ITV

Tag: BBC World

  • BBC World triumphs at World Travel Awards

    MUMBAI: BBC World has been voted ‘The World’s Leading TV Channel for Travellers’ at the 14th World Travel Awards, for the third year in a row.

    The World Travel Awards were conceived in 1993 to “acknowledge and celebrate excellence in the world’s travel and tourism industry.” The awards are voted for by travel and tourism professionals from 167,000 travel agencies, tour and transport companies and tourism organisations in more than 160 countries across the globe.

    BBC World was presented with the award at a ceremony in the Turks and Caicos Islands recently. The channel was the winner of the same award at the World Travel Awards 2005 and 2006.

    BBC World travel distribution account director Zina Neophytou said, “It’s a very proud achievement for BBC World to win this prestigious award for the third consecutive year. BBC World’s reach within the travel sector continues to grow year-on-year in this immensely important sector of distribution, meaning that the channel can now be seen by travellers wherever they are in the world.”

    BBC World claims to attract 76 million viewers a week, is available in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, and reaches 270 million households and more than 1.5 million hotel rooms.

  • BBC World to launch ‘The Real Cities’

    MUMBAI: BBC World in association with InterContinental Hotels and Resorts will launch a five-part series called The Real Cities. Starting on 17 November, the first episode will feature London.

    The travelogue will provide an insider’s guide to places that include London, Sydney, New York, Tokyo and Paris through the eyes of their residents. Three locals from each city will take viewers on a tour of individual favourite spots.

    The programmes will feature Serpentine Gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones in London, model and handbag designer Alek Wek in New York, fashion designer Colette Dinnigan in Sydney and Olivier Picasso in Paris.

    BBC World vice president, sales EMEA and North America Carolyn Gibson said, “So many travel programmes simply show the clichéd tourist sights, and neglect to go behind the scenes to find the hidden treasures of a city that the locals enjoy. The Real Cities is a groundbreaking new series for BBC World, which interviews the famous residents from five major international cities to truly give our viewers an insider’s point of view. We are very proud of this series and hope that our viewers enjoy the insights it offers.”

    InterContinental Hotels & Resorts senior vice president, global brand management Jenifer Zeigler said, “We’re thrilled to partner with BBC World to bring The Real Cities to life. The InterContinental brand has always believed in providing our guests with authentic and enriching experiences when they visit one of our destinations. The interviews and insider content provided by The Real Cities is a perfect fit for our customers who live to travel.”

  • BBC World launches ‘The Internationalists’

    MUMBAI: BBC World has launched ‘The Internationalists’ marketing campaign. ‘The Internationalists’ is a specially created virtual BBC island.

    Guests to the virtual BBC Island can explore and interact with the island’s multimedia displays, download BBC World information, collect gifts, chat with BBC World’s global network of guests, and enter a competition to win a round-the-world ticket.

    BBC World head of marketing global Leanne Mackee said, “We chose second life in order to embrace the virtual multimedia world, and to create a truly global arena within which we can not only present our ‘Internationalist’ audience, but interact with our global media trade. We are hugely excited about the vast opportunities within second life and are looking forward to exploring other events and editorial initiatives within the virtual world in the future.”

    ‘The Internationalist’ campaign is a global advertising and direct marketing campaign, created to introduce the international news channel’s unique audience to the media trade.

    ‘The Internationalists’ as defined by BBC World are conscientious consumers, big spenders and opinion leaders populating the world, who are committed to global issues and life-long learning. BBC World says the consumers have a unique appeal to a broad range of advertisers because of their interests and pursuits.

    ‘The Internationalists’ campaign has been created in partnership with Ogilvy Red Card. It features a range of exclusive portraits of the Internationalists by photographer Marco Grob. The second life virtual world is available is available at www.bbcworldinternationalist.com.

  • BBC World Service introduces a new musical identity

    MUMBAI: For the first time in over seven years the BBC has introduced a fresh musical identity to the BBC World Service.

    Composer and musician David Lowe, commissioned to work as a composer-in-residence at the BBC’s famous Bush House studios, created the sounds that now introduce and accompany BBC programmes.

    BBC World Service editor Steve Martin said, “We felt it was about time we gave the BBC World Service a contemporary and easily recognisable musical identity. We commissioned David Lowe and he worked very closely with journalists in the newsrooms and broadcasters heard on air everyday. Together they produced sequences which are a perfect fusion of David’s music and our presenters’ familiar voices.

    “Some people may question why music is so important to a speech-led broadcaster but music speaks volumes about the personality of our radio station. The innovative musical beds will help listeners to identify and distinguish the BBC on what are increasingly cluttered radio air-waves across the world.”

    Lowe said, “I really enjoyed being immersed in the BBC news rooms. I used to work in radio so I really felt at home in this environment. Just being in Bush House amongst people who are themselves creative was also inspirational. The studios are so well designed and wonderfully sound proofed, such a peaceful place to work. All in all a wonderful experience.”

    His new music can now be heard at the top of each hour and throughout popular BBC news programmes including The World Today, Business Daily, World Briefing, World Have Your Say.

  • BBC launches season asking ‘Why Democracy?’ globally

    MUMBAI: The Why Democracy? season is a multimedia event – exploring the state of democracy in the world today – with the BBC at its heart.

    From next month, the season will run globally on TV, radio and online, on over 40 broadcasters, in over 200 countries and territories – a potential audience of 300 million people.

    In the UK, BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC World, BBC Parliament, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service will all run programming dedicated to the idea of democracy.

    Central to the season are ten documentaries, made by filmmakers from around the world, taking a wide-ranging and in-depth look at the nature of democracy. Subjects include US torture in Afghanistan, the election of a class monitor in a Chinese primary school, Che Guevara and the Danish cartoons controversy.

    Why Democracy? has teamed up with Metro Newspapers worldwide, and The Observer in the UK, to ask national leaders, celebrities and everyday people to answer ten questions about democracy. Their answers will appear online, in the press and in a series of short films. The same questions will be part of a global opinion poll.

    And people all over the world can join in the discussion on the web. A global film premiere on MySpace.com will launch the online debate. whydemocracy.net will host discussion forums, chat rooms, educational resources and interviews with key figures who have had a direct hand in shaping democracy.

    The ten films in the season include:

    Please Vote For Me: Weijun Chen’s comic but profound film charts the election of the class monitor in a Chinese school. At first all goes well, but soon the manipulation and dirty tricks start, posing the question of whether democracy could ever exist without them.

    Looking For The Revolution: Here Rodrigo Vazquez travels to Bolivia to see whether the idea of a revolution started by Che Guevara 40 years ago is still alive today. Evo Morales seems to be trying to keep revolution on the agenda, but others wonder whether it can ever actually happen.

    Taxi To The Dark Side: Dilawar, a young Afghani taxi driver, was arrested and tortured to death by United States forces in Bagram. Oscar-nominated director Alex Gibney provides a forensic account of how such abuses became possible, and finds a trail leading to the door of the White House.

    Bloody Cartoons: Life and livelihood were at stake when a small Danish newspaper chose to print a selection of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Karsten Kjaer looks at the events that followed and travels the world to question the protesters and explore their motivations. Could the Muhammad cartoons have affected the future of free speech?

  • BBC World celebrates 60 years of Independence with ‘India & Pakistan 07’

    MUMBAI: BBC World is launching a month-long series titled India & Pakistan 07 to celebrate 60 years of Independence Day for both countries.

    The series will comprise of Indian School, Another Pakistan, The Wedding Business, The Other Side and Desi DNA. Nik Gowing who hosts World News Today will be reporting from India while Mishal Husain will be reporting from Pakistan.

    Indian School slated to premiere on 4 August, is a documentary which follows a school year in one of the world’s fastest growing cities Pune. It focuses on two very different private schools and looks at the students’, parents’ and teachers’ dreams and anxieties in a world that changes every day.

    Also on 4 August The Wedding Business will be unveiled. This follows a young Indian couple preparing for their wedding. The show will go behind the scenes to explore the business aspect of this multi-million dollar industry.

    Another Pakistan which will be aired on 25 August, discovers a colourful, musical and vibrant Pakistan that the rest of the world rarely sees. 

    Reflecting the character of India and Pakistan, a two-part documentary, The Other Side visits Pakistan with an Indian, while a Pakistani makes the reverse trip as they gain an insight into each other’s countries, for a unique look at what unites and divides their people.

    Desi DNA will be aired on 11 August, is an Asian arts, music, entertainment and culture magazine show which looks at the vibrant arts environment in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, exploring the myriad cultural offerings in these very different countries. Besides throughout the season, the channel will offer news coverage of events and celebrations in the two countries.

  • BBC World launches ad campaign for ‘World News Today’

    MUMBAI: With an aim to capture the Indian market, BBC World has launched a new advertising campaign in India for the new show World News Today which has started from 23 July.

    It has released four print ads, two TVCs, two radio spots and one internet ad for the Asia-centric news show hosted by Nik Gowing.

    BBC World marketing and communications head Vaishali Sharma elaborates, “As the show is focused for the Indian audience, the ad campaign is made to meet the needs of the Indian market. We are trying to reach out to the people by our ad campaign.”

    “With a common tagline for all the ads which reads ‘what affects the world, affects you’, the campaign stresses upon the fact how global changes affect our lives in India,” she adds.

    One of the print ads read ‘To know if we’re going to receive record rainfall this year, check the skies in Oman.’ The other ad states ‘To find out if petrol prices will rise. Keep an eye on America’s Middle East policy.’ To know if our foreign holidays will get cheaper one has to keep an eye at the US-China trade gap, explains one of the ads. The other ad asks to watch the show to discover how by walking into an Amercian mall, one can figure out job oppurtunities.

    Sharma says that the print ads will be placed in almost all the leading dailies of major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Srinagar, Hyderabad. Meanwhile, the radio spots will be aired on Radio City and Radio One.

    BBC World will run the 30-second TVCs only on Discovery, Travel and Living, AXN, Pix, Zee Café and Zee Studio who share a similar audience profile.

  • BBC World now available on Verizon TV

    NEW DELHI: Viewers around the world turn to BBC World for balanced, in-depth international news and information. Now, Verizon FiOS TV subscribers can enjoy this 24-hour news resource as BBC World joins the Verizon FiOS TV channel line-up on channel 92, a press release from Verizon said today.

    “BBC World telecasts to more than 200 countries and territories across the globe, yet few U.S. cable companies offer it,” says Terry Denson, Verizon vice president – FiOS TV content and programming.

    “We’re delighted to give our customers another distinctive choice that further serves their diverse interests and isn’t found on most competing systems,” he added
    Verizon provides FiOS TV over the nation’s most advanced fiber-optic network, straight to customers’ homes. Verizon FiOS TV offers a broad collection of all-digital programming, more than two dozen high-definition channels, 8,600 video-on-demand titles and more.

    At the end of the first quarter, Verizon FiOS TV had 348,000 subscribers and was available to approximately 3.1 million households in parts of California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

    BBC World provides international news, business and sports reports, plus award-winning current affairs series and documentaries, to a weekly global audience of 65 million viewers.

    A study by American pollster Frank Luntz, commissioned by BBC World in September 2006, shows that the channel has “mass potential” and “an eager audience” in the United States.

    In addition to the programming on the BBC World channel, U.S. audiences can view BBC World via 30-minute programs shown daily on 229 PBS stations throughout the United States and on BBC America.

    “BBC News already has a strong reputation in the U.S,” says BBC World’s director of distribution and business development, Jeff Hazell. “BBC World channel offers audiences a truly international news agenda and a global perspective and is in the enviable position of being able to meet the demands of American viewers for in-depth, balanced international news.”

  • Its ‘focus India’ for BBC World this March

    Its ‘focus India’ for BBC World this March

    MUMBAI: BBC World launched its first ever India focused brand advertising campaign on 16 January this year and has followed this up with a wide variety of India focused programmes this March.

    The news channel has constantly maintained that India is its first market for region specific programming and the channel continues to focus on this region through mini series, interviews and perspective stories- the latest being its coverage on the Indian Budget.

    Starting 6 March, BBC World will air its mini series Take Off on Indian civil aviation. The documentary series talks to leading industry experts about the recent developments in the aviation sector and analyses the trends.

    While the channel has in the past looked at Indian IT and auto sectors, we asked BBC World Commissioning Editor Narendhra Morar why the special focus on aviation sector.

    Says Morar, “The aviation industry in many ways symbolises globalisation, given that it’s all about connecting people and places the world over. And the aviation industry in India is a very good metaphor for India’s increasing integration into a globalised world economy. It is also a dynamic and rapidly expanding sector. For all these reasons, we felt India’s aviation industry was an important one that can shed light on many aspects of India’s growing economic importance in the world, a development that is being closely followed by businesses and governments the world over.”

    On choosing Miditech to present this documentary series, Morar explained that the comfort level was largely in place having worked with the production house on various other shows and series in the past.

    “We have worked on several series with Miditech, including another business series entitled Call Centre. Miditech have the requisite skills and resources to produce a series that meets BBC standards. The series has interviewed a vast variety of people including the Minister of Civil Aviation, the heads of private airlines such as Jet, Kingfisher and Spice as well as previous entrants who subsequently withdrew from the market such as Damania. This is probably the most comprehensive examination of India’s aviation industry,” he adds.

    He also explained that Take Off could well be one of the biggest series’ the channel has commissioned with a large number of teams in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore contributing to the making of it. “Given that there are continuing developments in the story of Indian aviation, filming has in fact not been completed. Additional filming has and will continue to be done to ensure that the story is as current as is possible. As BBC World’s commissioning editor, I take a very close interest in the content and am in constant dialogue with the producer on each episode of the series. It is a true collaborative process between BBC World and Miditech,” he says.

    Take Off is just the start of the channel’s India focus. Another show Peschardt’s People, which began airing from 3 March, sees Michael Peschardt touring the Asia Pacific region even as he catches up with people and issues that matter in the particular country. Peschardt’s stop in India will see him explore the appeal of Indian films and a conversation with Bollywood actor Preity Zinta. The actress was earlier roped in by BBC news online to write a regular column for their news website.

    But the flavour of the month is cricket with ICC World Cup Cricket on in full swing by the latter half of the month. And like other news channels, the BBC is also doing the cricket tango with shows like Sport Today and Extra Time.

    Morar also spoke about the other World Cup initiatives by the channel. “Following the success of the interactive programme My World Cup during the Football World Cup in 2006, BBC World will be launching My Cricket World Cup to run throughout the tournament. A twice-weekly show presented by Adnan Nawaz, it will feature regular cricket fans and armchair commentators from across the world. Those who wish to interact with Adnan can do so live via webcam, email or mobile, giving them a chance to have their say about the tournament, games, teams and players.”

    Morar admits that BBC World “has always had a strong affinity with the Indian market and Indian audiences and we also remain firmly committed to output covering India in all its myriad manifestations. There has always been a historic link between the BBC and India and in that sense what we are doing now is simply a continuation of this connection.”

    BBC World has maintained that outside Europe, India is the single most important market for the news channel. The competition from national news channels, especially the addition of English news channels and the CNN-factor, have made BBC World take a re-look at their programming and bring in a stronger Indian perspective. The channel can no longer use the garb of historical connections and will have to work aggressively to compete in this key growing market.

    But Morar brushes aside this fact by stating, “Competition from other broadcasters is not only a fact but is to be welcomed as it enables us to give off our best.”

  • BBC World in ‘Take Off’ mode with new show

    BBC World in ‘Take Off’ mode with new show

    MUMBAI: Close on the heels of launching an India specific campaign ‘What Affects the World, Affects You’, BBC World announced the start of its 6-part mini series Take Off, on the aviation industry in India, with a panel discussion on the booming sector.
    The mini series will be aired on BBC World every Tuesday at 9 pm, and will talk to leading industry experts, asking them about the recent developments and exploring and analysing the future of this sector. With six repeats planned across weekdays and weekends the show is a key feature of the channel’s March programming
    Region specific programming such as the sector stories on India is undertaken by the channel only in a few countries. BBC World is aggressively looking at the Indian market where it has to compete with both national news channels as well as international news channel CNN.
    Speaking about the mini series, BBC World head of MarCom Vaishali Sharma said, “The mini series to be aired on our global network takes a look at the Indian aviation sector through the years. Our correspondent Karishma Vaswani had covered the ‘Aeroshow’ at Yelahanka and the excitement that has been generated over this sector in the past few years made it ideal to showcase this sector. The aviation industry has witnessed phenomenal growth in the last few years. With Take Off, BBC World will showcase the opportunities and achievements created by the Indian boom in the aviation sector, plus the threats.”
    As part of the promotional activity, the channel also had a brief panel discussion on the budget and growth of the aviation segment with Go Air managing director Jeh Wadia and Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) CEO Kapil Kaul, along with minister for civil aviation Praful Patel, who joined in via video conferencing.
    The mini series, which was commissioned to Miditec, starts at the cusp of the ‘Aero Show’ at Yelahanka in Bangalore and traces the journey of Indian aviation through the decades. The first episode takes an overview of the industry and the various issues that surround it. The subsequent issues will probe deeper into the problems faced by low cost airlines, government apathy, infrastructure problems, airline personnel as well as the rise of the budget airlines and privatisation.
    Speaking about the advertising for the show, BBC World ad sales head Seema Mohapatra mentions that while the aviation sector itself could not advertise on the show, there had been great response from other advertisers. “The aviation sector spins off so many other areas like tourism and domestic travel for business that we are bound to see advertisers in those areas as well.”
    The promotions for the show include a multimedia marketing campaign with BBC leveraging its radio connection. Sharma said, “We are looking at radio very actively and will use FM stations like Radio One and Radio City. The show will also be promoted through print, outdoor and online media.”