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

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!

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?

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!

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

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

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

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.