Category: Technology

MUMBAI: The boards of directors of the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliate organisations in the US have agreed to support a voluntary month-long ’quiet period’.

This will ensure that there is no disruption of local television service in the weeks leading up to and following the digital television transition in the US.

The affiliate boards’ endorsement comes following the National Association of broadcasters (Nab) Television Board of Directors’ pledge to continue making local television signals available to cable, satellite and telephone company distribution partners from 4 February – 4 March, 2009. Analogue television in the US will end on 17 February 2009.

Nab television board chairman K. James Yager says, “We are delighted that all of the affiliate boards have agreed to support the NAB Television Board initiative.

“This pledge — coupled with our unprecedented campaign to educate America on the DTV transition — will minimise consumer confusion and help local broadcasters and government achieve our joint objective of a seamless transition to the next generation of television.”

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court has issued a notice to internet giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to stop showing online advertising related to gender selection products.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice P Sathasivam and Justice JM Panchal issued a notice on a petition filed by activist Sabu Mathew George highlighting the violation of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.

George said, “These companies are making a lot of money by doing highly targeted and selective advertising of these products. Our petition seeks to block these advertisements.”

Sanjay Parikh, the lawyer who filed the original complaint added, “The court has issued a notice to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo asking them to reply to our petition.”

NEW DELHI: Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) has in its judgment in the case between Dish TV and Star Den and MSM Discovery has dismissed Dish TV’s petition over signals being made available to the licencee of Headend-in-the-Sky (Hits) platforms on the ground of non-availability of uplinking and downlinking guidelines for Hits platforms.

According to the existing uplinking and downlinking guidelines, a broadcaster can only supply signals or content to registered MSOs, cable operators and direct-to-home (DTH) operators.

In his order, Tdsat Justice Arun Kumar blamed the government for not taking sufficient action on upgrading Hits policies, “I fail to understand why the government is dithering on issuing clear guidelines to allay the apprehensions of broadcasters. The broadcasters today apprehend that in view of the existing guidelines if they provide signals or content to the Hits platform, they will be violating the existing guidelines because the existing guidelines permit supply of signals or content only to registered MSOs and cable operators and to the DTH platform. It is high time that the government immediately takes a decision on this aspect in consumer interest. We all talk of consumer interest and say that consumer interest comes first. But this has remained a mere slogan. In reality nobody appears to be bothered about consumer interest.”

When contacted, Essel corporate executive vice president Arvind Mohan said, “Though the broadcast tribunal had dismissed our petition at the same time it has criticised the government for not clearing the Hits policy. We would now send the copy of the judgment to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting so that the matter could be resolved as soon as possible because in the Hits case the policy is the only major issue. And once this gets sorted, I am sure we will witness a faster roll-out of Hits.”

MUMBAI: Pay-TV provider Dish Network Corporation and interactive TV company Ensequence have joined hands to provide interactive features to NBC Universal’s (NBCU) coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

Dish Network will offer NBCU‘s 2008 Beijing Olympic Games coverage through its interactive TV (iTV) mosaic, a multiple-screen showcase available to 12 million iTV-enabled Dish Network subscribers.

The iTV mosaic will broadcast from six NBCU channels: CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, USA Network and two Olympic highlight channels. Dish Network subscribers can watch all six screens simultaneously or select one channel to watch in full-screen.

Dish Network EVP Michael Kelly said, “The mosaic is an important component of Dish Network‘s more than 25 existing iTV channels, the most offered by any pay-TV provider in the US, and serves as a great option for fans of NBCU‘s 2008 Olympic Games coverage to follow their favorite events and athletes.”

MUMBAI: LG Electronics has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with six US cable operators, supporting the use of the tru2way technology platform for delivering two-way interactive digital cable services without a set-top box.

LG Electronics president, CTO Dr Woo Paik says, “This pro-consumer pact means that LG tru2way HDTVs, planned for 2009 and beyond, will receive the newest interactive cable services, from video on demand to interactive programming guides, in virtually every media market and without a set-top box. Equally significant, it will facilitate the development of a viable, two-way retail market.”

Developed by Cablelabs, tru2way “plug and play” technology is backed by the US‘ six largest cable companies namely Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, CableVision, Charter and Bright House Networks.

Cablelabs president, CEO Dr Richard R Green says, “Tru2way will allow cable operators, consumer electronics manufacturers, content owners and others to work together to provide creative interactive services directly to the consumer.”

Tru2way technology allows consumers to receive interactive cable services, including video-on-demand, voting and polling, games, and e-commerce in integrated retail DTVs without the need for a separate set-top box.

MUMBAI: The spend on bbc.co.uk was ?110 milion in 2007-08, 48 per cent higher than the service licence baseline budget, revealed a review of bbc.co.uk by the BBC Trust.

According to the review, most of this increase was not overspend, but the misallocation of ?24.9 million in overheads and costs to other budgets within the BBC, representing poor financial accountability.

The new service enables subscribers to catch the latest Bollywood updates like clips, trailers, ringtones, music, pictures and glimpses of Page 3 parties. It also covers news, highlights, sports updates, live scores, sports clips, interviews of cricketers, ring tones, wallpapers and themes, chat and games across genres.

BPL Mobile @Café offers a grid format of icons providing a simplified icon based content discovery and navigation. The pre-activated service comes without a monthly rent with pay as per usage.

The portal also has a wide collection of music, from the latest chartbusters and the hit songs, to ghazals, devotional songs, spiritual discourses by Osho, Kabir and prayers.

MUMBAI: Criccontest.com, a live cricket gaming portal, has been launched by Reasonable Advertising Pvt Ltd (RAPL) Television. The portal allows one to bet with points and win prizes. There is no money involved.

The live gaming section of the portal will officially launch from the second Test between India and Sri Lanka. A trial run is on currently. The promoters of RAPL — Ashok Wadhwa and Anoop Wadhwa–claim that since the portal was launched in May it has a registered user base of 50,000. It also claims to have monthly page views of five million and 250,000 unique visitors.

One gets 10,000 points after registering for the first time. Bids are displayed for each team playing in the match. The bids change drastically after each over. The minimum bid on a team is 500 while the maximum is 5000. Score with every win, loss and balance are available in the ‘My Account‘ section. The top 50 performers get a Kashmir willow bat after the end of a match. The winners will also have their photos put up on the homepage. There is also a trivia section that changes every five overs. The site will have five daily contests, two weekly contests and animated contests.

These are linked to the state of the match. Anoop Wadhwa says, “The revenue model for the site will be advertising. We have approached clients and a number of them have expressed interest. We expect to breakeven in the first quarter. The Internet will be a major part of RAPL’s strategy going forward. Our aim is to launch a total of 12 portals over the next year.

“This will include portals devoted to other sports like soccer. On criccontest.com, fans can have a rollicking time with their favourite sport. While RAPL started as a television marketing company, we are now expanding and this is an attempt in that direction. Our expectation is that during each live match day we will get 100,000-200.000 visitors.”

He adds that the real potential of this site will come when T20 matches happen. That is because fortunes fluctuate in each over. The site also has a coaching segment with animated displays. It also has a unique ratings system devised in conjunction with well-known cricket statistician Mohandas Menon. To add to the user experience the site also has a daily two-and-a-half minute animated soap called Gloves and Pads.

Eight episodes air over two weeks after which a new story starts. Wadhwa says that the humour is whacky. The TG of the site is the 18-34 age group. One of the aims of the show is to show users that the net can be used for more than just email, chat and exchanging information he says. The site also has a virtual mascot who is a cheer girl called Bubbles.

As a part of this deal, Biflix users will be provided with an opportunity to download the 35-minute video of Shilpa’s Yoga for $4.49. The yoga content is available in small duration video formats. Also, the website will provide the customers with free one-minute duration formats of various “asanas”.

“We are really glad to see this lifestyle content online at bigflix.com. Going live on the net will make Shilpa’s Yoga content accessible to audiences across the globe anywhere. The home video and digital sales of this exclusive product will definitely compliment each other,” added Shemaroo Entertainment director Jai Maroo.

The yoga DVDs will be available at all BIGFlix DVD rental stores in 10 cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Indore and Bangalore. It will also be sold in other retail stores.

BANGALORE: UTStarcom, Inc has signed a new contract with Aksh Optifibre, Ltd, expanding the operator‘s deployment of the RollingStream(R) Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) solution.

This is UTStarcom‘s second deal with Aksh in India. The company plans on building and delivering IPTV capabilities throughout India.

Aksh originally selected UTStarcom in early 2007 to deliver the first commercial IPTV service in India through Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in Delhi. The current contract helps Aksh extend its reach and deliver IPTV services to subscribers of MTNL in Mumbai.

Aksh announced the launch of its IPTV and VoIP services in Mumbai on the MTNL network in March 2008, as an expansion to the initial launch of these services on the MTNL Delhi network in July 2007.

“UTStarcom‘s RollingStream IPTV solution is a completely IP-based platform that will enable better delivery of the interactive entertainment services we plan to extend to our customers,” said Aksh Optifibre Ltd managing director Kailash S. Choudhari. “Innovation brings progress and Aksh understands the importance of maintaining cutting-edge technology as India embarks on pivotal IPTV growth. Our relationship with UTStarcom to bring the first IPTV service to India led that innovation, and now we are hoping to bring those high-quality entertainment services to more subscribers.”

UTStarcom‘s RollingStream end-to-end IPTV system supports more than 850,000 live IPTV subscribers globally. The system maintains a current total system capacity exceeding 2.5 million subscribers as a result of recent deployments in China with China Netcom and China Telecom, in India with Bharti Airtel, MTNL/Aksh and United Telecoms Limited, in Sri Lanka with SLT, in Japan with Softbank, in Latin America with Brasil Telecom, in Taiwan with Markwell and in Europe with Jersey Telecom.

UTStarcom was recently recognized with two award distinctions for the company‘s IPTV and broadband work and advancement in India. VARIndia named UTStarcom this year‘s “Most Trusted Company” in India in the areas of broadband and IPTV leadership. UTStarcom also received an “Excellence in Telecom Services and Solutions” award from the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) in India for the company‘s innovation in IPTV, broadband and NGN and its direct impact on India‘s telecom market growth.

“IPTV is building steady momentum in India and UTStarcom‘s understanding of the growing environment gives us a market advantage,” said UTStarcom vice president and managing director, South Asia operations Vijay Yadav. “UTStarcom‘s relationship with Aksh will assist the operator in bringing more IPTV-based services to its customers, increasing revenue opportunities and maintaining its leadership position in India.”