Doha - Qatar, 7 February 2011: The Japanese public broadcaster NHK and Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera Children's Channel (JCC) today signed a new co-production agreement to strengthen their collaboration on major offerings over the coming five years.

The signing ceremony took place at JCC's premises in the Education City - Qatar.

The long-term partners, NHK and JCC, will extend their joint efforts to develop and produce unique educational programs in the fields of science, discovery, technology, environment, and education.

The two broadcasters have already enjoyed success with Discover Science, which was a co-production with NHK affiliate NHK Educational Corporation (NED). Discover Science is a new kind of science entertainment series that demonstrates scientific principles by showing them in action through mega-experiments. Creative visualization paired with NHK's latest shooting techniques yielded fascinating ways to understand scientific phenomena. Under the new agreement, NHK, JCC, and NED will discuss a sequel series.

Deep-Sea discoveries; Human Body in Extreme situation; Our Cells... all are remarkable series of titles for which JCC will start by taking part in the 'Legends of the Deep', a global production underway between NHK/NHK Enterprises and Discovery Science Channel scheduled to air in 2012. The project's goals are to film the elusive giant squid in its natural habitat for the first time and to shed light on other exotic beasts inhabiting the unexplored ocean depths. The collaboration will be extended to other projects under progress such as the 'Cosmic Shore' with focus on the boundary zone between Earth's upper atmosphere and space - an area that has long been elusive and difficult to capture on camera. Installing the next-generation ultra-high-sensitivity image-intensifier HD camera on the International Space Station, the project will give a completely new perspective on Earth and space.

Hidemi Hyuga, NHK's Executive Managing Director of Broadcasting, expressed his pleasure about the partnership with JCC after the signing ceremony in Qatar: "NHK is very happy to partner with JCC. From the relationship that the NHK group has enjoyed with JCC over the years, we know that we share the same vision of contributing to the public good and striving for educational and cultural advancement. We look forward to working on various cutting-edge projects together."                               

Mahmoud Bouneb, Executive General Manager of Al Jazeera Children's Channel (JCC), stated: "This partnership with the NHK group comes in line with our mandate and ambitions to bring the best and most progressive content to our audience and contribute in shaping their way of life, and the way they view each component in their surroundings. We aim at producing cutting-edge programming that is valuable for teachers and students alike. We are pleased to team up again with a credible entity with which we share many of our values and aspirations. We are looking forward to a successful and productive partnership." Bouneb reiterated the importance of the support of Her Highness Sheikha Moza and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, which gives JCC the means to be the only Arabic TV channel to venture in such high scale global productions.

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About NHK
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan's public broadcaster. Funded entirely by receiving fees from Japanese households, it has a reputation for impartial, high-quality programming. Through its five nationwide TV channels, NHK reaches about 50 million households. A large staff of directors, producers, and engineers enables NHK to make programs in almost every genre. NHK pioneered HD television and is known for its use of cutting-edge shooting technologies to produce high-quality programs. For more information, please visit www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld

About Al Jazeera Children's Channel
With the mission to encourage the love of learning and discovery, Al Jazeera Children's Channel (JCC), a Pan-Arab edutainment channel, is dedicated to creating and providing quality programming that enlighten the child's mind.

This goal is realized through research analysis and the production of relevant content that resonates with the needs of this target audience's daily life as well as their culture.

JCC produces its own debate shows allowing Arab tweens to express their opinion and communicate their thoughts, televised thematic magazines covering different educational subjects such as science, technology and sports as well as game shows that provide audience with general knowledge information and a lot of entertainment. The Channel also produces its own titles of animation and TV series, and contributes in co-productions with other public mission children's channels around the world. As for the remaining 40% of its grid, JCC selects quality programs from the international market.

Al Jazeera Children's Channel is free to view on Arabsat, Nilesat, Hotbird and Eurobird and distributed by a very large number of operators across Europe.

In addition to providing supplementary sources of learning, discovery, and creativity, JCC offers a wide range of multimedia and digital content through its interactive website (jcctv.net). The bilingual website offers more than 200 hours of educational and entertaining broadcast material along with the latest multimedia tools that enable the members to upload their own content of images and videos and share them with children around the world.

For more information, please contact
For NHK
Marina Iwamura, International PR
Tel: +81 3 5455 2459
Email: iwamura.m-gc@nhk.or.jp

For JCC
Oussama Rahal / Ohoud Altamimi, Media Relations
+974 4482 4516, +974 4482 4116
press@jcctv.net

© Press Release 2011