ITV

Tag: BBC

  • BBC announces winners of playwriting contest

    BBC announces winners of playwriting contest

    MUMBAI: BBC Hindi has announced Amar Kumar Singh from Hazaribagh of Jharkhand and Shripal Nehra from Sikar of , Rajasthan, as the winners of its playwriting competition, held at the beginning of this year.

    The winners have been awarded a certificate each from BBC Hindi, along with a shortwave radio and Rs.15,000 as prize money.
    Amar Kumar Singh and Shripal Nehra’s scripts were chosen from over 1200 entries received for the contest. The winning entries will now be produced as radio plays, inviting local talent to lend their voice to bring alive the scripts. These will be broadcast on the BBC Hindi service in December.

    BBC Hindi head Achala Sharma says, “BBC Hindi aims to provide a platform for dialogue for its audiences, and the drama contest brings to the fore issues that are close to our audiences’ hearts. The response to the contest was overwhelming with listeners from all walks of life sending in entries, and it was a tough choice. The winning scripts focus on themes such as corruption and the plight of the elderly in the face of disintegrating traditional family values. I am sure these will strike a chord with all our listeners.”

    The winners were facilitated at a presentation ceremony held at the Delhi office of the BBC, where they have attended a four-day workshop on radio playwriting with Achala Sharma.

    “I congratulate both the winners and hope that their association with BBC Hindi has been a meaningful one,” Achala added.

  • BBC launches ‘Sahara with Michael Palin’

    BBC launches ‘Sahara with Michael Palin’

    MUMBAI: BBC World is launching a new four-part series rom 4 Novemver, which sees Michael Palin’s journey unfold across the Sahara Desert revealing a huge and diverse range of cultures, landscapes and a long history of civilisation, trade, commerce and conquest stretching from the ancient Egyptians to the oil-rich Islamic republics of today.

    Starting and finishing his adventure in Gibraltar, Palin crosses the Straits to Morocco where he visits the main cities before traversing Atlas Mountains.

    The first episode, A Line In The Sand would premiere Saturday 4 November at 2:10 pm and would be re-telecsted on Saturday 4 November at 10:10 pm, Sunday 5 November at 5:10 am, 10:10 am and 6:10 pm.

    The first episode would see Michael’s journey begin in Gibraltar where he crosses the Straits to Tangier in Morocco. After pausing in Fez and Marrakech and crossing the High Atlas he enters the real desert. He is then guided to the Mauritanian border by the Sahawari people, where he climbs aboard the longest train in the world, breaking his journey at Chinguetti.

    The second episode, Destination Timbuktu would be aired on Saturday 11 November at 2:10 pm and re-telecasted on: Saturday 11 November at 11:10 pm, Sunday 12 November at 5:10 am, 10:10 pm and 6:10 pm.

    The second episode would see Michael briefly visiting Senegal, Bamako, Dogon and Djenne on the way to his destination Timbuktu. Celebrating the Muslim Tabaski feast in the city of Djenne with a man called Pygmy, and securing a passage on a cargo boat with a Norwegian missionary called Kristin, the rest of the journey down the Niger River to Timbuktu seems plain sailing till the boat runs aground a day out of its destination.

    The third episode, Absolute Desert would be aired on Saturday 18 November at 2:10 pm and re-telecasted on Saturday 18 November at 11:10 pm, Sunday 19 November at 5:10 am, 10:10 pm and 6:10 pm.

    In the third episode, Michael reaches the city of Timbuktu. He wanders through the rubble that is 21 century Timbuktu to find the Imam who shows him original astronomical textbooks that predate Galileo’s discoveries by 200 years.

    Amidst the chaos of camel races, shopping and general mayhem, Michael meets up with a group of Touareg for the next leg of his journey: a camel train across the Tenere desert to Algeria. Walking 12 hours a day, eating the odd sheep, and learning the rudiments of Tamashek, the language of the Tuareg, Michael finally gets to grips with the heart and soul of the desert.

    The fourth episode, Dire Straits would be aired on Saturday 25 November at 2:10 pm and re-telecasted on Saturday 25 November at 11:10 pm, Sunday 25 November at 5:10 am, 10:10 pm and 6:10 pm.

    In this episode, Michael arrives at the border of Niger and Algeria, where banditry is a way of life in the absence of law and order.Turning north Michael passes through the mountains of the Hoggar massif before he pauses in the oil and gas fields of central Algeria.

    Crossing into Tunis Michael re-lives the filming of The Life of Brian in Monastir, before taking the Maghreb Express to the city of Algiers.

    Michael talks to would-be immigrants before returning to his original starting point, Gibraltar.En-route he learns of the terrible fate that has engulfed so many Saharan men, women and children who attempt the eight mile crossing in search of a better life.

  • John Dickie is BBC’s head of corporate affairs

    John Dickie is BBC’s head of corporate affairs

    MUMBAI: John Dickie has been appointed as UK pubcaster the BBC’s new head of corporate affairs.

    Dickie, currently head of public affairs for the BBC and responsible for the organisation’s relationship with Parliament and politicians, will take on the new, broader role immediately, retaining the public affairs remit.

    The appointment, working to the BBC’s Head of Communications Sally Osman, is part of the wider restructuring of the Marketing, Communications & Audiences division (MC&A). He will also take responsibility for all PR research, events and publications and manage a group of senior PR project managers.

    Dickie has been a key member of the Charter Review team under the BBC’s Director of Strategy, Caroline Thomson, over recent years; and was involved in conveying the BBC’s position on the latest Communications Act.

    A former public policy consultant with Prima and then GPC, Dickie, 41, was also Regulatory Affairs Director of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association.

    Osman said, “We are nearing the end of the Charter Review and Licence Fee settlement process in which John and his team have played an integral role. The focus will soon shift to wider communications priorities through to 2012, strengthening relationships and shifting perceptions. John has great intuition, intelligence and ideas so I’m delighted he and his team are joining the Communications group.”

    Dickie said, “I’m delighted to be have been given the opportunity by Sally to bring together the BBC’s public affairs and public relations teams. Working together, and with colleagues across the BBC, we will be showing how the BBC is delivering its public purposes under the new Charter.”

    The four-strong Public Affairs team, which includes Andrew Scadding, a former BBC producer and ex-head of Broadcasting with the Conservative Party, will also move in to the communications team within the BBC’s MC&A division.

  • John Dickie is BBC’s head of corporate affairs

    John Dickie is BBC’s head of corporate affairs

    MUMBAI: John Dickie has been appointed as UK pubcaster the BBC’s new head of corporate affairs.

    Dickie, currently head of public affairs for the BBC and responsible for the organisation’s relationship with Parliament and politicians, will take on the new, broader role immediately, retaining the public affairs remit.

    The appointment, working to the BBC’s Head of Communications Sally Osman, is part of the wider restructuring of the Marketing, Communications & Audiences division (MC&A). He will also take responsibility for all PR research, events and publications and manage a group of senior PR project managers.

    Dickie has been a key member of the Charter Review team under the BBC’s Director of Strategy, Caroline Thomson, over recent years; and was involved in conveying the BBC’s position on the latest Communications Act.

    A former public policy consultant with Prima and then GPC, Dickie, 41, was also Regulatory Affairs Director of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association.

    Osman said, “We are nearing the end of the Charter Review and Licence Fee settlement process in which John and his team have played an integral role. The focus will soon shift to wider communications priorities through to 2012, strengthening relationships and shifting perceptions. John has great intuition, intelligence and ideas so I’m delighted he and his team are joining the Communications group.”

    Dickie said, “I’m delighted to be have been given the opportunity by Sally to bring together the BBC’s public affairs and public relations teams. Working together, and with colleagues across the BBC, we will be showing how the BBC is delivering its public purposes under the new Charter.”

    The four-strong Public Affairs team, which includes Andrew Scadding, a former BBC producer and ex-head of Broadcasting with the Conservative Party, will also move in to the communications team within the BBC’s MC&A division.

  • BBC to make big screen wildlife film on ‘The Meerkats’

    BBC to make big screen wildlife film on ‘The Meerkats’

    MUMBAI: BBC Films will collaborate with the BBC Natural History Unit to produce their first ever feature film together, The Meerkats.

    The film is set to start principal photography this month in the Kalahari Desert. The Weinstein Company are co-financing the project, and will distribute the film internationally.

    The Meerkats is directed by James Honeyborne, with Joe Oppenheimer and Trevor Ingman as producers. BBC Natural History Unit head Neil Nightingale and BBC Films head David M Thompson will serve as executive producers with co-president of production, Michael Cole and director of development and production Rhodri Thomas overseeing the project on behalf of The Weinstein Company.

    The BBC Natural History Unit has been involved in feature films emanating from their own television series – Blue Planet and the forthcoming Planet Earth. But this is the first time such a project has been produced as a feature film right from the outset, asserts an official release.

    The Meerkats is a revealing look at one family’s daily struggle for survival in the harshest environment on earth. But what makes these natives of the African plains even more remarkable is a family dynamic which bears an uncanny resemblance to our own.

    Whether they are going through the routines of daily life or locked in a very real battle to stay alive, The Meerkats is a look at how one family’s connection to each other and their surroundings stands as a model of resilience and fortitude.

    Talking about the film Thompson said, “This is a tremendously exciting collaboration. The Natural History Unit is the best in the world at what they do and we’re really thrilled to be working with them at last. The film has huge emotional appeal and will really travel internationally. It’s a great story, with a fantastic team behind it, and we hope this will be the start of a great partnership for the future.”

    Nightingale added, “I am very excited about the potential of this film project, combining the talents of the BBC Natural History Unit and BBC Films. With a strong and emotional story, featuring some of the most charismatic of wildlife characters, this film will appeal to a very broad cinema audience, in Britain and around the world.”

    BBC Films is the feature film-making arm of the BBC, developing, producing and financing an average of eight feature films each year.

  • BBC launches its first marketing campaign across Afghanistan

    MUMBAI: BBC World Service has launched its first marketing campaign in Afghanistan, promoting its Pashto and Dari language broadcasts on FM across the country

    The ongoing two-month campaign promotes the ever-increasing BBC FM network in the country’s six major cities: Ghazni, Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif.

    Working with a leading Kabul-based full service agency, Aina-Darya Communications, World Service has developed a highly visible bi-lingual Pashto and Dari campaign promoting BBC FM availability on billboards, TV, radio and print ads.

    BBC World Service controller, marketing, communications and audiences Alan Booth says, “This is our first ever advertising campaign in Afghanistan. As the country’s market continues to develop, we are keen to consolidate our position in its modern media scene. A recent survey in the rural and urban areas of five provinces of Afghanistan suggested that the BBC is one of the most popular international broadcasters there, with our programmes in Pashto, Dari and other languages reaching almost 70 per cent of the population.”

    World Service has 17 FM frequencies in key towns across Afghanistan, including Kabul 89.0FM and 101.6FM (in Dari and Pashto), Mazar-e-Sharif 89.0FM (Dari), Jalalabad 89.0FM (Pashto), Herat 89.2FM (Dari), Kandahar 90.0FM (Pashto) and Ghazni 88.3FM (Pashto).

    BBC programming is also re-broadcast via partnerships with two local media providers, Internews and Equal Access. World Service has been broadcasting to Afghanistan for many decades, providing programming in Pashto and Dari, now supplemented by a daily Uzbek programme.

    In addition to news and current affairs programmes keeping listeners informed of the latest developments in Afghanistan, the region and the rest of the world, the BBC also offers thought-provoking discussions and audience interactivity on regional and Afghan domestic topics.

    The BBC programmes regularly feature newsmakers from its Kabul studios, involving them in call-in programmes. The BBC also offers its audiences in Afghanistan entertainment and feature shows.

  • BBC’s new reality show focusses on aspiring restaurateurs

    BBC’s new reality show focusses on aspiring restaurateurs

    MUMBAI: British chef and restaurateur Raymond Blanc will put nine couples through their paces to see if they have what it takes to run their own restaurant in a new television event for 2007 for UK pubcaster BBC Two.

    Incredibly, more than 1,000 new restaurants open every year in Britain; unfortunately, 900 close within a year. The Restaurant features nine couples whose dream is to run their own eatery. They have to create their perfect restaurant and then open the doors to the paying public.

    Every decision, every mistake they make, every argument they have, will be caught on camera. They are working and living together 24-hours a day, under huge pressure. Each week, one of the restaurants is eliminated from the competition by Blanc, acting as judge.

    At the end of the run, the winners get to run their own restaurant, financially backed and personally supported by Raymond with a six-figure sum of his own money.

    The show is a brutal insight into the business of running a restaurant and the incredible pressure of living and working with your partner.

    It’s a lesson on how to and how not to cook, a lesson on how we like to be served, what we like to eat and what we like to send back to the kitchen.

    It’s a story with a great climax at the end of each show and a winning couple who will have been proven to have what it takes in the restaurant trade, the toughest of all business challenges.

    Raymond Blanc said: “To set up a business – especially a restaurant business – and make a success of it is one of the hardest things in the world.

    “It is a constant balancing act – of passion with acumen, ego with humility, knowledge with a hunger to take risks.

    “Of course, I am very proud to be a leader within the restaurant industry. I owe a great deal of my success to my excellent team and maybe my greatest success is to have credited their intelligence rather than restricted it.

    “I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with like-minded people who are eager to enter this crazy but irresistible world and achieve the dream for themselves.”

    Raymond Blanc, widely acknowledged as one of the world’s finest chefs, has held two Michelin stars for the last 22 years for his esteemed centre of excellence, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford. Raymond has also run a scholarship programme for ten years.

    He has been at the very top of the restaurant game for more than three decades and has trained some of the UK’s most brilliant chefs, including Marco Pierre White, Michael Caines and Eric Chavot.

    BBC Two controller Roly Keating said, “BBC Two viewers are fascinated by food and business – this show audaciously brings them together for a television event. As well as providing an insight into the food that is served on our plates, it will reveal the harsh realities of the restaurant business. We’re delighted that Britain’s most legendary chef has joined forces with BBC Two to create this project.”

    The BBC adds that many people dream about running their own restaurant, but what many don’t know is how high the casualty rate is. It’s a dangerous business to be in. For those who get it right, it’s hugely lucrative, challenging and rewarding, but get it wrong and they could lose everything. This show will capture all the drama, the pain and pleasure of setting up and either keeping, or losing, a restaurant says the pubcaster.

  • BBC to outsource financial services to India based Xansa

    BBC to outsource financial services to India based Xansa

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC is outsourcing some of its accounting and financing services to India in a move aimed at saving 20 million pounds a year for the next decade. The BBC has selected Xansa as the preferred supplier for the BBC’s outsourced finance and accounting services. The new contract will run for a period of ten years.

    It is the result of the re-tendering of services that were successfully outsourced to Medas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDS, in 1997. Xansa will work closely with the BBC to deliver finance and accounting services across the BBC, including purchasing and sales transaction processing, artist and contributor payments, financial management and project accounting, payroll processing and expenses and customer support.

    The ten-year contract will cost the BBC approximately £8.5 million per annum, and will generate savings for the BBC in the region of £20 million per annum. This will be a major contribution to the BBC’s target of releasing £355 million of savings to invest in programmes and services.

    The BBC is currently conducting a simplification of its business processes as part of its Future Finance programme, which is delivering further savings of £17 million.

    Xansa will provide their services from a blend of locations in the UK and India. All voice contact (Customer Support) with Xansa will remain in the UK; other services, including transaction processing, will be carried out at Xansa’s location in Chennai, India.

    In this way the BBC is taking advantage of the significant savings of globalisation while maintaining the benefits of more local customer support. The original outsourcing of these services to Medas in 1997 was seen at the time as being a ground-breaking deal which included a successful implementation of a common systems platform (SAP) across the BBC.

    Medas also successfully transformed the BBC’s transaction processing operation, delivering a fit-for-purpose and efficient service to the BBC. Xansa was selected from a shortlist of four companies (Capita, EDS, Infosys BPO and Xansa) after a rigorous evaluation process against a number of criteria which included value for money, cultural alignment with the BBC, service delivery capability; the ability to drive improvements to the BBC’s business and financial processes, and transition and exit planning.

    Xansa will act as prime contractor working with Siemens Business Services.

    BBC group finance director Zarin Patel said, “I congratulate Xansa on winning this major contract. The BBC will benefit from Xansa’s proven expertise in managing outsourced Finance and Accounting Services, and we look forward to developing a close relationship with them. I believe this is an excellent deal for the BBC, and I am confident that Xansa will help us further to transform our finance and business processes.

    “By moving our transaction processing to India we are demonstrating that we are prepared to take bold and imaginative decisions that offer the licence-fee payer great value for money, while still maintaining the highest quality of service delivery. I would like to thank our colleagues in Medas for their valuable support over the last nine years: in that time they have helped us transform the BBC’s finance and accounting processes, delivered a sound SAP implementation, managed our transaction processing, expenses and business systems and left us with a fit and stable operation to build on in the future.”

    Xansa CEO Alistair Cox said, “We are delighted that Xansa has been selected as preferred partner to deliver Finance and Accounting Services across the BBC. Our expert technology and back office services allows our clients to do more with their own business and we are confident that we will, as the UK leader in F&A services, enable the BBC to minimise its administrative costs and to free up funds to invest in its own core business of creative programming.

    “We are particularly pleased to be the BBC’s first offshore BPO partner, and this week’s award win as offshore operator of the year is another terrific endorsement of our leading offshore position and capability.”

  • BBC announces new ad agency roster

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has appointed RKCR/Y&R and re-appointed Fallon onto its advertising agency roster. this marks the completion of a formal review begun in May.

    Alongside Red Bee Media, the new roster will provide strategic advice and creative content for its brands, services and priority marketing campaigns.

    BBC director marketing, communications and audiences Tim Davie says, “The four agencies who pitched were all outstanding and it was a very tough decision. However, I am delighted to continue our relationship with Fallon and to welcome RKCR – they will make excellent partners in our on-demand, multimedia environment, and I very much look forward to working with them.”

    From 1 January 2007, the agencies will work across the BBC’s public service portfolio which includes BBC One, BBC Two, its digital channels, radio networks and other new media services.

    Fallon and RKCR will work closely alongside the BBC’s Marketing Department to deliver communications plans and creative content for specific marketing campaigns. Campaigns will predominantly use the BBC’s own media, including TV, radio and online, as well as external media platforms.

  • Mihir Bose is the BBC’s first sports editor

    Mihir Bose is the BBC’s first sports editor

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has appointed Mihir Bose as its first Sports Editor. he used to be a sports columnist for the Daily Telegraph. Bose will provide analysis and context to the major sports news stories across the BBC’s news programming.

    Having concentrated on business journalism in his early years, he subsequently specialised in investigative sports reporting and moved to the Daily Telegraph in 1995, where he started the paper’s Inside Sports column.

    His journalism has won a number of awards, including Business Columnist of the Year, Sports Story of the Year and Sports News Reporter of the Year.

    He has also presented on radio and television, including BBC Radio 4’s Financial World Tonight, South Asia Report on BBC World Service and What the Papers Say for Channel 4.

    He said, “I was brought up on the magical World Service, and believe that the BBC is the greatest broadcaster there is. It’s a wonderful challenge and I can’t wait to start. However, I must add that I’ve had 12 very happy years with the Telegraph and will miss working with some of the finest print journalists there are.”

    The BBC’s head of newsgathering Fran Unsworth said, “This is a terrific appointment for us. Mihir brings an encyclopaedic knowledge of sport, together with an unbridled passion for the subject. Add to that his ability to explain the most complex of stories and a fantastic catalogue of contacts.”