Posts from ‘December, 2007’

I have just returned from my Christmas break in the UK. Travelling late on New Year’s Eve seems to be a good choice - London’s Stansted Airport was fully staffed and all services were open, but there were only a few hundred passengers in the terminal instead of the usual thousands. The normally hard-pressed security [...]

For the first time in three years, the Weblog is taking an extended break, to enable me to spend Christmas in the UK with my family. I’ve noticed a drastic fall in page views over the last two Christmas periods, and many of the sources I use to get media news are also not updated between [...]

This year, Radio Netherlands Worldwide brings you a special programme on Christmas Day, 25 December. Chris Chambers presents ‘Hear The World’, a concert from the famous Concertgebouw in Amsterdam marking the sixtieth anniversary of Radio Netherlands. You’ll be able to hear some of the best musicians from around the world including the African percussionist Ali [...]

The Berlin-Brandenburg Media Council (MABB) decided at its meeting on 7 December 2007, to advertise tenders for the mediumwave frequencies 567 (100 kW), 693 (250 kW) and 1359 kHz (100 kW), all 24 hours a day. There is an option to use DRM on all three frequencies.
 
567 kHz was abandoned by the previous user, RBB, on 24 January 2006. 693 kHz [...]

Dutch commercial radio station 100%NL will reduce the number of DJ’s it uses from 1 January 2008 in a format change based on listener research. 100%NL boss Herbert Visser says that the station is still evolving, and has found that it currently attracts the most listeners in the hours when there is the lowest amount of speech. [...]

China Central Television (CCTV) will stop broadcasting CCTV-9 (its 24-hour English language service) to North America via the Galaxy-3C satellite from January 1, 2008. Instead, audiences in North America can receive CCTV’s programmes through the Echostar Satellite LLC Dish Network platform in the United States or Rogers Cabke Communications in Canada respectively.
(Source: CCTV)
iBeginShare.attachButton(’share-tool-17137285089′, {title: ‘CCTV-9 to discontinue Galaxy-3C [...]

The decision of the BBC several years ago to drop shortwave broadcasts to North America still wrankles with some, among them them the US editor of the New Statesman, Andrew Stephen. Writing in a feature called The Thirteen Ways of Christmas, describing how different journalists, MPs and others spend the Festive Season, he writes:
“I would desperately rig [...]

The local radio and TV broadcaster for the Hilversum area, Omroep Hilversum, has laid off six of its nine staff, and will cease its radio service, A-FM, at the end of the month. Just three staff members will remain after 1 February - a director/programme maker, a secretary and an editor-in-chief for what is left [...]

From the technical viewpoint, the broadcasting equipment property of private TV channel Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) costs nothing, said Venezuela’s Minister of Telecommunications and Information Jesse Chacón during a press conference at Miraflores presidential palace.
The minister was making reference to a recent complaint made by corporate chairman and CEO of the TV station Marcel Granier. [...]

Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday claimed that it would drop its previous approval on the ownership change of Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC), if BCC’s new chairman Jaw Shao-long’s wife Liang Lei fails to reduce her stake in UFO Network Broadcasting Co to 10 percent from 30 percent before the deadline of Dec. 26.
The [...]

Reports from Samoa say only one bidder remains to take over the Samoa Broadcasting Corporation, which is the public broadcaster about to be privatised.
A source in the Ministry of Finance says Radio Polynesia Limited, which is a privately owned radio station, has pulled out after inspecting all transmitter sites for SBC television and two radio [...]

Stakeholders in the Broadcasting Industry in Ghana are meeting at Akosombo to deliberate on the last in the series of consultations for a draft proposal for a Public Service Broadcasting Law, to regulate activities in the industry. A Media Consultant, Berifi Apenteng, said GBC is well placed to be transformed into a true Public Service [...]

Botswana’s National Broadcasting Board yesterday awarded a Satellite Subscription Television Service Licence to Munhumutape African Broadcasting Corporation (MABCTV). The licence will enable MABTV to establish studios to broadcast from Botswana and have satellite uplink facilities from Gaborone.
The service will specialise in tourism-related content while acquiring rights and aggregating other channels from other parts of the world [...]

The Jordanian government has rejected a petition to grant community radio station AmmanNet a licence to broadcast in the Jordanian city of Zarqa, owners of the radio station told IJNet. This is the first known case in which Jordan has rejected a radio licence since opening the door for private ownership of radio stations, according [...]

Research bureau Intomark GfK has published the Dutch radio listening figures for Oct/Nov 2007.  There are no great surprises, but public network Radio 2 has narrowed the gap over market leader Radio 538. The latter lost 0.4% of its market share, the same amount that Radio 2 gained. Sky Radio has exactly the same share [...]