Category: Software

MUMBAI: US cable company Comcast has put the finishing touches on its security programme designed to help protect its high-speed Internet customers from bots, viruses and other online threats.

Called Constant Guard, the programme is the culmination of a multi-year effort to assemble a dedicated team of security professionals, implement best-in-class security software and create a Security Web portal (www.comcast.net/security) of consumer resources to protect customers from increasingly sophisticated online security threats.

Comcast senior VP, GM online services Mitch Bowling says, “The Constant Guard Security Program is the result of many years of working to assemble the right people, technologies and resources to help ensure our customers are protected from hackers and bots in real-time.”

As part of this effort, starting today in Denver, Comcast will begin to trial an in-browser notification Service Notice, which will alert customers whose computers appear to be infected with a bot (or virus) and request that they go to the Anti-Virus Center and follow a set of instructions to assist with removing the bot from their computer and thereby prevent it from spreading to other users. This feature and the other components of the Constant Guard Security program are provided for no additional charge to Comcast High-Speed Internet customers.

MUMBAI: Japan International Broadcasting (JIB), a subsidiary of NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation, has signed a
contract to deliver a free-to-air English language news and information channel, NHK World TV, through AsiaSat’s C-band full transponder MCPC (Multiple Channels per Carrier) platform on Asiasat 3S.

NHK World TV / jibtv will air news, information programmes on business, culture and lifestyles. Home viewers across Asia and Australasia can receive the free-to-air broadcast signal directly via a satellite dish or through local cable operators and direct-to-home (DTH) services providers.

JIB executive MD Jun Kawakami says, “Asiasat 3S is a strategic addition to our distribution network to access more viewers in Asia Pacific. Since our re-launch earlier this year, NHK WORLD TV / jibtv are now viewed by more than 110 million households worldwide. Asiasat 3S’s superb market access and international television neighbourhood put us in a strong position to further broaden our reach and serve a wider English speaking audience across Asia Pacific”.

MUMBAI: eBus, which specialises in video content management and distribution business, is ready to commence its India operations in the next four weeks.

The company, dedicated to the Asian advertising and media market, has already introduced the Indian broadcasters to tapeless deliveries on a trial basis.

Says eBus CEO, founder and director Carmine Masiello, “In India, we anticipate to go live in the next four weeks. We have already installed our servers and begun our trials with Sony, Star, Zee, NDTV News and Network18 (in Mumbai and Delhi) and with Sun in the South. We shall finalise our agreements with these broadcasters soon to officially kick off the process.”

With eBus initiating this tapeless delivery system in India between the advertiser and broadcaster, it aims to capture 50 per cent of the market share in the next 12 months.

“As the main users in the Indian broadcasting sector is highly concentrated and with the top 25 advertisers of the country clocking nearly 60 per cent of the total ad spend, we are sure to capture 50 per cent of the market share in the next 12 months,” Masiello avers.

Masiello believes that with India housing a wide range of regional players and with domestic broadcasters expanding their presence outside the country, India poses a huge business opportunity for eBus.

MUMBAI : Star, the Asian media subsidiary of News Corp, which has recently launched four of its South Asian channels on Rogers Cable in Canada, is now gearing up to launch three more Mandarin-language channels later this month. The channels already available on the cable platform include Hindi general entertainment channel Star One, movie channel Star Gold, Star News and Tamil entertainment channel Star Vijay. The flagship channel Star Plus is, however, already available on ATN‘s services in Canada since 2006.

Now the company is planning to launch three popular Mandarin channels from Star Greater China‘s

“After attracting a strong following among the Asian diaspora in the US, we‘re thrilled to partner with Rogers to launch our top-rated channels for viewers in Canada,” said Star SVP distribution, sales and marketing and Star North American and European offices head David Wisnia. “This launch marks the debut of 24-hour Star channels in Canada and makes Star the largest provider of foreign television services to Rogers‘ viewers.”

MUMBAI: Come 23 October, Mumbai will play the host of the 5th 3G India 2009 International Conference.

The event will play a significant role for the Indian telecom industry as the conference will focus on laying an Indian roadmap on third generation (3G) and will showcase the bright future of 3G technologies and services in India.

The conference will also aim at addressing the monetary factor, ‘how will money be made out of delivering 3G services and how revenues generated should be shared between the various parties involved‘.

It will also offer a platform to understand the service that will provide value to the user and also help concentrate on the technical issues to ensure the success of 3G strategies in India.

MUMBAI: As the DTH (direct-to-home) operators are feeling the need to increase their Arpus (average revenue per user), the focus is shifting to premiere latest movies on a pay-per -view (PPV) basis.

The DTH players Dish TV, Tata Sky and Big TV have announced the premiere of recently launched Main aur Mrs. Khanna on their movie-on-demand (MoD) services within four days of the Bollywood movie’s theatrical release.

The price of the movie is kept at Rs 150 for first week, unlike other films which cost between Rs 50-75.

Starting today, Dish TV will make available the Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor-starrer for viewing to its six million subscribers over a month’s period.

Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor said, “Entertainment at home is becoming increasingly popular, more viewers are finding the convenience and simplicity of MoD a great way to watch movies. The growth trajectory is steep. We are proud to showcase Main aur Mrs. Khanna on our platform within days of its theatrical release.”

MUMBAI: Alcatel-Lucent has announced that its 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS) has been selected by NTT DoCoMo, Japan‘s mobile operator, for the all-IP transformation of its network.

The solution will enable NTT DoCoMo to deliver voice, data and video services meeting its customers‘ diverse demands.

Based on its 7450 ESS, the solution will help NTT DoCoMo construct a latency-sensitive network addressing voice and video traffic when transporting over its core IP network. It will also provide a smooth evolution path for NTT DoCoMo to upgrade its network to 10Gig and – as network growth demands – to 40Gig and 100Gig.

Says Alcatel-Lucent‘s President Asia-Pacific (activities) Sean Dolan, “This selection by one of the most advanced mobile operators in the world is a strong endorsement of Alcatel-Lucent‘s IP portfolio.

“Transforming its network to all-IP is enabling NTT DoCoMo to meet its customers‘ converged service requirements on data, voice and video.”

MUMBAI: The Nielsen Company, in a report, has divulged that the average internet user in the US spent 195.2 minutes watching online video in September, a 24.8 per cent increase since last year.

It also saw a surge by 24.8 per cent on the total number of streams at 11 billion while the number of viewers went up by 12.3 per cent in 2009 to 139.3 million.

The number of streams per viewer last month was 79.1, an increase of 1.1 per cent than that of last year.

Among the online brands, YouTube remained at the top with a total of 6.7 billion and 106.1 million exclusive viewers followed by Hulu with 437.4 million streams and 13.5 million unique viewers while Yahoo! registered 228.5 million streams and 30.1 million unique viewers.

MUMBAI: 7 Seas Technologies, an independent IP-based game development company, has released new online games on ‘Diwali Dhamaka‘. The game is a combination of six levels.

In the first level, one has to light up the lamps to form the sacred Hindu symbol OM, in the second, he has to light as many crackers as possible to score maximum points. It is followed by a quiz in the third level.

Measuring the accurate distance and lighting the cracker forms the fourth level while in the fifth level, one has to make an image and finally in the sixth level, rockets go randomly into the sky and the player has to light them up by clicking as many rockets as possible within the time limit.

MUMBAI: As digital TV providers capitalise on demand for Video-on-Demand (VOD) and Digital Video recorders (DVRs), advanced TV ad revenues in the US is likely to touch $4 billion in 2014.

The pay-TV industry will start witnessing success in advanced TV advertising from mid-2010, with US revenues touching $130 million by year-end, according to the new Parks Associates report ‘Addressable, Interactive TV Advertising in the US‘.

Consumer demand for time-shifted TV viewing on VOD and DVR service platforms, combined with the broad deployment of Canoe Ventures’ national addressable TV advertising platform, will drive the growth in advanced TV advertising.

By 2014, addressable, interactive TV advertising revenue in the US will exceed $4 billion thus accounting for nearly 12 per cent of total cable, DBS, and TV ad revenue.

Advanced TV advertising includes traditional linear 30-second ads and non-linear ads that include VOD and DVR advertising and interactive formats, such as overlay, tags, IPG banners, microsites, RFI, showcases and telescoping.