Category: Software

MUMBAI: Cogo Group has announced that upgrades to High Definition Television (HDTV) in China are accelerating with total subscribers reaching over two million.

A combination of strong consumer demand and aggressive roll-out schedules are helping to fuel this growth. 
 
Cogo is currently working with over 20 manufacturers of HDTV set-top boxes as it continues to pursue new customers.

Over the last few years, Cogo has worked closely with its key HDTV component supplier to develop customized solutions. Cogo previously revealed its design wins for HD solutions, which it will provide to multiple top-tier set-top box manufacturers.

Cogo believes its partner, a global leader in semiconductors, has gained material share in HDTV set-top boxes versus other standard digital TV solutions in China.

Based on current projections, HDTV subscribers are expected to reach six million by the end of 2010. Cogo expects that over time the majority of China‘s over 1,000 city-based cable operators will ultimately roll out HDTV.

Given the country‘s increase in cable subscribers and base of 60 million digital subscribers, Cogo believes HDTV in China will reach over 30 million by the end of 2012. The company continues to believe that the preferred method for upgrade will include the purchase of a new set-top box.  
 
Cogo CEO Jeffrey Kang says, “We are benefiting from a continued strong macro backdrop in China across both the industrials and consumer segments. This, combined with a series of new revenue streams, will continue to drive improvements across all our businesses throughout the second half of 2010.”

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has launched ESPN Player in Singapore with SingTel.

This provides consumers with on-demand access to international sports content, while offering an engaging online experience.
 
The broadcaster says that this is the region‘s first online multi-sports service to combine video, scores, and community within a single interactive experience.

ESPN Player provides fans on-demand online access to sports and programming.

Offering both live and library events throughout the year, ESPN Player delivers sports programming available online to fans through a rich, interactive, easy-to-use experience and access to the sports action with in-game statistics and scoreboards.

In addition, ESS launched two new channel offerings in ESPN HD in South East Asia and Taiwan, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to their respective markets. The launch saw the Wimbledon Championship being shown in high-definition in Asia for the first time on ESPN HD.

ESS MD Manu Sawhney says, “We are driven with a single-minded aim to serve sport fans across the region by creating new, relevant and innovative offerings for them to engage with their favourite sports. Over the last few years, we have brought many such offerings to fans across the region and today, I am very pleased to announce the launch of ESPN Player and ESPN HD, which is a testament to our continued commitment to enrich the viewing experience of sport fans, and to set new benchmarks in sports consumption across the region.”
ESPN Player kicked off its launch by showcasing a wide variety of live matches, highlights and a library of archival Wimbledon Championship content. ESPN Player and ESPN HD will be soon launched in other Asian markets in the upcoming months.

MUMBAI: Multimedia platforms proved central to fans’ enjoyment of the recently concluded 2010 soccer World Cup as the game‘s governing body Fifa – through its web and Twitter feeds – successfully delivered a range of complementary digital experiences to football enthusiasts around the world.

In addition to the many millions of fans watching the matches on TV, over 220,000 people followed Fifa‘s official tweets on Twitter, while members of the five million-strong Fifa.com Club swapped 120 million virtual stickers and made over one million comments on the website as they debated the finer points of the tournament.
  
With its content and interactivity over the course of the tournament’s 31 days, Fifa.com attracted over 250 million visits – approximately 150 million unique users, triggering seven billion page views: 410 million of those page views were recorded in a single day. When England and the US played simultaneously, Fifa.com technicians reported a throughput of 1,000,000 hits per second at the height of the activity. 
 
Fifa adds that the level of demand for its online content has surpassed expectations. Fifa.com welcomed three times more unique users than in 2006, serving pages to 150 million people over the course of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Fifa exceeded forecasts for page impressions by 1.5 billion. The 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa has witnessed a new level of digital engagement from fans across the globe.

MUMBAI: In a significant development that is set to deeply impact the industry, Network18 Group and Sun Network have formed a distribution joint venture company.

The  new entity, to be called Sun18, will start with the distribution of 33 channels across all platforms including cable, DTH, IPTV, HITS and MMDS.

The alliance marks the entry of Network18 Group into the Indian television distribution space. It also ends Viacom18‘s deal with TheOneAlliance, the Sony-Discovery joint venture which distributes channels.

Interestingly, the Network18 group channels (CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18, CNBC-Awaaz, IBN-7 and IBN-Lokmat) will move from the Star Den JV to Sun18. Only the Star channels, Times Now and Zoom will remain with Star Den.

Sun18 also gets to distribute the Viacom18 channels – Colors, MTV, Nick and Vh1. The new JV will also handle the Disney channels – The Disney Channel, Disney XD and Hungama TV.

Sun18 will have India‘s largest multilingual network comprising Sun TV, KTV, Sun News, Sun Music, Chutti TV, Adithya, Gemini TV, Teja TV, Gemini News, Gemini Music, Navvulu TV, Kushi TV, Surya TV, Kiran TV, Udaya TV, Udaya Movies, U2, Udaya Varthegalu, Ushe TV and Chintu TV. 

“With these 33 channels, the Sun18 bouquet is already the highest GRP delivering bouquet in the Indian television space. The option to aggregate third party channels is also one of the opportunities this venture will seek to explore,” an official statement said.

As part of the strategic alliance, two new companies are being formed – Sun18 Media Services North Co. and Sun18 Media Services South Co.

Left to Right- Tony D’ Silva, Ajay Vidyasagar, Kalanithi Maran, Raghav Bahl, Haresh Chawla, Rajesh Kamat

While Sun18 South will manage the South India market (non Hindi-speaking-markets) and will be operated by the Sun Network, Sun18 North will manage the rest of India markets and will be operated by the Network18 Group.

Sun18 North will be headed by Haresh Chawla (Group CEO – Network18 and Viacom18) as its CEO & director. Rajesh Kamat (Viacom18 Group COO & CEO Colors), will be the COO of Sun18 North. Sun18 South will be headed by Tony D‘Silva as its CEO.
 
Said Network18 Group founder Raghav Bahl, “This partnership extends Network18‘s presence into yet another critical component of the Indian television & entertainment space. In Sun Group, we‘ve found a partner that not only complements our own strengths, but is also as ambitious to change the landscape of the Indian broadcasting industry.”

He further added, “Distribution is one of the high-growth areas in this industry and we‘re excited to now have a presence in this part of the business as well.”

Sun Network CMD Kalanithi Maran said, “Sun18 is a very important initiative for us in the distribution platform business and is being created with the vision of better leveraging our very successful television brands across the country. The content assets and resources of Sun TV Network and Network 18, will enable us to continue to thrive in an ever-changing media landscape. Consumers of all of our products – on screens large and small – will have the benefit of enhanced content and experiences, delivered to them in new and better ways as a result of this initiative. It also signals our deep commitment to drive greater growth from subscription revenues.”

Commenting on Sun18, Chawla said, “This unique alliance will bridge one of the widest gaps that has existed in the Indian television space for long – the gap between the South and the rest-of-India markets.”

MUMBAI: IPTV will grow at a CAGR of 25 per cent and have in its net a subscriber base of 102 million in 2014, forecasts Multimedia Research Group.

IPTV service revenue is set to touch $46 billion by 2014 as operators make efforts to increase penetration and raise ARPUs (average revenue per user).
 
IPTV operators are using fiber in high-competition markets and advanced DSL such as channel bonding and VDSL2 in other less competitive markets. As a result, telcos have been discreetly improving their IPTV bandwidth capacity to sub-markets that need upgrades without overspending in markets that don’t require immediate upgrading.

The Eastern European IPTV market is moving quickly to early maturity, while ROW markets show faster gains than other regions. “As late as 2007, Eastern Europe had only a few IPTV trials or startups. Now, there are 16 fully operating IPTV operators and another 3-6 in trial,” the study said.
 
The operators continue to grow their service base, because they have much greater technical and creative control over their service than their cable competition. By 2014, Europe will have 45 per cent of the global market, Asia 31 per cent, North America 19 per cent and the rest of the world about 5 per cent.
High Arpus still favour Europe and the US. Of the specific CapEx items tracked by the report, expenditures will grow from $3.1 billion in 2010 to $5.1 billion in 2014, while service revenue will grow from $17.5 billion to $46 billion in 2014.

Over 50 companies are profiled in the report, including many emerging markets in Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. Despite many obstacles and competition, 23 IPTV SPs (mostly in Asia and Europe) will have exceeded the million-subscriber mark by 2014. For many IPTV operators, set-top boxes make up over 70 per cent of CapEx expenditures.

Greater penetration of integrated hybrid, IPTV, and OTT STBs including connected TVs with STBs embedded in TV sets is expected.

In the North American markets, all eyes have recently turned to Verizon and AT&T, each adding about one million subscribers in 2009. Since Verizon stopped signing new franchise agreements outside its existing footprint, speculation is growing that Verizon will switch from its QAM/IPTV architecture to an all IPTV (fiber-based) architecture for future franchises after 2010.

Meanwhile AT&T, with no such technical constraints, is free to use a “discreet upgrade” approach to growing bandwidth by using a mix of advanced DSL or FTTX as needed.

MUMBAI: PlaySpan, which offers monetisation solutions for online games, virtual worlds, and social networks, has announced the Beta launch of its PriceYourVideo Platform.

This is a proprietary, one-click, in-video, pay-per-view service that enables video producers of all kinds to upload, price, and sell their video creations through the proven freemium business model.
  
PlaySpan founder and CEO Karl Mehta says, “It’s going to be game changing. Our goal is to enable monetization for the masses including indie filmmakers, vloggers, web celebs, and social media stars. Just like monetisation of games has experienced tremendous growth away from an advertising supported revenue model to a direct pay model, we believe the video industry is poised for the same massive growth in user micro consumption of paid video content”

Premium content publishers have already begun seeding the PlaySpan PriceYourVideo Platform with best of web shows like Diggnation, Chad Vader, and Turbo Dates.

PlaySpan provides an option to donate proceeds to charity for videos that are available free elsewhere. In addition, the publishers are using the PlaySpan Marketplace to test programming that resonates with PlaySpan’s large installed base of gamers who have active UltimatePoints accounts, PlaySpan’s universal virtual currency.  
 
Major media has been exploring ways to integrate virtual currency into video micropayments. PlaySpan Marketplace will also serve as a showcase site to video portals that want to integrate PlaySpan’s Video Monetization APIs into their platforms.

Chad, Matt and Rob creator and producer Rob Polonsky says, “A large portion of our fans do not have credit cards and are on the receiving end of the gifting and allowance economy. Kids have cash, so virtual currency is an ideal way for them to consume these pieces of snackable entertainment in an impulsive way”.

MUMBAI: BBC‘s director of audio and music Tim Davie has announced a range of measures to support digital radio.

Speaking at the Intellect Consumer Electronics Conference, he outlined BBC activity that will support the Government‘s Digital Radio Action Plan.

BBC intends to significantly improve DAB coverage and add 61 national DAB transmitters by mid-2011. This will increase the BBC‘s in-home coverage to at least 92 per cent of the UK population (from approx 85% currently); provide good in-car coverage for around 93 per cent of the UK‘s motorway network from 83 per cent; and include four new transmitters to achieve FM-equivalent coverage level of around 99 per cent population and road coverage within the M25 from around 89 per cent.
  
Evaluating ways the BBC might find funding to fill in all of the major gaps in UK motorway coverage to broadly match current FM stereo coverage.

Creating a plan to improve the impact of the BBC‘s digital radio portfolio, using the proposed relaunch of Radio 7 as Radio 4 Extra as an example of how closer links to analogue networks and new editorial ideas could lead to a stronger portfolio.

BBC will offer its research & development expertise to work with the sector to tackle the biggest technical issues facing the industry, such as aftermarket in-car DAB radios. 
 
There is a plan to increase funding in marketing for digital radio platforms – DAB, DTV and online. This includes
committing to running at least two large-scale campaigns supporting digital radio each year, increasing as and when switchover approaches; and ensuring that digital-only services receive a bigger share of total marketing activity.

BBC will launch later this year the Radioplayer – a single online console that will offer all UK radio in one place. More details regarding this are to be announced over the coming weeks.
Davie said, “These announcements mean that more licence fee payers will have access to the full range of BBC services and enjoy the benefits of digital radio.”

MUMBAI: SES Astra has signed an agreement with Netherlands-based Dance TV HD for the delivery of its programme to HD bouquets throughout Europe.

Under the terms of the agreement, SES Astra will provide capacity on its 23.5 degrees East orbital position and deliver uplink services from its playout centre in Munich, Germany.
The agreement with SES Astra will allow Dance TV HD to deliver its programme to various HD bouquets throughout Europe. It will thereby benefit from the enlarged footprint of SES Astra’s newly launched satellite, Astra 3B, that offers coverage from Spain to the Black Sea.
 
Dance TV HD is a full HD lifestyle channel focussing on the international dance scene. The programming includes international party reports, DJ concerts, festivals and events. The channel has started broadcasting a trailer programme with the full programme scheduled to go live later this summer.

SES Astra chief commercial officer Norbert Hölzle says, “We are delighted that Dance TV HD has chosen Astra for the delivery of its signal and welcome this new customer on board. Dance TV HD provides a unique programme format and is thereby a very attractive extension of our already large HDTV line-up. The agreement with Dance TV HD further strengthens our 23.5 degrees East orbital position as the fastest growing hot-spot for Direct-To-Home and Direct-to-Cable distribution throughout Europe.”
 
Dance TV HD CEO Jeffrey de Veer states, “We are very pleased to have signed this agreement with SES Astra which will allow us to grow and extend our programme to all markets in Europe. The high quality of service, the excellent coverage and the dedicated marketing support were crucial for our decision to sign with SES Astra. We look forward to a successful cooperation and to the launch of our programme in many European markets.”

BANGALORE: In a rare development, a power supply glitch on Indian Space Research Orgnisation‘s (Isro) INSAT-4B has resulted in partial disruption of the services of two direct-to-home (DTH) operators, a few regional television channels and telecom services.

Sun Direct and DD Direct Plus use the Ku-band transponders of Insat-4B.

There was a power supply anomaly in one of the two solar panels that supply power to the satellite, said an Isro official.

The INSAT-4B carries a total of 24 communication transponders (12 Ku-Band and 12 C-Band) and has been in operation since March 2007.
 
Isro admitted on the night of 7 July INSAT-4B experienced a power supply glitch which led to switching ‘off‘ of 50 per cent of the transponder capacity (6 Ku and 6 C-Band transponders).

An expert team is studying the possibilities of partial utilisation of some of the transponders that were switched off and restoring the services at the earliest. 
 
“We are looking at the problem and are trying to solve it over the next week. In case that does not happen, we will consider other arrangements,” said a source at Isro.
 

MUMBAI: Marking the company‘s entry into the social gaming space, MTV Networks has acquired Social Express Inc, a social gaming development company.

MTV Networks will develop social games based on original Intellectual Property (IP) as well as shows and characters from MTV, Nickelodeon and its other brands. The first game would be launched in the third quarter of this year.
 
MTV Networks will also leverage Social Express‘s expertise to launch a publishing platform for independent game developers.

“Social gaming is one of the biggest drivers of the explosive growth in social media – it‘s fun, it‘s engaging, and it‘s shareable,” said MTV Networks Chairman Judy McGrath. “Social Express brings us strong experience and know-how in this burgeoning space which we‘ll supercharge with the IP and scale of Nickelodeon and other MTV Networks brands to create great new social gaming experiences for our fans and cool tools for independent developers as well.
 
Social Express will be integrated into Nickelodeon Digital. While Social Express co-founder and CEO Tony Espinoza will oversee the social gaming strategy and development as vice president and general manager of social gaming for MTV Networks‘ Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group, Neil Souza, co-founder of Social Express and FoulPlay Media will be vice president of Technology, Social Games.
Both will report to senior vice president and general manager of Games, Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group Dave Williams who reports to Stephen Youngwood executive vice president for Digital, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group.

Social Express‘s management team boasts of former executives and developers from Apple, AOL, Yahoo! and Zynga.

Walt Disney Co. recently acquired Tapulous, a maker of iPhone games, showing heated action in the online and mobile gaming businesses.