Posts from ‘July, 2004’

Canadian Federal Heritage Minister Liza Frulla said yesterday that the government cannot interfere in the ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to revoke the licence of Quebec radio station CHOI-FM. “According to Article 28 of the Broadcasting Act, the decision of the CRTC cannot be appealed to the government,” she said [...]

The New Zealand Herald says that up to eight new free-to-air television channels could be available shortly. TelstraClear has put up for sale its half of a transponder on the Optus B1 satellite, because TV is no longer its core business, and the newspaper says secret talks are already underway with a range of large [...]

The date and time have been announced for the removal of one of the mediumwave masts at Lopik, in accordance with the agreement signed a few weeks ago. On Saturday 21st August at 08.50 (0650 UTC) the mast, approximately 160 meters tall, will be demolished with explosives. This method was chosen in order not to [...]

The Dutch Radiocommunications Agency wants find out why pirate radio stations keep coming back on the air after they have been raided. Some stations have been raided many times, but still don’t give up. So the Agency has decided to conduct a study into the aims and motives of the radio pirates. The ones in [...]

XM Satellite Radio, now with more than 2.1 million subscribers, will launch a new channel, XM Public Radio (XM Channel 133), featuring programmes from Public Radio International (PRI) and its satellite radio subsidiary American Public Radio; American Public Media, the national production and distribution branch of Minnesota Public Radio; and Boston public radio station WBUR. [...]

China will help Pakistan in installing high-powered medium and shortwave and FM radio transmitters. This was agreed at a meeting held between Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and the President of China Radio International (CRI) Dongmei Wang. The Minister is currently on a visit to China at the head of 11-member media delegation. During the [...]

Text of report by Gil Hoffman entitled: “English radio move delayed a week” published by Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post on 29 July
The Israel Broadcasting Authority’s English news will remain on Network A for another week until 8 August after the National Federation of Israeli Journalists obtained a restraining order against the move to [...]

Popular radio presenter Bob Edwards will be leaving National Public Radio (NPR) to host a programme for XM Satellite Radio. Today’s Washington Post confirmed that Edwards, who was “unceremoniously dumped” as anchor of NPR’s “Morning Edition” in March, will do an 8 AM program for XM starting in October. The “Bob Edwards Show” will be [...]

A major Japanese satellite broadcaster says it may adopt the Apple QuickTime-friendly H.264 format when it launches commercial broadcasts in mid-October. Asia Online reports Mobile Broadcasting as saying that it is “considering changing the video codec for its digital satellite broadcasting service for mobile devices from MPEG-4 to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.”
The company says H.264 has higher [...]

A new local TV station called Catalan TV will start broadcasting next week in Alguer, Sardinia, becoming the first TV channel broadcasting in Catalan on the island, where approximatelt 40% of the population speak Catalan. Catalan TV, a private station, will initially broadcast six hours per day, 50% in Catalan and 50% in Italian. This [...]

Downing Street today announced that Anthony Salz has been appointed Vice-Chairman of the BBC and Richard Tait has been appointed a Governor of the BBC. Downing Street also announced that Dermot Gleeson has been re-appointed for second four-year term of office as a Governor. Separately, Sir Robert Smith, National Governor for Scotland, has said that [...]

Today’s Prague Post reports that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is planning to ask the US Congress for an additional $13 million in funding to construct a new headquarters outside of the centre of Prague. The newspaper says that despite reports in the Czech press that the US government has already agreed to fund the [...]

The UK’s national Student Broadcasting Network (SBN) is in crisis after its owner, Campus Media plc, decided to stop funding the loss-making network. The network provides sustaining services to dozens of the UK’s student radio stations. A press release dated 23 July says that the board of SBN has suspended the operations and trading of [...]

A strike threatened by BBC technicians for this Friday and Saturday has been called off. Members of technology union BECTU were planning to strike over plans to privatise their division. However, this afternoon the BBC said staff have received an improved offer from buyers Siemens. But a further strike planned for 13 and 14 August [...]

Malaysia’s second Pay TV network, MiTV, has announced that it is on track for a soft launch in October, and has signed up with enough content providers to roll out more than half of its targeted 50 channels. MiTV signed a re-transmission deal today with Indonesia-based Overseas Korean Television Network (OKTN). OKTN will provide television [...]