The editors from our environmental series Global Ideas recently conducted a quiz. The winners have been selected and the prizes are being shipped. Congratulations goes out to:

Joaquín Gutiérrez, Mexico
Rishita Islam, Bangladesh
Noel Kuppan, Malaysia

 

What is a computer programmer from Moscow doing at Deutsche Welle’s headquarters in Bonn? Well, Ksenia Koteleva helped decide which topic would be featured in the last episode of the future now series and picked up the grand prize: a trip for two to Germany. She and her sister Elizaveta came to DW this week and also took a tour of the CAESAR research center down the street.

Ksenia studied mathematics and spends at least some of her free-time online. She “finds lots of interesting stuff” at www.dw-world.de and DW’s future now multimedia project was something that really caught her eye. It highlights researchers looking for answers to some of our generation’s most burning issues in the areas of health, communication, mobility and the environment.

To get more people involved in the series, DW developed a contest that would let people from around the world vote for a project that was yet to be made. From the three alternatives, Ksenia (like the majority of DW users) voted for “Computers of the future” and thereby won the grand prize.

Ksenia has already spent some time in Germany. She attended school for six months here and also vacationed here with her brother. But she had never been to Bonn. “But I like Bonn. It’s not a big city, but it’s pretty and the people here are very nice.”

In the latest issue of Content Asia, editors spoke to seven of the world’s leading clips and archive companies about challenges in Asia, Asia-related content, demand, trends and the adjustments they’ve had to make for a new connected environment. Among these experts, was DW’s Stefan Bliemsrieder.

What does he see as the biggest challenge in selling archive/news clips into Asia?

“Two challenges: presentation and content. Asian consumers like to watch online clips that are relevant to them and in their language. DW has started providing local language versions (e.g. Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia) to address this audience need in selected territories. The key challenge remains in the cost of localizing our content.”

Check out the full “Short & Sweet” interview.

Latin America
DW has signed a contract with SKY Mexico – the largest pay TV provider in Mexico with 3.3 million subscribers. SKY Mexico also covers areas of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. DW-TV is included in a the “World & Culture” package with other international broadcasters.

This is just one of the contracts that DW signed while at the Canitec in Mexico – one of the most important trade shows for cable television in the region. Others include new partnerships with Capital 21 (Mexico City), Sicom (Puebla) and RTV Veracruz (Xalapa) who are incorporating the Spanish television service as well as audio and online content.

Europe
DW-TV is now in the digital television program from Salzburg AG. Deutsche Welle will now be available to more than 120,000 subscribers in the state of Salzburg, Austria, across the entire cable network of Salzburg AG.

Deutsche Welle (DW) will increase its focus on television, online and mobile services and decrease its shortwave broadcasts in a process starting this summer. Starting July 1, 2011, DW  will be making major changes in how and when its radio programming is broadcast in Asia and Europe, as well as German radio programming as a whole.

The measures will ensure the further development of Germany’s international broadcaster to a truly multimedia organization. DW will focus on modern modules that can be integrated into partner’s FM line-ups as well as being offered as stand-alone, on-demand services for the Internet and mobile devices. DW will thereby increase the cooperation with its partners throughout the world. With the exception of Africa and parts of Asia, linear shortwave broadcasts will be discontinued due to limited usage. The resources that have been saved will be reinvested in projects for the future – especially in the development of television services with regional languages and content, as well as an increase in online and mobile services.

DW will aim to use its available resources to offer two TV channels per region. This will give viewers the opportunity to choose between a channel with predominantly German programming and a channel with a focus on one of the regional languages – English, Spanish or Arabic.

Read the official press release here.