Category: Software

Mumbai: The cabinet on Friday cleared foreign direct investment (FDI) up to 74 per cent in broadcast and carriage services including uplinking teleports, mobile TV and head-end in the sky.
 
FDI up to 49 per cent will be under the automatic route and for stake above 49 per cent and up to 74 per cent, FIPB approval would be required.

MUMBAI: Apple has announced the launch of iPhone5, which according to the company is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, redesigned to feature a new 4-inch Retina display. It has an Apple-designed A6 chip for fast performance and “ultrafast” wireless technology.

It comes with iOS 6, an advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features including the all new Maps app with Apple-designed cartography and turn-by-turn navigation, Facebook integration, Passbook organisation, and even more Siri features and languages.

iPhone 5 will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. It will be available from the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorised Resellers.

iPhone 5 will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 21, and customers can pre-order their iPhone 5 beginning 14 September.
Apple SVP – Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller said, “iPhone 5 is the most beautiful consumer device that we’ve ever created. We’ve packed an amazing amount of innovation and advanced technology into a thin and light, jewel-like device with a stunning 4-inch Retina display, blazing fast A6 chip, ultrafast wireless, even longer battery life; and we think customers are going to love it.”

iPhone has a 7.6 mm anodised aluminum body that is 18 per cent thinner and 20 per cent lighter than iPhone 4S. The new 4-inch Retina display delivers more pixels than iPhone 4S. It supports ultrafast wireless standards including LTE and DC-HSDPA. It features dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi support for a wireless experience up to 150 Mbps.

The A6 chip was designed by Apple to maximise performance and power efficiency to support all the incredible new features in iPhone 5, including the new 4-inch Retina display—all while delivering even better battery life.

The 8 megapixel iSight camera redesigned with “incredible” optical performance, yet it’s 25 per cent smaller than the camera in iPhone 4S.

The new camera features a sapphire crystal lens cover that is thinner and more durable than standard glass with the ability to provide crystal clear images. The new panorama feature lets capture images of up to 28 megapixels by moving the camera across a scene in one smooth motion.

New video features include improved stabilisation, video face detection for up to 10 faces and the ability to take still photos as you record. A new FaceTime HD front facing camera makes FaceTime calls incredibly clear and can also be used for self portraits and recording 720p HD video. iPhone 5 also allows users to share photos with friends and family using iCloud’s Shared Photo Streams.

It features the new Lightning connector that is smaller, smarter and more durable than the previous connector. The all-digital Lightning connector features an adaptive interface that uses only the signals that each accessory requires, and it’s reversible so one can instantly connect to his/her accessories.

iPhone 5 introduces new enhanced audio features including a new beam-forming, directional microphone system for higher quality sound, while background noise fades away with new noise canceling technology. It includes support for cellular wideband audio for crisper word clarity and more natural sounding speech.

Wideband audio will be supported by over 20 carriers worldwide at launch. iPhone 5 comes with the new Apple EarPods featuring a breakthrough design for a more natural fit and increased durability, and an incredible acoustic quality typically reserved for higher-end earphones.

iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on 28 September, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

MUMBAI: Global media and entertainment chief executive officers are optimistic about the digital future and expect digital revenue will be a rapidly increasing percentage of overall revenue for companies, according to Ernst & Young’s latest CEO study Opportunity and optimism: How CEOs are embracing digital growth.

The report reveals that approximately half of all CEOs surveyed believe digital will increase their overall revenues and margins by at least 10 per cent within the next three years.

The report is the result of surveys conducted with 34 CEOs from global media and entertainment companies with combined annual revenues exceeding $300 billion. The companies have a broad geographic span and encompass a wide variety of media and entertainment subsectors, including filmed entertainment, television, music, electronic games, entertainment services, cable networks and channels, cable and satellite operators, internet and interactive media, advertising, publishing and conglomerates.

According to 79 per cent CEOs, the technology that is driving this double-digit growth in digital is Tablet.

Ernst & Young global media and entertainment leader John Nendick said, “CEOs are undeterred about the role digital will play in their futures. There is a heightened optimism from a few years ago when industry leaders were more tentative about the potential of digital. All of the CEOs we spoke with understand that digital is probably the single most important factor – impacting their ability to grow both revenues and margins.”

Mobile devices to be the biggest driver of growth in content consumption, the report said.

The report also addresses the impact of “digital ecosystems” through which consumers view and share content on a multitude of interconnected devices. Ecosystems are accelerating the ability for consumers to discover, choose and enjoy media, with media and entertainment companies bundling and marketing their products and services specifically for these individual digital ecosystems.

“The integration of media content, devices and networks creates self-sustaining digital ecosystems. The more users interact with content, the easier it is to learn about their habits and for content, advertising, and services within these ecosystems to evolve and grow,” Ernst & Young LLP senior partner global media and entertainment advisory services Howard Bass added.

All the CEOs believed that mobile devices (including tablets) are the key to spurring demand for content. They are especially bullish about emerging markets, where growing mobile device availability coupled with an improving wireless broadband infrastructure are creating significant opportunities for media companies to grow.

When queried about the greatest challenges facing the media and entertainment industry during the next three years, CEOs agreed that global economic uncertainty and an inability to persuade consumers to pay fair value for digital content were the top two concerns. Also on the CEOs’ list was the elimination of intermediaries between their companies and the end-user, resulting in increased direct business-to-consumer relationships; structural and regulatory ambiguity; and reduction and/or reallocation of marketing budgets.

The report also revealed that 84 per cent of CEOs believe the role of social networking for their company is to connect with customers; building audiences and brands are secondary. 76 per cent of CEOs said the objective of an “app” is to be part of a bundle of new or enhanced content and services. Also, the top priority for CEOs remains the evolution of digital and online distribution (56 per cent), followed by creatively differentiating content (44 per cent).

“Social and interactive media companies are best positioned among all media and entertainment companies to thrive in the future, according to 59 per cent of CEOs,” the report stated.

MUMBAI: After a year of leaving Fox News, Glen Beck is returning to television with Dish Network.

Beck’s 24-hour online news and entertainment network The Blaze is heading to cable and satellite TV through an alliance partnership with Dish network.

“After being phenomenally successful with his online streaming network, we’re pleased to host Glenn Beck’s return to broadcast TV, especially during this exciting and important political season,” said Dish CEO and president Joseph Clayton in a statement.
 
Beck will continue to host his daily talk show on The Blaze. The programming includes other news and opinion shows, as well as a reality series and e kids’ program.

“The Blaze has helped revolutionise television over the internet, and now we are excited to bring the revolution back to traditional television,” said Beck in a statement.

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had drafted the tariff order on revenue sharing at the behest of broadcasters and, hence, the revenue-sharing formula appears to have benefited them the most.

There was a tacit admission in Para 27 of the Explanatory Memorandum of the Tariff Order issued on 30 April this year that the revenue sharing had been fixed at the behest of broadcasters, said counsel for multi system operator (MSO) Delhi Distribution Company Navin Chawla in his arguments challenging the tariff order in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat).

The tariff order was issued ahead of the transition to digital distribution in the four metros, which has been postponed to 1 November 2012.

Continuing his arguments on Thursday, Chawla said a broadcaster could start a channel irrespective of whether there was a demand for it or not, but an MSO would have to place it as part of the 500 mandated television channels. He said the regulations were clear that if a channel had a viewership of less than 5 per cent of the subscribers, then it could be taken off the bouquet for up to one year but this meant that it would still have to be received from the broadcaster.

The counsel said every MSO would have to create infrastructure for carrying 500 channels even if the demand was for much less, which benefits the broadcasters.
“A broadcaster is free to set up a channel, but I (MSO) cannot be forced to provide a platform for it even if there is no demand,‘ Chawla said.

Section 11A of the regulations says there is no need for a placement fee to be charged in view of the electronic programme guide (EPG), but this favoured the broadcasters since Trai had at the same time mandated that the channels had to be placed genre-wise in the EPG.

Thus, Chawla said, Trai was creating a market for broadcasters through the MSOs.

Referring to the carriage fee, Trai had said this would not be chargeable if an MSO approached a broadcaster. But it had also said that even where carriage fee was payable, it would only be to cover the cost of transmission and this amounted negating the concept of carriage fee.

The tariff was clear that the MSO would have to pay the broadcaster from his share of 65 per cent in the case of a pay channel bouquet of Rs 150 but no study had been undertaken to determine the expenditure that an MSO would have to incur to set up the required infrastructure.

Chawla pointed out that under the conditional access system (CAS), the LCOs could charge Rs 82 for 30 channels. But Trai had failed to give any reasoning for the new concept of the basic service tier of Rs 100 for 100 free to air channels. He said Trai had admitted that the CAS formula of 2006 had worked well and there had been minimal litigation.

When Chawla sought to reiterate that there had been no application of mind or study, Trai Counsel Meet Malhotra intervened to say that there had been an internal study and he would refer to that in his response to the counsel for the petitioners.

Chawla said the very purpose of an Explanatory Memorandum was to give reasoning, but said this had not been done.

He pointed out that the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act as amended in December last year said that the local cable operators would fix the rates, but Trai had said that it would do so.

He said that there was also contradiction within the Act about who will do the packaging of the channels: the LCOs or the MSOs.

Concluding his arguments, Chawla said the Tariff Order had failed to lay down the tariff for the consumer but only given a revenue sharing formula and a ceiling, and no basis had been shown for fixing of either the revenue sharing in the BST of Rs 100 or the bouquet of Rs 150.

He said the differences that had already been brought before Tdsat after the 2010 Tariff Order and had been struck down (though they were pending in appeal in the Supreme Court) had been repeated despite the fact that a new system was being introduced.

“If DAS and direct-to-home were similar as contended by Trai, then why no BST had been fixed for DTH and no rationale had been given for letting DTH take placement fee and carriage fee?,” he argued.

Mumbai: InMobi, an independent mobile advertising network, has experienced a 437 per cent growth in rich media ad impressions on its HTML5 ad authoring platform, Sprout, in the first eight months of 2012.

The growth of mobile and tablet devices, and increase in consumers‘ mobile media consumption during this period have contributed to significant change in the advertising landscape and the uptake of mobile rich media.

Additionally, the company is rebranding its Sprout platform to InMobi Studio. Since acquiring Sprout in August 2011, InMobi has evolved as the platform with ad innovation, engagement reporting and analytics, to develop the product in line with increased customer adoption. Advertising agencies and premium publishers such as Hearst Digital Media, MediaCom EMEA, The Gary Group, and MocoSpace have already adopted the InMobi Studio platform, the company said.

InMobi VP – brand solutions Carnet Williams said, “The growth of InMobi Studio is not only exciting but indicative of the huge market opportunity. Its simplicity and power allow brands and marketers to focus on creating engaging and high-touch brand experiences quickly, without compromising on quality.”

InMobi Studio empowers designers to create rich media ads without coding or technical limitations in an intuitive visual design interface, with features that include gamification, gesturing, animation, mobile video and location-based ads.

The HTML5 ads run on multiple platforms, operating systems and mobile ad networks, and are MRAID and ORMMA compliant. InMobi Studio analytics enable designers to optimise creative in real time, and compare mobile-specific rich media performance and engagement metrics, such as shakes, tilts, and device orientation, across multiple ad networks and publishers.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has negated the very concept of a basic service tier (BST) for a bouquet of free-to-air television (FTA) channels, by giving a “confusing and faulty” Tariff Order, an MSO counsel told Tdsat while arguing against the order.

The order says that a subscriber will be provided a BST of 100 free-to-air (FTA) channels at a fee of Rs 100 but goes on to add that “it shall be open to the subscriber to choose any combination of free to air channels up to 100 channels, in lieu of the BST offered by the multi-system operator.”

This nullified the meaning of BST, counsel for MSO Delhi Distribution Company Navin Chawla, told Tdsat (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal), which is hearing cases challenging the Trai Tariff Order of 30 April.

Chawla pointed out that the order also wants the BST offered by the MSO to include at least five channels of the each genre, namely news and current affairs, infotainment, sports, kids, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment in Hindi, English and regional language of the concerned region.

He argued that if five channels for every language was provided, then the number of channels with all the genres would easily cross 100.

He claimed Trai had done no study to find out whether an average viewer wanted 100 channels in the BST.

In any case, he said a similar order of 2007 had been challenged by the MSO Alliance and others before Tdsat, which had held that that the order had failed to specify tariffs and had only given a ceiling and slabs and that Trai needed to revisit the exercise to fix the tariffs in a holistic manner. Tdsat had also clearly stated that tariff meant the cost that the consumer has to pay.

Chawla said merely because the matter had gone in appeal before the Supreme Court which has ordered status quo till final disposal was no reason for Trai to commit the same flaw five years later. “Each word remains the same and we are back to square one,” he claimed.

He said in any case, no formula for revenue sharing could be laid down unless all the beneficiaries were named. In this case, there had been no reference to the broadcaster and only the MSO and local cable operators (LCOs) had been named. Furthermore, he said a revenue sharing can only be talked about when a systematically worked out revenue figure is given.

He said Section 11(2) of the Trai Act 1997 stated: “The Authority may, from time to time, by order, notify in the Official Gazette the rates at which the telecommunication services within India and outside India shall be provided under this Act including the rates at which messages shall be transmitted to any country outside India”.

Thus, the Act was very clear that the Authority should lay down the tariff that a consumer will have to pay, but this had clearly been overlooked by the Authority which had merely indulged in ‘patchwork’ and not fulfilled its duty. He said a new system like the digital addressable system needed a new Tariff formula, but Trai had merely amended the Tariff Order of 2010.

Chawla claimed that no exercise had been undertaken to work out the costs incurred either by the MSO or the LCO.

He said soon after Trai was given charge of broadcasting in 2004, it had frozen the channel-wise rates in January that year since it was new to the field. That directive had not led to any litigation, and therefore, a similar formula could have been adopted. He said this suggestion had been given to Trai when it held consultations with stakeholders before issuing the latest Tariff Order.

Chawla said that in any case, fixation of the BST should have been the domain of the MSO and the government should have interfered only if all the genres were not supplied to the consumer.

He also challenged the rationale for keeping the overall number of channels at 500. He said that an MSO would have to spend money to put up the technology for receiving so many channels, even if the viewers did not want so many channels. No rationale had been given even for the 100 in the BST or how public interest would have been affected if the number had been different.

MUMBAI: Internet subscription service for films, TV shows Netflix and Disney-ABC Television Group have announced a deal to stream ABC Network, Disney Channel and ABC Family Shows to Netflix members The agreement includes prior seasons of ‘Grey‘s Anatomy,‘ ‘Desperate Housewives‘ and ‘Brothers & Sisters,‘ plus Favorites from Disney Channel and First-Time Netflix Access to ABC Family Shows Netflix, Inc. Logo. (PRNewsFoto/Netflix, Inc.)

The agreement, brokered by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, will add to the growing selection of movies and TV episodes that can be streamed from Netflix. Once made available to Netflix from Disney-ABC – which, for relevant programming, will be no earlier than 15 days after initial telecast – episodes can be streamed instantly with Netflix memberships starting at $7.99 a month.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said, “TV content streamed from Netflix has proven to be immensely popular with our members. Adding to our existing Disney-ABC lineup with great network and cable shows, and opening up ABC Family for the first time, are important steps in creating a wide and diverse selection of content Netflix members of all ages can watch.”
 
In addition to the hundreds of TV episodes included in the agreement, Disney Channel and ABC Family movies such as ‘High School Musical‘, ‘High School Musical 2‘, ‘Camp Rock‘ will also be available to watch at Netflix.

MUMBAI: Entertainment content aggregator, developer, publisher and distributor Techzone has joined hands with 9X Media‘s international music channel 9XO to launch a comprehensive international music store on the internet called www.9XO.56060.in. The store provides a collection of international music which can be downloaded by music aficionados on to their computers and personal devices.

Techzone director Naveen Bhandari said, “Techzone is the only player in India that has presence in the international music market and captures majority for mobile. Our users are mobile and internet savvy and the online store is a part of our efforts to make the entire gamut of international music available to consumers legally and at a very affordable price. We are sure to delight our users with the large library of songs and video titles available through our online store.”

The platform will allow music lovers to sample and download international music. Besides the international music store, 9XO and Techzone have also created WAP Portal to download videos, wallpapers, ringtones and audio packs.
 
9X Media SVP digital Vibha Gosher said, “We are committed to providing the best music across various platforms. 9XO viewers can now consume the best international music through the online store and the WAP portal. The availability of a large repertoire of international songs on the store will definitely make it the preferred destination for international music enthusiasts.”

Techzone has also entered in the laptop/PC segment where customers can download content on mobile as well as on laptop/PC.

Mumbai: Videocon d2h is introducing an audio music service dedicated completely to Ghazals.

According to the DTH player, this is the first time that such a service is being offered by any player in the space. Videocon d2h is paving the way to give this genre “much needed recognition”.

The ‘Ghazal‘ service will be accessible on the Active Music platform. It will feature a collection of Ghazals of singers like Anuradha Paudwal, Ghulam Ali, Chandan Das, Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Alka Yagnik and Lata Mangeshkar.
 
Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added, “Ghazals are extremely popular in our country and they work as great stress busters. We are confident that with this new addition we will be in a position to create a different aura for our brand. It brings us immense pleasure to provide a platform for our consumers to access Ghazals sung by maestros and to be able to enjoy this unique offering though our Active Music services.”