Category: Software

MUMBAI: In line with its strategy to ramp up market share in Maharashtra by providing local content, Big TV has acquired more Marathi plays which it will showcase on its direct-to-home (DTH) platform.

Big TV will offer its customers the plays for Rs 25 till 10 August on its Choice Pay Channel (CPC) platform. 
 
The plays include Purush, Raigada La Jevha Jaag Yete, Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoay, Hasva Fasvi, Ranaangan, Tee Phool Rani, and Kusum Manohar Lele.

Big TV SVP Umesh Rao said, “This is a small initiative from our side to promote Marathi art and culture. This will surely open the doors for our audience to the rich and timeless world of Marathi theatre.”

The DTH operator has also signed an agreement for the rights of late Marathi playwright PL Deshpande’s stage plays. It allows Big TV to showcase the theatre works including Deshpande‘s super-hit stage productions Nivadak Pula Deshpande – Volume 1 to 6, Batatyachi Chal and Pula Deshpande Ratnabhandar.
 
Earlier in February, the company had launched a new Marathi package comprising four Marathi channels – Zee Marathi, ETV Marathi, Star Pravah and Zee Talkies – for a monthly subscription of Rs 5, if Marathi is selected as a first language. It has also added a bouquet of Marathi channels like IBN Lokmat, Star Majha, DD Sahayadri and Mi Marathi to its base pack.
On the movie front, Big TV has launched a special Marathi cinema showcase on its pay platform. It has acquired the DTH rights of popular Marathi super-hits including Samantar, Paandhar, Housefull, Zapatlela and Aaplee Mansaa amongst others.

NEW DELHI: Zapak Games, the licensing and merchandising arm of Zapak Digital Entertainment, has partnered with global toy maker Spin Master.

As per the deal, Zapak Games will be the exclusive distributor for many of Spin Master’s largest brands in India.
 
The launch of Spin Master toys in India will be divided in phases. The initial phase will be in July 2010, which will include globally recognised brands like Air Hogs (Toy of the Year 2002), Bendaroos, GloDoodle, Liv Dolls and Moon Sand (Toy of the Year 2007).

A multi-category children‘s entertainment company since 1994, Spin Master has been designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing consumer products for children around the world with distribution in more than 65 countries.

Zapak Games, on the other hand, has a massive distribution network of over 5,000 retail outlets in more than 144 cities. 
 
Zapak Games business head Vaibhav Odhekar said, “We are thrilled to have associated with Spin Master. This association will help us make a stronger footprint in the toy and merchandise business in India and at the same time help us build a strong brand in the kids segment. With Spin Master’s toys we will look at introducing creative and innovative experience to the Indian audience.”
Spin Master director international sales Allan Rabie said, “We at Spin Master are excited to expand into this vast and diverse country with Zapak. Zapak has the credentials and experience to execute our business to become a major force in India.”

MUMBAI: The Asia Pacific TV sector has over 150 million digital TV homes while IPTV households have crossed 10 million IPTV households, according to latest figures released by Informa Telecoms and Media.

During 2009 more than 35 million homes upgraded from analog to digital TV despite a global downturn. In the year, 26 million new homes subscribed to pay TV – split among cable (14 million), DTH (9 million) and IPTV (3 million).
 
India will have a 52 per cent digital TV penetration in 2015, according to the forecast. This stood at 21 per cent at the end of last year, up from five per cent in 2005.

Informa Telecoms and Media forecasts show that those sectors will continue to grow impressively over the next five years. Adam Thomas, Media Research Manager and lead analyst on the research, said: “By 2015 there will be well over 400 million digital TV homes, including 40 million taking IPTV, which in turn will generate revenues of more than $40 billion. There are increasingly positive signs for digital TV in the region. Competition between the platforms is intensifying and this is pushing digital upgrades up the agenda of many operators.” 
 
By 2015, digital penetration will have reached 100 per cent in four markets (Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore), with another four expected to have achieved a penetration rate of 70 per cent or more (Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan), according to Informa Telecoms and Media.

Thomas adds, “While globally IPTV has failed to make any real impact it does remain important in the Asia-Pacific region. We expect IPTV subscribers to grow by 25 million over the next five years, which means that it will become a significant rival to cable and DTH in some markets, notably via SingTel‘s Mio TV in Singapore and Korea Telecom‘s Qook in South Korea.
“Despite this generally positive picture, our research found that digital upgrades will not be easy to achieve in some markets. In the cable sector in particular, subscribers are taking some convincing of the need to upgrade from analog to digital. Although there is good news in China where the government‘s proactive approach to converting analogue to digital is promoting upgrades.”

Digital TV penetration (per cent)

MUMBAI: Sony has announced another step to strengthen its 3D home product line with new Elevated Standard (ES) AV receivers including the STR-DA5600ES, STRA-DA4600ES, and STR-DA 3600ES and a Blu-ray 3D player, the BDP-S1700ES.

In addition to Sony’s latest 3D capable Bravia HDTVs, the new ES components represent the best audio and video quality Sony has to offer. Designed with custom installers in mind, ES models integrate seamlessly with multi-room, third-party control systems.
 
Sony’s home audio and video business VP Brian Siegel says, “By focussing on seamless integration with custom home theater control partners, Sony is working to deliver products that support the custom and specialty retail business like no other manufacturer. Because Sony is involved in every stage of the 3D ecosystem, specialty dealers and installers can rest assured that our AV components leverage that deep expertise to deliver the most technically advanced experience possible.”

Focussing on the needs of custom home theatre installers, Sony’s ES line represents an enthusiast-level AV experience featuring some of the company’s most advanced technology. The value of the products is best demonstrated by dealers and integrators qualified to engage an advanced consumer audience. To that end, the company is focusing its distribution strategy to include only specialty AV retailers and custom installers. ES products will no longer be offered for sale online or through telesales. 
 
AV Receivers with Custom Control : Sony’s 2010 ES AV receivers feature IR input jacks and two-way serial control. They also offer control over IP which allows installers to easily integrate the receivers into the home automation systems including Control4, Crestron, AMX, Savant, Ultimate Remote Control, RTI, and others. Sony has worked with control companies and is a Control4 Certified Partner, an AMX Device Discovery Partner, Crestron Integration Partner, and a Savant Excellence in Audio and Video Partner.
The new models offer 3D pass-through and flexible multi-room features. They can connect to a home broadband network through an Ethernet port offering easy access to digital photos, music and videos from Digital Life Network Alliance (DLNA) sources. They also function as an Ethernet hub featuring four ports that connect other network devices.

Additionally, the Ethernet connection provides access to both Shoutcast Internet Radio and Rhapsody Music Service, and offers easy access to firmware upgrades via the Internet. The STR-DA5600ES model also functions as a DLNA Live Audio Server that can stream music to other DLNA clients.

Users with an iPhone or iPod touch device can control the models using a free app that transforms your mobile device into a full ES receiver remote. The app features zone control, full GUI menu, and Sony’s Quick Click remote function which allows users to control source components (such as Blu-Ray player, set-top box) in the main home theater room to be controlled from a second zone.

The STR-DA5600ES and the STR-DA4600ES offer the ability to distribute audio and video to multiple rooms via the second HDMI output and video to a second zone via CAT5 output. They can both also up-scale all sources to 1080p in the main zone and 1080i in a second zone via the Faroudja chip® ensuring a consistent, sharp picture. The connected video zones feature a high-grade, icon-driven menu system that allows for simple device and content navigation.

All three models feature Digital Cinema Auto Calibration (DCAC) with Automatic Phase Matching (APM). Without changing the front reference speakers, APM corrects for phase differentiation between front, center, and surround speakers, ensuring an ideal sound stage regardless of speaker type.

The receivers also feature Sony’s innovative new HD Digital Cinema Sound® that was developed together with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Incorporating high-mounted front speaker placement, HD DCS was designed to transform and replicate both the sound quality and acoustics of a movie theatre in the home environment.

All of the models support 1080/24p video signals and x.v.Color™ and Deep Color™ video codecs, as well as all advanced audio formats including Dolby Digital Plus, DolbyTrueHD, and dtsMaster HD. They also feature audio return channel allowing network content originating from the television to be played through the receiver without additional cables.

NEW DELHI: The Government today decided to refer the concerns of telecom operators on recent recommendations of Trai to an Internal Committee of the Department of Telecommunications headed by Member (Technology).

This decision was taken here today in a meeting of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Minister A Raja with the representatives of Access Service Providers viz. COAI and AUSPI and representatives of their member service providers. CMDs of MTNL and BSNL were also present. 
 
Various issues on licences, spectrum, allocation, charging of spectrum and roll-out obligations, merger and acquisitions and other related issues were discussed in the meeting and it has been decided that the Internal Committee will finalize the views and refer to Telecom Commission.

The Telecom Commission also decided to constitute an Internal Committee under Chairmanship of Member (Services), Department of Telecom, to give its recommendations on implementation of the Sam Pitroda Committee Report for improving performance of BSNL.  
 
The Committee will take inputs from BSNL including its Employees Association and submit its report to Full Telecom Commission within a month.

The decision was taken in the meeting of Full Telecom Commission held under the Chairmanship of Telecom Secretary and Telecom Commission Chairman P J Thomas.

The Commission has also decided to constitute an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) under Chairmanship of Member (Telecom) in the Department of Telecom with representatives from all stakeholders as members to examine the issue of imposition of financial penalty for violation of terms and conditions of UAS/CMTS license agreements.

NEW DELHI: Videocon d2h, the Direct-to-Home service provider, has lodged a complaint with the Mumbai Cyber Cell Police Station, Bandra Kurla Complex, requesting them to block certain fake websites which are using the Videocon d2h brand name to cheat the public and malign their brand name.

Said Bharat Business Channel Ltd (BBCL) CEO Anil Khera, “Our official website is “www.videocond2h.com” and the same is being used in all our customer communications with regard to our DTH services. Some anti social elements have deliberately and with an intention to cause wrongful business loss and with a view to malign our brand image has created fake websites having deceptively similar names.”

The fake websites which have been created are:

www.d2hvideocon.com

www.d2hadvertising.com

www.videocond2hdish.com
 
 
Consumers have reported that they have received SMS on their mobile asking them to log on to these websites wherein they are illegally and wrongfully prompted to provide their mobile number. Once the number is given, the next page opens with an icon of ‘Next’ prompting the customer to press the said icon. Thereafter, on the third page, a fake authorization letter opens and informs the customers that they have won a free Videocon d2h product with free package subscription of duration ranging from 2 years to lifetime.

The fake authorization letter further asks the customer to deposit an amount towards customer service tax in an account with a bank for which the details are provided and to fax the deposit slip to a specified number.
 
“We have, through the Cyber Cell Police Station also requested the State Bank of India, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Axis Bank and other financial institutions to issue necessary directions so that the operation of the fake accounts can be stopped and money deposited by the public goes back to them. These fake websites are causing damage to us and financial loss to the public at large,” Khera added.

Videocon d2h has taken immediate and necessary steps to prevent the general public from falling into the hands of such fake and illegal websites and endeavours to create awareness on the increasing number of frauds in the industry as well. Most of these websites have already been blocked and action is being taken against the concerned.

MUMBAI: Putting more terabytes in the hands of consumers worldwide, Seagate has announced the launch of what it says is the world’s first 3 Terabyte (TB) external desktop drive.

The 3TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive helps to meet the explosive worldwide demand for digital content storage. With 3TB of capacity, people can store up to 120 HD movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos or countless hours of digital music.
 
The 3TB GoFlex Desk external drive couples capacity with the flexibility to adapt the drive’s USB 2.0 interface to a USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 connection to meet varying performance and transfer speed needs. Consumers can create, store and access content from either a Windows or Mac OS X computer on the GoFlex Desk external drive, thanks to an included NTFS driver for Mac.

Seagate Technology country manager India and Saarc Rajesh Khurana says, “Consumer capacity demands are quickly out-pacing the needs of business as people continue to collect high-definition videos, photos and music. Seagate has a tradition of designing products that break into new storage frontiers to meet customer requirements and the 3TB GoFlex™ Desk external drive is no exception–delivering the highest-capacity storage solution available today.” 
 
A recent report by Parks Associates indicates the average consumer household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900GB by year-end 2014, driven in large part by video downloads, managed copies of Blu-ray Disc, and increasing use of DVR recording capabilities.

The GoFlex Desk external drive delivers unconstrained, high-capacity storage and automatic, continuous backup with software file encryption to help keep all data safe and secure. The standard USB 2.0 interface can be upgraded to USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 by coupling the drive with the appropriate GoFlex desktop adapter to increase file transfer performance by up to 10x for easier copying or sharing of files.
Parks Associates VP, principle analyst Kurt Scherf says, “As the definition quality of digital cameras increases, playback devices such as digital photo frames and MP3 players proliferate and the use of the Internet for downloading music and video continues to grow, more files accumulate in the home. Consumers who are active in digital media creation and consumption will witness their digital media storage needs grow nine-fold by 2014, driving the demand for higher capacity, easy-to-use storage solutions.”

The GoFlex Desk external drive is compatible with both the Windows operating system and Mac computers. Each drive includes an NTFS driver for Mac, which allows the drive to store and access files from both Windows and Mac OS X computers without reformatting.
 

MUMBAI: Online movie subscription service Netflix and Relativity Media have announced a long term agreement. Under this pact, major theatrically released films owned by Relativity Media will be licensed directly and exclusively to Netflix for streaming to its subscribers during the pay-TV window.

Traditionally, these films have flowed through Relativity‘s studio releasing partners to output deals with premium TV channels.
 
The deal marks a continued shift in the distribution of major motion pictures in the US. Under the agreement, an increasing amount of popular contemporary movies previously encumbered by pay TV agreements with premium channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz will become available to be streamed from Netflix months – and not years – after their release on DVD. It will be the first time that studio quality theatrical feature films will be streamed via subscription by Netflix instead of being broadcast by the traditional pay providers, and it opens up a new revenue stream for such movies.

Among the first wave of films covered under the Netflix-Relativity deal are The Fighter starring Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams and distributed by Paramount Pictures, and Skyline, co-directed by the Brothers Strause and released by Rogue Pictures and Universal Studios. Both films are scheduled for theatrical release later this year and will be available at Netflix in early 2011. Also on tap for Netflix are Rogue Pictures‘ Nicolas Cage action/thriller Season of the Witch and Movie 43, written and directed by Peter Farley. Both are set to hit theatres this year as well.  
 
Relativity has financed, co-financed or produced more than 200 features, generating more than $13 billion in worldwide box office revenue. 50 Relativity films have become Top 10 box office releases during the past two years. Current Relativity theatrical releases include Robin Hood, Get Him to the Greek and Grown Ups. Relativity produces and/or finances between 20 and 30 pictures a year, and it has more than 10 single picture movies – films it is financing and producing fully – that are scheduled to be released over the next 12 months.
Broadening the range and appeal of content available for Netflix members to watch instantly is among the company‘s top priorities, and the agreement with Relativity is a meaningful step in building the company‘s streaming offer.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos says, “Our continued goal is to expand the breadth and timeliness of films and TV shows available to stream on Netflix. Historically, the rights to distribute these films are pre-sold to pay TV for as long as nine years after their theatrical release. Through our partnership with Relativity, these films will start to become available to our members just months after their DVD release.”

Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh says, “We have always been about finding new ways to grow and monetize our business. This clearly is a natural step in the evolution of the movie business and opens up a whole new world of revenue and marketing opportunities. Netflix has certainly made its mark, with a service that reaches over 13 million people and allows consumers to have what they want, when they want it. We have a shared vision, and this deal marks a significant change in our industry.”
 

MUMBAI: The football fever is gaining momentum as the World Cup approaches its final stages with the most interesting and tough games lined up in the coming days. Indians are following the games with a passion and this is being seen in the discussions posted online and the viewership numbers.

According to Nielsen Online BuzzMetrics analysis, Christiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are the most discussed players by Indians online in message boards, blogs, discussion groups and micro blogs (Twitter). They are followed by Lionel Messi and Landon Donovan in volumes of online discussion.
 
Among the teams, England is the most discussed team online by Indians in relation to the Football World Cup. It is followed by Brazil and Spain in the second and third place in online discussion. However, when it comes to sentiments, Germany has garnered the most positive sentiment from Indians in their discussions, followed by Argentina, Brazil and Spain.

Nielsen associate director, online and IT practice Karthik Nagarajan says, “England was loved and hated, but hardly ignored in Indian social media last month. The manner of their exit and the ‘Lampard goal‘ controversy was discussed widely. On sentiment, Germany has impressed one and all with their plays in this World Cup and it is no surprise that the blogosphere has nice things to say about them.”

World Cup Viewership: The Football World Cup had a viewership of 53 million Indians with a 29 per cent reach since the games started on 11 June, 2010, to the pre-quarterfinal games, according to viewership data from Tam.

The highest television rating (TVR) was 1.93 per cent for the match between Portugal and Brazil played on 25 June, 2010. Average TVR for the game was 0.65 for the 50 matches plus the opening ceremony of the Cup. As expected the highest viewership has been in West Bengal with 3.04 average TVR, followed closely by Assam (3.01 avg. TVR) and Kerala (2.74 avg. TVR).

The average viewership for the 2006 World Cup was higher than the average viewership for the 2010 games till date. The highest rating match in 2010, Portugal versus Brazil, got an average TVR of 1.93 per cent, whereas the highest rating match in 2006 was the Quarter Final played between Germany and Argentina, which gained a TVR of 4.3 per cent. 
 
World Cup Top Advertisers : The telecom sector, which includes cellular phones and cellular phone services were the top two categories advertised during the World Cup as per Tam findings. The other categories advertising in the top ten were two wheelers, non-aerated soft drinks, DTH Service providers, lubricants, aerated soft drinks, cars/jeeps, televisions, and spices.
Popularity and Controversy : Football is a game where controversies are galore. It hasn‘t been spared this time around either. The controversial ‘Vuvuzela‘ trumpets are the sore point for many, and have been a dominant feature at the stadium during the ongoing World Cup matches. Three per cent of the Indian posts online are negative for Vuvuzela, however, the positive sentiments are ten times more than the negative ones as 30 per cent Indians are in favour of the instrument.

“Indians are vibrant and fun loving people. They like their drums when they go to watch cricket, so they wouldn‘t mind the Vuvuzela either when they are watching the football World Cup matches. It is all a part of the game for Indians,” adds Nagarajan.

The quick games are liked by consumers who are hard pressed for time today. The recent success of IPL is also credited to its fast pace. Cricket, though a major craze in India has innovated itself in the form of shorter formats to maintain its popularity. The test matches and one day matches do have their charm but only for hard core cricket fans. For the general public today even entertainment has to be packaged in a way that it can be accommodated to the changing lifestyles and incorporated into busy schedules.

Media has also played a big role in the popularity of football in the country. The kind of coverage that the game gets has added to its attractiveness.

“It is a chain where popularity generates media interest and media interest gets the attention of the much coveted brands and persuades them to associate themselves with the object of popularity, so is with the adrenaline packed game of football,” said Nagarajan.

MUMBAI: Ronnie Screwvala-promoted UTV Software Communications has found that the gaming business can be wrought with delay in projects. But the turnaround could come this fiscal as the company prepares to release its products in the year.

UTV is eyeing Rs 500 million and ebitda margins of 10-15 per cent from its mobile games division, carried out through UTV Indiagames.

UTV Indiagames has the exclusive right for the franchise for IPL Mobile games. It also claims to be the only online subscription games platform with games on demand (GoD) and has tie ups for game channels on DTH in India.

The company has set up a cost efficient studio in Vashi, Mumbai, to create games and it believes that it is poised to capture opportunities for 3G and 4G in India.
  
On the online games front, UTV claims to have four games on the floor. UTV expects to post a revenue of Rs 400 million and have operating margins of 15 per cent, the first year of revenue from its online games division.

Online Games has a creative studio in Austin, Texas, and a backend outsourcing in Beijing, China.

The first game to release in July/August will be Mytheon. The MMOG multiplayer platform in the US has been built and is owned by UTV to earn revenues through micro transactions on online games in the US. Furthermore, the company‘s model is to pre-sell/ sell Games to the rest of the world through upfront license fees on minimum guarantees. For Mytheon, the process of presale has already begun.

As far as console games is concerned, UTV expects to get a revenue of Rs 3 billion, largely driven by release of their own developed game El Sheddai. This includes around Rs 1 billion from the existing publishing business.

No pre-sale revenue of the IPs to publishers or others has been considered as of now, UTV said. On this revenue base, the company is envisaging a 20 per cent Ebitda margin.

Next year, the company will have its own IPs ready for release along with the 3 Big IPs – El Shaddai, Reich and War Devil. The company has created these on multi platforms – PS3 and Xbox 360 and later can go on more platforms including PC.

The vertical also has two smaller IPs – Hells Cook and Dragons Crown.
 
UTV said that over the next six months it will be actively negotiating a combination of (a) publishing deals for one or more game in one or more territories globally for a license fee / minimum guarantee (b) co-production deals for pre-release of a game. (c) Investment into one of its three studios based in London/ Florida/ Tokyo along with the IP of that studio.

The Company is also in discussions with Sony (PS3) and Microsoft (XBOX) for publishing and/or distribution rights for its IPs.

UTV said the final dates of release would be locked, based on the final outcome of the publishing/ co production deals. “We envisage at least one of three major IPs releasing in this calendar year – even though we may have pre-sold the others. We predict our publishing business to meet targets based on the titles blocked for release during 2010-11,” it said.

From the New Media segment, the company is expecting to generate a revenue of Rs 300 million with marginal profit in FY ‘11. The New Media business of the company includes mobile and web business.

“Overall and on an annualised basis for games content and new media businesses, we see a revenue base of around Rs 4 billion,” the company said.

Media analysts are treating UTV‘s guidance with a lot of caution as no pre-sale revenues have been announced yet.