Euronews has announced a broad range of projects that it says will “take the channel to a new dimension” in 2011.
Speaking at a specially arranged press conference in London – the first in a series took place last week in France, and the next will be in the Russian capital, Moscow – Michael Peters, MD of the executive board – said that they included the development of live apps for the iPad and iPhone in February, followed by a full euronews app for the iPad in the first half of the year.
The iPad apps, which would probably be free, would be aimed at both the Apple community/early adopters and older users treating the iPad as a substitute for their PC/laptop.
In the connected TV sphere, the contract signed with Panasonic late last year, which is already resulting in 200,000 page impressions per month, will very soon be followed by others with Philips, Toshiba and Sony, and then further manufacturers including LG, Samsung, Sharp and Loewe.
2011 will also see euronews launch an 11th language version (Ukrainian) and open permanent desks in Paris, Kiev (local journalists), Istanbul, Dubai, Washington and Beijing, in addition to those recently set up in Brussels London, Cairo and Doha.
Next year will see the channel also open desks in eight further locations including New York, Moscow, Warsaw, Shanghai and Tel Aviv.
Commenting on costs, Peters said that given the small budget (€60 million a year) euronews operates on, all the projects have/will be launched with partners.
Its operation in Ukraine, for instance, will be run jointly with the national state broadcaster, while that in Brussels in partnership with the EC.
