Asia News Network backs Nation Group's new digital TV venture
Asia News Network, an alliance of 22 newspapers in 19 countries, supports Nation Multimedia Group's entry into the digital television industry.
The mandate was achieved at the recently concluded annual meeting of ANN’s board of directors held in Phnom Penh on April 30.
ANN members agreed to expand editorial exchange beyond stories and photos – and boost it to the video platform. The exchange will be done on a regular basis with NMG at the forefront of this endeavour.
“The television channel will feature regional content from our members,” said Suthichai Yoon, NMG chairman. “We already have the ANN brand for print. On the television side, a number of ANN members are already producing clips on their websites and some of us have TV stations to run. The next step for ANN is to be able to use it as a TV brand for our members.”
Yoon said earlier that NMG’s plan to bid for commercial terrestrial digital TV licences from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is one of its primary targets this year and the licences will be a springboard for the group to jump to a new business frontier.
He said that NMG would focus more on producing digitised content by transforming all its rich content to serve all digital platforms.
Meanwhile, aside from the regular exchange of videos, ANN publications with more experience are also open to providing technical training to members who are interested in enhancing their multimedia platform.
The grouping’s video cooperation is seen as further boosting the ANN brand.
“This is part of the growth of ANN as we tap into available resources and expanding it beyond the daily exchange of photos and stories,” said Pana Janviroj, ANN executive director and president of The Nation.
“I support any project to move ANN forward,” said Felix Soh, digital media editor of The Straits Times, who was also elected as chairman of the board for 2013-2014. “From print mode, we have to change and upgrade ANN to another level and I think video is a medium with a lot of potential.”
Soh noted that videos from member publications carry the “local flavour” making them unique and interesting to an international audience.
_ The Nation is one of the founding members of ANN, the world’s most active newspaper alliance founded in 1999 to provide avenues for cooperation among Asian press under the motto “We Know Asia Better”. Other members are China Daily, China Post, The Yomiuri Shimbun and The Japan News (Japan), The Island (Sri Lanka), The Statesman (India), The Korea Herald, The Straits Times (Singapore), Vietnam News, The Daily Star (Bangladesh), the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), The Star and Sin Chew Daily (Malaysia), The Kathmandu Post (Nepal), Vientiane Times (Laos), Rasmei Kampuchea (Cambodia), Brunei Times, Kuensel (Bhutan), Daily Eleven (Myanmar), and Dawn (Pakistan). Our website is www.asianewsnet.net.
