ITV

Tag: CNN

  • ABC, Tivo win interactive Emmys

    ABC, Tivo win interactive Emmys

    MUMBAI: Tivo, which creates television services for digital video recorders (DVRs) in the US and US broadcaster ABC’s online streaming video player have won interactive Emmies.

    They will take home trophies at the Creative Arts Awards on 19 August.

    TiVo won for achievement for enhanced or interactive programming – television. Tivo president and CEO Tom Rogers says, “Tivo is proud to receive an Emmy Award and recognition from the Academy and its peers for the innovative services that it provides in enhancing the viewing of television by bringing it to a whole new level.”

    Tivo CTO and co-founder Jim Barton says, “We are committed to transforming television viewing by being the leaders in translating the latest technological developments into an easy and simple viewer experience. From our TiVoCast service to TiVo KidZone our mission is to provide subscribers the best way to watch television.”

    ABC.com’s streaming video player won for achievement for enhanced or interactive programming: new delivery platforms. The Academy said, “Conventional wisdom dictated that it was not possible to provide high bit-rate streaming video, over the Internet, to large numbers of people simultaneously, while maintaining consistent quality and doing so in a cost-effective manner. ABC.com’s full episode streaming player dispenses with those previously held beliefs as it leverages emerging technologies and digital platforms to enhance and extend the ABC television network’s relationship with consumers.”

    This year’s Interactive Television Emmy Awards recognise original interactive television programming content, applications and services that have been deployed in the United States between 1 June, 2005 and 31 May 2006 and that have demonstrated creative excellence. Other finalists in this category include AOL Music on Demand, CNN Enhanced and DirecTV Interactive Sports.

    Governor of the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group Brian Seth Hurst says, “Tivo was the very first offering in the DVR space and it is great that they are still leading the way. The Tivo service is certainly impressive in both its offering and user experience and meets the standard of excellence. It’s easy to see why the voters deemed it worthy of the Emmy.”

  • CNN doc examines the plight of illegal immigrants

    CNN doc examines the plight of illegal immigrants

    MUMBAI: News channel CNN will air the documentary Living With Illegals on 5 August at 11:30 am, 7:30 pm, 6 August at 11:30 am and on 8 August at 7:30 pm.

    In this documentary, award-winning journalist Sorious Samura spends a month living the life of an illegal immigrant, travelling over 1000 miles in the process and experiencing the same gruelling hardship as his undocumented companions. His journey is epic as he travels from Morocco through Spain and France, finally making it across the English Channel to Britain.

    Samura begins in Northern Morocco, where hundreds of illegal immigrants live in forests waiting for their chance to break into the enclave of Ceuta, a Spanish enclave at the very tip of Africa. For them, Europe means work – as one says, “I am ready to do any kind of job. If I have to I’ll wash the toilets, bathrooms or train stations I’ll be very happy. Forget I am a graduate.”

    All that separates these people from Ceuta and Europe is an 8km long, 6m high fence, around which they camp. Huddled together in cold, flimsy tents and hounded by daily police raids, the immigrants struggle to survive with no food, money or peace of mind. Yet, their dedication to reach the promised land is unyielding.

    Samura meets Gus and Theo, two immigrants who have decided to swim around the fence and thus into Europe, an extremely dangerous method of entry which many have paid for with their lives. The next day, news arrives that only one made it to the other side. Samura leaves the Moroccan forest for Ceuta and soon discovers a derelict factory known as the ‘Longhouse’ where those on the run from immigration authorities live. The conditions are horrifying. For these people, the dream of Europe has already turned into a nightmare.

    Samura travels through several cities in mainland Spain, where he begs, sleeps rough, performs odd jobs and learns inside tricks to survive as an immigrant. He encounters Thommy, a stranger of amazing generosity who helps him raise money to continue his journey. He also meets people who try to con him out of his earnings. The world of the newly arrived immigrant, Samura soon learns, has at least as many pitfalls as opportunities.

    Through a “connection man”, Samura crosses the Spanish / French border and moves onwards by train to Calais, the hub for immigrants trying to enter the UK. Samura is surprised to find living conditions and scenes of desperation as bad as those in Morocco. Arick, a Sudanese immigrant, explains, “Every second, every minute I am trying to get to England. At least in London they treat you like a human being”. That night, Samura and Arick break into a lorry heading for the UK. Once inside they must stay completely still, but after an hour of waiting they are caught and arrested.

    In the end, through circumstances, both Sorious and Arick do reach their final destination. It has been an incredible journey, but was all the suffering really worth it?

  • CNN doc traces the footsteps of Osama bin Laden

    CNN doc traces the footsteps of Osama bin Laden

    MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN will air a documentary In The Footsteps Of bin Laden on 23 August at 5:30 pm. The two-hour investigation paints a portrait of bin Laden and his transformation from child to man using first-hand accounts of the people who have known him throughout his life.

    From his peaceful teenage years to orchestrating the events on 9/11, viewers are taken on a global journey, tracing the path of bin Laden’s life from his childhood home and school in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to his residence in Peshawar, Pakistan, where al-Qaeda was born, and to the mountains of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where he is being hunted today.

    Using never-before-seen photographs, video and even the minutes of the meeting in which al-Qaeda was created, the special weaves a story of the world’s most notorious terrorist.

    CNN International senior VP Rena Golden says, “In The Footsteps Of bin Laden is a unique insight into the world of a man who is both feared and revered in equal measure around the world. For the first time his life, for so long cloaked in myth and mystery, has been documented by Christiane Amanpour for CNN’s international audience.”

    Filmed in 10 countries on four continents, the documentary features 21 first-person accounts of bin Laden from his relatives, childhood friends, former schoolteacher, co-jihadists, bodyguard and even the wife of an al-Qaeda suicide bomber — many of them breaking their silence for the first time on camera.

    The documentary ties the evolution of bin Laden’s philosophy to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism from the late 1970s through the unique personal perspective of Amanpour.

    “The story of militant Islamic fundamentalism did not begin with September 11,” said Amanpour. “The Islamic Revolution that swept Iran in 1979 and forced the pro-American Shah from power was the first sign that Fundamentalist Islam had awoken as a movement in the Middle East and the entire world continues feeling its shockwaves today.”

    The special is based on the book The Osama bin Laden I Know by CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. His book offers numerous new details about bin Laden’s transformation from a quiet, well-bred boy to the Western world’s most wanted terrorist. Bergen, an author and a Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., was a CNN producer at the time of the interview with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in March 1997. Bergen, along with others, is featured in the CNN documentary and is credited as a co-producer.

  • AOL announces closed captions for online video

    AOL announces closed captions for online video

    MUMBAI: US internet service provider AOL is testing closed captions for streaming news content from CNN that will enhance the online media experience for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

    Captioned CNN video content will be available throughout the AOL network, including the AOL service, the free AOL.com Web portal and the AOL Video portal.

    AOL says that it is the first consumer Internet service to provide captioned online videos, has offered closed captioning since 2003 for select content on its KOL service for kids aged 6 to 12, including Princess Natasha the original cartoon series created exclusively for KOL. AOL also offered synchronized text transcripts for CNN news updates that were limited to the text of a news anchor’s script.

    Now, content from CNN, including videos for the day’s headlines, current events, new stories, entertainment and more, will be manually captioned to ensure all of the audio in a video stream is completely accessible. AOL plans to provide closed captioning for additional video content over the coming months.

    AOL has been working on this initiative with WGBH’s Media Access Group, the organisation behind the development of technologies and services that make all forms of media accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video descriptions. This work was also supported by a grant to WGBH from NEC Foundation of America, which supports programmes with national reach and impact in assistive technology for people with disabilities.

    AOL says that its captioning initiative is an extension of AOL’s Accessibility Policy, a company wide priority that aims to address and meet the technology needs of people with disabilities.

    AOL adds thast closed captions for streaming videos builds upon its leadership position as one of the best online destinations for video. AOL delivers an array of products and services that together provide a complete video experience, including compelling video programming, best-in-class video search and a high-quality video playback experience for all Internet consumer

  • CNN US develops state of the art weather centre

    CNN US develops state of the art weather centre

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster CNN has launched a new CNN Weather Center, which it claims is the most state-of-the-art weather forecasting and reporting center in the broadcast industry.

    CNN US senior VP domestic news operations and administration Jack Womack, says, “CNN brings to bear one of the most experienced team of meteorologists in the news business, as evidenced by their accurate and urgent forecasting one severe weather event after another. Arming that incredible team with the state-of-the-art facility at the CNN Weather Center is an exciting move; there simply isn’t another weather center in television with the capabilities and technologies we have assembled here.”

    Throughout the network’s history, CNN has deployed the latest technologies and relied on experienced weather experts to report on severe weather systems and events. In particular, CNN distinguished itself during last year’s record-setting hurricane season, not only for its unrivaled breaking news coverage but also for its up-to-the-minute weather forecasts and reports before, during and after each storm.

    With the new center, CNN’s weather team boosts its forecasting and reporting with the computing power of more than 30 dedicated machines, including eight on-air computers; GPS technology designed to track CNN crews in the field and provide them with real-time weather data; and software designed to more closely track weather patterns, commercial airline traffic and related information.

    On-air, viewers will see a more dynamic and complete weather presentation as the new set allows CNN meteorologists to work alone or in tandem, and utilize point-and-click technology to display multiple sources of weather data.

    The network built the new set in the CNN/US newsroom in Atlanta to allow better integration of weather reporting into general newscasts. The CNN Weather Center will also contribute to non-weather-related news stories through the use of detailed maps and satellite photography. Reports from the CNN Weather Center can be seen across CNN Worldwide’s multiple networks and platforms, including Headline News and CNN Pipeline.

  • Tata-Sky approaches TDSAT against Zee over bouquet pricing

    Tata-Sky approaches TDSAT against Zee over bouquet pricing

    MUMBAI:There seems to be no end to the thrust and parry going on over the DTH airwaves. Close on the heels of Dish TV wresting a favourable decision against Star India, Tata Sky has moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement And Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) — against what it terms as Zee’s exhorbitatnt terms for providing its network channels to its still-in-the-pipeline DTH service.

    The petition by Tata Sky before the appellate tribunal makes Zee Turner Ltd, Zee Telefilms Ltd,Turner International India and Dish’s managing company ASC Enterprises LTD as party to the case.

    The Tata Sky petition alleges that the Zee Group has denied supply of Zee Turner bouquet of channels to the former’s yet-to-be-launched DTH service under reasonable terms.

    The petitioner has sought “to obtain appropriate direction for the signals of the channels,” alleging that respondent Zee Turner has quoted unreasonable terms for supply of its signals to Tata Sky.

    Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, a senior executive at Dish TV today refrained from commenting on the issue, saying, “We have yet not received any direction from TDSAT.”

    The disputes tribunal has given the respondents three days from the day they receive an official intimation to file its replies.The next date of hearing is 25 July 2006.

    As per regulatory norms, all content should be made available to all delivery platforms on a non-discriminatory basis.

    Last week, the tribunal had delivered a verdict laying down benchmark rate for channel prices for DTH platforms, while directing Star to make available its channels to Dish TV.

    Main respondent Zee Turner is a 74:26 distribution joint venture between Zee Telefilms and Time Warner company Turner International India.

    The cable pricing of the two Zee-Turner bouquets is Rs 83.65 plus service tax. Zee-Turner’s bouquet one comprises Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Movies, Zee English, CNN, Cartoon Network, CNBC, Trendz, Reality TV, Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi, Zee Bangla and Zee Gujarati and is priced at Rs 58.85 per subscriber/per month. The second bouquet carries HBO, Vh1, Pogo, Zee Business and Awaaz, which is available at Rs 25 per subscriber/per month.

    Tata Sky’s complaint before TDSAT is that Zee is seeking the same pricing terms for supplying its channels to its DTH service as is its cable rates.

    In what manner TDSAT responds to the Tata Sky complaint will be watched with close interest. After all, in its earlier order in favour of Dish TV, TDSAT, while directing the sector regulator to set a benchmark for channel prices for DTH services, said that Star channels should be made available to Dish TV at half the price at which they are available to cable operators.

    The tribunal’s reasoning in the earlier case was that DTH is an addressable system where loss of revenue down the value chain is negligible, if not zero.

  • Former US president Bill Clinton in an exclusive interview with CNN’s senior International correspondent Satinder Bindra

    Former US president Bill Clinton in an exclusive interview with CNN’s senior International correspondent Satinder Bindra

    Discusses his plans to fight against AIDS in India
    through the William J. Clinton Foundation

    Interview aired on: Sunday, February 19, 2006 at 17:30hrs (IST)
    Former US President, Bill Clinton announced another initiative in New Delhi in his ongoing fight against AIDS. The latest plan is to train more Indian nurses to deal with 5 million HIV positive patients in India. President Clinton has over the years managed to convince pharmaceutical companies to bring down the prices of AIDS fighting drugs. To find out more about his plans, CNN’s senior International correspondent Satinder Bindra met up with him and started by asking him what the world should be most concerned about in the battle against AIDS.

    Given below is the full transcript of the interview:

     

    Bill Clinton: Clinton
    Satinder Bindra: Bindra
    Clinton: The thing that I am most worried about is that there were approximately 5 million new infections last year, and that primarily is because 90 per cent of the people who are infected, don’t know it. That is, when you and others including me, say that there are 43 million people in the world who are HIV positive – truth is we are guessing. So I think that’s the next big frontier here besides finding a vaccine and ultimately a cure.

     

    Bindra: With your foundation, these tests to find out if someone is HIV positive are cheaper, you have also brought down the price of AIDS fighting drugs but does more still need to be done?

    Clinton: We know for about fifty cents can give people the test which will tell you in 20 mins if you are HIV positive. We have brought down the medicine very low and we can test and see whether it’s working and we are now working on the second line of drugs. But, its all irrelevant unless we have people in the rural areas, for example, who are trained to do this, so we are doing more and more work to train personnel that’s what we are doing here in India working with nurses in rural areas. Even in India, which has the largest number of doctors anywhere including in rural areas, there are still numerous areas without doctors, without enough nurses, and paramedical people to do this work.

     

    Bindra: When you first approached these companies Mr. President asking them to reduce the prices of these drugs, how did they look at you, what was their reaction…
    Clinton: We knew that the reason these drugs were priced as they were, as I was told, relatively speaking, a low volume, high profit margin business where the buyers were often poor countries where payment was often delayed and sometimes uncertain. So we said that we want you to go to a high volume low profit margin business with prompt and certain payment. We will work out the prompt and certain payment and we’ll get the volumes up. That’s what got the prices down. None of these people are losing money. None of our partners lose money, but, they have a whole different business philosophy now.

     

    Bindra: If you and me were to meet Mr. President a year from now, would 8,000 people still be dying of this disease every day?
    Clinton: Probably! but I think that a year from now instead of a million people getting the medication we should have 3 million or more. A year from now, we should have far more people, like the nurses we are talking about here. And that means that the more you have education prevention and testing. I hope a year from now it would have drastically increased by millions, tens of millions the number of people getting tested. It will take a little while once you do all three things. Then that 8,000 a day will go down. Don’t, let anybody tell you that you can’t do it, I saw the death rate in Brazil drop 80 per cent in two years. In my first term, we dropped the death rate in America by 80 per cent.

     

  • CNN scores with air travelers

    CNN scores with air travelers

    CNN International has another set of numbers to thump its chest about. The International Air Travelers survey (IATS Asia 7) – conducted by the European Data & Research Ltd (EDR) between March and April 2000 in the international departure/gate areas of ten major airports in Sydney, Melbourne, Manila, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei – has revealed that CNN reaches more than twice the number of international air travelers than its nearest rival the Beeb.

    The survey shows that CNNI reaches 37 per cent of international air travelers on a weekly basis as against BBC World’s 19 per cent and CNBC Asia’s 15.4 per cent. IATS Asia 7 also confirmed that CNN International reaches 50 per cent of all senior business executives surveyed, the CNN press release states.

    “This is a very positive result for CNN International. (It) endorse(s) our investment in regionalisation, which has meant a significant amount of extra spending to increase the localized content available to our viewers, ” says CNN International managing editor, Asia Pacific Bill Baggitt.

  • The Sweet Smell of Success as CNN’s ‘Art Of Life’ meets Alberta Ferretti

    Airtimes: Indian Standard Times

    Sat, April 29 at 1700hrs, 2300hrs

    Sun, April 30 at 1300hrs and 1900hrs
    Mon, May 1 at 0800am, 1900hrs and 2300hrs

     

    This month on ART OF LIFE CNN’s Monita Rajpal explores the world of celebrated Italian fashion designer Alberta Ferretti and takes a look at scent, visiting a bespoke perfumery in London and a Parisian hotel that has created its own scent which it even includes in its desserts.

     

    Alberta Ferretti unveils her passion for her work, taking Monita to her factory in Cattolica, Italy, where the Alberta Ferretti and Philosophy lines are created. Ferretti also invites Monita to her country home and welcomes her aboard her boat, an extraordinary old icebreaker that she re-designed into a luxury family yacht to escape the pressures of life in the fashion world. Monita gets a rare insight into Ferretti’s private life as they sail off the coast of Italy.

     

    Back in London, Monita learns about the luxurious process of haute couture perfume, with a starting price of around ?7000. Creative perfumers create individual scents using colour therapy to profile a client’s personality and asking them to smell over 4000 oils that can be used to make their own unique perfume. The development of perfume is done by an esteem perfumer. ART OF LIFE travels to Grasse in France to visit Jacques Chabert, responsible for iconic scents by Guerlain and Chanel.

     

    The Park Hyatt Hotel in Paris has created a scent for its guests. The smell surrounds the hotel and the head chef has even devised a dessert that incorporates it. Blaise Mautin, the Park Hyatt’s ‘nose’ talks to ART OF LIFE about how it was created.

     

    AIRTIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

    For more program information and details on ART OF LIFE visit http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/artoflife/

  • News reporting in the US is perceived as biased

    MUMBAI: Over six in 10 adults in the United States agree that there is a bias in the reporting of news. However, there is less agreement as to whether there is a liberal or conservative bias. Furthermore, viewers of talk shows say that the hosts of these shows are equally critical of Republicans and Democrats. Greater numbers of adults say they turn to CNN and Fox News mostly when seeking news or information about public affairs or politics.

    These are the results of a Harris Poll of 1,179 US adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive between 7 to 13 June 2006. Specific results from this poll include:

    * Almost four in 10 US adults (37 per cent) listen to talk shows on the radio at least once a week and about three in 10 (29 per cent) watch political or public affairs TV shows at least once a week.

    * CNN (20 per cent) and Fox News (18 per cent) are the television channels adults most often turn to when they want news or information related to politics or public affairs. These are followed by the networks, including ABC (nine per cent), NBC (eight per cent) and CBS ( seven per cent). Other channels include MSNBC (five per cent), C-Span (three per cent), PBS (three per cent) and CNBC (one per cent).

    * When comparing those who are ‘heavy’ users of the media (including talk radio and television) to ‘light’ users, a slightly different profile emerges. Among “heavy” media users, Fox News is the leading channel at 39 per cent, followed by CNN at 22 per cent. Among ‘light’ media users, CNN is at the top (21 per cent) followed by ABC (13 per cent), NBC (11 per cent), CBS (nine per cent) and Fox News (eight per cent).

    * When looking at the profile of viewers of TV channels that are watched most often for news about politics or public affairs, preferences emerge based on political affiliation and political philosophy. CNN’s viewers are more likely to be Democrats (42 per cent) or Independents (29 per cent) than Republicans (19 per cent.) Not surprisingly Fox News viewers are more likely to be Republicans (63 per cent) as compared to Democrats (12 per cent) or Independents (20 per cent).

    The potential biases associated with the media’s reporting have been discussed a great deal. This Harris Poll explores whether the public thinks that talk show hosts are more critical of Democrats or Republicans. Among those who watch talk shows at least once a month, 22 percent think that talk show hosts are more critical of Democrats and 25 percent say that hosts are more critical of Republicans. The remaining 52 percent say that the hosts are equally critical of both parties.

    However, over six in 10 (63 per cent) of Republicans agree that there is bias in the news reporting, with the remaining 36 per cent saying they are not sure (31 per cent) or think there is no bias (fiv per cent). Interestingly, the adult public overall thinks that there is more of a liberal bias (38 per cent) than a conservative bias (25 per cent). While this may not be altogether surprising, the fact that the findings don’t show an even greater liberal bias is noteworthy.

    * Furthermore, among those who are ‘heavy’ users of the media, a majority (54 per cent) say that there is a liberal bias in news reporting, compared to 24 per cent who say there is a conservative bias. Among “light” media users there is less of a difference, with similar numbers saying that there is
    a liberal bias (31 per cent) or conservative bias (25 per cent).

    * CNN viewers are split on this issue, with a third (33 per cent) saying that there is a liberal bias and another third (32 per cent) saying there is a conservative bias.

    * Fox News viewers, however, strongly feel that there is a liberal bias (69 per cent) as compared to 12 per cent who say there is a conservative bias. Among adults who say that there is bias in the media, television is perceived as having the ‘greatest bias in the reporting of news’ (41 per cent).

    17 per cent say that print media and seven percent say that radio is biased in their reporting. Three in 10 (31 per cent) say that the media overall are equally biased.