Representatives from DW’s America distribution are currently on hand at one of Latin America’s premier media expositions. The Tepal Expo, being held for the first time in Panama, features presentations from big names in international media including HBO Latin America, Discovery Latin America and CNN Español.

Next to DW on the exposition floor are Latin American networks including the Argentinian Telefe, TuVes from Chile or TV Azteca from Mexico. Heavy hitters in Latin American distribution like Viacom, Cablevisión, Megacable and the Panamanian cable provider Cable Onda are also a few of the interesting and potential future DW partners who are at the event. You’ll find a complete list here.

DW will be presenting the Spanish language production, Vision Futuro, at the Tepal Expo with a special focus on renewable wind energy, which is a very important issue for the development of Latin American infrastructure. DW has been steadily increasing its presence in Latin American markets, offering a full 24 hours of Spanish langauge programming every day. DW is also the only European international broadcaster represented at Tepal 2014.

A new deal between DW and the Indian public service broadcaster, Doordarshan (DD), is a groundbreaking step towards bringing Indian television to Europe. For the first time in its 55 years of operation, DD will be available via a free-to-air DTH service outside of India. The deal opens the door to a symbiotic distribution model with which DD India, DD’s international channel, will be broadcast in Europe using DW’s satellite capacity and in exchange, DW will be broadcast using the satellite capacity of DD Freedish in India.

The exchange of capacities is good for both sides and a positive development in a market where using partners is essential to success. Other international broadcasters like France 24 have also recently signed distribution contracts using DD broadcasting facilities, but unlike with DW, it was a one way deal with no provision for rebroadcasting DD content in return.

Since its launch in 1995, DD India has made many attempts at broadcasting to international audiences and even paid to uplink the channel to satellites. But the lack of any downlink agreements continually kept the channel from being broadcast. DD India’s mission is to “build bridges of communication to Indians living abroad and showcase the real India.” The deal with DW will give DD India the potential to reach 120 million homes abroad. DW will reach a potential 25.5 million homes in India via DD Freedish.

The deal was announced in a joint press conference in New Delhi attended by DW representatives, officials from the German embassy, and the CEO of Prasar Bharati, which operates DD. DD India plans to start broadcasting internationally via the Hotbird 13b satellite in October.

DW recently developed a content partnership with Outernet. Outernet shares many of the same values as DW, including the belief that access to knowledge and information is a human right. Outernet’s plan is to guarantee this right by taking a practical approach to information delivery. Their plan is to use a fleet of approximately 200 satellites to create a satellite-supported WiFi network to provide individuals with access to information. Through satellite data broadcasting, Outernet is able to bypass censorship, ensure privacy and offer a universally-accessible information service at no cost to users. It’s the modern version of shortwave radio, or BitTorrent from space.

DW’s Oliver Linow contirbuted to the Outernet blog in which he stated:

“It is more important than ever to deliver uncensored information to those who don’t enjoy the freedom of opinion and freedom of the press at home. Outernet strives to provide this open access to everyone around the world. We share those values. As a partner, we will accompany Outernet over the next few months and provide them with practical support in their test phase. This undertaking by Outernet could represent one of several ways to combat limited net neutrality and Internet censorship – for example in Africa and parts of Asia. Only time will tell, if this will be successful, but we are happy to collaborate along the way in this grand experiment in global information equality.”

 

South America

News and information from DW Portuguese for Brazil is now being featured on UOL (Universo Online SA), Brazil’s largest online portal and the world’s largest Portuguese-language news and information platform. After a recent cooperation agreement, UOL will now include a full-text DW feed on the website. The cooperation has the potential to greatly increase DW’s online audience – UOL boasts 29,8 million unique visitors and 4,2 billion page views every month along with 4.1 million Facebook fans.

Africa

DW news content in six languages for Africa will soon be able to reach a potential 900,000 users via BiNu– an application that allows low-tech or “feature phones” to have quick and easy access to the Internet. Target regions include Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and especially, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

Asia

CTH, the Thai television provider and DW broadcasting partner, has increased its range of service and is now broadcasting via the Vinasat 2 satellite. The expansion will deliver CTH’s international programming package, which includes the English-language channel, DW, to 10,000 additional subscribers along with the millions of current cable subscribers. CTH is also planning to start a DVB-T service later this year which could reach a potential of one million new customers.  DW has been carried on CTH’s digital cable network since July 2013.

The Vietnamese cable provider, HCA TV, is once again broadcasting DW after an extended interruption in service. DW programming will be rebroadcast on the provider with Vietnamese subtitles.

The Taiwanese online news and information portal, Commonwealth, will now be including full-text DW content in Chinese. It is the first such cooperation outside of mainland China and will include reports from business, the environment, sports and education.

Europe

T24, the Turkish online news portal, is a new DW partner and will now be prominently placing full-text Turkish language articles from DW on the website. T24 is renowned for independent and quality journalism in an increasingly draconian Turkish media landscape, having won an award from the Turkish Journalists Society in 2010.  It is one of the most-quoted online sources in Turkish media and features content from more than 30 prominent authors and journalists.

Online

DW is now on Instagram with Inside DW, a new part of DW’s customer service website, MyDW, which features a look behind the scenes at the work of DW’s journalists, producers and correspondents.

Digital media is changing the world and giving more people everywhere the chance to have their voices heard and participate in social processes. This year’s Global Media Forum will explore the complex diversity of these issues along with experts, policy makers and interested guests from all over the world. With so much to choose from, we wanted to highlight some events and partners that you should look for at this year’s conference.

A session hosted by the German Development Institute titled, Transcultural understandings of legitimacy: A pre-condition for global governance?, will explore the effectiveness of international institutions in achieving legitimacy on the ground in the different countries and cultures where they operate. The focus will be on increasing trans-cultural dialogue in order to create common values and common solutions.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is hosting a panel discussion that will explore how social media is helping foster democracy around the world. The session titled, The role of (social) media in promoting and sustaining democratic governance, features guest experts from Lebanon, Egypt, India and Myanmar who will discuss how social media initiates and even stabilizes processes of social change.

A plenary discussion hosted by ASHOKA titled, Room for all? How social entrepreneurs in media are forging a new infrastructure for participation,  explores the changing structure of global media. The discussion focuses on the role of the media and audience in light of digital media and where the traditional information power structure is changing to allow for the creation of a new public sphere. Challenges will be introduced like finding new audiences and financing, how to bring in new participants and ways to create new “information communities.”

A talk hosted by Voices of Africa Media Foundation will feature a case study from Nairobi, Kenya that provided young people living in the cities slums the chance to become reporters. The talk titled, A case study in enabling residents from informal settlements to participate in decision-making, will showcase some results from the project which provides an example from Africa for how disadvantaged people can make their voices heard.

A workshop hosted by Wartburg College titled, A blueprint for building communities: Applying community-building practices to a news media company,” will explore how the traditional business a model has changed for big news organizations and how they can adopt practices from social media to increase their relevance and attract new audiences.

And that is not all! There is much more to see and learn at the 2014 Global Media Forum. The conference starts Monday June 30 and you can follow the events with live updates on Twitter and Facebook or on the press website.