Category: Technology

NEW DELHI: Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra has urged the Information & Broadcasting ministry to stick to the 30 June deadline for the switchover to digital addressable systems (DAS) in the four metros.

The media baron feels that any postponement of digitisation would “send a wrong signal to the stakeholders as well as investors so far as the policy implementation is concerned”.

Chandra, however, said that even if the government considers extending the date because of non-arrival of digital set top boxes, this should not be more than 60 days.

In the letter which was addressed to I&B minister Ambika Soni, a copy of which is with Indiantelevision.com, Chandra said digitisation should be completed by 30 June in areas which are presently under conditional access system – South Delhi, South Mumbai, South Kolkata and whole of Chennai – which will show the government‘s intent in implementing its policy.

Any extension, he said, should be announced only in the last week of June “after detailed deliberations with all the stakeholders so that pace of deployment of STBs is not affected because of any negative sentiments” arising out of any deferment.

“While I appreciate the concerns regarding the availability of STBs, the blanket extension of 5-6 months would adversely affect the STBs off-take and would create a mis-impression in the minds of the stakeholders that Government is not serious in implementing the digitalisation initiative,” Chandra said in the letter.

He contended that the notification for cable digitisation came on 11 November last year, thus giving approximately eight months to the stakeholders to make necessary preparations.

“It is pertinent to mention that based on the policy announcement by the Government, the stakeholders have been preparing for the said implementation by making necessary investments in the digital headends, creating optical fibre infrastructure and procurement of STBs etc. The deployment of STBs in the notified areas has also gathered momentum and the consumers are responding positively,” the letter read.

While agreeing that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) delayed in bringing out the tariff framework for DAS regime on 30 April, he believed that the contracts between the broadcasters and MSOs and MSOs and LCOs (local cable operators) can be concluded in next 30-35 days.

He said any extension of DAS deadline would not only be detrimental to the sector but would also act as a disincentive for those service providers who have committed the investments in digital infrastructure, STBs and made necessary preparations based on the policy announcement made by the Government.

“The momentum for deployment of set-top boxes would be severely impacted as it would create uncertainties in the minds of the consumers,” Chandra held.

He believed that a sufficient number of STBs is under transit and would be available in next fortnight or so. Their deployment by 30 June 2012 may be a concern which can be taken care of by granting a short extension rather than postponing the DAS by five to six months.

MUMBAI: Tata Sky has added two hi-definition channels – Sony Entertainment Television and Zee TV – to its HD offering.

The two channels are available in the HD Gold pack, which can be subscribed for Rs 100 per month, while on a la carte basis both the channels are available for Rs 50 each.

With the addition, Tata Sky now offers 10 HD channels. Other channels available in the HD Gold pack are Discovery World HD, ESPN HD, National Geographic HD, Star Plus HD, Star Gold HD, Star Movies HD, Star World HD and Star Cricket HD.

Sony HD will be available on channel No. 112 while Zee TV HD is available on channel No 118.

Zee TV HD is already available on Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV and Reliance Digital TV, while Sony HD, which was launched on 28 May, is available on Dish TV only, apart from Tata Sky.

MUMBAI: In an effort to silence critics about its ability to monetise its mobile platform, Facebook is now automating mobile-ad buying.

The company earlier accepted that monetising its massive mobile traffic is among its biggest challenges as its stock price continues to tumble.

Facebook has opened up its mobile-only sponsored-story placements to both its self-serve tool Power Editor and to third-party Facebook ad sellers. In the most basic sense it is a provision for mobile ads for the masses as it now enables clients who couldn‘t afford access to mobile-ad inventory earlier.

With this, the industry may see a new segment of advertisers emerge who want to target a specific audience like app developers or gaming companies aiming to increase user base on phones or marketers in industries such as quick-serve restaurants looking to reach people on the go.

Mobile ads are available on Facebook since March but the mobile-ad inventory largely accessible to big advertisers buying into premium ad packages, including those new ad placements called reach generator.

Reach generator was only open to advertisers with a minimum of 500,000 fans which could add up to total costs of $125,000 per quarter. The new changes have made Facebook mobile ads available to a larger pool of advertisers with any size budget. It also opens up Facebook mobile ads to small- and medium-size businesses that use the self-serve tool.

Advertising forms a major chunk of Facebook‘s $3.7 billion revenue. According to EMarketer 60 per cent of Facebook‘s ad revenue comes through its self-serve tool which will probably increase as Facebook opens up more ad slots to these sales tools.

Facebook had announced prior to its initial public offering that the consumers‘ appetite for its mobile app would soon exceed use of its website and could prove damaging to its business. At the time, Facebook was not generating ‘any meaningful revenue‘ from use of its mobile products.

MUMBAI: Vuclip, a mobile video company, has announced the launch of Vuclip TV that enables users to watch popular TV shows on their mobile phone.

As of now, Vuclip TV will serve more than 4000 video clips from various popular TV shows in Hindi, Telugu, English and other languages and new videos will be added regularly. It delivers mobile video experience on more than 5500 handsets, ranging from smart phones to basic feature phones that have video playing and internet capabilities.

Vuclip VP – business development and managing director India and Middle East Salman Hussain said, “Vuclip offers a great mobile platform to watch a huge variety of videos from movies, entertainment, sports, music, politics, news, raw footage, etc. TV Shows are extremely popular among the Indian audiences. Since it is not possible to carry television sets everywhere, we are confident that our fans will love this new offering from Vuclip that helps them watch their favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere, on the go.”

Vuclip TV serves content from content providers such as NDTV, UTV, India Today, 9XM and Maa TV. The video clips will include the viewers‘ preferred daily soaps, reality shows, interviews, television gossip, contests, horror shows, TV show updates and on the set content.

Vuclip TV is available at tvshows.vuclip.com.

Mumbai: eBay India, an eCommerce marketplace, has launched an iPad app for India that will be available for free from the iTunes App Store.

The application allows iPad users to shop, browse and compare prices and enables shoppers to search and select their favourite products from over six million live listings on eBay India across 2,000 categories of products in electronics, lifestyle, collectibles and media verticals.

eBay India country manager Muralikrishnan B said, “Mobile Commerce is a key focus area at eBay India. It is very likely that a majority of the next 100 million internet users in India will have their first and pre-dominant experience of internet on mobile devices, either Smartphones or Tablets. Our key focus around mobile devices in 2012 is to get greater penetration of our apps and encourage people to use this as a device to check prices before shopping offline.”

MUMBAI: Integrated telecommunications company Bharti Airtel has signed a global arrangement with Opera Software to offer a customised and co-branded version of Opera Mini internet browser for Airtel mobile customers across its operations.

This will enable over 253 million Airtel customers across countries including India, South Asia and Africa to use Opera Mini‘s proxy-server-based technology that compresses data by up to 90 per cent and decreases data transfer costs.

Opera Software‘s Opera Mini has over 168 million users has agreements with 13 out of the top 30 operators globally. Used by over 168 million users, Opera Mini is the world‘s most popular web browser on mobile phones. Opera Mini‘s popularity in emerging markets can be credited to its smooth performance on basic/non-smartphones.

Bharti Airtel president – consumer business K Srinivas said, “We are excited to bring a superior browsing platform to Airtel mobile customers across India and South Asia by leveraging Opera Mini‘s tried-and-tested set of solutions. We are confident that this association will be instrumental in helping us deliver a truly customized, enhanced and optimized browsing experience for our data users.”

Opera Software CEO Lars Boilesen added, “Our primary drive is to provide the best user experience, no matter what device people use. There are millions of users with basic mobile phones instead of smartphones, and Opera Mini gives even the most basic phone a smartphone-like web experience. Airtel‘s strong presence in emerging markets, combined with Opera Mini‘s technology, will make the mobile web available to millions of new users.”

MUMBAI: MGM Networks, a division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM), has launched a new MGM HD movie channel in Russia and the former Soviet Republics. The deal was announced by MGM president, Television Group and Digital Roma Khanna.

The MGM HD movie channel will feature more than 4,000 titles from MGM‘s classic library, broadcast daily in high-definition. The MGM HD movie channel complements the existing SD Channel which already reaches over 1 million homes across the region.

Deals already secured include: DTH platform Tricolor, Orion, Akado, NCN, and Viasat in Ukraine.

Reaching the Baltics and all the former Soviet Republics, MGM HD is the ultimate resource channel for serious movie fans, providing viewers with 24/7 programming featuring an array of ground-breaking content and exclusive premieres.

The channel launches at 9 pm Moscow time with back-to-back showings of all three ‘Robocop‘ films. Other theatricals slated for opening weekend include ‘Rob Roy‘; ‘The Madness Of King George‘ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing‘. In addition, MGM HD will feature its original production HD magazine show Big Screen.

MGM Networks senior VP Matthew Baxter said, “The launch of MGM HD offers audiences in Russia and the former Soviet Republics the most diverse movie selection from our prestigious library shown in the most advanced technology. We are thrilled to add this new dimension to our relationship with some existing clients, as well as welcoming new platforms and consumers across the region. The launch of this MGM HD channel enhances our strategy of delivering localized channels to multiple platform partners across the region.”

In addition, MGM Networks has just launched a local language feed in Croatia to all its subscribers across the country. The service will be subtitled into Croatian, marking 26 languages that MGM Networks broadcasts in across the globe. It also ensures new carriage for MGM in Croatia with new deals from local platforms.

MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra-promoted Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd (WWIL) has decided to share 25 per cent of its carriage income from DAS (digital addressable systems) markets with local cable operators (LCOs).

This controversial decision has angered multi-system operators (MSOs) who have reacted vehemently against such disruptive announcements, alleging that WWIL is out to spoil the market at a crucial time when the country is readying to transition from analogue to digital systems.

“Carriage fee is irrelevant in the digital era in the medium-to-long term, according to Zee network, an asociate of WWIL. The statement made by WWIL, however, implies that carriage will continue. So the two positions are conflicting,” says Hathway Cable & Datacom MD & CEO K Jayaraman.

As per WWIL‘s offer, the LCOs who take the set-top boxes (STBs) before 30 June, the deadline for the first phase in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai Kolkata and Chennai, will get a 25 per cent of the share of the carriage revenue earned by the MSO in the DAS markets. The MSO will fix the carriage income it will have to cough out to the LCOs on a per box basis.

“The LCOs who accept the offer for the digital switchover by 30 June will get 25 per cent of the carriage fee earned by us on a per box basis. We are also giving the STBs at a subsidised price of Rs 699 per box before 15 June, post which the boxes will be available for 799. We have a need of 2.5 million boxes, out of which 50 per cent is in Kolkata,” WWIL COO Anil Malhotra tells Indiantelevision.

WWIL will, thus, become the first company in the cable TV space in India to announce such a step.

This was announced at the Delhi cable operator meet organised by WWIL to speed up the process of digitisation.

Jayaraman feels that this scheme is entirely confusing and will go against broadcasting, especially as it comes from a former IBF president, as even DTH distributors will demand carriage.

Will Hathway be forced to follow WWIL‘s revenue share model?

Hathway already offers schemes to the distributors who, in turn, will pass it on to the consumers, as per Trai directive and market forces.

WWIL is a major force in Kolkata but lacks sizeable base in Delhi and Mumbai.

Says Den Networks COO MG Azhar, “We are not going to share carriage revenues with LCOs. We are already subsiding the STBs.”

Agrees IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL) managing director Ravi Mansukhani, “We do not care what they do on their networks. If they try to step into our territories, we will unite with the other top MSOs and take a call”.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni will be meeting all stakeholders on 8 June to sort out issues raised in connection with the first phase of digitisation in the four metros, which is reaching its sunset date of 30 June three weeks from now..

The government is likely to announce a shift in the deadline date as most of the multi-system operators (MSOs) are not ready with the set-top boxes (STBs). Trai announced the tariff guidelines under the digital addressable system as late as 30 April.

Cable networks are expecting the government to shift the deadline for digitisation in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

“We are expecting a six-month extension,” said the head of a leading MSO.

The broadcasters are, however, pressing for the deadline date to stay as they fell that digitisation would drastically cut down on their carriage payouts to cable networks while subscription revenues would go up.

Senior Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that a meeting of the Task Force was held on 1 June under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary Rajiv Takru wherein many stakeholders – primarily cable operators – raised certain issues which needed to be sorted out before digitisation could take place.

These issues have been placed before Soni and are under her consideration.

Though the government insists it will not defer the first phase of digitisation, the final decision would be taken after the Minister meets the stakeholders, the sources said.

However, it is learnt that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee have written letters seeking extension of the date, and cases have been filed in the High Courts in all metros against the government directive.

It is also learnt that only around 20 per cent of the set top boxes needed for the four metros have so far been installed.

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports has adopted Haivision‘s Barracuda H.264 encoder and Makito decoder at its Singapore and Taiwan facilities to support live sports commentary in multiple languages.

The extremely low latency of the Haivision encoder and decoder enables ESS to adopt an exceptionally fast and cost-effective model for delivering quality HD content in which commentary is closely synchronised with the video.

“The remarkably low latency of Haivision‘s Makito and Barracuda systems is critical to our live multilingual commentary model,” said ESPN Star Sports vice president of operations and technology Colin Sherriff.

In providing sub-second round-trip latency, the Haivision systems enable us to improve the quality of commentary by using local voiceover talent. We‘ve also been able to eliminate our reliance on costly ISDN links and therefore realize a very quick return on our investment.”

Within ESS‘s new video workflow, live HD programming coming into the ESS Singapore facility is down converted to SD and using the Makito/Barracuda systems‘ lowest latency settings, it is sent across an IP link to the Taiwan office.

A commentator in Taiwan then provides a Mandarin voiceover for the live video, which is delivered back to Singapore across the IP link using an audio IP codec.

In Singapore, the voice is inserted into the incoming signal, adding Mandarin commentary prior to routing the video to studios and transmission suites. The latency of the Haivision systems is so low that ESS doesn‘t need to delay the main incoming HD video feed to ensure that the commentary is synchronised with the video.

ESS is expanding its utilisation in Taiwan with a second channel for additional commentary and is in the process of investigating deployments in other countries and regions in the Asia/Pacific region. The Barracuda and Makito high-performance encoder and decoder were delivered by local systems integrator Techtel.