AIB, the industry association for international TV, radio and trans-media broadcasting, has launched its updated website.
A range of new features will be progressively unveiled as AIB receives feedback from its members and visitors to the site at www.aib.org.uk.
An extensive resources library offers access to features that have been carried in the AIB’s print and online publications. News stories from AIB members and across the industry from our archive built up over the past ten years will be added to the site over the coming weeks.
There will also be information about AIB members, access to the AIB e-news industry briefing and more.
Acer, Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Movement, is giving its customers unlimited access to live action from the Olympic Games thanks to a partnership with Official Broadcaster, Eurosport.
Customers who purchase the new Olympic Games Editions of the ICONIA tablets and ASPIRE Notebooks before and during the London 2012 Olympic Games will be given a trial access to the Eurosport Player. The Acer Special Edition computers for the Olympic Games symbolize the partnership of Acer with the Olympic Movement.
The Eurosport Player – which is embedded into the devices – offers access to Eurosport live streaming service. Using their notebook or tablet, Acer customers will benefit from Eurosport round-the-clock coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games, featuring up to 13 hours of live action each day and broadcasted in 20 languages.
As part of this partnership Acer will be featured as a Presenting Partner of all Olympic Games coverage on Eurosport TV and digital media platforms around all Olympic Games programming.
Oliver Ahrens, Acer EMEA President commented: “We are proud to support the London 2012 Olympic Games and we want to give our customers an opportunity to enjoy every minute of the most exciting sports event in the world. Installed on our latest tablets and notebooks, the Eurosport player will provide unlimited sporting actions as we approach the Olympic Games and during all the 17 days of competition. Acer and Eurosport combine technological innovations and premium content to create unforgettable Olympic experience.”
Olivier Fisch, Global Commercial Director, Eurosport Group said: “The London 2012 Olympic Games will be a great sporting spectacle and fans will be keen to watch the action at any time, in any place. This exciting partnership with Acer gives their customers not only world leading technical hardware but with the Eurosport Player already embedded into the devices instant access to the London Olympics, live, wherever they are.”
As exclusive computing equipment partner, Acer is providing the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) with 13,000 computers, 900 servers and more than 350 engineers and technicians to facilitate the smooth delivery of all aspects of the Games across the various venues.
On World Press Freedom Day, RFE/RL pays video tribute to journalists working in some of the world’s most dangerous and restrictive environments to report news and document censorship, despite a glaring lack of basic media freedoms.
According to Freedom House’s “Freedom of the Press 2012” report, 13 of RFE/RL’s broadcast countries are classified as “Not Free” and another eight as “Partly Free.”
Featured in RFE/RL’s video is investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who has drawn worldwide support from media and human rights organizations after she was targeted in a recent blackmail campaign, believed to be retaliation for her reporting on corruption in Azerbaijan, a country that ranks 172 out of 197 on Freedom House’s list of overall media freedom.
“Khadija’s case reminds us that there is still significant progress to be made on press freedom around the globe,” said RFE/RL President Steve Korn. “From Belarus to Iran, and across Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, and Afghanistan and Pakistan, RFE/RL journalists and their colleagues face intimidation or worse on a daily basis.”
Earlier this year, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the latest edition of its “Enemies of the Internet” report which included RFE/RL target countries Iran, Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also listed Iran, Belarus, and Uzbekistan among its list of the ten most censored countries in the world.
“Despite being banned and blocked there, hundreds of thousands of Iranians every month find a way to get news and information from RFE/RL’s Radio Farda,” adds Korn. “As our audiences in places like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus can attest, people who want accurate news and information will find a way to get it, no matter what restrictions are placed on them.”
The Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum is a congress with international reach held every year in Bonn. It draws media representatives from around the world – including many of Deutsche Welle partners – and people from the fields of politics, culture, business, development cooperation and science. DW is a member of the AIB.
The Associated Press has unveiled the beta version of AP Video Hub, a state-of-the-art global platform for the online delivery of broadcast-quality video news. The beta launch reflects the increase in demand for video news from a growing segment of customers — online publishers. The new platform delivers video news from AP’s journalists in the field to digital customers’ desktops, faster and easier than ever before.
AP Video Hub (www.apvideohub.com) will give access to AP’s broadcast-quality world news, entertainment, SNTV (sports) and lifestyle video. In an industry-first platform, curators will select and promote breaking news content together with relevant footage from AP’s historic archive, allowing the development of richer online storytelling for customers who until now have lacked easy access to this kind of content.
Users of the platform benefit from AP’s established video newsgathering infrastructure. Breaking news from the field gets to Video Hub fast, via mobile satellite uplinks and a network of video news bureaus around the world, using the latest generation of video editing, compression and transmission tools.
The interface design is simple and intuitive for users, making accessing content easy. Unique functionality includes a “follow” stories feature that alerts users via Twitter as new content on the story arrives. Curated topic pages, quick video previews, one-click download direct to desktop and real-time search content filters are additional features that have been incorporated into the platform.
AP has designed Video Hub specifically for digital publishers and has developed the site in conjunction with some of the world’s leading newspapers.
“We believe AP Video Hub gives customers the ability to access broadcast-quality video news even if they don’t have the technical infrastructure to handle satellite news feeds,” said Sue Brooks, AP director of video transformation. “AP Video Hub will enable them to do this as quickly and easily as large broadcasters do already. We expect AP Video Hub customers to be online video producers for a newspaper, journalists at a regional news agency and news-centric websites. Their needs and work flow are at the heart of the way AP Video Hub has been conceived. Features such as the curated topic pages and ‘follow’ functionality make this an unbeatable and unique proposition.”
Senior Vice President Daisy Veerasingham, who heads AP’s video business internationally, said: “AP Video Hub represents a major opportunity for the AP. Video news is no longer the sole preserve of terrestrial and satellite broadcasters and AP Video Hub addresses this with an offering for the rapidly growing segment of the media market – online video news. Overall AP estimates that over the next few years the value of the online video news market across Europe and Asia will continue to grow by up to 13 percent and 16 percent, respectively, per year.”
Veerasingham added: “This launch forms a key part of our video business transformation program — a multimillion-dollar upgrade to transform our entire video business to ensure we maintain our leadership in video news. The investment is providing AP customers with a wider range of options in how they receive video content, both in the traditional broadcast market and on digital platforms. Not only will all of AP’s video news be fully HD by the end of May, but we will also be able to deliver it on more platforms than ever before.”
The beta version launched today is already being used by charter customers, including some of the world’s leading news sites. Further functionality will be added over the coming months with the full production release scheduled for Summer 2012.
For further information:
Paul Colford
Director of AP Media Relations
+1 212.621.1895
The Arab Advisors Group concluded a ground breaking survey of cellular users in Kuwait probing smartphones adoption and usage. The survey revealed that 51.3% of the total cellular handsets used by the respondents are smartphones. More than half (58.5%) of smartphone users who use applications prefer the English language for their applications. The new major cellular phone survey of cellular users in Kuwait was conducted by the Arab Advisors Group in February 2012. The survey report, “Kuwait Smartphone Survey 2012” was released on April 5, 2012. The survey covered general cellular usage habits; smartphone adoption and usage patterns; smartphone awareness, cellular handsets’ brands and models in addition to tablets availability among respondents. The report has 53 pages and 63 exhibits.
22.4% of Internet users in Egypt use e-commerce services
A new major survey of Internet users in Egypt was concluded by the Arab Advisors Group in February 2012. The survey revealed that around 22.4% of Internet users in Egypt use e-commerce services to buy products or services or pay their bills online. The Arab Advisors Group conservatively estimates the number of these users to be around 2.8 million, which is around 3.4% of the total population in Egypt. The survey report, “Egypt Internet users and e-commerce survey 2012” was released on March 26, 2012 and provides the results of a major comprehensive online survey of Internet users in Egypt. The survey probed the patterns and trends of Internet use in Egypt including online and video gaming, mobile Internet, e-commerce, online banking (e-banking) and e-government. The report has 85 pages and 101 exhibits.
Arabic Reality TV shows secure a prominent place in FTA Sat TV programming
Spurred by the liberalization and the boom in satellite TV supply and viewership, many channels in the Arab TV industry recognize the need for offering quality content to maintain their attraction to viewers and advertisers. Reality TV’s attraction lies in its relative novelty to audiences as well as its lower costs of production as participants are mainly regular people and not highly paid movie and TV stars. The new report “Arabic Reality TV Shows” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Media Strategic Research Service subscribers on March 13, 2012. The 36-page report, which has 18 detailed exhibits, provides analysis of the Reality TV landscape in the Arab World.
The share of female Internet users who go to movie theatres in Jordan is higher than that of male Internet users
A new major online survey in Jordan was concluded by the Arab Advisors Group back in February 13, 2012. The survey report, Jordan Media Survey of Internet Users 2012 was released on March 18, 2012 and provides the results of a major comprehensive online survey of the online community in Jordan. The survey covered television, radio, movie theatres, newspaper and book reading habits and effective type of ads. The report “Jordan Media Survey of Internet Users 2012” has 83 pages and 123 exhibits. www.arabadvisors.com
