ITV

Category: iWorld

  • MySpace to launch enhanced copyright protection tool

    MySpace to launch enhanced copyright protection tool

    MUMBAI: Social networking site MySpace.com, has announced plans to launch a new tool for copyright holders that makes it even easier and faster to remove content they allege is unauthorised.

    The tool is being tested with US broadcaster Fox and Major League Baseball (MLB) Advanced Media and will be expanded to include other verified copyright holders.

    The new tool will allow copyright holders to digitally flag any user-posted video containing content that they own and allege is unauthorized. MySpace will promptly remove all videos flagged by a copyright holder. In addition, MySpace has implemented a proprietary system to block videos that are removed at the request of a copyright owner from being re-uploaded to the site by other users.

    MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe says, “MySpace is firmly committed to protecting copyright holders’ rights. This is another important step we’re taking to ensure that those who create and own content are able to protect it.”

    The new tool will allow MySpace to more efficiently implement its long-standing policy against users uploading third-party copyrighted material by automating the ‘notice and take down’ process that has been in existence since MySpace’s inception.

    In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, MySpace has enforced copyright protection through a traditional ‘notice and takedown’ process whereby copyright holders inform MySpace of infringing content and MySpace promptly removes it from the site. With the new tool, MySpace will make it even easier for copyright holders to identify and take down user-posted videos containing unauthorized content.

    The announcement comes on the heels of MySpace’s landmark licensing deal with Gracenote, which implemented fingerprinting technology to help prevent unauthorised music from being posted by users to the site.

  • MSN India appoints Samir Saraiya as head of business development

    MSN India appoints Samir Saraiya as head of business development

    MUMBAI: MSN India, the leading online destination for Indians across the globe, today announced the appointment of Samir Saraiya as head of business development.

    Saraiya will be reporting to MSN India & Windows Live country head Jaspreet Bindra.
    According to Bindra in an official statement, “The Indian Internet market is flourishing and the growth that MSN India is experiencing reflects that. The appointment of Samir is part of our commitment to strengthen our pool of experience and expertise that MSN customers have come to expect.”

    In this newly created role, Saraiya will be responsible for leveraging the strengths of MSN India and Windows Live to create new opportunities and relationships with businesses in the Indian market.

    He has been with the internet industry for the past several years. The early dotcom wave saw him shifting to Mid-Day where he headed the group’s business development portfolio across its digital assets. He then joined the Indian media conglomerate, The Times of India Group, where he worked with the vice chairman’s office overseeing business strategy across the Group’s media properties, including Indiatimes, The Economic Times and Bombay Times.

    In 2003, he moved to Yahoo! India where he was responsible for creating new revenue streams across both the internet and mobile divisions including launching Yahoo! India’s E-commerce initiative and its mobile adverting products, states the release.

  • Mauj launches its debut music album ‘Asha and Friends’

    Mauj launches its debut music album ‘Asha and Friends’

    MUMBAI: Wireless solutions provider Mauj Telecom has announced the launch of a music album – Asha and Friends.

    Asha Bhosle, has got in tune with some known achievers from various fields to come up with a music album called Asha and Friends. Her friends in the album include Sanjay Dutt, Brett Lee, Urmila Matondkar, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil’ Champs and many more. The songs are being distributed by Virgin Records (India) Pvt Ltd, asserts an official release.

    Commenting on the launch of the new music album, Mauj CEO Arun Gupta said, “Mauj has always been an innovator in the arena of entertainment and digital lifestyle. We are extremely happy to partner with a legend – Asha Bhosle – to produce an exciting and fun album.”

    Asha Bhosale said, “I thought of Sanjay Dutt after seeing Munnabhai MBBS. I realised there were some portions in the songs which he sang himself. He has a bass voice, which is important for male singers. He has the right sense of tune and melody.”

    Commenting on Bret Lee’s involvement she added, “He was very excited about singing with me, and couldn’t believe I was more than double his age”

    Aussie pace bowler Brett Lee who was down in India for the Champions Trophy also agreed to sing with her even though he had earlier refused other offers in India. “She is phenomenal. For her age of 74, she sings like a youngster,” said Lee.

    The project has been conceptualised and composed by Shamir Tandon. The original idea was to have seven voices singing with her, further to which Ashaji shared her idea of having seven voices from different walks of life of people who can sing, but are not known for their singing.

    The album will be followed by several other albums which are cut and ready with the videos directed by some of India’s well known filmmakers.adds the release.

  • Microsoft’s Xbox 360 unveils ‘Viva Piñata’ in US

    Microsoft’s Xbox 360 unveils ‘Viva Piñata’ in US

    MUMBAI: Microsoft Corp. will celebrate the launch of Viva Piñata on Xbox 360, with a multi-city tour in the US, by presenting children’s activities and video game demonstrations at six launch events in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. It will also provide parents with information about online safety and Viva Piñata-related educational programs for children.

    The Xbox 360 video game follows the debut of the Viva Piñata Saturday morning animated television series on 4Kids TV Fox, states an official release.

    “The Xbox 360 game Viva Piñata inspired us to take the spirit of the game and expand the concept to create learning tools to help kids experience more about their Hispanic heritage in a fun and engaging way,” said Microsoft director of Xbox marketing Chris Di Cesare. “One example is a Viva Piñata digital desktop pet piñata that people can download to their computer. Every day the piñata will share new information about Hispanic culture from key holidays to Spanish vocabulary.”

    Children attending the events can enjoy piñata-making workshops, interactive video game demonstrations and the opportunity to be photographed with the characters from the Viva Piñata animated TV series. A traditional piñata breaking game will also give children an opportunity to win an Xbox 360 and Viva Piñata game.

    Viva Piñata, which translates to “long live the piñata,” invites gamers of all ages and skill levels to create an immersive world where living piñatas inhabit an ever-changing environment. Beginning with a few basic tools, players build and take control of this environment, using their creativity and imagination to attract, protect, nurture and manage more than 60 piñata species that can visit their world and make it their home.

    With the launch of Viva Piñata, Microsoft extends the Xbox 360 brand to younger gamers and more diverse audiences. The tour is one of several Microsoft marketing efforts aimed at attracting more U.S. Hispanic consumers, and acknowledgement of the growing influence of Hispanic culture.

    According to a report published by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, U.S. Hispanics will control more disposable personal income than any other U.S. minority group by 2007. Hispanic consumer spending power is expected to top $863 billion, a 300 percent increase in disposable spending power from 1990, adds the release.

    “The video game is one of several initiatives that Microsoft has created in an effort to promote diversity through innovative products,” said Microsoft director of Multi-Cultural Marketing José Piñero. “Microsoft’s initiative around Viva Piñata is a clear indication of the company’s support and interest in the Hispanic community.”

  • Radio City Hyderabad celebrates Jazz fest with Sandeep Chowta

    Radio City Hyderabad celebrates Jazz fest with Sandeep Chowta

    MUMBAI: Radio City 91.1 FM has undertaken a unique initiative in Hyderabd to popularise international music by getting Sandeep Chowta to be its star guest and host.

    Chowta has worked on Bollywood films like Satya, Company, Bollywood Hollywood, Mast, Jungle, Ashoka and Vaastav. His songs include Khallas, Babuji, Kambakht Ishq and Laila Laila. He has a rich background in jazz, and has also won international recognition as the only Asian composer to feature in Tata Young’s worldwide album with Sir Paul McCartney and musical luminaries, informs an official release.

    Radio City has joined hands with him to promote his upcoming jazz concert on 12 December titled Waiting for Tonight, where Grammy award master musicians like Bunny Brunel (Bass Guitar), Mitch Forman (Keyboards), Frank Gambale (Guitar), Virgil Donati (drums) will display to an awestruck Hyderabad audience their considerable musical talent.

    From 1 December Radio City will run an on-air contest. The musical Chowta will be the celeb RJ in all shows for the day on 10 December talking about the jazz festival and his passion for music The Jazz concert will also be conducted in Bangalore and Mumbai, and Radio City will be exclusively partnering the same.

    According to Radio City Rana Barua head marketing, “Radio City has always believed in bringing to our listeners the best, through the best. We constantly push the envelope by offering differentiated and innovative programming to our listeners.. With ‘Sham-E-Ghazal With Roop Kumar Rathod’, we pioneered the trend of celebrity RJs, which received tremendous listener feedback and advertiser response. We are proud to be hosting Sandeep Chowta and are certain that our endeavour to popularise quality international music will be well received by our listeners “

  • NDS joins Anytime Technology partner programme

    NDS joins Anytime Technology partner programme

    MUMBAI: Anytime, Asia Pacific’s leading Video on-Demand (VoD) channel, today announced that NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, is the newest member of the Anytime Technology Partner Program.

    The Anytime Technology Partner Program is a collaboration between Anytime and the world’s leading VoD technology vendors. It aims to reduce the time to deploy secure, quality, VoD services in Asia Pacific. The Program allows technology vendors to come together to ensure process compliance and data flow compatibility from publishing, to billing API’s and royalty reporting. NDS Group is a NASDAQ-listed company; the largest shareholder in NDS is News Corporation.

    NDS solutions enable broadcasters, network TV operators and content providers to profit from the deployment of digital TV technologies including innovative solutions for digital video recorders, interactivity, secure broadband, home networks and content on the go. NDS boasts an impressive customer list, featuring some of the world’s leading pay-TV operators, such as BSkyB, DIRECTV, SkyLife and FOXTEL, informs an official release.

    “NDS is pleased to join the Anytime Technology Partner Program. We regard this as an important technology alliance to enable our customers to implement VoD services in a timely and seamless fashion,” said Sue Taylor, VP & GM of NDS Asia Pacific.

    “With their in-house expertise, ANYTIME will help us test and review a complete range of IPTV products and solutions and develop reference architectures for our customers. The Anytime Technology Partner Program is the answer to fast-tracking VoD deployments in Asia Pacific.”

    “NDS’s end-to-end deployments demonstrate the company’s ability to offer unparalleled expertise in content delivery and protection. Conditional access is a vital component in any VoD delivery model and NDS has the capabilities to bring content security to a new level,” said Anytime CTO Craig Ginsberg.

    NDS joins a rapidly growing number of the world’s leading technology vendors including Verimatrix, SecureMedia, Concurrent and Tatung as members of the Anytime Technology Partner Program.

    The Anytime Technology Partner Program has two levels of agreement – Technology compliance, and Cooperation & Co-marketing. If accepted into the Program, vendors can work with Anytime to ensure their products, services or solutions, comply with the highest industry standards for VoD content delivery.

    The Program is open to STB manufacturers, middleware vendors, Conditional Access and DRM hardware and software makers, VoD server manufacturers, and Systems Integrators. It is vendor-agnostic, ensuring that Telcos, ISPs and Digital Cable providers receive impartial advice and information on VoD delivery technology, the release adds.

  • Rediff.com Q2 net profit up at $1.5 mn

    Rediff.com Q2 net profit up at $1.5 mn

    MUMBAI: Rediff.com has posted a net a income of $ 1.5 million, or 5.14 cents per ADS, for the second quarter ended 30 September 2006, up from $ 310,000, or 1.19 cents per ADS, a year ago.

    Revenues rose by $6.66 million, an increase of 53 per cent over revenues from the quarter ended 30 September 2005. While India contributed to online revenues that grew by 71 per cent to $4.71 million, as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

    US Publishing revenues for the second quarter increased by 23 per cent to $1.95 million compared to the revenues for the quarter ended 30 September 2005, states an official release.

    Operating EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) increased to US $1.14 million for the quarter ended 30 September 2006 as compared to US $0.50 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.

    With revenues from the India Online advertising business growing by 94 per cent for the quarter ended 30 September, compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year, online advertising remains the primary growth driver for the company.

    There has also been a spike in the number of registered users on the site which has grown by 21 per cent to 47.7 million, over the number of registered users a year ago.

  • Yahoo! India promotes Pranesh Anthapur to COO research & development

    Yahoo! India promotes Pranesh Anthapur to COO research & development

    MUMBAI: Yahoo! India has promoted Pranesh Anthapur to COO of its research and development centre.

    In his capacity, Anthapur will head up operations as well as bring new ideas to the company’s R&D center in Bangalore. He will work with the senior management team to put Yahoo! India R&D on a growth trajectory and will spearhead Yahoo!’s move to the new office, which is scheduled for early next year, informs an official release.

    Anthapur recently moved to Bangalore from Sunnyvale, the Yahoo! HQ in California. He brings with him experience in talent acquisition, talent development and cross border general management. Anthapur is a seven year Yahoo! veteran and has held several key positions in both the US and other International locations. Prior to moving to Bangalore, he was VP for Yahoo!’s International HR and HR Mergers and Acquisitions group in Sunnyvale.

    “The Bangalore Development centre is growing rapidly and currently employs over 800 knowledge workers and plans to cross the 1000 mark in headcount by the end of this year. We welcome the expertise in the field of global talent and operations that Pranesh brings with him to Yahoo! India R&D,” said Yahoo! India Research & Development CEO Venkat Panchapakesan.

    “In his new role, Pranesh will provide direction to all the operational areas of the center including business planning and process enhancements,” Panchapakesan added.

    Another recent addition to Yahoo!’s Bangalore centre is Pete Deemer who moved from Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale office to become the Chief Product Officer of Yahoo! India Research and Development, adds the release.

    Deemer who joined Yahoo! Inc in 2003 till recently held the position of VP – product development, overseeing Yahoo!’s product development practices, product quality and integration efforts under the chief product officer.

    In his new role, Deemer is closely aligned to the CPO office in Sunnyvale, USA. He is helping the Bangalore office define the strategy for the products being built and evolving the product development process besides incubating some new product initiatives. He will also be a player in the India specific initiatives recently started by the company.

  • Yahoo! India promotes Pranesh Anthapur to COO research & development

    Yahoo! India promotes Pranesh Anthapur to COO research & development

    MUMBAI: Yahoo! India has promoted Pranesh Anthapur to COO of its research and development centre.

    In his capacity, Anthapur will head up operations as well as bring new ideas to the company’s R&D center in Bangalore. He will work with the senior management team to put Yahoo! India R&D on a growth trajectory and will spearhead Yahoo!’s move to the new office, which is scheduled for early next year, informs an official release.

    Anthapur recently moved to Bangalore from Sunnyvale, the Yahoo! HQ in California. He brings with him experience in talent acquisition, talent development and cross border general management. Anthapur is a seven year Yahoo! veteran and has held several key positions in both the US and other International locations. Prior to moving to Bangalore, he was VP for Yahoo!’s International HR and HR Mergers and Acquisitions group in Sunnyvale.

    “The Bangalore Development centre is growing rapidly and currently employs over 800 knowledge workers and plans to cross the 1000 mark in headcount by the end of this year. We welcome the expertise in the field of global talent and operations that Pranesh brings with him to Yahoo! India R&D,” said Yahoo! India Research & Development CEO Venkat Panchapakesan.

    “In his new role, Pranesh will provide direction to all the operational areas of the center including business planning and process enhancements,” Panchapakesan added.

    Another recent addition to Yahoo!’s Bangalore centre is Pete Deemer who moved from Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale office to become the Chief Product Officer of Yahoo! India Research and Development, adds the release.

    Deemer who joined Yahoo! Inc in 2003 till recently held the position of VP – product development, overseeing Yahoo!’s product development practices, product quality and integration efforts under the chief product officer.

    In his new role, Deemer is closely aligned to the CPO office in Sunnyvale, USA. He is helping the Bangalore office define the strategy for the products being built and evolving the product development process besides incubating some new product initiatives. He will also be a player in the India specific initiatives recently started by the company.

  • Microsoft’s XBox to digitally deliver TV shows, movies to gamers

    Microsoft’s XBox to digitally deliver TV shows, movies to gamers

    MUMBAI: Software major Microsoft has announced agreements with US broadcasters CBS, MTV, film studio Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

    The aim is to to bring an initial lineup of over 1,000 hours of hit TV shows and movies to Xbox 360 gamers in the US by the end of the year.

    Microsoft says that Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console to bring standard and high-definition TV shows and movies via digital distribution over the Internet directly to the American consumer. From 22 November 2006, which marks its first anniversary, Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console in history to provide high-definition TV shows and movies directly to gamers in their living rooms. Xbox 360 gamers will have access to the full-length TV shows as downloads to own and movies to rent via download from the Xbox Live® network, the worldwide leader in online distribution of high-definition gaming and entertainment content. This announcement also brings with it several additional ‘firsts’:

    • For the first time, consumers will get an integrated gaming and entertainment experience on a gaming console that includes downloadable high-definition TV shows and movies. This new full-length content adds to the ever-expanding number of choices gamers have on their Xbox 360, whether they want to play games or play a movie on a disc or as a download in high definition or standard definition.

    • CBS will deliver high-definition download-to-own TV shows including CSI, Jericho, Numb3rs and remastered Star Trek episodes. Gamers can buy them and watch them repeatedly.

    • For the first time on any platform, Nascar.com will deliver download-to-own condensed versions of select Nascar Nextel Cup Series races from Race Rewind.

    • The Ultimate Fighting Championship will make 50 of its most intense fights available for download as well as select episodes from the original season of The Ultimate Fighter reality series.

    Microsoft corporate VP interactive entertainment business Peter Moore says, “This groundbreaking announcement is a win for everyone. It connects our partners with one of the most coveted audiences in entertainment today, and provides even greater value to our Xbox Live community, allowing them to enjoy the games and entertainment they want, when they want it.”