21 March 2011
As Nowruz celebrations begin in Iran tonight, RFEs Radio Farda will ring in the Persian New Year with the 200th episode of its popular satire show Pas Farda and live-streamed concerts by famous Iranian artists banned from performing inside the country.
As a special treat, “Pas Farda” host Farshid Manafi will be joined on the air tonight by Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi, the hosts of VOA’s hit television show Parazit.” “Parazit” and “Pas Farda” have become hugely popular in Iran, as both programs have pushed the limits on critical satire in Persian-language media.
“This year, we have assembled some of Irans most popular journalists, presenters, and musicians for our Nowruz broadcasts, said Radio Farda Director Armand Mostofi. Our listeners will get a truly unique spectacle, one that they cannot get inside Iran.
In addition to appearances by Hosseini and Arbabi, “Pas Farda’s” 200th broadcast will feature Farshid Manafi’s signature sketches, discussions about the past decade of culture, politics, and sports in Iran, and an interview with the acclaimed Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani.
In the coming days, Radio Farda will also be live streaming several Nowruz concerts from Dubai. Many Iranians travel to the Emirate to celebrate the New Year and to attend concerts by artists that have been banned from performing in their home country. Broadcasts will include shows by popular singers Homeira, Sattar, Ebi and the multi-talented Shadmehr.
Radio Farda’s radio and satellite broadcasts are routinely jammed by Iranian authorities, and its website is filtered. Most recently, Radio Fardas voicemail system was flooded with thousands of robo-calls that played snippets of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Despite these extensive censorship efforts, an increasing number of Iranians are turning to Radio Farda, and the station continues to be a leading source of news and cultural reporting. In February, Farda’s website logged more than 20 million pages views, 8 million of which came via proxy servers.
21 March 2011
AIB condemns the murder of Al Jazeera cameraman Ali Hassan Al Jaber in Libya. Ali was travelling in a car to Benghazi having covered a protest in a town near Benghazi which was apparently ambushed.
Ali was shot three times, according to Al Jazeera reporter Tony Birtley, once through the heart. Ali was rushed to hospital but did not survive his injuries.
Wadah Khanfar, Director General of Al Jazeera Network, said the organisation “will not remain silent” and work to bring the killers to justice.
Simon Spanswick, AIB CEO, said “AIB condemns this brutal attack on a member of the world’s media. It demonstrates the dangers facing news crews covering events in Libya as they attempt to bring news to citizens around the world. This murder follows concerted attempts by the Gaddafi regime to try and prevent access to news by jamming broadcasters including Al Jazeera, Alhurra and Al Arabiya in the region. AIB calls on the Gaddafi regime to cease all actions against international news organisations.”
15 March 2011
Bloomberg Television continues to provide around-the-clock coverage of the massive human and economic toll of the natural disaster in Japan. Television reporters Sara Eisen(@saraeisenfx), Mike Firn and Margaret Conley are on the ground in Japan, covering what’s at stake for the $1.1 trillion Japanese economy, as well as the fear and distress of a population increasingly worried about the mounting death toll, power outages and possibility of nuclear meltdown.
Since Friday, Bloomberg Television’s team of over 12 reporters and producers have been dispatched around the country, with Tokyo-based TV reporter Mike Firn reporting from Chiba – home of Japan’s oil refineries and oil port – as well as near Fukushima nuclear plant. Bloomberg Television has also been making use of Bloomberg’s more than 140 print reporters based in Tokyo.
On Friday, Bloomberg Television was the first cable news network to report, at 12:51 am ET, minutes after the earthquake struck at 12:45 am ET, that a major earthquake had hit Japan. London-based anchor Linzie Janis reported (5:51 am CET) the news. On Sunday, March 13th, Bloomberg TV was live in the U.S. at 7:00pm ET with a simulcast based out of Bloomberg Television’s Hong Kong-based bureau.
Bloomberg News’ team of 146 Tokyo-based reporters is covering all angles of the implications from the disaster, including the economy, government and energy and how the effects play into the global economy. Two Bloomberg News reporters are currently stationed about 50 kilometers from the nuclear reactor sites.
About Bloomberg
Bloomberg offers unparalleled newsgathering resources on the ground across the Asia-Pacific region, with bureaus in Tokyo, Beijing, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and more. Bloomberg TV is available in 13 million homes in 21 countries across the region including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
14 March 2011
With 7.131 million viewers euronews confirms its leadership among the competition in Europe. For the seventh consecutive Audience EMS survey, euronews ranks at the top: 1st in weekly reach, 2nd in daily and monthly.
euronews remains ahead of the competition and particularly in some of the most important markets in Europe: 1st in weekly reach in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium/Lux., Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Russia.
2nd in daily and monthly reach, euronews plays a leading role at the top of all international news channels in a mostly overcrowded environment (more than170 news channels broadcast in Europe).
The channels key ingredients for success are both the unique Pan-European positioning and the multi-lingual editorial services on TV, internet, mobile and on all main digital platforms.
One third of upmarket Europeans in contact with euronews
Each month, 14.1 million (30.4%) upmarket Europeans are watching, streaming or reading euronews content on TV or online.
euronews audience increasing in Scandinavia
EMS already demonstrates the attractiveness of euronews in Scandinavia where the weekly reach has increased by 6% in Denmark, by 7% in Finland and by 4% in Norway.
Olivier de Montchenu, Managing Director euronews Sales, said: These results are a fantastic message to our partners and brands willing to reach decision makers around the world. euronews is perfectly fitting todays way of consuming information. Our strategic approach embracing the digital world with relevant multilingual features and short formats is a key factor of success. euronews aim is to offer the right content, in the right place at the right moment. 2011 is a very challenging year in terms of development. We have already launched a new connected TV service with Panasonic, soon also wit all major manufacturers, several applications for iPhone and iPad. Thanks to its 10 language services, the channel can be understood today by half of the world population, this makes euronews a very effective media platform for our current and future advertisers.
Methodology: EMS measures habits of viewing, not actual dated audience. Daily and weekly reach take in account frequency and recency and therefore a more accurate reflection of viewing habits.
Source: EMS-C-EMS study, released by Synovate on March 14th, measures the media consumption of 46.4 million individuals, the elite of Europe.
About Synovate / EMS Winter 2010:
Since 1995, EMS (European Media and Marketing Survey) has measured the consumer habits of the top 20 percent of households by income in 20 European countries, representing in 2010 a population of 46.4 million Europeans.
16 western European countries: Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK. Four Eastern European countries: Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Russia. Fieldwork is ongoing and EMS Winter 2010 fieldwork periods were June 2009 to June 2010.
10 March 2011
Morten Holst (45) joins Vizrt’s marketing team as Online Product Strategy Manager on June 1st. This is a newly-created position and reflects the increasing importance Vizrt attaches to growing its range of online products. Holst joins Vizrt from VG, Norway’s largest online and printed newspaper, where he held the position as Business Development Manager for Strategic Channels and Platforms.
“We’re very happy to welcome Morten to Vizrt. He has extensive knowledge and experience of the digital challenges facing today’s newspapers and TV stations. His sharp insight, analytical skills and vision are a real treasure”, said Vizrt’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Håvard Myklebust.”
At VG, Morten was involved in several high-profile projects, among them the media group’s digital TV service, VGTV, which is distributed via the Web and IPTV, VG’s new VG+ iPad app, as well as the core web presence on vg.no. Prior to working at VG, Holst was the Head of Interactive Strategy at TV2, Norway’s largest commercial television station, and was Marketing and Sales Manager at Telenor Marktech.
Morten Holst has extensive valuable experience in product development for online, mobile, broadcast and IPTV platforms. In addition, Holst is a highly sought-after speaker internationally.
“Morten brings even more authority to our online products and online strategy. I am certain he will deliver unique benefits and substantial value to our customers”, said Myklebust.
The new role will be part of Vizrt’s growing product management team that will be extended to include more key products.
10 March 2011
The Voice of America continues to reach out to new audiences in innovative ways, and now VOA is using Facebook to teach English language lessons as part of its popular on-line learning program called The Classroom.
Heres how it works. Four times a day, the icon on VOAs Learning English Facebook page changes to indicate a live, on-line class is in session.
Students can submit questions and be part of a free, hour-long, interactive language learning experience that uses materials and lessons from The Classroom, which is now averaging more than 180,000 users a month.
One of The Classrooms Facebook teachers calls herself The English Doctor. When her class is in-session, users will be learning from Nina Weinstein, the author of dozens of books on teaching English as a foreign language. Another VOA Facebook teacher,The English Traveler, also has classes twice a day, and there are plans to add more instructors to the line-up.
Since The Classroom gave its first lesson on Facebook in February, the response has been positive, with about 16,000 views in the first 24 hour period. Thousands sign on for each lesson.
Many of VOA Facebook friends have written in to say how much they like the new program. One fan said today, We have the best teacher ever in grammar. You are so good!
Voice of America Director Danforth W. Austin says, VOAs pioneering use of Facebook to teach language is yet another example of how social media can bring people together to share common interests, and VOA is leading the way in the use of these innovative new online platforms.
You can get to the Facebook class directly from www.voanews.com/theclassroom.
VOA editors came up with idea to teach English on Facebook when they noticed they were getting hundreds of questions from VOAs 40,000 Learning English Facebook fans (click here to join) who often ask about grammar, pronunciation, capitalization, and other English usage rules.
In addition to Facebook lessons, The Classroom (click here to get started) also has a new Business Wordbook with hundreds of business terms, pictures and sample dialogues to help users learn American business English.
Under the activities tab of The Classroom, there are new English survival activities, including how to order breakfast and how to count money. Plans are also underway for a new Interactive Health Wordbook, with pictures, definitions and sample dialogues relating to health, fitness and well being.
