Category: Technology

NEW DELHI: Multi-System Operators have told the sector regulator that there is no shortage of STBs anywhere in the country, but admit that there has been a slow-down of consumer orders, for which the MSOs themselves and broadcasters need to make various changes in their strategies.

“None of the players, neither the cable operators, nor the broadcasters, not even us, have been reading the consumers‘ minds, and we better take care of that from now,” a senior official of one MSO told indiantelevision.com today.

Meanwhile, although these are “early days”, the trend that has emerged as a result of data analysis of customer choices as expressed in the forms submitted (for those who have opted for Cas in Delhi and Mumbai) “is bound to create major upsets in the market, especially in how the media buyers look at where to put their monies,” the official said.

This was in the offing since the early days of Cas implementation, and the announcement could cause a mild to heavy temblor in the market.

Meanwhile, cable operators here reported also that in some pockets people were not taking STBs because of regional preferences. In the predominantly Bengali neighbourhood of Chittaranjan Park, a fairly posh colony, many have stayed with the Bengali FTAs and decide to hang on to whatever rest they are getting in the FTA basic tier package (Rs 77, plus taxes).

Likewise, in the Nepali dominated Vasant Gaon area and for people in RK Puram, where there is a predominance of South Indians from various states, it has been noted that since their most popular regional channels are FTAs, they have stayed away from STBs, Roop Sharma, president of Cable Operators Federation of India told this correspondent.

None of the three MSOs approached in Delhi by this correspondent so far have divulged the clear analysis, saying that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked for these and they can reveal the data only after reporting to it.

But it is known by now that most of those who have taken the STBs have opted for a la carte and not packages or bouquets. “This clearly shows that the Indian customer knows its mind far better than we had anticipated,” sources admitted.

CUSTOMERS IGNORED: In the soul searching process, media experts are now saying that the slowdown has been because of various reasons, primarily ignoring the customer.

First, the DTH players promised to supply boxes and dishes but could not do so on time. In the first instance, they gave dishes but not the STBs. Then, they gave prepaid boxes, so when the month was over, the streaming was disconnected. Then, people started comparing that this never used to happen with the “cablewallahs”, who would wait till you paid and not disconnect.

In fact, the “facelessness” of the DTH players, who operate through the BPOs, have been one reason for people in chunks getting put off by them, though it is a fact that DTH players have scored heavily in the bordering areas of Delhi proper by giving attractive prices to housing colonies.

At the same time, MSOs admit that they too had failed to gear up to the search in the first 14 or 20 days of Cas implementation. “The packages that we gave did not meet the needs of the consumer,” said one MSO spokesperson.

“We also did not make a clear statement on what package a cable home having two or more TV sets would get as discount, and no clear policy emerged in the beginning, and the packages were arbitrarily decided by us,” he added.

Analysis and feedback from ground level fitters from cable operators show that due to this, most families set a budget for themselves as per their pockets, and decided to take channels they wanted, which is why they chose a la carte.

This has caused major changes in the viewership patterns, and a lot of “myths” of TRP supremacy claimed by channels could come for a shake up, media experts aver.

FENCESITTERS APLENTY: Data analysis shows that a lot of people are sitting on the fence, so far as fresh demand for STBs is concerned.

As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, MSOs say that there could be some kind of pace picking up with the World Cup cricket coming up, but they hold that much more than a global sporting event has to be looked into for the “second phase of Cas rollout” to be successful.

MSOs have told broadcasters to tie-up with them to push for boxes. They have made several proposals so far on this with the major broadcasters.

Though a recent seminar in Mumbai generally held that availability of STBs would be crucial for success of Cas and would rake in the moolah for all the players, reports emanating suggest that there is no shortage of boxes.

All three MSOs, WWIL, Hathway as well as Incablenet have ample number of boxes, “which we have informed Trai about”.

“We have told Trai that there is an urgent need for MSOs and broadcasters to tie up and create packages that are of substance to the consumers, which will be in their own best interest,” the official said.

As of now, however, there is no such consensus emerging on a market that is there for the taking.

NEW DELHI: The first digital transmitter for All India Radio (AIR) on the short wave is already going through a successful trial run, officials say, adding that the pilot run for the medium wave digital radio too, will commence from May or June this year.

The transmitter (250 kw) – which started operating from Republic Day this year is on the short wave band and broadcasting for Delhi, with the ‘skip distance‘ reduced to “near zero”, officials have revealed to indiantelevision.com, and data transmission is also on.

This means that if you have the required receiver, you could here and now access digital radio, and while listening to radio news or music, you could read on your set the news flashes and even see where the bulls or bears are in the stock market, said officials, requesting not to be named.

The system is operating on DRM technology, which AIR experts feel is the best choice, as it covers all existing bands, medium, short and long waves.

The handsets are being taken to various locations in Delhi now, and being tested with the required equipment, and it has been found that the skip distance, or the distance between where the transmitter is and the first point from where the waves are actually accessible, has been reduced from almost zero in some places, to one or two kilometres in others. The usual skip distance would be around 70 km.

But as a senior official explained, skip distance is not a major issue. “We could reduce the skip distance for analogue too, depending on the content and the target audience.”

What he meant was that if the programme is being broadcast from Delhi but for Jharkhand, the skip distance could be extended to 1,000 km, and for, say, England, it could made available from about 3,000 km from where the transmission is taking place.

These adjustments can be made in repositioning the antenna, they explained.

“The point is that we have been successful in handling this technology and the transmitter is functioning perfectly. The only problem is that receivers are not available in the country,” the official held.

According to him, the receivers, for which costs have been calculated, at the moment come for euro 200. But as officials in charge of the AIR digitalisation programme have been saying, the cost will come down with increase in demand.

The big calculation is that once India and China go for DRM technology, that would mean something close to half the world‘s population, and most market players would look at the sheer volume and cut the prices.

“There are various standards in digital radio transmission, officials explained, which include Eureka 147 DAB, IBOC (HD Radio) and DRM. But the latter allows transmission on all the bands we presently have and also the FM band.

The advantage of DRM technology is that no additional band allocation is required and no additional spectrum is needed.

What the trial transmission is now giving is FM quality sound on medium and short waves and CD quality sound on FM, officials said.

“Objective measurements are going on for sound quality and we shall check all the myriad factors before we go for expansion,” the officials asserted.

There is dialogue within the DRM Consortium, the officials said, and efforts are being made to rope in member countries, with an eye to cutting down the cost of receivers.

But when would private players come in and add to the market factor that would reduce price for tabletop digital radio sets?

The officials said that FM had been set up 20 years before the market started seeing the money in it. But with the FM experiment successful, market players may not take that long with digital radio. “This could happen in three or four years.

“Our point is to create the infrastructure and that has been successfully done in the initial phase of experimentation,” the officials said.

MUMBAI: The Toronto based JumpTV which provides ethnic television over the Internet, announced that it has signed 11 new exclusive internet broadcast agreements with channels from Pakistan, Thailand, Lebanon, Nigeria and Benin, expanding its network to 270 channels under license.

Channels signed include: ORTB (Benin), Channels TV, Lagos TV and MiTV (Nigeria), Zam TV and Rung TV (Pakistan), Popper, Rak Thai TV, Panorama 07 and Thai Cable Channel (Thailand) and Mlive (Lebanon).

The 11 new channels are expected to be individually priced at $9.95 per month when launched commercially, and some will become part of country/region-specific channel bundles at later dates. The addition of the three Nigerian, four Thai and two Pakistani channels brings JumpTV‘s Nigerian, Thai and Pakistani channel lineup to seven channels, nine channels and 12 channels respectively, and bundles will be launched for each of these countries soon. The additional Lebanese channel is to be included in JumpTV‘s Pan Arab Package, which currently includes 23 top Arab channels for $29.95 per month.

Commenting on the partnership with JumpTV, ORTB general director M. Julien Pierre Akpaki said, “JumpTV is enabling ORTB to grow from a number one national channel that is available in Benin only to a global channel overnight. Since a majority of our programming is in French, we believe there is a real market for our content not only among the people of Benin, but anyone interested in West African television.”

JumpTV head of content acquisition and global operations Sila Celik says, “JumpTV is thrilled to announce the addition of 11 channels from countries like Nigeria, Thailand, Pakistan and Lebanon. We understand that our subscribers want an array of content from their country or region of origin and these channels add substantially to our offerings.”

JumpTV International CEO and president Kaleil Isaza Tuzman says, “The first phase of JumpTV‘s business strategy has always been to aggregate the most television content from around the globe. Now with 270 channel partnerships, JumpTV continues to solidify itself as the largest broadcaster of ethnic programming, providing its subscribers with live television, when and where they want it.”

MUMBAI: Vodafone, Telefónica, Orange, and 3UK have announced the results of their successful joint technical trial of TDtv in the US.

TDtv is the UMTS TD-CDMA-3GPP Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS) standard for mobile television solutions. The trial provided insights into the technology’s capability and successfully demonstrated how existing spectrum can be used to deliver mobile television and other multimedia services.

The participants are now discussing next steps and exploring how the findings from the trial could be used to develop commercial models.

Key Trial Results

• Reliable delivery of mobile TV services using TDtv technically viable

• Up to 11 to 14 high quality channels can be delivered in 5MHz of TDD spectrum

• Coverage comparable to WCDMA but using fewer cell sites

• Performance consistent when moving at speed

• Dual mode handset viable

The TDtv trial, announced in October 2006, aspired to test key performance and deployment aspects of the mobile TV technology. Covering a large area of Bristol in the UK using only 12 macro-cell sites, the trial proved that the technology has the ability to offer reliable television delivery at the data rates that are needed to provide high quality mobile TV services.

The trial showed that eleven high quality channels could be delivered across the service area, with the potential to deliver up to fourteen channels with planned future technology developments. Significant coverage gains were demonstrated when using key TDtv performance enhancement technologies including macro site combining and receive diversity in the user device. The gains from these technologies demonstrated in the trial indicate that TDtv may be able to provide the same coverage as WCDMA when deployed on 35% of the WCDMA sites.

TDtv also proved its ability to perform at motorway speeds during the trial, allowing it to address a wide range of use cases such as when travelling on a train.

Initial coexistence testing to explore the simultaneous operation of 3G FDD and TDD also proved the theoretical viability of a dual mode WCDMA/TDtv handset.

Finally, the TDtv network also proved very reliable with 99 per cent availability during the trial.

Professor Michael Walker, who is the director of research and development at Vodafone said, “Trials are an extremely important part of our strategic product development and help us build a comprehensive understanding of how the technologies work and the customer experience they will offer. The outcome of this trial will help us evaluate the commercial potential of TDtv as part of the MBMS assessments we are undertaking.”

Telefónica Móviles Espa?a MD Technology and Services Cayetano Lluch Mesquida says, “The TDtv trial in Bristol has proven the ability to effectively use our unused TDD spectrum for a wide variety of Mobile Broadcast Services and the potential of a SFN deployment to support impressive coverage gains.

” Nevertheless, we would like to see the next steps taken to ensure a wide variety of terminals and interoperable services are available for the platform.”

Orange executive VP, IT Networks and product support Vivek Badrinath said, “We are committed to fuelling the growth of mobile TV by ensuring our customers are offered the best quality and content now and in the future. The TDtv trial forms an important part of our research into potential technology solutions for the future, equally important is the collaboration of other industry players, who are now working together to learn and build from our shared experiences.”

3UK CTO David Cooper said, “3 is pleased to support this initiative. The results of this first trial demonstrate TDtv has the potential to deliver a mass market Mobile TV solution. As the first network to launch 3G services in Europe, we‘re always looking at ways to develop the service we offer customers.”

MUMBAI: Home Box Office (HBO) has launched a subscription video on demand (SVoD) service in the UK.

The launch marks HBO’s first entry into the UK marketplace bringing its renowned programs to audiences in the region under a stand alone HBO branded destination.

HBO president, programming distribution and international Simon Sutton says, “HBO’s programming has always done very well in the UK and the arrival of an HBO service has been long desired and anticipated. We are very excited to offer HBO programming in a subscription video on demand format, where we can deliver our acclaimed series and specials to UK audiences on their schedule. This opportunity enables us to raise our profile in the region, while providing viewers with a distinct HBO environment.”

With launch dates to be determined by each of the distributors, the HBO SVoD service will be made available on BT Vision, Tiscali TV and Virgin Media. The service will provide at least 50 hours of HBO’s acclaimed original programming upon its full rollout, including award-winning series, miniseries, documentaries and comedy specials.

On 1 July, 2001, HBO first launched its SVoD service, HBO On Demand, in the US. HBO On Demand not only allows subscribers to watch HBO programming when they wish and as much as they like, they can also enjoy the benefits of pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding their selections.

The programming line-up on the UK HBO on demand service will be updated on a weekly basis and will provide consumers with the freedom to enjoy HBO programming whenever they want. Over time, the library on the service will build to include all episodes of the featured HBO series, starting with the first episode of season one and growing each consecutive week.

Included among the programs available at launch will be the shows The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The service will also feature miniseries Band of Brothers, Angels in America and From the Earth to the Moon.

MUMBAI: Users of Chinese web portal QQ.com can now learn English directly from the site thanks to a partnership deal with BBC World Service. It is the first Chinese portal to enter content partnership with the BBC.

From today 14 February 2007, users of the portal will be able to access BBC Learning English content specially tailored for Chinese speakers.

BBC Learning English teaches reading, listening and comprehension. It explains various points of the English language through human interest stories and topics including UK lifestyle and culture.

The BBC will start English teaching on QQ.com with two popular features, Take Away English and Quizzes. Take Away English the BBC says has been a hit with Chinese users as it offers MP3 audio and pdf text downloads, so the learner can quite literally take away the BBC‘s English lessons.

Topics range from the latest Harry Potter book and online gaming to Chinese football players, and include listening, reading, exercises and an audio glossary. Quizzes offers learners an interactive test of their English vocabulary and grammar and helps them with teacher feedback.

Looking ahead at what BBC Learning English has in store for Chinese online users, Alison Konieczny, who is the editor of BBC English Language Teaching China team said, “We are planning to treat Chinese learners to two more features which will enrich their English vocabulary in fun and entertaining ways. Real English teaches words and phrases learners won‘t necessarily find in their dictionaries, and Word Master is an interactive game which tests and teaches vocabulary common in English proficiency exams.”

“I can‘t think of a better day to launch our partnership with QQ.com than 14 February, which of course is Valentine‘s Day. It‘s a memorable day for a lot of people, and I hope Chinese learners will fall in love with our BBC pages and make us a regular date!”

BBC World Service‘s Business Development Manager for China and North Asia, Raymond Li said, “We are delighted to partner with one of the leading national portal sites in China to provide quality English learning content to many learners in China. Internet has become an increasingly popular and effective learning platform among young people, and the BBC has been building up successful partnership with China‘s local portal sites over last few years. Our new partnership deal with QQ.com will help us reach more online learners in China, therefore bringing more benefit to them, too.”

BBC Learning English offers English language teaching programmes and online content for a global radio and online audience.

English learning materials are available online at bblearningenglish.com and, for Chinese speakers, on bbcchina.com.cn.

MUMBAI: At the 3GSM World Congress in Spain Adobe Systems has announced that support for video will be integrated in the next generation of Adobe Flash Lite software, Adobe’s award-winning Flash Player runtime specifically designed for mobile phones.

Flash Lite 3, expected to be available in the first half of this year, will bring the Adobe Flash Player video format from the desktop to mobile phones and devices, enabling operators, handset manufacturers and developers alike to deliver more experiences to mobile users.

The firm says that the release will be an addition to its family of video technologies that includes Adobe Production Studio for professional video editing, Marcomedia Flash 8 from Adobe for video encoding, and Adobe Flash Media Server for video distribution. Adobe says that itsFlash technology is impacting the way video is distributed over the Internet.

Today, television shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy are being delivered online through FLV, the Adobe Flash Player video format, while the technology also powers the video capabilities of social networking sites such as YouTube and MySpace.

The firm adds that video support in Flash Lite will change the way the way users engage with mobile content and open up new revenue opportunities for developers worldwide. This release will allow users to view vibrant video content from popular Internet sites like YouTube or MySpace and enable developers to create new applications across a variety of mobile and consumer electronics platforms.”

Flash Lite will support the same video formats supported by Adobe Flash Player and will directly support video streams delivered by the Adobe Flash Media Server, allowing users to view a broad spectrum of Flash Player compatible content. Videos can be viewed in different forms within the Flash environment, including downloadable video clips, streaming videos, applications with user interfaces based on Flash or personalized content such as wallpapers or screensavers.

Flash Lite runs on multiple platforms, including Symbian S60 v2/v3, Qualcomm Brew 2.x/3.x and Microsoft Windows Mobile 5, in addition to embedded operating systems on a variety of OEM platforms. This allows consistent content delivery across device types, broader distribution of engaging mobile experiences and simpler publishing, testing and selling of Flash Lite content for developers.

By leveraging the Flash ecosystem – which includes the Flash authoring tool, Flash Lite player runtime and an established community of more than one million designers and developers – Flash Lite reduces deployment costs up to five times faster than competing solutions. Today, more than 200 million Flash-enabled devices have shipped worldwide

MUMBAI: Today 14 February 2007 US broadcaster ABC.com is giving Lost fans a Valentines Day surprise with the first installment of four video back stories (Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke).

Created to provide new viewers insight into the lives of the series characters and to give fans an opportunity to see characters back stories in chronological order, each video combines scenes from previously aired episodes. Every Wednesday four back story segments will debut on ABC.com until the end of the season.

Fans need to go to ABC.com for this seasons previously aired episodes on its broadband video player. ABC.com has also added several new features on its Lost site, including a new video podcast with executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, which offers a special sneak peek at extra content from the series Season Three DVD, to be released later this year.

Additionally, visitors to ABC.com will find a new feature called Writers Rotation that showcases music and listening selections of members of the Lost production team, plus an updated version of Lost and Found. This highlights not-to-be-missed moments in upcoming episodes, as well as excerpts from the official Lost magazine, updated games, photos and video clips.

MUMBAI: WorldSpace Satellite Radio is looking to provide subscribers with a personalised listening experience throughout this month.

It kicked off ‘Honors Week‘ with its own inaugural satellite radio awards show, Worldspace Honours, on 12 February 2007 live from Studio 2 at Abbey Road, the legendary recording studio of The Beatles.

WorldSpace Honours is the first satellite radio award show to recognise music and artistic contribution by artists from more than 20 musical genres represented on WorldSpace channels ranging from Up Country to Jhankaar and The System to Shruti. The honorees will be chosen by WorldSpace’s executive selection committee made up of programming staff from each of the 20 channels represented.

WorldSpace Satellite Radio VP global programming William Sabatini says, “WorldSpace Honours presents a completely new format for satellite music awards and was created to reflect the diversity of our music programming, the expertise of our staff, and the broad range of preferences of our subscribers. We are also thrilled to be announcing our choices for the WorldSpace Honours, live from the prestigious Abbey Road Studios.”

WorldSpace VP content marketing Ted Kelly, and WorldSpace india director of network programming Velu Shankar will host the awards show and will announce this year’s 23 honourees. Specialty programming is being created by the company to showcase each artist and will include interviews, career highlights, background information and their music.

Subscribers can listen throughout the day for all honourees and can tune in to their favorite WorldSpace Satellite Radio channel from 16-19 February 2007, when each honouree’s works will be showcased throughout the weekend.

“Honours Week” will also feature the second annual “UPop @ Abbey Road Sessions” which has officially kicked off with the Honours Award Show on 12 February 2007 and run through 15 February. The sessions feature four days of performances and recording sessions from some of yesterday’s and today’s stars, live from Abbey Road Studio 2. Additionally, WorldSpace will again host the global broadcast of Europe’s biggest music event—the Brit Awards—on Feb. 14. The live broadcast will feature backstage and red carpet interviews, celebrity appearances and performances by more than a dozen superstars.

Channels that will air music of the honourees include including Maestro, Riff, Potion, Radio Voyeger, Spin, Surabhi, Ghandharv, Jhankaar, Spandana and Moksha.

MUMBAI: US video game developers Slitherine Software and Black Bean Games have partnered with US broadcaster The History Channel to deliver a gaming experience, The Hustory Channel Great Battles of Rome.

Combining gameplay, historical footage and battle simulation, the product allows players to fully immerse themselves into history as never before. The game will begin to roll out worldwide in the second quarter of this year.

Merging action and strategy in a setting that replicates the atmosphere of the period, the game allows players to take control of a series of campaigns against Barbarian hordes, while carving out the Roman Empire.

Over 100 battles are available for play including the Punic and Samnite Wars, and Julius Caesar’s conquest of Britain. Players can customize and control massive armies with an array of soldiers including legionaries, archers, cavalry and even mighty war-elephants. The game delivers battle realism in various environments, including steppe, forest, desert and coastline, with both day and night lighting.

Players can also choose to either plan their own battle tactics by selecting an army to suit a gameplay situation, or they can leave strategy decisions to the AI, freeing them to be involved in nothing but action.

The game also features 3D special effects and instant control response.

In addition, 30 programme clips from the archives of The History Channel have been specially blended and narrated to match the game and guide the player through the greatest story of all time.

Black Bean marketing head Marco Minoli says, “We are proud of this collaboration between The History Channel, Slitherine and Black Bean enabling us to publish a licensed video game with excellent graphics and realism. The endorsement of such a prestigious brand, reinforces and confirms Black Bean’s global credentials as one of the most innovative and respected publishing houses in the business.”

Slitherine‘s Iain McNeil says, “We have been working with The History Channel and our partner Black Bean to bring the highest quality and exciting historical video games to our audience. Our relationship with The History Channel has enabled us to use material from their archives that we could only dream about. This builds on our previous range of historical strategy games and brings a new dimension to the genre”

The History Channel director licensing Carrie Trimmer says, “We are very pleased to be working with Slitherine and Black Bean on the development of The History Channel Great Battles of Rome, the first international console game to be released under our brand. The History Channel is always looking for ways to make history experiential for our viewers, and by giving them the power to build their own armies and plot battle strategy, this game truly allows players to be a part of the building of the Roman Empire.”