Thailand: 3G lessons learned, it’s time for TV licence auction
Less than a year after Thailand’s much criticised auction of 3G mobile data spectrum, the country is putting digital TV licences up for sale.
The auction, planned for August or September, looks likely to shake up the broadcasting sector as Thailand attempts to modernise its most powerful advertising medium. Continue reading »
Ukraine’s TVi in murky takeover
By Graham Stack of bne
TVi, a Ukrainian television channel seen as a last bastion for opposition voices and critical investigative reporting, has fallen victim to a murky hostile takeover that it is feared may lead to its muzzling. Continue reading »
Taiwan and China: a musical interlude
A televised singing contest from China’s Hunan province is the latest front in the fight between China and Taiwan.
Many Taiwanese TV stations, including some news stations, devoted hours last Friday night to broadcasting the final round of Hunanese show “I Am a Singer”. That has prompted Taiwanese regulators to begin investigating whether any station broke laws covering the broadcast of Chinese programming. Continue reading »
©Distribution WorkshopRapid growth in box office takings from Brazil, Russia, India and China has “flipped” the film market, focusing US filmmakers and distributors on international opportunities and creating a bigger US market for foreign films, according to Imax, the Canadian cinema group. Continue reading »
India: tricky time for men’s TV channel
It’s a strange time to be launching a men’s television channel in India, given the controversy over gender issues in the country and the outrage over several widely-publicised brutal rape cases.
But Anil Ambani’s Reliance Broadcast Network is going ahead anyway, teaming up with RTL Group, the European entertainment network, to launch Big RTL Thrill, a channel targetting Indian men aged between 15 and 44. Continue reading »
Bloomberg News: se habla español
With an eye on a forthcoming telecoms shake-up in Mexico and nearly 200m Spanish-speaking market, Michael Bloomberg’s eponymous news agency has this week formed a “multi-platform alliance” with the Mexican business daily El Financiero. Continue reading »
Hindujas press on with Belgian deal
The Hinduja brothers are known for their conservative style. So it comes at a surprise that the Hinduja Group is set to buy Alfacam, the troubled Belgian media company that broadcast the 2012 Olympics.
Cristina rages at fake Chavez photo
What do El País, the Spanish newspaper, and Clarín, the Argentine media group, have in common? Both are guttersnipes, according to Cristina Fernández, Argentina’s president.
Fernández’s animosity towards Clarín is legion. Her government wants judges to reject Clarín’s protests that a three-year-old media law that would strip the market-leader of scores of licences is unconstitutional, and to apply the anti-monopoly law pronto. Continue reading »
India’s Hinduja throws Belgian media group a lifeline
Will a Bollywood producer soon capture and broadcast the Olympic Games? It’s possible, as the Indian conglomerate Hinduja announced this week it’s in exclusive negotiations to buy Alfacam, a TV production company that specialises in filming major sport events.
This summer Alfacam was among those hired to film the London Olympic Games and the European Football Championships in Poland and Ukraine. But for a while it looked like that would the last tour de force of the struggling Belgian company. Continue reading »
Next Media deal: getting complicated
There have been growing concerns in Taiwan that the warming relationship with Beijing is causing self-censorship in the island’s media – so the deal to sell Next Media, which includes the local newspaper Apple Daily, will only fuel the debate further. Continue reading »
China to NY Times: Plagiarise this!
The New York Times just ain’t what it used to be. It’s full of sensationalism, plagiarism and out-and-out fake news. Loyal readers are losing their faith.
Or so goes the verdict from that arbiter of fine journalism: the People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China. Continue reading »
Skyfall: not Midnight Express
Skyfall star Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes, Istanbul
Istanbul is in many ways the perfect city for James Bond. Split between two continents by one of the world’s busiest waterways, the city buzzed with spies in the Cold War. It remains full of intrigue today, a centre of often secretive efforts against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
So it is entirely natural that the city features in Skyfall, the well reviewed new Bond film, now opening across the world. Indeed, this is the third time 007 has come to Istanbul, after its previous appearances in From Russia with Love in 1963 and The World is Not Enough in 1999. Continue reading »
Lai’s Taiwan exit: less choice for viewers, big boost for stock
Media watchers may be worried but investors this week were thrilled when Jimmy Lai, a rags to riches Hong Kong press baron known for his anti-Beijing views, sold his unprofitable Taiwanese media operations.
Shares in Next Media, his Hong Kong-listed company, are up around 40 per cent this week after Lai left Taiwan in frustration at regulators who, his company said, were stonewalling his efforts to break into the local cable market. Continue reading »
Can the NYT succeed in Brazil?
Oh, how the (NY) times are a-changin’…It was not so long ago that The New York Times, like many other global news outlets, would only dedicate a few column inches to Brazil. This week, the newspaper announced that it will create an entire Portuguese-language website for the country. Continue reading »
India TV reform: FDI opportunities in digital switchover
Among the suite of reforms in foreign direct investment rolled out by New Delhi – including retail, aviation and pensions – there is one that has attracted less attention. India is raising the cap on foreign investment into broadcasting services from 49 per cent to 74 per cent.
The change is significant as the country is on the verge of a mandatory switchover from analogue cable television services to digital – and foreign investment is what the industry needs. Continue reading »
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