Latin America
DW’s distribution team has added over 30 new partners from five countries in Latin America after a large television trade show in Colombia. Since February 2012 the team has also succeeded in more than doubling the number of programs acquired from local partners, including the much in-demand program Visión Futuro. This constantly expanding cooperation should continue to open new doors for DW in the region.

Asia
DW’s marketing campaign in Afghanistan for Learning by Ear has been a huge success. Interest far exceeded expectations with over 2 million calls within a few weeks. The target audience was drawn in by well-directed strategies like an animated TV spot along with a print and text messaging campaign that conveyed the value of DW’s free on-demand programming.

Africa
Content from DW will now be available on the very popular Pan-African online news and information platform AllAfrica, which offers content in French and English from over 130 news sites coming out of almost every African country. DW’s regionalized content for Africa will become a part of AllAfrica’s commitment to quality journalism that seeks to promote learning and political awareness.

Online
A new language has joined DW’s multimedia catalog. Ukrainian was added to the audio, video and photo content of DW’s online Media Center in March. DW’s Media Center now offers content in a total of 15 languages.

Deutsche Welle (DW) is making its Learning by Ear service even more accessible to listeners in Afghanistan by providing content to mobiles with partner Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC). With more than 17 million mobile phone owners in Afghanistan, the cooperation with AWCC will help to expand the reach of DW’s hit educational program.

“This new service appeals to a younger, more mobile target audience,” says Anne Hufnagel, Head of Distribution for Asia at DW. “We expect and are looking forward to a significant increase in the number of listeners.”

Mobile users in Afghanistan just have to dial 1020 which will take them to an audio menu. They will then have the choice to listen to the Learning by Ear episodes in either Dari or Pashto on-demand. The service is free of charge and currently offers 10 episodes of “Becoming Afghanistan’s Superstar”, a program that showcases the extraordinary story about a young girl who struggles to participate in Afghanistan’s song contest.

Learning by Ear has been broadcast with support from the German Federal Foreign Office in Afghanistan since 2009. With partners like Ariana Radio and Radio Nawa, the series has become popular for young adults and teens. The new Learning by Ear mobile service will be promoted through a text message campaign, print ads and daily spots on television and radio.

Europe

DW has created a platform for German-Turkish dialogue with Buluşma Noktası. The bilingual (German and Turkish) online specials will showcase how the two cultures are in constant exchange and dialogue. In the spotlight will be four culturally active individuals from Berlin and Istanbul – including the author and artist Werner Felten, journalist Sirin Manolya Sak, author Ahmet Tulgar and photographer Jochen Proehl. For six weeks, these individuals will be posting their views and opinions in a German and Turkish language blog.

 

Asia

DW has signed two new partners for Learning by Ear in Afghanistan. Radio Sabawoon and Radio Zindagi broadcast to the highly-populated and politically relevant provinces of Helmland and Herat. They join the existing partners Radio Ariana, Radio Nawa, the Afghan Independent Radio Association and Radio Amozgar as Learning by Ear partners.

DW gas been added to 15 new cable stations in Pakistan – including several in Islamabad, Lahore and Bahawalpur. The new cable stations reach a total of more than 270,000 households. There are now 262 cable partners that are including DW’s English program in their television lineup.

DW has also added a new television partner in Indonesia with the recently launched DTH provider PentaVision. The new pay TV provider will offer more than 50 channels in English and Bahasa and provide programming to viewers throughout Indonesia via the IPSTAR satellite. PentaVision is looking to expand to include 450,000 subscribers in the next three years.

Global

Deutsche Welle has signed an agreement with the United Nations expanding the partnership that was established five years ago. The agreement enables DW to supplement its television programming with materials from UN-produced documentaries. DW welcomes this as a way of enriching its internationally-focused television series like World Stories and Global 3000 with new perspectives and high-quality reporting from around the world.

DW is teaming up with 63 radio stations throughout Pakistan to broadcast DW’s Leaning by Ear program in Pashtu and Urdu. Learning by Ear is a distance education program with a lively mix of in-depth reports, radio dramas and feature stories targeted to 12- to 25-year-olds. Fifty-three Pakistani stations are initially set to begin broadcasting the program, with ten more getting on board in the coming months. Learning by Ear will reach more than 90 percent of radio listeners in Pakistan, which has a total of about 120 independent radio stations.

“We are thrilled so many Pakistani stations wanted to broadcast Learning By Ear,” said DW’s Head of Distribution for Asia Anne Hufnagel. “We hope it will enhance their programming line-up, and win some new fans for DW.”
DW will send Learning by Ear content to partner stations via CD. Learning by Ear covers topics from children’s rights and family planning to conflict resolution and the media, and comes in series of ten-minute-long installments.

Pakistani fans of Learning by Ear will be able to participate in quizzes put on by partner stations, as well as receive supplementary books provided through DW’s distribution office in Pakistan.

Along with Hufnagel, the Head of Asia Programming Alexander Freund was in Islamabad, Pakistan, to officially announce the Learning by Ear for Pakistan at a press conference. FM 100 Pakistan, a leader in Pakistani FM radio, is the first partner to start broadcasting.

As all 63 stations start using Learning by Ear, DW will make the program available to NGOs, educational institutions and other organizations in Pakistan interested in the show.

DW recently completed a contest to get users to submit ideas for new content for its educational series Learning by Ear. The feedback was astounding – and now the winners are in. The jury has now come up with a list of the 10 best, incuding the winner from Togo. Bouloufèi Bèwèzima and a group from the club “A nous la planète” wrote a story called “A long way home” about two trafficked boys who undertake an exhausting march to rejoin their family.

You can find a full list of winners here.