10 October 2007
Teletrax has engaged the services of Pilson Communications, Inc., whose president, Neal H. Pilson, was formerly president of CBS Sports, and DPB Communications, Inc., managed by Dave Berman, former senior vice president of PanAmSat, to develop television sports rights and content management opportunities for the global broadcast intelligence company, it was announced today. Teletrax is a subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated (Nasdaq: MDLK) and recently announced an agreement with Major League Baseball® to test its digital watermarking and broadcast evaluation service.
Pilson, recently listed among the top 20 most influential sports business media executives by the Sports Business Journal, and whose current clients include NASCAR, Arena Football League, the Rose Bowl, World Series of Poker and JetBlue Airways LiveTV, among many others, served in a number of executive capacities at CBS, including two terms as president of the networks sports division. Berman also served CBS in several capacities in New York and London, including 10 years as vice president of production, operations and administration of CBS Broadcast International, before joining PanAmSat, the worlds largest private provider of satellite-based communications services, which was merged with Intelsat in 2006.
Neal and Dave bring unique skills, extraordinary contacts, industry knowledge and business savvy that will help expand Teletrax already an established presence in the television news, entertainment and advertising sectors into the very dynamic sports arena, said Laurence Moskowitz, chairman of Teletrax and chief executive of Medialink. Sports leagues, teams and associations face an increasingly difficult task in tracking and protecting their valuable content. Neal and Dave will help us bring the power of digital watermarking technology and the global reach of Teletrax into this vibrant marketplace.
There is a rapidly growing need for greater transparency and accountability in the world of television sports coverage, Pilson explained. Billions of dollars, euros, pounds and yen are involved in the payment for broadcasting rights and the sale of advertising and sponsorship. With so much value at stake, an electronic watchdog such as Teletrax is not a luxury, but a critical tool. Pilson and Berman will work with Teletrax sales and business development director Christopher Golden, who joined Teletrax earlier in the year from The Hollywood Reporter.
Teletrax offers the only digital video monitoring and content tracking service that provides vital broadcast intelligence on a global scale to video providers such as entertainment studios, news organizations, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. The company is a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG) and Medialink, with an underlying technology that is patent protected both by Philips and Digimarc Corp. (Nasdaq: DMRC).
Teletrax currently maintains a proprietary network of detectors that monitors the television broadcasts of nearly 1,500 channels from more than 50 nations, including all 210 markets in the United States, representing all measured U.S. television households. Its international network covers television stations across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, South and Central America, and Canada. Teletrax clients include ABC Television Network, Associated Press, BBC, CBS Television, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBC News Channel, The NBC Agency, NBC Universal Domestic Television, Reuters Television, United Nations, ITN Networks, Euro RSCG 4D DRTV, and Medialink. A number of other companies are also in active trials with the Teletrax service.
2 October 2007
VOA Korean launches three new programs and transforms its Seoul bureau into multimedia News Center
The Voice of Americas (VOA) Korean Service today launches three new programs and transforms its Seoul bureau into a multimedia News Center. The initiatives expand VOAs reach to North Koreans.
North Korea is one of the most closed societies in the world, said VOA Director Danforth Austin. It is imperative that we make every effort to provide North Koreans with accurate news and information about U.S. and world events that they dont receive in their domestic media.
VOAs three new Korean-language programsAmerica Today, News Panorama, and VOA News Paradewill increase its radio broadcasts to five hours daily from three and half.
America Today ( 11:00 p.m. Korean time , 1400 UTC) is a daily 30-minute evening program highlighting all walks of American society, people, and culture.
VOA News Parade ( 4:00 a.m. Korean time, 2000 UTC) is a one-hour news program focusing on Washingtons responses to the days major news through discussions with experts in international affairs and foreign policy.
News Panorama ( 9:00 p.m. Korean time, 1200 UTC) covers the main news around the Korean peninsula with live reports from Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo, and other parts of the world.
With an expanded staff and equipped for independent production, VOAs Seoul News Center will provide a steady stream of reports for use throughout VOA with enhanced coverage of events in North and South Korea, as well as other parts of Asia.
2 October 2007
The Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) are now broadcasting a total of seven hours a day to Burma in response the Burmese government’s crackdown, doubling the pre-crisis airtime. Starting Sept. 26, VOA increased Burmese language broadcasts from one hour and a half to three hours daily and RFA from two to four hours daily.
In an exclusive interview on the first day of VOA’s expanded airtime, First Lady Laura Bush urged Burma’s military government to remember that innocent lives are at stake. “I want to say to the armed guards and to the soldiers: Don’t fire on your people. Don’t fire on your neighbors. Join this movement.”
“The Burmese people are starving for accurate information, both about the world’s reaction to their struggle for democracy and also about what is happening in their own land. Our expanded Burmese-language broadcasts are more important than ever in satisfying this hunger,” said James K. Glassman, Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal government agency that oversees both VOA and RFA.
A bystander to the demonstrations in Rangoon who was shot by soldiers remarked in an RFA interview, “The Burmese state media announced today that eight were wounded and one had died in the clashes. We can never know the true figure. They will cover up whatever death toll they can to hide the truth.”
VOA and RFA have a measured audience of some 20% of adults weekly in cities across Burma. In times of crisis, listening often spikes to levels twice the weekly rate. Programs can be heard on shortwave and medium wave in Burma, are rebroadcast on satellite and are available through the Internet at www.VOANews.com/Burmese and www.rfa.org/burmese.
2 October 2007
BBC Learning English has become the first international content provider to officially launch on Mobiledu.cn, Nokias new mobile English Language Teaching (ELT) platform in China. Hundreds of millions of English-learners in China will now be able to use their mobile phones to take authentic and modern English learning courses provided by the BBC, including Take Away English, Real English and Quizzes.
Mobiledu.cn is a new learning application software specifically developed by Nokia for mobile devices. Nokia Director of Mobiledu.cn, Peter Zhang, said: As a new interactive learning tool, Mobiledu.cn makes learning possible anywhere and any time, and that is why it has been very popular in the market. As more users install Mobiledu.cn on their Nokia phones, more people can access and enjoy the convenience and value brought by Mobiledu.cn.
Commenting on the significance of the partnership, BBC World Service Business Development Manager for China and North Asia, Raymond Li, said: China is a very special market. It has the largest number of English learners and is the worlds largest mobile market with more than 460 million users of mobile phones. We have been keen to establish ourselves in China, and this partnership with Nokia and its mobile learning platform, Mobiledu.cn, is a real milestone in bringing our world-class content to learners of English.
Nokia Sales and Marketing Manager of Mobieldu.cn, Angela Long, added: Mobiledu.cn provides content which meets the various demands of users on learning, work, entertainment and life in general. The BBC is one of the best-known and authoritative brands in the industry, and, by bringing its Learning English content into our service, we are hoping to provide our users with a better learning experience – in addition to the BBC brand image which is strong among English-learners in China.
Andrew Thompson, Head of BBC Learning English, welcomed the new partnership: BBC ELT has been popular in China for a long time and already has a huge number of fans right across the traditional media platforms of radio and online. This launch on mobile devices offers our audience a convenient new way of learning English interactively anywhere and any time and also expands the BBCs English Learning offer in China.
2 October 2007
LA-based post house, Digital Jungle Post Production recently used its new Quantel Pablo suite to help tell a story of international adventure in providing post services for the Discovery/Travel Channel series 1000 Places to See Before You Die.
Produced by Stone Productions, the 13-episode series follows the journeys of newlywed couple, Albin and Melanie Ulle, who put their lives on hold to travel the world for 14 weeks. The series is based on the best-selling travel book of the same name written by Patricia Schultz.
Digital Jungle served as full-service post house on the project. Facing a tight two-month deadline to finish the series, online editor Alison Andoos employed the companys Pablo suite for online editorial and auto assembly work. Senior colorist Greg Hamlin color corrected the show, while Kim Ho handled titling. Russel Johnson and Lisa Baro served as audio mixers.
Because the schedule was tight, I designed a workflow that was economical for the client and efficient for us, explained Digital Jungle vice president, Kassi Crews.
The series was shot on a mix of formats including DVCPRO 720P, DVCAM, HDVCAM, BetaSP and Digibeta. In addition, Andoos was given QuickTime files and still images in tiff and jpeg format. All of it had to be assembled in the Pablo.
The editors who off-lined the show cut 29.97 DVCAM, without regard to the frame-rate or resolution requirements for the final, said Crews. But with Pablo, that didnt present a problem. It allows media of differing frame rates and resolutions to be assembled on the same time-line. When the show is ready for delivery, everything is output at the correct frame-rate and resolution.
Crews explained that the company recently built a digital intermediate theater around its Pablo, equipped with Barco DLP-90 and 35mm film projectors.
Pablo serves as the central hub of the theater because we can do so many different things on it color grading, restoration, compositing, editing. It has every toolset that we need, said Crews. We can take anything in, and we can put anything out. The Pablo gives us the opportunity to do it all, without having to have three or four different boxes.
With technology changing on a daily basis, I think its important for us as a company to sit down and analyze each job that comes in and see what workflow works best, said Andoos. Every job is different.
Using a high-end piece of equipment like the Pablo helped us get the show out on time. Its an all-in-one system, she added.
Pablos ability to load four HD episodes at once was another key benefit, Andoos said. She explained that this enabled her to start a new episode, while previous episodes were still on the system, awaiting final QC and approval.
The Pablo is a frame-based system not a clip-based system, so every time I needed to do a new version of the show, it didnt take up more storage, she said. I only changed or stored the new frames that were needed.
28 September 2007
Al Jazeera Sport Channel (JSC Sport +1/ JSC Sport +2) announced today that it has reached more than one million subscribers, an unprecedented figure in Arab television subscriber history.
I and the entire Al Jazeera Sport Channel staff are delighted by this achievement which we have accomplished in only a few years since the Channels launch in 2003. This is a testament to the Channels superb content which our subscribers recognize and value, said Ayman Jada, the Managing Director of the Sports Channel.
The Channel has acquired a long list of TV rights for top quality regional and global sporting events including the Qatari, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Argentinean, Portuguese and Japanese leagues. In addition, Al Jazeera Sport has the TV rights to some of the most important European football competitions such as the English, Spanish, French and German Cup, not to mention the European League Cup, the competition that Al Jazeera Sport has had the exclusive rights to since last season.
On September 1, 2007, three subscribers (Ibrahim Yousef, Naser Al-Qahtani, Muftah Al-Hajiri) who had entered the Channels One Million Subscriber Competition were announced as the lucky winners of the draw and will drive home with their prizes from Ford: Focus, the new Escape and Edge.
The cars will be given to the winners today at a celebration held in Dubai, UAE, to mark the one million subscriber figure. The celebration will be attended by the Channels senior management and stars including Ayman Jada, Rabeh Madjer, Tarek Dhiab, Said Aouita, Karim Alami, Hichem Khalsi and Yousef Saif.
Hussein Murad, Sales and Marketing director of Ford Middle East said: “We are proud to support Al Jazeera Sport Channel and congratulate them on their unprecedented accomplishment, surpassing the one million subscriber mark. Ford Middle East and Al Jazeera Sport Channel are one in reaching out to the youth. While Al Jazeera Sport provides quality programming through its premier sports programs, Ford is relentless in its commitment to provide cutting-edge products that connect well with the youth, complementing their lifestyles and giving them the total ownership experience.”
