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.

An important part of DW’s mission is sharing its 60 years of journalistic and media experience with the world. DW has organized a number of events at the 2014 Global Media Forum in cooperation with organizations and partners which represent the high level of expertise at Germany’s international broadcaster.

Complementing the focus of this year’s conference is a panel organized by the DW Akademie that explores the state of participatory and community-based media in developing countries. The session titled, The power of the neighborhood: How local media organize participation and how DW Akademie supports this, showcases three projects that foster grassroots journalism from partner organizations that span the globe – Welad Elbalad Media Services from Egypt, Open Development Cambodia and Plataforma de Periodismo from Colombia.

With a focus on the watchdog role of journalism is a session titled Whistleblowers, activists, journalists: Is advocacy journalism the journalism of the digital age? The panel includes an editor from Zeit Online and a professor of entrepreneurship and media literacy from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The emphasis is on how digital media allows journalists to shed their neutrality and take an active stance on social issues.

Those interested in the EU and public participation should look at a session titled, Turning disinterest into engagement through innovative media formats.  Hosted by DW in cooperation with the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), the discussion explores innovations in social media and journalism that are combining to increase citizen engagement in social issues, particularly with the context of EU policy and elections.

At the intersection of social media and human rights is a talk hosted by DW titled, Revolution postponed. The Arab Spring and Africa The discussion brings together African social media experts and journalists to analyze the state of social movements all over Africa, whether it is the Arab Spring in the north to political protests everywhere from Angola to Zimbabwe. The panel will explore if the movements have lost momentum and what the future may look like.

 

 

Latin America

The Mexican news and information channel, Efekto Notícias, is now broadcasting a large part of the DW (Latinoamérica) programming line up. Since the beginning of May, DW shows like Euromaxx, Europe en concierto (Europe in Concert), Al Volante (Drive it) und En Forma (In Good Shape) have been available on the channel. Founded five years ago, Efekto Notícias can be received via major Mexican cable providers such as Sky, Cablevisión and Totalplay reaching 226 cities in Mexico with a total audience of 40 million according to its own estimates.

The Latin American business portal americaeconomia.com is now including written content from DW. The Chile-based web platform is also successful in Peru, Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela.

Asia

DW’s flagship channel, DW, is now being included as part of a new IPTV package from the Indian telecommunications giant, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. The service, still in the preliminary phase, can be accessed via mobile devices. Reliance Jio is one of India’s largest telecoms and also provides 4G services to its customers in New Dehli and Mumbai, a standard that is just  starting to emerge in India.

The only IPTV provider in Sri Lanka, PEO TV, now includes DW as a part of its service. The service is available for free to 90,000 subscribers.

DW’s Indoneisan partner TVMU will now carry the DW shows In Good Shape and Global 3000 along with the Indonesian science program, Inovator.

Starting September 30, audiences in Asia and Latin America will be able to enjoy an expanded DW television lineup in Spanish and German. DW (Latinoamerica) will be increasing its Spanish language programming from 20 to 24 hours a day and DW (Asien) will also feature a full 24 hours of German language programming. The change is a part of a strategy to provide programming that it suited to the demands of different global markets. The success of DW’s Spanish programming in Latin America has dictated the change to a full 24-hour program. In Asia, DW already offers 24 hours of English language programming on its flagship channel. Increasing DW (Asien) programming to 24 hours in German will make DW the go-to channel for a complete selection of German language television in Asian markets.

But that’s not all, PopXport, DW’s trendy music magazine featuring all the best music and bands from Germany, will now be aired once every week.

Asia

The Forever Group have picked up 170 hours of DW Transtel programming. Myanmar’s largest media company and the country’s first Pay TV provider, chose a wide variety of programming to be broadcast on the Readers Channel, a free-to-air educational channel that encourages audiences to read more. This contract represents the largest volume of programming that has ever been sold by DW Transtel in Myanmar. The Forever Group has also been acquiring DW’s complete programming line-up since 2011.

Audiences all over Afghanistan can now watch DW’s Euromaxx, Arts.21 and Drive it on one the country’s leading television stations, OneTV (1-TV). This rapidly growing private broadcaster, newly founded by Afghani investors hoping to promote principals of human rights and freedom of speech, specializes in covering news and current affairs. It has a very good reputation in Afghanistan with a target audience of young, educated information seekers. On the Afghani TV popularity index, OneTV ranks third.

 

Latin America

It’s primetime for DW in Uruguay as DW (Latinoamérica) grows more and more popular. The terrestrial broadcaster Río Uruguay TV is now a part-time programming partner broadcasting the DW formats Claves, Al volante and Visión futuro Sunday evenings from 8:00 to 10:00 pm. The broadcasting area covers the city of Fray Bentos and the province of Río Negro. Around 200,000 viewers can receive Río Uruguay TV and this new partnership features DW in the evening primetime slot.

 

Middle East

DW has forged a new partnership in Lebanon. A memorandum of understanding was recently signed with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC Group) that is paving the way for cooperation with DW’s World Stories. The Lebanese broadcaster will soon be contributing segments to the successful DW show. DW is also confident that cooperation will be expanding in the near future to include program acquisitions from DW (Arabia). The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir has also begun to include full articles and video boxes from DW on its online platform. As-Safir is a pan-Arab publication with readers from all over the Arab world.

DW has also taken steps to increase its social media footprint in Iraq. The very popular news and social media site Shakwmakw, which boasts 430,000 Facebook fans, will soon be posting new links to selected DW articles on a daily basis. The website was started during the Iraqi civil war as an online forum with the goal of encouraging positive exchange and communication between Iraqis regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds. Another popular social media platform biraqi, with over 350,000 Facebook fans, has signed a cooperation agreement with DW and are integrating links and teasers into their online content.

 

Online

The Kick off! Competition is now off and running in German, English, Spanish and Arabic – a great chance for soccer fans to show their knowledge of the German Bundesliga. DW is also now offering a free Tour of the German Parliament with a new multimedia project that takes you on an virtual tour of the plenary chamber in Berlin.