10 December 2007
EuroNews is to launch Arabic-language programming for the Middle East, following its successful tender at the European Union.
EuroNews won the European Commission’s tender, launched in June 2007, for an international news channel with the ability to produce and broadcast programming in Arabic, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. A service agreement between the channel and the Commission was signed in Brussels on 6 December 2007.
EuroNews already broadcasts in seven languages simultaneously (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish). Arabic will become EuroNews’s eighth fully-fledged language and the service will be launched by the channel’s newsroom in 2008.
In the coming months, EuroNews will recruit a team of 35 people who will work at EuroNews’ head office in Lyon, France. At the same time the channel will adapt its technical facilities (production, broadcasting and distribution) to host this new language version. The Arabic service will be broadcast across EuroNews’ entire network of 35 satellites, thus making the Arabic-service signal available worldwide. From the start of 2008, the channel’s sales teams will invite all cable, satellite, ADSL/broadband and mobile-phone operators worldwide to add the Arabic version of EuroNews to their offerings.
In launching an Arabic version, EuroNews will meet two objectives: to cater for Arabic-speaking Europeans and extend distribution of the channel to Arabic-speaking countries.
Philippe Cayla, Chairman & CEO of EuroNews, commented: “The addition of Arabic is a very important milestone in EuroNews’s multi-language strategy. With Arabic, the channel will be able to grow its audience among Arabic-speaking populations in Europe and in the Mediterranean basin. In Europe, the fact that EuroNews is available in Arabic will definitely help Arabic-speaking populations to better understand the framework of European policies and the issues at stake. In the Mediterranean basin and in the Arabic-speaking world in general where EuroNews already has a substantial audience for its English and French versions, the channel will be able to grow its audience very significantly and become the standard-setting international news channel. Television viewers already appreciate EuroNews’s clear, balanced approach to international news, especially Middle East events. EuroNews wishes and hopes that its Mediterranean shareholders in the Arab world (ENTV in Algeria, ERTU in Egypt, ERTT in Tunisia) will help to raise EuroNews’ profile in their respective countries, and that the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) will be able to extend this effort to the other countries in the Arab world.”
6 December 2007
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AIB Media Briefing
6 December 2007 |
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Welcome to the
latest global media briefing, published by the
Association for International
Broadcasting, the industry association and networking organisation
that focuses on cross-border media.
In this issue, reaching over 20,000 media professionals:
Visit
www.aib.org.uk for more news from
the media worldwide. AIB members benefit from our specialist member-only
market intelligence briefings. Contact us to discuss how membership can
help your organisation.
The 2007 AIB Media Excellence Awards were
presented in London on 20 November at a glittering ceremony attended by
more than 150 guests from all over the world.
 Hosted
by BBC World’s Mishal Husain (left), the winners of the 12 AIB
Awards categories collected their trophies – and there were some
surprised faces among the winners!
You can see the complete listing of winners on the AIB website at
www.aib.org.uk and see pictures from
the evening – which included two special guests: digital media guru
Tomi Ahonen and France 24
COO Jean Yves Bonsergent – on
Flickr.
We’ll be announcing the 2008 AIB Media Excellence Awards in the
first quarter of the new year and the Awards dinner will take place in
London in early November.
Top of page
Radio Australia
has increased its reach in the Pacific. The international broadcaster
has opened a 24 hour-a-day relay on Vanuatu‘s Santo island.
Top of page
BBC World
Service has opened a 24 hour-a-day FM channel in Trinidad and
Tobago. BBC 98.7FM carries the World Service in English and the
special regional Caribbean programmes.
Top of page
A new pay-TV platform launches in France on 10
December, with up to 25 channels including most national channels
currently available on analogue and DTT in the country.
BIS will be carried on
two satellites – Eutelsat‘s Hot Bird at 13 degrees east and
Atlantic Bird 3 at five degrees west. Consumers will be able to buy a
starter kit from retailers on their local high street which will include
a Viaccess-enabled decoder and smart card. The basic subscription cost
is 4.90 Euro a month. ABSat is providing the service.
Top of page
The International News Safety
Institute, INSI, has gained US charitable status. The non-profit
institute now has charitable status under section 501(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code which enables INSI to raise money free of tax and
for donors to set their contributions against tax. INSI says this is a
major move forward for the organisation as it depends entirely on
donations for its work to help journalists covering all kinds of
dangerous stories, from wars to crime and corruption to natural
disasters. The move comes as the death toll for news media staff around
the world climbs to record levels. Last year was the worst on record
with 168 deaths; this year so far the toll stands at 168, according to
INSI’s count.
Top of page
AIB recommends…
DLD (Digital, Life,
Design), Munich, January 20-22, 2008
Bringing together digital innovation, gaming, arts, media and
science with thought-leaders from the Middle East, America, Asia and
Europe. It’s an event by invitation only although you can ask for
registration. The AIB recommends DLD as it’s breaking the mould of
traditional media-related conferences and it offers a great opportunity
to meet key players in emerging digital media sectors.
CBA General Assembly, Bahamas,
January 23-26, 2008
The meeting of members of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association,
including directors-general and chief technology officers, editors and
programme makers from broadcasters across the Commonwealth nations. The
AIB recommends this event as it’s one of the best ways to meet and
engage with the most senior people in broadcasting organisations from
more than 100 countries.
Top of page
Hong Kong has launched a terrestrial HD service.
Asia Television
(ATV) inaugurated the HD trial service on 2 December and the South
China Morning Post reported that electronics shops in Mong Kok were
“swamped” with shoppers wanting to buy the HD DTT boxes. Most, the
newspaper said, were put off by the high cost of the boxes – around
HK$2,000 (US$260). Around half of the Hong Kong population will be able
to receive the new DTT broadcasts by the end of the year and five new
transmitting stations are to be built in 2008.
Top of page
Acquisitive Australian finance house
Macquarie has taken a
major stake in South Korea‘s
C&M cable TV company. Working with investment fund
MBK Partners, Macquarie Bank
has secured 61.17% of the company from its chairman, Lee Min-joo. C and
M has annual revenues of around US$343million generated by two million
cable TV subscribers. Approval is needed from Korea’s
Ministry of Information and
Communication and the Korean
Broadcasting Commission.
Macquarie Bank has been actively pursuing cash-generating businesses in
the media and media infrastructure industries. It has bought the UK’s
Arqiva transmission company
which itself has purchased
National Grid Wireless‘s
transmission business in the UK. However, the UK Competition Commission
has said that this acquisition may not be allowed through as it could
reduce competition in the UK broadcasting transmission marketplace.
Top of page
Voice of America
has doubled the output of its
Somali-language radio service, just ten months after the service was
launched from Washington in February 2007. The new programme is on the
air at 1600 local time in the Horn of Africa (1300GMT).
Top of page
New Indian music TV channel, 9XM,
has climbed to the top of Indian TV audience ratings just three weeks
after its launch. According to 9XM, quoting
TAM ratings, the channel has
overtaken MTV and Channel V, the most popular music
channels in the country. 9XM is one of a range of new channels being
launched by INX led by former Star TV executive, Peter Mukerjea
and his wife Indira.
Top of page
The next
edition of the AIB’s quarterly magazine is in preparation. Around 7,000
readers receive The Channel in their offices, and more read the
magazine at key media events worldwide. See what they get – click
here to see the online version, and subscribe
here
and benefit from this month’s special offer of six editions of The
Channel delivered to your office or home for the price of four.
And talk to us about using the AIB’s print and online publications to
reach an audience of 25,000 media professionals worldwide…call +44 (0)
1727 739 184 and talk to Ollie Kirkman to see how the AIB can help you.
Top of page
The AIB is the industry association for
international broadcasting and a networking organisation of more than
25,000 media professionals.
We provide our members with exclusive
market-intelligence reports, networking events, relevant tender data,
marketing support and lobbying.
We celebrate excellence and reward success with
our annual Media Excellence Awards. The 2008 AIB Media Excellence
Awards will be launched in the first quarter of the new year.
Top of
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It’s on the desks of major broadcasters from TV
Azteca to the BBC, Bloomberg to Al Jazeera. It’s been ordered by
major media companies like Tiscali, Arqiva and Google.
It’s bigger, brighter and fuller of intelligent
source material than ever before.
It’s the AIB Directory of Global Broadcasting.
Mo re
than 147 countries’ broadcasters and media operators are included in
this year’s
AIB Directory of
Global Broadcasting.
This new AIB Directory of
Global Broadcasting includes more than 2,500 new names of
media executives, compared with last year’s edition
From the rapidly expanding Indian media market to neighbouring
Nepal, Ghana to Venezuela, the Netherlands to Nigeria – the
AIB Directory of
Global Broadcasting is the
only reference work covering TV and radio, plus emerging platforms.
It’s the ultimate sourcebook.
Published
September 2007
Format
A4 perfect-bound, 228 pages, full-colour throughout
Price
£120/US$200/EUR176 (including standard delivery*)
To download PDF sample pages of this new, fully revised Directory,
click here.
To buy,
click here.
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*We ship via the UK’s Royal Mail – first class for UK orders (taking
one to two days) and air mail printed papers for other countries.
Transit times vary, but are usually between 6 and 10 working days.
We can ship via air courier at extra charge.
Contact us for details:
+44 (0) 20 7993 2557 |
Also available from the
AIB: Czech-Slovak Market Report. An in-depth analysis of the
electronic media industry in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, published
by Broadband TV News. See
here
for details.
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This electronic news briefing reaches the desktop of more than
20,000
media executives, regulators, journalists, editors,
parliamentarians and media experts worldwide.
Why not use us to help you reach your clients and potential clients?
We offer cost-effective ways to maximise exposure and minimising
cost.
Talk to Oliver Kirkman today about the AIB and how it can help your
business.
From electronic to on-the-page advertising to sponsorship of major
AIB events, we can help you.
Call +44 (0) 1727 739 184, or e-mail ollie (@)
centuryonepublishing.ltd.uk to discuss the opportunities.
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19 November 2007
AIB Diner Pensant and
Awards 2007
Clothworkers’ Hall, City of London
Tuesday 20 November 2007
Some
cancelled places available
Mishal
Husain, anchor on BBC World – last year’s AIB Channel of the Year
– will host the 2007 AIB Media Excellence Awards in the
wonderful surroundings of Clothworkers’ Hall, one of the City of London’s
ancient livery companies, on Tuesday 20 November.
146 guests from all over the world are attending this
glittering, inspiring occasion where everyone will take something away at the
end of the evening. That’s because instead of simply having a conventional
awards ceremony, the AIB is bringing two inspiring speakers to the event who
will be in conversation during the dinner.
Tomi
Ahonen is a strategy consultant in the mobile space, with an established
career in digital media and communications. A former senior executive at Nokia
where his remit included the company’s 3G research centre, Ahonen is a
best-selling author on media and the digital environment. His latest book,
Digital Korea,
co-authored with Jim O’Reilly, is a study of the most advanced country in
digital convergence, South Korea. While much of the book sounds like science
fiction, it is in fact a portrait of the reality of life in Korea today.
Ahonen will be sharing some of his research
into digital media around the world with the AIB’s guests at its Diner
Pensant, and will be exploring some of the ways in which media owners and
broadcasters need to position themselves for the all-embracing – and rapidly
approaching – digital world.
Our
second speaker is Jean-Yves Bonsergent, Chief Operating Officer at
France 24, the international TV channel operating in French, English and
Arabic that launched in December 2006. Bonsergent will be in conversation with
the AIB, talking about the first 12 months of the channel’s operations, how its
strategy is developing and about its future plans for further language services
for different geographic areas.
As the French government moves its review of
the country’s international broadcasting – which includes Radio France
Internationale, TV5 and France 24 – into its final stages, this is an ideal time
to discuss how France sees itself in the international media marketplace.
On 19
November, we have four cancelled places available so to attend, book now.
Join us for the glamour, fun and insight that the AIB’s
Diner Pensant and Awards provides.
AIB members £90 plus UK VAT @
17.5%
Non members £155 plus UK VAT @ 17.5%
Reserve your place online
here.
14 November 2007
Radio Australia is to join in the celebrations and festivities at the annual Water Festival in Cambodia this month.
Radio Australias Khmer and English services will broadcast live from Phnom Penh on Friday the 23rd November at King Leper Sculpture.
The broadcast commences at 7am with Breakfast Club program host, Phil Kafcaloudes, sharing a traditional noodle cart breakfast with local audiences on the banks of the Mekong River.
Executive Producer of Radio Australias Khmer service and Australian of the year finalist, Seda Douglas, will commence Radio Australias daily one hour Khmer broadcast at midday, joined by local Cambodian pop star Preap Sovath, as they attract local audiences to explore and uncover what it means to be Cambodian.
Later, the Radio Australia team will join forces with the Phnom Penh International University of Cambodia and popular local identity Khat Sokhim to host a reality style quiz focusing on English learning. This compliments Radio Australias bi-lingual English language learning materials available via download from the Radio Australia website.
For three days up to a million Phnom Penh citizens and people from various provinces gather in the capital to celebrate the Water festival on the banks of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers.
Participation and attendance at the Water Festival builds on the growing links Radio Australia has established with audiences and partners in Cambodia, and highlights the appeal of Radio Australias Khmer service which is broadcast over 90% of the country through a myriad of partner rebroadcasters, as well as the English language service available locally on 101.5FM in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.
9 November 2007
Looking to help video professionals easily capture high-quality digital images from either standard- or high-definition video footage, Thomson has announced a low-cost PCI-Express card for PC workstations. The new Grass Valley Pegasus PCI-Express card offers real-time capture of SD and HD video, as well as VGA screen playback. This is made possible because for the first time the powerful Grass Valley HQ software codec from Thomson is now available as a hardware encoder, enabling HD capture to be performed in real-time.
The Pegasus card is perfect for anyone creating or repurposing high quality video content for corporate presentations, or distribution via the Internet or mobile applications. It comes complete with image capture software and a Software Developers Kit (SDK) for system integrators.
This Pegasus card offers HD quality video capture, but without the prohibitively high storage overhead, said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Thomsons Broadcast & Professional Solutions business unit. This new capture card will enable a broad range of professionals to produce the quality they need to satisfy their clients demands while allowing them to work with both SD and HD source material.
Capturing HD video is very data-intensive, requiring expensive RAID storage. The Pegasus card uses the HQ codec, with its sophisticated compression algorithms, to provide huge storage savings without sacrificing picture quality. The Pegasus PCI-Express card leverages a specially designed HQ-based hardware encoder chip to capture images natively at up to 1920 x 1080/60i and 1280 x 720/60p resolutions. It can also natively display digital signals on a PC at up to 1280 x 1024/60p without down converting the image, and capture video from HDMI, DVI, S-video, and component sources.
In addition, because Pegasus can capture the PC screen display in HD quality, the Grass Valley Pegasus card is the perfect tool for creating training videos and instructional DVDs. The input quality is so clean that subsequent conversions to other distribution formats for example, to mobile phones or the web are cleaner too; and created much more efficiently.
9 November 2007
WORLDSPACE Satellite Radio, one of the world leaders in satellite-based digital radio services, today announced results for the third quarter of 2007 ended September 30, 2007. The Company ended the quarter with 177,644 subscribers worldwide, a loss of 12,689 from the close of the prior quarter, reflecting loss of subscribers in India and the planned cessation of marketing efforts in Europe ahead of the company’s efforts to test and subsequently commence mobile service in Europe. In India, the Company lost 8,713 net subscribers during the third quarter of 2007, reflecting reduced marketing in that region, ending the period with 164,902 subscribers in India, 19% higher than at the end of the third quarter of 2006.
As previously announced, WorldSpace and Fiat Group Automobiles signed a first ever distribution and marketing agreement for satellite radio in Europe. WorldSpace expects that, beginning in late 2008, it will offer customers in Italy, through aftermarket equipment installations available through Fiat’s vast dealership network and other outlets, a mobile satellite radio service with 40-50 channels of music, sports, news and entertainment programming. OEM or factory-installed equipment for Lancia, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models is expected to be available in late 2009. During the quarter, in order to shore up its liquidity, WorldSpace has been engaged in discussions with a variety of potential investors and partners, strategic and financial, about equity and debt financings. The Company hopes to conclude a transaction in the next few months.
WorldSpace Chairman and CEO Noah Samara stated, “We are very pleased with our continuing progress in Italy, as we have now lined up the right partners to make this launch successful, between Fiat, Telecom Italia and Fraunhofer for receiver development. We see great opportunities in this market for a robust mobile service offering, and are confident that, with our partners, we can devise a strategic course to implement our strategy and acquire the financial resources to support it.
“In India, we are operating on a restrained basis,” Samara said. “We are postponing marketing spending until we secure a repeater license that will enable us to provide seamless service to automobiles. We will then be in a position to leverage our streamlined presence in India to launch a successful mobile service there. Over all, we remain confident in the long-term viability and opportunities that our business represents and are encouraged by our initial discussions with a series of potential investors about additional financing.”
For the third quarter of 2007, WorldSpace reported revenues of approximately $3.3 million, roughly flat with revenues of approximately $3.3 million for the third quarter of 2006. Subscription revenue was approximately $1.9 million for the third quarter of 2007, up slightly from approximately $1.8 million in the third quarter of 2006. On a sequential basis, subscription revenues in the third quarter of 2007 were flat with the approximately $1.9 million recorded in the second quarter of 2007.
