ITV

Category: Technology

  • Flo TV unveils digital handheld television









    MUMBAI: Flo TV, provider of Flo TV live mobile TV service and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualomm Inc, has rolled out FLO TV Personal Television, a dedicated device that will allow mobile TV viewing.

     

    The device receives live and time-shifted content over the FLO TV dedicated multi-cast network with no buffering, downloading or waiting-to-view content. With the swipe of a finger, consumers can channel surf through the FLO TV service‘s extensive programming lineup.


    “We have offered the FLO TV service on a variety of handsets through our carrier and OEM partners and we plan to continue working with them to expand the FLO TV handset lineup,” says FLO TV president Bill Stone.


    “We are thrilled to be launching the first of FLO TV‘s direct-to-consumer offerings with the FLO TV Personal Television. We have heard from customers that they want more choice and, specifically, a device that is easy to share with friends and family.


    “With the FLO TV service available on mobile handsets, in-car entertainment systems and consumer electronics devices like FLO TV Personal Television, FLO TV offers something for every kind of consumer on-the-go,” adds Stone.

  • Adobe, Turner Broadcasting System broaden alliance









    MUMBAI: Adobe Systems has broadened its strategic media technology alliance with Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), initially announced in March this year.


    This expansion of the alliance is focused on efforts to take advantage of the extensibility of Adobe’s video production toolset to create a cross-location editing environment that is faster and more efficient format capable than today’s broadcast industry workflows.


    The initial goal of the extended alliance is to leverage Adobe’s video editing solutions, including Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4 software to advance the speed and efficiency of video editing workflows at Turner including its news production environments.

     

    Says TBS CTO Scott Teissler, “Turner had earlier formed a strategic technical alliance with Adobe because of our shared interest in creating and maintaining meta data to enhance and accompany our digital media distribution. This has led us to a further shared interest in digital media workflows within our production environments, including our news environments. “We are finding that Adobe’s product infrastructure and our workflow experience and other integration partners are combining to produce an ingest-to-edit-to-air architecture up to our fairly demanding performance requirements.”

  • Tata Communication partners NDTV Convergence for live broadcast service









    MUMBAI: Tata Communications, the telecommunication service provider, has announced that NDTV Convergence has selected Tata‘s LiveBroadcast service to broadcast three national channels that includes two news and one business channel on the internet platform.

     

    LiveBroadcast service is a part of Tata‘s suite of content delivery network (CDN). LiveBroadcast services gets live feeds from the satellite and streams the contents on NDTV‘s website using the CDN platform.

    The service from Tata Communications helps in managing the capital to deliver live video over the internet. The service also enables to eliminate the installation process.

    Said NDTV Convergence CTO Kawaljit Singh Bedi, “Tata Communications‘ LiveBroadcast service offers a more cost-effective way to improve the quality and provide consistency of NDTV‘s internet live broadcasts.”

    “On India‘s general election results day, NDTV.com served over 1.5 million live video streams. Tata Communications‘ LiveBroadcast service handled the increased video requests without a hitch,” adds Bedi.

  • Subscription revenue from DTH to cross $100 bn by 2018: study









    MUMBAI: As subscribers switch to higher ARPU (average revenue per user) premium services, subscription revenue from the overall direct-to-home (DTH) industry is expected to grow from $65 billion in 2008 to over $100 billion by 2018.


    According to the NSR report -Global Direct DTH Markets, revenues from basic DTH services are expected to contribute smaller percentages going forward.


    The report also suggests that DTH subscribers will grow from 114 million in 2008 to 209 million by 2018.


    A total of 99 DTH operators were beaming over 13,800 channels at the end of 2008. However, at a compounded annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent, the total number of channel to be beamed is expected to cross more than 21,000 by 2018-end.

     

    The report spans 10 regions and finds both similarities and differences that have made the whole DTH market greater than some of its parts.


    North America, Western Europe and East Asia dominate all channel, subscriber and revenue counts, and growth in these regions comes from premium services such as High Definition (HD) and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs).


    Central and Eastern Europe, South Asia and South America, on the other hand, are very much on the growth track, but in their case, plain vanilla DTH subscribers are the biggest drivers. NSR‘s multi-regional presence with analysts in five distinct regions of the world provides for both local perspective and global coverage of these trends.


    Another trend that defines the mature markets is that of fierce competition as cable and satellite battle it out, and the threat of IPTV looms large in countries such as France and the US. Elsewhere, DTH platforms are cooperating with telecom giants to carry the trinity of voice, video and data over a combination of media. Foes turn into friends as platforms consolidate in order to achieve the critical mass required to bring in advertising revenues. NSR has not only looked at the prevailing market trends, but gone on to analyze their impact, both in the past year and forwards until 2018.


    Regarding the difference of this report from other DTH studies, NSR senior analyst Prashant Butani stated, “Television is an industry that everyone can talk about because we are all part of the audience. However, quantifying market trends is a different issue altogether, and this is where NSR‘s 10 region, 100 operator, 2,800 data point forecast delivers the bottom line to those that want more detail. NSR‘s report further segments these numbers into 4 product categories that allow companies serving this industry to go after their target market more effectively.”

  • Hungama Digital launches game based on ‘Acid Factory’









    MUMBAI: Hungama Digital Entertainment has designed an action-packed game for Sanjay Gupta‘s Acid Factory.

    The theme takes the player to an unknown territory where he wakes up one morning only to realise that his memory has been erased and perceives himself to be a criminal. In this quest, the player has to gain memory and fight with the villains and various situations that span over five different stages. The memory is the lifeline in this game.

     

    Commenting on the launch of Acid Factory‘s game, Hungama Digital Media – digital and allied business COO Siddhartha Roy said, “With Acid Factory, Hungama has the opportunity to create a game that has fast paced action sequences and packed with twists and turns. We are confident that the audience will be intrigued with the Acid Factory game.”The game is available for mobile downloads through various mobile operators across India.

    Acid Factory, directed by Suparn Verma, stars Fardeen Khan, Irrfan Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Manoj Bajpai, Danny Denzongpa, Dino Morea and Dia Mirza.

  • Canal Overseas selects NDS for PVR service

    MUMBAI: NDS, which provides technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has announced that Canal Overseas, the international arm of the Canal+ Group, is introducing a personal video recorder (PVR) service with a Flash-based Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) developed by NDS.


    This is the first PVR service for Canal Overseas markets across the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific will benefit from this service in the near future.


    Canal Overseas has deployed a new version of NDS MediaHighway set-top box (STB) software to power its satellite pay-TV service. The new version of MediaHighway automatically downloads new software to each STB, enabling the STBs to detect the addition of an external hard drive and format the drive for use as a PVR.


    Canal Overseas subscribers who wish to upgrade to a PVR service can now rent a Western Digital 500 GB hard disk to connect it to their dual-tuner Pace STB via its USB port.


    The new version of NDS MediaHighway also provides the foundation for Canal Overseas to offer catch-up TV services in the future.


    The Flash based EPG design and production is the result of collaboration between Canal Overseas, Canal+ CYFROWY’s design teams, NDS design studios in Paris and NDS’ R&D facility in India.


    Canal Overseas CTO Marc Noblet says, “The delivery of the PVR service and Flash EPG is a great achievement. With the PVR, we offer a service most appreciated and expected by our customers. Indeed the PVR service will change their way of consuming television and allow them to make the most of their subscription.”


    NDS senior VP president, Europe, Middle Eeast, Africa and Latin America Caroline Le Bigot commented, “MediaHighway is ideal for initiatives such as Canal Overseas‘ innovative Electronic Programme Guide which was designed with ease-of-use in mind. When content and services are easier to find, subscribers are more likely to access them, increasing revenues and reducing churn.”

  • Anand Singh is online sales head at Big Online Network









    MUMBAI: Reliance Big Entertainment has appointed Anand Singh as online sales head for Big Online Network.


    Singh will be responsible for driving strategic online sales and bringing in advertising clients across sectors. He will be based out of Mumbai and will report to BigFlix.com business head, video-on-demand, Murtuza Kagalwala.

     

    Singh brings with him a total of 12 years of experience with a mix of sales and marketing.


    Says Kagalwala, “Big Entertainment has various digital entertainment platforms namely, online gaming, movie rentals, a channel for movie news and gossip and social networking website and bringing together all these dynamic businesses on one single platform was best we thought we could do to optimize their reach and services offered.”


    Big Online Network consists of BigFlix.com, BigADDA.com, Zapak.com and BigOYE.com.


    Anand has worked with Havas Entertainment, the entertainment division of Media Planning Group, in the capacity of business director where he has worked closely with brands like Reckitt Benckiser, Radico Khaitan, VLCC, Travel Guru, Make My Trip, Cobra Beer, Ibibo.com, Nataraj Pencils, ITC Bingo and RPG Cellucom.

  • What’s Your Rashee on DTH









    MUMBAI: The window for film releases on DTH is reducing. What‘s your Rashee? is having a television premiere on Airtel Digital TV


    , Tata Sky and Dish TV, just two weeks after its theatrical release.
     

    The movie will also showcase on Big TV from 12 October. All the DTH service providers are making the movie available on their pay-per-view platform at Rs 75.


    Big TV, the direct-to-home arm of Reliance ADA group, has also lined up two other movies – Rock On and Black Friday – on its PPV platform from 12 October.


    Big TV will charge Rs 50 and Rs 25 for Rock On and Black Friday respectively.

  • UTV Movies signs carriage deal with Measat









    MUMBAI: UTV Entertainment Television has signed a carriage agreement with satellite communication services provider Measat Satellite Systems.



    As per the agreement, UTV’s Hindi movie channel UTV Movies will get a capacity on Measat-3a for the carriage of UTV Movies.


     

    “We are pleased to announce our association with Measat as part of our growth plans in the international arena. We hope to optimise on the synergies between our content and Measat’s expertise in the satellite broadcasting space,” said UTV Global Broadcasting SVP distribution Sameer Ganapathy.


    “UTV adds much spice to the growing bouquet of channels at our prime video neighbourhood of 91.5E,” said Measat VP commercial operations Terry Bleakley. “With an expansive footprint, Measat-3a is able to distribute UTV Movies across 110 countries aiding UTV Global Broadcasting mission to expand internationally.”

  • NDS unveils digital television solutions at Scat









    MUMBAI: NDS, which provides technology solutions for digital pay-TV, is showcasing solutions and services at the television technology show Scat 2009 that will enable Indian operators to go digital quickly and cost-effectively.


    Also on show will be advanced applications and solutions that can help digital pay-TV operators in India to generate new revenue streams and reduce churn.

     

    NDS solutions that have been deployed successfully by Tata Sky and Hathway will be featured at the show.


    Market-leading services and solutions from NDS being showcased at SCaT India 2009 include:


    Solutions deployed by cable operator Hathway: This includes the first DVR service launched by a cable operator in India and an advanced, customised EPG providing subscribers with a highly engaging, easy-to-use interface to enrich the subscribers’ digital TV viewing experience.


    Tata Sky+’s end-to-end solution: Features NDS XTV DVR technology, India’s first multilingual Hindi EPG and NDS VideoGuard conditional access technology. The XTV DVR solution allows subscribers to pause, record, play back, rewind and fast forward their recorded TV programmes, offering consumers real freedom and flexibility, and giving pay-TV operators a proven way to grow revenues and reduce churn.


    PC solutions: NDS PC Show enables operators to securely deliver video on demand (VOD) services and traditional broadcast channels to PCs over the open internet or via an operator’s existing broadband platform.


    NDS iTV applications: NDS’ innovative applications deliver next-generation interactive services, including a range of single-user and multi-player games. On show are a selection of Tata Sky’s interactive services and games, based on NDS technologies and marketed under the Active brand. Also on show will be some of the new XtreamPlay capabilities deployed by US satellite operator DirecTV.


    NDS Conceptual User Interface (UI): Subscribers can enhance their TV viewing experience using an intuitive UI that enables them to search for and view relevant, contextual information from the Web on their TVs. Services that could be accessed in this way include social media sites (e.g. MySpace) and video content and information sites.


    NDS senior VP, GM Asia Pacific Sue Taylor said, “NDS is ideally placed to help pay-TV operators, whatever their size, make the move to a digital platform cost-effectively. At the show we will be showcasing some advanced solutions and services that have enabled some of our Indian customers to benefit from new revenue streams and reduced churn.”