Category: iWorld

IoT is risk to networks; Netflix, PayPal, Twitter and Amazon temporarily shut in cyber attack

MUMBAI: Nobody is safe until everybody is safe, it is said. The most hyped and happening currency in the world of communication as well as the best weaponry in the wireless world — the Internet — was under attack. Cyber attackers can DDoS (Distributed denial of service) for a range of purposes, including censorship, protest and extortion.

Users in Europe and Asia may, however, experience fewer problems than those in the U.S.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are investigating the disruption that appears to be the result of repeated attacks on a critical internet infrastructure service.

Major internet services including Amazon, Twitter, Spotify, Reddit, SoundCloud, OTT services like Netflix, and Airbnb, suffered severe service interruptions and outages on Friday as a US internet provider came under a cyber attack. The attack meant that millions of internet users could not access the websites of major online companies.

Other sites experiencing issues include Boston Globe, New York Times, Box, Github, Freshbooks, Heroku and Vox Media properties.

A map published by the website downdetector.com showed service interruptions for Level3 Communications, which is dubbed as the “backbone” internet service provider, across much of the US east coast and in Texas. Dyn, the internet service company, which manages and routes internet traffic, said that it had suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on its domain name service shortly after 1100 GMT. The service was restored in about two hours, Dyn said.

The website Gizmodo said it had received reports of difficulty at sites for media outlets including CNN, The Guardian, Wired, HBO and People as well as the money transfer service PayPal. Dyn, which is headquartered in New Hampshire (US), said the attack went after its domain name service, causing interruptions and slowdowns for internet users. Dyn said it was continuing to investigate.

Amazon Web Services, which hosts some of the famed sites, including the homestay network Airbnb, and Netflix, said on its website that users experienced errors including “hostname unknown” when attempting to access hosted sites but that the problem had been resolved by 1310 GMT.

Domain name servers are a crucial element of internet infrastructure, converting numbered Internet Protocol addresses into the domain names that allow users to connect to internet sites. DDoS attacks involve flooding websites with traffic, making them difficult to access or taking them offline entirely.

Carbon Black founder and a former NSA engineer said that the internet continues to rely on protocols and infrastructure designed before cyber security was an issue. He said that growing interconnection of ordinary devices to the internet, the so-called “internet of things,” increased the risks to networks.

Dyn chief strategy officer Kyle York told ABC News that DDoS attacks are daily occurrences, but this one is “just incredibly sophisticated and complex.”

DDoS attacks are generally unsophisticated in nature. Akamai security advocate Martin McKeay said that anyone from a young hacker messing around, to hackivists, to a criminal organization or even a nation state could be behind the attack.

October 22, 2016
IoT is risk to networks; Netflix, PayPal, Twitter and Amazon temporarily shut in cyber attack

MUMBAI: Nobody is safe until everybody is safe, it is said. The most hyped and happening currency in the world of communication as well as the best weaponry in the wireless world — the Internet — was under attack. Cyber attackers can DDoS (Distributed denial of service) for a range of purposes, including censorship, protest and extortion.

Users in Europe and Asia may, however, experience fewer problems than those in the U.S.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are investigating the disruption that appears to be the result of repeated attacks on a critical internet infrastructure service.

Major internet services including Amazon, Twitter, Spotify, Reddit, SoundCloud, OTT services like Netflix, and Airbnb, suffered severe service interruptions and outages on Friday as a US internet provider came under a cyber attack. The attack meant that millions of internet users could not access the websites of major online companies.

Other sites experiencing issues include Boston Globe, New York Times, Box, Github, Freshbooks, Heroku and Vox Media properties.

A map published by the website downdetector.com showed service interruptions for Level3 Communications, which is dubbed as the “backbone” internet service provider, across much of the US east coast and in Texas. Dyn, the internet service company, which manages and routes internet traffic, said that it had suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on its domain name service shortly after 1100 GMT. The service was restored in about two hours, Dyn said.

The website Gizmodo said it had received reports of difficulty at sites for media outlets including CNN, The Guardian, Wired, HBO and People as well as the money transfer service PayPal. Dyn, which is headquartered in New Hampshire (US), said the attack went after its domain name service, causing interruptions and slowdowns for internet users. Dyn said it was continuing to investigate.

Amazon Web Services, which hosts some of the famed sites, including the homestay network Airbnb, and Netflix, said on its website that users experienced errors including “hostname unknown” when attempting to access hosted sites but that the problem had been resolved by 1310 GMT.

Domain name servers are a crucial element of internet infrastructure, converting numbered Internet Protocol addresses into the domain names that allow users to connect to internet sites. DDoS attacks involve flooding websites with traffic, making them difficult to access or taking them offline entirely.

Carbon Black founder and a former NSA engineer said that the internet continues to rely on protocols and infrastructure designed before cyber security was an issue. He said that growing interconnection of ordinary devices to the internet, the so-called “internet of things,” increased the risks to networks.

Dyn chief strategy officer Kyle York told ABC News that DDoS attacks are daily occurrences, but this one is “just incredibly sophisticated and complex.”

DDoS attacks are generally unsophisticated in nature. Akamai security advocate Martin McKeay said that anyone from a young hacker messing around, to hackivists, to a criminal organization or even a nation state could be behind the attack.

October 22, 2016
Interconnect tussle: Vodafone, Airtel, Idea may move court against proposed Rs 3,000-cr penalty

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) plans to impose a heavy penalty on three major telecom operators for failing to provide adequate interconnectivity to RJio even as operators attempted to comply with the rules. Jio had written to the TRAI seeking action against incumbent operators for not giving an adequate number of interconnection points.

Several thousand customers of Reliance Jio’s new 4G network were facing disruption in service due to shortage of interconnection with other operators for some weeks now. TRAI had earlier called Idea Cellular, Airtel, Vodafone and Jio for a meeting. Point of interconnection, the place where two networks connect, is needed for seamless communication when a user of one operator calls a user of another operator.

TRAI has now proposed penalties on Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel, and Idea Cellular for denying interconnection to Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), the new entrant into telecom space in India.

The three incumbent operators meanwhile may take a legal recourse to challenge TRAI’s suggestions. A source from one of the operators told the Hindu, it was ‘surprising that RJio’s network was having congestion in all the circles’.

TRAI has suggested levying of a ₹50-crore penalty per circle on the three incumbent players, which could total more than ₹3,000 crore. According to TRAI, Airtel and Vodafone have to pay ₹1,050 crore each, and Idea Cellular ₹950 crore. The penalty has been imposed for violating quality of service norms.

RJio had written to TRAI seeking action against incumbent operators for not giving an adequate number of interconnection points on July 14 and July 15, to which TRAI had communicated to all three operators on July 19 to do the needful.

According to RJio, it is targeting 100 million subscribers, for which it had approached existing operators seeking adequate interconnection. “Instead of augmenting the PoIs, other operators are blocking the PoI augmentation on various unreasonable grounds,” RJio said in a letter to DoT.

However, incumbent operators initially refused to give these points of interconnection. The operators earlier said they could not release more interconnections because RJio was allegedly bypassing regulations by offering full-fledged services under the guise of test connections.

However, after a meeting between the rival operators, hosted by TRAI, the incumbent operators started releasing points of interconnection. Though this eased the congestion on RJio’s network, the operator said that a majority of calls on its networks were still dropping.

Meanwhile, the three incumbent operators may take a legal recourse to challenge TRAI’s suggestions. According to sources from one of the operators, it was ‘surprising that RJio’s network was having congestion in all the circles’.

Under the licence conditions, operators are required to offer interconnection to each other. TRAI has set a cap of 14 paise as the interconnection charge, which means that operators on whose network the call originates have to pay that fee to the operator on whose network the call terminates. However, incumbent operators have refused to give interconnection.

October 22, 2016
Interconnect tussle: Vodafone, Airtel, Idea may move court against proposed Rs 3,000-cr penalty

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) plans to impose a heavy penalty on three major telecom operators for failing to provide adequate interconnectivity to RJio even as operators attempted to comply with the rules. Jio had written to the TRAI seeking action against incumbent operators for not giving an adequate number of interconnection points.

Several thousand customers of Reliance Jio’s new 4G network were facing disruption in service due to shortage of interconnection with other operators for some weeks now. TRAI had earlier called Idea Cellular, Airtel, Vodafone and Jio for a meeting. Point of interconnection, the place where two networks connect, is needed for seamless communication when a user of one operator calls a user of another operator.

TRAI has now proposed penalties on Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel, and Idea Cellular for denying interconnection to Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), the new entrant into telecom space in India.

The three incumbent operators meanwhile may take a legal recourse to challenge TRAI’s suggestions. A source from one of the operators told the Hindu, it was ‘surprising that RJio’s network was having congestion in all the circles’.

TRAI has suggested levying of a ₹50-crore penalty per circle on the three incumbent players, which could total more than ₹3,000 crore. According to TRAI, Airtel and Vodafone have to pay ₹1,050 crore each, and Idea Cellular ₹950 crore. The penalty has been imposed for violating quality of service norms.

RJio had written to TRAI seeking action against incumbent operators for not giving an adequate number of interconnection points on July 14 and July 15, to which TRAI had communicated to all three operators on July 19 to do the needful.

According to RJio, it is targeting 100 million subscribers, for which it had approached existing operators seeking adequate interconnection. “Instead of augmenting the PoIs, other operators are blocking the PoI augmentation on various unreasonable grounds,” RJio said in a letter to DoT.

However, incumbent operators initially refused to give these points of interconnection. The operators earlier said they could not release more interconnections because RJio was allegedly bypassing regulations by offering full-fledged services under the guise of test connections.

However, after a meeting between the rival operators, hosted by TRAI, the incumbent operators started releasing points of interconnection. Though this eased the congestion on RJio’s network, the operator said that a majority of calls on its networks were still dropping.

Meanwhile, the three incumbent operators may take a legal recourse to challenge TRAI’s suggestions. According to sources from one of the operators, it was ‘surprising that RJio’s network was having congestion in all the circles’.

Under the licence conditions, operators are required to offer interconnection to each other. TRAI has set a cap of 14 paise as the interconnection charge, which means that operators on whose network the call originates have to pay that fee to the operator on whose network the call terminates. However, incumbent operators have refused to give interconnection.

October 22, 2016
How broadcasters can use Facebook better?

MUMBAI: Facebook’s daily active user base in India clocked a whopping 22 per cent growth rate by the second quarter of 2016, which is much higher than the 17 per cent growth rate the social media giant enjoys globally. Naturally, addressing its India-only usage and the issues concerning it is of key to Mark Zuckerberg. From improvement in quality perspective, Facebook is addressing these issues on several frontiers, including guiding television networks on how to grow on FB organically.

“When we speak of partnerships with television networks, it has nothing to do with how they interact with the platform as an advertiser. If networks are able to strategize and track a good campaign on Facebook, then it can grow organically. If networks crack the content code that triggers shareability of a Facebook post, then it doesn’t need any artificial push,”
shared Facebook India’s head of television partnerships, Vishu Ray.

This guidance often includes educating networks on the best practices to increase the shareability of the posts, using all the Facebook tools such as FB 360 degree, instant articles and Facebook Live to the optimal use, and creating engaging content on FB.

While ‘how to use FB’ might sound like a simple thing to explain to television networks, given the fact that the social network is constantly adding new features, some specially meant for this market, the task at hand isn’t that simple.

“We added Facebook live as a feature six to seven months back, but within Facebook Live several new changes are being made. For example, now users can not only go live from their smart phones etc, they can go live through multi-camera setups as well, which also allows one to switch between multiple cameras,” Ray added.

Some eight to 10 news networks have also adopted Facebook chatbots that directly interact with FB users through the messenger to bring them their choice of news.

Ray made it clear that currently Facebook partnerships with television networks isn’t a monetised association. “As of now, we aren’t thinking of making money from these partnerships. The focus is to share best practices, which, by the way, are also available to all networks and publishers through our news blog that anyone can access. We understand that networks have many mediums to consider. May be the other platforms, specially in the video category has been consistently performing over the last few years.

Facebook’s video options being a late entrant means that those coming on board have a higher jump to make in a much shorter time, thus requiring an external hand-holding,” Ray explained.

When it came to paid campaigns on Facebook, Ray pointed out that most of the flow of advertising on Facebook is very self-served and flexible. If the content is compelling enough, media brands especially don’t need to spend too much. The occasional spends that they do, can be carried out through their media agencies.

Facebook is beginning to give special focus on the regional networks as well, said Ray. “The first focus is the southern market as the users are heavy media consumers. Bengali and Punjabi regional channels are another point of focus for the television partnerships wing at Facebook India,” he said, adding that Facebook’s multi-language feature that supports up to 12 Indian languages is a good tool for regional networks to use and generate more engagement.

Having observed how networks are using Facebook in the last couple of years, Ray used a couple of pointers on how networks are going wrong in their Facebook usage.

“Broadcasters so far have been paying close attention to how Facebook has been working for brands, and thinking in terms of like numbers and share numbers. That may not be the best way to look at it from a media brand’s (big or small) perspective who need to ask themselves if a certain post will get people excited,” Ray shared.

“We have also begun to understand that audience are generally put -off by content with a promotional tone to them. Usually, the audience reacts better to informal language, and a more native and conversational posts,” Ray added in parting.

October 22, 2016
How broadcasters can use Facebook better?

MUMBAI: Facebook’s daily active user base in India clocked a whopping 22 per cent growth rate by the second quarter of 2016, which is much higher than the 17 per cent growth rate the social media giant enjoys globally. Naturally, addressing its India-only usage and the issues concerning it is of key to Mark Zuckerberg. From improvement in quality perspective, Facebook is addressing these issues on several frontiers, including guiding television networks on how to grow on FB organically.

“When we speak of partnerships with television networks, it has nothing to do with how they interact with the platform as an advertiser. If networks are able to strategize and track a good campaign on Facebook, then it can grow organically. If networks crack the content code that triggers shareability of a Facebook post, then it doesn’t need any artificial push,”
shared Facebook India’s head of television partnerships, Vishu Ray.

This guidance often includes educating networks on the best practices to increase the shareability of the posts, using all the Facebook tools such as FB 360 degree, instant articles and Facebook Live to the optimal use, and creating engaging content on FB.

While ‘how to use FB’ might sound like a simple thing to explain to television networks, given the fact that the social network is constantly adding new features, some specially meant for this market, the task at hand isn’t that simple.

“We added Facebook live as a feature six to seven months back, but within Facebook Live several new changes are being made. For example, now users can not only go live from their smart phones etc, they can go live through multi-camera setups as well, which also allows one to switch between multiple cameras,” Ray added.

Some eight to 10 news networks have also adopted Facebook chatbots that directly interact with FB users through the messenger to bring them their choice of news.

Ray made it clear that currently Facebook partnerships with television networks isn’t a monetised association. “As of now, we aren’t thinking of making money from these partnerships. The focus is to share best practices, which, by the way, are also available to all networks and publishers through our news blog that anyone can access. We understand that networks have many mediums to consider. May be the other platforms, specially in the video category has been consistently performing over the last few years.

Facebook’s video options being a late entrant means that those coming on board have a higher jump to make in a much shorter time, thus requiring an external hand-holding,” Ray explained.

When it came to paid campaigns on Facebook, Ray pointed out that most of the flow of advertising on Facebook is very self-served and flexible. If the content is compelling enough, media brands especially don’t need to spend too much. The occasional spends that they do, can be carried out through their media agencies.

Facebook is beginning to give special focus on the regional networks as well, said Ray. “The first focus is the southern market as the users are heavy media consumers. Bengali and Punjabi regional channels are another point of focus for the television partnerships wing at Facebook India,” he said, adding that Facebook’s multi-language feature that supports up to 12 Indian languages is a good tool for regional networks to use and generate more engagement.

Having observed how networks are using Facebook in the last couple of years, Ray used a couple of pointers on how networks are going wrong in their Facebook usage.

“Broadcasters so far have been paying close attention to how Facebook has been working for brands, and thinking in terms of like numbers and share numbers. That may not be the best way to look at it from a media brand’s (big or small) perspective who need to ask themselves if a certain post will get people excited,” Ray shared.

“We have also begun to understand that audience are generally put -off by content with a promotional tone to them. Usually, the audience reacts better to informal language, and a more native and conversational posts,” Ray added in parting.

October 22, 2016
How to make your content viral?

MUMBAI: How often do we hear the term ‘viral’? From the germination of an idea to its execution, the only target people want to achieve is making it go viral. Be it a concept or a new initiative, grabbing the maximum number of eyeballs or reaching out to the masses remains the crucial part.

This subject was fielded by panelists consisting of Viacom18 Media group CEO Sudhanshu Vats, Twitter CEO Rahul Jaitly, The Viral Fever creative producer Shreyansh Pandey, Yash Raj Films VP Ashish Patil and AIB G. Khamba at Eemax Global Conclave 2016.

They spoke on the topic everyone is currently excited and interest in — digital. ‘Making the viral go around’, the speakers brainstormed whether they have found or cracked any formula of making their content visible. What echoed in unison was a big ‘no’ by the panelists.

Adding some perspective to it, Patil said, “That is the stupidest brief I can ever get for making content that should go viral.” Agreeing to that was Khamba who resonated with Patil’s thoughts. “No, we cannot do it. We try to do the best that we can with our content. Fun is the formula for us.”

Taking the discussion a notch higher, the moderator was curious to know what the starting point is for each one of the players post the brief. “The starting point is the consumer. We don’t go about making it viral, we just hope that it happens. One should not let their ideas remain in a box. Anything can be successful and (go) viral in no time like music for eg, Coke Studio. What goes viral is not matter of functions or data,” said Patil.

Pandey added, “Two things that are primarily important which lead to something going viral is content and experience of the user. Obviously, it varies with platforms. How users latch on to the content and what they do with it decides the virality.”

Jaitly opined the starting point for the social media platform is knowing their audiences and their taste. “Truth and personality is what we ride high on. At Twitter, we have a software measuring not the tweets but spikes.”

“Adding to that, authenticity is also equally important,” added Vats.

So, what is the process of developing content and the velocity to make it viral? “What excites the consumers is the first step. Delivering it with truth, authenticity and entertainment like some nice music, champions, etc. is the second step. Third comes the right people you want this content to reach out to,” opined Patil.

Jaitly also seconded his opinion, and said “In India, Bollywood, sports and politics content does very well for us and our strategy is to build across these ‘edges’.”

At TVF’s office, one of the walls read “Ideas are a piece of shit.” Pandey said, “TVF’s core is story-telling. The process starts with writing posts. You should know the reaction expected by your target audience based on your observation.”

With branded content getting popular every passing day, advertisers are partly convinced about investing in this new digital era. Developing in the right direction on the brief is one way to win the trust of the brands. Khamba shared, ” How do you work with brands is also important. Brands develop trust on the brief. Finding the trigger of the theme and delivering to the brands by value is equally crucial.”

Patil, Pandey and Khamba also agreed on the point that the brand parameters had changed. They have started to build on the bigger theme than simply pumping money on a concept for eg, a Truly Madly Creep Qawali.

With the sense of maturity coming amongst the advertisers, the panelists also expressed their thoughts on the need of having a measurability on content. “Majority of the return on investment comes from brands on board. The rest from talent usage, syndication, merchandising, etc. The commitment of how many views can a certain content get cannot happen. We have to go in with our eyes open,” said Patil.

With its reach across the globe, Jaitly opined how he has heard the pressure on revenues more in India than any other country which is something Twitter has done by providing a base for story-tellers without brands to come on board. On the other hand, Vats drew some light on their existing digital platform Voot which follows an advertising model. The VOD platform, within four months of its launch, has done well for Viacom18 Network by having 15 million active users with over 50+ brands, Vats shared, “The ‘average time spend’ on our platform is 45 minutes per user. For us, it’s about how many are watching, what content are they consuming and for how much time are they staying.”

He further added, “There will be models going forward that will help reach the consumers. The data is crucial right now but it will come down eventually. Also, the payment gateways will evolve to make subscription easier for the viewers. Measurement cannot be ignored if you want to grow. Money follows measurement.”

The session ended with the panelists discussing the way ahead for each of their platforms. While Patil opined that there is a new breed of celebrities on YouTube coming up, the opportunity of spin-off content is possible. “We want to create IPs and take it beyond TV or digital. Merchandising is also where we see a lot of good opportunities, he said. Pandey resonated with Patil’s thought about extending IPs and added, “Brands are difficult to get and people don’t want to pay. Extending IPs is what we would look at as the dollars lie there.”

Khamba was of the opinion that on-ground engagement has always been fun for them and they will continue with that and sustain it going forward. “We will do high numbers and branch out,” added Khamba.

Whereas, for Twitter, Jaitly shared that, going forward, the social media platform will enable users to share and watch live shows from across the country. He said, “The Twitter of future will open shows and videos live stream from across the country.”

The panelists concluded by sharing that digital in India is only bound to grow and prove profitable to people who play it smart. As its always believed by most of the players in this business, the consumer remains to be the king.

October 22, 2016
How to make your content viral?

MUMBAI: How often do we hear the term ‘viral’? From the germination of an idea to its execution, the only target people want to achieve is making it go viral. Be it a concept or a new initiative, grabbing the maximum number of eyeballs or reaching out to the masses remains the crucial part.

This subject was fielded by panelists consisting of Viacom18 Media group CEO Sudhanshu Vats, Twitter CEO Rahul Jaitly, The Viral Fever creative producer Shreyansh Pandey, Yash Raj Films VP Ashish Patil and AIB G. Khamba at Eemax Global Conclave 2016.

They spoke on the topic everyone is currently excited and interest in — digital. ‘Making the viral go around’, the speakers brainstormed whether they have found or cracked any formula of making their content visible. What echoed in unison was a big ‘no’ by the panelists.

Adding some perspective to it, Patil said, “That is the stupidest brief I can ever get for making content that should go viral.” Agreeing to that was Khamba who resonated with Patil’s thoughts. “No, we cannot do it. We try to do the best that we can with our content. Fun is the formula for us.”

Taking the discussion a notch higher, the moderator was curious to know what the starting point is for each one of the players post the brief. “The starting point is the consumer. We don’t go about making it viral, we just hope that it happens. One should not let their ideas remain in a box. Anything can be successful and (go) viral in no time like music for eg, Coke Studio. What goes viral is not matter of functions or data,” said Patil.

Pandey added, “Two things that are primarily important which lead to something going viral is content and experience of the user. Obviously, it varies with platforms. How users latch on to the content and what they do with it decides the virality.”

Jaitly opined the starting point for the social media platform is knowing their audiences and their taste. “Truth and personality is what we ride high on. At Twitter, we have a software measuring not the tweets but spikes.”

“Adding to that, authenticity is also equally important,” added Vats.

So, what is the process of developing content and the velocity to make it viral? “What excites the consumers is the first step. Delivering it with truth, authenticity and entertainment like some nice music, champions, etc. is the second step. Third comes the right people you want this content to reach out to,” opined Patil.

Jaitly also seconded his opinion, and said “In India, Bollywood, sports and politics content does very well for us and our strategy is to build across these ‘edges’.”

At TVF’s office, one of the walls read “Ideas are a piece of shit.” Pandey said, “TVF’s core is story-telling. The process starts with writing posts. You should know the reaction expected by your target audience based on your observation.”

With branded content getting popular every passing day, advertisers are partly convinced about investing in this new digital era. Developing in the right direction on the brief is one way to win the trust of the brands. Khamba shared, ” How do you work with brands is also important. Brands develop trust on the brief. Finding the trigger of the theme and delivering to the brands by value is equally crucial.”

Patil, Pandey and Khamba also agreed on the point that the brand parameters had changed. They have started to build on the bigger theme than simply pumping money on a concept for eg, a Truly Madly Creep Qawali.

With the sense of maturity coming amongst the advertisers, the panelists also expressed their thoughts on the need of having a measurability on content. “Majority of the return on investment comes from brands on board. The rest from talent usage, syndication, merchandising, etc. The commitment of how many views can a certain content get cannot happen. We have to go in with our eyes open,” said Patil.

With its reach across the globe, Jaitly opined how he has heard the pressure on revenues more in India than any other country which is something Twitter has done by providing a base for story-tellers without brands to come on board. On the other hand, Vats drew some light on their existing digital platform Voot which follows an advertising model. The VOD platform, within four months of its launch, has done well for Viacom18 Network by having 15 million active users with over 50+ brands, Vats shared, “The ‘average time spend’ on our platform is 45 minutes per user. For us, it’s about how many are watching, what content are they consuming and for how much time are they staying.”

He further added, “There will be models going forward that will help reach the consumers. The data is crucial right now but it will come down eventually. Also, the payment gateways will evolve to make subscription easier for the viewers. Measurement cannot be ignored if you want to grow. Money follows measurement.”

The session ended with the panelists discussing the way ahead for each of their platforms. While Patil opined that there is a new breed of celebrities on YouTube coming up, the opportunity of spin-off content is possible. “We want to create IPs and take it beyond TV or digital. Merchandising is also where we see a lot of good opportunities, he said. Pandey resonated with Patil’s thought about extending IPs and added, “Brands are difficult to get and people don’t want to pay. Extending IPs is what we would look at as the dollars lie there.”

Khamba was of the opinion that on-ground engagement has always been fun for them and they will continue with that and sustain it going forward. “We will do high numbers and branch out,” added Khamba.

Whereas, for Twitter, Jaitly shared that, going forward, the social media platform will enable users to share and watch live shows from across the country. He said, “The Twitter of future will open shows and videos live stream from across the country.”

The panelists concluded by sharing that digital in India is only bound to grow and prove profitable to people who play it smart. As its always believed by most of the players in this business, the consumer remains to be the king.

October 22, 2016
Culture Machine launches digital channel Om Bhajan Bhakti

MUMBAI: Culture Machine has launched its new digital brand on devotion and spirituality, titled “Om Bhajan Bhakti”. The channel explores the spiritual and devotional space by providing unique experiences and learning to viewers.

It will combine stories from the world of devotion, pairing them with innovations such as Facebook Live and 360 degree videos of rituals, marking a first on all counts on Facebook.

The platforms’s content caters to the robust spiritual community across the globe, who can experience live streaming of some of the most visited religious places in India and participate in the actual darshan through 360 degree videos and a lot more.

“Culture Machine’s aim is to create great digital media brands that people love. As India goes digital in smaller towns and villages, our endeavour is to create brands that will reflect passions for an emergent digital audience. Facebook offers a rich toolkit for video and has become the platform of choice for us to innovate on, through both our technology and content partnership with them, we are stoked to see ‘Om Bhajan Bhakti’getting off to a great launch,” said Culture Machine CEO and co-founder Sameer Pitalwalla.

All devotees who are longing to visit the sacred Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir, but are unable to do so, can now virtually offer their prayers and darshans through Facebook Live on Culture Machine’s Facebook page Om Bhajan Bhakti.

The channel also has exclusive live video access to holy shrines across India like Kashi Vishvanath Temple in Varanasi, Somnath temple in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, Mahavir Mandir dedicated to Lord Hanuman located in Patna and Iskon in Vrindavan.

The content on the channel is beneficial to both learned and laity, as it brings home the main theme in a simple and easy to understand format.

“Devotional content is one of the more popular categories of content in India.Innovative endeavours like ‘Om Bhajan Bhakti’, will provide people an opportunity to engage with and share things that deeply matter to them with family and friends.”said Facebook India media partnerships TV and original content Vishu Ray.

October 21, 2016
Culture Machine launches digital channel Om Bhajan Bhakti

MUMBAI: Culture Machine has launched its new digital brand on devotion and spirituality, titled “Om Bhajan Bhakti”. The channel explores the spiritual and devotional space by providing unique experiences and learning to viewers.

It will combine stories from the world of devotion, pairing them with innovations such as Facebook Live and 360 degree videos of rituals, marking a first on all counts on Facebook.

The platforms’s content caters to the robust spiritual community across the globe, who can experience live streaming of some of the most visited religious places in India and participate in the actual darshan through 360 degree videos and a lot more.

“Culture Machine’s aim is to create great digital media brands that people love. As India goes digital in smaller towns and villages, our endeavour is to create brands that will reflect passions for an emergent digital audience. Facebook offers a rich toolkit for video and has become the platform of choice for us to innovate on, through both our technology and content partnership with them, we are stoked to see ‘Om Bhajan Bhakti’getting off to a great launch,” said Culture Machine CEO and co-founder Sameer Pitalwalla.

All devotees who are longing to visit the sacred Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir, but are unable to do so, can now virtually offer their prayers and darshans through Facebook Live on Culture Machine’s Facebook page Om Bhajan Bhakti.

The channel also has exclusive live video access to holy shrines across India like Kashi Vishvanath Temple in Varanasi, Somnath temple in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, Mahavir Mandir dedicated to Lord Hanuman located in Patna and Iskon in Vrindavan.

The content on the channel is beneficial to both learned and laity, as it brings home the main theme in a simple and easy to understand format.

“Devotional content is one of the more popular categories of content in India.Innovative endeavours like ‘Om Bhajan Bhakti’, will provide people an opportunity to engage with and share things that deeply matter to them with family and friends.”said Facebook India media partnerships TV and original content Vishu Ray.

October 21, 2016