Big Audience For Bergen

‘ENEX keeps on growing’ was the key message to a record number (75) of journalists and coordinators from ENEX’s partners when they met in Bergen, Norway, February 22^nd and 23^rd.  The event was hosted by TV2 Norway which has just moved into a new media centre. The building hosts TV2 and many other media and technology companies.  It is a small city but Bergen has a big profile in media, being the venue for the Nordic Media Festival (May 2^nd -4^th) and the home of many innovative broadcast technology companies like Vizrt, Wolftech and Vimond.

New Partnerships

Recently ENEX has secured a new partner in Panama and hopes to welcome back an Icelandic partner in the near future. A trial cooperation has also started with the Shanghai Media Group as ENEX’s growth strategy moves towards Asia. ENEX’s Head of News, Mark Evans, told the audience that items named ‘Donald Trump’ topped the category list of most broadcast content. Other traditional ENEX favourites included weather stories, elections, attacks and shootings, protests and referendums. 

ENEX is now supplying 2,000 live sources every year – that is a more than ten-fold increase over the last five years. Alpha 1 satellite channel is now purely live content (no more loop of recorded content!) and has been re-branded ‘ENEX Live’.  Watermarking data of ENEX’s content shows that RTL Germany’s N-TV 24-hour channel, Poland’s TVN24, Norway’s TV2 and Portugal’s SIC are amongst the most prolific users of ENEX content.

Cooperation with Sharjah Media Bureau

ENEX Managing Director, Adrian Wells, reassured the audience that despite tough times for commercial broadcasters, ENEX was in a stable financial position and was now seeking new ways to earn revenue including moving into video production and consultancy. One recent cooperation saw ENEX work with the Sharjah Media Bureau to help cover the Sharjah Light Festival, one of the biggest in the world.

 

Norway and Breivik

Adrian Wells also updated the audience on ENEX’s own strategic review which has committed to update ENEX’s distribution platform and interconnectivity between the partners.

The most impactful session came when Tonje Brenna recounted her experiences on the island of Utoya in 2011 when Anders Breivik massacred 69 people, many of them children.  Brenna was, at the time, the General Secretary of the AUF youth movement which organised the summer camp.

She managed to avoid Breivik by hiding in the cliffs on Utoya with some children who she managed to help.  Brenna spoke movingly about the effect of the attack on her and Norway itself.

Drone Journalism

The conference was also enlivened by a presentation on drone technology.  ENEX News Editor, Terence Jarosz, chaired the special session which also featured SIC Portugal Senior Producer, Daniel Sabino and Professor Astrid Gynnild from Bergen University.

Research conducted by Terence Jarosz  showed that the quantity of drone footage is growing on the ENEX platform from a base of zero just over five years ago.   96% of ENEX partners are using drones for filming many types of purpose (Daily News 54%, Beauty Shots 35%) but risks of flying the devices and regulations remain key disadvantages of drone journalism.

Daniel Sabino’s drone footage of the Portuguese wildfires in June 2107 was one of the most shared and broadcast pieces of footage on the ENEX platform.

There’ll be other updates on some of the other sessions and ENEX’s latest initiatives in user generated content verification and investigative journalism shortly.

More images on Instagram: instagram.com/enexnews