ITV

Tag: Bloomberg

  • Bloomberg Markets appoints Patrick Brownlow as ad sales director for Apac

    Bloomberg Markets appoints Patrick Brownlow as ad sales director for Apac

    MUMBAI: Bloomberg Markets magazine has appointed Patrick Brownlow as its advertising sales director for Asia and the Pacific Region. 

    Based in Singapore, Brownlow will be Bloomberg Markets‘ first fully-dedicated Asian-based advertising sales executive and will oversee all advertising sales in both the regions. He will have a special focus on India, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

    Prior to this, he used to work for UK‘s C Squared as the publishing operations & sales director.

    Brownlow has an experience of more than 12 years in both print and online media. 

    In his previous stints he has held management sales positions at companies such as Time Singapore, Time London and Ziff-Davis UK.
     

  • AFP to launch international news service

    AFP to launch international news service

    MUMBAI: French news wire Agence France-Presse (AFP) is broadening its focus with the launch of AFPTV International.

    AFPTV will offer video reports every day and plans to produce 150 reports a month. Initially these reports will be in English and French. Reports in Arabic, Spanish and other languages will follow.

    AFP company chairman Pierre Louette said, “On the basis of a service set up in 2001 called AFP Video, we are moving on to AFPTV, a new international service made up of around 40 video journalists and several production units worldwide.”

    “We need to develop video production to enable the growth of our multimedia products. While video is at the heart of the agency’s multimedia plans, multimedia development is central to the agency’s development prospects,” he added.

    AFP’s television production was started in 1996 under a partnership accord with US financial news agency Bloomberg. AFP global news director Denis Hiault said, “We opted for a novel approach unlike that practised by the competition a decade ago.

    “We process news with our own specific vision, our multicultural approach, in order to best analyze it. Rather than offering just the umpteenth version of a Baghdad booby-trapped car attack or the latest riot, our film comes with keys to understanding the news, with analysis that gives meaning to the information,” he said.

    AFPTV service grew after the setup in 2005 of two test production centres, one in Baghdad, the other in Warsaw covering Eastern Europe.

    “The choice of the location of our production units was based on our decision to provide something extra in comparison with the competition, as well as offering coverage of geographical areas they had shunned,” Hiault said.

    AFP has set up permanent video positions in New Delhi, Istanbul, Bangkok, Cairo, Nairobi and Rio de Janeiro.

    “This is AFP’s most ambitious project since the launch of our international photo service two decades ago. It’s a new opportunity to demonstrate our editorial know-how and bolster our place in the field as a primary source of information. Our video footage is based on the same criteria of excellence as our text dispatches,” said Hiault.

    AFP this year plans to further increase its capacity to collect images. “By the summer of 2007 the agency will have internet-quality images thanks to telephone-camera equipment being distributed to journalists on a voluntary basis,” said Louette.

  • AT&T and MobiTV launch live TV subscription service for broadband

    AT&T and MobiTV launch live TV subscription service for broadband

    MUMBAI: AT&T Inc. and MobiTV, Inc., the global leader in television and music services for all things mobile and broadband, have inked an agreement to offer a mobile television service to broadband users in the United States, including AT&T Yahoo High Speed Internet and AT&T WorldNet subscribers.

    The browser-based service, which will be called AT&T Broadband TV, will enable subscribers to use a computer to access a wealth of live programming while at home, at work, or on the go using wired and wireless broadband technologies.

    Through the deal, AT&T becomes the first U.S. broadband provider to offer a live TV subscription service with MobiTV to consumers through any broadband connection. The service expands upon an earlier agreement that enables AT&T to offer MobiTV to customers who use thousands of AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots, states an official release.

    The AT&T Broadband TV service will initially have approximately 20 channels of live and made-for-broadband television content spanning national news, sports, entertainment and full-length music videos from top artists. Among the channels included in the initial channel lineup is Fox News, Bloomberg, Oxygen, History Channel, Comedy Time, Toonworld, Maxx Sports and the Weather Channelm, the release adds.

    The industry-leading, browser-based service features desktop integration for easy access, fast channel-changing, full-screen functionality and quality video playback. Subscribers can quickly access AT&T Broadband TV through a hyperlink or desktop shortcut.

    Users will have access to a comprehensive channel lineup for a flat monthly subscription of $19.99. And soon, additional television channels will be offered to ensure that AT&T customers have access to the broadest range of entertainment content. The subscription can be used with nearly any broadband connection, at home, work or on the road.

    Consumers can test-drive and order the new service at http://att.mobitv.com. The companies will also market the AT&T Broadband TV offering on the AT&T WorldNet portal at www.att.net.

    “The AT&T Broadband TV service offers our customers the ability to watch live television programming beyond the TV screen, increasing our capabilities to provide compelling content to consumers who are seeking information and entertainment when, where and on the device they desire,” says AT&T Entertainment Services EVP Scott Helbing. “The deal helps further enhance AT&T’s broadband service and three-screen initiative by offering differentiated broadband-enabled content that consumers are increasingly demanding.”

    “Television is officially available on the PC now and will reach television fans in their home, office, college dorm, at the airport or anywhere they happen to be,” says MobiTV chairman & co-founder Dr. Phillip Alvelda. “MobiTV and AT&T will deliver premium quality content seamlessly across all broadband networks, making entertainment, wireless and technology history.”

    Through this agreement, AT&T, the nation’s largest high speed DSL Internet provider with more than 7.8 million DSL lines in service, will give its customers and other broadband users a new avenue for entertainment and information, enabling them to take control of their viewing options. In addition, the company recently launched AT&T Homezone, a groundbreaking new service that integrates AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet, AT&T | DISH Network satellite television and AT&T Home Networking services via a single device.

    The new AT&T Homezone service provides Internet-based video with satellite TV programming in a seamless in-home experience, giving consumers a powerful new way to extend the best of the Internet beyond the desktop to bring entertainment content to their TV screens and stereos. It features digital videorecording, movies on demand, photo- and music-sharing, storage for both, and it whets the anytime/anywhere generation’s appetite with remote, Web-based access to the system.

  • TV Today mulls business channel, Bloomberg tie-up

    TV Today mulls business channel, Bloomberg tie-up

    MUMBAI: The Aroon Purie-controlled TV Today Network is exploring starting a business news channel in association with American financial and business news major Bloomberg.

    The tie-up can involve Bloomberg picking up an equity stake in the proposed business channel. Even if an equity deal doesn’t happen, the tie-up would certainly be a licencing and co-branding one on the lines that Time Warner inked with the TV18 group for the English news channel CNN IBN in 2005 as and when it’s concluded.

    When contacted, TV Today declined to comment.

    Unofficially, though, the Delhi-headquartered TV Today attempted to play down the developments, saying such reports were “speculative at the moment.” Insiders, however, insisted work on a business channel has started.

    The network has earmarked between Rs 350 million to Rs 400 million for operating a new business news channel, company sources said.

    The Indian news network is targeting to launch the business channel in the first quarter of 2007, if not earlier. However, the deal is subject to regulatory and government clearances.

    Last year, Bloomberg had applied to India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for a proposed television software venture, which will produce and distribute business and financial news television programmes in English to local television channels.

    Bloomberg’s TV channel that was available in India till a couple of months back is off air as it hasn’t yet applied for landing rights, a new rule that’s being pursued by the Indian government to monitor TV channels uplinked from outside India.

    Interestingly, TV Today Network floated a subsidiary company, christened TV Today Network (Business) Ltd, during the last financial year ended 31 March 2006. The development was communicated to capital markets and investment experts some time ago.

    “Consolidated financial results (for FY 2006) include the results of 100 per cent subsidiary TV Today Network (Business) Limited, which was formed during the current year and is yet to commence business. Accordingly, figures of corresponding period/year are not applicable,” the company had said in a statement. The stock market buzz signifies that TV Today is likely to launch the business channel through this subsidiary company.

    In an interview given to Indiantelevision.com in 2004, Purie had expressed the possibility of starting a business news channel.

    Presently, TV Today operates Hindi market leader Aaj Tak, its English sibling Headlines Today, a Hindi version of Headlines Today called Tez and Dilli Aaj Tak. TV Today scrip closed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Wednesday at Rs 76.75 after opening the day at Rs 76.75.

  • Granada looks to tap opportunities in Asia

    Granada looks to tap opportunities in Asia

    MUMBAI: Looking to increase the amount of business that comes from Asia, Granada International is the latest global format and content creators to open a new office in the region.Part of the UK’s ITV Worldwide, Granada has appointed James Ross to the role of Granada regional director Asia. The appointment was made by Granada Intl MD Naine Nohr. Before the appointment, Ross was at Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong as media marketing and distribution director. He will build a local presence for Granada International and ITV Worldwide throughout the Asia-Pacific region and exploring opportunities to further develop the business.

    Nohr says, “The continuing importance of China and the Asian territories to our business has culminated in our decision to set up a regional office in Hong Kong. We are delighted to have secured James for this important role. With his background in the region, he is perfectly placed to build strategic partnerships and develop our new media sales business in Asia. Broadband and mobile phone penetration in the Far East are already the highest in the world and predicted to grow.

    “We also have strong licensing and format activity in Asia and therefore needed someone with the breadth of skills and experience that James brings, including a solid global marketing background, to develop our business in the region.”

    Ross says, “Granada International and ITV Worldwide, through its close relationship with ITV’s production teams in the UK and around the world and many top independent production companies, has some of the very best international programming available. I‘m looking forward to growing relationships with clients and partners throughout the region to offer this great content through a variety of different media.”

    Granada International recently announced a number of sales to Asian broadcasters, including Hell’s Kitchen USA to Discovery India, The Asia Food Network, UBC Thailand, Orion Media Korea, and Solar in Phillippines.