20 November 2006
£25 million cash deal agreed, subject to regulatory approval
Arqiva to acquire customers and operations in France and the USA
Long-term security for customers and staff alike
Arqiva has today announced the signing of a Sale & Purchase Agreement (SPA) with BT to acquire the full-time service components of BTs Satellite Broadcast Services business for £25 million in cash. The deal will include long-term customer contracts, operations and personnel located in the USA, France, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as the UK. Deal completion is subject to regulatory approval in the UK and Germany.
BTs Satellite Broadcast Services business currently provides both full-time and occasional-use satellite services from six teleports, three of which are in the UK, two in the US and one in France. Arqiva will acquire the full-time business, including the US and French teleports and one in the UK, while BT will retain the occasional-use part of the business.
Nick Thompson, managing director of Arqivas Satellite Media Solutions division, said: This acquisition gives us an international footprint with a significant presence in France and the US as well as increasing the scale of our activities in the UK. It will give us improved satellite reach and the ability to serve customers on a world-wide basis. It is an important strategic step for Arqiva.
Barry Bonnett, CEO of BT Media & Broadcast, added: Were delighted to have reached this agreement with Arqiva and believe its an excellent outcome for customers and staff alike. This is core business for Arqiva and they have previously demonstrated successful integration capabilities. A feature of the deal is that Arqiva will become a partner to BT in providing Satellite Broadcast Services to integrate into media solutions for our customers. We expect a smooth transition with no disruption for customers and excellent prospects for staff transferring.
15 November 2006
The WorldDAB Forum has voted to change its name to WorldDMB. The decision was announced at the General Assembly of the organisation, which has over 120 member organisations around the world. WorldDMBs President, Quentin Howard, commented, Were recognising that while radio will always be the main focus for many of our members, we also need properly to represent countries and companies who see mobile TV and multimedia as the core proposition. Howard says the organisation had outgrown its old
name, The Steering Board unanimously supported changing the name to
WorldDMB because digital multimedia broadcasting is an inclusive category
which covers radio, television and new media content. The vote of the
membership gives us a powerful mandate to continue to highlight the flexibility, strength and success of the Eureka 147 family of standards.
The initial success of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) was based on the Eureka 147 project and the digitisation of traditional radio broadcasting. Over the years, the technology has been enhanced with complementary standards developed to facilitate the commercial launch of multimedia and video services. In this way, the standard has rema ined at the forefront of the digital broadcasting arena by incorporating not only radio, but also data (including traffic and safety information), mobile TV (with a choice of DMB and IP based solutions), EPGs (electronic programme guides), music downloads and many other applications. At the General Assembly Quentin Howard noted, In the context of this evolution and diversification, continuing to use the name the WorldDAB Forum risked confusion. Some audiences have sometimes assumed that we only represented digital audio. In addition, it allowed some commentators wrongly to suggest that DAB and DMB are competing
technologies, instead of the truth that they are different layers of the Eureka 147 family of standards. In order to reflect the diversity of its members interests and create a clearer understanding of the flexibility of standards the Forum promotes, a consultation was held on the issue of the name change followed by a vote of the full membership. The result was an overwhelming YES vote in favour of the new name, WorldDMB. The result takes immediate effect.
However, the organisations new name does not affect any of the various acronyms or technology labels already used for the Eureka 147 standards. DAB, for example will still be called DAB and all DAB digital radio receivers will continue to carry the traditional DAB or digital radio logos which are recognised by consumers in different markets across the world. At the General Assembly, members were reminded that this is not the first name change in the history of the organisation. It was launched in 1995 as EuroDAB and changed its name to WorldDAB in 1997 to reflect growing international interest, rollout and membership. This change contributed to the success of the organisation which now has over 120 members from 40 different countries. The name change from WorldDAB to WorldDMB will help promote and advocate the vast array of services available using its Eureka 147 family of standards including the original DAB digital radio which is still the most widespread application of the standard.
WorldDMB President, Quentin Howard, believes the change of name will help the organisation to grow further and to be even more effective. Some of our members are Mobile TV operators and new media companies in Europe and Asia who dont see themselves as audio businesses and in some parts of the world our old name was a barrier to success. But a change of name is a big decision, and Id like to pay special tribute to the many members who have a sole focus on the radio business for backing the change to a more inclusive name. Were united in the task of vigorously promoting the Eureka 147 family standards and thats the challenge for the coming year.
15 November 2006
VT Communications was recently awarded a contract to broadcast a significant number of analogue and digital shortwave programmes for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
The cornerstone of VT Communications’ ability to deliver this contract is the introduction of new broadcast equipment at its UK transmitting stations to facilitate Deutsche Welles analogue and digital broadcasts.
As the result of VT Communications commitment to providing state-of-the-art solutions for broadcasters, the first step in the re-engineered infrastructure was achieved at Woofferton in mid-October, with a new 250 kW short wave transmitter entering service for the first time. The transmitter was supplied by Riz Transmitters Co, from Zagreb in Croatia, with responsibility for the installation and commissioning shared between Riz and VT Communications’ staff.
Work has already commenced both on site at Woofferton and in Zagreb for two more transmitters, with more to follow, one at Woofferton and one at Skelton. The first pair is scheduled for installation late 2006 through early 2007.
15 November 2006
Al Jazeera International, the English language news and current affairs channel that’s sister channel to Al Jazeera Arabic (celebrating its 10th anniversary this month), launched on Wednesday 15 November at 1200 GMT. The new channel says that it is available in over 80 million cable and satellite households across the globe.
The channel was launched from its headquarters in Doha, with Shiulie Ghosh and Sami Zeidan the first news anchors to appear. The channel will move around the world moving to its broadcast centres strategically placed around the world in Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC where presenters Veronica Pedrosa & Teymoor Nabili, Felicity Barr & Stephen Cole, Ghida Fakhry & Dave Marash will present the news respectively. There will be two integrated news hours with input from all four centres.
On day one, the channels news teams are deployed doing stories in over 20 countries around the world in addition to their 60 news bureaux. In the Middle East, Al Jazeera has five correspondents deployed in Israel and the Palestinian territories; unprecedented Africa coverage with feeds from Darfur, Somalia, Harare and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while in Latin America the channels correspondents will report live from Brazil and Venezuela. This reflects the emphasis the channel places on reporting from the South to the North.
Nigel Parsons Managing Director of Al Jazeera English said: “I am absolutely delighted to have launched Al Jazeera English. I firmly believe there is a gap in the market which we will exploit, and that the world needs Al Jazeera in English to bring a new perspective and understanding to world events. I would like to thank everyone involved in the project including all those distributors who are carrying the channel from day one.”
Al Jazeeras English language website, aljazeera.net/english also re-launched at 1200GMT on the same day to reflect the channel’s look and feel and editorial content. It showcases Al Jazeera English’s agenda setting editorial mission and will provide constantly updated coverage of news events from around the world, along with in-depth analysis and background. It will provide RSS feeds, live streams and downloadable clips from the Al Jazeera English channel, as well as interactive discussions and polling. Programme and presenter information as well as weather reports, live business data and sport will also be available via the website.
15 November 2006
NHK World Radio Japan, the overseas broadcasting service of Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation) has started broadcasting its daily Arabic programme to listeners in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe via Sawt Al Alam, the Arabic satellite radio network from WRN, the London-based broadcast and transmission service company, that brings together daily programmes from the Arabic departments of many of the worlds leading public radio broadcasters.
The daily broadcast includes news and programmes that depict the full variety of life in Japan and covers politics and the economy, science, art and music, as well as news from Asia and the world. NHK World Radio Japans Arabic programme is broadcast daily at 1600 UTC on Sawt Al Alam which is available to millions of people on the most popular regional digital satellites: Eurobird 2/Arabsat for the Middle East, Nilesat for North Africa and Hot Bird for Europe.
Mr Yuki Sakagami, Head of South Asia and Middle East Division of NHK World Radio Japan, says, The commencement of the satellite radio transmission of our programmes via WRNs Sawt al Alam reflects one of our strategies to provide information using the most effective media to our target areas.
Gary Edgerton, WRNs Managing Director, adds, WRN is very honoured that NHK has made the historic decision to contract with us for the satellite transmission of its daily Arabic programme that was previously only available to listeners on short wave. Sawt Al Alam, WRNs Arabic language satellite radio station, is part of our strategy to continuously work with our valued international public service clients and provide them with new broadcast service solutions. In turn this allows them to remain at the edge of technological change and to reach ever growing numbers of listeners with their content.
15 November 2006
Broadcasting on the BADR-3 satellite will allow the new Iraqi Bouquet to immediately reach an audience of 130 Million viewers, from Morocco to the Gulf.
Arabsat, the leading satellite operator in the Middle East and North Africa region, announces the new broadcast of an 11 TV channels Iraqi Bouquet on the BADR-3 satellite of the Arabsat fleet.
The digital distribution platform in Ku-band will allow the Iraqi Bouquet to directly access Arabsats extensive Middle Eastern and North African audience of a 130 Million viewers via its constellation of 4 BADR satellites @ 26°East. The new bouquet includes: Al-Blad, Ashour, Al-Dyar, Nahrain, Rafedain, Al-Bagdadia, Ashtar, Al-Masar, Al-Salam, Turkomania, Kordistan.
Mr. Khalid Balkheyour, Arabsat President & CEO, welcomed the launch of the Iraqi Bouquet as part of the Arabsat rapidly expanding offering of channels, wishing them every success. Confirming Arabsats strong commitment to help its customers succeed and steadily support their growth throughout the region, “We are very proud to have earned their trust in our system and honoured by their confidence in the extensive penetration of Arabsat’s constellation of BADR satellites at our 26° East primary fast growing DTH neighbourhood he concluded.
