24 January 2011
The creators of a Voice of America TV program broadcast to Iran called Parazit, which has drawn comparisons to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, are to appear on Stewarts Comedy Central show Thursday to discuss their programs satirical look at Iranian politics and politicians.
Audiences cant seem to get enough of the Farsi language program, which airs for 30 minutes every Friday and is produced at VOAs Persian News Network (PNN) headquarters in Washington and sent by satellite directly to Iranian homes.
Last month, about 19 million people went to Parazits Facebook page to catch the irreverent humor of host and writer Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi the co-creator and executive producer, who in the past three weeks have been profiled by the Washington Post, CNN International, and National Public Radio.
VOA Director Danforth W. Austin says he is not surprised by the attention Parazit (it means static in English) is getting. He says, The show resonates with people in Iran, because it talks about issues and policies that are not discussed in the government-controlled media, and it does so in an entertaining, humorous way.
Despite Iranian government efforts to block the VOA website and satellite signal, Iranians find ways to see the weekly program, most notably via the internet with proxy servers and through social media sites like Facebook and YouTube.
Since October, the number of Parazits Facebook friends has doubled to nearly a quarter-million. The number of page views for the shows Facebook site in December also nearly doubled to nearly 19 million, up from about ten million in October.
24 January 2011
The Supreme Education Council of Qatar (SEC) and Al Jazeera Childrens Channel (JCC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) giving all Independent Schools working under SECs umbrella access to JCCs VoD educational website Taalam.TV launched by JCC in early 2010.
The agreement was signed by SECs Director of Education Institution Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous and JCCs Executive General Manager Mahmoud Bouneb at SECs headquarters in Doha, Qatar in the presence of delegations from both parties.
The educational portals database is rich with thousands of audiovisual materials extracted from the Channels library and further more enriched with curricula-based tutoring documents to assist educators in offering more stimulating and engaging classes subjects. According to the MOU, JCC is committed to providing the necessary teachers training, resources, and technical installation for Taalam.TV in schools.
Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous said: Encouraging creativity in students and enabling them to deal with and benefit from ICT are among the educational development priorities we aim to achieve. We believe that the partnership with Al Jazeera Children Channel, through Taalam.TV website, will provide the Independent Schools a very reliable and authenticated learning resource. We hope our schools will use these resources effectively to achieve excellent performance in the teaching and learning process.
JCCs Executive General Manager, Mahmoud Bouneb expressed his gratitude to the Supreme Educational Council represented by the Director of Education Institute Ms. Sabah Al-Haidous for putting their trust in Taalam.TV and for their continuous support. I would like to seize this opportunity to express our commitment to work hand in hand with the SEC to revolutionize and reform teaching and learning practices in Qatar, by continuously providing schools with the latest audiovisual educational materials made possible by the States devotion to education and innovation. Bouneb also expressed his gratitude to Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser for her support to such progressive initiatives.
Taalam.TV has been designed in collaboration with a group of Arab teachers and educational experts making it the first educational Video-on-Demand online platform in the Arab World.
JCC has recently signed a similar agreement with UNRWA in December 2010, and previously signed an MOU with the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman in April 2010. Taalam.TV is currently being used by more than 500,000 Arab students in more than 500 schools from 28 countries across the globe including Qatar, KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, France, Britain, USA and Canada.
The Supreme Education Council has previously signed similar agreements with many institutions, Aiming to support the educational process and achieving Qatar Vision for the year 2030, and contributing to establish learning societies in schools and elevating teachers academic performance in Qatars schools.
24 January 2011
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd., a leading provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries announced today that it has signed an agreement with BabyTV, a FOX International Channel, to distribute the channel throughout North America on the Galaxy-23 satellite (121.0°W).
BabyTV targets the youngest members of the family, infants and toddlers, and provides services that range from 24/7 TV channels to VOD and broadband offerings. RRsat currently distributes BabyTV to Europe via the HOTBIRD satellite as well as to Asia via the MEASAT 3A satellite. This expansion into the North American market will open up BabyTVs viewership to a new and wider audience.
Our work with BabyTV illustrates how RRsat is capable of opening new geographical markets up to any channel and bringing that channel to several continents, said Lior Rival, Vice President, Sales and Marketing of RRsat. We are excited about making this channel available to North America, providing BabyTV access to thousands of cable headends representing up to 90% of the American cable market.
BabyTV continues to rapidly grow its TV-watching audience, said Liran Talit, BabyTV Managing Director and Founder. RRsat has played a key role in the expansion of our reach in the past and continues to do so. RRsats services allow us easy access to international markets in multiple languages the world over.
24 January 2011
The latest AIB industry briefing has been published. Delivered to the in-boxes of more than 25,000 media leaders globally, the regular industry briefings offer snapshots of developments across the world’s media industry.
18 January 2011
For the launch of its new look and the switch to a 16/9 format, euronews presents a broad range of projects which will take the channel to a new dimension.
To start the year, euronews is switching to a 16/9 format and revamping the channel: a new on-air look, new pace and more reasons for viewers to tune in to euronews.
In 2011, the channel will also add programmes, with the arrival of new faces to the multicultural newsroom of euronews. Separately, two well-known journalists on the European audiovisual scene, Alex Taylor and Chris Burns, will join the channel to help take it to a whole ‘new dimension’.
11 news desks in 2011: euronews is expanding its editorial coverage and network around the world. Based in Lyon, with recently opened desks in Brussels, London, Cairo and Doha, euronews will open permanent desks in Paris, Kiev (local journalists), Istanbul, Dubai, Washington and Beijing. The Brussels office will be a key feature of the new organisation, as it becomes the first international news team to operate in the capital of Europe.
Ali Sheikholeslami is appointed as euronews permanent correspondent in London. He is in charge of covering world stories, as well as reporting on events occurring across the UK, producing TV packages and multimedia stories for the euronews website.
11 languages in 2011: euronews will launch its new service in Ukrainian, around the clock, 7 days a week, as of 24th August.
In 2011, euronews will deliver the right content to the right place at the right time:
– increased partnerships with YouTube and Dailymotion: new channels, more availability on catch-up TV in the “Shows” section of YouTube;
– euronews and UGC (User Generated Content): via its NoCommentTV application for iPhone, euronews offers UGC possibilities with “MyNoComment”; in partnership with Google, the channel will broadcast a weekly programme “Trends” which reports on keywords most requested by internet users in Europe;
– launch in one month of the euronews live application for iPhone, iPad and Android;
– launch of the full euronews application for iPad;
– launch of euronews radio, an internet radio station;
– launch of euronews display, euronews in a 100% visual format designed for busy places such as train stations and airports;
– euronews in flight: an exclusive agreement has been signed with Air France, details of which will be presented soon, jointly with Air France;
– euronews on internet-connected TV sets: following on the first agreement with Panasonic, euronews is now in the process of signing agreements with the six top manufacturers, including Toshiba, Sony and Philips.
All of these projects which reflect the new dimension of the international news channel will be presented at a series of press conferences in Paris, London, Moscow, Berlin, Frankfurt and Madrid, with Philippe Cayla, Chairman of the Executive Board, Michael Peters, Managing Director of the Executive Board, and Lucian Sârb, Director of News and Programmes.
18 January 2011
Eurosport and DFL Sports Enterprises GmbH have extended their current partnership (covering seasons 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012) for three additional seasons: 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.
The deal renews Eurosport’s exclusive TV and digital rights, including sub-licensing rights, for all matches of Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 in 22 territories in the Nordic countries as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. Bundesliga is the elite German championship and Bundesliga 2 the second-tier of German football.
The 22 territories included in the agreement are: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.
Exclusive TV coverage on Eurosport 2 and Eurosport 2 HD
Eurosport 2 has established itself amongst sports fans as the channel for premium Bundesliga football action. Continuing on this success, Eurosport 2 will offer exclusive and extensive coverage of the upcoming seasons. Coverage will include five LIVE matches per week, a weekly highlights programme, dedicated magazine shows, interviews and expert insight from top consultants. Eurosport 2’s commitment to top quality production, including high definition, will continue to offer viewers the highest standard of broadcast.
Launched in 2005, Eurosport 2 is today one of the fastest growing pay TV channels in Europe reaching 48 million homes in 47 countries. The channel is also available in HD in the Nordic countries as well as in Central and Eastern Europe, and features over 2000 hours of LIVE sporting action.
All LIVE Bundesliga action will also be available in the licensed territories on the Eurosport Player, the group’s online subscriber video service.
Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Chairman, Eurosport Group says, “We are delighted to renew our partnership with DFL and to continue offering fans across Nordic, Eastern and Central European territories the best of German football. Eurosport 2 has been broadcasting the Bundesliga since 2009 and in only 2 seasons our expert coverage and promotion have significantly contributed to increased reach and ratings outside of Germany and we are convinced that Bundesliga has even more potential. The extension of our partnership with DFL confirms Eurosport 2’s strategy of acquisition of premium rights and enhances the regional offer of the channel.”
Jörg Daubitzer, Managing Director, DFL Sports Enterprises adds:
We are pleased about the prolongation of our successful cooperation. Eurosport is an established and also highly appreciated partner who presents Bundesliga as a premium product on a very high level. This agreement covers key territories and meets the growing international significance and value of Bundesliga.
