Category: Software

NEW DELHI: After the end of fourth day of the 3G Auction, the All-India price was at Rs 45.82 billion, 31 per cent up from the base price of Rs 35 billion.

Gujarat received the highest bid after a total of 22 clock rounds were completed. Delhi, however, continued to dominate the auction among cities with the price rising to Rs 4.38 billion.
 
The price for Mumbai service area rose to Rs 4.17 billion, while the price of the rest of Maharashtra was Rs 4.25 billion.

The bid for Tamil Nadu rose to Rs 4.29 billion, while that of Andhra Pradesh clocked Rs 4.25 billion. Kolkata received a bid of just Rs 1.58 billion, dropping from the bid of Rs 1.59 billion at the start of the day.

While eastern Uttar Pradesh received a bid of Rs 1.82 billion, the bid for western Uttar Pradesh was Rs 1.59 billion. Rajasthan received the next highest bid of Rs 1.74 billion. 
 
The bids for Assam, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir service areas remained at Rs 300 million each, with the north-east getting a bid of Rs 303 million.

The auction, which will resume on Thursday as Wednesday is a local holiday, may take about two weeks to complete.

The telecom operators in the race are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom, Idea Cellular, Reliance, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecommunications and Vodafone Essar.

The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial 3G operations from 1 September.

MUMBAI: DG FastChannel, the digital media services provider company, has announced the launch of its Canadian distribution network and broadening of its Canadian services to include digital delivery of HD commercials.

With the launch, DG FastChannel has become North America‘s largest platform for the electronic delivery of broadcast advertising and syndicated content in HD.
 
The network upgrade enables both Canadian and US-based advertisers, advertising agencies and production companies to electronically deliver HD and SD content to more than 96 per cent of Canada‘s television stations and broadcast networks, and more than 4,000 US broadcast destinations.

“DG FastChannel is committed to expanding the reach of its 100 per cent digital distribution model and providing the industry with the advantages of a streamlined file-based workflow,” said DG FastChannel chairman and CEO Scott Ginsburg. “Our clients benefit by DG FastChannel being the largest HD electronic delivery platform in North America. They will all experience a more streamlined order entry and digital asset management processes, and our Canadian customers will now have a stronger suite of services and dedicated 24/7 customer support at their disposal.”  
 
DG FastChannel‘s customer support team will be working with Canadian station managers throughout the upgrade process to ensure that they have uninterrupted service and access to spots distributed over the DG FastChannel network.

“With the continued move to file based delivery and a greater amount of HD content, we are very excited about the release of DG FastChannel‘s HD server. This new server will allow us to receive HD material from digital distributor,” said Global Television’s Dan Gold.

DG FastChannel is showcasing its digital media services at booth #N5123 at the ongoing NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

NEW DELHI: By the end of the third day of the 3G auction, a total of 16 rounds were completed.

The price for Delhi service area rose to Rs 4.16 billion in the bidding, much more than the round price for Mumbai service area, which was at Rs 3.96 billion after the 16 clock rounds.

Even the rest of Maharashtra service area attracted the bid price of Rs 4.04 billion at the end of day three, higher than Mumbai.
 
The bid for Gujarat rose to Rs 4.16 billion, marginally lower than Delhi, while the rest of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu clocked a bid of Rs 4.04 billion.

Meanwhile, waiting for bidders so far, Assam, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir service areas opened their accounts with bids worth Rs 300 million each after the 16th round.

The telecom operators in the race are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom, Idea Cellular, Reliance, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecommunications and Vodafone Essar. 
 
The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial 3G operations from 1 September.

However, bidding for broadband and wireless access (BWA) auction did not commence today as the 3G auction is expected to go into a few more rounds.

A total of 11 telecom companies- Aircel Ltd, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMax, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar – have qualified for the BWA auction, according to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

MUMBAI: The take-up of digital television in UK households stands at 91.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, up by 1.9 percentage points (pp) in the quarter and 2.6 per cent year on year.

According to a survey conducted by UK media watchdog Ofcom Consumer, consumers are continuing to convert additional sets in their homes. As a result almost 69 per cent of all secondary TV sets had been converted to digital by the end of Q4, up by around 8.5 percentage points in a year. 
 
Taking these figures together, 79 per cent of all TV sets had converted to digital television by the end of Q4 2009 (up 6.7 percentage points on a year ago). The remaining 21 per cent of sets continue to receive analogue terrestrial broadcasts.

The study also states that sales of digital terrestrial television (DTT) enabled equipment reached over 4.7 million units in Q4, the highest quarterly sales so far and up by 6 per cent on Q4 2008.

Integrated digital television sets (IDTVs) accounted for almost 74 per centof sales in the quarter (3.5 million units) with around 99 per cent of TV sets sold now, including an integrated digital decoder.

Meanwhile, freeview set-top boxes accounted for almost 1.2 million sales in the quarter, down seven per cent on the previous Q4. In 2009 almost 13.7 million DTT units (IDTVs and set-top-boxes) were sold, compared to 12.5 million in 2008, an increase of nine per cent.

The number of homes relying on DTT as their sole means of digital TV reception reached around 10.1 million according to the survey results in Q4 2009. This was equivalent to almost 40 per cent of all homes and up by around 1.6 percentage points on Q3 2009. Separately, freeview also reported in December 2009 that it was the main digital TV service in 10 million homes. 
 
In total, around 42 per cent of households (10.8 million) received a free-to-view digital television service on their main set at the end of December; 39.6 per cent had a non-pay DTT service and 2.5 per cent had free-to-view satellite.

The Q4 survey also indicated that approaching 9.2 million or almost 36 per cent of homes, received satellite pay TV services, up 1.1 percentage points year on year. BSkyB reported that it added 172,000 subscribers to its pay television service in the UK and Republic of Ireland during the fourth quarter; we estimate that around 150,000 of these were UK additions.

Research results for Q4 show that 12.4 per cent of homes took cable television. Separately, Virgin Media reported net additions of over 34,000 TV subscribers, with its total TV customer base now over 3.7 million. Digital cable added around 57,000 subscribers in the quarter (when including conversions from analogue cable) and accounted for 98 per cent of all cable television customers.

NEW DELHI: With another five clock rounds being completed, the price for round ten for Delhi service area rose to Rs 3.92 billion on the second day of bidding for the 3G auction.

With the total number of 10 clock rounds completed so far, the round price for Mumbai service area was Rs 3.77 billion.
 
The rest of Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu clocked Rs 3.81 billion.

Assam, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir, however, are yet to attract any takers for the slots.

The telecom operators in the race are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom, Idea Cellular, Reliance, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecommunications and Vodafone Essar.

With Sunday being a closed day, bidding will continue today.
The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial 3G operations from 1 September.

Bidding for broadband and wireless access (BWA) auction is expected to commence today. 
 
A total of 11 telecom companies- Aircel Ltd, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMax, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar – have qualified for the BWA auction, according to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

MUMBAI: Digital Outsourcing Pvt. Ltd (DOPL), the cable TV venture of Citigroup Venture Capital-controlled You Broadband and Cable, holds a 66.67 per cent stake in Scod18 Networking.

DOPL had said that it had taken a majority stake in Scod18 but never formally announced its actual holding. The deal in 2008 had enabled DOPL to start its operations in Mumbai as Scod18 is an association of cable TV distributors in the city.
 
DOPL also holds 76 per cent in Digital Infotainment, a small-sized cable network in Bangalore.

DOPL has also made several last mile acquisitions and smaller networks. The fair value of the net assets taken over by the Company during the period ended 31 March 2008 and year ended 31 March 2009 is Rs 0.53 million and Rs 0.40 million respectively. 
 
The focus of DOPL is to spread digital set-top boxes across its cable TV network.

You Broadband and Cable, which holds 36.24 per cent in DOPL, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise Rs 3.58 billion. It plans to invest Rs 850 million in DOPL. Invested by means of loans or equity subscription, the amount would be used for purchase of set-top boxes, head-end equipments, software and acquisition of subscribers.

MUMBAI: GlobeCast has signed a multi-year agreement with Fashion One TV, a new fashion entertainment channel owned by Bigfoot Entertainment.

The agreement involves the playout of the channel in Asia and satellite delivery in Asia and the US. 
 
GlobeCast is providing playout and origination of Fashion One TV from its Parkview Square digital hub in Singapore. The channel’s signal is then delivered from Singapore via GlobeCast’s global fiber network to its Hong Kong teleport in Chaiwan for uplink to the Asiasat3S satellite, which offers coverage of East Asia and South Asia.

FashionOne brings the latest news from the US entertainment industry as well as Fashion Weeks from around the world. The channel produces its own original content such as reality shows and movies in its facilities both in the US and in Asia.

GlobeCast also brings Fashion One TV to audiences in North America. GlobeCast’s Singapore playout facility is well connected via multiple ring connections to GlobeCast’s teleports worldwide. 
 
Taking advantage of this fiber network, Fashion One TV’s signal is delivered from Singapore direct to GlobeCast’s Culver City teleport in Los Angeles for uplink on the Galaxy19 satellite for distribution on GlobeCast’s World TV DTH platform. The channel’s programming is ‘time shifted’ for the US audience.

Finally, Fashion One TV and GlobeCast have entered into an exclusive channel distribution partnership for territories in Asia. As its sole distributor, GlobeCast’s Content Aggregation and Acquisition (CAD) team will represent Fashion One TV’s content on various pay-TV platforms including DTH, IPTV, cable, SMATV, MMDS, hotels, online and mobile.

MUMBAI: The NAB Show will present a super session on 13 April titled “All-Star Session: Next Generation Storytelling”, featuring demonstrations and a special 3D screening.
The “All-Star Session” is hosted by HP VP, CTO Personal Systems Group Phil McKinney. Featured panelists are DreamWorks Animation CTO Ed Leonard, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, and Conde Nast creative director for Wired Scott Dadich. 
 
These chief technologists and digital creatives in the entertainment, application and publishing industries will discuss the future of content creation, delivery and consumption as technology advancements rapidly change the possibilities for delivering news, information and entertainment.

Leonard will discuss the future of 3D movies, highlighting the session with a special advanced screening. Adobe‘s Kevin Lynch will offer details of the future of storytelling across a wide range of tools and devices. Scott Dadich will unveil a breakthrough example of the traditional magazine transformed for a new, all-digital and converged experience.  
 
McKinney said, “Fueled by a technology and content revolution, storytelling is undergoing a complete transformation. We‘ll explore what the next generation of content creation, delivery and consumption will look like across many forms of media and devices.”

The session will also feature on-stage demonstrations of new technologies destined to impact media and entertainment, while discussions shed light on important changes to the existing production process. 

NEW DELHI: The auction for the third generation (3G) spectrum commenced today with nine telecom service providers taking part, and five rounds were completed by the evening.
 
The provisional winning price for Delhi at the end of round five was Rs 3.73 billion and a sum of Rs 37.3 million was announced as the price increment for round six.

In comparison, the provisional winning price for Mumbai, the rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was Rs 3.63 billion each. A sum of Rs 36.2 million was announced as the price increment for round six in each of these territories.

For Kolkata, the provisional winning price was Rs 1.36 billion and the price increment for round six was Rs 13.5 million. For the rest of West Bengal, the figure was Rs 1.21 billion with no price increment for round six.

The provisional winning price for 12 other states varied between Rs 1.26 billion and Rs 300 million. Uttar Pradesh is the only state where separate bidding is being held for west and east part.

Four private players would be allotted spectrum in five states- Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir- while the remaining telecom circles will have three private players each.

The telecom operators are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd, Idea Cellular, Reliance, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecommunications and Vodafone Essar. 
 
Meanwhile, for the broadband and wireless access (BWA) auction, which will be held after the conclusion of 3G auctioning, 11 telecom companies- Aircel Ltd, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMax, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar – have qualified, Department of Telecom (DoT) said.

The government had set Rs 35 billion as the base price for pan-India 3G spectrum and Rs 17.5 billion for a BWA services. The government is expected to earn about Rs 200 billion from the process.

3G services, which would allow faster connectivity and enable customers to enjoy Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange, would start from 1 September.

MUMBAI: Qlipso, a social feature-rich multi-party content-sharing platform with 3D avatars, webcam and voice, has announced its purchase of all the assets of Veoh, an Internet Television company delivering broadcast-quality video programming.

The purchase enables Qlipso‘s unique synchronised media sharing and socially-interactive environment to tap into Veoh‘s library of more than one million videos, TV shows, online games and other interactive content, as well as Veoh‘s tens of millions of active monthly users. Qlipso is backed by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), an Israeli venture-capital fund.
 
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The purchase of Veoh‘s assets by Qlipso presages a shift in the changing nature of online media consumption with users transitioning from an individual viewing experience to a multi-platform, social media experience all within the same user interface.

Qlipso says that the transaction immediately transforms it from an early-stage, pre-revenue technology start-up into a high-tech, rich-media company that boasts a powerful community prime for online advertisers. To facilitate advertising needs, Qlipso has partnered with Outrigger Media in New York for direct advertising sales.

Qlipso CEO Jon Goldman says, “By bringing together features of both Qlipso and Veoh, we are taking the best of social, multiplayer online gaming and applying that to mainstream digital content, such as videos and music, for a mainstream audience. This provides not only a terrific user experience, but also a vastly improved target audience for advertisers.”

Qlipso enables users to identify themselves using 3D animating avatars, webcams or Facebook thumbnails, along with social features such as video, voice and text chat; all of which can be accessed within the same user interface, thus allowing users to view online content while having the ability to see and chat with one another. The Qlipso platform, which can be accessed entirely via Web browser, transforms media consumption into a shared social experience, both asynchronously and live with friends and family. 
 
Qlipso supports all types of Flash-based media, including video, music, games, slideshows, presentations, widgets and other digital content from any Web site using Qlipso‘s proprietary portable media player. Qlipso also taps into Facebook Connect, allowing site users to easily share content with their friends and chat about the videos they are watching without creating an online profile.

Other qualified Web publishers will also have the opportunity to incorporate Qlipso‘s features on their own sites.

Prior to the asset purchase by Qlipso, Veoh was an established media site, founded in 2004, with tens of millions of unique monthly visitors and had raised approximately $70 million from venture capital and media investments. As part of the transaction, key former Veoh executives will help shape the new vision of Qlipso.

JVP founder and managing partner Erel Margalit says, “We are thrilled to support Qlipso, a JVP Media Studio graduate, in this strategic move. There has yet to be a significant mainstream social approach to online media sharing that parallels how people consume media in offline social settings. We believe this transaction answers that need, as it provides users with a means to socialise around their favorite media content in a relaxed and social setting.”