Category: Software

MUMBAI: Nintendo 3DS and Wii owners will soon have the ability to access even more of their favourite TV shows and movies: the Hulu Plus service will be added to both systems by the end of the year.

Nintendo is also announcing new features being added to the Nintendo 3DS system, including the ability to record 3D videos, new musical artists coming to Nintendo Video and a new animated 3D video from DreamWorks Animation. Additionally, Nintendo 3DS owners will soon see four inventive downloadable Nintendo-published games and applications delivered to the Nintendo eShop, the portable one-stop shop for fun, cool and interesting entertainment options.

Nintendo US president Reggie Fils-Aime said, “Nintendo 3DS continues to evolve with great new features and functions designed to reinforce its position as a premiere entertainment device. All of these features, in addition to great upcoming games like Pokemon Rumble Blast , Super Mario 3D Land on 13 November 2011 and Mario Kart 7 on 4 December make Nintendo 3DS a smart gift option this holiday season.”

With Hulu Plus, Wii and Nintendo 3DS users will be able to instantly stream thousands of TV episodes — including the entire current season of popular shows like Modern Family, Glee, Dancing with the Stars, The Biggest Loser, House and Grey‘s Anatomy — from premium content partners like ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV and many more.

Hulu Plus also offers access to classic TV favourites like Lost,
Battlestar Galactica, The Hills and hundreds of popular and
award-winning movies. Hulu Plus is available through a separate subscription fee of $7.99 per month with limited advertising.

At the end of November, a new system update will deliver a range of cool new features and enhancements, including 3D video capture, which will let users record up to 10 minutes of 3D video and enable people to create their own 3D stop-motion animation videos. The update will also add new puzzles to the StreetPass(TM) Mii Plaza(TM) and a new dungeon to Find Mii. Other features will be announced in the future.
 
Games Coming to the Nintendo eShop:

— Freakyforms: Your Creations, Alive! lets players create creatures and bring them to life. This game is all about creation, customization and exploration. Available in November for $6.99.

— Developed with 3D game play in mind, Pushmo(TM) asks players to solve more than 250 puzzles by pulling and pushing blocks. Players can also create their own custom puzzles. Launches in December.

— Swapnote gives Nintendo 3DS owners the chance to send 3D messages to their friends via the SpotPass and StreetPass features. Users can hand-write messages in 3D and also include picture and sound. Available for free download in December.

— Dillon‘s Rolling Western is a 3D tower defense game that blends action and strategy. It features an armadillo who defends an Old West town rendered in 3D by literally rolling over his enemies. This launches in the first quarter of next year.

Nintendo 3DS owners can now visit the Nintendo eShop and, for $1.99, download a new 3D “Thriller” video that features singing and dancing by their favorite Shrek characters from
DreamWorks Animation.

Fans of the Nintendo Video service on Nintendo 3DS will soon see the arrival of new 3D music videos, including “Don‘t
Stop (Color on the Walls)” from Foster the People‘s Torches album.

MUMBAI: Public service broadcasters in the UK face the least favourable system of retransmission fees in the developed world, according to a new independent report by media analysts Oliver and Ohlbaum.

The report, PSB Network Platform Re-Transmission And Access Charges In The UK: The Case For Change, shows that UK broadcasters have to pay for the content they provide to broadcasters without regard to the value of the content they provide, while other broadcasters across the
world are paid by the platform operators.

The report also concludes that if the UK adopted the US system of payments, it would enable up to ?96 million more a year to be spent on content by public service broadcasters. However, without any reform to the UK system, in future the amount diverted from UK content to platform providers would increase further.
 
Report author Mark Oliver, who is Oliver and Ohlbaum Associates CEO, said, “The UK clearly has the least favourable system for free-to-air broadcaster retransmission in the developed world. UK PSB broadcasters have an obligation (implicit and sometimes explicit) to be available to all TV households and, therefore, cannot in practice withdraw their services from any major TV platform. This gives platform providers significant leverage in commercial negotiations. The current regime for setting access fees to platforms such as Sky does not adequately address this imbalance in leverage between platforms and PSB channels.”

BBC director of policy and strategy John Tate said, “These charges were agreed many years ago in order to help satellite broadcasters justify the investment they needed to build their platform. The question now is whether or not this money is still flowing in the right direction.

“If we did not have to pay Sky we would save ?50 million over the remainder of the licence fee period and that could go back into programme making – it would for example cover all the costs that we are currently planning to take out of local radio and BBC Four combined.”
 
The report found that there are typically three types of contributions made by platform operators to free-to-air broadcasters – copyright fees; the incremental cost of transmission; and carriage or access payments. The UK is the only country with a developed market where none of these contributions are made, and where the value of free-to-air services to the platform operators and their wider public
benefit is not recognised.

The report analysed five potential alternative systems of access charges. It concluded that requiring platform operators to carry content without levying a fee on channels is the simplest solution. It also identified the opportunity to create more complex regimes which could create more investment in programming.

MUMBAI: UK pay TV operator Sky has posted a revenue of ?1.6 billion for the three-month period ended September, up nine per cent from the year-ago period, as it gained from the broadly based growth in retail and other lines of business.

Adjusted operating profit was up 16 per cent to ?295 million with further margin improvement.

There was a 20 per cent increase in adjusted basic earnings per share to 11.6 pence. There was also a 39 per cent growth in adjusted free cash flow to ?96 million.
 
Subscriber and products growth were up 77,000 and 683,000
respectively. There was continued improvement in product mix with 2.9 million customers taking all three of TV, broadband and telephony, up by 29 per cent.

Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch said, “In tough market conditions, our move to more broadly based growth and multiple products is serving us well. New customers are choosing Sky over other providers, existing customers are taking more from us and our financial performance is accelerating, with another quarter of double-digit growth in operating profit, EPS and free cash flow.”

MUMBAI: People who use personal devices such as tablets and smartphones at the same time as watching TV are ignoring television commercials almost completely, according to new research published by the Strategy Analytics Digital Home Observatory.

The report, ‘Multi-Screen User Behaviors in the Home‘, identifies why multiscreen users shift their focus between devices and how this varies according to the type of television content viewed. For example, high impact scenes on television screen can divert user attention away from personal devices, while television advertising diverts attention toward them.

Strategy Analytics senior analyst and the report‘s author Caroline Park said, “Simultaneous use of several screens is a behavior that is being readily adopted and has quickly become the main way that early adopters choose to experience watching TV. Multiscreen users very rarely concentrate solely on a television show in its entirety, and
while this presents challenges to the TV industry, it also offers new opportunities for viewer engagement.”
 
The study also found that TV ad breaks have an impact on casual games played on personal devices. Survey participants noted that they preferred games which didn‘t take long to complete, or which were not time-dependent, so that they could fit their games activity into the ad breaks.

“Understanding when and how `focus shifts‘ between the TV and personal devices occur is key to delivering a superior multi-screen user experience, as well as providing an opportunity to retain the attention of viewers on advertising,” concludes Park.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster Spike TV and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) have announced an exclusive partnership that includes plans to telecast live coverage from the 2012 International CES , the consumer technology tradeshow.

Spike will also introduce “CES All Access Live,” which will offer tech fans more than 12 hours of 2012 CES coverage across multiple platforms – TV, online, mobile and social.

The live special will kick-off with five hours of live telecasts in HD from Las Vegas on 10 January 2012 and will be the first of this year‘s Spike “All Access” Live Specials, which will also occur at two other events throughout the year. 
 
The 2012 International CES runs from 10-13 January 2012 in Las Vegas.

Spike TV senior VP sports and multi-platform events Jon Slusser said, “We‘re excited to partner with CEA and bring CES to audiences like never before on live television. Cultural events like CES will offer our viewers a first look at the things they‘ll be playing, watching and talking about in the next year and Spike‘s ‘CES All Access Live‘ multi-platform program offerings will deliver a front row seat to all the action.”

CEA president, CEO Gary Shapiro said, “Spike‘s live coverage will help share the amazing product launches at the 2012 CES with a new audience and give consumers an exclusive opportunity to preview all the amazing new technologies announced at the 2012 CES”.

As a part of the network‘s overall “All Access” program offering, which breaks down what‘s next in pop-culture, technology and gaming, the “CES All Access Live” multi-platform experience will be viewable live on Spike TV, online on Spike.com, GameTrailers.com and Facebook.com, mobile phones and tablets including the iPhone, iPad and Android devices as well as on giant video screens located in the “Crossroads of the World” in New York City‘s Times Square.
 
Broadcasting from its own CES studio in Las Vegas, Spike‘s expert team, including Geoff Keighley, Justine Ezarik and other notable talent to be announced shortly, will feature breaking news from the 2012 CES show floor, exclusive world premieres of new “must own” devices and video games, hands-on demonstrations and unboxings, interviews with the biggest names in entertainment and technology and a look into Spike‘s exclusive VIP CES party at Tryst Nightclub in the Wynn Las Vegas.

“CES All Access Live” will also feature a social media experience as part of its programming coverage using Twitter and Facebook to engage audience participation and provide up-to-the-minute feedback. Viewers will be encouraged to interact with show hosts in real time and share thoughts on new products, participate in opinion polls or ask questions. They will then be able to receive answers from hosts and guests, view poll results or see their comments pop up on screen instantaneously.

From whichever platform viewers choose to watch, Spike‘s “CES All Access” will offer a first-hand look into the 2012 CES‘ hottest items, from televisions to tablets, cell phones to cars and games to gadgets, as the team sifts through thousands of new products and analyzes the biggest trends, the best inventions and the most important new technologies of the future.

MUMBAI: Wire and Wireless (India) Limited (WWIL) has narrowed its second-quarter consolidated net loss to Rs 141.81 million compared to Rs 203.20 million a year ago and expects to break-even within the next few quarters.

WWIL, which had sunk into losses due to the investments it made towards Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS), is already profitable at the operational level for the last six quarters.

“We should be profitable at the net level in the next few quarters. We are positive at the Ebitda level for six consecutive quarters,” said WWIL CEO Sudhir Agarwal.
 
The Subhash Chandra-promoted cable TV company reported an operating profit of Rs 72 million for the three-month period ended September compared to Rs 30.7 million in the earlier year.

WWIL repaid a loan of Rs 700 million in the fiscal second-quarter. “Efforts will continue to cut down our debt,” said Agarwal. WWIL has a debt of around Rs 3 billion.

Operating revenue rose to Rs 893 million, up 21 per cent from Rs 737.7 million in the earlier year.

Expenses jumped 22.4 per cent to Rs 889.3 million, as against Rs 726.45 million a year ago. WWIL‘s major cost item was cost of goods & services, which stood at Rs 637 million during the quarter representing 66 per cent of the of the total expenses (in comparison to Rs 549 million in the second quarter of the last fiscal, representing 73 per cent of the total revenue).
 
On a standalone basis, WWIL‘s net loss for the quarter stood at Rs 97.44 million (as against Rs 214.98 million). Revenue was up at Rs 631.99 million (from Rs 484.39 million), while expenses surged to Rs 653.4 million, from Rs 582.60 million in the earlier year.

WWIL is looking at expanding its footprint to new strategically important geographies.

Said Agarwal, “We will continue to work towards making the existing business self-sustainable as well as expand our footprint to new strategically important geographies. With Government clearing the ordinance on digitisation, we are truly on the cusp of a huge transformation and ready to move to the next level and capitalise on our investments in infrastructure, systems, processes and people.”

MUMBAI: Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), the global digital content services provider, has appointed Kapil Gupta as VP of Program Management.

Gupta moves from IT services organisation Steria, where he worked as senior vice president and was responsible for business verticals and leading a team of 800. He has also worked with organisations like General Electric, Ernst & Young and Infosys.

Gupta‘s responsibilities will include providing leadership for all strategic programs related to PFT‘s service offerings, including the “Clear” technology platform, digitisation and media processing. 
 
The new profile has been created as part of the expansion of the company‘s management team to help meet global demand for the end-to-end services and solutions offered by PFT.

Recent major project wins across the globe, and technological advances such as the implementation of PFT‘s Domain Centric Cloud model, which connects broadcasters, content suppliers and playout origination centres, have cemented the need for this expansion. 
 
“Gupta was the perfect choice for this exciting and challenging new role” said Prime Focus Technologies COO Ganesh Sankaran. “With his background in IT services and processes, he will bring further best practice elements to our work with the M&E industry, and his understanding of the business and economic demands that our clients are facing means that he will be perfectly placed to help drive forward our many forthcoming initiatives.”

Gupta added, “Prime Focus Technologies provides the most innovative solution to the M&E industry sector. I am excited at the prospect of contributing to the ongoing success of this forward-thinking and progressive company.”

MUMBAI: The number of homes using the Internet to watch television shows and movies on the TV screen has reached more than 42 million across the US and Europe, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics’ Connected Home Devices (CHD) service.

The report, “Multiscreen Connected TV: Assessing Device Usage and Ownership,” bases its findings on a survey of 4800 respondents.

The research found that connected TV usage is twice as popular in the US as in Europe: 20 per cent of US respondents have watched Internet content on their TV screens in the past month, compared to only 10 per cent of Europeans.
 
The report concludes that this difference reflects the relative strength of digital services such as Netflix and Hulu in the US market.

The research also investigates the ways in which consumers are connecting their TVs to the Internet. In the US, the most popular option is the games console, but Europeans prefer to connect a PC to the TV using an HDMI cable. Streaming over a home network and Internet-connected Blu-ray disc players are also significant in both territories.

Apart from the TV screen, the PC is still the most important device. Personal devices such as tablets and smartphones are less popular, although tablets are likely to become more important as the market continues to grow rapidly.
 
Strategy Analytics principal analyst and the report’s author David Mercer said, “These findings have important implications for content providers, device manufacturers and network operators. They demonstrate that television viewers are prepared to go to significant lengths to watch their preferred television shows or movies on the big screen. In spite of the technical challenges, many people want to be freed from the constraints of traditional, managed television services if their choice of content is not available when they want, where they want, and at a price they are willing to pay.”

MUMBAI: Leightronix has announced the release of Zoned Total Info, a new multi-zone display feature for UltraNexus and UltraNexus-SDI digital video servers.

The new feature combines multiple digital media resources, including video clips and promos, slides, and slide show sequences, with dynamic, real-time weather and news information.

Zoned Total Info provides three video zones that include a primary digital media playback window and two dynamic Total Info data content zones. One of the Total Info zones is dedicated to local weather information while the other rotates between user-selected news, sports, metro traffic, financials, and general interest “dailies” data categories.
 
The dynamic data is automatically retrieved from the online Total Info data server and then rendered for display over thematic graphic backgrounds specific to each data category.

Zoned Total Info may be set up to automatically display between programmes as part of the UltraNexus/UltraNexus-SDI Virtual Channel playlists, two independent, default looping video resources that fill unscheduled programming time on each of the video server playback channels. Alternatively, Zoned Total Info may be enabled to run full time as a complement to scheduled and immediate program playback.

Total Info adds visual impact/quality to local broadcast and cable channels with a montage of informational and entertainment programming consisting of dynamic data and custom user graphics layered over backgrounds.
 
Total Info, the company says, has gained popularity among
locally originated television operations such as public, educational, and government (PEG) cable access channels as well as private, in-house communication networks in corporate, hospitality, medical, and institutional settings.

A one-year subscription to Total Info is included with UltraNexus and UltraNexus-SDI video servers and may be added as an option to Nexus video server systems. The multi-zone enhancement is exclusive to UltraNexus and UltraNexus-SDI. Current UltraNexus and UltraNexus-SDI users with active Total Info subscriptions will be able to access the
new display feature through a firmware upgrade at no cost.

MUMBAI: MTV has partnered with Hungama to launch ‘MTV DJ dial’, a mobile DJ service.

MTV DJ Dial allows listners to dial in and listen to the latest
chartbusters on their mobile phones on the go, without going through menus. Users will have to call on the MTV hotline 546461, which it has launched on 1 September across service operators like Airtel, Tata Docomo, Tata Indicom, Vodafone, MTS, Uninor and Reliance.
 
After calling on the hotline at any time, users will be presented with range of songs from four definitive categories – Hit pe Hit, Past ka Blast, Khambakht Ishq and Bollywood Phataka, specially selected by a DJ from MTV.

MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy said, “Entertainment has moved from being a one way medium to a two way exchange. With MTV DJ Dial, we are giving people the opportunity to carry a piece of MTV wherever you go. We have consistently looked to engage with young people across 3 screens and this is another step in that direction.”
 
Commenting on the launch, Hungama COO Albert Almeida said, “The mobile phone has emerged as the most preferred entertainment device with consumers today. At Hungama Mobile, we endeavour to constantly create new and innovative products and services on the mobile platform for
our partners to take to the consumer. In a film and music obsessed country like ours, MTV DJ Dial not only gives the consumers a chance to listen to his/ her favourite music anytime, anywhere, but also connect with they’re favourite MTV VJs.”