Category: Technology

MUMBAI: Mogae Digital has launched a new offering, Talking Comics, which will go live on Tata Sky later this week.

The video stories will be carried on Actve Wizkids and will be promoted on the the default channel – Channel 100.

The service will start with 50 comics and will go up to 120 by September. Stories from Tenali Rama, Mullah Nassrudin, Akbar-Birbal, Bheema, Krishna, Vikram-Betaal and Krishna series will go live in the inaugural round. Yudhishtra, Duryodhan, Arjun, Karan, Bheeshma, Raavan, Guru Nanak, Sai Baba and Gautam Buddha will be unveiled in September. Stories from the Bible, and a series of Ghost Stories will be launched early next year.

Mogae Group executive director Tanya Goyal said, “Talking Comics is a revolutionary new product. It gives a video experience that does not take away from the pleasure of ‘reading‘ a comic. Mogae has invested the last four years into creating original world-class IP in the comics space, specifically for mobile devices.”

Mogae Digital has over 50 titles and over 2000 stories created entirely at Mogae Studios. “With newer opportunities opening up on DTH, we have spent over 18 months creating this new genre of Talking Comics,” Goyal added.

Talking Comics were originally created to give a video experience to comics on mobile hence the file sizes are kept light.

“We were the first to ‘create‘ comics for mobile on Indian mythology, history and folklore. Earlier comic creators like Amar Chitra Katha created comics for paper. When taken on to mobile these comics were heavy and difficult to download. In our case, each story is easy to download, and easy to scroll. The mobile versions of all comics are in UAT (User acceptance testing) at most mobile operators and will go live this quarter,” Goyal explained.

Mogae is in talks with other DTH operators too for the Talking Comics.

Additionally, a comedy series created in partnership with a leading TV channel is being currently worked upon as a Talking Comics product. Its launch is slated for August-September, the company said.

Also, later this year Mogae will be launching a mobile-greetings product. Over 2000 animation based cards have been created for the same.

Mogae Digital is part of the Mogae Group, co-owned by Sandeep and Tanya Goyal, erstwhile JV partners of Dentsu India.

MUMBAI: Norway-based Opera Software is exploring opportunities to partner set top box manufacturers in India which will allow DTH, IPTV and cable subscribers to access Internet via TV.

“It is a good time to get into this (digital devices space)…We would look at partnering someone like say Huawei to build our browser onto their platform,” Opera Software Sales Director (India and SAARC) Sunil Kamath has been quoted as saying.

The company feels the cable digitalisation in India will throw up big opportunities as every cable television household will have to avail STBs by 2014 in order to access channels.

Opera has recently partnered telecom operators like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular to distribute a co-branded Opera Mini mobile phones.

“Such tie-ups help us reach out to more consumers and gives us another distribution channel,” Kamath said.

“India is a strategic market for us. We support 14 Indian languages and we are confident that we will continue to see the strong growth that we have seen in the last few months,” he added.

MUMBAI: Leading satellite operator SES has said that the SES-5 satellite has been successfully launched into space on board an ILS Proton Breeze M booster.

After a 9-hour, 12-minute mission, the Breeze M upper stage of the Proton rocket released the SES-5 satellite directly into geostationary transfer orbit.

The SES-5 satellite was designed and built for SES by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a leading manufacturer of commercial satellites.

The spacecraft, to be positioned at the orbital slot of 5 degrees East, features 36 active Ku-band transponders and up to 24 active C-band transponders.

SES-5 has two Ku-band beams, one serving customers in the Nordic and Baltic countries and one serving Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as two C-band beams, one with global coverage and one with hemispheric coverage over Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The satellite provides Ku-band uplink capability, allowing for flexible operations between Europe and Africa.

SES-5 is designed to deliver high performance and extensive coverage for direct-to-home (DTH) services, broadband, maritime communications, GSM backhaul, and VSAT applications in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The satellite also features the L-band payload for the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). The EGNOS payload, which was developed for the European Commission (EC), will help verify, improve, and report on the reliability and accuracy of navigation positioning signals in Europe.

SES President and CEO Romain Bausch declared, “SES-5 marks the second successful ILS-Proton launch in 2012 for SES and the third SES satellite delivered by Space Systems/Loral in the last ten months. SES-5 furthermore hosts the EGNOS payload for the European Commission. The powerful new satellite enters the global SES fleet as Number 51.

“We would like to thank the launch teams of Space Systems/Loral, ILS, Khrunichev and SES for their dedicated work that ultimately ensured total mission success. We would also like to thank the European Commission for entrusting SES with the EGNOS hosted payload. After thorough in-orbit testing, SES and its customers can now look forward to SES-5 providing new, state-of-the-art satellite capacity across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”

MUMBAI: Persistent Systems, the outsourced software product development (OPD) services provider, has been appointed to provide social media analytics for Star India‘s Satyamev Jayate.

The Aamir Khan hosted show, which deals into social issues, has created buzz in the digital space with viewers sharing their opinions, personal experiences and suggestions through SMS, IVR and online media which has resulted in the creation of a large volume of data.

In the last few weeks, there has been a wealth of unstructured responses flowing in from a variety of sources like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, website comments, SMS polls, and phone voice messages.

This data is being analysed and delivered by Persistent Systems to Satyamev Jayate team at Star India and Aamir Khan Productions in real time to understand the impact the show has on the governmental, social and, most importantly, the individual level, the company said.

Content Filtering, Ranking and Tagging System (CFRTS) has been custom developed for the data analysis of Satyamev Jayate, the company said.

Commenting on the partnership, Persistent Systems chairman and MD Anand Deshpande said, “We are very excited to be a strategic partner to the creative and unique initiative that is Satyamev Jayate. By working with Star and the Satyamev Jayate team we are leveraging our expertise to contribute towards a social cause.”

Persistent has assembled an array of automated tools to parse the data and a user-interface for several hundred analysts to process messages for deep analytics. The result is a cluster-based analysis along with trend, demographics and sentiment analysis for each message.

The data is being portrayed on a series of dashboards that are featured online at savatmevjayate.in as well as on air on the Star Network.

“We are very keen to understand and capture the chronology of change that is being affected through Satyamev Jayate. Hence we were looking for a partner who can not only mine the relevant data, but also analyse and present it in a meaningful way,” said Star India VP Digital Lalit Bhagia.

MUMBAI: India’s leading e-commerce website Snapdeal.com has partnered with sports goods company Stag International to help promote and popularise Table Tennis as a sport in the country through online channels.

With this partnership, Snapdeal.com customers can now buy all sporting products and accessories by Stag International. These products are available under the Sports and Hobbies category. The category also features products across Cricket, Tennis, Squash, Badminton, Football, Basketball, and fitness accessories.

As part of this initiative, Snapdeal.com also conducted a week long online contest for Table Tennis enthusiasts. Winners from this contest won a lifetime opportunity to play a rally with the table tennis legend and 5-times Former World Table Tennis Champion Peter Karlsson in New Delhi/NCR.

Speaking of this initiative, Snapdeal.com Head – Sports & Hobbies Category Amit Monga said, “Stag International being a renowned name in this domain, we are glad to have partnered with them. With this, we are certain that we would be able to reach to a wider audience of sports enthusiasts”.

Commenting on the event, Stag International Vice Chairman Vivek Kohli said, “We are very delighted to invite Peter Karlsson, 5-times Former World Table Tennis Champion to India, to nurture the young talent and promote the game of Table Tennis in the Country. Every table Tennis Fan across the world dreams to play a match with the World Champion and as Peter is in India we at Stag decided to fulfill the dreams of Indian Table Tennis Fans by providing them with such a platform.”

MUMBAI: India‘s Star Television Network Monday launched four of its channels – Star India Plus, Life OK, Star India Gold, and ABP News – in New York and New Jersey on Time Warner Cable.

The four channel package will be available via subscription for $19.99 per month to Time Warner Cable subscribers.

“Being available on Time Warner Cable will enable us to reach a broader audience and move closer to our objective: to ensure that the Star Network of channels is available to every South Asian in the world. This will complement and enhance the array of Hindi-language channels being offered on Time Warner Cable,” said Star TV EVP of International Business Rajan Singh.

The Star TV networks will be available on the following channel numbers on Time Warner Cable: Star India Plus will be available on Channel 565, Life OK on Channel 566, Star India Gold on Channel 567 and ABP News on Channel 568.

MUMBAI: IAB UK, in cooperation with ESPN, has publish the results of research into fans‘ media consumption around Uefa Euro 2012, to understand the role played by online, mobile and social alongside more traditional media.

The research – conducted with UK sports fans – found that while TV remains the preferred viewing device to watch the tournament, more than half (54 per cent) use another digital device whilst watching – so-called “second screen” activity.

Furthermore, it found that social networking and mobile play a vital role in keeping viewers up to date and enhancing excitement around the tournament. The study also affirms the huge appeal of such tournaments for brands, with almost all respondents (98 per cent) having watched at least one Uefa Euro 2012 match.

Multi-screen engagement remains high with tablets rising in prominence: Fans‘ use of multiple devices to watch matches remains high with the use of tablets surging with one in ten who used an additional device whilst watching games on TV used a tablet.

Smartphones took the top spot with 28 per cent of respondents favouring this as their second-screen device alongside the TV set.

Whereas ESPN and IAB research around fans‘ media consumption of the 2010 Fifa World Cup showed laptops to be fans‘ favourite alternative to TV for watching matches, the latest research shows laptops have slid to second place, with 25 per cent of respondents choosing this as their second screen device.

The research also shows that fans are using second screens heavily for sports: more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of those dual screening whilst watching Uefa Euro 2012 games use the extra device on Uefa Euro 2012-related activity.

Of this group, 39 per cent visited social networking sites in relation to the matches, 17 per cent visited related websites, 16 per cent placed bets and 11 per cent use related apps.

In addition to using a second screen for Uefa Euro 2012 activities, the research found that people are also continuing with their normal internet usage behaviour while watching matches on TV, with 61 per cent checking emails and 13 per cent choosing to carry out their online banking chores whilst the games were on.

Excitement intensifies via social networks: 16 per cent of fans read tweets, 10 per cent published tweets while 20 per cent of respondents said that social networks played a crucial role in keeping them up to speed with the game when they were unable to watch it live. Websites also had a part to play in keeping fans informed with 23 per cent going online for live scores and updates.

Additionally, more social media interaction is happening during games rather than before or after, with 25 per cent sending text messages or 16 per cent reading tweets, suggesting a shift as people have become more comfortable with the technology.

The research follows a similar exercise by both parties around the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

IAB research manager Hannah Bewley said, “With the next World Cup taking place in Brazil it will be interesting to see what impact the time difference in Brazil has on social media for the 2014 World Cup.

A great opportunity for location based and social advertising no doubt.”

ESPN Europe, Middle East and Africa associate director sales Jehan Shah added, “The research shows that it is more important than ever for brands and media companies to develop multiple and varied digital sports offerings for fans. It also shows the rise of fans‘ ‘second-screen‘ activities while watching games on TV is not a zero sum game: it shows there is a growing, robust market to serve fans with companion, supplementary digital services.”

The research was based on a survey using the ESPN Fan Forum – which is a representative sample of over 3,000 UK sports fans the sports media company regularly engages with for research into their views and media-consumption habits – between 16-21 June this year. The ESPN Fan Forum is managed by Ipsos Mori.

MUMBAI: UK pay TV service provider BSkyB has announced that Sky customers, with compatible Android devices, can now enjoy content from Sky on-demand through Sky Go. A selection of catch-up content from Sky Movies, Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living and Sky Arts 1 will now be available through Sky Go on all compatible Android devices.

Sky Go brings together online and mobile TV in a simple service for Sky TV customers at no extra cost. Available on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, selected Android smartphones and Xbox 360, Sky Go allows subscribers to watch content in line with their subscription while on the move in the UK and Ireland through a 3G or WiFi connection.

Each Sky home is entitled to register up to two devices, through which they can access live channels and, selected on-demand content.

As part of the latest update to the Android app, new features include: VOD Movies, and Sky Entertainment channels Content from Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living and Sky Arts 1.

Additionally, Sky Go customers can now view their Sky package and bill from within Sky Go by a direct link to the customer service pages.

By the end of this month an additional update to Sky Go will support the Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich on compatible devices, as well as new devices including the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy Nexus.

Sky Go product director Holly Knill commented, “With the huge and ever-growing popularity of Android devices in the UK it‘s fantastic to make on-demand content from Sky Movies and Sky Entertainment available to Sky customers for the first time.

“This update means customers can enjoy some of the most popular shows such as Sky Atlantic‘s Mad Men, Veep and hundreds of the latest Hollywood blockbusters, whenever suits them. We hope this update to the service offers extra flexibility to Android users and the new option of on-demand viewing makes a richer experience for all Sky customers across all platforms.”

The Sky Go Android app, which launched in February on a selection of Android smartphones, offers eight sports channels including Eurosport. Sky Movies customers can enjoy 11 Sky Movies channels, as well as hundreds of movies on-demand including Rio and X-Men: First Class.

Beyond Android mobile devices, on-demand content from a range of channels is also available on Sky Go for PC, laptops, Xbox and iOS devices.

MUMBAI: Hip Hop Global Media and Entertainment has announced plans to debut Hip Hop 1TV and Hip Hop 2 -Movie Channels at the 2013 Natpe Conference in the US.

The channels have also solidified a partnership agreement with the Hip Hop Hall of Fame to co-develop and produce co-branded content for television shows and movie projects for major distribution and syndication.

“This deal has been in the making for a few years now, and with the Hip Hop Hall of Fame Museum becoming a reality, Hip Hop Global Media & Entertainment will serve as a content marketing and production consultant to the facility and its broadcast studio that is in the works,” stated Hip Hop VP Programming Julian Ramui.

Hip Hop 1-TV is a hip-hop television network channel. The channel will feature daily shows, and weekly programmes, themed video segments, and annual television specials. The network will be an artists and celebrity driven themed programmer that is geared to both the national and international hip hop audiences. Shows include breaking news, feature stories, interviews, live events, behind the scenes all-access, and on-site remote broadcasts with the artists.

Hip Hop 2-Movie Channel will be available 24/7 to the hip hop audience. The channel will feature the biggest names in Hollywood, hip-hop, and independent filmmakers.

Original films, documentaries, and biographies will be produced in house, and in collaboration with artists, labels, and Hollywood studios. There will be all access shows, interviews, how to get in the biz, and “on-the-set” show segments that will make up non-film programming on the network.

The Hip Hop 1TV and Hip Hop 2Movie Channels are preparing to unveil their programming slate and schedules for 2013-14 season to MSOs, Satellite operators, International Distributors, Corporate Brands, and advertising agency clients.

MUMBAI: India is expected to overtake the US in 2017 in terms of digital TV penetration while China will have the most pay TV subs at 315 million by end-2017, according to a study by Digital TV Research.

India will follow behind China with pay TV subscribers touching 145 million, the study said.

Based on forecasts for 80 countries, the number of digital TV homes will double between 2011 and 2017 to 1,323 million, according to the new report.

The digital TV world household forecasts report estimates that global digital penetration will climb from 48.6 per cent at end-2011 to 86.7 per cent by 2017.

Of the 648 million digital TV homes to be added between 2011 and 2017, 259 million will come from digital cable. Primary FTA DTT [homes taking DTT but not subscribing to cable, DTH or IPTV] will bring in a further 174 million, with pay DTT adding 5 million. Pay IPTV will increase by 114 million, with pay DTH up 66 million and FTA DTH 31 million.

Report author Simon Murray said: “There were still 714 million analogue TV households (both terrestrial and cable, with a few analog DTH ones) by end-2011. However, this total will fall to 202 million by end-2017. Analogue penetration will drop from 51.4 per cent at end-2011 to 13.3 per cent by end-2017.”

There will be 140 million analog terrestrial homes and 62 million analogue cable ones by end-2017. However, digital cable subscriptions will reach 494 million homes, followed by 220 million pay digital DTH and 139 million free-to-air digital DTH.

Pay IPTV will contribute another 165 million households, up from only 51 million at end-2011. Meanwhile, FTA (free-to-air) DTT homes will reach 291 million, with pay DTT generating a further 15 million.

Digital cable will be the most popular TV platform by end-2017, accounting for 32.4 per cent of the world’s TV households, with analogue cable still serving 4.1 per cent of TV homes. Pay digital DTH penetration will be 14.4 per cent, with FTA digital DTH accounting for 9.1 per cent.

Pay IPTV penetration will climb to 10.8 per cent, up from only 3.7 per cent at end-2011.

About 16.7 per cent of homes will be primary FTA DTT at end-2016, with 0.9 per cent pay DTT.

Analogue terrestrial TV will be taken by 9.2 per cent of the world’s TV households, down from 31.8 per cent at end-2011. Of the 648 million digital TV households to be added between 2011 and 2017, 440 million (68 per cent) will be in the Asia Pacific region, bringing its total to 714 million.

China became the largest digital TV household nation in 2010, and will boast 417 million digital homes by end-2017. Second-placed India will overtake the US in 2017.

Global digital penetration will reach 87 per cent by end-2017, up from 49 per cent at end-2011. Regional penetration at end-2017 will vary from 100 per cent in North America to 76 per cent in Latin America. However, Latin America and Asia Pacific will record strong conversion to digital. By 2017, 47 countries will be completely digital compared with only Finland and Spain at end-2011.

Pay TV penetration (analog and digital combined) reached half of the world’s TV households by end-2010, and will rise to 63 per cent by end-2017.

Penetration at end- 2017 will range from 87 per cent in North America to 22 per cent in the Middle East and Africa. Pay TV penetration will remain highest in the Netherlands, at 99.5 by end-2017.