Posts from ‘December, 2009’

Iran has opened “Sahar-2″ international television channel broadcasting programmes in three languages, English, Kurdish, and Urdu, Fars news agency reported on 31 December.
Fars said Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of the radio and TV organization, inaugurated Sahar-2 TV channel.
It quoted Zarghami as saying: “The reason for the soaring increase in the number of audiences of the [...]

As we welcome 2010, I would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year. I have been producing this Weblog for over six years now with the support of many regular readers, including a lot of friends and colleagues in the international broadcasting industry.
Yesterday I received some information from my pension fund reminding [...]

The Broadcasting Board of Governors says it condemns the latest efforts of the Iranian Government and its associates to interfere and censor the free flow of objective news and information to the Iranian people. By monitoring satellite signals, BBG’s technical experts have determined that on 27 December, the Government of Iran engaged in the intentional [...]

The chairman of Germany’s association of private broadcasters (VPRT) has threatened to make a formal complaint to the European Commission over state broadcasting licence fees. VPRT chairman Jürgen Doetz said in todayy’s edition of the Bild newspaper, “The state [sic] broadcasters expand wherever they want, go into every market, and exploit the malleable formulations in [...]

Dutch television producer Endemol has enraged scores of people in the United Kingdom with its latest plan for the British version of the programme Big Brother. Endemol wants to populate the reality show’s house, in which contestants live together under constant observation by TV cameras, with British troops who have lost an arm or a [...]

Many media experts and Internet users have fiercely criticised Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands following her 2009 Christmas message.  The queen tackled subjects including virtual communication which she said actually divided people rather than bringing them closer together. Although no names were given, she was taken to be referring to social networks such as Hyves, [...]

Though a handheld radio weighs only ounces, it’s a heavyweight in Afghanistan’s fight for rule of law. Radio has historically been a successful medium in Afghanistan for a number of reasons. First, they are cheap. Second, Afghanistan’s literacy rate is below 30 percent and, unlike newspapers, radios do not require a literate audience. Third, Afghanistan [...]

An Ecuadorean private television station critical of President Rafael Correa came back on air yesterday after a three-day suspension that fueled concern among government critics over press freedom in the Andean country. Mr Correa has in the past called for the Teleamazonas channel to be shut down for broadcasting what he said were false reports, [...]

India’s proposed policy on satellite radio may now be kept on hold. The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has prepared a draft Cabinet note for the satellite radio policy, but now a policy is unlikely because WorldSpace radio has decided to shut its India operation. US-based WorldSpace, which is the only entity operating satellite radio [...]

In a BBC interview in November, Jimmy Wales, the American founder of Wikipedia, talked about the state of development of the participatory online encyclopedia in Africa. He expressed his wish to develop Wikipedia in more African languages. He believes it is necessary to ensure that more people have access to knowledge and culture. According to [...]

China Central Television (CCTV) will formally launch a national Internet television station using the domain name of CNTV.cn next week. Industry insiders say the launch of the national Internet television station will have impact on the entire online video market.
On 13 November, CCTV.com announced that its 2 online video products, xiyou.cctv.com and bugu.cctv.com, have been [...]

The Georgian public broadcaster will have the right to operate three TV channels, instead of current two and will be financed from the state budget with sum “not less” than equivalent to 0.12% of the country’s GDP, according to the amendment to the law on broadcasting passed today by the Parliament with its third and [...]

Stephan Schaar reports on the Hard Core DX Mailing list:
Today, 25.12.2009, there will be a special transmission from HCJB Australia, Kununurra in the German language towards Europe from 1500-1530 UTC on 15340 kHz. The time-slot/frequency combination is not perfect, but anyway: There’s a special QSL Card your everybody that received the programme and writes to [...]

WorldSpace has confirmed rumours that it will terminate its radio broadcast services to all Indian subscribers from 31 December 2009. In a statement, WorldSpace Inc, the parent company of WorldSpace India, said,”On December 31, 2009, the WorldSpace satellite radio broadcast service will be terminated for all customers serviced from India.”  While this termination is well [...]

Police have silenced a radio station that spread the good word to Roman Catholics in an Italian village, but interfered with local air traffic, the La Repubblica newspaper reported yesterday. With its antennae inside a church steeple, the low-powered radio station - in operation since the mid-1980s - relayed services live to the elderly, ailing [...]