18 June 2013
TVC News, the first genuine 24-hour pan-African TV news channel from the stables of the Continental Broadcasting Service Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria, launched its signals on Monday, 17th June 2013, on the UK’s BSkyB platform (EPG 572).
The pan-African news channel aims to challenge stereotypes and correct factual inaccuracies and misperceptions about Africa and its peoples.
Nigel Parsons, the Chief Executive Officer TVC News and the former head of Aljazeera English, said: “Without shying away from reporting the conflicts or the corruption, the famines or the wars, the mission of TVC News is also to tell the many positive stories coming out ofAfrica.” He added: “Stories – good or bad – will be told ‘Through African Eyes’.”
The news channel serves as a medium for Africans in every part of the world to be heard on the global scene. Through its fair and fearless reporting, TVC News will tell the unreported stories from under-reported regions across the continent, all from an African perspective.
TVC News provides a mixture of news, current affairs and other informative programming from across Africa and beyond. The daily programming focuses on subjects such as politics and business, the arts & culture, health, youth and gender issues, sports and entertainment, and specially-tailored weather reports.
Using the latest state-of-the-art broadcasting equipment, TVC News has engaged the services of veteran broadcasters, experienced reporters and a top class managerial team. Supported by correspondents and reporters operating from bureaux across Africa and the world, the channel aims to provide its viewers with “breaking news as it happens” while setting new standards in African broadcasting.
With its mobile app, smartphone/tablet users can watch live news and follow latest happenings from around the world from its website, www.tvcnews.tv, clicking on the live streaming button or by downloading the TVC News mobile apps via: mobile.tvcnews.tv. They can also follow TVC News on its twitter handle @tvcnews_africa.
Since its launch in Africa at the end of February 2013, TVC News has provided comprehensive on-the-spot coverage of the 2013 Kenyan elections, the recent war in Mali, as well as an exclusive interview with South African icon Winnie Mandela and the former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki.
14 January 2013
BSKYB, the largest UK pay-TV provider, began carrying RT in High Definition effective January 2013.
RT, the global international news network, has switched all of its English-language news broadcasting to High Definition format in December 2012, following the network’s move of its studios to a new, state of the art facility in Moscow.
RT was the third most watched news channel overall in the UK in Q3 2012 after BBC News and Sky News according to BARB, reaching 2.5 million viewers*. A survey by Kantar Media showed that UK viewers tune into RT over other channels due to its “different take on news from mainstream media”, “informative news coverage”, and its range of stories of interest to the audience.
BSkyB – British Sky Broadcasting – is the major UK and Ireland satellite platform, and has been carrying RT since 2006. In January 2013 it began carrying RT in HD.
“The switch to HD is an important step for our network, as HD delivery is not yet offered by many other major international news channels. It’s now up to the satellite and cable TV service providers to make the HD signal available to the viewers,” says Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor in chief. “We’re very happy that thanks to BSkyB our UK audience can now enjoy the best RT programming in HD so soon after we completed the switch.”
RT is a global international news network that broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, and is available to 550 million viewers worldwide. Pew Research Center’s 2012 study named RT, whose YouTube channel has passed 840 million views, as the largest provider of news video footage on the world’s largest video sharing platform. RT is the only Russian TV channel to garner two nominations for the prestigious Emmy International Award.
BSkyB operates the most comprehensive multi-channel, multi-platform television service in the UK and Ireland. Over 10.3 million households across the UK and Ireland enjoy an unprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment, arts and sports channels. The Sky platform offers access to over 500 television and radio channels, plus up to 20Mb Broadband and free evening and weekend calls to UK Landlines with Sky Talk. In addition to their choice of Sky TV channels, all customers can receive more than 330 free-to-air television and radio channels and services.
*BARB Quarterly Reach Report- Quarter 3 2012 (BARB weeks 2293-2305) Individuals 4+ ( http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/quarterly-channel-reach?_s=4 )
Source: RT press release
