Category: Software

MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media‘s family comedy channel Sab is the first free-to-air (FTA) South Asian television channel in the United States.

Sab is available on channel 23.4 on USA‘s largest designated market area (DMA) of the New York metro area and channel 44.4 on USA‘s fifth largest DMA of Dallas/Fortworth, TX, with a combined reach of over 10 million households.

With this move, Sab has become the first free-to-air South Asian channel with the largest reach in North America, the company said.

To access the channel, viewers in the coverage area will need a low-cost UHF antenna hooked to their television sets that are DTV-capable.

Sony Entertainment Network EVP and head of international business Neeraj Arora said, “Sab‘s foray into broadcast television in North America is a great step forward to reach out to viewers who do not have access to South Asian programming on satellite and cable television. We‘ll continue these efforts and hope that Sab will cross cultural boundaries too.”

Set SVP International Business-Head of North America Jaideep Janakiram added, “At Sony Entertainment Television, we continue to lead in ways to make our programming available to the widest audience possible.This free-to-air Sab initiative is part of that goal. It‘s also a unique opportunity for local advertisers to efficiently reach the South Asian target audience in these markets.”
 
Edison Broadcasting, operators of channel 23 WDVB LD (NYC) and channel 44 KLEG LS (Dallas), are the distribution partners of Sony Entertainment Network for the FTA distribution of Sab.”

Edison is committed to being a multicast, multicultural TV station. With top-quality programming, an antenna is the best TV investment a family can make, unless its available through other platforms,” added Edison Broadcasting MD Deepak Viswanath.

MUMBAI: UTV Software Communications (UTV) has agreed to acquire the remaining stake in its subsidiary, UTV Indiagames.

UTV, which holds 56 per cent of the fully diluted equity in Vishal Gondal-founded triple play gaming company, has entered into a definitive agreement with founder promoters and employee shareholders of Indiagames to acquire further 30.02 per cent for a “purchase consideration” of Rs 945.6 million.

After completion of the deal, UTV will own 86.02 per cent of
Indiagames on a fully diluted basis.

The company also said that it is in talks with remaining shareholders to take full control of the gaming company. “The company is in active negotiation with the reminder shareholders of Indiagames to purchase the remainder shares to achieve the desired objective of increasing the company‘s (UTV) shareholding in Indiagames to 100 per cent,” UTV said.
 
In Indiagames, apart from founder and CEO Vishal Gondal, Adobe and Cisco Systems also hold minority stake.

The deal will ensure that The Walt Disney, which is taking full
control of UTV, will have Indiagames as well.
 
 
 

MUMBAI: QED Connect, Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire 75 per cent of Kaleidoscope Venture Capital, Inc.

Kaleidoscope‘s satellite communication division, Kaleidoscope-TV, delivers DirecTV programming through its proprietary roof top central dish system.

As a result of the Kaleidoscope purchase agreement, QED Connect will acquire 75 per cent of Kaleidoscope‘s common stock and will receive an additional 15 per cent upon completion of funding of $750,000, with the option to be extended for up to $2 million. The selling shareholders of Kaleidoscope have the right to re-purchase up to 25 per cent of Kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope-TV technology distributes multiple DirecTV satellite signals to customers on a single wire when coupled with DirecTV-developed technology. The central dish system allows for a single compact dish antenna assembly to serve all the units in an entire building complex. This eliminates the need for each apartment/condominium in the building to have individual DirecTV satellites dishes each requiring a direct line of sight to the signal, and for additional coaxial cables running throughout the building.
 
The central dish system offers the least costly solution then
currently available to bring direct broadcast satellite to multi-family residential properties or as multi-dwelling units (MDUs). The technology is also optimised to provide state-of-the-art high-speed Internet and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone products to DirecTV service operators and customers.

Kaleidoscope executive vice president of sales and marketing Denny Andrews will head up Kaleidoscope‘s new division, ‘Kaleidoscope Digital Media Systems‘, which will focus on customer integration of services and social media marketing deployment.

MDUs represent approximately 20 per cent of the 110 million households in the US which have one or more televisions. While direct broadcast satellite services represent 29 per cent of the overall television delivery technologies in the United States, satellite television delivery to MDU households represents only .029 per cent of overall media delivery.

Kaleidoscope-TV is initially focused on a broad array of apartments and condominiums throughout the Seattle and San Francisco markets.

Kaleidoscope president and CEO Eric Luttio said, “Joining the QED Connect organisation will give us greater resources to implement our roll out of the central dish rooftop technology and Kaleidoscope Digital Media Systems. As a result, we believe that we can achieve sales of $35 million over the next three years.”

QED Connect president and CEO Tom Makmann added, “The acquisition of Kaleidoscope validates how we are focused on executing our plan of seeking acquisitions and joint ventures with promising companies. Kaleidoscope-TV‘s technology offers a cost-effective solution to cable and we are expecting Kaleidoscope to contribute to QED Connect‘s income in 2012. We will continue to look for additional companies to add to our portfolio over the next few months.”
 
 
 
 

MUMBAI: Sky Brasil, one of the largest digital-to-home (DTH) pay-TV operators in Latin America, has selected Oracle Communications‘ billing and revenue management to help it provide more sophisticated and differentiated services to its rapidly growing subscriber base.

A subsidiary of DirecTV, Sky Brasil offers the largest selection of high-definition content in Brazil. The company‘s legacy IT system presented technical limitations that prevented it from handling its growing influx of subscribers.
 
Sky Brasil will implement Oracle Communications‘ billing and revenue management as a scalable, flexible and convergent platform to support immediate introduction of new offers that can be consolidated on a single bill.

In addition, the DTH operator will use Oracle SOA Suite to extend the Oracle solution to integrate with some of its existing systems.
 

MUMBAI: Continuing with is cost-cutting exercise, the BBC said that it was making 20 per cent savings, more than the 16 per cent required by the government under the terms of its license fee agreement agreed last year.

The remaining 4 per cent, or Â?145 million per annum, will be used for reinvestment, with online highlighted as a priority.
The Corporation‘s cost cutting efforts will free up a Â?40 million per year ‘digital innovation fund‘ to help realise its “vision for connected broadcasting” and digitise its archive. 
 
Among the proposals laid out by the BBC‘s governing body, the BBC Trust, is the Â?40 million per year fund to help drive efforts to deliver services across ‘four screens‘ – TV, PC, smartphone and tablet.

The pubcaster has also renewed its commitment to “share our technical platforms, data and code with the industry in support of a more digitally creative UK.”

The BBC will continue with previously announced plans to reduce its online budget by 25 per cent after it said that it wanted to close half of its 400 web domains and focus on 10 distinctive areas such as news, sport, weather and iPlayer last January.
 
 

MUMBAI: Intelsat S.A. has announced that a sea launch AG-provided land launch Zenit-3SLB vehicle has successfully launched the Intelsat 18 satellite from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan.

Built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, the satellite will provide
capacity to enable enhanced DTH coverage and network services capabilities via Ku-band and C-band platforms.

Said Intelsat CEO David McGlade, “Intelsat 18 will provide the
infrastructure for customers to deliver media content directly to homes throughout the Pacific Ocean region, as well as broadband services to government and commercial users.”
 
“Intelsat‘s strategy aligns our fleet investments to support our customers‘ growth needs. The Intelsat 18 payload includes a Ku-band beam designed to meet the requirements of Office des Postes et Telecommunications (OPT) of French Polynesia. The customer will use this beam to provide new broadband, expand its domestic DTH service and improve its infrastructure across French Polynesia, with the ability to serve the South Pacific,” McGlade added.

OPT currently provides services to the Pacific Ocean region on Intelsat 701.

For over 45 years, Intelsat has been delivering information and entertainment for many of the world‘s leading media and network companies and multinational corporations.

NEW DELHI: BabyFirst, the US-based 24/7 commercial-free educational channel for babies distributed in Asia by HBO, has expanded its global footprint to include leading operators NexMedia, AORA and Megamedia in Indonesia; and CEPCO in Cambodia.

Each of the four platforms are offering the linear channel as part of their basic or kids and family packages.

“With the help of our great distribution partners at HBO Asia, we are thrilled to launch in Indonesia and Cambodia – both important countries for us in the Asian market,” said BabyFirst CEO Guy Oranim. “We have seen a steady increase in demand from the region for the BabyFirstTV channel as well as for our mobile products. We’re happy to be able to answer the needs of families and provide a safe, fun and educational environment for their young children.”
 
BabyFirst can be seen now throughout Indonesia via AORA on channel 114 and on NexMedia (formerly known as MAC) on channel 101. MegaMedia will launch the BabyFirst service in Indonesia later this year. In addition, CEPCO will offer the BabyFirst channel soon to its Cambodian customers.

“HBO Asia is pleased to be able to expand the distribution of BabyFirst in Asia to NexMedia, AORA and Megamedia in Indonesia, and CEPCO in Cambodia due to our extensive reach in Asia and close relationships with our affiliates,” said Jacelyn Kek, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, HBO Asia. “Subscribers in Indonesia and Cambodia will now have access to quality educational and entertaining content for young children and their parents.”

BabyFirst is the leading baby-focused TV channel and new media company dedicated to delivering educational and entertaining content for young children and their parents. Working closely with an extensive network of renowned authorities in every area of early childhood educational and psychology, BabyFirst is an age-appropriate TV network, website and mobile app creator.

The BabyFirst channel is currently available to more than 50 million households in 35 countries including the top five U.S. satellite and cable operators. BabyFirst in included in the basic package on Dish Network and available as a premium service via DirecTV, Time-Warner, Comcast and Charter.
 

MUMBAI: Directional media company, GetIt Infoservices, has partnered with search engine marketing firm AdLift.com to improve its market share within the search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) space in India.

The company said it appointed AdLift.com as its search partner of choice because of the company‘s experience in the directional media space coupled with AdLift‘s team of exceptional search marketers that live and breathe Internet marketing. 
 
Established in 1986, Getit Infoservices (P) Ltd started Yellow Pages and later free-classifieds. The company focuses on bringing buyers and sellers together through information products and services.
 

MUMBAI: Mobile media startup, Affle, has secured over Rs 500 million in its second round of funding from D2 Communications Inc, a JV between Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo Inc. and ad agency Dentsu.

The deal is an all-cash investment for a minority stake in Affle Holdings Pte, through acquisition of both newly issued and transferred existing shares in the startup.

The funds are expected to be used for expansion in Asia, specifically in India.

In February, the two companies had entered into strategic alliance, backed with a ‘token investment‘ from D2C. This is a follow-up investment.

Till date, Affle has raised a total of $20 million in funding and is supported by Microsoft Global Finance, Itochu Corporation, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL) and Centurion Private Equity. 
 
India is one of the most important markets for Affle, where it has aggressively grown its sales teams and worked with Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, who promote and market Affle‘s apps to mobile subscribers.

The Singapore-headquartered company, which has three offices in India — Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore has worked with media agencies such as Group M, OMD, Mudra, MediaCom and Madison Communications.

Nokia, Maruti Suzuki, Pepsi, BPCL, Godrej, Samsung and ESS are some of Affle‘s clients in India.

D2 Communications CEO Takayuki Hoshuyama said that developing Asian markets have huge untapped potential for mobile advertising. “We are confident that our experience from Japan would help Affle become the dominant mobile advertising player in these mobile-first markets.”

Affle Group of Companies chairman Anuj Khanna Sohum added, “With our greater strategic association we plan to significantly further Affle‘s product portfolio and traction to deliver greater value to our users and mobile media partners globally.”

MUMBAI: UTV Bindass, the youth channel, has launched a mobile application of its popular reality show Superstud School Of Flirt.

The show recently concluded its first season with Ashmit Patel as the host. It aims to decode the complex mind of a woman and has been designed to be a visual handbook of how to or how not to woo a girl.

As an extension to the show, the mobile application – Superstud Blackbook – will act as a wingman for the guys and help them get through the various stages of the dating process by providing them with all the information required to walk into a girl‘s heart.

The Superstud Blackbook is a one stop shop for what a woman wants and how a man can fulfill them, the channel said.

The app gives access to information which allows any man to plan the four important stages of impressing women: Ice breakers; Night out; Gear up; and Chat box.

UTV Bindsass business head Keith Alphonso said, “More and more youth today consume content on their mobiles and we being a youth channel its imperative that we tap this preference. Youngsters like accessing information on their finger tips and the Superstud Blackbook app does just that, it gives them access to all the information that a guy would require anytime & anywhere to impress his woman.”

The Superstud Blackbook app has been created by OML (Only Much Louder).
 
OML Digital director Shreyas Srinivasan added, “Mobile phones today are one of the most important media consumption platforms. Media companies have a huge opportunity to tailor their products to fit this segment and gain more traction among their audience. The Superstud Blackbook app takes the shows experience mobile and adds features which are beyond the show itself. The app lives up to its promise of being the ultimate wingman. It helps you plan the perfect date by giving you access to all the information you need at your fingertips.”

The app is available for free on all Android and iPhone devices.