Category: Software

MUMBAI: Flo TV, which works in the live mobile TV category in the US and which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, will launch a Super Bowl ad campaign with three separate spots, featuring a remix of The Who’s classic My Generation by Black Eyed Peas frontman will.I.am.

The ads will also feature appearances by CBS Sports and Super Bowl personalities Jim Nantz and James Brown.
 
The campaign is designed to increase awareness for the mobile TV category and for the Flo TV brand, which brings live mobile TV to mobile phones, dedicated devices, like the FLO TV Personal Television, and in vehicles through the FLO TV Auto Entertainment service.

For the three spots:

• Flo TV brought the iconic rock band The Who and the acclaimed superstar will.I.am together for a piece dubbed Moments, which is a compilation of historical events and shared experiences that have united generations of television viewers. Set to My Generation, will.I.am’s puts a fresh twist on the lyrics, underscoring the ways in which different generations are affected by technology and how viewers today consume content on the go.

• Also scheduled to air during the Super Bowl, a second FLO TV spot, dubbed Injury Report, features CBS Sports Commentator Jim Nantz, who plays himself and offers a humorous play-by-play of a couple on a shopping spree. During the spot, Nantz will deliver a highly memorable and amusing tagline that’s sure to enter pop-culture lexicon.

• And just prior to kick-off, FLO TV will debut a 30-second ad featuring CBS Sports studio host James Brown, as well as Nantz. In that spot, Driven Crazy, Brown brings peace to a family on a long trip by introducing them to the Flo TV Auto Entertainment service. 
 
Flo TV president Bill Stone says, “will.I.am and The Who are legends whose socially conscious and progressive work appeals to multiple generations, just like Flo TV”.

Magner Sanborn and Agency 3.0 – the agencies behind each of the three ad executions – have a history of working together, and have collaborated on a variety of branded marketing and content projects.

MUMBAI: Online and mobile video monetization player Vdopia has appointed Debadutta Upadhyaya as VP India.

Prior to this, Upadhyaya was Yahoo! India head sales strategy.

In her new capacity, she will report to company chief business officer and co-founder Saurabh Bhatia.

Said Bhatia, “We are delighted to have Upadhyaya joining our senior management team. Her joining could not have come at a better time for Vdopia which is geared up for some major product launches in 2010. Her domain experience and strategic inputs will add immense value to our overall operations.” 
 
Vdopia VP (India) Upadhyaya says, “My role would be to assist company scale up its operations and drive this leadership position to the next level. What really got me excited about Vdopia is its proprietary cutting edge technology expertise, execution finesse and the gigantic vision of the founders.” 
 
She was with Yahoo! for around six years. She was also associated with the Times Group for nearly eight years.

MUMBAI: Essel Group’s direct-to-home (DTH) company Dish TV has announced a strategic marketing alliance with Fox Star Studios for the co-promotion of its forthcoming movie My Name is Khan.

Dish TV has created a 30-second TVC to promote the movie and it will spend around Rs 40 million for a pan-India marketing campaign.

Dish TV’s brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan is the lead actor of the movie, while Kajol is making a come back with the movie after Fanaa.
 
 
Apart from the new TVC with Khan, the DTH company will also run a contest, wherein the participants will get a chance to meet Shah Rukh Khan at his home – Mannat.

The TVC captures the warm and affectionate moments in the movie and is in line with the new brand identity of Dish TV- ‘Ghar Aayi Zindagi.’ Dish TV will also run a month-long 360 degree integrated marketing campaign across all India to co-promote the brand and the movie.

Says Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor, “It’s exciting to be associated with Fox Star Studios for My Name is Khan. Khan is Dish TV’s brand ambassador and we are delighted to promote the movie My Name is Khan as it has a beautiful synergy with our brand positioning Ghar Aayi Zindagi. Dish TV will run a marketing campaign for which the company will spend around Rs 40 million.” 
 
As a part of the deal, Dish TV will also showcase exclusive interviews with director Karan Johar, and Khan as well as videos of behind-the-scenes of the film. Dish TV will also have rights to telecast interviews with Johar, Khan and Kajol on its DTH platform.

Adds Fox Star Studios India head marketing distribution and syndication Vivek Krishnani, “My Name is Khan is a film that will appeal to people of all age groups. Our promotional partnership with Dish TV will help us widen the reach of the film to a pan-Indian audience. My Name is Khan has an incredible buzz on-ground and we are going all out to give it the best possible release, we are glad to be associated with like-minded partners like Dish TV and are thrilled with their support to co-promote the film.”

My Name is Khan is story of an unconventional hero, who embarks on a journey across America to win back the love of his life. Along the way, his personality touches the lives of many and inspires a nation. The movie releases in theatres across the country on 12 February.
 

BANGALORE: Vodafone Group Plc’s former CEO Arun Sarin has joined Aricent as a director of the board.

“Sarin will perform the normal fiduciary functions of a director and will have a non-operational role in the company,” informed Aricent President and CEO Sanjay Dhawan.

“As someone involved directly with mobile telephony services industry, Arun brings in a vast amount knowledge and experience,” added Dhawan.
 
Aricent®, a global innovation, technology and services company focused exclusively on communications, today also announced Experience Engineering, which Aricent says is an integrated strategy, innovation, product development and systems integration engagement model aimed at enabling both fixed and mobile network operators to conceptualize, productize and commercialize highly differentiated subscriber experiences.

“Service providers are in a unique position to deliver innovative mobile services that integrate best in class devices, high performance networks, and a virtually unlimited set of applications and services into a single compelling subscriber experience,” said Sarin. 
 
“Aricent’s Experience Engineering is the first engagement model of its kind that assists operators through the innovation, development and delivery phases of their experience strategies. It’s very timely given the top strategic concerns of carriers today,” added Sarin.

MUMBAI: China Digital TV has made a joint investment in OpenV China, an online video company, alongside one of OpenV’s existing shareholders.

Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, the aggregate amount of China Digital TV’s investment will be up to $14.5 million, consisting of consideration for an initial equity investment, a convertible loan to OpenV and consideration payable upon the potential exercise of a warrant to purchase additional shares of OpenV.
 
Assuming the full conversion of the convertible loan into OpenV’s shares and the full exercise of the warrant, China Digital TV’s equity interest in OpenV would be approximately 25 per cent to 31 per cent, subject to certain performance adjustment mechanisms. China Digital TV has the right to appoint two directors to OpenV’s seven-member board of directors.

The aggregate amount of the investment from both investors will be up to $17 million in cash. Founded in 2006, OpenV’s interactive web TV platform employs advanced online video technology to provide users with personalized video content services. 
 
OpenV currently has entered into cooperation agreements with more than 40 of China’s TV stations, including six strategic content partners – CCTV, Beijing TV, Shanghai Media Group, Phoenix TV, Hunan TV and China Entertainment TV. OpenV offers 578 online TV channels and owns millions of hours of licensed video content. As of the end of 2009, OpenV’s daily average traffic reached more than 55 million page views, 40 million video views and 8 million unique visitors.

Says China Digital TV chairman, CEO Jianhua Zhu, “This investment is in line with China Digital TV’s long term strategy to create and market products that allow consumers to conveniently access high quality content anywhere, anytime. As the trend towards network convergence in China continues to accelerate, we expect to see the benefits of this cooperation as well as exciting opportunities to provide consumers with new ways to access high-quality video content.”
 

MUMBAI: UK pay TV operator BSkyB has posted a revenue of ?2.9 billion for the first six months ended December 2009, up 10 per cent from the earlier year.

Net profit surged to ?256 million compared to ?166 million in the same part of the previous fiscal. 
 
BSkyB also absorbed the cost of strong demand to deliver four per cent growth in operating profit to ?401 million. It made strong financial progress in broadband and telephony and its free cash flow was up five per cent to ?290 million.

In the second quarter, BSkyB had 172,000 net additions taking the total customer base to 9.7 million. Now 18 per cent of customers take TV, broadband and telephony.

Says BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch, “It has been another good quarter in what remains a tough environment, with more customers joining Sky and strong demand across our entire product range. The standout performance came in high definition TV with almost half a million customers
choosing Sky+HD for our best home entertainment service.” 
 
While the economic outlook remains uncertain, BSkyB expects to be in a “good position” in 2010 as it continues to focus on a consistent set of priorities. In addition to customer growth and take-up of additional products, it will seek to extend and build on leadership position in high definition and seek to grow its share in home communications.

“The company will continue to invest sensibly where it sees long-term advantage and stay disciplined on costs,” says Darroch.

MUMBAI: ET Now, the English business news channel from Times Global Broadcasting Company Ltd (TGBCL), is now available on Sun Direct.

The channel, which delivers news on stock markets, business and finance, will be on Sun Direct channel No 562. 
 
ET Now is available in all the seven basic packs offered by the DTH company- Freedom Tamil, Freedom Kannada, Freedom Malayalam, Freedom Telugu, Shine Pack (Hindi), Bengali Shine Pack and Oriya Shine Pack.

With this, ET Now is now on all DTH platforms barring Videocon D2h platform. It is available on Dish TV (channel 597), Tata Sky (channel 542), Airtel Digital TV (Channel 309) and Big TV (Channel 998). 
 
Sun Direct has also added BBC World to these basic packs. The international news and information channel is available on EPG No 567.
 

BANGALORE: Centred around the theme ‘India Market-Momentum for Growth in the New Decade,’ the 5th ISA (Indian Semicondutor Association) Vision Summit kicked off today in Bangalore with an inaugural keynote by Isro’s past Chairman and International Academy of Astronauts (IAA) President G Madhavan Nair.

Among the products in the reckoning for Techonovation Awards 2010 are some that find application in the media and entertainment industry.
 
 
Verismo‘s VuNow that provides Access to the broadest online content and allows the viewer to watch millions of free online videos directly on the TV instead of the PC. VuNow comes in two models – a standard definition and a high definition model of the VuNow PoD that can connect to any TV.

The device enables watching of video content from Hulu™, Netflix™, Amazon Unbox™, CNN™, ESPN™ by downloading PlayOn™ from Media Mall™, YouTube™ videos on TV by categories. It enables search for videos with a powerful built-in video search engine, live TV Channels from around the world a well as listening to live internet radio.

The device also permits access to personal media such as video, music, and photos from the home network – stored on a PC, networked attached storage device, or even on a connected USB storage device. The VuNow supports wired or wireless connectivity. 
 
The SL 1001 Universal TV Demodulation IC which the creators, Bangalore-based Saankhya Labs, claim is the World‘s First Software-Defined Universal Demodulator IC for Digital and Analog TV reception. The Saankhya solution is an ASSP for demodulation.

The SL 1001 is designed to demodulate all the broadcast TV standards and is a platform which is capable of supporting world-wide TV demodulation standards. It is capable of performing the functions of Signal Conditioning, Signal Processing and Channel Decoding stages to generate a Transport Stream

The BCM4329 from Broadcom India, which eliminates the barriers of adding the latest wireless connectivity features to small, battery-operated devices. In addition to bringing greater Wi-Fi throughput and coverage to mobile consumer electronics, the BCM4329 is Broadcom‘s smallest and lowest cost dual-band 802.11n solution.

The BCM4329 integrates a complete IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n system (MAC/baseband/radio) with Bluetooth® + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), and FM radio receiver and transmitter. By combining several proven wireless technologies onto a single silicon die, the BCM4329 enables mobile devices to support today‘s toughest media applications.
 

MUMBAI: UK pay-TV operator Sky will launch Sky 3D, Europe’s first dedicated 3D TV channel this April.

As part of the final preparations for this launch, Sky will preview the new service with a world first on 31 January, becoming the first TV company anywhere to broadcast a live 3D TV sports event to a public audience.

The Premier League clash between Arsenal and Manchester United will be filmed in 3D and broadcast over the Sky platform to selected pubs around the UK and Ireland, with their customers becoming the first audiences anywhere in the world to experience live Premier League in 3D.
 
 
To support this broadcast, the nine pubs – located in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin – have been kitted out specially with some of the first ‘3D Ready’ TV sets to reach the UK and Ireland.

As 3D TVs become more widely available, Sky will roll out its 3D channel to hundreds of pubs from April, allowing football fans across the country the opportunity to experience a live Premier League match in 3D each week.

Once 3D TVs begin to reach the consumer market later this year, Sky will then make Sky 3D available to all Sky+HD customers, giving millions of people the opportunity to watch a wide range of content in 3D, including movies, sport, documentaries, entertainment and the arts.  
 
Sky 3D works with all existing Sky+HD boxes and will initially be introduced at no extra cost for customers who subscribe to Sky’s top TV package and the Sky HD pack. Sky 3D will also be compatible with all 3D Ready TVs coming to the UK and Ireland this year, including all models from Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic.

To make the 3D preview a reality, Sky Sports will produce two edits of its live coverage of Sunday’s game at the Emirates Stadium, one for its HD channel feed and another dedicated to 3D. Eight specially engineered 3D camera rigs will house sixteen of Sky’s high definition cameras, to provide comprehensive stereoscopic coverage from all angles.

The 3D broadcast will be supported by Sky’s dedicated 3D production team and purpose built 3D outside broadcast truck, which will enable live mixing between camera positions, slow motion replays and the use of innovative 3D graphics. There will also be a dedicated commentary team to support the 3D edit.

MUMBAI: Viacom18 and online video content networks company iStream.in have entered into an online video content distribution deal.

The deal will see iStream.in digitising, packaging and managing all video content belonging to Viacom18 channels across all online platforms.

Viacom18, the Network18 and Viacom JV, operates and runs a clutch of TV channels including Colors, MTV, Nick and Vh1.
 
“This is one of the biggest deals in the online video content market in India. Video is the fastest growing segment online and this deal will ensure that reality shows like Bigg Boss, Fear Factor-Khatron Ke Khiladi as well as serials like Balika Vadhu apart from properties like Roadies and Splitsvilla will be available online,” says iStream.in founder and CEO Radhakrishnan Ramachandran.

As part of the deal, iStream.in will create and manage online destinations for Viacom18 video content across multiple platforms. iStream.in currently has partnerships with all major online platforms like YouTube, Dailymotion, MSN, Yahoo, Indiatimes and Sify.   
 
“We believe we can build equally powerful properties in the online space adding entertainment and engagement off the television screen as well,” says Viacom18 Media SVP – strategy & business development Anuj Poddar.

iStream will also have access to all archived content from Viacom18 including MTV Bakra with Cyrus Broacha and MTV Loveline with Malaika Arora.

The worldwide market for the ad-supported online video market is estimated at $3.5 billion and is expected to see a compounded annual growth rates of more than 35 per cent over the next four years, the company said in a statement.