Category: Technology

MUMBAI: Sameer Manchanda-promoted Den Networks will be investing Rs 3.5 billion in the first phase of digitisation as it estimates to seed 2.3 million digital set-top boxes (STBs) in the three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

The multi-system operator (MSO) has already placed over 1.5 million STBs. “Our investment would be Rs 3.50 billion in the first phase. We are looking at 2-2.3 million STBs in these three metros,” said Den Networks chief operating officer MG Azhar.

The debt component is around Rs 1.70 billion, Azhar added.

Den has also lined up Cisco funding. “There is no upfront funding and the payment will be over five years,” said Azhar.

In Delhi, Den has seeded over 1 million STBs and in Mumbai 300,000. “In Kolkata, we have put 150,000 STBs and our early estimate was that we would require 300,000 boxes. Now we feel that there is enough market in the city and we would need 0.5 million boxes,” said Azhar.

MUMBAI: Mobile internet service company One97 has appointed Miling Pathak as the global head for new business.

Pathak joins in from Comviva Technologies where his last role was VP – Asia Market Unit.

One97 managing director Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “With his (Milind Pathak) deep understanding of the direct to consumer business and mobile, media convergence, I believe Milind will be able to create a great demand for our offerings in the global markets.”
 
Pathak had joined Comviva in November 2009 as VP – Airtel MU and Mobile Content Solutions. He was VP- SAARC Market Unit and Mobile Content Solutions in July 2010 and then to VP – Asia Market Unit in June 2012.

Prior to joining Comviva, Pathak had also worked with Mitsui, TIL and Buongiorno Hong Kong Ltd.

NEW DELHI: India is rapidly swinging into digitisation mode. The government on Tuesday started the countdown for second phase of digitisation in 38 cities in 15 states, saying the deadline of 31 March 2013 was sacrosanct.

Information & Broadcasting Secretary Uday Kumar Varma held a high-level meeting to review the preparedness for Phase II encouraged by the successful implementation in Mumbai and Delhi. Digitisation in Kolkata is most likely to happen after Diwali and in Chennai, the fourth metro covered in the first phase, it will be decided by the Madras High Court on Friday.

The ministry has asked MSOs in the 38 cities to make a thorough assessment of the number of STBs required, taking into consideration credible data from the ground level. The MSOs have also been asked to provide information on their plans for procurement of STBs to ensure that the deadline of 31 March is met.

 
The ministry has also started working on a communication campaign to target the specific needs of 38 cities covered in Phase II. At the review meeting, officials emphasised the need for meticulous planning in the Phase II cities by incorporating lessons learnt from Phase I cities.

The ministry has planned a one-day workshop this month to prepare an integrated plan of action for a smooth and flawless transition to digital cable TV in Phase II cities. It had earlier written to the chief secretaries of the Phase II States to nominate Nodal Officers at the state level as well as in each of the cities targeted in Phase II so that close liaison and coordination could be made to sort out local issues.

There are plans to put in place additional manpower through Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL) to make extensive field visits in the targeted 38 cities in Phase II.

The ministry reiterated that the phase II digitisation deadline of 31 March 2013 was sacrosanct and the preparation should be done in right earnest to meet the notified deadline.

The Ministry had issued a notification on 11 November 2011 notifying Phase-wise digitisation of analogue cable television networks in India.

Government claims further increase in STB seeding

The government also claimed that till 5 November 2.24 million digital set top boxes (STBs) have been installed in Mumbai, 2.51 million in Delhi, and 1.77 million in Kolkata. A total of 2.9 million subscribers have DTH connections in the four metro cities.

With the presence of TV signals on analogue cable TV networks in certain pockets of Delhi and Mumbai, the ministry has deployed teams to make extensive field visits to the head-ends to check for violations.

A Ministry official who did not want to be named said the teams had instructions to file police complaints against MSOs or LCOs still transmitting analogue signals.

Consumers complain

While teams of the Ministry have also visited several homes to interact with people and to take a direct feedback about the running of analogue signals, many areas – particularly in the lower strata in east, west and south Delhi – are still receiving analogue signals as people have not bought STBs because of either shortage or the boxes being of poor quality. Some consumers also said they were being asked to pay almost double the rate set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for the boxes.

A Task Force member who did not want to be named said that the tariff was still unclear.

MUMBAI: CBS Corporation and Hulu have entered into a non-exclusive, multi-year licensing agreement to stream programs from CBS‘s rich television library on the Hulu Plus subscription service.

Terms of the deal including the period of the agreement were not disclosed.

The CBS content will begin to appear on Hulu Plus in January 2013, and over the following months, Hulu Plus subscribers will have access to more than 2,600 episodes from library series such as Medium, Numbers and CSI: Miami, as well as classics such as Star Trek, I Love Lucy and The Twilight Zone.

Clips from Entertainment Tonight will also be available the day of broadcast on Hulu and Hulu Plus. A selection of CBS library shows will also rotate through the free Hulu.com service, and additional titles will be announced.

“We‘re excited to deliver CBS library programming to Hulu Plus subscribers,” said CBS Corporation Senior Vice President of Corporate Licensing Scott Koondel.

“This marks another agreement that meets the growing demand for our content on new platforms while establishing other incremental ways to get paid for our library.”

“CBS has a long history of producing truly great TV. Hulu Plus subscribers are entertainment lovers who spend their time watching shows they love, versus shows they might only just like. Those two facts make for a fantastic combination, because this collection of CBS titles are shows that people revere and that really matter to fans of great TV like our subscribers,” said Hulu SVP of Content Andy Forssell.

CBS and Hulu also have previously announced licensing agreements for CBS-produced programming that airs on The CW and for CBS content on Hulu‘s subscription service in Japan.

NEW DELHI: Harman, the global provider of audio and infotainment solutions, and Reliance Digital have formed a new strategic product development collaboration to create customised audio solutions for Reliance’s line of Reconnect-branded electronics.

The first product of the Harman-Reliance Digital collaboration to hit the market will be the new 107cm (42-inch) Reconnect Full HD LED television featuring four razor-thin, Harman Kardon speakers embedded in the TV’s bezel. The new LED Televisions are available for sale in select Reliance Digital stores across India.

These Harman Kardon speakers feature patented technology that produce audio quality that is louder and more clear than other speakers of the same size while still retaining the ultra-slim design of Reconnect LED Televisions. Harman’s engineers optimised the acoustic range of the speakers, then custom designed the enclosures for each display and tuned the system for maximum frequency response and output without distortion.
 
“We are thrilled and pleased to be working with Reliance Digital to help bring a new degree of audio performance to their excellent product line,” said Harman chairman, president and CEO Dinesh C. Paliwal. “Our Harman Kardon brand promises to accurately reproduce crystal clear sound that is faithful to the original source, with equal attention to beautiful design. I look forward to delivering on that promise for Reconnect, and to many new products to come.”

Reliance Digital CEO Brian Bade said, “The ‘Reconnect‘ product range has been introduced across all our stores in India with this as the key objective in mind. We believe in building long-term relationships with our customers and partners, and our collaboration with Harman and its Harman Kardon brand is an excellent example of our commitment to bringing the best quality to our customers. We are launching this state of the art, Full HD LED Televisions on the auspicious occasion of Diwali.”

MUMBAI: Seagate Technology, which manufactures and provides storage devices and solutions for the cloud and home, has become a member of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (Dece) an open, cross-industry consortium of movie studios and technology companies that developed and operate UltraViolet.

Dece members include Hollywood studios such as Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Fox Studios and Paramount Pictures as well as consumer electronics companies such as LG, Samsung, and Sony Electronics.

Seagate VP marketing Scott Horn said, “Digital distribution beyond DVDs and Blu-ray Discs is not only the way of the future, it is the present and we know that storage is key to this ongoing transition. Seagate sees UltraViolet as a leader in bringing content to consumers in this new digital age and we are excited to be helping them make their vision a reality.”
UltraViolet is a way to collect and enjoy movies and TV shows in the cloud. Once home entertainment content has been added to an UltraViolet account, users then have the option to stream it over the Internet or download it for offline viewing.

With UltraViolet, consumers have greater flexibility and can watch or store purchased content on their terms whether it is on a mobile device, computer, television, game console, or storage device.

UltraViolet GM Mark Teitell said, “With UltraViolet, consumers enjoy the flexibility and security of cloud-based entertainment rights combined with the choice-expanding benefits of a widely honored industry standard. As a Dece member, Seagate‘s expertise and perspective on cloud solutions and storage devices will help the organization continue to evolve these benefits.”

MUMBAI: ABI Research expects over-the-top (OTT) revenue to quadruple to $32 billion by 2017, up from the expected $8.2 billion in 2012.

Subscription services, like Netflix, have led the OTT markets in the past couple of years, which has helped push the market towards healthy growth. By 2014, however, ABI Research expects OTT rentals to surpass subscription revenues.

Practice director Sam Rosen commented, “Connected CE and mobile devices continue to push consumer behaviour towards newer forms of media distribution like OTT and multiscreen services. Pay TV services will continue to thrive, by implementing multiscreen services and supporting OTT content. In the end we expect an amalgamation of services that complement each other for many consumers.”

In time, advertising, like OTT rentals, is expected to pick up momentum as ad dollars increasingly shift to the OTT market. Connected CE and mobile/portable devices in particular present additional consumer touchpoints and enable more creative ways to connect or interact with consumers.

Senior analyst Michael Inouye said, “While many consumers today claim to use mobile and portable devices while watching TV, most of us are in actuality poor at multitasking. In many cases this means consumers are more acutely aware about the content on their portable device than the TV. While second screen advertising is not necessarily OTT content it does speak to the importance of targeting these connected devices that extend the reach of content beyond the TV.”

MUMBAI: Television technology companies are upbeat on India as a market with the government having mandated digitisation. But the challenge is that cable operators have to be educated on the kind of infrastructure they need to build and the investments which would be required.

This was a view expressed by several exhibitors at the television technology trade exhibition Scat India. NDS India country head, GM Jayant Chagrani said that the company is pushing its hosted solution which was specially developed for the country. It is a low capex entry level solution and NDS will take care of the backend completely.

“We are targeting smaller operators who will be a part of the second and third phase of digitisation. We have received a good response at Scat. It offers scalability by being able to upgrade to a full Videoguard system with features and revenue generating services like DVR. We have a market share of over 40 per cent.”

Conax sales director Amit Khera said that the company has a 33 per cent market share and wants to maintain and build on that. “What we are seeing is that in the first phase operators are running around for survival. In the second phase there will be more time as operators will take things seriously. The mindset that the government will delay things is no longer present. Our aim is to give the right products at the right prices.”

Gospell international business department manager Horace Hao said that the company is taking part in tradeshows to create awareness. It is having demos and is also visiting clients. “We provide a turnkey solution that offers convenience. Our products include headends and set top boxes. India offers excellent potential”.

Catvision which offers digital headends among other products expects to sell 20 headends next year. Catvision GM Manoj Thakur said, “In addition to cable operators, we also work with five star hotels. The challenge is that the smaller cable operators are not educated enough about digitisation. We have to educate them. We have dealers across India.”

Saibaba Enterprises sells products for networks and cable TV including switches and converters. Now the company is focussing on digital headends under the DBC brand name. Vishal Katara notes that the company has distributors in every state. “We see good potential here. Technically and sales wise we have an edge. We have a good support team which means that there is no language barrier.”

Optilink, which offers networking hardware, cable TV hardware and an end to end solution, is looking at targeting smaller operators with the second phase of digitisation due next year. The company‘s CTO Piyush Dedhia said that the company, which had focussed on large cable operators so far, will also look at smaller operators in the next six months and will come out with products for them. “We have a situation though where cable operators ask about set top boxes but do not understand the technology like conditional access. Operators to an extent are afraid as they do not know about digitisation and the future. We will be doing seminars among other things to market our products and to educate about the digitisation process.”

Customer relationship management solutions provider Gaps Technologies, which recently launched its service, has received several inquiries from cable operators. “We offer a CRM solution for managing subscribers. It allows cable operators to save time when it comes to handling customer issues. Any business needs a communication centre and cable TV is no different. Our product can also be adapted and customised depending on an operators requirement,” said Gaps Technologies MD and CEO Suhel Faridi.

JainHits is positioning itself as the first direct to network solution for cable operators. The company’s national sales head Jeet Narayan Singh said that the offering is not only cost effective but also better than DTH. “There are 60,000 small cable operators in the country who want an inexpensive solution. It costs Rs. 1.5 million. We will help cable operators remain independent by growing their business. Our service starts in mid December. When we talk to operators they are concerned about the quality of service. The options here are limited.”

System integrator CNet, which offers end to end solutions, plans to have a 10-15 per cent share by 2015. The company’s head sales, marketing Arun Kaushik said, “The challenge is that cable operators don’t know where the market is. They need to understand that the business model for digitisation must be long term. We help them achieve that objective. We have 27 service centers across the country. We also have three different models for our solution. These are low cost, medium cost and premium top of the line. This allows us to address everybody.”

MUMBAI: After Canada and the United States, Reliance Broadcast Network‘s (RBNL) hybrid channel ‘Big Magic International‘ is foraying into the Asia-Pacific region with the launch in Australia.

The broadcasting company has partnered with Australia‘s DTH company, Konnec TV, to distribute the channel across the length and breadth of the country.

‘Big Magic International‘ offers a variety of entertainment, infotainment, and business news from the libraries of the RBNL and Bloomberg TV India.

The channel‘s offerings are customised to suit the entertainment demands of the sizeable South Asian Diaspora in Australia.

The channel will be added to the basic pack of Konnec TV, which is currently priced at AUD 39.55.

RBNL CEO Tarun Katial said, “After establishing our presence in Canada and the United States, we are happy to take Big Magic International to Australia as the country‘s only variety entertainment channel that offers fresh and relevant programming. We‘ve been able to understand the market well and have made the move in line with our international expansion and growth strategy. We are certain that the channel will grow into a popular entertainment offering and resonate well with audiences and marketers there”.

“With the addition of Big Magic International, we will continue to provide to our subscribers with top-quality television channels. The channel carries a variety of content across genres from back home, which people sitting miles away from their homeland want to watch and monitor. Konnec TV is proud to be the go-to TV provider for the widest variety of top-rated programming at the best price in the industry. We are happy to associate with Reliance Group‘s channels in the region as a part of our bouquet,” Konnec TV CEO Abhishek Narang said.

The channel maintains its USP of three fresh, 30 minute updates each day with the latest news from the Indian capital markets, coming from Bloomberg TV India. The channel will also feature a special weekend feature show created around the Indian business world and investments in India, along with some of the key shows from the Bloomberg TV India stable that includes shows like Assignment and The Pitch.

According to the company, the South Asian population in Australia is approximately 4,00,000 and makes for 2 per cent of the population of the country, making it the second largest non European group in Australia. Ensuring reach to maximum households, Big Magic International has mapped the entire market to ensure optimal reach amongst relevant audiences.

NEW DELHI: Justice Cyriac Joseph, the retired Supreme Court judge, has been appointed as the new chairperson of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.

Justice Joseph, who retired on 27 January this year, has been appointed on a term of three years. He succeeds Justice S B Sinha who retired last month.

He was appointed a judge of the apex court on 7 July 2008. He became Chief Justice in Karnataka High Court in January 2006.

Born on 28 January 1947 at Kaipuzha, Kottayam District in Kerala, he graduated in science and then went on to do law. He enrolled as an advocate in October 1968.

He was senior government pleader in the Kerala High Court from 1979 to 1987 and then served as Additional Advocate General, Kerala, from July 1991 to July 1994.

Appointed as a permanent Judge of the High Court in July 1994, he was transferred a month later to Delhi High Court and then back to Kerala in September 2001. He was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand) in March 2005.