Category: Technology

MUMBAI: The number of TV connections to the Internet will reach 596 million by 2017, up from 105 million at end-2010 and the 212 million expected at end-2012.

Published by Digital TV Research, these findings are part of the just-released Connected TV Forecasts report, which covers 40 countries.

The US contributed 48 million to the 2010 total (or 45% of the global total), and will grow to 78 million in 2012 (37%) and 147 million by 2017 (only 25% of the global total). China will have 93 million connected TVs by 2017, up from a mere 2 million at end-2010. So Japan will drop from second place in 2010 (13 million) to third in 2017 (43 million).
This global connected TV total translates to 21.4 per cent of global TV sets by 2017, up from only 4.7 per cent at end-2010 and 8.9 per cent by end-2012. The US will have the highest penetration of TV sets by 2017 – at 38.1 per cent, closely followed by Norway (37.7 per cent) and South Korea (37.2 per cent).

Report author Simon Murray said, “There has been something of a backlash against smart TV sets over the last year as critics argue that similar – or even better – offers are available on tablets or even mobile smartphones. Critics complain that connected TV sets provide a clunky experience. Although this is a wake-up call for those involved in the sector, these deficiencies are likely to be addressed reasonably soon as connected TV becomes mainstream. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of online usage via connected TVs is TV-related.”

MUMBAI: Den Networks‘ consolidated net profit rose 28 per cent to Rs 155.9 million in the second quarter ended 30 September from Rs 114.3 million a quarter earlier.

Den‘s cable business revenue saw a meager 3.96 per cent growth to Rs 2.02 billion from Rs 1.94 billion during the first quarter.

The multi-system operator‘s (MSO) consolidated net revenues stood at Rs 2.1 billion, up 8 per cent from Rs 1.94 billion a quarter earlier.

During the second quarter, Den‘s expenses rose 7 per cent to Rs 1.84 billion from Rs 1.71 billion quarter earlier as its content cost increased 12 per cent to Rs 765.9 million from Rs 675.1 million.

Its consolidated Ebitda stood at Rs 495.6 million, up 10 per cent over the previous quarter. The company‘s consolidated Ebidta (before forex losses of Rs 23.7 million) was Rs 474.3 million.

Den also said that its digital base has shot up to cross the two million mark fuelled by the first phase of digitisation in the four metro cities. Den has a presence in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Media Pro Enterprise India (MediaPro), an equal joint venture of Star DEN and Zee Turner, has started reporting net revenues in its standalone financial results from 1 April. It used to be reported on a gross basis in the previous quarters & financial years.

The regrouping has resulted in revenue and distribution cost being reflected by lesser amount of Rs 123.7 million in the quarter ended 30 September.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry On Friday told the Madras High Court that it was prepared to give an extension for implementation of digitisation in Chennai till 31 December provided the stakeholders gave affidavits that they will implement it by then and not seek further extension.

The court extended the stay on digitisation in Chennai till 19 November when it will continue hearing of a petition by Chennai Metro Cable Operators Association (CMCOA) through its general secretary M R Srinivasan, which is seeking extension of digitisation deadline by three months. The court has also sought full details of the number of digital set top boxes available and seeded.

The court had earlier stayed the implementation first on 31 October and then on 5 November.

The commitment in the court on behalf of the Ministry was made by S Haja Mohideed Gisthi, senior central government standing counsel, when Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar said the ministry had itself admitted that only 60 per cent digitisation had been achieved in Chennai.

The Judge reiterated that the concern of the court was not merely the petitioner, but the average consumer in Chennai and wanted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the ministry to specify whether the city had an adequate number of digital STBs and why they had not been installed if this was so.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) through its counsel said the broadcasters had put all infrastructure in place for digitisation in the four metros covered under Phase I.

A counsel representing two MSOs said local cable operators had not raised any demand for STBs. However, he said these boxes could be made available in 21 days after placement of an order.

However, counsel for CMCOA sought more time as he said enough time had not been given by TRAI for preparing the required infrastructure.

Gisthi had in the last hearing opposed any extension of the deadline saying the petition had been filed at the eleventh hour. Ever since the policy was unveiled in January 2011, the deadline had been extended thrice, Gisthi said. He said the centre had already entered into an agreement with 11 MSOs in the city and it was their duty to provide sufficient number of STBs.

The petitioner, noting that repeated requests for extension of the deadline was not acceded to by the government, claimed that only 1,64,000 homes had STBs in the southern metropolis and more than three million homes would go blank if the deadline was not extended.

The petitioner also said the multi-system operators did not have enough STBs to be distributed to all households.

Noting that the Tamil Nadu government‘s Arasu Cable Television has entered as the 11th multi-system operator (MSO) in the state, the association said Arasu has invited tenders for supply of one million STBs to meet 25 per cent of the city‘s requirement. Arasu is still in the process of finalising the tender, and even if the delivery of STBs commences now, it will take at least two years for the process to be completed, it claimed. It wanted the court to stay total implementation of the digital addressability system (DAS) in Chennai till the corresponding infrastructure is made available.

Earlier, the ministry had admitted that ‘the pace of seeding has remained somewhat static‘, saying Cable TV digitisation in Chennai was 86 per cent, including 24 per cent coming by way of direct-to-home (DTH).

MUMBAI: The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India and video-sharing website YouTube have launched a short film contest titled “India Is…a visual Journey”, celebrating India and its diversity.

The contest will be open to users across the globe for a period of three months, with the last day of submission on 9 February, 2013. All the entries will be featured on the channel youtube.com/indiais.

The company says it has 33 million users in India.

As part of the initiative, YouTube has partnered with renowned film director and script writer Anurag Kashyap and his directors to produce five short showcase films under the three themes of the contest ‘India is incredible,‘ ‘India is unforgettable,‘ and ‘India is wherever you are.‘

The showcase films will be used to inspire filmmakers, students, and video enthusiasts to create their own five-minute films on any of the three themes. These five films will be produced in association with Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Anurag Kashyap Films.

All the entries will be judged by a panel of judges from the film industry and will be rated on storytelling, creativity, originality, screenplay, performances and technical execution. The jury will select a total of ten winners with three winners in each category and the first place winners will get EOS Canon Mark II Camera + Lens, along with weekend getaway across exotic locations in India courtesy Taj Holidays. There will also be a special prize for the most voted and watched film. MEA and YouTube will announce and celebrate the winners at a jointly-hosted gala event.

“The aim of this initiative is to get young people to show India from their point of view. ‘India is‘ which we started last year was the first web based campaign initiative by the public Diplomacy division of MEA to connect and interact with people from all over the world and make them think about India. In the first year we received over 250 entries on India from 42 countries. Now we decided to tie up with Google and YouTube. Our partners are Google, Taj, Conde Nast Traveler and Incredible India,” said MEA‘s Public diplomacy Division joint secretary, head Riva Ganguly Das.

Film market Kashyap noted that the Internet has reduced the amount of time that he spends on doing research for a film. “People are growing up watching films online.

My daughter shows me stuff online which I did not know existed. Short films are growing in popularity. Today people have reduced attention spans. Earlier you could make a three hour movie. Today the viewer wants a two hour film. Their patience has reduced. The key to a short film is having the maximum impact within a short period of time,” Kashyap said.

Google Asia Pacific director content partnerships Gautam Anand said that connected devices are creating opportunities for content creators. The first content deal done in India by YouTube was with Eros in 2007 which now boasts of partners like Sony, Star Plus, Zee, Colors, and T Series among others.

“We have over 10,000 Indian movies, over 20,000 hours of Indian television content. We have showcased events like the IPL and Sunburn. About 60 per cent of Indian content is seen abroad. T series has worked with us for 18 months and they have 600,000 subscribers on YouTube. Similarly, Sony which has 475,000 subscribers keeps adding fresh content. They have digitised old shows like Boogie Woogie,” Anand said.

YouTube Director of Product Management Asia Pacific Adam Smith said, “YouTube is the ultimate democratic platform. Every minute 72 hours of video is uploaded from amateurs to musicians. People get a share in ad revenue that their videos generate. Our aim is to make Indian culture more discoverable on YouTube. For instance IIT has a YouTube channel that has got 77 million views.”

He cited example of PSY a South Korean star who became popular globally with his song ‘Gangnam Style‘ courtesy YouTube. It has become the second most watched video on video-sharing platform with many Indian Gangnam Style videos sprouting up.

MUMBAI: In September 2012, 162 million Americans watched online video.

Nielsen says that they spent almost seven hours of the month viewing content, streaming nearly 26 billion videos.

YouTube was the top online video destination, with more than three-quarters of total viewers streaming videos through their site during the month.
 
In terms of time spent viewing online video, Netflix continues to top the list with viewers spending more than 11 hours each during September, followed by Hulu and YouTube averaging more than four hours per person on each site.

NEW DELHI: The Government has decided to permit sharing of spectrum without any additional one-time spectrum charge between telecom service providers (TSPs) who have paid for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz (GSM) as recommended above without any change in the terms and conditions of licence for use of spectrum including the carrier size indicated therein.

Both TSPs would have to pay spectrum usage charge at the slab rate applicable on the entire combined spectrum holding.

The Union Cabinet said after a meeting today that no one time charge be levied for spectrum holding up to 4.4 MHz (GSM). However, a onetime charge be levied prospectively upon the existing operators at 2012 auction determined price for all spectrum holdings beyond 4.4 MHz (GSM). The date of applicability of the charge shall be the date of commencement of the first quarter following the date of the Cabinet decision.

Similarly for spectrum held above 6.2 (GSM), a one-time charge would be levied from July 2008 onwards. There will be two prices. The price, pro-rated for the period July 2008 up to the date of applicability of auction determined price, would be the 2001 entry fee divided by 6.2, duly indexed using State Bank of India Prime Lending Rate (SBI PLR). With effect from the date of commencement of the first quarter following the date of the Cabinet decision, the auction determined price would be levied.

Decision regarding charging for CDMA spectrum holding beyond 2.5 MHz will be taken separately.

Based on the recommendations of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), the Cabinet considered spectrum pricing – charging of spectrum currently held by the incumbent Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), and charging in the event of spectrum sharing and intra service area merger.

Licensees will be given the option to surrender spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz (GSM) if they do not wish to pay this charge;

The licensees will be allowed equated annual installments for the balance number of years of license (such that the last installment is payable not later than 12 calendar months prior to expiry of the license) considering interest rate at the rate of 9.75 per cent as approved by the Finance Ministry in the case of new successful bidders for deferred payment. The licensees will also have the option of full upfront payment or pre-payment of one or more installments.

Where a transferor (acquired) company holds spectrum against the entry fee paid, the transferee (acquiring) company (i.e. resultant merged entity), would be required to pay to the Government, the differential between the entry fee, and the current auction determined price, on a pro-rata basis for the remaining period of validity of the licenses;

On the issue of allotment of initial spectrum to licensees who have paid the requisite fee but have not been allotted spectrum so far, the Cabinet decided that the claim of such company for allotment of 4.4 MHz of spectrum in such case will be considered after completion of the auction process, subject to availability of spectrum.

The decisions are expected to result in further efficient utilisation of the scarce natural resource of spectrum facilitating proliferation of telecom services in the country.

MUMBAI: Leading multi-system operator (MSO) Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd has substantially narrowed its net loss in the second quarter ended 30 September from a year earlier on foreign exchange gains and a fall in interest cost.

Hathway‘s net loss in the second quarter was Rs 17.84 million against Rs 158.71 million in the previous quarter, as it had an exchange gain of Rs 44.78 million against an exchange loss of Rs 45.58 million a year earlier.

In the second quarter, the company had an exchange gain of Rs 44.78 million against an exchange loss of Rs 45.58 million. Finance cost in the second quarter was Rs 72.99 million, 45 per cent lower than Rs 133.38 million in the first quarter.

The company had an operational loss of Rs 54.88 million in the second quarter against operational profit of Rs 1.81 million in the first quarter, as its income fell 3 per cent to Rs 1.32 billion from Rs 1.36 billion in the first quarter and expenditure increased to Rs 1.37 billion from Rs 1.36 billion in the first quarter.

MUMBAI: Myntra.com, an ecommerce player for fashion and lifestyle products, has acquired SherSingh.com, the global private label online brand specialising in sports-inspired lifestyle apparel for men and women.

As part of the cash cum equity deal, the Sher Singh brand of products will now be exclusively sold on myntra.com and shersingh.com.

With this acquisition, Sher Singh‘s senior management team along with its employees will be absorbed into Myntra and will contribute towards strengthening Myntra‘s private label portfolio. Myntra will leverage Sher Singh‘s fashion and design expertise to strengthen its private label and presence in the US market. Myntra will also maintain Sher Singh‘s New York (award-winning) design studio to tap into the latest trends from one of the world‘s leading fashion capitals.

Myntra.com founder & CEO Mukesh Bansal said, “We are very excited about this acquisition. Sher Singh‘s team has built one of the most innovative and trendy fashion brands which speaks to the global market place. We are very confident that this acquisition will significantly enhance Myntra‘s fashion and design expertise”.

Sher Singh.com co-founder & CEO Sunjay Guleria added, “We couldn‘t have asked for a better long-term fit than Myntra. As the leader in the fashion and lifestyle ecommerce space, Myntra will now expose Sher Singh‘s award-winning designs and superior quality to millions of consumers in India and help us create long-term, sustainable brand equity. In addition, our combined merchandising expertise will ensure on-trend, global fashion at affordable prices”.
 
Launched in 2011 by Exclusively.in Inc, India‘s leading boutique ethnic wear portal (www.Exclusively.in) for the US and UK, Sher Singh has Indian cricket superstar Zaheer Khan and model and Bollywood actress Lisa Haydon as its brand ambassadors.

The company has offices in New Delhi and New York and has created the world‘s first global Cricket-inspired lifestyle apparel brand with its signature “INDIA” polo worn by Cricket heroes such as Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, MS Dhoni, and Harbhajan Singh.

MUMBAI: iStream, an online provider of live and on-demand Indian video content, is using Akamai‘s Sola Media Solutions to securely deliver a broad range of programming to audiences around the world.

iStream is leveraging Akamai‘s Sola Sphere media delivery service to provide more than 40 channels of premium and free Indian-focused news and entertainment across a vast and varied landscape of connected devices.

By partnering with Akamai, iStream gains the flexibility to focus on curating its multi-lingual content with the confidence that it will be delivered seamlessly across any device or platform, ensuring engaging viewing experiences for its diverse audience. In addition to high QoS for its viewers, Akamai provides iStream numerous benefits, including a 50 per cent increase in page load times, significant infrastructure savings and secure content delivery.

“Akamai‘s ability to accelerate and optimize the video content, secure it, provide the same level of superior performance and high-quality experience to our users wherever they are, whatever platforms and devices they are using is key to iStream‘s success,” said iStream associate director of product marketing Swapnil Deopurkar. “With Akamai, iStream is significantly expanding the amount of content we are offering and streaming without making costly investments in additional infrastructure.”

“iStream and Akamai are working together to provide users with the best possible streaming experience across all the connected devices,” said Akamai country manager for India Rahul Arora.

Akamai Sola Media Solutions form a cloud-based technology platform for live and on-demand video streaming that scales on-demand to support the largest online events by managing millions of simultaneous streams. Supported by the Akamai Intelligent Platform, Sola Media Solutions enable the economic online distribution of content to the broadest possible array of devices, delivering rich, high-definition quality video to any device at broadcast-size audiences.

Mumbai: Techzone, the aggregator, developer, publisher and distributor of entertainment content, has partnered with record company Times Music to create devotional based WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and CRBT (Color Ring Back Tone) products.

This tie up will enable Techzone to service Times Music’s devotional content to operators like Reliance, Tata, Loop and MTS.

The strategic tie-up will also boost VAS revenues, the company said.

Techzone director Naveen Bhandari said, “We are a young technology and media company, and are always exploring opportunities to innovate in use of technologies to ensure supremacy in the competitive VAS technology space. The market for devotional content is emerging as an important category in VAS today and we are targeting leadership position in this niche which approximately has a market size of Rs 6 billion. We are very excited of the potential that this tie up offers. The sheer range of devotional music available with Times Music and our reach and expertise in the VAS arena is a potent package.”

Times Music COO Mandar Thakur said, “Times Music has devotional content for every major Indian deity and festival celebrated in the far corners of India. The content has been doing exceptionally well for the past 3 years and we‘ve see a huge growth in its demand. Hence the challenge for us now, was to ensure availability of this content to every mobile user. This is exactly what we hope to achieve through this tie-up with Techzone.”