13 January 2012
Babcock International Group (Babcock) has won a 10-year contract to continue providing services relating to the transmission and distribution of radio and television for the BBC World Service.
The contract was awarded to Babcock following a rigorous competitive process. It is designed to ensure that the BBC receives the optimum value for money that continues to deliver high levels of service for its audience. The contract start date is 1 April 2012; it is worth circa £200 million over 10 years.
Babcock has been a trusted delivery partner for the BBC World Service for 15 years, and has ensured that the BBC World Service reached its audience of 166 million. Under the terms of the new contract, Babcock will build upon this heritage and provide essential support to ensure that the BBC provides a reliable and resilient service to its global audience. This will include:
* Scheduling and co-ordination of all BBC World Service shortwave broadcasts across the globe. In the first year of the new contract Babcock will co-ordinate a total of 180,335 hours of transmissions for the BBC.
* Operating and maintaining the BBC’s six high power sites and a power station to ensure global coverage. This includes the BBC key target areas of Africa and the Middle East, the Indian Sub-Continent and South East Asia.
* Monitoring of high frequency broadcast performance (using independent data). The BBC is committed to offering the best quality of service to its worldwide audience and Babcock’s monitoring ensures the best possible audio quality is achieved in the desired target areas.
* Managing the satellite network contracts and support of the satellite distribution systems including 1,300 receivers worldwide in over 650 locations in 128 countries.
* Maintaining the BBC World Service’s FM Relay network. In addition to the satellite receiver maintenance, Babcock will support the equipment of more than 150 FM relay sites around the world. This will underpin the resilience of the service offered by the BBC.
By the end of the new contract the partnership will have lasted for a quarter of a century. In 2009 Babcock and the BBC World Service jointly won the ‘Team of the Year – Professional and Support Services’ at the BBC Global News Reith Awards. This was the first time an external supplier won an award at this event. The year after Babcock was selected as the winner of the Reith Award under the category of Professional Services.
Bryan Coombes, Director, Communications, Babcock, said:
“Our history of working in partnership with the BBC shows that we can deliver value for money and unprecedented levels of performance. We know and understand the BBC and the broadcasting industry and are committed to finding the right solutions to the challenges the broadcaster faces over the next ten years. We will achieve this through offering innovative ideas that drive efficiencies over the life of the contract.”
Nigel Fry, Head of Distribution BBC Global News, said:
“The new contract with Babcock builds on the success of the last 15 years. It will provide us with clarity of costs over the coming years, and significant savings that are critical in the current economic climate. Importantly, these savings will not affect the quality of service that our global audience expects.”
13 January 2012
Vizrt Ltd., a leading provider of content production tools for the digital media industry, announced today that the Company has promoted Bernt Kare Johannessen to Chief Development Officer.
This newly created position is effective immediately and will complete the Corporate Management team for Vizrt.
In this new position, Bernt will be in charge of developing and leading the Company’s business strategy process and oversee its appropriate implementation throughout the company in close cooperation with all areas and business lines responsible heads. He will further take a leading role in future M&A activities and integration of acquired companies.
Bernt brings a wealth of technical and managerial experience to this new role: he joined Vizrt in August 2003 as Customer Support Engineer after graduating Master of Computer Science of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. During the years 2005 to 2009, Bernt joined the Vizrt U.S. office in New York, as Vice President Customer Relations, before being promoted Senior Vice President U.S. Operations. In August 2009, the Company called upon Bernt to take on the position of Head of R&D in Bergen, Norway. Very recently, Bernt has returned from the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, as part of his ongoing Master of Technology Management.
Martin Burkhalter, CEO of Vizrt: “I am very happy that the best candidate for this important position was an internal candidate. Bernt has the necessary knowledge and experience to help the further development of Vizrt’s growth and profitability targets. In addition to his broad knowledge of our technologies he knows the media industry very well and therefore he will be a great asset in our efforts to continue to win market shares.”
13 January 2012
A hard-hitting documentary about the last remaining Westerner in Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr, will get its first global airing on Al Jazeera English next week. The channel made the announcement today on the tenth anniversary of the prisons establishment.
Four Days in Guantanamo is based on CCTV footage of Canadian agents interrogating their citizen Khadr, who has been imprisoned since July 2002 when he was just 15 years old. The film features interviews with US military personnel, the Canadian journalist who pushed for the release of the footage, as well as Khadrs family and legal counsel.
The film led to criticism of Canada, who has hitherto refused to seek Khadrs repatriation. The film airs on 18th January, almost three years to the day of President Obamas promise to shut Guantanamo within a year.
Paul Eedle, director of programmes at Al Jazeera English, said:
This is a very strong film that we are pleased to bring to our viewers. The raw, split-screen CCTV material together with supporting interviews makes for a disturbing insight into way intelligence agents from a Western democracy behaved in Guantanamo.
Four Days in Guantanamo will be broadcast on Al Jazeera English from 18th January 2012 on television and online (www.ajazeera.com/watch_now).
9 January 2012
Following continued interferences to its satellite transmissions, Al Jazeera has announced a new frequency for Arabsat viewers: 11334V.
Al Jazeera has faced a series of satellite interference events over the past twelve months. These sustained interferences have been an attempt to disrupt the Network’s broadcasts across the Middle East and North Africa.
“We would like to inform our viewers of the new satellite frequency on Arabsat,” said Saeed Bawazir, Director of Technology at Al Jazeera Network. “Over the last few months, Al Jazeera has faced sustained interference to our satellite transmissions. These occurrences will only strengthen our commitment to continue providing our award-winning coverage across the region 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We urge our viewers on Arabsat to tune to this new frequency for uninterrupted coverage.”
In February 2011, Al Jazeera’s satellite services were jammed and an attempt was made to disrupt our services. Al Jazeera responded by launching its channels across various satellites, allowing viewers to receive continuous coverage.
9 January 2012
euronews, the international news channel, announces its first agreement with HOT, the leading cable operator in Israel, for the distribution of the channel all over the country.
Since 30 November 2011, 800,000 digital subscribers have full access to euronews. This deal enables euronews to broadcast 24/7 two of the channel’s eleven services(1) : euronews English and euronews Russian on channel 142.
“We are extremely pleased to have secured the broadcast of euronews in Israel thanks to our cooperation with HOT”, said Sylvie Paulin, Regional Distribution Manager for euronews. This launch is a huge step forward, reinforcing euronews’ presence in the Middle East, where the channel is already available(2) free-to-air in more than 16 million homes. We know that euronews has a role to play in this region. I am sure that the independence of our editorial line will allow us to attract many Israelis viewers as an alternative way to figure out world news”, she added.
5 January 2012
GlobeCast and ARABSAT announced today that the Global Arabic Bouquet (GAB), a grouping of premium Arabic channels from the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) available anywhere in the world, is now located on the 5C satellite over Africa. This satellite, ARABSAT’s newest, was launched in September 2011.
GlobeCast ARABSAT and ASBU’s partner for the worldwide distribution of the GAB is providing all the technical services required for end-to-end delivery. The terrestrial delivery is done from Amman by Jordan Media City. This service via ARABSAT replaces the bouquet’s previous distribution.
Since the launch of their partnership in 2004, GlobeCast, ARABSAT and ASBU have expanded the Global Arabic Bouquet’s potential viewership and footprint, offering a single global coverage to ASBU members.
Philippe Fort, Chief Operating Officer of GlobeCast says, “We are pleased to work with our long-time partners ARABSAT and ASBU on optimizing the delivery of this bouquet of premium Arab content to households across Africa. We’re looking forward to the bouquet’s success in this growing market.”
Khaled Balkheyour, ARABSAT President and CEO, said “Our partnership with GlobeCast has been strengthened with the successful launch of ARABSAT 5C as our fleet is becoming part of the global distribution network of Free-to-Air Arabic channels managed by GlobeCast, specifically the ARABSAT/ASBU Global Bouquet.”
Commenting on the new development, Salaheddine Maaoui, ASBU Director General, said, “ARABSAT 5C will give the Arab broadcasters an opportunity to reach the Arab viewers in the African continent, where C-band still plays an important role. This means that Arab broadcasters can now reach African viewers more easily.”
