26 March 2004
Radio Canada International expands its reach in the major capitals of French-speaking Africa, thanks to a new agreement with German international radio broadcaster, Deutsche Welle. Under the agreement, DW will allow its over 100 local partner radio stations to use its receivers to pick up RCI programming.
This initiative fits perfectly with Radio Canada Internationals repositioning, which puts greater emphasis on building meaningful partnerships with large-scale international radio services. Our agreement with Deutsche Welle will enable us to reach a larger French-speaking audience in Africa, said Jean Larin, director of Radio Canada International. According to Deutsche Welles distribution director, Heinz G. Pianka, Radio-Canada International programming will enrich our current radio offering by providing a Canadian perspective on the major issues of the day.
On March 26, RCI also launches new Portuguese programming specially tailored to Brazilian audiences. Journalist Hector Vilar will host the new weekly programme, a prestigious news and information magazine covering key current affairs in Canada and Brazil. Vilar holds a masters degree in communications, and has worked as reporter and news director at a leading São Paulo daily, Jornal da Tarde, as well as editor and teaching assistant at Université du Québec à Montréal.
Thanks to an agreement with Radio Netherlands, this half-hour programe will be broadcast on 300 AM and FM stations throughout Brazil. It will also be aired live on RCI short-wave on Fridays at 4 p.m. EST, and on weekends via satellite and Internet.
RCI and DW are members of the AIB.
26 March 2004
GlobeCast has partnered with Brazilian telecommunications group, Embratel, to provide contribution broadcast services, internet and telephony for Brazilian terrestrial broadcaster, TV Globo for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. GlobeCast will also be working closely with four additional official Olympic Broadcasting rights holders, ATV and TVB in Hong Kong and Japanese channels, TV Asahi and Fuji TV, to provide specifically tailored packages including satellite transmissions and SNG services, for the duration of the games.
GlobeCasts services for rights holders form part of the companys comprehensive presence at the Athens Olympics. GlobeCast is offering extensive facilities for non-rights holding broadcasters, a number of which have already contracted with GlobeCast for their Olympics coverage, through its Broadcast Base formed in association with UK-based Gearhouse Broadcast and Athens-based Stefi Productions. The Broadcast Base offers non-rights holders a one-stop-shop for all of their production and broadcast requirements, including studios, work space, broadcast equipment, worldwide satellite transmissions, uplinking facilities, playout, conversion, encoding and mobile SNG facilities.
TV Globo will be providing Brazil with national terrestrial coverage of the 24th Olympic Games, and will be using GlobeCast and partner Embratel to manage its contribution delivery, via Intelsat satellites, from the Official International Broadcasting Centre. GlobeCast will be supplying a complete suite of transmission services including multiple two-way satellite and fibre paths from Athens, and two dedicated SNG vehicles for sports and news coverage from around the city.
For Hong Kongs two Olympic broadcast rights holders, GlobeCast will provide six satellite channels with encoding equipment, uplinks and compression for free-to-air ATV and a satellite uplink for TVB.
Japanese rights holders TV Asahi and Fuji TV have signed an agreement with GlobeCast to secure the use of one SNG vehicle each, complete with camera crew for the duration of the Games. This will enable both stations to film live stand ups and report on human interest stories from around the city of Athens.
Graham Smith, Head of European Sports, GlobeCast said: Our reputation for understanding the individual broadcast needs of national stations at major sporting events, and our ability to provide comprehensive tailored services has enabled us to offer our most extensive package to broadcasters at Athens 2004. Our relationship with many broadcasters, such as TV Globo, was established at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 where our Broadcast Base was used by numerous international broadcasters which have already signed up to work with us again. As a result of our continued commitment, industry experience and service levels we have been able to work with our clients to extend our offering to an increasing number of broadcasters looking to present complete and seamless sports coverage to their national home audiences.
GlobeCast is a member of the AIB.
25 March 2004
Michael McEwen, Secretary General of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) announced the appointment of Carol Darling as the new Executive Director of the Association. In this position, Ms. Darling will be responsible for the general management of the Association as well as providing broadcasting expertise and research to NABA members.
Ms. Darling is a respected Broadcast Executive in Canada whose expertise crosses a broad range of disciplines from Engineering to Business Affairs. Ms. Darling has been an active leader in technical and trade organizations in the broadcasting field and has served on Canadian and U.S. based task forces and advisory boards dealing with new communications systems and services. She is currently Chair of the Canadian Digital Television Inc. (CDTV) Technology Working Group and a Director on the Boards of Industry Canada’s Communications Research Centre (CRC) and CDTV.
A graduate engineer from Queen’s University, Ms. Darling’s previous positions include Vice President Business Development and Engineering at the Women’s Television Network (WTN), one of Canada’s most successful specialty networks, and Chair of Advanced Broadcasting Systems of Canada (ABSOC). Earlier positions at Nordicity Group Ltd. and Bell Canada focused on the development of new broadcast and telecommunications services. Most recently, Ms. Darling has provided consulting expertise to a number of organizations in the Canadian television industry.
Peter Smith, Chairman of NABA and Vice President of Advanced Technology at NBC, says the new Executive Director will play a key role in the work of the Association. Carols broad experience and understanding of broadcasting will greatly assist us in making the activities of NABA more relevant to our members Ms. Darling has been recognized for her contributions to the broadcasting industry through several awards including the Canadian Women in Communications (CWC) Trailblazer of the Year Award in 1997. She will assume the Executive Director position at NABA on April 12.
24 March 2004
BBC World Service programme Outlook will be coming live from Beijing in a broadcasting first this week on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 March. It’s the first time foreigners have been allowed into a Chinese broadcast studio for a live transmission with an overseas broadcaster. Outlook will join Radio Beijing for a co-production of the programme, the first time a state broadcaster has collaborated on such a project.
BBC presenter Frederick Dove and Radio Beijing host Jane Chung will look at how one of the world’s fastest developing cities has changed in the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.With the preparations well underway, Outlook will be finding out how Olympic fever is affecting Beijing dwellers. Table Tennis player Deng Yaping, one of China’s biggest sports personalities and an Olympic Committee member, will be discussing her life in the public eye and the impact she thinks the games will have on Beijing.
23 March 2004
Ever sat in front of the TV, shouting the answers to a quiz and swearing you could do better? Come and have a go
if you think youre smart enough offers BBC ONE viewers the chance to take on the studio contestants from the comfort of home and to challenge them for a prize of £30,000 or more.
For the first time, viewers are able to compete against the four studio teams via interactive TV, the internet at www.bbc.co.uk/comeandhaveago, or on a JAVA enabled mobile phone. They will answer exactly the same questions at exactly the same time. To register to play, viewers must call in at a price of 50p. This covers the cost of the call and adds a percentage towards the prize fund, in addition to the £30,000 already guaranteed by the BBC.
The game show is split into two parts. Over the course of the first 50 minutes, the studio teams are whittled down from four to one whilst interactive players compete for the top spot across the nations and regions. The BBC will then whisk a satellite camera to their location, enabling a live head-to-head battle in the second show. At the beginning of the second half, the presenter announces which home team has come top and introduces live pictures from the outside broadcast as they prepare to take on their studio counterparts. Whoever has the highest score over the course of 20 questions will net the cash and with it an invite to the studio for the following week to see if they can continue their winning streak. Even if you don’t qualify for the final, all is not lost as the three remaining studio places will be given to a selection of teams who score 26 or more points.
Jane Lush, Controller, Entertainment Commissioning, says: “We’re always looking to push new interactive formats and now whether you’re at home, in the pub or at a friend’s house, you can take on the teams in the studio. Come and have a go
if you think youre smart enough is a BBC co-production with Tailor-Made Films.
23 March 2004
Euro1080, the first operator to broadcast in High Definition TV throughout Europe, is to use Irdeto Access content protection solutions for its two channels. The services, which launched in January this year, are free to air for now, but will be encrypted from May 1st 2004 using Irdeto’s conditional access technology.
Euro1080 distributes two channels. The Main Channel distributes a daily 12 hours’ programme to European households as well as to a range of venues to familiarise the public with the quality of HDTV has to offer. The Event Channel distributes event programmes (live or recorded) to so-called ‘event cinemas’, equipped with electronic projectors and surround sound systems, as well as to other venues such as theatres, opera houses and sport halls.
The channel bouquet will be protected by Irdeto Access’s content security solution; Irdeto PIsys. Designed to provide the highest levels of protection possible against the theft of content, assets and revenues, it can be scaled to handle millions of subscribers.
