27 October 2014
BBC newsreader and Crimewatch co-presenter Matthew Amroliwala will host the 10th annual AIB Awards on November 5 in London. The AIB Award’s honour broadcasting’s top achievements in factual content from around the world.
After 16 years at BBC’s News Channel, Amroliwala moved onto BBC World News this August where he is now presenter of its flagship programme, Global.
Before Amroliwala began anchoring news coverage in the studio, he worked in the field as a foreign correspondent, a political correspondent and as a news reporter, and reported from Bosnia, New York and Washington. As a presenter he broadcast continuously for six hours on the day of London’s 7/7 bombings.
Amroliwala will join an esteemed list of AIB hosts who include Al Jazeera English’s Barbara Serra, BBC’s Mishal Husain, France 24’s Mark Owen and Bloomberg TV’s Francine Lacqua.
In addition to the awards gala, the AIB evening will also feature AIB’s traditional “In Conversation”, this year with special guest Olly Lambert. Lambert won an AIB last year for his Channel 4 documentary, Syria: Across The Lines. The film also won the Emmy this year for Outstanding Coverage of a Current News Story, a BAFTA for Best Current Affairs Programme, and the Rory Peck Award for Best Broadcast. Lambert was also nominated for an Emmy for his documentary The Bombing of Al-Bara.
The AIB Awards will take place at the spectacular LSO St. Luke’s in London and will be hosted by BBC presenter Matthew Amroliwala. A limited number of tickets are still available through the Awards website or by calling +44 (0) 207 993 2557.
24 October 2014
BBC America, the BBC’s commercial arm, will now be operated by American entertainment company AMC Networks, following a $200m (£125m) deal.
AMC, a company boosted by the tremendous success of its AMC Channel dramas Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, will manage BBC America as a standalone alongside other channels in the AMC Networks portfolio, including IFC, SundanceTV and WE tv. AMC bought a 49.9% stake in the Corporation, while BBC Worldwide will retain 50.1% stake.
The two networks already have drama co-producing experience, with such series as The Honorable Woman.
BBC Worldwide chief executive Tim Davie said AMC “are committed to the kind of high-quality, unmissable content that has already gained BBC America one of the most educated, affluent and tech savvy audiences in all of US television.”
Tony Hall, BBC director general, said the deal would “help us reach new audiences in the US, strengthen BBC America’s position for the long term and create opportunities for the UK creative community”.
15 October 2014
The Chinese government has blocked access in the country to the BBC’s English-language websites.
The blocking of all BBC English language internet pages would appear to be in response to Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” civil disobedience movement, protesting for fair representation in Chinese elections. Earlier today, the BBC had published video of Hong Kong police assaulting and arresting a protestor which had been circulating online.
In a statement, BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks said: “The BBC strongly condemns any attempts to restrict free access to news and information and we are protesting to the Chinese authorities. This appears to be deliberate censorship. The BBC provides impartial, trusted news to millions of people around the world, and attempts to censor our news services show just how important it is to get our accurate information to them.”
News of the blocking was first announced today by GreatFire.org, a site which monitors web censorship in China in real time. Access to the BBC websites has previously been allowed in China, although the BBC’s Chinese language website has been blocked since its launch. The BBC reported that the last time the BBC’s English-language site was blocked was during its coverage of activist Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest in April 2012.
Instagram, which had been used by Hong Kong protestors to share images, was blocked in China at the end of September. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are also inaccessible from mainland China.
4 September 2014
PRESS RELEASE
The Association for International Broadcasting has announced its panel of judges for its tenth annual international broadcasting awards, the AIBs 2014. The senior media executives who make up the independent panel come from all across the world and will judge the best in global factual radio, TV and online broadcasting.
CRANBROOK, UK 04 SEPTEMBER 2014 – The panel of 50 senior international media experts brought together by the AIB (Association for International Broadcasting) to judge the AIBs 2014 represents TV, radio and online broadcasting from all across the globe with in-depth knowledge of commissioning, writing, producing, editing and distribution. They have extensive experience in current affairs, investigative documentaries, short documentaries, children’s programmes, sport, science, transmission and broadcasting technology and will be bringing their insight and extensive knowledge to the judging the record number of entries received for this year’s awards which have come from all over the world.
“We are grateful to our panel of experts for agreeing to give up their time to judge the awards” said Simon Spanswick, CEO of the Association for International Broadcasting. “Their diversity of backgrounds and wide experience, coupled with the fact that they are free to choose the best entries without being influenced by any vested interest, ensures that the AIBs will continue to reward the very best of international broadcasting.”
The AIBs 2014 judges are:
- Faisal Abbas, Editor-in-Chief English online, Al Arabiya MBC
- Neeraj Arora, EVP Head of International Business, MSM Asia Limited/Sony Entertainment Network
- Tim Ayris, Director Channel and OEM sales EMEA, thePlatform
- Amadou Ba, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, All-Africa Global Media Inc.
- Hannelie Bekker, Founding MD, Wananchi Programming
- Klaus Bergmann, Director of International Relations, Deutsche Welle
- Graeme Blundell, The Australian
- Jenny Buckland, CEO, Australian Children’s TV Foundation
- Fernando Calvino, CEO/Owner, Señal Internacional
- Catherine Cano, Executive Director News Programs CBC/ Radio-Canada
- Rahul Chopra, SVP Global Head of Video, Newscorp
- Eugen Cojocariu, Head of Radio Romania International
- James Cridland, Radio Futurologist
- Verona Duwarkah, GE: Television, SABC
- Anastasia Ellis, Head of Europe TV, Bloomberg
- Géraldine Filiol, Deputy Managing Director, Eurosport
- David Finch, VP Europe, News Republic
- Marco Frazier, Senior Vice President Global Distribution, AMC Networks International (AMCNI)
- Angela Fung, Phoenix Satellite TV
- Mihai Gadea, CEO, Antena 3
- Lee Gal, Chief producer, i24 News
- Sumit Grover, Director, Pixel Party
- Mohamed Ali Harrath, CEO, Islam Channel
- Sven Herold, VP Creative Development, Shell
- Carlson Huang, Vice Manager and English Program Host, RTI
- Richard Jacobs, Business Development Director, Babcock International Group
- Emmanuel Josserand, Marketing Director, Civolution
- Bettina Klauser, Head of Press and PR, N-tv (Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland)
- Cheryl Knapp, Series Producer, Wild Kratts
- Nathalie Lenfant, Marketing Director, France Medias Monde
- Marcus Metzner, Head of Marketing Services and Communication, arvato Sysyems
- John Momoh, CEO, Channels TV
- Alexey Nikolov, Managing Director, RT Channel
- H Nwana, Executive Director, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance
- Lemi Olalemi, Deputy CEO, TVC News
- Lindsey Oliver, International Media Consultant
- John O’Loan, CEO, iO Media Group Europe
- Nenad Pejic, Editor-in-Chief, co CEO, RFE/RL
- Jonathan Perelman, Vice President Motion Pictures, Buzzfeed
- Helen Stehli Pfister, Producer/Editor, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen
- Tom Porter, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4
- Libby Powell, CEO, Radar
- Paul Robinson, CEO, Creative Media Partners
- Gillian Rose, Managing Director, PBS Distribution
- Alla Salehian, CEO, TIMA
- Vatche Sarkisian, Director of Program Review, MBN (Alhurra/Radio Sawa)
- Ruth Sloss, Director of Programming, Spafax
- Simon Spanswick, CEO, AIB
- Lek Hwa TAN, VP English Current Affairs, Channel NewsAsia
- Htar Swe TIN, Editor South East Asia and Burmese Service, BBC
The list of judges, with links to their biographies of the judges can be found at theaibs.tv/aibs-2014-judges/.
The AIBs are now in their tenth year and are independent of commercial interest. They attract entries from throughout the world, representing the best of international factual broadcasting. The 15 different categories to be judged cover radio, television and online media across a broad spectrum from single news events to long-term investigation with special categories for children’s programmes, for sport and for coverage of science. The categories also include awards for radio and television personalities of the year.
The winners of the AIBs will be announced at the AIB awards gala on Wednesday 5 November 2014 which will be held at LSO St Luke’s in London.
The AIBs 2014 are sponsored by Eutelsat
Contact
For further information please contact
Roger Stone, AIB
roger.stone@aib.org.uk
T +44 (0)20 7993 2557
AIB, PO Box 141, Cranbrook TN17 9AJ, UK
About the AIB
Established in 1993, the AIB is the international industry association and global knowledge network for the international broadcasting industry– cross-media, cross-border, cross-cultural. With a reach of over 25,000 communicators and media professionals, AIB is a unique centre of information about international broadcasting, covering TV, radio, online and mobile. AIB researches regular market intelligence briefings for its members and provides client-specific consultancy and project support. Members receive an extensive package of services throughout the year. AIB publishes the comprehensive Global Broadcasting Sourcebook and the international media magazine, The Channel. AIB hosts the annual AIB International Media Excellence Awards – the “AIBs”. For more information, visit www.aib.org.uk and theaibs.tv or call +44 (0) 20 7993 2557
About Eutelsat
Eutelsat is one of the world’s leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. The company provides capacity on 36 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies. Eutelsat’s satellites provide ubiquitous coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, enabling video, data, broadband and government communications to be established irrespective of a user’s location.
For more information, visit www.eutelsat.com
AIB | PO Box 141 | Cranbrook | TN17 9AJ | United Kingdom
T +44 20 7993 2557
F +44 20 7993 8043
www.aib.org.uk
12 May 2014
The BBC’s independent commentary and analysis of current affairs is now available directly to viewers in Ukraine thanks to a partnership between BBC World Service and Ukraine’s most popular TV channel, 1+1.
From the heart of the BBC’s news operation at New Broadcasting House in London, BBC Ukrainian (BBC Україна) journalists will appear live on the channel’s prime-time evening news programme, TSN, at 19.30 on Mondays and Wednesdays, providing 1+1 viewers with international perspective of current regional events as well as analysis of UK and global developments.
BBC Ukrainian has a number of partnerships with major news websites in Ukraine. This is the first collaboration with a TV channel. BBC World Service Europe Hub Editor, Artyom Liss, comments: “The popularity of BBC Ukrainian had been growing steadily, with audiences coming to the bbc.ua website for unbiased, balanced and reliable news, interviews and analysis. It’s great that, through collaboration with a TV channel such as 1+1, our journalists will be engaging with new audiences across Ukraine.”
Frederick Durman, Head of Business Development for Europe, BBC World Service, adds: ““We are really excited that our partnership with 1+1 will bring BBC Ukrainian to a wide audience at this critical time in Ukraine’s history.”
“TSN is the leading news programme in Ukraine, our anchors and journalists receive the most prestigious professional awards every year. Still, such collaboration for us is a great honor as BBC is the trendsetter in international news world and a golden standard for journalists. We aim to amaze our viewers, and I’m sure that the BBC input will add to our programme’s attractiveness,” – adds Sergiy Popov, Head of the Information Department of 1+1 Media.
The BBC Ukrainian website bbc.ua brings news stories, reports and features, picture galleries as well as audio and video content delivered by its journalists in Ukraine, Russia and the UK, as well as the BBC’s unparalleled global newsgathering operation. The Special Projects index on bbc.ua features BBC Ukraine’s editorial initiatives and special reports, while the dedicated index, Ukraine, offers news and information focusing on the country. Major, quickly developing events are covered on Live pages – an innovative tool of online journalism, which reflects news updates in real time. The BBC College of Journalism section shares the BBC’s guidelines on the use of unbiased language and style when reporting for TV, radio and online.
BBC Ukrainian is part of BBC World Service. (Source: Press release)
BBC newsreader and Crimewatch co-presenter Matthew Amroliwala will host the 10th annual AIB Awards on November 5 in London. The AIB Award’s honour broadcasting’s top achievements in factual content from around the world.
