ITV

Category: Technology

  • Netflix teams up with DreamWorks for original Kids series

    Netflix teams up with DreamWorks for original Kids series

    MUMBAI: Online content platform Netflix has partnered DreamWorks Animation to create the first ever Netflix Original Series for kids based on the highly-anticipated DreamWorks Animation movie Turbo.

    The Netflix series titled Turbo: F.A.S.T. (Fast Action Stunt Team) debuts exclusively this December in the United States and across the globe in the 40 countries where Netflix offers its service.

    “Families love Netflix, so creating an original series for kids was a natural for us. And we‘re doing it in a big way by adapting Turbo, this year‘s DreamWorks Animation summer tent pole movie,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos.

    “DreamWorks Animation has a long track record of creating incredibly successful characters and stories that delight people of all ages. We‘re thrilled to add Turbo the series as well as all new DreamWorks Animation films, starting with their 2013 slate, to Netflix.”
    “Netflix boasts one of the largest and fastest-growing audiences in kid’s television. They pioneered a new model for TV dramas with House of Cards, and now together, we‘re doing the same thing with kids‘ programming,” said DreamWorks Animation‘s CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

    DreamWorks Animation‘s Turbo is a high velocity 3D comedy about an ordinary snail who dares to dream big – and fast. After a freak accident miraculously gives him the power of super-speed, Turbo kicks his dreaming into overdrive and embarks on an extraordinary journey to achieve the seemingly impossible: competing in the Indianapolis 500.

    The film, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader , Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez , Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Lion and Samuel L. Jackson, comes to theaters on 19 July.

    Turbo‘s pursuit of racing greatness continues in Turbo: F.A.S.T.: an episodic animated television series that picks up where the feature film leaves off. It showcases the world-traveling exploits of our snail hero and his tricked-out racing crew as they master outrageous new stunts and challenges any villain unlucky enough to cross their path.

    In addition to the original TV series Turbo: F.A.S.T., new DreamWorks Animation feature titles will be made available for Netflix members in the U.S. to watch beginning with the studio‘s 2013 film line-up.

  • Generation C powers YouTube’s growth in India

    Generation C powers YouTube’s growth in India

    MUMBAI: Search engine giant Google has released new insights into India’s audiences on YouTube that reveal major opportunities for brand advertisers. More than 70 per cent of YouTube’s viewers in India are under the age of 35, while 72 per cent have a college degree or higher, according to an online survey by Google of more than 2000 Indians.

    The research paints a picture of a new type of consumer Google terms Generation C: a young, tech-savvy group of trendsetters who define what’s popular in content and culture. This group thrives on 4Cs, each of which represents an opportunity for brands to reach and engage Gen C on YouTube.

    Creation: YouTube users are deeply engaged with online video, spending hours watching, creating and uploading video on YouTube and creating opportunities for advertisers to engage with this prized demographic in the process.

    Three quarters of Indian web users say YouTube is their first stop when looking for videos online. The same proportion claims it’s one of their favourite websites. The research also revealed that one in five Indian YouTube users creates video content on a daily basis.

    Community: India’s Generation C constitutes an active online community, swapping videos with friends via email and social networks. More than half of Indian YouTube users share videos on social networks, and the same proportion also shares videos from YouTube over email.

    But that’s not the end of the story: About three quarters of Indian YouTube users go on to visit the site mentioned in a YouTube video and a whopping 3 in 5, posted a comment about the video, while 7 in 10 scroll down to read comments others have written.

    Curation: India’s Gen C cares about finding videos that matters to them, using subscriptions help manage their interests and content preferences–including branded content.

    Connection: Gen C switches between devices 27 times a day, and Indian users watch nearly 30 per cent of their YouTube videos on mobile. Smartphone owners spend one quarter of their YouTube time on mobile, while tablet owners spend about 20 per cent.

    YouTube Vice President of Marketing Danielle Tiedt said, “If brands create videos that Gen C loves to share, they will. If you create communities around your brand, Gen C will join and participate.” And with 2 in 3 Indian users visiting websites mentioned in the videos they watch directly, that’s a major opportunity.”

    Google predicts that as smartphone penetration continues to rise in India, so will the opportunities for brands to personally reach Gen C. That’s good news for advertisers, because greater connectivity across multiple screens create more opportunities for brands to communicate with this crucial audience.

  • Kids spent more than $1.5 bn on digital gaming across 7 key markets

    Kids spent more than $1.5 bn on digital gaming across 7 key markets

    MUMBAI: Children are increasingly important drivers of digital gaming consumption. In the first half of 2012, kids in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, South Korea, and Japan spent more than $750 million on different digital gaming activities, including downloading mobile gaming apps, purchasing virtual items in free-to-play computer and mobile games, subscribing to premium memberships, and acquiring digital games and DLC content for console and portable game devices.

    With growth accelerating, this will translate into over $1.5 billion for the year in these markets, according to GameByte, a syndicated global research product from Interpret which studies digital gamers ages 6-64 in ten global markets, including high-growth emerging markets China, Brazil, and Russia.

    “Among the 112 million kids in these markets, 86 million have adopted at least one form of digital gaming and the majority of them have spent money on their hobby. Despite the impressive aggregate numbers, an average kid in the aforementioned seven countries only spent $25 on digital games in a six month time frame, disproportionate to the amount of time they spent on such content, suggesting a significant monetisation opportunity,” said Interpret VP of Research Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai.
    Mobile games, already accounting for one third of digital gaming revenue, are important growth drivers given the rapidly increasing penetration of smartphones and tablets globally. “In addition to apps and in-game items, smart toys that combine physical toys, virtual gaming worlds, and mobile devices, such as Skylanders Lost Islands from Activision, Mattel’s Apptivity, and Infinity Project from Disney, will propel the industry forward. Let’s also not forget about the huge market in China, where close to one half of these young digital gamers reside,” commented Cai.

    GameByte is a research product designed to understand cross-platform digital gaming adoption and behaviour across global markets.

    It includes market and revenue sizing, as well as attitude and behaviour data for digital gaming business models including downloadable game apps and in-app purchases, subscription MMOs, freemium online games, downloadable content (DLC) on consoles, casual games, and social games. Kids 6-12 and teens/adults 13+ are included in the sample, and countries covered include US, UK, France, Germany, China, Japan, Brazil, Australia, South Korea and Russia. GameByte is available as a subscription, or you can purchase custom data or reports.

  • Hungama, Gameshastra form JV to launch games for Indian market

    Hungama, Gameshastra form JV to launch games for Indian market

    MUMBAI: Hungama Digital Media Entertainment (Hungama), India‘s leading digital entertainment company, has formed a joint venture with Gameshastra, India‘s largest game studio, to create multi-platform games for the Indian market.

    The new alliance brings together Hungama‘s strengths in digital entertainment, with expertise in the area of mobile and online gaming and Gameshastra‘s expertise in game development to deliver localised games across various platforms.

    Speaking on the alliance, Hungama MD & CEO Neeraj Roy said, “The concept of gaming has caught on across the world and is gaining rapid pace especially in the mobile and connected devices environment. Through our partnership with Gameshastra, we will create a bouquet of games that are engaging and addictive for the average gaming enthusiast. We hope to provide them with the ultimate gaming experience in the comfort of whichever connected environment they choose.”

    Through the joint venture with Gameshastra, Hungama will bring their exclusive IP across various genres – Bollywood, celebrities, sports, and lifestyle, in console gaming and games for the iOS and Android platforms.

    Hungama‘s expertise in content development for the digital platform will be coupled with Gameshastra‘s strength in sales and distribution of games across mobile, web portals, DTH, Smart phones and feature phone devices.

    Gameshastra CEO Prakash Ahuja said, “The sophisticated devices and seamless connectivity has brought us to a whole new age of gaming. This partnership between Hungama and Gameshastra will strive to provide this new age gaming experience across genres and platforms to the Indian audience. We see a huge demand, for localized content and our partnership shall definitely be the starting point of an emerging trend in the Indian gaming arena.”

    Gameshastra is India‘s leading game development studio with expertise in game development across platforms like PSP, PS2, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS, Android, iPhone, iPad, Facebook, Xbox 360, and PC/Mac. They have developed titles like DesiAdda and Cart Kings which are still popular on PS2 platform.

  • RComm signs $1 bn deal with Ericsson to manage network services

    RComm signs $1 bn deal with Ericsson to manage network services

    MUMBAI: Billionaire Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications today signed an eight-year full-scope managed services agreement with Ericsson for $1 billion to operate and manage the wireline and wireless networks in the Northern and Western states of India.

    As per the contract, Ericsson will manage the day to day operations across wireline and wireless networks and will take over responsibility for field maintenance, network operations and operational planning of Reliance Communications 2G, CDMA and 3G mobile networks.

    This agreement is aimed to meet the fast evolving customer demand for communications applications and services in one of the world‘s most dynamic telecom markets.

    Reliance Communications will benefit from Ericsson‘s world-class processes, methods and tools and the partnership will allow Reliance Communications to free up resources to focus on user experience, as well as improving innovation power, agility and speed across the specified geographies. Reliance Communications‘ infrastructure covers 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages in India to which it offers converged services including voice, data and video.

    Ericsson will streamline Reliance Communications‘ operations by bringing all aspects of fiber, tower operations, wireless networks and wireline access networks to Reliance Communications‘ wireless and global enterprise business, across differentiated product lines. Ericsson will also drive a modernisation of the tools, processes and best practices that are applied across the business resulting in operational efficiencies by managing cost through consolidation.

    Commenting on the agreement, Reliance Communications CEO – Wireless Business Gurdeep Singh said, “We are happy to announce our partnership with Ericsson to manage our wireline and wireless network enabling us to provide a higher level of customer experience in terms of network and services. Given the complexity of network increasing with platforms, technologies and application offerings, we are banking on the experience, innovation and technical expertise of Ericsson to improve the productivity of our network and ensure that it delivers to its full potential. We are confident that they will exceed the expectations of our customers through optimization of resources and provide us cost effective solutions.”

    Ericsson EVP and Head of Business Unit Global Services Magnus Mandersson said; “We are excited to partner with Reliance Communications for this strategic multi-technology managed services deal. The increasing uptake of new technologies requires an increased focus on customer experience management in the hyper competitive and highly dynamic Indian telecom market. With this partnership Reliance will increase focus on their core business and innovation. We are pleased to welcome more than 5,000 employees who will join us from Reliance Communications and support our long term commitment to India‘s ICT market.”

    This agreement will be driven by defined service level agreement governance. Ericsson will be responsible for improving network performance and ultimately service quality, with the goal of increasing customer satisfaction and retention. Ericsson will also work closely with Reliance Communications to identify opportunities to introduce new services and expand its existing businesses to help realise the full potential of its network.

    “This partnership will enable our enterprise customers to deploy state-of-the-art data services on our integrated network through the global expertise of Ericsson. This is one of the first times that wireless and wireline enterprise network is being outsourced to deliver world-class service and performance assurance,” added Reliance Communications CEO, Global and Enterprise Business Punit Garg.

  • Social media sites refuse to share information about Indian users

    Social media sites refuse to share information about Indian users

    NEW DELHI: Social media websites Google, Facebook and Twitter have declined to share information sought by the government about individual users in India or block their sites.

    It is learnt that a review committee had approved the decision to block 306 accounts on the social media site Twitter. The review committee consisted of the cabinet secretary Ajit Seth, Telecom Secretary R Chandrasekhar and the Legal Affairs Secretary B A Agarwal.

    After reviewing the 310 accounts that were blocked after the communal clashes in Kokrajhar district of Assam, the Committee found that some of these Twitter accounts had uploaded few of the altered pictures which played a part in sparking the clashes last year and it believes that these Twitter accounts have the potential to further inflame communal tension in the country.

    The review committee met with Google, Facebook and Twitter representatives and requested them to provide details of the said accounts but the companies had apparently not complied with these requests.

    Twitter mentioned that it had received requests for disclosure of user information from the Indian government during July to December 2012, but it complied with none of those requests. Google also stated in December that it had received 2,431 requests for disclosure of user data of 4106 accounts from the Indian government during July to December 2012 and it had complied with 66 per cent of the requests.

  • Hathway Cable in process of finalising fresh terms with LCOs in digital markets

    Hathway Cable in process of finalising fresh terms with LCOs in digital markets

    MUMBAI: Hathway Cable & Datacom, India‘s leading multi-system operator (MSO), has said that on account of digitisation it is in the process of finalising fresh terms with local cable operators (LCOs) in Mumbai and Delhi, the only cities in first phase where it has a direct presence. In Kolkata, Hathway has a presence through JV partner GTPL KCBPL.

    Pending such finalisations, the management has on estimated basis recognised activation fees and subscription income in these two cities, which is based on on-going discussion with LCOs, market trend and considering the collection made till date.

    The management has reasonable certainty of collecting the amount recognised as income, Hathway said.

    Meanwhile, the company has seen its fiscal third quarter net loss widen to Rs 74.2 million from Rs 17.8 million in the preceding quarter on account of foreign exchange loss and decrease in other income.

    Hathway suffered a foreign exchange loss of Rs 14.89 million compared to a gain of Rs 44.78 million during the fiscal second quarter. The company‘s other income decreased to Rs 13.55 million from Rs 30.63 million.

    Net income from operations during the quarter, which saw the roll-out of first phase of digitisation, rose to Rs 1.53 billion from preceding quarter‘s Rs 1.3 billion.

    Led by increase in pay channel cost and purchase of stock in trade, the expenses for the quarter also jumped to Rs 1.47 billion from Rs 1.37 in the earlier quarter.

    The pay channel cost increased to Rs 429.6 million from Rs 390.4 million while the purchase of stock in trade grew to Rs 43.06 million from Rs 16.48 million.

    The exceptional item includes the amount company spent on Digital Addressable System (DAS) which is Rs 26.79 million for the quarter as opposed to Rs 7.61 million in the previous quarter.

    As of 31 December 2012, Hathway has utilised the entire amount of Rs 3.25 billion from the IPO proceeds that it had proposed to spend on development of digital capital expenditure, services and set-top boxes as well as development of broadband infrastructure.

    The company has spent Rs 124.86 million on customer acquisition out of the proposed Rs 150 million.

  • Govt. seeks volunteers to publicise its programmes on social networking sites

    Govt. seeks volunteers to publicise its programmes on social networking sites

    NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has launched a Digital Volunteer Programme to encourage people to use their presence on different social media to talk about government schemes and programmes.

    The programme aims at helping the Government achieve a real time engagement with people leading to a personalised interaction with the target groups.

    The Ministry says those who have active Facebook or Twitter accounts and are familiar with Tweetdeck, Hootsuite etc. and are willing to use their personal social presence to help Government spread a word about its policies and programmes can volunteer.

    The volunteers may like to talk about Government Initiatives by retweeting the messages tweeted by MIB‘s Twitter Handle @MIB_India
     
    They may also share the Ministry‘s Tweets (@MIB_India), Facebook Posts (facebook.com/inbministry), Blog posts (inbministry.blogspot.in) and share YouTube Channel videos(youtube.com/user/inbministry) on Social Networking sites

    The volunteers can mention Official Twitter handle of the Ministry @MIB_India in tweets to facilitate real time engagement.

  • Chandra, Carey to attend APOS 2013 pay-TV summit

    Chandra, Carey to attend APOS 2013 pay-TV summit

    MUMBAI: Media moghul Subhash Chandra and News Corp president COO Chase Carey are among the executives who will attend the fourth annual Asia Pacific Pay-TV Operators Summit (APOS).

    Taking place from 22 – 24 April in Bali, it is being organised by Media Partners Asia. APOS (www.visitapos.com) is a regional event for TV and broadband industry executives with intent to drive bold thinking, strategy, deals and policy.

    Media Partners Asia executive director Vivek Couto said, “Both emerging growth markets and mature, value geographies in Asia Pacific are increasingly vital to future of strategic global majors This year‘s APOS is a testament to this trend while the line-up and themes are also a significant nod to the growing aspirations of leading local players with currency to expand in domesticand international markets.”
     
    Other speakers include SES president, CEO Romain Bausch, CJ HelloVision CEO DS Byun, Saban Capital Group president, COO Adam Chesnoff, Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein, KT Media Hub CEO Joosung Kim, Hathway Cable & Datacom CEO Jagdish Kumar, Multi Screen Media CEO Man Jit Singh and NBCUniversal International Television president Kevin MacLellan.

  • Vuclip launches free mobile video channel for education

    Vuclip launches free mobile video channel for education

    MUMBAI: Vuclip, the world’s leading independent mobile video and media company, has launched its new mobile video channel, edu. (edu.vuclip.com), an education portal.

    The launch took place at One Globe 2013, the annual conference focused on building a 21st century knowledge economy in India and South Asia.

    Initially, the channel will provide educational videos for K-12 and higher education, which can be watched on any of the 5500 different types of internet-enabled mobile phones, including the most basic to the most advanced handsets. The channel currently supports educational videos in English but will include course material in other languages as well.

    In its debut version, the portal will provide free access to thousands of educational videos from Khan Academy, the world’s premier not-for-profit education organization that offers free micro-lectures teaching mathematics, history, healthcare, medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, computer science and other subjects. To date, Khan Academy has delivered over 234 million lessons worldwide.

    Vuclip Founder and CEO Dr. Nickhil Jakatdar, who was an invited speaker at One Globe 2013 during a spotlight session, also unveiled the findings of Vuclip’s global education survey.

    More than 80,000 people participated in this three day survey from around the world including countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Canada, Pakistan, United States, United Kindom, Indonesia, Nigeria, Mexico, UAE, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Brazil, Iran and several others.

    Sharing details on the insights from India, Dr. Jakatdar said, “Almost 30 per cent of all respondents from India were under 18 years, while 40 per cent were between 18-25 years. More than half of respondents in India cited money as the biggest obstacle to getting an education of their choice.

    However, Indians are relatively more open to learning at home, with only 18 per cent preferring to learn in a school, compared to the global average of 25 per cent in favour of a school environment. At 82 per cent, Indians are also more responsive to receiving education through phones, than the rest of the world (80 per cnet). This is true especially for respondents below 18 years of age.”Indians prefer mobiles over computers as their choice of medium for education. Females prefer mobile twice as much as computers and males prefer mobile three times over computers. This was true across all age groups, though was more pronounced in respondents above 18 years of age.

    As many as 70 per cent males and 53 per cent females in India said they were very interested in education through their phone, which again is above the global average, indicating a higher propensity to mobile-based education among Indians.

    The top priority for males and females over the age of 18 was career development. Viewing all age groups, including the under 18 age bracket, the numbers show 36 per cent of females and 30 per cent of males as most interested in career development. However, 18 per cent of females want to teach kids compared to just 9 per cent males.

    Dr. Jakatdar, who has over 30 patents to his credit, shared his vision for launching this new mobile channel for education. “Inclusive education is possible only when good and fresh educational content is universally and continually accessible through better discovery methods. Mobile video transcends all language barriers and can help democratize education. Vuclip today has more than 14 million active monthly users in India and this number is growing quickly. This is a readily available platform through which Indian universities and institutes can participate in making quality education accessible to the masses anywhere, anytime,” he said.