News | MENA & Central Asia | 12 -19 Jan. 2011

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BROADCAST NEWS  UAE: NEW FREE-TO-AIR ARABIC TV CHANNEL LAUNCHED Fujairah Media Group, the joint venture between the Fujairah Cultural Authority and Arab International Media Services, in collaboration with Mamoth Holdings, has started broadcasting newly-launched ABC TV, a free-to-air, family-oriented TV channel that features Western and Arabic programming. Headed by Barakat, who brings his extensive industry experience to the network, ABC TV stands out with its distinguished team of presenters from all Arab nationalities, who collectively provide audiences with a wide variety of programming. | READ MORE... (Source : UAE Interact)  QATAR: QATAR TO LAUNCH TV CHANNEL FOR WEATHER FORECASTS Qatar will launch a satellite television channel for weather forecasts next year, a Qatari official has said. "The Meteorology Department will launch a satellite channel for weather forecast by mid-2011. It will telecast weather forecast reports and bulletins throughout the day," Ahmad Abdullah Mohammad, head of the Department of Meteorology, said. "Later, the line up will be expanded to documentaries and other programmes," he said, quoted by Qatari daily The Peninsula..| Back to summary READ MORE... (Source : Gulf News)    IRAQ: PRIVATE KURDISH TV/RADIO NEWS SERVICE SOON A new satellite TV channel and a radio station will soon be launched, airing news in Kurdish. According to AKnews, the general director for the new outlets said most of the preliminaries are completed and the new service will air programs from early 2011 There are a number of governmental and party affiliated media outlets, broadcasting their programs from the Kurdistan Region, however, private services are rare. | Back to summary READ MORE... (Source : Iraq Business News)  UAE: ZEE CINEMA MIDDLE EAST LAUNCHED Zee Network has launched Zee Cinema Middle East to provide the region's viewers with the latest Hindi blockbusters, classics, and specialised segments on the leading stars in Bollywood from the 24-hour Hindi movie channel. The network already airs Zee Aflam, a special movie channel primarily targeted at Arab audiences. Speaking about the new launch, Bharat Ranga, COO of Zee International, said, "Zee Cinema has been a very successful channel for us, world over. We have an extensive library of more than 1500 titles. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : BroadcastPRO ME)   UAE: 'GOT TALENT' AND 'MOMENT OF TRUTH' DEBUT IN ARABIC The top-rated global TV format "Got Talent" makes its regional debut in Arabic with "Arabs Got Talent" on MBC4 Also part of the line-up is "Moment of Truth", hosted by Syrian actor-turned-presenter Abbas Al Nouri, where each participant is subject to a "polygraph" test in parallel to his or her on-screen appearance. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Emirates 24/7)  AFGHANISTAN: MOBY GROUP ESTABLISHES REGIONAL HQ IN DUBAI STUDIO CITY Moby Group, Afghanistan's privately owned media company, has moved from its small office in Dubai Media City to a much larger facility in Dubai Studio City that will be its regional headquarters. The Moby Group dominates the Afghan media market with a combined 80 percent market share. Its Tolo TV and Lemar TV lead the Afghan television market with more than 60 percent audience reach, while Arman FM is the most popular entertainment radio station in Afghanistan. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : BroadcastPRO ME)  QATAR: QTEL'S MOZAIC TV+ ADDS PAKISTAN NEWS CHANNEL TO ITS OFFER Qtel's Mozaic TV+ continues to expand the range of news and entertainment, with the addition of new channels and ongoing enhancement of the service. Customers who get the Prime Asia Package will be able to access SAMAA TV-Pakistan, one of the top three news channels from Pakistan. The service is aimed at Urdu and Hindi speakers interested in accessing a dedicated news channel about Pakistan and the Asian subcontinent. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : The Peninsula)  TURKEY: BRAVAHDTV GET IPTV DISTRIBUTION IN TURKEY Dutch based Opera and Culture HD channel BravaHDTV has been added to the HD TV packages of the Turkish broadband operator TTNET, part of the Türk Telekom Group. BravaHDTV is offered in Turkey through TTNET's Tivibu (Web TV platform) and IPtivibu (IPTV platform) services. Launched on February 24, 2010, Tivibu offers television and cinema experiences to the users of its high-speed broadband service, with more than 600,000 subscribers reached in the first nine months. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Broadband TV News)   UAE: CHINA CENTRAL TELEVISION OPENS MIDDLE-EAST REGIONAL CENTRE IN DUBAI In the presence of His Highness Sheikh Hasher bin Maktoum Al Maktoum, Director-General, Dubai Department of Information, Sun Yusheng, Vice-President of China Central Television (CCTV), Gao Yusheng, Chinese Ambassador in the UAE, Abdullatif AlMulla, Group Chief Executive Officer of TECOM Investments.| Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : WAM)   KUWAIT: KUWAIT TO SWITCH-OFF ILLEGAL CHANNELS Kuwait's government has asked the information ministry to shut down all television stations broadcasting from Kuwaiti without a local permission. "The decision aims to regularize the work of the satellite channels and curb abuses by some of them," the government said in a letter to the information ministry, Kuwaiti daily Al Jareeda reported| Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Digital Production ME)   UAE: YOUR CHOICE: DITCH ILLEGAL CABLE TV OR PAY FINE Intensifying the anti-piracy campaign in the UAE, authorities are cracking down on dubious distributors who sell smuggled dish TV satellite receivers and smart cards. Residents found using pirated dish TV connections will be fined Dh20,000, 'Emirates24|7' can reveal.| Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Emirates 24/7)   QATAR: PAN ARAB GAMES AND AL JAZEERA SPORTS SIGN DEAL Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Secretary General of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) and Nasser bin Ghanem Al Khelaifi, Managing Director of Al Jazeera Sports exchanging documents after signing an agreement in Doha yesterday. Al Jazeera Sports and QOC signed a deal yesterday for the broadcasting rights for the Pan Arab Games. The Games which are held every four years will take place from November 11 to 25 in Doha and 22 countries are expected to take part in the event.| Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : The Peninsula)   UAE: DU ENTERS RACE TO PROVIDE 3D TV FEED IN MIDDLE EAST Telecom service provider du has joined the race to be among the first companies in the Middle East to provide its customers a three-dimensional television viewing experience. The company announced yesterday that its one-year-old video-on-demand (VoD) service is now 3D-capable and has started airing its first 3D content. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Gulf News)   UAE: THE TOURIST MOST POPULAR FILM IN THE UAE The American blockbuster The Tourist was the UAE's highest grossing film in the week ending 22 December, taking AED153,397 ($41,762) in box office admissions. The film, which stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, took AED862,95 more than the second most watched film, Narina: Voyager of the Dawn Treader. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Arabian Business) MEDIA RESEARCH NEWS  TEN MIDDLE EAST DIGITAL PREDICTIONS FOR 2011 Carrington Malin from SpotOn Public Relations takes a look at the state of digital marketing in the Middle East, and shares with us Ten Middle East digital predictions for 2011; against the backdrop of macro-economic trends in the Arab world's largest economies, higher Internet penetrations, new e-commerce options and the increasing influence of social media across the region. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : MediaME)

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News | Sub-Saharan Africa | 12 -19 Jan. 2011

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BROADCAST NEWS OH AFRICA PRESENTS DISCOP ACCRA 2011 - TV OF THE FUTURE! The greatest African TV minds together over four days organised by DISCOP and being held in Accra, West Africa for the FIRST time. OH Africa presenter Savanah Nightingale will be interviewing the executives attending, by way of them introducing themselves,talking about what their channels represent and viewpoint on the current state & future of African television. The programme promises to not only showcase the diverse TV landscape of Africa but also what goes into putting an event of this nature together. The elements of the programme include: ELEVATOR PITCH FOR PRODUCERS: "We want you to pitch your top show in 120 seconds flat. Which will be seen by an audience of TV movers and shakers as well as an global audience of "20 million." DEALS OF THE DAY: We announce deals that have been brokered on a particular day. The interviews will be broadcast across OHTV!s multiple platforms OH AFRICA,OHTV,OH USA & the Discop website. OH Africa!s Lola will be contacting all Discop participants prior to the event to schedule a time for during the event to interview interested parties. Contact: Lola.ogunbadejo@ohtv.co.uk (Source :OH TV)  CAMEROON : CAMEROON CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF TELEVISION Twenty five years are not 25 days, and this best sums the history of television in Cameroon. The debut, historically, was tardy cognizant of the great strides made in TV journalism in other African countries. Down memory lane, the story of the small screen images (television) in Cameroon smacks of three episodes: the throttling beginning of the pioneer state-owned Cameroonian Television (CTV) as a "unit" in March 1985, sooner as an office, and later today's CRTV. It enjoyed absolute monopoly up to the year 2000 when a liberalisation decree by the President of the Republic opened up to private ownership. This was followed by the consequential TV boom with its attendant impact on the population. | Back to summary READ MORE... (Source : Cameroon Tribune)  KENYA: NEW PANEL TO DRIVE KENYA'S LOCAL CONTENT TO DIGITAL CONTENT Kenya has started an ambitious journey for a slice of the lucrative creative industry, expected to see an explosion in local content as the country retires analogue for digital channels. To drive this agenda, the government on Monday, through the Ministry of Information and Communications, formed a taskforce to look at how the country can leverage on local talent to spur the growth of visual effects and the marriage of information technology, animation, film and music. |  Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Daily Nation)  KENYA: COMPUTER-GENERATED FILMS TO CUT PRODUCTION COSTS Computer-generated television programmes and advertisements are set to cut production costs of local content by more than 100 per cent, increasing Kenya's creative industry's competitiveness at a time when it is battling it out with cheap foreign productions. Use of visual effects and animation will enable producers save millions of shillings unlike currently where one has to shoot all the episodes on location which costs more. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Daily Nation) AFRIQUECANADA.TV: PORTRAIT OF A NEW WEBTV FOCUSED ON AFRICA With the steady arrival of broadband internet capacity on African coasts, internet use is due to explode over the next ten years on the continent. There is already a phenomenally high use of the internet among the 13-34 age range in some African regions, and new African media are being set up on the web. AfriqueCanada.TV, a recently launched web TV channel is one of them. Balancing Act interviewed its CEO - William Muyuku | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Balancing Act)   RWANDA SWITCHES TO DIGITAL BROADCASTING IN JANUARY 2011 The National Bureau for Information (ORINFOR) monopoly on the television broadcast industry in Rwanda has come to an end. Rwanda will become the second East African Country after Kenya to switch to digital signal. Kenya switched to digital broadcasting last year and is in advanced stages to completely switch off analogue broadcasting, giving the country leverage over the rest of East African member states in using advanced broadcast technology.| Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : The Independent)   SOUTH AFRICA: THE COUNTRY ADOPTS DVB-T2 DIGITAL TV STANDARD AND SCHEDULES DECEMBER 2012 CUT-OFF FOR ANALOGUE TV South Africa will adopt the digital television standard DVB-T2 and the country will complete the process of migrating from analogue to digital television by December 2012, Communications Minister Roy Padayachie said. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Mail and Guardian online)  SOUTH AFRICA: DIGITAL TV CHOICE WILL 'PERPETUATE WHITE DOMINATION' The National Association of Manufacturers in Electronics Components (Namec) will hold an urgent meeting this week to decide how best to contest cabinet's decision that SA will use the European standard for digital terrestrial television. Association chairman Keith Thabo says its members are "especially hurt that this decision portrays us as a nation trapped in perpetual colonialisation" | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : TechCentral)  SES EYES AFRICA GROWTH WITH €1BN SATELLITES Europe's SES group, which operates a worldwide fleet of more than 40 communications satellites, is establishing a bigger presence in SA ahead of the launch later this year of a new, high-capacity satellite to serve the region.| Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : TechCentral) AFRICAN BROADCASTERS SEAL DEALS WITH CHINA, US More international TV content is on the menu for African viewers in the new year, following new deals to broadcast the English language channel of China's Xinhua News Agency and celebrity entertainment from the US courtesy of BlackTree TV. From 1 January, China's 24-hour news channel CNC World will be distributed across Africa via MIH's cable network, which reaches an estimated four million homes. Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : RapidTVNews) PAN AFRICAN MEDIA PORTAL TO LAUNCH IN MARCH The African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Media Initiative (AMI) convened a meeting on the Pan African Media Portal (PAMP) in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21 December 2010. The AUC, A24 Media and AllAfrica Global Media, partners on the implementation of the project, attended the meeting. The Nairobi gathering was a follow-up to the Informal Joint Experts Meeting organised by the AUC and the European Commission (EC) in Addis Ababa, 23-25 March 2010 on the theme media and development.| Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Africa Bizcommunity) MEDIA RESEARCH NEWS TNS TO EXPAND IN AFRICA IN 2011 TNS, the global custom research company, recently announced the acquisition of a majority stake in the Research and Marketing Services group of companies (RMS) to add to its new regional framework of TNS Africa and Middle East that came into existence with effect from January 2010. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Africa Bizcommunity)  TELEVISION, NPL AND FOOTBALLERS' CAREER Television has played a major role in modern football. Aside the monetary aspect which has been very vital in helping to create excellence both on and off the pitch, television changes everyone and everything that goes with the game of football. For instance, when watching a documentary, it is important to understand that if people in the documentary realise that they are being videotaped, they will act in a manner that is in conformity with their profession. Human nature causes human beings to want to be seen differently on the screen . It makes people act more serious and some to goof. This effect can easily be felt in sport | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Leadership) 2011 ICT TRENDS FOR EMERGING AFRICA The ICT sector is one of the fastest growing on the African continent. Fueled by heavy investments, telecommunication infrastructures have improved drastically. Over the past five years, Africans have embraced ICT innovations fast especially in the mobile telecommunications and in the IT segments. The next wave that is about to hit the continent will include new infrastructures such as broadband fibre optic cables and data centres, telecoms added value services and IT innovations. Here is a review of 2010 and key trends to prepare for 2011 | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Africa Bizcommunity) 2011 TRENDS FOR AFRICA: A YEAR OF HARD WORK FOR BRANDS If 2010 could be summed up as soccer, vuvuzelas and national pride, 2011 will be all about the hard work of restoring the economy to sustainable growth, paying attention to environmental concerns and mastering the technologies that are changing the world. Here are a few trends to watch in 2011. | Back to summary READ MORE… (Source : Africa Bizcommunity)

In this issue Broadcast News OH AFRICA presents DISCOP ACCRA 2011 Cameroon celebrates 25 years of television New panel to drive Kenya's local content to digital channels Computer-generated films tp cut production costs

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