12 August 2010
The appeal is being made by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) – an umbrella organisation of 13 UK humanitarian aid agencies.
The UN says four million people have been affected by the floods, and at least 1,600 have died.
Donations can be made by phone, post, at Post Offices and banks.
The TV and radio appeal was presented by journalist and former British hostage in Lebanon, John McCarthy.
The DEC said aid from its members was now reaching more than 300,000 survivors.
DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said the appeal was crucial “because of the scale of the tragedy”.
Aid agencies are already working in the region, distributing clean water and food parcels, but “they want to scale up their work, so this is the way of going to the public and saying ‘please help’,” Mr Gormley said.
The DEC charities are ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Care International, Cafod, Christian Aid, Concern, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.
12 August 2010
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) met on July 30, 2010 in closed session in Washington, D.C and agreed to the following items by consensus:
Cuba Broadcasting. Governors Ashe, McCue, and Perino are requested to conduct “listening tour” of Congress regarding the future of broadcasting to Cuba during the month of August 2010 and report their observations back to the Board. Other Governors are welcome to provide background materials to support these efforts.
Use of Social Media. Governors Lynton, McCue, Meehan and Perino are requested to organize information-gathering sessions on the use of social media as a part of BBG-sponsored United States international broadcasting. These Governors will propose an agenda, speakers list and a target date for the session in November 2010 for the approval of the BBG Chairman in consultation with fellow Governors.
VOA Persian News Network (PNN). Governor Wimbush is requested to chair a working group with other Governors designated by the BBG Chairman in order to gather information concerning the current strategy and operations of PNN and to make recommendations to the Board concerning PNN’s mission and performance.
Open Meetings. The BBG will look for opportunities to hold open meetings to the extent that it can responsibly do so while protecting the integrity of Board processes and the BBG’s statutory mandate.
WikiLeaks. By resolution, the Board authorized the Director of the Voice of America to proceed with reporting on the disclosure of classified documents available on the WikiLeaks website in a manner that is consistent with the VOA Charter and the BBG’s statutory mission, and to balance this effort with due consideration for the laws and executive orders applicable to the use, disclosure, and transmission of classified information by federal employees.
12 August 2010
On August 4 Egyptian company Nilesat, a leading satellite operator in the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf, launched the Nilesat 201. The new satellite will transmit 300 additional television channels and bring HDTV and 3D television to the region, as well as carrying IPTV and broadband services.
The Nilesat 201 will allow hundreds of new media channels to be delivered to 40 million households in the region, adding to the existing 560 TV and 100 radio channels already available. Wide coverage is ensured as a result of uplink stations in Cairo, Dubai, Amman, Doha, Riyadh, and Beirut.
Anas El Fekky, Egyptian Minister of Media, said, This new satellite offers a tremendous opportunity to increase the availability on broadcasting and communications services in Egypt. We Egyptians are already proud to have one of the most diverse and vibrant media landscapes in the region, with over 500 independent newspapers, magazines and journals in the printed press alone. The Nilesat 201 will help us to bring even more choice and quality of media to the Egyptian people. This step is important as it shows Egypts ability and desire to lead the entire region in media, as it does in other fields such as information technology, encompassing all new tools of globalisation and communications. Egypt will continue to play a pioneer role to propel the region to greater heights of modernity.
General Ahmed Anis, CEO of Nilesat, added: Nilesat 201 will make a significant contribution to boosting the development of the dynamic broadcasting markets in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Nilesat 201 is the third satellite to be owned by Nilesat and was developed in response to the huge demand and market growth of TV channels in the MENA region. The project cost around US$237m and the satellite has a design life of around 15 years. The Nilesat 201 is launched from Korou, French Guyana, by the Ariane space launcher and was manufactured by French company Thales Alenia Space.
12 August 2010
Pharos announces a major extension of training support at its UK headquarters in Reading. Managed by technology specialist Elaine Jarvis, the expanded resource is geared to providing hands-on training at Pharos offices or at customer sites.
Elaine joined Pharos recently from Viasat Broadcasting. She commenced her broadcast career in 1979 as an on-air assistant at BCTV in Vancouver, progressing in 1983 to senior video tape engineer at TV-AM in London, to IndiEdit as an editor in 1988 and to Viasat in 1994 as a transmission controller.
“Pharos produces a highly coordinated range of broadcast content management control solutions centred on Mediator which allows practically every element of television and radio channel operation to be handled efficiently,” Elaine comments. “I first became familiar with Mediator while working at Viasat. We began using the system in June 2006 and I later ran a three-month training course for the transmission department. Mediator is controlled from networked desktop computers displaying Web-style pages. These give operators the exact information they require to perform each aspect of their duties quickly and confidently. Mediator is very easy to drive whether approached from a task-specific perspective or in total. Once incoming content has been ingested into the system, everything is handled on-screen. A huge improvement on the old days of moving tapes and disks physically to and from a library, and hoping your content arrived in a playable form.”
Also supporting the Pharos training resource is Andy Benning who recently rejoined the company from Miranda. Andy’s focus will be on providing an information bridge between the Pharos development team and colleagues in sales and other departments, ensuring that all Pharos staff have a good understanding of the company’s capabilities.
Founded in 1997, Pharos has pioneered collaborative desktop workflow and integrated third-party infrastructure management. Pharos solutions today handle millions of media assets across hundreds of television channels and an increasing number of new media distribution networks. Pharos is an open company embracing open standards. Pharos software architecture, integration and support services enable disparate broadcast and IT processes to be unified across the enterprise. The unique Mediator content management platform, with its integrated Playtime playout and Pilot control options, provides efficient tools to deliver multi-format content globally.
12 August 2010
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd. a rapidly growing provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, has launched a new platform on the Galaxy 19 (G-19) satellite that enables the distribution of television and radio channels devoted to religious programming. The new platform, together with RRsat’s three other platforms already operating on this satellite, will broadcast more than 50 religious and ethnic TV and radio channels, reaching millions of homes across the United States, and represents a major step in RRsat’s program to distribute content within the Americas originating in the Americas.
The Galaxy 19 satellite, located at 97degreesW, is one of the largest ethnic video platforms in the U.S. offering programmers and content distributors access to millions of homes in the U.S. cable community. RRsat has signed agreements with thirteen TV and radio channels to be broadcast on its new Galaxy 19 platform directly from RRsat’s Hawley Teleport in Pennsylvania. Channels already launched include the Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN), which also use RRsat’s services for global distribution, the three Hope channels: Hope Channel, Esperanza TV, and Hope Church channel; and Loma Linda Broadcasting Networks Inc., which broadcasts on Galaxy 19 in English, Arabic and Chinese and uses RRsat’s distribution services to North America, Asia, Africa and Australia.
3ABN, LLBN and the Adventist Television Network channels are all major Christian television and radio networks in the United States offering a full range of religious content and programming. Their presence on this platform is representative of the increase in content being distributed by RRsat’s Hawley Teleport in which both the source and the destination is North America.
“Interest in religious programming and content is on the rise in the United States,” commented Lior Rival, Vice President, Sales and Marketing of RRsat. “By positioning ourselves as a provider of global distribution for all types of religious content, we believe we can further penetrate this important market and become a leading distribution solution for this programming. Moreover, this launch represents another significant step in our penetration of the America-to-America market.”
12 August 2010
The free app, boasting more LIVE sports content than any other sports app in Europe, has been downloaded 2,518,432 times (and counting!) since its launch last year.
The app leverages Eurosport.com’s ditorial expertise and online excellence, featuring real-time text commentary, live results, breaking sports news, stats, standings and fixtures.
It is the only sports application available in 9 different language versions,* plus an international version available in any country in the world, and has been a resounding success, topping download lists in France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Eurosport Chairman and CEO, said: “Eurosport innovates to provide quality content across all media devices, and mobile is the perfect way to enjoy, share and experience sports news and events. Any first birthday is always a very special time and, together with the 2.5 million downloads, it is proof that we are delivering the global sports fans what he wants, when he wants it and where he wants it.”
Arnaud Maillard, Eurosport’s New Media Director, added: “This is a life-cycle, and though today we celebrate the free app’s first birthday we will continue to innovate and grow our diverse online and mobile offering for the iPhone and iPad.”
Not forgetting the iPad … Since its launch in May of this year, the Europsort.com for iPad sports app, has been downloaded over 118,000 times in two months, making it the most popular iPad sports app across Europe.
All of Eurosport’s apps for iPhone and iPad are available for download on iTunes and the App Store.
