Category: Software

As per the company, these 40 new members, secured by the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for IPTV, represents 500,000 homes passed and 76 per cent of Avail Media’s total customer base launched in the market.

Avail Media is delivering a combined MPEG-4 linear IPTV and VOD solution, providing network operators with all of the content, technology, hardware, and integration needed for a fully-encrypted, market-ready IPTV service.

Long-time partner Avail Media initially integrated the Verimatrix VCAS for IPTV in its network when the IPTV wholesale market was in its infancy. Verimatrix has enhanced its support for a broad spectrum of IPTV wholesale business models in VCAS for IPTV 2.3, which offers unique features to securely distribute required decryption keys to each telecommunications operator, enabling local key management.

Avail Media COO Jon Romm says, “Verimatrix has been a valuable partner as this IPTV market has been defined for US independent telcos. The model is being proven as a cost-effective, flexible, and profitable solution for telcos to compete against traditional pay-TV services in their markets. Verimatrix’s content security to our transmission ensures Avail Media is delivering appropriately for our content providers while streamlining the process for commercially launching our affiliates in market.”

Verimatrix chief sales and marketing officer Steve Oetegenn says, “Avail Media has a compelling approach to IPTV wholesale services that meets the needs of its customers. We have participated in this market from the beginning and understand the issues and nuances in efficiently providing end-to-end encryption. We are excited to continue to work with Avail Media on the best IPTV solution for its customers.”

The deal will bring films and television programming of the MGM library to U-verse TV customers; the announcement was made by MGM Studios EVP of worldwide digital media Douglas A Lee.

He said, “AT&T, as the national provider to offer a 100 per cent Internet Protocol-based video service, delivers a level of service integration that allows consumers to watch their favorite MGM movies and TV series on demand and in virtually any location with ease.”

The U-verse TV customers will receive MGM HD channel as part of the service’s HD premium package, a new tier which can be added to an HD service subscription for an additional $5 a month. AT&T U-verse TV HD service is available for $10 a month with any U-verse TV programming package.

With the move, Raj Television can now store as much as 10 days or 500 hours of programming in digital files rather than on videotape, enabling automated rather than manual playout with corresponding improvements to efficiency, reliability, and broadcast quality.

Founded in 1994, Raj Television operates two channels with diverse programming that includes music videos, movies, game shows, talk shows, serials, comedy, and news.

The installation of the spectrum servers is part of a facility upgrade corresponding with the rollout of Raj‘s first 24-hour news station, which began broadcasting in June 2008. In addition to an increasing viewership in South India and Sri Lanka, Raj Television has recently expanded its reach into the Tamil community in Malaysia via Astro-DTH, a major direct-to-home player in the region.

GlobeCast receives CCTV-F’s signal at its technical operation facility in Paris, where it is encoded and multiplexed for uplink. GlobeCast is also providing monitoring services to CCTV-F.

MUMBAI: The number of cable and satellite (C&S) homes in India has increased 26 per cent to 66.54 million, according to the latest Indian Readership Survey (IRS) report.

Urban India has 39.21 million C&S homes, growing by 20.67 per cent. There are 27.33 million C&S homes in rural India, an increase of 25.26 per cent from the prior round of survey by IRS.

The study covers from July 2007 to June 2008, on a sample size of 254,913 individuals. The study was done by Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Hansa Research.

According to IRS Round 1 (R1) survey, conducted between January to December 2006), there were 52.92 million homes.

The C&S penetration is highest in Tamil Nadu (10.33 million), followed by Andhra Pradesh (9.84 million) and Maharashtra (8.41 million). West Bengal has 4.6 million C&S homes while Delhi (and urban environ) reaches to 3.22 million households. Cable and satellite penetration is lowest in Jammu Kashmir (131,000 homes).

The total number of TV homes (one TV set) in India has grown from 90.69 million to 100.38 million. In the urban areas, the number of TV homes has increased to 48.98 million (from 45.04 million) while in the rural areas it has touched 51.39 million (from 45.65 million).

The number of colour TV sets has increased from 55.40 million to 73.98 million.

MUMBAI: WD which offers external storage solutions in the US, has introduced a way for consumers to play their stored digital content on their HDTV in Full-HD 1080p resolution.

The WD TV Media Player connects to a user’s TV or home theater and plays digital movies, music and photos from WD’s My Passport portable drive or other USB mass storage device. The WD TV Media Player is available now at WD’s online store (www.shopwd.com) and select retailers.

According to research firm IDC, nearly 334 million GB of photos and more than 3.1 billion GB of video will be stored on consumer desktop and laptop computers in 2008. The research firm expects this to increase to 400 million GB and 5.8 billion GB, respectively, by 2010.

Users leave the WD TV HD Media Player connected to their TVs and simply plug in up to two My Passport USB drives or other USB mass storage devices loaded with HD media. Using the included remote control, they can navigate and play their content with the media player’s high-definition on-screen menu. With My Passport drives now available in 500 GB capacities, users can build large collections on multiple drives, all playable by WD TV.

Navigating content on USB drives is fast and easy with WD TV HD Media Player’s remote control and on-screen menu. Content can be viewed either by filename or thumbnails of photos, album covers or movie cover art. In addition, automatic media aggregation lets the viewer see all their media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives.

WD’s Branded Products and Consumer Electronics Group senior VP, GM Jim Welsh says, “As leaders in external storage, we have become the trusted brand for storing and backing up large media collections for consumers around the world.

“Our best-selling My Passport portable drives help customers carry their media library with them anywhere but until now, there has been no easy, affordable way to access and play all that content in their living rooms. The WD TV HD Media Player effectively unlocks all that content from the storage device and lets people enjoy it on their biggest screen and best sound system.”

Features of the WD TV HD Media Player include:

* Designed for WD’s My Passport portable drives, it also plays content from WD My Book® family of drives and most popular USB drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
* Full HD video playback and navigation – up to 1080p – to experience the spectacular picture quality of HD video and crystal clear sound clarity of digital audio;
* Remote control to navigate through entertainment choices using the crisp, animated HD menus;
* Dock and play convenience: just plug in a My Passport drive or other USB storage device with HD content to play it on a TV or home entertainment system;
* Collect without limits by adding more USB drives for more accessible content;
* Advanced navigation options such as thumbnail and list views; WD’s Media Library™ feature lets users view all media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives; ability to search by genre, title, artist, filename and partial filename;
* Photo viewing features to create custom slides shows; ability to zoom and pan; search photos by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date;
* Movie viewing with ability to fast forward, rewind, pause, zoom, and pan, view subtitles and search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date;
* Music playback with fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date;
* Two USB ports on the player connects up to two USB mass storage devices and access them simultaneously while the Media Library feature aggregates the content on both drives into one list sorted by media type.

The UK broadcaster believes this will free up time to further craft its 10 channels‘ schedules without bringing in extra staff.

The move is set to save at least 18,500 man-hours on an annual basis. OnAir is currently being used by more than 140 staff out of 190 across the UKTV business and other suppliers, claims the company.

UKTV head of technology and broadcast operations Ben Hine says, “OnAir is integrated into every aspect of our business, enabling us to improve efficiency across our 18 broadcast streams and be more strategic; freeing up our own staff and partners, including Red Bee Media, to work on the current network rebrand and finesse our highly crafted channels even further. In addition, it ensures UKTV is fully able to take advantage of technological advances in the broadcast arena. We fully expect other broadcasters here in the UK and abroad to follow our lead and implement similarly integrated systems in the very near future.”

The study from Microsoft Advertising, Ogilvy Chicago and Mindshare surveys more than 800 women on their digital domains

— revealing insight on topics from everyday technology gadgets to overarching online philosophies and how and when they shop and ‘unplug‘.

Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions global research director Beth Uyenco says, “We sought to answer the burning questions keeping brand managers and advertisers up at night: How are women in the digital age different from women of past generations? How can brands leverage digital media to deepen relationships with them? Are we moving fast enough?. What we uncovered was unexpected and unconventional insight: Even the most low-interest categories such as toilet paper can apply their digital advertising agenda to reach and impact women.”

Women across various ages and life stages were engaged, including gen Yers, gen Xers, early boomers and moms (stay-at-home and working out-of-home) in 2008. The study examined quantitative data and established proprietary data from “Media Diaries,” Insight Group Discussions, In-Home Ethnographies and “Idea Stations” (online bulletin boards).

Digital Divas Emerge : Coined Digital Divas, 16 per cent of the women surveyed were found to have a higher propensity to shop, communicate and employ digital devices.

“While Digital Divas are the trendsetters for marketers to understand now, the reality is the mainstream is soon to follow the patterns and paths they are forging now,” said Graceann Bennett, managing partner, director of Strategic Planning of Ogilvy & Mather Chicago. “This group was probably the most compelling of our study as the implications for how they behave are so important for brands.”

The study revealed the following about the “Digital Diva” group:
• 22 per cent shop once per day.
• The majority views devices such as cell phones and computers as extensions of themselves.
• 86 per cent pass along interesting “finds” to others.
• On average, they have 171 contacts in e-mail, social networking and cell phone address books.

“What we found is that men and women fundamentally embrace technology differently; women think less about the technology itself and more about how it fits within their life — seeing their computers and cell phones as extensions of their personalities. It is imperative for brands to adjust the way they deliver their messages in a way that works to meet a woman’s needs” adds Uyenco.

As a whole, the study revealed:
• More than half “never” unplug from their digital devices, even when sleeping.
• They view tools such as rewards, loyalty cards, cell phones, coupons via the computer, TIVO and DVR, video on demand, opt-in daily e-mails, and handheld wireless devices to be “blessings” in their lives.
• Technology “curses” were few and centered on activities and types of communication that were “out of their control.”
• If forced to, they would “throw out” their television or cell phone first; only 11 percent would throw out their personal laptop.
• E-mail is overwhelmingly, 85 percent, the most important tool.
• On average, they have 5.8 “screens” and 12 digital devices.

Moms Enjoy Creating Content : For moms, the Internet serves as a link to the ‘outside world’ — especially moms with a new baby.

And moms are really the future of content creation notes the study. They have an insatiable appetite to create and share content — posting more than twice the average US adult, whether publishing, maintaining or updating a blog or Web page.”

Sprint‘s figure was 4.2 per cent, followed by T-Mobile and Verizon with 2.4 per cent each.

According to the study, on-demand video was the most popular format, with 3.6 million viewers. With 1.3 million viewers, amateur videos, such as those on YouTube, represent the most popular type of content, followed by
music videos and comedy videos.

Music videos are the top choice for programmed mobile broadcast video users, followed closely by full television shows or films and movie trailers.

comscore senior analyst Mark Donovan says, “While the most popular forms of mobile TV and video are genres such as music videos and movie trailers which offer short video snacks, the data also show a nascent audience for long-form mobile content such as TV shows.

“At under three per cent penetration, the mobile video audience in the US remains small, but it is composed largely of males between 18 and 34 years old, which could make it attractive to advertisers seeking to reach multi-tasking early-adopters who don‘t have time for appointment television.”

comScore also announced the results of its August Benchmark Study. Mobile social networking posted the highest growth, at 8.8 per cent, while photo and video messaging had the highest rate of penetration, at 26.3 per cent.

MUMBAI: NBC Universal has launched its new mobile portal in Japan.

The portal went live to coincide with the theatrical run, in Japan, of the movie Wanted starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. It offers downloadable content and services to mobile customers via a number of operators, including NTT Docomo, KDDI-au and SoftBank Mobile.

NBC Universal will distribute and market its content and services under the ‘Universal Mobile’ brand. The service will allow access to content from a number of NBC Universal film and TV properties.

NBC Universal, Japan MD Taichi Fukuda says, “We are tremendously excited to be launching our ‘Universal Mobile’ business here and will strive to create new and edgy content that expands the digital experience of our fans”.

Customers of the three operators will be able to download a variety of mobile content, including themes, tones, decoration emails, made-for mobile comics, flash and casual games. The mobile portal will also hold fan forums and communities for NBC Universal branded content. Services will be made available on a pay-per-download and subscription basis, with some services also available on an initial free promotional basis.

The company adds that Japan is an advanced mobile market and a strategic priority for NBC Universal. This new mobile portal is the first of many digital ventures that NBC Universal expects to launch in Japan and across Asia.

Universal Pictures Digital Platforms senior VP mobile and broadband Jeremy Laws says, “This is the first time that a content portal will be programmed, hosted and managed entirely within the company – it‘s a fresh start. The Universal Mobile portal will give Japanese consumers a compelling, medium appropriate and fun way to interact with our brands on their mobile phones.”