Posts from ‘March, 2006’

T-Systems and its parent Deutsche Telekom AG have completed the sale of the Jülich shortwave transmission facility to UK charity Christian Vision. Jülich, in north-west Germany, is recognized as one of the leading transmission sites in Europe, equipped with 100kW analogue and digital (DRM) transmitters and numerous antennas with global reach.
Under the terms of the [...]

SES Astra has significantly increased its reach in the Polish TV market. According to the new Europe-wide yearly study commissioned by SES Astra and conducted by TNS Infratest, Astra satellites have been reaching 5.5 million or 77% of all 7.2 million Polish satellite and cable TV households at the end of 2005, compared to 74% [...]

Malaysian Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin today issued a challenge to government broadcaster Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) to reclaim its position as the nation’s top broadcasting station. “The time has come for RTM to repeat its excellence in the broadcasting field,” he said at the launch of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the station, which [...]

In a debate in the Dutch parliament last night, Deputy Minister for Culture and the Media Medy van der Laan assured members of the the Dutch Federation of Local Public Broadcasters (Olon) that they will not be left out of the equation in the switch from analogue to digital delivery. The Minister said the problem [...]

Text of press release by Auckland-based Pay TV operator Sky TV on 31 March
The solar eclipse that occurred around midnight last night [30 March] has interfered with and set back the restoration of Sky’s digital satellite service.
The eclipse blocked sunlight to the solar cells on the satellite [the Optus B1 satellite stationed at 160 [...]

Cliff Kincaid, writing in The Conservative Voice, says that “US law prohibits the US Government-funded Voice of America from being broadcast inside the US, because of the fear that the government would propagandize its own citizens. But the British government-funded BBC can be broadcast in the US. Why doesn’t this constitute foreign government propagandizing of [...]

Sky TV in New Zealand has temporarily lost its satellite services resulting from an outage on the Optus B1 Satellite that provides Sky’s signal. The satellite signal was lost after a routine positioning procedure to the satellite by Optus. This effectively meant that the Sky transmission signal was lost to New Zealand and to Australian [...]

Broadcast Electronics (BE) has installed an HD Radioâ„¢ system for a public radio network targeting mass transit commuters in Bangkok. The system was acquired by RNT Television Plc, which has a contract to broadcast to buses in Thailand using a portion of existing licensed FM frequencies. Broadcast Electronics installed the HD Radio system last week. [...]

The Dutch commercial radio station Yorin FM, now owned by SBS Broadcasting, is to be relaunched under the name Caz! according to Station Director Gerard Timmer in De Telegraaf. The station has already launched a blog at www.caz.nl which will keep listeners informed of developments. Details of the music policy and target group have not [...]

BBC News has broadcast live news reports via broadband for the first time. Helen Fawkes, a BBC correspondent in Kiev, used a laptop to transmit live, two-way interviews over broadband Internet this week for BBC News 24 and BBC World. It was the first step in a pilot plan to equip journalists working in BBC [...]

The Hong Kong Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau has set up working groups with Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) to ensure timely and smooth launch of digital services next year. Led by the Hong Kong office of the Telecommunications Authority, the groups will work with the TV stations to solve technical [...]

Sixty-five journalists were killed in 2005 - 13 less than the previous year - and freedom of the press is still under threat in many countries, according to the International Press Institute’s (IPI) annual report, published today in Vienna. Iraq, where 23 journalists were killed last year, was still “the most murderous country for journalists [...]

If you saw the item earlier today about the launch of Paris Live Radio on mediumwave, I’ve now been informed that the launch was delayed, so the story has been removed. The confusion was due to misleading/missing information on their website. Obviously we are unable to monitor the daytime mediumwave signal here in Hilversum. My [...]

The local public broadcasters in the Netherlands fear that they will be left out in the cold when digital broadcasting takes off. Their umbrella organisation Olon (the Dutch Federation of Local Public Broadcasters) has written to the Dutch parliament urging MPs to prevent that. MPs are due to discuss digital radio tomorrow.
The national and regional [...]

The BBC 88.9 FM frequency in Singapore is now 30 years old and has been given an audio birthday treat. Specially crafted promotional trails, reflecting the feel and style of Singapore, have been created to help audiences navigate the schedule. Voiced by a Singaporean, the trails pick up on the local nuances of the country [...]