Category: Technology

ZengaTV bags non-exclusive rights for French Open for web in India

NEW DELHI: The mobile TV platform ZengaTV is to provide live ball by ball signals to over six million users of tennis action of French Open on their computer screens and listen to live commentary as well.

Under these rights, Zenga will also power the Live YouTube streaming of French Open. This event is licensed by Zenga Media Pvt Ltd from Seven3Sports who has licensed it from Neo Sports. However, they have taken the non-exclusive rights for French open for web in India.

Zenga TV CEO Abhishek Joshi said, “This is indeed a proud moment for all of us. This initiative adds up to the many milestones ZengaTV has achieved in a short span of time. Our constant endeavour to fulfill viewer‘s requirements has helped us to emerge as a pioneer and a market leader. At this point of time, I am delighted to announce that there are hordes of surprises in store for our viewers in the coming months.”

ZengaTV MD and CTO Shabir Momiin said, “We always keep looking for ways to bring more and more content for our users in all possible different verticals. This is one such effort which will let users enjoy live streaming of the French open on ZengaTV.com.”

June 10, 2013
Disney/ABC TV Group launches Disney Channel photo finish app for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Disney/ABC Television Group is launching the Disney Channel Photo Finish app on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Fans can now get creative and personalise their own pictures with their characters from ‘Phineas and Ferb‘, ‘Gravity Falls‘ ‘Shake It Up‘ and the Disney Channel Original Movie ‘Teen Beach Movie‘.

The app is available now for free in the App Store at http://AppStore.com/DisneyChannelPhotoFinish.

Using the photo app, fans can snap and stylise their pictures with show themed stickers, specialty frames and filters then share with family and friends. So whether fans want to dress up with Perry the Platypus‘ bill and Dippers hat, throw a beach party with the Surfers and Bikers of ‘Teen Beach Movie‘, or rock a photo shoot with Cece and Rocky, they are now only a few taps and swipes away from giving their pictures a custom Disney Channel Photo Finish.

Premium sticker packs are available for 99 cents for each show. Soon to follow updates include Starring Role functionality that allows fans to insert their faces into some show scenes and characters, as well as ‘Watch and Unlock‘ sticker packs beginning with ‘Teen Beach Movie‘. ‘Watch and Unlock‘ will allow fans to sync the app with any encore viewing of ‘Teen Beach Movie‘ to unlock free bonus sticker packs such as ‘Bikers versus Surfers‘ and ‘Sing and Dance‘.

Disney Channels Worldwide VP digital media Lauren DeVillier said, “Photo sharing is extremely popular with the Disney Channel fan base. Fans love taking photos and then applying different filters and photo finishing techniques to express their creativity. The Disney Channel Photo Finish app makes it possible for them to bring their favorite shows and characters into that experience and then share it with their friends.”

Disney/ABC Television Group adds that in the past it has unveiled multiplatform services and apps. Watch Disney Channel, Watch Disney Junior and Watch Disney XD apps make full length episodes of shows available online and on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Verified pay TV customers can access live feeds of the networks, as well as access to first looks and sneak peeks. In addition to the Watch services, other apps include the Disney Junior Appisode app, which offers true interactive viewing, allowing kids ages 2-7 to touch, tap, swipe, tilt, shake and talk their way through various activities embedded into episodes of Disney Junior shows.

June 10, 2013
BBC Worldwide launches Doctor Who online store in Australia

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC‘s commercial arm BBC Worldwide has announced the arrival of its first dedicated Doctor Who e-commerce site in Australia with free delivery.

Fans who want to mark the show‘s 50th anniversary with a keepsake or a gift can now get direct access to the latest and most popular products at the official BBC Worldwide Australia website.

Over 400 clothing, merchandise, toys and DVD products from the world‘s longest running sci-fi series will be available to purchase.

Other features of the site include: the ability to search products by Doctor as well as by price bracket; recommendations based on browsing; and the opportunity to sign up to a Doctor Who newsletter.

A special Time Lord Express service is also offered for fans who can‘t wait to get their hands on their Doctor Who goodies.

The e-commerce site follows the launch of the Doctor Who pop-up shop in Newtown, Sydney, which proved immensely popular, with fans lining up for over three hours for the opening day. The shop has been so successful that it closed after 25 days, due to so much of the product selling out. Now fans can find many of these products on the new online store.

BBC Worldwide ANZ manager licensed consumer products Elie Mansour said, “The Doctor Who pop-up shop reinforced just how passionate our fans are and we‘re thrilled to be able to offer them the convenience of a dedicated Doctor Who e-commerce site, which will allow us to connect directly with our consumers.”

BBC Worldwide ANZ has partnered with C8 Group for the fulfillment operations, customer service and, in collaboration with C8 Digital, designed and built the e-commerce website.

C8 group director Laurie Macolino said, “We‘re excited to be partnering with the BBC to launch their first dedicated e-commerce website for Doctor Who. Offering free delivery to customers in Australia and the quickest delivery service we can, orders will be dispatched on the same day if placed before 1pm and customers have the option of upgrading to a Time Lord Express service.”

June 10, 2013
Tivo gets $490 mn from settlement of patent litigation

MUMBAI: Tivo which develops digital video recorders in the US has settled its pending patent litigation with Motorola (now owned by Google and Arris), Cisco and Time Warner Cable. This way the parties have avoided going to trial.

Tivo has agreed to enter into certain patent licensing arrangements with Arris, Cisco, and Google. As part of the settlement, Google and Cisco will pay Tivo an upfront lump-sum payment of $490 million, bringing the total from awards and settlements related to the use of certain Tivo intellectual property to roughly $1.6 billion.

In February 2011, Motorola had accused Tivo of infringing on its patents for digital video recorders. Tivo then filed a counter-suit in March 2012.

Tivo CEO and president Tom Rogers said, “We are pleased to reach an agreement that brings our pending litigation to an end and further underscores the significant value our distribution partners derive from TiVo‘s technological innovations and our shareholders derive from our investments in protecting TiVo‘s intellectual property.”

“Further, this settlement significantly enhances our already strong balance sheet, bringing our cash position to over $1 billion before inclusion of future expected payments of at least $400 million from prior settlements. We intend to use our significant capital resources to drive shareholder value, including more aggressively returning capital to shareholders under our newly increased share repurchase authorisation and we will be increasing the size of our 10B5-1 trading plan as soon as permissible,” he added.

“Importantly, we just recently closed one of our best quarters ever in terms of subscription growth, driven by a number of our existing operator deals in the US and abroad that are now fully up and running. As a result, we delivered our highest gross margin ever and solid MSO revenue growth of 98 per cent year-over-year, and we expect this MSO revenue growth will continue as we roll out additional deployments. So, as we look out beyond today‘s important settlement we believe our core operating business will continue to drive growth to both the top and bottom line.”

As part of the settlement, TiVo and Motorola, Cisco, and Time Warner Cable agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies. Tivo will recognise a portion of the payment as past damages during the second quarter and the remainder over time. The company intends to provide additional details regarding the timing of revenue recognition in its second quarter fiscal year 2014 earnings report. Further, as a result of this settlement, TiVo expects net income and Adjusted EBITDA to benefit from lower litigation spend in the remainder of its fiscal year ending 31 January 2014 and beyond.

June 10, 2013
Nick launches mobile game for ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ on iOS

MUMBAI: US kids broadcaster Nickelodeon has launched a new city building app, SpongeBob Moves In. Available worldwide, SpongeBob Moves In features a 2D design and aims to give fans a new way to interact with the animated series ‘SpongeBob Squarepants‘.

In the game built for iOS, players build Bikini Bottom to their own tastes and are tasked with keeping the city‘s residents happy by making all their wishes come true. As players advance in the game, they can unlock exclusive-to-the-app, untold stories about how their characters, including SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, Squidward and Sandy, first arrived in the town. Written by the SpongeBob SquarePants series writing staff, these stories are told through new animated short videos unlocked throughout the game.

Nickelodeon group executive VP and GM digital Steve Youngwood said, “Millions of fans around the world experience the fun and magic of SpongeBob on television every day, and now they can live out their very own Bikini Bottom adventures with SpongeBob Moves In whenever and wherever they want”.

SpongeBob Moves In is available worldwide in eight languages: English, Spanish (Latam), Spanish (Spain), German, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Italian.

June 10, 2013
ICC Champions Trophy digital, social media campaigns launched

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has unveiled a new range of digital and social media activations for the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2013 taking place in England and Wales.

ICC‘s recently launched YouTube channel www.youtube.com/cricketicc will give fans a ringside view of the on and off field proceedings at the event, with ‘Champions Trophy Daily‘ showcasing exclusive player interviews and behind-the-scenes content.

Using the official event Twitter hashtag, #ct13, as well as official match and team hashtags, fans will be encouraged through the global broadcast feed, produced by STAR Sports for the ICC, to share their thoughts on the action and make this one of the most talked about cricket events.

Fans will also get a chance to become a part of the event through the #LiveEveryBall activation that encourages them to upload photos from the event via Twitter or Instagram and become part of the #LiveEveryBall hub at www.icc-cricket.com/liveeveryball

On Facebook, www.facebook.com/cricketicc, over two million fans will get access to exclusive in-depth infographics as well as a photo gallery from each match. Fans can follow all the action on Twitter with @cricketicc, which is followed by over 730,000 followers across the globe, and go behind-the-scenes with ICC‘s newly launched Instagram account www.instagram.com/cricketicc.

Score updates will also be available for all matches via Twitter from @ICC_live, which will provide regular updates from all matches. Fans will also get a chance to win tickets for blockbuster matches at the event via regular competitions on @cricketicc.

Other activations on the official event website, available at www.icc-cricket.com, include ‘Hot or Not‘, which offers fans a chance to view and vote on their top ODI moment, and an interactive match centre with the fastest live scores, video scorecards, Hawk-Eye graphics and an array of other exciting features.

June 8, 2013
Indians among top operators providing broadband in 2012

NEW DELHI: China, India and the US accounted for 50 or nearly half of the 106 top operators, with 27 entities based in China and 12 in India.

Media and communications analysis specialist SNL Kagan has compiled a database of 106 major operators serving no fewer than two million video subscribers or one million fixed-line broadband subscribers at year-end 2012 to facilitate a global comparison of the world‘s largest video and broadband providers.

The United States came third with 11 operators, followed by France, Germany, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico, each with five.

American cable giant Comcast Corp remained the world‘s largest pay TV provider as of year-end 2012 with 22 million video subscribers, while Chinese telco incumbent China Telecom was the top fixed broadband provider, reaching 90.1 million high-speed internet customers.

On a regional level, China‘s ongoing cable consolidation and India‘s continued DTH surge have produced many top pay-TV operators in the Asia Pacific region with gigantic subscriber bases.

At end-2012, the top 10 Asia Pacific operators each served more than 10 million video subscribers and still are on track for further growth.

Strong DTH uptake has also taken place in Latin America, where top providers SKY Brasil, Sky Mexico and America Movil‘s Claro made the most aggressive subscriber net additions in 2012 in the region. In the advanced territories of North America and Western Europe, telecom providers are outpacing incumbent cable operators in terms of subscriber growth, with IPTV services from AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc, France Telecom Group and Deutsche Telekom AG registering the most net additions, while cable giants such as Comcast Corp, Rogers Cable Inc, Kabel Deutschland GmbH and Numericable SAS continued to suffer subscriber loss.

June 8, 2013
Shemaroo signs a deal with Jadoo TV

MUMBAI: Pearl Media Group Ltd (PMG) has closed an international distribution deal for Bollywood films with Shemaroo Entertainment Limited – one of the largest content houses of India.

Shemaroo is known for its strength in content aggregation and distribution in the industry across multiple platforms including new media and broadcast television among others.

PMG content acquisition and distribution, co-founder & VP Sumit Ahuja said, “We‘re excited about partnering with established distribution brand names like Shemaroo who have been leaders in bringing content to the digital space. Access to their large array of high quality content, allows us to offer our customers the best selection of Bollywood films in the market.”

“Consumers today want on-demand access to content across multiple devices. Our tie up with PMG‘s leading edge OTT platform JadooPLUS is a step in that direction. We will offer JadooPLUS customers easy and legal access to high quality south Asian content across the globe. Consumers can choose from a wide array of films that range from the latest Bollywood hits like Dirty Picture, Kya Superkool Hain Hum and I M 24 to classics like Mughal-E-Azam, Khuda Gawah, Kaalia and Shiva” said Shemaroo Entertainment director Jai Maroo.

Through this deal, Shemaroo‘s content will be offered on PMG‘s premium OTT entertainment service, JadooPLUS. The service consists of live TV and on-demand content offerings, targeting south Asian expatriates worldwide via connected devices such as smart TVs, PCs and Macs, tablets, set-top boxes, gaming consoles and mobile devices.

June 8, 2013
ICC launches app for Champions Trophy

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the update and re-release of its official ICC Cricket App, in partnership with Reliance Communications.

The smart phone app, which will enable cricket fans from across the globe to follow all the action at the ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales, is free to download.

Among the features expected to be the most popular are the video match highlights, including opt in alerts for wickets and personal milestones, along with live audio commentary. There will also be free behind the scenes exclusive videos from the event, player interviews and footage from every post-match press conference.

Cricket fans will also be able to use the app to vote in live polls during matches and throughout the duration of the tournament, the questions and results of these polls will be broadcast live on the global television broadcast.

The official ICC Cricket App also includes exclusive access to the innovative Hawkeye technology for all ICC Champions Trophy 2013 matches, allowing fans to analyse many aspects of the players and team performances.

The user will also have access to the live match centre on game day, which includes ball by ball text commentary and all statistical tournament information.ICC GM “ commercial Campbell Jamieson said, “We believe that the official ICC Cricket App will provide yet another invaluable platform to engage our fans at the ICC Champions Trophy 2013.”

“By giving them an opportunity to have their say on the cricket they are watching, through the Pulse polls, or by providing notifications when a new piece of video content is available, we are offering an experience that all fans can enjoy, wherever they are in the world,” he added.

The ICC Champions Trophy 2013 smartphone app was developed and produced through a partnership between the ICC, IMG Media and Moshen, a digital media and entertainment company based in Lancaster, England.

The ICC Cricket App is available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows smartphones from the official App Stores and along with a Feature Phone Nokia App.

June 7, 2013
Govt launches SMS campaign to sensitise people to fill consumer application forms for DAS

NEW DELHI: With the pace of consumers entering into agreements with local cable operators (LCOs) moving at a snail‘s pace, the government has decided to launch an SMS campaign in order to sensitise Cable TV subscribers in Phase-I and Phase-II cities about the need to fill the consumer application form (CAF).

The consumers are required to fill the CAF in order to exercise their choice of channels and make the payment for the channels of their choice only.

The Information and Broadcasting ministry has been monitoring the availability of set top boxes (STBs) with the multi system operators (MSOs). Broadcasters are already running scrolls on TV channels to inform the public about the importance of filling CAF forms. MSOs are also giving messages on their local TV channels. Analogue signals have already been switched off by almost all the MSOs and digital signals are generally being encrypted.

As part of the process, over 80 fresh provisional registrations were issued to MSOs for operation in one or more cities of Phase-II, with the condition that they would operationalise their digital head-end before the cut-off date.

After technical inspection of all the concerned MSOs which showed some had not operationalised their set ups, the ministry issues 48 show cause notices, and cancelled the provisional registration of 15 defaulting MSOs.

The ministry has been consistently monitoring the progress made towards digitization during Phase II of the process. According to the data received from the MSOs and direct-to-home Operators, 22 cities have already achieved 100 per cent target of digitisation. Another 14 cities have shown considerable progress and the achievement remains less than 50 per cent only in Coimbatore and Vishakhapatanam.

June 7, 2013