DW is a valued destination for millions of German-language learners worldwide and a new agreement with the Goethe Institut is set to further combine the learning resources of the two partners.

The agreement will open the door for cooperative program development, expanded media partnerships and sharing of resources. Concrete plans include embedded links to English, German and Spanish-language TV streams from DW on Goethe Institut country portals. Language-oriented links to these portals could also be integrated into DW websites. On-demand video from DW in multiple languages will also be available for use by the Goethe Institut.

Both partners will be helping promote the other’s language learning platforms. This will place links to DW’s free language learning courses on the Goethe Institut website, which will provide valuable exposure of DW content to fans of German language and culture.

The Goethe Institut is a long-time DW partner and the largest international German-language institute with 160 locations all over the world. Their latest cooperation with DW was the 2013 online project “Ticket nach Berlin”.

Latin America

Euromaxx has a new broadcasting partner in South America.  The Colombian TV channel Cablenoticias will be broadcasting DW’s popular culture and lifestyle program in Spanish five days a week. The channel is carried by over 800 TV providers with a potential combined audience of 7.48 million households on two continents. Cablenoticias is available via broadcasting partners throughout Central America, the USA, Mexico and 8 South American countries.

Asia

Learning by Ear has a new broadcasting partner in Afghanistan. Radio Azad is now broadcasting the educational radio program in Dari and Pashto. The station, located in the northern province of Balkh, is Learning by Ear’s 16th partner in Afghanistan.

DW has a new broadcasting partner in Pakistan’s largest metropolis, Karachi. Star Cable Network is now broadcasting DW’s English TV channel to around 50,000 households.

Online

The DW Smart TV app is now available via the Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) on all Sony smart TV models produced after 2013. With Sony’s 15 percent market share in connected TVs, the partnership will deliver multilingual DW content live and on-demand to an expanded global audience. The DW Smart TV app is also set to be implemented on Android TV platforms in the future.

The Scorpions, the most successful German rock band of all time, announced in 2010 that they were going to leave the stage forever and wanted to go out loud with a three-year international farewell tour. But somewhere along the way, the magic of rock and roll inspired them to keep going and they are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2015 with a new album, a world tour and the release of a documentary film co-produced by DW. Directed by Katja von Garnier, Forever and a Day is a must-see for any Scorpions fan. It follows the band on their farewell tour and delivers an intimate portrayal of the musical passion which has sustained them for 50 years. The film premiered on February 7 in Berlin and will be released in Germany on March 26 with international release dates to follow. The film is sure to become another one of DW’s acclaimed musical productions like The Highest Level, with Chinese Pianist Lang Lang or The Beethoven Project, featuring star composer Paavo Järvi. Work on the film began in 2011 and von Garnier used her expert sensitivity and insight to find meaning behind the music. Besides chronicling the challenges and triumphs of the three-year tour, Forever and a Day also reveals secrets of the Scorpion’s history, including never-before-seen footage of super 8 films from the band’s archive. The show must go on and after being inspired by audiences from Thailand to the USA, the Scorpions are going back on tour in 2015, with Forever and a Day being shown in theaters at every stop along the way. After the German release at the end of March, the film will be broadcast worldwide on DW in English, German, Spanish and Arabic. A DVD will also be released.  DW partners on the project were the distribution company Tempest Film, producers DOKfilm ,  German broadcasters ZDF and Arte, Nordmeida Film Promotion and the German Federal Film Board, FFA.

Europe

Ukraine’s most popular news and information website, Obozrevatel.com, now includes a DW section featuring full-text articles covering social, political and economic issues from the region and the world. The Russian-language articles, which also link to dw.de, include an imbedded code to keep track of user numbers. Obozrevatel.com receives over 30 million visits and 90 million page impressions every month.

The new DW series Focus on Europe is now being aired by the Latvian public broadcaster, LTV. The program will be broadcast in English with Latvian subtitles. LTV has been a DW partner since 2012.

Asia

DW’s English TV programming is now being carried by Sri Lanka’s largest cable network, Lanka Broadband Network (LBN). LBN’s coverage area includes the capital, Colombo and the cities of Jaffna and Trincomalee.

Digicel media venture, Papua New Guinea’s first digital television provider,  is now carrying DW’s English TV channel. The provider broadcasts using DVB-T, cable or satellite and plans to expand in the region.

 

DW’s Crossroads Generation has found another great partner with Mxit. The South African social media app goes beyond providing easy access to online social networks by actively aiming to improve lives through information and education. Aside from technology, they accomplish this through social activism.

Mxit Reach is an NGO run by the company, which seeks to improve lives by providing innovative mobile solutions. An estimated 1 million users access educational, counseling and health services through Mxit Reach. And with Crossroads Generation, DW has created a radio soap that tackles tough social issues with the help of a love story. It covers issues that are important for African youth like drug use, pregnancy and domestic violence – and does this in a fun and entertaining way to keep listeners coming back for more. Mxit can help the program do its job even better.

One of the Mxit app’s core strengths is “tailoring features for original localized content targeted at emerging market youth”. Crossroads Generation, the educational radio soap, is targeted to this market – African youth who will greatly benefit from having the program on such an accessible platform. Mixt enables users to gather around the content to react, discuss and develop their own ideas and this will surely expand Crossroads Generation’s effectiveness.

DW’s educational content for Africa is produced to enlighten and educate young Africans and is an ideal complement to the Mxit mission. With DW doing a lot of other work in media education and social awareness, it would be a positive development to see this partnership develop in the future.

Find out more about DW’s partnership with Mxit here.