ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • Airtel & TVF create internet’s live reality show

    Airtel & TVF create internet’s live reality show

    MUMBAI: Nomophobia – the fear of being without your mobile phone or being unable to use your phone for some reason. Bringing this phobia to life with a hilarious twist is internet’s first ever live reality show, TVF is presenting — Airtel connected live. In a world where people have a fear of not being always connected through their smartphones, TVF and Airtel come together to create this first-of-a-kind live event & branded content IP in India.

    From the TVF stable, creators of the most compelling web content in India and makers of the immensely popular series like “TVF Pitchers”, “Permanent roommates”, “TVF Tripling” amongst others, comes a yet another first in its category. TVF presents Airtel connected live is a live web-reality event which will take place from August 18 – 20th. Featuring Jitendra Kumar, one of TVF’s most popular faces, lovingly called Jeetu by his fans, the live reality show will see him being dared to live alone in a house. Little does he know, TVF & Airtel have some surprises in store for him. That’s not all! Even you the viewers can throw a dare at Jeetu. Filled with 3 days of entertaining tasks playing on Webcast live on TVFPlay and on Facebook; Airtel Connected Live is an opportunity for fans to see their favourite TVF faces up close and personal. Featuring cameos from popular TVF faces like Anant Singh, Nidhi Bisht, Nidhi Singh, Biswapati Sarkar and others, Airtel Connected Live promises to take branded content on the web in India to the next level. Recently, TVF also took a step towards live entertainment by conducting its first live Truth or Dare.

    Jitendra Kumar popularly known as Jeetu shared, “My love to Airtel for supporting us crazy TVF people in this larger than life dare plan. Initially I was taking it lightly but now I am a little scared about these three days. At the same time I am also looking forward to it because it gives me a feeling of our childhood video games where our hero used to face different situations and clear all the stages successfully in the end. I am looking forward to a lot of fun and expecting the toughest and most entertaining tasks from our crazy TVF Truth vs. Dare team. Looking forward to the love and support from people out there in finishing my tasks.”

    Vineet Kanabar, Head of Marketing, TVF said, “The Viral Fever has always been a leader in experimenting with new formats of digital entertainment. Live videos on Facebook & YouTube emerged as an exciting format and we have used these extensively to entertain the audience. With Airtel Connected Live, we’re taking the next leap in digital entertainment. Interactive real-time live entertainment is the holy grail of digital branded content and we’re excited to be among the first movers in this space. Kudos to Airtel & GroupM for reposing their trust in us to take this giant leap. Stay tuned, there will be more to come in this space from us.”

    Mausumi Kar, Managing Partner, Team Airtel @ GroupM elaborated, “Airtel Connected LIVE is inspired by the popular ‘escape from locked room’ concept; but that’s where the similarity ends. The edge-of-the-seat fear and anxiety fare usually connected with this format was replaced being alien to our brand DNA. Instead the viewer is made a part of a journey of fun and humor. We are glad to partner with TVF to bring alive our idea and add the dimensions of subtle brand integrations with easy camaraderie with viewers that they have delivered.”

    Airtel spokesperson shared, “As a platform, Airtel Connected Live helps demonstrate the power of Airtel network. This is a first-of-its-kind three day continuous live activation created in conjunction with TVF that challenges all thresholds of digital engagement experienced before. It also proves how the right choice of network enables the true use of smartphones.”

  • PeerLogix signs OTT ad pact with DMP & Neustar

    PeerLogix signs OTT ad pact with DMP & Neustar

    MUMBAI: PeerLogix has announced that it had signed a 12-month revenue sharing agreement with an unspecified Data Management Platform (DMP) in the digital advertising industry.

    It had earlier announced a partnership with Neustar, Inc., a neutral provider of real-time information services, as a preferred data onboarding provider to expand PeerLogix’s data distribution to data management and demand-side platforms. This partnership will enable clients of PeerLogix to execute highly targeted cross-channel advertising campaigns powered by a global audience of 170 million households of Over-the-Top television programming, movies, games and listeners of music. Neustar was selected because it provides precise, scalable, secure, and privacy-friendly data onboarding capabilities in the market.

    The DMP partnership enables PeerLogix’s digital audience segments to be sold directly on the partner company’s platform and to their clientele, including major brands and Fortune 500 companies and features a rev-share commitment to PeerLogix to be paid on a monthly basis. Furthermore, the partnership provides a new capability for the partner company — the ability to advertise, target, and measure a massive amount of previously unavailable OTT audiences based on digital television, music and movie viewing and listening habits of the residents — bolstering the DMP’s offering to its clients in the media and entertainment industries.

    OTT is now mainstream and is projected to grow from USD 28.04 Billion in 2015 to USD 62.03 Billion by 2020 as people continue to cut ties with their cable TV packages and instead opt for a combination of subscription and non-subscription based OTT services, such as streaming applications and websites.

    “Advertisers are rapidly seeking out OTT supply and other ways to make up for lost viewership from linear-tv audiences that continue to contract in overall size. Our partners are taking advantage of our OTT Audience Graph to empower themselves to reach households lost to cord-cutting and the fragmentation of cable, and maximize advertising spend to streaming and digital audiences,” said PeerLogix CEO Ray Colwell.

    The company monitors OTT viewership of mainstream television programming, movies, and major musical artists, and periodically reports on trends seen in the market.

    Cumulative video hours for non-subscription OTT viewership was observed at 306 million hours which was a +20.9% increase from the prior quarter. Based on this rate of growth, the company estimates that total video hours watched for Q3-2017 will be approximately 370 million hours.

    “Much of the increase in Q2 was driven by developing markets, such as India, which has lead OTT viewership growth this year and averaged a monthly growth rate of approximately 10% compared to an 8% growth rate in the US. These trends are consistent with those of Netflix and other OTT services that are seeing larger growth from their international presence where middle-class expansion is taking place at a faster rate than developed markets. We expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future.” said PeerLogix chief strategy officer William Gorfein.

    Notable to both market observers and advertisers was the specific television content that was popular over the measurement period. Taking a deeper dive, the Company’s Q2 measurement results showed the very strong popularity of HBO programming with Game of Thrones leading the pack with a staggering 6.8 index rating.

    “This is not surprising as the new season of Game of Thrones premiered on 16 July and upticks in viewership are very common before new season premieres, as highlighted in our 17 July report predicting opening weekend box office success of film and television franchises. We’ve seen a halo effect for HBO as this popularity lifted viewership for Big Little Lies and Westworld. Two popular franchises of the network that are notable because they are not currently in season,” Gorfein explains

  • Kumar Mangalam Birla charges into content creation, hires TV vet Sameer Nair

    MUMBAI: Sameer “Sam” Nair has made it a habit to go where many  a man has gone before and failed. The only difference: he has made what he has been charged with a success.

    Now, the former Star TV COO and former Balaji Telefilms group CEO, is headed to the $43 billion Aditya Birla group to revive chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla’s long harboured ambitions to chew away a piece of the fast growing Indian entertainment business through his company Applause Entertainment.

    Earlier, attempts by Birla under Applause were abject financial failures, though the company churned out films such as the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Black and Dev.

    The reason: Birla did not have a strong platform 10 years ago, and attempts to create for cinema and television were challenging. However, with the upcoming Idea-Vodafone giant (around 400 million subs when the two merge by 2018) under his belt, he won’t be facing that challenge in his fresh attempt to build the entertainment side of his business. Additionally, he has  Sam who has a track record of turning around struggling entertainment companies.  Finally,  global platforms such as Amazon, Netflix and Hotstar will be another window of opportunity for revived entity.

    Thus, Kumar Mangalam has kept aside an initial  investment  war chest of  Rs 2-3 billion this time around.

    Sam  and Applause will be focused on creating premium drama series, in multiple genres and languages (Tamil, Hindi and Telugu) in the shorter format with seasons to feed the new emerging audience which is currently gorging on shows such as House of Cards and Game of Thrones. The idea, according to Sam is to work with content producers in the established studio structure to roll out the first batch of shows rather quickly in the next six months. Around 20-30 series  across romance, drama, crime and thriller genres will be delivered over the next 18 months.

    Dropping data prices on mobile and increased consumption of video while on the move are factors which will fuel the explosion in content in India going forward, points out Sam.  Content, he says,  has to play catch-up with technology.

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  • PCCW Media reports lower half year video numbers, higher OTT numbers

    BENGALURU: Hong Kong based telecommunications, media, IT solutions, property development and investment and other businesses group PCCW Limited reported lower numbers for its video operations comprising of NowTV and improved revenue for its ViuTV and its OTT operations for the half year ended 30 June 2017 (H1-17) as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Overall, on a consolidated basis, the group’s revenue and operating profits were stable during the current year period as compared to the corresponding year ago period.

    For NowTV, the company reported a stable subscriber base of about 1.3 million and lower average revenue per user (ARPU) of HK$186 in H1-17. The company has mentioned ARPU of HK$ 194 for H1-16 and HK$192 for H2-16. Consequently, revenue in the current quarter declined 3 percent to HK$ 1,350 million from HK$ 1,391 million in the corresponding period of last year (H1-16) and from HK$ 1509 million in the immediate trailing half year period (H2-16).

    NowTV EBIDTA was HK$ 154 million, HK$ 184 million and HK$ 229 million for H1-17, H1-16 and H2-16 respectively.

    For its Free TV business – ViuTV, the company reported revenue in H1-17 of HK$94 million as compared to HK$ 52 million in H1-17, but lower than the HK$ 108 million for H2-17. ViuTV had a higher operating loss (negative EBIDTA) for H1-17 at HK$ 116 million as compared to HK$ 68 million in H1-16 and HK$ 115 million in H2-16.

    OTT services revenue increased 24 percent to HK$ 337 million in H1-17 as compared to HK$ 227 million in H1-16 and HK$ 312 million in H2-16. OTT services reported a higher operating loss (negative EBIDTA) of HK$ 125 million in H1-17 as compared to HK$ 109 million in H1-16 and slightly lower than an operating loss of HK$ 126 million in H2-16.

    Overall, PCCW Limited core revenue decreased by 5 percent to HK$ 17,576 million due to a slowdown in Mobile handset sales at HKT. Excluding Mobile handset sales, core revenue was steady at HK$ 16,549 million. The Solutions and over-the-top (OTT) businesses showed continued growth momentum with their revenues increasing by 6 percent and 24 percent, respectively, for the six months ended June 30, 2017, compared to a year ago

    PCCW Group managing director BG Srinivas said the Group’s strategy was to continue to develop and maintain our leadership in the relevant markets of each of our core businesses of IT solutions, media, and telecommunications, while seeking new growth opportunities.

    He said, “With an excellent track record in large-scale IT projects and a global data centre network alliance, PCCW Solutions will continue to benefit from the needs of enterprises and the public sector to go digital. The significant recurring nature of its business and the expanding demand for digital transformation capabilities should lead to a growing contribution from PCCW Solutions.”

    “Now TV has consolidated its market leadership in the pay TV industry in Hong Kong while ViuTV has broadened our reach into the TV advertising market. Although the environment in the media industry in Hong Kong has been very dynamic in the past year, we expect the competitive behavior to rationalize and lead to improved profitability. The OTT business has extended our geographic scope beyond Hong Kong and we now have a presence in 24 markets. Our goal is to build the leading digital media service in Asia with the best viewing experience and most relevant content,” added Srinivas.

    PCCW raises US$ 110million for video and music streaming

    In a press release, PCCW says that it has raised US$110 million to expand its penetration in its existing markets as well as to expand to other high growth markets its range of video and music streaming services. Hony Capital, Foxconn Ventures and Singapore sovereign fund Temasek have taken an 18 percent share in the enlarged issued share capital of PCCW OTT. PCCW Media will remain as the controlling shareholder of PCCW OTT. PCCW OTT is present in over in 24 markets globally. Its services include video streaming services under the Viu and Vuclip brands along with a music streaming service MOOV.

    The company says that this strategic investment will strengthen PCCW OTT’s ability to enhance its core value proposition of relevant content including distinctive original productions, and to continue to deploy the latest technologies and leverage its patents in video streaming and encoding to offer the best customer experience.

  • Vuclip parent PCCW sells 18% in OTT biz for $110m, fuels growth

    MUMBAI: PCCW Media, the parent company of Vuclip which provides web-based and short-form content video services in 19 markets including India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa and other emerging markets with multiple patents, has introduced three investors.

    Further fueling growth and innovation of Viu and other OTT services in Asia and beyond, PCCW has brought in Hony Capital (Hony), Foxconn Ventures (Foxconn) and Temasek as investors of PCCW International OTT (Cayman Islands) Holdings Limited (PCCW OTT).

    This strategic investment will strengthen PCCW OTT’s ability to enhance its core value proposition of relevant content including distinctive original productions, and to continue to deploy the latest technologies and leverage its patents in video streaming and encoding to offer the best customer experience. As a rapidly expanding business, PCCW OTT aims to increase its penetration within the existing markets where it has made significant inroads as well as to expand its footprint in other high-growth markets.

    PCCW OTT engages in the provision of OTT (over-the-top) Internet media and entertainment services in 24 markets globally, including video streaming services under the “Viu” and “Vuclip” brands as well as a music streaming service under the “MOOV” brand. Hony, Foxconn and Temasek will own approximately 18% of the enlarged issued share capital of PCCW OTT for a total consideration of US$110 million. PCCW Media will remain as the controlling shareholder of PCCW OTT.

    PCCW Media Group managing director Janice Lee said, “Our focus on content, pricing and technology that are locally relevant in various markets, together with our fast-tracked rollout across the region, has enabled Viu to become a leading OTT video service in Asia. We are very excited to have Hony, Foxconn and Temasek join us as strategic shareholders. Bringing these reputable partners in the business will support our current plans and strengthen our leading position in the market with the introduction of more locally relevant and original content, and technology to support innovative product development – all of which are beneficial to our ecosystem comprised of users, advertisers and business partners.”

    Hony Capital chairman and CEO John Zhao said, “Hong Kong is the forefront of international collaboration responding to the Belt and Road Initiatives, and Viu at present has laid out effective business map in Southeast Asian countries along the Belt and Road, which will no doubt play an essential and unique role to help the culture, content as well as creative ideas to travel abroad. We are glad that we can join hands with Viu led by Lee, and we hope Hony Capital can bring in not only the capital support, but also other value-added services and resources. In the meanwhile, Hony Capital can incorporate the business into our existing endeavors in the cultural and creative industry, to eventually offer even better Chinese contents to the world.”

    Foxconn EVP Fang Ming Lu said, “Foxconn is transforming to be a Technology Service Provider from content creation to network transmission. We will work with PCCW to deliver advanced OTT service to the market. We believe the collaboration will enhance the customer experience in entertainment life and accelerate the development of the OTT ecosystem.”

    Launched in October 2015, Viu has over 12 million monthly active users as of June 2017. The service operates on a dual-model of an ad-supported tier of service and a premium subscription tier of service with more features. Viu delivers premium Asian content in different genres from top content providers with express delivery of local language subtitles as fast as four hours after original telecast. It also offers original production series under the “Viu Original” initiative. Viu is available in 15 markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and the Middle East countries of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

    Joining the PCCW family in May 2015, both Viu and Vuclip users can enjoy smooth and unbuffered viewing experience regardless of device or network conditions. MOOV is one of Hong Kong’s largest multi-platform digital streaming music service and ranked number one on brand awareness and user satisfaction in Hong Kong (which is also available in Vietnam).

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  • CBS revenues up 9%, gains from retransmission, skinny bundles & OTT

    MUMBAI: CBS Corporation has reported record second quarter revenues, operating income, and diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) from continuing operations.

    “CBS delivered outstanding second quarter results while continuing to take a number of steps to achieve our long-term financial goals,” said Leslie Moonves, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. “First, we had a terrific upfront with gains in pricing and volume, including more and more deals that better reflect how people are watching our programming on a delayed basis. In addition, we took significant steps during the quarter to grow our affiliate fees from both traditional and ‘skinny’ bundles. Retransmission consent and reverse compensation increased 25% in the second quarter. And we are now seeing the benefit of our recent skinny bundle deals with Google’s YouTube TV, Hulu, fuboTV, and just today we announced that we will be a part of DIRECTV NOW as well. At the same time, our in-house over-the-top subscription services, CBS All Access and Showtime OTT, continue to grow beyond our expectations and are on track to surpass a combined four million subscribers by the end of 2017. We are now gearing up to take the next strategic step with All Access by expanding it into the international marketplace, starting with Canada in the first half of 2018. Showtime also had a terrific quarter, led by the successful return of Twin Peaks, which boosted OTT subscriptions dramatically, and we continue to expand the Showtime brand overseas with new deals to license our entire portfolio in France, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and others. So, 2017 is turning out to be a great year for the CBS Corporation even without the Super Bowl and political spending that we had in the prior year. And as we look ahead, we are positioned to have an even better year in 2018.”

    Second Quarter 2017 Results

    Revenues for the second quarter of 2017 increased 9% to $3.26 billion from $2.98 billion for the same prior-year period, with growth across all of the Company’s significant revenue streams. Affiliate and subscription fee revenues were up 16%, driven by a 25% increase in retransmission revenues and fees from CBS Television Network affiliated stations, as well as growth from new initiatives, including the Company’s digital subscription services. Advertising revenues were up 4%, led by the broadcast of the semifinals and finals of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship (“NCAA Tournament”) on the CBS Television Network. Content licensing and distribution revenues benefited from a higher volume of television licensing sales and grew 12%, despite a difficult comparison to the second quarter of 2016, which included the international sales of five Star Trek series.

    Operating income for the second quarter of 2017 increased 3% to $669 million from $651 million for the same prior-year period, despite higher-margin licensing sales in the second quarter of 2016. Net earnings from continuing operations increased 6% to $397 million for the second quarter of 2017 from $373 million for the same quarter last year, mainly a result of the higher operating income. Adjusted net earnings for the second quarter of 2017 were $427 million compared with net earnings of $423 million for the same prior-year period.

    Net earnings for the second quarter of 2017 were $58 million, which included a noncash charge of $365 million in discontinued operations to reduce the carrying value of CBS Radio to the value indicated by the stock valuation of Entercom Communications Corp. CBS Radio is classified as held for sale and therefore, in accordance with accounting guidance, the carrying value will continue to be adjusted based on the trading price of Entercom’s stock, which could result in future gains or losses.

    Diluted EPS from continuing operations for the second quarter of 2017 increased 18% to $.97 from $.82 for the same quarter in 2016, driven by higher earnings and lower shares outstanding in the second quarter of 2017 from the Company’s ongoing share repurchase program. Diluted EPS for the second quarter of 2017 was $.14 as a result of the above-mentioned noncash charge at CBS Radio, compared with $.93 for the prior-year period. Adjusted diluted EPS increased 12% to $1.04. During the quarter, the Company repurchased 4.7 million of its shares for $300 million.

    Details of the discrete items excluded from financial results, along with reconciliations of adjusted results to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, are included at the end of this earnings release.

    Free Cash Flow, Balance Sheet and Liquidity

    For the second quarter of 2017, operating cash flow from continuing operations was $231 million, compared with $216 million for the second quarter of 2016, and for the first six months of 2017, operating cash flow from continuing operations was $909 million, which included discretionary contributions of $100 million to prefund the Company’s qualified pension plans, compared with $1.14 billion for the first six months of 2016, which included CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl 50. Operating cash flow from continuing operations for 2017 benefited from higher affiliate and subscription fee revenues. Free cash flow was $190 million for the second quarter of 2017 compared with $181 million for the same prior-year period, and for the first six months of the year, free cash flow was $841 million in 2017, which included the aforementioned pension contributions, compared with $1.07 billion in 2016.

    In July 2017, the Company issued $400 million of 2.50% senior notes due 2023 and $500 million of 3.375% senior notes due 2028. The Company used the net proceeds from these issuances to repay its $400 million outstanding 1.95% senior notes which matured on July 1, 2017, and to redeem all of its $300 million outstanding 4.625% senior notes due May 2018. The remaining net proceeds were used for general corporate purposes, including the repayment of short-term borrowings, such as commercial paper.

    Consolidated and Segment Results (dollars in millions)

    The tables below present the Company’s revenues by segment and type; operating income (loss) excluding other operating items, net, by segment (“Segment Operating Income”); and depreciation and amortization by segment for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017, and 2016.

    Entertainment (CBS Television Network, CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Interactive, and CBS Films)

    Entertainment revenues of $2.18 billion for the second quarter of 2017 were up 12% from $1.95 billion for the same prior-year period. This increase was led by 38% growth in affiliate and subscription fees, driven by higher station affiliation fees and subscriber growth at CBS All Access. Advertising revenues increased 6%, as a result of the broadcast of the semifinals and finals of the NCAA Tournament on the CBS Television Network. Content licensing and distribution revenues benefited from more television licensing activity in the second quarter of 2017 and grew 12%, despite the difficult comparison with the prior-year period, which included the international licensing sales of five Star Trek series.

    Entertainment operating income of $346 million for the second quarter of 2017 decreased 1% from $351 million for the same prior-year period, primarily reflecting higher-margin revenues in the second quarter of 2016.

    Cable Networks (Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network, and Smithsonian Networks)

    Cable Networks revenues of $571 million for the second quarter of 2017 increased 7% from $536 million for the same prior-year period. The increase was driven by higher affiliate and subscription fees, led by growth of the Showtime digital streaming subscription offering and higher international television licensing sales of Showtime original series.

    Cable Networks operating income of $253 million for the second quarter of 2017 increased 11% from $227 million for the same prior-year period, primarily reflecting the revenue growth.

    Publishing (Simon & Schuster)

    Publishing revenues of $206 million for the second quarter of 2017 grew 10% from $187 million for the same prior-year period. The increase was led by growth in print book sales and digital audio sales. Bestselling titles for the second quarter of 2017 included Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare and I Can’t Make This Up by Kevin Hart.

    Publishing operating income of $28 million for the second quarter of 2017 increased 8% from $26 million for the same prior-year period, mainly reflecting the revenue growth.

    Local Media (CBS Television Stations and CBS Local Digital Media)

    Local Media revenues of $412 million for the second quarter of 2017 increased 4% from $396 million for the same prior-year period, driven by higher retransmission revenues. Advertising revenues for the second quarter of 2017 decreased 2%, driven by lower political advertising sales, which were offset by CBS’s broadcast of the semifinals and finals of the NCAA Tournament.

    Local Media operating income of $127 million for the second quarter of 2017 decreased 2% from $130 million for the same prior-year period due to the mix of revenues. Retransmission revenues have associated network affiliation costs paid to the CBS Television Network, whereas political advertising sales carry a high operating income margin.

    Corporate

    Corporate expenses for the second quarter of 2017 were $85 million compared with $83 million for the same prior-year period.

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  • 12 Discovery channels now available on Vodafone Play

    MUMBAI: A portfolio of 12 Discovery India channels are now available on Vodafone Play – Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery HD World, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Kids, Investigation Discovery (ID), Animal Planet HD World, TLC HD World, Discovery Tamil and a sports channel DSport.

    From science to traveling, Vodafone Play user have a wide choice of viewing channels.

    Facilitating the entertainment needs of the upwardly mobile and always on the move young Indian looking for hyper-personalised, bespoke experiences: Vodafone Play, a one-stop entertainment destination to enjoy streaming of content; be it Live TV, popular shows, latest movies or trending music videos, today announced a strategic partnership with Discovery Communications, expanding its infotainment content portfolio for its subscribers across genres.

    Commenting on the partnership, Vodafone India national head – VAS and content Dipankar Ghoshal said “Vodafone Play is a single window offering content across genres and languages and this association with Discovery strengthens our infotainment category. All consumers, including the Velvet Rope Generation, can now watch what they want, when they want and how they want. Our partnership with Discovery Communications will make their channels now accessible to Vodafone Play users to be viewed at their convenience.”

    Discovery Communications India SVP affiliate sales and product distribution Vijay Rajput said, “As the media ecosystem continues to evolve, we remain focused on delivering more content, across more screens, to more people. We are happy that Vodafone Play subscribers will now have access to Discovery’s rich storytelling at their fingertips.”

  • Mobile data traffic grew by 76%, tele-market to cross Rs 6.6 trn by ’20

    NEW DELHI: Communications minister Manoj Sinha has said consumption of video content is forecast to be 75 per cent of India’s mobile data traffic by 2021, compared to 49 per cent in 2016.

    He said the Indian telecom industry has seen a paradigm shift from a voice centric market to a data-centric market. While voice business still contributes a large chunk towards operator revenues, data revenues have shown an exponential growth trajectory over the last few years.

    Speaking at a workshop on Telecom India here, the minister said that by the end of 2016 the number of internet subscribers in India was 391.50 million making India globally the 2nd highest in terms of internet users. He added that mobile data traffic also grew by 76 per cent in India in 2016, primarily attributed to increased smart phone penetration. This growing usage of smart phones, especially in urban areas, has increased the usage of internet on hand-held devices – in 2016, 559 megabytes of mobile data was generated per month by an average smart phone, up from 430 megabytes per month in 2015.

    Sinha said advancements in innovative IoT technologies like health monitors, smart transport, smart meters among others, is projected to result in 21 per cent increase in M2M services. These advances will result in a significant growth of mobile data, and as the telecom sector moves to newer technologies, TSPs will need to identify innovative avenues to monetise this data opportunity. He said the Indian Telecom Market is expected to cross the Rs 6.6 trillion revenue mark by the year 2020.

    Sinha said that one of the projects under the ‘Digital India’ initiative was ‘BharatNet’, launched to deploy high-speed optical fiber cables to connect 250,000 Gram Panchayat across the country by 2018. The project is being implemented in Phases, with more than100,000 gram panchayats connected under Phase-I as of July 2017 and states like Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh nearing 100 per cent completion.

    This project would also help in increasing the fiberized sites in India which currently stands at less than 20 per cent as compared to other developed countries.

    Major achievements of the Indian telecom industry, Sinha said, include over 400 million internet users; FDI quadrupled in FY2016-17 recording inflow of approximately $ 5.6 billion; greater than 20 per cent tower sites now diesel free; rural tele density increased by 30 per cent over the last five years; more than 3/4th of the data consumption was from 3G/4G; tje telecom industry generates over 4 million jobs direct and indirect’ LTE device ecosystem grew by 270 per cent from 2015; and 38 new mobile manufacturing units set up since September 2015.

    He added that the government was working aggressively to connect 54,000 unconnected villages and would speed up its efforts after getting due reports from all states. An inter-ministerial group is looking into the financial health of the sector.

    Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said India is attempting to do nothing short of charting a new digital strategy for growth. She said the new Telecom Policy will be a key building block for achieving the growth target of 10 per cent from the current 7.6 per cent as Telecom and IT are the two sectors contributing to 16.5 per cent to the GDP, and there are immense possibilities for it to go up to 25 per cent.

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  • Limelight’s Adam Diep joins Ownzones as VP – client solutions

    MUMBAI: Veteran business development and technical marketing executive Adam Diep has joined Ownzones Media Network as the vice president – client solutions, it was announced by Aaron Sloman, Chief Technology Officer at the OTT EntTech company.

    Ownzones Media Network is a global “tribrid” media company combining content, distribution and technology solutions for the motion picture, television and digital entertainment industries.

    In his new post, Diep will lead technical client engagement to offer robust OTT solutions and digital media logistics utilizing Ownzones’ proprietary delivery platforms, OTT management systems, and advanced suite of device software and apps.  He will also build technology and industry relationships and champion strategic initiatives in business development, product management and marketing.

    “Adam will help solve OTT and app migration challenges confronting our clients by using our best-in-class product and workflow solution,” said Sloman.  “His experience and proven track record for delivering innovation will be invaluable to Ownzones.”

    Diep brings 15+ years working with startups to Fortune 500 companies as a technology and business management consultant.  The recent 10 years, he has focused on the digital media distribution and online streaming markets and advises many of the studios, networks and broadcasters on their digital video workflows and online distribution strategies.

    Diep comes to Ownzones from Limelight Networks, operator of one of the world’s largest and fastest content delivery networks, and recently served as the Director of Product Management of the company’s Video Platform and Services based in Tempe, AZ.

    The tech entrepreneur also founded and served as the Principal Consultant at WhDiYo Digital, a digital media consultancy, applications development and project management company specialized in building complex online services.  He is active with the local Orange County startup community and is an Expert-In-Residence at the UC Irvine’s Applied Innovation incubator as well as a judge for the Business Plan competition.  

    Diep holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Irvine and an M.B.A. from the Merage School of Business.  He resides in the Greater Los Angeles area.

    Also read :

    Netflix’s Nick Nelson joins Ownzones Media as head of product innovation

    Paywizard’s Vaguine joins Ownzones as SVP, to elevate European presence

     

  • BookMyShow’s entertainment biz gets a boost with Nfusion buy

    MUMBAI: BookMyShow, after redefining the movies and events ticketing space, is on its path to become the ultimate entertainment destination for users — by making its fourth acquisition this year. The online entertainment ticketing company has announced that it has acquired Nfusion for an undisclosed amount in an all-cash deal.

    Nfusion was set up in the Middle East in 2009 by Shoaib G.M. Khan, Sivagurunathan S and Prabhakar Reddy as a HD video-on-demand platform which allowed its users to stream videos online. While Shoaib (alumnus of BITS Pilani), designed, built and managed the end to end media platform, Prabhakar (alumnus of BITS Pilani and Harvard Business School) led the Product, Monetization and Business Development at Nfusion. Sivagurnathan (alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIM Bangalore) designed and managed the information security and infrastructure for Nfusion’s media portal.

    Nfusion’s scalable tech solutions, especially CMS (content management system), will be key to the success of BookMyShow’s foray into audio entertainment. The acquisition not just provides BookMyShow a robust tech platform but also an experienced team which will provide a fillip to BookMyShow’s audio entertainment offerings. While the Nfusion team will be headed by Shoaib, Sivagurunathan will lead the Architecture and Devops teams at BookMyShow.

    BookMyShow director Parikshit Dar said, “We have already established our video content vertical and are now excited to foray into audio entertainment through our offering ‘Jukebox’. The Nfusion team has brought with them immense experience, innovation capability as well as expertise in building and managing scalable tech solutions. With them and our music label partners, we look forward to offering the widest variety and possibly the best curated audio content to our users.”

    Through Jukebox, BookMyShow already offers free music downloads to its users. Anytime users book movie tickets on BookMyShow, they are rewarded with music credits which can be redeemed to download their favorite songs on the Android or iOS app. Currently, BookMyShow offers over 1.5 million songs to choose from and has already been witnessing 300% growth m-o-m in the number of downloads.

    To lead this vertical, BookMyShow has appointed Aditya Kuber as the associate vice-president – audio entertainment. He will report to BookMyShow CEO Ashish Hemrajani. Aditya will be instrumental in driving partnerships with music labels and distributors, creating exclusive audio content for BookMyShow users, and product marketing. He brings with him over 17 years of experience and has a demonstrated history of working across media, publishing, digital, and advertising.

    BookMyShow had earlier acquired Chennai based online ticketing player TicketGreen in 2013. The company then acquired a majority stake in Bengaluru-based social media analytics start-up Eventifier in 2015 and Chennai based fan relationship management (FRM) solutions provider, Fantain Sports Pvt. Ltd. in 2016.

    In 2017, BookMyShow acquired Hyderabad based online movie ticketing platform MastiTickets, invested in Pune based DIY platform Townscript and also acquired Mumbai based local food and restaurant recommendation engine Burrp.