Category: Technology

MUMBAI: TV18 founder-promoter Raghav Bahl has become much bolder in setting up his distribution business in 2012, first sheltered under MSM Discovery‘s TheOneAlliance and then moving to a strategic alliance with the Sun Group.

Adding the ETV regional-language channels and getting billionaire Mukesh Ambani (RIL invested in Network18 Media & Investments and TV18 through Independent Media Trust) to clean-up his debt overhang, Bahl has identified pay-TV revenues as his next growth driver at a time when India is preparing to migrate from analogue to digital cable.

Bahl will have media conglomerate Viacom as a minority partner with 25 per cent stake in IndiaCast, the new distribution company that will also house the syndication business and exploit content across all media platforms.

TV18 will hold the remaining 75 per cent as Bahl searches for new revenues that will propel his media empire to the leaque of major broadcasting networks like Star India, Zee Entertainment and Multi Screen Media (formerly known as Sony Entertainment Television India) in subscription revenues.

“TV18 is a laggard compared to the biggies so far as subscription revenues go. It will really have to ramp up pay revenues,” says the head of a leading broadcasting network who did not want his name to be revealed.

TV18 group of channels, including flagship Hindi general entertainment channel Colors, earn a subscription revenue of around Rs 3 billion a year. The handling of the ETV channels (barring Telugu which is still with ETV) will mean another Rs 1 billion, says a source close to the company.

Compare this with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) that posted domestic subscription of Rs 9.22 billion in FY‘12, up 28.4 per cent from the earlier year. Star and MSM also enjoy pay revenues that are more than double that of TV18.

Carving out an independent existence, Bahl has spotted Anuj Gandhi, a veteran with years of experience, to shepherd the growth of IndiaCast. The equal joint venture company between TV18 and Viacom18 will bring pay revenues, carriage and placement under one roof, allowing it to plan its deals with cable TV networks with a focus on net revenues. Setpro, the Network18 subsidiary that used to handle carriage and placement fees, stands dissolved.

“Bahl has the knack of picking up the top person who would make a difference to his expanded business. When he launched general news channel CNN IBN, he got Sameer Manchanda and Rajdeep Sardesai. When Colors was planned for launch, he got Rajesh Kamat to head the channel. For his distribution and content syndication business, he will have Gandhi to nurse the company to growth,” says an analyst who tracks media.

Barely three months after joining TV18 Group, Gandhi has plotted a free existence for IndiaCast. Sun Group will no longer distribute the TV18 channels in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnata and Kerala. It will still have Tamil Nadu, the regional broadcaster‘s home turf.

“We have got three more markets while Sun will continue to distribute our channels in Tamil Nadu. We also have the ETV channels to distribute in India and overseas barring ETV Telugu (GEC) and ETV2 (Telugu news channel) that they own. We will continue to distribute the Sun group and Disney channels in the Hindi speaking markets,” says IndiaCast Group CEO Gandhi.

TV18‘s subscription revenues from the southern markets is dismally low, accounting for around 12 per cent of its total pay revenues. The other big broadcasters manage to mop up 20-25 per cent of their total pay revenues from the southern region.

“We are expecting to get an upside in subscription revenues from the south. We have not fully tapped the market there,” says Gandhi.

Why did IndiaCast decide to leave the distribution of the TV18 channels to Sun Group in Tamil Nadu when it had lost its cable TV dominance in the state after the Jayalalithaa government decided to float Arasu Cable?

“We still feel that Sun is a very powerful network in Tamil Nadu. We also wanted to continue having amicable relationship with Sun,” says Gandhi.

The possible reason of doing away with Sun distributing the TV18 channels in Andhra Pradeh, Karnataka and Kerala could be that ETV, now under ownership of TV18 (100% in ETV’s news channels and 50 per cent in GECs), competes with Sun in the southern markets. In Tamil Nadu, where Sun will distribute the TV18 channels, ETV doesn’t have a presence.

In Tamil Nadu, where Sun will distribute the TV18 channels, ETV doesn’t have a presence.

“That logic doesn’t hold because in Andhra Pradesh, where ETV is distributing the two Telugu channels that it controls (TV18 has 24.5% in ETV Telugu and ETV2), we are distributing our channels,” avers Gandhi.

Gandhi also gets in bargain the Disney channels through Sun as the global media conglomerate has a distribution arrangement with the Kalanithi Maran company.

The new structure will, however, not add any competitive advantage. “In the south, they do not have an English movie channel. They also do not have strong English general entertainment channels. And under the new power equations, with Arasu becoming a powerful cable TV network, it is actually a disadvantage to go with Sun for distribution in Tamil Nadu,” says the head of a distribution company.

IndiaCast will distribute 26 channels, including entertainment, kids, news, infotainment, music and regional languages, across cable, DTH, IPTV, Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS), and MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service). The leading channels in the bouquet are Colors, CNBC TV18, CNN IBN, IBN7, MTV and Nick. The company will also distribute the Disney and Sun channels in the Hindi speaking markets.

IndiaCast will, however, have to compete in a strong neighbourhood. Media Pro Enterprise India, the equal JV between Zee Turner and Star Den, has a much wider and powerful bouquet with 68 channels. TheOneAlliance has 22 channels to distribute, lower than IndiaCast, but in its bouquet it has sports channels.

“We have strengthened our position. We have added ETV which has a string of popular regional-language channels,” says Gandhi.

IndiaCast is given a broader shape with content asset monetisation across geographies, platforms and mediums falling under its umbrella. The other channel distribution companies do not have such a wide canvass and content syndication falls outside their functional zones.

“The company is structured in such a way that it takes into account the fact that technologies are merging. The lines are blurring and if you are doing an OTT (over-the-top) deal, the content is visible across the world. So you need to look at it wholistically,” says Gandhi.

Content syndication is still a low business. Zeel earned Rs 1.32 billion in FY‘12 through other sales and services (syndication sales, playout & transmission services and facility usage income) while Colors ended up with Rs 300 million, says a source.

IndiaCast will have sufficient room for growth. “We see scope in upping revenues from all the lines: online, digitisation and existing businesses. There will be growth from DTH and analogue cable as well. We will launch more channels in overseas markets. We also expect strong growth from future businesses like content syndication,” says Gandhi.

For Bahl, the time to marshall his resources to push for high subscription revenue growth has arrived. It has been a bumpy ride since he signed a contract with TheOneAlliance to distribute his highly popular entertainment channel, Colors. The deal for Colors and the other Viacom18 channels was for Rs 3 billion minimum guarantee (MG) over a three-year period effective 1 April 2009. Souring relations, he formed a strategic alliance with the Sun Group in 2010 but growth was far from satisfactory. Now he hopes to see the next leg of growth under a company that is structured to make the leap.

MUMBAI: The penetration of digital television in Asia Pacific will increase from 36 per cent to 83 per cent, up by 440 million homes in 2017 with China and India providing 350 million of the additional digital TV homes, according to a new research report from Digital TV Research.

The report forecasts China alone would provide 268 million of the additional digital TV homes, while India would add 82 million. By 2017, the two countries would provide 541 million digital TV homes combined – or three-quarters of Asia Pacific’s total.

Of the 440 million digital homes to be added between 2011 and 2017, 103 million will come from DTT. Digital cable will contribute a further 195 million, with pay DTH supplying a 34 million more and pay IPTV 86 million. By contrast, the region will lose 152 million analog cable homes and 196 million analog terrestrial ones.

Additionally, pay TV penetration will rise from 53 per cent in 2011 to 67 per cent in 2017, adding 165 million subs to take the total to 569 million. China will provide 315 million pay TV households, with India supplying a further 145 million.

However, pay TV penetration will be higher in South Korea (93 per cent) and Singapore (90 per cent). Legitimate pay TV penetration will be lowest in Indonesia (23 per cent), with the Philippines the next lowest at 27 per cent.

Pay TV revenues in Asia Pacific will be $11.7 billion higher in 2017 ($40.7 billion total) than in 2011. Japan with $10.6 billion will remain market leader in 2017, followed by China ($9.7 billion) and India ($7.1 billion). However, pay TV revenues will be flat in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

Report author Simon Murray said: “Despite the rapid conversion, digital TV will still have plenty of room for growth for some time to come. Only half of the countries covered in this report will have fully converted to digital by 2017. By then, Indonesia and the Philippines will still have analog penetration of 70% and 64% respectively. China will have 24 million analog homes and India 57 million.”

Cable TV will remain the highest earner, with revenues at $23.6 billion by 2017. Digital cable TV revenues will climb by 137 per cent between 2011 and 2017 to $21.2 billion, with analog cable TV falling from $11.4 billion to $2.3 billion. There will be 383 million cable homes by 2017, up only 44 million from 339 million at end-2011. Cable penetration will be 44.7 per cent by 2017, almost unchanged from 44.4 per cent at end-2011.

The good news for cable operators is that the number of digital subs will nearly triple over the same period to nearly 332 million, though the analog total will fall to a quarter of its 2011 total. Although the total is falling rapidly, there will still be 51 million analog cable subs (six per cent of TV households) by 2017.

The number of homes paying for IPTV will reach 110 million by 2017 – or 12.8 per cent of TV households. China will contribute 77 million IPTV subs (or 70% of the region’s total) by 2017. IPTV subs will overtake pay DTH ones in 2013. About 34 million pay DTH homes will be added between 2011 and 2017 taking the total to 76 million.

Primary DTT households (homes not subscribing to cable, DTH or IPTV but taking DTT) will rocket from 30 million (four per cent penetration) at end-2011 to 133 million (15.5 per cent) by 2017. China will provide 84 million of the 2017 total, followed by Japan with 10 million and India 9 million.

NEW DELHI: India is joining other countries in taking the next step from Internet Protocol IPv4 to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) to overcome the limitations of the older system which has been in place for 27 years.

The announcement came on the occasion of World IPv6’ Launch Day as traditional communication networks are undergoing a big change and are converging into packet based Next Generation Networks (NGN) which run on Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet Protocol is basically a communications protocol used for relaying packets of data across a network.

Major Internet Service Providers, networking equipment manufacturers and web companies around the world are coming together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services. This day, being organised by Internet Society, represents a major milestone in the global deployment of IPv6.The World IPv6 Day event last year on 8 June had been used by top websites and Internet Service Providers around the world for a successful 24-hour global-scale trial of IPv6.

As a result of the initiatives undertaken by Department of Telecommunication), a majority of the major service providers in India are ready to handle traffic and offer IPv6 services at present. Despite the readiness of the major service providers, there are issues to be addressed so as to ensure that the complete ecosystem migrates to IPv6.

The service providers have mainly three challenges: readiness of the content providers, equipment vendors, and end user devices. To tackle these challenges, a lead has been taken by DoT and the respective stakeholders are being pursued with by DoT through extensive discussions and meetings.

India has at present 35 million IPv4 addresses against a user base of about 360 million data users. In addition, the Government is planning to have a target of 160 million and 600 million broadband customers by the year 2017 and 2020 respectively. Moreover, there is a strong security requirement to provide unique IP address to each individual data user.

The transition to IPv6 is likely to be a complex, mammoth and long term exercise during which both IPv4 and IPv6 will co-exist. In order to facilitate the widespread introduction of IPv6 in India, a policy document titled ‘National IPv6 Deployment Roadmap’ was released by the DoT in July 2010.

The first initiative of its kind by a Government anywhere in the world, the roadmap’s main focus was to educate/sensitize the Indian ecosystem about the issues related to IPv6 and enable it to take the first step in the transition towards IPv6. Under this, all major Service Providers had been asked to handle IPv6 traffic and offer IPv6 services by December 2011; all Central and State government ministries and departments, including its PSUs were asked to start using IPv6 services by March 2012; and a Task Force had been formed headed by Secretary (T) with a 3-tier structure consisting of Oversight Committee, Steering Committee and 10 Working Groups. Each tier has members from different organisations / stakeholders in PPP mode.

The current version of the Internet Protocol IPv4 has many limitations, the biggest being its 32-bit addressing space resulting in about 4.3 billion IP addresses. The IPv6 improves on the addressing capacities of IPv4 by using 128 bits addressing instead of 32 bits, thereby practically making available an almost infinite pool of IP addresses. It also offers several other advantages over IPv4. IPv6 has been designed with many new features which make it possible to develop entirely new applications which are not possible in the IPv4 protocol, supports end-to-end security, auto-configuration simplifies network configuration, and IP Host Mobility etc.

A IPv6 test bed has been installed by Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), a technical wing of DoT, to foster explicit IPv6 harmonisation across the entire ecosystem.

To address the various problems being faced by the stakeholders regarding IP address allocation from APNIC, the National Internet Registry (NIR) has been approved by APNIC in India for allocation of IPv6 address in a systematic manner with a big pool to cater to all future requirements and will start functioning shortly.

MUMBAI: The global mobile advertising size is pegged at $5.86 billion for 2011, according to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

APAC leads the geographical segments with a significant 25.9 per cent share of this figure. North America comes in second at 31.4 per cent while Europe ranks third with 25.9 per cent.

The research, based on identification of mobile ad spend reported by IABs, harmonizing the data, and employing statistical and econometric models to infer a global market size, further revealed that Latin America accounts for 3.5 per cent of the global market share while Middle East and Africa made up for 3.2 per cent of the total size.

IAB Europe president and CEO Alain Heureux said, “Hyper-personal and always-on, mobile has a tremendous potential as an advertising medium. We are recognizing the need for accurate and comprehensive data to support and provide evidence for its future growth. This is not just a local or even European affair. As many mobile campaigns are played out in a global ecosystem, the market we have to size spans across borders.”

IAB mobile marketing center of excellence vice president and general manager Anna Bager said, “As mobile accelerates its global footprint, it is vital that we measure the worldwide and regional opportunities for advertisers. This key IAB initiative provides an accurate gauge of mobile market developments across the globe, with the aim of helping our members and the industry achieve even stronger growth through mobile.”

MUMBAI: Television format creator and distributor FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has announced its agreement with leading global branded play company, Hasbro, to develop Trivial Pursuit and Connect 4 branded slots and instant win games for the online and mobile channels.

Trivial Pursuit and Connect 4 are global brands. FME plan to develop and translate themes from each brand for online and mobile gambling. Both titles will be available to UK and European players via the OpenBet and GTS platforms.

FME, Europe, Midle East and Africa head of gambling Simon Murphy said, “We are hugely excited to be working with Hasbro to develop Connect 4 and Trivial Pursuit premium branded gambling content. The new addition of the gaming brands to our portfolio further strengthens our position as one of the leading developers and distributors of branded gaming content.”

FME’s gambling division has previously licensed, developed and distributed branded games for online, mobile and land based slots across a number of brands including ‘The X Factor’, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, ‘The Price Is Right’, ‘Family Fortunes’ and ‘Space Invaders’. The deal with Hasbro further establishes FME’s growing slate of non-TV intellectual property.

MUMBAI: Singapore pay TV operator StarHub TV has announced that its customers will be able to watch TV channels across multiple screens, anytime, anywhere with its new value-added service called TV Anywhere.

With the launch of the Internet TV platform starhubtv.com, TV Anywhere will be a service offering, giving viewers access to cable TV channels across Internet-enabled PC, Mac, iPad or tablet, with their current subscription plan.

Currently in its beta phase, starhubtv.com will allow cable TV customers to access up to 12 channels, depending on their subscription plan.

In addition, starhubtv.com will offer more than 600 hours of content on its on-demand video store and a full TV guide. Selected local content such as LionsXII and S.League matches will also be available free of charge.

Cable TV customers who have subscribed to the UEFA EURO 2012™ Pack will be able to enjoy all 31 matches of the tournament ‘live‘ on starhubtv.com. In addition, those who miss the ‘live’ coverage can watch past matches through the Catch-Up service.

StarHub VP of home solutions and content Iris Wee said, “The increase in ownership of multiple personal devices among Singaporeans and the demand for entertainment content on the go gives us the opportunity to extend our TV offering for an anytime, anywhere experience. As the platform is still in its beta phase, we would like to assure customers that we are working with our content partners to have more rights cleared for delivery over the Internet as soon as possible. We hope to triple the number of channels available by the end of this year”.

The channels offered on its TV Anywhere service come from the various StarHub TV Basic and Premium channels such as Fashion TV, KBS World, MTV SEA, National Geographic Channel, and SuperSports Arena. Viewers can also choose from a wide range of the latest international and ethnic titles through its on-demand video store.

starhubtv.com is supported on PCs, Macs, iPads and tablets with optimised access via smartphones to be rolled out in the near future. More content, personalisation and social features will be introduced in later phases.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The much-hyped meeting between stakeholders from different parts of India and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni ended with the Government not agreeing to defer the first phase of digitisation in the metros.

Stakeholders were generally left with the impression that the government will consider all points of view before any final decision and this would be conveyed to them after the Task Force meeting on 15 June.

The Government distributed a questionnaire to the stakeholders wanting to know the status of progress in terms of number of set top boxes distributed, agreements signed and so on. The government wants the replies over the next two to three days so that these can be taken up at the Task Force Meeting.

The meeting held in Vigyan Bhavan to prevent media presence was attended from the side of the Ministry by Soni, Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, Additional Secretary Rajiv Takru who heads the Task Force, and Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Supriya Sahu.

It is learnt that the Minister made it clear that the onus of implementing digital addressable system was on the stakeholders and not on the government which had facilitated the process in every way. However, she did take note of the fact that some Chief Ministers and stakeholders had written to her, and the matter was pending in some High Courts.

Around 60 stakeholders – a majority of them cable operators and multi-system operators – attended the meet which lasted around three hours. They included Hathway Cable & Datacom MD & CEO K Jayaraman, IndusInd Media & Communications MD Ravi Mansukhani, Digicable MD & CEO Jagjit Kohli and Arasu Cable TV Corporation MD Thiru D Vivekanandan. Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel was also present, perhaps representing Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd (WWIL).

Vivekanandan said Arasu had just floated a tender for set-top boxes (STBs) and it would be ready for digitisation by 31 December. The Government should consider extending the deadline to 1 January. Arasu is state-owned and plans to roll out digital services in Chennai. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has written to the Government asking for an extension in the DAS deadline.

The independent cable operators sought an extension of six months for the first phase, citing the shortage of digital set top boxes, the late issuance of the tariff regulations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the high carriage fee and the non-viability of the DAS.

Some MSOs wanted extension of at least three months, a participant who attended the meeting said on condition of anonymity.

Cable operators said that failure to switch to digitisation by 1 July may lead to law and order problems.

The broadcasters were represented by heaveyweights like Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) MD and CEO Punit Goenka, Star India CEO Uday Shankar, NDTV executive vice-chairperson KVL Narayan Rao and Times Television network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla, among others.

“The broadcasters vehemently opposed any shift in deadline and said that even a minor delay would send wrong signals to the industry. Sticking to the deadline would ensure that set-top boxes would move fast,” a source who attended the meeting said.

Direct-to-home (DTH) service providers were not invited for the meeting.

Soni was firm on sticking to the deadline but said that the final decision would be conveyed by 15 June. She also said that cable operators had moved the High Courts in Delhi and Mumbai but a final verdict was pending.

Soni also said that the STB penetration was not satisfactory and emphasised that cable networks needed to do a lot of work on that front.

MUMBAI: Pay TV revenues in North America will peak in 2013, before gradually falling by $2.6 billion to reach $88.2 billion in 2017, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.

The Digital TV North America report concludes that TV Arpu is being forced down as cable operators and telcos convert their subscribers to dual-play or triple-play bundles, though blended (overall) ARPU is rising.

Report author Simon Murray said, “Pay TV penetration has almost reached saturation point in Canada and the US, so pay TV operators continue to fight between themselves (mainly to capture analog cable subs) for new subscribers.”

Despite no movement in the penetration figure, the number of pay TV subscribers will climb by 9 million between 2011 and 2017 to 120 million. Digital penetration was 86 per cent at end-2011, and will reach 100 per cent by 2016. Of the 25 million digital homes to be added between 2011 and 2017, 13 million will come from cable, seven million from IPTV and four million from DTH.

DTH ($40.7 billion) will become the largest pay TV platform earner in 2017, overtaking cable ($40.0 billion). DTH revenues will climb by $3 billion between 2011 and 2017, with overall cable revenues falling by nearly $8 billion. Analog cable revenues will fall to zero by 2016, down from $7.3 billion in 2011 and $18.6 billion in 2007.

The number of pay DTH households will increase by 3 million between 2011 and 2017 to reach 39.8 million. However, DTH penetration will not change too much, settling at 28.9 per cent by 2017. There will be 65 million cable homes (all digital) by 2017, similar to the 2011 figure (of which 13 million were analog). Cable penetration will be 47.1 per cent by 2017, down from 50.3 per cent at end-2011.

Although most analog cable subs will convert to digital cable, IPTV will also benefit, especially considering the aggressive pricing policies undertaken by the telcos. The number of homes paying for IPTV will climb by 73 per cent between 2011 and 2017 to reach 15.8 million – or 11.5 per cent of TV households. IPTV revenues will increase by a slightly higher rate to achieve $7.6 billion by 2017.

MUMBAI: TV Desi, a leading IPTV provider of South Asian television programming in North America, has added ARY Network channels ARY Digital, ARY News, ARY Muzik, ARY Zauq, and ARY QTV to its bouquet.

Furthermore, TV-Desi will also carry the ARY Digital Network for the Pakistani community across the African continent.

“We are thrilled to welcome the ARY Digital Network to TV-Desi. We are proud to offer the Pakistani community in Canada the greatest selection of Urdu programming in the market today. Ultimately, our partnership with ARY serves our highest mandate and corporate commitment: to provide top quality programming at affordable prices on all devices to South Asian communities across Canada and other parts of the world,” said KyLinTV International Network Vice President Michael Bradley.

“ARY Digital Network has become a means for all expatriate Pakistanis to stay connected and updated with the happenings of their homeland. Apart from this, it has become a major source of information, knowledge and entertainment for the viewers around the globe as well. Our vision is to keep contributing positively to the fast growing information based global society and to create opportunities for cultures to interact and experience each other in a constructive way,” commented ARY Digital Network President & CEO Salman Iqbal.

ARY Digital is the subsidiary of the ARY Group established in 1970 by Pakistani businessman, Haji Abdul Razzak Yaqoob who is the chairman of the group.

MUMBAI: The days of Formula One races airing on free to air channels in Italy has come to an end with News Corp-owned pay TV broadcaster Sky Italy securing the live telecast rights for all the races starting 2013.

Of the total 20 races, only nine of the races will be shown live free-to-air while the remaining 11 races will have delayed telecast. Public service broadcaster RAI currently holds the broadcast rights.

Sky Italia has bought the rights for all platforms including web, tablet, smartphone and IPTV (Internet TV).

The national broadcaster who would acquire a share of the rights would be agreed between Sky and Formula One, the broadcaster said.

The deal follows in the footsteps of a similar deal that happened in UK where Sky Sports bagged the rights to air F1 races till 2018 while BBC has the rights to show highlights for all the races with the sole exception British Grand Prix, which will be shown live by the pubcaster.

Sky Italia CEO Andrea Zappia said, “We are proud to bring the spectacle of Formula 1 back to the Sky Italia platform, with 11 of the GP races broadcast live on an exclusive basis. This agreement with FOM adds to Sky‘s already outstanding Sports offer, which was further enriched by the recent purchase of the MotoGP TV rights. These investments show how our company is determined to confirm its leading position in the Italian TV market.”

“We have worked with Sky Italia in the past and I have no doubts about their production standards. We have a similar agreement in Britain that is working very well,” said Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone added.

Sky Italia recently won the broadcast rights to MotoGP from 2014.