ITV

Category: iWorld

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

    MUMBAI: In a move to bolster its in-house product and innovation development, Ownzones Media Network, the OTT EntTech company, has appointed former Netflix executive Nick Nelson as the new Head of Product Innovation. Nelson, who will be based in Los Angeles, reports to Aaron Sloman, Chief Technology Officer at Ownzones.

    In making the announcement, Sloman stated, “We are thrilled that Nick has joined us to further develop and refine our consumer OTT interface and user experience. He’s highly regarded in the industry for his knowledge to build and rollout brilliant OTT and streaming offerings, most notably in the early days of Netflix and recently with Seeso. I look forward to working closely with him on the innovation and strategy around our company’s products.”

    In this newly created post at Ownzones, Nelson will oversee the innovation of Ownzones’s suite of products and services, and helping to develop novel concepts that furthers Ownzones’s pursuit of connecting people with the content they love. He will also help evolve the consumer facing discover experience, A/B testing framework and product data intelligence.

    Nelson brings a wealth of valuable experience having served as Head of Product Creative at Netflix from 2012 to 2016. During the evolutionary years of the streaming giant, Nelson grew his Netflix team from 5 to 50+ employees to support the increasing responsibilities, volume, and international expansion of the company. Nelson was also responsible for transforming the Creative Services department at Netflix from a process-driven acquisition operation to a highly strategic, cross-functional team focused on improving creative while simultaneously operating at a global scale.

    Nelson has also held key positions at other leading digital rights management organizations including Cognizant Technology, Deluxe Entertainment Services and Ascent Media.

    Most recently, Nelson served as the Owner of Technically Creative, a company he founded in October 2016 in Los Angeles. For the past year, he consulted with Seeso, the OTT subscription streaming service owned by Comcast through NBC Universal.

    Nelson is a graduate of University of California – Santa Cruz, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems and Technology Management.

  • Arnab stomps into digital space with republicworld.com

    MUMBAI: The game has just begun! That is what he had stated on his last day at Times Now. And Republic TV’s founder editor Arnab Goswami is living up to that promise.

    Two months from the day he announced the launch of the news channel Republic TV he has formally announced the unveiling of its digital cousin –Republicworld.com – on 7 July.

    And it looks like an impressive offering to say the least. First of all, the design and the look of republicworld.com is very clean, and visual heavy with news being segregated under various sections right from general news to politics to sport to lifestyle to tech to entertainment. Of course, visitors can also watch Republic TV’s shows such as Arnab’s Sunday debate, The Anupam Kher show, R.Access, Patriot, and the new one: The Nation Wants to Know.

    But, the killer app is that the reader can customise the language for the site, according to his preferences. Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, and Odiya are the options given to him.

    Republicworld has been able to offer that wide a range of thanks to its partnership with various media houses with eight of them being specifically with digital outlets. The media partners include Business World, OTV, Sambad, News Live, Niyomiya Barta, North East Live, Punjab Kesari, Aajkaal, S Newz, Dainik Bhaskar, Nirmana News, Kashmir Monitor, Lokmat, Vikatan TV, Polimer, Asianetnews.tv, Asianet News, Kannada Prabha, Suvarna News, News Mobile.in; across India and the community partners include tripoto.com, RSJ, LBB.in, yourstory.com, digit.in, and AutoX.

    Additionally, what strikes you is the experimentation that is being attempted on republicworld.com in the form of the handful of 360-degree videos that have been put out on the site. Republic’s video content is being streamed in HD with the app slated for a launch in the next three weeks. It will feature long-format live and VoD content in the form of vertical videos, especially created for mobile audience as reported by indiantelevision.com on 30 June.

    Some may call this as resorting to gimmicks, but Team Republic says they know what they are doing.

    Says Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani: “Innovation is very critical to succeed. We were clear that we want to differentiate. Look at the digital success and traditional success stories. Often, one of the primary reasons behind the triumph is technology, which is as important as content. Also, one needs to understand the consumer and the journey across platforms. Therefore, it’s critical to make sure that you are able to draw up a strategy that gives you maximum reach.”

    Adds Republicworld.com COO Jay Chauhan: “In the digital content space, there is no dominant global player operating out of south Asia, and that’s a big opportunity for us. Republicworld.com is at the intersection of content and technology, so we will keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to constantly engage and improve upon the user experience.”

    Clearly, Chauhan is the right man for the job. Arnab and Khanchandani poached 20-years NDTV veteran from the Prannoy-run outfit. During his career at the news network, Chauhan headed its technology consulting division and bagged numerous international awards for technical innovation.

    The editorial responsibility for republicworld.com has been put in the hands of deputy news editor Sriram Sivaraman. And a team of 30 – including editors, producers and journalists – are running the site.

    Says Chauhan: “Within India, regional content consumption is growing exponentially, and with the excellent network of our digital partners, this launch reaffirms our objective to work as a force and consistently engage with our audience in the language and habit of their choice.”

    On the technology front, RepublicWorld has tieups with American and Canadian companies. Pierre Friquet (VR director/ writer/ consultant) from Canada and Ando Shah (founder & CEO at Tesseract) from San Francisco trained its producers for a month to shoot content in VR.

    Sources indicate that republicworld.com will be burning cash in excess of Rs 2 crore a month, something which Khanchandani is unwilling to confirm. Says he: “Content delivery is a significant cost, and it will expand. Our investment will increase as more and more consumers will start consuming.”

    With that high a burn rate, it’s imperative that revenues start kicking in – and quickly. But, Khanchandani says that has already been taken care of as some of the ad deals it has signed for Republic TV include republicworld.com. He and his team will be reaching out to sign on newer advertisers too.

    He explains: “We were waiting to make the digital announcement, and now, it’s a good time to go to market. We will have sponsored content. If you look at the landscape of display advertising, it has changed significantly. If you see revenues of Yahoo and Microsoft, display business has come down — dramatically. Video is easier to buy and create. Video advertising, native advertising and sponsored content is what we are looking at.”

    Republicworld.com seems to be luring in visitors if one looks at its traffic statistics, courtesy Amazon-owned web tracker Alexa. According to this morning’s update, Alexa showed that republicworld.com had screamed up 179,000-odd spots to rank at 38,167, amongst all sites globally. And its Indian rank is a healthy 2,830. What’s important is the engagement in terms of the amount of time being spent on the site: a healthy 3 minutes and 33 seconds per visitor session. However, it has a high bounce rate of 65 per cent.

    As TV viewers would confirm, Arnab does this to people.

  • Fortinet deploys over 500 WiFi locations across Mumbai

    MUMBAI: Fortinet, a leader in high-performance cybersecurity solutions, has announced that the Maharashtra Information Technology Corporation (MITC) has selected Fortinet to provide wireless Internet access to the citizens of Mumbai, India.

    Fortinet’s access points provide WiFi Internet access for the public in Mumbai and are deployed in more than 500 locations across the city for the Mumbai WiFi project. The WiFi network is also planned to be used for smart transportation in the near future. This deployment is part of the state government’s digital empowerment program, and Fortinet beat several other enterprise wireless providers to win the deal. Fortinet is uniquely able to support the technical implementation of this project with its wireless R&D center in Bangalore.

    In the first phase of the Mumbai WiFi project, the Maharashtra Government has deployed a combination of Fortinet indoor and outdoor access points with omnidirectional antennas, wireless controllers, and a wireless manager to provide simplified deployment and scaling, voice mobility, and the high performance needs required.

    Digital Empowerment of Mumbai

    Mumbai is home to 20.5 million people and is the commercial capital and the largest city in India. The Government of Maharashtra launched the Mumbai WiFi project to cover all major areas in the city with public WiFi hotspots to ensure that government services are available online to its citizens. Later this year, the WiFi network will also be used for smart parking and smart transportation, by providing real-time updates on the routes and available capacity of various modes of public transport in the city. The introduction of WiFi hotspots in Mumbai expands on the government’s vision of making Maharashtra the country’s first digital state.

    Fortinet Secure Access Solution

    Securing public communications over WiFi, such as personal information, financial transactions, and mobile device data sharing, involves much more than simply managing network access control. As organizations change the way they deploy access networks, connect devices, and the number and types of network-connected wireless devices and mobile applications grows exponentially, IT leaders must deal with the difficult task of balancing the requirements of network security with the flexibility to onboard a growing number and diversity of clients.

    Users want fast WiFi and a smooth experience across wired or wireless networks and IT leaders need reduced complexity of network management, application management, and device management. Typical WiFi solutions cannot satisfactorily address these requirements. Fortinet’s Secure Access solution delivers three WLAN deployment options to meet the different WLAN requirements of today’s enterprises. In addition to WLAN services, our complete secure access portfolio also provides the most flexible security with end-to-end enforcement enabled by the Fortinet Security Fabric.

    Maharashtra’s principal secretary – information technology Vijay Kumar Gautam says: “With the Mumbai WiFi project, our goal was to cover all major areas in the city with public WiFi in order to make important government services available online. Because of the hyper-connected nature of our public infrastructure today, an ambitious project like this requires technology that can scale and be flexible to enable more users, devices, and applications over time.”

    Fortinet SVP – products and solutions John Maddison says: “BYOD and the Internet of Things (IoT) are creating new attack vectors that put critical assets within public or private networks at risk. As more users, devices, and applications are added to WiFi networks, organizations need secure, enterprise-class WiFi that can deliver a superior experience for all users. Secure access needs to extend consistent security policies to the very edge of the network where most vulnerabilities target. Security cannot happen at the expense of high-availability, speed and density of coverage which are all must-haves in a public WiFi network.”

  • Irdeto action: 3 cybercrime content pirates sentenced in Cairo

    MUMBAI: Irdeto, a leader in digital platform security, and MultiChoice Africa Limited (MAL), a provider of video entertainment services in Africa, announced that three content pirates have been sentenced in Cairo, Egypt.

    The sentencing follows multiple piracy raids which uncovered a large cybercrime syndicate illegally offering premium content services. The three defendants were found guilty on all criminal charges and were each sentenced to a two-year jail term and a fine of 75,000 EGP ($4,100 USD).

    The syndicate offered control word sharing equipment and illegal pirate subscriptions for sale, allowing 163,802 pirate viewers unauthorized access to content from a number of international broadcasters. The ruling follows extensive collaboration between Egyptian Cybercrime Police, MAL and Irdeto and marks the culmination of one of the largest investigations into an extensive control word sharing piracy network.

    “Engaging in any form of piracy comes with consequences, and this ruling clearly indicates that piracy will not be tolerated,” said MultiChoice Africa’s Africa Piracy Department GM Frikkie Jonker.

    “These convictions are critical to sending a message to the pirate community that piracy is a serious offense that damages the media and entertainment industry. Our collaboration with Irdeto and the unbelievable support of the Egyptian Enforcement Authorities, without whom this would not have been possible, demonstrates the importance of working together to combat the growing problem of piracy.”

    The initial investigations into suspects began through a partnership between MAL and Irdeto, before a joint criminal investigation referral was made to the Egypt Ministry of Internal Affairs. Raids were conducted that uncovered several electronic components, servers, almost 40 smartcards from multiple conditional access providers, several pirate decoders, smartcard readers and other related equipment typically used within a pirate control word sharing operation. Cash of over $220,000 USD was also seized during the raids.

    Further investigation uncovered over 5,000 advertisements for pirate devices on Alibaba B2B platforms.

    “These convictions are a testament to the seriousness of the piracy offense and the commitment of law enforcement worldwide to crack down on these cybercrime networks,” said Irdeto VP – cybersecurity services Rory O’Connor.

    “Our partnership with MultiChoice Africa epitomizes our commitment to content owners, rights holders and operators to combat smartcard sharing and other forms of piracy. We will continue to work closely with law enforcement around the globe to shut down criminal pirate networks and ensure that justice is served.”

  • Cheaper content demand, piracy & OTT popularity dog A-Pac pay-TV, avers innovation forum

    MUMBAI: NAGRA, a Kudelski Group company, in partnership with MTM, has revealed the latest findings from the Pay-TV Innovation Forum 2017 that looks into the Asia-Pacific pay-TV market.

    The global research programme examines the state of pay-TV innovations and strategies that will drive the next phase of growth for the industry.

    Service providers and content-owners from the region participating in the forum in May 2017, agreed that the Asia-Pacific pay-TV industry is entering a transitional period during which operators will need to adapt their business models and technology platforms in order to thrive in the changing environment. New offerings will have to reflect changing consumer demand for cheaper and more personalised content packages, including OTT services, to effectively expand the range of services at different price points. Delivery infrastructure and technology platforms across APAC will also become much more IP-based, with content being increasingly delivered via both fixed-line and mobile broadband networks. This need for change is being driven both by the persistent threat of content piracy and the increasing popularity of OTT services that are using aggressive pricing strategies to acquire customers.

    Despite these challenges, pay-TV providers in Asia Pacific are investing in the future – continuing the steady roll-out of IP-connected set-top boxes (provided by 72 per cent of providers in 2017, up from 66 per cent in 2016), PVRs (63 per cent, up from 56 per cent), standalone OTT services (28 per cent, up from 23 per cent), and new adjacent services such as advanced advertising and Smart Home solutions (offered by 27 per cent, up from 16 per cent).

    Industry experts highlight two urgent investment priorities that will help service providers to navigate the transforming video and TV services market:

    Concerted approach to tackling content piracy: to limit illegal access to content, operators are calling for content owners to take their own independent actions to monitor, track and stop the distribution of illegal content, and for industry strategies that would bring together pay-TV operators, ISPs, content owners and industry associations to work with regulators and governments to take further legal action.

    Development of more consumer-focused and diversified product portfolios by embracing new business models, operators can develop new packages and offerings that appeal to changing consumer tastes at a wider range of price points, including skinny bundles, personalised offerings, seamless multi-screen TV everywhere services and smart home solutions. Operators also cited potential opportunities for growth through new business-to-business services, including harnessing data with new analytics tools to offer enriched data services and support targeted advertising.

    “The pay-TV industry in Asia Pacific is going through a challenging, transitional period. Traditional pay-TV revenues in many advanced Asian markets are under pressure, while emerging markets are growing, but delivering low ARPUs. The industry is being increasingly disrupted by content piracy, especially around live sports, and impacted by low-cost OTT offerings, making it harder for pay-TV companies to invest with confidence,” said MTM managing partner Jon Watts . “Pay-TV service providers in Asia-Pacific need to take stronger action against piracy to secure their future, while maintaining investment in new services and innovation.”

    “There is a strong call to action across the pay-TV industry in Asia-Pacific to respond to these growing challenges. Operators and content owners need to be innovative in how they transform their technology and business models to respond to these pressures,” said NAGRA senior director product marketing Simon Trudelle. “The Forum’s research highlights that service providers not only recognise the problems they face from content pirates, but want to see actions taken limiting illegal access to premium content to maintain revenue and ensure quality content continues to be created. By working in partnership with vendors, operators can be more agile and better adapt to the fast changing landscape.”

  • Stan Lee’s superhero mobile game released by Gamesbond-underDOGS, Graphic India & POW!

    Stan Lee’s superhero mobile game released by Gamesbond-underDOGS, Graphic India & POW!

    MUMBAI: India’s leading mobile game distribution and publishing house, Gamesbond, released its latest mobile game “Chakra: World Siege” in partnership with Graphic India and POW! Entertainment, the IP licensors for one of India’s leading superhero characters, “Chakra The Invincible.”

    Gamesbond’s development partner for the game is the studio, underDOGS.

    Chakra: World Siege is currently available for free on the Google Play store and was featured as one of the top games in their “New and Updated” section. “Chakra: World Siege” has been launched globally with a focus on targeting the Indian audience.

    The game is based on the animation and comic book character “Chakra: The Invincible” created by superhero icon, Stan Lee and Sharad Devarajan. Lee is the legendary co-creator of the world’s most popular superheroes including Spider-Man™, X-Men™, Fantastic Four™, Iron Man™, Hulk™, The Avengers™, and more.

    Stan Lee, brimming with enthusiasm added, “Against the spectacular backdrop of the great Indian metropolis of Mumbai, we tell the incredible saga of Chakra, one of my most exciting superhero creations, whose adventures will captivate audiences around the world.”

    Chakra: World Siege involves the user playing as Chakra in a challenging quest to save the world from his long-time nemesis, the evil Boss Yama. The game is an action-packed running game that takes you on a journey through the Seven Wonders of the World to ensure their safety. As Chakra, players must jump and dodge various obstacles and unlock their “chakras,” to gain special powers and superhero moves needed to save the world.

    “Stan Lee’s characters have generated $15 billion at the global box office, creating some of the most beloved icons in entertainment. More people today likely know the face of Spider-Man than they do the Mona Lisa,” added Graphic India CEO Sharad Devarajan. “I have no doubt this will be the first of many new games for our Indian superhero as we grow Chakra to become a successful gaming franchise in the future. Gamesbond and underDOGS have been amazing partners and creative collaborators to help us bring this game to audiences worldwide.”

    The Chakra: World Siege game launch coincided with the airing of the third Chakra-The Invincible animated TV film, “Chakra: The Mystery of Mighty Girl” which premiered on Cartoon Network. The Indian superhero character is also in development as a theatrical live action Bollywood film, to be directed by acclaimed filmmaker, Vikramaditya Motwane and produced by Phantom Films, POW! Entertainment and Graphic India.

    “We are excited with our collaboration with Graphic India and underDOGS studio for the Chakra game and the instant success it has seen will help us strengthening our collaboration towards investing more in the partnership. The Chakra franchise is quite popular among kids and the game is designed in a way that even a 5 year old kid will be able to understand, play and stay engaged”, says Mauj Mobile VP – products Anshul Singhal.

    Talking about their plans he added, “We believe that with our understanding of the gaming consumers and distribution strengths; we are the ideal publishing partners for local IP owners and game developers towards creating and sustaining a successful game for the Indian users”

  • Dekkho to identify non-production house talent, plans four web series in Sept-Oct

    MUMBAI: Dekkho will largely focus on youth-based videos and regional content across six languages, primarily serving the 18-30 year old mobile audience.

    The online video streaming platform has announced plans to establish itself as the destination for talent discovery in India and showcase premium content from non-production house talent. Having collaborated with 80+ creators to curate premium videos across genres such as food, fashion, travel, lifestyle, comedy and gossip, the platform is now gearing up to run multiple digital promotions and events to identify emerging talent and get them on board over the next three to four quarters.

    The platform will also mark its foray into original content co-creation with four branded video properties, lined up for September-October period, in the form of web series, music videos, and short-form videos.

    Dekkho’s latest move is aimed at tapping into the unscripted and independent creator market, which comprises around 80 per cent of the overall production volume of online entertainment.

    As part of its marketing strategy, Dekkho has tied up with leading telecom operators and original phone equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to offer greater exposure to content developed by independent creators. The platform has additionally collaborated with partners like Amazon Fire TV.

    Co-founder Tanay Desai said, “Viewers today want more of short, snackable content that independent creators like AIB or Miss Malini produce. Our aim now is to create visibility through a bunch of exciting developments like localising our UI, promoting offline viewing and building for low data consumption. We are focused on Tier II, Tier III consumers who constitute the masses, and provide them a focused, curated experience that is missing on YouTube and Facebook.”

    “Dekkho,” he said, “will primarily host creators who are not associated with a label or production house. This initiative is synergistic with that vision, and will help us in discovering exciting talent from across the country to provide our viewers with premium content across age groups, geographies, and languages.”

    Says he: “Not only are we providing them with global exposure and monetisation opportunities through our advertising network and brand integrations, but this is the first time their ongoing content will be represented on a big screen format via our partnerships.”

    Dekkho aims at realising its target of reaching five million monthly active users within the next year and have 200 channels on board.

  • YuppTV & Fox Star to offer movies for expats

    MUMBAI: The world’s largest player for South-Asian content, YuppTV, recently announced its partnership with Fox Star Studios, one amongst the leading production houses of today.

    As part of the non-exclusive association, YuppTV is set to feature an admirable collection of popular movies by the Fox Star Studios, including Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Jolly LLB2, Akira, MS Dhoni and Neerja, on its on-demand movie streaming platform, YuppFlix, which can be accessed by YuppTV users across the globe for expat community.

    Commenting on the association, YuppTV CEO Uday Reddy said, “The association will enable us to offer the best movie catalogue by Fox Star Studios on our platform. We shall further continue to include the latest movies in our offerings and are affirmative that the users will enjoy the best movie catalogue on YuppFlix.”

    YuppTV has been actively updating its offering of latest movies on YuppFlix, its dedicated platform for on-demand movie streaming. Users can access the latest movies on all YuppTV platforms, including the iOS and Android app and internet-enabled devices.

    Also Read :

    Dharma’s Baahubali & Humpty Sharma etc movies to be on YuppTV

    Yash Raj partner YuppFlix offers Sultan, Fan & Befikre TVoD & SVoD

    YuppTV pockets ICC Champions’ exclusive digital rights, Canada & Europe to enjoy it live

    YuppTV diversifies into streaming and news reporting tech solutions

  • Red Chillies partners Twitter for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’

    MUMBAI: Taking forward their unconventional marketing approach, Red Chillies Entertainment has successfully gotten the audience hooked to its mini trails. These micro units have given us sweet glimpses into the characters of Harry and Sejal. Directed by Imtiaz Ali, Jab Harry Met Sejal releases in cinemas on 4 August 2017.

    The latest mini trail, which is the fifth in the order introduces the audience to a new character, the ring. It shows Harry and Sejal looking for the ring all across the beautiful European terrains.

    Here’s the Mini Trail 5 if you’ve not seen it:

    To establish the importance of the ring in the story, the makers have partnered with Twitter India to launch a custom emoji of a ring alongside the hashtag of the film. In each tweet by a user with the hashtags related to the film- #JabHarryMetSejal #JHMS, the emoji of a ring automatically appears at the end of the hashtag. This indeed is a very cool way of emphasising the key element of the film to the audience prior to its releases.

    Talking about the activity, Binda Dey, Marketing Head at Red Chillies Entertainment said, “The ring emoji was planned keeping the communication of Mini Trail 5 in mind. While Harry and Sejal are looking for the ring in the Mini Trail, fans can use the hashtags related to the film and find the ring connect on this platform.”

    “Twitter is the best place to discover what’s happening in the world of Bollywood. The custom emoji intrigues the audience to learn more about the film and offers the opportunity to have shared experiences with their favourite stars Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma on Twitter,” says Viral Jani, Head of TV & Entertainment Partnerships at Twitter India.

    After looking for the ring in mini trail 5, Anushka Sharma took to Twitter to launch the emoji:

    This indeed is another masterstroke in building the connect as well tapping on to the massive fan following of the both- Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma on Twitter.

  • One million GST-related Tweets between 30 Jun & 2 Jul as India sought news & updates

    MUMBAI: Twitter is the best place to know what’s happening around in India and to talk about it. Over the weekend, Twitter saw over one million GST-related Tweets (between 30 Jun – 2 Jul 2017) as the whole country flocked to the platform for live breaking news and updates on the launch of GST in India. From #GSTIndia to #GSTForCommonMan, conversations on Twitter echoed the nation’s mood and its temperament towards an event of national significance.

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    As the launch of GST took place at midnight, people took to Twitter to express their opinions and conversations on the platform peaked at 12:30 AM on July 1st with 1.1K Tweets per minute. Top hashtags around the conversation show all sides to the story, including: #GSTCouncil,  #GSTIndia, #GST@GoI, #GSTRate, GST, #GST, #GSTsimplified, #IndiaforGST,  askGST, #GSTForCommonMan, #HalfCookedGST, #HalfBakedGST.

    Mahima Kaul (@misskaul), Head of Public Policy and Government, Twitter India said, “Conversations around the launch of the GST exemplify Twitter as the best place for people to connect with what’s happening in India and around the world and express their opinions. The platform witnessed a myriad of perspectives from Indian audience supporting as well as raising their concerns about the same. With more than a million Tweets on GST, we hope the public feedback will help to facilitate greater citizen engagement on the topic.”

    Top Tweets around the conversations for GST include:

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