Category: Technology

NEW DELHI: WWIL is all set to file its rejoinder, to TDSAT, over the Trai decision to keep MSOs out of sharing the basic tier (FTA) revenue.

The Zee Group cable franchise has drawn up a three-year revenue model which shows that after investing of Rs 713.4 million, MSOs would earn Rs 55.3 million, whereas LCOs, making nil investments, would walk away with Rs 500 million (Click here for details).

The case will come up for hearing on 30 April, and WWIL is determined to get the order reversed. A WWIL official told indiantelevision.com that if TDSAT had once sent back the original regulation for review by Trai, it must have felt that it was inadequate or something was wrong with it.

Meanwhile, Roop Sharma, president of the Cable Operators Federation of India told indiantelevision.com: “If needed we shall take the issue up with the court giving our version, but if Trai has sent back the original model intact, it has made up its mind that that model was correct.”

The MSO has also said, in a document made available to indiantelevision.com, that Trai itself had said that “carriage fee” is a temporary and nebulous feature and may vanish under a digital, addressable regime such as exists in Cas.

Interestingly, Hinduja Group cable company InCableNet has also filed a three-year projection of revenue with Trai. InCable, in its response to the Trai consultation paper on revenue sharing, had supported WWIL and demanded a 40 per cent share from the basic tier.

While issuing its order last week, Trai had said that under its original revenue sharing formula, MSOs have the benefit of 100 per cent of the money coming from ‘carriage fees‘, but WWIL had in its response to the consultation paper on revenue sharing held that carriage fee is a temporary issue.

WWIL has said: “It is submitted that against an apparent Zero investment by cable operators, they will take approx. 80 per cent of the revenue share (approx. 50.16 crore out of approximately 62.61 crore).

“Broadcasters with Zero investments will get approx. 11.5 per cent of the revenue share (approximately Rs 7 crore) and MSOs with an investment of Rs 71 crore i.e. Rs 6-7 crore more than the total revenue, are to get only aproximately 8.5 per cent of the revenue share.”

WWIL‘s revenue model assumptions have been made on the premise that a subscriber on an average would opt for about 15 pay channels in the CAS notified areas.

The assumption, in fact, is in conformity with the actual choice made by the consumers in CAS notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, where the average subscriber is choosing only about 15-16 pay channels.

Accordingly, it says, the revenue projections submitted by the company reflect the actual potential earning from pay channels revenue stream as well as the basic tier revenue stream by the multi system operators / cable operators.

The MSOs has sought to do away with the misgiving, as it put to indiantelevision.com, that it would be getting additional revenue from carriage fees. In fact, it has shown that Trai itself has said it is a temporary phenomenon.

The presentation by WWIL has quoted the Trai amendments effected by TRAI to the Interconnect Regulation on 4th September 2006:

“Regulation of carriage fee in the present circumstances is very difficult as it also implies regulation of positioning. In different parts of the country, there are different viewership patterns. The capacities of cable networks also vary a great deal. Thus, the levels of carriage fee are different in different parts of the country depending upon demand and supply gap.

“Presently, there are more than 6000 multi system operators, which follow different systems of accounting. Payment of carriage fee is very often done in cash or in kind. Thus, it is not possible to find out the actual payments being made towards carriage fees. The carriage fee is a temporary phenomenon and is likely to disappear with the advent of digital cable systems.”

Reiterating that carriage fees were a phenomenon of the analogue mode, as there was limited carrying capacity (roughly 60 to 70 channels)

Hence, it says “It is very well known in this industry that it is only when a new channel is launched that its broadcaster makes efforts for the carriage / placement of the channels on the analogue non-addressable system by making certain payments to the networks which carry those channels.”

Besides, it echoes Trai‘s own statement that There is no standard or yardstick for the charges which are paid by the broadcasters for carriage of their new channels by the cable networks.

WWIL holds that at any given point of time, say if there are more than 150 channels to be carried on analogue technology in a non-addressable system, it may only be for 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the new channels that make efforts for carriage of their channels by payment of ad hoc amounts.

It says that under Cas addressable digital system, when a typical MSO headend can easily carry up to 600 channels, if not more, “no one would be fool enough to even consider paying a carriage fee, even if an MSOs is fool enough to ask for it,” a senior WWIL official told indiantelevision.com.

NEW DELHI: Even before the declaration of the current year as ‘the Year of the Broadband‘ by President A P J Abdul Kalam, the Broadband subscriber base reached crossed two million in the quarter ending December 2006 by registering a growth of
11.12 per cent.

The overall growth for the year December 2005 to December 2006 in the wire-line and wireless sector was 52.2 per cent.

According to Quarterly Performance Indicators of Telecom Services for the quarter ending December 2006 released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the wireless Market grew at a high of 15.5 per cent by adding
20.08 million subscribers. Broadband subscriber base grew to 2.019 million.

Internet Subscribers base reached 8.547 million in the quarter by registering a growth of 5.9 per cent.

The gross subscriber base of the wire-line and wireless services together reached 189.92 million in the quarter ending December 2006 from 170.02 million as on September 30, showing an increase of 11.7 per cent during the quarter.

(In the case of figures supplied by seven service providers in broadcasting and Cable, the maximum number of pay channels, free to air channels, and local channels remained the same at 241 between September and December, while it improved marginally at the minimum level from 74 to 86 channels.)

The tele-density in the quarter ending December 2006 reached 17.16 compared to 15.41 in the previous quarter ending September 2006.

The subscriber base for wireless services increased from 129.54 million to 149.62 million while that of Fixed Line service decreased from 40.5 million to 40.3 million.

Internet subscriber base at the end of the quarter was 8.582 million as compared to 8.096 million during the preceding quarter, registering an increase of 6%.

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd continued its hold at the top position with a market share of 44.6% followed by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. with 19.4% of share.

The number of Broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) was 2.054 million as on December 31 with a growth rate of 13.04% over the previous quarter.

The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for dial up Internet subscribers was Rs.205 for the quarter ending December. The Minutes of Usage (MoU) for dial-up access per subscriber /month was 190 minutes.

The number of Public Call Offices (PCO) in the country increased to 5.3 million from 5.12 million by registering a growth of 3.51 per cent in the last quarter of the calendar year 2006.

Rural Wireline subscriber base came down from 12.56 million in the earlier quarter to 12.48 million in the quarter ending December 2006, thus registering a negative growth of 0.64 per cent.

The number of Village Public Telephones (VPT) in the country increased to 5,59,000 from 5,52,000 registering a growth of 1.26 per cent.

The all India blended ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) per month for GSM services declined by 6.2% from Rs.377 in the earlier quarter to Rs.316 in the last quarter of 2006. ARPU for GSM post paid service declined by 1.7% from Rs.643 in September to Rs.632 in December. ARPU for GSM prepaid declined by 5.3% from Rs.277 in September to Rs.262 in December.

The All India blended ARPU (per month) for CDMA services for the quarter ending December was Rs.196 as against Rs.215 for the quarter ending September, registering a negative growth of 8.83%. Monthly ARPU for CDMA Postpaid segment was Rs.456 and for CDMA prepaid segment was Rs.159.

The performance of the Basic Service Providers improved marginally as compared to the previous quarter in provision of telephones, fault incidences, fault repair, and so on, while it was more significant in the case of cellular services.

MUMBAI: Toei Animation‘s popular animated series Ayakashi has been nominated for an animation award at three European film festivals.The announcement was made by it was announced by Toei Animation Co., Ltd Director of the International Department Kanji Kazahaya.

Ayakashi has been selected for competition in the following categories:

” 31st Annecy International Animation Film Festival ‘07-TV series category
” 14th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film‘07-Animated series category
” 11th Cartoons on the Bay Film Festival ‘07-Action & Adventure TV series category

Ayakashi is the an animated TV series that weaves three classic Japanese horror stories, The Yotsuya Kaidan, The Tenshu Tales, and Bakeneko Tale, with cutting edge animation technique. The high target series attracted a maximum rating of 5.0 percent and an average rating of 3.5 percent during its broadcast on Fuji TV‘s midnight timeslot in 2006.

“We are deeply honoured to be among the nominees at three major European film festivals,” said Kazahaya. “These nominations are truly a reflection of the talents and dedication of everyone on the Ayakashi production team.”

With headquarters in Tokyo and sales offices in Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Paris, Toei Animation ranks among the world‘s most prolific animation production studios. Toei Animation‘s operations include animation development and production, and worldwide marketing and program licensing.

MUMBAI: IPTV firm Kasenna announced that it has teamed with HP and Intel to complete a one-million-IPTV-subscriber benchmark test for broadcast television and bandwidth-intensive video on demand (VoD) services.

The benchmark test proved that an IPTV infrastructure developed by Kasenna, together with HP and Intel, can support one million subscribers, a company release states.

The test was conducted in a simulated access network environment at the HP Communications, Media and Entertainment (CME) Solution Center in Grenoble, France.

As part of the certification process, the test center stress-tested the PortalTV infrastructure using a traffic model that subjected it to peak traffic patterns typical of Friday or Saturday evening consumer viewing.

The test bed, which can be tuned to specific subscriber and traffic scenarios, is designed to allow service providers to test the infrastructure for their own user-generated traffic patterns – both traditional and anticipated traffic – and a variety of stand-alone, centralized, and distributed-content distribution architectures as a means of proving the resiliency and scalability of the IPTV infrastructure before deployment.

The network supports a multi-user configuration in which multiple HP ProLiant DL380 G5 or BL480c servers running LivingRoom middleware software, each supporting up to 120,000 active subscribers, may be tested.

MUMBAI: Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) was once again voted as the “Best Asian Satellite Carrier” in the 2007 Telecom Asia Awards, presented by Telecom Asia Group at a ceremony held in Hainan Island, China on 16 April.

The Awards were scored by a 15-member judging panel of industry professionals, and backed by financial analysis from ICT research firm IDC, a copmpany release states. Winners were chosen based on their financial performance, market leadership, technology innovation and corporate governance.

“Telecom Asia congratulates AsiaSat in winning what is one of the toughest sectors in the industry. The judges recognised its financial discipline in difficult trading conditions as well as its strategic vision in positioning itself in the growing content and DTH segments,” said Telecom Asia Awards organiser Robert Clark.

“We would like to thank Telecom Asia and the judges for recognising and honouring AsiaSat‘s continued efforts in striving for the highest standards in all of our services, and our customers, partners and staff for their support, loyalty and dedication that have made AsiaSat the premier satellite operator in Asia. Our commitment to quality and integrity, and value will continue to be our focus in the future,” said AsiaSat CEO Peter Jackson.

In 2006, AsiaSat achieved encouraging growth in overall utilisation with an expanding premium customer base, and an increasing number of video and audio channels delivered by its satellite fleet. In addition, AsiaSat‘s associate and subsidiary companies including its broadband venture SpeedCast, Skywave DTH service, and China VSAT joint venture Beijing Asia Sky, also improved their financial performance over the past year.

MUMBAI: VOOM HD Networks, Singapore‘s Mega Media and the Media Development Authority of Singapore continue to develop high definition projects resulting from the companies‘ landmark HD co production agreement inked in late 2005.

The trio announced two new HD projects encompassing the action sports and documentary genres. The announcement was made jointly by VOOM HD Networks GM Greg Moyer; Singapore‘s Mega Media MD Jonathan Foo and MDA CEO Dr Christopher Chia.

Metro BMX Jam: Singapore (2 x 60‘) – This series covers the adrenaline charged Metro BMX Jam competition in its first ever trip to Singapore. Envisioned by six time World Champion and nine-time X Games medal winner Jay Miron, Metro BMX Jam: Singapore features more than 40 of the best international athletes including BMX superstars Dave Mirra and Ryan Nyquist competing in high-definition. BMX is a form of competitive cycling involving jumps and freestyle tricks.

BMX P.I.G.: Singapore (7 x 60‘) – In this event for Asia, top-ranking international athletes compete in a friendly, yet intense game of BMX P.I.G., where the classic school yard game of P.I.G. is combined with the high octane action of the BMX sport, matching the world‘s premier BMX riders in a pulse pounding contest of one-ups and elimination. This series part documentary and part reality show will give viewers a chance to watch the athletes as they talk about tricks, debate strategy, and do a little old-fashioned trash talking.
Metro BMX Jam: Singapore and BMX P.I.G.: Singapore, will premiere on VOOM HD Networks‘ RUSH HD channel and will also air on Singapore‘s brand-new HD Channel, SLING HD, coming soon to SingTel.

The two newest high definition projects are produced in 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, with completion and delivery marked for fourth quarter 2007 and first Quarter 2008.

MUMBAI: Privated Equity fund Blackstone Group has reportedly made a $ 6 billion bid for Intelsat Ltd, the world‘s largest commercial satellite operator that also owns PanAmSat.

Intelsat, which is owned by four private equity firms — Apax Partners, Permira, Apollo Management and Madison Dearborn Partners — has mandated Credit Suisse to manage its sale, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, quoting company sources, reported today.

Intelsat was bought by the fund consortium in August 2004 in a $3.1 billion deal and subsequently bought over rival PanAmSat in 2005 for $ 3.2 billion. Intelsat is currently carrying an $11 billion debt load.

The satellite operator has more than 50 birds in its fleet.

NEW DELHI: The demand for setting encryption mandates for Doordarshan’s terrestrial signals is likely to be rejected by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, with consensus eluding the technical sub-group studying the issue.

Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that encryption could mean a major policy shift since Doordarshan was a public broadcaster with free-to-air signals and it would be unethical to restrict the reach of its signals in any way. The Ministry also feels that since many of Doordarshan’s 1400 transmitters are unmanned, they would first have to be given manpower which can decode or encrypt the signals.

This may also create problems for cable operators since Doordarshan is covered by the must-carry clause in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 and the cable operators have to show this channel. Furthermore, the DD Direct set top boxes which reach around four million households are not equipped to handle encryption as this direct-to-home platform is free to air.

The sub-group headed by All India Radio Director-General Brajeshwar Singh to study the issue had already submitted its report. Earlier, a draft report had been circulated among the members in an effort to arrive at a consensus but the report was submitted in the absence of any commonality.

The Ministry had been informed of the difference of opinion even as the matter was under consideration, and had widened the mandate before the sub-group to reject encryption or consider other options wherever necessary.

The sub-group, which met over the weekend, is also reported to have rejected the offer made by the Board of Control for Cricket in India that the cricket body would undertake cost of around Rs twenty million for the encryption of all DD transmitters.

BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah had told indiantelevision.com last month that it was prepared to undertake the cost of encryption which could be completed in about two weeks.

The report would now be placed before various stakeholders and the Ministry may attempt to arrive at a consensus. But sources said this may not be easy since the report had dealt more with the difficulties attached to encryption rather than giving its view on whether this should be done.

The idea of setting mandates for the encryption was suggested after private broadcasters said sharing live sporting events with DD leads to piracy. The Union Cabinet had suggested while setting up the sub-group that DD signals should be encrypted in a manner that only DD’s terrestrial transmitting centres receive the feeds.

The Ministry also feels that it is not in public interest for private channels to refuse to share their sports signals with the public broadcaster since all those receiving TV signals terrestrially would be deprived of seeing World Cup matches.

During his reply to the discussion on the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Bill, the Minister had said it was not safe for the public broadcaster to de-code all its 1,400 DD transmitters together as it would affect ‘the public service obligation’ of the channel.

ESPN Star, Nimbus and Zee, among other broadcasters had demanded that DD signals be encrypted as the public broadcaster had a reach spanning a vast area from West Asia to Singapore. The Cabinet had also asked the technical committee to meet the stakeholders ESPN Star, ZEE, Nimbus, and BCCI and find out a common device to protect the signal which cannot be pirated abroad.

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has finally cleared the FIPB application from Dish TV, allowing the Subhash Chandra held company to allocate shares to foreign collaborators of Zee Telefilms, consequent upon the demerger scheme approved by the Delhi High Court.

“This paves the way for listing of Dish TV India Ltd (formerly known as ASC Enterprises Ltd). The listing is likely to happen sometimes this week. BSE & NSE have already granted in principle approval for listing,” a senior Dish TV executive told indiantelevision.com.

The listing of Dish TV, Zee Group‘s demerged direct-to-home (DTH) business, had been being delayed as the company awaited this approval.

Zee chairman Subhash Chandra had earlier said in an analyst meet that Dish TV would get listed either on 26th or 28th March. The clearance came finally on 9 April, though the formal announcement had been delayed further.

Last reported, the board of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has approved an extension by two months up to 31 May for implementation of the Scheme of Arrangement (for Demerger of Direct Consumer Services Business Undertaking of the company in favor of Dish TV India Ltd). Zeel, which had the assets of Dish TV, has already started trading as a demerged standalone entity.

“The approval for extension has been done “in view of the delay in the process of allotment and listing of shares of Dish TV (formerly ASC Enterprises Ltd) due to non-receipt of certain regulatory approvals. The process is expected to be completed by mid-April,” Zeel said.

Dish TV is planning to pump in Rs 10 billion over the next two-and-a-half years through a mix of debt and equity. The company is looking at a 30-40 per cent debt component and is in talks to get in an equity investor

MUMBAI: Electronic Arts, interactive entertainment software company, and the Endemol group have announced a creative partnership for the development of Virtual Me, a new digital entertainment concept that bridges the divide between traditional TV and videogames. The all-new online offering is being prepared to debut in Endemol‘s reality show Big Brother.

Virtual Me combines cutting edge avatar creation technology from EA with TV formats from Endemol to give consumers a breakthrough way to meet, compete and socialize in online digital worlds. Avatar creation takes a leap forward with a high performing, easy-to-use tool that creates life-like cyber-clones, with customized appearances and identities. VirtualMe.com, the home of the Virtual Me avatar creation system, will launch in the coming months.

Virtual Me offers players the chance to participate in virtual versions of TV talent shows like Fame Academy and Operacion Triunfo, game shows like Deal Or No Deal and 1 vs 100 and to form real relationships with other virtual avatars on the web. The two companies will create an integrated team to share expertise in their respective fields and develop entertainment formats and experiences for a wide range of platforms, including TV and online, states an official release.

Endemol chief creative officer Peter Bazalgette said, “We‘re told that people are starting to spend more time online than they are watching TV. Both markets are now important and this has huge implications for content creators. Our opportunity with Electronic Arts is to develop ideas that fully embrace the way people are consuming entertainment today.”