Category: Technology

MUMBAI: British pay-TV operator BSkyB has launched Now TV, a new internet TV service to complement its online television service Sky Go.

Building on the increasing popularity of watching TV over the internet, Now TV will offer access to Sky Movies, its subscription movies service, in a new way.

The Now TV service will open up more choice for consumers by making Sky Movies – followed later this year by Sky Sports – available across a wide range of internet-connected devices.

Now TV customers can ‘pay & play‘ for instant access to an extensive range of over 1,000 movies through Sky Store including the very latest ‘now on DVD‘ releases and much-loved classics. ‘Pay & play‘ movies on Now TV range from 99p for classic titles to ?3.49 for the latest blockbusters.

For an all-you-can-watch experience, Now TV also offers the monthly Sky Movies Pass with instant and unlimited access to the entire Sky Movies collection.

At any time, customers with a Sky Movies Pass can choose from over 600 movies, including recent blockbusters and classics from major Hollywood studios such as Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros, and Universal.

All Now TV customers signing up for the Sky Movies Pass can enjoy a free 30-day trial. Following the end of the trial period, the Sky Movies Pass is available for ?15 a month.

Available to anyone in the UK with an internet connection, Now TV will be available on PC, Mac and selected Android smartphones; on iPhone, iPad within the next month, on Xbox later this summer and YouView when it launches.

More Sky content will also be added in the coming months, with Sky Sports due to launch on Now TV before the end of the year. This will enable Now TV customers to enjoy live action from the Barclays Premier League, Uefa Champions League, England Test cricket, Heineken Cup rugby, ATP tennis, the Masters from Augusta and much more.

The introduction of Sky Sports will be followed on Now TV by shows from Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts and Sky Living, including homegrown drama, original comedy and US shows.

Now TV Director Simon Creasey commented, “Now TV will bring more choice to UK consumers and an easy way to enjoy amazing movies, instantly. Following the explosion in internet-connected devices, we know that more and more people are looking for great content to watch over the web, and that‘s where Now TV comes in. As we move forward, Now TV will get even bigger and better, with more devices and more platforms in the coming months. Customers can also look forward to the best live action from Sky Sports and great drama, comedy and entertainment from our Sky channels.”

MUMBAI: BBC Sport has launched an Olympics application for Android and iOS smartphones in the UK.

The free app offers up to 24 streams of live events coverage, comprehensive schedule and results pages, and daily news stories which can be saved for offline reading, ensuring you never miss a moment of the Games, wherever you are.

Alongside live streaming, catch-up coverage and highlights, the app ensures that users always have a Games guide even on-the-go. Offering facts, stats and information, the app generates pages for every athlete, country and sport, updated in real-time. You can also access live daily text commentaries, news stories and a detailed schedule and results section covering every Olympics event.

Extra functionality allows stories to be saved for offline reading, ensuring the latest information is accessible even when mobile reception is unavailable. Additionally, iOS users can personalise the app by adding their favourite Olympics sports to the customisable tab bar, enabling quick access to the latest live action.

BBC News and Knowledge GM Phil Fearnley said, “For the first truly digital Olympics, we needed to ensure that everyone could access our quality coverage wherever they were, across multiple devices. The free BBC Sport Olympics app for UK Android and iOS smartphones ensures that everything you need to keep up-to-date with the action is right there at your fingertips. Even when you’re out of range of 3G or wireless, we’ll still be able to deliver the latest news to you offline.”

Both versions of the app are available for UK smartphone users only. The iOS app is optimised for handsets with iOS 5.0 and above installed. The Android version is optimised for handsets with OS 2.2 and Flash installed.

The Android app can be downloaded now from the Android App Store.

The iOS app can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.

A shortcut app for Blackberry users, which creates a bookmark for the BBC Olympics mobile website, is available from Blackberry App World.

BBC coverage of the 2012 Olympics can also be enjoyed on mobile phones via the mobile browser version of the BBC Sport website.

MUMBAI: ITC’s leading personal care brand Vivel Face Wash along with Hungama Digital Media Entertainment and renowned Indian musician Shankar Mahadevan have launched digital talent hunt – Vivel Face Wash presents ‘MOBisur”.

The mobile & internet based talent hunt promises to give every Indian an opportunity to storm the world with their singing talent.

In harmony with its brand philosophy “Choo Lo Aasmaan”, Vivel Face Wash has partnered with Hungama to provide a platform to aspiring singers and give them an opportunity to hone their skills under the guidance of Shankar Mahadevan. The digital talent hunt enables participation from anywhere in the country; all that a participant requires is a mobile phone or an Internet connection.

It empowers the participants to break the queue and forego travelling to the nearest city for an audition. The winners of the contest will get an opportunity to record an album with Shankar Mahadevan which will be released by T Series and Hungama. The winners will also receive Rs 500,000 cash prize.

Nilanjan Mukherjee, Head of Marketing, Personal Care Products Business, ITC, said, “Vivel Face Wash is delighted to present Mobisur, an exciting and innovative platform to discover hidden musical talent. The brand Vivel caters to the intrinsic beauty needs of the modern Indian woman thereby giving her the confidence to fulfil her aspirations.”

Bhushan Kumar, MD, T-Series, said, “It gives us immense pleasure to be able to bring new talent in to the industry. As a music label, we are always looking for fresh talent and with a truly digital talent hunt; we have access to talent across the country. We are looking forward to releasing an album composed by Shankar Mahadevan for the winner of the hunt.”

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO, Hungama Digital Media Entertainmen said,

The reach of Internet and Mobile technology has grown tremendously in the past few years. The aim of “MOBisur” is to create a talent-scouting engine in spaces that haven’t been explored in the past, via an entry ticket that is their everyday communication device.”

5000 talented female participants selected from entrees submitted on the Vivel Facebook page will make it to the second round. Participants have to dial 546465, record their voice on a unique IVR and begin their musical journey. Alternatively they can also log onto the website MOBisur website and upload their video.

The contestants who clear the first stage of the auditions will be given specific tasks by Shankar Mahadevan. Based on their performance in the tasks and the votes secured for each task, they will be chosen for the next round.

There are three tasks in all and after clearing all three tasks the contestants make it to the final round, which is the On-Stage Performance. 10 Finalists chosen on the basis of Shankar’s scores as well as votes will be flown down to Mumbai to perform in front of Shankar Mahadevan and two other prominent personalities, where the final two winners will be announced.

MUMBAI: An Italian court has ruled that state broadcaster RAI is violating its public service charter by encrypting its free-to-air (FTA) channels in order to deny Sky Italia the ability to carry the Rai channels. Rai will appeal the decision.

The court noted that illegal state aid had been provided to others including Mediaset, the state broadcaster‘s satellite partner.

The ruling by the Lazio administrative court came on the same day that Bank of Italy deputy director general Anna Maria Tarantola was confirmed as the new head of RAI.

RAI encrypts parts of its free programming including some football and news and entertainment shows, preventing Sky viewers seeing them.

Sky Italia, which has been locked in a dispute with Rai for a long time, called the ruling a victory for all its subscribers. It also said that this was an important reminder to RAI that it must comply with its public service obligations toward all Italian citizens.

MUMBAI: Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, has completed its takeover of MSNBC.com by buying out software major Microsoft‘s 50 per cent stake in the news site.

Comcast, which is reportedly paying $300 million for Microsoft‘s stake, has renamed the site to NBCNews.com.

According to media reports, the news site‘s production will move from Washington to New York.

In 2005, NBCUniversal had bought out Microsoft‘s stake in the cable channel but the latter still oversaw the ad sales part of the website‘s business.

MUMBAI: The exponential growth in media and television sector has acted as catalyst in Bihar‘s overall growth due to increased access to information, according to Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor.

“The TV industry has grown 28 per cent since 2007 and the growth in DTH is beyond numeric value at 1069 per cent in these five years which showed that there is higher acceptance of better technology. DTH, a fragment of the media industry pie five years ago, is now the preferred medium of watching television and has 48 per cent share in Bihar,” Kapoor said at a conclave in New Delhi.

Kapoor said that DTH segment, in which Dish is a major player, grew at over a 1000 per cent, even as cable grew by only 50 per cent from 2007 to 2011.

“Dish TV grew by 28 per cent since last financial year. Subscription rates have also jumped from Rs 178 in 2010-11 to Rs 211 in 2011-12,” he added.

He also noted that there is a slow and swift movement from Hindi language content to English language channels, whether it be sports, news or infotainment.

MUMBAI: A growing number of Netflix subscribers prefer to stream TV shows or TV-like programming to movies, according to a new Nielsen study.

The study comes in the backdrop of Netflix announcing that their members had enjoyed more than two billion hours of streamed video in Q4 2011.

A recent Nielsen survey shows 19 per cent of the respondents prefer to use the service for TV or TV-like programming, an increase of eight per cent compared to 2011.

The increase comes in the wake of Netflix not just inking partnerships to re-air programming, but also jumping feet first into production themselves, rolling out original content—like the 8 episode “Lillehammer” starring former Soprano sidekick Steven Van Zandt or the upcoming “Orange is the New Black,” which is the first project from “Weeds” showrunner Jenji Kohan following the Showtime program’s run. The company has also made headlines for resurrecting beloved sitcom “Arrested Development.”

Increasing original content could help to drive Netflix users to stream even more TV-like content in the future.

Conversely, subscribers mainly streaming movies dipped from 53 per cent in 2011 to 47 per cent in 2012, proving that consumption of media happens opportunistically.

Netflix users that prefer to watch both movies and TV shows equally remained relatively flat—36 per cent in 2011 and 35 per cent in 2012.

MUMBAI: An existing US-based investing fund has expressed bullish in the shares of Den Networks, upping its stake by one per cent in the multi-system operator (MSO) for around Rs 145 million.

College Retirement Equities Fund has purchased 1.3 million shares, taking its total stake to 5.93 per cent in the Sameer Manchanda-promoted cable network.

TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund) Investment Management LLC, a financial services firm with $487 billion in assets under management, bought the shares on 11 July. Den Networks on that day opened at Rs 108.70 per share on the BSE and closed higher at Rs 112.75. The open market transaction, the price of which is undisclosed, would have been somewhere in between.

With 5.93 per cent stake, TIAA-CERF is the largest non-promoter shareholder of the company. Other shareholders in Den include StanChart IL and FS Asia Infrastructure G (4.98%) and Network 18 Media And Investments Limited (3.08%) among others. The firm is a leader in helping those in the academic, medical, cultural, governmental and research fields plan for retirement.

Den‘s stock climbed 7.29 per cent to close Friday at Rs 122.10 on the BSE.

“The purchase of Den‘s shares by an existing investor has been the main reason behind the stock going up. It remains to be seen whether this rally will sustain. The scrip price should logically go up just before digitisation in the four metros. There is still an element of uncertainty on whether the digitisation deadline sticks this time around, though the government has sent firm signals to the industry that there would be no further extension,” a media analyst at a broking firm said.

Besides cable TV distribution, Den is part of a joint venture company called Media Pro Enterprise India that distributes Star, Zee and Turner channels in India.

MUMBAI: Smartphone penetration continued to grow during the second quarter of the year, with 54.9 per cent of US mobile subscribers owning smartphones as of 20 June.

This growth is driven by increasing smartphone purchases with two out of three Americans who acquired a new mobile phone in the last three months chose a smartphone instead of a feature phone.

Android continues to lead the smartphone market in the US, with a majority of smartphone owners (51.8 per cent) using an Android OS handset. Over a third (34.3 per cent) of smartphone owners use an Apple iPhone, and Blackberry owners represented another 8.1 per cent of the smartphone market.

Overall among smartphone owners, Apple had the highest manufacturer share of smartphone handsets. Among recent acquirers who obtained their smartphone during June 2012, 54 per cent said they chose an Android handset and 36 per cent bought an iPhone.

MUMBAI: Youku, China’s leading Internet television company, has entered into a multiple-year agreement with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution for the video-on-demand rights in China to a broad collection of current, library and upcoming NBCUniversal feature films.

The new agreement covers upcoming NBCUniversal release in addition to a yearly rotating selection of more than 100 classic titles from NBCUniversal’s catalogue.

These will include Contraband, Safe House, The Lorax, and summer tentpole releases Battleship and Snow White & The Huntsman. The new films will appear on Youku’s platform for paid on-demand viewing after their China theatrical releases.

The films — including Schindler’s List, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III and Apollo 13 — will be available for on-demand viewing through Youku Premium.

“Youku has been steadily broadening and deepening our partnerships with Chinese and international studios. Our new agreement with NBCUniversal is one more step forward towards our goal of offering the highest quality content to Youku’s more than 300 million viewers. The new agreement best demonstrates the confidence that we and our partners share in the growth of Youku Premium,” said Youku’s vice president of movie operations and corporate development Huilong Zhu.

Youku already had licensing with major studios including Disney, Paramount, Dreamworks, Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox.