Category: Software

MUMBAI: As it seeks to to become a more digital and consumer facing operation, BBC Worldwide has expanded the role of its digital director Dan Heaf to consumer digital managing director.

Taking up this new role with immediate effect, Heaf will be responsible for driving a unified global digital strategy and consumer vision across BBC Worldwide’s digital portfolio. This includes the organisation’s branded consumer services such as topgear.com and goodfood.com, as well as owned and operated services like the international ifestyle and genre sections of BBC.com, where he will build on recent launches such as Travel and Future.

Heaf will be tasked with growing the international-facing site in new areas such as culture, music, style and food. He will also be in charge of the organisation’s consumer digital facing services, including the successful portfolio of brands on Facebook and international channels on YouTube.

Heaf will work collaboratively across BBC Worldwide, Global News and the BBC’s Future, Media and Technology division, ensuring effective co-ordination, shared knowledge and information. At the same time as consolidating and integrating the necessary skills and expertise of the digital organisation he is tasked with building closely aligned local markets, following BBC Worldwide’s commitment to have a greater presence across international markets.

BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith said, “Dan is a fantastically capable player, who brings tremendous experience, knowledge and commitment to the role. Since joining BBC Worldwide in 2010, he has demonstrated outstanding vision and leadership as EVP of Digital, helping to drive our digital revenues, which have exceeded our target of 10 per cent.”

While at BBC Worldwide, Heaf has overseen the organisation’s transformation into a digital business. BBC Worldwide apps have been downloaded over 20 million times; the organisation’s branded websites have achieved over 65 million monthly visitors; over 20 million fans access BBC Worldwide-branded Facebook pages while digital revenues have exceeded the business target of 10 per cent.

BANGALORE: Graphic India, a digital platform from Liquid Comics to promote comic books in India and showcase young artists and writers in the country, announced it is releasing a new comedy-thriller, “UnHoli,” for free on Facebook starting yesterday to tie-in to India‘s annual Holi festival of colours.

The author for unHoli is Samit Basu (Turbulence, The GameWorld Trilogy) and the artist is Jeevan J. Kang (7 Brothers, Ramayan 3392A.D., The Sadhu).

Readers will be able to read the series for free daily over the next month and share the pages with friends. Readers of the web series can also participate in the “UnHoli covered in color contest,” where fans can post a photograph of themselves on Graphic India‘s Facebook wall page, covered in colors and looking the most inhuman and zombie-like as they can. The photo with the most “likes” will win a stack of 50 assorted comic books and be featured on Graphic India‘s website as India‘s reigning Zombie King or Zombie Queen.

unHoli centres on Rohan, who hates the festival of Holi, but when a Holi reveler breaks down his door and tries to eat his brains, Rohan realises that this is no ordinary Holi. The zombie apocalypse has begun and the festival of colors is overrun by a deep, dark crimson red. Now it is up to Rohan to travel through the zombie infested streets of Delhi to rescue his girlfriend, Mia, trapped in Gurgaon.

MUMBAI: Tata Steel has revamped its website www.valuabled.com. The website was an attempt on the steel giant‘s part to trigger a debate on the role of values in Indian society. The new avatar of the website has new sections and means of accessing the site, including a WAP version and tablet application.

Having launched the site last year, valueabled.com has been given a new look in order to expand reach and appeal to a new visitors and make it more interactive. Most of these changes have been triggered through the website‘s fans and followers.

The website‘s design has been enhanced to give visitors the experience of an interactive world. It has a new interface where visitors can read, debate, poll and get to see what `Valueabled‘ is happening around them. It showcases, talks, and guides the youth to values that shape our lives today.

With valueabled.com Tata Steel aims to create virtual nation of values namely ‘The Values Nation‘ where one can explore all things ‘valueabled‘. It has features like ‘Values Library‘ which helps visitors find all past posts and can post their additions, ‘Valueseum‘ allows visitors to see Tata Steel and other Tata Group campaigns and ‘Values Arcade‘ – a platform where visitors can play games centered around values. They can also sign up as ‘Valuezens‘ and earn ‘Value Points‘ that can be redeemed for various rewards by engaging in the various activities.

The WAP avatar of the website facilitates reach to mobile phones that are increasingly becoming home to all online content. In addition, ‘Valuesapp‘ a recently launched tablet application for all iPad visitors sports a collection of all that is ‘Valueabled‘ on myriad subjects, stories on values from around the world and an almanac of campaigns from Tata Steel and other Tata Group companies.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has sought the opinion of stakeholders on liberalisation of spectrum and quantum to be auctioned.

In a consultation paper on ‘Auction of Spectrum‘, Trai has sought views on refarming of spectrum in 800/900 MHz bands, structure of auction, spectrum block size, eligibility criteria for participating in the auction, reserve price, roll out obligations, spectrum usage charges and spectrum trading.

The Supreme Court on 2 February had directed Trai to make fresh recommendations for grant of licence and allocation of spectrum in 2G band in 22 Service Areas by auction, as was done for allocation of spectrum in 3G band, keeping in view the decision taken by the Central Government in 2011.

Trai had therefore issueds a pre-consultation paper the next day, and has now issued a Consultation Paper on the basis of the comments received from the stakeholders and considering the international practices.

Written comments on the issues raised in the Consultation paper are invited from the stakeholders by 21 March and counter-comments by 28 March. Stakeholders are requested to send their comments by due dates as there will be no further extension of timelines.

MUMBAI: A new report from Juniper Research finds that growing user satisfaction with mobile TV on tablets will push average monthly viewing times to 186 minutes per month in 2014.

The report, ‘Mobile TV: Applications, Devices and Opportunities 2012-2016‘, finds that as users become more accustomed to viewing content on tablets, and as a wider range of content becomes available on tablets, consumers will increase their viewing times. This increase will be most apparent in North America where there is already
significant mobile TV usage, and where Internet TV services such as Hulu and Netflix are extremely popular.

A tablet is the ideal device on which to consume mobile TV content – their large screen sizes and intuitive user interfaces allow almost everyone to browse for and watch content.

Another driver for this growth is the continued integration of mobile services into pay-TV packages. Tablets can offer a richer viewing experience when used alongside traditional television by allowing the user to access supplementary information such as plot synopses and actor biographies. These devices also enable users to view pay-TV content or to watch catch-up services when away from home, extending the reach of traditional TV services.

According to report author Charlotte Miller, ‘Consumers are already accustomed to timeshifting thanks to DVRs such as TiVo and Sky+; what mobile TV allows them to do is placeshift. This allows users to watch their pay-TV content anytime, anywhere and on any device – the TV experience is no longer confined to the home.‘

Other key findings from the report include:

– The number of users of streamed mobile TV services on smartphones will increase by 2.8x between 2011 and 2016.

– The majority of broadcast mobile TV users will be from the Far East & China.

– Subscriptions will make up the vast majority of mobile TV revenues.

NEW DELHI: Samsung Electronics today announced the launch of its new LED monitor series in India in 18.5”, 20”, 21.5”, 23” and 27” screen sizes to cater to different requirements of the consumers and offers them a complete display solution for their personal and business requirements.

The Samsung LED models are priced in the range between Rs 6,200 to Rs 20,500. The monitors come with a three year on-site warranty.

Announcing the new range, Samsung Mobile & IT country head Ranjit Yadav said, “Samsung has been a dominant player in the monitor market and has always pioneered new technology and innovative products in this segment. The new range of LED monitors reiterates our commitment to bring the best to our consumers. Features such as Wide Viewing Angle, Mega DCR, ToC (Touch of Color) technology along with the stunning curve design available in the new 2012 series, makes this range highly appealing.”

Samsung LED monitors offers Mega Dynamic Contrast Ratio (5,000,000:1) and allows consumers to experience an almost unlimited viewing angle, 178 degrees vertically and horizontally. The monitors come with the innovative Samsung Magic Angle, which enables the user to experience the most optimised picture quality at any position.

“This unique technology by Samsung can significantly overcome the limitations of positioning of the monitor and the viewing angle can be enhanced by up to 50° vertically,” the company said.

ToC (Touch of Color) is the innovative molding technology that has been developed and adopted exclusively for Samsung monitors. The monitors have a floating design and as you move your eyes around the frame, you can watch the highlighted colours slowly change. The monitors come with a curve design option and this elegant curvilinear design guarantees to brighten up your home or workplace. The patterned back panel makes the monitors attractive even from the rear.

The monitors are equipped with Eco Saving, which helps the user to select the energy consumption level easily and simply with just a few clicks of the OSD menu. Upon setting the Eco Saving mode, you can choose the most optimal level of power consumption and its costs. Eco Saving can help you save energy consumption by up to 50 per cent.

Built with HDMI input, Samsung LED Monitors can be a true multimedia entertainment center. HDMI provides high-speed transmission of high definition digital data from multiple HDMI compatible devices, including set-top boxes, DVD and Blu-ray players straight into your monitor.

Another innovative feature of the monitors is the 2D to 3D conversion technology that allows users to instantly convert 2D content to 3D content with the touch of a key. “Not only this, you can also adjust your level of immersion by customizing the 3D depth to your taste from level 1 to level 10 and fully enjoy 3D immersive experience,” the company said.

MUMBAI: Over-the-top (OTT) video service providers like Netflix are filling a need gap in the US as pay-TV operators have failed to capitalise on the potential of video-on-demand (VoD) services.

As a result of pay-TV operators‘ lack of attention to ad-supported VOD, total VOD use is small, representing only 1 per cent of all U.S. TV viewing. The failure to accomplish this is a reflection of VOD‘s inadequate advertising support and awkward programme guides that limit availability and viewing of ad-supported VOD content, according to US research firm The Diffusion Group (TDG)..

Titled ‘Making Ad-Supported VOD Work’, the report states that the VOD services provided by pay-TV operators should be generating significantly higher viewing and advertising revenue with a little more push from the operators.

“Operators have failed to take advantage of VOD to build subscriber satisfaction, generate ad revenues, and head off competition from over-the-top (OTT) providers like Netflix”, according to Bill Niemeyer, TDG senior analyst and author of the new report.

Niemeyer estimates in Q4 2011, Netflix US subscribers watched 80 per cent more streaming video hours than were viewed in the same period on all US pay-TV VOD.

“Ad-supported VOD is a significant missed opportunity for pay-TV operators,” noted Niemeyer.”They are investing significant resources in TV Everywhere (TVE) but have ignored the fact they have a potentially viable ad- and revenue-generating on-demand platform already in place in over 50 million US homes in the form of VOD.”

TDG‘s new report describes how operators could increase VOD viewing and ad revenue by a factor of three or more by deploying dynamic ad insertion, better measurement technologies, and improved programme guides. If operators do not act, they risk falling even farther behind online and OTT video services.

Making ad-supported VOD work includes the results of conversations with key executives in the TV network and ad agency community. It identifies eight specific areas where operator action will improve the VOD platform. The report offers in depth quantitative estimates of how VOD use and advertising revenues would grow if the operators act to enhance VOD for ad-supported content.

MUMBAI: With the government fixing a timetable for digitisation, the television trade event Ficci-Frames will have sessions looking at it.

On 14 March there are two sessions. The first session on ‘Addressable digitisation-The Way Forward‘ will have keynotes delivered by Trai chairman Dr JS Sarma and I&B secreratry Uday K Varma. Then there is a panel discussion that will look to identify and address immediate asks for successful implementation of the digital switchover and also on what’s next in the regulatory and market framework to enable and sustain the transition.

The panellists are Star India CEO Uday Shankar, Times Global
Broadcasting CEO, MD Sunil Lulla, Den Networks founder Sameer Manchanda and Zee MD, CEO Punit Goenka.

Another session is ‘Maximising the Power of Digital Distribution‘. Upgrading distribution pipelines would require huge capital outlays.The panellists will share their experiences of how funding challenges have or can be overcome and the process towards digitisation from stakeholders from the entire affected value chain.

The panellists are Den CEO SN Sharma, Turner International India senior VP, MD, Networks and Content Distribution Anshuman Mishra, NDTV Group CEO Vikram Chandra, Ortel co-founder, director Jagi Mangat Panda, FCC former senior legal advisor Professor Jonathan Askin and Government Attorney, US Department of Commerce, Former Program Director, US Government‘s TV Converter Box Coupon Programme Anita Wallgren.

There will also be a session on ‘Financing the Media and Entertainment Business‘ It will offer a at the critical component in M&E financing and its various ways of execution in the sector. The speakers are HDFC Mutual Fund executive director Prashant Jain, Blackstone senior MD private equity Mathew Cyriac, The Allegiance Theater, Hollywood founder, partner Daniel Dubiecki and Zee chief strategy officer Atul Das.

MUMBAI: Viacom International Media Networks Asia, a division of Viacom Inc, has announced MTV Live HD‘s launch in the Philippines through Cignal, owned and operated by MediaScape Inc, a subsidiary of MediaQuestHoldings, the investment arm of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund.

MTV Live HD is being broadcast in 1080i High-Definition and crystal clear Dolby Surround 5.1 from 1 March. Cignal is the country‘s first ever high definition (HD) satellite provider that offers the most number of HD channels nationwide.

MTV Live HD programming line-up consists of music-based programming that is original, acquired and from the vast MTV library, such as music festivals, live performances, music documentaries and original productions.

First launched in 2008, MTV Live HD is now available in 36 countries, reaching more than eight million households worldwide. The channel library boasts over 1,000 hours of native HD content including key shows MTV World Stage, Isle of MTV, Rock am Ring, Live Vibrations, MTV EMA and many more.

The launch of MTV Live HD introduces the first HD music offering on one of Philippines‘ fastest growing Pay TV platforms and will be available 24 hours a day on Cignal‘s Plan 1590. MTV Live HD‘s debut in the Philippines marks the third territory in Asia following launches in Singapore and Malaysia last year.

MUMBAI: In order to expand its books vertical, Homeshop18.com has launched an online bookstore with a catalogue of over 10 million books in 100+ main categories.

The acquisition of CoinJoos.com has helped HomeShop18 strengthen its books business and tap the massive books market in the country.

HomeShop18 CEO Sundeep Malhotra said, “Books is a critical part of our ecommerce growth strategy and the launch of our bookstore plugs the gap which we felt we had in our product range. This is a category which touches all demographic groups and, therefore, is a very critical one.”

Book lovers across the country can shop with both online payment and cash on delivery options.