Category: Technology

MUMBAI: UK pay TV service provider Sky is developing plans for the launch of a subscription television service on digital terrestrial television (DTT) this year.

The new service will allow programmes – including sport and movies – through a conventional rooftop aerial and a DTT box for a monthly subscription. By bringing back pay-TV content to the DTT platform, Sky aims to create more choice for customers who are interested in upgrading from free-to-air to pay-TV. This the firm says represents an attractive commercial opportunity, benefitting from existing investments in programming and infrastructure, and attracting new customers to Sky over and above current plans for the growth of Sky‘s satellite service.

The line-up of channels on the new service will offer a range of content including sports, movies, entertainment and news. The sports service will include live coverage from the Barclays Premiership and other events. Full details, including branding, pricing and the complete channel line-up, will be revealed closer to launch.The new service will make use of existing capacity that Sky currently uses to broadcast Sky Three, Sky News and Sky Sports News. As a result, these channels will cease to be available free-to-air via DTT in advance of the launch of the pay-TV service.Sky plans to broadcast its pay-TV channels on DTT using the more efficient MPEG4 compression technology, bringing innovation to the platform and enabling Sky to offer four 24-hour video streams in place of the three Sky channels currently available, with further improvements expected in future. The pay-TV service will use a highly secure conditional access (CA) system similar to the one that Sky uses for its satellite television service.

To access the service, customers will buy a new set-top box that includes the relevant CA software and MPEG4 decoder. It is anticipated that once the service launches multiple manufacturers will have the opportunity to produce compatible set-top-boxes and other DTT receivers.The launch of the new service is subject to approval by Ofcom of the necessary variations to licences held by Sky and National Grid Wireless, which provides DTT transmission and multiplexing services to Sky. Sky COO Mike Darcey said, ” We look forward to bringing some of Sky‘s most popular content to digital terrestrial viewers. This will give families more choice and increase the availability of leading content and channel brands.”

MUMBAI: While the first phase of Cas (conditional access system) rolled out on 1 January, the Indian cable TV industry is now looking at headends outside these areas in smaller cities and towns which are now keen to transition to an era of structured organizations and revenues that digital cable provides.

Several large cable TV headends countrywide now plan to install digital headends.These new headends require a complete technology shift To facilitate the transition, Satellite and Cable TV magazine is organizing a workshop on “Cas and digital CATV” at the Hyatt, Sahar International Airport, Mumbai on 12 and 13 February.

The workshop will have a round table discussion on Cas roll out by WWIL MD Jagjit Singh Kohli, Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO K Jayaraman, Incablenet head Ravi Mansukhani and Trai representatives.

Additional sessions will have international speakers from SIMAC Netherlands, Teleste Finland, Rover Italy, Telemann Korea as well as leading industry players such as NDS, Magnaquest, Catvision and others.

MUMBAI: Hungama Mobile in association with T-Series launched the Kar Le kar Le Koi Dhamaal music for mobile. This is the first time in Asia that the music will be available for downloading on mobile before it is available in music stores.

Several other add on features like ‘Full Music‘ monophonic ringtones, polytones, ringback tones wallpaper will also be available, suitable for every type of mobile phones.

The star at the launch of the music was ofcourse Shah Rukh Khan who has performed in the music video. Talking about the product he said, “When I personally downloaded the music it was a great experience hearing it on my own phone. Hungama Mobile is providing a new platform by giving a new experience to the audience. The Gen X is definitely going to be excited with such exciting features and I can say now mobile will be the next new destination, for music.”

Hungama Mobile managing director and CEO Neeraj Roy said, “We sincerely appreciate the support of Shahrukh, who in his own way encouraged this step. Experiencing the success and looking at the potential in mobile content market, we are delighted to partner with T-series. Through this initiative we can reach out to a vast audience across the globe.”

Speaking on the occasion T-Series managing director .Bhushan Kumar said, “Considering our long association with Hungama Mobile, we are delighted to take it one step further for the mobile content industry. Seeing the success of previous projects like the Krrish, added to which this time we have SRK himself. This combination makes us confident of this initiative being a great success!”

Hungama Mobile also owns Bollywood portal, www.indiafm.com and has worked on over 1000 films on the mobile and the online space.

To download the music one can SMS SRK to 4646 and it will be made available through Hungama Mobile distribution network with over 77 Wireless Carriers in 30 plus countries.

Hungama Mobile has exclusive worldwide rights to India‘s largest music label T-Series and in addition has over 100 content alliances with companies as diverse as Warner Bros, Sony Pictures etc.

NEW DELHI: The All India Radio digitalisation programme may not be complete by 2015 due to shortage of funds, says AIR engineer-in-chief AS Guin.

The Short Wave bands will be digitalised first and this can be achieved by 2015, provided the Planning Commission releases the entire amount, but medium wave “which is the poor man‘s band” will not be fully digitalised and more specifically, there will not be complete switch off from analogue to digital radio, Guin explains.

The AIR has asked for Rs 59 billion from the Commission under the 11th Five Year Plan. They feel the amount is huge, and the government may not be able to release the entire fund. To go for complete digitalisation would take much more funds – almost astronomical – and AIR mandarins feel that they should not ask for the moon, which is why no further plans are afoot for asking for more funds.

Short wave transmitters that have been in use for more than 20 years will be replaced and these alone would be DRM compatible, not all.

“But in any case, we shall not switch off the analogue mode for the medium wave by 2015, because that is the wave compatible with the radios costing Rs 50 or 100, the one used by the poorer section of the society. They will not be able to bear the cost, so we cannot deny them the only source of information and entertainment some of them have,” Guin stressed.

In fact, as of date even the fairly well-to-do would not be able, or may not wish to spend money buying a digital radio set.

“The ones available cost in today‘s prices about $70, that is Rs 3,500,” Guin revealed, adding: “This is prohibitively costly.”

So why bring in a technology that even the well-off may not opt for?

“It is expected the prices will come down as we go by,” he averred. There are two factors at play here.

First, as and when DRM technology goes national, prices will come down. “As of now, most countries are using DRM technology for SW for their external broadcasting. National lever SW DRM tests have been conducted in Mexico and other places,” Guin said. But when DRM goes national, the price will come down.

The other factor is that as the new digital mode becomes popular, the prices of the sets would also come down.

“The main thing will be the content,” Guin said. The content for SW and MW have to be different, because if the same content is run on both, why would anyone buy a costly handset to catch SW?” he asks.

There have to be popular programmes specially developed for SW bands, he felt, otherwise the digital radio programme will not pick up in good earnest.

The digitalisation process would start with all the studios. Each state capital would have one Short Wave transmitter and there will be three transmission complexes with five transmitters per complex for national digital radio coverage.

These complexes will be suitably located., Each complex will transmit five digital channels across the country, including regional language channels. This will mean that these channels will be accessible across the country. So, a Bengali in Mumbai would not have a problem if he wishes to hear All India Radio Kolkata.

Explaining the merits of such a costly technology, Guin said that interactive broadcasts and a number of value-added services will be possible. One of the most important things will be the pro-active role AIR will get to play in disaster management.

AIR will introduce a system across the channels on the coastal belts, which will be integrated with the early warning systems.

Thus, whenever an early warning is triggered off the computer linkage with the radio stations will ensure that the channel would automatically switch over to transmitting the warning, with the ongoing programme switched off.

Once the warning has been issued, the radio station would switch over to the normal ongoing programme. This will give a huge lead time for people to evacuate.

MUMBAI: RPG Cellucom, a part of RPG group retail sector has made a quiet entry into the growing mobile and IT products retail market in India.

An official press release, RPG Cellucom has developed a distinctive retail concept directed at engaging the consumer and expanding their knowledge of mobile technology.

SRPG Cellucom has also made a quiet entry with the launch of its retail outlet in Gurgaon. The company plans to open over 500 exclusive retail outlets by end 2007. The retail outlets will be in stand-alone as well as shop in shop formats. The chain recently opened its first stand-alone outlet in Sahara Mall, Gurgaon and has identified several other properties in the capital to expand the retail chain. Through phased expansion, RPG Cellucom aims to cash on the growing mobile and IT products market in India. The company has opened its shop-in-shop format at Shopper‘s Stop in Mumbai and Spencer‘s in Pune.

ERPG Cellucom outlets will showcase a wide variety of mobility products in the communication space from leading brands like Nokia, Motorola, Acer, HP, Samsung and Sony Ericsson amongst others. The retail outlets will offer customers a wide range of hi-tech and state of the art technology products ranging from mobile phones, laptops, accessories, pen drives and various other IT peripherals. In addition to showcasing these products, RPG Cellucom retail outlets will also offer customers after sales service and exclusive product demonstrations. Says RPG Cellucom CEO Sunil Bhagat “RPG Cellucom stores are a one stop shop for all techno-savvy customers. Along with providing the customer with a wide range of IT and communication products from different brands, we also provide them with after sales services and product demos at our exclusive showrooms across the country. So now the customers will not have to run around the city to make choices.” Cellucom was set up as an exporter of leading mobile phone brands, with operations in Dubai and East Africa. Today, thanks to the keen attention and rapid response to the customer‘s needs, the company has evolved to become one of the largest distributors of digital devices and mobility solutions in the Middle East and Africa region.

MUMBAI: Samsung Telecommunications India Ltd. announced the launch of its range of secured phones SGH-C140, SGH-X520 and SGH-E250 in India. The technology boasts revolutionary security features like mobile tracker, emergency SMS and privacy lock in slider, clamshell and bar form factors, these phones transcends the current market offering by empowering consumer‘s security during mobility.

Mobile Tracker helps consumers to track their lost phone. Emergency SMS acts as personal bodyguard and alerts close relatives or friends about his distress or emergency situations. Privacy lock protects the data, photos, voice memo, multimedia messages, images and sound stored in the phone from intrusion.

Speaking on this occasion Samsung Telecommunications India managing director Ryu Hyun Chul said, “Close to 50 million worth of mobile phones are lost or stolen annually. Our personal experience shows that when we lose our phone we just buy the new one. We don‘t know how to track our lost phone. We are also not aware what will happen, if these lost or stolen phones fall into wrong hands.”

MUMBAI: Games publishing company, Jump Games has acquired exclusive mobile gaming rights for the Fido Dido, aerated drink 7 Up‘s brand mascot.

Jump Games has signed a two-year worldwide contract with Honest Entertainment to create and distribute mobile game titles based on Fido Dido across the world.

The game features Fido Dido in his cool avatar that has to brave all hurdles to reach as far ahead in the game as possible. Fido‘s journey is made exciting with loads of zany powerups and bonuses for sporting his cool factor. The first Mobile game Fido Dido is ready for release and will soon be out on leading networks worldwide, states an official release.

Speaking about the license, Jump Games CEO Salil Bhargava said, “Fido Dido is a name well-known all over the world. Fido‘s character has a lot of fun associated with it, which can be spun around to develop exciting titles. Our first arcade game is going to be out shortly and we‘re on our way to creating a few more games including a 3D Fido Bowling title. We look forward to a valuable relationship with Honest Entertainment and Fido in developing some remarkable Mobile content.”

MUMBAI: The complexion of the cable TV industry is fast changing. Cas (conditional access system) is paving the way for consolidation as cable operators need to find money to subsidise set-top boxes (STBs), set up a digital system, and build a proper service network.

The might of the three big multi-system operators (MSOs) is prevailing with the weaker players tumbling down under in the markets opened for Cas barely a month ago. Delhi has already gone that way with Home Cable Network, Spectranet, Satellite Channels, Sanjay Cable Network and Star Broadband Services aligning with Hinduja-owned Incablenet, Hathway Cable & Datacom or Zee Group‘s Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL).

Soon Mumbai‘s Cas subscribers will also get shared between these three MSOs. Raja Nadar, an independent cable operator, says his JPR Network will surrender its independent status and partner with an MSO by the end of this month. Though he has seeded 5,000 STBs, he is struggling to fund new arrivals and is losing subscribers to WWIL. “There is no business model left for us. We can‘t raise debt and even if we somehow do, we can‘t recover revenues large enough from our digital subscribers to work out a repayment schedule,” he says.

Cas in Delhi and Mumbai is becoming a three-MSO battle. “That‘s the record for everybody to see. That‘s the reality. There were 14 independent headends in Delhi who had shown interest to operate but not one could launch. In Mumbai, it is the same story,” says the head of a leading MSO on request of anonymity.

Making the ground tough is the fact that digitalisation is coming cheap in India. Cable operators are offering a subsidy of Rs 1000-1500 per STB while average revenue per user (ARPU) is set to fall with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) capping a la carte pay channels at Rs 5. The revenue share is also regulated with broadcasters taking away 45 per cent while 30 per cent stays with the MSOs and 25 per cent with the local cable operators.

“Digital cable is a game for those who have deep pockets. Cable operators will not only have to subsidise the boxes but the service as well,” says WWIL managing director Jagjit Singh Kohli.

If Kolkata has not seen enough of bulldozing, it is because there is not much of demand for STBs. But Sristi has crumbled down with WWIL and Manthan sharing the spoils. Cablecom is tottering but has survived.

As STBs pick up in Kolkata, Incablenet and Hathway will look at entering the market. This will pave the way for further consolidation as penetration will mean financing more boxes. Manthan has already raised a debt of Rs 100 million from individuals and is looking at another Rs 200 million as way of bank financing.

The need for pumping in big money will be larger as Cas spreads. In the initial phase, Hathway is arranging for a Rs 1 billion debt while WWIL wants to pump in Rs 7.14 billion over two years with a plan also to acquire last mile of cable operators.

What can be disturbing is that after the initial euphoria, the demand for boxes seems to be already slowing when we have just crossed 400000 in a Cas market which has over 1.5 million cable and satellite homes. “If this trend is true, it should be a matter of concern for all the stakeholders except the local cable operators,” says Zee Turner CEO Arun Poddar. In the Cas areas, local cable operators are allowed to pocket the entire Rs 77 they collect from subscribers for the free-to-air (FTA) channels.

With not as many boxes moving, broadcasters are particularly worried as they were forced to drop the rates of their pay channels. The sector regulator has chalked out a policy that makes business sense only on high volumes. “We will need higher volumes to make up for the pricing policy prescribed by Trai. Besides, the boxes are not yet entirely synchronised with the subscriber management system that would register what channels are subscribed by the consumers. The whole project will depend on how fast and effective SMS gets activised,” says Poddar.

A surge in demand for the boxes is expected before the ICC World Cup starts in March. Besides, marketing campaigns will have to be launched promoting digitalisation. “MSOs will have to start marketing the boxes more aggressively. Broadcasters can also launch joint campaigns with them,” says SET Discovery president Anuj Gandhi.

Nobody knows how the market will finally emerge. But the trend is clear: smaller MSOs in the Cas areas will find it difficult to subsidise the boxes and will need to take support of the bigger ones.

“Consolidation can start with Cas and spread out in other areas. In many non Cas places, we are also seeing consolidation because of fear of losing subscribers to direct-to-home operators,” says the head of a MSO.

MUMBAI: The concept of providing television services on a mobile device is generating much enthusiasm among the wireless industry, in turn driving the growth and development of digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) technology. Overwhelming support from the wireless industry is likely to be one of the major drivers for the growth of the technology, as will be the increasing demand for content on the move. In short, DVB-H could well become a global standard similar to Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), creating an altogether new market for television viewership.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, DVB-H Technology-Market and Potential Analysis, reveals that revenues in this market totaled $60 million in 2006 and is likely to reach $2.04 billion in 2010.

“Many participants in the wireless industry support the DVB-H technology as it is an open industry standard, and this non-proprietary feature of the standards is likely to vastly assist its growth in the wireless market,” notes Frost & Sullivan research analyst Nagarajan Sampathkumar. “Furthermore, DVB-H delivers an improved end-user experience over current video streaming services that utilize cellular networks, while also providing, broadcasters, cellular operators, handset manufacturers and silicon providers with tremendous growth opportunities.”

This apart, the quality of service (QoS) is likely to be better due to the use of a dedicated broadcast network. Additionally, though DVB-H claims speeds of 25 frames per second (fps), trials show practical speeds of 15-16 fps, which seem to be sufficient for existing screen sizes and resolutions. However, in future, these speeds are likely to increase to 20-25 fps for fixed digital TV in Europe.

Despite the promise, one of the biggest challenges to adoption of DVB-H by mobile operators is the issue of business and revenue models. With DVB-H, mobile operators are likely to prefer to continue operating in their area of domain expertise service provisioning, billing, and customer care and therefore, broadcasters would have ownership of the content and the overall visual experience.

“Hence, mobile operators would need to differentiate their offerings and provide value to ensure customer loyalty and remain profitable,” says Sampathkumar. “This also means that mobile operators are likely to serve only as a link to customers and would not be in a position to negotiate for better revenue splits with others in the value chain.”

Service providers would be required to work very closely with content creators, aggregators, and broadcasters, and ensure secure content and support digital rights management in an effort to protect copyrighted content. While revenue issues could be addressed through subscription models, event-based, pay per view, and even interactive services, the most important challenge is likely to be the optimizing of battery life of the handsets, the study concludes.

NEW DELHI: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd Delhi announced the launch of their IPTV-competent broadband with Wi-Fi, with a maximum speed of 2 mbps, which will help set up thousands of “Private Hot Spots” across the Capital city.

Meanwhile, the Wi-Max system is already functioning on a trial basis in some government offices, and should be launched within this year, A K Arora, Executive Director, MTNL said at a press briefing here today.

The broadband Wi-Fi modem works on the latest version of 802.11g of Wi-Fi standard and functions on the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and generally provides bandwidth of 54 mbps. There cane be up to 30 concurrent users in this system.

The MTNL will sell two types of modems for the new Wi-Fi system: one with one USB and one Ethernet port and the other with four Ethernet ports. Besides, there will be the normal LAN facility as well. MTNL is buying the modems from HT Star company.

The users can purchase pre-paid cards for the usage, which come in various price ranges.

“Small hotels and restaurants can set up these connections which function on radio wave and not through any cable, and allow its customers to use the Internet,” Arora explained.

What is most attractive is the pricing of the modems and the monthly rentals.

“It will cost the clients very little, just the security deposit and the cost of the modem. There is no setting-up cost, being on radio waves,” he added. There can be multiple users working with their computers or laptops within 40 metres of the modem inside a house or restaurant (in open space, with less physical intrusions, they can work within 60

“The need for us to go into this is that there are at least 1.3 lakh private hot spots across the world, whereas in India there are just a thousand. Especially with the government declaring 2007 as the year of the broadband, we decided to launch this from February 8, and you can get through the Sanchar Haats anywhere. It will be set up within two days of the purchase made,” Arora claimed.

He said that the system has already been tried at the domestic airport, Pragati Maidan, India Habitat Centre, Union Public Service Commission office, Indian Institute of Planning and Administration and many offices of the Delhi government. “The most popular has been the one at the airport,” Arora said.

He said that setting up public hot spots will hugely help businesses, convention centres, engineering, management and medical institutions, and also private homes. “This helps us also develop our new revenue model, because there will be up to 30 users per modem, and download is free up to one GB and then it costs Rs 1 per MB, as usual our broadband.

The registration charge is Rs 500, security deposit Rs 800 and installing and testing charges are Rs 300. The monthly rental is only Rs 150.

The payments for usages can be made through credit cards as well purchasable prepaid scratch cards.
“Suppose you go to a restaurant and are not sure of being over charged, the scratch card is of major help,” explained a senior engineer present at the press conference.

Our aim was to become the dominant player in the field, Arora stressed as the factor behind the decision to launch early. Besides, he said, there will be 90 lakh broadband users by 2007, of which MTNL will have to give 50 lakh connections.

Arora said that Wi-Max is already there in use in Delhi. “This room in which we are having the meeting is Wi-Max enabled, and there are some other government offices as well. Trail runs are on, and we can launch when the government gives permission for the spectrum, which should be the end of this year,” Arora hoped.

Arora also announced the launch of MTNL‘s CDMA mobiles, and asserted that with this, the Nigam has become the only service provider to operate both CDMA and GSM services.

The handset comes for really cheap: the original handset, Huwai C 300, costs Rs 3,500, but MTNL is selling it for just Rs 1,499 paid upfront (VAT extra), with Rs 1,499 free talk time in local network CDMA, GSM and landline) as well, for one year.

MTNL is also giving Rs 25 worth talk time free to other networks, for a period of a week.

The pulse would be of 15 seconds and the rate, Arora said, would be Rs 0.10 for a pulse for local calls. The STD charges would be Rs 2.40 per pulse, he said.