Category: Software

MUMBAI: Pay TV revenues in North America will peak in 2013, before gradually falling by $2.6 billion to reach $88.2 billion in 2017, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.

The Digital TV North America report concludes that TV Arpu is being forced down as cable operators and telcos convert their subscribers to dual-play or triple-play bundles, though blended (overall) ARPU is rising.

Report author Simon Murray said, “Pay TV penetration has almost reached saturation point in Canada and the US, so pay TV operators continue to fight between themselves (mainly to capture analog cable subs) for new subscribers.”

Despite no movement in the penetration figure, the number of pay TV subscribers will climb by 9 million between 2011 and 2017 to 120 million. Digital penetration was 86 per cent at end-2011, and will reach 100 per cent by 2016. Of the 25 million digital homes to be added between 2011 and 2017, 13 million will come from cable, seven million from IPTV and four million from DTH.

DTH ($40.7 billion) will become the largest pay TV platform earner in 2017, overtaking cable ($40.0 billion). DTH revenues will climb by $3 billion between 2011 and 2017, with overall cable revenues falling by nearly $8 billion. Analog cable revenues will fall to zero by 2016, down from $7.3 billion in 2011 and $18.6 billion in 2007.

The number of pay DTH households will increase by 3 million between 2011 and 2017 to reach 39.8 million. However, DTH penetration will not change too much, settling at 28.9 per cent by 2017. There will be 65 million cable homes (all digital) by 2017, similar to the 2011 figure (of which 13 million were analog). Cable penetration will be 47.1 per cent by 2017, down from 50.3 per cent at end-2011.

Although most analog cable subs will convert to digital cable, IPTV will also benefit, especially considering the aggressive pricing policies undertaken by the telcos. The number of homes paying for IPTV will climb by 73 per cent between 2011 and 2017 to reach 15.8 million – or 11.5 per cent of TV households. IPTV revenues will increase by a slightly higher rate to achieve $7.6 billion by 2017.

MUMBAI: TV Desi, a leading IPTV provider of South Asian television programming in North America, has added ARY Network channels ARY Digital, ARY News, ARY Muzik, ARY Zauq, and ARY QTV to its bouquet.

Furthermore, TV-Desi will also carry the ARY Digital Network for the Pakistani community across the African continent.

“We are thrilled to welcome the ARY Digital Network to TV-Desi. We are proud to offer the Pakistani community in Canada the greatest selection of Urdu programming in the market today. Ultimately, our partnership with ARY serves our highest mandate and corporate commitment: to provide top quality programming at affordable prices on all devices to South Asian communities across Canada and other parts of the world,” said KyLinTV International Network Vice President Michael Bradley.

“ARY Digital Network has become a means for all expatriate Pakistanis to stay connected and updated with the happenings of their homeland. Apart from this, it has become a major source of information, knowledge and entertainment for the viewers around the globe as well. Our vision is to keep contributing positively to the fast growing information based global society and to create opportunities for cultures to interact and experience each other in a constructive way,” commented ARY Digital Network President & CEO Salman Iqbal.

ARY Digital is the subsidiary of the ARY Group established in 1970 by Pakistani businessman, Haji Abdul Razzak Yaqoob who is the chairman of the group.

MUMBAI: The days of Formula One races airing on free to air channels in Italy has come to an end with News Corp-owned pay TV broadcaster Sky Italy securing the live telecast rights for all the races starting 2013.

Of the total 20 races, only nine of the races will be shown live free-to-air while the remaining 11 races will have delayed telecast. Public service broadcaster RAI currently holds the broadcast rights.

Sky Italia has bought the rights for all platforms including web, tablet, smartphone and IPTV (Internet TV).

The national broadcaster who would acquire a share of the rights would be agreed between Sky and Formula One, the broadcaster said.

The deal follows in the footsteps of a similar deal that happened in UK where Sky Sports bagged the rights to air F1 races till 2018 while BBC has the rights to show highlights for all the races with the sole exception British Grand Prix, which will be shown live by the pubcaster.

Sky Italia CEO Andrea Zappia said, “We are proud to bring the spectacle of Formula 1 back to the Sky Italia platform, with 11 of the GP races broadcast live on an exclusive basis. This agreement with FOM adds to Sky‘s already outstanding Sports offer, which was further enriched by the recent purchase of the MotoGP TV rights. These investments show how our company is determined to confirm its leading position in the Italian TV market.”

“We have worked with Sky Italia in the past and I have no doubts about their production standards. We have a similar agreement in Britain that is working very well,” said Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone added.

Sky Italia recently won the broadcast rights to MotoGP from 2014.

NEW DELHI: Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra has urged the Information & Broadcasting ministry to stick to the 30 June deadline for the switchover to digital addressable systems (DAS) in the four metros.

The media baron feels that any postponement of digitisation would “send a wrong signal to the stakeholders as well as investors so far as the policy implementation is concerned”.

Chandra, however, said that even if the government considers extending the date because of non-arrival of digital set top boxes, this should not be more than 60 days.

In the letter which was addressed to I&B minister Ambika Soni, a copy of which is with Indiantelevision.com, Chandra said digitisation should be completed by 30 June in areas which are presently under conditional access system – South Delhi, South Mumbai, South Kolkata and whole of Chennai – which will show the government‘s intent in implementing its policy.

Any extension, he said, should be announced only in the last week of June “after detailed deliberations with all the stakeholders so that pace of deployment of STBs is not affected because of any negative sentiments” arising out of any deferment.

“While I appreciate the concerns regarding the availability of STBs, the blanket extension of 5-6 months would adversely affect the STBs off-take and would create a mis-impression in the minds of the stakeholders that Government is not serious in implementing the digitalisation initiative,” Chandra said in the letter.

He contended that the notification for cable digitisation came on 11 November last year, thus giving approximately eight months to the stakeholders to make necessary preparations.

“It is pertinent to mention that based on the policy announcement by the Government, the stakeholders have been preparing for the said implementation by making necessary investments in the digital headends, creating optical fibre infrastructure and procurement of STBs etc. The deployment of STBs in the notified areas has also gathered momentum and the consumers are responding positively,” the letter read.

While agreeing that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) delayed in bringing out the tariff framework for DAS regime on 30 April, he believed that the contracts between the broadcasters and MSOs and MSOs and LCOs (local cable operators) can be concluded in next 30-35 days.

He said any extension of DAS deadline would not only be detrimental to the sector but would also act as a disincentive for those service providers who have committed the investments in digital infrastructure, STBs and made necessary preparations based on the policy announcement made by the Government.

“The momentum for deployment of set-top boxes would be severely impacted as it would create uncertainties in the minds of the consumers,” Chandra held.

He believed that a sufficient number of STBs is under transit and would be available in next fortnight or so. Their deployment by 30 June 2012 may be a concern which can be taken care of by granting a short extension rather than postponing the DAS by five to six months.

MUMBAI: Tata Sky has added two hi-definition channels – Sony Entertainment Television and Zee TV – to its HD offering.

The two channels are available in the HD Gold pack, which can be subscribed for Rs 100 per month, while on a la carte basis both the channels are available for Rs 50 each.

With the addition, Tata Sky now offers 10 HD channels. Other channels available in the HD Gold pack are Discovery World HD, ESPN HD, National Geographic HD, Star Plus HD, Star Gold HD, Star Movies HD, Star World HD and Star Cricket HD.

Sony HD will be available on channel No. 112 while Zee TV HD is available on channel No 118.

Zee TV HD is already available on Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV and Reliance Digital TV, while Sony HD, which was launched on 28 May, is available on Dish TV only, apart from Tata Sky.

MUMBAI: In an effort to silence critics about its ability to monetise its mobile platform, Facebook is now automating mobile-ad buying.

The company earlier accepted that monetising its massive mobile traffic is among its biggest challenges as its stock price continues to tumble.

Facebook has opened up its mobile-only sponsored-story placements to both its self-serve tool Power Editor and to third-party Facebook ad sellers. In the most basic sense it is a provision for mobile ads for the masses as it now enables clients who couldn‘t afford access to mobile-ad inventory earlier.

With this, the industry may see a new segment of advertisers emerge who want to target a specific audience like app developers or gaming companies aiming to increase user base on phones or marketers in industries such as quick-serve restaurants looking to reach people on the go.

Mobile ads are available on Facebook since March but the mobile-ad inventory largely accessible to big advertisers buying into premium ad packages, including those new ad placements called reach generator.

Reach generator was only open to advertisers with a minimum of 500,000 fans which could add up to total costs of $125,000 per quarter. The new changes have made Facebook mobile ads available to a larger pool of advertisers with any size budget. It also opens up Facebook mobile ads to small- and medium-size businesses that use the self-serve tool.

Advertising forms a major chunk of Facebook‘s $3.7 billion revenue. According to EMarketer 60 per cent of Facebook‘s ad revenue comes through its self-serve tool which will probably increase as Facebook opens up more ad slots to these sales tools.

Facebook had announced prior to its initial public offering that the consumers‘ appetite for its mobile app would soon exceed use of its website and could prove damaging to its business. At the time, Facebook was not generating ‘any meaningful revenue‘ from use of its mobile products.

MUMBAI: Vuclip, a mobile video company, has announced the launch of Vuclip TV that enables users to watch popular TV shows on their mobile phone.

As of now, Vuclip TV will serve more than 4000 video clips from various popular TV shows in Hindi, Telugu, English and other languages and new videos will be added regularly. It delivers mobile video experience on more than 5500 handsets, ranging from smart phones to basic feature phones that have video playing and internet capabilities.

Vuclip VP – business development and managing director India and Middle East Salman Hussain said, “Vuclip offers a great mobile platform to watch a huge variety of videos from movies, entertainment, sports, music, politics, news, raw footage, etc. TV Shows are extremely popular among the Indian audiences. Since it is not possible to carry television sets everywhere, we are confident that our fans will love this new offering from Vuclip that helps them watch their favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere, on the go.”

Vuclip TV serves content from content providers such as NDTV, UTV, India Today, 9XM and Maa TV. The video clips will include the viewers‘ preferred daily soaps, reality shows, interviews, television gossip, contests, horror shows, TV show updates and on the set content.

Vuclip TV is available at tvshows.vuclip.com.

Mumbai: eBay India, an eCommerce marketplace, has launched an iPad app for India that will be available for free from the iTunes App Store.

The application allows iPad users to shop, browse and compare prices and enables shoppers to search and select their favourite products from over six million live listings on eBay India across 2,000 categories of products in electronics, lifestyle, collectibles and media verticals.

eBay India country manager Muralikrishnan B said, “Mobile Commerce is a key focus area at eBay India. It is very likely that a majority of the next 100 million internet users in India will have their first and pre-dominant experience of internet on mobile devices, either Smartphones or Tablets. Our key focus around mobile devices in 2012 is to get greater penetration of our apps and encourage people to use this as a device to check prices before shopping offline.”

MUMBAI: Integrated telecommunications company Bharti Airtel has signed a global arrangement with Opera Software to offer a customised and co-branded version of Opera Mini internet browser for Airtel mobile customers across its operations.

This will enable over 253 million Airtel customers across countries including India, South Asia and Africa to use Opera Mini‘s proxy-server-based technology that compresses data by up to 90 per cent and decreases data transfer costs.

Opera Software‘s Opera Mini has over 168 million users has agreements with 13 out of the top 30 operators globally. Used by over 168 million users, Opera Mini is the world‘s most popular web browser on mobile phones. Opera Mini‘s popularity in emerging markets can be credited to its smooth performance on basic/non-smartphones.

Bharti Airtel president – consumer business K Srinivas said, “We are excited to bring a superior browsing platform to Airtel mobile customers across India and South Asia by leveraging Opera Mini‘s tried-and-tested set of solutions. We are confident that this association will be instrumental in helping us deliver a truly customized, enhanced and optimized browsing experience for our data users.”

Opera Software CEO Lars Boilesen added, “Our primary drive is to provide the best user experience, no matter what device people use. There are millions of users with basic mobile phones instead of smartphones, and Opera Mini gives even the most basic phone a smartphone-like web experience. Airtel‘s strong presence in emerging markets, combined with Opera Mini‘s technology, will make the mobile web available to millions of new users.”

MUMBAI: MGM Networks, a division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM), has launched a new MGM HD movie channel in Russia and the former Soviet Republics. The deal was announced by MGM president, Television Group and Digital Roma Khanna.

The MGM HD movie channel will feature more than 4,000 titles from MGM‘s classic library, broadcast daily in high-definition. The MGM HD movie channel complements the existing SD Channel which already reaches over 1 million homes across the region.

Deals already secured include: DTH platform Tricolor, Orion, Akado, NCN, and Viasat in Ukraine.

Reaching the Baltics and all the former Soviet Republics, MGM HD is the ultimate resource channel for serious movie fans, providing viewers with 24/7 programming featuring an array of ground-breaking content and exclusive premieres.

The channel launches at 9 pm Moscow time with back-to-back showings of all three ‘Robocop‘ films. Other theatricals slated for opening weekend include ‘Rob Roy‘; ‘The Madness Of King George‘ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing‘. In addition, MGM HD will feature its original production HD magazine show Big Screen.

MGM Networks senior VP Matthew Baxter said, “The launch of MGM HD offers audiences in Russia and the former Soviet Republics the most diverse movie selection from our prestigious library shown in the most advanced technology. We are thrilled to add this new dimension to our relationship with some existing clients, as well as welcoming new platforms and consumers across the region. The launch of this MGM HD channel enhances our strategy of delivering localized channels to multiple platform partners across the region.”

In addition, MGM Networks has just launched a local language feed in Croatia to all its subscribers across the country. The service will be subtitled into Croatian, marking 26 languages that MGM Networks broadcasts in across the globe. It also ensures new carriage for MGM in Croatia with new deals from local platforms.