26 April 2004
The Australian Broadcasting Authority has released terms of reference for an investigation into adult services being broadcast into Australia from overseas via satellite. The ABA has received complaints concerning the apparent availability of pornography on these adult services.
The broadcasting of program material that has been refused classification, or has been classified as X by the Office of Film and Literature Classification is prohibited, said Professor David Flint, ABA Chairman. A formal investigation will enable the ABA to consider all relevant material and reach a view on whether there has been a breach of the Broadcasting Services Act.
The adult services being investigated include: Free-XTV and Backroom, Sexz.TV and BlueKiss.
The investigation will be conducted into the following matters:
Into which category of broadcasting service, listed in section 11 of the Broadcasting Services Act, do these adult services fall?
What person or persons provide these adult services?
Do these services comply with the Broadcasting Services Act and any applicable licence conditions and codes of practice, or any international cooperative agreements, particularly with regard to program content?
What action, if any, should the ABA take in relation to its findings on the matters listed in paragraphs (a) to (c) above?
The ABA will seek further information from service providers before finalising a report. The terms of reference are available on the ABA website.
26 April 2004
Ministry of Labour spokesman Snuki Zikalala has been appointed as the South African Broadcasting Corporations managing director news and current affairs. SABC spokesman Paul Setsetse said Zikalala would be responsible for the strategic leadership, focus and operational direction of news and current affairs at the national broadcaster.
Zikalala obtained a BA Honours in industrial sociology from the University of the Witwatersrand, and an MA and PhD, both in journalism, from Sofia University, Bulgaria. Zikalala has won several awards including Sanlam’s Best Economics Journalist; the South African Medial Association’s Best Medical Reporter and government’s Communicator of the Year award.
Zikalala is returning to the SABC from the Ministry of Labour where he was the senior executive responsible for communications and media.
21 April 2004
NHK, Japan’s international broadcaster, have renewed their transmission contract with VT Merlin Communications to broadcast a daily total of 36 hours of Radio Japan programming on its global short wave network.
In addition to the current services, the new contract will see VT Merlin deliver a further 7 hours of daily programming from its sites in the UK and United Arab Emirates, as well as providing coverage from BBC World Services’ site in Singapore, currently operated and maintained by VT Merlin.
The award of these extra hours of NHK’s programmes recognises VT Merlin’s continued commitment to high-quality service performance with day-to-day output as well as emergency broadcasts. VT Merlin was able to offer improved technical performance, while delivering cost efficiencies to NHK utilising its own facilities and engineering expertise.
Richard Hurd, VT Merlin’s Head of Transmission Sales commented: “NHK have been a short wave customer of VT Merlin’s for over 7 years, and we are delighted at the continuation of this contract and in being able to assist NHK with their new services. It is a positive reflection of the commitment being made by broadcasters to short wave as a delivery platform, as well as VT Merlin’s consistency in delivering high quality, cost effective short wave coverage to NHK’s target regions”.
20 April 2004
Kiss FM 92.9, Greece’s first Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radio station, has chosen Harris Corporation Broadcast Communications Division to help transmit information to the visitors of the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Harris is providing a complete audio head-end for DAB transmission for up to 20 audio channels comprising 20 D-ACE DAB encoders, a D-EMUX ensemble multiplexer and the PC software for controlling the entire system.
“For such a prestigious event, we were very thorough in our assessment of equipment. We chose Harris as we have used its solutions before and found them to be very reliable and effective,” said Mr. Panagiotis Kostakis, chairman and CEO at Kiss FM 92.9. “For this installation we have been impressed with the speed of delivery. We received the equipment within two weeks and our staff was given the necessary training the week after.”
Harris Corporation is a member of the AIB.
20 April 2004
BBC Technology, provider of products and services to global media-driven organizations, has signed a new contract with Discovery Networks International to provide high-bandwidth streamed programme content to Discovery Channel website users via BBC Technology’s dedicated broadband service in international markets outside the United States. Under the terms of the agreement, BBC Technologys Internet Solutions team will encode programmes onto a digital platform and
provide content hosting and streaming, thereby laying the foundation for future multi-channel content delivery of Discovery networks family of 10 international channels.
“In this new, multi-platform world we live in, its vital that we can provide our audiences with content in whatever format they want it, wherever and whenever they want,” said Tanya Field, vice president, new media, Discovery Networks International. “BBC Technology will help us make the most of our content by optimizing accessibility of programme material as well as the audiences’ experience of it. In addition, we will be able to
create new revenue opportunities by offering fresh and compelling forms of
interaction with our programming.”
The implementation utilizes several elements of BBC Technology’s Internet Solutions portfolio, including: content encoding, digital rights management capabilities and intelligent network delivery.
20 April 2004
At NAB, Panasonic Broadcast Europe was able to announce growing support and commitment by a number of key European broadcasters for Panasonics DVCPRO P2 memory card technology and ING, the tapeless IT news gathering system.
RFO in France, Réseau France Outre-mer, the French public broadcaster with responsibility for serving French territories round the world has decided to use Panasonics P2 solid state technology. RFO was one of the first European broadcasters to adopt DVCPRO technology in the late 1990s. Sogecable, Spain’s leading pay television group and a major European media organisation, is studying the adoption of P2 technology for a future replacement of its ENG DVCPRO equipment. DVCPRO equipment is widely used across Sogecable media organisations including Canal+,CNN+, and Canal Satélite Digital. ZDF in Germany will be purchasing P2 to fully evaluate the technology. ZDF is a major user of DVCPRO equipment. Danish Broadcast , a major user of DVCPRO equipment announced that it would also be purchasing a first set of P2 units to fully evaluate the technology. Swedish Television (SVT) which purchased 72 DVCPRO50 camcorders in the autumn of 2003 for its news operations announced at the time that the purchase decision was strongly influenced by developments on P2, which it was closely monitoring.
Panasonic has also been working closely with a number of other key European broadcasters, which form part of the global P2 Partners Programme to help in the development of the technology and products. The broadcasters involved include: TF1 in France, ZDF and MDR in Germany, the Sogecable Group (including CNN+ and Canal+) in Spain and ITN, BBC and Reuters in the UK.
