15 November 2006
SES ASTRA and SES NEW SKIES, two SES GLOBAL companies , announced an agreement to broadcast France 24, the new French channel for international news, on an ASTRA satellite at 19.2° East for Europe and on the NSS-7 satellite at 22° West serving the African continent. Starting on December 7th, more than 21 million European digital households will receive France 24 via ASTRA. The contract has been signed through SES French partner Globecast.
France 24, a subsidiary of the TF1 and France Télévision, will be transmitted free to air 24 hours and seven days a week on two independent channels one in French, one in English.
We are happy to participate in the launch of this new French channel for international news that will profit from our optimized European coverage as well as the great security of our satellites, explains Alexander Oudendijk, Chief Commercial Officer of SES ASTRA. France 24 will also benefit from our Groups synergy with the use of the NSS-7 satellite from our sister company SES NEW SKIES that offers a privileged access to the entire African continent.
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.
13 November 2006
Al Jazeera English, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel announced today their team of news presenters based at their Doha headquarters ahead of their worldwide launch on 15th November 2006.
Al Jazeera Englishs Director of News and Programmes, Steve Clark has assembled a team of experienced presenters from diverse backgrounds: Mariam Nemazee formerly of Russia Today, So Rahman from Granada TV, Kamahl Santamaria formerly of Sky News Australia and Sami Zeidan previously of CNBC.*
They join the following presenters who were previously announced to the press: Jane Dutton who most recently worked as presenter/reporter on The Business of Development for CNBC Europe/US, David Foster who joined from Sky News, Shiulie Ghosh formerly of ITV News, Darren Jordon who was one of the main presenters at the BBC and Lauren Taylor former Economics Correspondent of ITV News.
13 November 2006
Arqiva to uplink worlds first wedding channel
Wedding TV to launch on Sky in December this year
5-year deal includes space segment on Eurobird satellite
Arqiva today announced that it has secured a contract to enable UK direct-to-home distribution for Wedding TV. Due to launch in December, Wedding TV is the worlds first entertainment channel dedicated to the emotion and drama of relationships and weddings. Arqiva will uplink the channel onto the Sky platform via space segment on the Eurobird satellite.
Mirek Grabiec, COO, Wedding TV, said, Alongside enabling our direct-to-home distribution in the UK, Arqiva has also provided us with digital archiving facilities to store our content, making our planned roll-out across Europe much simpler and more cost-efficient. Arqiva has considerable experience in helping new channels to launch and weve found their solution comprehensive and tailored to our needs.
John Bozza, head of broadcast sales at Arqivas Satellite Media Solutions division, added: Arqiva works closely with new channels to ensure that the launch process is as straightforward as possible. We are delighted to add the worlds first wedding channel to our list of customers and look forward to continuing to work with Wedding TV to extend its reach out across Europe.
