Category: Software

MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and online video sharing site YouTube have announced a multi-year partnership that will make full episodes of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, WWE NXT, WWE Superstars and ECW available at WWE’s official YouTube channel (www.YouTube.com/WWE).
 
The multi-year deal greatly expands WWE’s YouTube channel offerings, which already has 90,000 subscribers who have viewed more than 100 million WWE videos to date.

WWE will also augment the channel by increasing content clips of its flagship programme Monday Night Raw, as well as WWE Classics and short videos.  
 
WWE executive VP Interactive Brian Kalinowski says, “As part of our ever evolving digital media strategy, WWE is one of the first global entertainment companies to offer audiences access to complete primetime shows on YouTube. This partnership also enables WWE to increase its official PG-content offerings online for our fans, generate revenue, protect our content and broaden our brand exposure on the world’s largest online video site.”
 

MUMBAI: The BBC Trust has approved the UK pubcaster‘s involvement in Project Canvas, subject to a number of conditions.

Project Canvas is a joint venture between the BBC and six other partners – Arqiva, BT, Channel 4, Five, ITV and Talk Talk – to develop and promote a common standard that will allow viewers with a broadband connection to watch on-demand services and other internet content as well as ordinary TV content, all through their television sets.
  
The Trust‘s decision follows a period of consultation over the past year, including discussions with a range of industry stakeholders and four formal public consultations.

The proposal has been considered in the context of its likely public value; whether it represents value for money; the interests and perspective of the licence fee payer; the market impact; the risk attached to the BBC‘s participation in Canvas; and whether Canvas is likely to comply with the law and with BBC policies.

The Trust‘s decision includes a number of conditions on the BBC‘s involvement. These include:

Industry engagement: Completed elements of the Canvas core technical specification to be published within 20 working days from this final approval, and the Canvas partners to engage with industry on these and future elements of the technical specification.

The final core technical specification will be published no later than eight months before launch of the first set-top boxes. The Trust will keep this process of engagement under review.

Free-to-air: Users will always be able to access Canvas free-to-air, though they may be charged for additional pay services that third parties might choose to provide via the Canvas platform, for example video on demand services, as well as the broadband subscription fees. 
 
Accessibility and usability: Accessibility and usability features, such as audio description, should be incorporated into the core technical specification and/or user interface as soon as reasonably possible; and appropriate information and signposting should be provided for users to help them make informed choices about the suitability of content wherever possible.

Access to the platform for content providers and ISPs: Entry controls in terms of technical and content standards will be minimal, access will not be bundled with other products or services, listing on the electronic programme guide will be awarded in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner; and quality standards for ISPs delivering Canvas will be set at a minimum level and applied in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner.

Legal compliance: Canvas will comply with all applicable laws including competition and state aid law.

Cost: The BBC‘s involvement will not exceed the Executive‘s estimated costs by more than 20 per cent over a five year period.

BBC Trustee and Chair of the Trust‘s Strategic Approvals Committee, Diane Coyle, said: “The Trust has concluded that Project Canvas will deliver significant public value for licence fee payers – people with a broadband connection will be able to access a wide range of on-demand content including BBC iPlayer, free of charge, through their TV sets. We have however applied a number of conditions to the BBC‘s involvement in the venture in recognition of the potential impacts on the market if Canvas is successful.”
 

MUMBAI: NDS has been chosen by US entertainment service provider Comcast to be the prime integrator of the company’s tru2way software integration project that utilises the Cable Labs tru2way Reference Implementation (RI).

Under this agreement, NDS’ Professional Services Group will lead set-top box (STB) testing, code development and success validation for the integration of new tru2way applications and devices for Comcast.
 
NDS will provide Comcast with services that optimise the RI stack, enabling uniform and reliable porting to tru2way STBs. This will allow Comcast to run the same applications and services across multiple models of STBs, offering a consistent user experience for subscribers and providing the company with the freedom to use a variety of hardware platforms.

The NDS team will work to build the RI testing tool, implement the tests against the different STBs, develop code and assist in fixing any issues.

Comcast senior VP of advanced business and technology development Mark Hess says, “We are committed to the Cable Labs Reference Implementation and its deployment on tru2way devices. NDS has tremendous experience in working with video operators around the world and has proven their ability to offer reliable, timely and highly competent solutions as an integrations partner. We’re eager to begin our work together to enhance the RI, which will help advance the industry’s adoption of tru2way while also enabling us to bring our customers interactive services.” 
 
NDS VP, GM of professional services Stuart McGeechan says, “Our integration and professional services work has been recognised as dependable and effective in providing complex technical solutions to the US cable market. We are greatly looking forward to integrating the secure RI application into the Comcast portfolio, as this agreement further underlines our successful approach of bringing together best of breed products and solutions while cementing our position as a reliable and trusted ‘go to’ partner for North American cable companies.”

MUMBAI: Indian direct-to-home (DTH) operators have a long road to travel before they can start counting their profits.

Dish TV and Tata Sky, the two leading companies, expect to achieve a full cash flow break even once they achieve 10 million subscribers.

Dish TV hopes to reach that milestone by 2012 as it targets to add 2.5 million subscribers this fiscal, capitalising from a sports-heavy year that has the soccer and cricket World Cups.
 
In FY’10, Dish TV mopped up 1.8 million subscribers amid price war and stiff competition from players like Sun Direct, Airtel Digital TV and Tata Sky.

Tata Sky, which acquired 1.4 million new subscribers in FY’10, hopes to post a speedier growth this year. The entire DTH sector, in fact, expects 10-11 million subscriber addition on the back of sports events in the year.

“The break even will come only after a DTH operator crosses a subscriber base of 10 million despite low ARPUs (average revenue per user). At least, that looks like the case with Dish TV and Tata Sky,” says a media analyst who closely tracks the sector.

Airtel Digital TV believes the economic viability and profitability of the DTH industry rests on three pillars. “The speed of acquisition is important. The content cost, at 50 per cent of cable TV pricing, is also on the higher side. DTH companies also have a tax liability of over 35 per. If these things get corrected, we will have a profitable industry,” says Bharti Airtel director & CEO – DTH Ajai Puri.  
 
Airtel Digital TV has the fastest growth among all the DTH operators, pocketing 27 per cent of the incremental subscribers. “If you take out the southern region, we will be having an incremental share of 33 per cent,” says Puri.

The DTH sector is stung by low ARPUs, higher content cost (despite moving to a fixed rate model with broadcasters) and an advertising spend that is estimated at Rs 6 billion a year.

Videocon, however, believes it can be ebitda positive sooner than the older players. “We expect to be ebitda positive after reaching 4-5 million subscribers. The industry has got a lot more regularised and this is apparent even on the content side. The prices of set-top boxes (STBs) have fallen and customer acquisition is happening a lot more faster. As for us, we have the advantage of a backward integration model,” says Videocon d2h chief executive officer Anil Khera.

DTH companies are waiting for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to come out with its recommendations on tariff by the month-end. They expect the sector regulator to fix a policy that will have similar pricing for DTH and cable for addressable digitisation. 

MUMBAI: Pan Asian youth entertainment channel Animax has announced that its new ‘Ani-mates‘ characters have driven viewers to its site.

The characters are the Filipino duo of model-host Stephanie Henares as well as celebrity cosplayer Alodia Gosiengfiao.
 
The two personalities from the Philippines were unveiled on-air and online on 1 June 2010 as Ani-mates – new VJ-cum-brand ambassadors for Animax.

Serving as buddies to Animax viewers and bringing the latest updates on the regional youth scene, the Ani-mates are currently featuring on TV, in online activities and campaigns, as well as at on-ground events.

Original content available only on the web from Stephanie and Alodia have driven a hike in web traffic to the Animax Asia home website (www.animax-asia.com). Regularly updated each week, exclusive online content includes the duo‘s video blogs, pictures and personal thoughts on all that matters to the youths in the Philippines and across Asia.  
 
Animax Asia VP, GM Gregory Ho says, “Engagement – it is the one word that we at Animax are really obsessed about. Animax is committed to offering our fans a truly immersive entertainment experience, which is why our Ani-mates are connecting with viewers not just on TV, but also online and in person at a variety of events. The colourful personalities of Stephanie and Alodia really help take our interaction with viewers to the next level because they are so relatable to our fans and are seen simply as being just like one of them”.

Handling much of the VJ duties on Animax is the 22-year old Stephanie Henares as she introduces upcoming shows on the channel and hosts TV vignettes to provide the latest news and updates on the regional youth scene. Beyond the production studio, she can also be seen covering the hottest and hippest youth events across the region as Animax‘s brand ambassador.
 
 

NEW DELHI: The capacity of the country’s only free direct-to-home platform, DD Direct Plus, is expected to go up to 100 channels by 31 March 2011.

According to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, the capacity will increase to 200 by 31 December 2011.
 
The Minister was emphatic in an informal interaction with the media that DD Direct Plus will remain free-to-air.

She also confirmed that DD Direct Plus will like other DTH players beam in high definition.

However, she said the plan under the Eleventh Plan to augment the capacity of the platform was still awaiting clearance.  
 
Earlier, Doordarshan Director General Aruna Sharma told indiantelevision.com that DD was just awaiting the clearance as it was ready with the infrastructure.
DD sources confirmed that around 90 television channels by 82 applicants are in the queue for being uploading on DD Direct Plus. These include some foreign channels.

The platform at present has a capacity of 59 channels while it presently beams 57 TV channels. The TV channels include 21 Doordarshan channels.

The oldest of these applications was made on 7 March 2007 while the latest was made on 12 April this year.

Apart from many other channels, some of the applicants include NDTV, IBN 7, TV 24, NE TV Group, Sakshi TV, ZEE, Sahara, and Star News.

The channels include three foreign channels: Japan’s NHK TV, Korean Broadcasting Corporation and Deutsche Welle. Around ten more foreign channels are expected to join soon.

Earlier this year, Soni had denied that any television channels had withdrawn from DD Direct Plus. She said DD Direct Plus signals were available in the entire country except the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

NEW DELHI: The Government earned Rs 1062.6226 billion from the recent auctions of 3G and Band Width Access (BWA).

The revenue is more than three times the target of Rs. 350 billion fixed by the Finance Ministry in its budget documents and more than five times the reserve price.
 
The realisation for 40 MHz of 3G spectrum was Rs 677.19 billion which is 4.75 times the reserve price of Rs. 35 billion and Rs. 167.51 billion per MHz pan India.

The realisation for 60 MHz of BWA spectrum was Rs. 385.4331 billion which is 7.34 times the reserve price of Rs. 17.5 billion and Rs. 6.4239 billion per MHz pan India.

The auctions were conducted by Department of Telecom and the auctioneer consortium of NM Rothschild India and DotEcon of UK. 
 
Department of Telecommunications Secretary P J Thomas said that according to the memorandum of understanding with the Defence Ministry, more spectrum would be available on 31 November 2012.

Thomas said in answer to a question that the experience was being documented in a report so that it could be replicated in other departments of the government.

He also denied media reports that five bidders had opted out of the BWA auction as they had bid for some rounds but were unable to go on as the bids kept increasing.

The winning bidders range from operators who have won 13 service areas to those that have won only three service areas in the 3G auction. In the BWA auction, a bidder, Infotel (backed by Reliance Industries), won all service areas while another bidder has won only a single service area.

No unsold lots were left through the Provisional Winning Bidder mechanism, thus ensuring greater competition through award of more spectrum.

The 3G auction was held over 34 days from 9 April to 10 May on all days except Sundays and national holidays. The winning firms had to deposit the money by the end of May, and will be allowed to offer 3G services on a commercial basis from 1 September.

The e-Auction for allocation of BWA Spectrum began on 24 May and closed on 11 June after 16 days and 117 rounds of bidding. All the winning bidders including MTNL and BSNL were required to pay the amount by 22 June.
 

MUMBAI: IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL), the media subsidiary company of Hinduja Ventures Ltd, plans to raise Rs 5 billion through an initial public offering (IPO) this fiscal.

The funds will be used primarily for digitisation and acquisition of cable TV networks.

“We are looking at an IPO this fiscal. We plan to raise Rs 5 billion,” says IndusInd Media & Communications CEO & MD Ravi Mansukhani.

IMCL, which operates its cable TV distribution business under the Incablenet brand, will focus on expanding its primary points that will provide access directly to the consumer homes.
 
The company plans to invest Rs 1 billion in the fiscal, mainly for acquisitions. “A lot, though, will depend on whether the government comes out with a digitisation policy. If that happens, then we will invest more. A bulk of it will be taken away by digital set-top boxes,” says Mansukhani.

On the acquisition front, IMCL will either buy out the operators wholly or enter into joint venture arrangements. “We will continue with entire buyouts of small-sized networks. For bigger networks, we will have JVs,” says Mansukhani.

IMCL has just bought out eight smaller networks in Mumbai, aiding it to expand its direct points in the city. In the last fiscal, the company made several acquisitions including Sangli Media Services and RMD Baroda Networks. 
 
“Our investments in new geographies have contributed to the growth and continued profitability of the company. We will be aggressive in acquisitions,” says Mansukhani.

IMCL has cable TV, broadband and infrastructure businesses. The content business has been hived off and IN Entertainment houses cable movie channel CVO, cable shopping network Shop24Seven, film production and distribution and movie licensing through Cablemaster.

IMCL has a reach of over eight million subscribers across 27 major cities.

Hinduja Ventures holds 66 per cent in IMCL.

MUMBAI: Hathway Bhawani Cabletel & Datacom Ltd MD, compliance officer and executive director Kuldeep Puri has increased his stake in the company to 3.23 per cent, up from 2.87 per cent that he held on 31 March 2010.
 
The upping of the stake has taken place over a series of market transactions executed in phases. Puri has bought shares from market in 17 tranches during 1 April – 21 June at prevailing market rates. 
 
Puri acquired a total of 28,214 fresh shares of Hathway Bhawani for a sum of Rs 0.25 million.

As on 26 June, Puri holds 258,062 shares in the company.

MUMBAI: News Corp is selling off the multi-faith inspiration and spirituality site Beliefnet to BN Media, an investor firm that owns other online spirituality destinations for an undisclosed amount.

News Corp, which had acquired Beliefnet two-and-a-half years ago through Fox Entertainment Group, had earlier this year sold the movie review website RottenTomatoes.com.
 
“This agreement will enable Beliefnet to effectively continue its mission to be the leading provider of inspiration, spirituality and faith-based online content in a multi-faith environment,” said Beliefnet GM and COO Beth-Ann Eason. “We look forward to partnering even more closely with BN Media‘s online properties to jointly realise an even greater level of success in the online spirituality space.”

BN Media also has investments in Cross Bridge and Affinity4.

BN Media said in a statement that the acquisition builds on an existing relationship between Beliefnet and Affinity4, an affinity marketer that has raised more than $76 million in funding for charities, ministries and other nonprofit organisations by turning ordinary activities into extraordinary giving.
Cross Bridge features online distribution and monetization of audio-video content for nonprofits and charities. Cross Bridge‘s goal is to bring faith and inspirational content to the growing online space.
  
“We recognised both the tangible assets of Beliefnet, its high-quality content, loyal community and its well-established brand as well as the intangibles, in particular, its reputation for providing high quality, diverse inspirational content reflecting a myriad of cultures, religious beliefs and secular philosophies,” said BN Media CEO Steve Halliday.

Beliefnet was founded in 1999 and is not affiliated with any single spiritual movement. However, it claims more than 14 million subscribers to its newsletter and nearly three million unique visitors a month on the website Beliefnet.com.