27 April 2009
Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) has taken on a new partnership with one of the largest cable networks in India, Incablenet (IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd. of Hinduja Group.
This allows around 2 million listeners of Indian households to listen to the English programmes of RNW. The international broadcaster is already collaborating with various FM radio stations, and Incablenet allows the Indian public to access RNW programmes via cable for the first time.
Last year RNW began establishing partnerships with local FM stations and broadcasting organisations such as Radio Misty to provide the Indian population with information about the Netherlands and Europe. And during the India festival in the Netherlands last year RNW covered the event together with All India Radio.
The partnership with Incablenet enables RNW to air its English programmes not only on FM, but for the first time via digital cable. Incablenet, headquartered in Mumbai, is one of the largest and pioneering cable MSO ( Multi System Operator) companies in India. The company currently serves over 6.5 million households in analogue cable and its coverage is expected to grow to over 9 million households in the next two years. The digital cable networks of “Incablenet” also continue to grow rapidly.
RNW’s Director General, Jan Hoek says: “India is one of the fastest emerging superpowers in the world. Growing trade, historical and new cultural relations with the Netherlands mean that the need for information about Western countries is growing. Via Incablenet we aim to contribute to fulfilling this need.”
Managing Director of Incablenet Ravi Mansukhani: “We are pleased to distribute RNW in our digital distribution networks in India. The radio industry is estimated to have grown at an impressive CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 19.7% over the year 2006-08 in India. Emergence of radio stations like RNW could also help the industry in attracting new listeners and driving up overall radio listener ship. We wish RNW all the success and a long innings in India after this launch.”
27 April 2009
Times Online reports that Internet users face regular ‘brownouts’ that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this year.
Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 per cent a year, will start to exceed supply from as early as next year because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry websites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC’s iPlayer. It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time.
From 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an ‘unreliable toy’. A report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems. Engineers are already preparing for the worst.
While some are planning a lightning-fast parallel network called ‘the grid’, others are building ‘caches’, private computer stations where popular entertainments are stored on local PCs rather than sent through the global backbone. Telephone companies want to recoup escalating costs by increasing prices for ‘net hogs’ who use more than their share of capacity.
23 April 2009
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration is starting a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks, according to senior US officials.
As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan’s lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees.
U.S. personnel are also trying to block the Pakistani chat rooms and Web sites that are part of the country’s burgeoning extremist underground. The Web sites frequently contain videos of attacks and inflammatory religious material that attempts to justify acts of violence.
The push takes the administration deeper into “psychological operations,” which attempt to influence how people see the U.S., its allies and its enemies. Officials involved with the new program argue that psychological operations are a necessary part of reversing the deterioration of stability in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Taliban and other armed groups have carried out a wave of attacks in the two countries. U.S. officials believe the Taliban enjoy an advantage by being able to freely communicate threats and decrees.
In Pakistan, Taliban leaders use unlicensed FM stations to recite the names of local Pakistani government officials, police officers and other figures who have been marked for death by the group. Hundreds of people named in the broadcasts have later been killed, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.
The Obama administration’s recently released strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan calls for sending 4,000 U.S. military trainers to Afghanistan and sharply expanding economic aid to Pakistan. The U.S. may also provide radio-jamming equipment to the Pakistani government, according to officials familiar with the plans.
23 April 2009
Surveying 14,000 consumers in 13 countries, Accenture has found that people are watching more content on a greater number of platforms than they were a year ago, and are more willing to pay for programming via subscription services.
The results of Accenture’s second annual Global Broadcast Consumer Survey point to the increasing fragmentation of the traditional viewing experience. Accenture reveals that 40 percent of respondents watch six or more channels, up from 35 percent last year, and 39 percent watch eight or more programs a week, up from 33 percent last year. Plus, 74 percent indicated they would watch TV on a PC, versus just 61 percent last year, and 45 percent said they would watch on mobile devices, up from 32 percent last year.
Accenture also founded a notable difference in consumption between developed and maturing markets. For example, respondents in Mexico, Brazil and Malaysia were nearly three times as likely as those in the U.S., Germany and the U.K., to express interest in watching television content on mobile phones.
In spite of the recession, consumers are willing to pay for content; 49 percent of respondents indicated a willingness to pay for digital service programming, up from 37 percent in last year’s survey. However, 40 percent said they would prefer to watch ads in exchange for free content.
23 April 2009
SES ASTRA has entered into a partnership with the Arab satellite operator Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) to create a new company operating under the YahLive brand that will offer Direct-to-Home (DTH) television capacity and services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South West Asia, a large region mainly including the Gulf states and the Maghreb.
YahLive will offer DTH satellite services to free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters in this region. It will own and commercialise 23 BSS-transponders on the Yahsat 1A spacecraft to be positioned at the 52.5 degrees East orbital position and operating in the Ku-band frequency. The satellite, procured from a consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, is currently under construction and is scheduled to be launched by the fourth quarter of 2010.
Yahsat is a private joint stock company based in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and owned by Mubadala, the investment arm of the government of Abu Dhabi.
Creating a company with Yahsat opens a very important and dynamic new market for us, where we can leverage our core DTH competences and join forces with a strong player in the region, said Ferdinand Kayser, Chief Executive Officer of SES ASTRA. This partnership will establish a major business hub for SES ASTRA in the Middle East, and will add a new dimension to the existing strong regional presence of SES through the satellite operator SES NEW SKIES and the system integrator ND SatCom. The region is a market with significant growth potential as the fill rate of the Ku-band capacity is estimated at 90 percent, while demand is expected to grow faster than supply. We are very pleased to work with Yahsat to tap these markets and to contribute our knowledge in deploying satellite capacity as well as a large range of specialised ground and broadcasting services.
We are very pleased to announce this strategic partnership with one of the worlds leading satellite broadcasting operators. SES ASTRAs significant experience in this sector will fast track our ability to create a new TV hotspot over the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, said Jassem Al Zaabi, Yahsats Chief Executive Officer. This alliance also confirms the satellite industrys conviction that Yahsat is the partner of choice in the region. As a new player in the broadcasting sector, we believe this partnership will enable Yahsat to make a very strong entry into the market.
23 April 2009
NorCom Information Technology AG presents a new member of the NCPower product family at the NAB show 2009 in Las Vegas:
the ready-to-use media asset management system NCPower Compact.
NCPower Compact is the end-to-end technical solution for TV, special-interest and Internet broadcasters as well as corporate TV and post-production companies. The media asset management system provides all functions from ingesting to playing out in a single appliance.
Pre-installed and fully equipped with hardware and software, the system can be put into operation with minimum effort.
NCPower Compact is a standard version of NCPower Pro, the individually configured editorial and production system numerous broadcast companies already use. NCPower Compact is based on IBM BladeCenter technology; currently the world’s most modern computing system. This way system interfaces can be avoided. As a result NCPower Compact is highly available, scalable and low-maintenance. NCPower Compact delivers proven workflows for TV, web, mobile and postproduction applications and supports along the entire media production chain. The user interface conveniently integrates all necessary information and tools, allowing the editor to concentrate on what really counts in media production.
‘NCPower Compact allows an affordable entry in the broadcast business’, explains Dr. Tobias Abthoff, a member of NorCom AG’s Management Board. ‘We are pleased to introduce our new end-to-end technical solution at the NAB.
This widget enables us to explore new markets and target groups and we want to address potential clients as well as possible sales partners.’
