23 July 2009
Pharos, a leading content management and workflow provider, has opened a new US office and appointed Glen Sakata as General Manager – Americas to help capitalise on strong demand for Pharos solutions.
Sakata has over 20 years industry experience in sales, marketing, and general management with technology leaders including Louth Automation, Cisco Systems and Harmonic.
Over the last decade new types of entertainment and content delivery have forced broadcasters to rethink their traditional workflows and processes, comments Sakata, Innovative and forward looking developers like Pharos understand the bigger picture and can show a proven track record helping some of the worlds leading broadcasters to improve productivity and significantly reduce costs.
Sakata will be based close to the Silicon Valley and will liaise with the US headquarters of several established Pharos international clients such as CNN, HBO, Turner, Technicolor and Viacom.
Glens experience with the best in automation and content distribution alongside his extensive network of contacts in North America will greatly accelerate awareness of Pharos Mediator in the US market says Russell Grute, Marketing Director at Pharos. This long term investment will allow Pharos to take advantage of opportunities we have identified in the USA. Many of our core customers are already beginning to look further than technology and are now investing in our productivity solutions for broadcast and new media process management.
The new US office is part of a long term strategy to make Pharos an internationally recognised brand name, and establish a leadership position in the market for content workflow management. In 2008, Pharos opened offices in Singapore leading to successful implementations of Mediator at HBO Asia and Globecast Asia.
Pharos solutions help multi-channel broadcasters and service providers quickly adopt and benefit from file based multi-platform distribution. With Pharos, organisations can simplify workflow processes, unify operational teams and better utilise the technology infrastructure across the entire broadcast value chain. Millions of media assets across hundreds of television channels are powered 24/7 by Pharos’ software architecture, integration expertise and comprehensive support services.
23 July 2009
S4M Solutions for Media has won a new contract from one of the leading Dutch media companies. After an intensive selection process RTL Nederland decided in favour of S4M: In the future, the Dutch media company will manage its advertising campaigns with S4Ms most modern S4AdSales system.
With its four TV broadcasting stations RTL 4, RTL 5, RTL 7 and RTL 8, its fast growing digital activities and the Dutch leading radio station, Radio 538, RTL Nederland is a significant player on the Dutch media market. Seven days a week and 24 hours a day RTL Nederland provides in the need of the Dutch consumer with a great variety of national and international content. Advertising has to be managed for several stations and forms of advertising. Thus the broadcaster was searching for a cutting edge media sales system that provides for complex automated booking and optimization procedures. S4Ms airtime sales system S4AdSales comes up to those needs.
Paul Siero, Chief Commercial Officer at RTL Nederland: We opted for S4AdSales, because it allows us to manage and place commercial airtime with great flexibility and transparency. This enables us to further improve client services and of course, help us in further enhancing efficiency of our stations.
The so-called spot optimizer constitutes the core of the application. It enables automated planning: RTL Nederland usually doesnt sell certain programs to its advertisers, but gross rating points (GRP). The corresponding GRP packages are individually defined. According to the desired number of contacts within the chosen target audience, the spot optimizer automatically determines how many spots have to be placed, at what time and in which programs. S4AdSales then proposes a possible scenario and also provides a respective simulation run. After this, users can amend and test the scenario several times. Of course, the underlying legal guidelines and customers specific rules can be defined individually.
The big advantage of this procedure: The simulations allow to exert influence on bookings and consequently on revenue whereas over delivery of manual GRP bookings can be reduced while keeping or improving customer placement preferences.
S4AdSales is used by private and public service broadcasters in Europe, Asia and North America. The latest S4AdSales version will be presented at IBC 2009, booth 3.A41.
RTL Nederland
RTL Nederland is market leader with four television channels: RTL 4, RTL 5, RTL 7 and RTL 8. The company entertains and informs a vast audience seven days per week, 24 hours per day. RTL Nederlands channels offer popular programmes like the RTL news, RTL boulevard and miscellaneous top movies and series. With its market leadership on television, the number one radio station, Radio 538, and growing digital activities, RTL Nederland is one of the Dutch leading media companies
S4M Solutions for Media GmbH
The Cologne based company S4M Solutions for Media, a subsidiary of arvato systems and RTL Television, develops and distributes software solutions specialized on the broadcast- and new media industry. Today, S4M systems are used in 30 countries around the world. Whether commercial air time sales or video content management; whether program planning, rights licensing, ratings evaluation or production planning: S4M has got the solution. Furthermore, the S4M portfolio includes professional consulting services to pass along combined knowledge of media and IT to customers.
16 July 2009
AIBs 2009
The 2009 AIBs are open for entry until 31
July – has your entry reached us yet?
In the five years since they were inaugurated,
the AIBs have become a major celebration of success in TV, radio and
cross-platform broadcasting.
Entries are submitted by broadcasters
throughout the world: this year’s entries have been submitted by the UK’s
Channel Four and BBC, Pakistan’s GEO TV, RTHK in Hong Kong and Russia Today in
Moscow among many, many others.
With an international jury to provide a
totally independent review of the work submitted, the AIBs retain a level of
impartiality that few other Awards can match.
Download the entry booklet
here!
16 July 2009
GlobeCast and Russia Today have concluded a deal to distribute the channel in Asia to a variety of distribution networks and platforms, beginning with India. Millions of homes and thousands of hotel rooms throughout India will now receive this top channel.
To bring the channel into India, GlobeCast oversaw all regulatory requirements for Russia Todays launch, including securing of the downlink license and landing rights. GlobeCasts expertise and strong presence in India enabled it to secure the license within a shorter timeframe, in a challenging broadcast climate.
Russia Today is now available on cable and DTH platforms in India including WWIL, Dish Hits, InCable, 7Star, Big TV and SunDirect platforms representing a potential viewership of 7 million homes. GlobeCast is also bringing the channel to over 15,000 rooms in more than 100 high-end hotel networks in India. A total of 300 hotels will eventually receive this content according to the deal.
In a separate deal, GlobeCast has reached an agreement with Hong Kongs Cable TV, expanding Russia Todays reach to viewers in the city-state.
As Russia Todays chosen distribution partner, GlobeCast is in talks with various other large networks to carry the channel to the widest possible audience, including obtaining regulatory licences in other parts of Asia, which will allow for expansion into new markets in the region for Russia Today.
Russia Today is Russias free-to-air 100% English-language channel, broadcasting news and current affairs programming. GlobeCast is pleased to be working with this major broadcaster as part of its expansion into rights management and distribution. GlobeCast focuses on international content as an increasingly vibrant part of the television industry, and leverages the relationships with broadcasters around the world to bring them to new audiences.
16 July 2009
The following press release was issued by the Al Jazeera press office on 15 July:
Al Jazeera is astonished to learn of the Palestinian Authority’s decision to suspend the networks operations in the West Bank and the PAs intention to take legal action against Al Jazeeras Arabic channel. The Palestinian Authority has stated its decisions are in response to Aljazeera reporting the accusations made by Secretary-general of the Fatah movement Mr. Farouk Kaddoumi against the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his advisor Mohammed Dahlan. Mr. Kaddoumi accused both leaders of being aware of an Israeli plan to kill the late president Yasser Arafat.
Al Jazeera believes that it has maintained strict professional journalistic standards and acted in accordance with its Code of Ethics in its coverage, and that the Palestinian Authority’s reaction reflects a repression of the freedom of media and a refusal to tolerate the opinions of others. Al Jazeera is surprised that it has been targeted by this decision while many other Arab and international media organizations also broadcast the Kaddoumis allegations. None of them have been reproached. Al Jazeera declares its ongoing commitment to covering events related to Palestine with the highest degree of professionalism and responsibility.
16 July 2009
From the GSMA Mobile Business Briefing:
Chinese vendors are reportedly the big winners in China Mobile’s third-round 3G network expansion tender worth CNY8.6 billion (US$1.26 billion).
According to Reuters, ZTE has won 34 percent of the deal for the latest supply of TD-SCDMA kit, whilst Huawei grabbed 22 percent and Datang won 21 percent. China Mobile kicked off the third round TD-SCDMA network mobile equipment bidding on 16 March. The world’s largest mobile operator said it would buy equipment for its 39,000 base stations in 200 Chinese cities, expanding its network coverage to 70 percent of the country. The remainder was reportedly dispensed to five companies, including New Postcom, FiberHome, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, and Potevio with shares of 5 to 6 percent each.
The tender is part of a rollout of 3G networks in the country that is valued at US$58.5 billion through 2011 by China Mobile and smaller rivals China Telecom and China Unicom
Meanwhile, Dow Jones Newswires reports that China Mobile will invest CNY70 billion (US$10.25 billion) in building and upgrading its networks and promoting the use of its 3G services in the country’s vast rural areas over the next three years, citing an agreement between the company and China’s Ministry of Agriculture. The move will see it add at least 10,000 so-called ‘natural’ villages to its network coverage every year in the next three years, with at least 98 percent of the country’s more than 5 million natural villages covered by the time the plan is complete.
