Posts from ‘April, 2006’

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a plan on Thursday allowing providers of high-speed Internet services to test electricity lines to deliver online access throughout the state. CPUC commissioner Rachelle Chong, who drafted the plan, said broadband over power lines, or BPL, could become a new competitor to Internet services delivered via telephone, cable [...]

The Vietnamese government has selected May 2008 as the deadline for launching the country’s first communication satellite, a local official told the Xinhua news agency today. The government has asked the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group to do necessary works so that the medium-sized satellite named Vinasat, which will span its coverage over Vietnam, other [...]

European search engine Seekport is to launch this year the Internet search engine “Sawafi” (the word means “sandstorm”), specially designed to meet the challenges of the Arabic language, together with the Saudi Arabian partner, MITSCO Group. The joint venture, Seekport Internet Technologies Arabia FZ-LLC, will be based in Dubai.
The Arabic Internet search market is [...]

The Voice of America, in partnership with the Delhi-based Indian news channel Headlines Today, has launched a weekly English language TV magazine show, The World Today. The 30-minute programme, with hosts in both Delhi and Washington, DC, looks at the week’s top international news stories and includes lifestyle, business, and arts features. The first edition [...]

The Dutch Cabinet has agreed with the proposal of Minister of Economic Affairs Laurens Jan Brinkhorst and Deputy Minister for Education, Culture and Science Medy van der Laan, to switch off the analogue terrestrial TV transmitters in the Netherlands on the night of 29/30 October 2006. It was originally planned to switch off the transmitters [...]

The Gaelic Media Service (GMS) and BBC Scotland are to work together to produce a new digital service for Gaelic audiences. The BBC’s Board of Governors and the Board of the GMS have this week given the green light for planning to commence on setting up a digital service, which will involve television, radio and [...]

The governments of Indonesia and Malaysia are to meet next month to help settle a licensing problem faced by Malaysian cable TV provider, ASTRO All Asia Networks Plc. ASTRO’s entry to Indonesia’s pay TV business via Direct Vision has sparked complaints from local competitors because of its use of a foreign satellite, the Jakarta Post [...]

The Maldives government has called on the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) to help it gain access to the FIFA World Cup 2006. The country’s only free-to-air television station, TV Maldives, is being asked to pay more than US$600,000 to broadcast a limited number of games. The Minister of Information and Arts, Mohamed Nasheed, said this [...]

Two million movie lovers in Tanzania will see a BBC advertisement, filmed in Tanzania, when a mobile cinema visits their region. The ad - promoting the availability of BBC programmes through partner station Radio Free Africa - will play for three months from 3 May 2006. Mobile cinemas carrying the ad will visit areas around [...]

Following the submission of bids by interested parties, the English FA Premier League has awarded three out of the six packages of live television rights for soccer matches to satellite broadcaster BSkyB. A second round of bidding for the remaining three packages will be held in due course. The Premier Leage says there will be [...]

The trial of Voice of the People (VOP) board members accused of operating a radio station without a licence in terms of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) has been set for 15 June 2006 at the Harare Magistrates Courts. A Harare magistrate set the trial date on 26 April 2006 when the VOP board members [...]

Increasing radio broadcasting about world events and supporting Korean defector groups are key ways to empower the North Korea people, says Jay Lefkowitz, US special envoy for human rights in North Korea. The propaganda used by Kim Jong Il to suppress his people can be countered only by access to information about the outside world [...]

Kai Ludwig reports: NOS Radio 1 has also received authorization by LfK and LPR Hessen, respectively, for low power FM transmissions around the stadiums during the World Cup matches Netherlands - Ivory Coast at Stuttgart on 16 June and Netherlands - Argentina at Frankfurt am Main on 21 June. “Bundesnetzagentur is responsible for allocating the [...]

Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Al-Jazeera TV’s Cairo bureau chief, Hussein Abdel Ghani, who was arrested today for broadcasting “false information likely to harm the country’s reputation.” Detained in the resort town of Dahab, where he went to cover the Sinai bombings of the past few days, he was taken to [...]

Radio Netherlands has set up a representative office in North Jakarta, Indonesia, and sent a staff member, Han Harlan, to maintain and expand our partnerships in the country. Our Indonesian service currently has about 50 radio partners which have a combined listenership of six million across the archipelago.
Read the feature in the Jakarta Post
NB: [...]