MBLAB DIGEST DEC1: MUMBAI BURNS BUT PAKISTAN VS INDIA CRICKET RIGHTS SOLD TO UAE FOR BIG BUCKS
December 1st 2008 02:39
PAKISTAN CRICKET OFFICIALS SIGN $140 MILLION TV RIGHTS DEAL WITH UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK
Pakistan cricket officials on Sunday signed a five-year, $140.5 million television rights deal with the United Arab Emirates-based Taj Entertainment Network, the cricket board said.
The deal, described as "excellent" by Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Salim Altaf, allayed fears that broadcasters might bid less for Pakistani cricket because foreign teams have been refusing to tour the country over security concerns.
Altaf told AFP, “It is an excellent deal which will run from 2009 to 2013 for a period of five years and will start from our home series against India."
STRONG LINE-UP OF WINNERS IN AUSTRALIA’S TOP JOURNALISM AWARDS, THE WALKLEYS
The Australian newspaper claimed three prestigious Walkley Awards, the top Aussie journalistic honours, for excellence in journalism.
Tony Koch, The Australian's chief reporter in Queensland, and Padraic Murphy, North Queensland correspondent, took out the award for print news reporting for their story No Jail For Rape of Girl, 10, published in December last year.
The Australian's Northern Territory-based writer Paul Toohey won the Walkley for best Coverage of Indigenous Affairs for his Quarterly Essay, Last Drinks.
The newspaper’s cartoonist Jon Kudelka was awarded the Walkley for the year's best cartoon.
The Gold Walkley was awarded to Ross Coulthart and Nick Farrow, of the Nine Network's now defunct Sunday program. Their profile of a Bega doctor uncovered a trail of malpractice and incompetence that led to charges of sexual assault and mutilation against the GP.
the monitoring and reporting of incompetent doctors.
Reuters photographer David Gray was awarded the Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year Award for his work that captured the devastation in the aftershock of the earthquake in Sichuan Province and the triumphant moments of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Daily Telegraph's Phil Hillyard won the award for Sports photography, while Craig Greenhill, also from The Daily Telegraph, won the award for Daily Life/Feature photography.
The Walkley Award for Journalistic Leadership, was won by John Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Ltd.
The Walkley Trustees awarded the Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism to the late Pamela Bone for her support of humanitarian causes and commitment to the advancement of female leaders in the media.
AUSTRALIAN COURT DEFERS DECISION ORDERING JOURNALIST TO HAND OVER TAPES OF MATERIAL USED IN ARTICLE
An Australian court deferred a decision about whether a journalist should hand over tapes used in a series of articles that former tycoon Alan Bond claims damaged his reputation.
Sean Cowan, a journalist with The West Australian, was successful in gaining a suspension of a court order made earlier this month demanding he hand over the tapes.
The tapes contain audio of conversations he had with confidential sources around the time articles relating to r Bond's planned business comeback were published in December 2005.
The suspension will apply until an appeal against the order is heard early next year.
Bond, a former bankrupt, now worth an estimated $265 million by Business Review Weekly, has argued that the articles damaged his business reputation to the point where it was unsalvageable.
The articles relied on private letters and documents which Bond claimed were stolen from his Perth mansion. The documents were contained in five fax rolls that were in the paper's possession.
SWEEPING CHANGES PROPOSED FOR TURKISH BROADCASTING
A prohibition on the use of music to amplify news, and an outright ban on lotteries and contests with prizes, are among sweeping changes proposed for Turkish broadcasting, Today's Zaman reports.
Turkey's regulatory authority, the Radio and Television Supreme Council has prepared a new bill to revamp the way radio and television programs are broadcast.
Other changes proposed include caps on the use of secretly filmed images, a prohibition on broadcasts that incite violence, terror, ethnic discrimination, and any content that promotes hatred, racial, class, linguistic, factional, religious or regional differences.
The new bill will also rule alcohol, tobacco and drug promotion, and limit advertising time to a maximum of 15 percent of daily broadcasting time.
A prohibition on an individual or corporation owning more than two radio stations and two TV stations is also included.
The bill has been sent to the Prime Ministry for review before being presented to Parliament.
GERMAN MEDIA GROUP BUYS INTO TURKISH TV AND NEWSPAPER COMPANY
Reporternet reports that German media group Axel Springer said on Thursday it will buy a stake in Turkey's media company Dogan Yayin Holding to gain greater access to Turkey's newspaper market.
Axel Springer said it would buy between 9.1 percent and 9.7 percent of Dogan Yayin Holding, which has major stakes in Turkish newspaper Huerriyet and Milliyet, from Dogan Sirketler Grubu Holding for Euro 47 million (US$60 million.).
Springer said it chose Helmut Thoma, who headed up Bertelsmann's RTL for years, to take a seat on Dogan Yayin's board of directors after the acquisition.
It will also sell 5.1 percent of Dogan TV shares to Dogan Yayin, which already holds a majority stake in the television station, for Euro 77 million. "The move will reduce Springer's stake in Dogan TV to 18.6 percent ", the company said.
MOBILE INTERNET IN UK SURGES, WHILE PC USAGE SLOWS
BBC News reports that mobile internet use in the UK is increasing, while the number of people going online via a PC is slowing, analyst firm Nielsen Online has found.
About 7.3 million people accessed the net via their mobile phones, during the second and third quarters of 2008. This is an increase of 25 percent compared to a growth of just 3 percent for the PC-based net audience, now more than 35 million.
The survey also found that the mobile net audience was younger and searched for different things. While Google remains the most popular site for those logging on via the desktop in the UK, on mobile internet BBC News is the most visited site, with nearly a quarter of mobile internet consumers using it. Other popular sites include BBC Weather and Sky Sports.
The mobile net audience is younger than its computer based counterpart. A quarter of the mobile net audience are aged 15-24, compared to 16 percent for the PC. While 23 percent of the desk-top based internet population is 55 or over, only 12 percent of mobile internet audience is.
REVENUES FOR AMERICAN B-TO-B PUBLICATIONS SHIFTS DOWN SLIGHTLY
Folio reports that total revenue generated by B-to-B publications in the US was down slightly in 2007 and basically flat in 2006 and 2005, while editorial, advertising and circulation expenses continued to increase.
The pattern emerges in a new American Business Media Trend Report, prepared by the Jordan, Edmiston Group. Revenue for the average b-to-b publication was US$5.47 million in 2007, a decline of .4 percent over 2006 and flat over 2005.
Print advertising accounted for 84 percent of the average b-to-b title's income, a share that held steady over the three-year period despite the growth of online content.
In general, publications reduced their print volume and circulation, producing an average of 18 to 19 issues a year, per the study.
While data from 2008 is not included in the trend report, the ABM Business Information Network shows b-to-b magazines suffered a 6 percent slide in revenue in the first half.
EAST GERMAN SECRET POLICE INFLUENCED BROADCASTING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER, INVESTIGATION REVEALS
Hollywood Reporter said an investigation published on Thursday by Germany's first channel, public broadcaster ARD, reveals the East German secret police, the Stasi, influenced German television and radio reports on both sides of the Berlin Wall. I
n the East, the Stasi dictated the official propaganda broadcast by the state broadcaster. In the West, it infiltrated German broadcasters and tried to plant misinformation.
But while the Stasi did manage to slip a few misleading reports into the West German media, the report finds it did not influence programming or personnel decisions.
“The Stasi acquired a broad overview of the structures and personnel of ARD channels but still did not understand how a public broadcaster works in a democracy,” the report said.
ARD said it hopes the exhaustive, independent study can be used as a model for other former communist countries wanting to investigate the functioning of state propaganda.
AUSTRIAN AND FLEMISH PUBLIC BROADCASTERS NEED TO MAKE BIG BUDGET CUTS
Austrian public broadcaster ORF said on Thursday it plans to cut its workforce by around 1,000 until 2012, a cut by nearly 30 per cent, as the company faces lower advertising sales and increasing competition.
ORF director-general Bernhard Wrabetz told staff members that the headcount would decrease from more than 3,400 to below 2,500 by outsourcing the engineering department, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and other departments. In addition, employees will be laid off or sent into early retirement, Austrian news agency APA reported.
ORF expects to end the year with losses of Euro 100 million, compared with minus Euro 29 million (US$127 million) in 2008, due to falling advertising sales and growing competition from private broadcasters.
Meanwhile, the Flemish public broadcaster VRT needs to make savings of Euro 71.5 million over the next three years. A fall in advertising revenue from radio commercials has combined with higher than expected inflation to leave the VRT short of funds. The public broadcaster is to make savings across the board with all departments in the organisation to be hit by the cuts. The VRT hopes to save money by making cut-backs in the number of sporting events that it purchases the rights for, as well as producing more programs in-house.
But editor-in-chief Pieter Knapen said that no cuts will be made to the broadcasters' core business such as its news.
CUBAN BLOGGER WINS DEUTSCHE WELLE INTERNATIONAL WEBLOG AWARDS
A Cuban blogger has won The BOBS 2008 International weblog awards. Yoani Sanchez's blog, Generation Y, received the award instituted by Deutsche Welle.
A Persian language blog called 4equality and an entry by China's Zeng Jinyan won the Reporters Without Borders Award. The 4equality blog is an initiative by a group of 50 men and women, who aim to collect one million signatures against misogynistic laws in Iran.
Zeng Jinyan’s blog deals with life under the constant watch of the Chinese authorities.
INDIA’S INFORMATION MINISTRY AND POLICE UNHAPPY ABOUT MUMBAI TERRORISM BROADCAST COVERAGE
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on November 28 summoned the news media owners along with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) chiefs to express concern over the coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks.
Exchange4media said the coverage was seen as harmful enough for the police to even black out news channels until the government intervened and cancelled the order.
Officials from the Defence Ministry and Internal Security attended the meeting as well.
Government officials said that the news media, by way of the distance of the cameras, had revealed important details of the operation in Mumbai that was detrimental to the overall operation.
The media owners argued that there was lack of structured information from the government to the broadcast media at present.
Officials at the meeting agreed that a process of information dissemination had to be put in place. It was also agreed that the news broadcasting fraternity would train its reporters further in this area to be able to make an informed decision on where to draw the line in crisis coverage.
"Relentless" media coverage of the terror attacks in Mumbai sparked a strong backlash from the public, according to Global Voices.
The mainstream media's approach of "shock and shake" can lead to unverified rumors being reported as fact, Global Voices reports, and the blogosphere has monitored the coverage with a mounting anger.
Although mainstream news coverage dominated headlines, social media has been a major outlet for news at the scene and around the world.
AL-JAZEERA LAUNCHES ITS CITIZEN JOURNALISM PORTAL
Qatar-based Al Jazeera has launched its much vaunted citizen journalism project.
It said its new portal is “seeking eyewitness news reports from its vast international audience."
MONACO-BASED HEDGE FUND SUES WALL STREET JOURNAL OVER SHARP LOSSES ARTICLE
Monaco-based hedge fund, SRM Global is suing the Wall Street Journal over the publication of allegedly confidential financial information, according to The Guardian.
The case is to be heard this week in London's high court and centres on two articles published on WSJ.com in August.
The Guardian reports that the two articles titled, Woods Fund Takes a Beating, and Hedge Fund Suffers Sharp Losses mentioned that former UBS trader Jon Wood had lost roughly 85 percent of its value since it was founded in 2006.
PROTEST OVER RELAXING OF BROADCAST OWNERSHIP RESTRICTIONS IN SOUTH KOREA
Media watch and civic groups in South Korea are threatening to take legal action against the Korea Communications Commission over its decision to relax broadcasting ownership restrictions, The Hankyoreh reports.
The groups say the move by the Commission "opens the way for money to enter broadcasting."
The Commission approved an amendment bill to the Broadcasting Act that significantly relaxes regulations on the ownership of broadcasting companies by business conglomerates.
Until now business conglomerates with up to 3 trillion won (US$2 billion) in assets have been able to have stakes in terrestrial or news broadcasting companies.
The change allows companies with up to 10 trillion won in assets to own broadcasting companies.
Commission chairman, Choi See-joong, defended the move saying that "given the unprecedented economic crisis, it is important that we grow the size of broadcasting as an industry."
The National Union of Media Workers said it plans to file a constitutional petition with the Constitutional Court, alleging that having big conglomerates in the broadcasting industry is going to lead to distortions which will hurt the people's "right to know" as defined by South Korea's Constitution.
MEDIA WATCHDOG GROUP SAYS CAMBODIA NOW A RELATIVELY SAFE COUNTRY FOR JOURNALISTS
Cambodia remains a relatively safe country for journalists, an international media watchdog said, despite the killing earlier this year of a reporter working for an opposition newspaper.
But, according to the Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia-based rights officials and media experts say legal attacks against journalists have increased, even if physical intimidation is on the decline.
"Compared to other countries in the region, like the Philippines for example, the climate in Cambodia for journalistic practice is generally more peaceful," Red Batario, the regional coordinator for Southeast Asia at the Belgium-based International News Safety Institute, told Post.
Pen Samithy, the editor-in-chief of Khmer-language daily newspaper Rasmey Kampuchea, said the physical safety of journalists had improved, but said courts had now become the favoured weapon against the press.
He said, “It's easy to get a ruling against the media. Some laws are unclear, and judges will make a decision based on how they think about journalists.
"Many judges don't like journalists.... The libel law needs to be clear.”
MURDOCH CONFIRMS ROGER AILES WILL HEAD FOX DIVISION FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS
Trading Markets reports that Rupert Murdoch has confirmed that Roger Ailes, chairman and ceo, Fox News and Chairman of Fox Television Stations, has signed a new five year contract with News Corp.
Ailes has been with News Corp since 1996, the year he launched Fox News Channel.
The new agreement states that Ailes will continue to oversee Fox News, Fox Television Stations, Fox Business Network, My Network TV and Twentieth Television. He will also continue serving as a senior advisor to Murdoch on television and news matters.
During Ailes' tenure with News Corp, Fox News Channel passed CNN in ratings in all day parts in 2002 to become the number one news network in the country, nearing full distribution with more than 90 million subscribers.
In 2007, he launched Fox Business Network which now reaches more than 40 million homes and served as the biggest launch in cable history. Throughout Ailes' tenure, Fox Television Stations has increased its market share each of the last three years with all time record shares in the last two years. In addition, it has expanded its local news by nearly 100 hours a week in a challenging economic climate.
BBC.COM PLANS TO LOCALISE US, INDIAN AND CHINESE CONTENT AS IT SURGES AHEAD OF CNN IN ASIA-PACIFIC
BBC.com plans to localise its content as the site enters its second year, after a strong start to its operations.
BBC.com’s managing director Kym Niblock told Media Asia that the site is “relatively comfortable” even though there is a global ad recession.
He said, “In just one year we have gone from three headline advertisers –
Hublot, Airbus and BA – to a tally of nearly 300. We are definitely the world’s biggest start-up.”
Niblock claimed the site now receives double the traffic of CNN.com in Asia-Pacific, and said, “We have an international audience of 26 million users, with 6 to 7.2 million coming from the US, our fastest growing market.”
A huge rise in traffic has also been seen in India and China.
BBC.com plans to localise content in the US soon, followed by China and India.
BBC.com is the international, ad-funded version of bbc.co.uk, which started up in November 2007.
AUSTRALIA’S PRIME MEDIA CHAIRMAN APOLOGISES TO SHAREHOLDERS OVER DIGITAL COMPANY DESTRA COLLAPSE
The chairman of Australia’s Prime Media Group, Paul Ramsay, has apologised to shareholders for the company's "disastrous" investment in the collapsed digital company Destra, which has wiped out about nine months' worth of earnings.
The Australian newspaper reported the regional TV broadcaster also signalled it might reassess its dividend policy in February amid market pressure on companies to retire debt early.
The Destra investment has incurred total pretax losses of about A$34 million for Prime, which posted a pretax profit of $47 million in 2007-08.
A frustrated shareholder told the board to stick with its regional TV stations, which were benefiting from their affiliation with the Seven Network, rather than seeking to diversify.
"Don't fiddle with it," he said. Referring to multimillion-dollar losses from unsuccessful ventures in Argentina and New Zealand, the shareholder said, "We seem to be hitting a roadblock every couple of years."
The company's chief executive, Warwick Syphers, said first-half operating profit would "slightly trail" that of the prior year in the uncertain advertising market, with net income hurt by $9 million in write downs for Destra.
| 31 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
