Category: Technology

MUMBAI: The blackout dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable has shifted from the TV set to the tablet.

In their latest heated exchange, TWC claims that CBS wants to charge higher fees while shortchanging it on digital programming rights that it “has provided to others.”

CBS contends that the cable-TV outfit is aiming to get digital rights for free or inhibit licensing deals with newer online rivals like Netflix and Amazon.

The battle between the two companies, which has left CBS-owned TV stations dark in New York and other cities, underscores how the demand for digital rights, including the ability to watch shows on tablets and other mobile devices, is overshadowing the traditional cable bundle.

On Monday, TWC honcho Glenn Britt offered to end the five-day blackout and pay a higher rate – $2 a month per subscriber, up from $1 now – in exchange for video-on-demand and digital rights to CBS and Showtime programming under the terms of their old contract.

In response, CBS head Les Moonves argued that the terms of the 2008 deal no longer apply.

“Those terms and conditions, better known as rights, were established in 2008,” Moonves wrote in his rebuttal. “That was before the introduction of the iPad. Netflix was still doing little but mailing out DVDs. Amazon was known simply for selling books.”

Moonves wants to protect future digital revenue and doesn‘t want TWC limiting his ability to sell shows such as The Big Bang Theory to whomever he sees fit.

For its part, TWC wants to protect its turf. It doesn‘t want CBS giving Amazon preferential treatment to air shows such as miniseries Under the Dome if it‘s paying huge fees to carry CBS, according to those familiar with the talks.

As one cable executive told The Post, “The program guys want all the Amazon revenue to be incremental, and the cable guys are saying we‘re not doing that anymore. We want to compete and offer the same experience.”

MUMBAI: Sony Music Entertainment has announced new appointments to the US division of their sales team. Celine Joshua has been appointed as senior VP of digital sales and Scott Van Horn has been appointed as senior vice president of sales, commercial group.

“Celine and Scott are both accomplished sales executives. With their strong partner relationships and proven understanding of the industry, we are well positioned for continued success moving forward,” said Sony Music Entertainment executive VP of Sales & Distribution Darren Stupak on the appointments.

Joshua will be responsible for growing Sony‘s business with digital partners, along with managing key digital accounts, and driving digital product development for Sony artists and labels. Prior to joining Sony Music, Joshua worked for Walt Disney Studios and served as head of digital Commerce where she oversaw the global digital platforms for artists from the Disney Music Group. Prior to joining Disney in 2011, she spent over five years at Warner Music Group‘s Rhino Entertainment, where she helped launch the Led Zeppelin catalog globally and oversaw international sales.

Scott Van Horn, who was named senior VP of sales, Commercial Music Group (CMG), will now oversee all aspects of sales for CMG‘s Legacy, catalog, and non-traditional sales businesses. In his new role, Van Horn will work in close coordination with CMG president Richard Story and the CMG senior management team.

Prior to his new appointment, Van Horn served as VP of sales for Legacy where he was responsible for developing and driving retail sales programs for a number of Legacy brand initiatives. Van Horn previously served as director of sales for Universal Music and Video distribution where he managed sales efforts for catalog programs and new catalog releases. He previously held sales roles at DreamWorks‘ music division and Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records.

MUMBAI: Yahoo chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt has announced that it will be introducing a new logo next month.

From 7 August onwards Yahoo will post new logo on its homepage throughout its network in the US for 30 days on Tumblr, @Yahoo (#dailylogo) and on the official Facebook page as well.

Yahoo will be revealing its official logo on 4 September at 9 pm PST (Pacific Time).

Savitt wrote in a press statement that “The new logo will be a modern redesign that‘s more reflective of our re imagined design and new experiences, We also want to preserve the character that is unique to Yahoo! – fun, vibrant, and welcoming – so we‘ll be keeping the color purple, our iconic exclamation point and of course the famous yodel. After all, some things never go out of style.”

MUMBAI: With Delhi under control now, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is focusing increasingly on the other two metros to ensure that all the consumer application forms (CAFs) come in to the MSOs.

Following a meeting held on 2 August with MSOs operating in Mumbai and Kolkata, a decision has been taken that the time for carrots is over, now one needs to use the stick to get customers to get moving on their CAFs. And that stick is like Delhi is switching off their cable TV service, if the CAF is not yet in.

“There will be no further extensions like in the past,” says a senior TRAI official. “In fact, the switch offs have already begun from 3 August. The process for switching off the set top boxes will take at least four to five days because we are talking about a huge number.”

Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar agrees that his network has started switching off subscribers who are being tardy from 3 August. “But the process will be tedious,” he says. “So far, we have managed to collect 80 per cent of the forms duly filled.”

Indiantelevision.com spoke to another three MSOs operating in the financial capital and all of them stated that CAF collection was between 70 and 80 per cent. Going by that yardstick, it appears as if cable TV subscribers don‘t seem to be too disturbed about the stick, as the numbers mentioned by MSOs to indiantelevision.com even a month ago were in that range. Could they be opting for a DTH connection? We do not know, but a media observer, says that it could be a possibility.

The TRAI official says that Kolkata should not expect to be treated with kid‘s gloves. “When Delhi can meet the deadline why not Kolkata?” he questions. “We are sure that Kolkata will be able to meet the 23 August deadline as it does not have any other option.”

Well cable TV operators and subscribers in Kolkata, that‘s as ominous a warning as you can get!

MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media (MSM) has launched a fun-filled application, Indian Idol Junior App on Windows Phone App Store. The application comes with new features and games and is available for download free of cost, on any Windows phone.

The mobile application was previously available only on Android application stores and the iTunes store and has been downloaded by around 150,000 users across devices. Around 66 per cent of the total votes for the favorite Indian Idol Junior have been sent across using the application.

Speaking on the launch, Sony Entertainment Network executive VP new media, business development and digital/syndication Nitesh Kripalani commented, “The idea behind launching the app on Windows Phone App Store was to reach out to and engage with the fast growing fan base on the Windows Phone Platform. Indian Idol Junior is undoubtedly the number one music reality show from Sony Entertainment‘s stable and is loved by people across the country. Mobile penetration in India is burgeoning and our endeavor is to bring our popular shows right to the finger-tips of our audience. We have created a compelling second screen experience so that our fans don‘t miss out on the fun, even while they are on the move”.

“Apart from voting for their favourite Indian Idol Junior contestant and helping them win, people can use the dynamic ‘Popularity Meter‘ to see how popular their favourite ‘junior‘ is in the social universe, plus enjoy several other exciting elements and games” he added.

The application comes with inbuilt features like “Bachpan Ki Awaaz, a feature wherein users can record their voice into the app and the app fetches a voice of how the user sounded when he was a child. The sound clip can be shared for free on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Games include a Jigsaw puzzle where users can put pieces together to re-create their favourite scenes from Indian Idol show. Additionally, another gaming application “Catch the Musical Notes”, where musical notes fall through the screen display; users are to catch the maximum number of musical notes within a fixed time frame to win. Scores can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

MUMBAI: SES has announced that the Philippine direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV provider Global Satellite (GSAT) has contracted its fourth transponder on NSS-11, cementing SES‘ orbital position of 108.2 degrees east as one of Asia‘s leading video neighbourhoods.

The multi-year deal will see the transfer of current capacity usage by GSAT from NSS-11 to SES-9, currently scheduled for launch in 2015. When launched, SES-9 will be the largest SES satellite dedicated to the Asia-Pacific region. The new spacecraft will be providing expansion capacity for DTH, enterprise, mobility and government services across the region.

GSAT, the satellite division of First United Broadcasting Corp (FUBC), launched its DTH service in 2008 on the NSS-11 Ku-band satellite, providing subscribers with access to an improved mix of international programmes including English, Mandarin, Korean, Tagalog, Japanese and Spanish channels. With this additional capacity, GSAT will be offering 12 high definition (HD) channels and 47 standard definition (SD) channels to more than 200,000 subscribers across the Philippine archipelago.

FUBC president and CEO Philip J. Chien said, “Our ability to offer highly reliable DTH satellite TV to our growing base of subscribers in the Philippines is largely due to the comprehensive footprints of NSS-11, and, from 2015, SES-9. We are confident that SES‘ expertise will enable us to grow in our market and increase both the quality and quantity of channels in our pay-TV offerings.”

SES Asia-Pacific and the Middle East sr. VP commercial Deepak Mathur said, “We are delighted to confirm that GSAT, our long-term customer on NSS-11, will become a key anchor customer on SES-9. At SES, we are investing in new satellites to make sure that our customers enjoy business continuity, as well as delivering vital capacity to support their growth in some of the most dynamic media markets in the world.”

MUMBAI: DirecTV CEO Michael White gave investors a reason to stick with the company after the results didn‘t reflect positive results. He signaled in a call with analysts that he‘d be receptive to the idea of a merger with Dish Network.

“I don‘t think it‘s productive for me to speculate what regulators may or may not do, but the competitive landscape is very different than it was 10 years ago” when the FCC rejected a Dish-DirecTV merger plan, he said. For one thing, “the balance [of power] between content distributors and providers is out of whack.” He has long charged that programmers are demanding dangerously high new fees for their content – a position he reiterated today. “I‘ve seen more customer complaints about the price increases,” he says.

“My own view is that it‘s not going to change in the short term. But it‘s clear that this isn‘t sustainable beyond the next couple of years. Something is going to have to give.” He adds that Liberty Media‘s John Malone, who wants cable and satellite companies to consolidate to help them fight programmers, “is 100% correct. Scale matters.” So does technology, especially as DirecTV considers strategies to avoid paying high retransmission consent fees to broadcasters. It has considered offering customers antennas to receive local signals for free. In addition, “we looked at what Aereo is doing” with its controversial local TV streaming service that broadcasters say infringes on their copyrights.

A merger between DirecTV and Dish Network would be compelling for both companies that will be worth waiting for even as the fundamentals begin to show the long-awaited signs of erosion.

MUMBAI: Cox Communications, the third-largest US cable provider, has held talks about combining with Charter Communications, according to reports on the matter.

Cox president Pat Esser has discussed a deal with representatives from Liberty Media, which owns a 27 per cent stake in Charter. The structure of a potential deal hasn‘t been determined; including which company might be the acquirer.

Liberty and Charter are also still pursuing an acquisition of Time Warner Cable, the people said. Billionaire John Malone, who controls Englewood, Colorado-based Liberty, has said he wants Charter to get bigger so it can gain leverage in negotiations with TV networks, which have sought higher prices for the use of their programming.

Cox has 4.8 million video subscribers, while Charter has 4.4 million, according to Craig Moffett, an analyst at Moffett Research LLC in New York.

Malone sees mergers as an appealing way for the cable industry to cope with the lower video profit margins that have come from higher programming costs and fewer new customers.

Malone‘s strategy isn‘t just about traditional cable. The high-speed internet connections that companies like Charter provide to US households are the key to the future of the TV industry, Malone said at the June meeting. He cited the growing viewership of streaming-video services, also known as over-the-top.

Dissolving the trust is a step toward Cox gaining flexibility to merge the cable company.

NEW DELHI: Cable is down, DBS and telcoTV is up, and more than 80 per cent of American broadcast TV signals are now high-definition, says the latest Federal Communications Commission‘s annual Video Competition Report. 

“As of the end of 2011, 1,501-82.2 per cent-of full-power stations were broadcasting in HD, up from 1,036 stations in 2010,” the report said.

Household adoption of HDTV sets also rose. As of 2012, 85.3 million (74.4 per cent) of US TV households had sets capable of displaying HD signals, up from 75.5 million (65.1 per cent) in 2011. DVR adoption rose as well, from 46.3 million households (40.4 per cent), to 50.3 million households (43.8 per cent).

However, Acting FCC chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said she was concerned because “Not all of our citizens are realising the promise of these competitive benefits. Nearly three out of 10 rural Americans do not have access to high-speed internet, sufficient to receive online video distributors‘ services, and I sincerely hope that these consumers are not forgotten.”

Reliance on over-the-air TV has remained steady at around 11.1 million households, according to the report. This figure is in agreement with one proffered by Nielsen in January, but far short of another published last month in GfK‘s Home Technology Monitor, an annual survey that found 19.3 per cent of U.S. TV households rely exclusively on over-the-air reception. 

Broadcast TV station revenue followed the political cycle-$22.22 billion in 2010; $21.31 billion in 2011; and a projected $24.7 billion for 2012, a rise in part attributed to retransmission consent fees. However, TV stations were said to make about 88 per cent of their revenues through advertising, “A slight decline from the last report.”

Prime-time ad rates for a 30-second spot in the top 100 TV markets, based on composite figures, rose from $26.76 CPM (cost per thousand households) in 2010, to $28 in 2011, and $32.08 in 2012.

Local news is said to account for 35 to 40 per cent of advertising revenues. In 2011, the average TV station aired 5.5 hours of local news per weekday, up from 5.3 hours in 2010.

Network compensation, once paid to TV station affiliates by the networks, has “All but disappeared,” the report said. Network compensation dipped from $48.2 million in 2010 to $25.1 million in 2011, according to SNL Kagan numbers cited in the report. The 2012 figure is projected at $287,000. Networks have reversed the compensation model by taking a percentage of retransmission fees from stations.

Retrans fees comprised 8.1 per cent of TV station revenues in 2011, or $1.76 billion; and 9.4 per cent or $2.36 billion in 2012.

Ancillary DTV revenues were nearly negligible. Broadcasters can use a portion of their spectrum for revenue-generating activities such as subscription video or data transfer, but they must pay the FCC five per cent of those revenues. In 2012, 81 licensees made total ancillary DTV revenue of $499,970. The peak year was 2010, when 99 licensees brought in more than $7.1 million in ancillary revenues.

Clyburn said she was “Encouraged by the pro-consumer trends it reveals,” adding “Options for accessing video programming are swelling,” she said. “Nearly all consumers now have a choice among three. MVPDs, and today, more than one-third of all households can choose from four or more providers. I note that broadcast TV remains one of the most affordable sources of entertainment and news,” she continued. “As the report shows, 11 million American [households] still rely on free, over-the-air broadcast signals as their exclusive source for TV viewing.”

While the commission has been bullish on reducing the spectrum available for TV broadcasting, it did give stations props for public service: “Since the last report, full-power television stations have continued to take advantage of digital broadcasting technology to offer improved service to the public. In addition to high-definition content, broadcasters are using multicasting to bring more programming to consumers by expanding the availability of established networks and adding new startup digital networks-including networks targeting minorities and programming targeting niche audiences-and Spanish language offerings.”

Multicast diginets include Bounce TV, which now has 154 affiliates, This TV, with 133, and Retro TV with 44 affiliates. Established networks have also benefited from multicasting. The CW is on 115 multicast channels; MyNetworkTV, on 92.

Total day audience share for the network affiliates held steady between 2011 and 2012 at 28, per cent with the total broadcast share at 33 per cent, compared to 52 per cent for ad-supported cable networks. In prime time, network affiliates held 33 per cent of the audience; all broadcast, 38 per cent; and ad-supported cable, 51 per cent.

The availability of mobile DTV grew between reports, from 60 stations in 2010 to 105 stations at the end of 2011. 

The National Association of Broadcasters said the total now stands at 130 stations in 30 states delivering 150 channels.

Despite ongoing reports of cord-cutting, the FCC found that pay TV subscriptions rose slightly between the end of 2010 to June 2012, from 100.8 million to 101 million households. Cable‘s share fell however, from 59.3 per cent to 55.7 per cent as of June 2012. Direct broadcast satellite TV providers picked up 600,000 subscribers in the time period to end June 2012 with 34 million, or 33.6 per cent of all pay U.S. pay TV subscribers.

TelcoTV grew by 1.7 million subscribers during the period, to 8.6 million, according to the report. However, it noted that the total comprised “AT&T‘s Uverse and Verizon‘s FiOS services,” but not other small telcoTV providers around the country.

Technologically, cable systems are catching up with telcoTV, which delivers only the channels being watched at a given time versus the entire package a la traditional cable. At the end of last year, more than half of the footprint of the top eight cable providers was all-digital, with 43 per cent of that portion using switched digital video delivering only those channels watched.

The average price of a basic cable subscription increased by 6.2 per cent to $20.55 between 2011 and 2012, with expanded basic up 4.8 per cent to $61.63. The basic price-per-channel was up 1.5 per cent to 63 cents, while expanded price-per-channel fell one-tenth of a penny in the 50 cent range.

The Video Competition Report divides TV distributors in to three types-broadcast, multichannel video programming distributors (cable, satellite and telco pay TV), and online video providers, or OVD. The commission cited SNL Kagan numbers indicating that the number of internet-connected TV households grew from around 26.6 million (22.8 per cent) at the end of 2011, to an estimated 41.6 million (35.4 per cent) by the end of 2012.

The commission said OVD accounted for a growing portion of internet traffic during peak hours, and noted that most major cable operators imposed bandwidth caps or metered pricing during the first half of 2012. Phone companies are said to be following suit.