Associated Press Television News has launched a new service to cater for the increased demand for live 24-hour coverage from rolling news channels, writes Wale Azeez.
Called APTN Direct, the premium news service will be offered alongside the video news agency’s existing broadcast news feeds and will see an increase in the number of editorial staff.
According to Sandy McIntyre, APTN’s head of news, eight new positions have been created.
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“They include four content managers, who will effectively be the day-to-day editors of the service, an editorial planner, who will look at where tomorrow’s content is coming from, plus three technical support jobs,” he said.
“The world wants more events live, and to meet that requirement – and the need for more unedited material so 24-hour stations can put it to air as breaking news – we’ve come up with an investment in extra satellite capacity to cover live events.”
The service also includes a webbased messaging service that provides a 24-hour link with APTN’s London newsroom, to keep broadcasters updated on breaking news.
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“As the ability increases in the world, with the advent of broadband, to put real-time television on to online information portals, then this will become an indispensable service to them,” McIntyre added.
The APTN Direct service was effectively piloted during the war in Iraq, when a dedicated live service was first developed to provide coverage of events as they unfolded.
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