Asia

DW programming is now available on Xunlei-Kankan, one of the largest online video platforms in China. The platform has integrated clips from the magazines Global Ideas and Future Now, which have been translated into Chinese, as well as clips in English from shows like Arts.21, Discover Germany, Global 3000, In Good Shape, Made in Germany, Euromaxx, Drive It! und Tomorrow Today. Xunlei-Kankan has more than 260 million users.

In Pakistan, DW content is now available on smartphones via UFone. The provider now offers its more than 2 million mobile customers DW’s English television program.

Learning by Ear is now available for mobile users in Afghanistan with Afghan Wireless (AWCC). The mobile provider has more than 4 million subscribers throughout Afghanistan and is offering the series as content via its interactive voice response (IVR) system.

 

Latin America

DW has acquired another partner for its Spanish television channel in Latin America with Claro Peru. The second-largest television station in Peru will now include DW (Latinoamérica) in its digital TV package. Claro is part of the América Móvil group – the leading telecommunications provider in Latin America with more than 300 million customers.

 

Africa / Middle East

Shahid.net and DU are now featuring content from DW (Arabia) in their programming lineup. The two IPTV platforms are new to the media landscape in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

English episodes of Learning by Ear are now available on Vodafone Ghana. By working with Yassu, the Learning by Ear content will be available on all mobile phones as audio on demand.

Yesterday DW launched a new series that takes an in-depth look at the intricacies of being German. With Those Germans, we are trying to highlight and explain all the facts and fiction related to German culture: punctual and reliable, badly dressed and no sense of humor? Just check out Those Germans to find out what other clichés are associated with the German identity.

 

DW has made further progress in the development of programming for Russia with its new television magazine “Geofactor”. DW’s Russian editorial team is responsible for producing the new show that will be broadcast every Saturday on Expert-TV.

The weekly magazine is 15 minutes long and was premiered on November 3. It covers politics and business, with a focus on the relationship between Russia, Germany and the rest of the European Union. Content comes from existing DW material and new content developed explicitly for “Geofactor” viewers.

Expert-TV reaches around 19 million viewers throughout Russia.

Earlier this month, the Facebook page of telenovela Jojo Sucht das Glück and multimedia project Destination Europe won top prizes in their respective genres. Jojo Sucht das Glück won a bronze E Learning Award in an international competition hosted by London-based Bizmedia. Destination Europe won an International Media Excellence Award (the AIBs) from the Association for International Broadcasting, also based in the UK.

The E Learning Awards are one of the most prestigious competitions in the industry. DW’s Esther Weingarten accepted the bronze for “Best use of social media for learning” in London.

The Facebook page for Jojo Sucht das Glück not only features supplementary info about weekly episodes. It is also a forum for fans to directly interact with the star of the show and practice their German. Users have even made fan videos about the telenovela and uploaded them to YouTube.

The AIBs honor excellence in international broadcasting, picking winners from entrants all over the world. DW’s Felix Steiner and Klaus Dahmann accepted the award for Destination Europe at a London ceremony.

The Association for International Broadcasting praised the project for its “first-rate multilingual, multi-platform approach, with extensive use of social media to provide real, relevant information to those seeking a better life in Europe.”

DW Akademie is testing an innovative new training format for bloggers and journalists in North Africa based on the MOOC concept (massive open online course). The Open Media Summit (OMS) is an interactive online course combining e-learning and social media, which is an open-access, interactive, online platform where educational resources are distributed through live streaming, discussion forums and other online resources. The course is free and open to everyone. The only prerequisites are English and Arabic language skills and a computer or laptop with an Internet connection.

More than 300 citizen journalists from North Africa are testing the new learning format, which offers a virtual campus. Participants can meet in online classrooms, access training resources and take part in live stream sessions. The website shows how many people are online and the countries they’re from. This is part of the concept behind open exchange and interactive learning.

Upcoming topics on the course agenda include dealing responsibly with online sources, data-driven journalism and Internet censorship. A total of six live video sessions will feature guest experts from North Africa. The course is open to all those interested, and newcomers are welcome.