Posts from ‘April, 2008’

Hello HD, Hungary’s first High-Definition television platform, is gearing up for launch tomorrow from the Eurobird™ 9 satellite operated by Eutelsat Communications. Using two transponders leased on a long-term basis on Eurobird™ 9, Hello HD’s new television platform will feature industry-leading HDTV services including Eurosport HD, National Geographic HD, Filmbox HD and HBO HD, complemented by [...]

Cuba has once again used the opportunity at the United Nations to denounces what it calls  ”the sustained US radio and TV aggression”. Ileana Nuñez, Cuban ambassador to the UN, said during a debate of the UN Information Committee that the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva last November has concluded that broadcasting to Cuba from US aircraft is [...]

Today is Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, when the whole country becomes in effect one giant street party and flea market. After a wet start in some places, the weather is reasonably mild (about 16C) and mostly dry. It’s very quiet inside the Radio Netherlands building, apart from the newsroom where it’s business as usual. [...]

Virgin Media today announced a partnership with the BBC to launch BBC iPlayer onto its platform, making its 3.5 million TV customers the first in the UK to get the popular service via a TV platform. Viewers using BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media will be able to watch full screen pictures at full quality on their television [...]

Digital Aurora Radio Technologies of Delta Junction, Alaska has applied to the FCC for authorization to experiment with statewide DRM in the 5, 7 and 9 MHz shortwave bands. The FCC has assigned the callsign WE2XRH to this station, but its licence is pending. Delta Junction is approximately 130 miles southeast of Fairbanks.
“The ultimate goal [...]

The Government of Canada says it is pleased with the agreement in principle reached yesterday in Paris by TV5 Monde partner governments. Minister of Canadian Heritage Josee Verner said “This agreement in principle will allow the channel to preserve its multilateral and pluralistic character in order to be more competitive and to better position itself [...]

This Weblog, along with all the other RNW blogs, was offline prior to 0930 UTC due to a technical fault. I don’t know when the problem started, but if you tried earlier today and got a 404 or some other error message, my apologies.
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The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website is operating normally on 29 April following a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack thought to have originated in Belarus. The station’s Belarus-language website at www.svaboda.org carries an item date 1609 gmt on 28 April headlined (in English) “We are back!”, explaining to readers the details of the [...]

Erik Bettermann, Director-General of Deutsche Welle (DW), and officials of the Mauritanian Radio Television (RTM) have signed a cooperation agreement on broadcasting. France Grebern, head of DW programme distribution in Africa and Middle East, said RTM would broadcast DW programmes whereas DW will train Mauritanian journalists and technicians, adding that Germany was ready to support broadcasting [...]

SES Astra, has announced today the start of a new orbital position at 31.5 degrees East. The new position will allow SES ASTRA to operate satellite services at up to 40 new broadcasting frequencies (BSS) and strongly support the development of the Eastern European and Middle East markets. The satellite Sirius 2, which is part [...]

Several websites run by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) have been hit by an unprecedented cyberattack, making them inaccessible to the outside world. The attack, which started on 26 April, intially targeted the website of RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, but quickly spread to other sites. Within hours, eight RFE/RL websites (Belarus, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Tatar-Bashkir, Radio Farda, [...]

This year, the external service of Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio) turns 70. On July 1, 1938 the first ever broadcast from Stockholm directed abroad was in Swedish. A year later, programmes in English and German went on air. Today Swedish Radio broadcasts in 13 different languages.
Ahead of an anniversary programme in September, the Radio Sweden website [...]

This year marks 30 years since the launching of the Voice of Russia World Service in English, formerly Radio Moscow World Service. On October 3, 1978 Radio Moscow went on the air with round-the-clock broadcasts in English beamed throughout the world.
In the run-up to the anniversary, listeners are invited to share their most vivid memories, reminiscences [...]

Journalists working for state broadcasters should write more stories that are relevant to the lives of ordinary citizens, a workshop on regional journalism was told on Friday. Gulnara Ibrayeva, Head of Apparatus for the National TV and Radio Corporation of Kyrgyzstan, was speaking at a roundtable on “Challenges Confronting Regional Journalists” held as part of [...]

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)  has announced a SFr17.2 million ($16.64 million) loss for 2007. Director General Armin Walpen cited difficulties in generating additional revenue as the cabinet rejected an increase in licence fees. The company board also announced today a review of the corporation’s governance and management structures in line with a request by the government.
The [...]