Category: Technology

MUMBAI: International cable company Liberty Global has reported a 5.2 per cent jump in revenue to $2.52 billion for the second quarter ended 30 June.

Operating Cash Flow was $1.19 billion, reflecting rebased growth of 2.5 per cent. Operating income decreased by three per cent to $479 million. Adjusted Free Cash Flow increased by 24 per cent to $186 million.

Liberty Global has added over 800,000 RGUs during the first six months of the year, reflecting strong demand for our market-leading, triple-play bundles.

Liberty Global president, CEO Mike Fries said, “These gains helped drive our second consecutive quarter of more than five per cent rebased revenue growth. As we expected, rebased OCF growth was modestly below our first quarter result at 2.5 per cent for Q2, which should represent the low point for the year. We remain committed to driving free cash flow growth, with Adjusted FCF increasing 19 per cent year-to-date to $466 million compared to the same period last year.”

Providing guidance for the full year, the company said that as it moved into Q3 and Q4, it expected to generate accelerating rebased OCF growth due largely to the strong volume growth achieved during the first six months, as well as margin expansion in Germany.

“Product innovation remains a core focus of ours as we strengthen our leadership position in digital video products and services. We intend to roll out our next-generation Horizon video platform in the Dutch market next month, followed by Switzerland in Q4. On the wireless front, we launched our 4G mobile service in Chile in mid-May. Although it’s still early, we are very encouraged by the traction that we are getting from existing, as well as new customers,” said Fries.

Also, having added nearly 30,000 wireless subscribers in the first six months, the company expects to see customer take-up accelerate.

The company was engaged in several merger and acquisition activities during the second quarter. First, it closed the sale of its interest in Australian business, Austar, in late May, generating roughly $1.1 billion in proceeds.

Subsequently, Liberty announced an agreement to create the leading cable operator in Puerto Rico by combining OneLink’s and its own cable operations into a joint venture that gives the entity control and consolidation with a 60 per cent majority interest.

“We are also pleased to report that our integration in Germany is proceeding on track with a new management team in place since July 1, combining the best of Unitymedia and KBW,” Fries said.

Liberty‘s consolidated liquidity position stands at approximately $4.0 billion, including $1.9 billion of cash and cash equivalents. “This gives us ample capital to deploy into high return investment opportunities, including acquisitions and our stock buyback program. As of June 30, we had repurchased approximately $430 million of equity this year and remain committed to completing our $1 billion target for 2012,” Fries stated.

MUMBAI: Pay-Per-View (PPV) and Video On Demand (VOD) platform in China, You On Demand, has signed an agreement to offer Paramount Pictures titles through its Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD) and Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) services in the People‘s Republic of China.

The titles that will be available to You On Demand customers include the ‘Mission: Impossible‘ franchise starring Tom Cruise, including the latest in the series, ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol‘, Michael Bay‘s ‘Transformers‘, the Coen Brothers‘ ‘No Country For Old Men‘ and director/producer J.J. Abrams‘ ‘Star Trek‘.

You On Demand CEO, chairman Shane McMahon said, “Paramount Pictures is one of Hollywood‘s most iconic studios and we are delighted to offer films from its rich library to our customers. The addition of Paramount‘s roster now gives YOU On Demand the most vibrant and compelling titles available in the People‘s Republic of China.”

Paramount now joins Warner Bros. Entertainment, Disney Media Distribution, Lionsgate, Miramax Pictures, Magnolia Pictures, Gravitas Ventures, Film Buff, K2 Communications, 3net and Big Mama Digital Entertainment (Karaoke) as content providers working with You On Demand in its efforts to bring the best in home entertainment to audiences in China.

MUMBAI: UK‘s Competition Commission has said that pay TV service provider Sky‘s strong position in the pay-TV movie market does not adversely affect competition.

The Competition Commission had initially said that Sky’s exclusive deals with film studios to air their movies when they first air on television restricted competition. However, the Competition Commission has now decided not to take action over the situation.

The Competition Commission noted that companies like Netflix and LoveFilm have increased competition and consumer choice.

Competition Commission chairman of the inquiry group Laura Carstensen said, “In our view, competition in the pay-TV retail market remains ineffective but we were asked by Ofcom to look specifically at the role of first pay-movie content and Sky‘s position with regard to these rights. We have concluded that this content does not provide Sky with such an advantage when competing for pay-TV subscribers as to harm competition and, given this finding, we are not proposing any remedies. We note that, were there to be a material change in the circumstances which have led us to our findings, this might warrant renewed scrutiny of these issues. We also note that Ofcom has sought separately to remedy Sky’s position with regard to sports content.”

MUMBAI: The mobile data services market is projected to grow to Rs 671 billion by 2015, according to a recent report by IAMAI-IMRB.

The study estimates that over 30 per cent of the total mobile revenues would come from mobile data services, contributing 54 per cent of telecom revenue by 2015.

With mobile devices driving consumption for news, social media, e-commerce & banking, video-on-demand, gaming & entertainment, there is a need for the industry to strengthen the existing eco-system. A major challenge that remains for the industry is to drive engagement from customers on the mobile screen utilising the internet.

It is in this background of explosive growth that the IAMAI is organising the Mobile Innovation Conference on 8 August at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai. The conference aims to become a platform to encourage industry leaders – both from the telcos and providers of mobile data platforms and services – to come together and collaborate on the future of engaging customers on mobiles.

Highlighting the need of the industry to look at revenues beyond traditional means, the event will open with a key note address by Vishwanath Alluri (Founder & CEO – IMImobile) on mobile ‘mEngagement – Its Present, Future & Relevance to businesses in India.’ Idea Cellular managing director Himanshu Kapania will also be speaking at the event on ‘Services beyond Voice and SMS‘ in the mobile space.

IAMAI president Dr. Subho Ray said, “Thus far, the mobile industry has focused on aggregating numbers for mobile usage. While MVAS provided consumers with information, entertainment and utility services and generated incremental revenues for operators, the time is now ripe to move beyond MVAS and focus on enterprise adoption of mobile technologies for greater business productivity. A robust and proven mobile data services platform that can act as a bridge between operators and enterprises is needed. Such a platform can drive enterprise adoption of mobile and open up new revenue streams for operators.”

The Mobile Innovation Conference will feature participation from prominent industry thought leaders like Neeraj Roy (Managing Director & CEO – Hungama), Anisha Singh (Founder & Chief Executive Officer – mydala.com), Jonathan Bill (Senior Vice President and Business Development – Vodafone India), Beerud Sheth (Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer – SMS Gupshup) and Sunil Kamath (Sales Director- India & SAARC – Opera Software).

IAMAI & IMImobile will also be releasing a joint study on ‘Mobile Adoption: State of Indian Enterprises’ during the inaugural session of the event.

MUMBAI: Vuclip has announced the launch of its new advertising unit Vuclip Click2Vid globally.

Vuclip Click2Vid is a mobile video ad unit that provides media experience across 5,500 devices, including smartphones, feature phones and tablets, without requiring time consuming, manual adjustments by brands or advertising agencies. 
 
The pilot run of this program is running in India and according to the company, brands such as Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Cadbury Silk have already experienced success reaching more than 100 million mobile Internet users in India. For example, Cadbury Silk experienced one million impressions from an approximately six-week campaign, the company said in a statement.

Vuclip‘s Click2Vid ad unit allows clients and agencies to handle all aspects of ensuring the creative is optimised for all devices and can play the video ad directly, without the need for an intermediate landing page.
 
MadHouse India COO Vinod Thadani said, “We‘ve been helping our brand owners get very focused on targeting consumers where they spend the majority of their time — on their mobiles – and Vuclip has helped us achieve great success. Vuclip Click2Vid has even enabled us to take television commercials and run them on mobile and enable consumers to interact with them- an innovation I thought would never be possible!”

“We‘re hearing from our pilot advertisers that we have nailed the perfect combination of respect for the user and efficiency for advertisers by making mobile advertising device agnostic. We already have a track record of delivering optimized mobile video to more than 5,500 device types and this announcement is an extension of that. Our priority is to connect consumers with brands without friction,” Vuclip global head of advertising and managing director of Southeast Asia Ashwin Puri added.

Vuclip Click2Vid is now available in the US, Indonesia and India.

NEW DELHI: The Government has said broadcasters, multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators should speed up finalisation of agreements if the first phase of digitisation has to be implemented on 1 November.

In the meeting of the Task Force on digitisation on Wednesday, Additional Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Rajiv Takru was clear that the government will not tolerate such delay.

The broadcasters informed the Government that talks were still on in about 90 per cent of the cases for signing agreements with multi-system operators (MSOs).

MSOs would need to ink their content agreements so that they can work out channel packages and approach consumers to make the shift to digital cable TV.

On the cable TV front, MSOs and LCOs have to settle their revenue share agreements. The LCOs control the last mile to the consumer homes and form a valuable part of the distribution chain.

Several MSOs are in advanced talks with local cable operators for finalising the revenue-share deals. The LCOs are unhappy with the revenue share mandated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Trai has fixed LCOs‘ revenue share of 45 per cent for free-to-air channels (FTA) and 35 per cent in case of pay channels. The LCOs want their revenue share to be increased as the onset of digital cable will result in their having to disclose the actual number of subscribers. The total subscribers disclosed by the LCOs now is much lower than the actual numbers which helps them in not having to pay to MSOs for all their subscriber connections.

Apart from representatives of the I&B Ministry, ASSOCHAM and Broadcast Engineering Society India Ltd. (BECIL), the meeting was attended by Arun Mohan of Zee on behalf of the broadcasters while Ashok Mansukhani represented the MSO Alliance and Roop Sharma represented the LCOs.

The Task Force comprising all stakeholders was constituted by the Ministry in April 2011 to oversee digitisation.

It was also found that deployment of STBs at cable homes had slowed following the deferment of the sunset date for analogue cable connections. The Ministry wanted STB deployment to be hastened.

The Task Force decided to meet again on 3 September to take stock of the situation with regard to deployment of STBs in the four metros where analogue is scheduled to switch off on 31 October.

The Government – which wants to complete digitisation in the country by December 2014 – had on 20 June postponed the sunset date by four months to 31 October.

Mumbai: Jump Games, Reliance Entertainment Digital‘s mobile and web games developer and publisher, has partnered with Playtone to launch the official mobile application for Tom Hanks‘ multi-dimensional animated series, Electric City.

The app is currently available on iOS and Android platforms.

The application includes all available episodes from the series created by and starring Tom Hanks, an original Role Playing Game (RPG) featuring a key character from the online series, digital comic books that expand on the series‘ mythology and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks from its development.

Reliance Entertainment CEO – digital business Manish Agarwal said, “Electric City is an ambitious and groundbreaking series from one of the world‘s biggest stars, and we are proud to help bring Tom Hanks‘ vision to mobile audiences.”

“We always knew that Electric City was a big, multi-dimensional story, and that it made sense to present it in a non-traditional way,” Playtone partner Gary Goetzman added.

Available for $0.99, the mobile RPG game allows players to step into the role of a key character from the series as he attempts to undermine the control of the Electric City and restore freedom to its people.

MUMBAI: Sun Direct has introduced recording feature facility as an addition to its HD services.

Subscribers can now record unlimited HD or SD television content via USB port facility in the all new PVR box.

The new Sun Direct HD boxes let us attach any external storage like a USB drive or HDD & record TV content on it.

The direct-to-home (DTH) company claims the new HD boxes have following advantages: unlimited recording, recording content from a channel while watching other channels, ability to set time up to a week in advance to record future programs, and facility to pause the live channel and watch after a short break.

From now on, TV shows will no more be a hindrance to your daily chores or spending quality time with your family. With the Sun Direct HD PVR recording, you can schedule all your programs and not having to worry about missing your soccer game or a daily serial.

Speaking on the new launch, Sun Direct CEO Mahesh Kumar said, “We aim at offering the best to our customers, adding value and presenting our product with a class. We are happy to launch the new HD recording facility for affordable cost, so our customers will all enjoy the benefits of time shift recording.”

MUMBAI: After taking full ownership of UTV Software Communications, The Walt Disney Company is consolidating its digital assets in India under a new arm, DisneyUTV Digital, to drive growth in games, video and audio services for mobile, online and interactive TV.

The new division will combine the businesses and talent from Disney, UTV and Indiagames. All content and brands from Disney, Marvel and UTV Bindass, as well as original content and games, will now be developed and managed by DisneyUTV Digital.

Incidentally, UK-based Ignition, a video game publisher, is not part of the new division. The possible reason for this is that Ignition, which has operations in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo, doesn‘t have operations in India. Its portfolio includes titles such as El Shaddai, Mercury, Deadly Premonition, and Faxion Online among others.

UTV had acquired UK-based Ignition along with Indiagames for Rs 1.28 billion in 2006.

The digital division will be spearheaded by Vishal Gondal as managing director. He and Samir Bangara, also MD of the division, will work in collaboration to drive DisneyUTV‘s future growth. Prior to his appointment, Bangara was COO in UTV Indiagames.

The DisneyUTV Digital team will manage all mobile, video, audio, broadband, ITV, games and virtual world‘s initiatives, with a combined audience reach of over 300 million in India.
Previous successes from the Disney and UTV teams in India include several innovative and popular products in the country including Audio Cinema, Divya Kathayein, Digital Studio, Sponsored Tweets, successful mobile games such as Aladdin, DLF IPL Cricket, Cricket Fever, Ra.One Genesis and Club Penguin.

DisneyUTV Digital teams will innovate and deliver unique cross platform and cross media digital experiences focused on entertaining the Indian digital audiences across age groups, the company said.

“Digital media in India is evolving rapidly with mobile leading the way. The country has the world‘s third largest mobile internet user base with over 121 million users (of whom 59% are monthly active users) as of December 2011 in addition to the 85 million PCs and growing number of tablets. With the launch of 3G and onset of 4G services, digital consumption of entertainment is at an all time high and is exhibiting strong growth with new monetisation models emerging around Freemium and ad-funded content,” the company added.

UTV gaming and new media business had raked in Rs 1.2 billion, contributing to 13 per cent of UTV‘s total revenue in FY‘11. The company had registered revenue of Rs 1.07 billion from the segment in the previous fiscal.

The segment, comprising Ignition, Indiagames, True Games, web and mobile, had an operating profit of Rs 141 million, as against an operating loss of Rs 148 million in FY‘10.

Disney UTV Team :

• Cyril Ferry – Executive Director – Mobile


• Sameer Pitalwalla – Director – Video and Celebrity


• Lavina Tauro – Director – Audio and Music


• Deepak Ail – Director – Mobile


• Hrishi Oberoi – Director – Games Publishing


• Saishree Ashwin – Manager – Virtual Worlds


• Tejraj Parab – Business Head – Games on Demand


• Dushyant Saraswat – Director – Broadband & 4G initiatives


• Sachin Janghel – Director – ITV


• Aji Joseph – Director – Ad Sales

MUMBAI: As it plans to split its media empire, News Corp has announced that it will cut 29 per cent of its staff at its online newspaper The Daily, which it had launched with much fanfare last year.

News Corp will eliminate 50 full-time staff members from The Daily in its bid to revamp the loss-making paper.

The company plans to shift The Daily‘s sports coverage to content partners like Fox Sports and eliminating the online publication‘s standalone opinion section besides including opinion pieces and editorials in the publication‘s news pages.

Editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo said: “Unfortunately, these changes have forced us to make difficult decisions and to say goodbye to some colleagues who have worked hard to make The Daily successful.”

The Daily is believed to have 100,000 paying subscribers.