Category: Software

MUMBAI: With digitisation growing and the sunset date looming, technology companies that enable delivery of content are lining up to leverage the opportunity in India. Cisco, which recently announced acquisition of NDS, is no exception.

Cisco hosted a cable summit in Mumbai where chairman, CEO John Chamber was present. He highlighted how video is a compelling way to engage consumers and content.

Cisco also announced the launch of two set top boxes (STB), an entry level product to enable the transition from analogue to digital and a HD STB in order to make television viewing more social and immersive.

Cisco VP service provider segment Asia Pacific, Japan and China Jeff White said the STBs were designed taking inputs from Indian cable operators. “In the first phase, our focus will be to enable cable operators go digital. The next phase will be to take cable operators to the Videoscape arena over the next three years.”

The entry level DTA STB has a basic digital to analogue converter, a user interface with a channel list, favourites and parental control. The advanced STB, which is the HD Zapper STB, is 3D TV ready. It supports video on demand and over-the-top content.

Cisco Videoscape combines the TV, Internet and web applications so that consumers can watch videos and interact with friends on any screen. The Videoscape architecture enables local content monetisation and efficient management and publishing of content across multiple screens – TV, PC, mobile and tablets. Videoscape allows for formatting of content in real time from the television to the mobile, PC tablet, etc.

“We do organic research. 15 per cent of our topline revenue goes back to research and development. We have a R&D facility in Chennai.This facility allows for customisation of STBs,” said White.

Cisco Capital, part of Cisco, will partner with multi-system operators (MSOs) and cable operators to help them with financing as big investments will be needed.

Video is a key priority for Cisco. “We have made six recent big acquisitions including NDS and Clear Access. This reaffirms our commitment to video. Our aim is to help operators move from legacy architecture to an integrated content strategy. Another priority is to drive business architecture that helps service providers deal with complex video streams. Service providers demand that we do joint innovations,” said White.

MUMBAI: Search engine giant Google is in for trouble over infringement of copyright as a US appeals court has revived lawsuits by Viacom, English Premier League, and various film studios and television networks.

According to newswire Reuters, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals said on Thursday that a reasonable jury could have found that YouTube knew of specific infringing activity on its website; as s a result, it said a lower court made a mistake in dismissing the case.

The plaintiffs in the cases before the 2nd Circuit collectively accused YouTube of improperly broadcasting about 79,000 copyrighted videos on its website between 2005 and 2008, the report added.

Viacom had contended that Google and YouTube did not act to stop the infringements. It also said the lower court should consider whether YouTube demonstrated “willful blindness” in allowing copyrighted videos to remain on its website.

MUMBAI: Los Angeles-based Hasbro Studio, the producers of kids and family related content, has announced a multi-year deal with Netflix which will make its content accessible to more than 23 million subscribers of the Internet subscription service provider.

“We are very excited to be working with Hasbro Studios. This deal allows us to offer even more great kids’ programming to our members, both adults and kids alike, including new seasons of My Little Pony, Transformers Prime, and Pound Puppies after the season finale airs on The Hub,” said Netflix VP content acquisition Cindy Holland.

The Hasbro content will be available on Netflix and included in the Netflix “Just For Kids” section, which is a collection of TV shows and movies that is specifically selected for children 12 and under.

Hasbro produced popular shows like Transformers Prime, My Little Pony, Pound Puppies, G.I. Joe: Renegades and The Adventures of Chuck & Friends are now available to watch on Netflix. JEM & The Holograms, Transformers: Generation 1, G.I. Joe: Real American Heroes, Transformers: Beast Wars and Transformers: Rescue Bots will follow later in 2012.

Hasbro Studios President Stephen Davis said, “We are pleased that consumers will now be able to watch our award-winning programming on Netflix, the leading internet subscription service. We are making our content easy to access, anytime, anywhere and on all platforms where audiences are consuming content and this is a big step forward with our all screen strategy.”

MUMBAI: DB Corporation’s 94.3 MY FM has launched a mobile application, ‘My Mobile’, for Android phone users, further increasing their interaction with the station.

My FM CEO Harrish M. Bhatia said, “This is a one-of-its-kind innovation by an Indian FM station. With an increase in consumption of FM radio on mobile handsets, this application seamlessly fits into listeners’ life, enhancing their overall brand experience.”

The mobile app has integrated features designed keeping the brand engagement in mind. Users will be able to set an alarm or a show reminder along with My FM tones instead of default handset tones with the feature ‘My Alarm’. My Connect would allow users to go to their city-specific social media platforms – Facebook, YouTube or My FM website instantly to view, comment or participate in any discussions or contests.

Other features include My Message where one can send a song request or contest participation SMS to My FM with a one touch key and My Download where end users can download My FM tones as their mobile ringtones.

Additionally, one could also get regular updates such as station promotion and show info with the Ticker feature.

MUMBAI: Reliance Entertainment Digital’s Jump Games has come up with the sequel of Border War–Face Off named Border War –LOC.

Border War Face off is an arcade game made on patriotic lines by Jump Games. It was released in October 2011 across all leading operators like Vodafone, Docomo, Reliance, and Idea.

The game is about aiming and shooting with a border like set up and the sole mission is to save Mother India from enemies’ invasion.

Jump Games business head India Chaitanya Prabhu said, “The game ideation started around august last year. We wanted to create games which are suitable for Indian audience and tap the Indian mentality, sensitivity and lifestyle. The game Border war, as the name suggests is based on patriotic lines with some great visual graphics. Jump has always believed in the motto of Think Global – Play Local. We have created some extremely interesting local IP’s in the past like Raju Rickshawala, Nariyal Anna, etc and now seeing the over whelming response of Border War –Face Off we have made a sequel to the same called Border War –LOC. It has a very engaging game play and we are expecting a similar or better response for the same.”

The game will be available on operators like Vodafone, BSNL, Idea and Tata Docomo. It is priced at Rs 50.

MUMBAI: Yahoo Inc is planning to cut 2,000 jobs as part of its major restructuring exercise aimed at making the company leaner and more competitive as it plans to turn around its fortune under new chief executive Scott Thompson.

The layoffs are a result of declining revenues arising due to competition from Google and Facebook. Last year, Yahoo‘s revenue totaled $4.98 billion, compared with Facebook‘s $3.71 billion, accomplished with just 3,200 employees.

“Today, the company will begin the process of informing employees about these changes. As part of that effort, approximately 2,000 people will be notified of job elimination or phased transition,” Yahoo said in a statement.

The company expects to save as much as $375 million annually through the downsizing exercise. It also expects to recognise the majority of an estimated $125 to $145 million pretax cash charge relating to employee severance in its second quarter financial results.

Yahoo said it would provide more details of its plans when it releases first-quarter results on 17 April.

“Today‘s actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo! — smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require. We are intensifying our efforts on our core businesses and redeploying resources to our most urgent priorities,” said Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson.

He added, “Our goal is to get back to our core purpose — putting our users and advertisers first — and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, reaching that goal requires the tough decision to eliminate positions. We deeply value our people and all they‘ve contributed to Yahoo!.”

The company says it has identified key parts of the business — a select group of core businesses, the platforms that support those core businesses, and the data that drives deep personalisation for users and ROI for advertisers — where the company will intensify efforts and redeploy resources globally, all focused on increasing shareholder value.

“With a clear focus on profitability and growth, the company will be disciplined in its investments and radically simplify how it builds, launches and maintains many of its properties and products,” the statement added.

Yahoo is also fighting a battle with hedge fund manager and Third Point owner Daniel Loeb, who is seeking to appoint four of his favoured people as new directors to Yahoo‘s board. With a 5.8 per cent stake in Yahoo, Third Point is the largest shareholder in the company.

MUMBAI: Wasp3D will showcase its complete range of updated broadcast graphics systems aimed at helping media companies effectively create, manage and quickly delivering in-depth, visually stunning and sophisticated news presentations in real-time at the television technology trade event Nab 2012 in Las Vegas this month.

The presentation will feature a tracked virtual set with immersive interactive graphics and gesture controlled mapping and data. The performance of the Wasp3D’s real-time engine will be showcased through complex interactive manipulation of data and graphics, while maintaining a high impact virtual environment.

Sophistication with simplicity is the underlying theme behind Wasp3D’s end-to-end content creation and on-air delivery workflow. The presentation will focus on reducing complexity by showcasing Wasp3D’s UBT no-programming tools, data integration techniques and ease of importing 3D models without having to recreate attributes.

Beehive Systems director of business development US Alan Richards said, “Broadcasters in more than 40 countries rely on Wasp3D to deliver reliable and compelling content that is entertaining, informative and, above all, trusted by the audience. Sophisticated, data driven graphics represent an ever increasing portion of the actual newscast, Wasp3D delivers this at the speed of breaking news.”

MUMBAI: Asia Satellite Management Stock Ownership Trust (Msot) and Asiasat Msot (acting in its capacity as trustee of Msot) and Asian satellite operator Asiasat have jointly announced the proposed privatisation of Asiasat through a scheme of arrangement.

For Asiasat shareholders, the cancellation price of HK$22.00 per share subject to the Scheme represents a premium of 34.01 percent over the 180-day average closing price, a premium of 28.90 percent over the audited consolidated net asset value per share as at 31 December 2011 and is higher than the closing price of the shares at any time in the last 10 years.

The company’s shares have suffered from low liquidity which can be observed over the six-month period ended 21 March 2012, during which the liquidity in the company’s shares on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong was restricted to an average daily turnover of HK$1,009,511 or 61,744 shares.

Such average daily turnover in the number of shares represented only approximately 0.06 per cent of the number of shares subject to the Scheme. In light of this, the proposal provides minority shareholders immediate liquidity and a chance to realise their entire investment at one time at a premium that the Offeror (Msot and Asiasat Msot) considers to be attractive.

The proposed privatisation would benefit the company through eliminating the need for approval from public shareholders for, and providing greater flexibility in the structuring of, possible future corporate transactions, and relieving the company from other regulatory sanctions and compliance obligations as it is listed. It will also enable the company to protect proprietary pricing information and other commercially sensitive information that is currently accessible to the competitors and suppliers through analysis of its public filings.

The proposed privatisation is subject to a number of conditions which are stated in the joint announcement.

It is the intention of the Offeror to maintain the existing business of Asiasat upon the successful privatisation of Asiasat. No major changes to the existing operating and management structure are expected to be introduced as a result of the implementation of the privatisation. For Asiasat customers, there will be no change.

As soon as practicable, Asiasat shareholders will be sent a scheme document and be invited to vote on the proposed privatisation. The Offeror and its concert parties will not be permitted to vote in relation to the proposed privatisation.

The Offeror further stated in the joint announcement that it intends to finance the privatisation from an amount borrowed under a loan agreement with Asia Satellite elecommunications Company Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asiasat), which in turn will be funded by a combination of funding from HSBC and internal resources of the Group.

An independent board committee of Asiasat has been formed to evaluate the proposal and will work with its own independent financial advisor to formulate recommendations to independent shareholders. The recommendation of the independent board committee will be disclosed in the scheme document.

MUMBAI: After days of allegations and counterallegations, DirecTV and Tribune Broadcasting have reached an agreement bringing relief to millions of subscribers.

Without disclosing the terms of the deal, DirecTV and Tribune announced that the two have reached a retransmission consent deal for the next five years which allow‘s DirecTV to continue carrying all of Tribune‘s local stations and WGN America, Tribune‘s national cable network.

“We‘re pleased that Tribune and their creditors now recognise that all DirecTV wanted from day one was to pay fair market rates for their channels. It‘s unfortunate that Tribune was willing to hold our customers hostage in an attempt to extract excessive rates, but in the end we reached a fair deal at market rates similar to what we originally agreed to on 29 March. On behalf of our customers, we are very happy to close the deal and put this behind us,” said DirecTV EVP Content, Strategy and Development Derek Chang.

Tribune restored all of their local signals and WGN America to DirecTV customers at approximately 9 pm ET.

“We are extremely pleased to have reached an agreement with DirecTV and to return our valuable news, entertainment and sports programming to DirecTV subscribers,” said Tribune Broadcasting president Nils Larsen. “On behalf of Tribune Broadcasting, I want to thank viewers across all of our markets for their support, understanding and patience during the negotiating process”we truly regret the service interruptions of the last several days.”

The agreement comes as baseball season is about to open, and enables DirecTV subscribers to see Chicago Cubs and White Sox baseball on WGN-TV in Chicago and on WGN America, as well as the Mets on WPIX-TV in New York, Phillies baseball on PHL17 in Philadelphia, and the Washington Nationals on WDCW-TV in Washington, D.C.

DirecTV subscribers also will again have access to the more than 700 hours of local news, weather, traffic, and sports coverage produced by Tribune‘s local television stations, as well as prime-time entertainment programming like “American Idol,” “Glee,” and “New Girl,” on the company‘s Fox affiliates, and “One Tree Hill,” “Vampire Diaries,” and “Gossip Girl” on its CW affiliates.

MUMBAI: According to the Bulgarian Association of Communication Agencies (BACA) internet advertising in Bulgaria has shown a double digit growth for 2011. This is, however, in the light of an overall shrinking of the advertising market during 2011 by 6 per cent in net value. The Association has a positive outlook for growth of the advertising market in the country and predicts it to grow at three to four per cent in 2012.

The body informed that the growth of the market segment for 2011 has been 15 per cent in gross value and 11.4 per cent in net value. Internet advertising has continued to increase its market share, reaching 8 per cent and topping radio advertising.

According to representatives from BACA, advertising will continue to move toward popular channels such as Google and Facebook. For 2011, the gross value of the advertising marked in Bulgaria has reached close to BGN 1 billion, with net profits tabled reaching BGN 42 million.

However, TV still commands the largest share with BGN 700 million of gross revenue followed by print media at BGN 150 million. Print magazines have registered a significant drop of 15 per cent in advertising volumes, while newspapers grew by 5 per cent growth in the segment.

Radio advertising has made BGN 72 million gross value, while outdoor advertising clocked BGN 70 million.