ITV

Category: News Headline

  • Isro schedules Insat 4C launch for July

    Isro schedules Insat 4C launch for July

    MUMBAI: All indications point to the second half of the year being when we will see some fresh action on the direct-to-home (DTH) television services front. Even as the timeline for the Tata Sky DTH service looks to be June-July, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is all set to launch Insat 4C, the latest in the Insat series, in July.

    Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Group, which has booked space on Insat 4C, is negotiating with Isro for eight Ku-band transponders. Earlier Sun had indicated that it would start its Sun Direct DTH service with five transponders which it would ramp up to nine.

    “Sun now wants to start with eight transponders. The company is in discussions with Isro,” an industry source says.

    Though Insat 4C has a capacity of 12 Ku-band transponders, the problem with Isro is that it has got demand from other operators as well. The government requires four transponders for village telephony over a period of time. Even National Informatics Centre (NIC) has asked for four transponders to start with. “We have committed to giving them one transponder each. We may give some transponders to NIC on Insat 4B, which is slated for launch in the first quarter of 2007 as we have to coordinate with the launch vehicle (Arianespace’s commercial launcher Ariane 5),” says Isro contract management and legal services director SB Iyer.

    Isro will also be handing over two Ku-band transponders to media companies for digital satellite news gathering (DSNG) activities. “DSNG is a fast-growing segment. We are providing two transponders for DSNG operators,” Iyer says.

    With one-to-two transponders reserved for spare capacity, Sun may have to finally settle for less than what it wants. But Isro will allocate transponders to customers who are ready to take them first.

    Meanwhile, Anil Ambani’s Reliance has also booked space for its own DTH plans. As things stand now, there may be no room even on Insat 4B as the space on Insat 4B is reserved for Doordarshan which wants six Ku-band transponders at the minimum.

    Subhash Chandra’s Dish TV, which is on NSS satellite, has not yet indicated to Isro whether it wants space on the Insat series. BPCL, the other player which is waiting to launch, has also not applied to Isro for transponder space.

    Insat 4C will be put into orbit in July by the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-5 (GSLV), to be launched from Isro’s Sriharikota facility.

    With 12 high power Ku-band transponders, Insat 4C is the first Indian satellite to exclusively offer DTH playout facilities. The satellite will have the capacity to beam about 150 television channels in all.

    The other two satellites of the Insat 4 series — 4A and 4B — have both Ku-band and C-band capacity, carrying 12 transponders of each. Insat 4A launched last December.

    Isro has already allocated all the 12 transponders on Insat 4A for Tata Sky, the 80:20 joint venture between the Tatas and Star Group.

  • BBC introduces documentary shows for UK kids

    BBC introduces documentary shows for UK kids

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that its children’s programme Newsround, which it says is still the only dedicated daily news service for children in the UK, is to screen Newsround Investigates.

    This is a half-hour documentarie series and takes an in-depth look at issues affecting children’s lives. It kicks off next month.

    Newsround Investigates is a half-hour documentary format for children on BBC One and, for the first time in its 34-year history, the award-winning programme has been extended to 30 minutes.

    In the first programme, Lizo Mzimba and leading criminologist David Wilson take a look at the alarming scale of arson attacks committed by schoolchildren.

    This documentary talks to some of the youngsters who commit arson, looks at some of the reasons why they do it and examines the consequences of their actions.

    Every year, around 90,000 children in England and Wales are affected by arson. Every week, there are around 20 fires in schools and most of them are started by children with some connection to the school.

    School fires traditionally happen when schools are empty, particularly in the summer holidays. But increasing numbers of these fires are now occurring in school hours.

    Newsround Investigates speaks to children whose schools have been burnt down, children who have been injured in fires and children who have deliberately started fires.

    It also visits various anti-arson schemes across the country, such as the first-ever fire fighter embedded in a school.

    The show also questions why less than 200 schools in England and Wales have sprinkler systems when the problem of fires in schools is so great.

  • Men’s handball Championship does well in TV ratings across Europe

    Men’s handball Championship does well in TV ratings across Europe

    MUMBAI: The Handball Euro 2006 which took place in Switzerland was the most extensively covered and viewed tournament in the history of Men’s European Handball Championships.

    More than 760 million cumulative viewers followed 707 hours of televised event coverage. The event took place from 26 January to 5 February this year and is the European Handball Federation’s (EHF) premier event.

    The championship was transmitted by close to 120 television and radio broadcasters worldwide and benefited from approximately 800 accredited journalists, photographers and technicians to deliver record media coverage.

    This result is based on an independent programme analysis including information provided by broadcast partners worldwide. The report was compiled by the German communication research agency Sport+Markt AG on behalf of Infront Sports & Media AG, the EHF’s television and marketing partner.

    The is seen as a conservative estimate for the event’s total coverage. This is due to several key markets — such as Russia, Turkey, Argentina and Brazil — not being able to provide audited audience data to meet the full criteria of the study. If the unaudited data from these markets were taken into account, the total figure of 760 million would increase to an estimated 850 million cumulative audience.

    The total transmission time grew by 20 per cent and the cumulative audience figures increased by more than 30 per cent (based on the audited cumulative audience) compared to the last Men’s Championship in 2004.

    The 2006 television report demonstrated that coverage reached virtually every European country. The victory of the French team over Spain in the final match benefitted from significant news coverage around the world. Extensive television coverage was also reported from countries not represented in the competition, e.g. Romania (25 matches), Belgium (16), FYR Macedonia (15), and Sweden (10). Live broadcasts of Euro 2006 matches were also shown in the Middle East and North Africa. Delayed transmissions and/or news coverage was available in several Asian and South American territories.

    The official tournament website, www.euro06.com/, which was jointly provided by the EHF, the Swiss Handball Federation and Infront, provided fans with extensive information about the event, participating nations and players. It received 74.6 million page impressions from the beginning of January through 5 February. The result more than tripled those compared to the 2004 event website – another tournament record.

    EHF president Tor Lian said, “We are proud of our deep-rooted partnership with Infront Sports & Media. It dates back many years and has played an absolute crucial role in the development of the EHF, especially in terms of the growth of its flagship event, the European Handball Championships. The innovative and close-knit partnership has made the European Handball Championships into a leading event on the sporting market, as the figures underline.

    “The 2006 Men’s European Championship, held in Switzerland in January, turned a corner and set a precedent for international, indoor sporting events. The EHF will continue its work with Infront for the next period to encompass the 2008 and 2010 European Championships to reach even greater heights.”

    Infront has acted as the EHF’s exclusive commercial partner for almost thirteen years. In 2004, both partners renewed their cooperation until 2010.

    The EHF and Infront are currently preparing to broadcast the Women’s European Championship from 7 to 17 December 2006 in Sweden, where TV4 Sweden will be acting as host broadcaster and offering live signals for all 47 games.

  • Zee Sports completes deals with foreign broadcasters for Abu Dhabi series

    Zee Sports completes deals with foreign broadcasters for Abu Dhabi series

    MUMBAI: Zee Sports has reached agreements with major international broadcasters and radio players for the DLF Cup, India-Pakistan One Day International series. The entire multimedia rights for all the major television territories have been finalised.

    For Pakistan, Zee Sports has signed agreements with PTV for their terrestrial network and on Ten Sports for C&S homes. Hum FM will provide the live radio commentary in Pakistan and the Middle East. In Singapore the matches will be available on Star Hub. For the Malaysian territory, Astro All Asia Network will broadcast the two-match series.

    For the USA, the channel has entered into agreement with Echostar Satellite for the DLF Cup. Zee will leverage its international network in the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East and South Africa, where the matches will be broadcast through its own Zee International feeds in the respective countries.

    Commenting on the deals, Zee Sports business head Himanshu Mody offers, “We are pleased to enter into agreements with various international broadcasters for telecast of this series between India and Pakistan. Our internal syndication team has been able to do a very effective job in a very short span of time.”

    Zee Sports has acquired the global media rights for all matches that India will play in non-ICC member countries. As part of the deal 25 matches will be played over a period of 5 years with an average of 5 matches per year. The global media rights comprise television, radio and Internet rights. The rights are for a period of five years from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2011.

  • China tightens control over international TV news

    MUMBAI: China’s broadcasting watchdog State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has issued a notice banning its local broadcasters from using news footage taken from foreign satellite programmes and international news material acquired from channels other than state-run.

    SARFT said in its latest notice that local television stations could draw only from the international news reports provided by the state-run China Central Television and China Radio International.

    “Recently, some foreign news agencies and media have used a variety of methods to sell international news material to domestic local TV stations, which have clear political intentions,” the notice said. According to SARFT, local broadcasters should avoid using international news material from foreign sources to make international news programmes or special coverage about international affairs.

    The new order also bans television stations using news footage taken from foreign satellite programmes broadcast with news reports from the official Xinhua News Agency. SARFT also insists that, broadcasting administrations at all levels should check up on local broadcasters and correct any wrong operations.

  • Intelsat launches open architecture content management service

    Intelsat launches open architecture content management service

    MUMBAI: Satellite operator Intelsat has introduced Ampiage. This is a new satellite-based, open-architecture, content delivery and management service for US multiple system operators (MSOs) seeking to cost-effectively upgrade to MPEG-4 and telecommunications operators (telcos) looking to enter the IPTV market.

    Intelsat CEO David McGlade says, “Our goal is to offer services that help our customers reach their goals, and Ampiage will benefit phone companies and cable operators in two very different ways. This is a game-starter for phone companies looking to launch IPTV services for their subscribers and make a video play.

    “Separately, it is also a cost-effective way for cable companies to upgrade to MPEG-4 without having to invest new capital in equipment. Lastly, Ampiage also showcases Intelsat’s ability to introduce innovative services that address new and growing markets created by the convergence of telecom and media.”

    Modelled on a “super head-end” for content distribution Ampiage will upgrade and convert video stream for MSOs from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 using state-of-the-art equipment. The move to MPEG-4 is being driven by the desire for both higher transmission quality and efficient utilization of bandwidth. The service is designed to include fully redundant facilities and transmission capacity, thus it is expected that Ampiage services will have the ‘gold standard’ service excellence and high availability for which Intelsat is known.

    Intelsat says that Telco customers will realise cost savings by taking advantage of Intelsat’s packaged offering, which, if the elements were procured separately and on their own, would cost them millions of dollars. Telco customers are expected to benefit from Intelsat’s volume relationships with content creators worldwide, its ability to secure transport rights and its relationships with coveted niche and international programmers, which will enable them to create local packages that are highly customised to demographic concentrations.

    Ampiage cost-effectively packages the acquisition, aggregation, encoding, encapsulation and encryption of licensed TV programming from content providers and has the ability to redistribute it in MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format to cable and telecom service providers. This allows MSOs and telcos either to establish or enhance their digital programming lineups quickly and with low capital investment.

    Ampiage completely centralises the aggregation of national TV programmer content and offers hundreds of video and audio channels in full digital quality. This enables telcos to efficiently bundle an attractive standard and high definition programming package with their voice and broadband services without incurring a significant upgrade cost.

    Ampiage originates from Intelsat’s Video Operations Center, where video and audio are received and processed for distribution to telco and MSO video hubs nationwide. Leveraging the complete coverage of North America offered by the Intelsat Americas fleet, Ampiage distributes the programming to regional telecom and cable service providers. Telcos and MSOs then distribute this programming content via xDSL, fiber, conventional cable networks and other broadband networks to their residential subscribers across North America.

  • FM radio players protest WorldSpace terrestrial foray

    FM radio players protest WorldSpace terrestrial foray

    NEW DELHI: It is not only the television broadcasters that are grappling with the issue of distribution and competition. Private radio broadcasters too have started sampling irritants in this regard.

    The private sector FM radio players has complained against satellite radio provider WorldSpace’s attempt to get certain licences that would help it distribute the services terrestrially also.

    According to information available with Indiantelevision.com, WorldSpace, India’s only satellite radio service, is trying to get a license for L-band terrestrial repeater from the information and broadcasting ministry, which, if obtained, will help it to transmit its services on moving vehicles terrestrially — the primary target audience of FM radio.

    “Repeaters are basically targeted at subscribers-on-move like in a car, etc. A satellite radio cannot enter into terrestrial segment by any means,” a letter to the government from the Association of radio Operators in India (AROI) states.

    Raising the emotional quotient, AROI seems to be appealing to the conscience of the government by saying, “We fail to understand why the Government of India is working on the WorldSpace application even when a proper guideline on satellite radio in India is still not available.”

    The letter goes on to add that considering FM radio in India is in a nascent stage and the FM radio broadcasters have paid “an exorbitant OTEF (one-time entry fee)”. the government should “protect FM radio industry for at least next 10 years.”

    “Before even waiting for the commissioning of the new stations, the ministry is already making plans to welcome new players into the terrestrial radio arena, directly threatening the existence of the FM Radio licensees. This is not acceptable at all,” the high-pitched AROI letter states.

    The AROI letter has been marked to prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, defence minister Pranab Mukharjee, home minister Shivraj Patil and telecommunication minister Dayanidhi Maran and I&B ministry secretary SK Arora.

    The move of AROI comes at a time when the government is working on putting in place a policy for satellite radio services, including caps on foreign investments, which would force the likes of WordSpace to restructure themselves and find majority Indian partners.

    The AROI letter is also likely to put pressure on the government to bring about stringent regulations relating to satellite radio services. The Sector regulator has already submitted a set of recommendations to the I&B ministry.

  • Randstad acquires 57% of Indian staffing company Team4U

    Randstad acquires 57% of Indian staffing company Team4U

    MUMBAI: Randstad Holding has agreed with shareholders of Team HR Services Private Limited, operating under the brand name Team4U, to purchase 57 per cent of the company’s shares, with the option to purchase the remainder of the shares over the coming two years.

    “Team4U provides a platform to further strengthen Randstad’s position in the growing Indian market, and fits with our overall growth strategy to establish a presence in the region,” the company stated.
    “Team4U helps Randstad expand its Indian business. This gives us a head start in entering the rapidly growing staffing market thanks to their market share of some 10 per cent. Team4U is a well-managed company that has experienced excellent growth over the past years, now being the fourth largest staffing company in India. We are delighted to benefit from the managerial and commercial strengths of Team4U. This will allow us to further leverage our position in India, which we first established with our majority stake in the Indian recruitment company EmmayHR in December 2005,” said Randstad Holding CEO Ben Noteboom.

    “Randstad’s expertise in staffing will enhance our capabilities for serving our clients. With Randstad as a strong partner, we will be in an even better position to continue our path of profitable growth,” said Team4U president and director Abhinav Dhawan.

    Team4U provides staffing and HR solutions services, with payroll management services forming an important part of the service offering. Headquartered in Delhi, Team4U has offices in nine Indian cities, including Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.

    The staffing and recruitment services market in India is still relatively small, but rapidly developing. Randstad already established a position in the Indian recruitment market by obtaining 51 per cent of the shares of EmmayHR in December 2005. The current transaction with Team4U provides Randstad access to the Indian staffing market.

  • Mary Hockaday is BBC Radio News deputy head

    Mary Hockaday is BBC Radio News deputy head

    MUMBAI: Mary Hockaday has been announced as the BBC’s Deputy Head of Radio News, a new post working across the whole department in the UK. At present she is BBC Radio’s Editor of World Service News and Current Affairs.

    The move follows the appointment of Ceri Thomas as Editor of Radio 4’s Today programme. Ceri and Mary both deputised for Radio News head Stephen Mitchell, will be covering domestic and world affairs respectively.

    Mitchell said, “Mary has significant editorial experience both in the field and on programmes on World Service and Radio 4. I am very confident that she will now help us to transform the way we deliver our journalism across the board in the light of the major changes that are affecting our audiences and the wider BBC. Mary has been an outstanding part of the radio news family for several years and I am delighted to be able to appoint her to this important new post.”

    Part of Mary’s new role will be to further enhance coverage of foreign affairs across the department. She said, “I am really looking forward to working with colleagues right across BBC Radio News, to help deliver traditional and modern news services to big and varied audiences and to help bring closer together the editorial strength and creativity of staff from across domestic and World Service news departments.”

    Hockaday begins her new role at the end of the month. BBC Radio News will now seek to appoint a new editor of World Service News and Current Affairs, as well as a Radio newsgathering editor, to replace Ceri Thomas.

  • CBS launches broadband television network ‘Innertube’

    CBS launches broadband television network ‘Innertube’

    MUMBAI: US network CBS has launched a new broadband television network to capture a greater share of the booming internet advertising market.

    The network Innertube will offer streaming video of programmes developed specifically for the internet, programmes that serve as companions to existing CBS shows, as well as material from the media group’s vast library.

    The revenue model for Innertube, which is offered as free to viewers, is based on paid advertising. “In every discussion we’re having with advertisers, the discussion includes interactive possibilities,” CBS Digital president Larry Kramer has been quoted in media reports as saying.

    Kramer supported the new revenue model, describing CBS’s recent success offering an advertising-supported webcast of the annual college basketball tournament. Reportedly, the webcast drew 5 million visits, and led to more than 15 million downloads.