28 June 2010
Already available to 125 million households in 160 countries, FRANCE 24 recently signed a series of international broadcasting agreements, further strengthening its worldwide distribution.
In France, FRANCE 24 is now available in three languages on the DARTYBOX platform, positioning it on all DSL platforms in France.
FRANCE 24 is also expanding in the rest of Europe: in Belgium, it is now available as part of the basic package of BELGACOM (channel 275); in Italy, the channel is launching its English version on SKY ITALIA; in the Czech Republic, it has signed an agreement with the operator UPC (channel 102); and in Scandinavia, FRANCE 24 is expanding distribution thanks to the THOR 6 satellite and is available in the region on the CANAL DIGITAL package (channel 105).
Distribution of FRANCE 24 is also expanding in Asia: in Thailand, the channel is now available on 75 national broadcasting platforms. In Indonesia, FRANCE 24 is now available on the AORA TV package and in the Philippines, FRANCE 24 is present in the bouquets offered by 17 national cable operators. In Macao, FRANCE 24 is launching on MACAU CABLE TV (channel 96) and is available in Hong Kong on NOW TV and HKBN.
FRANCE 24 has also obtained a broadcasting license in South Korea from the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).
The channel is also expanding its presence in Africa, and is now available in South Africa on the TOP TV platform and in Tanzania, where a partial broadcasting agreement has been signed with STAR TV.
FRANCE 24 has also recently expanded its coverage throughout North America using the GALAXY 23 satellite and concluded a new agreement with LeBOUQUET.tv.
Out-of-home broadcasting of FRANCE 24 is also growing: the channel is now available in more than one million hotel rooms in over 7000 hotels worldwide.
For Philippe Rouxel, Vice-President Worldwide for distribution, “Since January 2010, FRANCE 24 has significantly strengthened its presence on major satellites and the growth in our distribution reflects our determination to enhance our global visibility a little more each day. With the development of innovative mobile applications, our aim is to make FRANCE 24 a genuine news platform available in three languages everywhere in the world.”
28 June 2010
EMS Africa 2010 study, released on 24th June, measures the media consumption of 2.7 million top 15% income earners in five key African markets: Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa where euronews speaks English, French and Arabic.
Audience: 1 out of 4 Africans watches euronews
euronews viewers and euronews.net users are very loyal to the channel; 671,000 of them watch the channel or visit the website every week, which is a quarter (24.6%) of the top 15% income earners.
Profile : euronews more upmarket than its main competitors
In Africa, euronews audience is typically 40 years old, well-educated decision-makers who are frequent travellers (1).
euronews community of viewers and users of its website clearly differentiate themselves from the one of CNN and BBC World News by its open-mindedness towards society and technology: 56% enjoy watching foreign TV channels, compared to 37% for CNN and 38% for BBC World News; 35% are early technology adopters compared to 30% and 31% for CNN and BBC World News respectively.
euronews is #2 to reach Europe – Middle East Africa combined
euronews subscribe to all 3 EMS surveys: EMS Europe, EMS Middle East and now EMS Africa. Advertisers can now have a full picture of euronews audience amongst an elitist universe of 50.5 million individuals.
With a total of 8.7 million viewers every week, euronews is the second most efficient international news channel to reach the elite in Europe, Middle East and Africa combined, close to CNN International, ahead of BBC World News and far ahead of the other international news channels (2).
“euronews has for the first time a full picture of its audience in Africa” said Olivier de Montchenu, Managing Director of Euronews Sales. “We can now demonstrate to international advertisers the strength and impact of euronews audience in an important part of the globe: Europe, Middle East and Africa. We are today a number 2 channel in EMEA and we will pursue our effort to convince more and more viewers to watch us, especially with our new language service in Turkish which launched last January and with the future one, Persian, to be launched at the end of 2010”.
28 June 2010
BBC World Service has expanded its use of the Pharos Mediator content management platform at its UK headquarters. An auxiliary system has been established to provide production and playout support in the event of an interruption to normal operations.
“Mediator is already used for ingest, media workflow, transfer management, router control and playout operations at Bush House,” comments Nigel Fry, Head of Transmission & Distribution at BBC World Service. “Our objective was to ensure that core programme output could be kept on air in an emergency affecting our normal operations. A rules-based data export ensures that the backup system is kept up-to-date with content which can be used at any time.”
The new configuration can be operated on a push-from-main or pull-from-auxiliary basis. Both the new and the existing Mediator installations are based on an enterprise architecture providing user-access from PC workstations running standard web browsers. Task-specific Web-based display screens guide operators through workflow and allow desktop search and browse of any material.”
Pharos Mediator is a complete broadcast content management and workflow platform capable of handling studio control, post-production and multichannel playout. Web-browser-based user interfaces running on desktop computers provide operators with the tools they need in a style which is easy to understand, including content browsing, task prioritising and automatic alerts. Pharos Mediator manages content efficiently for media logistics, streamlining library management, ingest and quality assessment, right through to compliance, promotions management and approvals.
The BBC World Service is the worlds leading international broadcaster. It provides programmes and content for radio, television, online and mobile phones in English and 31 other languages. Hundreds of reporters and specialist correspondents bring impartial news reports, documentaries and analysis from around the globe. BBC World Service also offers a mix of other programming from arts, business and culture to drama, science and sport. BBC World Service is one part of the collected international-facing television, radio and online services which form BBC Global News.
Founded in 1997, Pharos has pioneered collaborative desktop workflow and integrated third-party infrastructure management. Pharos solutions today handle millions of media assets across hundreds of television channels and an increasing number of new media distribution networks. Pharos is an open company embracing open standards. Pharos software architecture, integration and support services enable disparate broadcast and IT processes to be unified across the enterprise. The unique Mediator content management platform, with its integrated Playtime playout and Pilot control options, provides efficient tools to deliver multi-format content globally.
28 June 2010
Today, ProSkope, the Dutch company engaged in news gathering technologies, announced a partnership with Bambuser, the innovative live mobile streaming service, to provide news broadcasters with the opportunity to stream LIVE news footage from anywhere in the world directly to their master control rooms, by using the Bambuser Media Tool (BMT).
Both professional reporters and network audiences can use this powerful news gathering tool, thus helping news organizations take the lead in the competition by being always a step ahead on airing live breaking news.
As competition in the media industry gets tougher by the day, more and more networks are searching for a reliable way to engage their audiences in their news gathering operations. The BMT does not only empower professional journalists but it also paves way for audiences to be part of the action. With the BMT, integrating live viewer contributions to any news-TV format is easy. All it takes is just one push of a button for a viewer to be able to send live breaking news to the networks master control room .
ProSkope managing partner Corne Bouman said over the next five years, the mobile phone will finally settle its position within the global news gathering community. The Bambuser Media Tool is the best live mobile streaming technology available in the market today, and we are excited to cooperate with Bambuser in this evolving market.”
On the other hand, Bambuser Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hans Eriksson said “we can now provide a simple, effective system to media companies who operate on several platforms and are dependent on an easy and reliable tool to broadcast great content.”
The partnership stipulates that ProSkope will provide the Bambuser Media Tool as a complete solution together with SDI-conversion technology. Moreover, ProSkope also offers free consultations for broadcasters on how to integrate the BMT solution into their newsroom operations, to benefit both the reporters and the target audience.
22 June 2010
Global sports broadcaster Eurosport has become the latest international organisation to support the 2010 AIBs, the annual international media excellence awards.
Eurosport is sponsoring the best cross-media production category in the 2010 AIBs. Full details of how to enter are online at
https://aib.org.uk/onlinepubs/aibs_2010_entry/Entrybook.swf.
22 June 2010
Concerning the new product NCAppliance, NorCom Technology AG (NorCom) is entering into cooperation with IBM Deutschland GmbH (IBM). Acting as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Nor-Com will be responsible for the optimization of the IBM Blade Cen-ter for media customers.
NCAppliance is based on the IBM Blade Center Technology which is currently known as the most modern computing system worldwide. IBM is responsible for the mass storage device as well as for the computing power while NorCom is adding the management and application software which is tailored to the individual require-ments of the media customers. Further NorCom is constructing the network and the certified peripheral equipments. Together with independent software vendors (ISVs) the requested software solu-tions for the individual working process are developed as well as integrated into NCAppliance.
NCAppliance is consolidating all components of the data processing center
“Up to now media companies have been stored an unmanageable collection of system components, net works, grid connections, safety systems and individual applications¡¨, commented Robin Ribback, Head of Product Management & Business Development. ¡§So far there has been a lack in high-power technology which en-ables to merge all components to one single platform. NCAppliance is able to do this!”
NCAppliance is tied to the most modern communication networks. It is built up modularly; its infrastructure is scaleable and contains the standard IT-components. Therefore customers do not have any additional development costs for own server systems.
Also the sales partners who are consigned to distribute NCAppliance will have strong advantages. The whole development procedure will be much easier, especially with respect to quality management and the certification of the end-to-end solution.
NCAppliance supplements the innovative portfolio of NorCom
The cooperation between IBM and NorCom started with NCPower Compact, NorCom´s turn-key “TV-in-Box”.
NCPower Compact is generally delivered by pre-installing the NCPower software on the IBM Blade Center.
“Through NCAppliance we have reached a new level concerning our previous cooperation with IBM: Regardless of our software we are offering another innovative NorCom product by refining hardware products. This will also support the revolution of the media busi-ness´ IT,” added Ribback.
