11 April 2013
The Julian Assange Show, RT’s weekly interview program, won Silver World Medal in the Documentary/Information Program: Politics television category. The 12-episodes series aired exclusively on RT from April through July 2012 and featured exclusive interviews with some of the most influential and iconoclastic politicians and thinkers of the day. The program generated a media firestorm, was reported on by the most prominent media organizations and discussed in a multitude of blogs across the world.
The Silver World Medal that RT was awarded for The Julian Assange Show was the highest honor awarded this year in the Politics category. The only other entry honored in that category received a Bronze.
RT also won the New York Festivals Gold Medal in the Information/Magazine Program Promotion category, with its promo for From The Shadows (Desde la Sombra), a weekly show hosted by renowned author and public speaker Daniel Estulin on RT’s Spanish channel. The program takes a closer look into the secrets held by world’s business and political elites.
RT has previously been a laureate of New York Festivals in 2009, in the Best News Documentary category. Then, the network won Silver World Medal for “A city of desolate mothers” – RT’s special report on South Ossetia.
The New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards honors the World’s Best Television & Films. This year’s Awards received entries from 50 countries from around the world. RT competed with such high-profile international broadcasters as BBC, CNBC, CNN, Deutshe Welle, ESPN, HBO, NHK, and TVE and was named a finalist in 5 out of the total 15 categories. The award ceremony took place on April 9th at NAB in Las Vegas.
10 April 2013
Euronews – the international news channel and Bloomberg Television – the 24-hour business and financial television network – have agreed to exchange various content in their coverage of major business stories worldwide.
Bloomberg contributes to Euronews’ “Business Weekly” programme, a round-up of the week’s main business events. Every Friday, Euronews’ Oleksandra Vakulina analyses the world’s top business stories with Jonathan Ferro, Bloomberg’s Markets Reporter, based in London.
Business Weekly every Saturday and Sunday on Euronews:
Euronews’ Business Weekly programme is a unique European view of world business events: breaking stories, analysis and reports from the key markets. An 8 minute programme every weekend on Euronews hosted by Oleksandra Vakulina, airing [CET] Saturday at 6:15, 10:45, 15:45, 19:45, Sunday at 3:14, 6:15, 9:45, 14:45, 17:45, Monday 2:45, 5:15, 10:45
The programme is broadcast in all the 12 language services of the channel* on air, on www.euronews.com/business-weekly, on Euronews’ apps available on the AppStore and Google Play.
* Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
8 April 2013
Infront Sports & Media announced the promotion of Infront China’s CEO and Managing Director, Ma Guoli, to Chairman of the Infront China Board of Directors. He will step up from his operational position to the new role as of 1 January 2014.
Philippe Blatter, Infront’s President & CEO, said: “Under Ma Guoli’s tenure Infront China has become an important growth engine for our Group. He has fostered considerable development and increasing commercial appeal of Infront’s properties, including key events such as the annual CBA All-Star Game and the CBA League Finals. We very much welcome that he continues to contribute his outstanding experience, leadership skills and reputation at Board level. This ensures continuity of experience and maintains Infront’s excellent relationships with our key partners and stakeholders across Asia.”
Ma Guoli added: “Following an important and successful phase of development and further expansion of Infront China since 2009 and after more than 25 fulfilling years in operational business, I am now greatly looking forward and proud to take on my new role as Chairman of the Infront China Board, focusing on the company’s long-term strategic development and the further enhancement of its network in the region. I am convinced that Infront with its strong international team will remain the leading force in Chinese sports business.”
A key role in Infront China’s success
In the past five years, Ma Guoli has played a key role in Infront China’s success. Under his leadership Infront’s role as the most prominent and respected international sports marketing company in the country has been further strengthened. Infront has successfully extended its commercial partnership with the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) to represent the country’s top sport basketball both at National Team and League level until 2018 and 2017 respectively.
As part of its comprehensive role, Infront has created tremendous momentum for Chinese basketball, resulting in record levels of sponsorship and media coverage. Just recently the company secured the Li Ning sport apparel brand as the CBA League’s Official Partner – by far the biggest sponsorship commitment ever for a Chinese sports property and one of the largest in today’s world of sports. Through its “Gateway China” service, Infront has successfully encouraged several international companies and sports to access the Chinese market. The transfer of the European concept “Art on Ice” to China was one the most recent example for the success of this initiative.
One of the most influential figures in Chinese sport
Ma Guoli is one of the most influential figures in Chinese sport. He is known not just in the country but throughout the sports world for his role as founder of CCTV-5, the first sports TV channel in China. With more than 25 years of experience in the sports industry, he has been responsible for China’s television broadcast of the 1990 and 1994 Asian Games and has worked on six Summer Games and four Winter Games in total before becoming the Chief Operating Officer of BOB. In 2000 he has been named as one of the top 50 “Most Influential People in Sport” in a survey by the Guardian newspaper in the UK.
Infront’s search for an ideal successor has been already initiated. Ma Guoli will assume the position as Chairman of the Infront China Board from Philippe Blatter who will continue to serve as a Board Member.
4 April 2013
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd., a leading provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries today announced several changes to the company’s operational leadership team, designed to support and accelerate growth. The changes include:
On April 1, 2013, Mr. Ohad Har-Lev was appointed president of the company’s U.S.subsidiary, RRsat America Global Communications Network Inc. Mr. Har-Lev most recently served as RRsat’s MSS Managing Director as well as Corporate General Counsel and Company Secretary. The appointment of Mr. Har-Lev, who has extensive experience as a leader in the communications technology field, reflects RRsat’s strong commitment to significantly expand its presence and activities in the US market. Mr. Har-Lev previously held senior positions as VP, Business Development and General Counsel of Kamor Ltd (TASE: KMOR); VP, General Counsel & Business Development fiber optics division of Gilat Satcom (TASE andAIM); and corporate counsel at Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX).
RRsat also announced the appointment of Ms. Tzurit Golan as VP, Human Resources & Organizational Development. Ms. Golan has held executive HR positions in leading high-tech companies such as AudioCodes , where she served as Head of International HR, and VP HR at Orbit Technologies Ltd (TASE: ORBI).
In addition, RRsat has appointed Mr. Shmulik Koren as CFO as of May 1, 2013. Mr. Koren is an experienced executive leader who served as CFO and CEO of public companies. Prior to joining RRsat, Mr. Koren served as CFO and COO of Orbit Technologies Ltd. (TASE: ORBI) where over the last three years he was responsible for worldwide finance, facility, IT, legal, IR and operations departments. Prior to Orbit, Between 2006 to 2009, Mr. Koren served as President and CEO of Better Online Solutions (B.O.S.) Ltd. (NASDAQ & TASE:BOSC). Previously, from 1999 to 2006, he served as CFO and a director of Visonic Group (London & TASE: “VSC.L” & “VSC.TA”). RRsat’s CEO, Mr. Avi Cohen, and Mr. Koren worked together at Orbit as CEO and CFO for more than three years. Mr. Itzik Zion, who has served as the company’s CFO since December 2011, will be leaving the company in May to pursue personal interests. Mr. Zion will work with Mr. Koren to facilitate a smooth transition.
“We are excited with the appointments of Ohad, Tzurit and Shmulik, three talented and experienced executives,” said Avi Cohen, Chief Executive Officer of RRsat. “Each of these proven executives brings to the job outstanding industry knowledge as well as impressive leadership and professional abilities. Ohad’s new role and the addition of Tzurit and Shmulik, both of whom I had the pleasure of working closely together at Orbit, to the RRsat management team, are among the organizational changes we are implementing toward executing on our growth strategy in general. Specifically, our goal is to increase our North American business, and these appointments will facilitate our efforts to focus on target geographies, particularly the United States, create local leadership, expand our sales organization, and add local origination capabilities. These strategic initiatives will further improve our offerings and make us more attractive to major U.S.customers and support our increased focus on live sports and events, leveraging the SM2 acquisition. We are confident that they are the right people to help drive our successful journey going forward.”
4 April 2013
The Berlin-based agency provides real-time and archived visual news materials from all the global hotspots via state-of-the-art delivery platform, RUPTLY.TV.
RUPTLY aims to become the go-to alternative resource in a highly concentrated market of professional news video footage, and to deliver coverage of stories that other agencies miss. RUPTLY works heavily with the international stringer network and leverages RT’s extensive global presence that counts outposts in Washington DC, London, Madrid, Damascus, Cairo, Gaza and Baghdad among its 22 bureaus. From its Berlin headquarters RUPTLY manages nearly 100 industry professionals who have worked for the largest news agencies and media organizations around the world.
“Right now there are basically a handful of agencies that provide majority of news footage to international outlets, and particularly to TV channels and online platforms that cannot afford to have bureaus or send correspondents to every hotspot. As a result, viewers often see events around the globe through the eyes of these providers. In such a market there are inevitable gaps in coverage, plus the risk of bias in the eventual reportage,” says Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief. “RT has already established itself as the alternative voice on the international news landscape and now, with RUPTLY, we can bring our vision and expertise to a whole new market.”
One of RUPTLY’s breakout features is its unique and game-changing delivery mechanism, which allows TV stations, online media outlets and mobile multimedia platforms to receive and broadcast RUPTLY video feeds of live events in real time, as the events are happening, via RUPTLY’s website, http://ruptly.tv/. The platform enables simultaneous streaming of five live video feeds, of the highest quality, including HD, and built-in redundancy ensures continuity of streaming even if one of the servers goes out. RUPTLY is the first video agency in the world to utilize such a high-tech delivery system.
RUPTLY builds on success of FreeVideo, RT’s unique project for media professionals, launched in 2009. FreeVideo became Russia’s first English-language video agency, and over 16 000 TV channels and agencies from 185 countries avail of the service, including CNN, Fox News, ABC News, AP, and Reuters. RUPTLY offers flexible subscription packages, a range of payment options, and a wide range of benefits to users from all media platforms.
RT is launching RUPTLY on the eve of MIPTV, where it will present the agency to media professionals from around the world. MIPTV is the world’s largest television content market, forum and festival, which takes place every spring in Cannes, France. This year’s event kicks off on April 8th and will mark MIPTV’s 50th anniversary.
www.RT.com
RT is a global international news network that broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, and is available to 630 million viewers worldwide. Pew Research Center’s 2012 study named RT, whose YouTube channel has passed 950 million views, as the largest provider of news video footage on the world’s largest video sharing platform. RT is the only Russian TV channel to garner two nominations for the prestigious Emmy International Award.
4 April 2013
Euronews’ CEO Michael Peters announces the appointment of Arnaud Verlhac as Director of Worldwide Distribution of Europe’s leading international news channel.
Arnaud Verlhac, who joined Euronews in March 2012 as Deputy Director of Worldwide Distribution, is now in charge of the Worldwide Distribution Department. His tasks comprise the development of the channel’s international distribution across all broadcast platforms (cable, satellite, ADSL, internet, etc.) and in the out-of-home market (aircrafts, ships, hotels, public places…).
In this context of strengthening, the Euronews distribution department will expand and includes as of now the development of digital distribution as well as the deployment of Euronews Network.
Walid Chamak, previously Marketing Manager since 2007, is appointed Head of Digital Partnerships and he reports to Arnaud Verlhac.
Walid will be in charge of expanding the brand territory of Euronews across all digital platforms: content syndication, Smart TV, mobile, radio, automotive and ground-breaking distribution channels.
His role is to advance Euronews’ goal to become the leading international news hub by developing key partnerships at a global scale and reinforcing its multi-screen strategy. This move strengthens the commitment of Euronews to be a digital pioneer, striving to be at the forefront of the technology.
Iris Abraham, Head of International Relations and Strategic Partnerships with Universities, International Organisations and leading Institutions, will be additionally in charge of the Euronews Network offer and she reports to Arnaud Verlhac.
The Euronews Network aims to develop partnerships with media groups from around the world, letting them take advantage of Euronews content and services, and more generally its credibility and renown. The Euronews Network concept is based on tailor-made cooperation between Euronews and those partners who wish to profit from Euronews’ know-how in programmes, production and resources.
Michael Peters, CEO of Euronews, said: “I’m pleased to announce the new role of Arnaud Verlhac and the new organisation of our distribution department. Since Arnaud joined the company only one year ago, he proved his commitment and I am convinced that Arnaud is the right person to lead our distribution department and to apply the new strategy that I am setting up in this phase of constant adaption to the evolution of distribution modes.”
Arnaud Verlhac said: “It is an honour to take over these new responsibilities. There is a huge potential for Euronews international distribution still yet to come and I am proud to be a part of this development. Enforcing our digital distribution is our response to the changing modes of broadcasting and media consumption.”
About Arnaud Verlhac: Before joining Euronews on 19 March 2012 as Deputy Director of Worldwide Distribution, Arnaud Verlhac had a four-year spell at France 24, where he had been Distribution Director (North and South America) since 2009. He was previously a Global Account Manager for Carlson Wagon Lit (2006-2008). Verlhac began his career in 1999 at Air France; after several positions, he became a Contract Manager in the International Commercial Directorate.
Arnaud Verlhac holds an Executive Master’s degree in Strategy and Management of International Business from ESSEC Business School, and a DESS postgraduate degree in Financial Management and Auditing from the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises (IAE) in Paris.
In parallel to his career, he taught on the Accounting, Control and Audit Master’s degree programme (levels 1 and 2) during three years (general-economics and financial-management modules) at the University of Paris 13.
