Category: Software

MUMBAI: As the deadline for digitisation in the four metros nears, advertisers are worried about TAM coming under pressure from the government and the broadcasters not to report viewership data from cable TV homes which do not have digital connectivity from 1 November.

The broadcasters have made it clear that they want viewership data from analogue cable to stop in the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai which come under the first phase of digitisation from 1 November.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that major broadcasters and multi-system operators (MSOs) have agreed to switch off genre-wise analogue signals of television channels in phases ahead of the 1 November deadline for digitisation in the four metros.

In the coming week, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) are meeting with television ratings provider TAM Media Research in Mumbai to discuss about this and other issues.

Leo Burnett South Asia chairman and CEO, AAAI president and Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) chairman Arvind Sharma, who is currently abroad, informed via a text message that the meeting will most likely take place sometime next week.

A TAM official told indiantelevision.com, “Our standpoint is very simple. We have not made a decision yet. All the decisions will be taken only after a common consensus from all the three stakeholders of the industry. As of now, we will be meeting the three bodies and I hope a common ground is reached during the meeting.”

The government has suggested that TAM should not report viewership data on any channel that has been fed via any non-digital signal.
 
The advertising industry is worried that if a significant number of cable TV homes do not get set-top boxes (STBs) installed and continue to receive television channels the way they receive now after 31 October, the viewership data reported by TAM based on digital homes will be incorrect.

Reporting of skewed data by TAM would make it impossible for advertisers to carry out post campaign evaluation. Also, digitisation deadline happens to be just before the Diwali festival, ahead of which advertising peaks.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 19 September said 68 per cent of the cable TV homes in the four metros had switched to digital reception of television channels. In its further push to complete digitisation in the four metros, the ministry has even suggested that broadcasters withdraw analogue channels genre-wise before 1 November.

The TAM official said, “At the end of the day, we are service providers. We hope the three stakeholders (AAAI, ISA and IBF) reach a consensus on issues in the upcoming meeting.”

ZenithOptimedia CEO Satyajit Sen said, “The advertisers of course want the ratings to continue coming in. The money is coming in on the basis of that so there has to be a declaration of ratings. If the ratings are not there, there will be no benchmark available to the advertisers.”

When contacted, ISA Secretary General Y Harikrishnan declined to comment saying, “I am not in a position to comment on this.”

MUMBAI: After cable operators from Kolkata, it‘s the turn of their counterparts in Chennai to dispute the digital television penetration figures given by the Ministry of Information and broadcasting (MIB).

The Chennai Metro Cable Operators Association (CMCOA) has written a letter to the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni saying the government‘s claim that 69 per cent cable TV households in Chennai have been seeded with set-top boxes is incorrect.

According to CMCOA, the Chennai DAS area has four million cable television homes, but only 160,000 homes have been seeded with STBs. “You may call for latest SMS report of any pay channel billed with two existing MSOs Kal cables and Jak Communications,” CMCOA general secretry M R Srinivasan said in the letter.

CMCOA also said both the existing MSOs don‘t have enough STBs to seed.

“Considering the above facts kindly review the DAS implementation exclusive for Chennai after Task Force and Becil inspection in Chennai physically, Srinivasan added.

Earlier, Kolkata Cable & Broadband Operators Welfare Association (KCBOWA) had issued a rejoinder to the ministry’s claim. The KCBOWA had disputed the claim that STBs had been deployed in 60 per cent of the cable TV homes in Kolkata by mid-September, up from 20.67 per cent in June, saying the MSOs did not have adequate supply of STBs.

The MIB had on 28 September through a statement said that the digitisation penetration in the four metro cities was 73 per cent up from 68 per cent announced earlier.

Incidentally, the West Bengal government had last week urged the government to extend the digitisation deadline in Kolkata due to the Durga Puja festivities and unavailability of STBs.

The government had once earlier extended the digitisation deadline from 30 June to 31 October.

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has expanded its partnership with YouTube to launch two brand new original content channels.

Coming soon to YouTube will be a new nature channel, showcasing a feast of new films created by the commercially funded BBC Earth Productions, based in Bristol, the home of the BBC‘s Natural History Unit. Another topical science channel, produced in partnership with 360 Productions, will launch in early 2013 with James May and his crack team of scientists.

BBC Worldwide EVP & Managing Director Digital Daniel Heaf said, “BBC Worldwide is very excited about expanding our successful relationship with YouTube. Not only is it a place to distribute the best British content around the world it will, through our original content, be a place where we can experiment with new forms of creativity. We couldn‘t be more thrilled at the prospects this brings our company, indies and audiences alike.”

In addition, BBC Worldwide will be launching a selection of long-form programming in the UK and Canada for the first time, including the first ever episodes of EastEnders, classic comedy The Likely Lads, a selection from the BBC‘s Shakespeare Collection and The Trials of Life and other dramas such as Campion and The Onedin Line.

A third strand of the deal sees BBC Worldwide renew its commitment to continue to add to its existing selection of over 8,000 clips, across its 6 bespoke redesigned channels. To date there are 1.7 million subscribers to these channels. The existing channels have all been re-branded, including the most popular BBC Worldwide channel. New clips launching today include Top Gear series 18, for the first time.

BBC Worldwide currently manages six channels on YouTube, with the most popular being BBC Worldwide, Top Gear and EastEnders. BBC Worldwide believes that this latest deal will support the ambition to drive subscribers and views through the combination of high quality originated content and unlocking more of the BBC‘s archive.

MUMBAI: StepOut has appointed Raj Menon as its chief operating officer.

StepOut is an Indian social networking service that allows users to meet, have fun experiences and form real-life relationships.

Menon‘s last stint was with Games2win as director business for 12 years.
Prior to joining Games2win, he was COO of Contest2win.

Also, Umesh Choori has joined StepOut as VP marketing and analytics. He was most recently director of Business Analytics at web.com responsible for driving new business through analytics.

MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has sought to allay fears that the set-top boxes (STBs) required for digital cable service will drastically increase power consumption and result in increase in electricity bills.

The I&B Ministry has denied that the STBs critical for switching to digital cable service consume 20 watts of power each. It claimed that the STB consumes only eight watts of power, which is less than what a CFL light consumes.

The ministry was responding to reports in the media suggesting power consumption by STBs is much higher than claimed by the manufacturers. The reports have come at a time when the government is pushing the industry to move at a rapid pace to meet the deadline for the first phase of digitisation in the four metro cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

Power rating of cable Set Top Boxes of different makes

STBs Make & Model	Power consumption (Watts)1
	Active mode	Standby mode
Den Entertainment Networks
Skyworth 7000	8	7
Skyworth 7600	8	7
Skyworth 7631	8	7

DigiCable
Indieon LDCA 1000	5.4	4.5
Changhong C8899C0	7.5	6.9
Skyworth C371N EN	10	8

IMCL
SD STB	12	10
MyBox	7.5	6.9

Hathway Datacom
Skyworth 9000	8	7
HUMA ND-1200C	15	5

WWIL
Handon 1002C	6.5	5.8
Handon 1041C	6.5	5.8
Arion 5012S	7.5	6.9
Changhong C8899C0	7.5	6.9
MyBox	7.5	6.9

source: Product leaflets of manufacturers

“Recently, it has been reported in some sections of the press that digitisation of cable TV would result in huge power consumption by the Set Top Boxes (STBs). It has been wrongly informed that the cable STBs consume 20 watts of power,” MIB said in a statement on Monday.
“STBs of a number of makes and models are supplied by multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs). A cable STB consumes only about 8 watts of power. This power consumption by an STB is even less than that of CFL light.”

As per government estimates, around 72 per cent of cable homes have switched to digital cable in the four metros, a figure disputed by cable operators in Kolkata and Chennai. The government has mandated that the entire country should shift to digital cable by 2014.

Incidentally, a Delhi resident Rupinder Singh Sodhi has filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court against the government‘s decision to compulsorily make consumers switch to digital cable. The petitioner has made the Union of India and I&B Ministry respondents in the case along with the Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency and industry regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

The petitioner‘s central argument is that the government‘s decision is in violation of the Indian constitution since it takes away the right of consumers to decide which mode of service they want to opt.

It also claims that the installation of STBs will have immense implications for power consumption in India. The petitioner has said that a normal STB requires 17 watts of power and with add-on services, the electricity requirement goes up to 28 watts. The High Definition STBs with several features will consume even more power.

The petition also claims that the MSOs have asked subscribers to keep the STBs switched on at all times and to keep it connected to the network, which is necessary for upgrading the software and data in the box. This upgradation will be done at odd hours and if the STB is not on, it will not receive this upgrade/data.

The petitioner says India will have 250 million TV sets by 2015 as per the government projections and if the digitisation is successfully implemented there would be an equal number of STBs.

The petition contended that even if one STB consumes 200 units of electricity a year, it would result in an annual consumption of 50 billion units per annum and would burden consumers with an extra payout of Rs 300 billion annually towards electricity cost which would jump to Rs 425 billion per year taking into account normal inflation rate.

It also alleged that the STBs would put strain on government resources to produce extra energy.

The MIB on its part says that an STB consumes less power than other household appliances like television, fans and tube lights. TVs, fans and tube lights each consume about 60 watts of power against 8 watts consumed by an STB.

To make it easy to understand, the ministry gave an example: If a person watches TV for one hour by keeping on a fan and a tube light in the room, then the electricity consumed by these three items in one hour would be more than the power consumed by an STB kept on for 24 hours.

“In other words, an STB would consume about only one-fifth of a unit of electricity in a day against 1.5 units consumed by a fan, a TV or a tube light. Similarly a household fridge consumes on an average 4-5 units of electricity per day which is more than 20 times the power consumed by an STB in a day. Cable STBs consume very nominal electricity to the tune of 5-6 units in a month which is insignificant in comparison with the electricity consumed by other electric appliances in a house.”

The ministry also harped on the benefits of digitisation. It says that digital cable will provide “superior quality of picture and sound, choice of channels from a larger bouquet, movies and games on-demand, etc”.

According to a study by the United States National Resources Development Council (NRDC), STBs in the US had consumed approximately 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equivalent to the annual output of nine average (500 MW) coal-fired power plants.

The NRDC has also noted that the electricity required to operate all US boxes is equal to the annual household electricity consumption of the entire state of Maryland, which results in 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and costs households more than $3 billion each year.

However, the council has stated that there is great potential for improving the efficiency and reducing the cost of operating these electronics equipment.

MUMBAI: FremantleMedia, creators and producers of entertainment brands, is bringing two additional channels to YouTube. The announcement was made at the Mipcom TV market.

FremantleMedia‘s German production arm, UFA, will create an urban life channel and a crime channel for the online video platform. These two new original channels YouTube is set to launch across the UK, France and Germany.

UFA‘s crime and urban life channels add to the two channels created and launched by FremantleMedia as part of YouTube‘s original channels initiative in the US earlier this year – The Pet Collective, (created and produced by FMX, FremantleMedia North America and FremantleMedia Enterprises) and THNKR (created and produced by @radical.media).

In total, FremantleMedia now operates 90 YouTube channels across 18 territories.

FremantleMedia CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz said, “We are experts in producing original, quality programming across evolving media platforms, and have built a formidable and unrivalled position as the highest rated TV producer on YouTube. Around the world we‘re opening on average one new channel a week on YouTube, with views of our content reaching more than 2.5 billion in this year alone. We are exceptionally pleased to be building on our long-term relationship with YouTube with these two new channels from UFA in Germany, as we continue to engage viewers and monetise our content far beyond a traditional linear broadcast model.”

UFA‘s urban life YouTube channel will be centred on Berlin, tapping into the city‘s cultural zeitgeist and inspired by its rich mix of inhabitants. The channel is the brainchild of UFA Lab, which will also produce the content, supported by teamWorx and Grundy Light Entertainment. Kristian Costa-Zahn, Head of Creation at UFA Lab, will act as creative producer for the channel.

UFA is also launching an innovative crime channel that will feature expert analysis of real life crimes, criminologist insights, true crime stories and “chilling” revelations. The channel is a collaboration between UFA Lab and UFA Fernsehproduktion. Jörg Winger, the Soko Leipzig producer, will head the channel.

Mumbai: Jump Games, part of Reliance Entertainment, has appointed Eric Marlow as vice president in charge of their Global Studios.

Marlow joins Jump Games from Zynga where he was an executive producer. He was responsible for leadership and direction of ‘Mafia Wars‘.

At Jump Games, Marlow will oversee the development projects underway, chart the company‘s growth into new regions, and expand the product portfolio by enhancing the company‘s relationship with third party developers.

Reliance Entertainment Digital CEO Manish Agarwal said, “We at Jump Games welcome Eric on board. He has distinguished himself as one of a handful of videogame executives with true multi-regional experience. His knowledge of the industry will be critical for us to develop world class products and tap the mobile gaming opportunities worldwide. With his addition to the team, we are confident of adding many more games to the current lists of successes which Jump has seen in last 18 months like Real Steel, F1 2011.”

Marlow said, “Enhancing their global presence is a great opportunity, and I am particularly interested with their association with Reliance Entertainment and their fantastic IP. I am looking forward to the great games that will result”.

Marlow has more than 13 years of experience in the games industry, with additional work in strategy at management consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Marlow has also worked with notable UK-based developer Kuju Entertainment, Artisan Global Insights and Forward Edge.

MUMBAI: Technicolor has established a new high-end game art and animation team dedicated to working with Rockstar Games.

The Rockstar Games dedicated unit leverages a segment of Technicolor‘s highly experienced team of game artists, animators and state-of-the-art technology infrastructure at its Bangalore, India-based digital production studio.

Technicolor India has already worked on several major Rockstar titles including Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3.

Technicolor Digital Productions president Tim Sarnoff said, “This partnership reinforces Technicolor‘s strong commitment and strategy to growing its art and animation business for the video game industry and we are proud to work with cutting edge industry leaders like Rockstar Games”.

Rockstar Games VP of development Jeronimo Barrera said, “Technicolor were a fantastic resource for us during the development of Max Payne 3. We‘re looking forward to building the partnership on future projects.”

Technicolor Digital Productions produces CG animation for television, direct-to-video, commercials, video games and location-based entertainment through its industry leading production facility in Bangalore, India. Major clients include DreamWorks Animation, Electronic Arts, Mattel, Nickelodeon, Rockstar Games, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Square Enix.

MUMBAI: Major broadcasters and multi-system operators (MSOs) have agreed to switch off genre-wise analogue signals of television channels in phases ahead of the 1 November deadline for digitisation in the four metros.

The consent of the broadcasters would not violate the earlier Tdsat ruling in favour of ESPN Star Sports that stated that the MSOs could not switch off analogue delivery of popular channels before 1 November.

Star, Zee, Multi Screen Media (MSM) and TV18 Group are among the major broadcasters who are in agreement with the MSOs, a move set to smoothen the transition from analogue to digital cable TV in the four metros.

Industry sources said the process of phase-wise withdrawal could begin from 10 October, three weeks before the complete analogue cable switch off. The first channels being considered would be English movie channels.

“We have agreed for a genre-wise switch off in phases,” Media Network and Distribution Ltd MD and CEO Yogesh Radhakrishnan told Indiantelevision.com. Media Network distributes the Times Group of television channels including Times Now, ET Now, Movies Now and Zoom.

What this means in effect is that a particular genre of channels will not be available on analogue cable in the four metros in different time periods before 1 November.

“The date for digitisation deadline is not far off. All hell won‘t break loose and it is a practical step to take if we are to move into the new digital era. This is also a way to make consumers realise that they can‘t view television content from 1 November if they don‘t have digital STBs,” an industry source said.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and MSOs had met under the aegis of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials to discuss on the state of preparedness of the stakeholders for meeting the 31 October deadline. The government has mandated the shutting down of analogue cable TV by 31 October midnight in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

It is not clear, however, if all the broadcasters are in agreement with this decision. Earlier, sports broadcaster ESPN, which is now telecasting the T20 World Cup, had moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (Tdsat) alleging that MSOs had stopped re-transmission of signals of its channels – ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket — with a view to ensure the order of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry for digitisation of all cable networks in Delhi is implemented.

NEW DELHI: Siti Cable Network Limited (formerly known as Wire and Wireless (India) Limited (WWIL)) Friday claimed to have executed Digital Addressable System (DAS) Interconnect agreement with about 55 per cent of its local cable operators (LCO) as part of its commitment for timely implementation of digitisation in top metros across India.

Following the Siti Cable initiative to offer carriage revenue share with LCOs, the latter were enthusiastic with the revenue sharing arrangement and this led to this positive contribution and support to the company, a statement said. This Interconnect arrangement will allow cable operators to provide the encrypted TV channels signals to the subscriber.

The progress in execution of LCO Interconnect agreement is slowing down as other MSOs are not pushing for agreement execution on the ground. Siti Cable is the only MSO to execute these many agreements.

With less than one month to go for first phase of digitisation of cable TV networks in metros, the company is actively engaging the LCOs for smooth migration to digital regime. The company has provided “Own Your Customer ” Management system which is designed for LCOs to handle subscriber related transaction on their own includes activation, deactivation, up gradation , down gradation, billing , payment, account statement, packaging, complaints etc.

The objective behind developing such Subscriber management system is to empower the cable operator. It will help cable operators to provide better and prompt services to his subscribers on digital platform. The SMS system can be accessed by cable operators on Mobile Phone, Tablets and PC/ Laptop.