Rai Gulp - Eutelsat Tv Awards

www.HotbirdTVAwards.com
Rai Gulp
Each month Wotsat highlight Europe’s best free TV channels
Emi and friends in Karku
All the best TV for kids is on Rai Gulp
Music magazine show Music Planet
Channel factfile
n Name: Rai Gulp
n Country: Italy
n Hot Bird TV Awards category: Children’s
n Final result: Runner-up
n Language: Italy
n Launch date: June 1, 2007
Rai Gulp was launched in June 2007
as a free-to-air channel on satellite
and DTT.
At launch, Rai Gulp was targeted at
viewers aged 4-10, with predominantly
animation, but since July 2009 Rai Gulp
programming has been repositioned as a
tween-targeted offering for boys and girls
aged 7-12 years old, and in the second half
of 2010 Rai Gulp extended to 12-14-yearolds by adding more live-action TV series.
The current library is composed of shows
based on aspirational subjects and themes
such as music, dance, talent schools,
performing arts, or teen dramas and
sitcoms about everyday life for tweens and
teens, on issues like friendship, love,
competition, and team work. Cartoons have
gradually changed from lower tween and
vintage characters towards higher tween
targets such as action, superheroes, magic
powers, legend and adventures, with an
increasing share of Japanese animé and
modern-style characters.
Rai Gulp still counts on a wide animation
library with many international brands,
selected following an ’edutainment’ quality
that parents can rely on. Italian-made
n Satellites: Hot Bird, 13°E
n Frequency: 11.804GHz
n Polarity: Vertical
n FEC: 2/3
n Symbol rate: 27500
n Website: www.raigulp.it
cartoons, co-produced by RaiFiction, often
originate from Italian comic strips,
illustrated books and novels, and can be
appreciated by youngsters and parents.
This year, Rai Gulp will increase the TV
series programming to complete its
repositioning towards the 8-to-14s target
audience. In-house productions like Music
Planet, Pausa Posta, and Social King Replay
are produced at Rai’s studios based in Turin,
starring Rai Gulp’s new presenters, Romina
Minadeo and Michele Bertocchi. Romina is
well-known from her work on Mediaset
Premium, Canale 5 and Italia 1. Videogames
and technology journalist Michele has both
presented and created shows for Rai Due
and Rai Gulp.
In 2011, Rai Gulp will also start an
interactive approach by developing
productions with elements on both TV and
the internet. Themes will include music,
videogames, sports, adventure and so on.
Toolkit
What you need to receive Rai Gulp
n A free-to-air digital satellite receiver with a
60cm dish aimed at Hot Bird
Flagship shows
The top programmes on Rai Gulp
Victorious
Sitcom
American sitcom about aspiring singer Tori Vega
(Victoria Justice) and friends at Hollywood Arts school,
and their wacky screwball situations.
Music Planet
Talent show
A window on the music scene for young boys and girls
who are passionate about singing and dancing for
leisure and amusement.
Karkù
Drama
Chilean series in which teenager Emi Valdéz moves to
a town from a small Chilean village to attend the city
local school where she makes many new friends.
Teen Days
Animated series
Italian show about a music and performing arts school
in which six kids form a band called Teen Days to win
Music One, an international talent schools’ award.
Code Lyoko
Animated series
French CGI cartoon about five students who travel to
the virtual world of Lyoko to fight against a deadly
multi-agent system named Xana.
Six teenagers
form a band
in Teen Days
Victoria Justice stars in the comedy Victorious
42 What Satellite & Digital TV June 2011
Students fight the deadly Xana in Code Lyoko
euro spotlight
The Hot Bird TV Awards
The Hot Bird satellites form Eutelsat’s
premium broadcasting position,
receivable across Europe from 13°E.
Registration is now open for channels
on any Eutelsat satellite, in 10 categories:
children’s, cinema, culture/education,
documentaries, fiction/general
entertainment, lifestyle, music, national
window, news and sports. An award will
also go to the best programme overall.
Viewers will be able to vote online for the
People’s Choice Award 2011 when the
nominees are announced this summer.
The X-factor: Aspiring singer
‘Tori‘ Vega (Victoria Justice)
joins the prestigious
Hollywood Arts High School,
an exclusive music school for
wannabes chasing stardom
53°E
Express (or Ekspress) AM-22 is unusual among Russian
communications satellites in having all of its beams
aimed outside Russia, with two European beams and
two steerable, one of which covers the Middle East and
another currently aimed at Afghanistan.
Although 53°E maybe low on the horizon from the UK,
for dish owners with a good vantage point it’s
potentially receivable with 60cm dishes – giving access
to a range of channels from Russia, Belarus and the
Ukraine. Half of the satellite’s transponder payload is
leased to Eutelsat, which designates it SESAT-2.
This satellite is the result of an unusual construction
agreement. The main chassis was built by NPO-PM in
Russia, while the communications payload was built by
Acatel Espace in France. It relies on efficient plasma
thrusters rather than hydrazine rockets for stationkeeping – so its life in orbit is expected to be 12 years.
n Operator: RSCC (Kosmicheskiya Svyaz)
Satellites
n Express-AM22
Launched: Proton-K, Baikonur, December 28, 2003
Launch mass: 2,542kg
Manufacturer: RSCC MSS-2500-GSO
Transponders: 24 Ku-band
EIRP: 50dBW
Beams: Europe, Wide Europe, Steerable 1 & 2
Rai Gulp presenter, Romina
Minadeo
Intersputnik/RSCC
The Hot Bird TV Awards shine a spotlight
on the thematic channels that enrich and
diversify the broadcasting experience for
many millions of viewers.
Eutelsat, Europe’s leading satellite
operator, created this event in 1998, and
hundreds of channels from around the
world enter the annual competition,
judged by an independent panel of media
experts. It is now a joint initiative between
Eutelsat, Eurovisioni and SAT Expo Europe,
as a prestigious recognition for channels
broadcasting via its fleet.
Intersputnik/RSCC
Footprint
Gianfranco Noferi (centre), head of Rai Gulp,
at the Hot Bird TV Awards ceremony
More footprints at www.intelsat.com
June 2011 What Satellite & Digital TV 43