ITV

Category: Technology

  • DTH Assn’s Harit Nagpal: “We can plug the shortfall in STBs in Phase II”

    DTH Assn’s Harit Nagpal: “We can plug the shortfall in STBs in Phase II”

    MUMBAI: They are being pretty direct. DTH TV operators have categorically stated that they can definitely fill the gap should there be any shortage of set top boxes in any city under phase II of the government mandated digitsation of cable TV.

    “Digitisation does not need to be postponed,” says DTH Association of India president Harit Nagpal emphatically “ We have been digitizing the TV industry for the past seven years. We have national contracts with the broadcasters, which we keep working on with them. We have adequate stocks of STBs and trained manpower to meet any demand which crops up in any city should cable TV operators not be in a position to deliver the set top boxes to their customers.”

    He is pretty confident that this can be done overnight. “At Tata Sky we have about 1.5 million set top boxes in stock,” he reveals. “I am speaking for all DTH operators: If there is a colony or a ward or a pincode which is feeling the shortage, we can rush boxes there overnight to plug the shortage.”

    Nagpal believes that media reports claiming that 50 per cent of homes in some cities are facing a TV blackout could be attributable to independent cable TV operators in these cities not clearly reporting the number of STBs they have installed. “I think it is a reporting problem,” he says. “The number of TV homes not receiving signals is much lower. Some anomalies like this are bound to occur on an exercise of this scale.”

    DTH today accounts for about 27-28 per cent of the entire pay TV base in this country with about 40 million active subscribers according to the DTH association.

    Also, according to MIB reports almost 40 per cent of the digitization that has been achieved in the 38 cities has been done by DTH players, among which figure Tata Sky, Airtel, Videocon d2H, DishTV, Sun, DDDirect, Big TV.

  • InMobi introduces App Publish Distribution platform

    InMobi introduces App Publish Distribution platform

    MUMBAI: Bangalore-based InMobi, an independent mobile ad network, has announced the launch of App Publish, an Android app store distribution platform.

    The free-to-use tool will allow Android developers to publish their apps across global app stores in just a few clicks.

    According to the company while app discovery on Google Play is a challenge for developers and users alike, alternative channels such as GetJar, Mobango, Slide Me and several third-party app stores based in China are estimated to drive billions of downloads every year.

    While these outside sources help developers reach millions of users in new markets, publishing to each app store independently presents several significant challenges like- Navigating complex international laws, various platforms‘ widely varied aesthetic and informational requirements, difficulties tracking and reporting download and install figures, the challenges of collecting revenue from smaller or international platforms in a timely manner.

    InMobi‘s App Publish platform will allow developers to avoid these and other pain points that come from deploying an Android app globally, using proven intelligent technology to reduce the cost and effort to submit to multiple app stores.

    InMobi head of product management for developer platforms Girish Prabhu said, “Paying for position and app discovery on Google Play is becoming increasingly expensive and ultra-competitive. The launch of App Publish serves to meet the mass desire from app developers to compete in multiple channels in a simple, profitable way. Early beta testers of App Publish have seen 30 per cent more downloads through these new app store channels.”

  • Measat appoints Jarod Lopez VP – Broadcast Sales

    Measat appoints Jarod Lopez VP – Broadcast Sales

    MUMBAI: Measat Satellite Systems (Measat) has appointed Jarod Lopez as Vice President – Broadcast Sales.

    In this role, Jarod leads all the broadcast distribution sales activities across the Measat and Africasat fleet of satellites. Jarod is also supporting the expansion of the Measat business into the African region.

    Prior to assuming this role, Jarod was Measat‘s Senior Director of Sales and Marketing. Jarod has been with Measat since 2006

    and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK.

  • I&B sec Varma: “DAS Phase II roll-out smooth”

    I&B sec Varma: “DAS Phase II roll-out smooth”

    NEW DELHI: India‘s historical march towards cable television digitisation has taken a giant leap forward with the government expressing satisfaction over the implementation of Digital Addressable System (DAS) that covered 38 cities and towns in phase II.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Information & Broadcasting (I&B) ministry Secretary Uday Kumar Varma said that analogue signals had been switched off in 33 of the 38 towns at the stroke of midnight of 31 March.

    A confident Varma expressed that the success of the first and second phase of digitisation has strengthened his resolve that government‘s digitisation initiative was on track to be completed before the 31 December 2014 deadline.

    Five cities in Gujarat and Karnataka have been left out since there was a stay by Gujarat and Karnataka High Courts on DAS. Overall 75 per cent of the television homes in these 38 cities have been digitised, said Varma.

    In Gujarat, digitisation in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot has reached 50 per cent with Vadodara leading the pack with 70 per cent digitisation.

    Varma also asserted that seven cities including Hyderabad, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Allahabad out of the 38 had 100 per cent digitisation, while another nine had achieved over 75 per cent.

    However, he did confess that towns like Srinagar, Vishakhapatnam and Coimbatore were slow in seeding of STBs. Around 12 million of the 16 million TV households had been digitised, he said.

    He said the Ministry was keeping a watch on the situation with regard to STBs and said his information was that there were enough STBs at present for all the 38 cities in fourteen states and one union territory.

    “It was a mammoth task and I am happy that the switch-over had been smooth, without any law and order problems,” he said in a candid conversation.

    Asked about the 48-hour cable TV blackout in Delhi, Varma brushed it aside by saying that it has been an abject failure. He, however added that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will look into the grievances of the LCOs.

  • Bigflix.com pockets Viacom18’s film catalogue

    Bigflix.com pockets Viacom18’s film catalogue

    MUMBAI: Over the top service provider Reliance Entertainment Digital’s BigFlix announced today that it has added to its catalogue of films for viewing online. The move on demand service said it has acquired internet rights to stream 55 films from Viacom18 Motion Pictures through Indiacast Media Distribution (a TV18 and Viacom18 JV).

    “Our new acquisitions include some of Viacom18 Motion Pictures top grossing releases like Jab We Met, Singh Is King and Golmaal3 ,and some which are scheduled to be released in the next 12-15 months,” says BigFlix Business Head Shreyash Sigtia.

    BigFlix has a catalogue of around 2000 titles in which Bollywood comprises of 600 titles while there are around 200 Hollywood titles. The remaining 1200 movies are regional with Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam having the major numbers. Sigtia refused to comment on latest consumption statistics on Bigflix.com. But according to its website, it has 20,000 plus active subscribers, and more than a million visitors have been served so far. According to Alexa.com users are spending an average of about 3 minutes on Bigflix.com daily.

    BigFlix allows users to watch unlimited movies online for Rs 249 per month. The user can watch 10 minutes of a movie free of cost, after which a subscription has to be purchased.

    Talking about how the deal will help BigFlix Sigtia said, “It will help us in bringing fresh titles like Oh My God, Special 26, Aiyaa and Inkaar and also movies that have higher repeat value therefore helping in increasing consumption. We expect our subscriber base to double with this acquisition.”

    BigFlix aims to have a secured screening, and claims that the content is protected on DRM. “Users can’t rip of any movie from the site and this helps us monetise more effectively,” Sigtia added.

    IndiaCast group chief executive officer Anuj Gandhi said, “There is a growing base of movie viewership on digital as more and more people are tuning in to watch films online. This association between IndiaCast and BigFlix acts as a value addition for both parties. In Bigflix, we have found the right partner that not only has a huge base of film enthusiasts but also operates in a secured, controlled and authorized environment.”

  • DAS Phase II: Karnataka HC extends hearing to 5 April, stay to continue in Bengaluru

    DAS Phase II: Karnataka HC extends hearing to 5 April, stay to continue in Bengaluru

    BENGALURU: Bengaluru will have to wait for DAS (Digital Addressable System) for another four days in the least, with the Karnataka High Court extending the interim stay till 5 April.

    Hearing a petition by Karnataka Cable TV Operators Association President V S Patrick Raju seeking postponement of the analogue switch off date for the garden city beyond 31 March as there was no clarity about set top boxes was put off by Justice Nazeer as another petition by a multi-system operator was filed today.

    The newly licensed MSO stated that he had not been given enough time to acquire STBs and install them in subscriber homes.

    Additionally, a DTH operator representative present at the hearing also stated that his company would not be able to meet the demand for STBs.

    Meanwhile, the Court also decided to hear on 5 April a case by Mysore Cable TV Operators Association which has wanted extension on digitisation deadline due to shortage of STBs.

  • DAS Phase II commences as analogue TV switched off

    DAS Phase II commences as analogue TV switched off

    NEW DELHI: The second phase of Digital Addressable System (DAS) in India marched on even as the month of March 2013 came to and end as envisioned by the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry. Analogue television signals in 36 cities all over India were clipped even as stay orders were imposed by high courts in Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.

    However, I&B Ministry sources told Indiantelevision.com that the level of digitisation achieved as on 30 March was 70 per cent in phase II towns, and admitted there was a likelihood of viewers facing blank TV screens in some places.

    The sources said that these problems primarily existed in Srinagar which has just 4,300 set top boxes (STBs) installed. The situation in Coimbatore and Vishakapatnam was more serious with almost zero STB deployment on 20 March.

    They also added that the estimates had been made based on information received from multi-system operators (MSOs) and making a provision of 20 per cent for multiple TVs in households and TVs in offices/showrooms.

    While the seeding of STBs and switch-off of analogue was being overseen by nodal officers in all the cities, the sources said teams would be dispatched to all these cities in the coming days to study the impact and ensure implementation. They insisted that there were ample digital STBs available.

    However, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in a letter to I&B Minister Manish Tewari over the weekend requested for an extension of six months in the seven cities in the state that were to switch over to digital addressable system from today: Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi.

    While the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad stayed the introduction of DAS till 9 April in Ahmedabad, the Karnataka High Court issued the stay till 1 April in Bengaluru. The Karnataka High Court will hear cases relating to both Bengaluru and Mysore on 1 April.

    Ministry sources confirmed that both High Courts had issued notices to the Union government and the I&B Ministry.

    In both case, the petitioners Cable Operators Association of Gujarat through its president Pramod Pandya andKarnataka Cable TV Operators Association president V S Patrick Raju, have said there is confusion about availability of STBs and MSOs are also helpless. Raju has also raised the issue of who owns the STB that is installed at the home of a subscriber – the customer or the LCO.

    For the second phase, the 38 specific cities and towns in fourteen states and one union territory which have been listed in the notification are – Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, Indore, Bhopal, Thane, Ludhiana, Agra, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Vadodara, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Rajkot, Meerut, Kalyan-Dombivali, Varanasi, Amritsar, Navi Mumbai, Aurangabad, Solapur, Allahabad, Jabalpur, Srinagar, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Howrah, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Mysore and Jodhpur.

    A high-level Monitoring Committee has also been set up to oversee the digitisation process in the entire country, which is expected to be achieved by the end of next year.

    In order to facilitate digitization, the Ministry has already issued provisional registration to 30 Independent MSOs to operate in Phase II cities. This would enable these MSOs to operate in their respective cities to provide digital cable TV services.

    The Ministry has set up a Task Force exclusively for Phase II cities to oversee and monitor the digitization process. A public awareness Committee has also been constituted in the Ministry for spearheading awareness campaign and all TV channels ran a scroll informing consumers about the deadline for cable TV digitization, as well as an animated commercial.

    All India Radio has also started broadcasting radio jingles on its national and regional networks to get the DAS message across. Several other initiatives like an SMS campaign, video spots and prints are on the anvil. The state governments/UTs have already nominated nodal officers in 38 cities of Phase II. The Ministry had recently conducted a workshop for them.

    Workshops have been held at some places to take stock of preparedness in Phase II cities and sensitize local MSOs, cable operators and other stakeholders.

    The Ministry had set up a Control Room during Phase I, which has continued to function to address the queries of consumers, cable operators and others. The Control Room which also has a toll free number has been receiving a number of calls from consumers of Phase II cities.

  • Mumbai Indians, Smaaash launch co-branded card for gaming

    Mumbai Indians, Smaaash launch co-branded card for gaming

    MUMBAI: Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians and gaming and experience centre `Smaaash` have launched a co-branded card called `Akkha Mumbai Khelega`.

    The Mukesh Ambani-owned team has also launched a hangout lounge called `Mumbai Indians ka Adda` for its fans at Smaaash.

    As reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the franchise has roped in Bajaj Allianz as the principal sponsor.

    As part of the new tie-up, the Akkha Mumbai Khelega card provides the fans of the team an opportunity to face Mumbai Indian bowlers virtually at the gaming centre.

  • Smart connected device market up 29% in 2012: IDC

    Smart connected device market up 29% in 2012: IDC

    MUMBAI: Worldwide shipments of smart connected devices grew by 29.1 per cent in 2012, crossing one billion units shipped with a value of $576.9 billion.

    According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Smart Connected Device Tracker, the market expansion was largely driven by 78.4 per cent year-over-year growth in tablet shipments, which surpassed 128 million in 2012.

    Looking specifically at the results for the fourth quarter of 2012, the combined shipments of desktop PCs, notebook PCs, tablets, and smartphones was nearly 378 million and revenues were more than $168 billion.

    In terms of market share, Apple significantly closed the gap with market leader Samsung in the quarter, as the combination of Apple‘s iPhone 5 and iPad Mini brought Apple up to 20.3 per cent unit shipment share versus 21.2 per cent for Samsung. On a revenue basis for the fourth quarter, Apple continued to dominate with 30.7 per cent share versus 20.4 per cent share for Samsung.

    Going forward, IDC expects that tablet shipments will surpass desktop PCs in 2013 and portable PCs in 2014. In 2013, worldwide desktop PC shipments are expected to drop by 4.3 per cent and portable PCs to maintain a flat growth of 0.9 per cent. The tablet market, on the other hand, is expected to reach a new high of 190 million shipment units with year-on-year growth of 48.7 per cent while the smartphone market is expected to grow by 27.2 per cent to 918.5 million units.

    From a regional perspective, the smart connected device volume in emerging markets grew by 41.3 per cent in 2012 with the tablet volume growing by 111.3 per cent and smartphone volume by 69.7 per cent year over- year. Mature markets, on the other hand, grew by 15.6 per cent and saw a huge plunge in the PC market in the year 2012.

    By the end of 2017, IDC predicts that the tablet and smartphone markets will have a huge growth potential in the emerging markets. During this time, tablet unit shipments are expected to increase by a factor of three with a shipment value of $125 billion dollars while smartphone unit shipments are expected to double and reach a shipment value of $462 billion dollars. Portable PCs, on the other hand, will show a moderate single-digit growth while desktop PCs are expected to consistently decline year over year with almost no growth in 2017.

    IDC‘s Worldwide Smart Connected Device Tracker research analyst Megha Saini said, “In emerging markets, consumer spending typically starts with mobile phones and, in many cases, moves to tablets before PCs. The pressure on the PC market is significantly increasing and we can see longer replacement cycles coming into effect very soon and that, too, will put downward pressure on PC sales.”

    Looking forward, IDC predicts the worldwide smart connected device space will continue to surge with shipments surpassing 2.2 billion units and revenues reaching $814.3 billion in 2017. IDC Program VP for clients and Displays Bob O‘Donnell said, “Consumers and business buyers are now starting to see smartphones, tablets, and PCs as a single continuum of connected devices separated primarily by screen size.

    “Each of these devices is primarily used for data applications and different individuals choose different sets of screen sizes in order to fit their unique needs. These kinds of developments are creating exciting new opportunities that will continue to drive the smart connected devices market forward in a positive way.”

  • Digitisation to propel pay TV revenue growth in Asia Pacific: Study

    Digitisation to propel pay TV revenue growth in Asia Pacific: Study

    MUMBAI: The cable TV digitisation in India and other Asian countries will drive pay TV revenues in Asia Pacific which are expected to reach $43.9 billion in 2018 from $33.86 billion in 2013, according to Digital TV Asia Pacific report.

    Digital cable television will comprise the largest chunk of the overall pay TV revenue pie. It is expected to grow from $12.42 billion in 2013 to $23.16 billion. Direct-to-Home (DTH) will be the second pay TV revenue contributor by 2018 with an estimated $11.6 billion in revenues, up from $8.5 billion in 2013.

    Both digital cable TV and DTH will grow even as analogue cable TV revenue will shrink from $8.9 billion currently to to $1.83 billion as cable TV digitisation gains momentum. IPTV revenues during the same period are expected to reach $7.17 billion in 2018 from $4.01 billion.

    The report also said that pay TV penetration will rise from 56 per cent in 2012 to 67 per cent in 2018, adding 154 million subscribers to take the total to 587 million.

    China will provide 313 million pay TV households by 2018, with India supplying a further 158 million. However, pay TV penetration will be higher in South Korea (95 per cent) and Hong Kong (96 per cent).

    Digital TV research‘s Simon Murray said, “Pay TV revenues will more than double in five countries Indonesia (tripling), Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam] between 2012 and 2018, but will fall in Hong Kong and South Korea.”

    The Asia Pacific region is undergoing a rapid digital TV conversion that will see penetration increase from 16 per cent in 2008 to 44 per cent in 2012 and on to 90 per cent in 2018 – or up by 440 million homes between 2012 and 2018. By end-2013, digital penetration will reach 53 per cent, or 420 million homes (up by 78 million on the end-2012 figure), says the report.

    Murray continued: “Despite the rapid conversion, digital TV will still have plenty of room for growth for some time to come. Only six of the 15 countries forecast in this report will have fully converted to digital by 2018. By then, Indonesia and the Philippines will have digital penetration of only 42 per cent and 34 per cent respectively. Indonesia will still have 29 million analog homes and India will have 31 million analog homes.”

    Of the 440 million digital homes to be added between 2012 and 2018, 128 million will come from DTT. However, the number of analog terrestrial homes will fall by 204 million. Digital cable will contribute a further 187 million additional homes, with analog cable losing 141 million. Pay DTH will supply an extra 35 million and pay IPTV 71 million more.

    The report also forecasted that pay IPTV subscribers will overtake that of pay DTH in 2016.