ITV

Category: Technology

  • Zook powers Idea’s ‘stock search & subscription service’







    MUMBAI: Bangalore-based Ziva Software‘s mobile fetch engine ‘Zook‘ has partnered with Idea Cellular to power the latter‘s newly-launched personalised ‘stock search and subscription service‘. The service will initially be provided to Idea subscribers in Punjab.

     







    The service will be available at a monthly rental of Rs 30 under which Idea (Punjab) subscribers will get alerts on business news, customised stock information and NSE and BSE conclusion information along with the day‘s top gainers and losers.





     

    “This is a pure value service. It just provides information and there are no tips, speculations or hints,” says Ziva Software CEO Ajay Sethi.

  • Roxio CinemaNow available on LG’s Blu-ray disc players & home theatre systems











    MUMBAI: Sonic Solutions‘ Roxio CinemaNow service has now been made available on LG Electronics Blu-ray Disc players (models BD370 and BD 390) and Home Theatre Systems (models LHB953 and LHB977).


    Through this availability, consumers can now digitally stream Hollywood movies simultaneous to the date of the film‘s DVD release using this service.

     

    The BD390 offers an interactive download-to-own and pay-per-view option. ” Sonic



    will continue to work with CE device manufacturers like LG to meet consumers‘ expectations for seamless access to high-quality video entertainment from any connected device,” says Sonic Solutions president and CEO David Habiger.





     

  • Bharti Airtel to premiere ‘8×10 Tasveer’ on its DTH and IPTV









    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel has announced the premiere of the Akshay Kumar starrer 8×10 Tasveer on its direct-to-home (DTH) service Digital TV as pay-per-view (PPV) service and its IPTV service Digital TV Interactive.



    Produced by Percept Picture Company (PPC) and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, 8×10 Tasveer will be available from 5 June at Rs 50.


     

    Digital TV customers can order the movie either on the website or by SMSing the movie code to 54325. For IPTV, customers can order from the TV itself.



    Bharti Telemedia VP marketing Sugato Banerji said, “By showcasing popular and recently-released movies such as 8×10 Tasveer on our PPV service, we offer our DTH customers the luxury of blockbuster entertainment right in the comfort of their homes – all for a very nominal price. This comes close on the heels of the premiere of other recent titles like Delhi 6 on our PPV service.”


    8X10 Tasveer is the story about a man who has a supernatural gift of being able to delve into the past of dead people by touching an object belonging to them.



    PPC CEO Navin Shah added, “Akshay Kumar starrer Jumbo and Hello featuring Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif were some of the recent movies which we premiered on Digital TV and have seen tremendous success. We are pleased to now offer 8×10 Tasveer on PPV to audiences at home. Our partnership with Airtel Digital TV will provide many more exciting titles over time that viewers will appreciate.”

  • Spielberg introduces prototype camera for Xbox 360









    MUMBAI: Steven Spielberg has introduced a prototype camera codenamed ‘Project Nadal‘ that can be used as a controller for the Xbox 360.


    The announcement was made at Microsoft‘s flashy Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference at University of Southern California‘s Galen Center.


    The camera can track a player‘s full body movement while responding to commands, directions and a shift of emotion in voice without the need for a controller.

     

    Microsoft also introduced ten exclusive new games and the ability to access social networking sites Facebook and Twitter as well as streaming music service ‘Last.fm‘ on the Xbox Live service. The popular social networking sites Facebook and Twitter will be fully integrated into Xbox Live soon.

    There were several announcements about the Xbox 360‘s video capabilities including increased functionality with the online Netflix service, 1080p high-definition video downloads, live TV in the United Kingdom and the ability to watch movies online with friends.


    Ten exclusive new games were also launched. Among them were the open-world action sequel Crackdown 2, New Orleans-set zombie-killer Left 4 Dead 2, third-person shooter Splinter Cell Conviction, sleek racer Forza Motorsport 3 and the psychological thriller Alan Wake.

  • Woodstock Ventures & SME unveil Woodstock.com

    MUMBAI: Woodstock Ventures has partnered with Sony Music Entertainment (SME) to launch Woodstock.com, a social networking website for live music fans of today.


    The website is compatible with other online social networking sites and offers fans the opportunity to create their own profile pages.







    Woodstock.com currently carries information on more than 1,30,000 events and 20,000 pieces of content on-hand. And now, it will include interviews, guest editors, previously unreleased artifacts, audio-visual content, rare photographs and other memorabilia with an online store offering a variety of goods including fine art prints of photography, music, film, collectables, apparel and books.

     

  • Zapak, Cadbury’s 5 Star launch ‘Indian Online League’

    MUMBAI: Zapak.com has partnered with Cadbury India to launch the ‘5 Star Indian Online League’.



    As part of the contest, young enthusiasts will compete against the best in the country to win prizes worth Rs 10 million.







    The users can choose their team out of eight teams and play two games to attain a hi-score in both (collectively). 50 high-scorers from each city will come to nearest Zapak Gameplex and the top 11 will make it to the city team. Finally, the total score of top 11 gamers will constitute the final city score and two teams (of 11 players each) will compete against each other for the finale.



    The winners will also receive Kolkata Knight Riders merchandise. There are other prizes like free downloadable games, cricket kits, Gameplex coupons and Game CDs.



    Cadbury India director – marketing Sanjay Purohit said, “Cricket is on everybody’s mind nowadays and we wanted to reach out to our TG in the digital space via this cricket fever. This property together with Zapak.com will cater to all cricket lovers and help them experience a never before cricket league.”


    Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd COO Rohit Sharma added, “India is a cricket frenzy nation where cricket is considered a religion. And we at Zapak try to take this fever to yet another level by giving the game a platform on the internet. We think 5 Star Indian Online League will get people involved in their favorite sport and enjoy with the current cricket league fever.”



    The winners of the league will also win a seat on the ‘Board of Zapak Cricket in India’ (BZCI). This Board controls game ratings, writes game reviews for every game, selects game of the week, selects daily poll, pick hot cricketing topic of the week, expert blogs (write with Krish Srikanth) and test new cricket games etc.

  • Indyarocks.com to offer free access to 16 video channels through nautanki.tv









    MUMBAI: Hyderabad-based social networking site Indyarocks.com has partnered with nautanki.tv to offer free access to 16 premium video channels that can be accessed on videos.indyarocks.com.

     

    “Our partnership with nautanki.tv will enable us to enrich the user experience. Our target is to increase the number of online premium video channels to 25 before December this year,” says Indyarocks co-founder Kalyan Manyam.


    Under this partnership, users of indyarocks will be provided with free online access to video content from youth channels (MTV, Channel V, and FTV), news channels (TimesNow, Zee News), general entertainment channels (Colors, Star), movie channels (Zoom, Eros, Bollywood Hungama and Lehren) and Bhangra channel.


    “Indyarocks has seamlessly implemented our nautanki.tv api suite to provide premium video content to its users. We are sure that users will have a great time on Indyarocks watching premium video content from nautanki.tv‘s content partners,” says nautanki.tv CEO Sunil Nair.

  • Dish TV to premiere UTV’s Delhi 6 on pay-per-view

    MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra-owned direct-to-home (DTH) platform Dish TV is set to offer the Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor starrer Delhi-6 on pay-per-view in its Movie-on-Demand (MoD) Premier channel service.









    The movie is priced at Rs 75 and would be available to viewers on a pay-per-view basis for download for 24 hours.


    Delhi-6 is a co-production between UTV Motion Pictures and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures with music composed by AR Rahman and lyrics by Prasoon Joshi.

     

    Says Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor, “Delhi-6 is an outstanding film which has been acclaimed both by critics and the viewers. Delhi-6 on Dish TV will enable our five million subscribers to enjoy the latest and best of movies in the comfort of their home.”


    Delhi-6 is the story of love and self discovery set within the city of Delhi, which is a microcosm of India with all its chaos and contradictions. The film talks about an American citizen of Indian origin (Bachchan), coming to India and realising certain truths about himself.


    UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur said, “UTV has seen tremendous success on the pay-per-view platform with movies like Fashion and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! clocking over hundred thousand downloads across platforms. We are pleased to now offer Delhi-6 on PPV to audiences at home.”


    The subscribers can order the movie through IVR/Phone, SMS, or by logging on to the website.

  • Piracy main obstacle to pay-TV growth: Paul Aiello

    MUMBAI: A country with a large population and economy should be a dream-come-true for pay-TV businesses. But this doesn‘t appear to be true in the case of Indonesia where the service is far behind most terrestrial, or free-to-air, television.









    While India‘s pay-TV market penetration rate currently stands at 65 per cent, in Taiwan it is almost 90 per cent. However in Indonesia it is just 2.5 per cent.

    Sharing his views, Star Group chief executive officer Paul Aiello who was recently in Jakarta to attend a broadcasting summit says, “The government in Indonesia has been encouraging the broadcasting industry and there‘s good lot of involvement of government regulators, ministers, leading local media players in the country and some of the leading international media players.”

     

    Talking about Star‘s pay-TV business in Indonesia, Aiello states, “Star started its business in Indonesia in early 1990. Our business includes satellites and a cable channel that offers close to 40 channels such as Star World, Star Movies and National Geographic Channel.”


    To a question on whether he was optimistic about the Indonesian market, Aiello asserts, “We are optimistic about Indonesia‘s fundamentals. However, it is critical that regulators and industry players support a favourable environment. The regulators have done a good job so far.


    “Honestly, I‘d like to see an increase in investment. But the critical issue is for industry participants to work constructively with regulators to develop the pro-growth agenda and pro-growth strategies that are necessary. Piracy is growing and in the pay-TV industry in Indonesia. We need to address this issue immediately because if piracy grows, it would be difficult for pay-TV to grow.”


    About the prospects of pay-TV in Indonesia Aiello avers, “The broadcasting summit that I just attended had participants discussing the prospects for broadcasting. I think everyone looks at the basic demography of Indonesia and also looks at the economic story, consumption pattern, infrastructure development and rising income per capita. All these suggest that there is a pretty good media market.”


    About the growth of pay-TV in Indonesia, Aiello says, “Most pay-TV operators here have been able to grow large businesses because they provide a choice. A challenge here is rampant piracy because of which pay-TV in Indonesia has been unable to attract subscribers legitimately.


    “In building pay-TV products in low-income countries, the challenge is making the price affordable. To provide value-for-money, pay-TV operators have to build good content, good services and provide choice. Large numbers of local investors are involved in the business. But I think the number of pay-TV providers will remain in the single digits over the long term.”

  • AT&T adds six HD channels from MTV Networks

    MUMBAI: AT&T, the largest provider of local, long distance telephone services in the United States, has added six new high-definition (HD) channels from MTV Networks to the U-verse TV lineup.









    The channels that have been added include MTV HD, VH1 HD, CMT HD, Nickelodeon HD, Comedy Central HD and Spike HD, thus enhancing the telco‘s 100-plus HD channel count.

     

    Last month MTVN announced the launch of those six network feeds in MPEG-4 format on two SES Americom-New Skies satellites.

    AT&T offers two HD options with U-verse TV: HD service is included with the U450 programming package (starting at $109 per month) or is available for an additional $10 a month with any other U-verse TV programming package.


    The telco offers a separate HD Premium Tier for an additional $5 a month, comprising four channels: MGM HD, Palladia, Smithsonian Channel HD and Universal HD.