ITV

Category: DTH

  • Xbox 360 unveils TV shows and movies on Xbox Live

    Xbox 360 unveils TV shows and movies on Xbox Live

    MUMBAI: On its one-year anniversary Xbox 360, is digitally delivering an initial lineup of TV shows and movies to gamers in the U.S. via Xbox Live, the online games and entertainment network from Microsoft.

    Xbox Live Marketplace will now provide gamers with easy access to hundreds of full-length TV shows for download to own and movies for download to rent from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment with more content rolled out through Xbox Live Marketplace every week, asserts an official release.

    Expected to be available in 37 countries, Xbox 360 continues to retain record game and accessory attachment rates, according to NPD.

    Xbox 360 is prepared with consoles readily available at retail along with a host of new accessories such as the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel, Xbox Live Vision camera and Xbox 360 HD DVD Player, and games such as Gears of War and Viva Piñata.

    Examples of the download-to-own TV shows and download-to-rent movies available on the network include the following:

    – CSI, CSI: Miami,CSI: New York, NCIS and Star Trek from CBS

    – Chappelle’s Show, Drawn Together and South Park from Comedy Central

    – Pimp My Ride and Punk’d from MTV

    – Avatar: The Last Airbender and SpongeBob SquarePants from Nickelodeon

    – Skyland and Invader Zim from Nicktoons Network

    – Chinatown, Star Trek VII: Generations, Patriot Games, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Sum of All Fears, The Untouchables and We Were Soldiers from Paramount Pictures

    – Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Frisky Dingo, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Sealab 2021 and The Venture Bros. from Turner Broadcasting

    – Some of the fights from Ultimate Fighting Championship

    – Breaking Bonaduce and Hogan Knows Best from VH1

    – Perfect Storm, Poseidon, The Shining, Three Kings and V for Vendetta, as well as The Nine and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip along with the CW show Veronica Mars from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

    Using the family settings feature, parents and individuals can choose the video content that can be played on their family’s Xbox 360. With the availability of this new entertainment content, gamers now can set controls based on movie, TV and video ratings, or they can entirely block explicit and unrated video content for themselves or their children, adds the release.

    Pricing is competitive and will vary based on format, media type and whether the content is a new release movie or a classic feature film. High-definition TV shows will be 240 Microsoft points per episode, and standard-definition TV shows will be 160 Microsoft points per episode.

    New release movies in high definition will be 480 Microsoft points, and standard-definition new release movies will be 320 Microsoft points each. Classic feature films in high definition will be 360 Microsoft points, and standard definition will be 240 Microsoft points. After purchasing a high-definition TV show or movie, gamers can download the standard-definition version at no additional charge.

    Microsoft points can be purchased at retail or via Xbox Live. Gamers can get a 1600 Microsoft points card at retail for $19.99 or 1000 Microsoft points through Xbox Live for $12.50.

  • Sandy Media launches second edition of ‘TAAL’

    Sandy Media launches second edition of ‘TAAL’

    MUMBAI: Sandy Media, publishers of two magazines, Theatre World and SoundSolutions – Asia’s resource magazines on motion picture exhibition, and audio/acoustics technology applications respectively – is launching the second edition of Theatre AV Acoustics and Light (TAAL), to be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 1 to 3 December 2006.

    TAAL, meaning rhythm, is aimed to be an industry platform for theatre, audio-visual, acoustics, and lighting industries in Asia. It is an initiative conceived and conceptualised in tune with the industry demand for a new platform between the equipment manufacturers and the user communities from across the continent / globe, asserts an official release.

    The national capital is now the focus of global attention for trade and commerce and therefore is a befitting event location for TAAL. In fact, TAAL will now be hosted alternately in south and north India to sustain the national footprint.

    This year the event will be a congregation of prospective cine-mall builders/multiplexes, performance space owners/builders from across Asia, and design professionals, consultants, manufacturers, integrators and people from entertainment industry from across the world, adds the release.

    Commenting on TAAL, AV integration expert Kavy Pradeep said, “The tech sessions are too good, they have thrown up many questions which we are not even aware off. It is good that something like this is happening.”

    TFEAC and CCFEA general secretary Abirami Ramanathan added, “Though the cinema exhibition industry has been witnessing tremendous changes in technology and management, most cinema owners in India are not aware of these changes. A convention and tradeshow such as TAAL would bring about the awareness.”

  • SWAY studio alters history for ‘The Saints are Coming’

    SWAY studio alters history for ‘The Saints are Coming’

    MUMBAI: SWAY Studio, one of North America’s visual effects studios has announced its contribution to the new U2 and Green Day music video titled The Saints are Coming.

    For this production, SWAY has integrated many photo-real CG elements, including Harrier jets, Apache helicopters, Stealth Bombers and tanks into existing news footage from hurricane Katrina. The result is a thought-provoking and emotional video that shows what it might have looked like had the government responded differently to the disaster, asserts an official release.

    Directed by Radical Media’s Chris Milk this video was produced to raise funds for Gulf Coast musicians affected by the hurricane Katrina disaster. The Saints are Coming has been featured on newscasts such as CNN and is currently airing on VH1 and MTV. It can also be viewed online at mtv.com or vh1.com.

    SWAY Studio owner and creative director Mark Glaser said, “This project had a very tight deadline of two and a half weeks from start to finish. This made our work particularly challenging because the CG elements that were integrated into existing news footage needed to have a very high degree of photorealism to be successful.”

    SWAY’s main challenge was to make the Iraqi desert storm aircraft and tanks look like they were actually there in New Orleans for the rescue and mass evacuation. Every shot was scrutinised, worked and reworked to ensure its believability, adds the release.

    “SWAY also added video degradation to the CG elements so that they would match the original footage, which varied substantially from shot to shot,” added Glaser.

    SWAY utilized a variety of off-the-shelf and proprietary hardware and software to compete the project. The most prominently used tools were 3ds Max, V-Ray, Flame, NUKE and After Effects. All of the water effects were done using Real Flow 4.

    All proceeds from the sale of The Saints are Coming will go to Music Rising, an instrument replacement fund for musicians located on the Gulf Coast.

  • Samsung joins ‘DVD6C’ in licensing DVD patents

    Samsung joins ‘DVD6C’ in licensing DVD patents

    MUMBAI: The DVD6C licensing group (DVD6C), has announced that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd has joined its worldwide joint licensing program which provides manufacturers of DVD products the ability to license essential DVD patents owned by the group’s members.

    DVD6C has licensed DVD patents owned by its member companies since June 1999 (adding licensing for DVD-recorders, DVD-audio players, DVD-R, -RW and -RAM drives, DVD-audio, -R, -RW, -and -RAM discs and cases in September 2003). DVD6C’s licenses cover patents owned by the 6C member companies that are essential for products that comply with the DVD-format specifications defined by the DVD forum, asserts an official release.

    The company claims that membership of Samsung in the joint licensing program will benefit existing and future licensees of DVD6C, who will obtain a license to additional essential patents for the DVD products at no additional charge.

    Interested parties will remain free to negotiate individual license agreements with DVD6C’s member companies, rather than taking licenses from DVD6C. The member companies have committed to provide such licenses under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, adds the release.

    The existing list of DVD6C members include eight developers of DVD technology and formats — Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.

  • TDSAT asks Tata-Sky, Sun TV Group to settle differences

    TDSAT asks Tata-Sky, Sun TV Group to settle differences

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has proposed to direct-to-home (DTH) player Tata-Sky and Chennai-based broadcaster Sun TV Group that they resolve their dispute between themselves.

    According to a tribunal official, the two parties are set to negotiate a potential settlement at a meeting in Chennai that is likely to take place by the end of week.

    Nonetheless, the tribunal dispute forum has also drawn up the date for next hearing before adjourning the case to 29 November if the attempts to achieve a “lucid response” through the discussion fails.

    Tata-Sky had moved the tribunal accusing the broadcaster of refusing supply of its bouquet of channels. The DTH player approached the disputes forum after repeated requests to provide the signals of the channels of Sun’s bouquet of channels on “non-discriminatory terms” proved futile.

    According to the norms laid down by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), all content should be made available to all delivery platforms on a nondiscriminatory basis.

    Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran has set forth plans to enter the DTH space through the still to launch commercially Sun Direct TV. He runs a string of successful channels, which include SunTV, GeminiTV, SuryaTV, UdayaTV, KTV, TejaTV, UsheTV, KiranTV, AdithyaTV, Sun News, KiranTV, GeminiTV, TejaTV, Teja News, Udaya2 and Udaya News.

  • Info Edge debuts with 62% premium on BSE

    Info Edge debuts with 62% premium on BSE

    MUMBAI: DotCom days are here again. Info Edge (India), a provider of online recruitment, matrimonial classifieds and related services in India (through its Websites naukri.com, jeevansathi.com etc) made a very impressive debut with a 62.5 per cent premium at Rs 520 on BSE today against the offer price of Rs 320 per share of Rs 10 each.

    The price shot up to Rs 623.80 intraday before closing for the day at Rs 593.20, a hefty premium of 85 per cent with a volume of 7.8 million equity shares on BSE.

    The volume on NSE was higher at 11.6 million equity shares, taking the total volume on both the exchanges to 19.4 million equity shares on the very first day.

    The company would use issue proceeds to purchase or lease real estate for their office, to acquire companies and use alternative delivery models such as messages through mobiles, etc. ICICI Securities and Citigroup Global Markets India were the book running lead managers to the issue.

    The company entered the capital market on 30 October with an IPO of 5.32 million equity shares in the price band of Rs 290 to Rs 320 per equity share. The issue closed on 2 November. The issue constitutes 19.5 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up equity capital of the company.

    Info Edge wants to maintain its position as the leading provider of online recruitment solutions in India and further enhance its position as one of the leading providers of internet based matrimonial services. In addition, it seeks to diversify into and establish a position of leadership in the diverse spectrum of the online classified market and also to create such markets in those segments, which are currently catered to by the print media only.

    In order to achieve these objectives, it will continue emphasis on innovation and customization of its products and services, enhance and diversify its advertising revenue streams, leverage offline relationships and diversify into providing online classified services in new market segments.

    Presently its business activities are limited to primarily providing information exchange services in the recruitment, matrimonial and real estate markets; and the activities are concentrated in India.

    Now the Company proposes to diversify into other segments of the online classifieds market such as automobile products, educational products and industrial products and expand its present business to the countries in the Middle East and in South Asia. It also intends to start several initiatives to enhance the features and qualities of its currently existing products and services.

  • IOL Broadband to hike share capital

    IOL Broadband to hike share capital

    MUMBAI: IOL Broadband has decided to increase the authorised share capital of the company from Rs 500 million divided into 50 million equity shares of Rs 10 each to Rs 700 million divided into 70 million equity shares of Rs 10 each.

    The board has agreed to issue and allot, on a preferential basis, upto 7 million equity share warrants (warrants), carrying an entitlement to subscribe to an equivalent number of equity shares of Rs 10 each at Rs 95 to Maula Trading Company, asserts an official release.

    The members will increase the investment limit for Foreign Institutional Investors upto 49 per cent, including their sub- accounts (FIIs), in the shares or bonds convertible into shares of the company, by purchase or acquisition from the market under the portfolio investment scheme under FEMA, subject to necessary provisions and approvals.

    An extra ordinary general meeting (EGM) of the members of the company will be held on 11 December to discuss the aforesaid matters, adds the release.

  • AnyTime clinches VoD deal with IOL

    AnyTime clinches VoD deal with IOL

    aMUMBAI: AnyTime, Asia Pacific’s video-on-demand channel (VoD), has signed a five-year distribution agreement with India’s broadband provider, India On Line Broadband Ltd (IOL).

    Four million homes in Mumbai and Delhi will have access to AnyTime VoD movie channel and interactive games channels by March 2007, asserts an official release.

    The AnyTime VoD movie channel will be the exclusive provider of Hollywood VoD programs and will form the cornerstone of the MTNL-IOL and BSNL-IOL IPTV platforms, supported by BSNL respectively.

    The AnyTime channel is expected to go live in December, making a wide range of Hollywood movies-both new releases and library titles. Besides that interactive games would be available on-demand which will introduce a new level of choice and control in entertainment in India, adds the release.

    AnyTime CEO Craig Zimbulis said, “This is an unprecedented deal for IPTV in the region. On-demand delivery of video content is set to boom in India, this is a country that clearly has a huge appetite for next generation services. IOL, MTNL, BSNL and AnyTime by working together will be able to offer Indian viewers an entirely new way to enjoy and consume Hollywood entertainment.”

    “Singapore’s transparent media regulatory framework and its abundant supply of skilled industry professionals have given AnyTime a great home and assisted AnyTime in realising our Asia Pacific growth plans and ambitions,” he added.

  • Digital TV conversion impacting TV market

    Digital TV conversion impacting TV market

    MUMBAI : The international migration from analog broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT) marches on with a significant impact on the television set market, reports market research firm In-Stat.

    Many nations have announced an analog broadcast shutoff date, but how they implement this change varies, In-Stat says. Some countries are allocating spectrum so they can transmit analog and digital broadcasts concurrently for a number of years. Other countries are rolling out DTT regionally and shutting down analog service as the rollout is completed.

    “There are now four main standards for digital television (DTV) broadcasting, with some similarities between these standards in audio and video compression, but the demodulation schemes are all different,” says Chris Kissel, In-Stat analyst. “Consumers that wish to receive free, over-the-air broadcasts must buy either a digital television with a digital tuner, or must have a set top box or converter box to receive the signal.”

    Among the findings in the study are:

    *DTV tuner integration is happening faster in North America and Japan than it is in Europe or other parts of Asia.

    *In-Stat anticipates that flat-panel displays will overtake CRTs by 2007.

    *11.6% of all respondents to an In-Stat US consumer survey plan to buy a new DTV set within the next six months.

  • Discovery launches HD service in Europe via Intelsat

    Discovery launches HD service in Europe via Intelsat

    MUMBAI: Satellite services firm Intelsat has announced that Discovery will use its Pas-12 satellite to provide Discovery HD, the company’s international high-definition network, in Europe.

    The signing of Discovery as an anchor tenant on Pas-12 marks the start of a high-powered distribution alternative to new channels looking to deliver HD programming across Europe says Intelsat.

    Using capacity on Pas-12, Discovery will provide distribution of Discovery HD, which will originate at its European headquarters in London, to Europe. GlobeCast Europe will uplink the content at its Brookman’s Park teleport in the UK. The signing of the new agreement with Intelsat marks the significant expansion of an already successful relationship, as Intelsat currently provides distribution capacity for Discovery to reach its nearly 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers worldwide.

    Discovery executive VP media, technology and operations John Honeycutt says, “High-definition in Europe is fast growing and as the leader in HD programming, Discovery will continue to play a large role in the development and distribution of content and services utilizing this technology.

    “We have long relied on Intelsat’s global system to support the implementation of our global distribution strategy.”

    Intelsat senior VP, Americas Sales Kurt Riegelman says, “A programmer the caliber of Discovery Communications committing to anchor our new HD neighborhood speaks volumes about the confidence it has in our company and in our system.

    “Intelsat has played a significant role in the distribution of HD programming worldwide and is exceedingly dedicated to furthering the advancement of HD in Europe. We believe that Discovery’s desire to distribute HD across the continent signifies a healthy and growing demand which we’re committed to facilitating.”

    Intelsat currently operates an HD neighborhood in the US on its Galaxy 13 satellite. The establishment of a new HD satellite for Europe is the company’s first step at expanding full-time HD distribution to other areas of the world.