Category: Software

MUMBAI: Times Internet Limited (TIL) has named Satyan Gajwani as the new CEO of the company. Gajwani will replace Rishi Khiani, who has decided to move on after serving for three years at TIL.

According to a letter signed by Times Group MD Vineet Jain, Khiani has decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company and hence wished to step down from his current role.

Gajwani, who was director (new media) at The Times of India Group, will report to Jain.

Gajwani said, “We‘re sad to see Rishi move on, but excited for his future ahead. Indiatimes has made great progress under his leadership, and I‘m excited to take it forward to new and bigger heights. These are big shoes to fill but with such a strong team in place, I‘m sure we‘ll succeed.”

Jain said, “Under Rishi‘s leadership, TIL has grown its user base by 150 per cent to 28 million visitors, has seen significant growth in revenues and launched strategic properties such as gaana.com and the new Indiatimes.com. We thank Rishi for his contributions to the growth and success of TIL and wish him all the success in his entrepreneurial endeavors.”

Khiani will stay at TIL till 17 August, to transition in the new CEO.

Prior to Times Group, Gajwani has also worked with Lehman Brothers as consumer equities trader and Stanford Student Enterprises as director Stanford Store.

MUMBAI: Reliance Communications has partnered with group company BigFlix to provide premium full length movies to all Reliance 3G subscribers at Rs 30 per movie.

To avail this economic offer, Reliance subscribers can log on to http://vod.rcom.co.in using their Reliance Mobile. On this link, the subscribers can access a movie catalogue powered by BigFlix.

Reliance Communications senior VP, head Value Added Services (Vas) Kunal Ramtekke said, “We are thrilled to offer the first of its kind full length movie streaming service to our customers powered by BigFlix fulfilling the needs and desires of all the movie buffs on our superior Reliance 3G network with incredible affordability. Every movie lover will surely love to avail this service as we are now the home for full length mobile movies and experience seamless video on demand streaming through our superior 3G network.”

BigFlix‘s Movie on Demand service offers over 1000 movies. Movies that are available are ‘Dabbang‘, ‘Bodyguard‘, ‘Jab We Met‘ and ‘Force‘. There are many more Song Videos, Movie Clips and Short Clips which are currently available free for Reliance 3G subscribers.

“The service is available across the Reliance network nationally but for the best experience any 3G handset with 3G data connection is desired,” Reliance said.

MUMBAI: The number of US consumers currently accessing the internet through their TV sets is on the rise and will continue to grow dramatically in the year ahead, according to a consumer study conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates.

The research, conducted as part of the Magid Media Futures 2012 study, found that 21 per cent of consumers connect to the internet via their TVs in comparison to 16 per cent last year. They use the connected TV for web browsing, viewing videos through subscription services such as Netflix, online gaming and visiting Facebook, in addition to other Web services and content.

Game consoles (e.g. Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) are the primary means of connecting to the Internet via TV, followed by smart TVs, Blu-Ray players, and over the top devices (e.g. Roku, Apple TV, Google TV). Early adopters are more likely to be male (56 per cent male vs. 44 per cent female) with more than half of the adopters between the ages of 18-44.
 
The number of consumers accessing the Internet via their TVs will continue to grow, as 30 per cent of consumers who do not currently access the internet through TV say they are interested in doing so. These potential subsequent adopters also skew male (58 per cent male versus 42 per cent female) and tend to be slightly older than current users – ages 25-54.

Magid Advisors president Mike Vorhaus said, “Connected TVs will bring the Internet to the large screen, in contrast to how the smartphone has brought the Internet to the small screen. Consumers will be able to watch and browse what they want, when they want, on a big screen through connected TVs”.

MUMBAI: IPTV subscriptions worldwide will grow at 70 per cent from 2012 to 2017 with 100 per cent growth in the Asia-Pacific off a large base of 28.5 million subscribers.

Global pay-TV subscribers will reach 853.5 million at the end of 2012 with 116 million IPTV subscribers, according to ABI Research.

Worldwide, cable operators are investing heavily in the digitisation of their networks to compete with satellite and IPTV platforms.

“Satellite and IPTV networks have been able to deliver better channel selection and higher quality signals than analog TV platforms. When faced with technology changes – including digital terrestrial (DTT) transitions and cable digitisation requiring a set-top box, customers are likely to consider satellite and IPTV alternatives,” notes Sam Rosen, practice director, TV & video.

Asia-Pacific is the region with the highest potential of growth due to its market size and growing economy. The region will account for more than 60 per cent of total net additions in 2012. The growth will depend mainly on China, India, and other countries with low pay-TV penetration such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Currently, less than 15 per cent of pay-TV subscribers in the region subscribe to high-definition (HD) services.

HD service adoption is highest in North America, followed by Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific. Key markets of the Asia-Pacific region, such as China and India, are carrying out nationwide cable TV digitisation. Digitisation is expected to increase HD services and adoption in in the years to come. More than 18 per cent of total pay-TV subscribers in the Asia-Pacific will subscriber to HD services in 2012.

MUMBAI: Times Internet Ltd (TIL) has purchased a minority stake in logistics company Delhivery, a move that will help strengthen the last mile delivery system of its e-commerce portal Indiatimes Shopping.

Delhivery manages the entire E-Commerce supply chain – from procurement to warehousing to packaging to last mile delivery system – for its e-commerce partners.

The company with over 12,000 sq ft of warehouse space under management also offers third-party warehousing and transit warehousing services to e-commerce partners and co-ordinate across the supply chain.

Indiatimes Shopping currently works with Fedex, Bluedart, ASL and Aramex as its logistics partners.

MUMBAI: DigiCable Networks (India) has got the permission from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for operating as a multi-system operator (MSO) in the Digital Addressable System (Das) notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

DigiCable has got the permission for a period of 10 years, effective 12 June.

The MSO said it is the first one to get the licence from the Ministry.

In a letter, signed by the Under Secretary to the Government of India, DigiCable is notified that Ministry has examined the application of the MSO, dated 11 May 2012, and decided to grant the permission, under Rule 11(C) of the Cable Television Network (Amendment) Rules, 2012 for operating as a MSO in the DAS notified cities of national Capital Territory of Delhi, Municipal Council of Greater Mumbai, and Kolkata Metropolitan.

However, the permission is subject to adherence and compliance of the following terms and conditions:

• The MSO shall comply with all the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and rule made there under, as amended.


• MSO shall abide by the rules/ regulations/ orders/ directions/ guidelines etc. issued by the regulatory authority or by the Ministry.


• MSO shall have the capacity to carry minimum number of television channels specified by the authority.


• MSO shall not carry programming services provided on the channel generated at the level of such MSO which is in violation of the Programme Code specified in Rule 6 and the Advertising Code specified in Rule 7 of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.


• The MSO shall comply with foreign investment guidelines and conditions thereon for Cable TV sector issued by the Central Government from time to time.

Additionally, the MSO will have to display the above terms in their office premises as well as in the premises of its affiliate cable operators.

MUMBAI: Pay TV service provider DirecTV and sports broadcaster ESPN have announced the first-ever 3D transmission of the Olympic Games in Latin America.

The broadcasts will be offered on the ESPN3D network exclusively to subscribers of DirectTV in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela who are signed up for DirecTV Plus HD and who have 3D compatible television sets and glasses.

The events that will be transmitted in 3D are the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games on 27 July; the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics on 2 August; the Track and Field Finals on 5 August; the Men’s Basketball Finals on 1 2 August and the closing ceremony on 12 August.

ESPN Latin America senior director of acquisitions and new media Federico Reyna said, “We are very pleased to be present for this historic three-dimensional coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games. ESPN continues to develop best practices for the use of technology in applications for broadcasting live sports.”

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: In an effort to win the battle over MSOs in the digital era, direct-to-home operator Dish TV has held out a unique offer: local cable operators (LCOs) will get to earn per set-top box for each consumer that they help migrate from cable to DTH.

For Dish TV, the move will open up a new frontier of attack. By offering an incentive to the LCOs who have historically earned their livelihood through cable networks, India’s largest DTH operator hopes to add subscribers more rapidly when consumers will have to choose either digital cable or DTH if they want to watch television in the digitised era.

Dish TV‘s subscriber growth slowed from its early year target of 3-3.5 million to 2.455 million in FY‘12. The DTH operator achieved 12.9 million gross and 9.6 million net subscribers till the end of 31 March 2012.

“This will give Dish TV a new distribution chain. It plans to lure LCOs who are already an aggrieved party with the Trai tariff order for DAS (Digital Addressable System) fixing their revenue share with MSOs at 45 per cent for free-to-air (FTA)channels and 35 per cent for pay channels. It will also help WWIL and Dish TV, both promoted by Essel Group, to fight together in a limited sense,” says a media analyst who did not want his name to be revealed.

Earlier this month, Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd had announced a scheme where it was willing to share 25 per cent of its carriage income from DAS markets with LCOs.

Interestingly, the meeting with the LCOs was addressed by Dish TV and later by WWIL.

Several multi-system operators (MSOs) have been saying that the tariff order for DAS laid out by sector regulator Trai is unfair as it does not address the cross-media ownership while fixing a varying rate for content from broadcasters. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said that broadcasters can charge a maximum of 42 per cent of the analogue rates of their channels under the DAS regime.

Dish TV chief operating officer Salil Kapoor told indiantelevision.com that the offer only applies to the subscriber base that any cable operator has and not to those customers who are approached directly by the direct selling agents of the platform.

Kapoor said when any subscriber approaches his cable operator for installation of a digital STB, the latter can suggest a switch-over to Dish TV. Dish TV will give Rs 400 for each basic STB and Rs 600 for each HD box. These are for new acquisitions and the LCO will get an additional Rs 200 as installation charges on both.

On monthly recharge, the LCOs will earn a commission of Rs 100 per consumer on Super Platinum and Rs 125 for HD.

The local cable operator will also get to earn Rs 150 for every visit to the consumer’s venue for any repairs or solving other problems.

In a presentation held earlier, Dish TV COO (IT) V K Gupta told LCOs that Dish TV will not interact with the customers in any way and, therefore, there was no fear of any customers being taken away. The cable operators will only have to provide the ID number, the SAF number and the VC number on the software developed for the purpose, which can be used from a tablet or even an android phone.

However, the cable operator will have to keep a security deposit of Rs 400 for the standard STB and Rs 1000 for the HD STB with Dish TV.

Kapoor said the standard STB will cost around Rs 740 while the HD STB will cost Rs 1340. Customers will have to pay an advance of only 20 per cent for booking the boxes.

WWIL COO Anil Malhotra said Siticable was presently offering 400 standards and 30 HD TV channels and the number would go up as directed by Trai.

Malhotra told indiantelevision.com that it was wrong to say that DTH players were trying to scuttle the growth of the cable operators.

Kapoor said that Dish TV was leading in the DTH segment with a market share of 41 per cent. He said Dish TV was using three satellites: NSS6, Asiasat 5, and Insat-4B. Dish TV was also leading in more than 15 genres of programming.

He said that around 30 per cent of the cable TV market may move to DTH with digitisation, particularly because of HD channels and homes having more than one connection.

MUMBAI: US broadcasters ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, TeleFutura, Telemundo and Univision broadcast networks have announced a plan to provide additional ratings tools to give parents even greater decision-making power over their family‘s media consumption.

Parents will now be able use the TV ratings system when children access broadcast television programmes on the Internet. The networks are making the ratings information available for all full-length entertainment programs that stream on the websites that they control.

Each company will determine its own systems, and the networks have committed that the TV ratings will appear at the beginning of full-length video programs and also in the online programming descriptions. Network websites will also include or link to ratings system information.

This commitment is effective for rated programming televised beginning 1 December.

The Parents Television Council welcomed the decision by TV networks ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telefutura, Telemundo and Univision to expand their ratings to online content, a move PTC encouraged in a 2010 online video study. However, it cautioned that the decision rings hollow without reform to a system that lacks accuracy, consistency, transparency and accountability.

PTC president Tim Winter said, “We are pleased to see that the networks have finally expressed an intention to display ratings for their online content, which is something the PTC called for in our November 2010 study, ‘Untangling the Web of Internet Video.’ In that study, the PTC showed that four of the most popular online distributors, including Hulu, Fancast, /Slashcontrol, and AT&T, all failed to provide consistent and accurate content ratings for parents”.

The PTC does not want the online rating system to be similar to the current television rating system.

Said Winter, “The timing of this announcement on the eve of the Supreme Court’s broadcast decency decision in Fox v. FCC is dubious. Broadcasters have a unique publicly-granted privilege and it is past time for them to start providing real solutions to parents, rather than attempting half measures designed to sway the Court’s and the public’s opinion. This is too big an issue to continue playing games. We hope that the networks will allow more public involvement in designing a new system that will give parents the tools they need to protect children.”

NEW DELHI: The last mile cable operators of Delhi have presented a memorandum in the office of Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni protesting against the paltry share of just Rs 45 on the basic tier of Rs 100 for 100 free to air channels fixed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Earlier, around 200 of these operators organised a rally from Jantar Mantar to Shastri Bhawan to protest against the Trai regulations and the ministry‘s diktat for mandatory digitisation, ignoring the concerns of thousands of small cable operators. They also carried placards and raised slogans outside Shastri Bhavan which houses the I&B ministry.

The memorandum listed various demands and asked for a fair share in the cable TV revenue and extension of deadlines for switching off analogue as the city does not have adequate number of set- top boxes to seed in subscriber homes. Many areas of Delhi do not even have digital signal from any MSO, the LCOs claimed.

The LCOs have also complained that none of the MSOs have declared the pay channel rates or packages, but the government still wants them to force subscribers to buy STBs. Consumers do not know what they will get in the digital regime and at what price. It has become difficult for the LCOs to answer inquiries from consumers.

Some of the cable operators at the spot told indiantelevision.com that none of the MSO call centers are operational and customers are contacting only the LCOs, whereas the regulations have reduced their status from the last mile owners to collection agents following the Trai regulations.

LCOs say that they were earlier getting Rs 82 per customer in Cas areas but this had been cut down to Rs 45 or less in DAS areas, the balance going to multi-system operators (MSOs). Their livelihood has been endangered by DAS regulations.

The protesting LCOs have shown their inability to implement DAS, performing tasks expected from them by the regulations like operating a call centre for complaint redress, 24×7 maintain the network of last mile to subscribers, attend to complaints within prescribed period, collect subscriptions on behalf of MSOs and pay channels, and collect taxes on behalf of Centre and state governments etc. out of a mere 45 per cent share in the basic service tier and 35 per cent share of pay channels.

They also pointed out that they needed protection as they would be the first to face the anger of consumers when television screens go blank from 1 July.