Category: Software

MUMBAI: Australia‘s Seven Network will launch its new free-to-air digital channel 7TWO on 1 November. The channel is expected to deliver a broad entertainment slate of American and British series.

Seven‘s director of programming and production, Tim Worner, said that the new network would house episodes of imported fare such as Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24.

Also set to screen on 7TWO are The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Murphy Brown, plus new episodes of The Jay Leno Show, five nights a week.

The channel will also broadcast the popular British shows A Touch of Frost, Prime Suspect, Rosemary & Thyme, Fifth Gear and Gavin & Stacey among others.The grid features themed nights, such as Action & Adventure, Lifestyle and Movies-including family titles from Disney‘s studio and a weekday afternoon schedule that will be home to content with top chefs like Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone, Rick Stein, Ainsley Harriott and Gary Rhodes.

MUMBAI: Digital lifestyle brand Amkette has introduced its latest offering, the ultra portable Flash TV multimedia player, in India.

The product is a solution for users to playback their internet downloaded movies, pictures and music from the USB hard drives, flash drives or memory cards, in high-resolution output of 720P directly on their HD television.

The product connects to a user‘s TV or home theatre and plays digital movies, music and photos and also text files stored in the USB portable drives.

Says Amkette director Rajiv Bapna, “In this age of digital revolution, our consumers are evolving everyday and are demanding high-end products that fit their wallet and are easy to use.

MUMBAI: Wire and Wireless (India) Limited (WWIL) has widened its second-quarter consolidated net loss to Rs 406.01 million as revenue dropped and investments continued for the Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) system.

The Subhash Chandra-promoted cable TV distribution company had posted a loss of Rs 219.70 for the same period in the earlier year.

Operating revenue fell 16.66 per cent to Rs 697.97 million for the quarter ended 30 September 2009, compared to Rs 837.54 million a year ago.

“WWIL couldn‘t finalise a few carriage deals. The third-quarter income will go up as these deals get concluded,” a source said.

Expenses stayed flat at Rs 911.07 million, compared to Rs 912.32 million in the year-ago period.

WWIL said it has launched HITS in the first quarter of the fiscal for future turnaround of the business. It has also come up with a rights issue of Rs 4.5 billion.

MUMBAI: The BBC and Arqiva have announced that the agreement to upgrade the relevant parts of the UK digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmission network to DVB-T2 has been confirmed.

The new DVB-T2 technology will deliver an increase in capacity of 67 per cent to the BBC‘s Multiplex B, efficiently creating the space needed for UK public service broadcasters‘ HD transmissions.

The BBC and Arqiva will be the first organisations in the world to deploy the DVB-T2 technology into full operational service across an entire transmission network.

The upgrade programme, which runs alongside the BBC‘s main digital television transmission agreement, will start by launching Freeview HD services in the North West of England from December this year.

From then on, the new technology will roll-out with digital switchover at each transmitter, with most areas which have switched over already being upgraded before the end of 2010.

In addition, the BBC has made arrangements with Arqiva to build a small network of five additional transmitters which will bring HD services to certain key metropolitan areas ahead of their planned switchover dates.London will benefit from the end of 2009, with transmitters for Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham and Leeds/Bradford due to be on-air during spring 2010.

BANGALORE: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will be launching 3G (third generation) mobile services in Karnataka by mid-November this year, according to BSNL general manager (Broadband) Anil Jain.

The public services provider has an installed capacity of 200,000 connections which it plans to fill up by the end of this fiscal.

Since early this year, BSNL has already rolled out 3G services in around 200 cities and towns, mainly in North and East India with an installed capacity of about a million connections. “We have around 70,000 subscribers until now. One of the biggest problems in attracting more customers for 3G services is lack of awareness among the customers and unfound fears about costs,” revealed Jain.“Many people are not aware about the charges – they are quite competitive. For example, we have been offering 35 television channels on the mobile at a subscription of Rs 150 per month. Even the data and voice charges are quite reasonable,” added Jain.

MUMBAI: In a carriage deal with Telmex TV in Peru, TV Globo International has increased its reach to 54 platforms worldwide.

Telmex TV carriage began earlier this month in areas such as Lima, Chiclayo and Piura. It adds to the channel‘s existing Peruvian distribution on DIRECTV, Telefonica and Star Global.

MUMBAI: In these days when people are surfing the net in hordes, more than a fifth of adults in the UK are devoid of the internet, according to new a research published by the British Broadcasing Corporation.

21 per cent of UK adults – over 10 million people – do not use the internet at home or anywhere else. The Government has argued that these people are potentially at a disadvantage in terms of access to employment opportunities, public services, as well as cheaper shopping, utilities and financial services.

Socially, these adults may also miss out on the opportunities to connect with friends and family, access information, or pursue hobbies and interests.

The findings suggest that there are real and significant barriers for the Government and other agencies to overcome in order to achieve universal access.

MUMBAI: 7Seas Technologies, the IP-based game development company has partnered with Intel Business Exchange (Intel BX) to help discover solutions featuring Intel technology on its business exchange programme to reach out to gaming customers.

As per the agreement, 7Seas‘ multi genre PC racing game ‘Kraze‘ will be made available on Intel BX.

Said 7Seas Technologies MD Maruti Sanker, “This agreement is important for our strategic entry into India for the growth of our online sales. The Intel BX brings together best-of-breed products built on Intel technology to create a convenient and vetted one-stop shopping experience for SMB customers.”

The tie up enables customers to evaluate and purchase the PC racing game ‘Kraze‘ for playing on Intel processor based PCs that will be available to consumers online as well as offline.

MUMBAI: Den Networks Ltd, the first of the two multi-system operators to tap the capital market, has fixed its initial public offering (IPO) price band at Rs 195-205 per share.

Den will be able to raise Rs 4.1 billion at the upper and Rs 3.9 billion at the lower price band.

The valuation of Den, which has set its footprint across India by acquiring cable TV networks

, works out to Rs 27.04 billion on the upper side and Rs 25.73 billion at the lower end of the price band.

Den will hit the capital market on 28 October with an IPO of up to 20 million equity shares (of Rs 10 each). The issue closes on 30 October.

“The issue would constitute up to 15.16 per cent of the post-issue paid-up equity share capital of the company,” Den said.

Earlier this year, Den sold 3.95 million shares at Rs 190 each to foreign fund EMSAF.

Set up in July 2007 by IBN18 Broadcast Ltd joint managing director Sameer Manchanda and Lucid Systems, Den has invested Rs 2.5 billion for acquiring cable networks.

Den intends to invest a further Rs 750 million towards acquisition out of the net proceeds of the IPO.

The MSO has earmarked Rs 2.1 billion towards digital cable TV infrastructure and Rs 250 million for cable broadband infrastructure and services. A further Rs 400 million will be utilised for repayment of loan and Rs 100 million for acquisition of content and broadcasting.

Den has 300,000 digital cable television subscribers and currently provides cable television services in the National Capital Region of Delhi and the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.

As reported earlier in Indiantelevision.com, Manchanda and associates own 62.65 per cent stake in Den. Following the IPO, the holding of Manchanda and associates will drop to 53.15 per cent.

TV18 Group founder Raghav Bahl‘s holding will fall from 9.80 per cent to just over 7 per cent after the IPO. The stake of IL&FS will drop from 11.8 per cent to 9.8 per cent.

Deutsche Bank and India‘s Antique Capital are the arrangers for the offer.

Hathway Cable & Datacom is also planning a public float and is awaiting Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) clearance.

MUMBAI: Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) NDTV Imagine has tied up with online gaming portal Zapak.com to promote its latest show-based game, Pati, Patni Aur Woh.

Conceptualised in line with the show adorning the same title, the game has a baby that the user has to please, feed and change at the right time with the props available like milk bottle, diapers, television and soft toys. The more the user satisfies the baby, the higher the score.

Says NDTV Imagine VP marketing Nikhil Madhok, “The internet is increasingly becoming an important medium for us to reach out to prospective viewers of our shows. Gaming is a great way to engage viewers without being intrusive. The response to our online game for Rakhi ka Swayamvar encouraged us to do the same for Pati Patni aur Woh.”

Adds Zapak Digital Entertainment CMOArun Mehra, “The format of this show merits for a very interesting game. It offers novelty and an engaging gameplay for the users. Our past games based on television shows and movies have been very popular with our users and we are sure that this game will do equally well.” Pati, Patni Aur Woh allows five celebrity couples to go through the challenging, frustrating but rewarding experience of parenthood – from infancy to adolescence. The couples will spend an entire month in a closed environment, monitored by cameras 24X7 which will capture their journey as they embark on a new life of discovery as first time parents.