LONDON: News organisations are seeing a spurt in the take up of services offered not just on air, but also online on account of the ongoing Iraq conflict. A case in point is the BBC World Service which claims that its international sites have attracted 180 million page impressions this month – more than 80 million of them in the last eight days.
Its programme Talking Point, through which listeners can quiz world leaders, has received more than 160,000 emails commenting on the war. The BBC Hindi version of Talking Point, Aapki Baat BBC Ke Saath, invited listeners to question the former Indian Prime Minister I K Gurjal on 23 March. The programme received over 100 requests from people wanting to participate and 40 emails, six of them from the Gulf region.
In order to gain further perspective from the Arab world, BBC Arabic launched its own version of the show Nuqtat Hewar. The first programme took 93 calls in the first hour.
With mobile talk gaining rapidly across the globe, it is not surprising that text messaging from mobile phones have increased substantially over the course of the past few days. BBC World Service editors and producers are using the feedback to inform programme making and to create new programme opportunities for people to interact.
Text messages to the English service have gone up ten-fold since 18 March with around 6,000 messages sent to date. A few days ago, BBC Somali launched a text messaging facility and claims to have received nearly 800 views on the war in Iraq.
Tag: Iraq conflict
-
BBC websites claim 180 m. impressions due to Iraq conflict
-
MIPTV attendance impacted by Iraq conflict
CANNES: The US-Iraq war has left its impact on the 40th edition of MIPTV.
This holds true if one looks at the numbers announced by organiser Reed Midem as of 26 March. Day one was characterised by typical hustle and bustle making it look like the regular MIPTV. But since then, the numbers have refused to climb.
A Reed spokesperson said, “There have been some cancellations. Some people who were supposed to come on Day 2 and Day 3 did not turn up. But we will know only come to know the exact numbers after MIPTV is over on 28 March.”
The numbers as of 26 March:for 2003 vs 2002Category 2003 numbers 2002 numbers Participants 9024 10,104 Buyers 2327 2603 Registered Companies 2666 2686 Countries Represented 95 92 Exhibiting Companies 1247 1205
However, the Indian participants do not seem to mind the reduction in numbers. Since the itinerary is less crowded and taxing, everyone has had extra time to spend with each other and discuss. Meetings have been less rushed, observes Balaji Telefilms Rajesh Pavithran. He said, “It has been a good market for us.”
Says animation studio Jadoo Works chief Ashish Kulkarni: “It has been a great MIPTV for us. Our deals are progressing well, the lower attendance has proved beneficial.” -
CNN.com claims excellent response for Iraq conflict coverage
MUMBAI: With the Iraq war gaining steam, news broadcaster CNN has claimed an excellent response for its round the clock coverage online.
An official release informs that millions of people around the globe logged onto CNN international news network’s web sites to get the latest updates on the Iraq war since the outbreak of hostilities on 20 March. Some of the highest page impressions ever achieved on CNN web sites have been recorded since then.
On Thursday, the first full day of the conflict, CNN.com registered 236 million page impressions, the second highest level of traffic ever for CNN (12 September, 2001 was the highest day with 337 million page impressions). Traffic remained high on 21 March registering as the fourth highest day, with 183 million page impressions on CNN.com worldwide.
There has also been specific growth of CNN’s international sites, with the highest ever traffic on CNNArabic.com, CNN’s Arabic language site, which increased by over 60 per cent on a daily basis in the first days of the conflict. The international edition increased traffic by over 60 per cent on Wednesday and by a further 100 per cent on 21 March, the highest level of daily traffic seen on either edition since the launch.
The trend continued over the weekend when CNN.com’s traffic on 22 March was 71 million page impressions, representing twice as much traffic as a normal weekend day. CNN.com’s average weekend traffic numbers for the last six weeks was 34 million.
CNN.com’s news web sites include international and US editions of CNN.com as well as six local language sites in Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. The web sites also support mobile services, including a PDA service on Avant Go and a breaking news SMS news alert service.
On air it will be interesting to note whether the shift in watching CNN, BBC and their ilk will affect drastically viewership for non news channels. Watch this space for further details. -
FeedRoom, Reuters’ online news channel for Iraq conflict
NEW YORK: Internet broadcaster The FeedRoom has announced the launch of Reuters Raw Video: Conflict in Iraq. The 24-hour online news channel offers ongoing coverage direct from the Persian Gulf as events unfold.
The service includes long segments of un-narrated, raw video fed via satellite by the Reuters team of television journalists on the ground in Iraq and the surrounding countries. In addition, the service delivers current events, reports narrated by Reuters journalists on the scene, and related developments from around the world.
Reuters Raw Video is available at http://www.reuters.com and via Reuters desktop terminals. It was built and is operated by The FeedRoom, whose digital technology systems capture Reuters video before it has appeared on television and makes it available immediately to online viewers around the clock.
Around 20 Reuters editorial staff remain in Baghdad, and Reuters intends to continue to staff the story from Baghdad throughout the conflict. Executive VP and Global Head of Reuters Media Rich Sabreen says, “Reuters is all about being first with the most complete coverage of every story. Reuters Raw Video enables us to extend that promise into the world of online video, marrying our world-class editorial skills with the best-in-class capabilities of The FeedRoom.”
The service is at the moment undergoing a free trial period run. The companies intend to turn this into a for-payment service in the near future. This will be managed by The FeedRoom through its partnership with the Yaga-iBill Digital Commerce Solution.
In partnership with blue-chip companies including Reuters, NBC, Tribune Company, Playboy and Miramax Films, the FeedRoom Network of news, entertainment and corporate sites delivers more than 20 million streams of video per month to millions of viewers worldwide, the release claims.