ITV

Category: iWorld

  • Dekkho & Times release ‘Wakhra Swag’ fame Inder’s exclusive video

    MUMBAI: Wakhra Swag, Navv Inder’s collaboration with Badshah has crossed over 70 million hits across platforms.  Navv Inder is back with a new romantic song with lyrics by Navi Kamboz which will be launched on Dekkho, the online video streaming platform. The music video, produced by Times Music will be exclusively available for the first two days on Dekkho.  Users can download and watch this video exclusively on the Dekkho mobile app, now available on iOS and Android.

    Commenting on the song, Navv Inder says, “This is my debut romantic single for all my fans, especially for those who are in love. The video has been shot beautifully and is a visual treat and I’m thrilled to release it on Dekkho’s unique platform”

    http://www.dekkho.com/music-details/5399369934001/

    Commenting on the launch Dekkho co-founder Vinay Pillai said, “Navv Inder is quickly becoming one of the most popular artists in the country today. He is an absolute sensation with his ever-growing fan base and is stepping into a novel territory with this new track. We are sure that his fans will love this romantic song. Our collaboration with Times Music gives us access to their premium videos, some of them on a first-window basis. We look forward to disrupting premium content even further with this alliance so our users can enjoy the widest range of music for all moods.”

    “Navv Inder is one of the most amazing artistes that Times Music works with and this single penned by Navi Kamboz is an absolute smash. We look forward to working with dekkho on releasing many such collaborations in the future” said Times Music COO Mandar Thakur.

    Headquartered in Mumbai, Dekkho is a new-age video streaming service established in March 2016. Catering specifically to the diverse entertainment needs of Indian viewers, Dekkho allows its users to watch free, high-quality, multichannel premium content with advertisements. Times Music is one of India’s leading music entertainment companies and a division of South Asia’s largest media conglomerate, The Times Of India Group. 

  • Govt may invite bids for railway TV content this month, market pegged at Rs 2.3k cr

    MUMBAI: Content on demand on trains and at stations is a sizeable market, says a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and, the Indian Railways estimates the infotainment market to be around Rs 2,277 crore in three years’ time.

    The Railway Ministry, in a bid to revamp railways, may invite bids for Content on Demand (CoD) and rail radio services in April. Services that would be included under the CoD initiative are — movies, TV serials, short videos, kids’ shows and devotional content. The CoD would also include streaming audio such as regional songs, movie songs, and devotional music; and providing electronic newspapers, gaming and educational content.

    Railways’ bids for app-based cab services will also be invited by May.

    The video, radio, digital music and digital gaming contracts will be for a period of 10 years. The railways is, through these initiatives, expecting revenue of Rs 16,000-20,000 crore in the next 10 years.

    As per the BCG report, to provide offline content, railways may have to shell out Rs 38,000 per coach. But, the online content will be expensive — for Rs 25 lakh each. Coaches are required to be well equipped to offer content streamed via the internet.

    The non-fare revenue plan is to roll out rail radio and CoD on one-third of the trains in the first year and most of the remainder in the second year. Ideas such as allowing weddings at stations or giving branding rights of trains and stations to FMCG companies.

    Content companies such as Balaji Productions, Eros Entertainment and Shemaroo Entertainment, and aggregators such as Fever FM, Radio Mirchi, Hungama and Bindass may be interested in bidding. Internet players and service-providers in the offline streaming market include Moving Talkies, Dwingloo, PressPlay TV, Fropcorn, TouringTalkies, Zonk, CloudPlay and MyFreeTV.

    Telecom companies such as Vodafone, Idea, Airtel, are also expected to be interested. The content providers will offer to the passengers both, paid and free content. The service provider shall provide only ‘U’, ‘U/A’ and ‘PG’ rated video content. ‘A’ rated content shall not be allowed.

    This government policy includes providing video and radio content through WiFi in stations and on trains, leasing spaces on platforms to automated teller machines, giving outdoor spaces for installing advertising hoardings and billboards.

    According to the railways, the entertainment CoD will be provided on the personal devices of passengers at stations and in trains and in a phased manner, which will be listed out in the Tender Document. The licensee/service provider will be permitted to provide streaming video and audio content services. Radio, however, will not be allowed at stations.

  • ALTBalaji launched, to create 250+ hrs of original content this year

    MUMBAI: Undisputed leaders in the world of television and cinema Balaji Telefilms announced their arrival in the digital world through the launch of mobile platform ALTBalaji today. ALTBalaji has been launched with the vision to create original shows for India & Indians abroad, for consumption on their personal devices at location/time/show of their choice! 

    The platform will offer 250+ hours of original, exclusive content to its subscribers. This ad free, subscription-based platform will be commercially available with few of these original shows from 16 April. 

    After conquering the world of television, Balaji Telefilms and Ekta Kapoor are all set to claim her throne on digital entertainment space with the OTT platform ALTBalaji.

    The shows on video on demand platform are created by the best talent of Indian entertainment industry including critically acclaimed directors and actors. The long illustrious list of artists 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 many more. 

    Commenting on the launch, Balaji Telefilms joint managing director Ekta Kapoor said, “Indian entertainment audience is evolving and so are we at Balaji, with ALTBalaji we are officially identifying our audience as individuals and not groups/family. We are entering into their most personal space- mobile phones and this empowers them to really watch what they want, at the time & location of their choice and not what single TV family is habituated to. ALTBalaji’s shows will open new world of home grown differentiated entertainment to the viewers with the best stories and artists.”

    Balaji Telefilms group CEO Sameer Nair said, “We are proud to bring ALTBalaji to the Indian viewers, this is an alternate to their regular entertainment options- TV, Bollywood Films and foreign English content. We fit right between these options and with the plummeting digital divide across Indian cities we found a perfect space to showcase our content, digital platform. We tied up with multiple partners to ensure smooth navigation and subscription payment option, creating an unparalleled user experience on the app.”

    ALTBalaji CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “The most endearing feature of ALTBalaji is its content, we are launching with the promise to bring fresh and never heard of stories to our viewers. While we are starting with 5 shows, it will be followed by a new show every 15 days for the binge watch lovers. On one hand we offer story of India’s first female in combative role- THE TEST CASE on the other we have most loved TV stars in KARRLE TU BHI MOHABBAT. It is intriguing and fresh story-telling.”

    Features of ALTBalaji app
    ALTBalaji is fully cloud based, to deliver incomparable performance and durability, ensuring high performance video delivery to all subscribers. ALTBalaji’s highlights include:
    ● A subscription based Video-on-Demand service with original and exclusive premium content at competitive prices to customers
    ● 5 episodes of every show free for viewing & less than Rs.1/day thereon
    ● Service across multiple connected devices with seamless cross device user experience
    ● Parental control allowing kids to watch kids content and giving them no access to other content

    Details of shows 

    · The Test Case- directed by national award winning director Nagesh Kukunoor, the show stars Nimrat Kaur as THE TEST CASE prepping to be the Indian Army’s first woman test case in a combat role. It is an inspirational story about her passion and struggle to prove her worth as a combative soldier. The impressive cast includes Juhi Chawla, Atul Kulkarni and Rahul Dev.

    · Boygiri- it is fun, pure, unadulterated, slaphappy comic story of boys next door. Boygiri is an authentic take on “men will be boys” and the overarching awkwardness of being boys.

    · Romil and Jugal- this is ALTBalaji’s fresh take on Shakespeare’s famous tale of Romeo and Juliet but with a twist. An emotional love story of two boys- Romil and Jugal who hails from different family and cultural backgrounds. 

    · Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat- Starring the famous duo Sakshi Tanwar and Ram Kapoor, this is a story of two opposite people who cross each other’s paths suddenly and how it has an everlasting impact on their lives.

    · Bewaffa Sii Wafaa- a matured, complicated love story of two married people, married to other people. This emotionally charged story opens multiple layers off a relations between married couples and explores what happens when one of them finds loves outside marriage. 

    · Dev DD- Imagine Devdas with a bottle of vodka, now replace Devdas with Devika Dharmendra Dwivedi! This is a twisted tale of Devika (Dev DD) who is not a ‘so called good girl’ and loves everything that is complicated in life.

    ALTBalaji’s 250+ hours of original and exclusive content offers a wide range of genres, the package has something for every viewer. Shows in regional language are also in pipeline for the platform, Maya Thirrai- a Tamil thriller drama will soon be available to viewers. ALTBalaji will offer extensive range of shows in various languages and genres to all age group and regions, both in India and abroad.

  • ‘Common standard’ good to measure ‘unbundled’ viewership & ads cost-effectiveness: EKAM

    MUMBAI: BARC India has announced the phased roll-out of its much-awaited digital measurement service. 

    EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India. EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a Digital device. EKAM Stream, will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. BARCIndia will also provide industry with EKAM Ad-Scan – which will be a global first-of-its-kind product. 

    EKAM Integra – will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this,BARC India’s TV data will be tied with Digital Video data with the help of Single-Source and Digital Booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

    www.indiantelevision.com spoke to a cross-section of the industry on the new scale. Sony Pictures Networks India EVP and Head – Digital Business Uday Sodhi, and Dekkho co-founder Tanay Desai both find the proposed new system interesting. 

    Speaking on the announcement, Sodhi said, “While digital advertising spends in India have witnessed exponential growth over the past couple of years, measuring the cost-effectiveness of video advertisements across TV and digital properties has been one of the biggest pain points for brands in India. The launch of EKAM by BARC India comes as a very welcome development in such a scenario. Not only will it allow advertisers to analyze quantifiable differences in video ad impressions, but will also allow them to see unique and de-duplicated reach and frequency across multiple platforms to accurately ascertain the ROI. It will enable fairer pricing for both advertisers and publishers, and will allow for incremental ad revenues for platforms which provide the maximum consumer reach and impressions. Looking forward to the market launch of the EKAM suite of products and the disruption it will bring in the digital ad industry.”

    On the launch of the BARC digital measurement tool, Zee Entertainment Z5 Business head of digital – India Archana Anand said:

    “This is a very positive development, not just for the OTT segment but for the media industry at large. Given the pace at which the digital entertainment industry is growing, it is becoming more and more critical to have a standardized tool for measurement. A common currency for digital measurement  will allow OTT players to benchmark their performance better across standardized metrics and catalyse overall growth of the industry. This will also help broadcasters get a holistic and more integrated analysis of their viewership across broadcast and digital media, enabling them to feel a greater sense of ownership rather than feeling that they are losing out to digital.“

    Viacom18 digital venture’s COO Gaurav Gandhi: said While digital video services are all fully measurable, there is no common industry measurement nor is there common standard for things like viewability.

    Having a common industry measurement will help all industry stakeholders. It will be a big boost to the fast growing digital video business to realize fair values for audience delivered and help the agencies to plan across TV and digital video better (as well as across various digital video services) – as they will now be able to implement true cross media plans. It will also give more confidence to the advertisers that their audience deliveries are backed by a common industry validated source.”

    Dekkho co-founder Tanay Desai replied to indiantelevision.com queries:

    Was it eagerly awaited? How do you see it?

    Tanay Desai: BARC ‘s Ekam measurement system was eagerly awaited given the lack of transparency in Indian digital media. Today, advertisers on mainstream platforms are often unaware about their exact spends, resulting into 60% inaccuracy in reporting at times. The common denominator for measurement will be challenging to implement — in terms of defining what makes a view, along with specialised metrics for mobile and web for demographic measurement.

    Which are the other methods you have been using?

    Tanay Desai: In-house analytics along with trusted and verified third party vendors to track activity on video, channel and page level. Metrics include engagement, source of session, demographic and geographic data. Dekkho allows advertisers to associate with individual videos, channels and pages of content unlike a fully automated/programmatic allocation system. This ensures brand safety and correct targeting while optimising use of media spends for brands aiming for specific audiences.

    How would it give a fillip to the ecosystem?

    Tanay Desai: OTTs that belong to production houses often sell inventory on a bundled basis. i.e. – TV + digital. This results into little transparency regarding actual views on digital. With the new system in place, digital viewership measurement will be isolated from TV be it a production house backed OTT or an independent aggregator. On the other hand, OTT players themselves will command higher CPMs through superior audience targeting. Media agencies and buyers will have relative knowledge i.e. – compare one OTT’s offering with its peers while spending on behalf of clients.

  • Android future of TV, but many unwilling to pay

    NEW DELHI: Around 72% of respondents in a recent survey are considering Android implementations as a part of their set-top box (STB) strategies. In addition, 50% of respondents in a global survey see Android as being important for their goals within the next five years.

    These are among the findings of a research done by digital security platform Irdeto and OvumConsulting indicating that a majority of video service providers have either Android TV or Android Open Source Project (AOSP) on their technology roadmaps.

    Conducted in February 2017, the study “Is Android the future of the set-top box?” covered 300 TV industry professionals.

    Around 106 respondents were from APAC, segregated by Ovum into two categories: Developed which had 58 respondents and developing which had 48 respondents. India figures in the latter category.

    It also identified a variety of benefits they perceive Android TV to offer, including the availability of new features and services, faster time-to-market, an attractive user interface and cost efficiencies.

    However, while a majority of respondents indicated a commitment to Android, only 54% of video service providers are willing to pay more for Android chipsets than traditional chipsets with embedded middleware.

    Features, specifically the ability for users to download additional apps, are the driving force leading Android implementations. Video service providers with more than one million subscribers (43%) and those with less than one million subscribers (34%) both said that this was the number one driver for adoption.

    However, despite service providers’ confidence in the benefits of Android TV, there are significant concerns around piracy and cyberthreats. By allowing easy installations of other applications onto the STB, 43% of respondents believe there will be an increased attack surface, while 41% are concerned that their subscribers could install apps for illegal streaming.

    “Video service providers are feeling pressure to continue to innovate their offerings to satisfy consumer demand for an optimal user experience,” said Irdeto director of Product Management Frank Poppelsdorf. “These results indicate that Android TV is not only on pace to play a critical role in the future of TV distribution, but are essential for the industry to meet growing consumer demand for new and innovative services. However, the open nature of the technology brings up several security concerns, especially in regard to piracy. As the industry continues to shift toward more open platforms for the set-top box, it will be critical for video service providers to implement a robust 360-degree security approach to ensure their premium content is protected while optimizing flexibility and time to market.”

    While many expect Android to dominate the TV landscape in the near future, the survey revealed that more education on the differences between Android platforms may be needed. Only 52% of those surveyed understand the differences between Android TV and AOSP.

    “Education on Android platforms is critical for video service providers to understand the capabilities, benefits and drawbacks of each technology in order to make the best strategic decision concerning their technology roadmap,” saidOvum Practioce Leader TV Ed Barton. “These types of insights identified in our survey with Irdeto are key to help pay TV operators, broadcasters and OTT streaming providers better anticipate the opportunities and challenges ahead. We were pleased to work with Irdeto on this survey of C-Level executives as well as professionals across multiple disciplines to identify Android strategies that will shape the pay TV market in the years ahead.”

    As platforms like Android TV become the new norm in the TV landscape, it will be important for operators to employ a holistic, 360-degree security approach to secure these next-generation devices. Stofa, Denmark’s most innovative supplier of cable TV and broadband internet services, recently selected Irdeto Cloaked CA to securely deliver content through its upcoming new Android set-top box (STB). Not only will subscribers have the full range of Stofa services on the STB, they will also have direct access to the Google Play app store and to streaming services such as YouTube. Stofa intends to revolutionize the user experience with its new Android STB and with Irdeto’s latest renewable and cardless software security, any form of content delivered to customers will be robustly protected.

    The survey was commissioned by Irdeto and conducted in February 2017 by Ovum. 301 TV industry professionals spread across six regional groupings, including APAC, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa and North America participated in the survey. All respondent companies provide video services as part of their business and the service provider types were Internet service providers, OTT video providers, pay TV operators (cable, DTT and satellite) and telecoms providers. The survey targeted an informed audience with a representative proportion of C-level respondents alongside technology, content, marketing and network security.

  • Amazon Prime global head: Committed quality shows Indians love, partners Kabir for Netaji’s ‘true story”

    MUMBAI: Amazon has announced an Indian original series based on Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army to be directed by one of Bollywood’s top directors and producers, Kabir Khan.

    The Forgotten Army (working title) will mark Kabir’s Khan’s debut in OTT digital video services. The series is scheduled to start production by the end of 2017.

    The Forgotten Army is a war epic, an Indian band of brothers of sorts, which will touch upon several stories, including the contribution of women in the Indian National Army.

    “We had made a commitment to our Indian customers to deliver high-quality, binge-worthy shows that they’ll love to watch, and our association with Kabir Khan greatly reinforces our commitment towards this promise,” said Prime Video global content head Roy Price. “Our aim is to build a compelling lineup of Indian shows, working with the greatest talents from the industry. Our association with Kabir Khan is one of the many such partnerships that India will see. We know our Prime members are going to love the epic war story being brought to life with Kabir Khan helming the project.

    He further added, “Our aim is to build a captivating lineup of Indian shows, working with the greatest talents from the industry.”

    “These are super exciting times for any content creator in India and I am elated to make my debut in the digital space with Amazon Prime Video’s India Original,” said film director and producer Khan. “Amazon Prime Video provides greater access to reach new and vast Indian audiences. They are also bringing in global talent and knowledge to collaborate with Indian scriptwriters and content creators to further hone their skills and know-how. I am excited to make this truly international series which has a scale and reach far greater than any Hindi film.”

    Based on true events, this series is about a war “we were not told about and of soldiers we thought did not exist.” This series is the dynamic true story of the men and women who fought a heroic war for the independence of India as part of the Indian National Army which was forged out of British defeat in Singapore during WWII and led by the charismatic Bose. They fought against all odds and paid the ultimate price but they did not succeed… and against the dazzling success of Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent movement to free India, they soon became the forgotten army.

  • Jio brings Rs 309 all-unlimited plan, new Prime sops

    MUMBAI: Reliance Jio Infocomm announced that the Jio Summer Surprise has been fully withdrawn, following the advice of Telecom Regulatory authority of India (“TRAI”).

    Jio further announced new all-unlimited plans with special benefits, exclusively for its Jio Prime members and aimed at encouraging Jio subscribers to live the Digital Life without restrictions – Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan!

    The plans start with the most affordable Rs. 309 which provides Unlimited SMS, calling and data (1GB per day at 4G speed) for three months on first recharge.

    The company also announced the Rs. 509 unlimited plan for daily high data users offering Unlimited SMS, calling and data (2GB per day at 4G speed) for three months on first recharge.

    Considering the special benefits that are available to Jio Prime members, customers who were unable to subscribe to Jio Prime for any reason, can continue to do so by paying Rs. 408 or Rs. 608 (Jio Prime + recharge price) to avail these benefits.

    These plans will be available starting on 12 April, 2017. Existing Jio customers who have not done their first recharge so far, need to do so by 15 April 2017 to avoid degradation and/or discontinuation of services.

    Jio is currently implementing the world’s largest migration from free to paid services in such a short period of time. In order to smoothen the migration from free to paid services, Jio has implemented simple, affordable and regulatory compliant plans in customer interest. Jio looks forward to customers making full use of this opportunity to avail the most attractive tariff plans in the industry, which are unparalleled globally.

    With this, Jio extends the benefits of a superior and advanced technology to take India to global digital leadership. Jio’s unmatched data strong network is capable of meeting the burgeoning data requirements of hundreds of millions of Indians. The announcement also marks another step in Jio’s commitment to continuously delight its customers and enable them to live a fully digital life. Jio is thankful to the millions of customers who have taken up Jio services.

  • OTT: Blink Now taps Ooyala for video ads, live streaming & real-time analytics

    MUMBAI: Ooyala, a global provider of video monetization technology and services, is powering the complete video business of Blink Now, a leading premium OTT provider in the Philippines. With Ooyala, Blink Now is maximizing its business potential across three separate OTT properties with a single provider, powering ad operations, video delivery, data-driven insights and live streaming to more than 180,000 users nationwide.

    A US-based subsidiary of global telecommunications and IT services company Telstra, Ooyala’s comprehensive suite of offerings includes one of the world’s largest premium video platforms, a leading ad serving and programmatic platform and media logistics solution that improves video production workflows.

    A part of SM Lifestyle Entertainment, Inc., SMLEI, the entertainment arm and subsidiary of the Philippines largest property developer, SM Prime Holdings, Blink Now is the OTT division focused on providing the best entertainment content and customer experience. The company required a sophisticated video technology provider with a powerful analytics solution to help them understand their audience’s habits across its subscription-based (SVOD), transaction-based (TVOD) and ad-supported video services (AVOD).

    “Supporting multiple TV-monetization models demands rich data to guide decisions. Ooyala’s analytics ties our business decisions to our audience’s desires, giving us the confidence to know what we build is what they want most,” said SMLEI Assistant Vice President of Digital Media and Head, Francis Gerard R. Tupaz.

    He added, “when considering our options in the market, Ooyala stood out as they are the only video solutions provider with a comprehensive set of modern-day technologies. Backed by a local team for support and services, Ooyala immediately solved multiple challenges from reliable live streaming, audience measurement, premium content delivery and holistic ad-campaign management.”

    With Ooyala IQ, Blink Now has access to up-to-the minute analytics to see what content is trending at any given time, allowing them to feature well-performing content to attract even higher viewership. Real-time multi-dimensional reports gives Blink Now granular insights to track engagement over any period of time across all properties or even individual videos. The data helps ensure they are reinvesting in highly-profitable content for the business based on its audience’s’ viewing behaviors.

    Using Ooyala Pulse, the customer can see how ad-loads affect drop-off and completion rates against varying content lengths. This allows them to tailor the right amount of ads to every piece of content to maximize monetisation without sacrificing user experience.

    “Blink Now is great example of a modern entertainment customer in need of Integrated Video Platform solutions. With our technologies, they can grow in tandem with its audience’s appetite for video and with the industry,” said Ooyala General Manager of Asia-Pacific, Steve Davis. “And with our analytics, they now have the insights to see how audiences watch Hollywood titles versus globally-recognized TV episodes differently, what content is driving them the most money and how their audiences prefers to pay for and access content across devices.”

    Ooyala will be highlighting its set Integrated Video Platform (IVP) solutions at NAB 2017 and APOS 2017. With a common data set to drive insights and inform strategies, IVP is the next generation of OVP, evolving well beyond online video platform capabilities to deliver sophisticated solutions to understand the costs and return-on-investment of video content.

  • Zeta launches e-meal voucher on RuPay, tax benefits accessible in remote areas

    MUMBAI: Fintech start-up Zeta, which offers digital employee benefits for tax optimisation, has tied up with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) payment platform – RuPay. The partnership will widen Zeta’s payment network and push for a more inclusive adoption of digital payments in corporate India. This collaboration makes Zeta’s meal voucher solution the first ever such solution to run on Government of India endorsed RuPay platform.

    With RBL Bank as its banking partner, Zeta’s revolutionary pre-paid card called the Zeta Super Card will now also be available on the RuPay platform. The Zeta Super Card, includes robust anti-fraud security measures that lets users make payments across 12 lakh+ outlets across India as well as online stores.

    NPCI MD & CEO A. P. Hota said, “This strategic partnership between RBL Bank and Zeta will assist all individuals to spend their salary perquisites through digital means.”

    Zeta Co-founder and CTO Ramki Gaddipati said, “The combined offering of Zeta, RBL and RuPay is built with a sharp focus on enhancing user experience, and is aimed at accelerating the cashless movement using technologies made in India, for India. Joining the RuPay platform will further strengthen Zeta’s payment network and will also help us reach corporates as well as PSUs with employees based in remote areas.”

    RBL Bank executive director Rajeev Ahuja said, “RBL Bank has successfully built a strong digital platform business that delivers enhanced services in banking and other domains. We have identified many areas of the economy that, with these technologies, can be made more efficient and also help lower the cost of accessing these services for a larger number of consumers. We believe collaborating with the right partners is an important ingredient towards succeeding in the new era of digital businesses. In Zeta, we have a highly committed partner who is constantly looking to break new ground.”

    Taking forward its commitment towards the Digital India movement, the company will also launch payments via UPI, Bharat QR Code and Aadhaar Pay modes, which will be available to a larger section of the salaried population with or without access to smartphones and magnetic stripe card machines.

    With these payment modes, Zeta intends to remove the existing barriers to digital payments. Salaried employees across all sectors, including PSUs can now take advantage of receiving and spending tax benefits digitally even in remote locations.

    “When it comes to digitising employee benefits, it is essential to consider every employee in the organisation and provide solutions that work for everyone. Several of the PSUs have employees in locations that have limited card network reach,” Gaddipati added.

    “For many of the small merchants who deal in essentials like food and medicines, the card machines may be unaffordable. We can’t ignore those challenges. Therefore, we built Zeta using technologies made in India, made for India and envisaged for digital inclusion of all the people by the Government of India.”

    “The Zeta benefits platform is on Rupay uses Aadhaar for eKYC and authentication, supports regional languages and is UPI, Bharat QR Code and Aadhaar pay ready. We will start rolling out these options as we start working with PSUs across the country. By providing such inclusive options, Zeta can ensure that salary benefits reach every eligible employee, no matter their location, language and digital literacy level is,” Gaddipati further added.

    With RuPay’s reach of 12,20,763 enabled POS terminals, Zeta will now have a greater combined acceptance across the country, even while bringing small towns and remote areas into their net.

    With the RuPay tie up, Zeta Super Card users now can also get access to exclusive privileges like Zeta has been disrupting the meal voucher industry by leveraging technology to ease the process of issuing, receiving and spending the prepaid Instrument for meals. Recent steps proposed by the Reserve Bank of India are also beneficial for overall industry growth.

    With the recent RBI draft proposal on issuance of prepaid meal instruments that says meal vouchers in paper format will not be accepted beyond 31 December 2017, the company is busy helping both public and private sector companies make the move easily.

    Within a short span of one year, Zeta has accumulated a client base of over 650 corporates spread across India and has over 100,000 end users.

  • Amazon Fire TV: Autism channel now available free

    MUMBAI: The Autism Channel’s streaming video content is now available on Amazon Fire Stick, Fire TV and select Seiki, Westinghouse and Element televisions with Fire TV technology. Amazon’s Fire TV stick and Fire TV set top box have joined Roku and Panasonic Viera devices where viewers can watch The Autism Channel’s programming free on demand.

    The Autism Channel streams nearly 100 hours of digital video content featuring individuals on the autism spectrum and professionals in the field of autism spectrum treatment and research. The channel began streaming on Roku in 2012 and added the Panasonic Viera TV platform two years later.

    Users of Amazon Fire TV technology can now access the channel without charge by adding it to their channel list from the On-Demand Movie Streaming category of the Apps & Games section at amazon.com. Roku users can find the channel in the educational section of the Roku channel store.

    Panasonic Viera owners can find the channel in the channel store on most Viera television devices.

    The Autism Channel features programming designed for those who are parents or caregivers of people on the spectrum, professionals in the field, and those on the spectrum themselves. It offers a wide range of programming from movie reviews, mini-documentaries about autism and interview shows, to “Time Out” features designed to be calming and relaxing.

    This rollout is the first of many which will add several smart television set types, set top box and streaming stick platforms and phone and tablet devices to widen the availability of the channel. The Autism Channel is a privately owned media content developer and supplier based in West Palm Beach, Florida.