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Category: iWorld

  • Google, MS agree to crack down on online content piracy site

    NEW DELHI: A global war on content piracy, including in India, just got a leg up. For the first time, global tech giants Google and Microsoft have agreed to tighten up their search engines as part of a crackdown on content piracy websites illegally streaming events and films with the UK regulator Ofcom backing it.

    Google and Microsoft’s search engine Bing have signed up to a voluntary code of practice and will ensure offending websites are demoted in their search results, according to a PTI report from London, which goes on to state that he entertainment industry reached the agreement with the tech giants after talks brokered by the UK government.

    The initiative will run in parallel with existing anti-piracy measures, which includes initiatives by PIPCU or the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), which is a specialist national police unit dedicated to protecting the UK industries that produce legitimate, high quality, physical goods and online and digital content from intellectual property crime.

    PIPCU operationally independent and launched in September 2013 with £2.56million funding from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the UK until June 2015, got additional funding from the IPO in October 2014 till 2017. The unit is dedicated to tackling serious and organized intellectual property crime (counterfeit and piracy) affecting physical and digital goods (with the exception of pharmaceutical goods) with a focus on offences committed using an online platform.

    The PTI report, quoting BBC and dwelling on Google and MS moves, stated that the code said to be the first of its kind in the world is expected to be in operation by the middle of this year.

    Jo Johnson, the UK’s minister for universities, science, research and innovation, was quoted in the report as saying that the search engines’ “relationships with our world leading creative industries needs to be collaborative”. He added: “It is essential that (consumers) are presented with links to legitimate websites and services, not provided with links to pirate sites.”

    Google has indicated that the effort would provide a way to check that its existing anti-piracy efforts were effective, rather than committing it to adding new measures. “Google has been an active partner for many years in the fight against piracy online. We remain committed to tackling this issue and look forward to further partnership with rights holders,” a Google spokesperson was quoted by PTI as saying.

    The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) led the discussions, with the assistance of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Britain’s communications watchdog, Ofcom, supported the talks by exploring techniques that could be used to ensure internet users avoid coming across illegal content.

    Trade body Alliance for Intellectual Property director-general Eddy Leviten told the BBC, according to the PTI report, “Sometimes people will search for something and they will end up unwittingly being taken to a pirated piece of content. What we want to ensure is that the results at the top of the search engines are the genuine ones. It is about protecting people who use the internet, but also protecting the creators of that material too.”

    Besides demoting copyright infringing sites, search engine auto-complete functions, a time-saving feature that suggests what users may be looking for, are also expected to remove terms that may lead to pirated websites. Compliance with the code will be monitored by the IPO over the next few months.

  • Indian equipment makers keen to export telecom goods

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Government is keen to partner with ASEAN countries in enabling Digital Connectivity between India and ASEAN region and also for enabling broadband within ASEAN countries.

    India said these digital connectivity projects are of strategic importance and can have a transformative impact on the economy and cooperation between ASEAN and India.

    This was stated during talks between India and telecom ministers, senior government officials and industry leaders from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos PDR, Indonesia and Bhutan to commemorate the 25th year of the ASEAN India relations

    Organized by the TEPC (Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council), the inter-ministerial meeting was led on the Indian side by Communications Minister Manoj Sinha.

    India has committed to provide financial as well as technological support for projects that could include-high-speed fiber optic networks, digital villages, rural broadband, national knowledge network, secured communication networks and telecom training and skill development.

    Taking part in the discussions, Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) Chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said “To take the telecom revolution in India to its new level of growth, the domestic equipment manufacturers should come forward and take the lead. Today such a concerted move will also fulfill the government’s vision of Make In India and bring in significant indigenization which is the need of the hour.”

    Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said “The potential of partnership between India and ASEAN in the arena of telecom is significant. There is a huge demand for capacity building which the Indian partners can contribute.”

    Indian companies have created world-class products and solutions which are not only of the highest quality and are also very cost-competitive. They are therefore keen to export to customers in ASEAN region, who have similar requirements like India.

  • Jio juggernaut rolls on, wired segment wobbles

    BENGALURU: In November 2016, the MukeshAmbani run ‘world’s biggest startup’ – Reliance Jio or simply Jio, became the largest private broadband internet services provider (ISP) in the country as per data revealed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for month of November 2016 (Nov-16) with 5.223 crore subscribers. Jio’s subscriber base is wireless. Over the next 31 days until the end of calendar year 2016 (CY-16) and the month December 2016 (Dec-16), Jio juggernaut added another 1.993 crore subscribers to reach a base of 7.216 crore subscribers.In the press release announcing Reliance Industries numbers for the quarter ended 31 December 2016 (Q3-17), Ambani said, “I delighted by our country’s eagerness to adopt to a digital life as witnessed by the recordbreakinglaunch of Jio. Its comprehensive ecosystem has enabled millions of Indians to lead a richerlife through its offerings.”

    Jio is now far ahead of the number two player Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) which saw further erosion of its wireless subscriber base to 4.153 crore from 4.190 crore in Nov-16. Among the other three players in the top five private wireless ISP’s list, Idea Cellular saw its subscriber decline in Dec-16 to 2.704 crore from 2.84 crore in Nov-16. Vodafone, the third largest wireless ISP saw a small growth in its subscriber base in Dec-16 to 3.501 crore from 3.487 crore in Nov-16, while Reliance Communications reported a steady 1.608 crore subscribers in both Nov-16 and Dec-16. The government run Bharat Sanchar Limited (BSNL), which is actually the fourth largest wireless ISP in terms of subscribers saw its base erode to 2.036 crore in Dec-16 from 2.039 crore.The top five service providers constituted 83.93 percent market share of the totalbroadband subscribers at the end of Dec-16.

    Wireline Broadband Internet

    Besides wireless broadband, a number of players also offer wired or wireline broadband services. Among the wireline ISP’s BSNL is the biggest player by far with 99.5 lakh subscribers. BSNL’s combined wireless and wireline subscribers is 3.301 crore, which would make it the third largest ISP in terms of subscribers. The second largest wireline ISP in India is Airtel which closed 2016 with 20.4 lakh wireline subscribers, after adding just 10,000 subscribers to its wireline internet subscriber base. Airtel’s combined wireless and wireline subscriber base was 4.357 crore as on 31 December 2016. The third largest wireline broadband internet services provider was regional private player ACT Broadband lost 20,000 subscribers in Dec-16 to reach a subscriber base of 11.2 lakh. The government run Mahanagar Sanchar Nigam Limited (MTNL) also lost 10,000 subscribers in Dec-16 to a lowered subscriber base of 10.4 lakh. The fifth player in the list of top five wireline broadband internet service providers in the country is another regional player – You Broadband or You BB. There was no change in the minnow’s subscriber base of 6 lakh in Dec-16 vis-à-vis Nov-16.

    Overall, the internet subscriber base in the country grew 8.89 percent (by 1.882 crore) month-on-month (m-o-m) to 23.609 crore in Dec-16 with from 21.827 crore Nov-16. Wireline broadband subscriber base grew 0.48 percent (by 80,000) m-o-m to 1.814 crore in Dec-16 from 1.806 crore in Nov-16 and grew by 16.3 lakh from 1.651 crore as on 31 December 2016 or 1 January 2016. Please refer to figure A below.

    Leading the growth in subscriber additions in CY-16 (Jan-16 until Dec-16)were private wired broadband players Bharti Airtel , and regional player ACT  with additions of 3.7 lakh and 2.6 lakh subscriber additions respectively in CY-16. Airtel’s wired broadband subscriber base grew 22.16 percent, while ACT’s base grew by 30.23 percent during the same period (CY-16 until Dec-16). In CY-15 (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015), Airtel had added 2.6 lakh wired broadband subscribers and grown by 18.44 percent, while ACT had added 2.5 lakh subscribers and had grown at a blazing 40.98 percent. By Sep-16, Airtel had already exceeded the number of subscribers it had added in CY-15, while ACT had crossed its CY-15 performance in Oct-16.

    public://Untitled-2_9.jpg

    Figure B below indicates the m-o-m subscriber growth in CY-16. As is obvious, though the wireline subscriber base grew 0.48 percent, the combined subscriber base of the top five wireline ISP’s shrank by 0.14 percent (reduced by 20,000) in Dec-16 as compared to Nov-16.

    The top five players have had a slower rate of growth as compared to the all India growth in CY-16 until Dec-16. The share of the top five players among all India wired broadband subscriber additions has fallen in CY-16 until Dec-16 from 85.28 percent as on 1 January 2016 to 81.31 percent as on 31 December 2016. The share of these players was 88.45 percent as on 1 January 2015.

    public://Untitled-3_12.jpg

    Other wireline broadband players in India

    MSOs’ in India have started providing internet services on the back of their television cable networks using DOCSIS technology. In general, they have started reporting double and triple digit year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in internet subscribers and revenue. The television cable players see broadband services improving their Average Revenue per User (ARPU) numbers. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO – Hathway, Siti Networks Limited, Den Networks Limited , Ortel Communications Limited respectivelywhose results are available in the public domain have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters.

    TRAI’s definition of broadband is internet download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kpbs.

    Notes:(1) The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR).The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

    (2) TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.51 million (5.1 lakh) subscribers for You BB for Dec-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.
    (3) MSOs’ have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.

     

  • Digital, sports & events co GSC to make Aus, NZ buys, receives funds

    MUMBAI: Global Sports Commerce (GSC) and its affiliate Techfront International, a supplier of in-stadium LED screens, as well as integrated sponsorship and digital solutions for sports and media events, has received funding to support acquisitions of Screencorp in Australia and Oled & Carniegie in New Zealand.

    BlackRock’s Private Credit team arranged sole financing for the combined transaction.

    The intended acquisitions will enable GSC to deepen penetration of the Australian and New Zealand digital sporting solutions markets, while entering the fast-growing digital billboard sector. Techfront Australia, a subsidiary of Techfront International, enjoys market leadership in Australia and New Zealand as partner to the AFL, All Blacks, NZ Cricket and in association with MKTG for Cricket Australia & Big Bash League.

    GSC CEO M S Muralidharan said, “These acquisitions will facilitate deep engagement with sports for GSC and Techfront and amounts to a template for replicating a successful model throughout Europe and North America. BlackRock’s support provides Techfront with greater impetus, and contributes to the consolidation of sports commerce worldwide via use of technology such as Commerce Optimiser.”

    Techfront Australia CEO Neil Maxwell said, “The addition of these companies provides TFA with an unparalleled scale in the Australian and New Zealand markets. We are now able to cater to an increased number of sports and in the process, provide broader offerings along with an enhanced level of service.”

    BlackRock head of Asian credit Neeraj Seth commented, “GSC and Techfront’s dominant position in key cricket markets, plus growing involvement in football, rugby, tennis and other sports, make it an attractive investment opportunity. Private credit has become an important source of flexible capital for mid-market companies at a time when banks are being constrained from providing financing to Asian companies.”

    He added, “BlackRock is well-positioned to provide companies such as GSC and Techfront with capital throughout multiple Asian jurisdictions. This enables such organizations to expand at the same time as allowing us to equip our investors with diverse sources of investment return.”

    GSC provides dynamic solutions, along with sponsorship & commercial management and premier consultancy. It’s affiliated units work with sports organisations such as FIFA, ICC, BBCI, UEFA, IAAF, EPL, IPL, Bundesliga, IPL and AFL, all via various subsidiaries and partners.

    Techfront continues to be at the forefront of LED innovation, by developing the proprietary Go-Green Technology, the world’s first Ultra High-definition 4K HD and being the first globally compliant LED technology company as certified by FIFA and the UEFA.

    BlackRock, a global leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services with AUM US$5.1 trillion, helps with a range of products that include separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares® (exchange-traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles.

  • CA Tech, iValue to drive digital transformation in India & Saarc region

    MUMBAI: CA Technologies has announced it has appointed iValue InfoSolutions as a Value Added Distributor (VAD) for India and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region to grow the mid-market segment and address customers’ needs in their digital transformation journey.

    iValue InfoSolutions (iValue) is a leading technology enabler that provides compelling and complementary offerings in the areas of digital asset protection and data, network & application management. As part of this agreement, iValue is authorized to promote, sell and support CA Technologies’ software solutions through its extensive network of resellers in the region.

    CA Technologies senior director Saivijay Khanagav said: “Partners are an important part of our growth strategy for India & SAARC. iValue with its technical skills, expertise and wide distribution network in the mid-market segment complements CA’s technology leadership in digital transformation. We are delighted to partner with iValue and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship that delivers even greater value to our customers.”

    “iValue is very excited about this partnership. CA Technologies is a strategic technology leader. CA helps thousands of customers shape their future from planning to development to management to security to respond to the challenges of the application economy,” said iValue InfoSolutions director of alliances Subodh Anchan. “With digital at the core of the application economy, partnering with CA Technologies, we will effectively address the digital transformation needs of customers in the mid-market. We are confident that this partnership will be a win-win for both parties,” he added.

  • Vitel to develop IPTV business in India, hires Castle to raise Rs 50 cr

    Vitel to develop IPTV business in India, hires Castle to raise Rs 50 cr

    MUMBAI: Vitel Global Communications has announced that it has engaged Castle Placement as its exclusive placement agent to raise US$ 7.5 million (Rs 50.29 crore) of capital.

    Proceeds will be used to expand Vitel’s VoIP business and develop its IPTV business for Vitel’s business and residential customers in the US and India.

    Based in the United States, with a division in India, Vitel develops and sells a broad range of telecommunications products. Vitel has established a footprint in both countries with clients including AT&T, IDT, BT, Sprint, Qwest, iBasis, PRIMUS and RailTel India. The management team of Vitel has over thirty years of experience and expertise in communications, networking, software development, and marketing.

    Founded in 2009, Castle Placement raises equity and debt private capital for start-up, early-stage and middle market companies across a broad spectrum of industries. It uses the latest technology to connect its issuers with global institutional investors. Castle Placement has over 27,000 private equity, venture capital and strategic investors, family offices, pension funds, foundations, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and lenders.

  • ‘New oil’ provider Jio open to partnerships

    MUMBAI: Reliance Jio, which has crossed 100-million customer milestone after its launch in September 2016, has an open mind for partnerships at this stage. Jio hopes to put India among the top 10 countries in terms of broadband access, from the 155th position in 2015.

    Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, speaking at the Nasscom leadership forum in Mumbai, is betting big on data-driven telecom, emphasising that data was the “new oil”. Crediting the success of Jio to the Aadhaar-based verification, Ambani, who spent over Rs 1.2 trillion on Jio, said that the foundation of the fourth industrial revolution was connectivity and data, which was the new natural resource.

    Predicting that India would be a key player in this revolution, PTI reported Ambani as stating that India’s large talent base would have had a competitive advantage.

    The salient feature of this revolution is “convergence of the physical biological and digital sciences”, and “we are on the threshold of an exponential change,” he said. India’s 1.3 billion propulation, Ambani said, lends it a huge advantage and the data thus generated could be converted into intelligence.

    Ambani recommended looking at the larger picture of helping millions to resolve their problems with the adoption of digital technologies. Digitalisation would continue to face challenges in terms of security, privacy and data theft, but that they could find solutions to problems.

    Ambani advised adopting of next generation technologies. India would have to become the capital of real implementation of blockchain, he said, adding that they had the opportunity to adopt artificial intelligence and natural language processing, adopt drones in India’s own logistics as India could become one of the largest software markets.

    Ambani advised the industry to focus on the home market while describing the protectionist statements of the new US president Donald Trump as “a blessing in disguise” for the Indian IT sector. The US$ 155-billion Indian IT industry earns over 65 per cent of its revenues from the US.

    The IT industry meantime awaits clarity on Trump’s plans to double the salary for H1-B visa-holders and significantly curb visa issuance to techies.

    Also Read :

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/telecom/jio-may-use-us44bn-to-lay-ofc-expand-network-to-stifle-competition-170118

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/telecom/jio-becomes-top-isp-wireline-growthretards-overall-broadband-internet-subs-fall-in-nov-16-170202

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/telecom/q3-17-jio-affects-airtel-revenue-digital-tv-segment-numbers-up-170124

  • Extron exec Gary Tay joins Tripleplay Asia

    Extron exec Gary Tay joins Tripleplay Asia

    MUMBAI: Leading developer of Digital Signage, IPTV and Video Streaming solutions, Tripleplay has appointed former Extron consultant liaison manager, Gary Tay to head up its Asian business based from its regional headquarters in Singapore.

    Highly respected, and with over 18 years as a part of the Extron team in Asia, Gary Tay comes to Tripleplay with an unrivalled experience in the Asian market, is CTS certified, delivering Infocomm accreditation training across the region. Commenting, Gary Tay said, “As we witness the market trend of AV/IT convergence, we should also consider embracing system solutions around IP or cloud platforms. Therefore, I see that the cutting-edge software technology developed by Tripleplay has continued to embrace integration with network infrastructure to provide a single platform solution for digital signage, IPTV, Video on Demand streaming applications and services.”

    On the appointment, Tripleplay CEO Steve Rickless commented, “We have the right man to build our business and help our clients and partners achieve their project and business objectives.”

    Having experienced significant business growth, Tripleplay now has regional headquarters in UK, Florida – USA, Spain, Australia and Singapore, regional operations in New Jersey – USA, Turkey, UAE, South Africa, DACH, France and the Benelux.

  • Arré, Ola Play tie up — latter’s mobile customers to get original content

    MUMBAI: Arré has partnered with Ola Play to offer a wide range of digital content for customers on the go.

    The association will provide Ola’s Prime Play customers a range of popular and trending web-series, social experiments, reality shows, documentaries, as well as non-fiction products, from Arré’s stable. These include Arré’s hit series Official Chukyagiri, and other short format contextual videos.

    Speaking on the partnership, Arré co-founder and CEO Ajay Chacko said, “Ola Play is a unique new medium to build for, and experience engaging, entertaining and personalised content. We know how Indians love digital content and with Play we we’re bringing exciting shows inside their cabs, to add more fun to their everyday ride.”

    Ola Play head and senior director said, “Ola Play is a radically new approach and cutting-edge innovation to the ridesharing world, which revolutionizes the way customers interact with their vehicles and defines the future of shared mobility. Our partners form an integral part of this vision to make Play a truly connected and immersive experience for the customers. In this regard, we are excited to partner with Arré and bring some of their most popular videos and other digital content to our Prime Play users.”

  • ALT Balaji to go live on 21 Feb, commercial launch on 15 April

    MUMBAI: For Ekta Kapoor, Sameer Nair, and the entire team at Balaji Telefilms D-Day has finally dawned. 21 Februrary 2017 is the day when its latest diversification ALT Balaji which has been talked about for so long will finally launch.

    Speaking to ET Now, CEO Sameer Nair said that the video on demand (VOD) platform will be rolled out to consumers as a free service to sample and snack in the first phase.

    “It’s going  tech live on 21 February,” he said. “We are testing the technology for the first month. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. We will be testing whether it plays out well. You put it off, you put it on. Does it work well? Are all the features performing as well as expected?”

    He added that post this testing phase, the commercial launch has currently been slated for 15 April .

    Pricing he revealed has been kept super disruptive. “Netflix has a tag of Rs 600 a month, ours will be at Rs 60,” he explained.

    Nair pointed out that ALT Balaji is aiming for the 25 million cable and satellite audiences (of the total of 165 million Indian C&S homes) which are lapsing from Naagin kind of content.

    “There is this giant world which between Narcos (on Netflix) and Naagin which is what we are going after,” he said. “The premium subscription homes. These 25 million folks are spending between Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 a month for telephony, television and entertainment. They will be spending Rs 600 more a month more in the next five years. That’s a $3 billion market. “

    According to Nair, Bollywood has been pushing the envelope with its eye on this audience. “It produces a Sultan and a Dangal and it also makes  a Pink, Kapoor & Sons and also makes Neerja. Television has not done that, and  it remains currently in the giant mass base. And therein lies the opportunity.”

    At commercial launch, ALT will showcase about 60-80 hours of content; the target is to finally have 300 hours for users to binge on.  He revealed that Balaji Telefims  will be making 30 per cent of those shows for ALT Balaji  while the remainder have been farmed out to outside producers. Each series will be between 12-15 episodes, with each episode being between 12-15 -18 to 22 minutes long.

    “Users will get to watch the first two to five episodes free,” he highlighted. “And if you like what you have seen, you will have to pay us a little bit of money. That is Rs 60 a month.”

    Nair also revealed that the ALT  business model has three years of losses written in to build its audience base and turn in profits.

    “Our focus is on the digital platform because it is going to build a genuine B2C business for us. It will be a consistent business.  Our costs are consistent for content whether we have a million subscribers or 10 million on ALT. So it can be from Rs 400 crore to RS 4,000 crore depending on how we scale up.  Films show  a wobble. TV is our core business and it continues. However, it is getting commoditised and we will continue to produce TV shows whether for DD or private satellite channels. But digital has the potential to be a game changer. It is our big play.”

    Nair also took an indirect dig at the oodles of money that is being used to create content by those rushing into the video on demand segment. “There’s a lot of noise about the big players, the broadcasters. And all the money that is going to be spent,” he explained. “ But we all know that the amount of money spent is not equal to how good a story is. You can spend a billion dollars to make something; you can spend a billion dollars to make a turkey.  We at Balaji are really focused on the story telling.  And that’s where our advantage lies.”

    Also Read :

    Alt Balaji ropes in Manav Sethi as CMO

    Ekta ties up with Lemon Advisors for Alt Balaji global launch

    Balaji to invest Rs 200 cr in ALT, launch in Jan ’17