Category: Technology

The closing of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of Nine Systems‘ stockholders, is expected by year-end. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Akamai earnings on a normalised, diluted per share basis in 2007, asserts an official release.

Akamai plans to integrate Nine Systems‘ stream OS, a suite of configurable rich media management tools that enable easy production and publishing of content online, into the global Akamai network.

Akamai president and CEO Paul Sagan said, “We are excited about offering a new and comprehensive solution for the delivery, management, and control of online media assets.”

“Nine Systems has established itself as a leader in the creation of powerful Web-based tools for businesses to easily produce, publish, and distribute their streaming and downloadable media. Integrating Stream OS into our delivery network will allow Akamai to more fully support asset control, rights management, and media reporting to better enable our customers‘ digital media businesses,” he added.

Nine Systems president and CEO Troy Snyder said, “Nine Systems‘ rich media publishing and management tools already power the online media experience for some of today‘s best known companies in the music, broadcast, sports, entertainment, inspirational, advertising, education, and government markets. By joining forces with Akamai, our customers will have access to the leader in accelerating content and applications online, supported by a combination of the most experienced teams in the industry.”

Under terms of the agreement, Akamai will acquire all of the outstanding common stock, preferred stock, and vested and unvested stock options of Nine Systems by issuing approximately 3.1 million shares of Akamai common stock and approximately $7 million in cash, subject to certain closing adjustments. The merger transaction is expected to be accounted for by Akamai under the purchase method of accounting, further adds the release.

MUMBAI : The international migration from analog broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT) marches on with a significant impact on the television set market, reports market research firm In-Stat.

Many nations have announced an analog broadcast shutoff date, but how they implement this change varies, In-Stat says. Some countries are allocating spectrum so they can transmit analog and digital broadcasts concurrently for a number of years. Other countries are rolling out DTT regionally and shutting down analog service as the rollout is completed.

“There are now four main standards for digital television (DTV) broadcasting, with some similarities between these standards in audio and video compression, but the demodulation schemes are all different,” says Chris Kissel, In-Stat analyst. “Consumers that wish to receive free, over-the-air broadcasts must buy either a digital television with a digital tuner, or must have a set top box or converter box to receive the signal.”

Among the findings in the study are:

*DTV tuner integration is happening faster in North America and Japan than it is in Europe or other parts of Asia.

*In-Stat anticipates that flat-panel displays will overtake CRTs by 2007.

*11.6% of all respondents to an In-Stat US consumer survey plan to buy a new DTV set within the next six months.

MUMBAI : Mobile sports information and entertainment services are expected to take an increasing share of the global mobile sports, leisure and information content (infotainment) market over the next five years.

According to Juniper Research the global market for mobile sports content and services will grow from just over $1 billion in 2006 to $3.8 billion in 2011 at an average annual growth rate of 27 per cent. This is out of a total sports, leisure and information content market worth just under $4.2 billion in 2006 and growing to $9.5 billion in 2011. Over the whole period 2006 to 2011 mobile sport, leisure and information content and services is expected to generate a cumulative revenue stream of over $42 billion. 40 per cent of this is expected to come from the European market, 33 per cent from Asia Pacific and 18 per cent from a rapidly growing North American marke.

The key market drivers will be:
*the increasing availability of 3G services and support for high quality video;
*the globalisation of sport personalities and club support;
*improved flow of digital sports rights for mobile distribution.

Bruce Gibson, research director at Juniper Research said, “These drivers apply to many types of leisure and information content, but none more so than sports content. There is a great opportunity for content owners, application service providers and operators to exploit sport content over the mobile channel in innovative ways, now that the technology barriers are diminishing”. However he goes on to issue a warning – “This will only happen if everyone in the value chain pays attention to detail. End user experience in some markets of mobile sports content services built around the 2006 Fifa World Cup, has not been consistently good. Many new users of sports services have been disappointed with the quality of the deliverable and may never buy again. First impressions count for a lot and particularly with time sensitive content like goal alerts and replays, the first experience has to be good to generate repeat business.”

Sports, leisure and information is a vast area and comprises many different types of content and mobile service, from celebrity wallpapers, mobile comics and video “mobisodes” to financial information services, child tracking and personal navigation services. Those applications and services that will show fastest growth over the next few years will be those that develop the most added value from advanced network technologies and those that can move from “presenting facts” to “providing entertainment”. Community applications with a high amount of graphic user generated content will be particularly successful as they have the added advantage of low cost content acquisition, the report says.

MUMBAI: Multi-system operators (MSOs) have initiated talks with some broadcasters for providing their bouquet of pay channels at special rates in the conditional access system (CAS) regime. This would enable cable networks to tier various channel packages for consumers.

The Telecom regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has fixed the a la carte pricing of pay chanels at a maximum of Rs 5 under CAS. The MSOs want broadcasters to price their bouquets below the average of Rs 5 per channel.

“We are in a very nascent stage of discussions. Some of the broadcasters have moved the courts and are, in fact, waiting for the verdict. We expect to have more definite proposals within a fortnight,” says Hathway Cable & Datacom managing director and CEO K Jayaraman.

The MSOs will tier different packages to make it price friendly for consumers. “We will be working out packages based on a combination of genres. This will be in addition to the a la carte pricing which, with a cap at Rs 5, is expected to be quite popular,” says Jayaraman.

Adds IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd (IMCL) director-in charge Ravi Mansukhani: “Once the broadcasters give us their bouquet pricing, we can work out our own bundling which will offer choice to consumers and make it more attractive than the a la carte pricing.”

The stumbling block to such negotiations at this stage, however, is a number of court cases filed by broadcasters questioning the Rs 5 cap fixed by the sector regulator. Broadcasters feel the regulated pricing is unfair and will hurt their subscription incomes.

“We are also planning to invest independently through various marketing initiatives. This will be in addition to the joint campaigns where the spend could be Rs 10 million,” says Mansukhani.

The MSOs have started offering digital set-top boxes (STBs) and cable at an advance deposit of Rs 250 in the CAS notified regions of south Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. Consumers will have to pay a rent of Rs 45 per month only after 1 January, the scheduled date for implementation of CAS. If they are not happy, they can discontinue the service.

“We have started seeding 1,000 STBs a day since 1 November. We expect this to further pick up,” says Jayaraman. Hathway is aggressively pushing for digital cable in both Mumbai and Delhi.

IMCL has been slow to push the STBs to its consumers. “Once the marketing campaign gathers momentum next week, we hope to seed 1,000 STBs a day. The offtake should further speed up as we go forward,” says Mansukhani.

MUMBAI : IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd (IMCL), which runs the media business of Hinduja TMT including Incablenet, has appointed Samson Jesudas as its chief marketing and distribution officer, ahead of CAS (conditional access system). Jesudas moves in from Zee Turner where he was serving as assistant vice-president, looking after the western region.

In IMCL, Jesudas will be in charge of marketing and distribution of all products and service offerings of IMCL. This will include digital set-top boxes (STBs) in CAS areas and expansion of internet business to new cities. He will also evolve and execute different marketing schemes for all products and services.

IMCL is planning to add new channels through its STBs. Jesudas will look after media content and also liasion with ground distribution, broadcasters and content providers. He will also provide market intelligence support to identify and exploit growth opportunities while coordinating with finance, technical and customer care divisions.

Before joining Zee Turner, Jesudas was working in Pehla in the Middle East and in Star India‘s distribution team.

MUMBAI: Avid Technology in the US has announced that its consumer division, Pinnacle Systems is expanding its popular Pinnacle PCTV product family with the addition of Pinnacle PCTV To Go.

This new product gives customers the ability to enjoy their home entertainment systems from any location in the home or around the world. This is amde possible through an easy wireless setup, integrated Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) support and comprehensive digital video recorder (DVR) capabilities.

Pinnacle Systems GM Jeff Hastings says,“PCTV To Go is the ultimate wireless solution for TV viewing on a PC. It’s easy to set up, easy to control, easy to access, and all without extra set-up or monthly service fees. Not only can customers use PCTV To Go to access and watch their home TV from anywhere in the world, they can also control features remotely, such as changing TV channels, video sources, and programming on their DVRs.”

Pinnacle PCTV To Go enables consumers to watch full resolution, DVD-like quality in MPEG-2 while viewing television in and around the home, or high quality MPEG-4 while viewing television remotely, with nothing more than a simple internet connection. Designed to quickly plug into an existing entertainment system, the product acts as a pass-through device and eliminates the need for reconfiguring the entertainment system.

In addition, Pinnacle says that the product is unique in the market in that it communicates wirelessly to an existing network or directly to a wireless PC. This specific feature eliminates the need for consumers to co-locate an Internet router and/or access point in the proximity of the entertainment system. With Pinnacle PCTV To Go, consumers can connect to a broad range of devices, including cable and satellite set-top boxes, over-the-air antennas, DVD players and fully functional DVRs.

Furthermore, Pinnacle PCTV To Go seamlessly works as a TV source within a wirelessly connected Microsoft MCE equipped PC, meaning that consumers can set up and use an MCE entertainment system in a location far from their TV source.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster HBO and internet service provider AOL, which offers online programming for over 100 million users each month, have joined forces on the new broadband website This Just In.

The site is slated to launch in the first quarter of next year.

This Just In will feature humour through the lens of current events ranging from pop culture to politics. It will reflect the broad range of comedy that HBO is known for including cutting edge social commentary, urban comedy and the most current new comedic voices. Leveraging AOLs leadership in online video and innovative web programming, This Just In will feature extensive video content, as well as a blog format that will enable users to tap into the days events as they are happening. This Just In will also be a platform to incubate new programming for other HBO platforms.

The venture will be accessible at www.thisjustin.com. This Just In will replace the existing AOL Comedy channel.

AOL Media Networks will represent This Just In to marketers, offering advertisers the opportunity to associate their brands with an HBO property for the first time ever with the site clearly identified as powered by HBO. In addition to traditional ad units, the venture will work closely with advertisers to create programming that incorporates marketing messages in a way that is as engaging as the content itself. AOL will support the site with all of the tools and technologies of its content publishing, video and social networking platforms as it has with TMZ.com, the successful 24/7 entertainment news website that AOL launched last year with sister company Telepictures.

AOL executive VP, consumer and publisher servicesJim Bankoff says, “This venture will leverage AOL‘s online expertise and HBO‘s established reputation for comedy to provide a unique, engaging site for audiences across the web. What‘s more, for advertisers, this is the first time they can connect to the HBO brand.”

HBO executive VP, new media programming Group Carmi Zlotnick says, “Our goal is to create a robust destination that can have the potential of becoming part of the water cooler pop culture like many of our network programs have become. With our heritage and relationships in the comedy space, this platform is ideal for showcasing new forms of entertainment to todays savvy audience and allows us to discover fresh talent and ideas indigenous to new media.

Running the venture is Steve Stanford who was the founder and CEO of Icebox.com, an early Internet comedy site that created programming with many top television writers, and was a co-founder and COO of the edgy, content-driven cell phone service Ampd Mobile. He says, “This is about creating a new kind of entertainment experience that couldnt exist in a non-interactive medium. We will be trying new things and taking risks in the process of developing great Internet comedy.”

This Just In is an extension of HBO‘s commitment to comedy and recognition that many of the most interesting things happening in comedy today are originating on the Internet. Content from the site may also be used across multiple platforms including HBO, HBO multiplex channels, HBO On Demand and HBO Mobile. The broadband comedy venture is only the most recent step HBO is taking to discover and develop up and coming talent.

MUMBAI: Satellite services firm Intelsat has announced that Discovery will use its Pas-12 satellite to provide Discovery HD, the company’s international high-definition network, in Europe.

The signing of Discovery as an anchor tenant on Pas-12 marks the start of a high-powered distribution alternative to new channels looking to deliver HD programming across Europe says Intelsat.

Using capacity on Pas-12, Discovery will provide distribution of Discovery HD, which will originate at its European headquarters in London, to Europe. GlobeCast Europe will uplink the content at its Brookman’s Park teleport in the UK. The signing of the new agreement with Intelsat marks the significant expansion of an already successful relationship, as Intelsat currently provides distribution capacity for Discovery to reach its nearly 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers worldwide.

Discovery executive VP media, technology and operations John Honeycutt says, “High-definition in Europe is fast growing and as the leader in HD programming, Discovery will continue to play a large role in the development and distribution of content and services utilizing this technology.

“We have long relied on Intelsat’s global system to support the implementation of our global distribution strategy.”

Intelsat senior VP, Americas Sales Kurt Riegelman says, “A programmer the caliber of Discovery Communications committing to anchor our new HD neighborhood speaks volumes about the confidence it has in our company and in our system.

“Intelsat has played a significant role in the distribution of HD programming worldwide and is exceedingly dedicated to furthering the advancement of HD in Europe. We believe that Discovery’s desire to distribute HD across the continent signifies a healthy and growing demand which we’re committed to facilitating.”

Intelsat currently operates an HD neighborhood in the US on its Galaxy 13 satellite. The establishment of a new HD satellite for Europe is the company’s first step at expanding full-time HD distribution to other areas of the world.

MUMBAI: Qualcomm Incorporated a developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and mobile data solutions, has announced that it will host the second annual Brew Developers Conference – India.

The conference will be held in Mumbai at The ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton on 29 November.

The theme for this year’s conference ‘Brew Your Way‘, is about discovering the limitless possibilities of the Brew solution. Targeted toward the wireless community in India, Brew 2006 – India will focus on bringing together distinguished members of the industry, both from within the country and around the world, asserts an official release.

Qualcomm India and SAARC president Kanwalinder Singh said, “Last year, Brew 2005 – India was a huge success and was attended by more than 250 industry professionals, including leading operators and developers. Encouraged by the tremendous response to last year’s event, Qualcomm is excited to once again host the conference for India’s growing wireless community.”

“Following a year of notable milestones, deployments and successes for the worldwide Brew community, this conference promises to reflect India’s distinct perspective on the progress of data services, as well as potential new trends within the industry,” Qualcomm India senior director sales and business development Vishal Gupta added.

Brew subscribers would benefit from several offerings, which include: uiOne for rich, integrated and dynamic user experiences with fast access to high revenue services on wireless devices; deliveryOnefor differentiated and tightly integrated, operator-managed support and delivery of advanced wireless data content and services; and marketOnefor a quick-to-market, hosted, scalable content delivery service that includes media titles, flexible management and monetization, content provider settlement and business intelligence services.

Qualcomm offers this comprehensive set of Brew offerings to meet the needs of companies delivering mobile products and services around the world, adds the release.

MUMBAI: Nielsen Media Research in the United States has announced that it will launch a new service to measure nationally distributed Video On Demand (VoD) content on 11 December. This service will use the same National People Meter sample it uses to provide television ratings to national programmers.

As with Nielsen‘s current ratings, clients will receive household and demographic ratings for VoD content along with other detailed audience information. By measuring VoD content in its national ratings panel, Nielsen will enable clients to compare the performance of programs airing on traditional channels with the performance of those same programs on demand, informs an official release.

Nielsen will be able to provide VoD reporting to clients who implement “watermarking,” or audio code, technology that identifies specific on-demand titles. Working in conjunction with clients, Nielsen has developed the encoding tools to uniquely “watermark” VoD content so that Nielsen‘s newly deployed Active/Passive meter can accurately identify on-demand viewing sessions.

Nielsen‘s launch of VoD measurement ushers in a new level of reporting for all types of video on demand programming, including titles from the libraries of content providers and recently telecast programs shown again via VoD.

New broadcast and cable network programming that is played back via VoD is already included in Nielsen‘s time-shifted viewing ratings, but only if the programming content and advertising is the same as is in the original live telecast, adds the release.

“Because Video On Demand is a growing business and a potentially valuable new revenue stream for programmers, it is increasingly important for them to understand who is watching their shows and to be able to compare the viewing that is being done via traditional television and VoD,” said Nielsen senior vice president Scott L Brown. “With this launch, we continue to ‘follow the video‘ wherever it is broadcast, while fulfilling a commitment we made to clients who told us last year that VoD measurement was a major priority for them. Nielsen will be working with clients to make sure they install our watermarking technology so we can identify both their library content and their new, recently presented programs shown via VoD.”

The release also states that Nielsen‘s new watermarking process involves new software that embeds content identification information in the audio of the VoD program. This software has been tested by a number of clients over the course of several months and is now ready for use. Once a client installs the watermarking software, Nielsen can identify the programs it wishes to track through the VoD process, and the VoD programs viewed in sample households can be credited accordingly.