Posts from ‘November, 2007’

Fiji’s newest television network, Channel 2, has had its licence suspended. Interim Communications Minister Taito Warai says there is a possible breach of license conditions by Channel 2. He says that he is now awaiting a report from his officials on where they have breached their licence conditions. “So pending the receipt of that report, [...]

The Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE has abandoned plans to cut radio services, but the YLE Extra TV channel will closed down. YLE is also considering measures to cut costs, including increasing collaboration between its Finnish and Swedish language news services.
YLE’s Administrative Council was met by protestors yesterday as members arrived at company headquarters to discuss ways [...]

The head of BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, said yesterday that the business has underestimated how much money it could make from the Internet. BBC Worldwide Chief Executive John Smith said the business initially aimed to get at least 10 percent of its total revenues from the Internet, but has [...]

Eutelsat Communications has signed a multiyear contract with Canal Satellite Réunion, which is a subsidiary of Canal Overseas (Canal+ Group). The capacity on Eutelsat’s W2 satellite will support the expansion of the Canal Satellite Réunion pay-TV platform which broadcasts channels and services to satellite homes in Reunion Island and surrounding islands in the Indian Ocean.
With this [...]

Sri Lanka’s military air strike on the rebel Voice of Tiger radio station in the island’s north that killed 11 people violated international law, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said today. Sri Lankan warplanes yesterday dropped 12 bombs and virtually flattened the radio station, killing 11 and injuring 15, just moments before it was due to broadcast rebel leader [...]

Listeners in Trinidad and Tobago can enjoy for the first time the BBC’s internationally famous radio programmes 24-hours a day, seven days a week with the launch of BBC 98.7 FM. Audiences across both islands now have access to a wider mixture of BBC programmes including some tailored specifically for the Caribbean. 
Debbie Ransome, Head of BBC [...]

Text of report by VOA News website on 26 November
Shortwave radio monitors have confirmed that VOA broadcasts to Ethiopia in the Amharic and Afan Oromo languages have been jammed for the past two weeks. VOA correspondent in Addis Ababa, Peter Heinlein, reports Ethiopia’s government denies responsibility for the interference.
Listeners to VOA’s Amharic Service began complaining [...]

Text of report by Cambridge-based Broadband TV News website on 27 November
After a number of years of test transmissions, the Walloon public broadcaster RTBF has now officially launched its DTT [digital terrestrial TV] service in the French-speaking part of the country.
The public bouquet consists of four TV channels - La Une, La Deux, La [...]

“You are in the remarkable position of writing the media history of your own country,” said Tarja Virtanen, UNESCO Representative to Kyrgyzstan, speaking to the staff collective of Radiomost on the final day of a UNESCO-sponsored training workshop on community radio, reports UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty.
The first radio service of its kind in Central [...]

The Sri Lanka Army says its Air Force was able to completely destroy the clandestine LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) radio station at Thiruviyar, Kilinochchi, this evening at about 4.30 pm local time. A news report on the Sri Lanka Army website says:
“The clandestine terrorist radio, dubbed as Voice of Tigers, has been selling fabricated and totally false [...]

Hong Kong’s two domestic free television stations, Asia Television Limited and Television Broadcasts Limited, will phase in digital terrestrial television services from 31 December. Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Frederick Ma today told reporters Hong Kong will be the first to adopt the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmission standard developed by the Mainland. 
The initial [...]

Sierra Leone’s Information Minister, IB Kargbo, gave an update at his weekly press conference on the privatisation of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS). The Minister reminded journalists that efforts to privatize SLBS started in 2003 when some of Sierra Leone’s development partners advised that SLBS should be privatized.
The Information Minister insisted, “but a lot of [...]

The people of Limpopo today woke up to the fresh sounds of the South African region’s first black commercial radio station. Six months after receiving its commercial broadcast licence, Capricorn FM began broadcasting from its state-of-the-art studios in Bendor, Polokwane.
The station will broadcast 70% in English and 30% vernacular, incorporating the three dominant ethnic groups [...]

Nigel Chapman, director of the BBC World Service, travelled this month to the annual Asian Broadcasting Union Conference in Tehran. It was a rare chance to meet key advisers in the Iranian government and discuss the arrival in 2008 of the BBC’s Persian TV service.
Mr Chapman has written a personal account of the visit, which [...]

Text of report in English by Dubai newspaper Gulf News website on 25 November
Pakistan’s most popular private satellite channel Geo Television Network is to move its base from Dubai to Hong Kong, Gulf News has learnt.
“We are making arrangements to air the transmission from Hong Kong because we are losing around half a million dollars [...]