March 3
Kuala Lumpur -- Malaysia's Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications has awarded two more 3G mobile phone licences. The winning applicants are TTdotCom Sdn Bhd and MiTV Corp Sdn Bhd. Losing out was third applicant, DiGi.Com Bhd. All are Malaysian companies.
The Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) also recommended the two to receive a licence.
The Government awarded the first two 3G licences to Telekom Malaysia Bhd and Maxis Communications Bhd in 2002.
March 3
Miranda Technologies Inc. (TSX: MT) has hired Ivan Siu Tin Lee as regional sales manager based in the new Asia HQ for the company in Wanchai, Hong Kong Island. Ivan was previously with Sony Corporation of Hong Kong in the Broadcast Professional Products division. Miranda recently opened a Beijing office for mainland China headed by China Sales Manager, Libin Lou. Miranda has also expanded its operations in Singapore.
March 3
The World Telecommunication Development Conference, which opens in Doha, Qatar, on March 7, will focus on development priorities aimed at bridging the digital divide.
In achieving the objectives of the recently concluded World Summit on the Information Society, the Doha Action Plan will focus on utilizing the full potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) to connect the unconnected and accelerate the pace of social and economic development.
Within the framework of WTDC-06, ITU is organizing a series of information sessions on four key issues that have a direct bearing on telecommunication development around the world, with special relevance for developing countries.
March 3
Toronto - Asian Television Network International(ATN)(TSX-SAT) has won the exclusive Canadian Rights for India vs. England Cricket Series.
The Three Cricket Test Matches and Seven One Day Internationals (ODI's)started March 2. commencing March 2nd 2006.
The Test Matches will be shown live exclusively on ATN across Canada. ATN will make the games available on its premium Pay Per View service.
March 2
Kathmandu: The Nepalese Ministry of Information and Communication has permitted the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) to run FM radio stations, according to the Kantipur Daily.
The army will operate 10 FM stations throughout the kingdom, four of 1K and 6 of low power at 250 watts.
The transmitters will be placed at strategic villages to counteract Maoist rebel mobile FM stations.
March 3
Tokyo: Public broadcaster, NHK the Japan Broadcasting Corporation is being forced into re-inventing itself following embezzlement scandals and a revolt by the license fee paying public among other things.
On March 1, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi instructed Heizo Takenaka, minister of internal affairs and communications, to set to and make things happen.
Koizumi said there are too many NHK channels (presumably referring to both the satellite as well as terrestrial).
Press reports out of Tokyo, say that the Japanese Government is using the idea of an English TV channel to match CNN or similar as an international voice.
The position is aggravated by the fact China has a worldwide satellite network in CCTV-9 and is now talking of an Arab language network. Fellow neighbour, Korea through its Arirang TV Network already has a dedicated Arab service to the Middle East as well as a popular worldwide English/Korean language station that reflects modern and traditional culture.
Moves like these by Japan's neighbours show just how insular is the political mainstream thinking in Tokyo.
But times are changing.
The current worldwide satellite offerings of NHK - NHK World TV and NHK World Premium aimed at the Japanese Diaspora have not proved as popular as first thought. As part of the internal re-organisation of NHK currently being proposed, NHK says it will turn its World TV into a solely English outlet within a three year time frame.
NHK President Genichi Hashimoto said international broadcasting services would best be financed with viewer fees.
Financing is a sensitive issue at advertising-free, NHK. Various funding options are under consideration. There is a good chance that specific funding would come from central government along the lines the BBC World Service radio is funded as part of the UK's foreign policy.
March 1,
CNN-IBN, a joint venture news and information channel being launched in India by TV18 Group through its Global Broadcast News (GBN) subsidiary and Turner International, has deployed Snell & Wilcox’s IQ Modular products for an easily reconfigurable and scalable broadcast infrastructure backbone.
Television Eighteen India Ltd (TV18) is India’s premier news broadcaster and the owner of CNBC TV18. The new CNN-IBN service will build upon TV18’s newsgathering experience and CNN’s extensive global news network to provide audiences with business and consumer news.
Snell & Wilcox’s IQ Modular infrastructure system provides more than 300 intelligent component building blocks with which to construct any kind of broadcast facility as exemplified by Snell & Wilcox products found at other Indian networks, TV Today Network, Star News, ZeeTV, Eenadu TV, and NDTV.
February 28
Manila --ABS-CBN Broadcasting has created the new position of executive vice-president with responsibility for total television channel programming, on-air operations, and overall revenue and profit delivery of Channel 2, the flagship of ABS-CBN. Rosario Santos-Concio has been promoted to fill the post from executive VP for the entertainment group of the company.
Another move see Antonio Ventosa, until recently the managing director of Hemisphere Leo Burnett Advertising, will be joining ABS-CBN as head of marketing.
Meanwhile, Agustin Benitez moves from being deputy head of Manila's ABC Channel 5 to become head of the ABS-CBN customer development group.
February 27
New Delhi, India: In a written reply in Parliament (Rajya Sabha), the Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, P R Dasmunsi stated as many as 31 radio towers will be set up in as many cities spread over 15 states.
Andhra Pradesh state will have three stations in Kakinada, Hyderabad, Vijayawada of 10 kW each, and one of 5KW in Karimnagar and one of 1 KW in Srikakularm.
Maharashtra state will have four stations (Aurangabad, Amravati, Sholapur- 10 kW each & Oros- 5 kW).
Three stations of 10 KW each will be set up in Uttar Pradesh cities of Gorakhpur, Kanpur and Varanasi, while Uttaranchal will have three stations (Bageshwar 5 KW and Gairsen and New Tehri with 1 kW each).
In other states, two stations each will be set up in West Bengal (Darjeeling, Coochbihar- 10 kW each), Tripura (Agartala- 10 kW and Longtharai- 5 kW), Tamil Nadu (Madurai, Tirunelvelli- 10 kW each), Karnataka (Gulbarga, Bellary- 10 kW each) and Rajasthan (Udaipur, Bikaner- 10 kW each) and one each in Gujarat (Junagarh- 10 kW), Haryana (Rohtak- 10 kW), Madhya Pradesh (Ujjain- 5 kW), Manipur (Imphal- 10 kW), Orissa (Rairangpur- 1kW) and Punjab (Jalandhar- 10 kW).
Some of the cities where Doordarshan TV towers exist, will accommodate FM radio transmitters instead of separate construction.
February 28
TANDBERG Television is working closely with its partners and customers to build a next generation digital TV infrastructure in mainland China. That was a key point that came out of the company's February 28 press release quoting Geng Liang, General Manager of TANDBERG Television China.
The release was regarding Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and Shanghai Telecom (ST) January launch of their 50 channel interactive IPTV services to subscribers in the upmarket, Pudong area.
The IPTV installation contract was awarded to Siemens that then utilised TANDBERG MPEG-4 AVC video compression.
The TANDBERG announcement noted also that the fullservice was launched to an audience "over 100% higher than the anticipated subscriber base".
TANDBERG further noted that IPTV provides China's network operators the opportunity to boost their ARPU and reduce their churn by enticing China’s 360 million TV viewers and 25 million broadband users away from traditional cable and satellite Pay-TV.
Essentially, the TANDBERG Television standard definition MPEG-4 AVC head-end provides bandwidth savings of up to 50% on MPEG-2, with superior picture and sound quality.
