Posts from ‘May, 2009’

The Secretary-General of the African Association, Ahmed Haggag, has called for the creation of a TV channel with a mandate to report issues concerning the countries of African Union and Arab League. Addressing Angop, on the sidelines of the Africa’s Day, marked in Cairo city, Egypt, the diplomat said that the TV channel would discuss socio-economic, political [...]

The Gambian President, His Excellency Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, has lauded a US$9.5 million project that saw the national broadcasting services, the Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), go on satellite. The ceremony was held at GRTS’ head office in Kanifing.
In a statement read on behalf of President Jammeh, Haja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice [...]

The Irish Independent reports that Ireland’s public broadcaster RTÉ is losing €1m a week and will not be able to pay staff by October unless a programme of salary cuts and redundancies is implemented in the coming weeks. The newspaper says the crisis comes amid growing anger among staff at the level of pay and [...]

Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez yesterday cancelled the broadcast of his promised show, presidential sources told AFP, thus interrupting a four-day marathon of himself talking, singing, and haranguing detractors. Chávez had vowed a Thursday-to-Sunday broadcast of his weekly radio and TV programme “Alo Presidente” (”Hello President”) to mark the show’s 10-year anniversary.
Normally the show runs for several hours [...]

Senior managers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation have come under fire for allegedly splashing money on generators, plasma screen television sets and luxury cars at a time the country’s sole broadcaster is failing to pay its workers on time.
The workers alleged last week that Chief Executive Officer Happison Muchechetere, General Manager (Programming) Allan Chiweshe, General [...]

Glyn Jones, Acting Chief Executive of Digital One, has expressed regret at the planned closure of the company’s world-famous Birdsong Channel on Sunday night. “When the channel went on air, back in January 2008, we warned that the transmission could cease at any time. There’s never going to be a good time to pull the [...]

The DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) session was very well received by the commercial FM broadcasters in the annual India Radio Forum held in Mumbai on Wednesday.  The event’s special session titled ‘Digital Broadcast – Changing the World of Radio’ was attended by delegates from most of the biggest Indian FM broadcast companies.
The session was a [...]

People in Tobago can now listen to BBC World Service by tuning in to BBC 98.7 FM, with the launch of a dedicated FM transmitter on the island. Audiences will now have access to a wide range of BBC programming, including content tailored specifically for the Caribbean region.
The new service joins three other 24-hour BBC [...]

Arrow Classic Rock and Arrow Jazz FM are to be relaunched, but only on cable and Internet. Ad Ossendrijver, the boss of the bankrupt companies Crosspoints BV and Rokit BV, has bought the rights to the names of the two stations through his new company Mediad BV. Arrow’s third station, Caz!, will continue on Internet only. [...]

A Middle East joint venture with SES Astra said it expects to generate revenues in its third year on growing regional demand for high-definition television. YahLive, a joint venture with Abu Dhabi’s Al Yah Satellite Communications Co (Yahsat), plans to launch its first satellite and offer direct-to-home satellite television services from the fourth quarter of [...]

RadioTime, Inc, a developer of technology for finding and listening to radio online, today announced it has opened an office in the United Kingdom to meet the growing demand for its service among both users and manufacturers who want to license its technology. RadioTime today also announced it has hired Ian Henderson to lead its [...]

Today the BBC Archive is launching a new online collection celebrating the 150th anniversary of Big Ben, as part of its plans to open up parts of its extensive archives dating back to 1922. The new collection will enable the public to take advantage of the broadcaster’s unique access and ability to witness defining moments [...]

The Kenyan Government has been accused of defaulting payment to the state broadcaster, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), forcing it into a Sh22 billion ($29m) deficit, writes Dennis Itumbi for journalism.co.za. According to a forensic audit report tabled in parliament, the treasury owes KBC Sh3.3 billion in arrears, having defaulted in funding the state broadcaster [...]

The BBC HD channel and Aljazeera English have won ‘Service of the Year’ and ‘Best Digital News channel’ respectively at the 2009 Freesat Awards.  Held in London, the inaugural event saw the BBC HD channel praised as “a clear winner” in the selection process because “the ever-growing variety of quality drama, comedy, sport and natural [...]

The German department of Radio France International (RFI),  which is threatened with closure, has written to German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, defending its programmes in the name of ‘Franco-German détente’.
RFI announced in January a social plan involving 206 job losses as well as the closure of six foreign language departments: German, Albanian, [...]