Posts from ‘May, 2009’

Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira has said problems of the people of Baltistan, including Skardu and Ghangche districts, would be solved on priority basis. He said that development funds would be enhanced and development projects would be accelerated in these areas to raise [...]

The Jamestown Foundation has published a long article about the Taliban’s propaganda war in the Swat valley of Pakistan, and the key role played by low power FM radio stations. The writer conclues that “The best way to fight the illegal broadcasts is to launch local non-Taliban FM stations, possibly housed in the traditional Pashtun [...]

A global alliance of indigenous television broadcasters is launching two major initiatives for its members – an international indigenous current affairs series and a programme exchange scheme. The World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network (WITBN) aims to unify television broadcasters worldwide to retain and grow indigenous languages and cultures. The nine foundation Council members are National [...]

25 years after the initial broadcast, Teledifusão de Macau (TDM) is betting on a platform linking China and the Portuguese-speaking countries by launching a satellite TV channel, said the TV station’s CEO Manuel Gonçalves. He was speaking on the sidelines of the seminar “Macau as a platform to the cooperation between China and the Portuguese Language [...]

Varican Radio is set to start airing commercials for the first time since it began broadcasting almost 80 years ago, officials said today. The station will run a series of “spots” advertising the services of Italian state-controlled energy provider, Enel, beginning on 6 July, the station’s director Father Federico Lombardi said.
“We are proud to have been [...]

Italy’s public service broadcaster RAI says it will be investing up to €750 million for digital terrestrial television by 2012. According to RAI director general Mauro Masi, RAI will invest €290 million in the transmission infrastructure, while close to €100 million will be invested in content. Commercial rival Mediaset is planning to spend an additional €1 billion [...]

BBC Worldwide and YouTube have announced the renewal of their global partnership for BBC Worldwide YouTube channels and short-form videos. The extension ensures that the BBC’s most watched programming will remain available to YouTube’s massive online audience.
In addition, BBC Worldwide has launched its new YouTube channel Explore with BBC Worldwide with clips making their YouTube premiere from renowned BBC factual [...]

A new board will be appointed to run the affairs of the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation (DBS). The revelation by Minister Responsible for Community Development, Culture, Gender Affairs and Information Loreen Bannis Roberts, comes amidst allegations that at least two members of the Board of Directors at DBS have been charging the corporation irrelevant fees.
DBS found itself [...]

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is currently in discussions with government over its financial woes, but has not requested a specific amount of money for a bailout. “At the moment we are engaging our stakeholders including the Department of Communications and Treasury regarding the matter. We are not talking figures. It would be very [...]

Serbian Minister for Telecommunications and Information Society Jasna Matic stated that the Ministry proposed that Serbia switches to digital radio and television broadcasting by April 4, 2012.  Ms Matic told a press conference that the International Telecommunications Union proposed 2015 as the deadline for switching to digital broadcasting, but Serbia decided it could be carried [...]

The Dutch radio listening figures for March/April 2009 have been published by research bureau Intomart GfK, based on the listening diaries of 9619 respondents aged 10 years and above. This is the first opportunity to find out what has become of the listeners who tuned into Arrow Classic Rock and Arrow Jazz FM when they were still [...]

An unexpected arrival on the mediumwave band this weekend is Magic Jazz on 1557 kHz. According to the website, test transmissions at low power are being conducted. There was no signal noted in the Hilversum area (about 20 km from Amsterdam) at the time of this posting, so either the transmitter power is only a few watts or [...]

Seven experts representing the DRM Consortium (from BBC, Digidia, Dolby, Fraunhofer IIS, TDF, and Thomson Grass Valley) were invited to the 25th ABERT Broadcasting Congress in Brasilia, Brazil (19-21 May and delivered presentations in the plenum. In addition, DRM in the AM bands with multimedia elements Slideshow and Journaline, DRM+ with 5.1 Surround Sound, and DRM/AM [...]

Press TV, the 24-hour English news channel run by Iran’s national broadcaster IRIB, plans to expand its activities, offering more news bulletins and more diverse programmes. The Deputy Head of IRIB, Mohammad Sarafraz, said the channel would provide viewers with more newscasts while cutting down on its news analysis programmes. The new developments will start [...]

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has asked the government for at least R2 billion (US$120 million) in the short term to bail the corporation out of its financial crisis. Should the SABC fail to secure the funding and if the current heavy losses sustained every month continue, the organisation would require R6 billion from the [...]