ITV

Category: Software

  • StarHub adds BBC World News, CCTV 4 to mobile TV lineup

    MUMBAI: Singapore pay-TV operator StarHub has announced that StarHub’s 3G mobile post-paid customers are able to receive BBC World News and CCTV 4 from any 3G handset.









    With these two added channels, the mobile TV service from StarHub boasts six channels of ‘live‘ news.

     

    StarHub head of products and solutions Chan Kin Hung says, “Living in today‘s fast-paced world, we understand that it is important for our business customers to have ready access to time-critical news, especially when they are on the move. StarHub’s mobile TV service offers the most comprehensive news coverage to meet the demand of these customers, bringing in-depth coverage of local, global and financial news from six leading news channels – BBC World News, Bloomberg Television, CCTV 4, Channel NewsAsia, CNBC and CNN, anywhere, anytime.”


    Besides ‘live‘ news, the StarHub Mobile on TV line-up also features a selection of popular channels of sports, lifestyle and entertainment programmes. Currently, there are a total of 17 channels in the line-up.


    This month, StarHub’s 3G mobile post-paid customers can enjoy free access to selected channels (BBC World News, CCTV 4, Animax, Bloomberg Television, CTI TV, Disney, Jim Jam, Football Channel, Goal TV1, Goal TV2 and MNC – The Indonesian Channel). They pay only $1 for 24-hour access to all other channels in the StarHub TV on Mobile line-up. No additional charges will be incurred for data access.


    Customers with the latest smartphones can enjoy the added convenience of one-click instant access from the StarHub TV on Mobile application when they select and watch any channel. Alternatively, they can access the StarHub TV on Mobile service from the Gee! portal.


    Taking advantage of the true open platform of Android, StarHub has created a new client – StarHub TV Guide – that will allow customers easy access to one-week long programme schedules and synopses on the StarHub TV on Mobile channels from their Android phones. This client will be available for downloading at Android Market when the phone launches.


    “With HTC Hero, customers will discover the ultimate fun of personalisation by putting their favourite content such as the StarHub TV Guide and StarHub TV on Mobile widgets right on the home screen for direct access,” adds Hung.

  • DTH operators groan under 30% entertainment tax in UP

    MUMBAI: Already hurt by high taxation, DTH companies are in the midst of experiencing the worst pinch from the state of Uttar Pradesh.









    The state government has imposed an entertainment tax of 30 per cent, forcing direct-to-home (DTH) companies to revise upwards their subscription package to consumers.


    Market leader Dish TV has increased the price of its subscriber packages in the state by 30 per cent, while others are finalising on whether they should completely pass it on to the consumers or absorb part of it.



    “We have no option but to pass on the entertainment tax to the subscribers,” Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor tells Indiantelevision.com.


     

    At present Dish TV has three packages for UP – Silver for Rs 125, Gold for Rs 210 and Platinum for Rs 312 per month.



    “The UP government has assured us to review this tax sympathetically. Till now we were absorbing the additional entertainment tax burden but we have now decided to pass it on to all our new and old customers in the state. The increase in prices is applicable from 2 September,” Kapoor adds.



    Meanwhile, in order to offset the increased cost, Dish TV will air free movies on its movie-on-demand service to the tune of the entertainment tax component. The company clarified that in case any customer shifts residence outside UP, then the additional cost would not be applicable.



    Tata Sky is in the process of hiking the subscriber packages on account of the entertainment tax. Says Tata Sky MD and CEO Vikram Kaushik, “We have very little option but to pass on the entertainment tax levied by the state government to our consumers. We are finalising on hoe much the increase should be.”



    As per industry estimates, UP contributes to 10-15 per cent of the total DTH subscriber base in the country.



    Among the other players, Reliance Communication’s Big TV, which claims a subscriber base of 150,000, is also weighing the situation. Big TV CEO Sanjay Bahl says, “We are evaluating our options. So far we have not decided on whether we should increase the prices.”


    Airtel Digital TV, the latest DTH entrant, believes that the entertainment tax would be detrimental for the DTH industry. “The 30 per cent entertainment tax will affect the industry adversely. We are trying to see that our customers don’t get affected by this. But we are weighing our options,” avers Airtel Digital TV marketing head Sugato Benerjee.



    The cable TV sector will also have to bear the burden of a 30 per cent entertainment tax. DTH companies, however, say they are particularly at a disadvantage as the cable operators hide on their subscriber base.


    DTH services are subject to multiple taxation which includes a licence fee of 10 per cent on gross revenue to the government.

  • Tata Sky to premiere UTV, Eros movies on PPV channel

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky, the direct-to-home (DTH) operator, has signed movie syndication deals with UTV and Eros for two recently released movies from each of them.









    The deal will see premiere of Kaminey, Agyaat, Chintuji and Vaada Raha…I Promise on Tata Sky’s pay-per-view (PPV) service, Showcase. The movies will be available for whole of the September.


    Tata Sky CMO Vikram Mehra told Indiantelevision.com, “The idea behind getting recent releases on PPV is to kill piracy, which also helps in monetization for the DTH operator as well as the producer. Also, the middle and upper-middle class family audiences get the luxury of watching a new movie at their leisure.”

     

    Movies like Kaminey and Chintuji are available for Rs 75 each per viewing, while Vaada Raha is for Rs 100. Agyaat is available for Rs 50 on the pay-TV operator’s platform.


    Mehra remained tightlipped about the kind of deal that Tata Sky has signed with the producers. “There are different kinds of deals with different studios. It may include minimum guarantee (MG) as well as revenue sharing.”


    Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey is a dark comedy showcasing the cunning side of humans to achieve happiness. The lead actors of this film are Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra.


    Ram Gopal Verma’s, Agyaat is a thriller and revolves around the realm of fear. A film unit goes for a shoot at a location deep in the forest of Sri Lanka. Each character in this film exhibits their quirkiness, their arrogance and their mixed feelings for each other.


    Produced by Next Gen Films, Chintuji starring Rishi Kapoor in the lead, swivels around a small town called Hadbahedi which is ignored and in search of its identity viz-a-viz Triphala, its neighboring town. Other characters in the film are portrayed by Priyanshu Chatterjee and Saurabh Shukla.


    Vaada Raha…I Promise is a tale showcasing the brutal truths of life and how innocence brings joy in a depressing existence. The characters are portrayed by Bobby Deol and Kangana Ranaut.

  • Video rental set for revival in US and Europe: Study

    MUMBAI: After years of playing second fiddle to DVD retail, video rental could be set for a revival in the US and Europe, according to the latest research from media analysts Screen Digest.









    Strong growth in the online rental of DVDs and increasing demand for Blu-ray Disc rental is mitigating the relentless downward trend in traditional brick and mortar rental stores in both Europe and the US.


    But while European rental is still on a downward trajectory – Screen Digest expects spending to decline by 11 per cent this year and by an average of six per cent annually 2010-2013 – the company‘s US research arm, Adams Media Research (AMR), says US rental spending will be stable or even slightly up this year and will maintain its value out to 2013.

     

    A fundamental reason for this dramatic difference in outlook is the presence of a third area of growth specific to the US market: $1-a-night video rental kiosks.


    By the end of 2009, almost 25,500 of these recession-friendly automated rental points will have been installed around the US, the vast majority operated by Redbox, a division of Coinstar. Between them they will persuade US consumers to part with $830 million in rental spending, an increase of over 70 per cent on 2008, according to AMR, which expects spending through this channel to expand at an average of 15 per cent a year by 2013.


    Cash-strapped consumers looking for an affordable way to entertain the family may welcome this development, but Hollywood is less happy. In fact, studios believe that Redbox and its rivals are undermining their more lucrative retail DVD business – not only by offering cut-price rentals but also through the subsequent cheap sale of millions of ‘previously-viewed‘ discs.


    As a result, Universal, Fox and most recently Warner have all introduced rules restricting the sale of DVDs to kiosks for anything up to six weeks from their first release, sparking legal challenges from Redbox. Sony, Lionsgate and Paramount, meanwhile, have opted for an alternative strategy, signing deals with Redbox to ensure that their titles get top billing in the machines.


    Crucially, however, both approaches specifically prohibit the sale of ex-rental discs.


    Could kiosks get Europeans renting again?
    The US tends to set international video trends, so could a similar phenomenon help stabilise rental spending in Europe?


    Screen Digest believes not. “The concept of rental kiosks was actually invented in Italy about 20 years ago”, says Screen Digest Head of Video Helen Davis Jayalath, “and was quickly adopted across much of southern Europe. But unlike in the US, European kiosks tend to be operated by traditional rental stores and are seen as an extension of their business – they don‘t tend to compete so aggressively on price.”


    And, Screen Digest notes, there are plenty of markets – including the UK – where despite regular attempts the idea has simply not taken off due to a combination of cultural and legal issues.


    Adds Davis Jayalath, “We don‘t believe that rental is strong enough in any European territory these days to support a substantial $1 (or ?1 or ?1)-a-night business.”


    In 2008, the 100 million DVD households in the US made almost 2.6 billion DVD and BD rental transactions between them – an average of more than 25 per household per year.


    Meanwhile Europe‘s 135 million DVD homes rented just 472 million times –3.5 times per household. Widespread piracy (both physical DVDs and illegal downloading), a growing range of legal TV and internet-based video-on-demand services and, above all, the ever-lower cost of buying legitimate DVDs, have combined to ensure that DVD rental has become a minority pastime in Europe.


    Even in the US, Blockbuster recently welcomed studio moves to implement a window before kiosk release, telling analysts that “$1 per viewing is not a sustainable industry model.” This is despite the fact that the rental chain is rolling out its own cut-price kiosks in partnership with self-service technology giant NCR.


    Try-before-you-buy could boost Blu-ray rental
    So is rental really a spent force in Europe? There is one bright light on the horizon.


    Screen Digest believes that the hi-def Blu-ray Disc (BD) format could play a key role in the rental sector over the next few years. “Consumers who are considering upgrading to BD may be more inclined to do so if they can rent, as well as buy, the more expensive hi-def discs needed to make the most of it” says Screen Digest Senior Analyst Richard Cooper. “And by the end of this year there will be 11m European households who own a Sony PlayStation 3 games console – which is one of the best BD players out there. Rental, which is the ultimate ‘try-before-you-buy‘ option, is a great way of persuading them to dip their toe in the Blu-ray water.”


    In fact, new research from Screen Digest indicates that European consumers could be spending as much as $648 million a year on renting the hi-def format by 2013. This is on top of the forecast $4.5 billion they will be spending on buying movies and TV series on the hi-def discs, making the total European BD market in 2013 worth $5.4 billion compared with DVD spending of $7.8 billion.


    In the US, where rental remains a mainstream pursuit, BD could be worth over $5 billion in consumer spending by 2013, with almost $10 billion more being spent on buying the discs. There, the combined figure of $15 billion is almost twice the amount Screen Digest expects US consumers to spend on buying and renting DVDs that year.

  • NDS, TNS introduce STB audience measurement solution









    MUMBAI: NDS and TNS Media Research (TNS) have announced an enhancement to their joint TV audience measurement offering, adding the ability to identify individual viewers in homes that have agreed to participate on a measurement panel.

     

    The RPDi solution, based on the NDS Dynamic audience measurement system and TNS’s RaPiDView analysis service, will help TV operators better understand audience behaviour by collecting and analysing data about individual viewers as well as information at the household level.


    NDS will demonstrate the RPDi solution for the first time at IBC 09 in Amsterdam. An easy-to-use application prompts viewers to identify themselves by their first name using their remote control and allows users to add any additional guests watching TV alongside them. The service only measures audience viewing in those homes that have agreed to participate through an opt-in process.


    NDS product marketing manager for ad solutions Gideon Gilboa says, “Operators are turning to STB measurement because it allows them to truly understand the behaviours of their subscribers, providing rich data not available from traditional measurement methods. This includes niche channel viewing, time-shifted TV and interactive usage.


    “To date this has mostly been reported on a household level but with RPDi customers can have the best of both worlds: rich STB data and strong individual level reporting to improve their business decisions and advertising sales”.TNS Media Research global head of RPD Nick Burfitt says, ”RPD is becoming a standard tool among TV operators in developed markets for driving strategic decisions related to their business. Enriching this tool with individual viewing data adds key information on audience demographics and composition. RPDi is a cost-effective way to bring this functionality to the STB” .


    NDS and TNS announced their partnership to create and market an end-to-end STB audience measurement solution for digital TV operators at IBC 2008. Joint customers include BSkyB, DIRECTV, Sky Television in New Zealand and FOXTEL.


    In addition to audience measurement, the NDS Dynamic suite comprises two additional solutions:



    • Addressable Advertising – This solution replaces broadcast ads with addressable ones based on household or audience profiles, location and other factors. Operators can continue to sell ads based on the same terms and demographic data as available previously, but with the new powerful ability to segment the audience for every spot. With NDS Dynamic, advertisers and operators can generate more advertising revenues by communicating with new targeted audiences. Furthermore, audiences can benefit from seeing more ads that are relevant to them.


    • Interactive Advertising – This capability offers viewers the ability to interact with ads in various formats. These include telescopic ads that allow linking with longer format content; EPG ads that link to advertorial content; dedicated advertiser location ads that allow access to a product mini-site; and request for information ads that allow viewers to contact advertisers for more information or samples.

  • Court asks Dish Network to pay $200 million to TiVo in patent suit

    MUMBAI: Dish Network and EchoStar will have to cough out $200 million to TiVo Inc for violating an injunction on using a DVR technology that can pause or rewind live TV, according to a court decision.









    US District Court of Eastern District of Texas judge David Folsom ordered Dish and Echostar to pay $110 million in damages and $90 in sanctions to Tivo, plus attorney fees. He further added that Dish will be liable to more sanctions if it loses on an appeal of the case.

     

    Dish had violated the permanent injunction from a 2004 lawsuit, which TiVo had filed as Dish was distributing DVR functionality to subscribers that contained an emulation of its “Time Warp” feature.


    Dish at that time lost the patent infringement case, but while the case was on appeal, it designed modified software.

    For the contempt suit, TiVo had demanded Dish to pay $1 billion for using the modified technology from April 2008 to July 2009. However, the court ruled this out.

    Meanwhile, after the hearing, Dish said in a statement that they are pleased that the district court rejected Tivo‘s request to award a billion dollars in sanctions and that it found that any violation of the injunction was not willful. “While we disagree that any amount of sanctions was warranted, the decision confirms our belief that we designed around Tivo‘s patent in good faith. We believe that we ultimately will prevail on appeal,” Dish said.

  • Casbaa adds five corporate members

    MUMBAI: The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has announced further membership growth, welcoming five new corporate members for 2009.


    The new Casbaa members are India-based Bag Network; global children’s television network KidsCo; satellite and fiber distribution specialist RRsat Global Comms. Network; US-based channel operator Scripps Networks and TV content security solutions provider Verimatrix. Casbaa CEO Simon Twiston Davies says, “This take-up on membership in mid-year highlights the bright growth prospects for subscription TV in Asia. Our industry is increasing its reach; the economics of Asia remain strong and the Association looks forward to working closely with members and industry experts at the Casbaa Convention 2009, November 3 – 6 in Hong Kong.”

  • Setanta Sports available on Comcast in Northern California

    MUMBAI: Setanta Sports will now be available to Comcast customers in Northern California.









    Available 24×7, it can be seen by Comcast subscribers on channel 300, for $14.99 per month.


    Comcast director national ethnic marketing Natalie Rouse said, “We are pleased to launch Setanta Sports in California. The network‘s exciting mix of popular programming appeals to our multicultural customers, as well as those who are international sports fans.”

     

    “We are delighted to announce our availability to Comcast‘s Northern California community. Setanta‘s continual growth in distribution is testament to the increased popularity of soccer and rugby in the US. We‘re certain that Comcast subscribers will be excited about the offerings our channel will provide,” said Setanta Sports International MD Roger Hall.


    The channel will become available on a rolling basis and is currently available in select cities, including Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. The channel will continue to be launched in new cities throughout the Bay Area by the end of the year.

  • Cox extends ‘My Primetime OnDemand’ offering to Las Vegas & San Diego

    MUMBAI: Cox Communications has added MyPrimetime to its OnDemand library in the Las Vegas and San Diego markets in the US.









    With this service, digital customers will have access to hit shows from networks including ABC, NBC, Cartoon Network, TNT and A&E.


    Additionally, Cox plans to offer even more hit shows in MyPrimetime with the beginning of the fall television season. Shows will be available from more than 20 networks with no additional cost to customers.

     

    “So far this year, we‘ve offered subscribers access to more than 70 popular shows in MyPrimetime including Lost, The Closer, Grey‘s Anatomy, Mad Men, Monk and The Office, all starting the day after their linear premiere,” said Cox Communications director marketing new video services Bob Nocera.”The availability of these programs On Demand takes TV anytime to a new level, adding viewing convenience for our customers and maintaining advertising integrity for our network partners since programs in MyPrimetime can be fast-forward disabled,” he added.

  • Trai extends time for stakeholders to provide financial details

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked all stakeholders – broadcasters, aggregators (that is, authorised distributors of the broadcasters), DTH operators, multi-system operators, cable operators and consumer advocacy groups – to submit their financial structure and operational details by 22 September.









    The latest revision in dates has been taken keeping in view the request by several stakeholders that the information has to be collated and would take time.

     

    Trai had initially asked the stakeholders to submit their details by 17 August, which it later extended to 31 August.


    The Supreme Court had, in its order dated 13 May, directed the sector regulator to consider the matter relating to tariff for cable TV services in non-Cas areas regarding all aspects. Trai had, thereafter, decided to study the matter anew and sought the information to obtain a realistic understanding of the operation of various stakeholders, for which it prepared the formats for collecting information.


    Trai has drawn the attention of all the stakeholders to the court’s order of 13 May, passed in Civil Appeal No. 829-833 of 2009, wherein the court directed all parties to cooperate with the sector regulator so as to enable it to carry out the exercise.


    The Tdsat, in its order dated 15 January, had said non-cooperation in the exercise, including non-furnishing of information, will be viewed as violation of the said order.