ITV

Category: iWorld

  • In-Stat forecasts over 400 million global broadband subscribers by 2010

    In-Stat forecasts over 400 million global broadband subscribers by 2010

    MUMBAI: With the increasing penetration of established broadband technologies like Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service and cable modem service, the number of worldwide broadband subscribers will double over the next five years, reports the US-headquartered research firm In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com).

    By year-end 2010, worldwide broadband subscribers will reach 413 million, it says.

    “There are several reasons behind the rapid growth in worldwide broadband subscribers, but the most important are the increasing availability of broadband services and the proliferation of new applications that rely on high-speed connections,” says In-Stat analyst Mike Paxton. “Other drivers fueling subscriber growth include a gradual, but consistent, reduction in monthly service prices, and the beginnings of effective bundling strategies that link high-speed Internet service with video and telephony services.”

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    DSL remains the leading broadband access technology. On a worldwide basis, it currently accounts for 69 per cent of all broadband subscribers.

    Based on current worldwide broadband growth rates, 3.7 million new subscribers will sign up for broadband services each month this year. In the US, 670,000 new subscribers every month are projected to sign up for broadband service.

    According to In-Stat estimates, in late February 2006 the total number of worldwide broadband subscribers passed 200 million.
     

  • YouTube.com and Weinstein Co. to feature ‘Lucky Number Slevin’ content on Web

    YouTube.com and Weinstein Co. to feature ‘Lucky Number Slevin’ content on Web

    MUMBAI: Viral video site YouTube.com and the Weinstein Company will feature the first eight minutes of the thriller Lucky Number Slevin.

    Lucky Number Slevin is in theaters nationwide in US, which stars Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu and Bruce Willis. TWC is offering YouTube users an exclusive first glance of the first eight minutes of the movie on the web.

    In an official statement issued, this marks the first time that the opening of a feature film will be released specifically for the YouTube audience.

    The Weinstein Company executive vice president Gary Faber stated, “Audiences love the opening of Lucky Number Slevin — the twists and turns, all set up in this eight minute opening are one of the major reasons why word-of-mouth on the film has been so overwhelmingly positive. Deciding to partner with YouTube was a no-brainer — what better way to help fuel the film’s positive buzz than by partnering with the number one word-of-mouth website out there today.”

    “Bringing more entertaining and exclusive content to YouTube helps further our goal of providing the best video experience on the Internet,” said YouTube VP programming Kevin Donahue.

    “The Weinstein Company is one of the most progressive movie studios moving beyond traditional means to promote its films with original video programming on YouTube,” adds Donahue

    Lucky Number Slevin is a thriller that moves its way through an underworld of crime and revenge where nothing is as it seems. Set in New York City, a case of mistaken identity lands Slevin (Josh Hartnett) into the middle of a war being plotted by two of the city’s most rival crime bosses: The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and The Boss (Morgan Freeman).

    Slevin is under constant surveillance by relentless Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) as well as the infamous assassin Goodkat (Bruce Willis) and finds himself having to hatch his own ingenious plot to escape the maze alive.

    Also starring Lucy Liu, Lucky Number Slevin is directed by Paul McGuigan and written by Jason Smilovic. The movie is a MGM release of a TWC presentation.

    In addition to Lucky Number Slevin, Deep Focus, the advertising agency for TWC, has reached YouTube’s audience to promote recent films by posting trailers for Scary Movie 4, which has been viewed nearly 1.5M times on YouTube, and Clerks II, which is gaining steam with more than 200,000 video views on the site, informs an official release.

    “Prior to YouTube, there was no other way to premiere the first few minutes of a movie in a viral way,” said Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer.

    “With help from the YouTube community, Scary Movie 4 had a record-breaking box office release. With the upcoming release of Clerks II and with Lucky Number Slevin in theaters nationwide, we are excited to continue to find cool, new ways to bring our movies to market,” said Schafer.

  • Content providers criticize proposed EU broadcasting rules

    Content providers criticize proposed EU broadcasting rules

    MUMBAI: ITV, BT Group, Vodafone, Yahoo, Intel and Cisco are leading an alliance among the media and technology companies that have teamed to criticize proposed European Union broadcasting rules that they believe will restrict the growth of new media formats.

    The European Commission is proposing that rules for traditional media be extended to new media, like content provided over broadband or mobile phones. Such regulations would include limits on hate speech, advertising and children-appropriate content.

    The alliance takes up the issue of proposed legislation that calls for mobile content and IPTV programming to abide by the same rules as that on traditional broadcasters. The consortium maintains that these rules-including restrictions on advertising-would inhibit investment in multiplatform content.

    “Citizen media such as blogs, videocasts and the like are one of the most exciting developments enabled by new technology,” the companies said in a statement. “This phenomenon has the potential to create new businesses … but this proposed regulation severely risks stunting its growth.”
    The EU didn’t respond to the group, but has repeatedly insisted that they don’t intend to regulate the internet. It would need the support of the European Parliament and 25 member governments in order to be approved.

  • Goldstone Technologies signs MoU with SPL for IPTV services

    Goldstone Technologies signs MoU with SPL for IPTV services

    MUMBAI: Goldstone Technologies Ltd will be launching the Next Generation IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) services in alliance with SPL Innotech Pte Ltd (SPL).

    SPL is a Singapore based company and is the sole company providing complete end-to-end solution for IPTV consisting of head-end equipment, Middleware, Billing, deliver protocols and set top boxes.

    Goldstone Technologies and SPL Innotech Pte Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 9 April to provide end-to-end IPTV solutions worldwide with the server stationed at Singapore.

    SPL through this MoU agreed to provide complete end-to-end IPTV solutions to Goldstone Technologies apart from granting an exclusive right to market the IPTV products in India.

    Goldstone Technologies through this technology caters IPTV solutions to a whopping 18.5 million NRI population spread across the globe including 3.5 million Telugu inhabitants.

    The company will be taking up the projects providing end-to-end IPTV and to market exclusively IPTV products in India.

    Goldstone Technologies also announced that it will issue 19,00,000 equity shares to Goldstone Exports Ltd and 54,00,000 equity warrants convertible into equity shares of Rs 10 each to M/s Summit Communications Pvt Ltd (27,00,000) and M/s Horizon Television Pvt Ltd (27,00,000) on preferential basis subject to the approval of shareholders for the purpose of redemption of optionally convertible redeemable preference shares (OCRPS) and the repayment of IDBI loan.

  • 3G adoption to broadband economy: CII

    3G adoption to broadband economy: CII

    NEW DELHI: A new study projects that India will have 21.3 million 3G users (11 per cent of total mobile lines) by 2010.

    Within two years, India will take over Japan to become the third largest mobile market in the world after China and the US, the study, `Enabling India’s Broadband Economy-The 3G Way’, says.

    Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has carried out the survey in association with the US-based research firm The Yankee Group.

    The report tends to highlight migration from 2G to 3G is inevitable, which makes it imperative for India to get prepared at the earliest to boost its economy.

    This, in turn, is also likely to help the country’s economy achieve double-digit growth, which at present is approximately 7-8 per cent.

    “3G services will usher in greater range of handsets, services and applications that will positively impact the growth of India’s broadband market,” The Yankee Group programme manager (wireless /mobile), Asia-Pacific Farid Yunus said while unveiling the report.

    Yunus added: “India’s mobile market is growing at an impressive rate and will only be bettered with improved coverage in rural areas and mobile penetration. Regulatory bodies and policy makers will have to address contentious issues like spectrum, which are critical for growth.”

    If both CDMA and GSM operators launch 3G in 2006, the report states, 0.2 per cent of total mobile users or 0.3 per cent of the total urban mobile users in the next six months.

    Interestingly, the CII-Yankee study lauds the government-controlled BSNL’s decision to show interest in 3G in its latest GSM tender. Pointing out that it’s a key development, the report says most Indian operators will launch 3G services in quick succession.

    “Based on international experience and early adopter profiles, 3G ARPU (average revenue per user) should be roughly three times (of) 2G ARPUs in the first year. This will gradually decline as lower spending late adopters migrate to 3G,” the study points out.

    The report provides valuable insights into rural coverage, mobile penetration, handsets, services and applications, alternate technologies, regulations and policies and related issues. The present study is an attempt to leverage and use ICT tools for sustained economic growth of India.

    Keeping in view that there are only one million broadband customers in India at present, against a target of 3 million by December 2005, there is a need to exploit the 3G technologies to better broadband penetration, particularly in the congested urban areas, the report emphasizes.

    Industry representatives present during the unveiling of the report agreed that key factors needing attention include 3G license and handset costs, quality of service, content and the rate of technology advancements, which is presently higher than the rate of deployments.

  • NeuLion to demonstrate IPTV platform at NAB 2006

    NeuLion to demonstrate IPTV platform at NAB 2006

    MUMBAI: NeuLion will demonstrating its IPTV platform at NAB 2006 in Las Vegas from 22-27 April.

    The platform connects the Internet to the TV, delivering high-quality streaming content that the consumer can watch on wither the TV or PC. NeuLion says that it is is leading the evolution of video distribution with its patented iPTV Platform and will be demonstrating at NAB 2006 how it delivers high quality video to the home or business using existing high-speed Public Internet connections.

    NeuLion executive VP and co-founder Chris Wagner says, “iPTV is the hottest technology and is the future of home entertainment and business applications. NAB is the ideal venue to showcase the transformation that this technology will bring to the media industry.”

    The company adds that the market opportunities for IP based video services are exploding with new revenue opportunities. The convergence of broadband and broadcast delivery will inevitably disrupt existing telecommunications and television industries as they collide and collapse conventional boundaries.

    Today’s distribution/broadcasting of multimedia content is predominantly based on transmission over satellites, cable and terrestrial transmission systems. With these existing systems the interactivity is difficult to provide. By accelerating the introduction of fast data networks to end-users, a fourth method of direct access to users becomes possible, i.e. broadcasting via public broadband IP networks.

    NeuLion works with content partners to develop end-to-end solutions for multimedia IPTV services. The NeuLion IPTV platform encodes, delivers, stores and manages an unlimited range of multimedia content, and the Operational Support System (OSS) maintains all billing and customer support services.

  • Charter, TNS ink deal for audience measurement services

    Charter, TNS ink deal for audience measurement services

    MUMBAI: Broadband communications company Charter Communications, Inc. and TNS Media Research have entered into an agreement to launch video audience measurement services in Los Angeles.

    Charter will utilise TNS audience measurement services to maximise efficiencies when building custom television advertising campaigns and promotional schedules internally and externally. The service will also provide additional information for programming services as well as offering added revenue opportunities. “We are pleased about our partnership and the fact that it will afford cable networks and advertisers valuable insight about the digital cable environment,” said Charter senior vice president advertising sales Jim Heneghan.

    Beginning this month, Charter Communications will provide aggregated and anonymous viewing data from 55,000 households in the Los Angeles. TNS will process the aggregated data and allow for next-day analysis through InfoSys, the most widely used media analysis and planning system in the world. InfoSys allows end-users to analyze media data in depth including day part and program studies, target group studies, lead in/lead out studies, duplication analyses, minute-by-minute flow studies and competitive reports.

    Charter’s cable service provides its customers with an array of video programming options, including services in which customers choose to interact with Charter or others through Charter’s broadband technology. Charter values its customers’ privacy and considers personally identifiable information and viewing preferences contained in Charter’s business records to be strictly confidential. Unless customers provide consent through an express opt-in process, Charter only provides aggregated and/or anonymized information to Audience Measurement services, such as TNS. A complete statement of Charter’s privacy policies can be found at www.charter.com.

    The Charter partnership further solidifies TNS’ entry into the US marketplace for digital TV audience measurement services. Additionally, TNS has been providing media research in the US for many years; including ad spend tracking as well as ad copy and TV pilot testing.

    “The increased popularity of digital services, DVR, VOD and iTV has compromised traditional methods of measuring TV audiences. TNS is at the forefront of the digital revolution in video and radio measurement and is pleased to be partnering with Charter Communications to explore the new opportunities presented by digital set-top box data,” said TNS Media Research chief operating officer George Shababb.

  • IPTV India 2006 to be held in New Delhi on 7 April

    IPTV India 2006 to be held in New Delhi on 7 April

    MUMBAI: New Delhi will host a conference IPTV India 2006 on 7 April. It will witness key global industry players with a sharp focus on Indian market to examine the range of technology issues, alternatives and challenges facing the industry today as well as successful business strategies & solutions for the future.

    The inaugural session will discuss IPTV in India: Opportunities & Challenges. Session I will focus on Why IPTV: Market & Business Drivers and session II will talk of IPTV: Examining & Implementing Best Practices in India. And, Session III will discuss Operational Challenges Facing The Service Providers In Transforming To An IPTV Business.

    Some key speakers at the conference include Trai fromer member Dr Devendra PS Seth, Airtel CTO Mobility Jagbir Singh, Sun Microsystems Telecom director Kapil Sood, BSNL planning & new services director RL Dube, DoT, ministry of communications & IT Sr. deputy director general, Telecommunication Engineering Centre R N Padukone.

    UTStarcom Inc. MD South Asia Vijay Yadav, Siemens Public Communication Networks (Pvt.) Ltd. MD Michael Kuehner, Alcatel South Asia Ltd. Vice President & Head Sales – India, Fixed Communicatins Group, Anuj Kapur are few other speakers participating in the conference.

    In an ever changing scenario service providers are fast realising the importance of shifting from a voice-centric model to an IP centric model in which video and other content rich interactive services play a key role.

    Service providers and leading global players are aggressively eyeing the booming Indian market for delivering the triple play of voice, video and data services in an integrated wireless context.

    At the seminar, various issues will be analysed including DRM, security, billing and the acceptable business model for all the parties involved in Indian context, from access networks to services control and delivery to QoS and customer experience to content and multimedia applications.

    Insights to Indian content owners and aggregators to understand their requirements for putting premium video on the Indian service provider’s broadband network and examining the developed India specific success factors for the IPTV value chain will be given.

    The seminar will also analyse different India specific IPTV service delivery models, concerns and requirements of the Indian content industry for working with the Indian service providers.

  • Nortel and Qualcomm claim industry’s fastest HSDPA data call

    Nortel and Qualcomm claim industry’s fastest HSDPA data call

    MUMBAI: Nortel and Qualcomm have successfully achieved the industry’s first 7.2 Mbps HSDPA mobile data calls. The tests achieved data downloads at speeds up to four times faster than most current fixed broadband connections, companies claimed in an official release.

    According to the official communiqué, the companies completed the initial series of pre-commercial category 8 HSDPA data calls using test terminals based on Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem (MSM), MSM6280 solution and HSDPA network equipment from Nortel.

    The calls covered frequencies in all commercially available UMTS spectrum currently used by mobile operators throughout the world. The 2100MHz spectrum is the basis for most European 3G networks and the 850MHz spectrum is now in use for new UMTS networks in North America, the Caribbean and Latin America. As spectrum at 900MHz is expanded for UMTS services, Nortel believes this can also become an important part of European HSDPA roll out.

    “Nortel continues to be an industry leader in driving HSDPA technologies to faster, more cost-effective capabilities that will help power mobile communications to beyond 3G services such as high quality live TV and HD video on demand,” said Jean-Luc Jezouin, vice-president, GSM/UMTS product line management, Nortel. “Together with Qualcomm, Nortel is an industry pioneer in advancing the potential of HSDPA to help wireless operators maximize their existing UMTS infrastructures by offering new and faster services for subscribers.”

    HSDPA is designed to boost network capacity for data transmissions up to four times and enables twice as many wireless users per cell site compared to current UMTS networks. By making more efficient use of existing network capabilities, HSDPA helps reduce operating costs while delivering a high quality end-user experience.

    Nortel and Qualcomm will be demonstrating high-resolution video streaming enabled by HSDPA data calls at 7.2Mbps during CTIA Wireless 2006 in Las Vegas, 5 April to 7 April.

  • Hathway launches digital cable in Hyderabad

    Hathway launches digital cable in Hyderabad

    MUMBAI: Even as the government is assimilating views of the various industry stakeholders on how to roll out conditional access system (CAS) smoothly, multi-system operators (MSOs) are busy plotting expansion of their digital cable TV service.

    Hathway Cable & Datacom today announced the launch of its digital cable in Hyderabad. The MSO has already rolled out its digital services in Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune and Bangalore.

    Digital cable TV services are offered to the customer through a remote controlled digital device, which will be accompanied by a fully functional sleek smart card.

    “The advantages of the digital set-top boxes (s) is that the consumer does not have to pay extra money in their monthly cable TV bill but in turn can enjoy over 150 digital channels. The device costs over Rs. 2500,” Hathway said in a release.