Category: Software

MUMBAI: SingTel-controlled Amobee has bought out AdJitsu, a company that specialises in interactive 3D ads, for an undisclosed amount.

Amobee, a mobile advertising company that was acquired by SingTel for $321 million, hopes to leverage AdJitsu‘s technology to accelerate the innovation of interactive and spectacular 3D mobile ads. It will collaborate with ad networks, premium publishers, brands and agencies
to create engaging and differentiated 3D mobile ad units.

A wholly owned business unit of Cooliris, AdJitsu‘s technology has the ability to transform existing 2D ad assets into interactive 3D campaigns, which result in impressive click through rates and higher revenues for advertisers and publishers.

Amobee CEO Trevor Healy said, “Creating mobile ads with an immersive 3D experience fundamentally changes the way people perceive ads.

Instead of a passive experience, mobile users now interact and play with the ad, which is key to starting a love affair between the consumer and the brand. With AdJitsu‘s advanced 3D technology, Amobee‘s mobile ad campaigns feel like mini apps that mobile users look forward to receiving.”

Cooliris CEO Soujanya Bhumkar added, “We are thrilled about this acquisition because it impacts the future of mobile display advertising and benefits consumers, publishers and brands worldwide.

Cooliris now doubles down on bringing killer new consumer apps to the market. The new Liveshare is seeing great traction in the market with a DAU/MAU of 25 per cent. With the new Cooliris coming to the market soon, we’ll bring our famous 3D Wall to the world on mobile devices.”

MUMBAI: Multi-system operators (MSOs) had planned to enter into fixed fee deals with broadcasters to keep their content costs under control in the cable digitisation era. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has, however, disallowed tbis in its tariff order for digital addressable cable, while DTH can do volume deals with broadcasters till Trai comes out with regulations for them.

“No service provider shall demand from any other service provider a minimum guaranteed amount as subscription fee for the channels provided by such service provider,” the Telecommunication (Broadcasting And Cable Services) Interconnection (Digital Addressable Cable Television Systems) Regulations 2012 states.

MSOs will have to hand over a copy of the signed interconnection agreement within a period of 15 days from the date of execution of the pact.

The status of any channel declared free-to-air (FTA) or pay cannot be changed for at least one year and the broadcaster will have to inform Trai before making such conversion. A month’s notice will have to be given before such conversion in two local newspapers, out of which one shall be published in the newspaper of the regional language of the area in which such conversion takes place.

Packaging and payment terms to broadcasters

The MSO is free to decide the packaging of the channels offered to the subscribers from the bouquet of channels provided to it by the broadcaster. However, the payment to the broadcaster for such bouquet shall be calculated on the basis of the subscriber base for that channel of the bouquet which has highest subscriber base in case the MSO does not offer to a subscriber the entire bouquet of channels provided to it by the broadcaster.

Every service provider shall enter into a new agreement before the expiry of the existing agreement. In case this does not happen before the expiry of the agreement, the provisions of the existing agreement will continue to apply till the new agreement or for the next three months from the date of expiry of existing agreement, whichever is earlier. If the service providers are able to enter into an agreement before the expiry of the three months, the new agreement shall apply from the date of expiry of earlier agreement:

In case of failure to enter into fresh agreement, the service provider may be entitled to disconnect the signals of TV channels by giving three weeks notice published in two local newspapers, out of which one shall be published in the newspaper of the regional language of the area for which the said agreement is applicable. No MSO will make available signals of TV channels to any linked local cable operator without entering into a written interconnection agreement.

However, this will not apply in case of any legal proceedings or in compliance with any order or direction or judgment of any court or tribunal.

Trai to receive all interconnect agreements

Every MSO will submit to the sector regulator information, in the specified proforma, on all interconnect agreements with the broadcaster and local cable operators. They will also have to inform about subsequent modifications that are made from time to time.

Every existing MSO shall submit to the Authority by 31 July 2012 all interconnect agreements entered into by it and amendments made therein prior to the date of notification of these regulations. Every MSO commencing its services after the notifications of the Regulations will submit to Authority its interconnection agreement within 30 days of entering into the agreement or 31st July 2012 whichever is later.

Every broadcaster will also furnish details of carriage fee paid by him to the MSO along with the information furnished by him under the Register of Interconnect Agreements (Broadcasting and Cable Services) Regulation 2004 as amended from time to time. Such information henceforth shall also include details of carriage fee paid to the MSO by the broadcaster.

Intervention by the authority

Trai may intervene in order to protect the interest of the consumer or service provider or to promote and ensure orderly growth of the broadcasting and cable sector. It shall monitor and ensure compliance of these regulations, by order or direction, and intervene, from time to time.

Disconnection of signals

No broadcaster, MSO or cable operator can disconnect the signals of a TV channel without giving three weeks notice and clearly specifying the reasons for the proposed disconnection.

Furthermore, the Telecommunication (Broadcasting And Cable Services) Interconnection (Digital Addressable Cable Television Systems) Regulations 2012 says every notice of disconnection of signals of TV channel or re-transmission of TV channel will have to be published in two leading local newspapers of the State in which the service provider is providing the services, out of which one notice shall be published in the newspaper in local language.

The period of three weeks will start from the date of publication of the notice in newspapers or the date of service of the notice on service provider, whichever is later. In case the notices are published in newspaper on different dates, the period of three weeks shall be counted from the later of the two dates.

NEW DELHI:The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Amendment) Regulations, 2012, laying down the network related Quality of Service standards for the 3G Networks covering voice calls.

These regulations have amended the existing Quality of Service parameters for Cellular Mobile Telephone Service relating to network quality, prescribed through the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations 2009 dated 20 March 2009.

Trai, after considering the Quality of Service requirements for 3G networks, felt that in the case of voice service provided by the 3G Networks the existing network related Quality of Service parameters would suffice, except that the nomenclature for some of the terms used in the existing regulations and the measurement methodologies would be different. Trai has, accordingly, issued the amendments to the regulations.

MUMBAI: Leading direct broadcast satellite service provider Dish Network has said it will drop AMC Network channels due to the high cost of carrying the channels coupled with decline in viewership.

Dish said it will drop the four AMC channels including We TV and Sundance Channel once the contract ends in June since the low viewership of AMC channels do not justify the rate increase that it is seeking.

Furthermore, Dish is also unhappy about the fact that shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad are made available on other platforms such as Netflix and iTunes soon after the shows have aired on AMC.

However, AMC believes Dish Network‘s decision has more to it than meets the eye.

Dish recently lost a $2.5 billion breach of contract case against it relating to the now defunct Voom HD cable channels that was owned by AMC. This, AMC says, is the prime motive behind dropping the channels.

“It is unfortunate that, because of setbacks in an unrelated litigation, Dish even suggests that they might deny their customers access to some of their favourite networks and shows that are offered by every other major satellite and cable TV provider,” AMC said.

Dish responded by saying that AMC was distorting facts by incorrectly attempting to tie together two separate issues.

NEW DELHI: Multi-system operators taking up digitisation with addressability will be permitted 74 per cent foreign direct investment as part of a move to bring about uniformity in FDI in broadcasting, Parliament was informed today.

Even as the views of different Ministries are awaited on the proposal to increase FDI in the media, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting C M Jatua said his Ministry had worked out with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India certain terms and conditions to take care of security related concerns.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion cleared the proposal for uniform Foreign Direct Investment in broadcast carriage services providers, including cable TV and direct-to-home (DTH) around October last year.

The DIPP, which functions under the Industry Ministry, then circulated a draft cabinet note which also includes raising overseas investments limits according to suggestions given by Trai.

The note has been sent to different ministries, including Home Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, Law, Finance, and Department of Telecommunications. The note will have to be approved by these Ministries before it can be sent to the cabinet.

It is learnt that services sector received FDI worth $2.88 billion between April and August 2011.

The draft note wants the FDI limits in the broadcast carriage services providers such as cable TV, DTH, Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS), IPTV, mobile TV and teleport services to be made uniform at 74 per cent. The proposal includes 49 per cent FDI for local cable operators and 26 per cent for news and current affairs channels.

Under the proposal, there is also provision for putting 49 per cent FDI (out of the proposed 74 per cent) on automatic route. But there is no automatic route for content services like uplinking, downlinking and FM radio, Jatua said.

At present, FM radio and uplinking of news TV channels are allowed 26 per cent; cable TV, DTH and teleports are permitted 49 per cent; while it is 74 per cent in case of HITS. Uplinking of non-news and downlinking are both allowed 100 per cent FDI. For private FM radio, the FDI limit was raised from 20 per cent to 26 per cent last year.

In June 2010, Trai had made suggestions to raise FDI for broadcast carriage services like DTH to 74 per cent.

The move is expected to help the media which has been clamouring for more foreign investment, and for several foreign investors including expatriate Indians.

MUMBAI: Spice, a mobile internet company, has launched FLO TV – M 5600. It is a uniquely designed touch-screen handset that adds an analog TV to the device to give a multimedia experience.

Spice has upgraded its FLO series from touch range to Live TV. Following the success of Cappuccino, its earlier FLO series touch phone, this feature packed multimedia phone boasts of a unique ‘Flo Touch’ technology and a seamless interface, the company said.

The feature is priced at Rs 3,099. It offers a pre-loaded social networking application like ‘Facebook’ and ‘S Planet Apps store’. The FLO TV sports an 8.12 cm QVGA touch screen powered by the ‘FLO’ technology. It also sports a 1.3mp camera. The other features include FM radio, T- flash support (up to 8 GB), FM with recording, and a long lasting battery which gives a talk time of up to 4 hours.

S Mobility global head – devices Kunal Ahooja said, “In this era of convergence, Mobile phones are the best medium of displaying the result of integration of technologies. With a revolutionary product like FLO TV – M 5600, we have redefined innovation and turned a new leaf in the mobile handsets industry.”

The handset is available across India through more than 50,000 retail points including the 750+ Spice HotSpot retail network.

MUMBAI: Discovery Communications has entered into an agreement to acquire San Francisco-based digital video provider Revision3.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, and the parties expect the closing to occur on or before 1 June.

Leveraging Revision3’s vast experience in creating engaging online video content in a cost-effective manner, the transaction helps fuel Discovery’s strategy of being the number one nonfiction media company on all screens.

“Discovery‘s mission to ignite viewers‘ curiosity and its history of pioneering new platforms – from cable to HD to 3D – make it the logical leader in this explosive new wave of digital video growth,” said Discovery Communications COO JB Perrette. With Revision3’s industry-leading management team and roster of great talent, we look forward to cultivating more original content and fresh personalities that resonate with passionate communities online and across all platforms, while enhancing our innovative marketing solutions for advertising partners.”

The leading independent Internet digital video production company, with more than 23 million monthly unique viewers across 27 digital channels, Revision3 has created a technology and distribution platform that powers the scalable production, monetisation and distribution of video content for passionate online communities.

With programs hosted by authentic online celebrities, including top bloggers, Twitter stars and YouTube sensations, the company’s content aligns with many of Discovery’s top linear program genres, such as tech, cooking and popular science.

Revision3 boasts of one of the 10 largest networks on YouTube and distribution with more than 40 other partners including iTunes, Google, AOL, Yahoo!, TiVo, Roku, Boxee, CNET and Zune.

“Revision3 has always focused on creating compelling programs featuring authentic hosts that sit at the center of engaged and targeted communities,” said Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback. “We’re huge fans of Discovery’s networks, and couldn’t imagine a more appropriate company to team up with to develop the future of original web-based video.”

Revision3 was founded in 2005 by Kevin Rose (Digg, TechTV), Jay Adelson (Digg, Equinix) and David Prager (TechTV).

Louderback, former editor-in-chief of PC Magazine and a veteran of TechTV, joined Revision3 as CEO in 2007. Louderback and team will continue their leadership of Revision3 under the new ownership structure.

For this transaction, Discovery Communications was advised by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Revison3 was advised by RBC Capital Markets and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP.

MUMBAI: China‘s e-commerce major Alibaba Group is in talks with Yahoo to buy back 15 to 25 per cent of its shares it had sold to the Internet media major in 2005.

Numerous discussions have been held in recent years for Alibaba to reclaim some or all of the 40 per cent stake in the company, according to Reuters.

The two companies have been in talks for a month. However, the final outcome is dicey as a $17 billion tax-free asset swap between the two companies fell apart in February.

The new deal, which is designed to eliminate complexities, would not be tax-free and would be much more straightforward, the report adds.

“The overall complexity of this deal is much simpler. There‘s no IRS risk, there‘s no complications with regards to the identification of assets,” the person said. In a best case scenario, a deal could be weeks away, the person said.

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson had during first-quarter earnings conference call with analysts said that the two companies were working on a “simplified” transaction to “monetise” a portion of Yahoo‘s stake in Alibaba.

Alibaba would raise capital to fund the stock buy back.

In September, Alibaba was valued at $32 billion when Silver Lake and other firms invested in the company. At that valuation, Yahoo could make $4.8 billion to $8 billion by selling 15 to 25 per cent of Alibaba.

MUMBAI: Indian entrepreneurs are harvesting the Internet boom, selling their ventures to major players. The latest to cash in are Rashmi Sinha and her brother Amit Ranjan.

The professional networking site LinkedIn has agreed to acquire SlideShare, a leading professional content sharing community, for approximately $118.75 million, or Rs 6.40 billion.

The brainchild of the website and co-founder was Sinha‘s husband Jonathan Boutelle who is based in the San Francisco. Sinha, a PhD in cognitive cognitive neuropsychology from Brown University in the US, is the CEO of SlideShare. Ranjan, an alumnus of Delhi‘s Faculty of Management Studies, is in charge of the India office.

The transaction will be carried out in 45 per cent cash and 55 per cent stock deal. The company said that the acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2012.

Founded in October 2006, SlideShare helps professionals discover people through content, and content through people. SlideShare users have uploaded more than nine million presentations, and according to comScore, in March SlideShare had nearly 29 million unique visitors.

SlideShare is also enabling the sharing of presentations across the Web; nearly 7.4 million presentations hosted by SlideShare are embedded across more than 1.4 million unique domains.

“Presentations are one of the main ways in which professionals capture and share their experiences and knowledge, which in turn helps shape their professional identity,” said LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. “These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain the insights they need to become more productive and successful in their careers, aligning perfectly with LinkedIn’s mission and helping us deliver even more value for our members. We’re very excited to welcome the SlideShare team to LinkedIn.”

SlideShare CEO Rashmi Sinha commented, “We built SlideShare to help professionals share presentations and connect people through content. What we can build with LinkedIn, the largest professional network on the Internet, is the most natural extension of this vision. I am excited about what we can build together.”

There is a rich list of Indian entrepreneurs who made millions of dollars by selling their firms to dotcom giants. Recently, Facebook acquired Indian entrepreneur Abheek Anand‘s start-up Tagtile, in a cash and stock deal. Last year, Walmart bought Kosmix, a data analytics company floated by Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, for around $300 million. In the past, they had sold comparison-shopping site Junglee to Amazon for $250 million. And let‘s not forget Sabeer Bhatia, the man who started it all. His free Web-based email service Hotmail was snapped up by Microsoft Corp.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry will continue to pursue with the government for providing financial incentives to support digitisation despite it being rejected by the Committee of Secretaries, I&B Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Supriya Sahu said.

Referring to the number of set-top boxes required for Phase One covering the four metros, Sahu said orders had been placed for more than the ten million that would be needed in the four metros and around 2.5 million of these had already been fitted.

It would be ensured that these boxes comply to BSI standards, she said, adding that the MSOs would suffer if the quality was bad. She said there were five major and 17 independent MSOs in the country and they were working to ensure digitisation did not suffer.

She denied charges that the rate of licensing for cable operators had been increased manifold, pointing out that the fee of Rs 100,000 stipulated was for a period of ten years. She also did not think that the share of the cable operator of Rs 45 out of the basic tier of Rs 100 for 100 free-to-air channels against the present Rs 77 basic tier fee was low and said transparency of the number of subscribers with each cable operator would reveal the revenue of the operator as this and the carriage fee will be in the public domain.

Sahu was speaking at a session on ‘India goes digital: challenges and the way forward’ at the 9th Annual Summit on Entertainment and Growth organised by Assocham, Focus 2012 on ‘Digitisation for Inclusive Growth’.

INX News CEO Jehangir Pocha said no news channel was making profit but it needed Rs 500 to 550 million to take a TV channel to the consumer.

There were caps on FDI, advertisement time and rate, and even on raising money, but not on carriage fee, and yet the government expected the channels to do well.

Sun Group CEO Anthony D’Silva said the situation is not conducive for a DTH operator to raise money when around 50 per cent goes to taxes. “Every DTH player is bleeding and there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” he added.

Videocon D2h COO Himanshu Patel said there was capacity constraint in bandwidth on the transponder side.

Star India VP Pulak Bagchi said cable industry took 22 years to reach 92 million households, while DTH had reached 40 million in just ten years and this indicated the direction in which the industry was headed.

Doordarshan News Director General said DD had its own digitisation programme which would be completed by 2017. He said DD today reached 92 per cent of the country. DD can help the digitisation movement by starting a public debate which will help clear doubts.