ITV

Category: iWorld

  • Sony LIV launches microsite for Boogie Woogie

    Sony LIV launches microsite for Boogie Woogie

    MUMBAI:  As the iconic dance reality show, Boogie Woogie, returned on television sets after a four-year long wait, Sony LIV has launched a microsite which allows viewers to catch up on all the current and archived episodes.  The microsite is http://www.boogiewoogie.in <http://boogiewoogie.sonyliv.com.

    Sony Entertainment Network executive vice-president –new media, business development and digital/syndication Nitesh Kripalani said, “Boogie Woogie has been the longest-running and one-of-the most successful dance shows on Indian television. Sony LIV gives viewers the opportunity to tune in to the new season without losing the thread of the show’s running episodes. Diehard viewers can catch up with missed episodes using Sony LIV’s online platform. As an added bonus, true blue fans of one of the most entertaining and beloved shows on television can even relive the fun moments of earlier seasons from its 15 year stint through our archives online.”

    In addition, new features have been introduced to enhance viewer engagement with the show. These include: Boogie of the day: Sony LIV users can vote for their favourite, dance videos depending on which contestant they like best and I am a street dancer:  Users can upload videos of their kids dancing ‘Boogie Woogie style’ and thus share it with fellow dance lovers on the site.

  • Ministry of home affairs spikes FDI hike in telecom, media

    Ministry of home affairs spikes FDI hike in telecom, media

    Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s proposal to increase foreign direct investment in the information and broadcasting and telecom sectors may never see the light of day.

    The reason: the ministry of home affairs has not agreed to increase FDI caps and/or entry routes in respect to “aviation, telecom and information and broadcasting sectors on account of their sensitivity and security concerns,” Minister of State for Home R P N Singh said in reply to a written question in parliament today, according to agency reports.

    Singh said the Home Ministry has also raised issues pertaining to “investments of concern” and in respect of different categories of investors and investments; source of investments and instruments of investment.

    Trai had earlier this year recommended hiking FDI caps for news television (TV) and private FM radio services to 49% from the current 26%. It had also proposed a FDI hike to 100 per cent (from 74 per cent currently) in distribution and carriage services such as direct-to-home (DTH) TV, cable networks and mobile TV.

  • Reserve price for the auction of telecom spectrum in 1800 MHz and 900 MHz bands finalised

    Reserve price for the auction of telecom spectrum in 1800 MHz and 900 MHz bands finalised

    NEW DELHI: The reserve price for 1800 MHz band has been fixed for Rs 1,765 crore per MHz Pan India, which works out to be Rs 8,825 crore for 5 MHz Pan India.

    The Union Cabinet has approved the finalisation of the reserve price for auction of spectrum in 1800 MHz band for all service areas and for 900 MHz band in Metro service areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

    According to the recommendation of the Empowered Group of Ministers, the reserve price for 900 MHz band of Rs 360 crore, Rs 328 crore and Rs. 125 crore per MHz in Metro service areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata respectively.

    The decisions will result in further efficient utilisation of the scarce natural resource of spectrum facilitating expansion of telecom services in the country.

  • Close Trendspotters.tv launches android to ensure TV availability everywhere

    Close Trendspotters.tv launches android to ensure TV availability everywhere

    NEW DELHI: India’s first online digital channel, Trendspotters.tv, is set for a beta launch of its app that will help viewers stay tuned to the latest trends, wherever they are.

    With direct access to watch all the stories that are trending on www.trendspotters.tv, it helps catch a quick glimpse of the best of shows for this season in the world of fashion, entertainment and lifestyle. It also enables users to share interesting news in these segments with their friends, through popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc.

    Trendspotters.tv founder Kunal Kishore Sinha said: “The launch of our new Android app for Trendspotters.tv is in continuation of our commitment to reach out to our target audience through the tablet, smartphone and online platform. The mobile generation today demands a way of accessing their news in a manner that is snappy and crisp without losing its relevance. The app caters to this need to be in the thick of micro trends as they happen as well as comment, review and share their feedback directly with our team.”

    The app is also created to enhance user engagement with an opportunity to connect with Facebook and Twitter friends via the Trendspotters.tv page. It is an innovative way of digital interaction that manoeuvres the medium of the smartphone to keep the user ahead of the times. The app is push notification enabled so as to given an alert if there is any new content, as soon as it hits the page online.

    With Trendspotters.tv gaining favourable traction since its launch so far, its app will try to take a step further in empowering users to stay on top of the best of entertainment and fashion, through a platform that is quick, convenient and extremely user-friendly.

  • Multi-screen marketing drive to pick-up in 2014

    Multi-screen marketing drive to pick-up in 2014

    BENGALURU: Video budgets will continue to shift from TV to multi-screen in 2014 predicts a Millward Brown report. Millward Brown helps clients grow strong brands.

    Authored by Millward Brown experts from around the world, the report identifies the need for marketers to better understand consumer behaviour across devices and adjust their investment accordingly as the primary challenge for 2014. 

    “In 2014, we’ll see more marketers seeking to generate interaction between screens via interesting approaches such as TV ads with hashtags. However, the most successful marketers will build a cohesive, clear and consistent presence across screens and closely align advertising expenditure with the time their audience spends on each device,” said Duncan Southgate Global Brand Director for Digital, Millward Brown

    Marketers will need more in-depth audience planning insights into when, where and how different consumers are using different devices in a year when content will simply be viewed on the most convenient screen. They will also need research tools that assess communications effectiveness across screens and help them understand the roles of different screens in the path to purchase. 

    Clarity and consistency of messaging across all devices and new marketing opportunities will be critical to success. With Millward Brown eye-tracking data for digital display ads suggesting that just one appealing visual is enough to attract attention and consumers focusing on a range of stimuli in quick succession, brands that adopt a more minimalist and to-the-point approach will achieve greater engagement.

    Millward Brown anticipates significant changes in the media landscape around the world such as:  (1) Video budgets will continue to shift from TV to multi-screen; (2) Mobile media spend will rise dramatically, especially among youth-targeted brands; (3) Brands will create more mobile-friendly and readily shareable content and many will experiment with micro-video platforms such as Vine; (4) The rise of screens in all aspects of our lives will encourage many marketers to attempt genuine marketing firsts via creative uses of digital outdoor or via the new possibilities presented by wearable screens such as smart watches and Google Glass.  

  • Big B is the undisputed king on Twitter among Bwood celebs

    Big B is the undisputed king on Twitter among Bwood celebs

    MUMBAI: In his career spanning more than four decades, no actor has been able to surpass the craze of Amitabh Bachchan. And now the shehansha of Bollywood seems to be ruling the social-media space as well. According to the “Bollywood Twitter Index”, a social media analytics report released by To The New, a leading digital services ecosystem in India, AB has been crowned the undisputed king of Twitter among his Bollywood counterparts.

    The report is based on a research by ThoughtBuzz, the social media analytics’ arm of To The New. The Bollywood Twitter Index reveals that Amitabh Bachchan continued to reign over the micro-blogging site with the highest number of followers, clocking a growth of 87 per cent over the last year, followed by the Khan-brigade – Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Making an appearance at number five, Priyanka Chopra is the only actress in the top five Indian movie celebrities’ list.

    Despite gaining the maximum number of followers over the last one year with 151 per cent increase, Bollywood’s Dhak-Dhak girl, Madhuri Dixit narrowly missed making it to the list this year. She was nudged out by B-town fashionista, Sonam Kapoor, who hung on to the number 10 position with an 87 per cent increase in followers since last year.

    Other significant gainers include Akshay Kumar with a 99 per cent increase and Deepika Padukone with an 82 per cent increase in the number of followers over the last year.

    One of the most interesting things to note is that despite being virtually inactive, Aamir Khan has continued to attract fans, having amassed nearly two lakh new followers in the last two months. Aamir’s only tweets in the current year are about narration of his experience of meeting David Cameron, Prime Minister of United Kingdom and #ThankYouSachin during the cricketer’s last test match in Mumbai.

    Other revelations that the study makes: Around 27 percent conversations that Bollywood celebrities indulge in on Twitter are about promoting their work or films; around 24 per cent of the tweets are about their personal experiences or general interactions with their fans; the rest of the Twitterverse discussions are based around promoting their own brands (9 per cent), favourite quotes (7 per cent), opinions about specific issues (6 per cent) and social causes (4 per cent).

  • Pak journalists insecure about cybersecurit

    Pak journalists insecure about cybersecurit

    NEW DELHI: Edward Snowden has revealed that not even Pakistanis were safe from surveillance of NSA and major portion of surveillance was done on journalists.

    About 13.5 billion pieces of email, phone and fax communications were intercepted from the country.

    The famous whistleblower who resides in asylum in Russia has also said that although Pakistani journalists are victim of major surveillance, they still have little knowledge about cyber security, according to MoreMag.

    He said, “There were people in news organizations who did not recognise that any unencrypted message sent over the internet is being delivered to every intelligence service in the world. In the wake of this year’s disclosures, it should be clear that unencrypted journalist-source communication is unforgivably reckless.”

    A study even revealed that cyber insecurity of data of journalists even puts their physical security into jeopardy. In wake of all these events, a workshop was held by Senate Committee on Defence titled as “Cyber Security for Journalists” to help journalists understand the concept and need of cyber security for journalists.

    Committee’s head Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed said that workshop is not just about informing journalist about the issues related to cyber security but to also take their input for secure cyber space in the country.

  • Netflix is gaining popularity over cable among US young adults

    Netflix is gaining popularity over cable among US young adults

    MUMBAI: The statistics portal Statista has revealed in its study that among Americans between the ages of 18 and 36, 46 per cent of paid subscribers choose cable, while 43 per cent are Netflix users.

    This, however, shifts as the demo ages up. Of those ages 37 to 48, 48 per cent subscribe to cable TV and 31 per cent subscribe to Netflix. With respondents 49 to 67, 55 per cent opt for cable and 21 per cent for Netflix.

    Looking at other pay-TV services, with Americans aged 18 to 36, 16 per cent subscribe to satellite TV, 17 per cent to Amazon Prime and eight per cent to Hulu Plus. Satellite TV is more popular with older demos, with 30 per cent of those 37 to 48 subscribing, 28 per cent of those 49 to 67, and 25 per cent of those over age 68. Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus are less popular with older demographics.

    Of Americans ages 37 to 48, 15 per cent said they subscribe to Amazon Prime, and five per cent to Hulu Plus. Among 49-year-olds to 67-year-olds, 10 per cent choose Amazon Prime and three per cent choose Hulu Plus. Amazon Prime has captured only six per cent of the demo 68-plus, according to the survey, and for Hulu Plus, the figure is just a per cent.

  • Spotify plans free mobile version of its service

    Spotify plans free mobile version of its service

    MUMBAI: Spotify AB is planning a free, ad-supported version of its streaming-music service on mobile devices, according to reports doing rounds, after previously making mobile users pay a monthly fee.

    The Sweden-based music company has reached licensing deals with all three of the global music companies to use its recordings on the new service. Until now, a free version of Spotify was available only on desktop and laptop computers.

    Spotify, which has six million paying subscribers and 20 million active users world-wide, has negotiated with three major record companies – Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and Access Industries’ Warner Music Group – over the rates it will pay them to play songs on the free mobile service, and over how much direct control users have over what they listen to, reports claimed.

    The new ad-supported offering will allow nonpaying mobile users to play a limited number of songs on demand, but will mostly serve up music based on the user’s input, much like custom radio services such as Pandora Media.

    Spotify launched its own custom radio feature last year. Spotify’s premium service, which costs $10 a month, delivers unlimited, on-demand music from its 20 million-song catalog on any device. Until now, free users have been able to play music on demand, with ads, on their computers – but they can’t use the service from their mobile phones or tablets, unless they enter their credit-card information to sign up for the 30-day premium-service trial.

  • Twitter gives power to woman

    Twitter gives power to woman

    MUMBAI: In the last two years, Twitter has just seen a rise in the number of users. It has become a phenomenon. But the microblogging site was criticised time and again for gender imbalance in the top ranks. However, the social media platform seems to have rectified it by bringing on to board executive Marjorie Scardino to its director ranks.

    Scardino is not just Twitter’s first female director; she’s also one of the first person with an experience in old media. Scardino with whom the Twitter board to expand to eight members, is a former chief executive of publishing company Pearson and has served as an editor for the Associated Press, a publisher of a Georgia Gazette newspaper and is also the former CEO of The Economist Group and a former board member of phone maker Nokia.

     

    In a regulatory filing, Twitter said that Scardino will replace David Rosenblatt on Twitter’s audit committee. However, Rosenblatt will continue to be on the compensation committee.