Category: Technology

MUMBAI: SME e-commerce portal power2sme has said it has received Rs 100 million commitment from Inventus Capital Partners which will help it to expand in the Indian market.

Started with a seed capital of Rs 20 million, power2sme has a long term vision of empowering SMEs by helping reduce their purchase costs with the help of experienced and specialised professionals.

Parag Dhol of Inventus Capital will join the power2sme’s board.

As a buying club, power2sme aggregates the demand of hundreds of SMEs that enables the company to obtain good pricing for their procurement needs.

According to power2sme, the business model empowers SMEs by eliminating the need to engage with multitude of vendors, doorstep delivery of the goods through reputed logistics providers, flexible payment options, placing orders online 24×7 and being the single destination for SME for managing purchase requirements across multiple locations.

Power2sme Founder & CEO R. Narayan said that the company expects the company to grow its sales to Rs 10 billion in three years. The company expects to end the first year of its operations with sales of Rs 500 million.

“We are strong believers in the potential of India‘s SME market, and our objective is to expand our business with the ability to cater to SMEs across multiple sectors. The new funds will be used to expand the business and enhance the product offering. We have an aggressive outlook on growth, where we expect to end our first year with annual sales of INR 50 crore (Rs 500 million), growing to INR 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) over the next 3 years,” Narayan said.

Inventus Capital Partners MD Parag Dhol said, “We fully support power2sme’s vision as a trusted business partner with a mandate to make SMEs more competitive in their business. Backed by a strong leadership team and intimate understanding of the Indian B2B market, power2sme has a huge potential to grow and position itself as an enabler for SMEs. The company has delivered remarkable results in a short span of time, making SME procurement more cost-effective in India.”

“Our focus is towards working with large, established and trusted suppliers, so our customers are assured of the quality of the product that they buy from us. We provide SMEs an online platform that offers information and tools, enabling them to both improve their efficiency and reduce their procurement costs. Hence, our business allows SMEs to compete on an equal footing with large enterprises,” said Narayan.

Commenting on the deal, Mukesh Jain, Founder & CEO, Zanskar Advisors Private Limited said, “Zanskar Advisors was the exclusive financial advisor to power2sme for this transaction. The deal is a significant step forward for power2sme in their vision of empowering SMEs and we are confident that their unique business model will lead to significant business growth and expansion.”

MUMBAI: Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has secured the broadcast rights of Barclays Premier League for Singapore market for three years till 2016.

These rights were acquired on a non-exclusive basis.

The matches will continue to be available online on miostadium.com and on mobile via SingTel’s BPL application.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: “mio Stadium has provided Singapore fans with great local programming and coverage of the Barclays Premier League action in a comprehensive and innovative manner. We are pleased to be continuing our partnership with SingTel for another three seasons.”

SingTel country chief officer Singapore and CEO Group Digital L!fe Allen Lew said, “We are delighted to bring all the BPL matches live to Singapore for another three seasons.”

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has announced the launch of BBC iPlayer Radio, which is a new dedicated home for BBC radio across multiple platforms.

With BBC iPlayer Radio, BBC radio is now with you wherever you go:

” Wake up to a BBC station and listen on the move with the new smartphone app
” Discover BBC content with a new radio experience across PC, mobile and tablet
” Catch-up any time one wants via access to on-demand content, clips, videos and downloads

BBC iPlayer Radio app for smartphones The brand new BBC iPlayer Radio smartphone app, available on iOS with Android to follow soon, transforms your access to BBC radio programmes. With the app, you can wake up with your favourite breakfast show and instantly find BBC radio at one‘s fingertips:

” Set the alarm and wake up with your favourite DJ or programme
” Spin through the touchscreen dial and listen live to the whole range of BBC Radio stations
” Swipe to reveal on-demand catch-up content and videos on every station page
” Set programme reminders to ensure you never miss favourite shows
” Easily discover what tracks are playing and share with friends

New radio experience across PC, mobile and tablet BBC iPlayer Radio brings the on-demand experience of iPlayer together with new homepages for BBC radio stations, into one dedicated radio platform, making it even easier to listen to live, catch-up and archive content across devices.

At launch, BBC iPlayer Radio delivers live radio alongside videos, clips, downloads, social media feeds and more. In the coming months this will be further developed, as more access to content direct from DJs and presenters creates a two-way conversation between audience and studio.

BBC GM, programmes, On-Demand Daniel Danker said, “BBC iPlayer Radio is radio for an audience that expects to access our content anywhere: now you truly can take BBC Radio with you wherever you go.

“It‘s also radio for an audience that wants greater choice and control. They want to listen again when they choose, to personalise their listening experience, to share tracks they‘ve discovered with friends. BBC iPlayer Radio delivers all of these things, in a simple, consistent, easy to navigate way. At the heart of it is the BBC‘s quality radio programmes, and iPlayer Radio sets those programmes free like never before.”

BBC Audio and Music controller, multiplatform, interactive Mark Friend said, “BBC iPlayer Radio is the platform on which we will develop radio stations as fully multimedia brands so that as well as listen, audiences will be able to watch, share and engage with BBC radio. Our next steps will be to make live radio more interactive, make it easier for people to enjoy the BBC‘s vast audio archive and strengthen radio‘s position as the number one place for discovering music in the UK.”

MUMBAI: Harmonic, which offers video delivery infrastructure, has launched NSG Pro, a powerful new Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) that offers high-density Universal EdgeQAM capabilities and an easy upgrade path to future integrated Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) capabilities.

The NSG Pro provides Qam density and the ability to converge linear video, on-demand video, and data onto a single system. Unlike competitive offerings, NSG Pro provides cable operators with a flexible upgrade path towards full CCAP and an all-IP infrastructure, while minimising operational expenses, power requirements, and rack space requirements.

Harmonic senior VP, GM of the Edge and Access business unit Nimrod Ben-Natan said, “NSG Pro leverages Harmonic‘s expertise in intelligent function integration to combine downstream services and an easy upgrade path to full CCAP – supporting Docsis 3.0 and beyond – in a unified CCAP chassis, enabling operators to redefine their cable architectures. As the industry‘s first true CCAP-compliant platform, NSG Pro positions Harmonic for success in the changing CMTS market.”

Conforming to CCAP specifications, NSG Pro offers cable operators the easiest path to full CCAP by supporting Universal EdgeQAM capabilities and integrated CMTS capabilities in the future via line cards that can be added to the same chassis.

NSG Pro accelerates service deployments by enabling seamless integration into an operator‘s existing infrastructure. With significant expertise gained from the company‘s edgeQam position, Harmonic Professional Services can help cable operators identify how and when to move towards full CCAP and ensure smooth deployment of downstream services with NSG Pro.

To complement the company‘s CCAP initiative, Harmonic is also introducing a new family of compact forward-path transmitter modules featuring ultra-high-density optics. Part of the SUPRALink and PWRLink product lines, the new transmitters deliver space savings, low power consumption, and optimized fiber usage and network efficiency. Together, the CCAP and high-density transmitter solutions enable cable operators to realise benefits across their operations by optimising real estate, controlling power costs, and supporting increased bandwidth capacity for advanced services such as high-speed data, IP video, and time-shift TV.

MUMBAI: An uncertainty looms over Chennai as the Union government presses for shutdown of analogue cable TV services in the four metros from 1 November. The state-backed Arasu Cable TV will be in no position to roll out digital cable TV services in the city within the next three weeks as it is in the midst of finalising its digital infrastructure suppliers and is preparing to request for an extension of the deadline so that consumers are not deprived of watching their television shows in Chennai.

The Jayalalithaa-led state government will write to the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry seeking extension so that Arasu gets time to install the set-top boxes (STBs) in consumer homes. A comfortable time zone of at least three months is being considered but it is not clear yet how the Union government will react.

“Who said Chennai is ready? We are going to seek for an extension of three months. We won‘t be able to complete the roll out of digital services by 31 October,” Arasu Cable TV managing director D. Vivekananda told Indiantelevision.com.

Arasu Cable had earlier floated a tender for providing digital head-ends, STBs, encryption solutions and subscriber management system (SMS) but cancelled it because it found the costs too high. A few consortiums had participated in the tender including the ones led by Wipro with Cisco as a partner. The Motorola consortium had offered a cost of around Rs 1.15 billion while Wipro‘s was about half of that for the whole digital infrastructure and management.

“We scrapped the tender as it was cost prohibitive for us. One of the participants quoted Rs 500 million for the digital head-ends. So we have gone in for a new tender and will likely be deciding whom to go with on Saturday,” said Vivekananda.

Arasu has trimmed down the new tender and decided not to have new digital head-ends. “We have four digital head-ends. We decided not to go for new head-ends as it would have proved too costly. We will upgrade our Ericsson head-end and make it compatible for offering 200 television channels. In any case, the regulator (Trai) has given three months time for upgradation of capacity to offer 500 channels,” he said.

Arasu is looking at one million STBs and will be paying its vendors across 12 months with a small upfront payment. “This is a reversal from the earlier payment terms,” a participant said on condition of anonymity.

Arasu has also decided to handle the management services itself. “We are recruiting 50 people,” said Vivekananda.
Cisco has decided not to participate in the new tender.

“They wanted conditional access system that would support multiple STBs. We found that and other financial terms unfavourable,” a senior executive at Cisco said on condition of anonymity.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting quoting data provided by multi-system operators has said that 0.25 million set-top boxes have been installed in Chennai till 9 October which represents 56 per cent penetration of digital cable. As on 9 October, there are 1.56 million households with cable TV subscribers and 0.69 million direct-to-home customers in chennai.

“These figures have no truth. We do not believe in them. There will be chaos if the 31 October deadline stays as consumers won‘t be having the STBs in their homes by then,” said Vivekananda.

The Chennai cable operators have also disputed the government numbers on STB penetration in the city. The Chennai Metro Cable Operators Association (CMCOA) had earlier written a letter to the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni saying the government‘s claim of digitisation in Chennai is incorrect.

According to CMCOA, the Chennai DAS area has four million cable television homes, but only 160,000 homes have been seeded with STBs. “You may call for latest SMS report of any pay channel billed with two existing MSOs Kal cables and Jak Communications,” CMCOA general secretary M R Srinivasan said in the letter.

Nobody knows what the true figures are. But why couldn‘t Arasu be ready within the deadline period? “We have gone in for tender transparency. It takes time,” said Vivekananda.

MUMBAI: There are thousands of apps that are available in the mobile space. More come out each week. For them to be successful they need the three Rs – rich media, relevancy and ROI.

This point was made by appsnack director of mobile technology Jordi Duran i Batidor at the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)‘s Mobile Marketing Conference on Thursday. His company helps brands achieve their objectives of using mobile as a platform. The company helps clients build engaging, app-like creative experiences. The company also gives publishers and app developers the ability to better monetise one of their sources of ad inventory – display ads in mobile apps.

The company delivers intelligence and has built a global database. He noted that today‘s generation are media consumers and multi taskers. This means that while they watch the TV they also use their mobile phone during ad breaks to find out more information on the show that they are watching.

So the efficacy of a TVC will drop. Nine out of 10 smartphone users abroad do this. “Advertisers need to follow changes in consumer behaviour. For instance, if someone works in finance then it is better for a company like Lexus to target him on the mobile when he is at home. It is important to remember that people use devices at different times. So in the morning one uses the tablet to read the newspaper.”

In terms of the three Rs which are important for mobile apps the first one is rich media. Apps are easy to use. They do not need a manual. Apps can be used to both save time and also fill time. For instance an app that lets you play Angry Birds helps fill time. But an app that helps you with the boarding pass of a plane helps save time.

The second R is relevancy which means that apps should target people who will buy those products. It is important to transform data by contextualising it. This provides intelligence that helps segment audiences. For instance ipad users tend to be heavier spenders. So a luxury brand can go there.

The third R is ROI. Awareness is important here. You need to know how many impressions, reach, frequency come into play. Then one can do branded studies. An efficacy of an app has to go beyond just clicks. It is about the user engagement with an app. Interaction rates are important. One can come to know about consumer‘s choices in things like shoes through this. One can learn about the kind of shirts, cars that people who engaged with the mobile ad love.

MUMBAI: To do a successful mobile ad campaign advertisers and agencies need to remember that technology know-how can increase the focus of a campaign. Brands should also put themselves in the shoes of their consumers and figure out if the message would appeal to consumers or turn them off. The third thing is whether consumers would come back after being exposed to the campaign.

These points were made by Marico India head digital marketing and media Aditya Salve at the IAMAI Mobile Marketing Conference. He noted that one challenge is privacy and intrusion concerns. Regulation will not evolve to a point where there is complete clarity. His company approaches mobile with the view that the medium can build brands.

“Digital is personal media. It is about one to one reach. You can deliver information specific to a user but that same information will not be relevant to all users.” He gave the case study example of the Saffola Dil Jawan campaign which revolved around the concept of heart age finder. It gives users the age of one‘s heart and the aim was to double conversions to the brand.

Over the years the company‘s use of mobile has grown. In 2009 and 2010 it was used as a backend. In 2011, it was used along with print. In 2012 creatives were done and the company worked with mobile ad networks. It reinvented the IVR system. The Marico team was always on because the mobile is a medium where you cannot simply launch the campaign and sit back.

In Bihar mobile was used effectively. The challenge is that the state has poor literacy. The aim of the company was to reach consumers directly. The company worked with voice-based solutions. A film star was used. There was a built in reminder call and gratification was also present. Equity and business were kept in mind. The campaign got a reach of 680,000 consumers.

Another case study was given by Samsung head digital marketing mobile business Aman Malhotra and ad2c co-founder, COO Anurag Singh. Malhotra made the point that the mobile phone is no longer an accessory. It is a status symbol and a means of self expression. “The device and the destination that a person is going to will tell companies what they can market. This is what we kept in mind when we used mobile as a medium to market the Galaxy S3.”

There are three kinds of media – paid, owned and earned. In mobile, owned media is the most important. An example of earned media is a person using mobile to check a post on Facebook. Samsung‘s focus on mobile advertising is on mobile web. The consumer is predisposed to the mobile category.

Singh said that the aim of mobile marketing is to reach, inform and engage. The aim should be to advertise to people who want to buy the product. “Samsung has had a mobile site for two years. Each product has a presence on the portal. There is no lack of look and feel on the site.”

To push Galaxy S3, creatives were created and targetted at iOS, Android, Nokia E Series and N series devices. One of the things was to create a voice activated banner which is not easy to do on the mobile. On clicking, the ad users could browse through features of the Galaxy S3. They also did an innovation that replicated the Draw Something experience. In the creative, users had to guess drawings. Users spend three minutes engaging with it. 30 per cent of users shared the creative on Facebook. Eventually 33 per cent of users who upgraded to the Galaxy S3 phone were Samsung customers, 25 per cent were from iOS, 31 per cent had a Nokia handset.

Another product that was pushed using mobile as a medium was the Omnia W phone. Here cricket was used as a touchpoint as that is one of the passions of the country. The interface used Windows media and a tiled based concept.

MUMBAI: London-based television software and services company Motive Television has announced the launch of its TV Anytime Anywhere platform for cable in the US.

The platform delivers on-demand video and live TV to set-top-boxes and multiple mobile devices using the cable operators‘ existing infrastructure. The patented software also increases efficiency and reduces network capacity requirements and content delivery network (CDN) costs by providing a “One-to-Many” device distribution solution.

With Motive‘s TV Anytime Anywhere platform there is no need for costly CDN infrastructure to provide mass entertainment VOD. A cable operator can now deliver VoD titles by downloading them into already-deployed set top boxes. Motive Television‘s platform can then stream or download content from the set-top-box into portable devices such as iPads, tablets, and smartphones.

The viewer enjoys HD and 3D video with no frustrating buffering interruptions, while the operator benefits from significant bandwidth usage savings.

Motive Television‘s platform can integrate social networks such as Facebook and Twitter into the portable viewing experience and works with any digital rights management and/or conditional access system the operator selects.

Coming off of deployments with pay TV operators and broadcasters in Europe, Motive Television is now offering its �add-on’ software-based VOD solution to the US cable market.

Motive Television VP sales, marketing Gianluca Ferremi said, “Nearly three years ago we launched our software solution with broadcaster Mediaset in Italy, who has consistently delivered 40-50 SVoD movies per month, including HD and 3D films. Since then we have continued to establish Motive Television as a leader in providing efficient on-demand programming solutions to pay television operators”.

“We have responded to U.S. marketplace demand for watching what you want, when you want, where you want on any device by creating a custom services platform that leverages existing network assets. This allows cable operators to reduce the distribution cost per movie versus alternative methods, therefore improving the contribution to the bottom line of each viewed title.

�In addition, our video platform enables operators to benefit from VoD, SVOD and TV Everywhere at a low-cost entry point and as a way for them to compete with the likes of Netflix, Redbox and other OTT providers by being able to technically and financially scale their offer to mass audiences.

“Pay TV operators are quickly learning that when demand rises the cost of bandwidth rises. With our ‘One-to-Many‘ content distribution technology, we optimize the delivery platform and in turn keep those costs down while delivering a superior customer experience.”

MUMBAI: Amidst allegations of fudged figures on digitisation penetration, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Wednesday said that the cable television digitisation in the four metros has increased to 77 per cent twenty days before the deadline for shutting down analogue signal.

The digitisation penetration in the four metros according to MIB is 99 per cent in Mumbai, followed by 73 per cent in Kolkata, 66 per cent in Delhi and 59 per cent in Chennai.

The MIB said the digitisation penetration will go up to 84 per cent in the four metros if the cable TV and direct-to-home penetration is taken into account.

The figure was based on data provided by multi-system operators (MSOs) and direct-to-home (DTH) and data derived from 2011 Census. The MIB said that during the initial stage of planning the data was collated based on the information supplied by the MSOs.

The ministry observed that there were grave discrepancies in data provided, particularly number of cable TV subscribers in four metro cities as it did not present the true picture largely due to duplication of cable connections. It also said that the data did not reflect the numbers vis-? -vis service and entertainment tax collection.

“In view of the given discrepancy, the Ministry has under taken the exercise to base the data Census of India 2011, released by Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. This data has authentic figures relating to households and TV penetration in four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai,” the MIB said in a statement.

City wise data for Metro Cities can be seen in the Table below:

 

To buttress its point of using census data to calculate digitisation penetration, the MIB said that the census data has been widely used both Government and non Government agencies for planning and policy purposes as data collection is done by house to house survey by an impartial body.

As per the data released by MIB on the basis of census figures, 1.86 million STBs have been installed with set-top boxes out of 2.24 million TV households in the city. Out of the 2.24 million TV households, there are 1.54 million cable TV homes and 0.7 million DTH homes.

In Delhi, 1.58 million STBs have been installed out of 1.99 million cable TV subscribers. Kolkata with 2.02 million cable TV subscribers has seen installation of 1.47 million STBs while Chennai with 0.43 million cable TV subscribers has seen installation of 0.25 million STBs.

MUMBAI: Direct-to-home (DTH) service providers will use the short window of three weeks to work on channel packages and market them but this will fall short of price war to grab cable TV customers who are required to shift to digital distribution networks for viewing their television shows by 31 October in the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

Dish TV, India‘s leading DTH operator, has triggered the marketing warfare with a basic channel tier offering comprising 70 channels, including 22 radio channels operated by All India Radio (AIR), free of cost for five years. But the DTH sector may still breathe easy as there is no battle launched yet on the pay channels which would have hurt the finances of the broadcast-carriage services sector which is struggling with low ARPUs (average revenue per user) and subsidisation of set-top boxes (STBs) necessary for digital TV viewing.

“The price war will start only when pay channels are touched. If there is no insane price war yet, it means that the industry has matured and does not want to sink into further losses just for gaining subscriber volumes,” a media analyst said.

The offer, restricted to new Dish TV subscribers, will include all Doordarshan channels, 9X, Zee Smile, B4U Movies, Cinema TV, News Express, P7News and 9XM. It also has three international channels like NHK World, Russia Today DW-TV Asia+.

The offer also comes with a rider that customers have to remain active by subscribing to a regular package at least twice during the year.

In a nutshell, customers will have to pay Rs 1590 for buying a Dish TV STBs and subsequently have to recharge their account with one of the basic packages twice a year to avail of the pay channels. The cheapest non-south basic package Dish TV offers is the Family pack which is available at Rs 200 for a six-month period (The family pack is priced at Rs. 200 per month).

“The new customers will be eligible to receive a basic channel tier of 70 channels for life (five years). They will just have to do the minimum recharge of Rs 200 every six months to help us identify that they are still on our network,” said Dish TV Chief Operating Officer Salil Kapoor.

Kapoor also informed that in case customers do not recharge twice a year, the free channels will be switched off. He exuded confidence that there would be a significant offtake for the offer since customers don‘t want their television sets to go blank referring to the government diktat that broadcasters will have to switch off signals to analogue homes.

Dish TV’s offer is part of its ‘Go Digital’ campaign for which the operator plans to spend Rs 300 million for multi-media campaign which will include print, on-ground and digial in addition to television commercials, according to Kapoor.

Dish TV plans to spend Rs 900 million towards marketing this fiscal ending 31 March 2013.

Competition unmoved by Dish TV‘s offering

According to an executive from a rival DTH operator, Dish TV‘s new offer is akin to DD Direct Plus (Doordarshan‘s free subscription DTH offering) which offers similar channels and that too at a one time investment of buying a STB. “Customers who want free-to-air channels can opt for DD Direct Plus since they don‘t have to pay for recharging apart from the STB,” the executive said requesting anonymity. Besides, Dish TV has the satellite co-location advantage with DD Direct Plus, the executive added.

Tata Sky managing director Harit Nagpal said that the Dish TV offer is just a re-packaging of an old offer. He also felt that the package is devoid of a competitive advantage since it consists of FTA channels which is also available on DD Direct Plus.

“This product has been in the market for quite sometime. But there was no traction for this kind of product because DTH providers operate in a pay TV market and pay TV customers are looking at pay channels at the end of the day,” Nagpal averred.

Kapoor is, however, undeterred by criticism and is confident that the offer will help Dish TV in consolidating its market leadership, “We expect 7 million consumers to switch from analogue to digital. Out of this about 50-60 per cent are expected to opt for DTH. We expect to capture about 30-35 per cent of that,” he held.

He said that the DTH operator was targeting customers across the spectrum and was not restricted to any specific target group.

The cable TV sector, which has been working on its channel packages, is unmoved by such offerings. “Cable TV subscribers will require Hindi GECs such as Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony and Colors. So there will be no impact on us. The 70 channels on free offering are very weak and consumers will not stay with Dish TV because of that. Moreover, since we have a lot of bandwidth, we can match these free channel offerings,” said the executive of a leading multi-system operator (MSO).

Dish TV‘s churn and other benefits

Dish TV will hope to arrest its churn to cable through this offering. “The switch-off due to non payment will not mean a total blackout of channels. He will get to watch the 70 channels under the new offering till he refills within the six-month period. But how effective this will be to arrest churn remains to be seen since the channels on offer are weak,” an industry observer said.

Dish TV will also get to report on its churn numbers for the new subscribers after a period of six months (from the 3 months that it currently does).

The new offering is also seen by some as an attempt by Dish TV to create a differentiator value. “For those who are choosing a DTH service provider, this will be seen as an incremental value offering. The dealers can make this a selling point to induce new customers. Only time will tell how effective a marketing ploy this will be,” said a media analyst at a broking firm.