ITV

Category: News Headline

  • ‘Provoked’ parties on with Aishwarya Rai

    ‘Provoked’ parties on with Aishwarya Rai

    CANNES: The maker of Provoked – Jagmohan Mundhra, threw a party to celebrate the movie on the rooftop of the Noga Hilton at Cannes.

    Of course the star of the evening was the glam Aishwarya Rai who even dazzled the paparazzi and the locals in Cannes as she sashayed down the red carpet into the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Day One of the festival.

    L’Oreal has strategically placed a poster of Rai close to the Palais promoting her own cosmetic lipstick colour Color Riche Star Secrets No 708. In fact Mundhra was quite taken aback on 17 May when he and his colleagues turned around to look at her poster when they went past it. Way to go Ash!

    Meanwhile a star who had made it a point to be at the party was Poonam Dhillon who was dressed up in a lovely red sari looking extremely bootifull!

  • Lamhas Satellite Services Ltd sets up teleport facility in Mumbai

    Lamhas Satellite Services Ltd sets up teleport facility in Mumbai

    MUMBAI: Satellite services provider Lamhas has opened its first commercial uplinking hub for TV channels in Mumbai. The company offers facilities such as satellite bandwidth, automated server playout and uplinking in the newly-opened division.

    The 16,500 square feet facility, located in the International Infotech Park above Vashi Railway Station in Navi Mumbai, is set up on an investment of about Rs 150 million.

    “We got all the regulatory clearances for the teleport by December. The entire project was ready by March,” says Lamhas Satellite Services Ltd (LSSL) co-promoter Manoj Shah.

    The company offers multi-channel uplinking services in SDI (Single Document Interface), stat mix, routers, matrix, international video gateway, modulators, upconverters and NMS (network management system). Lamhas is also gearing up to provide flyaway kit service in Ku Band.

    With the new facility, Lamhas has signed up three international teleports to provide its Indian clients international service. “We have tied up with teleports in Israel (RR Sat), New York (promoted by NRI entrepreneur Deepak Viswanath) and France (Globecast) for multi teleport set up to transport signals to any part of the world,” states LSSL VP Wilfred Lobo.

    Lamhas has already announced the card rate for the teleport facility. The entire package, which includes satellite bandwidth, automated server playout and uplinking facilities, cost Rs 1.2 million per month. Lobo said the company was presently in talks with various Indian broadcasters to offer the facility.

    “We are targeting all channels who want to uplink from India. We have approached some of the leading broadcasters in the country,” he says.

    The company has booked a C-band transponder on Insat 4A to offer clients space on the satellite. Incidentally, Tata Sky will be using the Ku-band transponders from this satellite for its direct-to-home (DTH) service.

    Speaking on the expansion plans, Lobo said Lamhas was looking at Delhi and Bangalore to set up its next teleport facility. “We will choose one of these cities. We have already acquired land in both the cities,” he says.

  • Internet access at work & home increases: study

    Internet access at work & home increases: study

    MUMBAI: The number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate.

    In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 172 million, a five per cent increase, according to the latest Harris Poll.

    In research among 2,032 US adults surveyed by telephone in February and April 2006, Harris Interactive found that 77 per cent of adults are now online, up from 74 per cent in February/April 2005, 66 per cent in the spring of 2002, 64 per cent in 2001 and 57 per cent in spring of 2000.

    When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine per cent of adults reported they went online.

    Internet access increases at home and at work

    The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 70 per cent, up from 66 per cent in 2005 and 55 per cent in the spring of 2002

    The percentage of those online at work has not really changed (35 per cent now, 36 per cent in 2005) yet is still up from 30 per cent in the spring of 2002. Adults who are online at a location other than their home or work also remains steady at 22 per cent (21 per cent in 2005, 19 per cent in the spring of 2002)
    The demographic profile of Internet users in the United States looks like the country as a whole

    As Internet penetration rises, the demographic profile of Internet users continues to look more like that of the nation as a whole. The study indicates that that more young than older people, and more affluent than low-income people, are online.

    However, eight percent of those online are now age 65 or over (compared to 16 per cent of all adults who are 65 or over), 39 per cent of those online (compared to 47 per cent of all adults) did not go to college and 14 per cent have incomes of less than $25,000 (compared to 19 per cent of all adults).

  • Zee News weaves programming around Fifa World Cup

    Zee News weaves programming around Fifa World Cup

    MUMBAI: As the football World Cup draws nearer, the Fifa fever is spreading to the news channels as well. Zee News will be telecasting special programmes on the coverage of the 2006 Fifa World Cup, titled Duniya Hai Goal.

    Preceding the start of the World Cup on 9 June, Duniya Hai Goal will commence as a half an hour special programme from 30 May at 7:30 pm until the finale on 9 July. In keeping with the channels focus to extensively cover the event, two teams of correspondents from Zee News will cover the event in Germany.

    A segment on the day’s play will be broadcast during the 6 – 7 am, 11 – 12 noon, 12 noon – 1 pm, 5 – 6 pm and 10 – 11 pm bulletins.

    Besides coverage of the tournament, the bulletin also seeks to incorporate viewer interactivity. As part of this special, score bugs will run and trivia will cover the main information around Fifa this year. Zee News has also made way for debates, discussions and expert comments from big names in the game.

    Programs like Zee Team Player will select the best player of the day on the basis of performance, which will be announced at 7:30 pm during the bulletin. In addition, a Zee World Cup Team consisting of the Top 15 players across the contesting teams will be selected and rated as per their performance during the matches.

    Other programs such as Which Team Would Win, will choose a favourite team through the interactive involvement of viewers on the basis of the SMSs received. The channel will include a profile of top teams and players on the Countdown and will also telecast features on the stadium, encompassing every aspect of the World Cup.

  • America crowns Taylor Hicks its 5th ‘Idol’; viewership hits 35.4 million

    America crowns Taylor Hicks its 5th ‘Idol’; viewership hits 35.4 million

    MUMBAI: Twenty-nine-year old Taylor Hicks from Alabama beat LA gal Katharine McPhee to be crowned the American Idol in the finale of the fifth season. A whopping 63.4 million votes were cast and America made its choice. According to host Ryan Seacrest, Hicks took the majority of the fan votes, though he did not reveal how close McPhee came.

    Taylor Hicks — The winner takes it all!

    Hicks now joins the likes of Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino, who have been previous season winners. However, the result of fifth season of American Idol doesn’t come as a surprise as Hicks had wooed TV audiences with his raw singing style and boisterous personality.

    Hicks foisted the ubiquitous catchphrase “Soul Patrol!” on an unsuspecting audience and turned it into a national movement. What Hicks has won is an RCA recording contract and his first single will be Do I Make You Proud.

    Katharine McPhee and Taylor Hicks on judgement day
    As for the network that airs the show in the US – Fox, the two weekly Idol episodes remain the top-rated shows in the US, raking in tens of millions of dollars for the network.

    The American Idol seasons have been a ratings goldmine for Fox. The show has continued to rate high even in its fifth season and has given the network the biggest hit in prime time, propelling the broadcaster to first place this season in the ratings race for viewers aged 18 to 49.

    ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ FINALE DRAWS 35.4 MN VIEWERS

    It was not only Taylor Hicks that emerged winner on American Idol’s fifth season finale. Fox, too emerged as a major winner in terms of the ratings it clocked. According to Nielsen Media Research, the finale of Fox’s two-hour American Idol special was a big hit among viewers, drawing an audience of 35.4 million people.

    Idol opened at 8 pm with 27.4 million viewers, climbing steadily to a peak of 42.9 million in its final half-hour as Hicks edged past Katharine McPhee to take the crown.

    This makes it the second most-watched Idol finale ever behind 2003’s competition, which was watched by 38.1 million viewers. Last year’s contest won by Carrie Underwood was seen by 30.3 million.

    In Canada, CTV said the American Idol season finale peaked at 5.2 million viewers when Hicks was announced as winner.

    The American Idol TV audience was only about two million viewers shy of the Oscars for being the most-watched television event of the year after the Super Bowl.

    What has also added to the popularity and interest levels in American Idol through the seasons is the incessant coverage by the print, internet and television media.

    Shows like Entertainment Tonight and Saturday Night Live give constant updates on every twist and turn on Idol. Dedicated websites and blogs have also kept the interest levels high. On the other hand, producers of the show claim that the success of season five came from the fact that they had a particularly good batch of talent.

    The finale of the fifth season had plenty of star power with the likes of Ben Stiller, Heather Locklear, Mary J. Blige and David Hasselhoff. What’s more, the Baywatch star got all teary eyed when Hicks was announced the winner. Prince too made a surprise appearance on the show and performed.

    After the winner was announced, runner-up McPhee was reportedly quoted as saying that she hadn’t expected to win and didn’t have any regrets.

    McPhee said she planned to take a week’s break before heading for the American Idol tour with Hicks and the other finalists.

  • Yahoo!, eBay form strategic partnership

    Yahoo!, eBay form strategic partnership

    MUMBAI: Internet powerhouses Yahoo! and eBay today announced a multi-year strategic partnership aimed at taking on the likes of search engine leader Google and Bill Gates’ software giant Microsoft.

    A joint statement issued by the two companies says the partnership is “designed to mutually benefit both companies by better serving their user, merchant, and advertising communities in the US. The agreement consists of four major components in the areas of search and graphical advertising, online payments, a co-branded toolbar, and the opportunity to explore ‘click-to-call’ functionality.”

    Yahoo! and eBay will begin to roll out the initiatives outlined in the agreement this year. This will include a testing phase that will take place over the next several months, with a plan to achieve full implementation in 2007.

    According to the deal, Yahoo will be the exclusive third-party provider of all graphic ads throughout eBay’s auction site. Yahoo! and eBay have also agreed to collaborate on ways to increase the quality and comprehensiveness of Yahoo! Web search results for eBay.com.

    Yahoo has also chosen eBay’s online payment system PayPal to allow its own customers to pay for Yahoo Web services. PayPal will be integrated and promoted as Yahoo!’s payment solution to Yahoo!’s merchants and publishers, which includes the Yahoo! Publisher Network, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and other small business services.

    “Our consumers will benefit from the combination of Yahoo! and eBay’s leading technology and services, providing them with one of the best online experiences,” said Yahoo! chairman and CEO Terry Semel. According to Semel, the partnership offers an opportunity to extend the two companies’ sponsored search and graphical advertising reach on the Web,” he added.

    Said Meg Whitman, eBay president and CEO, “Working together, we can create more exposure for our properties, which in turn makes them more valuable to our users.”
    access.”

  • Cinema India Expo 2006 kicks off in Mumbai

    Cinema India Expo 2006 kicks off in Mumbai

    MUMBAI: The sixth successive International Exhibition and India’s only established tradeshow and convention Cinema India 2006 began in Mumbai today. The three-day conference will take a look at Digital Cinema Technology, Film Production, Cinema Theatre Equipment and Multiplex Design and Solutions.

    Global players in the film technology industry including Kodak, Real Image, Sim2, Projection Design, Panasonic and Kinoton will be present on the Cinema India exhibit floors. Valuable Media, E-City Digital and Real Image has set up digital cinema demos in their auditoriums o the floor of the expo.

    The highlight of the opening day has been a panel discussion on FM Radio industry. The panel featuring India Today Group GM Commercial Uday Chawla, Radio Masti CEO Rajiv Mishra and BMG Deep Emotions Music Publisher Achille Forler discussed the opportunities and challenges of FM Radio. The session was moderated by Pro Sound Magazine editor Anil Chopra.

    Explaining the challenges FM radio industry faces, Mishra highlighted the lack of effective government policies on the satellite radio sector. “FM radio is targeted at people on the move, while satellite radio is understood as a stationary medium. The repeater technology can change this scenario for satellite radio operators. So we need solid government policies on satellite radio,” opined Mishra.

    On Internet Radio, Chopra said the technology was not feasible in India at the moment. “But the cost will surely come down in the near future once the technology gets cheaper.”

    Speaking on the niche spaces for FM radio, Chawla said it depended on the intensity of competition. “If we have three or four players in a market, everybody would be targeting the same general audience segment. But once you have about ten players fighting out in a market, some of them would obviously go for niche segments such as western music and classic music,” he said.

  • Premiere selects NDS MediaHighway middleware solutions

    Premiere selects NDS MediaHighway middleware solutions

    MUMBAI: Pay TV operator in Germany and Austria – Premiere – has chosen the NDS MediaHighway middleware solution to set-up an interactive platform paving the way into advanced digital TV services.

    The middleware-based TV platform will enable customers to interactively use innovative add-on-services – all with the ease of using their remote control via a return channel over the internet. Based on the NDS MediaHighway middleware, Premiere will launch this innovative platform that will offer a range of TV services to Premiere subscribers from August 2006.

    NDS MediaHighway, running an open middleware language, will play a key role in operating the interactive TV architecture, that combines broadcast and IPTV technologies into a single service on a hybrid STB. The cornerstone of the new platform will be a middleware enabled easy-to-use STB user-interface, that ensures the same look and feel over a variety of STBs and provides convenient and instant access to the services. The new infrastructure will enable Premiere to further extend its exclusive content offering combined with maximum usability for the viewer.

    The technological architecture of the platform unites the advantages of classic broadcasting with the individual and on-demand features of the internet. While the viewer will enjoy a premium quality TV experience, customers will be able to use interactive applications such as making pay-per-view orders at the touch of the remote control on their STB. Premiere will build up its range of interactive applications and add-on-services progressively based on open application standards.

    NDS is working closely with Premiere to launch this platform that will mark the start of middleware-supported and advanced interactive TV services in Germany and Austria. The agreement is a major reference for the NDS MediaHighway middleware solution and the first large scale customer win for NDS in Germany.

    Premiere CEO Dr. Georg Kofler said, “NDS is the ideal partner for us for establishing our interactive platform. NDS MediaHighway middleware has proved itself around the world, and is already running on more than 38 million set-top-boxes. It is extremely powerful and flexible and covers all the functions that we need, from interactive and add-on services to advanced PVR technology. We are thus gaining a fast and efficient entry into modern, interactive television.”

    “We could not think of a better reference than Premiere for our NDS MediaHighway middleware and hybrid TV solutions. We are delighted to be working with Premiere as our first large scale customer win in Germany. NDS will be supporting the company now to unlock the opportunities of advanced, interactive television,” said NDS France vice president and general manager Caroline Le Bigot.

  • AEIM To honour Wright with ‘Hall of Fame Award’

    AEIM To honour Wright with ‘Hall of Fame Award’

    MUMBAI: The Association of Electronic Interactive Marketers (AEIM) has announced that The Sims creator Will Wright will be honoured with its first-ever Hall of Fame Award.

    As a recipient of the award, Wright will also make a speech at the inaugural MI6 Conference and Awards Show on 27 and 28 June 2006

    The award recognizes Wright’s career of creative achievements, which include SimCity released in 1989 and credited as one of the most influential computer games ever made. Following on its success, Wright designed numerous other “Sim” games and earned the reputation as a designer of “software toys”-games. In 2000, The Sims was released, surpassing all previous sales records and became the best-selling computer game of all time.

    Following such success it was no doubt that Wright was named one of the most important people in gaming, technology and entertainment by Entertainment Weekly, Time, PC Gamer and GameSpy.

    “Will Wright has had a revolutionary impact on the electronic games industry,” said MI6 and AEIM president & CEO Jim Chabin. “As our industry and millions of fans worldwide anxiously await what promises to be a spectacular experience with his newest creation, ‘Spore,’ our board felt that now was an excellent time to acknowledge this person’s impact on all of us.”

    The AEIM is a new non-profit, professional trade organization designed to support the video game industry’s marketers and related professionals.

    MI6 speakers and participants include a list of gaming and entertainment industry executives involved in participating in professional development seminars, educational workshops and keynote sessions. Companies onboard include Microsoft, G4, Xbox, Activision, THQ, Electronic Arts, MTV Networks/Spike TV, Midway Games and ABC Entertainment, among others.

  • Katzenberg announces India animation intent

    Katzenberg announces India animation intent

    CANNES: It’s official and its coming from DreamWorks SKG cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg’s mouth. “We are coming to India in a big way,” he told indiantelevision.com at the Cannes Film Festival where he was promoing Over the Hedge. “In what shape or form we don’t know as yet, but we will.”

    Katzeberg said he had been to India three times in the past nine months. “India is a very exciting place and has potential for great animation…no other place has greater potential than India for great creative work,” he explained. “You have an excellent pool of creative talent. ”

    He however added that Dreanworks foray into India would not be in the form of outsourcing. “:It will be definitely more than that.”

    Katzenberg pointed out that what animation is witnessing is its second renaissance. “The first wave was in the eighties and was more handdrawn,” he pointed out. “Today, animation s driven by digital, by computers. It is a great time for animation. Some of the finest movie producers are taking it up. We at Dreamworks Animation are committed to producing at least two animation movies a year.”