Category: Software

MUMBAI: Sun Direct has introduced recording feature facility as an addition to its HD services.

Subscribers can now record unlimited HD or SD television content via USB port facility in the all new PVR box.

The new Sun Direct HD boxes let us attach any external storage like a USB drive or HDD & record TV content on it.

The direct-to-home (DTH) company claims the new HD boxes have following advantages: unlimited recording, recording content from a channel while watching other channels, ability to set time up to a week in advance to record future programs, and facility to pause the live channel and watch after a short break.

From now on, TV shows will no more be a hindrance to your daily chores or spending quality time with your family. With the Sun Direct HD PVR recording, you can schedule all your programs and not having to worry about missing your soccer game or a daily serial.

Speaking on the new launch, Sun Direct CEO Mahesh Kumar said, “We aim at offering the best to our customers, adding value and presenting our product with a class. We are happy to launch the new HD recording facility for affordable cost, so our customers will all enjoy the benefits of time shift recording.”

MUMBAI: After taking full ownership of UTV Software Communications, The Walt Disney Company is consolidating its digital assets in India under a new arm, DisneyUTV Digital, to drive growth in games, video and audio services for mobile, online and interactive TV.

The new division will combine the businesses and talent from Disney, UTV and Indiagames. All content and brands from Disney, Marvel and UTV Bindass, as well as original content and games, will now be developed and managed by DisneyUTV Digital.

Incidentally, UK-based Ignition, a video game publisher, is not part of the new division. The possible reason for this is that Ignition, which has operations in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo, doesn‘t have operations in India. Its portfolio includes titles such as El Shaddai, Mercury, Deadly Premonition, and Faxion Online among others.

UTV had acquired UK-based Ignition along with Indiagames for Rs 1.28 billion in 2006.

The digital division will be spearheaded by Vishal Gondal as managing director. He and Samir Bangara, also MD of the division, will work in collaboration to drive DisneyUTV‘s future growth. Prior to his appointment, Bangara was COO in UTV Indiagames.

The DisneyUTV Digital team will manage all mobile, video, audio, broadband, ITV, games and virtual world‘s initiatives, with a combined audience reach of over 300 million in India.
Previous successes from the Disney and UTV teams in India include several innovative and popular products in the country including Audio Cinema, Divya Kathayein, Digital Studio, Sponsored Tweets, successful mobile games such as Aladdin, DLF IPL Cricket, Cricket Fever, Ra.One Genesis and Club Penguin.

DisneyUTV Digital teams will innovate and deliver unique cross platform and cross media digital experiences focused on entertaining the Indian digital audiences across age groups, the company said.

“Digital media in India is evolving rapidly with mobile leading the way. The country has the world‘s third largest mobile internet user base with over 121 million users (of whom 59% are monthly active users) as of December 2011 in addition to the 85 million PCs and growing number of tablets. With the launch of 3G and onset of 4G services, digital consumption of entertainment is at an all time high and is exhibiting strong growth with new monetisation models emerging around Freemium and ad-funded content,” the company added.

UTV gaming and new media business had raked in Rs 1.2 billion, contributing to 13 per cent of UTV‘s total revenue in FY‘11. The company had registered revenue of Rs 1.07 billion from the segment in the previous fiscal.

The segment, comprising Ignition, Indiagames, True Games, web and mobile, had an operating profit of Rs 141 million, as against an operating loss of Rs 148 million in FY‘10.

Disney UTV Team :

• Cyril Ferry – Executive Director – Mobile


• Sameer Pitalwalla – Director – Video and Celebrity


• Lavina Tauro – Director – Audio and Music


• Deepak Ail – Director – Mobile


• Hrishi Oberoi – Director – Games Publishing


• Saishree Ashwin – Manager – Virtual Worlds


• Tejraj Parab – Business Head – Games on Demand


• Dushyant Saraswat – Director – Broadband & 4G initiatives


• Sachin Janghel – Director – ITV


• Aji Joseph – Director – Ad Sales

MUMBAI: As it plans to split its media empire, News Corp has announced that it will cut 29 per cent of its staff at its online newspaper The Daily, which it had launched with much fanfare last year.

News Corp will eliminate 50 full-time staff members from The Daily in its bid to revamp the loss-making paper.

The company plans to shift The Daily‘s sports coverage to content partners like Fox Sports and eliminating the online publication‘s standalone opinion section besides including opinion pieces and editorials in the publication‘s news pages.

Editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo said: “Unfortunately, these changes have forced us to make difficult decisions and to say goodbye to some colleagues who have worked hard to make The Daily successful.”

The Daily is believed to have 100,000 paying subscribers.

NEW DELHI: ZengaTV is celebrating the holy month of Ramdan with live view from the holy mosque at Mecca.

The exclusive channel explaining the relevance and the practices observed during Ramadan caters to the Islamic, cultural and lifestyle needs of the Muslim community.

Ramadn, falls in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and more than a billion Muslims around the world mark their “month of blessing” with prayer, fasting and charity. It is considered as the holiest period for the Islamic faith when almost every Muslim fasts from sunrise to sunset. Each evening at sundown, families gather to break their fasts with a lavish “Iftar” feast.

Celebrating on the occasion, ZengaTV CEO Abhishek Joshi said, “Zenga has geared up its content to celebrate the holy month of Ramdan. We have planned a bouquet of all encompassing programs for the entire holy month starting from July 20th and ending with the holy EID, August 18th 2012. The content is based on religion, Islamic concepts and rituals – the special features being LIVE from Mecca. All the programs are specially designed to meet the religious sentiments and celebrative environment of Ramadan. This year, for the first time, ZengaTV is enabling people to watch their favorite Ramadan shows anytime, anywhere.”

For the entire month, Ramzaan-specific content would be showcased on the channel throughout the day. There would be special Quran Recitals, Talk shows highlighting importance and Do’s & Don’ts for the month etc. ‘Shab-e-Qadr’ would bring in the flavour of Ramzaan from all the major cities across the nation. Ramzaan based Food Show highlighting the special delicacies during Ramzaan, Live Taraweeh from major Masjids across the nation Live and even Iftaar parties from select cities of the country would be showcased besides Live happenings from the Holy Mecca.

Any consumer with a GPRS/3G/WiFi enabled handset and connection can point their browser to Zengatv.com can access the Ramadan content on HD version. ZengaTV services are accessible across all leading mobile networks such as Idea, Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance, Docomo as well as on the web by going to http//: zengatv.com

MUMBAI: Netherland-based broadcast technology and solutions company Exset has launched ‘The India Page‘ initiative for the Indian cable industry with the aim to allow them to meet the challenges of digitisation.

“Keeping in view the digitisation of the cable television in this country, we have introduced a unique proposition for the cable operators which will enable them to meet the challenges of digitisation, and also result in positive impact on their revenue stream,” said Exset Global head sales & chief marketing officer Rahul Nehra.

The Indian initiative announcement was made at the conference held for cable operators titled “Digitisation is Monetisation”.

During the conference, Nehra introduced various models which could be adopted by the cable operators during the digitisation process across metro cities during the first phase of the cable digitisation.

Currently, the cable operators across India are depended on monthly subscription fee for their revenue, which will change once the process of digitisation starts in India.

“The revenue stream for the local cable operators will take place once they are able to offer more value added services to the end customers. Exset‘s solution will enable them to do so by connecting them to the flow of information,” said Exset head of sales Asia Pacific Stephen Wong.

According to Wong, by providing value added services through TV via set top box, the market dynamics for the local cable operators will undergo a change.

“In the present scenario, a local cable operator does not have any share of revenue in the carriage and value added service (VAS). The revenue generated under these two headings is 100 per cent with the Multiple System Operator (MSO). However, after the introduction of Digital Monetisation Solutions (DMS), the revenue distribution will change considerable,” added Wong.

With the digitisation of cable TV industry about to happen, it is expected that the end customers experience will upgrade from just video services to a regular flow of information and value added service.

MUMBAI: Search engine giant Google has acquired social media marketing firm Wildfire which powers social media marketing for over 16,000 businesses, including 30 of the top 50 global brands. It offers a complete Social Marketing Suite.

While financial details of the deal have not been disclosed Google is estimated to have paid about $250 million. Wildfire counts Summit Partners, TransLink Capital, fbFund, 500 Startups, SoftTech VC, and Felicis Ventures as its investors.

Following the acquisition, the Wildfire team will be absorbed into Google.

In early 2012, Wildfire became the first social media marketing company to have a software platform that integrates directly with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

“We‘re happy to share that the Wildfire team will be joining Google. Their co-founders, Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard, launched their startup just four years ago. Since then, they and their team have built a service that helps businesses like Virgin, Cirque du Soleil, Gilt Group and Spotify manage their social efforts across numerous social websites. It‘s a platform for brands to manage their pages, apps, tweets, videos, sponsorships, ads, promotions and more, all in one place,” Google said in a statement.

“With Wildfire, we‘re looking forward to creating new opportunities for our clients to engage with people across all social services. We believe that better content and more seamless solutions will help unlock the full potential of the web for people and businesses.”

“Today, we are about to start a new chapter of our story and we couldn‘t be more excited to share the news: Wildfire is joining Google! We truly could not think of a more perfect home for Wildfire. It makes us so happy to know that joining with Google will make it easier for us to realize our vision of changing the way the world markets and enable us to live up to our commitment to make Wildfire an incredible place for our team and our customers,” Wildfire added.

Mumbai: Cisco has announced that it has completed the acquisition of NDS Group, a provider of video software and content security solutions that enable service providers and media companies to securely deliver and monetise new video experiences.

On 15 March Cisco announced a definitive agreement to acquire NDS. According to the official statement, NDS‘ software platform, customer segments and services model complement Cisco‘s networked video offerings and accelerate the delivery of Videoscape, Cisco‘s comprehensive platform that enables service providers and media companies to deliver next-generation video entertainment experiences. Through the NDS acquisition, Cisco has also expanded its global video footprint in new and emerging markets, further broadening its service provider presence and deepening customer relationships.

NDS‘ employees join Cisco‘s Service Provider Video Technology Group (SPVTG), led by senior vice president and general manager Jesper Andersen. With the close of this transaction, Dr. Abe Peled, formerly NDS chairman and CEO, becomes senior vice president and chief strategist for Cisco‘s Video and Collaboration Group, of which SPVTG is a part.

Dr. Peled will now report to Cisco Video and Collaboration Group SVP Marthin De Beer.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco paid approximately $5 billion, including the repayment of debt and retention-based incentives, to acquire all of the business and operations of NDS. The net impact to Cisco is expected to be accretive to EPS in the first full year on a non-GAAP basis, the company said.

Cisco senior vice president and general manager, service provider video technology group Jesper Anderson said, “The addition of NDS‘ leading software solutions and systems integration expertise play a key role in accelerating the Cisco Videoscape platform aimed at delivering better-than-being-there entertainment experiences. Through our combined expertise, we look forward to providing the next-generation TV experience that is more immersive, engaging and social, while helping to create new revenue opportunities for our service provider customers.”

MUMBAI: The intervention of the Madras High Court has prompted the Tamil Nadu state-owned Arasu Cable TV Corporation to stitch a deal with Sun TV Network to carry all its channels, ending months of negotiations that had affected the leading regional broadcaster‘s viewership and subscription revenues.

Arasu Cable TV managing director D. Vivekananda told Indiantelevision.com that it was a one-year deal. “We will have all the 37 Sun network channels on our cable network,” he added, without disclosing the financial details of the deal.

The blackout of the Sun network channels had impacted the broadcaster‘s financial performance. For the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal, Sun TV Network‘s net profit had fallen 23.7 per cent to Rs 1.59 billion while its net sales declined to Rs 4.27 billion. Sun will be announcing its fiscal first-quarter results on 3 August.

Arasu Cable was incorporated under Companies Act, 1956 on 4 October 2007 but was dormant after DMK chief M Karunanidhi patched up with his nephew, Kalanithi Maran. It was later recharged by AIADMK chief Jayalalitha to break Sun Group-owned Sumangali‘s cable monopoly in the state.

Arasu offers 148 channels on its cable TV network, including 50 pay channels and 98 free-to-air channels. It has 5.5 million subscribers, said Vivekananda.

Sun TV shares closed at Rs 264, up 1.97 per cent, after touching an intraday high of Rs 277.45.

MUMBAI: Bangalore-based InMobi, an independent mobile ad network, has acquired Metaflow Solutions that deals in mobile app management and distribution solutions.

InMobi has made the acquisition as it plans to expand its portfolio of offerings for mobile app developers.

InMobi founder and CEO Naveen Tewari said, “As a global leader in the mobile advertising space, InMobi is committed to growing the mobile ecosystem. Our acquisition of Metaflow Solutions will help us to continue to rapidly expand the distribution and monetisation of content for our developers and publisher partners.”

The Metaflow team will become an integral part of InMobi‘s developer oriented efforts, led by InMobi VP and GM -developer platforms and performance advertising Piyush Shah.

Shah added, “With the recent acquisition of MMTG Labs, along with today‘s acquisition of Metaflow, we will augment our value proposition by offering highly compelling distribution, monetisation, and engagement solutions to app developers globally.”

Metaflow Solutions CEO Charles McLeod said, “At Metaflow, our mission has been to simplify and unify the complex process surrounding content management and deployment of apps to a distributed and highly fragmented marketplace. The global reach and technology backbone provided by InMobi is hugely exciting for us. InMobi provides app developers with even greater opportunities to acquire millions of users and monetise their exciting apps.”

The Metaflow Solutions team will relocate to the new InMobi London office.

MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media‘s sports channel Sony Six has launched ‘SayitinSIX’ contest for sports enthusiasts in the social media space. The contest will run on Facebook and Twitter.

Sony Six will post interesting sports related questions on the Sony Six Facebook page on a special app called ‘SayitinSIX’. Users will have to answer these questions in maximum six words.

Each answer will be judged on the number of ‘likes’ it gets by other users on the page. The entry that receives the maximum votes will be declared winner. One winner will be announced for each question.

The Twitter handle of Sony Six (@sonysix) will also post these questions and users will have to post their entries in the form of tweets with the ‘Say It In SIX’ hash tag (#SAYITINSIX). Entries will be judged on the basis of quality of the answer and shortlisted by the channel.

One winner for every question asked on the website will win exclusive Sony Six merchandise. The contest begins today for ten days, every noon till midnight until 5 August.