ITV

Category: iWorld

  • Analytics tell Snapdeal sellers what to stock

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal has shared the success of their seller initiative ‘Grow My Business’, helping sellers across categories to grow their assortment both qualitatively and quantitatively. Driven by the initiative, Snapdeal assortment size has grown by 25 per cent in key categories, such as Fashion, FMCG and Mobiles over the last one month. This has been facilitated by ‘Grow My Business’ recommendation tab that provides customized business advice and consumer insights to sellers on what will sells most, which products are trending and which critical products are out of stock.

    The initiative has been welcomed and appreciated by the nearly 3,00,000 sellers on Snapdeal. With access to accurate data analytics and insights driven by consumer buying behaviour, ‘Grow My Business’ recommendations have empowered the sellers to bring relevant and fast-moving assortment to their consumer audience.

    From preferred pricing to in-vogue colors relevant for a well-defined target audience, sellers can now take informed decisions basis accurate and timely data inputs and analysis made available to them on their seller panels. This has led to not just better conversions and higher sales for sellers, but has also helped them build brand loyalty.

    Paridhi Creations’ Arihant shared, “The ‘Grow My Business’ tab is amazing! I can see the best-selling items as well as emerging favourites of buyers. I simply look at the recommendations and add products that are in line with my existing assortment. With this feature, I have been able to increase my sales from Rs. 4 lakhs to Rs. 30 lakhs per month.”

    KD Electronics’ Kailash Shahani also shared that, “The ‘Grow My Business’ tab is immensely useful. Backed by hard data, these recommendations have brought about a significant increase in the number of orders that I receive and, hence, have helped me actually grow my business.”

    In addition to helping sellers discover the best consumer suited assortment, Snapdeal has simplified and accelerated the listing process for sellers. Through automation of quality checks for standard products, the time consumed in listing has been significantly reduced.

    In recent announcements, Snapdeal has highlighted its commitment towards bringing in business efficiencies across its entire ecosystem – seller stakeholders being a critical part of the same. The success of “Grow My Business” is another milestone in enabling a predictive and intelligence driven growth for Snapdeal sellers.

    Additionally, Snapdeal provides comprehensive training and development opportunities to ensure that sellers understand the ever evolving essentials of online commerce. Recently, it announced the launch of GST Guru, a program that offers sellers an exhaustive range of resources on GST compliance. Likewise, “Unbox Success” is an interactive platform for sellers where they are encouraged to send in their queries, challenges, and successes and openly share them to a microsite dedicated entirely to seller learning.

  • Hotstar targets Rs 150 crore plus revenue from IPL 2017 streaming

    MUMBAI: Is video on demand streaming service Hotstar cooking up a good revenue platter this IPL 10 season? Well, if some media reports are to be believed, then, it is. Anywhere between Rs 150-200 crore is what it is likely to serve onto the Star India top line. The figure for IPL was a much lower estimated Rs 65 crore.

    The Novi Digital-owned service yesterday announced the on-boarding of Chinese mobile maker Vivo and auto major Maruti Suzuki as presenting sponsors for Vivo IPL 2017. The sticker price has not been specified. All that the release states is that the sponsorships are “believed to be sizeable investments from companies of a scale that has not been seen in the Indian digital market to date and indicate their belief in Hotstar’s promise of delivering the largest global sporting event on digital this summer.”

    Media reports have speculated that the figure each is anteing up is Rs 20 crore.

    According to Hotstar, advertisers and media agencies are signing fatter cheques because of the fact there has been a meaningful shift from television to digital — especially, as far as cricket viewing is concerned. The release states that “the most recent India vs England ODI series saw Hotstar’s reach challenging that of television consistently. The reach hit 120 per cent of television in cities with more than a million in population and 147 per cent reach in the largest six cities in India (M15+, NCCS AB). At the same time, the platform has seen new records established for digital with the short format cricket matches regularly exceeding 20 million in viewership.”

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan is quite confident that the pioneering app is going to be the primary screen for this IPL season considering the 130 million viewers who are streaming video nationally.

    “Marketers are recognizing that these are audiences that are TV light or not present on television at all,” he points out. “We are reinventing the experience of cricket on a mobile and India is changing the way it watches its favourite sport.” Mohan told the media that the OTT player crossed had 200 million downloads by end February 2017. This is against the 50 million downloads, Star India CEO Uday Shankar had announced during the FICCI Frames inaugural keynote in March 2016.

    The streaming service’s contract with the BCCI is slated to end this year as it had paid Rs 302.2 crore to acquire the global internet and mobile rights three years ago.

    Vivo India CMO Vivek Zhang says he took the decision to partner with Hotstar as it appeals to the youth and enjoys tremendous brand recall. “Its desire to constantly invest on innovative technology which is in line with Vivo’s marketing objectives made it a preferred choice for Vivo We are truly excited about the delightful cricket experience that the platform is driving and were indeed keen to be a part of this drive,” he stated

    Maruti Suzuki marketing head Sanjeev Handa acknowledged that an increasing number of the auto firm’s target customer is engaging with the company’s products on digital. According to him, almost 50 per cent of users are researching cars online and hence a diffusion of the purchase cycle is taking place here. “Hence, our approach is integrating offline and online, (it is a ground sponsor of this year’s IPL),” points out Handa.

    “We wanted to embody the spirit of Play Glamourous for Vitara Brezza across the markets, and found a perfect fit by reaching out to the audiences via their closest screens, i.e. mobiles. An average user is spending over 150 mins each day on mobile. Our tie-up as co-presenting sponsor on Hotstar will give us the mileage and the engagement with the most glamourous sport in the nation!”

  • Second season of ‘A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend’ to launch on Arré

    MUMBAI: Arré’s cult and award winning web series A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend is back with a season two. This season endeavors to further explore the maze of dimensions that go beyond the creation of A.I.

    Season two of A.I.SHA is about revenge, redemption and a revolution that threatens to destroy anyone who comes in the way of a mad pursuit of power, control and world domination.
    This season of A.I.SHA has six episodes and will launch on the Arré App, website (www.arre.co.in) and all its partner platforms, including Facebook, Youtube, SonyLiv, YuppTV, Vodafone Play, and others on 23 March 2017.

    Arre founder B Saikumar said: “We are overwhelmed with the response on A.I.SHA, a show that introduced a new genre within the digital space in India. Set in the backdrop of A.I, virtual reality and cyber crime, this season explores various emotions from love to revenge in the real and virtual worlds, promising to keep the viewer on the edge of his seat. A.I.SHA is very special to us since it was one of the shows that Arré launched with and we are thrilled to be coming out with a new season within the year.”

    The show is presented by Gillette Flexball in association with Palo Alto Networks and Indo Nissin Foods. Palo Alto Networks has also partnered with the series as script consultant and advisor, to bring in the required technical authenticity to the show.

    It is produced for Arré by Raghu Ram and Rajiv Laxman’s production venture, Monozygotic.

    Ram added, “We’re fast approaching a world where the power balance depends on who controls A.I. Season 2 is a peek into this exciting and scary world and A.I.SHA is at the centre of this deadly power struggle. This season takes this great game to the next level.“

  • Telestream to acquire IneoQuest

    MUMBAI: Telestream has announced its agreement to acquire IneoQuest, the global leader in video quality monitoring and analytics solutions for content distribution across managed and unmanaged networks.

    Founded in 2001, IneoQuest is headquartered in Mansfield, Massachusetts, with sales operations in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. With this acquisition, Telestream will enable its customers to deliver the highest possible video quality to their viewers on any device. The terms of the deal were not disclosed as both companies are privately held.

    With video quality a critical part of the viewer experience, IneoQuest’s analytics solutions help hundreds of media companies and service providers around the world deliver the highest possible quality across any network, managed or unmanaged.

    Recognised as an industry leader and innovator by Deloitte, Red Herring, Inc., Frost & Sullivan, and others, IneoQuest’s patented solutions continue to set the standard for measuring video quality, quality of service, and viewer experience.

  • dittoTV to stream Assembly election results live

    MUMBAI: The seventh phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh in 40 Assembly constituencies, with as many as 826 candidates contesting in this phase, ended on 8 March. This marks the end of the assembly elections in five states – Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and viewers across the country will now be glued to their favorite news channels for the results which will be announced on 11 March.

    dittoTV offers its subscribers one of the largest bouquets of national and regional channels to choose from to follow the poll results and catch the news as it breaks. The results of these 5 state elections will air on national news channels like Zee News, Aaj Tak and India Today and a gamut of regional channels on 11 March 10 am onwards. Viewers can watch it live and on-the-go all day long via dittoTV.

    Zee Entertainment Z5 India Business head of digital Archana Anand said, “The 2017 Elections in India have seen a considerable increase in the turnout of voters. Many people may end up missing out on the live airing since they may be out or may not have easy access to a television set. dittoTV now makes it possible for them to conveniently watch the results of the highly anticipated Assembly elections anywhere, anytime on any internet-enabled device, and at an extremely affordable price point. ”

    This year’s Assembly elections have witnessed a considerable jump in the voter turnout with the turnout percentage increasing to 61.6% as compared to the 2012 Assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha elections. With the Indian audiences becoming increasingly involved in the political scenario of the country, they can keep up with the elections all day via dittoTV.

  • Ajit Pai to serve second term at FCC

    MUMBAI: US president Donald Trump has nominated Indian-American Ajit Pai for serving another term at Federal Communications Commission.  Trump had designated Pai, who was previously the FCC commissioner, as FCC’s acting chairman soon after becoming the US president. 

    On being nominated, Pai said, “I am deeply honored to have been nominated by President Trump to serve a second term on the Federal Communications Commission.  If I am fortunate to be confirmed by the Senate, I will continue to work with my colleagues to connect all Americans with digital opportunity, foster innovation, protect consumers, promote public safety, and make the FCC more open and transparent to the American people.” 

    Before joining FCC, Pai was a Partner at Jenner & Block, LLP, from 2011 until 2012, and Deputy General Counsel, Associate General Counsel, and Special Advisor to the General Counsel at the FCC from 2007 until 2011. The son of immigrants from India, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. 

    “There is a real and growing digital divide in America. In wealthier, metropolitan areas, 4G LTE is ubiquitous, and gigabit fixed service is expanding. But, many rural areas are being left behind,” Pai said in his testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. 

    Also Read:

    TRAI & FCC sign LoI on accelerating broadband deployment & aligning spectrum policy

  • Limelight content delivery to simplify MultiTV’s ad insertion

    MUMBAI: Limelight Networks, a leader in digital content delivery, has announced that MultiTV is using Limelight’s Orchestrate Platform to bring high-quality online video to more than 40 million viewers across India.

    MultiTV, a leading provider of video streaming solutions for live TV and video on demand (VOD) in India, selected Limelight’s Orchestrate Platform to deliver exceptional video experiences to any device, anywhere. Leveraging Limelight’s global Content Delivery Network (CDN), the Orchestrate Platform now ensures that MultiTV customers get the reliability, consistency, quality, security and performance they demand.

    “Viewership in India is growing rapidly and there is complexity because of multiple devices, platforms and standards. At the same time, customers want world class reliability on a complex infrastructure at domestic price points,” said MultiTV founder Vikash Samota. “With Limelight, we have a global partner with excellent quality, capability and reach to help meet consumer expectations. This allows us to focus on our business – content acquisition and customer service.”

    MultiTV is also using Limelight Cloud Storage Services, making it easy for them to upload, replicate and manage large video libraries and quickly get content to viewers.

    “MultiTV is a pioneer in bringing next-generation OTT solutions to the fast-growing Indian market. To help develop this market, we’re determined to deploy our people, capabilities and capital at an accelerated pace,” said Limelight Networks CFO Sajid Malhotra. “After having doubled capacity in India last year, we expect to expand our capacity there this year by 5 to 10 times our 2016 capacity levels, and are prepared to assist and accelerate the adoption of CDN services in ways only we can.”

    MultiTV launched a Live Streaming solution using Limelight’s CDN with its proprietary technology that can detect commercials on live streams or VoD on any device. In addition, MultiTV provides technology solutions to solve the problems of video ad blockers. MultiTV helps broadcasters and content owners reduce infrastructure costs and provides solutions to assist with content monetization.

    Limelight empowers customers to better engage online audiences by enabling them to securely manage and globally deliver digital content, on any device.

  • Netflix’s Reed Hastings’ compliment pleases Hotstar

    MUMBAI: When the world’s most successful video on demand player Netflix acknowledges you as a rival to watch out for, you obviously are going to be fairly kicked about it. That’s the case at Star India-owned Hotstar.

    Sources reveal that the team – led by Ajit Mohan – inside the domestically originating service is pretty happy about the comment that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made last week in an interaction with the media.

    Said he: “Here in India, consumers are fortunate because there’s a great battle with Hotstar, Amazon, YouTube and Netflix, and maybe others, all competing for consumer’s time. When you use your mobile phone, laptop, smart TV, there are many services to go to. You can do many things. We’re one of the choices. What’s unique about Netflix is that we have got these international originals, combined with local talent.”

    Hotstar India claims to have around 60 million subscribers in India and is gung-ho about going global. The plan is to target Indians globally and possible other international viewers too: the number is anywhere between 25-50 million worldwide.

    The other two players – Amazon and YouTube – are backed by global super heavyweights, while Hotstar is backed by Star India, which is part of Twenty First Century Corp. The latter is a midget compared to both and Google and Amazon in terms of valuation and market capitalisation.

    Says a media commentator: “Hotstar is targeting a billion minutes a day of watch time. Netflix does multiples of that in a day worldwide. Hence, to be named as a competitor to be watched out for is a stripe on the Hotstar team’s shoulders. As compared to Netflix, Hotstar has a smorgasbord of content offerings which are very local – right from soaps to series to films, primarily in house content created for its television channels. Or there’s the movies and the international shows from good libraries. Of course, in recent times, it has been curating original Indian content. And then, there is the IPL which drives the nation crazy. It’s interesting to see how team Netflix will actually do battle with it in the marketplace as it seeks to scale up the numbers in India.”

  • Inclined to stop watching pirated content, say 50% consumers: Irdeto

    NEW DELHI: Despite the high number of consumers around the globe watching pirated video content (52%), nearly half (48%) would stop or watch less illegal content after learning the damage that piracy causes the media industry.

    This willingness by nearly half of consumers to change their viewing habits would mean a huge impact that education could have on reducing the number of people who pirate video content.

    This was one of the main findings of The Global Consumer Piracy Survey of more than 25,000 adults across 30 countries conducted by major leader in digital platform security Irdeto. The report was made public in a Cable Congress in Brussles in Belgium.

    The positive outcome of an industry-wide education initiative could have the most impact in Latin America and Asia-Pacific regon.

    The survey showed that fifty-nine percent of consumers who watch pirated content in Latin America and 55% in APAC stated they would watch less or stop watching pirated video content after learning that piracy results in revenue loss from studios, affecting investments in future content creation.

    APAC (61%) and Latin America (70%) had the most consumers who admitted to watching pirated content, while those in Europe (45%) and the US (32%) said they pirate the least. These results indicate that consumers in Europe and the US have more access to the content they desire, reducing their need to watch pirated content.

    The survey also showed that 18 to 24 year old consumers in India (20%) were the most likely to watch pirated content on a streaming device. Around 52% percent of consumers in China in this age bracket indicated that mobile devices are their preferred method of consuming pirated content (that is, smartphones or tablets).

    Conversely, only 45% in Europe and 38% of respondents from the United States said that they would watch less or stop watching pirated content. This indicates that simply educating consumers in these regions about damages associated with revenue loss may not be enough.

    However, an education initiative focusing on piracy’s impact on the creative process of producing content, coupled with knowledge on how piracy is often linked to criminal organizations and that pirated content could include malware aimed at stealing consumer’s personal information, may resonate better in those markets, according to an Irdeto release.

    Irdeto CEO Doug Lowther said: “A battle is being waged in the media & entertainment industry. Legal content offerings are no longer only competing against each other. Pirates have undoubtedly grown into a formidable foe that should not be ignored. With more than half of consumers openly admitting to watching pirated content, it is crucial that the industry tackle piracy head-on. To do so will require technology and services to protect the legal content as well as a comprehensive education program to help change the behavior of consumers. Coupled with a 360-degree anti-piracy strategy, the market is fully prepared to take the battle against piracy to the next level.”

    The Irdeto Global Consumer Piracy Survey also showed an illegal vs legal awareness gap: While many consumers across the globe recognize that producing or sharing pirated video content is illegal (70%), far fewer people are aware that streaming or downloading (watching the content) is also against the law (59%). In Latin America, this gap was widest with 75% of respondents stating that producing or sharing pirated content is illegal, compared to only 60% recognizing that streaming or downloading is illegal.

    The overall survey results suggest that more education may be required around the globe to educate consumers that engaging in any form of piracy (producing, sharing, downloading or streaming) is illegal, Irdeto said.

    In nearly every country surveyed, many consumers recognize that producing or sharing pirated video content is illegal. But the survey found that this was not the case in Russia. A staggering 87% of respondents do not think that producing or sharing pirated video content is illegal. In addition, 66% believe that it is not illegal to download or stream pirated video content.

    Laptops were universally the preferred device for the consumption of pirated video content. Consumers in Europe (65%), APAC (45%), Latin America (53%) and the US (41%) stated that this was their most frequent method of consuming pirated content. However, a shift has already started, with many 18 to 24 year old youngsers surveyed indicating that they use mobile or streaming devices the most to watch or access pirated video content.

    The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) cracked the top five in both categories, indicating that its population of 18 to 24 year old people are ahead of the curve when it comes to using mobile or streaming devices instead of laptops to view pirated video content.

    Interestingly, the Kodi box only registered as a top device to pirate content in the UK, with 11% of pirating consumers using the streaming device to access illegal content. The second highest percentage was in Portugal where 6% of consumers use Kodi to access pirated content. The highest percentage of Kodi users in the UK were in the 35-44 and 55+ age groups at 18% each. This is in stark contrast to the 3% of 18-24 year old’s using a Kodi box to pirate content.

    Movies that are currently being shown in cinemas/theaters (27%) and TV series (21%) were the most popular types of pirated content. Also, while live sports piracy is a growing industry problem, one surprise in the survey results was the percentage of pirating consumers who indicated that live sports was the type of pirated video content they were most interested in. The only countries that listed it in their top two were Portugal (25%), Egypt (23%) and GCC (19%).

    While the negative impact of live sports piracy is already being felt by the industry, this indicates that the market still has an opportunity to educate consumers about the damage that piracy causes the live sports space before the problem grows even larger. This education will be especially important for males as more men in each country indicated that live sports is the type of content they are most interested in pirating, while a majority of women prefer to pirate TV series.

    “Education around the negative impact of piracy on both the industry and the consumers themselves is an important element of any anti-piracy strategy,” said Irdeto vice-president of services Rory O’Connor. “The results of this survey show that many countries are open to change. To elicit this change in consumer habits will take a concerted effort from all the industry players to not only educate consumers about the negative impact of piracy, but also continued innovation to address the three elements of consumer choice – content, value and convenience.”

    The survey was commissioned by Irdeto and conducted online from 29 December 2016 to 16 February 2017 by YouGov Plc. A total of 25,738 adults (aged 18+) in 30 countries agreed to take part in the survey. Countries surveyed include: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, GCC (GCC region cluster comprised of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman), Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK and US. Figures have been weighted appropriately to be representative of adults in each country (e.g. nationally representative, urban representative, online representative).

  • Facebook — expanding measurement to more advertisers

    MUMBAI: Facebook has announced its new destination for cross-platform measurement called — advanced measurement. The first two products will focus on reach and attribution.

    Advanced Measurement will work for advertisers of all sizes, in addition to serving Facebook’s enterprise clients currently using Atlas measurement solutions. The new tool will make it easier to compare the effectiveness of Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network alongside other publishers. 

    The tools will soon be available through Business Manager — bringing people-based measurement to more marketers.
    The fragmentation of digital media has made it difficult for marketers to get a complete view of audiences across devices. In fact, 82 per cent of marketers say they are constantly searching for new tools to help optimize their cross-device advertising strategies. 

    Over the past few years, Atlas has brought people-based measurement to some of the largest marketers in the world and has run measurement campaigns with more than 300 of the world’s top advertisers. During this time, we’ve thought about ways to bring the insights from Atlas to more marketers, regardless of their size.

    Developing advanced measurement tools

    Businesses of all sizes are searching for tools that offer clearer insight into how many people they’ve reached and which publishers deserve credit for the brand or sales outcomes generated from their ads. In September, we began integrating the Atlas team into our broader measurement organization to build the tools to make this possible.
    To continue this effort, we’re beginning a test of new advanced measurement tools focused on reach and attribution. These tools, previously offered by Atlas, will soon be available through Facebook Business Manager—bringing people-based measurement to more marketers through Facebook’s easy-to-use interfaces. Advanced measurement will make it easier to compare the effectiveness of Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network alongside other publishers.

    Prioritising accessibility for all marketers

    FB hopes to make sophisticated measurement—which has historically been expensive and reliant on intense collaboration with digital platforms—more accessible to a wider range of advertisers.

    “Consistent and accurate measurement across browsers, devices and platforms is critical to evaluating marketing performance and increasing our client’s ROI,” says Omnicom Media Group’s data technology platform Annalect’s Global CEO Slavi Samardzija. “As an early and ongoing advocate for a ‘cross everything standard’, and the first media agency holding company to test Atlas measurement across clients and geographies, we see the launch of advanced measurement as a significant step toward achieving that goal industrywide.

    Over the coming year, FB looks forward to making advanced measurement tools available to more Facebook advertisers around the world. Its advanced measurement solution will become the central destination for people-based, cross-publisher measurement. It would also look to integrate additional measurement tools for performance and brand marketers beneath the advanced measurement umbrella. And, it will start transitioning clients who use its Atlas measurement solutions to its advanced measurement products.

    Its goal is to help all businesses understand how their marketing drives value both on and off Facebook. To that end, we’re keeping accessibility and comparability top of mind as it builds out advanced measurement solutions.