June/July 2013 6 World (Continued from Page 4) Chavista President Silences Critical TV Venezuela’s Globovision has been sold to a group of investors with close ties to the new government of Chavista President Nicolas Maduro. The 12-year-old station was the country’s last major TV outlet critical of the government. Reportedly, the former owner, Guillermo Zuloaga, was forced to sell out after “mounting government fines and political harassment.” Zuloaga, who is now self-exiled in Miami, Florida, reported to The Los Angeles Times that “the station’s fate was sealed [last] February when the government issued compulsory digital transmission standards that meant Globovision’s analog equipment would become obsolete.” In 2007, another TV network critical of then-president Hugo Chavez, RCTV, was denied renewal of its broadcast license and subsequently it was closed. Since 1999, Venezuela’s government has started six new TV stations. Globovision’s license is due for renewal in 2015, therefore it is expected that the station, which reaches only the cities of Caracas and Valencia, will change its anti-government stance. Renowned for its key international co-financingmarket for documentary professionals, the festival included The Hot Docs Forum, where 20 projects representing 12 countries were presented to a panel of over 180 key international commissioning editors and other funders, and Hot Docs Deal Maker, where 55 projects were pitched to 50 buyers at approximately 400meetings. “Toronto has become a world capital for cinema lovers, and feeding their appetite for 20years has been great fun,” said Chris McDonald, Hot Docs executive director. “We are very proud of our smart and savvy audience, as well as those razor sharp filmmakers who join us each year. We are looking forward to an even bigger and better 2014.” The 2014 event will be held April 24-May 4. Italian TV: Primetime to Anytime A new report from Politecnico di Milano— Italy’s largest technical university — and Milanbased media and social media analysts Studio Frasi looked at the evolution of the Italian TV market from primetime to nonlinear viewing. Among the key findings are that 31 percent of the Italian population used time-shifted viewing in 2012. And 59 percent of Sky Italia’s subscribers used non-linear viewing. Also, non-linear viewing creates 1.7milliondaily contacts on average with an average audience of 68,000 people that uses it for 57 minutes a day. The week in 2012 when non-linear viewing was used most was in June, when state broadcaster RAI transmitted a live Italy-Russia football match, part of UEFA EURO 2012. Sky’sXFactorhadanon-linear coverage record of 646,591 and MasterChef Italia followed with 297,403. The users of My Sky increased from 1.8 million in June 2010 to 6.9 million in May 2013. Interestingly,IPTVsubscribers dropped to 240,000 from 273,000 in March.
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