8 May 2009
As reported in the Financial Times, Hulu, the US online video service owned by NBC Universal, Fox and Walt Disney, has signed its first batch of content deals with international television producers, the first step towards a full global launch of the service.
The company was set up 18 months ago by the media companies as a viable alternative to YouTube for professionally produced content. But Hulu is still only available in the US although the group said on Wednesday it was in talks to launch the site in eight of the leading broadcast markets.
The new content deals will bring a raft of UK programming to the site following agreements struck between Hulu and Endemol, the producer of Big Brother, and Digital Rights Group. The site has also struck deals with Saavn, one of the largest distributors of Bollywood movies. In most cases, the launch of the programmes on Hulu will be the first time they have been seen by a US audience, with the advertising on the site generating a new revenue stream for the producers.
The revenue share model means the producers will avoid the fate of ITV which failed to generate significant online revenue from the phenomenal global interest in Susan Boyle, a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. A clip showing Ms Boyle singing in front of Simon Cowell has been viewed more than 100m times on YouTube, with most of those views coming from the US – despite the programme not being broadcast in the country. But because ITV and the site don’t have an advertising agreement the UK broadcaster was unable to capitalise on the clip’s success. Hulu was in conversations with ITV and the BBC about eventually carrying their content on the service, it said.
6 May 2009
From the RFE/RL web site:
A report by the U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House says the global financial crisis is having a negative impact on freedom of the press.
The 2009 Freedom of the Press Index, released ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, indicates that while press freedom in open societies is being affected mostly in terms of decreased funding, in countries with oppressive governments, the crisis is providing new tools for further strengthening the leadership’s grip on the media.
According to the index, which rates 195 countries worldwide, the biggest drop in press freedom was witnessed in Central and Eastern Europe, in addition to most of the former Soviet Union.
The Freedom House index assesses the countries included in the survey by measuring the degree of print, broadcast, and Internet freedom available through a single calendar year. It provides numerical rankings and rates each country’s media as “Free,” “Partly Free,” or “Not Free.”
According to the report, which summarizes countries’ performances during 2008, concluded that 56 percent of people living in the combined region of Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (FSU), excluding the Baltic States, live in media environments that are “Not Free.”
But while the countries in the region share a common history of communist oppression, the trajectory of countries in the FSU diverged significantly in 2008 from that of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of respect for fundamental political rights and civil liberties.
The press freedom ratings for these sub-regions reflect a similar divergence.
Christopher Walker, Freedom Houses director of studies and one of the authors of the index, tells RFE/RL that former communist states in Central Europe such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland are clearly designated as Free and have remained so throughout the crisis.
But in Eastern Europe, and particularly in the countries of the FSU, where press freedom has been experiencing a slow but steady decline for years, the economic turmoil has exacerbated the trend.
The ongoing trajectory of media freedom in the region suggests that theres been a consolidation of unfree media environments in the former Soviet Union,” Walker said.
“And this has significant implications at a time when the global economy is playing a role in the health of independent media… In already vulnerable media environments there are even larger questions about independent medias ability to function in the former Soviet Union.
In more repressive settings, Walker says, authorities have always enjoyed near-complete control over allocating resources and using the legal system to manipulate media.
Now, with funding drying up, it is even easier for repressive governments to reward complacent media outlets on the one hand, and penalize dissenting voices on the other.
Russia continues to be the media-crackdown leader among the FSU countries, and has passed the trend on to a number of neighboring states.
Russia has been on a gradual decline in media freedom since 2003, when it was downgraded from a Partly Free to a Not Free country.
What weve seen is really a systematic and consistent constriction of Russias media over the last several years, including last year, where Russia also underwent a slight downturn for a number of reasons — including the absence of independent judiciary to ensure that media freedoms are upheld, and ongoing self-censorship, which has been a growing problem over the course of recent years,” Walker said.
“All in all, the system isnt enabling a meaningful discussion of alternative issues in Russia.
Ten out of 12 of the non-Baltic post-Soviet states are ranked as “Not Free.” Three of the world’s 10 worst press-freedom abusers — Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan — are found in the former Soviet Union.
Azerbaijan is another country which attracted significant media attention in 2008 because of several cases when journalists have been imprisoned for their work but then released.
Walker of Freedom House notes this as a positive development, but says its insufficient to indicate major change in Azerbaijan’s continued clampdown on the media, which last year included a ban on foreign broadcasters, including the BBC, Voice of America, and RFE/RL.
One of the things that we cited in our review of Azerbaijan, as part of the larger pattern of media suppression, were the steps taken to remove a number of international broadcasters from the airwaves in Azerbaijan,” Walker said.
“So, if we look at the broader picture of media freedom in Azerbaijan, the release of journalists thats just occurred in the larger institutional picture are a small but positive step in an otherwise highly repressed media environment.
Central Asia has been for years one of the weakest regions for free media, and 2008 was not an exception, says Walker.
While it comes as little surprise that frequent human-rights and press-freedom abusers like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have again been given the lowest possible rankings, Kyrgyzstan, one of the brighter spots in Central Asia, underwent a two-point decline in 2008.
That was principally a result of its decision to remove Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from the state broadcaster, but it follows a larger pattern of pressure that weve seen on independent media outlets in the country, Walker said.
Lack of an independent judiciary and the inability of the judiciary to protect journalists remains a serious concern in many of the FSU states, where reporters continue to put their personal safety at risk.
6 May 2009
More than 40% of US adults under 35 are already viewing Internet video on the TV at least once per month, according to latest research findings.
Research firm In-Stat predicts that revenue from Web-to-TV streaming services will grow to almost 3 billion in 2013.
In-Stat says that over the next five years, the number of US broadband households viewing Web-to-TV content will grow to 24 million and over 7 million households will use PCs to stream Web-to-TV content.
The research firm says that once Web-to-TV video becomes simple and convenient, mass consumer adoption will follow quite rapidly, In-Stat’s primary research shows that users want a variety of their consumer devices to enable a Web-to-TV video experience.
6 May 2009
During a press conference at the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington, European Commission, euronews and MHz Networks announced on Tuesday that euronews is available 24/7 in the U.S. capital city.
John Bruton, Ambassador and Head of the European Commission in Washington, marked on 4 May the launch of euronews together with Frederick Thomas, MHz Networks CEO & Founder and Philippe Cayla, Chairman of the Executive Board of Euronews.
They announced that euronews launches its full-time channel in the influential nations capital area, to an audience of 2.3 million households. euronews is available on MHz Networks 10 local distribution via cable (on Comcast since April 14) as a first step, before it debuts on the MHz Networks broadcast transmitter June 12.
The addition of the 24/7 euronews channel also lines up with the newsworthy 30th anniversary of the election of the European Parliament. euronews will present viewers in Washington in-depth coverage of the elections, when 375 million European citizens will be asked to renew the Parliament of the European Unions 27 member states from June 4-7, 2009.
euronews in 20 million U.S. homes with MHz Networks
Nearly a year ago, MHz Networks incorporated euronews daily newscasts on its national channel, MHz Worldview.
Today, euronews is available in over half of the top-20 U.S. television markets – nearly 20 million households- through broadcast/cable affiliates in:
Chicago, IL- WYCC; San Francisco,CA- KCSM; Philadelphia, PA- WYBE (26 May); Washington, DC- WNVC/MHz Networks; Tacoma-Seattle, WA- KBTC; Minneapolis, MN- MPS Cable; Miami, FL- WLRN; Denver, CO- KBDI; Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, FL- WCEU; Salt Lake City, UT- UEN (statewide); New Orleans, LA- WLAE; Las Vegas, NV- Vegas PBS; Richmond, VA- WCVE; Flint, MI- WDCQ; Charleston, IL- WEIU; Topeka, KS- KTWU; Warrensburg, MO- KMOS; Rochester-Austin, MN- KSMQ; Charlottesville, VA- WHTJ; St.Paul, MN- St. Paul Neighborhood Network; Stanford, CA- Stanford University Cable, as well as nationally via DirecTV and WorldTV (powered by GlobeCast, G19) satellite.
5 May 2009
In its latest market intelligence briefing, the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) says that its time for broadcasters to move from a wait and see approach to delivering content on mobile to acting now.
The report draws parallels with the situation faced in the late 1990s when media companies had to decide whether to move on to the Web, unsure of what that meant for them either in terms of investment or whether the public would use the Internet in large numbers. The AIB report highlights that with mobile today we see similar hesitation and resistance within some media companies, despite the fact that there are now probably double the number of mobile phones in use than there are desktop and laptop PCS.
International industry association AIB is working on a number of projects to make sure its broadcaster members can harness the power of the mobile in a highly innovative way for radio, TV as well as text and beat the competition. In 2008, AIB linked up with Nokia to get AIB-member content onto its Internet Radio and Video Center platforms. In a recent initiative the AIB is working with an innovative mobile TV start-up to enable AIB members to place their news, current affairs, science, technology and lifestyle programming onto mobile handsets in Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, South Korea and a range of other territories.
Mirroring the overall trend, the AIBs work in mobile will continue to expand throughout 2009, says AIB CEO Simon Spanswick, adding that traditional delivery methods remain relevant for broadcasters choosing the most effective platforms to reach audiences in specific markets. For example, the latest AIB market intelligence briefing also includes an update on pay-TV developments in the South African market. The briefings, delivered exclusively to AIB members around the world, are a key benefit of AIB membership.
5 May 2009
As reported by BBC News, an appeal will begin next week for US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to eight years in jail for spying, an Iranian official has said. ‘There has been a date set for next week,’ judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told a news conference, giving no further details.
Ms Saberi, 32, was sentenced behind closed doors by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran last month. US President Barack Obama has appealed for her release. Mr Obama and the Saberi family have dismissed the charges as baseless, insisting that she is not a US spy.
Ms Saberi’s father says she has been on hunger strike since 21 April in protest at the sentence. But Iranian officials have denied that she was refusing to eat or that her health had been affected.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has refused to intervene in the case, saying the courts acted independently and that she will be accorded her full rights. Iranian authorities earlier said they would hear her appeal fairly and quickly. The journalist has been in jail in Tehran since January.
