ITV

Category: iWorld

  • Amazon Prime signs multi-year deal with Warner Bros.

    MUMBAI: Amazon has announced an exclusive long-term content deal with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution which brings the biggest, latest and most popular movies and TV shows from the Warner Bros. repertoire to Amazon Prime members in India. Amazon Prime Video will now be the exclusive subscription screening home to some of the latest movies like Sully, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, The Conjuring 2, Lights Out along with evergreen titles like Godzilla, Edge of Tomorrow, Annabelle, Into the Storm to name a few. Apart from the movie library, hundreds of popular hit TV shows like Lethal Weapon, Supernatural, Blindspot, The Last Ship, 2 Broke Girls, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and more are also available at the same time as their US premiere to Prime members. The deal also includes the hit comedy, Two and a Half Men, which concluded its 12-season run in 2015.

    Nitesh Kripalani, Director and Country Head, Amazon Prime Video India, said, “Amazon is thrilled to announce this groundbreaking deal with Warner Bros. International that adds some of the most in demand and searched movies and TV shows to our latest and exclusive content selection to Prime customers. With top TV shows soon after their US broadcast and classic ever-green movies and TV shows from the Warner Bros. studio, our Prime Video customers will see even further value in the Prime membership.”

    “We are pleased that subscribers of Amazon Prime in India will have on-demand access to these high-quality films and first-rate television series,” added Jeffrey Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros Worldwide Television Distribution. “We look forward to continuing to supply Amazon with our great content in India as we do in many other countries around the world.”

  • 80k illicit streaming consumers lost connections in Asia, CASBAA says

    80k illicit streaming consumers lost connections in Asia, CASBAA says

    MUMBAI: Tens of thousands of consumers of illegal TV services in Asia have lost their connections in recent weeks, as enforcement action against networks operating through illicit streaming devices (ISDs) picks up speed. Asian regional pay-TV association CASBAA applauded recent police actions in Thailand and Malaysia, which resulted in takedowns and arrests of operators of ISD networks.

    “The criminal syndicates selling ISDs have defrauded many consumers into believing their services were legitimate,” said CASBAA Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros. “They are not. And anyone buying an illicit IPTV box takes the risk of losing their money without warning when the network is taken down.”

    After the Thai raids, an estimated 50,000 consumers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia and other places all lost service, despite having pre-paid substantial amounts for “Expat.tv” services. The enforcement action that shut down the service led to the arrest of two British nationals and one Thai citizen, as well as the seizure of a considerable amount of equipment.

    In Malaysia, police estimated that 30,000 consumers were receiving service from a syndicate illegally retransmitting programming from Astro channels. Six men were arrested in raids in Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

    CASBAA CEO Christopher Slaughter said the TV industry — including creators of all genres of TV content as well as leading distribution companies like Astro, PCCW, and True Visions – are determined to keep up enforcement actions against ISD networks. “It’s important for consumers to understand that if a bouquet of TV programming offered on a box seems “too good to be true”, then it probably is not legitimate,” he said. “Money invested in an ISD is at risk of loss at any time.”

    Consumers also risked infection with malware when they attach ISDs, with their dodgy apps, to home networks, warned Medeiros. “Researchers in the UK have found ISD boxes importing viruses that could allow hackers access to all devices on home networks. This could result in the theft of personal data, credit card fraud or even being held to ransom. It’s only a matter of time before this problem hits consumers in Asia, too.”

    “Legitimate, licensed TV services are a far more reliable and more secure way to obtain programming.”

  • SonyLiv leverages Clevertap to gain greater understanding, segment, engage & track users

    MUMBAI: Analytics and engagement technology provider CleverTap has announced that Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited (SPN) has selected the company’s platform for real-time behavioral data and user insights for its SonyLIV video on demand (VOD) service. A pioneer of over-the-top (OTT), SPN will leverage CleverTap to gain greater understanding of their users while improving their ability to segment, engage and track them throughout the user lifecycle.

    CleverTap, with offices in San Francisco, New York, LA, Mumbai and Bangalore, provides a comprehensive behavioral analytics and user engagement suite that enables brands to identify, target, measure and monetise users across mobile and web. SonyLIV provides multi-screen engagement to users on all devices.

    CleverTap’s unique combination of analytics and engagement tools is achieving rapid adoption around the world for its ability to offer developers and marketers like SonyLIV a powerful solution for designing and implementing timely, personalized and impactful growth strategies. The platform’s capabilities for real-time analytics and segmentation along with multi-channel messaging, A/B testing and personalization support the application of data-based insights to drive stronger and more valuable long-term customer relationships.

    “The proliferation of mobile and web apps in the digital world leads to confusion, and it’s getting increasingly difficult for developers to rise above the noise. A few years ago, just building an app was enough to capture user attention. Now it’s only the first step,” said CleverTap CEO Sunil Thomas. “Today, developers need in-depth understanding of their users along with relevant and actionable insights to even begin achieving their business objectives. In other words, the better you understand your customer, the better you can serve them.”

    “Having analytics and engagement within the same platform is critical to our customer acquisition and retention strategy,” stated SonyLIV EVP and Head of Digital Business Uday Sodhi. “CleverTap’s advanced segmentation engine allows us to track, analyze and target the right customers in real-time and send timely, contextual messages using their powerful Live User Segments feature. The platform’s powerful campaign management tool has also enabled us to lift engagement, and its robust technology offers us complete confidence that CleverTap can scale with us as we achieve exponential user growth.”

    CleverTap is able to support such massive use cases because of the technology innovations and engineering enhancements that go into the platform everyday. It’s scalable, secure architecture quickly processes millions of data points in a fraction of a second and gives businesses access to real-time user insights that help influence their app engagement strategy.

  • Brightcove expands into India, counts Republic, SonyLiv, Dekkho & Hero among clients

    MUMBAI: Brightcove Inc., a leading provider of cloud services for video, is expanding its global market leadership into India with key customer wins and the launch of a new office in Mumbai, India. With several of the country’s top-tier media companies as customers, Brightcove is demonstrating that it is the go-to partner for a wide range of broadcasters, publishers and OTT services as they seek to launch and monetise their online video experiences.

    Brightcove’s key customer wins in India include:

    Sony Liv, an Indian general entertainment VOD service that is owned by Sony Pictures Networks India.
    The Viral Fever, one of India’s leading online content creators that recently launched their OTT entertainment channel, TVFPlay.

    Dekkho, a streaming video service specializing in delivering premium content from India’s top content creators.

    Hero Talkies, a SVOD OTT service that specializes in streaming Tamil movie content across 80 countries.

    Republic World TV, a newly launched Indian English-language news television channel streaming news across satellite, cable and online.

    According to research from Media Partners Asia (MPA), the market potential of online video in India is massive. Online video advertising is expected to surpass US$1 billion in net revenue in India by 2021, according to MPA analysts. Despite having the lowest broadband penetration among APAC’s 14 biggest economies, broadband penetration is on the rise and expected to reach 622 million mobile broadband subscriptions by 2021, according to the MPA study. India’s OTT video market is already the fourth-biggest in the region, behind China, Japan and Australia.

    “With 462 million active Internet users1, India is a sizable market for online video and OTT – and it’s growing. Data shows that only 35 percent of the Indian population is using the internet,” Brightcove Asia vice president Tomer Azenkot said. “This growth represents a tremendous opportunity for Brightcove which, even prior to its office opening, powers video for some of the top-tier Indian media companies. By adding a talented team on the ground, it will only elevate the way that we serve our customer base and shape the future of video experiences moving forward.”

    Founded in 2004, Brightcove has been revolutionizing online video experiences for over a decade. Media companies, publishers and brands worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video across the web, mobile and connected devices. Brightcove is headquartered in Boston, with its Asia Pacific offices in Singapore, South Korea, Sydney, Tokyo and now Mumbai.

  • Wireless b’band speed: TRAI invites transparency & customer awareness ideas

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India wants stakeholders to give their views on ensuring transparency and customer awareness regarding data speeds under wireless broadband plans and has suggested various tools that may be deployed for measuring data speeds

    In a Consultation Paper on ‘Data Speed under Wireless Broadband Plans’, the Authority has asked stakeholders to respond to nine questions raised by it by 20 June with counter-comments if any by 13 July.

    At the outset, it says the National Telecom Policy of 2012 (NTP-2012) has the vision of Broadband on Demand and envisages leveraging telecom infrastructure to enable all citizens and businesses, both in rural and urban areas, to participate in the Internet and web economy thereby ensuring equitable and inclusive development across the nation. It provides the enabling framework for enhancing India’s competitiveness in all spheres of the economy

    Wireless access networks are the main source of delivering broadband in the country. Global mobile subscriptions are growing around 5 percent year-on-year. According to the Ericsson’s mobility report, India grew the most in terms of net additions during the third quarter of 2016 by adding 15 million connections. These figures have increased substantially in the last few quarters. Out of the total 236.09 million broadband subscribers in the country as of 31st December 2016 approximately 92.32% – 217.95 million subscribers – are through wireless access.

    According to a GSMA report titled ‘The Mobile Economy, India 2016’, at the end of June 2016, 616 million unique users subscribed to mobile services in India, making it the second largest mobile market in the world. Almost half the country’s population now subscribes to a mobile service. The report suggests that improving affordability; falling device prices and better network coverage aided by operator investment will help deliver over 330 million new unique subscribers by 2020, taking the penetration rate to 68%. It further adds that as more users migrate to high-speed broadband, mobile data traffic is expected to grow 12-fold between 2015 and 2020, at a CAGR of 63%.

    Data usage by GSM users has already shown an unprecedented growth in the recent months from an average usage of 236MB per month in September, 2016 to 884 MB per month in December 2016.

    Along with this, the composition of revenues earned by operators is also changing. Mobile operators in India have so far reported limited revenue contribution from data services, generating 17% of service revenues at the end of 2015. This is forecast to increase to 23% by 2020.

    The Broadband Policy of 2004 defined broadband as “An ‘always-on’ data connection that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and has the capability of the minimum download speed of 256 kilo bits per second (kbps) to an individual subscriber from the Point of Presence (POP) of the service provider intending to provide broadband service where multiple such individual broadband connections are aggregated and the subscriber is able to access these interactive services including the Internet through this POP. The interactive services will exclude any services for which a separate license is specifically required, for example, real-time voice transmission, except to the extent that it is presently permitted under ISP license with Internet Telephony”.

    The questions raised in the paper, which discusses the various initiatives that have been taken by the Authority in relation to broadband speeds in India and their current status and provides a summary of the international experience on similar issues, are:

    Q1: Is the information on wireless broadband speeds currently being made available to consumers is transparent enough for making informed choices? Q2: If it is difficult to commit a minimum download speed, then could average speed be specified by the service providers? What should be the parameters for calculating average speed?

    Q3: What changes can be brought about to the existing framework on wireless broadband tariff plans to encourage better transparency and comparison between plans offered by different service providers? Q4: Is there a need to include/delete any of the QoS parameters and/or revise any of the benchmarks currently stipulated in the Regulations?

    Q5: Should disclosure of average network performance over a period of time or at peak times including through broadband facts/labels be made mandatory? Q6: Should standard application/ websites be identified for mandating comparable disclosures about network speeds?

    Q7: What are the products/technologies that can be used to measure actual end-user experience on mobile broadband networks? At what level should the measurements take place (e.g., on the 26 device, network node)? Q8: Are there any legal, security, privacy or data sensitivity issues with collecting device level data?

    a) If so, how can these issues be addressed? b) Do these issues create a challenge for the adoption of any measurement tools?

    Q9: What measures can be taken to increase awareness among consumers about wireless broadband speeds, availability of various technological tools to monitor them and any potential concerns that may arise in the process?

  • ZeeMelt: OTTs add to momentum of FB & Youtube video consumption

    MUMBAI: “Digital video is not the regular video which is differentiated by the screen size but everyone is aware about digital videos. If someone is working on a TVC, then bring your brand within first five seconds to get your brand liftup,” said Google creative head Haani Mirza.

    “To lift the brand, marketers will have to focus on ABCD, which is Attract, Brand, Connect and Direct the viewers,” he added.

    Talking about digital advertisments, Kantar Insights CEO – media & digital Gonzalo Fuentes said, “86 per cent people have observed the frequency of advt has increased as compared to past three years, and 32 per cent of Gen Z in South East Asia and India have installed ad blockers.”

    “Digital Advertising industry can change the trend by focusing on the data which is fully consumer-centric and building engagement through creativity and consistency — creativity which is not targeting the audience gives a negative impact,” he added.

    Speaking about videos on social media and OTT platforms, Kantar IMRB MD media, digital & retail Hemant Mehta said, “Over the last few years, video is dominating the social media, and mobile screens attract more engagement than any other media. All the OTT platforms add to the momentum which was inbuilt in the social consumption. India has more than 20 million avid-video consumers spending 45 minutes a day and 22 hours a month.”

    Culture Machine CEO & co- founder Samir Pitalwalla added to Mehta’s view, “90 per cent of the consumers are watching videos on Youtube and Facebook in which three out of 10 consumers access OTT platforms. Music & entertainment are most dominant categories, and the fastest growing are: education and news.”

    Also Read:

    YouTube’s Top 50: T-Series tops & SET India bags 5th slot 

    Adspend: Twitter fastest growing, FB & Google control 20% 

    YouTube challenges Facebook & Twitter with mobile live

  • Amazon Prime takes customer delight to a new realm with Kenny Sebastian

    MUMBAI: In a bid to engage with customers and create a long standing relationship, Amazon Prime Video created an exclusive ‘Customer Delight Program’ for all fans of Kenny Sebastian’s Stand-Up Comedy Special. 

    Audiences who watched ‘Don’t’ Be That Guy’ were given a once in a lifetime opportunity ‘money-can’t-buy-experience.’ Adding to the engagement, Twitter India also featured an exclusive byte of Kenny Sebastian talking about his comedy special.

    Kenny Sebastian, who has massive following on social media, started engaging with his fans across platforms like Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram. Kenny received a tremendous number of responses and chose the best three for the ultimate Kenny experience. 

    Prashasti Shetty (Age:  16 years), Ananya Waghdar (Age: 16 years) & Ryan D’Silva (Age: 18 years) were the lucky winners of this impromptu engagement activity. 

    Prime Video sent across a crew to their places to record messages for a video for Kenny. What they didn’t know was that Kenny would be visiting them as well!  Their surprised and emotional reactions are priceless.

  • ZEEL shifts Zindagi to VoD

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) has announced its decision to move its premium Hindi entertainment channel Zindagi from the television broadcast platform to its video-on-demand platform OZEE from 1 July 2017.

    This move has been announced with the objective to expand digital engagement with the audience who thrive on time-shifted viewing. With this, Zee is focussed on owning the full extent of the consumer’s premium and personal video experience.

    Zindagi will be exclusive on OZEE and showcase the best content in different genres from across the world with narratives which highlight the universality of emotions. The shows that will be available exclusively on OZEE and will include the popular shows Snowdrop, Descendants of the Sun, A Love Story and Total Dreamer. The original productions of Zindagi will also be available on OZEE.

    ZEE’s premium and FTA GEC channels business cluster head Aparna Bhosle said, “Zindagi is a thought leader in premium entertainment and the shift to digital is yet another example of innovation from ZEE. Today, content for our audiences is not just on television but also includes gaming, short form video clips and user generated content, amongst other forms. There are rapid technological advances that are changing viewing habits and content for our audiences can no longer be managed by a remote control. There is an existing consumer demand for viewing premium world content on the digital platforms and we want to reach out to these viewers. We want to stay connected and be relevant to them by providing them with more personalised and specific experiences as they are a discerning audience that prefers choice and control. Making it available exclusively on OZEE will enable us to deliver more distinctive and quality content to audiences on the move.”

    Zindagi, which had launched with the promise of bringing the best stories from across the world to Indian television screens, charmed viewers right from inception.

  • Sterlite unveils smarter optical tech & FTTH solutions at Anga Com ’17

    MUMBAI: Sterlite Tech, an end-to-end global technology leader in smarter digital networks, has unveiled new optical communication technologies and integrated capabilities in designing, building and managing smarter digital networks at Anga Com 2017.

    As partners to global telecom operators in Europe, Middle East, Latin America and Asian markets, Sterlite Tech has a focused business spanning smarter products, services and software solutions with operators in more than 100 countries. The new customised, high-quality smarter network introductions this year include:

    FTTX Smarter Network Kit: Released by Susanne Stengade, CEO, 6X International, Denmark, Sterlite Tech’s highly reliable FTTX Smarter Network Kit addresses the needs of customers by providing fastest connectivity to the last-mile revenue-generating users in hours, instead of days. The solution is based on the simple approach of plug-and-play, with highest reliability and performance.

    Indicium Lite Cable: Launched by Sean Pillans, Head of Access Engineering, Liberty Global, Indicium Lite Cable is suitable for outdoor FTTH deployments in less densely populated areas. The small inner modules in the cable are designed to be cut at one point in the network and retracted to another, where these can be fed or blown through microducts, directly to the customer premises. This solution helps in efficient deployment with zero fibre cuts.

    Atlas Lite Cable: Unveiled by Christian Aasheim, CEO, Melbye Skandinavia AS, Atlas Lite Cable features ultra-compact, light-weight cable designs, containing maximised fibre capacity. This product family is versatile and finds application across access, FTTX, Drop and/or fibre to the desk links. These cables can be blown using compressed air in pre-installed micro ducts for long distance links.

    Olympus Lite Cable: Launched by Luca Facchinetti, Director, Metallurgica Bresciana, Italy, this cable is suitable for hazardous or heavy construction zones including heavy traffic area, wind farm developments, pipelines, oil and gas fields, heavy industrial sites and a variety of additional harsh environments. Mainly used for Metro rail/Railway networks which employ products complying with major industry standards including BS EN 50200, BS 8434-2:2003. This product has safety at its core and meets the customer’s individual specification safety like data transmission security by maintaining circuit integrity under fire conditions, withstanding ultra-high temperatures and long service life.

    Highlighting the new launches at Anga Com, Sterlite Tech CTO Dr Badri Gomatam said, “Our new products and solutions have been designed and developed in close engagement with all our key customers and considering their requirements for smarter network technologies that address the growing demands for higher bandwidth and last-mile connectivity.”

    Sterlite Tech head – global sales – telecom products Ankit Agarwal said, “With our integrated knowledge and expertise in designing, building and managing smarter digital networks, we are partnering leading global telecom service providers and municipalities to realise the European Commission’s aggressive targets to create a Gigabit society through ultra-fast internet access by 2025. With our innovative and future-proof range of fibre connectivity solutions, telecom operators and ISPs can realise this vision, and enable smarter network roll-out in Europe and other geographies.”

  • PM Modi third ‘most followed’ leader on Twitter: Burson-Marsteller Study

    MUMBAI: The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is the third-most followed world leader with 30 million followers on his personal account and 18 million followers on his institutional account, @PMOIndia, which is in fourth place on Twitter, according to Burson-Marsteller’s Twiplomacy study.

    Pope Francis is the most followed world leader on Twitter with a combined total of 33 million followers on his nine language accounts, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump with 30 million.

    Twiplomacy is Burson-Marsteller’s leading global study of how world leaders, governments and international organizations use social media. Data was captured in May 2017, using proprietary Burson tools, CrowdTangle.com and Twitonomy.com.

    India’s foreign minister, @SushmaSwaraj, is the most followed female world leader with eight million followers and @IndianDiplomacy is third among foreign ministries with 1.2 million followers on Twitter.

    Twitter is the prime social network used by 276 heads of state and government, and foreign ministers, in 178 countries, representing 92 percent of all United Nations (UN) member states. Facebook is the second-most used social platform by world leaders, with 169 governments having established official pages. However, world leaders have, on average, twice as many followers on their Facebook pages as followers on Twitter. Data for Twiplomacy, which updated the studies about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope, was captured in May 2017 using Burson-Marsteller’s proprietary Burson tools, CrowdTangle.com and Twitonomy.com.

    Are World Leaders Conversational on Twitter? While President Trump’s tweets have generated 166 million interactions (likes and retweets) over the past 12 months –PM Modi is in second place with 35 million interactions. For instance, in 2015, Modi sent a Direct Message to his then 12.5 million followers celebrating one year in government. Today selected accounts can still send him direct messages and are greeted by this welcome message.

    Visual Communications on Twitter: A number of world leaders have use animated gifs to lighten up their tweets in a fun and playful way. For example, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi created a gif to promote his mobile app.

    The 2017 edition of Twiplomacy also examines the use of other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope, and the Twiplomacy.com website includes rankings as well as a social media atlas for each country studied. The study found, for example, the number of governments using Periscope has doubled over the past year, offering a cost-effective way to broadcast press conferences live.

    “Politics and diplomacy are playing out on social media in a way we have never seen before,” said Don Baer, Worldwide Chair and CEO, Burson-Marsteller. “With the U.S. president bypassing traditional government channels to communicate directly to his supporters and detractors alike, we can expect more people in positions of power to adopt this practice. Our Twiplomacy study shows how fast-paced and dynamic our communications landscape truly is.”

    The 2017 Twiplomacy study analyzed 856 Twitter accounts of heads of state and government, and foreign ministers, in 178 countries with a combined total audience of 356 million followers. Foreign ministries tend to use Twitter to establish mutual relations. The most followed non-government account is the United Nations Twitter account, @UN, which is followed by 338 of the 856 world leaders’ Twitter accounts; @BarackObama and the @ObamaWhiteHouse are followed by 312 and 254 world leaders, respectively. @UNICEF is the second-most followed international organization and The New York Times (@NYTimes) is the most followed news organization. The @Twiplomacy Twitter account is the eighth-most followed non-governmental account by world leaders, with a following of 184 heads of state and government, ahead of @Reuters and @TheEconomist.