Posts from ‘June, 2006’

Radio Slovakia International (RSI) is, as earlier announced, closing down its shortwave service today. On the final edition of the English-language programme Slovakia Today to be broadcast on shortwave, presenter Pete Miller, says: “The sad news is that this is the last broadcast from Radio Slovakia International on shortwave from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and [...]

Audiences across the Middle East and North Africa will be tuning into a unique, new Arabic language radio station that brings together programmes and content from around the world, following the signing of an agreement between WRN and leading satellite operator Arabsat from July 1st 2006.
The new radio station development by WRN, the London-based international broadcaster [...]

Text of report in English by Belarusian news agency Belapan
Minsk, 30 June: German broadcaster Deutsche Welle [DW] plans to launch a 30-minute news and analytical radio programme for Belarus on 1 August.
The programme called “Belarusian Chronicle” will go on the air at 0700 [0400 gmt] on 5945 kHz and via Hotbird [satellite].
The 15-minute programme that [...]

Dutch commercial radio station RTL FM has lost its court case against the Dutch state, which has transferred its licence to 100%NL with effect from 8 July. This means that the 100%NL will launch as planned on 8 July on all the terrestrial FM frequencies currently occupied by RTL FM.
100%NL now has one week to [...]

Almost a quarter of Maldivians regularly listen to Minivan Radio, an audience survey has shown. The survey was commissioned in May to assess the popularity of the radio and garner the opinions of listeners. It is the first time the opposition-leaning radio station has assessed how many people regularly tuned in to its daily one [...]

Sri Lanka has fixed an annual licence fee of 500,000 rupees (US$4,800) for satellite TV operators in the country, Lanka Business Online reports. The country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) said cable distribution networks and satellite communications networks would have to secure a licence by 21 July 2006. TRC’s Director-General Kanchana Ratwatte said: “It applies to [...]

Brazil has announced that it will use Japanese technology as the basis for its terrestrial digital TV broadcasts. It chose the Japanese standard in preference to the standards used in Europe and the United States. Brazil will be the first foreign country to introduce the Japanese format, Jiji Press reports. Brazil plans to make some [...]

UK media regulator Ofcom today announced an important step forward in the path to digital television switchover with an international agreement securing near-universal availability of digital terrestrial television (Freeview) in the UK by 2012, as well as international agreements to support the further expansion of digital radio.
Broadcast signals from the UK can interfere with those [...]

Last night’s fall of the Dutch Cabinet has introduced yet more complications regarding the future of public broadcasting in the Netherlands. Queen Beatrix must now decide whether to ask the Cabinet to function as a minority government or as a caretaker administration until elections are held. In both cases, it’s unlikely that the government will enact any major [...]

They live in one of the most closed countries on Earth and their national team never got near to Germany, but nothing can stop the football-mad people of Turkmenistan from tuning in to the World Cup. Under the iron, sometimes eccentric rule of President Saparmurat Niyazov, who is known as Turkmenbashi, or Leader of the Turkmens, there are four [...]

Kazakhstan’s upper house passed new media legislation today despite criticism from the United States and others that the changes represented a setback to press freedom in the Central Asian state. President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the former Soviet country since 1989, has to sign the amendments for the new law to come into effect. In [...]

A radio station aimed at missing Japanese citizens believed to have been abducted and held in North Korea has recently changed its shortwave schedule. Shiokaze [Sea Breeze] radio now broadcasts as follows:

1030-1100 gmt on 9855 kHz, in Korean (Sunday and Wednesday), English (Monday and Thursday), Japanese (Tuesday and Friday), Chinese (Saturday).
2030-2100 gmt on 9785 kHz, [...]

Dutch Internet radio station Radio Mi Amigo 192 is about to embark on what it claims will be the longest hit parade ever broadcast. The top 10,000 will be aired every day starting on Saturday 1 July from 0700-2000 UTC, and will last for two full months. The chart consists of music of the past 50 [...]

The 210 metre high mediumwave radio mast at Burg in eastern Germany, that once carried the programmes of the Deutscher Soldatensender on 935 kHz and  Deutscher Freiheitssender 904, has been demolished. Photos of the demolition, and text and audio in German, can be found on the website of Radioeins rbb.
iBeginShare.attachButton(’share-tool-87919338746′, {title: ‘Burg radio mast that once [...]

The rapid growth of pay TV and broadband Internet in China will drive its media industry over the next four years, according to a report by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The firm has released its “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006-2010”, which said China and India were two Asia-Pacific markets that were growing in double [...]