AIB CEO

Hidden pain becomes visible

2011-07-14T17:12:00.003+01:00

For the second time in as many weeks, the company hosting the website of the AIB - and a range of other companies' sites - has been hacked. Instead of seeing the latest news from across the media industry, visitors to www.aib.org.uk have been treated to the view of a cross-eyed penguin...

It's frustrating for us as people in broadcasters all over the world check for last minute information about the 2011 AIBs, our international media excellence awards, but thankfully our special awards site [theaibs.tv] is hosted separately and has not been compromised.

These episodes have demonstrated the absolute vital need to maintain back-ups of back-ups. You simply cannot rely on a single back-up as we discovered on the first hacking. The server company's back-up took days rather than hours to decompress, crashing servers constantly. So we made a back-up in the office to make sure we had some level of additional security. We've used that to get up and running this afternoon.

All this comes when Britain's secret listening service - GCHQ - reveals that it is struggling to retain cyber experts. It seems that people with expertise in all things hacking and cyber are being lured by multinationals like Amazon, Google and Microsoft who offer somewhat higher salaries than GCHQ - so naturally they jump ship from the public to commercial sector.

Meanwhile, AIB is looking at what it should do with its online presence. The answer is probably to spread things around. Already we've migrated our e-mail to Google apps (which works extraordinarily well) and, as I mentioned earlier, our awards website is hosted by a different company to our main site. Diversity is key to everyone's longevity in cyberspace.

Entries from all over the world - there's still time to enter!

2011-07-12T14:40:00.003+01:00

The AIB headquarters is inundated with entries to this year's international media excellence awards, the AIBs.

We've had entries from Indonesia, the UK, Canada, Australia, Qatar, the US, South Africa, France, Singapore and many other countries - everyone is eager to have their content show-cased in this year's AIBs.

The new People's Choice is moving forward, too. The subject this year is best coverage of pro-democracy uprisings, and the short-listed entries will be available on social networks and web platforms globally, thanks to a deal we're currently finalising with a major player that receives 50m uniques every month in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region alone.

If you have not yet entered, don't despair. The official closing date is Friday 15 July but we will offer flexibility to ensure that the world's best content is judged by our international jury.

And don't forget that as well as rewarding the best factual TV, radio and cross-media programming, the AIBs also celebrate the best on-air talent, the best broadcast marketing and the most innovative broadcasting technology.

Training central

2011-06-14T10:28:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I sat in on a new course designed by the BBC College of Journalism for editorial leaders. It's the first time that BBCCoJo has run this course - originally designed for senior BBC staff - for people outside the organisation.

Held at the perhaps a little anodyne BBC Academy on the third floor of BBC White City, this first course attracted delegates from Australia, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Qatar and the US, plus a couple of observers (including me).

I was there to get a feel for how well a BBC-originated course can translate to other organisations that have nowhere near the resource levels of the BBC. There was heated debate during some of the discussions on editorial principles - something I suspect will intensify as the week progresses.

I may pop back to see how the delegates are getting on later in the week...in the meantime, I'm evaluating my impression of the course that I'll be passing on to AIB members shortly. And we're going to be sampling BBCCoJo's Social Media course later this month.

Interestingly (for me, at least) while sampling the White City canteen yesterday, I bumped into a couple of people I worked with in the past at the BBC - despite having left the Corporation 15 years ago!

A celebration of success - it's started

2011-05-12T15:14:00.000+01:00

The first entries in this year's AIBs - our international media excellence awards - have started to arrive.

It's great to see this celebration of success taking centre stage in so many broadcasters and production companies around the world...in this seventh year of the AIBs, we're looking forward to a remarkable crop of entries from factual programme makers around the world who want to see their work highlighted internationally.

The awards do not overlook important related areas - there's a category for marketing (after all, the audience needs to be enthused to consume output) and for technology (we need to keep pushing technological boundaries to keep broadcasting fresh and up-to-the-minute).

AIB also rewards on-air talent with our international personality of the year category - one for radio, one for television.

So make sure you get your entries together and into AIB no later than 1 July 2011. See how to enter online at http://www.aib.org.uk/AIBs2011/entrybook.html.

Parallel universes...part two

2011-02-24T09:50:00.005Z

I'm in the office with Libyan TV beaming in from HotBird. It's like watching Nile TV of a couple of weeks ago, but Libyan TV is working on steroids.

There's a completely different reality portrayed on Libyan TV from what every other news channel in the world is telling its viewers - this morning, they're excelling themselves with every presenter wearing a green scarf. They've been out on the streets of (presumably) Tripoli, filming people going about their business, shopping, and generally smiling in the sunshine (perhaps recorded this morning as it seems, from some apparently live links from outside the TV complex, that it's sunny today in Tripoli) and no sign of anti-Gaddafi protests.

So far, there's no evidence that Libyan TV staff have had enough of the propaganda they have to sell to viewers, but I wonder whether all the technical staff are on duty - audio levels are all over the place!

Gaddafi's son has been on the air, this time filmed alongside the TV's master control room (the glass could do with a jolly good clean, as it's definitely not sparkling at present). It was half interview, half tirade...he certainly doesn't look like a happy fellow.

If you want to join the fun, tune to Libyan TV on HotBird at 12.654, horizontal polarisation, 27500.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens on air over the next few days...

The cracks widen

2011-02-03T12:25:00.004Z

The cracks in Egypt's state are widening. Shahira Amin (left), a senior anchor and correspondent on Nile TV - who I've seen on the air on the international English-language service over the past few days - has resigned.

She's just been on Al Jazeera English (at 1215GMT) telling of the intimidation she claims to have been threatened with by people at state TV. Now she says she's in Tahrir Square with the anti-government demonstrators.

Essentially, said Shahira, she's fed up with the propaganda being fed to the Egyptian people by state TV. Al Jazeera is difficult to watch because of restrictions and interference but people are looking at Al Arabiya that is providing coverage of events and so the truth is getting out. Meanwhile, Nile TV is on the air in English at the moment, with a picture of empty streets and a very long shot of Tahrir Square...

What will happen next...

Google and Twitter step up to the mark

2011-02-01T10:07:00.002Z

Gerd Leonhard shared this information about how Google and Twitter are working together to ensure voices from Egypt are heard: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/some-weekend-work-that-will-hopefully.html

It's a great concept, so hats off to the team that's understood the problem and developed a solution to it.

Al Jazeera - a continuing target

2011-02-01T08:48:00.006Z

Events in Egypt have been unfolding on the TV screens of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world - although if you watch domestic Egyptian TV you will get a picture that contrasts with what every other news organisation in the world is depicting.

Here in the AIB offices, we're monitoring regional Arabic-language channels and the output of Nile TV's domestic and international channels. While stations such as Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera show live pictures of the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, Nile TV shows locked off cameras trained on all but deserted streets and bridges near the ERTU headquarters building. As I write this blog, Nile TV domestic is running another of its patriotic "life is great in Egypt" fillers, with smiling children, teachers, business people and shopkeepers, all with the Egyptian flag in shot. It's like turning the clock back to the days of the Soviet Union when Radio Moscow broadcast propaganda saying how wonderful life was in the country - no mention of bread shop queues, four year waits to buy a car and so on.

The international news media has been working extremely hard to bring the real news about what's happening across Egypt to viewers and listeners throughout the world. And Al Jazeera Network deserves special mention as it has been subject to immense challenges by the Egyptian authorities. Firstly their broadcasts were interfered with, then their bureau in Cairo closed, then six AJN correspondents and news crew detained and their kit confiscated (although they were allowed to go free subsequently).

AIB has condemned the moves by the Egyptian authorities, issuing a statement on 30 January and writing to the Egyptian ambassadors in London, Doha and Washington asking for the restrictions on Al Jazeera to be lifted. This was echoed by Philip J Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State who tweeted: "We are concerned by the shutdown of#Al-Jazeera in #Egypt and arrest of its correspondents. Egypt must be open and the reporters released."

This represents quite a change of heart by the US authorities towards the Qatar-based international broadcaster.

Al Jazeera Network Director General Wadah Khanfar contributed to The Huffington Post on 31 January with a call for Al Jazeera to be made available on US TV networks.

We have not seen the end of the Egyptian story - it's essential that international news media are allowed to report events without hindrance. I hope that the situation improves for Al Jazeera in Egypt and doesn't get any worse for other news media operating in the country.

Monitor the output...everywhere

2011-01-20T18:59:00.003Z

While carrying out research today for a paper I'm writing, I checked some websites of major international channels. And I discovered that it's almost impossible for media companies to be across their entire output.

It used to be simple in the old analogue days - in the BBC, a Presentation Department report at the close of transmission each day provided a summary of faults on individual transmitters, so that the powers that be could see where audiences hadn't been able to watch BBC1, for example, after a piece of kit broke down.

Today, it's rather more complicated and not only do broadcasters have to make sure that everything is OK in the studio, but also across multiple distribution networks feeding multiple platforms. And that's just the programming. What about the website? When the whole site crashes, then it's glaringly obvious that there's a problem. But when one part of it stops working, then it's quite difficult to see.

So, discovering a problem, I have fired off e-mails and text messages to various people in the hope of them kicking someone who can fix this small, but annoying, problem on the channel's website. One that could prevent people from watching the programme they want to see. I hope that they manage to correct it soon.

The moral of the story...make sure that staff check not only the live output on the screen (or loudspeaker, for radio), but also what the public can see on the web. Otherwise, you start to look rather unprofessional. Now, how's the AIB website performing?

New Year, so resolutions?

2011-01-06T10:22:00.002Z

OK, OK, I haven't managed to write this blog regularly, and perhaps a New Year's resolution ought to be for me to discipline myself to be more prolific online!

Mind you, I'm not particularly keen on NY resolutions as I think one becomes a hostage to fortune by suggesting that one will do new things, or do things better. Anyway, I will do my best to keep this more up-to-date in 2011.

So what's happening in AIB at the moment. We're just finishing off the latest edition of our international media magazine, The Channel, which goes to press on 11 January. The magazine will be distributed at some major events around the world such as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha the following month.

I will be at both these events, discovering in Barcelona, I hope, the latest developments in mobile and mobile content and the potential for content distribution. AIB is organising a member-only private networking dinner to bring AIB members into contact with senior executives from across the mobile industry.

And we have the first AIB member-only conference call on 12 January and then there's lots going on with research for our market intelligence briefings and planning the 2011 AIBs.

So, best wishes for a very Happy New Year and let's hope that despite continuing uncertainty in global finance and rising food prices, 2011 is a great year!

AIBs getting closer

2010-10-04T14:01:00.002+01:00

It's been a manic few weeks and it looks as though the pressure is not going to ease over the coming weeks, either.

AIB is in the final stages of planning its sixth annual AIBs - the international media excellence awards - with our judges now looking through and listening to the short-listed entries.

We're gearing up for the awards evening, taking place in London on Tuesday 9 November at LSO St Luke's - a venue that's proved immensely popular with guests to the AIBs over the past two years. More information is online at theaibs.tv.

Meanwhile we've seen a sudden surge in orders for our international directory - the AIB Global Broadcasting Sourcebook. It's the only global directory that includes TV, radio, online, satellite, cable and IPTV that's updated every month. That must be why it's proving popular...

Temperatures hot up, as do competitions

2010-06-29T11:37:00.002+01:00

Here in the UK we're basking in extremely warm temperatures...after a wash-out summer in 2009 (which the UK's Met Office had predicted would be a scorcher), 2010 looks set to have a hot, dry summer.

And as the temperature increases outside, it is getting warmer in the AIB office. The phones are ringing off the hook and the world's courier companies are busy delivering packages of Digibeta tapes and CDs - all entries to this year's AIBs, the international media excellence awards.

We have entries from every continent and more are on the way - and many broadcasters, production houses and tech companies have asked us for more time to get their entries to us. So, we've agreed to an extension to the closing date.

Instead of the original date of 2 July, we've extended the closing date to Friday 16 July at 1600 GMT. That's the final cut-off for entries to reach us - giving people another ten working days to get their material to us.

We're looking forward to a great competition this year, with a great panel of judges (who are looking forward to the judging process, they are telling me) and great support from the industry via sponsorship: Eurosport is the latest company to agree to sponsor the 2010 AIBs, alongside Bloomberg Television, Advanced Digital Broadcast and 1GOAL.

Make sure you get your entries in by 16 July.

Entries heading our way

2010-06-15T16:29:00.002+01:00

Entries for the 2010 AIBs, the international media excellence awards, are arriving at AIB head office from all over the world.

It's great to see another immense range of programmes being submitted into the sixth annual AIBs from broadcasters everywhere in the world, from New Zealand to Qatar, Germany to the Netherlands, Chile to the USA.

At the same time, there are entries for the technology category arriving, highlighting some of the great technical solutions for the broadcasting industry.

So now is the time to get your entry into us before the competition closes on 2 July. Look at the entry booklet here: http://www.aib.org.uk/onlinepubs/aibs_2010_entry/Entrybook.swf.

And you can see a short video of the 2009 AIBs here: http://www.youtube.com/user/AIBLondon#p/a/u/1/yqkfRWTI7o0.

Green light for MIP

2010-03-30T17:33:00.002+01:00

After a little bit of worry, I'm delighted to say that Reed MIDEM have now confirmed that the AIB's press registration has been cleared!

Thanks, Audrey, for sorting this out...

MIPTV...does it beckon for AIB?

2010-03-30T08:46:00.005+01:00

In a couple of weeks time, the annual MIPTV programme market gets underway in Cannes. It's the gathering of the TV industry across Europe, and much of the rest of the world, too, where deals are done on content and discussions on the future of media are held.

I'm delighted to see that AIB's old friend Joanna Shields will be on stage with Elisabeth Murdoch, talking about the new company Shine has launched in the new media arena.

Joanna Shields has been a guest at the AIBs - the international media excellence awards - most recently last year where I interviewed her on stage (picture right).

Each year AIB reports from MIPTV for its members and the wider audience that AIB has in the media industry around the world. However, as in previous years, the organisers - Paris-based Reed Midem - seem to make it harder for me to register as a member of the press to enable us to cover their event for our global audience of more than 25,000 people. Send us by-lined articles, they say. Prove you do what you say, they ask.

All this for an organisation that's been reporting on global media since 1993, with a print publication - The Channel - that reaches more than 6,500 regular subscribers in TV, radio, online and mobile in over 150 countries worldwide.

Let's hope the registration comes through. I wonder if they treat everyone who wants to cover the event in the same way? It's rather discouraging and difficult to write positive, enthusiastic stories when one is treated like this...

Meanwhile, our colleagues at 1GOAL which AIB is supporting this year, has secured a stand at MIPTV which will enable it to build on the work we've been helping with - recruiting broadcasters to air material to build the world's largest campaign to support education for all. That's one positive story we can report.

So, with luck, AIB will see you in Cannes...over to you, Reed Midem.

Russia - media definitely interesting

2010-03-25T08:38:00.000Z

My first visit to Russia has been an eye-opener. Despite the bitterly cold weather, my welcome by everyone involved in the Digital TV Russia conference, and people from the media here, has been overwhelmingly warm.

It seems to me that the Russian media industry has been sold some slightly dubious promises by firms in the West, who are keen to make cash in this new-ish media market, while not providing all the facts. I'm reporting to AIB members about this and providing some analysis in the next edition of our member-only market intelligence briefing.

Meanwhile, it's been a great few days here with lots to see and do, and much to learn about the media industry from insiders. Great contacts made on behalf of AIB members and I'm looking forward to my next visit - perhaps when the weather's warmer.

Moscow calling

2010-03-19T10:30:00.003Z

I'm preparing to travel to Moscow - now on BMI rather than BA (and working out how to cope with a far lower baggage allowance!). I will be taking part in the Digital TV Russia symposium which AIB has agreed to support, as well as meeting a range of broadcasters and others involved in the media scene in Russia.

It's definitely a trip I'm looking forward to as I have not been to Moscow before. I will have to find some time to do the tourist stuff of Red Square and have a go on the metro.

You will be able to read my paper on the AIB website from 1200GMT on Monday 22 March.

I'm also going to be trying out new presentation software that I saw in action earlier this week at the Social TV Forum. Paul Bristow, VP Strategy at Swiss-based ADB, makes use of Prezi and I was very impressed. I'm experimenting with it at the moment and will be using it for real for the first time in Moscow on Monday. Wish me luck!

BA - just what do the initials stand for?

2010-03-15T20:10:00.002Z

I'm a bit disgruntled. Having learnt that the flight I am due to travel to Moscow is one of the ones that is apparently not surviving the British Airways cabin crew strike, I rang BA to try and get on to an earlier flight that is still going.

I waited, listening to the same 20 bars of music and same announcements saying how wonderful BA is, for more than two and a half hours. And then...I was cut off. I should have known that would happen.

Now it's impossible to get through - the message "we're experiencing extremely high call volumes" is the only thing you can get at the moment.

At this rate, getting to Moscow could prove challenging. Is it time to switch allegiance from OneWorld to Star Alliance of SkyTeam?

Chairing and presenting, meeting and discussing

2010-03-15T15:56:00.003Z

It's been a busy few weeks and it looks as though the coming weeks will be equally busy.

From visits to Barcelona and New Delhi comes lots of follow-up work to do and I'm slowly managing to catch up with everything. And now I'm heading off to chair the Social TV Forum in London on 16 March and then to Moscow - BA strikes permitting - to speak about digital TV around the world at the 3rd Digital TV Russia summit.

On top of all that, my colleagues and I are working hard on the preparations for this year's AIBs - the international media excellence awards - that we are launching in mid-April. This is the sixth year of the AIBs and I have a feeling that this year will be the best yet. We're making sure that more programme makers know about the awards than ever before and are looking forward to a bumper crop of entries.

And then there's all the research work we're doing for our market intelligence briefings that AIB members around the world receive.

It's probably a good thing that the sun is shining...it makes for a more inspirational working environment which leads to getting more things done!

MWC - mobile first, content...well, not quite sure

2010-02-17T14:34:00.006Z

The annual mobile-fest, Mobile World Congress, is underway in Barcelona where, on the third day, the sun has finally come out lifting the spirits of the several tens of thousands of visitors.

There´s a clear message emanating from here: mobile is the future. And that means the device in everyone´s pocket is definitely going to become even more important. However, there´s increasing pressure on mobile bandwidth as more smartphones come into use globally - here in Barcelona trying to browse the web or download a new app on my BlackBerry can take a very long time. I´m not convinced that users will stand for the sort of delays I have been experiencing.

So, while Google´s Eric Schmidt makes a definitive statement that for Google, it´s "mobile first", there is still an immense amount of work to be done to bring the mobile web to users globally. And as for quality content, there are ever more challenges for broadcasters. A different app is needed for every phone brand at the moment and while the intention to have a single app platform across all makes is a great idea, I wonder when it will become reality.

That means that few content owners are actively promoting their offers to mobile operators here, despite the fact that almost every mobile operator in the world attends this event. AIB member Deutsche Welle is here, on the NRW stand in hall 1, while France 24 is on Mobiclip in hall 2. Other content providers include Rotana, up in hall 7 (which is app world, so I´m not quite sure why they are there), and the BBC has a team of several/lots of people walking the stands...I´ve counted four or five people already from the BBC.

AIB will be analysing what we are learning here for our members in the next couple of weeks.

AIB up in lights at MWC - well, on flags, actually!

2010-02-16T10:45:00.001Z

AIB gets great mentions at the entrance to hall 2 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year.

Our award to France 24 in the 2009 AIBs is celebrated on around 48 banners lining the walkway into hall 2, encouraging visitors to go to the Mobiclip stand.

Thanks, Mobiclip - doubtless you will be supporting the 2010 AIBs...

Is digital the way forward for trade magazines?

2010-02-03T16:22:00.004Z

AIB has just published the first edition of 2010 of its international media magazine, The Channel.

We're committed to printing copies of the magazine for our subscribers around the world, as well as for distribution at media events we go to around the world.

However, we've been experimenting with digital, page-turning editions and have now employed a new set of software to enable us to publish all our publications online and to offer our 25,000-plus contacts around the world a copy of The Channel - and other AIB publications - on their PCs.

I don't believe that digital initiatives like this mean the end of printing presses or physical copies. Personally, I do prefer leafing through a printed magazine at my leisure (or at my desk) than reading on the screen. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned - but my 14 year-old son also likes picking up and reading printed editions of magazines...

What the new digital publishing means for AIB and its members is that more people have access to our work, and that more people are therefore reading about the activities of our members. We included links to two of our members in the e-mail promoting the magazine as we thought the stories about them were worth highlighting. They've received hundreds of click-throughs, demonstrating that people want the ability to get more context around a story. This is something that cross-media production can really offer to everyone - whether they are in the trade or consumer sectors - and it's something we're encouraging our members to do as well.

Gone are the days of single platform content - and AIB is pleased to have moved into this new multiplatform arena.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T09:13:00.003Z

The start of 2010 has seen the AIB head office in rural Kent, south-east of London, surrounded by snow and ice as Britain is gripped by the coldest winter in more than a quarter of a century. The level of preparedness for bad weather in the UK has been abysmal, with train services slashed and a distinct lack of grit on the roads. Perhaps it's partly because the UK's Meteorological Office forecast a mild winter [it had earlier predicted a dry, hot summer - something that failed to be translated into reality]. Despite all the trials and tribulations of getting to work, AIB staff have ploughed through the snow and are busy working for our global membership.

At AIB, we're busy planning our activities for 2010. Mobile is something that continues to be important for us as we try to forge relationships between mobile companies and broadcasters. We'll be at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, facilitating meetings between broadcasters and mobile operators and manufacturers, ensuring AIB members' content is high on the agendas of mobile companies.

We're involved with a range of conferences this year, starting with RadioAsia in New Delhi towards the end of February, FICCI Frames in March, the FT Digital Media conference in London, and digital TV events in Moscow and Beijing. We'll be chairing events, starting conversations and reporting on developments in many different markets to AIB members.

It's going to be a busy year, with lots going on - including the sixth annual AIBs, our international media excellence awards, which we'll launch at MIP TV in Cannes in April. The Awards will be presented at our gala evening in London in November - you can get a flavour of last year's event with photos at Flickr.

So, back to work...

AIBs 2009 - the celebration gets closer

2009-10-07T11:57:00.002+01:00

The 2009 AIBs - the fifth annual celebration of excellence in TV, radio and cross-media broadcasting - draw ever closer.

With a great number of entries this year, our short-listing team worked overtime to assess which of the tremendous breadth and depth of entries should go forward to our international judging panel. Now it's up to some key people in countries as diverse as Finland, Australia, Ghana, the USA, South Africa, Germany, the UAE and the UK to decide which productions deserve the ultimate accolade from the AIB.

This year our awards evening takes place on 4 November and we're guaranteed a great turnout with people travelling from all over the world to join our annual Awards event. Have you booked your places yet? Go online at www.aib.org.uk and reserve your seats for a fabulous dinner and great networking.

Awards shortlisting

2009-09-20T10:12:00.001+01:00

We've been hard at work over the past few weeks devising the short-list for the 2009 AIBs - the international media excellence awards.

The AIBs are a celebration of the very best programming across news, current affairs, features, and specialist genres, particularly focusing on programmes that work across borders.

We've had a great crop of entries this year - slightly down on last year's record figure - but still a great number from broadcasters and production houses throughout the world - more than 30 countries are represented in this completely non-commercial competition.

The award entries are now on their way to our international judging panel - our judges are spread throughout the world to ensure that we gain a range of perspectives on the programmes submitted. From Pakistan to Ghana, South Africa to Germany, our judges will look at and listen to the work submitted and send their results and comments to us in time for the awards to be made, ready for presentation on 4 November at LSO St Luke's in London.

Join us there - you can book your place online at www.aib.org.uk - but don't delay as last year's Awards was a sell-out and we had to turn people away (that's happened two year's running now - and this is only year five of the AIBs!).

Sourcebook gets bigger

2009-07-28T15:47:00.000+01:00

AIB is in touch with more than 25,000 people in the world's electronic media industry and for some years we have been helping others in the industry to find out who's who by publishing a directory of broadcasting.

From small beginnings in the early part of the century, the AIB directory is now a comprehensive guide to the world's media - and the new edition is in the final stages of preparation. We've rebranded this year's directory as the Global Broadcasting Sourcebook and it will be available from the beginning of September in both print and PDF formats.

We're working in partnership with colleagues at Broadband TV News to compile this year's Sourcebook, with a great deal of new information about cable, satellite and IPTV to augment the already extensive data about broadcasters in territories throughout the world.

More than 8,000 contacts will appear in the Sourcebook, each one checked by the research team at the AIB's headquarters and our colleagues at BTN. We're also including analysis of selected markets, and background information that will be of use to people needing to know about broadcasting in different markets.

So whether it's information about Lao National TV (yes, we're in touch with executives in that organisation) or Deutsche Welle, TV2 in Denmark or Fastweb in Italy (yes, we know people in those companies) that you need, this Sourcebook is for you.

The new Sourcebook will be distributed free-of-charge to members of the AIB as part of their membership benefits. People outside the AIB membership can order their copy online here.

AIBs go up a gear

2009-07-27T15:38:00.003+01:00

The 2009 AIBs officially close for entries on Friday but it seems that we'll have to extend the deadline by a few days. That's because the phone's ringing off the hook at AIB headquarters with broadcasters from all over the world pleading for a few more days in which to get us their work.

We're happy to oblige, even if it means we're going to be up against it, time-wise, when it comes to shortlisting. However, we'll manage and the international panel of judges will get plenty of time to evaluate the shortlisted entries and decide which entries are worthy of a 2009 AIB.

With material from RTHK, the UK's Channel 4, independent producers in the Middle East, RFE/RL, NDTV, Russia Today, 6 News, Belsat and many more, this competition will once again celebrate success in broadcasting all over the world.

Want to enter your material? You still can - check out the awards details at www.aib.org.uk and then let us know if you can't make Friday's deadline. We'll do our best to accommodate you, provided you don't need a whole month to compile your entry!

AIB searching for the best

2009-06-22T10:20:00.003+01:00

It's that time of year again when the AIB headquarters is inundated with courier deliveries from all over the world - all entries for the annual AIBs, our international media excellence awards.

The AIB launched the AIBs five years ago at the request of its members and the competition has grown significantly to be an important highlight in the international media industry's calendar.

The reason for the acceptance and success of the AIBs is, I believe, down to the fact that they are a real, independently-judged, truly international competition that celebrates the best talent, programme-making, news coverage, and documentary-making in the world. We're not restricted to entries in English - after all, 90% of the world's population doesn't have English as a first language. We're non-commercial: although we have sponsors who support the competition, they have no influence over the results. We look at both cross-border and domestic productions, enabling practitioners in the industry to see why it's important to have the ability to contrast and compare programmes made in different parts of the world for different audiences.

As I travel the world, I've met a whole range of inspiring people in broadcasting and the wider media industry and I know that there's much work out there that cries out for recognition but is often not highlighted to the rest of the industry. That's what the 2009 AIBs will be trying to correct.

So, look out your best work and submit it to the 2009 AIBs - more at www.aibawards.com. And see you in London on 4 November for our gala celebration evening!

International broadcasting essential in Iran

2009-06-19T09:00:00.000+01:00

The events of the past few days in Iran have demonstrated the essential need for international broadcasting. The newly-launched BBC Persian TV service, and longer-established VoA TV in Persian, have been key to ensuring the flow of information about events in Iran to people living there while domestic media - IRIB - has been reporting very little about developments.

What's interesting is that Press TV - the English-language TV news channel operated by Iran - has been somewhat more free in its coverage of events, reporting things that IRIB's domestic broadcaster has simply ignored. Press TV is located in a different building several kilometers from IRIB's compound in Tehran (where I was prohibited from taking a photo of a flagpole on my last visit there!) and has some level of autonomy.

Radio remains important, with Radio Farda (part of RFE/RL), DW Persian and others all broadcasting to Iran and maintaining the flow of news and information.

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have all come into their own during the week, and are likely to remain crucial as events develop in Iran.

Cannes...miserable weather, miserable numbers

2009-04-01T16:18:00.005+01:00

The weather does not help lift spirits here at MIP TV with rain tumbling from leaden skies. Inside, I have seen many stands which have been deserted by their owners. Some I have talked to say that despite having booked meetings over the past few weeks, many people have cancelled as they are simply not coming to this year`s programme market.

It is becoming a market of ad hoc meetings - of course, that has always been the case but now it is more the norm than ever before.

However, the conference has been interesting. This morning the keynotes from Niklas Savander of Nokia and Jeffrey Cole of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future were inspiring. Cole provided a whole range of new examples of how TV is changing for the future - something I will analyse for AIB members next week.

I am starting to spread the word about the 2009 AIB Media Excellence Awards - the AIBs. Getting good feedback from a number of broadcasters and production companies. Not the case with TRT, however, which has a big stand but no one seems to understand about entering programmes they have made into international competitions. Draw your own conclusions.

Now I have to go and brave the weather (and avoid the numerous umbrella sellers outside the Palais) and go and meet Middle East media executives on the Syrian stand.

China wants to embace you

2009-03-31T13:06:00.002+01:00

That is the message from Tian Jin, Vice Minister at Chinese media regulator, SARFT. Speaking at MIPTV in Cannes today, Mr Tian said that working with other organisations around the world is key to success for Chinese TV and radio, while ¨respecting differences¨.

At a special session on China, a range of speakers looked at the opportunities and the challenges of working in TV co-production with Chinese media houses. Brian Leith, Executive Producer at the BBC Natural History Unit that co-produced ¨Wild China¨with CCTV, said that it is not easy - particularly if you want to film in 26 Chinese provinces - covering an area the size of Europe. Only by having completely bi-lingual researchers and highly effective local fixers was it possible to carry out more than 50 shoots in high definition, some lasting six weeks.

David Haslingden, CEO of NGCI and Fox International Channels, said that for commercial companies like his, it is important to consider how to derive revenue from co-productions. Working in China is difficult, he said, but by no means insurmountable.

What else is happening at MIP, I hear you ask. Well, the weather continues to be mixed and the aisles less full than in the last couple of years. However I have been having some great conversations with AIB members and with others here in Cannes - conversations that will most certainly be continuing over the next few weeks, resulting in some new initiatives and co-operative agreements.

MIPTV underway - 20% down?

2009-03-30T16:34:00.002+01:00

I arrived in Cannes this morning after a rather delayed flight from the UK on Easyjet...and found that the weather's worse here than in England, which is something of a surprise!

What's not surprising is the fact that - according to some estimates - MIPTV has 20% less exhibitors than last year. Given the space given over to Internet access points for visitors, and simple blank spaces in the aisles where previously there would have been exhibition booths, I'm inclined to think that the estimate of the downturn is reasonably accurate. It's going to be interesting to see what figures the organisers provide.

Meanwhile, I've been meeting AIB members here who include France 24, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera and Bloomberg. I've also been talking to companies interested in the AIB's range of activities, including NHK World, Mobiclip and AFP. I've also been spreading the word about the 2009 AIBs - our Media Excellence Awards which we'll announce formally in mid-April.

What I find surprising here is that some companies simply don't seem to know how to sell - their stands are dark, staffed by unenthusiastic people who seem to have little interest in their product. All right - these are in the minority, but even so it's disheartening.

I'll update you some more during the week.

Al Jazeera Forum underway in Doha

2009-03-15T07:26:00.004Z

I'm in Doha at the moment for the fourth Al Jazeera Forum - an invitation-only meeting of academics, journalists and observers from the Middle East and around the world. Delegates here from the US, UK, Malaysia, a raft of North African countries and a good many other places.

Wadah Khanfar has opened the event, and the keynote speaker was Seymour Hersh. Should be an interesting couple of days - more follows!

In the meantime, I thought I'd pass on a Blackberry tip - if you use your Crackberry for web browsing, ditch the bundled browser and download Opera Mini. I did this while my BA flight to Doha was on the ground in Bahrain and have been using it ever since. I have to say it's a revelation with pages rendered far more rapidly and far easier navigation. Just one grumble - for some reason I can't get the "update" button on Twitter to work when using Opera Mini, although Blackberry's own browser carries out this function OK. Strange...

AIB working hard

2009-03-11T12:44:00.004Z

It's a busy time at the AIB as we follow up on a range of work for our members throughout the world.

As my blog on Monday reported, I've been at the FT Digital Media conference in London where I had some interesting and informative discussions with a number of people. On Friday, it's off to Doha for the fourth Al Jazeera Forum.

In the meantime, the AIB is following up on a number of discussions that started at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. For example, we're in discussion with a company that has got mobile TV content distribution agreements in place in a large number of countries in Asia. I'm going to see how we can get our members' content onto this new platform as it comes online in the coming weeks in emerging markets.

We're also hard at work on the research of the new AIB directory - now renamed as the AIB Global Broadcasting Sourcebook. This new sourcebook has completely revised and updated content, plus a whole lot of context to make it an indispensible guide to media worldwide. OK - a plug: you can book an enhanced entry for your company or take advertising in the sourcebook. Download the media pack here and talk to us soon!

It's all about social

2009-03-09T14:27:00.001Z

Today I'm at the FT Digital Media and Broadcasting conference in London - and much of the discussion has been on the subject of social networking.

Blake Chandlee of Facebook has told the audience of a couple of hundred people that the social networking site now has 175million users and theyKve had to change subscriber reporting increments to 25million!

There's been lots of talk about how media and social networking can work together - and this is something the AIB will be reporting to and analysing for its members shortly.

Meanwhile it's good to see a range of AIB friends here such as Richard Titus and Madhav Chinnappa of the BBC, John Mangelaars from Microsoft and Raja Sharif of Barwa Media, among others.

Good mobile and broadcasting session

2009-02-19T18:14:00.005Z

This afternoon I've had the privilege to chair the broadcasting session at Mobile World C0ngress in Barcelona. The session's title was ‘Mobile’s role in the changing face of broadcast’. I said in my introduction that I wasn't convinced that the title is correct - perhaps it should have been called broadcasting’s role in the changing face of mobile as mobile is definitely changing from a voice-only proposition to one that encompasses many more facets from music to gaming to broadcast content.

I had a great line-up of speakers including Sean Kane from Bebo, Richard Titus from the BBC, Jonathan Marks of Critical Distance, Michel Mol of Netherlands Public Broadcasting and Stanislas Leridon from France 24. They explained their organisation's work in the mobile field, and some mentioned the difficulty in engaging with mobile operators - something that a good number of AIB members have mentioned to me. Indeed, Michel Mol said that it was only after a mobile operator was "named and shamed" on national TV that it came to the table and started talking to NPO!

France 24's new iPhone application - the first by an international news channel - has had more than 100,000 downloads in its first few days said Stan Leridon, making it one of the top ten iPhone apps. Quite amazing and something I understand that the BBC's Global News division is taken aback by, wondering why it wasn't first in this arena.

Good debate, so thanks to all my speakers and to the GSM Association for letting broadcasting into the mobile show...now all we need is for operators to engage with broadcasters!

Barcelona leads

2009-02-18T10:58:00.001Z

Here in Barcelona it's been chillier than in previous years during Mobile World Congress. However, in the conference and exhibition the temperature has been hotting up with some of the AIB's contacts talking of the best event ever for deals.

That's good news and certainly the AIB has enjoyed getting a whole raft of leads of people and organisations that are interested in what our membership does and in getting involved with the AIB's events, such as the 2009 AIB Media Excellence Awards - the AIBs.

We'll be following up on those over the coming few days and look forward to working with more companies in the mobile industry during the year.

Now it's time for me to work on the mobile and broadcast session that I'm chairing here on Thursday...

Not much of a recession in mobile

2009-02-16T09:43:00.002Z

Judging by the flight traffic into Barcelona over the weekend, and the proportion of BA planes given over to business class (more than 50% on the flight I took out of London Gatwick on Sunday), the recession has passed the mobile industry by.

Lots of activity here in Barcelona as Mobile World Congress gets underway this Monday morning, although the queues to get into the Fira weren't as bad as last year.

Good to see that AIB member France 24 is here, on a corner of the Actimagine stand in hall 2. Vizrt is also here, in hall 7 and DW on the NRW stand in hall 2.

Looking forward to the warmer climate of Catalonia

2009-02-13T18:12:00.004Z

It has been a manic week for me, trying to prepare for Mobile World Congress while at the same time managing the start of the building project that will see the AIB's offices in Kent increased to deal with the burgeoning amount of work we have! Standing in the snow and ice this morning talking with the builder caused my bones to shiver...so the thought of a few days in Barcelona has become more appealing!

Meanwhile, it's been a nightmare trying to get to talk to the speakers on the panel I'm chairing with phone conference call systems not doing what they're supposed to. However, I'm slowly making headway and there'll be a cracking panel on Thursday afternoon. It's already being reported in 'The Hollywood Reporter' and in the US edition of 'Media Week'. My hope is that the mobile operators catch on to the fact the content owners and broadcasters want to engage with them - although judging by the responses to my requests for appointments (mostly met with an icy silence that matches the weather here in the UK) , I don't think that the message has got through. Come on Orange, come on Vodafone - open your doors to an opportunity!

It's more nimble companies that will steal a march on the big guns - people who understand the market and understand the drivers for getting content onto mobile. I've been impressed by a new kid on the block with which the AIB is just starting a coherent conversation: Swanbay. We're talking to them over the next few days, and I think it will be something that the AIB's members will benefit from.

More from Barcelona in the next few days. And mobile operators - you can find me in Barcelona and contact details are on the AIB website!

Barcelona beckons

2009-02-11T17:57:00.003Z

I'm busily preparing for Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona between 16 and 19 February. It's organised by the GSM Association that represents the world's mobile operators and it's a colossal event.

I've been involved already as one of the judges of the Mobile Awards (being presented on Tuesday night) and as moderator of the panel examining synergies between broadcasting and mobile (and boy, there's lots of opportunity there).

AIB will be at MWC in force, helping AIB members to get connected to the people they need to talk to - people searching for content, for example. There's lots to see and do, and lots of people from all over the planet with whom to start interesting conversations.

See you there?

Snow disrupts the web

2009-02-06T10:44:00.000Z

In the UK over the past few days we've had what the media has described as the worst snowfall in 18 years. As a result, large swathes of the country have been brought to a near standstill and here in rural Kent (south-east of London) we've suffered from a complete collapse of the rail network with no trains at all running on Monday into London, and a restricted service the following day.

At the same time, schools have been closed as teachers have been unable to get into work and of course there's a health and safety risk associated with snow in playgrounds. Unbelievable, but true - mind you, I can remember trudging to school in the snow and enjoying it in my childhood...but then the world's changed lots since then.

But what was quite amazing was the failure of the UK's websites to cope with a huge increase in demand for information. The BBC's site collapsed under pressure of users seeking travel, weather and school closure information. South Eastern Railway's site displayed an error message saying their servers couldn't cope with the snow...sorry, demand.

What does this mean for web-delivered TV services, I wonder. Something the AIB will be investigating and reporting on to members in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, where's my snow shovel?

A busy time

2008-11-07T15:45:00.005Z

Goodness, it's been unremittingly busy over the past few weeks. We're building up to the highlight of the AIB's year - our annual Awards event and diner pensant which is in London on 12 November at LSO St Luke's.

This year's event promises to be the greatest celebration of success in international media that we've ever organised. The event is fully subscribed, and there's a waiting list for seats! 210 people from every part of the world will be joining us for the Awards which will be presented by France 24's Mark Owen.

I'm looking forward to it greatly - although the strain is now starting to show at AIB HQ where everyone is distinctly frazzled. But the effort is worth it, as we see surprised faces on many of the award winners' faces next Wednesday.

I'll update this blog with news from the evening, and make sure that the photos are available for all to see.

The party's got to stop

2008-10-01T09:07:00.003+01:00

I'm finding it very depressing to sit down to breakfast and be assailed by newspaper headlines like "Staring into the abyss" and doom and gloom on the radio news. It's all particularly galling when one hasn't been involved in the cause of the current global meltdown. So my heart did lift a little when I got to the letters page of today's Financial Times and read a letter that chimed with what I feel. It came from the former deputy governor of the National Bank of Poland, and reads:

From Dr Krzysztof Rybinski.
Sir, Imagine that there is a wild party, a long one. Every time the alcohol supply dries up, the central bank shows up and keeps the party going and going, and people get more and more addicted to partying and drinking. At some stage, the drunken crowd demolishes the premises and the party is over.
Hank and Ben show up and ask who did the most damage. John, people say, broke four windows and smashed the table. Great, says Hank, John will get $300 - who is next on the did-most-damage list? Tim, the crowd cries, he sprayed paint all over the place and burned the sofa. Excellent, says Hank, Tim will get $250. Who is next?
In a few days, the next party will begin. People are planning to show up in large numbers. Not only can they have a lot of fun (while others - obviously jerks and dorks - will go to work every morning) and drink for free - they will also get free cash handouts when the party is over. How do you like the Paulson plan?
Krzysztof Rybinski,
Former Deputy Governor,
National Bank of Poland,
Warsaw, Poland

Curiously, I've been reading a speech from another Pole this week concerning public service broadcasting and its need to adapt to public service media. It's well written and well thought through. Perhaps we ought to look to Poland to save all our souls at the moment.

Shameless plug?

2008-09-29T17:18:00.004+01:00

This year's AIB Awards have taken everyone involved by surprise. With more than three times received this year than the number of entries submitted in 2007, it seems that these Awards have truly captured the imagination of broadcasters, online producers and technologists the world over.

The shortlisting process turned into a mammoth task (we'd expected perhaps 30 or 40 more entries than last year), but because we wanted to be scrupulously fair to all entrants, our shortlisting team has watched every TV programme submitted, listened to every radio entry, tested every cross-media production, and thought long and hard about the marketing and technology entries. This work has brought us to a shortlist of around 24% of the total entries, and we've posted this online at www.aib.org.uk.

Now it's up to our judges who are spread around the world, from the US to Australia, Ghana to South Africa, Germany to Denmark, and many other places in between. We'll be keeping the results absolutely secret until we present the Awards on 12 November.

So the reason for calling this a shameless plug? Because I want to encourage you to book your seats at the 2008 AIB Awards taking place in London on 12 November. It's going to be a truly great evening, celebrating success in international media and offering many unexpected insights into the way global media is developing. You can book online at www.aib.org.uk - but be quick: when I checked this afternoon, one third of the places had already been reserved!

Nobody's monitoring the output...

2008-09-19T08:51:00.003+01:00

Last night I thought I'd catch up with one of the episodes of 'Britain from Above' on the BBC HD channel that I'd missed because I'd been away. I duly tuned in and started to watch.

But something wasn't quite right. The DOG (digital on-screen graphic) with the BBC HD logo wasn't alone. The BBC HD Preview logo was still being radiated, meaning that there was a ghostly shadow and a redundant "Preview" on the top left of the screen.

I picked up the phone and rang Red Bee Media's Duty Engineer (Red Bee Media handles the playout of the BBC's TV channels, and many others in the UK) and let him know about the problem. Within a couple of minutes the errant Preview DOG disappeared.

What's curious to me is that it seems nobody within the BBC is monitoring its output...in years gone by, the Presentation Department at Television Centre made sure that programmes were being transmitted as they should. Today, there seems to be a general abdication of responsibility for output in the multi-channel world and it's up to sharp-eyed viewers to alert broadcasters when things are going wrong.

Spam's being beaten at last

2008-09-18T12:22:00.003+01:00

Just about every e-mail address on the AIB domain is extensively spammed. It's grown to such a proportion that we've been testing a number of spam filters to try and solve the ever-growing problem.

After a fairly rigorous set of tests, we settled on Spamfighter, a collaborative programme that makes use of the wisdom of the crowd - the Spamfighter community - to identify and remove spam from users' computers. It's a simple application that you can download and will remove spam from every e-mail account that you have on a PC. If one slips through the net, you simply press "Block" on the e-mail program and the spam item is moved to the Spamfighter folder, and the Spamfighter central database is updated. It seems to work incredibly effectively.

In fact, I took a look at the Spamfighter statistics today. Since we applied the "paid for" version of the program in July, the system has filtered well over 40,000 spam e-mails. Yes, 40,000+. That's the scale of the problem this small but international organisation faces. Horrific.

Then I realised that the spam problem was transferring itself to my newly-acquired Blackberry. I'd resisted getting one of these devices for a long time, thinking that it was simpler to deal with e-mails in the office, but the trouble when you travel quite a bit is there's a constant backlog that slows down your return. So I got a Blackberry before going on holiday in July. Trouble was, using the Blackberry Desktop Redirector every item of mail arriving was automatically forwarded as the Redirector worked instantly, before Spamfighter could kick in.

I searched high and low for a solution and today have found it. Thanks to a post on www.slivka.com (dating back to 2004) I found a registry edit that allows you to put in a delay on the Redirector. Despite not liking tampering with the registry, I duly followed the instructions and, hey presto, the Redirector is delayed by 30 seconds giving Spamfighter ample time to work. So, no more spam on the Blackberry. Great.

Here's the registry edit instructions to save you looking:
Step 1. Go to Start > Run and type "regedit" and click OK.
Step 2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software >Research In Motion > BlackBerry > Redirector. Change the value of the ProcessMailDelay entry to 30. If this value fails to address the issue, then modify the value to be 60.
Note: If the ProcessMailDelay value is not present, create it as a DWORD Value and set the Value data to Decimal 30.
Step 3. close the Redirector and Desktop Manager applications, then restart both to force these changes to take effect.

Good luck!

Germany's media debate same as everywhere

2008-09-02T09:39:00.000+01:00

I'm in Berlin for the annual Medienwoche debates and to discover what's new in consumer electronics.

The first day of the Medienwoche conference demonstrated that the conflicts between public and private media rumble on, with private media companies complaining loudly that publicly-funded broadcasters are moving into new territories for which they don't have a mandate, pushing private enterprise to the sidelines.

Today (Tuesday) Mark Thompson, BBC Director-General, is talking about the role of public service broadcasting.

Meanwhile, across the road at IFA, the European consumer electronics fair, it's very quiet - the quietest I've ever seen it since I first came to the show in the 1980s. My initial impressions are that there's a lack of anything new and exciting - but if you want to see hall after hall of plasma and LCD HD-ready TV sets, then IFA is definitely the place to come. And there are washing machines, too...

Edinburgh lacking some internationalism

2008-08-26T22:44:00.000+01:00

I travelled to the Media Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival this past weekend. The AIB had offered to promote the event to its worldwide readership with a print advert in 'The Channel' and online banners on the main AIB website and in the electronic news letter.

The event has been running for 30-plus years, and brings together many of the top names in UK television - both channels and production houses - for three days of debate and networking. This year was, apparently, a record one for the number of delegates, and there were international attendees from Scandinvia, Germany, Qatar and North America. But the debate was very UK-centric, with only a couple of sessions that looked outside the UK's TV industry.

I was impressed by Clay Shirky of NYU who talked about the future of TV and convergence, sharing ideas and helping to start conversations. Wadah Khanfar, DG of Al Jazeera Network, gave his views on international news. But those were really the only sessions that looked at the rest of the world. Perhaps next year there will be more of an international flavour and sharing of ideas across borders. The AIB's ready to help with this.

AIB at IBC 2008

2008-08-18T10:54:00.001+01:00

The AIB is going to be at this year's IBC exhibition and conference taking place in Amsterdam from 12 to 15 September. We've got a stand at one of the main crossroads of the event, at the top of the escalators outside hall 11 and it's there that we'll be highlighting the AIB Knowledge Network.

Drop by and pay us a visit if you're coming to IBC this year. We'd love to have a chat and share ideas and learn about the challenges facing you in the rapidly-changing media industry. We'll also share with you the AIB Hotspots @ IBC...find out more in Amsterdam.

Lots of boxes...all with great material

2008-06-26T17:16:00.002+01:00

This is a pile of boxes. So what?

Well, they are one morning's arrivals in the AIB Awards office in the UK - packages of broadcasts submitted to the Awards from organisations throughout the world.

It's great to see so many companies sending in their work - from Taiwan to Germany, Sweden to the UAE, the US to Australia.

There's still time to enter - the deadline is now 18 July. See what the AIB is looking for at www.aibawards.com.

Meanwhile, AIB Executive Officer Alison Seary has to start opening and cataloguing this lot. And tomorrow's. And Mondays...

What shall we do with a drunken sailor...

2008-06-20T16:44:00.003+01:00

In fact, no one was drunk but everyone played at being sailors.

Yesterday (Thursday 19th June) I was privileged to be part of the first VT Communications Sailing Challenge. VT Communications (which provides transmission and distribution services for the BBC World Service and an increasing number of broadcasters worldwide) hosted a day of sailing and racing in the Solent - the piece of water off the southern coast of England that separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland.

The party was divided into two groups - team Victor and team Tango (teams VT, geddit?) and after breakfast at the foot of the Spinnaker Tower that dominates the Portsmouth skyline (and in which you can test your vertigo thanks to a glass floor 100m above the ground) we went off to our boats for a safety briefing and a bit of explanation about the way winches, sheets, and all the other bits and pieces of a modern sailing boat, work.

We set off, getting our sails hoisted and tacked over to Cowes on the Isle of Wight where we had a rather tasty (and well-earned) lunch. Then the important bit of the day got underway - a race back to Portsmouth with the two teams pitted against one another as the wind got up.

At first, team Tango - with VT Communications MD Doug Umbers on board (pictured) - stole a lead, at one point almost three boat lengths (and the boats were nearly 70' long). But with some excellent helming by Ruxandra Obreja of the BBC, ably assisted by Josh Sparks of VT, team Victor edged forward (disclosure - I was on the team Victor boat!). At the finishing line, team Victor was ahead by less than half a boat length - and won!

Pure exhilaration all round, and well done to everyone on that boat, comiserations to those on Tango. I helmed it back into Portsmouth, managing to cut through the waves and soak Doug Umbers, Director of Broadcast at VTC - sorry, Doug. Medals all round back at the port, rounding off a truly great day. Thanks to everyone at VTC.

AIB Awards gather pace

2008-06-18T10:44:00.003+01:00

The 2008 AIB Media Excellence Awards are gathering pace, with more and more organisations around the world entering. At the AIB head office we're getting lots of calls from broadcasters throughout the world who are now working on their entries - in the past few days we've had enquiries from Egyptian TV, radio stations in Argentina and Brazil, broadcasters in the USA and the Far East.

All this means that we're going to have a remarkable contest this year with more entries than ever before. We've been asked by some entrants if we can extend the deadline for submissions, and we're responded by moving the closing date from 30 June to 19 July 2008. We hope this helps!

It's also encouraging that there's still excellent feedback coming in from last year's Awards and the gala evening we ran at Clothworkers' Hall in the City of London to present the prizes. Nigel Chapman, Director of BBC World Service, said to me on Monday evening that he's keen to attend this year as he'd heard really good things about the event and wanted to see for himself. That's great - so why not enter today? See www.aibawards.com.

A humbling moment

2008-06-18T10:31:00.003+01:00

Monday night saw a gathering in London that, without wishing to sound hackneyed, was unique. The event was the dedication of a light sculpture atop the rebuilt Egton House, part of the BBC's Broadcasting House complex in the heart of the West End.

What was special was the fact that this sculpture, Breathing, was being dedicated to the scores of journalists and news support staff who have lost their lives in reporting the news to the world. The event, co-hosted by the BBC and the International News Safety Institute, brought together senior executives from the BBC and other news gathering organisations, such as UK's ITN (represented by David Mannion and Deborah Turness), as well as people who have suffered at the hands of men of violence, such as Alan Johnston, Frank Gardner, Terry Waite and Brian Keenan. I spoke briefly with Frank who last year, as an old boy, addressed Founders Day at my son's school, St Ronan's in Kent. Despite horrific injuries, he still works long hours as the BBC's security correspondent and on Monday had been reporting the heightened terrorist threat in the UAE.

The guest of honour was Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, who unveiled the sculpture at 2145 BST, sending a beam of light high up into the night sky above London. He spoke of the need to ensure journalists and others working in news gathering are afforded protection as they strive to bring the truth to people throughout the world. The UN has become heavily involved in the issue of news safety in the world of journalism and the organisation is to be congratulated for supporting the work of INSI and journalists worldwide.

Then John Simpson, the BBC's World Affairs editor movingly read the poem by war correspondent James Fenton whose words are inscribed on the sculpture:

We spoke, we chose to speak of war and strife –

a task a fine ambition sought –

and some might say, who shared our work, our life:

that praise was dearly bought.

Drivers, interpreters, these were our friends.

These we loved. These we were trusted by.

The shocked hand wipes the blood across the lens.

The lens looks to the sky.

Most died by mischance. Some seemed honour-bound

to take the lonely, peerless track

conceiving danger as a testing ground

to which they must go back

till the tongue fell silent and they crossed

beyond the realm of time and fear.

Death waved them through the checkpoint. They were lost. All have their story here.

It was a moving, and humbling, occasion and I was honoured to be there.

The week ahead

2008-06-16T08:59:00.002+01:00

It's Monday morning and the sun is shining here in South-East England, which makes for a much more pleasant working mood than when the weather is dismal!

It's going to be a busy week. In the office, we're working on the latest edition of The Channel, the AIB's print magazine. We're also ringing round producers, editors, journalists and PR people, reminding them about this year's AIB Awards. With only a few weeks until the Awards close, we're getting enquiries from all over the world - on Friday, calls came in from Argentina, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the USA, demonstrating the global nature of the AIB Media Excellence Awards.

This week also has a good deal of socialising and networking. Tonight (Monday) it's off the Broadcasting House in central London for the unveiling of Breathing, a light sculpture. On Wednesday, it's the All Party Parliamentary Group Summer Reception at Channel 4's London HQ and on Thursday VT Communications have kindly invited me to a day's sailing on the south coast of England.

So it's back to work...

Worrying news from the UAE

2008-06-13T10:54:00.005+01:00

I'm very concerned about reports coming from the UAE that GEO TV has been given 48 hours to leave Dubai where it produces a good deal of programming for its audiences in Pakistan. It seems that the Dubai authorities have said GEO will lose its licence to operate in Dubai if it does not take two programmes off the air. Capital Talk and According to Me are the two programmes identified as being at the root of the problem.

This isn't the first time GEO has suffered in Dubai. During the state of emergency imposed late last year, GEO was told to stop broadcasting from the UAE. At the time GEO said that it would relocate its international operations to Hong Kong if the UAE government continued to hassle it. I suspect the move may come sooner than later.

My concern is that many international broadcasters are moving all or part of their production facilities to other countries - the BBC World Service is moving many of its Hindi- and Urdu-language staff to India and Pakistan, for example - and this means that pressure can be exerted locally to force "unwelcome" programming to be dropped. Responding to a letter in this week's edition of Ariel, the BBC staff newspaper, Behrouz Afagh, head of the World Service Asia-Pacific region, said: "As for the BBC partnership in Pakistan, our editorial independence and integrity is not and was never under any threat, and our FM bulletins are going out live now, in any case." He's confident there's no problem. Perhaps this latest news from Dubai will cause a reassessment of the situation.

Dinner at the FT

2008-06-13T10:40:00.004+01:00

Last night (12 June) I was delighted to be at the headquarters of the Financial Times in London for the first of the FT's TMT Executive Forum dinners. During a champagne reception, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, the FT's Media Editor, interviewed Antti Öhrling, co-founder of Blyk. Blyk is an advertising-funded mobile network that targets 16-25 year olds, offering free or discounted mobile calls in return for targeted, relevant advertising being received by the subscriber. It's already up and running in the UK, where around 150,000 people have signed up for the service. Now the company is heading into the Netherlands, and then into other European territories. Antti is a man with a mission, and he's able to explain his company's offer in a thoroughly engaging and entertaining way. I think that Blyk is a company to watch.
Then it was into dinner in the board room overlooking the River Thames, watching the sun set across London (a glorious evening after a day of highly changeable weather), with good food and great company. Among those I met were Mukul Gupta of Infosys, John Higgins, D-G of the UK tech trade association, Intellect, Giuuseppe Cardamone of online advertising company Monster, and Shoba Purushothaman, co-founder of The News Market.
A great evening, and well done to the FT.

Disappearing radio name, but it seems it's for the good

2008-06-09T11:33:00.004+01:00

If you've been following the sale of the national UK commercial radio station Virgin Radio to Times Infotainment Media, you'll perhaps have realised that the Virgin Radio name is to disappear later this year.

Is this good or bad? For radio listeners who, whatever their age, find change disturbing when it comes to their favourite radio station, it could be bad news. For the rest - including the new owners who run fast-developing radio businesses in India - it could be good.

You can read more about the changes taking place in three blogs:
http://james.cridland.net/blog/2008/06/01/farewell-virgin-radio/ (from ex-Virgin employee James Cridland);
http://talktotimlradio.co.uk/ (from the new owners of Virgin Radio)
and here: http://www.adambowie.com/weblog/archive/002444.html (from a current Virgin staffer).

The AIB's latest member-only market intelligence briefing looks at this development in more detail, as well as providing background information on an Indian media start-up that's looking for involvement from Western broadcasters.

What a difference a day makes

2008-06-06T12:44:00.004+01:00

Two major international news channels took very different approaches to spreading the word about themselves this week. On Wednesday 4 June, Euronews held two simultaneous parties in Paris and London to unveil the channel's new corporate identity and on-air look.

I was delighted to be at the London event where senior media executives from Euronews and other broadcasting organisations received the first glimpses of the "pure" new look and saw the first news bulletin at 1830GMT to use the new graphics.

The following day, BBC World News held a press briefing to announce its key achievements of the past year and to unveil its new tri-media strategy. Yet somehow the BBC forgot to invite key journalists from the specialist and trade media who report on stories to the world (including the AIB and a range of colleagues whose online publications reach tens of thousands of readers worldwide), concentrating instead, it seems, on UK-focused journalists. I'm surprised by this approach at a time when the channel claims to have seen an international growth in its audience and increased ad sales revenues. Maybe it was just an oversight...

Not that regular

2008-05-30T10:56:00.002+01:00

My apologies...my blog isn't as active as perhaps it ought to be, and for that I blame an overload in the office and far too little time to concentrate on putting my thoughts to keyboard as I should.

So, bear with me...I'll put more effort into adding entries to this in the coming weeks.

For now, back to the piles on my desk!

In Search of Inspiring Talent

2008-05-15T10:00:00.001+01:00

AIB has just launched its fourth annual search for the best in international broadcasting. I thought I'd explain why.

On the face of it, you might think there are quite a lot of award ceremonies out there already. Some of them have become somewhat predictable. But that’s because they are award ceremonies that have become national television shows. Producers in the wings are more interested in what people on stage look like, and policing prize winners to say no more than 10 seconds of “thank you’s”.

We’ve also seen some awards turn into a gong factory, by having hundreds of categories, to the point where there seems to be a prize for the most creative use of punctuation. The law of averages means that if you win nothing, the programme must have been really awful.

And yet there seems to be no-one, apart from the AIB, taking a serious interest in the profession of international broadcasting, where people are trying to share ideas across borders. This is very easy to do badly. It is actually extremely difficult to do well. And in these uncertain times, there’s a chance of being misunderstood or having a message taken out of context.

In my travels as AIB CEO, I have been inspired by people who have that talent to communicate cross border and cross culturally. They are often the unsung heroes in organisations, partly because what they do is not consumed locally. They don’t get the sort of family feedback enjoyed by people working in national radio and TV stations.

Yet the world would be a much poorer place without their daily contributions to society. I believe the AIB Awards have created the right atmosphere to celebrate real success and shine the spotlight in places currently in the shade.

Interested in taking part yourself? Check out http://www.aibawards.com/

All change at Al Jazeera English

2008-05-14T16:12:00.006+01:00

The top management at Al Jazeera English - the Doha-based news channel - is changing. Nigel Parsons who oversaw the launch of the channel as its managing director is moving to a new post within Al Jazeera Network, succeeded by Tony Burman, former head of news at CBC until he stepped down last year.

Meanwhile, Sue Phillips, the London bureau chief, has been promoted to head up all AJE's international bureaux which currently number just under 70 worldwide, making Al Jazeera one of the world's largest TV newsgathering organisations. Sue will be bringing the Arabic and English bureaux together to cover news stories more effectively, while maintaining the distinct editorial agendas that the two TV news channels have.

The sun's shining in Abu Dhabi...

2008-05-04T09:55:00.003+01:00

...but I'm indoors! The reason: the third annual Arab Broadcast Forum taking place in the Emirates Palace Hotel. This event draws together key media leaders in the Middle East region for two days of debate about the broadcast news industry.

A good range of AIB members are here: Russia Today TV, Al Hurra, EuroNews, DW-TV, France 24 - all planning to meet local media executives in the Middle East and to discuss issues facing electronic media in the region.

It's a great time for media in the region. Here in Abu Dhabi, a new newspaper has been launched. The National is really breaking the mould as it's the first paper in the UAE not to carry a front page picture of one of the ruling family. Abu Dhabi is also building a media city that could attract media houses from neighbouring Dubai. Interesting time.

AIB supports Pangea Day

2008-05-01T16:37:00.001+01:00

Mobile's the future

2008-02-22T18:39:00.003Z

I spent four days in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress last week (11-14 February). It was an eye-opener for me on my first major foray into the world of mobile telephony.

My impressions: lots of people making lots of money from the mobile industry; a confidence that they're getting it right; a move towards content being made available on mobile devices, with devices equipped with DVB-H rolling out.

So where does the media fit in all this? It's up to content owners to start courting the mobile operators and handset manufacturers to ensure that their material is available to handset users in markets all over the world. And then it's a question of mobile operators pricing access to the content at sensible, affordable prices to avoid "bill shock".

Reactions to shortwave closures

2008-02-22T18:19:00.004Z

There's been a fair bit of reaction to the stories published in the NYT, IHT and Guardian newspapers (and of course their online versions) about the cessation of the BBC World Service's shortwave broadcasts to Europe.

I was quoted in all three papers as saying that no-one listens to shortwave in the developed world anymore and of course that's set off alarm bells left, right and centre among those who do! Perhaps I should have been a little less forthright and suggested that "most people in the developed world no longer listen to shortwave".

I know that there are people who still listen on shortwave - I fire up a set every now and again to see what's on - but I'm afraid that they are most definitely in the minority. If you ask 50 people walking on a street in central London, Budapest, Paris, Warsaw, Berlin, Toronto, Rome, New York or Los Angeles if they listen to shortwave radio, you'll be extraordinarily lucky to find one who answers yes.

So what does this mean? Broadcasters who target international audiences have to look at the way in which people consume media in their homes and on the move and make sure that the way in which they reach those audiences actually makes sense. It's absolutely no good spending tens of thousands of dollars in using a transmission system that only a handful of people use to access content. It's much more sensible to spend the money on delivering programmes on the same platforms that people use to listen to local content - which is what, inevitably, they will consume most of. So if it's FM, then you need to find local FM partners or apply for an FM licence. If it's medium wave (AM) then find medium wave outlets that reach your target. If it's listening to radio via television, get on that platform. It's simple common sense.

It's a shame that a delivery method that has given access to content is coming to the end of its life, but the very fact that I'm writing this blog and you're reading it means that times have changed. People are using the web to access content - look at YouTube as just one example - and they have FM radios in the mobile phones.

If international radio broadcasting is to survive, it needs to make sure it's reaching people. End of story.

World record at Heathrow

2008-01-19T16:37:00.000Z

Travelling to Munich this Saturday afternoon for the DLD Conference in Munich. Realised on the way to catch the train near home that I'd forgotten to pack any cufflinks - which sounds not very problematic unless you have packed only shirts that have cuffs with no buttons! Added it to Heathrow shopping list.
The train was on time in London, the Bakerloo line worked and I caught a Heathrow Express train with no problems. It pulled into Heathrow at 1555 and I was through to the BA lounge in less than 17 minutes - including all security checks and the purchase of an(other) emergency set of cufflinks in Thomas Pink. There was even time to have a joke with the extremely friendly sales staff in the shirt retailer - top marks to them both.
Now sitting here wondering why every trip is not like this - hassle free at the airport. So it's time for a drink or two. Cheers.

Off to DLD in Munich

2008-01-18T17:09:00.001Z

All being well (Heathrow airport and BA permitting) I'm setting off for Munich tomorrow (Saturday) to take part in DLD, an annual conference and networking event that brings together a wide range of truly inspiring people.
Colleague Jonathan Marks will be in Munich too, and together we'll be capturing the thoughts of some of the participants in high definition for AIB members to view online.
I'll be reporting on the discussions to AIB members next week in our market intelligence briefing, sharing some of the ideas that will be discussed and shared in Munich. I'll also bring some of the event to this blog during the first part of next week.

AIB recommends Kent IT

2008-01-18T17:02:00.001Z

The AIB's UK head office is in rural Kent which sometimes proves challenging (when motorcycle couriers head from London with entries to the AIB Media Excellence Awards, for example, and they spend an hour looking for the building!).
Mostly, however, we find it works well. It's great being surrounded by countryside (although we could do without some of the mud at the moment) and it's nice to see pheasants strolling outside the office window.
And we've got some great local support services. This week, part of the AIB office IT network stopped working. There was no reason we could find and the level of frustration that built up as several people tried to solve the problem was quite considerable.
So we picked up the phone to Kent IT, a firm whose head office is at the Maidstone Studios with a branch just up the road from the AIB offices. We called them at 1630 on Thursday afternoon and explained the problem (which mystified the engineers we spoke to) but they arranged to have one of their engineers visit on Friday. Sure enough, at 0835 he arrived and within an hour had identified, rectified and checked the problem. We now are fully operational again.
Congratulations and thanks to Kent IT who provide a first-class service at extremely reasonable prices!

France 24 in the press

2008-01-14T13:06:00.000Z

The International Herald Tribune has an article about the possible changes to French international broadcasting written by Paris-based correspondent Doreen Carjaval. The AIB is tapped for a quote in the article.

Travel booking woes

2008-01-11T10:23:00.000Z

I'm heading off to the DLD conference in Munich later this month and needed to book a flight and hotel. I started off looking, as I normally do, at lastminute.com but then had an e-mail through from ebookers.com so thought I'd give them a try.
At lunchtime yesterday I thought I'd been successful using the ebookers online system. But it didn't like me for some reason and refused to take my booking.
I gave it another go at just before 5.00pm - the same thing happened. I spotted that there's a phone number to call, so I rang and after the five or six button presses I got through to a travel agent in India.
I explained what had happened and she said "it's always better to ring and speak to someone". I was rather surprised as I thought online travel agents worked, well, online. Anyway, she went through the booking and I gave my credit card details. She read back the flight information and I said "hang on a tick - that's the wrong flight back". She'd managed to get me on a far earlier flight than I wanted, so she had to try and change this (which involved talking to a supervisor and making me hold on longer). By this time, I'd been on the phone for 26 minutes. She came back and told me it was now all right - but then couldn't get her system to finalise the booking, just as I hadn't.
I was pretty frustrated by now, particularly as I had to go and collect my son from school and was now late. So I told the agent to cancel it all.
Later that evening, I went onto lastminute.com and booked what I wanted and got confirmation within about 2'30".
Moral - stick with the people you know!

Starting out

2008-01-11T10:11:00.000Z

The new year has begun and with it I thought it was time to start a blog to allow AIB members - and the wider blogging community - to hear about my thoughts on the world!
I hope that some of what I write will be of interest, although undoubtedly as I put font to screen there will be things that don't make it into the "top ten" blogs of the day.
So, as I gaze out of the window on a thoroughly miserable Friday with the rain gushing down outside, I wish you well for the year and look forward to sharing some of the highlights of the coming months with you.