Category: Technology

MUMBAI: After a year of leaving Fox News, Glen Beck is returning to television with Dish Network.

Beck’s 24-hour online news and entertainment network The Blaze is heading to cable and satellite TV through an alliance partnership with Dish network.

“After being phenomenally successful with his online streaming network, we’re pleased to host Glenn Beck’s return to broadcast TV, especially during this exciting and important political season,” said Dish CEO and president Joseph Clayton in a statement.
 
Beck will continue to host his daily talk show on The Blaze. The programming includes other news and opinion shows, as well as a reality series and e kids’ program.

“The Blaze has helped revolutionise television over the internet, and now we are excited to bring the revolution back to traditional television,” said Beck in a statement.

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had drafted the tariff order on revenue sharing at the behest of broadcasters and, hence, the revenue-sharing formula appears to have benefited them the most.

There was a tacit admission in Para 27 of the Explanatory Memorandum of the Tariff Order issued on 30 April this year that the revenue sharing had been fixed at the behest of broadcasters, said counsel for multi system operator (MSO) Delhi Distribution Company Navin Chawla in his arguments challenging the tariff order in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat).

The tariff order was issued ahead of the transition to digital distribution in the four metros, which has been postponed to 1 November 2012.

Continuing his arguments on Thursday, Chawla said a broadcaster could start a channel irrespective of whether there was a demand for it or not, but an MSO would have to place it as part of the 500 mandated television channels. He said the regulations were clear that if a channel had a viewership of less than 5 per cent of the subscribers, then it could be taken off the bouquet for up to one year but this meant that it would still have to be received from the broadcaster.

The counsel said every MSO would have to create infrastructure for carrying 500 channels even if the demand was for much less, which benefits the broadcasters.
“A broadcaster is free to set up a channel, but I (MSO) cannot be forced to provide a platform for it even if there is no demand,‘ Chawla said.

Section 11A of the regulations says there is no need for a placement fee to be charged in view of the electronic programme guide (EPG), but this favoured the broadcasters since Trai had at the same time mandated that the channels had to be placed genre-wise in the EPG.

Thus, Chawla said, Trai was creating a market for broadcasters through the MSOs.

Referring to the carriage fee, Trai had said this would not be chargeable if an MSO approached a broadcaster. But it had also said that even where carriage fee was payable, it would only be to cover the cost of transmission and this amounted negating the concept of carriage fee.

The tariff was clear that the MSO would have to pay the broadcaster from his share of 65 per cent in the case of a pay channel bouquet of Rs 150 but no study had been undertaken to determine the expenditure that an MSO would have to incur to set up the required infrastructure.

Chawla pointed out that under the conditional access system (CAS), the LCOs could charge Rs 82 for 30 channels. But Trai had failed to give any reasoning for the new concept of the basic service tier of Rs 100 for 100 free to air channels. He said Trai had admitted that the CAS formula of 2006 had worked well and there had been minimal litigation.

When Chawla sought to reiterate that there had been no application of mind or study, Trai Counsel Meet Malhotra intervened to say that there had been an internal study and he would refer to that in his response to the counsel for the petitioners.

Chawla said the very purpose of an Explanatory Memorandum was to give reasoning, but said this had not been done.

He pointed out that the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act as amended in December last year said that the local cable operators would fix the rates, but Trai had said that it would do so.

He said that there was also contradiction within the Act about who will do the packaging of the channels: the LCOs or the MSOs.

Concluding his arguments, Chawla said the Tariff Order had failed to lay down the tariff for the consumer but only given a revenue sharing formula and a ceiling, and no basis had been shown for fixing of either the revenue sharing in the BST of Rs 100 or the bouquet of Rs 150.

He said the differences that had already been brought before Tdsat after the 2010 Tariff Order and had been struck down (though they were pending in appeal in the Supreme Court) had been repeated despite the fact that a new system was being introduced.

“If DAS and direct-to-home were similar as contended by Trai, then why no BST had been fixed for DTH and no rationale had been given for letting DTH take placement fee and carriage fee?,” he argued.

Mumbai: InMobi, an independent mobile advertising network, has experienced a 437 per cent growth in rich media ad impressions on its HTML5 ad authoring platform, Sprout, in the first eight months of 2012.

The growth of mobile and tablet devices, and increase in consumers‘ mobile media consumption during this period have contributed to significant change in the advertising landscape and the uptake of mobile rich media.

Additionally, the company is rebranding its Sprout platform to InMobi Studio. Since acquiring Sprout in August 2011, InMobi has evolved as the platform with ad innovation, engagement reporting and analytics, to develop the product in line with increased customer adoption. Advertising agencies and premium publishers such as Hearst Digital Media, MediaCom EMEA, The Gary Group, and MocoSpace have already adopted the InMobi Studio platform, the company said.

InMobi VP – brand solutions Carnet Williams said, “The growth of InMobi Studio is not only exciting but indicative of the huge market opportunity. Its simplicity and power allow brands and marketers to focus on creating engaging and high-touch brand experiences quickly, without compromising on quality.”

InMobi Studio empowers designers to create rich media ads without coding or technical limitations in an intuitive visual design interface, with features that include gamification, gesturing, animation, mobile video and location-based ads.

The HTML5 ads run on multiple platforms, operating systems and mobile ad networks, and are MRAID and ORMMA compliant. InMobi Studio analytics enable designers to optimise creative in real time, and compare mobile-specific rich media performance and engagement metrics, such as shakes, tilts, and device orientation, across multiple ad networks and publishers.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has negated the very concept of a basic service tier (BST) for a bouquet of free-to-air television (FTA) channels, by giving a “confusing and faulty” Tariff Order, an MSO counsel told Tdsat while arguing against the order.

The order says that a subscriber will be provided a BST of 100 free-to-air (FTA) channels at a fee of Rs 100 but goes on to add that “it shall be open to the subscriber to choose any combination of free to air channels up to 100 channels, in lieu of the BST offered by the multi-system operator.”

This nullified the meaning of BST, counsel for MSO Delhi Distribution Company Navin Chawla, told Tdsat (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal), which is hearing cases challenging the Trai Tariff Order of 30 April.

Chawla pointed out that the order also wants the BST offered by the MSO to include at least five channels of the each genre, namely news and current affairs, infotainment, sports, kids, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment in Hindi, English and regional language of the concerned region.

He argued that if five channels for every language was provided, then the number of channels with all the genres would easily cross 100.

He claimed Trai had done no study to find out whether an average viewer wanted 100 channels in the BST.

In any case, he said a similar order of 2007 had been challenged by the MSO Alliance and others before Tdsat, which had held that that the order had failed to specify tariffs and had only given a ceiling and slabs and that Trai needed to revisit the exercise to fix the tariffs in a holistic manner. Tdsat had also clearly stated that tariff meant the cost that the consumer has to pay.

Chawla said merely because the matter had gone in appeal before the Supreme Court which has ordered status quo till final disposal was no reason for Trai to commit the same flaw five years later. “Each word remains the same and we are back to square one,” he claimed.

He said in any case, no formula for revenue sharing could be laid down unless all the beneficiaries were named. In this case, there had been no reference to the broadcaster and only the MSO and local cable operators (LCOs) had been named. Furthermore, he said a revenue sharing can only be talked about when a systematically worked out revenue figure is given.

He said Section 11(2) of the Trai Act 1997 stated: “The Authority may, from time to time, by order, notify in the Official Gazette the rates at which the telecommunication services within India and outside India shall be provided under this Act including the rates at which messages shall be transmitted to any country outside India”.

Thus, the Act was very clear that the Authority should lay down the tariff that a consumer will have to pay, but this had clearly been overlooked by the Authority which had merely indulged in ‘patchwork’ and not fulfilled its duty. He said a new system like the digital addressable system needed a new Tariff formula, but Trai had merely amended the Tariff Order of 2010.

Chawla claimed that no exercise had been undertaken to work out the costs incurred either by the MSO or the LCO.

He said soon after Trai was given charge of broadcasting in 2004, it had frozen the channel-wise rates in January that year since it was new to the field. That directive had not led to any litigation, and therefore, a similar formula could have been adopted. He said this suggestion had been given to Trai when it held consultations with stakeholders before issuing the latest Tariff Order.

Chawla said that in any case, fixation of the BST should have been the domain of the MSO and the government should have interfered only if all the genres were not supplied to the consumer.

He also challenged the rationale for keeping the overall number of channels at 500. He said that an MSO would have to spend money to put up the technology for receiving so many channels, even if the viewers did not want so many channels. No rationale had been given even for the 100 in the BST or how public interest would have been affected if the number had been different.

MUMBAI: Internet subscription service for films, TV shows Netflix and Disney-ABC Television Group have announced a deal to stream ABC Network, Disney Channel and ABC Family Shows to Netflix members The agreement includes prior seasons of ‘Grey‘s Anatomy,‘ ‘Desperate Housewives‘ and ‘Brothers & Sisters,‘ plus Favorites from Disney Channel and First-Time Netflix Access to ABC Family Shows Netflix, Inc. Logo. (PRNewsFoto/Netflix, Inc.)

The agreement, brokered by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, will add to the growing selection of movies and TV episodes that can be streamed from Netflix. Once made available to Netflix from Disney-ABC – which, for relevant programming, will be no earlier than 15 days after initial telecast – episodes can be streamed instantly with Netflix memberships starting at $7.99 a month.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said, “TV content streamed from Netflix has proven to be immensely popular with our members. Adding to our existing Disney-ABC lineup with great network and cable shows, and opening up ABC Family for the first time, are important steps in creating a wide and diverse selection of content Netflix members of all ages can watch.”
 
In addition to the hundreds of TV episodes included in the agreement, Disney Channel and ABC Family movies such as ‘High School Musical‘, ‘High School Musical 2‘, ‘Camp Rock‘ will also be available to watch at Netflix.

MUMBAI: Entertainment content aggregator, developer, publisher and distributor Techzone has joined hands with 9X Media‘s international music channel 9XO to launch a comprehensive international music store on the internet called www.9XO.56060.in. The store provides a collection of international music which can be downloaded by music aficionados on to their computers and personal devices.

Techzone director Naveen Bhandari said, “Techzone is the only player in India that has presence in the international music market and captures majority for mobile. Our users are mobile and internet savvy and the online store is a part of our efforts to make the entire gamut of international music available to consumers legally and at a very affordable price. We are sure to delight our users with the large library of songs and video titles available through our online store.”

The platform will allow music lovers to sample and download international music. Besides the international music store, 9XO and Techzone have also created WAP Portal to download videos, wallpapers, ringtones and audio packs.
 
9X Media SVP digital Vibha Gosher said, “We are committed to providing the best music across various platforms. 9XO viewers can now consume the best international music through the online store and the WAP portal. The availability of a large repertoire of international songs on the store will definitely make it the preferred destination for international music enthusiasts.”

Techzone has also entered in the laptop/PC segment where customers can download content on mobile as well as on laptop/PC.

Mumbai: Videocon d2h is introducing an audio music service dedicated completely to Ghazals.

According to the DTH player, this is the first time that such a service is being offered by any player in the space. Videocon d2h is paving the way to give this genre “much needed recognition”.

The ‘Ghazal‘ service will be accessible on the Active Music platform. It will feature a collection of Ghazals of singers like Anuradha Paudwal, Ghulam Ali, Chandan Das, Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Alka Yagnik and Lata Mangeshkar.
 
Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added, “Ghazals are extremely popular in our country and they work as great stress busters. We are confident that with this new addition we will be in a position to create a different aura for our brand. It brings us immense pleasure to provide a platform for our consumers to access Ghazals sung by maestros and to be able to enjoy this unique offering though our Active Music services.”

MUMBAI: Exset has selected Hyundai Digital Technology (HDT) as its STB strategic partner, where HDT is presently providing MPEG4 Set-Top-Box service (STBs) for One TV, a nationwide digital terrestrial TV platform service in Cambodia.

Cambodian televisions are expected to switch to Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T) in 2015.

Exset CEO Alex Borland said, “HDT‘s technical team‘s competence during the integration process resulted in a fast turnaround and the STB was integrated timely for the launch of the One TV service.”
 
Hyundai Digital Technology CEO BK Chang added, “As the current Digital Set-Top-Box provider, HDT are indeed honoured to take part in the launch of One-TV service, which is the first commercial DTT service in Cambodia. And I believe that in spite of short time period, the successful launch is possible due to Exset and GS Group‘s seamless efforts and specialized experiences with other projects over the world.”

NEW DELHI: The multi-system operators (MSOs) today said it was erroneous on the part of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to contend that they could earn their revenue from carriage fee and other services provided by them.

Counsel C S Vaidyanathan and Arun Kathpalia on behalf of Digicable Networks and C. Aryama Sundaram on behalf of Indusind Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL) told the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (Tdsat) that the Trai Tariff order was clear an MSO approaching a broadcaster to get a channel on demand will not be entitled to get carriage fee.

Concluding the arguments he had commenced yesterday, Vaidyanathan said the MSOs were all for the digital addressable system but after sorting out the ‘unworkable problems’.

According to the Trai tariff order, charges collected from the subscription in the basic service tier (BST) of 100 free to air television channels (FTA) for Rs 100 will be in the ratio of 55:45 and that of paid channels or bouquet of paid channels will be a maximum of Rs 150 and shall be shared in the ratio of 65:35 between MSO and the local cable operator (LCO) respectively.

Sundaram said the Tariff order was clear in placing obligations only on the MSO, while there was nothing of this kind on the broadcaster or the LCOs.

While supporting the arguments of Vaidyanathan, Sundaram said that the MSO will make just one and a half times above what the broadcaster pays him, but he will have to share this with the LCO. Thus, the MSO will end up paying from his pocket to meet the demands of the LCOs as well as the broadcasters.

As an example, he said that he will have to pay around Rs 100 to the broadcaster and Rs 52.50 to the LCO out of the Rs 150 for the bouquet of paid and FTA TV channels. The 65:35 ratio was unworkable as the MSO would have to pay out of pocket.

He said a tariff order should mean fixing of tariff, but all that Trai had done was to fix a ceiling for the BST and for the bouquet of paid and FTA channels.
 
The provision for carriage fee in the Tariff order becomes unworkable when read with the Interconnect Order, he said. Furthermore, he said the Tariff order had also forbidden any placement fee.

He said that Trai had mandated that an MSO will have to make arrangements for 500 channels, and the MSO could only do this by spending hugely on technology.

There were around 300 FTA channels and, therefore, even the BST would be different for every consumer, with the result that different combinations will have to be made.

He also wondered why Trai had not fixed any rate for the broadcaster to pay as carriage fee, noting that this will mean that a broadcaster can give the same content at different rates for MSO, DTH, and IPTV.

The Trai Act was clear that under Section 11(2), the sector regulator should fix the tariff and not merely give a ceiling or a revenue sharing formula.

He said clearly there was non application of mind in the explanatory memorandum to the Tariff Order, and he also said there was clearly no study or research for fixing the formula.

Kathpalia said there was also fear of monopoly as two broadcasters had joined together to set up their own cartel distribution with vertical interest in some MSOs Thus, there was no level playing field for the MSOs.

Arguments will continue tomorrow as Tdsat also has to hear further arguments on behalf of Digicable and a petition by Delhi Distribution Company, New Delhi.

Also read:

Trai Tariff Order not based on any study or rationale: Counsel

NEW DELHI: A sum of Rs 1 billion has been earmarked for the National Electronics Mission, including marketing and brand development, during the Twelfth Five Year Plan.

This is part of the Rs 334 billion allocated to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology for ‘Promotion of Electronics Hardware Manufacturing’ during the years 2012-17.

Of the total sum, Rs 30 billion is meant for the Electronics Development Fund (EDF), sources in the Telecom and IT Ministry said.
A total of Rs 200 billion would go towards Infrastructure and Ecosystem (Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS), Modified SIPS, Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC).

The proposed allocation in the Twelfth Plan for the Programme, ‘Promotion of Electronics Hardware Manufacturing’, has been sought keeping in view the objectives of the draft National Policy on Electronics 2011. The allocation is required to fund various strategies outlined in the draft National Policy on Electronics 2011.