Category: Software

MUMBAI: Reliance Group‘s digital entertainment business company, Big Flicks, has tied-up with Sony India.

The Bigflix+ application will now be available across Sony Bravia Internet TV and Tablet S & P.

BigFlicks business head Shreyash Sigtia said, “We are happy to partner with Sony in order to provide a large premium movie catalogue to the movie buff‘s in India. This partnership would give our Indian audience a chance to experience a premium movie on demand (MOD) service without the hindrance of any ads on their Sony device. Our partnership will help strengthen and expand the concept of MOD service in India.”

Sony India GM-marketing Tadato Kimura added, “Sony endeavors to provide the most compelling entertainment content through its network devices, Bravia and Tablet and hence, our tie-up with Bigflix+ was an apt choice. We even plan to extend our association with them for our range of Vaio laptops and Xperia Smartphones in the near future.”

Bigflix+ is a movie on demand service that brings to its customers an elaborate movie catalogue encompassing diverse genres namely action, drama, romance and comedy.

MUMBAI: World football governing body Fifa has debuted on the video-sharing platform YouTube to make rich audiovisual content more accessible to fans through its channel youtube.com/fifatv.

Fifa on YouTube features tailor-made football match action from the most recent Fifa competitions, including the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa and the Fifa Women‘s World Cup 2011 Germany, top player profiles and clips from Fifa documentaries, Fifa Futbol Mundial shows and the 2014 Brazil monthly magazine show.

This content will be updated and expanded regularly and will be complemented with content from the non-competitive side, such as features on football development, social development initiatives and human interest stories, as well as video news releases and live streaming of media events.

“Fifa is keen to engage with football fans beyond our competitions by sharing our rich visual content with them, and for this there is no better platform in terms of reach and penetration than YouTube,” said Fifa president Joseph S. Blatter. “We want to provide YouTube users with the greatest moments of Fifa World Cup history but also invite them to share theirs with us.”

“We are very excited that Fifa is launching its channel on YouTube,” said YouTube‘s senior director of sports partnerships in EMEA Stephen Nuttall. “This new channel will allow a global audience to discover and interact with videos featuring the best footballers competing in the most prestigious tournaments. This is one more example that YouTube is increasingly the place for football.”

While content for Fifa on YouTube is at present sourced primarily from Fifa Films‘ voluminous archive, the aim is to further engage with fans by including user-generated content and other interactive offerings, as well as material from Fifa‘s many stakeholders.

MUMBAI: When a film becomes a hit, anything associated with it gets a boost. Something similar happened with a game associated with Sujoy Ghosh‘s well-acclaimed hit Kahaani that Ibibo. com has devised.

The online game requires gamers to park Vidya‘s taxi on a friend‘s street to help her in the journey to find her missing husband. Gamers can play the game at ibibo.com and can get in touch with Vidya through her gaming profile on the website.

Vidya Balan‘s Kahaani has now become a hit among online gamers, according to ibibo.com. The company claims that the game, The Great Indian Parking Wars, has got 50,000 hits within the first 10 days of its launch.

“It‘s amazing to see the kind of popularity Ibibo has developed about the film on social media,” said Balan about the association with ibibo.com.in a statement.

Gamers, who help Vidya to park her yellow taxi inside the game, also get a chance to meet her and win movie merchandise and tickets.

MUMBAI: Ticketing portal BookmyShow.com has been appointed as the official ticketing partner for five IPL teams – Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals, Pune Warriors and Delhi Daredevils.

Apart from being the official ticketing partner for the teams, BookMyShow.com will also provide Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals, Pune Warriors and Delhi Daredevils with a comprehensive ticketing solution which would encompass Strategy & Planning, Ticket Printing with Security Features, Online Sales, Ground Sales, Home Delivery, Inventory Management, Stock Distribution, Cash Collection, Corporate & Package sales, Online Marketing, Gate Entry Validation and Management and Reconciliation (Post Event).

Bigtree Entertainment Founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani said, “We at BookMyShow.com are proud to associate with IPL for the 3rd consecutive year. This year BookMyShow.com will be providing ticketing solutions for Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals, Pune Warriors and Delhi Daredevils.

“Cricket has always been one of the most loved and preferred game amongst Indians. IPL is the perfect format for stadium viewing, as they are just four hours long and can be enjoyed after a day’s work. Keeping this in mind and to make this experience even more exhilarating, BookMyShow.com is in continuous pursuit to provide our customers with hassle free experience; may it be for booking tickets or on-ground support.”

NEW DELHI: The Indian Internet economy contributed Rs. 3.2 trillion to the overall economy in 2010, representing 4.1 per cent of the gross domestic product, and is projected to rise to Rs10.8 trillion by 2016.

According to a new report in The Boston Consulting Group’s Connected World series, the total size of the G-20 Internet economy will be $4.2 trillion 2016, equivalent to 5.3 per cent of GDP, up from $2.3 trillion, or 4.1 per cent, in 2010.

‘The $4.2 Trillion Opportunity: The Internet Economy in the G-20‘ says that the Internet is today the eighth largest sector in India – larger than mining and utilities. It is driven especially by exports of IT services: net exports make up 59 per cent of the Indian Internet economy, while consumption is only 20 per cent.

India‘s Internet economy growth rate of 23 per cent places it as the second fastest across the G-20 and ahead of many other developing nations in the G-20, which are growing at an average of 17.8 per cent. Projected growth rates elsewhere are: 24.3 per cent in Argentina, 18.3 per cent in Russia and 15.6 per cent in Mexico. In 2010 developed markets contributed 76 per cent of the G-20‘s Internet economy; by 2016 that will fall to 66 per cent.

Consumption is the principal driver of Internet GDP in most countries, typically representing more than 50 percent of the total in 2010. It will remain the largest single driver through 2016. China and India stand out for their enormous Internet related exports- China in goods, India in services – which propel their internet-economy rankings toward the top of the chart,” said Mumbai-based BCG Partner Arvind Subramanian said. He added, “In emerging countries like India, social media are fast becoming the internet medium and mobile the access medium of choice.”

The $4.2 trillion opportunity builds on three years of research conducted by BCG and is the most comprehensive report published on the impact of the Internet globally. This study is the first to examine the Internet‘s economic impact across so much of the world‘s economy – 90 per cent of global GDP – and highlights how this increases as mobile devices and social networks become more prevalent.

Commenting on the report, Google India VP – Sales and Operations & Managing Director Rajan Anandan said, “India is seeing one of the fastest rates of internet adoption across the globe. It is up to all of us- users, businesses and the government-to leverage the potential of the Internet to deliver value and wealth. We see emerging opportunities for innovation in areas like mobile, e-commerce and cloud and are committed to growing the market by offering more locally relevant services.”

Online Commerce

In 2010, the share of total retail carried out online in India was only 0.9 per cent but is projected to reach 4.5 per cent by 2016. What‘s more, the Internet influences only an additional 0.8 per cent of total retail from connected consumers researching online and purchasing offline (‘ROPO‘). These numbers compare to 3.1 per cent for online sales and 4 per cent for ROPO in Brazil, 1.7 per cent and 4.8 per cent in Russia, and 5 per cent and 9.6 per cent in the U.S.

Consumer Value

Consumers are the big winners of the Internet economy and BCG‘s study highlights just how essential it has become to everyday life and the value which consumers attach to it.

Asked how much they would have to be paid to live without Internet access, Indian respondents said an average of Rs. 21,436 per year, or 2.8 times what they pay for access and services. When asked whether they would forgo showering for a year in order to keep Internet access, 36 per cent of Indian online consumers said they would; 64 per cent said they would forgo chocolate; 63 per cent coffee; and 70 per cent would give up alcohol.

SMEs – The Growth Engines of the Economy

The report highlights the extent to which the Internet is driving growth in businesses across the G-20. Drawn from the most comprehensive survey of its kind of SMEs around the world, the BCG report finds that “High web” companies in India – ones that use the Internet for marketing, sales and interactions with customers and suppliers – grew their revenues 19 per cent over the past three years, compared to only 13 per cent for those who made low or no use of the Internet.

“Around the world SMEs which embrace the Internet are growing faster and adding more jobs than those that don’t. By encouraging businesses to adopt the Internet, countries can improve their competitiveness and growth prospects,” said BCG Senior Partner David Dean, who is co-author of the report.

The value of the Internet economy was estimated using the expenditure approach to GDP measurement. This approach measures total spending on finished goods and services. It covers four key elements: consumption (both goods sold online and the costs of getting online), investment, government spending, and net exports. BCG used the loss aversion approach to measure the value of the Internet to consumers in a survey of 9,710 Internet users in 13 countries.

MUMBAI: International mobile media company, Affle, has appointed Lochan Kothari as the associate director for business development for India.

At Affle, Kothari will be heading the business development effort for the West and South regions in India, focusing on boosting mobile advertising and marketing solutions for existing and new business partners. He will be based in Mumbai.

With this appointment, the company is looking to achieve quantum growth in this fiscal year.

Affle regional director- business development Sankalp Mehrotra said, “With Lochan on board, we are now looking to strengthen our leadership position in the mobile advertising industry in India. Lochan’s diverse experience will help steer the team in the right direction to create valuable business opportunities with the top brands and agencies.”

On his new role Kothari added, “I am excited to have joined Affle, at this time. It is fascinating to create brand advertising solutions on the small screen that is now fast becoming the leading medium for content consumption. Affle has the right solutions and services to ride on this wave and play its part in taking the mobile advertising industry in India past the next big milestone. I look forward to utilising my knowledge and experience to strengthen our position in the market and assert the trust of our partners and customers. ”

Kothari comes in with over 14 years of experience in print, digital, TV, on ground media and PR. He joins Affle from SMS Gupshup, where he was the head of corporate sales. Prior to SMS Gupshup, he has also worked with The Times of India group, Zee Telefilms, 360 degrees and Indian Express.

Additionally, Siddarth Correya has been roped in as director for business development for Indonesia.

Mehrotra added, “Siddarth built long term relationships with business partners and successfully helped execute various campaigns in his earlier stint with Affle. We are confident that he will bring the same energy and excitement to Affle’s Indonesia business.”

Correya added, “This year is going to be an exciting one for the Indonesia market as Affle strengthens the core of its business operations by taking on new strategic plans for 2012 with the help of a bigger team. I am looking forward to drive the company’s growth to greater heights by leading the mobile evangelization in the market as I work closely with all key stakeholders in the mobile advertising ecosystem.”

Correya had previously successfully worked in Affle’s India team for over three years post which he played leadership roles in the domain of mobile advertising in companies like One97 and Nokia. His responsibilities will include forging strategic partnerships to leverage Affle’s product penetration, increasing mobile ad sales
representation business and driving the mobile marketing solutions offering for business partners and brand owners in Indonesia.

NEW DELHI: Participants at a one-day meet to discuss the march towards digitisation agreed that there would be no difficulty in meeting the deadlines if the government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) complete their tasks in time.

However, some of the members speaking in different sessions of the Casbaa meet ‘Beyond digital‘ did not rule out the possibility of digitisation getting entangled in litigation if adequate steps were not taken till May, since the deadline is 30 June for the first phase covering the four metros.

Some of the other speakers were also anguished that the budget had not brought any cheer either in terms of customs duty holiday on digital set top boxes (STBs) or incentives for indigenous production of the STBs.

Multi-system Operators Alliance president Ashok Mansukhani said the government appeared to have done nothing after the notification. The rules of business were still not clear. For example, it was not known whether MSOs who had the CAS (conditional access system) licences would have to get fresh licences Would cable operators get licenses directly or would the business be transacted as of now through the MSOs, and what exactly will the role of the government be.

He wondered why Trai had issued a second consultation paper when it had as many as 100 responses including 80 from cable operators. He said cable networking had still not been recognised as an industry, and had not been given any tax concessions. While the MSOs had the funding, a level playing field was still missing.

He said though 30 June at present appeared to be a mirage, the industry was prepared to abide if the government got its act together.

Indian Broadcasting Foundation VP and Times Television Network MD & CEO Sunil Lulla said most broadcasters were in the red, and so the pricing has to change. And if digitisation is to help the consumer, then he should be ready to pay more.

He said attempts were on to create TV spots to create awareness about digitisation, but the government must also come forward.

Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI) president Roop Sharma said cable operators had been fighting for digitisation even before the MSOs or broadcasters had done so, but nothing was done to help the last mile cable operator or create awareness among the people. “When I am not even sure I will get content after 30 June or not, why should I spend so much money on infrastructure?” she asked.

The cable operator has to even recover entertainment tax to pass it on to the MSO, she said. She denied charges that the cable TV industry was not organised.

She wanted definite action from the government to get inter-connect regulations, tariff, and STBs.

News Broadcasters Association president K V L Narayan Rao said the race for TRPs will continue until subscription rates improve, but Trai had failed to take a decision in this regard. At the same time, he said good content must also come. He wanted greater unity on the part of the stakeholders in approaching the government.

IPTV India Forum‘s Anil Prakash said IPTV had failed so far because of lack of right of way provisions and initiative of the last mile operator. He wanted the government to pitch in to reach out to the consumer.

DTH Association of India General Secretary Rajiv Khattar stressed the need for implementation. He said tax incentives were needed if the deadline had to be met.

Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal said the government had nothing to lose, as it would get taxes; broadcasters stand to earn; and even the MSOs will break even. But it was the DTH which would be hit the hardest. At present, around 30.3 per cent was going in taxes, and DTH had not been included in the Negative List despite a ruling of the Delhi High Court that watching a programme on DTH was like entering a multiplex.

Dish TV CEO R C Venkateish said DTH was still a capital intensive industry struggling to survive, and the ARPUs were low because of under-declaration by the cable operators. Digitisation will help stop that.

Videocon d2H CEO Anil Khera said there was need for a level playing field at a time when over 30 per cent went into taxes. He said the government’s deadline appeared unrealistic but was confident that it could be met. The success of the first phase will set the tone for the other phases, he said.

Indusind Media & Communications Ltd. MD Ravi Mansukhani welcomed the plans for a unified licensing for broadcasting and telecom. He suggested the creation of a fund to help smaller MSOs or cable operators. Though he had at first felt that it would be better to split digitisation into first pay channels and then free to air channels, he felt it was better to go directly into the new technology.

Star Network Vice President (Regulation) Pulak Bagchi and Cisco India’s Sanjay Rohatgi were confident the deadline would be met. Bachi said this was because of the Indian appetite for change, dynamism and productivity of the people.

Hathaway Cable & Datacom MD & CEO K Jayraman said things will work if Trai gets its work done. He said 10 million STBs were needed for the first phase, and 20 million for the second phase. He felt that there was time for the industry to fight for fiscal incentives.

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, while reiterating that the sunset dates of the first phase for the metros of 30 June was irrevocable, said today that the regulatory framework including interconnection issues and tariff for cable digitisation would be in place by the end of this month.

Varma said that one million digital set top boxes had already been installed while another 2.5 million were readily available and the process of acquiring the remaining seven million required for the first phase had been put in place with directions issued for importing them.

Earlier last week, Additional Secretary Rajiv Takru had claimed that ten million STBs were already available for the first phase.

Varma described the present phase of growth in broadcasting as very exciting and said the country was on the threshold of a second information revolution which would lead to financial returns and extraordinary benefits. However, he said this was possible only with synergy between the government and the industry while keeping the interest of the common man in perspective. There was need to move with confidence, conviction and purpose.

Delivering the inaugural address at the one-day meet on ‘Beyond Digital’ organised by the Cable and Satellite Broadcasters Association of Asia (Casbaa), he said there was need to sensitise all the stakeholders and the cable operators had to be proactive if this was to be done.

As far as the Government was concerned, the Task Force set up by it for this purpose was meeting every fortnight to review the situation, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) was also working to finish the work assigned to it.

Meanwhile, he said the public service broadcaster had a definite role in this changing scenario and so special attention was being paid to ensure digitisation in All India Radio and Doordarshan so that it retains its eminence in the media. Special efforts were also on to help Doordarshan’s direct-to-home service, DD Direct Plus, to grow.

Speaking later in the afternoon, Joint Secretary Supriya Sahu said that television spots to promote the awareness about digitisation were ready and would be aired soon on all channels. She wondered why the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) had not come forward to prepare such spots.

Addressing a session on ‘Regulatory Mandate’, she said the rules under the amended Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act had been finalised and would be notified soon. She said regulations have to keep pace with technology but the latter was changing very fast. The aim of the framework was only to create an enabling environment and a level-playing field. She assured the participants that consumers would have no problems if they wanted to change their service providers.

Referring to the large number of regulations and laws in the country on communication, she said there was need of synergy and convergence.

She claimed that the licensing procedure for cable operators and multi-system operators had been simplified under the rules.

Referring to the sunset date of 30 June, she said that the law now provided for punishment for those who did not comply but she was confident that such a situation would not arise since the whole exercise was in the interest of all the stakeholders.

Referring to sensitisation of producers, she said the Broadcast Content Complaints Council had recently held a meeting with creative directors and producers in an attempt to ensure better TV content, which was a very welcome step.

Answering a question about complaints being heard by the Inter-Ministerial Committee, she said these were only relating to channels which not members of the NBA or the IBF.

While asserting that the government wanted the cable sector to flourish, she said in answer to a question that there was no plan at present for creating any fund to help cable operators who did not have the resources for going digital.

Most of the speakers representing MSOs in the various sessions expressed confidence that the country would be able to switchover smoothly and there would be no shortage of STBs.

However, they regretted that the budget had failed to bring any incentives for the cable industry.

The DTH operators were not sure whether entertainment being put in the Negative List would benefit them, though some of them quoted a Delhi High Court judgment which had said watching programmes on DTH was akin to entering a cinema hall.

MUMBAI: UTV Indiagames has announced the launch of ‘WorldCup Cricket Fever‘ on the iOS platform, making it the first game to have special responsive and intuitive touch controls for use on iPhone and iPad.

The game offers cinematic experience with TV broadcast style cameras and has a new control scheme allows batting and bowling with greater precision and diversity with full touch control.

UTV Indiagames CEO Vishal Gondal said, “UTV Indiagames has always churned out the best of cricket games in the country. WorldCup Cricket Fever is the first ever cricket game developed with motion capture animation. This technology will give the user a ‘real‘ experience of the sport with a wide variety in batting and bowling options.”

The game also has provision for more than 40 batting shots more than 30 types of bowling deliveries with precise ball types and depth. There are four types of bowlers which include ‘Fast Pace‘, ‘Medium Pace‘, ‘Off Spin‘ and ‘Leg Spin‘.

It has three game modes to choose from – quick match, power play and world cup championship. The game includes 14 teams, six stadiums (with day/night option) and three difficulty modes – which can all be customised.

The game will also be launched on the Android, Windows and Java platforms soon.

MUMBAI: Digital advertising is dwarfed in India by print and broadcasting, contributing a tiny amount of Rs 15 billion compared to the total pie of Rs 300 billion.

The good news, however, is that there is a huge growth potential as it now just makes up one-fourth of television penetration in India. Some even predict that this will become a billion dollar industry in three years. Though the forecast may spell doubts from many quarters, it is sure that the climb is going to be rapid in a country that boasts of a large youth population.

India already has 120 million Internet users and 50 million mobile Internet users, making it the third largest market from the users’ point of view.

With the increase in the number of mobile and Internet users, digital is the space for the future. A lot has been said about how digital will make the world smaller and bring people closer. More buzz is now being created around the prospects of monetising one‘s presence in the digital space.

Google, the world‘s largest search engine company, is bullish on the Indian market. Says Google India VP and MD Rajan Anandan, “There are 50 million mobile Internet users in India and by 2012-end there will be more mobile Internet users than laptop and desktop Internet users together. Also, in 3-4 years there will be more Indian businesses advertising through the online media. In three years from now, this will be a billion dollar industry.”

For Anandan, 2012 should be the year of online video. “The web today has become utilitarian. It is being used to search for products and services and also buying them. This has marketing implications,” he says.

Web-based advertising is emerging in India. There are also many forms of mobile advertising and with the adoption of smartphones, this should grow further.

A large amount of digital consumption in India will happen on mobile. Says KPMG India director-strategy ransaction services Varun Gupta, “Advertisers are looking at print and then adapting to digital. Print and TV comprise around 80 per cent of ad budget, where print is larger than TV. Readership is a comfort zone and, thus, print is still having the largest ad spend.”

The digital share of media always starts with performance and India is at an early stage. “A large base of performance-based advertising from print is already going online like job listings and real estate,” Anandan avers.

The reason why the shift to digital is taking time is because Indian web is in English while print is regional and a chunk of population is still more comfortable conversing in their regional languages. “2012 will mark the take-off of regional/ local web. On web we have empowered users to watch the ads that are relevant for them. It may or may not affect revenue. The trick is how to generate content for online ad,” Anandan adds.

The real strength of the Internet has surfaced after the social media revolution. Traditional media in India is feeling the early tremors of disruption from technology and social media tools.

Says MSL Group CEO Olivier Fleurot, “There is a need is to engage with the users. Credibility of online medium is growing faster and social media is helping.”

GroupM South Asia CEO Vikram Sakhuja feels technology is underestimated in the long run and over-estimated
in the short term. “With digital media one has the ability to move census as it gives opportunities for measuring. Also, digital has power of interactivity. Today it’s a two–way communication that is profound. Digital has the ability to move across different devices and different media and there is real time query and real time consumption of content. Currently digital gets only the 3 per cent of the overall advertising and these advantages will help it grow over the next few years.”

The syntax of content is going to be different. User Generated Content (UGC) will change the way marketers work. This will result in the role of 30 seconds commercial coming down.

“Digital is allowing scaled word-of-mouth. There will be new distribution and sales channels. Rather than being linear, marketers should find out different ways to reach their customers,” Sakuja says.

Even in cinema, digital advertising will catch on. Says UFO Moviez joint MD Kapil Agarwal, “Analogue cinema advertising was dying a natural death. But with the emergence of digital advertising, today all theatres are connected. We can make the print in digital and the advertisements can be changed every week. There is more flexibility and it can also be interactive.”