Category: News Headline

Branded ‘Big’, ADAG’s FM venture targets 12 October launch

MUMBAI: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is entering the final stages of preparation for its “Big” bang entry into the FM radio field.

The Ambani brothers are known for doing everything on a big scale and it is certainly no different in this case as younger brother Anil’s ADAG gets set to launch its 92.7 FM stations across India. It is only fitting, therefore, that ADAG is launching ahead of the Diwali festive season under the brand name Big Radio.

According to sources, the group is targeting 12 October for the launch of its radio station in cities where the common infrastructure network exists. This includes Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Surat.

Big Radio is expected to be on air in Mumbai first, with a fast-paced rollout in the other cities where the common infrastructure exists. The teams for the radio stations are already in place with radio jockeys and other engineers hired and ready.

Big Radio will be facing a phalanx of established players when it launches services in Mumbai. The group will have to compete with players such as the Times Group’s Radio Mirchi, Radio City, Red FM and Radio One (Formerly was known as Go FM), who have been in this game for over five years.

One advantage Big Radio will be looking to leverage upon is the massive mobile phone user subscriber base that sister concern and telecom major Reliance Infocomm provides. Big Radio will be introducing a lot of interactive features with the specific aim of building a community of cell users hooked in to the station, industry sources have told Indiantelevision.com.

Another “Big” advantage ADAG is banking on is that it has the ultimate brand icon in the “Big B” Amitabh Bachchan endorsing the station. If ever there was a case of the brand and the ambassador fitting to a T, it is this.

ADAG originally secured its FM licence through Adlabs Films Ltd (AFL) in which it has a controlling stake. But post the demerger of the radio business, the company has transferred its FM operating units to Reliance Unicom Ltd.

Big Radio will manage 45 FM stations. The frequencies were bought out for approximately Rs 1.60 billion. Initially, the company had bagged the licence for 57 frequencies but had to surrender the licence for 13 cities as per the norms, which do not allow one single company to hold more than 15 per cent of the total allotted frequencies.

September 4, 2006
Synovate appoints Uday Kagal to head Mumbai operations

MUMBAI: Global market intelligence firm, Synovate has appointed Uday Kagal as its head of Mumbai branch operations.

Kagal will report into Synovate India MD Alok Shanker and will primarily be responsible for new sector forays and revenue generation for Synovate’s largest branch office in India.

Kagal is backed with 19 years of experience in market research in different capacities – both on the agency and client side. So, apart from stints with erstwhile Marg (now, ACNielsen Org Marg) and TNS Dubai as research director and senior group account director – he has experience with a multitude of large corporations, states an official release.

His assignment with HLL was that of CMI manager responsible for brand tracking and ad-pre-testing; his stint with HSBC Bank as senior VP-customer connect analytics and relationships (CCAR), entailed Implicit research, brand tracking, customer satisfaction, market potential modelling and customer lifetime value segmentation. Kagal is credited with setting up the CCAR division for HSBC Bank.

September 4, 2006
OpenTV previews its vision for the future at IBC 2006

MUMBAI: OpenTV, which provides enabling technologies for advanced digital television services, will showcase its latest technologies under the banner of “television is changing … open it up!” at the IBC show in Amsterdam.

The event takes place from 8-12 September 2006.

The theme, grounded by the premise that today’s television viewers are demanding greater choice, flexibility, and access, encompasses the entire range of OpenTV’s products on display. By ‘opening up’ the technologies that serve as a foundation for set-top boxes and digital television, OpenTV says that it is taking a leadership position by enabling the adoption of flexible business models and compelling viewer experiences in the television industry.

OpenTV chairman and CEO James A. (Jim) Chiddix says, “Today, the central technologies for building and maintaining social networks around the world are the phone and the internet.

“OpenTV believes that TV is next, and that the way to survive in this changing world is to embrace explore, and enable that change. When we say we are ‘opening up’ television, we are extending our tradition of pioneering middleware and related solutions to new content sources, new navigation models, new forms of television advertising, and new experiences in participation with television.”

Featured products at IBC will include solutions for advanced digital
television; advanced advertising; and participation television.

— OpenTV Vision: Supporting its theme for IBC, OpenTV will debut a supermodal, zoomable user interface (ZUI) that fundamentally changes the way viewers navigate and make viewing choices from the massive amounts of available content, by providing navigation tools that create relevance and match interests.

— Advanced Digital Television:– OpenTV will showcase a number of live HDTV services from OpenTV customers as well as a wide array of HD set-top boxes from ADB, Pace, Philips, Scientific Atlanta, and Thomson.

— OpenTV will demonstrate the power of its popular Core2/PVR2
set-top software through the demonstration of a HD guide
developed by Nagravision. The guide features key elements such
as time-shifting, scheduling, and series linking, as well as
push VOD.

— OpenTV will demonstrate IPTV, highlighting a solution for
hybrid IPTV deployments by cable and satellite operators.

— OpenTV Core2/PVR2 supports multiple application execution
environments including HTML and Flash(R). OpenTV will showcase
its Flash solution, based on the award-winning MachBlue(TM)
from Bluestreak Network, supporting rapid authoring of enhanced
programming using standard Adobe(R) Flash authoring tools.

OpenTV will also demonstrate its industry -leading HTML
solution with home networking applications.

— OpenTV has also integrated technologies with ICTV(TM) and will
be demonstrating a personalized mosaic that delivers
alternative navigation and Internet-type programming and
advertising capabilities to OpenTV-enabled set-top boxes.

As far as advanced advertising:solutions are concerned the company will conduct demonstrations that will feature an end-to-end production system for enhanced advertising that engages audiences by enabling compelling, interactive advertising applications to be created, validated, scheduled, and launched more quickly and less
expensively.

— Also shown will be OpenTV’s advertising sales and inventory
management solutions with a demonstration of OpenTV’s ad
decision engine for dynamic insertion of targetted ads.

September 4, 2006
Animal Planet’s ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin killed while filming documentary

MUMBAI: One of television’s popular personalities Steve Irwin has passed away. Irwin who is well known to viewers of Animal Planet for Crocodile Hunter died after he was wounded by a stingray barb to his heart. He was filming a sequence on Batt Reef in Australia for his daughter’s new TV series.

Media reports state that a helicopter rushed paramedics to nearby Low Isles where Irwin was taken for treatment, but he was dead before they arrived. A stingray’s barb is said to be as dangerous as a rifle bayonet.

He is only the third person in Australia to die from being stabbed by a stingray. Irwin became famious on television for placing himself in precarious situations with animals like snakes and crocodiles. His fascination for animals stemmed from the fact that he grew up near crocodiles, trapping and removing them from populated areas and releasing them in his parent’s park.

September 4, 2006
Kerala to have Rs 1.5 bn ‘Cochin Media City’

MUMBAI: God’s own country Kerala seems to be on an overdrive when it comes to media initiatives. The state, which already is home to about 13 television channels, will soon have a group of entrepreneurs entering the virgin space of converged media solutions.

Christened Cochin Media City or CMC, the Rs 1.5 billion project revolves around the basic idea of tapping the immense commercial potential in television and allied services under one roof.

CMC will kick off in the first half of September 2006 with its first project, a media school. According to CMC VP marketing B. Pratap Chandar, the media school project will be followed by a commercial teleport initiative.

“CMC’s media school would focus on media education, advance research in media studies and critical thinking. We want to make it a premium training ground for those aspiring for a career in electronic media, in particular, and the media in general. Our second project, which is a teleport facility, will launch in 2007”, says Chandar, while revealing a bunch of media initiatives that CMC aspires to come up with in due course.

What are the initiatives that CMC is looking for? In short, the following:
# Technical consultancy services to electronic media.

# Content Production and management.

# Production and post-production facilities for the entertainment media.

# Television channel and FM radio station.

# Digital cinema project.

# IT-enabled services, which in India is booming.

# Media marketing, research & information services.

# Publishing.

“The basic idea to bring the entire media activity under one umbrella comes from the emergence of various channels in the slow growth visual media market. Today, there is a proliferation of TV channels in the Malayalam TV industry. By the middle of 2007, Kerala will have the unique distinction of having 20 regional (Malayalam) TV channels addressing a population of 33 million Keralites and a TV advertisement market of Rs 2.4 billion (with an expected annual growth rate of 15 to 20 per cent),” adds Chandar.

CMC’s board of directors comprises popular Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi, noted film director Shaji Kailas and cinematographer Rajeev Ravi.

The corporate affairs of the company will be managed by a team of professionals lead by former Kerala director-general of police Rajagopalan Nair in the capacity of managing director. Former chairman of Malabar Cements K Ramakrishnan has been roped in as the corporate advisor.

By setting up its base in Kochi, CMC attempts to utilise coastal town’s technological advantages.

“The city offers 15 GBPS bandwidth support at India’s lowest cost, ‘SEA-ME-WE-3’ and ‘SAFE’ submarine cable connectivity and VSNL’s primary international gateway connectivity, plus Reliance, Bharti, VSNL and (government-controlled) BSNL’s fibre optic backbone connectivity,” says Chandar.

Kochi is also rated as the second best IT enabled services destination in Nasscom’s survey, with operational costs less than 50 per cent when compared to other major cities.

The full-fledged project will be based at the Hi-Tech Park of Kinfra at Kalamassery and permission for land has been sought.

September 4, 2006
Kelly Clarkson, James Blunt triumph at MTV Video Music Awards

MUMBAI: Singers Kelly Clarkson and James Blunt triumphed at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards which took place a few nights ago in New York.
Blunt won for the video You’re Beautiful while Clarkson won for the video Because of You. Best Group Video went The All-American Rejects’ Move Along.

Jay-Z welcomed the VMAs back to New York City. The night opened with Justin Timberlake’s performing SexyBack. The show’s host Jack Black, dressed as the bad Moonman and Elvis, followed with a comical rock performance featuring Tenacious D band mate Kyle Glass.

For the first time viewers were able to vote on all general
awards categories. Panic! at the Disco nabbed Best Video of the Year for I Write Sins Not Tragedies. Avenged Sevenfold won Best New Artist Video for their music video Bat Country. Beyonce took home a Moon Man for Best R&B Video for her music video Check on It.

While the VMAs aired live on MTV, MTV.com streamed VMA Live: Backstage Uncensored. This was a simultaneous view of the action behind the scenes and backstage that viewers have never gotten to see. Fans followed talent such as Ludacris, OK Go, and T.I. as they traveled from dressing rooms to the stage for their performances. In addition to the television and broadband experiences, MTV Mobile offered updates and recaps
of the VMAs across all wireless carriers. The VMAs were also celebrated across all of MTV’s platforms including MTV2, mtvU, MHD, MTV World, and Urge.

Stand up artiste Sarah Silverman took good natured jabs at everyone from Lance Bass to socialite Paris Hilton. Silverman had the audience laughing while she left celebrities guessing who was going to be her next target of sarcasm.

In a self-deprecating taped moment, Britney Spears and Kevin Federline earned some laughs when they announced the winner for Best R&B Video. The tone turned more serious when Queen Latifah introduced former US Vice President Al Gore to the stage. In the spirit of An Inconvenient Truth Gore brought a message of urgent importance concerning the world community to the VMA audience.

He projected the plight of the environment onto the actual walls of the theater. To highlight that caring about the environment is the new norm, MTV unveiled new Break the Addiction PSAs during the MTV Video Music Awards. The spots’ approach is that if you’re not actively combating global warming every day, you’re behind the times.

September 4, 2006
CII workshop seeks to address copyright issues in the Indian entertainment sector

MUMBAI: The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) will orgabnise the second edition of its legal workshop series Technology, Value Adds & The Law on 13 September 2006.

The aim is to address copyright issues in the Indian entertainment sector. The workshop will focus on copyright issues with respect to new technologies and value add services (Vas).

At the workshop the CII-Lawquest legal paper Copyrights & Emerging Technologies will be released.

There will also be a panel discussion. Today technology is evolving at great speed with it increasing the importance of electronic and digital media. At the same time, the innovators cannot foresee all its future uses, which calls for urgent attention of copyright owners towards electronic and digital rights issues.

The session will be moderated by Tata Teleservices VP Vas Pankaj Sethi. The speakers are Star senior VP – interactive services Viren Popli, Hutchison Essar VP vas SP Narayanan, ,
UTV VP international Ashoka Holla and Raj Tilak who is a consultant

September 4, 2006
CII workshop seeks to address copyright issues in the Indian entertainment sector

MUMBAI: The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) will orgabnise the second edition of its legal workshop series Technology, Value Adds & The Law on 13 September 2006.

The aim is to address copyright issues in the Indian entertainment sector. The workshop will focus on copyright issues with respect to new technologies and value add services (Vas).
At the workshop the CII-Lawquest legal paper Copyrights & Emerging Technologies will be released.
There will also be a panel discussion. Today technology is evolving at great speed with it increasing the importance of electronic and digital media. At the same time, the innovators cannot foresee all its future uses, which calls for urgent attention of copyright owners towards electronic and digital rights issues.

The session will be moderated by Tata Teleservices VP Vas Pankaj Sethi. The speakers are Star senior VP – interactive services Viren Popli, Hutchison Essar VP vas SP Narayanan, ,
UTV VP international Ashoka Holla and Raj Tilak who is a consultant

September 4, 2006
OpenTV previews its vision for the future at IBC 2006

MUMBAI: OpenTV, which provides enabling technologies for advanced digital television services, will showcase its latest technologies under the banner of “television is changing … open it up!” at the IBC show in Amsterdam.

The event takes place from 8-12 September 2006.

The theme, grounded by the premise that today’s television viewers are demanding greater choice, flexibility, and access, encompasses the entire range of OpenTV’s products on display. By ‘opening up’ the technologies that serve as a foundation for set-top boxes and digital television, OpenTV says that it is taking a leadership position by enabling the adoption of flexible business models and compelling viewer experiences in the television industry.

OpenTV chairman and CEO James A. (Jim) Chiddix says, “Today, the central technologies for building and maintaining social networks around the world are the phone and the internet.

“OpenTV believes that TV is next, and that the way to survive in this changing world is to embrace explore, and enable that change. When we say we are ‘opening up’ television, we are extending our tradition of pioneering middleware and related solutions to new content sources, new navigation models, new forms of television advertising, and new experiences in participation with television.”

Featured products at IBC will include solutions for advanced digital
television; advanced advertising; and participation television.
— OpenTV Vision: Supporting its theme for IBC, OpenTV will debut a supermodal, zoomable user interface (ZUI) that fundamentally changes the way viewers navigate and make viewing choices from the massive amounts of available content, by providing navigation tools that create relevance and match interests.

— Advanced Digital Television:– OpenTV will showcase a number of live HDTV services from OpenTV customers as well as a wide array of HD set-top boxes from ADB, Pace, Philips, Scientific Atlanta, and Thomson.

— OpenTV will demonstrate the power of its popular Core2/PVR2
set-top software through the demonstration of a HD guide
developed by Nagravision. The guide features key elements such
as time-shifting, scheduling, and series linking, as well as
push VOD.

— OpenTV will demonstrate IPTV, highlighting a solution for
hybrid IPTV deployments by cable and satellite operators.

— OpenTV Core2/PVR2 supports multiple application execution
environments including HTML and Flash(R). OpenTV will showcase
its Flash solution, based on the award-winning MachBlue(TM)
from Bluestreak Network, supporting rapid authoring of enhanced
programming using standard Adobe(R) Flash authoring tools.
OpenTV will also demonstrate its industry -leading HTML
solution with home networking applications.

— OpenTV has also integrated technologies with ICTV(TM) and will
be demonstrating a personalized mosaic that delivers
alternative navigation and Internet-type programming and
advertising capabilities to OpenTV-enabled set-top boxes.

As far as advanced advertising:solutions are concerned the company will conduct demonstrations that will feature an end-to-end production system for enhanced advertising that engages audiences by enabling compelling, interactive advertising applications to be created, validated, scheduled, and launched more quickly and less
expensively.

— Also shown will be OpenTV’s advertising sales and inventory
management solutions with a demonstration of OpenTV’s ad
decision engine for dynamic insertion of targetted ads.

September 4, 2006
Branded ‘Big’, ADAG’s FM venture targets 12 October launch

MUMBAI: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is entering the final stages of preparation for its “Big” bang entry into the FM radio field.

The Ambani brothers are known for doing everything on a big scale and it is certainly no different in this case as younger brother Anil’s ADAG gets set to launch its 92.7 FM stations across India. It is only fitting, therefore, that ADAG is launching ahead of the Diwali festive season under the brand name Big Radio.

According to sources, the group is targeting 12 October for the launch of its radio station in cities where the common infrastructure network exists. This includes Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Surat.

Big Radio is expected to be on air in Mumbai first, with a fast-paced rollout in the other cities where the common infrastructure exists. The teams for the radio stations are already in place with radio jockeys and other engineers hired and ready.

Big Radio will be facing a phalanx of established players when it launches services in Mumbai. The group will have to compete with players such as the Times Group’s Radio Mirchi, Radio City, Red FM and Radio One (Formerly was known as Go FM), who have been in this game for over five years.

One advantage Big Radio will be looking to leverage upon is the massive mobile phone user subscriber base that sister concern and telecom major Reliance Infocomm provides. Big Radio will be introducing a lot of interactive features with the specific aim of building a community of cell users hooked in to the station, industry sources have told Indiantelevision.com.

Another “Big” advantage ADAG is banking on is that it has the ultimate brand icon in the “Big B” Amitabh Bachchan endorsing the station. If ever there was a case of the brand and the ambassador fitting to a T, it is this.

ADAG originally secured its FM licence through Adlabs Films Ltd (AFL) in which it has a controlling stake. But post the demerger of the radio business, the company has transferred its FM operating units to Reliance Unicom Ltd.

Big Radio will manage 45 FM stations. The frequencies were bought out for approximately Rs 1.60 billion. Initially, the company had bagged the licence for 57 frequencies but had to surrender the licence for 13 cities as per the norms, which do not allow one single company to hold more than 15 per cent of the total allotted frequencies.

September 4, 2006