ITV

Category: DTH

  • Samsung launches mobile tracker phones in India

    Samsung launches mobile tracker phones in India

    MUMBAI: Samsung Telecommunications India Ltd. announced the launch of its range of secured phones SGH-C140, SGH-X520 and SGH-E250 in India. The technology boasts revolutionary security features like mobile tracker, emergency SMS and privacy lock in slider, clamshell and bar form factors, these phones transcends the current market offering by empowering consumer’s security during mobility.

    Mobile Tracker helps consumers to track their lost phone. Emergency SMS acts as personal bodyguard and alerts close relatives or friends about his distress or emergency situations. Privacy lock protects the data, photos, voice memo, multimedia messages, images and sound stored in the phone from intrusion.

    Speaking on this occasion Samsung Telecommunications India managing director Ryu Hyun Chul said, “Close to 50 million worth of mobile phones are lost or stolen annually. Our personal experience shows that when we lose our phone we just buy the new one. We don’t know how to track our lost phone. We are also not aware what will happen, if these lost or stolen phones fall into wrong hands.”

    Elaborating on the security features of the phone Chul added, “Samsung understands Indian consumer needs and through our secured phones, we have tried to address three of the larger issues of mobile security that is securing your mobile phones and preventing any untoward usage or incident through Mobile Tracker, securing the safety of near and dear ones through emergency SMS and securing the confidential data’s that are stored in that phone. We will keep launching global phones with localized features.”

  • Jump Games inks deal with Honest Ent for ‘Fido Dido’

    Jump Games inks deal with Honest Ent for ‘Fido Dido’

    MUMBAI: Games publishing company, Jump Games has acquired exclusive mobile gaming rights for the Fido Dido, aerated drink 7 Up’s brand mascot.

    Jump Games has signed a two-year worldwide contract with Honest Entertainment to create and distribute mobile game titles based on Fido Dido across the world.

    The game features Fido Dido in his cool avatar that has to brave all hurdles to reach as far ahead in the game as possible. Fido’s journey is made exciting with loads of zany powerups and bonuses for sporting his cool factor. The first Mobile game Fido Dido is ready for release and will soon be out on leading networks worldwide, states an official release.

    Speaking about the license, Jump Games CEO Salil Bhargava said, “Fido Dido is a name well-known all over the world. Fido’s character has a lot of fun associated with it, which can be spun around to develop exciting titles. Our first arcade game is going to be out shortly and we’re on our way to creating a few more games including a 3D Fido Bowling title. We look forward to a valuable relationship with Honest Entertainment and Fido in developing some remarkable Mobile content.”

    Commenting on the alliance, founder, president and creative director Honest Entertainment and creator of Fido Joanna Ferrone said, “This is a good time to bring Fido to the Wireless gaming market, which is on a rise. Jump Games is a leader in the Indian gaming space and has created some world-class content for their existing licenses. They have done a brilliant job with Fido’s first game and we are sure the audiences will love Fido in his new Mobile avatar!”

  • Cas paves way for consolidation

    Cas paves way for consolidation

    MUMBAI: The complexion of the cable TV industry is fast changing. Cas (conditional access system) is paving the way for consolidation as cable operators need to find money to subsidise set-top boxes (STBs), set up a digital system, and build a proper service network.

    The might of the three big multi-system operators (MSOs) is prevailing with the weaker players tumbling down under in the markets opened for Cas barely a month ago. Delhi has already gone that way with Home Cable Network, Spectranet, Satellite Channels, Sanjay Cable Network and Star Broadband Services aligning with Hinduja-owned Incablenet, Hathway Cable & Datacom or Zee Group’s Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL).

    Soon Mumbai’s Cas subscribers will also get shared between these three MSOs. Raja Nadar, an independent cable operator, says his JPR Network will surrender its independent status and partner with an MSO by the end of this month. Though he has seeded 5,000 STBs, he is struggling to fund new arrivals and is losing subscribers to WWIL. “There is no business model left for us. We can’t raise debt and even if we somehow do, we can’t recover revenues large enough from our digital subscribers to work out a repayment schedule,” he says.

    Cas in Delhi and Mumbai is becoming a three-MSO battle. “That’s the record for everybody to see. That’s the reality. There were 14 independent headends in Delhi who had shown interest to operate but not one could launch. In Mumbai, it is the same story,” says the head of a leading MSO on request of anonymity.

    Making the ground tough is the fact that digitalisation is coming cheap in India. Cable operators are offering a subsidy of Rs 1000-1500 per STB while average revenue per user (ARPU) is set to fall with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) capping a la carte pay channels at Rs 5. The revenue share is also regulated with broadcasters taking away 45 per cent while 30 per cent stays with the MSOs and 25 per cent with the local cable operators.

    “Digital cable is a game for those who have deep pockets. Cable operators will not only have to subsidise the boxes but the service as well,” says WWIL managing director Jagjit Singh Kohli.

    If Kolkata has not seen enough of bulldozing, it is because there is not much of demand for STBs. But Sristi has crumbled down with WWIL and Manthan sharing the spoils. Cablecom is tottering but has survived.

    As STBs pick up in Kolkata, Incablenet and Hathway will look at entering the market. This will pave the way for further consolidation as penetration will mean financing more boxes. Manthan has already raised a debt of Rs 100 million from individuals and is looking at another Rs 200 million as way of bank financing.

    The need for pumping in big money will be larger as Cas spreads. In the initial phase, Hathway is arranging for a Rs 1 billion debt while WWIL wants to pump in Rs 7.14 billion over two years with a plan also to acquire last mile of cable operators.

    What can be disturbing is that after the initial euphoria, the demand for boxes seems to be already slowing when we have just crossed 400000 in a Cas market which has over 1.5 million cable and satellite homes. “If this trend is true, it should be a matter of concern for all the stakeholders except the local cable operators,” says Zee Turner CEO Arun Poddar. In the Cas areas, local cable operators are allowed to pocket the entire Rs 77 they collect from subscribers for the free-to-air (FTA) channels.

    With not as many boxes moving, broadcasters are particularly worried as they were forced to drop the rates of their pay channels. The sector regulator has chalked out a policy that makes business sense only on high volumes. “We will need higher volumes to make up for the pricing policy prescribed by Trai. Besides, the boxes are not yet entirely synchronised with the subscriber management system that would register what channels are subscribed by the consumers. The whole project will depend on how fast and effective SMS gets activised,” says Poddar.

    A surge in demand for the boxes is expected before the ICC World Cup starts in March. Besides, marketing campaigns will have to be launched promoting digitalisation. “MSOs will have to start marketing the boxes more aggressively. Broadcasters can also launch joint campaigns with them,” says SET Discovery president Anuj Gandhi.

    Nobody knows how the market will finally emerge. But the trend is clear: smaller MSOs in the Cas areas will find it difficult to subsidise the boxes and will need to take support of the bigger ones.

    “Consolidation can start with Cas and spread out in other areas. In many non Cas places, we are also seeing consolidation because of fear of losing subscribers to direct-to-home operators,” says the head of a MSO.

  • Excel launches Kukunoor’s film DOR on DVD

    Excel launches Kukunoor’s film DOR on DVD

    MUMBAI: DOR, the critically acclaimed movie by Nagesh Kukunoor was launched on DVD.

    The DVD was launched by Shreyas Talpade and Nagesh Kukunoor at Movies and More, Mumbai.

    The movie has been winning awards at many of the award functions.

    At the launch of the DOR DVD Shreyas Talpade said, “Iqbal got me a foothold into the industry, but all the offers that came in later were that of handicapped characters. DOR was a fresh breathe of life”.

    The DVD has been loaded with extra features and is released by Excel Home Videos. Says Excel Home Videos managing director M.N. Kapasi, “The DVD has features like deleted scenes, audio commentary by the director and ‘Location Hunt’ to supplement the movie experience” Dor tells the story of Zeenat(Gul Panag) and Mira(Ayesha Takia), women from two different worlds.

    The story revolves around two women Zeenat and Mira.Their husbands go out to work in the Gulf to make things better at their respective places. The story takes a turn when Mira’s husband gets killed and Zeenat’s husband is held responsible for it. Zeenat needs Mira’s letter stating forgiveness for her husband and she sets out in search for Mira.On the way she meets up with a “Behrupiya”, played by Shreyas Talpade.The revelation and the final confrontation form the climax.
     

  • IPTV worldwide subscribers reach 3.6 million

    IPTV worldwide subscribers reach 3.6 million

    MUMBAI: The latest worldwide IPTV research from research firm Canalys shows how the number of commercial IPTV launches escalated in 2006, and suggests that IPTV services are now moving into the mainstream.

    Worldwide subscribers have reached 3.6 million Western Europe leads, with growth expected in emerging markets this year.

    Most major incumbent telecoms providers have launched commercial services and the market is becoming increasingly competitive with the entry of alternative operators, such as ISPs and energy companies.

    Canalys senior analyst Nadia Griffiths says, “2007 will see the competitive landscape become even fiercer as IPTV services from established service providers will be challenged by aggressively priced alternatives from Web TV, cable, satellite and content companies. These are all contenders for a share of the limited wallet of most consumers”.

    Western Europe has 2.4 million IPTV subscribers. The sheer number of operators in the region provides its IPTV scale, and major investments in backbone infrastructure are being made as providers rush to build substantial subscriber bases. The IPTV market is highly fragmented. The top five providers account for over 60 per cent of all subscribers, but the rush of service launches by new entrants in 2006 means that there are numerous companies with only a few thousand subscribers each.

    The top three providers globally according to Canalys are PCCW on 18.2 per cent share, France Telecom with 16.8 per cent and Free Telecom on 14 per cent. These are joined in the top five by Telefonica and Fastweb.

    Threats One of the major threats for many IPTV service providers is the quality of networking once IPTV services become fully fledged. Canalys VP Alessandra Fitzpatrick says, “IPTV networks will quickly become the most complex and bandwidth intensive that have ever existed. Many service providers have invested millions of euros on network upgrades, but it remains unproven whether IPTV networks can scale into the millions without performance degrading and response times slowing, or even collapsing altogether.

    “Another infrastructure challenge is that service providers will quickly have to learn how to manage multiple billing systems and content across large server farms and SANs, while maintaining the highest quality of service.”

    The future, however, looks promising. In 2007, Canalys predicts significant uptake of IPTV in the Asia Pacific region. Hong Kong is already a mature IPTV market, and growth will come from emerging markets such as India and China, following large investments into IPTV deployments there. Australia is also finally moving into the commercial phase of its IPTV offerings, which will lead to fast roll-outs of services in 2007. North America will be another major growth area, with AT&T and Verizon already pushing nationwide roll-outs of IPTV services. Western Europe though will continue to lead and set the pace globally for the IPTV industry in the year ahead.
     

  • Ericsson, Turner to develop international mobile services

    Ericsson, Turner to develop international mobile services

    MUMBAI: Ericsson and Turner Broadcasting System International have formed a collaboration under which the users of mobile services and mobile operators will benefit from the companies’ leading positions in mobility and global multimedia content.

    The two parties are collaborating to develop Turner’s internet, broadcast news and entertainment content – including CNN International, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim material – for mobile multimedia environments. The offering combines the delivery of Turner news and entertainment content with hosting and content management technology, developed by Ericsson.

    The first of these jointly developed services will launch in Europe on 12 February 2007 at the 3GSM World Congress trade fair in Barcelona, bringing a new CNN Mobile service to the users initially in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

    The initial product launch – CNN Mobile – and subsequent launches in this collaboration will make technologically advanced multimedia content available to users in two ways. Firstly, mobile operators will be able to deliver simple access to Turner content through their own branded portals; additionally, end users will have access to content such as the CNN Mobile site directly on their mobile devices.

    Turner Broadcasting senior VP, digital media Casey Harwood says, “With this deal, we will have for the first time a full portfolio of solutions – from SMS through to mobile television – that will scale and easily move across the world. This partnership is a logical fit where the customer and mobile operators benefit through Turner focussing on providing innovative news and entertainment content to its global audience and Ericsson providing the technology behind it.”

    Ericsson senior VP, head of multimedia Jan Wäreby says, “Our service-provider customers throughout the world will greatly benefit from our partnership with Turner Broadcasting, as they will be able to provide popular mobile multimedia content from Turner’s vast catalogue and greatly enhance the multimedia experience for the consumer.

    The CNN Mobile product will be the first example of a true ’off-deck’ portal for mobile users, providing a state-of-the-art news service. A searchable archive of 14 days and over 2000 stories will sit with breaking news alerts and video news updates through the hourly updated ’World News Now’. Available to CNN users in EMEA and Latin America subscription free, the service will be accessible through CNNmobile.com in all mobile browsers or through operator portals where deals are in place.

    The mobile services being developed include intelligent software that enables devices to show only the actual content that is appropriate to the particular handset, resulting in a richer user experience. The services will be rolled out to further territories and both Turner and Ericsson have committed to further product launches throughout 2007.

    The partnership also extends beyond content development, and will have on screen elements on CNN International in a campaign that positions Ericsson as the global leading communications technology company.

  • DVB-H set to be future of mobile TV: report

    DVB-H set to be future of mobile TV: report

    MUMBAI: The concept of providing television services on a mobile device is generating much enthusiasm among the wireless industry, in turn driving the growth and development of digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) technology. Overwhelming support from the wireless industry is likely to be one of the major drivers for the growth of the technology, as will be the increasing demand for content on the move. In short, DVB-H could well become a global standard similar to Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), creating an altogether new market for television viewership.

    New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, DVB-H Technology-Market and Potential Analysis, reveals that revenues in this market totaled $60 million in 2006 and is likely to reach $2.04 billion in 2010.

    “Many participants in the wireless industry support the DVB-H technology as it is an open industry standard, and this non-proprietary feature of the standards is likely to vastly assist its growth in the wireless market,” notes Frost & Sullivan research analyst Nagarajan Sampathkumar. “Furthermore, DVB-H delivers an improved end-user experience over current video streaming services that utilize cellular networks, while also providing, broadcasters, cellular operators, handset manufacturers and silicon providers with tremendous growth opportunities.”

    This apart, the quality of service (QoS) is likely to be better due to the use of a dedicated broadcast network. Additionally, though DVB-H claims speeds of 25 frames per second (fps), trials show practical speeds of 15-16 fps, which seem to be sufficient for existing screen sizes and resolutions. However, in future, these speeds are likely to increase to 20-25 fps for fixed digital TV in Europe.

    Despite the promise, one of the biggest challenges to adoption of DVB-H by mobile operators is the issue of business and revenue models. With DVB-H, mobile operators are likely to prefer to continue operating in their area of domain expertise service provisioning, billing, and customer care and therefore, broadcasters would have ownership of the content and the overall visual experience.

    “Hence, mobile operators would need to differentiate their offerings and provide value to ensure customer loyalty and remain profitable,” says Sampathkumar. “This also means that mobile operators are likely to serve only as a link to customers and would not be in a position to negotiate for better revenue splits with others in the value chain.”

    Service providers would be required to work very closely with content creators, aggregators, and broadcasters, and ensure secure content and support digital rights management in an effort to protect copyrighted content. While revenue issues could be addressed through subscription models, event-based, pay per view, and even interactive services, the most important challenge is likely to be the optimizing of battery life of the handsets, the study concludes.

  • MTNL launches Broadband with Wi-Fi in Delhi

    MTNL launches Broadband with Wi-Fi in Delhi

    NEW DELHI: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd Delhi announced the launch of their IPTV-competent broadband with Wi-Fi, with a maximum speed of 2 mbps, which will help set up thousands of “Private Hot Spots” across the Capital city.

    Meanwhile, the Wi-Max system is already functioning on a trial basis in some government offices, and should be launched within this year, A K Arora, Executive Director, MTNL said at a press briefing here today.

    The broadband Wi-Fi modem works on the latest version of 802.11g of Wi-Fi standard and functions on the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and generally provides bandwidth of 54 mbps. There cane be up to 30 concurrent users in this system.

    The MTNL will sell two types of modems for the new Wi-Fi system: one with one USB and one Ethernet port and the other with four Ethernet ports. Besides, there will be the normal LAN facility as well. MTNL is buying the modems from HT Star company.

    The users can purchase pre-paid cards for the usage, which come in various price ranges.

    “Small hotels and restaurants can set up these connections which function on radio wave and not through any cable, and allow its customers to use the Internet,” Arora explained.

    What is most attractive is the pricing of the modems and the monthly rentals.

    “It will cost the clients very little, just the security deposit and the cost of the modem. There is no setting-up cost, being on radio waves,” he added. There can be multiple users working with their computers or laptops within 40 metres of the modem inside a house or restaurant (in open space, with less physical intrusions, they can work within 60

    “The need for us to go into this is that there are at least 1.3 lakh private hot spots across the world, whereas in India there are just a thousand. Especially with the government declaring 2007 as the year of the broadband, we decided to launch this from February 8, and you can get through the Sanchar Haats anywhere. It will be set up within two days of the purchase made,” Arora claimed.

    He said that the system has already been tried at the domestic airport, Pragati Maidan, India Habitat Centre, Union Public Service Commission office, Indian Institute of Planning and Administration and many offices of the Delhi government. “The most popular has been the one at the airport,” Arora said.

    He said that setting up public hot spots will hugely help businesses, convention centres, engineering, management and medical institutions, and also private homes. “This helps us also develop our new revenue model, because there will be up to 30 users per modem, and download is free up to one GB and then it costs Rs 1 per MB, as usual our broadband.

    The registration charge is Rs 500, security deposit Rs 800 and installing and testing charges are Rs 300. The monthly rental is only Rs 150.

    The payments for usages can be made through credit cards as well purchasable prepaid scratch cards.
    “Suppose you go to a restaurant and are not sure of being over charged, the scratch card is of major help,” explained a senior engineer present at the press conference.

    Our aim was to become the dominant player in the field, Arora stressed as the factor behind the decision to launch early. Besides, he said, there will be 90 lakh broadband users by 2007, of which MTNL will have to give 50 lakh connections.

    Arora said that Wi-Max is already there in use in Delhi. “This room in which we are having the meeting is Wi-Max enabled, and there are some other government offices as well. Trail runs are on, and we can launch when the government gives permission for the spectrum, which should be the end of this year,” Arora hoped.

    Arora also announced the launch of MTNL’s CDMA mobiles, and asserted that with this, the Nigam has become the only service provider to operate both CDMA and GSM services.

    The handset comes for really cheap: the original handset, Huwai C 300, costs Rs 3,500, but MTNL is selling it for just Rs 1,499 paid upfront (VAT extra), with Rs 1,499 free talk time in local network CDMA, GSM and landline) as well, for one year.

    MTNL is also giving Rs 25 worth talk time free to other networks, for a period of a week.

    The pulse would be of 15 seconds and the rate, Arora said, would be Rs 0.10 for a pulse for local calls. The STD charges would be Rs 2.40 per pulse, he said.

  • IPTV likely to generate significant revenue within first three years: Accenture survey

    IPTV likely to generate significant revenue within first three years: Accenture survey

    MUMBAI: More than half of communications industry executives believe that Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) can generate significant revenue within the first three years of service, according to findings of a survey released by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

    The survey of nearly 350 executives from telecom, broadcasting and media companies across 46 countries in the US, Europe and Asia revealed industry-wide confidence in the longer-term outlook for IPTV, with 60 percent believing that IPTV will generate significant revenues within three years.

    However, confidence in the short-term outlook remains mixed, with slightly more than half (52 per cent) of respondents saying they are not confident in the ability of IPTV to generate significant revenues within the next 12 months. On the other hand, one-fifth (20 per cent) of respondents said they are confident or very confident, and more than one-quarter (28 per cent) said they are somewhat to fairly confident, that IPTV will generate significant revenues within a year.
    The report notes that the business case for IPTV, its value-added benefits and its potential remain strong. In the long-term, the key to achieving high performance through IPTV is to be visionary, ambitious and open to innovation from many sources. For the shorter term, the key is to quickly adapt to consumer feedback and jump over technology hurdles.

    When asked what they believed would be the principal revenue source for IPTV, about half (46 per cent) of the industry executives surveyed selected advertising. However, network operators, as a subset of all respondents — which included equipment vendors, consumer electronic companies, content providers and broadcasters/studios — disagreed, with three-quarters (74 per cent) of network operators saying they believe that subscription fees for premium content will provide the largest recurring revenue stream, followed by basic content subscription fees and then ad fees.

    This difference in opinions reflects the broad uncertainty around how media will be delivered and what customers will be willing to pay for. Carriers are used to subscription revenues and believe that the IPTV experience will soon be comparable to or even better than current video offerings, whereas media executives are more cautious and skeptical of a scenario where a new revenue stream is created so rapidly. The reality is that both revenue streams will be important, but the challenge will be to harness the power of this new technology to create a new video experience that makes consumers and advertisers willing to pay more than they do today.

    When asked to identify reasons for pursuing the IPTV market, the greatest number of respondents (42 per cent) cited new revenue streams, followed by acquiring new customers (28 per cent) and increasing sale of broadband access connections (21 per cent).

    Overwhelmingly, executives believe that discounted pricing through service bundling will be the primary motivation behind consumer spending. Nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of all respondents — and three-quarters (74 per cent) of network operators surveyed — said they believe that discounted service bundles provide the greatest enticement to buy IPTV. The ability to move content between devices was also cited as an important enticement, selected by 38 percent of respondents, as was the convenience of a single bill for multiple services, selected by 31 per cent of respondents.

    Yet there are obstacles to IPTV adoption. One-quarter (25 per cent) of respondents said that the primary short-term obstacle to IPTV adoption is a quality-of-service issue relating to unproven architectures, low bandwidth and other technology issues. The same number (25 percent) said they believe that quality-of-service issues will be resolved over the next three years, leaving stiffer competition from alternative TV providers as the toughest challenge to the adoption of IPTV. Another challenge to IPTV adoption, cited by 19 percent of respondents, is high subscription fees due to the high cost of network access and equipment.

    When asked which types of companies are most likely to generate revenue from IPTV, the vast majority (87 per cent) of respondents selected content providers, followed by telecommunications providers (72 per cent). Not surprising, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of respondents said that traditional broadcasters have the least to gain from IPTV, a view held strongly by respondents across all company types, including broadcasters themselves.

  • Trai conducts digitalization round table

    Trai conducts digitalization round table

    MUMBAI: Foloowing the rollout of conditional access system (Cas) in parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, broadcast regulator Trai has conducted a round table meeting on digitalization of television transmission and voluntary implementation of Cas.

    In order to take the process of digitalization forward and also to explore the possibility of voluntary implementation of CAS in other parts of the country, Trai conducted a round table meeting on 1 February in Delhi with various stake holders.

    Experts as well as representatives of consumer organizations, multi system operators (MSOs), cable operators, DTH operators, broadcasters and equipment manufacturers participated in the round table. In the meeting there was a broad consensus about the need for digitalization and addressability. The participants raised certain issues in order to arrive at a feasible road map. The major issues that were raised by the stakeholders relates to fiscal rationalization, encouragement of domestic manufacturing, changes in the regulatory regime (especially the need for price control), ensuring affordability and choice and exploring alternative models for voluntary Cas.

    A small sub group has been constituted in order to discuss issues relating to digitalization and voluntary introduction of Cas. The discussions with the stake holders would continue in future also.s