for Japanese broadcasters, via Intelsat’s owned and operated teleports and customer affiliates in the United States.
Intelsat offers the premier video neighborhoods in Asia-Pacific, with excellent penetration throughout the region. Media providers continue to take advantage of Intelsat’s satellite fleet and IntelsatOne network to reach customers in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
“These agreements exemplify the aggressive growth in media distribution services across Asia-Pacific,” said Intelsat RVP of Asia-Pacific Sales Terry Bleakley. “Major programmers in the region continue to turn to Intelsat’s premier video neighborhoods for the flexible delivery of unique content on multiple platforms, reinforcing our critical role in the global infrastructure.”
13 June 2013
The Board of Radio New Zealand has today appointed Paul Thompson as the next Chief
Executive and Editor-in-Chief of the national public service broadcaster.
The appointment follows the January announcement by Radio New Zealand’s CEO, Peter
Cavanagh, that he would be stepping down from the position when his contract expires at the end of the year. Paul Thompson is currently the Group Executive Editor of Fairfax Media in New Zealand and a former award winning editor of the Christchurch Press and the Nelson Mail.
The Chair of Radio New Zealand, Richard Griffin, says Thompson is a widely respected and experienced media executive with a track record of achievement and successful leadership. “The Board was encouraged by the quality of those individuals who responded to the request for expressions of interest in the position. The process of selection was thorough and competitive and we are sure we have now appointed a CEO who is ideally versed in the concepts of editorial integrity and executive management that have been the hallmark of Peter Cavanagh’s ten years at the helm.”
Paul Thompson says he feels privileged to be chosen to lead such a respected and influential organisation. “Radio New Zealand plays a pivotal role in New Zealand life and I’m immensely looking forward to the challenge”.
Mr Thompson will take up his new responsibilities with Radio New Zealand later in the year.
11 June 2013
GlobeCast and SES (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that they are providing services to Orange Romania for the launch of a high-quality direct-to-home satellite TV package this month. The package will use multiple transponders on ASTRA’s 31.5 degrees East orbital position and will be broadcast in the DVB-S2 and MPEG4 technical standards. GlobeCast will provide contribution, encryption, and encoding for SD and HD channels in the package.
Orange Romania will launch the new TV package to complement its existing mobile service, enabling the company to offer full multi-device communication services to its customers. Orange Romania booked this service through GlobeCast, which is providing a complete solution to bring Orange Romania’s channels to the point of uplink and prepare them for broadcast on capacity that GlobeCast has leased from SES.
“Today OrangeRomaniais ready to provide high-quality television services and to offer our Romanian customers truly attractive packages,” said Jean-Francois Fallacher, Chief Executive Officer of OrangeRomania. “Orange TV means the highest number of HD TV channels, the best satellite beam strength and coverage, dedicated customer care, multiscreen access, a smaller and efficient dish, and other remarkable features that will allow us to offer an amazing TV experience. All these were brought to life with Orange Group’s expertise and solid partnerships we developed with world-renowned companies in the TV industry.”
“Our offices worldwide collaborated to ensure a full technical solution for GlobeCast’s customer, OrangeRomania, beginning with reception of the channels fromBucharestand ending with handoff to our partner SES for uplink to their powerful satellite,” said Philippe Fort, Chief Operating Officer of GlobeCast. “We are proud of the result and will continue to ensure excellent quality of service on the platform, leading to a high-quality experience for the viewer.”
“Telecommunication operators increasingly invest in content distribution in order to complement their existing services,” said Ferdinand Kayser, Chief Commercial Officer of SES. “This agreement shows the growing importance of satellite as a technical infrastructure for linear television packages of telecommunication operators. In addition to its unrivalled technical reach, satellite offers a fixed cost structure that is not dependent on the number of households receiving a TV service. We are delighted that Orange Romania decided to launch its new service via ASTRA. This confirms the leading role that SES plays in central and Eastern Europe and shows that our orbital slot 31.5 degrees East is becoming a new hot spot in this region.”
10 June 2013
Arab Satellite Communications organization – Arabsat – was awarded “Best Satellite Operator of the Year” while participating at SATCOM Africa 2013 inJohannesburg,South Africa.
Arabsat was chosen for this year’s award since it has met the criteria for the award by being the service provider who has made a difference to the satellite industry in Africa, also being the satellite operator who made new and innovative services available and accommodated the changing needs of the system inAfrica.
Eng \ Khalid bin Ahmed Balkhyour, President & CEO of Arabsat said “We are very pleased with this award, as it crowned the efforts of Arabsat to expand the geographical coverage to serve all customers in the African continent and in all coverage areas, as well as the services offered by Arabsat through its up to date fleet, which is considered the youngest in the region, the latest of which is Badr -7, the first satellite of the 6th generation satellites, which was designed according to the latest technologies including satellite broadcast and telecommunications, creating a new era of convergence between satellite communication and TV broadcasting at Arabsat 26° East (Hot Spot), due to be launched in 2015.”
Arabsat previously won the award for best satellite service provider at Satcom Africa 2010.
About Arabsat: Founded in 1976, Arabsat has been serving the growing needs of the Arab world for over 30 years. Now one of the world’s top satellite operators and by far the leading satellite services provider in the Arab world, it carries over 450 TV channels, 160 radio stations, 4 Pay-TV networks and wide variety of HD channels reaching tens of millions of homes in more than 80 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Europe—and way beyond around the world—including an audience of over 170 million viewers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region alone tuned into Arabsat’s video “hotspot” at 26° East.
Operating a growing fleet of owned satellites at the 20° East, 26° East, 30.5° East and 34.5° East positions of the geostationary orbit, ARABSAT is the only satellite operator in the MENA region offering the full spectrum of Broadcast, Telecommunications and Broadband services. This capacity will continue to expand with the launching of new satellites, making the ARABSAT satellites’ fleet the youngest in the region.
www.arabsat.com
10 June 2013
Following its launch in to The Netherlands last year, Horse & Country TV (Sky Channel 280), the specialist equestrian sports and lifestyle network, continues its international expansion by launching into Swedenin June 2013 via the cloud-based TV delivery service, Magine.
Magine will initially host Horse & Country TV’s UK-version channel, which will be replaced by the specially created Swedish version containing localised programming later in the summer.
Horse & Country TV Director of International Distribution, Wayne Dunsford said: “This is a major development for Horse & Country TV as we increase our international presence. Magine represents an exciting opportunity for us to enter the Swedish market for the first time. We are delighted that they have recognised that there is a large and passionate audience for equestrian sports and country lifestyle in Sweden and we very much look forward to working with Magine’s experienced and ambitious team in making the channel a success. We will be making further announcements about our Swedish channel in the near future.”
Magine’s Chairman, Michael Werner added: “Magine launched inSweden this spring with other European territories to come this summer. Horse & Country TV is unique inSweden and a great addition to the roster of national and international channels that have joined our cloud based delivery service. We are convinced that a quality, specialist channel like this will act as a driver to subscribers who will be able to access their favourite equestrian sports on any device, anywhere and anytime thanks to Magine’s pioneering UI.”
3 June 2013
RT’s YouTube channel becomes the first television news channel ever to reach the one billion views mark, confirming RT’s status as the top news content provider on the world’s largest video-sharing platform.
Robert Kyncl, Google VP and Head of Content for YouTube said that his organization is “thrilled that RT is getting to that number. It’s a massive landmark.” He noted that the key to success is “audience development…Programmers such as RT understanding that YouTube is different and that you have to program it slightly differently than the airwaves.” Kyncl added the payoff is seen in RT’s “numbers; it’s paying off in consumer adoption and response rates… It’s something that has to be both learned and earned and RT has been a great partner in that.[1]”
“RT, the Russian TV channel, is YouTube’s largest ‘news’ partner in the world,” said Danielle Tiedt, YouTube’s VP of marketing. “Very few of our partners can boast a billion video views, and RT will be the first news channel to get to this number. RT was one of the first channels to come to YouTube, back in 2007, and to create video content aimed specifically at ‘generation C’ – the kind of content that our users gladly watch and share.[2]”
“A billion hits – that’s a stunning result. From RT’s very first days we knew that in the nearest future the battle for viewers will be taking place on the Internet, on new platforms. This is why we are especially proud and happy to be the first. This is an amazing achievement for a Russian news channel – to become a major provider of news in the space that reaches the most important, young audience,” said RT’s editor in chief Margarita Simonyan.
RT was the first Russian TV channel to launch a YouTube portal, in 2007. In 2011 RT’s news video became the most watched YouTube news item of year[3]. A 2012 study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism highlighted RT as by far the largest provider of news video footage on the platform. The research also concluded that RT produced the most popular individual videos[4]. RT’s montage of eyewitness footage of the February 2013 Siberian meteor blast became the most watched video of the event on YouTube, accumulating more than 30 million views in less than a week[5].
RT is a global international news network that broadcasts 24/7 in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, and is available to 630 million viewers worldwide. RT is the only Russian TV channel to garner two nominations for the prestigious International Emmy Award.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q261FLRcfas
2 http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/05/18/youtube/
3 http://rt.com/about-us/press-releases/most-watched-news-youtube-2011/
4 http://rt.com/about-us/press-releases/pew-study-rt-produces-most-popular-content-on-youtube/
5 http://rt.com/about-us/press-releases/meteor-video-shatters-records/
