ASIA

The New York Festivals® Radio Awards has announced the 2025 Grand Jury and three people from Asia are a part of it. They inclde two Indians: Swarup BR, Co-Founder/Creative Director, Stark Communications and Anurita Patel, […]

StreamGuys will shine a light on business models for audio and video streams in a new webinar series beginning next week, emphasizing how broadcasters and content producers can generate revenue for live and on-demand media. […]

IBC announces the Call for Challenges for the 2025 Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, inviting proposals for transformative, fast-track innovation projects that will help shape the future of the media and entertainment technology sector. The deadline for submissions is Friday 6th December 2024.IBC will select 12 project proposals that will go forward to be pitched in person at the IBC Kickstart Day on Wednesday 12th February 2025 after reviewing all applications. For the first time, the Kickstart event will be held at the BBC’s iconic Radio Theatre and Media Café in central London. While the event is open to all, numbers are strictly limited due to venue capacity. To attend, please register your interest here and you’ll be the first to be notified when registration for the event opens.The IBC Accelerator Programme has established itself as a catalyst for collaborative innovation within the media and entertainment ecosystem – where project challenges are proposed by the buyers of technology who then form project teams with specific expertise to explore and develop solutions in a matter of months. The solutions are ultimately showcased and discussed as Proof of Concepts (PoCs) at the IBC Show in September 2025. Submission Guidelines and the Entry form can be found here.“The IBC Accelerator Programme has really delivered as a safe and trusted space for the media sector to work together, better understand complex challenges, learn and lean into solving common pain points around transformation,” said Mark Smith, Head of the Accelerator Programme for IBC. “The 2024 projects clearly hit a seam of critical challenges that resonated across the industry, from our AI Media Production Lab, the News & Disinformation and Digital Replicas projects through to the Evolution of the Control Room and Connect & Produce Anywhere software defined Production project. There was a wealth of value in the compelling PoCs and showcases at IBC2024”.For 2025, IBC is seeking challenges that address pressing issues in content creation, live production and distribution, audience engagement and technology integration, intelligent automation, sustainability, innovative ad-tech, connectivity, and many other areas of emerging media R&D. Selected projects will have the opportunity to collaborate with world leading media brand Champions, the industry experts, that provide leadership for transformative innovation.Entry is open to all in the media technology ecosystem, with projects covering a wide range of relevant industry challenges in topical areas such as AI, Connectivity, Sustainability, IP Evolution, News & Disinformation, Ad Tech, Cybersecurity & Content Protection, Immersive XR Tech among many other areas of media technology evolution.“The IBC Accelerator Programme has become integral to the industry, looking at some of the key subjects and areas that are driving the future of what we do,” said Morwen Williams, Director of Media Operations for the BBC. “I am delighted that we are hosting this event at the BBC and look forward to hearing the great pitches that will come forward!”More than 300 organisations have taken part in the programme since its foundation in 2019. All 2024 project PoCs were showcased live at IBC2024 at the IBC Accelerator Zone and as a Final Showcase Session on the Innovation Stage, and each project can be found here. […]

The 61st Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) General Assembly commenced with a Programme Committee Meeting in Istanbul, led by Claire Gorman (ABC-Australia) and Inoue Tatsuhiko (NHK-Japan), and opened by the ABU Secretary-General.Key discussions included a proposal to open the ABU TV Song Festival to radio members, enhancing inclusivity across platforms.Currently, the ABU TV Song Festival is open to television broadcasters who are members of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Since its first edition in 2012, over thirty broadcasters have participated in the event.While radio members have not been able to participate in most editions of the ABU TV Song Festival, Nepalese radio station Radio Tulsipur had an entry in the virtual ABU TV Song Festival in 2020.Earlier, between 2012 and 2019, the ABU organised the ABU Radio Song Festival which was open to radio broadcasters only. The event showcased unsigned music talent from across the Asia-Pacific region but was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Radio Song Festival saw twenty-eight countries participate across six editions, including participation from broadcasters in countries who have not participated in the ABU TV Song Festival. […]

The Taliban is reportedly planning to convert state television stations into radio outlets following its ban on broadcasting images of living beings, according to a report by Afghanistan International.Sources said that staff from the national television network in Kabul and various provinces will likely be reassigned to work at the new radio stations, aimed at promoting the group’s policies and disseminating its religious views.“Radio Bayan-e Shomal” will be renamed “Radio Hurriyat,” with its broadcasts managed by the Taliban’s intelligence services. There will also be dedicated radio stations for the Ministry of Interior, and for the military.Taliban also intends to shut Afghanistan’s national television and replace it with “Radio Shariat,” which was a key media outlet during the Taliban’s first regime under Mullah Omar.Yusuf Ahmadi, the head of national television under Taliban control, stated in a meeting with media managers that the decision to stop television broadcasts was made by the Taliban leadership. The Taliban has already halted national television transmissions in Kandahar and Takhar.This move follows a recent statement by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, which indicated that the group is gradually enforcing a law banning the broadcast of images of living beings. […]

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) organized a Symposium on ‘Emerging Trends and Technologies in Broadcasting Sector’ on October 17, alongside the India Mobile Congress (IMC-2024).The symposium explored the transformative potential and practical applications of emerging technologies within the broadcasting industry, with a particular focus on digital radio, immersive technologies and D2M and 5G broadcasting.More than 100 national and international participants, including key stakeholders from the broadcasting industry, technology giants, device manufacturers and government gathered to engage in the discussions and explore the future of broadcasting in the digital age.The sessions were chaired by distinguished industry leaders and officers from the government. These sessions also featured expert speakers from renowned organizations, including specialists from the broadcasting sector, device and network manufacturers.The session, ‘Digital Radio Technology: Deployment Strategies in India,’ examined the strategies for deploying digital radio for the Indian market. Experts discussed the advantages digital radio offers, including superior sound quality, spectrum efficiency and the ability to deliver multimedia services; along with the challenges and solutions for interoperability with existing analogue networks, enabling a smoother transition to digital broadcasting.Shifting to digital radio technology will allow for efficient use of spectrum, said Sanjay Jaju, the Secretary of Information and Broadcasting. He mentioned that while radio is the most impactful medium for communication, current analog systems for radio broadcasting are spectrum-intensive and have capacity limitations.“It is in this context that the transition to digital radio allows us tremendous opportunities, it will not just allow us to efficiently use the available spectrum, by allowing multiple channels to be available on the same frequency, but at the same time it will help us upgrade the quality of radio broadcasting,” he explained. Jaju mentioned that digital radio will free up the spectrum, allowing the government to reallocate it for other services. Emergency warning systems through digital radio will also allow the government to carry out effective disaster management.Yogendra Pal, Chair of the India Chapter and Chairman of the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium, said: “The software app is already available. The only thing which is required is the tuner which receives radio signals on mobile phones, which is currently analog, and has to give permission to receive digital radio content,” he explained.Pal mentioned that DRM Consortium has discussed the same with mobile manufacturers and they are ready to provide this facility, provided the government announces a policy for digital radio. […]