Category: Software

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry feels that in the changed scenario of digitisation, the multi-system operators (MSOs) would have to be accountable for the information they provide about the progress in digitising cable services.

According to I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, the Cable Television Networks Rules, 2012 are being amended in this regard as well as the changed scenario of the deferment of digitisation by four months.

The amendments have been sent to the Law Ministry for approval.

Following the amendments, the Ministry would be able to take action against MSOs and other stakeholders if their information on the number of set top boxes (STBs) procured and installed is found to be incorrect. Furthermore, the Ministry can also cancel the licence of the respective operator.

The Ministry also proposes to make it compulsory for all operators to provide information within a preset time-frame.

The action has been planned, sources said, because the Ministry was unable to form an opinion earlier relating to progress in feeding STBs as well as digitisation which led to deferment of the first phase from 1 July to 1 November this year.

MUMBAI: US pay TV service provider Dish will replace three AMC Networks channels — IFC, WE and AMC — tomorrow with what the company believes is stronger movie and entertainment content.

Dish will be providing HDNet Movies to replace AMC, and is offering Style and HDNet to replace WE and IFC. This follows the expiry of AMC‘s contract.

Dish had argued that AMC was asking for a high renewal
rate.

Dish senior VP of programming Dave Shull said, “HDNet Movies and HDNet are exciting offerings for our customers. These are networks that will bring great entertainment, including first-run, commercial-free movies in high definition to our customers. DISH is the only pay-TV provider that did not raise its core package prices in 2012. We will continue to fight hard for choice, control, and value in home entertainment.”

Dish notified AMC Networks earlier in the year of its decision not to renew its contract due to the channels‘ high costs compared to their relatively low viewership.

Dish‘s actions come as AT&T and AMC Networks negotiate over what AT&T this week called an “excessive rate increase.”

“A significant portion of any pay-TV bill goes to fees for content providers like AMC Networks. “AMC Networks requires us to carry low-rated channels like IFC and WE to access a few popular AMC shows.

The math is simple: it‘s not a good value for our customers,” added Shull.

AMC Networks has further devalued its programming by making its handful of shows available to consumers via iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.com.

“One of AMC‘s biggest historical draws has been movies. However, their performance has been trumped by other DISH movie offerings, including the many thousands of titles available on Blockbuster @Home and from top-quality providers such as HBO, Showtime, Starz, EPIX, MGM HD, IndiePlex, and RetroPlex,” Shull said.

MUMBAI: BBC Three has announced seven new web exclusive comedies produced for bbc.co.uk/bbcthree.

The seven web exclusives will be available on the BBC Three site from 2 July. Feed My Funny exclusives extend BBC Three’s reputation for breaking new comedy talent on TV to the web.

From new sketch show formats like ‘For The Win‘ and ‘Dawson Bros Funtime‘, to hidden camera stunts in ‘Impractical Jokers‘, a mockumentary about a pirate radio station in ‘People Just Do Nothing‘, a vehicle for exciting new stand up Imran Yusuf, Alison Jackson’s spoof celebrity gossip show Celebrity Bitchslap News and surreal silent comedy from ‘The TapeFace Tapes‘, this is British comedy only available online.

Impractical Jokers is the hilarious show in which four friends compete in unbelievably awkward scenarios – all recorded by hidden cameras. But in this show, winning doesn’t matter – it’s the loser who counts, because whoever loses gets punished in the most mortifying challenge ever!

For The Win is a surreal sketch show taking a sideways glance at the lives of four friends, featuring a human python, the resurgence of bum-bags, and a talking third nipple called Reg. Featuring The Mighty Boosh’s Rich Fulcher, it is produced by Matt Stronge, directed by John Hopkins and executive produced by Stephen McCrum.

Dawson Bros Funtime is a sketch show from Steve and Andrew Dawson and Tim Inman, with an exciting new cast pulled together from YouTube and the live comedy circuit, including Mike Wozniak, Cariad Lloyd, Jenny Bede and Chris Kendall. The first sketch from the show, Horse Ipad is already on YouTube, where it has notched up over 350,000 views. Dawson Bros Funtime has been produced by Will Saunders and executive produced by Jo Sargent.

Celebrity Bitchslap News is a spoof celebrity-gossip show that brings you the ‘real stories’ behind the headlines. Footage captured by members of the public on their camera phones, recorded on CCTV cameras and leaked by indiscreet staff, this is every celeb PR’s worst nightmare – all as imagined by BAFTA winner Alison Jackson.

People Just Do Nothing is a mockumentary that goes behind the microphone of Kurupt FM – the second most popular pirate radio station in West London, receiving up to eight texts per show and playing the finest in UK garage and drum ‘n’ bass. Co-founded by the MC Sniper and DJ Beats in 2002, the station has now built up a following of over a hundred people and has attracted the attention of the BBC who are making a documentary about the lives of those behind Kurupt FM.

The Tapeface Tapes is a show from the Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated mime act. The Boy, real name Sam Wills, performs in the pilot with his trademark tape over his mouth and brings his own special brand of surreal silent comedy to BBC Three.

The Imran Yusuf Show is a mix of stand-up and sketches starring Imran Yusuf, a rising star on the British comedy scene. With appearances on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination to his name, Imran now brings his unique views on life, dating and people talking in the cinema to life in his very own comedy special.

MUMBAI: BBC Sport has launched a Facebook application offering audiences live streams of major sports events, including Wimbledon and up to 24 streams of Olympics coverage.

This is the first time the BBC has live streamed events on Facebook.

The app will deliver a social viewing experience, plugging online audiences into the communal excitement of big sports moments. You can watch events with friends who are also online and chat together about the action as it happens, while comment threads under each stream enable you to take the pulse of reaction from the Facebook community in real time.

The in-app Activity Stream updates in real time to show you what your friends are watching, allowing you to discover events beyond your favourites.

A beta version of the app is launched for Wimbledon, offering BBC’s network TV coverage plus up to six extra match streams from across the courts, as well as comment threads and sharing features. Live chat functionality will be added in time for the Olympics.

BBC News and Knowledge GM Phil Fearnley said, “With our Facebook app we aim to bring even greater value to our online audiences, enabling them to watch together and share their excitement. We hope to use it to test the benefits of social viewing, as part of our ambition to deliver more innovative and transformative experiences to sports fans.”

Alongside the new Facebook app, audiences can watch BBC Summer of Sport coverage online at bbc.co.uk/sport, on mobile and tablet, on connected TVs, and via the Red Button. By bringing audiences the action whenever they want, wherever they are, the BBC is making sure they never miss a moment of an epic year of sport from the BBC.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a consent decree resolving its investigation of Comcast Corporation’s compliance with certain broadband-related merger conditions imposed by the US media watchdog’s order approving the Comcast-NBCU transaction.

The Bureau specifically negotiated an unprecedented year-long extension of the merger condition requiring Comcast to offer a reasonably priced broadband option to consumers who do not receive their cable service from the company. In addition, Comcast will pay an $800,000 voluntary contribution to the U.S. Treasury as part of the settlement.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said, “Today’s action demonstrates that compliance with Commission orders is not optional. The remedies announced today will benefit consumers and foster competition, including from online video and satellite providers, by ensuring that standalone broadband is truly available in Comcast’s service areas. I am pleased we were able to resolve this issue.”

Among other conditions in the Comcast-NBCU Order, the Commission required Comcast to continue to offer standalone broadband Internet access services at reasonable prices and with sufficient bandwidth to customers who do not subscribe to Comcast’s video cable services.

Specifically, the Commission required Comcast to offer standalone broadband services on terms equivalent to packages that bundle broadband and video cable service.

Comcast was ordered to offer a broadband service with a download speed of at least 6 mbps at a price no greater than $49.95 for three years. The Commission also prohibited Comcast from raising prices on the required broadband service for two years. Finally, Comcast had to “visibly offer and actively market” standalone broadband Internet access service to highlight the availability of this special service and other standalone broadband services.

After receiving information suggesting that Comcast was not adequately marketing its standalone broadband services, the Bureau thoroughly investigated Comcast’s compliance with the merger condition. Comcast responded fully to the Bureau’s investigation. Ultimately, the Bureau and Comcast reached agreement to address the Bureau’s concerns, resulting in today’s consent decree.

Under the terms of the consent decree, Comcast must continue to offer its “Performance Starter” service until at least 21 February 2015, representing a one-year extension beyond the requirement in the Comcast-NBCU Order. This is the first consent decree in FCC history extending a merger condition.

Consumers will directly benefit from the greater availability of this reasonably priced broadband option, potentially worth many millions of dollars in savings to consumers. Comcast also must pay $800,000 to the U.S Treasury.

In addition, the consent decree imposes a detailed compliance plan requiring Comcast to undertake numerous actions, including the following:

• training its customer service representatives and retail sales personnel to reinforce their awareness and familiarity with the Performance Starter service;


• ensuring that new and existing Comcast customers have equal access to a web page devoted exclusively to describing and permitting online purchase of all retail standalone broadband Internet service options;


• listing the Performance Starter service tier on product lists issued to Comcast customers;


• conducting a major advertising promotion of Comcast’s standalone retail broadband Internet access service offerings in 2013; and


• continuing to offer the Performance Starter service at its owned and operated retail locations and offering its third-party retail agents and independent dealers the opportunity to sell the Performance Starter broadband service.

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate NBCUniversal has announced that the US‘ more than 100 million cable, satellite and telco customers can access 3,500 hours of Olympic live stream content at no additional charge by verifying their video subscriptions at NBC Olympics Live Extra, the home of Olympic live stream content at NBCOlympics.com.

By verifying now, multi-channel customers can also access 14.5 hours of coverage of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials online. Cable, satellite and telco customers can verify their mobile and tablet devices when the NBC Olympics Live Extra App launches in mid-July.

NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel said, “NBC Olympics Live Extra will provide cable, satellite and telco customers with access to unprecedented Olympic content via digital, mobile and tablet devices. We have been working closely with our multi-channel partners since the Vancouver Games to develop and deploy the most seamless verification process for their subscribers. The Olympics truly represents the ultimate opportunity for the cable/satellite/telco industry to demonstrate the value of TV Everywhere.”

NBCUniversal and the cable/satellite/telco industry are partnering on a marketing campaign to educate customers about the verification process.

Since the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, NBC Olympics has worked with the cable/satellite/telco industry to improve the verification process with innovative technology.

NBCOlympics.com will live stream every Olympic competition event and sport for the first time ever. In all, the site will live stream more than 3,500 total programming hours, including the awarding of all 302 medals. By comparison, NBCOlympics.com live streamed 25 sports and 2,200 hours for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The vast majority of live streaming will only be available to authenticated cable, satellite or telco customers. The site will also feature rewinds of all event coverage, a steady stream of athlete profiles, event highlights and a tour of London as the host city.

MUMBAI: Online travel company Yatra.com is set to make its fourth major acquisition in 18 months as it intends to buy 100 per cent stake in Travelguru, the Indian arm of US travel services provider Travelocity.

Yatra has investors like Network18, Norwest Venture Partners, Reliance Capital and Intel Capital.

The acquired entity will continue to operate as a separate unit under its existing brand name.

Yatra.com earlier bought out Travel Services International (TSI) in October 2010, MagicRooms in June 2011 and Buzzintown in January, 2012.

In October 2011, when Yatra.com acquired ticket consolidator Travel Services International (TSI), it strengthened its foray into the B2B consolidation space. Later, in July 2011 the portal acquired hotel aggregation company, MagicRooms, gaining access to a live inventory of over 3,000 hotels across India. Earlier this year in January, it took over event and entertainment promotion portal Buzzintown to expand its portfolio and give consumers the access to service beyond travel.

Through its latest acquisition, Yatra.com hopes to further fortify its position as the leading company in the Indian online travel space and will substantially extend its position as the premiere aggregator and seller of domestic hotels and holidays in India, adding to its already strong offerings for flights and outbound holidays.

Travelguru’s hotel distribution network in India offers access to more than 6,500 hotels in the country and close to 72,000 hotels worldwide. Travelguru facilitates a broad range of travel options and recommendations for domestic as well as international travelers.

Yatra.com co-founder and CEO Dhruv Shringis said, “Not only will this consolidation increase our customer base, but it also widens our product portfolio and leverages our ability to bundle solutions, offering better deals and value propositions to our customers. The acquisition will also provide Travelguru’s hotel partners with a much wider distribution network through Yatra.com and its B2B network of 10,000+ agents.”

Travelocity North America president Roshan Mendis said, “The two brands have obvious synergy and are an excellent fit. Moving forward, we will work closely with the Yatra.com team on a transition plan and an arrangement to source India hotel content for Travelocity Global so that our customers continue to have the best access to accommodation options in India.”

MUMBAI: After IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd, Digicable is the second big multi-system operator (MSO) to move the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) against Trai’s tariff order for digital addressable systems.

Digicable has approached the broadcast tribunal opposing the sector regulator’s new revenue sharing mechanism.

Digicable has, in its petition, said that Trai’s (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) tariff order is “unjust, unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary, irrational, and discriminatory” and is tilted towards the broadcasters.

As per Trai’s tariff order, charges collected from the subscription of paid channels or bouquet of paid channels shall be shared in the ratio of 65:35 between MSO and the local cable operator respectively.

Digicable has requested Tdsat to strike down the revenue model.

Tdsat has already heard IMCL’s petition and has put off the case for next hearing. It has also allowed news channels and their association NBA and India Broadcast Foundation (IBF) to be a party supporting Trai in the matter.

The local cable operators (LCOs) are also opposing the Trai tariff order. United Cable Operator’s Welfare Association, New Delhi, has approached the Tdsat seeking better revenue share from the MSOs and an extension in date for digitisation.

Meanwhile, the deadline for the first phase of digitisation in the four metros has already been postponed for four months to 1 November.

Also Read:

Tdsat puts off IMCL’s plea against Trai’s tariff order to 25 August, makes b’casters party

IndusInd Media moves Tdsat against Trai’s tariff order

MUMBAI: The AT&T U-verse TV contract with AMC Networks for channels, including AMC, IFC and WE tv, in the US expires on 30 June.

AT&T issued a statement saying that AMC Networks is looking for an excessive rate increase.

“We are making every effort to reach a fair agreement and continue providing these channels to our customers. Frankly, we‘re disappointed AMC Networks has decided to take its negotiations public, instead of working with us in good faith, especially since we‘re still actively in negotiations,” At&T said.

AT&T has been in ongoing negotiations to renew this agreement, but AMC Networks is seeking an excessive rate increase in its overall fees for the right to deliver these channels. AMC Networks is asking that AT&T pay nearly double what AT&T believes other competitors are paying — including a smaller-sized competitor.

“We believe the rates they are seeking are disproportionate compared to the viewership we see across their channels,” AT&T said.

AT&T adds that it does not think that‘s reasonable, especially in these economic times, and the aim is to continue to work toward a fair deal.

The company says that there is an ongoing industry trend in which an increasing number of content providers seek unreasonable price increases from their service providers as those contracts expire.

“If we accept this cost increase from AMC Networks, it could result in higher prices for customers, and would only encourage other content providers to make similar demands. We don‘t want customers to lose these channels, but we need to take a stand now to keep costs down while continuing to provide the quality programming customers want and deserve,” the company said.

Mumbai: Colors has launched a mobile application for its celebrity dancing reality show, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.

The application will be available on all three – Blackberry, Android and iOS – platforms.

The application aims to “step out” and reach the technology savvy population of the country.

Colors has worked with InTime Media, in association with BBC Worldwide, to develop this application which will translate the on screen episodes alive on mobile screens.

Colors digital head Vivek Shrivastav said, “With this season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, we wanted to step out and do something that we have never done before. By creating this application, we are reaching out to the thousands of technology enthusiast who are on the go and want the world at their finger tips.”

The app will have interactive features that will appeal to the visual, intellectual and socially active person. Users can explore videos, revisit popular episodes, performances along with some behind the scene trivia, and follow all tweets of Jhalak through the social media tracker besides vote.

“We wanted to introduce an off air engaging application that is accessible on mobile. The show has been very active on social media and with the launch of the application we are hoping to get viewers to enjoy their favourite show and be part the extravaganza anytime,” Shrivastav added.