Asia

DW’s new global English news channel is now available in Afghanistan via satellite after a three-year contract was closed with the satellite provider Afghanistan Broadcasting System. The satellite Afghansat 1 is operated by Eutelsat and will carry 60 international and national channels to a potential 1,5 million subscribers.

DW has a new broadcasting partner in Indonesia. The nationwide television provider Sky LBS will now carry the full program from DW’s new English news channel via cable, satellite and IPTV. Sky LBS can reach a potential 35.8 million households and has 123 national and international channels in its portfolio.

DW Akademie has opened a new office in Yangon, Myanmar in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).  The primary activities of DW Akademie in Myanmar are supporting the transformation of the state broadcaster MRTV and the construction and development of the first private journalism school in Myanmar, Myanmar Journalism Institute. DW Akademie has been active in Myanmar since 2009.

 

Europe

DW  has partnered with the German UNESCO commission and the German Federal Foreign Office for a conference being held this month in Bonn. The highlight of the conference will choosing a new UNESCO World Heritage Site. For the occasion,  DW produced a multimedia website Wege zum Welterbe that traces a virtual path across all World Heritage Sites in Germany.

Africa

DW and Nigerian broadcaster Channels Television have signed an extensive cooperation agreement.
The new partnership will feature live broadcasts with a DW market reporter from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and four weekly interviews with DW correspondents covering current German and European issues in society and politics. Channels Television has the widest broadcasting range in Nigeria.

 

 

Asia
DW is now available on the OTT platform YuppTV, which is comparable to portals like Hulu and Netflix. YuppTV will be including DW in its channel lineup and has more than 2 million registered users in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.
DW is now also being offered by the first IPTV provider in Nepal. New IT Venture (NITV) is the largest Internet provider and currently the only IPTV provider in Nepal with plans to expand nationwide.
The Mongolian broadcaster TM-TV will now be including Made in Germany, Global 3000, Drive It, Discover Germany and Euromaxx in its program.

Latin America
La Nación Chile has recently been added as a new online partner for DW. Since 2010, the renowned newspaper has been available as an online-only news source. It receives an average of 1.8 page visits per month and is among the most-visited websites in Chile. La Nación will be syndicating DW content including full articles.

The 2015 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum is coming up from 22 to 24 June. This year’s  conference titled Media and Foreign Policy in the Digital Age features an intriguing mix of panelists and discussions that explore the modern crossroads of technology, media and international relations.

Two panels at the conference were organized by DW’s distribution team. On Monday June 22 at 2 p.m. experts on Asian media will discuss how digital and mobile media is transforming how news and information is consumed in Asia.  The Political Power of Digital Media in Asia will bring together  panelists from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Pakistan including the editorial director of Content Asia Janine Stein, and the Vice President of Sky Vision Indonesia Handhi S. Kentjono.

On Tuesday June 23 at 11:30 a.m. experts on Africa will discuss the effect of the growing number of international companies jostling for domination of the expanding African digital market. Afric@online – Empowerment or exploitation invitres experts to explore if Africans are being connected by commerce or just being turned into digital resources. The panel will be moderated by the CEO of Balancing Act,  Russell Southwood.

The list of speakers appearing at the 2015 Global Media Forum include the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko, the head of RTL TV’s foreign correspondents Antionia Rados and the EU commissioner for digital economy and society Günter Oettinger.

You’ll find all information on the panelists at the 2015 Global Media Forum on the website.

You can register for attendance up until June 17.

A common theme in the modern analysis of journalism is that the old ways of production and distribution are falling apart and taking the traditional models with them. Some of the brightest minds in international media recently gathered in London for the Journalism Innovation Summit to demonstrate how this shift has opened the door to creative destruction that fosters both innovative production and distribution.

How do media companies innovate? It’s about going out of their comfort zones and not just following the pack. That was one of the principle messages of the summit hosted by City University London. Björn Rosenthal, Strategic Product Manager at DW, was at the summit as part of an expert panel titled, “How news organizations are pushing innovative forms of content.” During his presentation, Rosenthal introduced DW’s development of new media, including mobile apps and how DW is improving second screen functionality to enhance audience experience with linear television content. The panel was moderated by Nathalie Malinarich, Mobile Editor of BBC News Online. Other panel speakers included Nate Lanxon, Senior Editor at Bloomberg Media and Subhajit Banerjee from the Guardian.

“Innovative work really depends on the participants,” said Rosenthal. “We work hand in hand with the editorial team to think about what could come up next – because this differs around the world.” After the panel discussion, Rosenthal led an app development workshop using the  DW app as an example. He emphasized the apps must have features for all types of audiences from the high level of functionality provided by the Apple Watch to offline and text modes for mobile apps. He also introduced the new DW app, which will be available for download for Apple and Android devices in June. The app is more user-friendly and packed with new functions like chromcast that transfers audio and video content directly to a TV, push-notifications for breaking news, offline, and low-bandwidth text mode.

Sponsoring partners of the Journalism Innovation Summit include Wayra, Telefónica’s startup accelerator and BBC News Labs.

DW’s Director General Peter Limbourg took the stage at the fifth annual Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit (APOS) last month in Bali to discuss DW’s new slogan, the competition and goals for the future. He used the time to share his thoughts on how the next generation of journalism should evolve and outlined DW’s vision for the future – with special emphasis on defining the global information agenda in the context of the upcoming launch of DW’s global English-language news channel.

The APOS summit marked the first public appearance of DW’s new slogan, “Made for minds”, which Limbourg contextualized as being a “compliment” to DW’s global audience, which remains in the focus of everything DW does. He added the slogan underscored the importance of the high-quality journalism that DW produces in a global media landscape beset by growing disinformation and propaganda.

At the center of Limbourg’s conversation with Janine Stein, the Editor-in-Chief of Content Asia, were the challenges faced by linear news television and what this all means to DW with the launch of the global English-language television channel coming up on June 22.

Limbourg explained that although there was talk earlier at the summit referring to modern linear TV as being analogous to the antiquated fax machine, he would compare it more to a refrigerator – “it has always been there, it will always be there but it doesn’t stop you from buying new digital equipment for your kitchen.”  He reemphasized that while DW would remain focused on a strong linear TV brand, there would also be investment in programs aimed at younger audiences that would be compatible with social media and mobile devices.

Cooperation also plays a key role and Limbourg emphasized that DW’s new English-language channel benefits from the robust relationships with local partners and the breadth of editorial languages at DW, all of which will contribute to the journalistic depth and quality of the flagship news programming. “We can be faster in getting these exclusive and interesting stories,” he said.

When looking at the Asian market, DW’s coproduction partnerships with Asian partners are beneficial for DW in getting more Asian content into the international channel but also provide opportunities for Asian content to travel globally, which has always been a major goal for Asian content producers. Partnerships like with Euromaxx in China represent a model of success for the future.

Limbourg said that the future of DW will be built on a strong global reputation of quality both in the production and origin  “I think Germany has proven it can deliver good products and it also means that we can deliver good information.” To which Stein could only reply, “the Mercedes of the news world.”

Other international media with a large Asian presence on the Asian market at the APOS summit included BBC Worldwide, Fox International Channels and RTL CBS. The summit is organized by Media Partners Asia (MPA).