Posts from ‘January, 2009’

Alhurra, the US government-funded Arabic television channel, is reportedly planning to launch a news programme focused on local stories from the Middle East. It signals an expansion of programming at a time when the 24-hour news channel is facing questions about its fate under the new Obama Administration. Democrats have long been critical of the [...]

Al-Aqsa TV, run by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), will begin broadcasting from Beirut for one hour a day to develop its capabilities outside Gaza, the local Naharnet website reported today. The Hamas Al-Aqsa TV station in Gaza was hit by Israeli troops during the 22-day Israeli attack on Gaza, according to press reports that the [...]

Trials are underway in Australia of digital video broadcasting for mobile phones, ABC News reports. About 200 Optus customers in Sydney have access to nine television channels, including ABC1, Seven, SBS, CNN International and Fox Sports News, using the DVB-H (digital video broadcasting for handheld devices) format. The technology will allow for 20 channels of [...]

The Thai government is considering legal action against community radio stations that is says are being used for political purposes, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance reports. Quoting The Nation newspaper, it said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Satit Wangnongtaey, had instructed the Public Relations Department’s broadcasting sub-committee to take legal action against at [...]

Modern Times Group, the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that it will launch a new free-TV channel in Denmark. TV3 Puls will be launched on Monday 23 March as a broad appeal general entertainment channel targeting an audience of 15-49 year old men and women.
The channel will be available in more than 50% of [...]

Harris Corporation has provided a range of radio and television broadcast transmitters to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture and Information (MOCI) as part of the ongoing modernization of Saudi TV and Radio’s transmitter infrastructure.
To support the upgrading of its network, the Saudi MOCI chose a wide range of Harris transmitters: 21 AM radio transmitters, including 3DX® digital [...]

Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov has sent a letter to the US Helsinki Commission clarifying the country’s foreign radio broadcasting regulations. In his letter, Minister Mammadyarov made clear that the decision of the National Television and Radio Council (NTRC) on the discontinuation of broadcasts of foreign radio companies via national frequencies seeks to [...]

The UK government yesterday released its ‘Digital Britain’ report and once again confirmed its policy commitment to making DAB digital radio the primary means of migrating from analogue to digital radio.
The Digital Britain report follows the Digital Radio Working Group’s own report published in December 2008 which recommended steps towards analogue radio switch off as soon [...]

Research bureau Intomart GfK yesterday released the Dutch radio listening figures for Nov/Dec 2008, based on the listening diaries of 9,500 respondents aged 10 years and older. Public network Radio 2 climbed into a commanding lead thanks to its annual broadcast of the Top 2000 in December. It performed much better than in 2007, when it [...]

I am pleased to report that we have now restored the full search facility on this blog. Search on, for example ‘bbc’ and at the bottom of the page click on ‘previous results’ to go to page 2 of the results, and so on.  In other words, search results are displayed in reverse chronological order.  [...]

RDP Internacional, the Portuguese external service, launches an experimental DRM service on Saturday 31 January, in cooperation with Deutsche Welle. Broadcasts will be every Saturday and Sunday at 0930-1100 UTC on 9815 kHz, beamed to Central Europe. Further information (in Portuguese) is available on this page of the RTP website.
iBeginShare.attachButton(’share-tool-4428320983′, {title: ‘RDP Internacional launches DRM transmissions [...]

Eutelsat Communications has announced that the performance of the W2M satellite, which was launched on 20 December 2008, does not comply  with the requirements set with the spacecraft’s manufacturer, EADS Astrium/ISRO Antrix, following a major anomaly affecting the satellite’s power subsystem. This anomaly occurred during the satellite’s transfer from the location used for in-orbit tests to [...]

France has promised to rehabilitate Madagascar’s national radio and television buildings which were badly damaged during the mass protest on Monday, Madagascan president Marc Ravalomanana announced today. During his inspection of the damaged buildings, which were looted and set on fire by protesters, Ravalomanana told the media that he would make his best efforts to restore security [...]

The head of the UN atomic watchdog, Mohamed  ElBaradei, has cancelled planned interviews with the BBC in protest at the  British broadcaster’s refusal to air a Gaza charity appeal, the IAEA said  today.
A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said that the  “director general has cancelled his scheduled BBC World Service TV and radio  [...]

The long-awaited Dutch talk station with the working title Arrow Talks is set to launch on mediumwave 828 kHz in the second quarter of 2009. The station will also take over the cable frequencies and Internet stream of Caz! which will be closed. That’s apparent from an advertising rate card issued by the station’s owners, [...]