ITV

Tag: Al Jazeera

  • Indian stories compliment Al Jazeera’s campaign

    Indian stories compliment Al Jazeera’s campaign

    MUMBAI: Al Jazeera has always taken pride in being one of the few channels that focuses on showcasing human centric stories rather than the commercial or business ones. Operating its Arabic and English channels from Qatar, a location unusual for a worldwide TV channel, it has now embarked on a campaign ‘Hear the Human Story’ (HTHS) to highlight its ideology.

     

    Spread across 12 countries globally, but focusing on key areas of Al Jazeera English (AJE) such as UK, South Africa and Australia, it is a six week long campaign which will run till mid December, after which a number of new smaller bursts are planned for the next year.

     

    Designed by Memac Ogilvy Dubai, the campaign has been tailored to suit different market dynamics with primary focus on print, digital and outdoor media. Launch events were held in Johannesburg, London and Sydney, in line with its core markets.

     

    While India is a priority market both in terms of editorial coverage and also viewership, it hasn’t been a focus for HTHS. Says AJE marketing head Kayoko Nidsaid, “India has not been a focus for this particular campaign; however we used stories from India to show the human stories of Al Jazeera. The reason why India was not included in this year’s campaign was because Al Jazeera had only launched its distribution programme and marketing and PR directives last year to coincide with the increased availability of the channel on TV platforms.” 2015 will see more promotional efforts in India.

     

    Speaking about the concept of HTHS, Nidsaid says, “The idea of ‘human stories’ was always built into the ethos and DNA of the channel, the campaign was a natural progression of the Al Jazeera English brand. HTHS is a testament of our commitment to covering people caught up in events in all corners of the globe and aims to reinforce one of our key strengths for our audiences worldwide. We take pride on the human story and fearless journalism.”

     

    India is a rich pool of stories for AJE. In November itself, stories of India marking world toilet day as well as a bank that teaches impoverished children in Ahmedabad on how to save for a crisis, made headlines.

     

    Nisaid says that the AJE workforce has many Indian staff both in editorial as well as non-editorial while the campaign itself saw two Indian stories (the school under the bridge and the Gulabi Gang) being told across its launch areas.

     

    Once the campaign concludes, the results will be analysed by agency TNS.

     

  • Indian campaigners at centre of Al Jazeera global brand campaign

    Indian campaigners at centre of Al Jazeera global brand campaign

    MUMBAI: Al Jazeera English has made virtue of putting real people on its billboards and television commercials rather than its own star presenters and correspondents.

     

    The channel’s new brand campaign is its largest marketing push to-date, and the slogan “Hear the Human Story” was unveiled at its global launch in South Africa today. The brand film featured at the special event was about the Gulabi Gang, also known as “vigilantes in pink”, who tackle issues such as violence against women and corruption in northern India.

     

    Al Anstey, managing director of Al Jazeera English, said that the channel covered all the big themes and issues facing the world today, but did so from the perspective of real people: “We believe everyone has a story worth hearing. There are seven billion people to listen to on the planet right now. Al Jazeera exists to cover the people often ignored. People whose voices must be heard – but who are so often neglected by mainstream media.”

    “Our editorial mission is to cover the world without a perspective. What that means is not seeing the globe through a geographical or cultural prism,by not weighting our coverage towards West, the rich nations, or anywhere else. We cover the developing world as much as the developed. So person in Bangui is given as much humanity as a person in Boston or Birmingham.”

     

    Commenting on the choice of Johannesburg as the location for the launch, rather than the traditional financial centres favoured by other channels, AlJazeera executive director for marketing and distribution Abdulla Alnajjar said: “In a world where the truth is everywhere under attack, Al Jazeera puts the human being at the centre of its news agenda, giving a voice to the voiceless.  This campaign is about human stories and we’re proud that theglobal launch for the campaign is here from South Africa, a region rich with history and human stories.”

     

     “There is a common perception that the media are mainly interested in covering those in power, or the rich and famous. Our campaign gives a voice to the many people around the world who feel that they have been leftbehind.

     

    “Our coverage is not about only about portraying difficult situations – its about the triumph of the human spirit and the ability for people in the most difficult of situations to make change. It’s on that foundation that we built this campaign honouring their lives and struggles. This campaign showcases incredible human stories and the humanity that unites us all.”

     

    Some of the others featured in the campaign include: Kiki Katese who started a group of female drummers in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide; and Illac Diaz who brought lighting to slums in the Philippines using plastic bottles.

     

    Al Jazeera English also point out that they aired a film about MalalaYousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize winning teenager who campaigns for the right of girls to go to school, two years before she hit the headlines when she was shot by the Taliban. “We have extraordinary people like Malalaon our screens every single day. Their stories are inspiring and must also receive attention,” said Anstey.

  • Al Jazeera’s Correspondent series explores our modern day obsessions

    Al Jazeera’s Correspondent series explores our modern day obsessions

    MUMBAI: Bringing a diverse range of stories from across the globe from the perspective of a journalist, the Correspondent series is returning back on Al Jazeera English on 6 November at 8:00 pm GMT (4:00 pm Toronto, 8:00 pm London and 11:00 pm Nairobi).

     

    Travelling from India to America and from Bosnia to Doha, Al Jazeera’s correspondents explore subjects that touch on a diverse range of modern obsessions; digital technology, architecture and photography, yoga, the American dream, fertility, and the universal love of comedy.

     

    In the premiere episode on 6 November, ‘My Digital Addiction’, Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle (@phillavelle) looks at the modern phenomenon of digital addiction. Along with following Lavelle’s personal addiction story, the episode also explores wider issues and problems associated with it. The episode also follow him checking in to a digital detox camp then follow his progress to see if he has been able to stay off his devices.

     

    ‘Metropolis’ on 13 November is a film that looks at the relationship people have with modern cities. Like many people, Richard Bentley (@R1chardBentley) has a fascination with architecture and uses time lapse photography to take a closer look at some very special buildings that reveal so much of the past, present and future, in a unique and artistic manner.

     

     On 20 November Bhanu Bhatnagar (@bhanu_b) asks ‘Who Owns Yoga?’, and what impact the modern day popularity of yoga has on the world’s most ancient physical and spiritual practices. Packaged and commercialised in a myriad of different ways over the past decades, yoga has reached millions of people but its commercialization also brought with it all the pitfalls of operating in a modern capitalist world.

     

    ‘A Tale of two Migrations: Chasing the American Dream’ on 27 November features the story of Al Jazeera’s correspondent Adam Raney’s (@adamraney) family. The Mississippi Delta has been through very dramatic demographic changes since the US Civil War, with the ethnic make-up and attitudes towards minorities forced to change with the developing migration patterns the episode explores how US immigration policy is impacting the lives of millions.

     

    On 4 December the film ‘Motherhood On Ice’ explores the personal journey of correspondent Amanda Burrell, who at 42, may still want to have children and is exploring her options, including oocyte cryopreservation – freezing her eggs. The film explores the medical and social issues surrounding the procedure as well as the personal struggle for women who try to decide whether or not to freeze their eggs. 

     

    And finally, on 11 December, in ‘Bosnian Humour’, Senior Correspondent Jackie Rowland (@jackyaljaz) tries to reunites the three members of the immensely popular comedy team The Surrealist Top Ten (Topliste Nadrealiste). The Bosnian comedy troupe split acrimoniously in the height of the war. Often described as the Balkans answer to Monty Python, the members of the team were from the three main communities in Sarajevo. Nele – the Serbian , Zenit – Bosnian-Muslim and Suco – the Croat. The film reveals  how the Bosnian war has left scars that may never heal for.

  • News7 Tamil to be run by an ‘editorial board’

    News7 Tamil to be run by an ‘editorial board’

     

    NEW DELHI: Among the plethora of news channels in the country, one more news channel in Tamil is all set to take off, but with a difference – its seven-member editorial board will only have one person who is an employee of the channel.
     
    All the other six editorial members – most of them not based in Tamil Nadu – will be working in an honorary capacity but will really be the decision-makers since the editorial managers are answerable to them. Furthermore, the policy is dictated by an editorial policy which has been drawn up by the editorial board and not by the owners.
     
    Around Rs 60 crore is being invested by VV Group (with Alliance Broadcasting as the licence holders) who own the channel which will be the first mixed-language (English-Tamil) news channel from Tamil Nadu to reach out to the Tamil diaspora all over the world. Rajesh.
     
    News7 Tamil editor and news head Rajesh Sundaram, who is the only paid member of the editorial board, told indiantelevision.com that the channel is expected to launch on 19 October but had a soft launch on 3 October after a rousing AR Rahman concert in Chennai on 2 October. He also added that the editorial board as a ‘firewall’ between the editorial managers and the management.  
     
    He said the channel will be a free-to-air channel to begin with and any decision to convert it into a pay channel would be taken after seeing the response. Initially, the channel will broadcast in Tamil but may ultimately go on to other languages. As per the list of channels approved by the ministry of information and broadcasting, it has a licence for both English and regional languages.
     
    Referring to a question about marketing, he said the channel had already resorted to aggressive social media strategy and already garnered 20,000 followers on its Facebook page and several thousand followers on the Tamil and English Twitter handles. The website of the channel would be launched later this month.
     
    The editorial focus of the channel would be ‘socially responsible journalism’ with an emphasis on social empowerment through information. The News7 Tamil editorial board will work independently within an institutionalised mechanism to firewall the channel’s editorial content from both external and internal influences.
     
    The board will have complete authority in defining, adding to and amending editorial and news policies, feedback and complaint redressal systems.
     
    The channel is not studio-based and will be shown from different parties and may even be telecast from different cities everyday, said Sundaram. The aim was to get unbiased news stories about Tamilians all over the world.

     

    The board is currently led by a team of globally experienced professionals. The team comprises former Al Jazeera English head of newsgathering Nick Walshe and previously a reporter and editor with ITN of London and the BB), Deccan Chronicle executive editor R Bhagwan Singh and current news head Rajesh Sundaram (former Al Jazeera English India correspondent, TV Today Network input editor, founding editor of News Nation and South Africa’s Africa News Network 7).

     

    Two other prominent personalities have agreed to join the board in the last 24 hours. Meena Kandasamy, a well-known poet, novelist and social activist based in London and a strong supporter of the Tamil cause is one of them. Priti Mohan from Chennai is the fifth member. She is a 30-year old lawyer and columnist with a keen interest in culture and music.
     
    A total of seven members will be inducted into the editorial board, each serving for a period of one year extendable by up to one more year. The board will also appoint a chairperson who would also serve for a tenure of one year extendable by another year. The only permanent member of the board would be the news head/editor of the channel.

     

    Sundaram said the challenge would be keeping news neutral and so the channel had three objectives: top quality news gathering, 100 per cent accuracy, and unbiased reporting. Audience surveys had been taken into account to see the kind of news that people liked to watch or the way they wanted to watch these.

    The channel will be available on Sun Direct, Airtel DTH, Tata Sky, Videocon DTH, Arasu Cable, SCV  and all major distribution platforms across Tamil Nadu and nationally. The channel will be distributed in all major markets overseas soon after its launch in India.
     
    The channel has also worked out tie-ups in Malayasia and Singapore and is now working for tie-ups in West Asia and Europe.

  • News7 Tamil to launch on 19 October

    News7 Tamil to launch on 19 October

    MUMBAI: A new Tamil news channel is all set to debut in the state of Tamil Nadu. News7 is expected to launch on 19 October 2014. VV Group that is involved in the mining industry, is the backer of the channel.

     

    Former Al Jazeera bureau head Nick Walshe has been got on board as the chairman of its editorial board. According to reports, Bhagwan Singh from Deccan Chronicle is also a part of the editorial board. Rajesh Sundaram is the editor and news head. The 24 hour news channel will enter the state that already has an abundant number of Tamil news channels.

     

    It goes with the tagline ‘Global news channel for the Tamil diaspora’. The VV Group is into activities such as mining, cement, paints, oil and others.  The company under which the channel is listed is Alliance Broadcast. Advertisements from the channel, that was inaugurated earlier this month by AR Rahman, say that it will be the first Tamil news channel with a distinct Tamil perspective on world news.

     

    Currently the channels that broadcast news in Tamil are Sun News, Seithigal, Puthiya Thalaimurai, Thanthi TV, Captain News, Lotus News and Sathiyam TV.

     

    It is broadcasting from Intelsat 17.

  • Al Jazeera to respond to I&B Ministry notice within 15 days

    Al Jazeera to respond to I&B Ministry notice within 15 days

    Updated:  02 Sep 2014 12:30 pm

     

    NEW DELHI: News broadcaster Al Jazeera is expected to respond well in time to the show cause issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for allegedly depicting a wrong map of India in its news reports. 

     

    Sources confirming the issuance of the notice said a period had been given to the channel to reply to the notice.

    The Ministry had said that it had come to its attention that a wrong map of India had been shown in its news broadcasts by the channel last year more than once, in which parts of the country were shown outside the border. 

    “It had come to the notice of the Ministry that in some of the news reports shown by the channel in 2013 related to various incidents, parts of Jammu and Kashmir were shown in territory outside India. The Ministry took the matter with the office of Surveyor General of India. 

    “After a report was received from the office of Surveyor General of India, a show cause notice has been issued to the channel,” a source said. 

    Under the Cable TV Networks Rules 1994, no programme should be carried in the Cable Service which contains anything affecting the integrity of a nation. 

     

    An official spokesperson from the company said, “Al Jazeera takes all feedback on its coverage very seriously.  Our editorial policy is always in line with international law, and to ensure the greatest integrity and quality of information to our viewers in India and right around the world.

     

    “Our style guide says: ‘Any map of India must include Indian-Administered Kashmir, and any map of Pakistan must include Pakistan-Administered Kashmir.  The borders of Kashmir should be a dotted line.’ Some of our maps of both India and Pakistan though did not have the disputed territories clearly visible. This has been rectified.” 

  • Critical Mention to Distribute Al Jazeera Media Network’s Channels into Global Business Intelligence Markets

    Critical Mention to Distribute Al Jazeera Media Network’s Channels into Global Business Intelligence Markets

    MUMBAI: Critical Mention, the global leader in real-time TV Intelligence, enabling many of the world’s largest business intelligence and big data platforms to efficiently include breaking news and other broadcast content from around the globe into their subscription platforms, announced a partnership with Al Jazeera Media Network today.

     

    The agreement extends to both direct subscribers of Critical Mention as well as the users of third-party media monitoring and business intelligence platforms that rely on the Critical Mention API.  Terms were not disclosed. 

     

    “With 70 bureaus around the world reaching 260 million households and a fast-growing presence on US cable systems,  Al Jazeera reporters are covering the stories and issues that matter to the public and private sector,” said Critical Mention founder and CEO Sean Morgan.  “The importance of this real-time content to public and private markets across the world is profound.”

     

    Today’s Al Jazeera Media Network partnership comes as the global, broad-based multibillion-dollar business intelligence and big data marketplace is grappling with a lack of real-time broadcast content.

     

    “Despite huge audience sizes and extended time spent by viewers consuming content, TV has been kept on the sidelines and virtually untapped in real-time intelligence applications,” said Morgan. “Due to the mass infrastructure requirements to aggregate broadcast on a global scale and technical requirements to make it all searchable and distributable, the broadcast industry has never been able to effectively monetize the business intelligence markets as newspapers, magazines and newswires have been able to do, and business intelligence markets have never been able to leverage real-time broadcast data on a global scale to derive insights and drive real-time decisions.”

     

    Recent media consumption and ad-spend studies from Pew Research Center , McKinsey, and Marketcharts bolster the argument that TV is the most persuasive and pervasive mass medium.

     

    With content partnerships in place with close to 300 of the most trusted TV and radio news brands across three continents, Critical Mention’s API is driving a paradigm shift in the utility of broadcast in business intelligence and big data platforms while pioneering new opportunities for broadcasters, who gain clear visibility into usage across all platforms. Al Jazeera Media Network gains immediate distribution into the business intelligence markets. In addition to Critical Mention’s direct client base, the Al Jazeera Media Network’s broadcasts will gain immediate distribution to Critical Mention’s channel partners in the media monitoring, lead gen, ad intelligence and general research markets that are licensing access through the Critical Mention API and AMQP low-latency feeds to add the TV medium into their platforms. These platforms receive either near-real-time or low-latency enhanced and expanded text feeds through the service with all video remaining on the Critical Mention cloud for viewing.

     

    In the integration with Critical Mention, the Al Jazeera Media Network’s properties are optimized through Critical Mention’s content engine. All signals run through the Critical Mention speech-to-text network, making the content searchable by every spoken word in real time and providing other meaningful metadata including program title, estimated audience and ad equivalency. Subscribers to the Critical Mention platform also benefit from natural language processing of Al Jazeera content, exposing proper nouns and sentiment.

     

    “We are pleased to partner with Critical Mention to extend the reach of Al Jazeera’s award-winning editorial coverage into corporations, NGOs, government and other organizations,” said Al Jazeera executive director of marketing and distribution Ehab Sahawneh.  “The wide adoption of the Critical Mention API by other business intelligence platforms simplifies and streamlines our efforts.”

  • Al Jazeera English uncovers the state of Measles in India

    Al Jazeera English uncovers the state of Measles in India

    MUMBAI: India has one of the highest rates of measles in the world and one of the lowest rates of routine immunization, states International agencies. Nidhi Dutt, Correspondent, Al Jazeera English captures the state of Measles in India in a special news package.

     
    India’s polio eradication campaign, led by the Government and its partners, including the World Health Organization, has been one of the biggest, most complex, and most meticulously implemented vaccination campaigns in human history. In March 2014, India was certified as polio free by the World Health Organisation. The government and global agencies are now trying to use the polio blue print to beat measles, an infection that threatens millions of children across the country.

     
    Prevention is better than a cure, that’s the mantra the Indian government is using as it works to vaccinate hundreds of millions of children against infections like measles. Nidhi Dutt travels to one of the government routine vaccination drives where hundreds of millions of children are getting vaccinations against infections like measles.

     
    Dr. Ajay Ghai, District Immunisation Officer says, “Our first target is to reduce morbidity. We are not at present targeting at eradication or elimination of measles”. Dr Genevieve Begkoyian, Chief of Health, Unicef India said, “We can save four thousand deaths a day in India with immunisation. One of the killers is measles.”

     
    The news package showcases various campaigns that are running to vaccinate the children to protect them from the viral disease Measles.

     
    Tune into Al Jazeera on Dish TV 618 and Tata Sky Channel 533 to catch the news package on July 5, 11.30 PM IST

  • Sircar to address ‘World Global Forum’ in Germany

    Sircar to address ‘World Global Forum’ in Germany

    NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Jawhar Sircar is attending the first-ever ‘Global Media Forum 2014’ being organised by Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster.

     

    The three-day international media congress in Bonn from 30 June to 2 July will among other things discuss how media is participating in the global trend towards greater active participation. The theme for this year is: From Information to Participation: Challenges for the Media.

     

    Prasar Bharati is among the two broadcasters from developing countries to have been invited to attend the meet, the other being Al Jazeera.

     

    Sircar will be taking part in a session on ‘The Future of Journalism and the Role of International Broadcasters.’ The discussion will be moderated by former BBC newscaster Tim Sebastian.

     

    The Summit will debate whether conventional media will be able to retain its position in this converged digital world where the lines between commentary and traditional journalistic reporting have been blurred., how international broadcasters can contribute to global diversity, how information services are likely to look like in the future, etc.

     

    Prominent guest speakers, including Google critic Jeff Jarvis and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will discuss how media is participating in the global trend towards community involvement and interest in political processes and decision-making.

     

    The discussions at GMF 2014 are bound to have far-reaching points of relevance for macro-visioning and formulation of media policy across the globe.

  • Ditto TV strengthens its news offering with Al Jazeera

    Ditto TV strengthens its news offering with Al Jazeera

    MUMBAI: Ditto TV, India’s first Over-The-Top (OTT) TV distribution platform, has further strengthened its international news channel offerings by partnering with Al Jazeera.  

     

    The Qatar-based news channel will be available to viewers across India and other regions.

     

    Ditto TV business head Manoj Padmanabhan said: “We have always focused on providing our users with diverse content from across the world. Viewers already had access to premium news channels like BBC World News, CNN International on Ditto TV and with this tie-up, we are looking to further strengthen our offerings in the news channel space. We are looking forward to cater to our premium audiences who want to stay connected with news across the globe.”

     

    Al Jazeera digital distribution manager Taahir Hoorzook added: “Consumers are increasingly looking at alternate screens for TV viewing and this partnership will help us bring our award winning and well acclaimed news content from around the world to viewers in India and around the world. It is an exciting opportunity for us and we are very bullish on this partnership with Ditto TV.”