ITV

Category: iWorld

  • BBC Learning English – Thai now live on website, FB, YouTube & Instagram channels

    MUMBAI: BBC Learning English has launched special content for Thai-speaking learners. BBC Learning English – Thai is now live on the BBC Learning English website as well as Facebook and Instagram channels. BBC Thai features selected material on its Facebook page and other social-media channels.

    BBC World Service delivers news content around the world in English and 28 other language services, on radio, TV and digital, reaching a weekly audience of 269 million. BBC Learning English, a part of the BBC World Service, is a leader in using international broadcasting to teach English. Users connect with BBC Learning English via the website bbclearningenglish.com, its partner sites, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

    BBC Learning English – Thai includes weekly video and audio clips for learners at beginner and intermediate levels. Beginners can try Essential English Conversation, while English on the Street and English in the News – featuring the most popular stories from the BBC Thai website – are aimed at those at intermediate level.

    BBC Learning English – Thai is delivered via the BBC Learning English website and social-media channels. Selected content features on BBC Thai Facebook page, Instagram and YouTube channels.

    BBC Learning English editor Paul Scott says: “We are looking forward to engaging and interacting with Thai-speaking learners of English. Our new free series will help them on their language-learning journeys as the starting point for conversations and for sharing views, ideas and culture.”

  • ALTBalaji now available on Amazon’s Fire TV stick globally

    MUMBAI: ALTBalaji, the exclusive and original content subscription service, is now available on Fire TV Stick, Amazon’s internet streaming device with voice remote recently launched in India. ALTBalaji will be providing a special introductory offer on their yearly subscription packs to Fire TV users worldwide and will be jointly marketing the service to its audience.

    ALTBalaji launched on 16 April 2017 with five original shows and is adding new shows every month for its viewers to binge watch. The content is created by some of the best talent of the Indian entertainment industry, including critically acclaimed directors and actors. The long illustrious list of artistes comprises of Nagesh Kukunoor, Juhi Chawla, Nimrat Kaur, Rajkumar Rao, Hansal Mehta, Sakshi Tanwar, Ram Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Sameer Soni, Yudhishtar Urs, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, and more.

    The Fire TV Stick with voice remote is a plug-and-play device that connects to the television’s HDMI port and allows users to access digital video content from a host of providers. ALTBalaji is one of the featured apps on the streaming device, allowing users to access 250 hours of original and exclusive content consisting of shows from all genres in addition to original kids content.

    Speaking on the partnership, ALT Digital Media Entertainment CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “ALTBalaji app on Fire TV Stick with voice remote allows Fire TV stick users worldwide to enjoy our original shows and provides the existing consumers the ability to stream the shows on TV screens using the Fire TV Stick with voice remote. This helps expand the reach of our content to smart TVs, which already sees significant traction. This is in line with our philosophy of providing our subscribers maximum options to catch our shows on the screens of their preference.”

    ALTBalaji launched with shows like DevDD, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat, Boygiri, Bewafaa Sii Wafaa, Romil & Jugal, and have added The Test Case starring Nimrat Kaur, and Maya Thirrai – the first Tamil original web series to the portfolio. ALTBalaji already has over 3 million downloads across iOS and Android users and was recently the No.3 top grossing app in iTunes in India in the Entertainment section.

  • Hooq brings new titles for a family fun-day with dad

    MUMBAI: Father’s Day – a time to show gratitude and hug your Dad as tight as you can by planning a surprise movie date for him. Hooq, Asia’s first premium video-on-demand service has added new movie titles to its existing content base including renowned content such as Big Fish, Fathers and Sons, The Karate Kid, John Q, Daddy Day Camp, Daddy Day Care, Big Daddy, Happy Feet Two amongst others.

    Big Fish – Based on the novel by Daniel Wallace in 1998, the American comedy drama showcases a Father’s effort to mend ways with his estranged son. Directed by Tim Burton and stars Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange and Marion Cotillard, the movie is about a father’s attempts of normalizing his estranged relationship with his son by narrating his experiences and in the meantime, apologizing for all the time he lost with his son.

    Fathers and Sons – Is a 1992 American crime drama film written and directed by Paul Mones. The film revolves around a director’s life, Max who after his wife’s death moves from New York City to a small seaside town and finds it difficult to raise his child without a mother. The Film stars Jeff Goldblum, Rory Cochrane, Rosanna Arquette, Natasha Gregson Wagner and Famke Janssen.

    The Karate Kid – The Chinese-American martial arts drama film was directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Jerry Weintraub, James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz and Jaden’s parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith . Released in 2003, the film revolves around a 12-year-old boy from Detroit, who moves to Beijing, China with his mother. During his journey, he comes across an aging maintenance man who happens to be a kung fu master who then trains him with the secrets of self-defense.

    Daddy Day Camp – Cuba Gooding Jr. and Paul Rae star as Charlie Hinton and Phil Ryerson, a pair of fathers who attempt to keep their summer camp afloat even though they are under dire economic strain. In order to help improve the financial situation, and to whip together a group of children who have a problem with following orders, Hinton brings in his military trained father (Richard Gant) even though he and his father have been on the outs. Soon the campers, and the fathers, are involved in a series of adventures that will make the camp solvent, and help mend broken relationships.

    Daddy Day Care – An American family comedy film written by Geoff Rodkey and directed by Steve Carr starring Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Steve Zahn, Regina King, and Anjelica Huston. Fired from their high-profile advertising jobs, Charlie (Eddie Murphy) and Phil (Jeff Garlin) pull their sons out of day care at expensive Chapman Academy. But they soon decide if they can take care of two kids, why not ten? It turns out to be much harder than they imagined, but slowly they get the hang of it and their new venture begins to siphon kids away from the stuffy Chapman¾leading to a showdown with the dreaded Miss Harridan (Anjelica Huston).

  • Mittal’s beauty notions to keep 100m Netflix subs in good humour

    MUMBAI: Following in the footsteps of Vir Das, Hasan Minhaj and Aziz Ansari, comedianne Aditi Mittal is preparing to do a special stand-up show for Netflix: “Things They Wouldn’t Let Me Say.” The show will debut on the video-streaming platform giant on 18 July to its over 100 million global members across 190 countries, PTI reported.

    Mittal, one of the first women in India to do stand-up comedy, touches up issues such as sex, gender, and notions about beauty in her shows. Her Netflix show is gender revolution rich with taboos of being a woman in India today.

    Netflix director of content acquisition Swati Shetty said that Aditi’s success reflected the growing pool of Indian stand-up comedy talent that was already gaining international recognition. Netflix was proud to showcase Aditi’s bold wit and humour on the Netflix service, she added.

    Having a platform such as Netflix was a dream come true for anyone in entertainment and comedy today.. The journey of the show had been absolutely exhilarating, Mittal said. She hoped that Netflix fans across the globe would enjoy the show as much as she had had while making it.

  • Twitter handle @StarFootball crosses one million followers

    MUMBAI: Home to a number of leading domestic and International sports, the Star Sports network with eleven channels broadcasts premier sporting events has a leading voice for football on social media, @StarFootball – the official Star Sports Football Twitter handle – has surpassed the following of football teams by garnering more than 1 million followers.This growth is fuelled by fascinating content, engaging updates which includes the latest news and happenings from the world of football. In just one year, the page has witnessed a massive 930 per cent organic growth, becoming a popular social destination for the football community.

    Real-time updates and appealing campaigns related to leagues such as Premier League and Bundesliga helps fans engage with the handle and enjoy football during the games and even off-season. @StarFootball has 9 lakh more followers since April 2016. The @StarFootball community is now bigger in number than most of the football leagues and clubs in the world. The handle has more followers than most current Premier League teams, apart from the ‘Big Four’ and Man City; more followers than most current La Liga teams,apart from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid; and most current Bundesliga teams, except Bayern Munich and Dortmund.

    Enthused about reaching this milestone, a Star India Spokesperson said, “Star Sports is committed to bringing fans closer to football, and this is true across our social media platforms as well.Star Sports engages with the growing base of football fans through its official twitter handle,@StarFootball. It is exciting to see the page reach more than 1 million followers.Over time,it has emerged as a community that engages not just with fans but also national and international players. We will continue to drive interesting conversations with more immersive and compelling content.”

    Footballers from the Indian Super League, Premier League, and Bundesliga have been seen engaging on @StarFootball. Among these are popular names such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Riyad Mahrez, Arata Izumi, John Arne Riise and Nico Velez. The handle is followed by world-renowned opinion makers such as Jordan Henderson, Matthew Hayden, Joe Morrison, Mikael Silvestre and clubs like LFC India, Chelsea India etc.

    The Star Sports Football Twitter page brings the latest in Football to the fans and helps them remain informed about their favourite clubs and players. The handlehas emerged as a digital destination for fans to catch match build-ups, view posters of their favourite, entertaining memes and some finest moments in football, among others.

  • CCI rejects Airtel charges against Jio

    MUMBAI: The fair trade regulator has dismissed the case of ‘predatory pricing’ that Airtel alleged against Reliance Jio. Airtel officials declined to comment on the development.

    Just giving free access to its services cannot be termed as ‘anti-competitive’, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) stated.

    Airtel had alleged that Jio, in a bid to race ahead in the telecom competition, had indulged in ‘predatory pricing’ since its commercial launch on 5 September 2016.

    With unfair trade practice of free services, Airtel alleged, Jio had used its financial muscle to gain a foothold into the telecom world of stiff competition.

    Airtel charges, the trade regulator stated, would not be considered ‘anti-competitive’ since Jio’s offers were to attract customers.

    A short-term business offer or strategy of a new entrant to penetrate a market cannot be considered as ‘anti-competitive’ in nature and could not be a subject of investigation, CCI stated.

  • Tendulkar-backed Smartron mobiles to have Eros Now app, deal signed

    MUMBAI: Eros Now, one of the fastest growing digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platforms, owned by Eros International Plc, has announced a strategic partnership with Smartron, a Sachin Tendulkar-backed India-based IoT startup, to provide its extensive entertainment repertoire to Smartron smartphone customers.

    Eros Now will be the exclusive digital OTT service for entertainment content on all Smartron devices. Sachin Tendulkar is an Indian sporting legend and one of the most accomplished cricket players of all time. He is the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.

    As their preferred partners, Eros Now will provide its vast repository of movies, television shows, music, originals and regional content across multiple languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi and Marathi to all Smartron customers. Eros Now will leverage from Smartron’s extensive marketing campaigns and packaging to promote the partnership.
    The smartphone user base in India reached 300 million in 2016 with the market growing by 18% as per a report by Counterpoint’s Research, paving the way for India to become the second-biggest smartphone market in terms of active unique smartphone users.

    Commenting on the association, Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO, Eros Digital said, “With high smartphone penetration and an all-time rise in content consumption on handheld devices, we are happy to join hands with Smartron as this strategic partnership strengthens our philosophy of bringing entertainment at audience fingertips anytime, anywhere.”

    “We are excited to partner with Eros Now as we get ready to roll out our highly intelligent and customized entertainment experience through our tronx platform,” said Mahesh Lingareddy, Founder and Chairman, Smartron. “All of our tronx users can experience great entertainment seamlessly across all our existing smart devices like the tphone, tbook, srtphone and the soon to be launched devices and beyond. We believe in making life smarter and simpler and, with this, even more people can tap into the incredible capabilities of our tronx IoT platform.”

  • Culture Machine’s ‘Put Chutney’ to air on Star Vijay every Sun

    MUMBAI: Culture Machine’s ‘Put Chutney’, the #1 Tamil digital media brand, is now foraying into television with Star Vijay starting 2 July 2017.

    This move marks the collaboration of two of Tamil’s biggest media giants to create digital to linear long form original content. This pioneering alliance marks a first of its kind in South India, where a digital brand has extended its footprint onto a major broadcast television network. Culture Machine’s Put Chutney that caters to the Tamil speaking audience globally, will produce one hour long exclusive episodes on Star Vijay for the show titled, ‘Intensive Comedy Unit (ICU)’. The unique format and characters for the show have been developed by Put Chutney.

    The show will be an extension of the immensely loved digital brand Put Chutney, popular for their spunky videos, full of wit and humour. Put Chutney fans can now look forward to more entertaining and engaging content from the Put Chutney stable, on one of the most widely watched television channels in the region.

    Culture Machine president Tuhin Menon commented on this deal, “’Put Chutney has grown in the hearts and minds of viewers to occupy a pivotal spot in the cultural milieu of Tamil speaking audiences globally. This deal with Star Vijay represents a major extension of the brand, which now straddles both digital and linear platforms. We could not have found a better partner than Star Vijay to take the Put Chutney brand to the next level, through a unique one hour show that is guaranteed to delight loyal and new audiences alike.”

    Vijay TV GM Krishnan Kutty said, “We at Vijay TV believe in partnering with the most exciting creative minds in the business. In Put Chutney, we found a partner who we believe will push the boundary in the comedy genre and who share our commitment in providing the most cutting edge content to Tamil consumers.”

  • Video will take 76% of Net in ’21, Indian users will double & devices grow by 2bn

    NEW DELHI: Digital transformation will continue to drive IP traffic in India with the projected increase in Internet users from 373 million in 2016 to 829 million or 59% of the Indian population in 2021, which is among the highest in the world.

    In addition, there will be two billion networked devices in 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016 and the overall IP traffic is expected to grow fourfold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 30% – thus reaching 6.5 Exabytes of data per month in 2021, up from 1.7 Exabytes per month in 2016.

    M2M connections will represent 22% of the total two billion devices and connections and will account for 5% of IP traffic by 2021. Advancements in IoT applications such as smart meters, package tracking, digital health monitors and a host of other next-generation M2M services is driving this incremental growth—nearly 21% increase in the next five years, according to Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Complete Forecast..

    Video will continue to dominate IP traffic and overall Internet traffic growth – taking 76% of all Internet traffic in 2021, up from 57% in 2016. India will reach 84 billion Internet video minutes per month by 2021, which is 1,60,000 years of video per month, or about thirty two thousand video minutes every second.

    “Mobile networks, devices and connections in India are not only getting smarter in their computing capabilities but are also evolving from lower-generation network connectivity (2G) to higher-generation network connectivity (3G, 3.5G, and 4G or LTE). Combining device capabilities with faster, higher bandwidth and more intelligent networks is leading to wide adoption of high bandwidth data, video and advanced multimedia applications that contribute to increased mobile and Wi-Fi traffic” said Cisco India & SAARC Managing Director, Service Provider Business, Sanjay Kaul.

    He added: “We are witnessing a burgeoning rise in usage of mobile applications and connectivity by end users. The need for optimized bandwidth management, network automation, e2e security and ultimately network monetization through cost efficient data production is fuelling the growth of network automation, mass market 4G deployments and adoption, soon to be followed with 4.5G and 5G. Service providers around the world are busy architecting their networks to be more autonomous and capable of handling high bandwidth to help them meet the growing end-users demand for more bandwidth, higher security, and faster connectivity on the move. Many providers have also started field trials for 5G and are gearing towards rolling out 5G deployments towards the end of the VNI forecast period.”

    India Internet Growth and Trends:

    1. Increase in Internet Users, devices & connection
    · In India, there will be 829 million total Internet users (59% of population) in 2021, up from 373 million (28% of population) in 2016
    · In India, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016

    2. Increase in IP Traffic & Internet Traffic
    · In India, Consumer Internet video traffic will reach 3.0 Exabytes per month in 2021, the equivalent of 756 million DVDs per month, or 1 million DVDs per hour
    · In India, Consumer Internet video traffic was 535 Petabytes per month in 2016, the equivalent of 134 million DVDs per month, or 183,261 DVDs per hour
    · In India, Internet video traffic will be 77% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2021, up from 58% in 2016
    · In India, Internet traffic will grow 4.0-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 32%
    · In 2021, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross the Internet every 54 minutes
    · Indian Internet traffic in 2021 will be equivalent to 291x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005

    3. Increase in Per capita Usage
    · In India, IP traffic will reach 5 Gigabytes per capita in 2021, up from 1 Gigabytes in 2016

    4. Internet users & Faster Broadband Speed
    · In India, there will be 829 million total Internet users (59% of population) in 2021, up from 373 million (28% of population) in 2016
    · In India, the average fixed broadband speed will grow 2.8-fold from 2016 to 2021, from 6.6 Mbps to 18.2 Mbps

    5. Increase in Mobile, Internet Video
    · In India, mobile data traffic will grow seven-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 49%
    · In India, mobile data traffic in 2021 will be equivalent to 88x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005
    · In India, IP video will be 83% of all IP traffic in 2021, up from 69% in 2016
    · In India, Internet video traffic will grow 5-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 40%
    · In India, total Internet video traffic (business and consumer, combined) will be 76% of all Internet traffic in 2021, up from 57% in 2016
    · In India, HD will be 51.4% of Internet video traffic in 2021, up from 12.0% in 2016 (87.9% CAGR)
    · In India, 84 billion minutes (159,201 years) of video content will cross the Internet each month in 2021. That’s 31,840 minutes of video streamed or downloaded every second
    ·In India, Internet video traffic will grow 5-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 40%

    6. Increase in Networked Devices
    · In India, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, from 1.4 billion networked devices in 2016, and 1.3 billion in 2015
    · In India, 67% of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2021

    7. Growth in Internet video & gaming traffic
    · In India, Internet video traffic will be 77% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2021, up from 58% in 2016
    · In India, gaming traffic will grow 7-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 49%

    Key Findings & Milestones from Global Traffic Projections and Service Adoption Trends

    1. Strong Growth in IP & Internet Traffic
    · Global IP traffic is expected to reach 278 exabytes per month by 2021, up from 96 exabytes per month in 2016. Global IP traffic is expected to reach an annual run rate of 3.3 zettabytes by 2021.
    · Busy hour Internet traffic is increasing faster than average Internet traffic. Busy hour Internet traffic will grow 4.6-fold (35% CAGR) from 2016 to 2021, reaching 4.3 Pbps by 2021, compared to average Internet traffic that will grow 3.2-fold (26% CAGR) over the same period reaching 717 Tbps by 2021.
    · Content delivery networks (CDNs), will carry 71% of all Internet video traffic by 2021 (up from 52 percent in 2016).

    1. Average DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks size increasing steadily and approaching 1.2 Gpbs— enough to take most organizations completely offline
    · DDoS incidents can paralyze networks by flooding servers and network devices with traffic from multiple IP sources.
    · The peak attack size increased 60% Y/Y and represents up to 18% of a country’s total Internet traffic while they are occurring.
    · Average DDoS attack size increased to 22% which is relatively the same rate as Internet traffic at 29 percent Y/Y.
    · The DDoS attacks grew 172% in 2016 and will increase 2.5-fold to 3.1 million by 2021 globally.

    2. Globally, total public W-Fi hotspots (including homespots) will grow 6-fold from 2016 to 2021 from 94 million in 2016 to 541.6 million by 2021.
    · Globally, total Wi-Fi homespots will grow from 85 million in 2016 to 526.2 million by 2021.
    · Globally there were 91 percent of public Wi-Fi hotspots in 2016 and by 2021 it is projected to reach 97 percent.
    · Leading hotspot countries: China (170M by 2021), US (86M by 2021), Japan (33M by 2021), and France (30M by 2021).

    3. By 2021, more than half (56 percent) of connected flat panel TV sets will be 4K up from 15% in 2016
    · Installed/In-service 4K TV sets will increase from 85M in 2016 to 663M by 2021.

    4. Cord-Cutting household traffic is 86 percent higher
    · A global cord-cutting household generates 117 GB per month in 2017, compared to 63 GB per month for an average household.

    5. Global Enterprise SD-WAN Traffic
    · SD-WAN traffic will grow at a CAGR of 44% compared to 5% for traditional WAN SD-WAN will increase 6x and will be 25% of WAN traffic by 2021
    · End-User Internet traffic is moving closer to the Edge. Nearly half of traffic will bypass core completely by 2021.

    Regional IP Traffic Growth Details
    · APAC: 107.7 exabytes/month by 2021, 26% CAGR, 3.2-fold growth
    · North America: 85 exabytes/month by 2021, 20% CAGR, 2.5-fold growth
    · Western Europe: 37.4 exabytes/month 2021, 22% CAGR, 2.7-fold growth
    · Central Europe: 17.1 exabytes/month by 2021, 22% CAGR, 2.75-fold growth
    · Latin America: 12.9 exabytes/month by 2021, 21% CAGR, 2.6-fold growth
    · West Asia and Africa: 15.5 exabytes/month by 2021, 42% CAGR, 5.8-fold growth

  • ZEEL consolidates digital biz, buys remainder in India Webportal for Rs 1.97 bn

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) will be acquiring the remainder 49 per cent equity stake in India Webportal Pvt Ltd Rs 1.97 billion to consolidate the digital business. India Webportal distributes media content on digital platforms through websites such as Bollywoodlife.com, India.com, and Cricketcountry.com.

    The company will also be acquiring 12.5 per cent stake in Tagos Design Innovations for Rs 160 million, PTI reported.

    ZEEL said in a BSE filing: “In line with the strategy to consolidate digital businesses, the Board of Directors of the company…approved acquisition of balance 49 per cent equity stake in India Webportal, a 51 per cent subsidiary of the company.”

    Zee agreed to buy the 49% holding from existing investors Ashok Kurien (5%) and MMC Investments (44%).