Category: Software

NEW DELHI: A bunch of writ petitions filed by leading direct-to-home services providers challenging the Uttar Pradesh government‘s decision to levy entertainment tax on sale of its equipments as well as on recharge coupons has been dismissed by the Allahabad High Court.

Justice Sunil Ambwani and Justice Aditya Nath Mittal turned down the petitions filed by the DTH service providers who had moved the court after receiving notices from the state government for payment of entertainment tax. The petitioners had contended that the state government had no power to impose the tax.

However, the court said: “the state legislature is not denuded by its powers to levy entertainment tax on entertainment provided by either cable TV network or DTH services or any other emerging technology”.

The court also rejected the demand to declare an impugned section of the UP Entertainment and Betting Tax Act as ultra vires of the Constitution, observing “the court would interfere only where a clear infraction of constitutional provision is established”.

Referring to a number of Supreme Court orders, the court said: “The Supreme Court has expressed a note of caution that the burden is all the more heavier when the legislation under attack is a taxing statute, since the powers of the legislature in classifying objects for the purpose of taxation are wide”.

The court also dismissed as a “feeble argument” the petitioners‘ contention that “the rate of entertainment tax on DTH services” was “discriminatory in comparison to the cable services”.

MUMBAI: Mobile handset manufacturer Nokia has partnered with RockeTalk, a mobile social networking application, and Maxus India to launch an audio game show – Nokia mobile Antakshari.

Nokia Antakshari show comes from the near life-like Antakshari experience where people can sing and answer musical questions from all over the country. Additionally, the mobile users would be playing for daily prizes, for a chance to be one of the shortlisted players to play and perform in the Gala round to an audience of more than 8.6 million users, the company said.

Nokia India director- marketing Viral Oza said, “Nokia has been synonymous with digital music in this country. We have pioneered many initiatives in this space starting with pre-installed music, launch of music albums on mobile phones, Nokia Music Unlimited and now Mix Radio for our Lumia smartphones. Mobile Antakshari is an interesting concept and provided us with the perfect fit to connect consumers with Nokia Asha smart phones. Nokia Mobile Antakshari will enable millions of music lovers across the country to engage with their favorite game.”

RockeTalk chief marketing officer Sameer Agarwal added, “These days when most social platforms are offering nothing significantly more than banners, likes and posts, RockeTalk differentiates itself by creating customised engagement solutions, branded social programming and multimedia activities. The Nokia Mobile Antakshari is just one such example – albeit something we believe will be a trendsetter. We are proving that for brands, now is the time to measure social engagement with new matrices.”

The application is supported on most phones that are GPRS enabled – both Nokia feature phones and Nokia smart phones included.

Maxus India national director – digital Unny Radhakrishnan said, “At a time when digital marketing is growing more aggressive on ‘social‘ presence of brands, this signals an interesting shift towards ‘social media engagement‘, where Maxus India, Nokia and RockeTalk are breaking new grounds with Nokia Mobile Antakshari.”

The Nokia-Maxus initiative is in line with the new drifts in the digital space. The RockeTalk app not only hosts the show but allows multiple promotional tools from its advertising repertoire to draw in the user, ranging from audio-enabled banners to multimedia broadcasts and free program subscriptions.

MUMBAI: Logicserve Group, an online marketing company, has announced the launch of its online price comparison website CompareRaja.com.

The company feels that as the eCommerce industry is growing, value-added services like CompareRaja.com empower online shoppers to make an informed buying decision.

The new website will allow online shoppers to evaluate the best online prices and provide other valuable information for electronics, perfumes, watches and books being sold by retailer websites.

Online shoppers can also ask for recommendations from friends/ family through their social network. CompareRaja also provides coupon codes which give access to discounts and deals for further convenience in savings.

Logicserve Group founder and CEO Rohit Chugh said, “eCommerce is here to stay in India, for it serves a real need. Consumers living in metros shop online because of the convenience factor and unavailability of certain products in the offline world. While consumers in tier II and III cities shop online due to unavailability and the aspirational value they long to achieve. Going forward value-added services like comparison websites will be responsible for organic growth in the Indian eCommerce story and provide benefits to both, consumers and retailers, alike. With CompareRaja, we aim to bring the consumers and retailers on the same platform for increased adoption of online shopping.”

Logicserve Group co-founder and CEO (India) Prasad Shejale added, “The differentiating factor with CompareRaja.com is our robust technology platform which is one of the most critical requirements of a successful price comparison website. Our complex algorithms help serve up the best prices to make online shopping convenient. The unique feature ‘CompareRaja Genie‘ has been developed keeping in mind the online buying cycle where comparison features at the early stages to help vendors increase their conversions from buying cart to actual buy.”

MUMBAI: US over-the-air broadcast television network for African Americans, Bounce TV, has acquired the television rights to four packages of African American-skewing motion pictures in individual, multi-year licensing agreements with The Walt Disney Studios, Miramax, Sony Pictures Television and MGM Domestic Television Distribution, it was announced by Bounce TV COO Jonathan Katz.

Among the titles Bounce TV acquired from The Walt Disney Studios are ‘What‘s Love Got to Do with It‘, ‘The Preacher‘s Wife‘ ; ‘He Got Game‘; the Eddie Murphy comedies ‘The Distinguished Gentlemen‘ and ‘The Haunted Mansion‘; ‘Mr. 3000‘ starring Bernie Mac and Whoopi Goldberg in ‘Sister Act‘ and ‘Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit‘.

From Miramax, Bounce TV lands such titles as ‘Chicago‘, ‘Passion Fish‘ , ‘An Unfinished Life‘ and ‘Senseless‘.

Among the Sony titles are ‘Cadillac Records‘; ‘Stealth‘; ‘Daddy Day Camp‘ and ‘To Sir, With Love‘.

MGM titles include ‘Lilies of The Field‘, ‘They Call Me Mr. Tibbs‘, ‘She‘s Gotta Have It‘ and ‘Cooley High‘.

“As research consistently points to movies driving demand for our consumers, African American theatricals will remain the backbone of Bounce TV‘s schedule. We continue to add to our wide-ranging library with attractive titles featuring the most popular stars of our day from the top studios in Hollywood,” commented Katz.

Bounce TV launched on 26 September 2011.

MUMBAI: Samsung Electronics has launched a worldwide Angry Birds Application for Samsung Smart TV.

Developed by Rovio Entertainment, a Finnish entertainment media company, Angry Birds is one of the top smartphone applications worldwide. The app claims to deliver fun and engaging gaming experience using simple hand gestures via Samsung‘s Motion Control technology, powered by Smart Interaction.

Since its launch in November 2009, Angry Birds has been downloaded over a billion times across multiple platforms and all versions of the game, the company said.

Samsung Electronics vice president- visual display business Kyungsik Kevin Lee said, “Samsung Smart TV will become the first TV to offer the world‘s most popular game and set a new standard in the industry by offering a game for smart TVs controlled by hand gestures. Samsung will continue to develop various content that bring family members together in front of the TV, allowing consumers to enjoy new experiences via Samsung Smart TVs.”

The Angry Birds App for Samsung Smart TV is available on Samsung 2012 Smart Interaction enabled models by updating the latest firmware.

Samsung plans to offer video-on-demand Angry Birds animations developed by Rovio after the official app launch. The animations will be available first on Samsung Smart TVs.

MUMBAI: Over-the-top (OTT) subscription service Hulu has announced its first international co-production with the BBC for the fourth season of Armando Iannucci’s political UK comedy ‘The Thick of It‘, through a partnership secured by BBC Worldwide Americas.

From 29 July, Hulu and Hulu Plus will be the exclusive US destination for fans to watch every episode from the first three seasons of the show as well as the two specials released between seasons in the UK.

‘The Thick of It‘ was initially broadcasted on BBC Four in the UK and BBC America in the U.S. Hulu will also exclusively premiere the fourth season in the US, which will air first on Hulu and Hulu Plus day-and-date with the UK broadcast before returning to BBC America early next year.

Created and written by Armando Iannucci, writer of HBO’s ‘Veep‘ and Oscar-nominated film ‘In the Loop‘, ‘The Thick of It‘ takes a satirical look at the inner workings of British government. Shot in a vérité style with handheld cameras, Iannucci’s distinctive brand of comedy thrusts viewers into a world of political embarrassment, backroom deals, policy U-turns, spin-doctoring, political backstabbing and wild media speculation.

Iannucci said, “This series takes ‘The Thick of It’ into exciting and uncharted territory: a new Coalition Government, and Malcolm and Nicola fretting in the wings. For the first time too a storyline takes us all the way through the series right to the bitter, bitter end, with Government and Opposition convulsed in an incident that questions every political convention imaginable, but in a funny way.”

Hulu senior VP of content Andy Forssell said, “I very quickly became obsessed with this show, and it is exactly the kind of show Hulu viewers will love. We’re really excited to give U.S. audiences a chance to catch up with all previous episodes, and as series co-producers for season four, we are proud to make full seasons of this distinctive and smart show available exclusively to Hulu viewers.”

MUMBAI: Mobile integration is key for the smart set-top boxes to touch 57 million by 2017, according to ABI Research.

Smart STBs often garner less attention than other connected CE devices like TVs and game consoles. Apple, for example, has referred to its Apple TV as a “hobby”, although it leads the market with around four million units shipped through 2011.

Roku has had recent success of passing 2.5 million units in 2011, but the future looks at the very least challenging for these dedicated streaming devices to break out of a niche status. TVs, game consoles, Blu-ray players, and even mobile devices are quickly conspiring to engender a very competitive market for the digital living room. Even so, STB shipments are expected to reach as high as 57 million by 2017.

“Google has a split personality in this market. On the one hand, China, in particular, is seeing growing interest in “generic” Android based set-top boxes and USB (or MHL) dongles/stick devices. On the other hand, it is launching its second generation of Google TV platforms (including the well-priced and impressively spec‘ed Vizio Co-Star) where it tries to bring more content relationships and a better ecosystem,” according to Sam Rosen, practice director of TV & video at ABI Research.

The smaller form factor USB and MHL devices are both portable and like the Android STBs, offer consumers similar services and features found on popular mobile devices. Both of these devices expand the presence of Google Play but also could work well as a companion device for Android based mobile devices – not unlike the upcoming Nexus Q, just at a more appealing price point.

Senior analyst Michael Inouye comments, “Dedicated devices have traditionally had a difficult go in the market, often lacking the same value proposition as more full featured products like game consoles. The changing consumer landscape, however, could present a window of opportunity for smart set-top boxes as more consumers allocate entertainment budget, both monetary and time, to streaming media.”

Inouye adds, “The future of connected CE will ultimately work together with mobile devices and not against them. Other CE devices like connected TVs and game consoles are already integrating mobile devices into the user experience, the same will likely prove true for smart set-top boxes as well. If the Android boxes gain popularity this could create a stronger ecosystem play for Google.”

MUMBAI: Direct-to-home (DTH) player Videocon d2h has added Malayalam movie channel Asianet Movies on its platform. Launched on 15 July, it is the first 24 hours Malayalam movie channel.

Videocon d2h has also become the first DTH service provider to broadcast this channel.

Videocon d2h director Saurabh Dhoot said, “We continue to set new benchmarks in the DTH sector. We want to offer the whole gamut of channels and services empowering the consumer to opt for his choice of channels. As we did in the past, we will continue to strengthen and focus on our regional content offering.”

Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added, “We are happy to announce Asianet Movies as a valuable addition to our Malayalam content. We are currently offering the highest number of 375 channels and services on our platform which means more variety to choose from the list. We believe in delivering the best for our customers. In addition, we are also proud to be the first DTH player to broadcast this brand new offering. We are confident to achieve better penetration, through the exclusivity of the content in this era of compulsory digitization across the country.”

Apart from Asianet Movies, Videocon d2h is also adding ‘Jeevan‘ to its bouquet of Malayalam channels. Other Malayalam offerings on the DTH operator includes – Asianet, Asianet Plus, Mazhavil Manorama, Surya TV, Kiran TV, Manorama News, Kairali TV, Kairali WE, Amrita, DD Malayalam, Asianet News, Shalom Television, Indiavision and SVBC.

MUMBAI: 3net, the JV 3D US network from Sony, Discovery and Imax, will premiere the series Storm Surfers‘ from 19 August.

The series follows surfing legends Ross Clarke-Jones – an Australian Surfing Hall of Fame inductee – and two-time surfing World Champion Tom Carroll as they work with surf-forecaster Ben Matson to hunt down Mother Nature‘s biggest waves and surf the planet‘s most dangerous breaks.

The four-part mini-series features Ross and Tom – along with well known names in big-wave surfing – as they trek around the world, capturing footage of their adventures in 3D for the first time ever. The Storm Surfers crew utilises the latest in storm forecasting technology, innovative surfing gear, specialised hand-held 3D cameras and customised mounts and rigs to give viewers a first-hand perspective of big wave riding in three dimensions.

3net president & CEO Tom Cosgrove said, “With ‘Storm Surfers‘, we‘ve combined cutting-edge science, real-life drama and some of the most spectacular waves ever captured on film with a classic story of friendship, adventure and death-defying courage. The series breaks new ground in the emerging 3D medium – literally taking viewers ‘inside the barrel‘ of never-before-tamed monster waves for the first time ever in 3D.‘”

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Viacom has reached a new programming fee agreement with DirecTV, after a 10-day impasse on commercial terms that saw the blackout of channels like MTV and Nickelodeon on the DTH platform.

The 17 Viacom channels had not been accessible to 20 million DirecTV customers as there was a dispute on how much DirecTV should pay to carry those channels.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Viacom says that it is extremely pleased to bring its programming back to DirecTV subscribers, and thanked everyone affected by the disruption for their patience and understanding during this challenging period.