Category: Software

Mumbai: ACK Media is set to launch its comic book on Tenzing Norgay as an IPad App.

The app can be downloaded at $1.99 from the Apple App Store.

Developed internally, the Digital comic is also available on the Amazon Kindle store.

ACK Media business head-digital Shubhadeep Bhattacharya said “We aim to give our titles a wider readership through digital versions of our comics. We have our latest comic titles available on Apple‘s app store and on Amazon‘s Kindle store. We will also be launching a store front app by April, making the whole range of ACK comics accessible on Apple and Android tablets”.

ACK‘s digital comic book on Tenzing Norgay consists of 32 pages and is a new title that narrates the story of the adventurous Tenzing Norgay from Tibet.

Amar Chitra Katha editor Reena Puri said, “Tenzing Norgay is an inspirational figure, not just to mountaineers, but to everyone who believes in the strength of the human spirit. Our comic, which is based on his life, took almost a year to complete because of the research involved for the writer and the artist.”

MUMBAI: UMP Movies, the UK name of UTV Movies, will now be available on Freesat, a free-to-air digital satellite television in UK.

Freesat‘s first dedicated Bollywood movie channel will be available on Freesat Channel 308.

UTV CEO – Broadcasting MK Anand said, “Post our successful entry in the UK we are pleased to join hands with Freesat to further strengthen our endeavour to reach out to the Bollywood passionate South Asian Diaspora in this market. With our launch on this platform, we now expand our presence by reaching out to over two million Freesat customers, thereby bringing us an unparallel reach in the region among Hindi movie channels.”

UMP Movies will carry English subtitles. With a library of over 400 titles, the channel has movies such as No One Killed Jessica, Tees Maar Khan,Tere Bin Laden and Rajneeti.

The channel had to adopt a new name as UTV is an existing media brand in the UK. Northern Irish broadcaster UTV Media runs operations in the Europe.

UMP Movies launched on Sky in the UK and Ireland on 12 December 2011, joining a list of Hindi movie channels like Zee Cinema, Set Max, B4U Movies and Star Gold.

MUMBAI: Online Indian retailer Flipkart.com has acquired its weaker rival LetsBuy.com, a specialised e-commerce site.

The part-cash, part-stock deal is estimated to be around $25 million.

Letsbuy will reportedly continue to operate independently under its current management.

Flipkart co-founder and CEO Sachin Bansal said, “This acquisition fits into our strategy of building dominant shares in all categories we operate in. We are already leaders in the books and media verticals. Given that we managed to build a leadership position in consumer electronics as well since its launch in early 2011, it made sense for us to consolidate when we saw this opportunity.”

Letsbuy.com founder and CEO Hitesh Dhingra averred, “We believe that our expertise in computers, communication and consumer electronics categories, matched with Flipkart‘s superior technology and supply chain, can be a killer combination. The Company had a choice to raise a large round of funding as well. However, aligning our business with the largest player in the market made sense as the resultant synergies will guarantee our customers the best possible service, price and selection.”

MUMBAI: Luxembourg-based satellite fleet operator SES has revealed that satellite television in Germany, the company‘s most profitable national market, has almost caught up with cable television in subscriber totals.

Satellite reception is growing in popularity in Germany while cable television is declining.

Germany has become special for SES because of the switch-off of analogue television there on 30 April when the country will go all-digital.

Analogue television uses much more satellite capacity per television channel than does standard digital TV, meaning at the cut-off date, SES will find itself with a large number of unused satellite transponders.

As of July-end last year, SES was beaming analogue broadcasts into Germany on 33 transponders mainly from satellites at SES‘s 19.2 degrees east orbital slot while 32 other transponders were providing digital services in Germany.

As of now, SES has resold nine of these 33 transponders to broadcasters to use after 30 April. Seven of these nine transponders have been booked for use starting later in 2012, while two others would be used starting in 2014.

That would leave 24 transponders carrying analogue television, compared to 10 channels or so for standard digital television and around five channels per transponder for high-definition television, depending on the signal compression used.

Already 85 per cent of German satellite customers have moved to digital broadcasts. SES has said that for 99 per cent of its customers, only the receiver needs to be replaced that would cost around 30 euros.

NEW DELHI: Yahoo! India and Bengali language daily Anandabazar Patrika (ABP) today announced a partnership to deliver premium digital content in Bengali to the Indian Internet audience.

The co-branded property, bengali.yahoo.com, will leverage the combined editorial strengths of Anandabazar Patrika and Yahoo! India.

Bengali content is the latest in language offerings from Yahoo! in India, after the release of Hindi, Tamil and Marathi. It offers fresh news ranging from politics, sports, entertainment from across the world, as well as local news from in and around Kolkata.

Select articles from ABP’s supplements such as Pustak Porichoy (book review), Kolkatar Korcha (snippets from Kolkata), Baracharcha (celebrity interviews), Natyo Samalochana (theatre review), Probondho (essays), and weekend specials will also be showcased on the site.

Yahoo! India and South East Asia managing director Arun Tadanki said “The launch of Bengali on Yahoo! India is another milestone in our journey to expand language portfolio with a view to make our content relevant for new Internet users who seek to consume content in their own language. Yahoo!’s reach combined with ABP’s vast experience in generating and serving Bengali content will provide a superior digital content experience to Bengalis around the world.”

The site has been built on the Yahoo! Publishing Platform and is jointly managed by Yahoo! and My Ananda Bazar Patrika.

Kaushik Banerjee, Vice President – Anandabazar & Digital added, “Anandabazar is an undisputed leader of the Bengali domain while Yahoo! commands a great online reach. Together, we will deliver a superior digital content experience to 220 million people who speak Bengali the world over.”

According to the ICube report by IAMAI, the Indian language audience is growing at a rate of nearly 40 per cent per year and the next wave of digital audience in India is expected to emerge from the non-English speaking population. These statistics indicate that there is a large base of Internet users in India who are keen to access content in their own language.

MUMBAI: Airtel Digital TV‘s net loss widened in the fiscal third quarter but subscriber additions stayed competitively strong in a slowing environment.

The DTH arm of telecom major Bharti Airtel posted a net loss of Rs 1.96 billion for the quarter ended December compared to Rs 1.8 billion in the trailing quarter.

The net loss in the third quarter of the previous fiscal was Rs 1.2 billion, while the total loss from Airtel‘s DTH business for the financial year ended March 2011 stood at Rs 5.18 billion on a revenue of Rs 7.7 billion. For the first nine months of this fiscal, net loss was higher at Rs 5.25 billion.

Airtel Digital TV‘s total revenue for the quarter went up to Rs 3.33 billion as opposed to Rs 2.38 billion in the preceding quarter. Revenue for nine-month period stood at Rs 9.40 billion.

The DTH operator‘s Ebitda for the quarter was at Rs 90 million as against Rs 116 million in the revious quarter. Operating margins stood at 2.7 per cent, narrowing from 3.7 per cent in the fiscal‘s second quarter.

Airtel Digital TV added 455,000 net subscribers during the quarter, seven per cent more from the trailing quarter. A late entrant, it has speeded up its subscriber base to 7.1 million compared to market leader Dish TV‘s 9.5 million, according to data available till 31 December 2011.

ARPU (average revenue per user) marginally fell to Rs 160, from Rs 161 in the earlier quarter.

At the end of the quarter, the company had its Digital TV operations in 587 districts.

Airtel Digital TV‘s cumulative investment stood at Rs 32.59 billion.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster CBS and The Recording Academy have announced the launch of Grammy Live on Grammy.com and CBS.com, beginning 10 February.

The Grammy Live Mobile App, available now for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users, provides a complete backstage pass to Music‘s Biggest Night(R). For the third year in a row, music fans worldwide will have unprecedented access to all the VIP and backstage events leading up to and throughout the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, airing 12 February on the CBS Television Network.

Running through 12 February, Grammy Live will feature three days of exclusive live videos, blogging, tweets and re-tweets, as well as official news reports and entertaining updates from Grammy Live hosts Alison Haislip, Drew Hinze and John Norris. Exclusive behind-the-scenes Grammy cams will give the audience an insider‘s view into some of the hottest Grammy Week events, including the Social Media Rock Stars Summit, the MusiCares(R) Person of the Year Tribute honoring Paul McCartney, the Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Nominees Reception, the Pre-Grammy Gala, as well as an exclusive live performance from Almost Kings, winners of CBS.com‘s “From Your Garage to Grammy Live” contest.

On 12 February, Grammy Live will kick off with the 54th Annual Grammy Awards red carpet arrivals, the Pre-Telecast Ceremony and the official Grammy Celebration after-party. Additional behind-the-scenes footage will offer viewers a “dual-screen” experience, complementing the CBS Grammy telecast with red carpet coverage, backstage interviews, exclusive photo sessions with winners (with renowned photographer Danny Clinch), press room question-and-answer sessions and past Grammy moments.

The Recording Academy CMO Evan Greene said, “We‘re giving music fans the ultimate Grammy experience this year through Grammy Live. We connect with music in very personal ways, and through shared, social experiences, fans are more eager than ever to support and follow their favorite artists in new and exciting ways.”

CBS Interactive senior VP, GM of Entertainment Marc DeBevoise said, “We‘re excited to be partnering with The Recording Academy to bring music fans this incredible multi-platform experience. By making this program available in so many ways, we‘re catering to all music fans, giving them an exclusive virtual ticket to the biggest music event of the year on any device.”

Mobile users will also be able to view Grammy Live by downloading the new Grammy Live mobile app, which offers videos, news about Grammy nominees and presenters, and Grammy history trivia. The app‘s interactive features include a “Guess the Winner” poll, where fans can cast their vote for who they think will win across 20 coveted categories.

The app also integrates comprehensive social media coverage of the event and lets users follow and reply to tweets from the official Grammy Twitter account (@TheGRAMMYs), along with the Twitter accounts of many Grammy contenders this year. Additionally, users can access a live stream of music from Grammy nominees on Grammy Radio. The free app, developed in partnership with Trailer Park and sponsored by Target, is available to download on the App Store.

MUMBAI: Conviva., a video quality optimisation and advanced analytics solution provider, has closed a $15 million round of funding led by Time Warner Investments, the strategic investing arm of US media conglomerate Time Warner.

The latest round of funding will be used to accelerate Conviva‘s growth in international markets and to expand their staff in order to meet the growing demand for their online video solutions.

Time Warner Investments MD Scott Levine said, “Conviva‘s online video analytics & optimisation solutions have become key enabling technologies for several of our businesses‘ TV Everywhere initiatives including HBO Go. Conviva is the leader in the preemptive video stream optimization and video-specific analytics space, and we hope this round of funding will fuel their fast growth. We are excited to invest in such an important strategic partner to two of our divisions, HBO and Turner Broadcasting.”

The company‘s technology helps raise the quality of online viewing, eliminating buffering, stuttering and stalling. Using viewer-side statistics, Conviva can preemptively adjust the video bitrate and stream source before an interruption occurs.

Conviva also provides the statistical insight in real-time to its customers to provide an in-depth look into how their video is performing and impacting viewer engagement. This combination of measurement and action results in increased profits for media brands.

Conviva CEO Darren Feher said, “As we work with content companies like Time Warner, one of the industry‘s most aggressive and forward-thinking media companies, to extend their great content to digital platforms we prove that video quality matters for both viewers and content owners and that moving content online can be a profitable business. We are thrilled Time Warner and our existing investors agree that now is the time to invest for growth in digital video.”

NEW DELHI: Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has relaunched its business game poweRBrands on Facebook to provide a newer, fresher online experience of the existing game.

Targeted primarily at 18 to 30 year old students and working professionals, poweRBrands allows players to live a virtual life working as an executive of a Reckitt Benckiser brand and eventually having the opportunity to rise and obtain the position of Global President.

Instead of being used as a recruitment tool, the game is designed to give the player a feel of RB’s unique culture and tests players’ skills such as innovative thinking, quick decision making, marketing skills, business acumen and the ability to take on challenges; all key characteristics of an RB employee.

Reckitt Benckiser senior vice president– South East Asia Chander Mohan Sethi said, “We take immense pride in our culture at RB and poweRBrands allows us to share this feeling with a wide audience in a fun and novel way. PoweRBrands is a natural extension to our existing portfolio of online assets and helps individuals gain valuable business skills that are necessary to prosper in his or her professional career.”

Upon its launch in July 2010, poweRBrands had achieved notable success, with FMCG industry aspirants being the most religious players. The game was redeveloped by TAMBA Internet and boasts new rewards and attributes that allow for more robust game play, also allowing previous players to keep past rewards earned.

The poweRBrand’s new Facebook fan page also encourages participants to exchange news and catch-up on game changes and innovations and link game progress to their Facebook wall.

Meanwhile, Reckitt Benckiser completed 10 years of success with a basket of globally successful brands like Dettol, Harpic, Cherry Blossom, Veet, Vanish, Lizol, Mortein, to name a few. Today the size of the company’s iconic brand Dettol is much more than the size of the company at the time of merger in 1999.

MUMBAI: Zee TV is launching in HD in the Americas by the end of the first quarter of next fiscal.

Distributed by Asia TV USA, Zee TV will become the first South Asian TV channel in the Americas to launch in HD.

Asia TV USA CEO Suresh Bala Iyer said, “Once again the Zee brand has taken on the role of a pioneer. It is a great honor for us to provide our loyal viewers their favorite programming in HD service and also to become the first channel in the Americas to deliver high quality South Asian entertainment in HD.”

Asia TV USA distributes a variety of television, entertainment and media content in the United States across DTH, telco, satellite, broadband and cable platforms.

Zee TV expanded its presence in the international space in 1998 by establishing itself as a mainstay in American households, reaching to over 2 million viewers. Zee network caters to audiences with a number of channels, including Zee Cinema, Zing, Zee Business, Ten Cricket, Zee Marathi, Zee Kannada and Alpha ETC Punjabi.