ITV

Category: Technology

  • Govt Appstore launched to bring in efficiency in e-functioning

    Govt Appstore launched to bring in efficiency in e-functioning

    NEW DELHI: The government has launched the pilot e-Gov application store to will bring functional efficiencies in the government and enable citizen to receive services in a more streamlined manner.

    This e-Gov Appstore has been designed, developed and hosted by the Department of Information Technology through the National Informatics Centre.

    Launching the Appstore, Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said the App Store governance aims to reduce uncertainty and improve transparency.

    The e-Gov Appstore aims to be a National level common repository of productised applications, components and web services that can be used by various of government agencies/departments at Centre and in the States. This will enable acceleration of delivery of e-services as envisaged under NeGP and optimise the ICT spending of the government.

    Core and common applications that have high demand and are replicable across the central and state levels would be available on the e-Gov Appstore, which shall be hosted on the National Cloud.

    Currently 20 Applications, 8 Components and 1 Web Services are hosted. These applications are sourced from 8 distinct States/UTs and provide a gamut of G2C/G2B services. Going ahead, the applications will be productized and made available on the e-Gov Appstore for use

    The present version of the e-Gov Appstore has the following features: (1) Sharing of applications (2) Search for applications (3) Provides basic information about an application on selection (4) Allows users to provide feedback and rate an application (5) Has two level approval process for contributing applications (6) Allows authenticated users to download application for consumption

    This e-Gov Appstore will be augmented to include applications and components developed by various departments and agencies at Centre and States and by private players; and a complete eco-system will be established (including mechanism for funding, charge back, contract management, SLAs) and will become a part of the GI Cloud initiative under government of India.

  • Roku receives $60 mn investment from institutional investor

    Roku receives $60 mn investment from institutional investor

    MUMBAI: California headquartered Roku, which creates streaming software platform for delivering video, music and casual games to the TV has announced that it has received a $60 million investment that readies the company for growth around its streaming software and services businesses. Led by institutional investors, the investment includes participation from large global media and television distribution companies.

    Two new Roku investors participated in the Series F round-the institutional investor and Hearst. They join prior Roku investors, including BSkyB and News Corp in the Series F round.

    The new investment will fuel Roku‘s growth which has accelerated in the last year. Best known for its lineup of streaming players, including the new Roku 3 which has quickly become the new streaming standard in the US, the company is extending its streaming platform by working with other consumer electronics brands. Today, Roku is working with two dozen OEMs who are making more than 3.5 million Roku Ready® devices, predominantly TVs that will be in retail by the end of the year. Roku Ready devices access the Roku streaming platform through the Roku Streaming Stick™, a small USB-sized device sold by Roku. In the coming months, Roku will continue to expand access points to its streaming platform.

    Hearst Ventures senior MD Ken Bronfin said, “Roku has built a strong brand that is widely recognised for great technology and a broad selection of high-quality content. We are truly impressed that Roku has built such a unique position in the market and we look forward to working with them to develop innovative products and services for our television audiences.”

    As well as expanding distribution for its platform, Roku continues to provide streaming entertainment made for the TV experience. Last year Roku had streamed more than one billion hours of video and music.

    Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said, “Roku has a significant portfolio of investment and strategic partners with very successful global businesses. Their recognition of our brand success and belief in the Roku platform is a tremendous endorsement of our potential to shape the future television experience.”

    “BSkyB and News Corporation are exceptional partners and we look forward to deepening our relationship with Hearst in the months to come,” he added.

  • Johannes Larcher departs Hulu

    Johannes Larcher departs Hulu

    MUMBAI: US Video on Demand (Vod) service Hulu‘s senior VP of international, Johannes Larcher, has stepped down.

    His departure comes ahead of reports that the company will be sold. There are seven companies chasing it including Yahoo!.

    Larcher joined Hulu in 2009 and two years later oversaw the site‘s move into the Japanese market. This is its only foreign launch so far.

    Larcher led the company‘s expansion to Japan two years back and was tasked with launching the service in other territories.

  • Star extends marketing campaign for Champions Trophy to the digital realm

    Star extends marketing campaign for Champions Trophy to the digital realm

    MUMBAI: Star Sports has launched a digital campaign to engage cricket fans on-line for the on-going ICC Champions Trophy 2013. An extension of the main marketing campaign, this digital initiative is built around the main promotional theme – ‘Zor Lagao, Champions Banao‘. The channel has launched a microsite http://cheercam.starsports.com inviting people to show support for their favourite team and wish them all the best for ICC Champions Trophy 2013. Select cheers or entries with most views or shares online will be aired on-air during the pre/post programming show ‘Cricket Live‘.

    Cricket aficionados can cheer for their favourite team using the CheerCam application which allows them to express their feelings in as expressive a way as possible. The more different one‘s cheer is, the more traction he or she will generate in the digital universe. The CheerCam application aggregates cheers across different social platforms like Facebook Posts, Likes, Shares, Tweets etc.

    Users can also share their cheers on their individual Facebook walls, invite their friends to participate and also tweet about it. The campaign will have extensions of the “Zor Lagao” theme on the Facebook page – www.facebook.com/starsportsindia, where fans can go and record/upload/share/write their cheers for their country. On Twitter, fans can cheer for their teams using the twitter hash-tag #ZorLagao.

    ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput said, “The campaign is based on the powerful insight that there is a symbiotic relationship between a spectator/fan & a player and that the spectator is as much part of the game as the player. The idea here is to inspire fans to support their favourite team who further gain strength when millions of fans express their support in the most vociferous way. We believe that fans should do their part – “Zor Lagao” and fervently hope that their favourite team comes back victorious from the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 – “Champions Banao.”

    This campaign will have on-air support on the entire Star network. As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com Star Cricket and Star Cricket HD will showcase all the 15 matches of the event with English commentary while STAR Sports 2 will showcase all matches with Hindi commentary. Besides, the sports broadcaster will also showcase four of the six kick-off matches live before the start of the main tournament. India takes on Sri Lanka on 1 June while India Australia kick-off match is scheduled for 4 June.

  • Samsung supposedly working on CableCard video set top box

    Samsung supposedly working on CableCard video set top box

    MUMBAI: Samsung is planning to bring to the market a new Smart Media Player set top box with a CableCard slot for traditional subscription video services and a broadband connection for over-the-top (OTT) streaming video services, according to a recent filing with the FCC.

    The device is slated for a summer release, though no other launch details have been confirmed since the filing still has to meet FCC approval.

    TiVo already makes a DVR set top box with CableCard that covers both traditional TV and OTT video, and actually requested the same allowance from the FCC previously, but the governing body has yet to make a ruling.

    The FCC stipulated new rules in December 2012 that allows cable operators to add basic tiers to their all-digital systems. Samsung‘s proposed media player would apparently include a QAM digital tuner, but not an analog one. The company cites fall in demand now that cable operators are almost fully digital as its reason. Adding analog tuners to conform to the FCC rules would make the device more expensive because of power requirements and other factors.

    Samsung hopes the FCC can expedite the waiver to enable the company to launch the box this summer. Since TiVo also petitioned for a similar change, it might give the regulatory body the chance to broaden the scope of the waiver so as to cover CableCard-enabled devices in one fell swoop.

    Eager to get the device to market, Samsung issued a statement: “If Samsung cannot provide Smart Media Players to retailers by the end of the summer, it risks losing the opportunity to obtain any shelf space in 2013, including during the all-important holiday season. This would delay consumer access to the Smart Media Player until early in 2014, an unnecessary wait that would be unfair to consumers and serve no purpose.”

  • RBNL’s Big Magic inks distribution deal with Airtel Digital TV

    RBNL’s Big Magic inks distribution deal with Airtel Digital TV

    MUMBAI: It‘s worked its magic. Big Magic, the general entertainment channel (GEC) for the core Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Bihar and Jharkhand – from the stable of Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) has signed a distribution deal with Airtel Digital TV, the DTH service arm of the leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel.

    Airtel Digital has 375 channels and services including 17 HD channels and six interactive services. With this strategic agreement, Big Magic will now have access to the 8.1 million customer base that Airtel boasts of (as on March 2013).

    RBNL‘s carriage deal with Airtel for Big Magic, makes it the second Indian DTH operator to carry the channel, apart from Reliance Digtial TV.  Viewers can now tune into Big Magic on their Airtel Digital TV on channel no 631 from today. The channel airs a mix of  locally relevant entertainment, including drama, crime, socio-mytho, game shows and talent shows.

    Says  RBNL CEO Tarun Katyal: �As a broadcaster, we’d like to reach maximum audience and we are glad to be associated with Airtel.�

    Adds a media observer: “The deal is significant as Airtel has a sizable subscriber base in the markets that Big Magic is targeting. The expectation obviously is that the extra audience will lead to extra advertising revenues.”

  • CIPL launches EduCard a pioneer in online education

    CIPL launches EduCard a pioneer in online education

    MUMBAI: CIPL has launched EduCard, a breakthrough in the field of education and will be perceived as a benchmark in online education.

    EduCard acts as a one stop solution to eradicate the general problems associated with online education, like buffering, low internet speed, learning while travelling, high costs etc.

    It‘s a data card which doesn‘t need any internet connection and can be plugged into your computer or laptop and the courses can be studied with video and audio interface activated, which makes it difficult to steal it, as it will be customised to work only in a particular computer.

    The basic problem in India is slow speed internet, but EduCard will still enable the user to access data offline and they can be viewed directly at lightening fast speed.

    CIPL CEO Diwakar Dhyani says: “Even when you buy subscription from an education portal you still need to pay every month for the internet, which might cost you around Rs 1,000 per month, so the effective cost comes out to be Rs 12,000 a year but with EduCard you just need to purchase it once with no further additional cost.”

  • Hathway Cable generates profits courtesy digitisation in FY-2013

    Hathway Cable generates profits courtesy digitisation in FY-2013

    MUMBAI: It‘s obviously bearing the fruits of the government mandated digitisation of Indian cable TV and of being among the first movers in the sector. Hathway Cable & Datacom, which proudly claims that it is India‘s largest high speed cable broadband services provider on its website, has seen a remarkable turnaround in profits in Q4-2013 and in FY2013. It had posted net losses in the previous quarters. The results were posted after market hours this evening.

    With 1.4 million two-way broadband enabled homes together with a subscriber base over 50 per cent of the total Indian cable TV broadband market, it was awarded as the best Indian MSO by indiantelevision.com‘s The Indian Telly Awards for its quality cable TV and broadband internet services earlier this month.

    Let us look at the Q4-2013 financials as against Q4-2012

    The cable TV services provider notched up total sales of Rs 231.18 crore in Q4-2013 as against Rs 135.46 crore in Q4-2012 – a phenomenal 70.6 per cent jump.

    Expenses at Rs 186.88 crore in Q4-2013 grew when compared to Rs 139.30 crore in Q4-2012. Greater transparency in its operations, following phase 1 of digitisation, has resulted in it forking out more money to pay TV channels. Its pay TV channel costs have gone up to Rs 49.50 crore from Rs 38.79 crore in Q4-2012. Employee benefits have climbed to Rs 10.52 crore (Rs 7.68 crore).

    What grabs our attention the most is the company‘s positive bottomline which is at Rs 28.27 crore as against a reported net loss of Rs 6.79 crore in Q4-2012.

    Let us look at the Q4-2013 financials as against the preceding Q3-2013

    Considering the quarterly trend, the top line (revenue) at Rs 231.18 crore witnessed a massive jump of nearly 50 per cent over Q3-2013‘s revenue of Rs 154.91 crore.

    Expenses have surged to Rs 186.88 crore in Q4-2013 as against Rs 147.57 crore in the immediate preceding Q3-2013. Major contributors to this surge are attributed to pay channels costs which stood at Rs 49.50 crore (Rs 42.96 crore in Q3-2013).

    Yet again Hathway‘s net profit of Rs 28.27 crore, as against a net loss of Rs 7.42 crore in Q3-2013 remains the most welcome of them all.

    Let us look at the consolidated FY-2013 results as against FY-2012

    Although it recorded net losses for three of the four quarters in FY-2013, Hathway Cable & Datacom has reported impressive overall results. Its revenues rose 12 per cent to Rs 1132.52 crore as against Rs 1012.12 crore in FY-2012. It tightened the screws on expenses allowing these to rise only 3.6 per cent to Rs 1024.74 crore (from Rs 988.74 crore in FY-2012).

    Its profits from operations gallopped to Rs 107.78 crore in FY-2013 as against Rs 23.38 crore. And what‘s more it has reported a smiling net profit of Rs 15.90 crore as against a loss of Rs 49.18 crore in FY-2012.

    The company appears to have been leveraging itself to fund digitisation in phase I as its borrowings have skyrocketed. Its long term borrowings have more than doubled to Rs 669.08 crore in FY-2013 from Rs 269.95 crore in FY-2012. It has resorted to higher short term debt during the year too, with the figure standing at Rs 76.18 crore on 31 March 2013 as against FY-2012 Rs 21.28 crore. Its current liabilities have also doubled from Rs 310 crore in FY-2012 to Rs 617.68 crore in FY-2013.

    The company says that, in view of introduction of DAS, it along with other MSOs, is in the process of finalising fresh terms of revenue sharing with local cable operators through whom the cable services are rendered to the ultimate subscriber.

    On August 2012, the Hathway stock was trading at Rs 173.12. It then moved up to Rs 300 in a matter of four months in December 2012. Following that the stock has been range-bounding between Rs 236 and Rs 276. It broke out to Rs 290 on 14 May 2013 only to fall back to Rs 269 on 23 May 2013. The Hathway stock closed today at Rs 275.05 as against the previous closing of Rs 273.10.
  • Nilesh Pathak is Isobar India CTO

    Nilesh Pathak is Isobar India CTO

    MUMBAI: Digital agency Isobar India which is part of the Aegis Media India group has appointed Nilesh Pathak as its chief technology officer, in keeping with its technology thrust.

    Now the agency will also endeavour to become India‘s fastest growing tech agency, servicing both global and national clients from India.

    He is a technology leader with over 16 years of experience building high quality enterprise software for various domains using wide range of methodologies and technologies. He comes to Isobar India, from JP Morgan (India). At JP Morgan as VP, his responsibilities included providing technology leadership to its Treasury Services platforms. During this time he managed technology deliveries of large scale enterprise applications while growing technology quotient of the teams in India.

    Prior to JP Morgan, Nilesh had been one of the co-founders of Vizualize Technologies (now LBi India). He was one of the key players in growing Visualize Technologies from a single digit team to over 100.

    Isobar India MD Shamsuddin Jasani said, “Nilesh is joining us at a very exciting time in Isobar. Technology will play a key role in our goal to become the most sought after digital agency and nilesh will play a key role as a member of our senior management team to make this happen.”

    Pathak said, “I am very thrilled to be part of one of the fastest growing digital agency and look forward to take Isobar India to next level. With digital marketing spends on the rise this is perfect timing for Isobar India to be further reinforcing its technical expertise and delivery capabilities.”

  • BuzzFeed, CNN to launch a news video channel for millennials

    BuzzFeed, CNN to launch a news video channel for millennials

    MUMBAI: BuzzFeed has announced plans to invest in and expand its video operations and build a social video studio, designed to create news and entertainment video content exclusively for YouTube. Led by BuzzFeed executive VP of video Ze Frank, the video team will apply the same types of strategies that have made BuzzFeed a hub for some of the internet‘s most viral content to create shareable video content for a video-driven generation.

    BuzzFeed president and COO Jon Steinberg said, “There has been a massive cultural shift in how people – particularly young people – consume news and entertainment and Ze and his team are tapping into the next generation of video production and consumption.

    “Over 70 per cent of BuzzFeed‘s traffic is social, almost half is mobile, and we are seeing these huge shifts earlier than others because the majority of our readers are 18-34. We are thrilled to partner with YouTube to bring a new generation of video content to a BuzzFeed audience that lives on social media and mobile phones”.

    YouTube director, global head of news content partnerships Jed Simmons said, “BuzzFeed has built a remarkably engaged audience and their YouTube channels are a testament to their understanding of news and entertainment. They have a very special way of telling a story.

    “BuzzFeed‘s decision to double down on their YouTube channels is incredibly exciting and we look forward to continuing to work together and helping them grown.”

    As part of its expansion initiative, BuzzFeed has partnered with CNN to launch the ‘CNN BuzzFeed‘ channel on YouTube. Powered by CNN‘s current and archival video footage, BuzzFeed will create unique mash-up news videos tailored for the social web. The content will appear on both CNN.com and the CNN/BuzzFeed YouTube channel. In addition, the two organisations will collaborate on original list posts that combine the strength of CNN‘s newsgathering and BuzzFeed‘s signature voice. The lists will be published to CNN.com starting today.

    CNN Digital senior VP KC Estenson said, “By pairing the journalistic strength and reach of the CNN brand with BuzzFeed‘s unique editorial approach and young audience, our partnership will enable both organisations to engage new audiences. It‘s the perfect modern day media collaboration.”

    BuzzFeed executive VP of video Ze Frank said, “From web video‘s infancy to a massive shift to mobile video viewing, the community and ecosystem of YouTube is at the heart of the social web. BuzzFeed‘s massive audience is hungry for new, interesting video formats, YouTube gets that better than anyone and we‘re elated to be working with them. CNN.com is one of the biggest, strongest news sites in the world. We are thrilled to work with their talented team and to tap into their incredible archive of footage as we try to crack original news video for the social web.”