Category: Software

MUMBAI: The market value of the listed cable companies got a boost after the government approved an ordinance on digitisation of cable TV.

Investors evinced interest in the cable companies and the only listed direct-to-home (DTH) firm Dish TV.

Wire & Wireless (India) Ltd (WWIL) and Hathway Cable & Datacom were the biggest beneficiaries on Thursday as their stocks surged 20 per cent and 10 per cent jump respectively.
 
WWIL shares closed at Rs 8.49 apiece on the BSE, 19.92 per cent higher to the previous day’s close. Hathway shares closed at Rs 101.75, up 10.75 per cent.

The other listed MSOs, however, could not be tpart of the rally. Hinduja Ventures, which owns IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL), rose 2.06 per cent to close at Rs 316.4 per share.

Shares of Den Networks closed at Rs 82.05, up by just were 0.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, Dish TV shares closed at Rs 80.3, up 3.21 per cent on the BSE.
 

MUMBAI/NEW DILHI: The Cabinet Thursday cleared the proposal for an ordinance to commence work on digitisation of cable television, thus giving its seal of approval to the roadmap drawn up by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The ordinance seeks to amend the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act to meet the 31 March 2012 deadline for digitisation in the four metros.
 
The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared the proposal for digitisation of TV services that will cover all areas by digital TV by 2014.

Addressing the media after the cabinet meeting, I&B Minister Ambika Soni said, “Cable operators will have to abandon analog in the four metros by 31 March next, while cities with a population of one million will be covered by 31 March 2013. All urban areas would be covered by 30 September 2014. The entire country will be covered by 31 December 2014.”

She said the draft of the ordinance will now be sent to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil for her consideration, and it will be promulgated and notified after her approval.  
 
Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that the Ordinance was being brought forward as the next session of Parliament was still about two months away and the deadline for digitising the cable television operations in the four metros by March 2012 was fast approaching. (Under the Constitution, any Ordinance has to be approved within six weeks of the commencement of the next session of Parliament, otherwise it will lapse.)

The new ordinance to amend Section 4A of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 is necessary as it currently does not have any provision for beaming free-to-air channels through the digital set top box.

Presently, a total of around 116 million homes are receiving cable TV signals from broadcasters and MSOs in the country‘s Rs 200-billion cable and satellite television industry.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has denied that its plans to modernize its direct-to-home platform, DD Direct Plus, by leasing it out for operation and maintenance to a private party will result in any loss to the pubcaster.

DD sources told indiantelevision.com that DD Direct Plus was expected to get an annual fee of Rs One billion each from the 54 channels that will beam on MPEG 2 and Rs 1.5 billion each from the 96 channels that will beam on MPEG 4.

However, these sources claim that the private party which will be selected for outsourcing operations and maintenance for a period of five years will be paid only Rs 600 milllion per year.

The Recognised Association‘s Forum Of Akashwani and Doordarshan had written a letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni describing the move as an “arbitrary and undemocratic decision” of the Nominated Member and Prasar Bharati CEO Rajiv Takru who is Additional Secretary in the Ministry.

It has also been pointed out that the Planning Commission has already sanctioned an amount of additional Rs 1.44 billion to Doordarshan, which is sufficient for this purpose.

But DD sources told indiantelevision.com that the plan was to float tenders to find parties who would not only install new and state-of-the-art equipment but also run the operations and maintenance of DD Direct Plus for a period of five years.

However, the proposal had still not received final clearance from the government, the sources added.

When floated, the request for proposal (RFP) will invite eligible private DTH and teleport operators to take over the operational command and control of DD Direct Plus for the next five years for a fixed monthly fee.

The action is being taken to facilitate the raising of the capacity of the platform from 59 to 200 and beyond in 6-8 months.

Doordarshan spends Rs 3.5 billion to Rs four billion every year to operate 59 channels on DD Direct+ (including 22 DD channels), sources said. 
 
Under the proposed arrangement, private operators will manage the entire technical back-end of DD Direct Plus including uplink and downlink of channels, quality control, expansion and subscriber management, among others.

In order to attract only serious private players, Doordarshan will keep the net worth requirement for bidders at Rs two billion, which means only DTH firms like Dish TV, Tata Sky, Digital TV, Sun Direct and others can qualify. Among teleport operators, Essel Shyam and HFCL are said to have a net worth above Rs two million.

Private firms will be able to bid as a company or a consortium as long as they have experience of operating a minimum of 30 channels on MPEG-2 technology.

Meanwhile, the Association of Radio & Television Engineering Employees (ARTEE) and the National Federation of Akashvani & Doordarshan Employees (NFADE) have claimed that the Centre sanctioned Rs.449.6 billion in August 2010 for upgrading the hardware to uplink 97 channels. But Prasar Bharati decided to outsource the work to any private agency to uplink 100 channels at the cost of Rs 770 million per year with an increase of 40 per cent every year.

The two organisations say that ‘the mockery is the private agency will operate from our own building at Todapur (from where present DTH system with 56 channels)’.

DD sources said if one went by the fact that Doordarshan earned Rs 630 million by successfully e-auctioning and allotting 26 slots to private broadcasters, the policy of taking on a private party had been a successful exercise.

The public broadcaster is now expected to put on auction another 90 slots within the next few months as it increases its capacity from 59 to 150 channels. If the present revenue is any indication, then DD may make another Rs 2.17 billion, crossing the Rs 2.8 billion mark before 31 March 2012.

The e-auction was adopted after some private channels challenged the decision of Prasar Bharati last year to remove them without assigning valid and acceptable reasons. The Court then asked the public broadcaster to adopt a transparent system for allocation of slots.

The first-two e-auctions were conducted by NCDEX Spot, Mumbai, an online trading firm after giving due training and exposure to all participating bidders.

MUMBAI: Global security provider Conax will introduce its solution for securely uniting traditional broadcast and broadband content distribution to Indian pay-TV operators at SCaT in Mumbai this week.

Based on flagship product Conax Contego, the Conax Contego Unite product offering will provide TV operators with a universal security hub that unites multi-platform protection for pay-TV content across broadcast, broadband and OTT (Over-the-Top) scenarios. 

“Conax is the leading provider of content security solution to the Indian pay-TV market and is now positioning to provide its customers with the vision and tools necessary to harness the monetary opportunities provided by OTT distribution”, says Conax VP Asia Sales Are Mathisen.

Secure content distribution over the combined scenario of broadcast, broadband and connected devices introduces a new and highly complex scenario. As TV meets the Internet, Contego Unite will enable TV operators to extend their broadcast and/or broadband pay-for-content offering to include the opportunities provided by growing multitude of popular connected consumer devices.  
 
Through Conax Contego Unite, Conax will provide digital TV service providers in the vast Indian market with a unified and flexible security hub for eliminating revenue threats for all distribution models and video services – anytime, anywhere.

NEW DELHI: The New Telecom Policy announced by the Government will aim to address and enable the coordinated action to respond to the dynamic needs resulting from confluence of telecom, broadcasting and IT sectors.

The aim will be to move towards a Unified Licence regime in order to exploit the attendant benefits of convergence, for which there is already an in-principle acceptance. A migration path will also have to be provided for existing licensees to Unified Licence Regime.

The Policy, announced by Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, says “it is now imperative to move towards convergence between telecom, broadcast and IT services, networks, platforms, technologies and overcome the existing segregation of licensing, registration and regulatory mechanisms in these areas to enhance affordability, increase access, delivery of multiple services and reduce cost. It will be a key enabler of equitable and inclusive growth. The policy aims to address and enable the coordinated action to respond to the dynamic needs resulting from confluence of telecom, broadcasting and IT sectors.” 

Given the continued predominant role of wireless technologies in delivery of services in ICT sector, NTP-2011 incorporates framework for increasing the availability of spectrum for telecom services including triple play services (voice, video and data) for which broadband is the key driver. This will be facilitated by deployment of services through appropriate instrumentalities, while safeguarding national interests.

Referring to licensing, convergence and value added services, the Policy says the aim is to orient, review and harmonise the legal, regulatory and licensing framework in a time bound manner to enable seamless delivery of converged services in technology neutral environment.

Convergence would cover voice, data, video, Internet telephony (VoIP), value added services and broadcasting services. It will mean convergence of networks – convergence of access network, carriage network (NLD/ ILD) and broadcast network.

Convergence of devices like the telephone, Personal Computer, Television, Radio, inter-operable set top boxes and other connected devices will also become a necessity. NTP 2011 will encourage digitiaation of the local cable networks. 
 
The Minister said NTP-2011 endeavours to create an investor friendly environment for attracting additional investments in the sector apart from generating manifold employment opportunities in various segments of the sector.

In achieving the goals of National Telecom Policy 2011 revenue generation will play a secondary role.

NTP-2011 has the vision Broadband on Demand and envisages leveraging telecom infrastructure to enable all citizens and businesses, both in rural and urban landscape, to participate in the Internet and web economy, thereby ensuring equitable and inclusive development across the nation. It provides the enabling framework for enhancing India’s competitiveness in all spheres of the economy.

NTP-2011 envisages support to platform neutral services in
e-governance and m-governance in key social sectors such as health, education and agriculture that are at present limited to a few organisations in isolated pockets. This will expand the footprint of these services and, thus, foster an atmosphere of participative democracy delivery model that is truly citizen-centric.

MUMBAI: Cable TV companies will face rout if they do not capitalise and act swiftly and decisively to counter DTH’s invasion across the country.

The time has arrived for the big multi-system operators (MSOs) to stop adding analogue weight and focus on building a strong base for digitisation and broadband services.

“Cable companies do not have the luxury of time. They are under-invested and have not done their job. If DTH does not kill them, Internet will as watching television on the move picks up. They will have to act swiftly. If I am a cable company, I would be concerned. The investments may be too little and come too late,” warned IDFC Securities MD and research head Nikhil Vora.

Hathway Cable & Datacom managing director and chief executive officer K Jayaraman said the big MSOs had taken the consolidation route for the last few years and now the thrust should be on digitisation.
 
“The top-tier MSOs have enough market share and do not need consolidation. There will be more stress if they add more analogue homes. When the government is expected to mandate digitisation soon, it does not make sense to acquire last mile operators by paying a premium at this stage,” Jayaraman said, while speaking at the India Digital Pay-TV Summit.

Exponentia Capital principal Neeraj Bhatia agreed that the top MSOs have built enough economic size with a reach of over eight million homes. “Horizontal consolidation does not make sense at this stage as they all have size. Vertical consolidation is the need of the hour as the acquisition of operators will lead to revenue augmentation. For MSOs to attract capital from investors, they will have to demonstrate that they can achieve profitability faster,” he said.

Vora raised the issue of the sector failing to take risks. “Unlike DTH, the cable companies have not made investments ahead of time. Everybody knows it is a long-haul business. Digitisation, undoubtedly, throws open a huge opportunity. But if fatigue sets in among cable companies, DTH will grow,” Vora said.

Jayaraman believes that the big MSOs will not face funding problem in the first phase of digitisation. “There is cash residing in these companies. They will also be able to raise some debt. Along with vendor financing, there shouldn‘t be a problem in funding the first phase. Some of the MSOs can also raise capital through rights issue. There are enough avenues to raise capital,” he said.
 
Being wired companies, cable TV networks have an inherent technology advantage over direct-to-home service providers. “The problem, however, lies in the poor track record of the cable companies. There is also the issue of structuring of the industry with the local operators having control of the last mile,” averred Bhatia.

The cable TV sector will see a new wave of consolidation under a digitisation regime. “The industry will consolidate further and MSOs will be aggressive in this space. Cable companies have used their capital intelligently. While DTH has grown to 30 million, only nine million out of this has come from urban areas. Analogue cable has also added 20 million during this period,” said Den president SN Sharma.

A phase-wise rollout of digitisation will provide the distribution companies a huge growth opportunity. “The ones who have done well in Phase I will have the country to themselves,” concluded Bhatia.

MUMBAI: Star Plus is India‘s first Hindi general entertainment channel to launch applications for iPhone and iPad in India and over 120 countries around the world.

With the launch of Star plus app, the channel‘s content will be available on-the-go and viewers can access their favourite shows whenever, wherever and however.
 
“We have always provided our viewers with discerning content using cutting edge technologies. Our entry into the iPad, iPhone App store will enable our upwardly mobile viewers to watch their best loved programs on iphone and ipad wherever they are and whenever they want to,” Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said.

The app will also offer unique features like live TV, catch up of missed episodes of last two days, updates/news from Star Plus‘ current and upcoming shows. Also, a unique, built-in interactive feature will allow users to connect with their favourite Star Plus characters through audio-blogs and pictures. Besides, the app also allows users to share the content they like with friends and family through Facebook and Twitter.
 
Star India VP- Digital Lalit Bhagia added, “The iPhone and iPad devices have changed the way people consume content globally. With the Star Plus app discerning viewers will now have access to the content available on their personal iphone and ipads. The app allows users not just a video experience, but also gives details on show schedules, news and updates on their favorite show characters through daily audio blogs.”

The application also enables users to browse content either by the show or by the characters. It combines the channel‘s exclusive programmes with interactive features in an easy-to-use interface.

MUMBAI: Sky Italia has announced that it has exceeded five million customers reaching 15 million people across Italy.

Since its launch in July 2003, Sky has established itself as Italy‘s most comprehensive multi-channel TV platform.

The company has delivered subscriber growth by consistently investing in programming, providing customers with an increasing choice of entertainment and a better viewing experience.
 
Sky has broadened its product offering and driven innovation in the Italian TV market. It has pioneered high definition broadcasting. Today more than two-thirds of all Sky subscribers take HD TV, while one-in-three take the MySky PVR,� the company said.

The company recently launched Sky Go, a new service that enables customers to watch live TV on the move via tablet devices. Another first has been the launch of Sky3D, Italy‘s first TV channel with 24 hour 3D programming.

Sky’s initiatives include:

SkyTG24 – Italy‘s most respected all-news channel
SkySport – evolutionizing the way live sports is broadcast, offering customers a unique viewing experience. This has contributed to not only the growth of Sky but also to the growth and development of the Italian football and sports industry.

Original programming – Productions such as �Romanzo Criminale’ have set a new standard for storytelling while SkyCinema is the leading supporter and promoter of the Italian film industry.

Sky Italia chairman and News Corp deputy COO and chairman and CEO, International, James Murdoch said, “It is a great achievement to be chosen by over five million Italian families. It is to the credit of Sky‘s first-class management team that the company has continued to deliver against a tough economic environment and I would like to thank Tom Mockridge, who led Sky Italia since its inception, for his contribution.”

MUMBAI: Times Internet Limited (indiatimes.com) is expanding its sports portfolio. International sports media company Perform today confirmed a deal with the Internet media company for the English Premier League‘s (EPL) online and mobile video content rights for India.

The partnership will have video content of the EPL appear across both the online and mobile portals of Times Internet. The Indian Premier League (IPL) and the NBA is also with Times Internet.
 
The website clips will be delivered across Indiatimes portals as well as via Perform‘s embeddable sports VOD platform ePlayer.

The advertising inventory will be sold by both parties. For mobile, the clips and related content will be available on the Indiatimes 58888 mobile site exclusively as well as via a range of Indiatimes branded mobile portals on telecom partners within India.
 
Times Internet claims that in August 2011 it reached over 24 million unique visitors while the mobile sites reached 20 million unique users.

Times Internet CEO Rishi Khiani said, “Given the growing popularity of football, especially EPL, in India, this is a strategic content partnership for us. Couple this with the growth of fans accessing sport via connected devices and our reach in the Indian market, we are poised to capitalise on these trends whilst simultaneously providing our readers and advertising partners with exciting new sport content.”

Perform joint-CEO Oliver Slipper said, “The Indian market provides a hugely exciting opportunity and we are delighted to be partnering with such an influential publisher. As we are seeing in other markets, as networks improve and devices become more widely adopted, accessing sport video becomes the norm and with this comes commercialisation opportunities which we are well placed to take advantage of.”

MUMBAI: US non fiction media company Discovery and UK pubcaster The BBC are once again joining forces, announcing the co-production of a new series titled ‘History Of The World’.

The eight-part programme, set to premiere in 2013, spans the globe to provide the definitive account of human civilization.

From 70,000 BC to 2011 AD, the series recounts the world‘s most decisive turning points. Each episode highlights military campaigns, love stories, medical breakthroughs and assassinations, telling the story of our shared history.
 
Through state-of-the-art CGI technology, high-end dramatic reconstructions and stunning location footage from five continents, viewers are transported back in time to witness the events and meet the people who have changed the course of human history.

Topics to be covered include the struggle to survive the ice age, the birth of democracy, the Viking conquests, the ultimate Renaissance Man, the beginnings of the world‘s great religions, the first-ever Stock Exchange, the Trial of Galileo, the creation of a nation by slaves, the Cold War and the economic power-houses of the 21st century.

From the early settlers in Mesopotamia to the wonders of Babylon and Egypt; from the earliest Chinese Dynasties to the ancient Greeks and the Roman Empires; from the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors to the Industrial Revolution; from the Opium Wars to World War II – the show will look to reminds viewers where they came from and take them on a journey through time.