26 March 2007
EuroNews has announced that South Africa-based MultiChoice will carry the Europe’s most-watched international news channel on its DStv platform to more than a million homes.
EuroNews is available on DStvs channel 61 providing MultiChoices customers with access to international news from a European perspective. DStv viewers are able to choose between five language versions of EuroNews: English, French, German, Portuguese or Spanish.
EuroNews is the only international news channel to be available on all satellite platforms in Africa, now available throughout the African continent to 13 million homes as a result of this agreement with MultiChoice. In addition, EuroNews remains the only international news channel to have a full time terrestrial frequency in Africa. It has been available in Kinshasa since 2004.
Philippe Cayla, Chairman and CEO of EuroNews says: “We are very proud and excited to broadcast Europes first 24-hour news channel throughout the whole continent thanks to this agreement with Multichoice. EuroNews has concentrated on global expansion for many years and concluding distribution throughout the sub Saharan continent has been a main priority for EuroNews. Africas continuing development means that it needs strong communication links and more importantly an independent view of world events. EuroNews will be a strong medium for Africa and we hope to forge strong links for the future. We will bring European and international perspectives on world events to our African viewers and provide an insight into European and world cultures.”
Says Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice GM for Content: In the pursuit to acquire the highest quality television content from across the world, MultiChoice aims to ensure there is a choice of programming that is compelling and relevant to subscribers. We are very pleased that the EuroNews channel fulfils all of these prerequisites.
Introducing EuroNews on our bouquet was yet another milestone for us at MultiChoice, which translates into more choice for our subscribers, she said.
23 March 2007
Somalia’s interim government, acting through its Committee for the National Security Council, has ordered the Al Jazeera office in Mogadishu to stop its operation from Thursday 22 March 2007. There have been no any explanations or reasons provided for the decision.
Wadah Khanfar, Director General of the Al Jazeera Network, stated that: “Al Jazeera, while expressing its disappointment of the decision to close our office in Mogadishu, reasserts its commitment to the principles of the free press and defends the right of viewers to know what happens across the world with impartiality and integrity.”
Al Jazeera has confirmed that it will continue to cover events in Somalia from other sources and locations as it has in the past when previous governments closed down its offices. Al Jazeera English has been noted reporting the situation in Mogadishu since the Al Jazeera office closure, using agency pictures.
22 March 2007
South Africa’s public broadcaster, SABC, has announced that it intends to launch an international, satellite-delivered news channel to Africa. Again.
Over the last two years, SABC has been planning a foray into international TV, with SABC Africa as the brand, drawing on resources from the Corporation – Africa’s largest broadcaster – but also with contributions from other channels. SABC Africa didn’t get off the ground partly, says SABC news and current affairs chief Snuki Zikalala (pictured), because of the reliance on other organisations’ bureaux to provide much of the news.
SABC International plans to do things differently this time. The SABC has been developing its own news bureaux across Africa and in Europe and other strategic locations to bolster its newsgathering capabilities. With these in place, SABC International can launch and it’s set for next year, although there will be a trial in June.
SABC International will have to compete with Al Jazeera English, BBC World, CNN International, France 24 and other global news channels that are focusing on developing African distribution. At the same time, Kenya-based news agency chief Salim Amin is fast developing a commercially-funded pan-African news channel.
There is much going on out there.
20 March 2007
Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has won the Digital Studio Industry Leadership “Vendor of the Year” Award during the Cable, Satellite, Broadcast & Communications (CABSAT) exhibition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The award, sponsored by the International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers (IABM), recognizes the efforts that Harris has made to contribute to the growth of the broadcast and production industry in the region.
“We have made a significant commitment to this region by investing in new offices in Dubai as well as establishing a locally known, Arabic-speaking team led by Said Bacho. These initiatives have been key factors in Harris Corporation’s continuing broadcast business growth throughout the Middle East,” said Dave Dougall, vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa for the Harris Broadcast Communications Division.
Use of Harris products has been gaining momentum throughout the Middle East as demonstrated by the recent purchases made by many of the area’s major broadcasters, including Al-Jazeera English in Qatar; 1/9 Media in Libya; DigiTurk, Turkey; JMC/ArabSat, Jordan; Al-Majd Channel in Saudi Arabia; Al-Rafidine TV in Iraq; Cham TV, United Arab Emirates; Al-Sa’aa, O-TV, Athir TV, WOW TV and the Ministry of Defence in Egypt; Fashion TV Arabia, Al-Jaras TV, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), National Broadcasting Network (NBN) and Future TV in Lebanon; Al-Resalah TV and Gulf Sat in Kuwait, and others.
The gala awards event was attended by more than 350 of the region’s leading professionals in the broadcast, production, post, and film industry, as well as systems integrators, consultants and several high-profile special guests.
20 March 2007
German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle is now offering advertising slots on its worldwide TV channel DW-TV in the framework of a European bouquet.
“Europe TV” is a joint project of DW and TV 5 (France), TVE (Spain) and Euronews. It is an initiative of FTP, France Télévisions Publicité, which public service French TV channels such as France 2 and France 3.
The entire offer of “Europe TV” reaches more than 430 million households worldwide and constitutes a unique platform for advertising on an international scale.
20 March 2007
Content integration, playout and distribution services for Top Up TV Anytime
Three-year deal to facilitate on-demand services for digital terrestrial television
Solution encompasses integration with Arqiva-provided SDN multiplex system
Arqiva has secured a contract to provide content integration, playout and distribution services for Top Up TV to facilitate overnight delivery of selected programming to set-top boxes. The three-year deal will see Arqiva providing Top Up TV Anytime with three playout channels from Chalfont Grove to Arqivas switching centre in London. The integrated content will then be delivered to the SDN digital terrestrial television multiplex system at Arqivas Feltham media centre, ready for transmission.
Simon Dore, chief technical officer at Top Up TV said, We needed a flexible solution that combined content integration with a reliable distribution network. Arqivas existing relationships with the DTT multiplexes combined with their offer of a solution tailored to our needs made it an ideal technical partner.
John Bozza, head of broadcast sales at Arqiva added, Top Up TV Anytime is an innovative approach to providing programmes on-demand and makes very efficient use of digital terrestrial capacity. Were delighted to be playing such a crucial role in the delivery process.
