Category: Software

BANGALORE: UTStarcom, Inc has signed a new contract with Aksh Optifibre, Ltd, expanding the operator‘s deployment of the RollingStream(R) Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) solution.

This is UTStarcom‘s second deal with Aksh in India. The company plans on building and delivering IPTV capabilities throughout India.

Aksh originally selected UTStarcom in early 2007 to deliver the first commercial IPTV service in India through Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in Delhi. The current contract helps Aksh extend its reach and deliver IPTV services to subscribers of MTNL in Mumbai.

Aksh announced the launch of its IPTV and VoIP services in Mumbai on the MTNL network in March 2008, as an expansion to the initial launch of these services on the MTNL Delhi network in July 2007.

“UTStarcom‘s RollingStream IPTV solution is a completely IP-based platform that will enable better delivery of the interactive entertainment services we plan to extend to our customers,” said Aksh Optifibre Ltd managing director Kailash S. Choudhari. “Innovation brings progress and Aksh understands the importance of maintaining cutting-edge technology as India embarks on pivotal IPTV growth. Our relationship with UTStarcom to bring the first IPTV service to India led that innovation, and now we are hoping to bring those high-quality entertainment services to more subscribers.”

UTStarcom‘s RollingStream end-to-end IPTV system supports more than 850,000 live IPTV subscribers globally. The system maintains a current total system capacity exceeding 2.5 million subscribers as a result of recent deployments in China with China Netcom and China Telecom, in India with Bharti Airtel, MTNL/Aksh and United Telecoms Limited, in Sri Lanka with SLT, in Japan with Softbank, in Latin America with Brasil Telecom, in Taiwan with Markwell and in Europe with Jersey Telecom.

UTStarcom was recently recognized with two award distinctions for the company‘s IPTV and broadband work and advancement in India. VARIndia named UTStarcom this year‘s “Most Trusted Company” in India in the areas of broadband and IPTV leadership. UTStarcom also received an “Excellence in Telecom Services and Solutions” award from the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) in India for the company‘s innovation in IPTV, broadband and NGN and its direct impact on India‘s telecom market growth.

“IPTV is building steady momentum in India and UTStarcom‘s understanding of the growing environment gives us a market advantage,” said UTStarcom vice president and managing director, South Asia operations Vijay Yadav. “UTStarcom‘s relationship with Aksh will assist the operator in bringing more IPTV-based services to its customers, increasing revenue opportunities and maintaining its leadership position in India.”

Kapoor comes in from Zee‘s DTH company Dish TV where he was working as the CEO, before he resigned in April-end. Interestingly, Reliance had earlier tapped Sunil Khanna who was also the chief executive of Dish TV.

Before joining Dish TV, Kapoor was in Hutchison Essar South Limited, where he was functioning as CEO for the Punjab Circle.

The DTH market is going to hot up in India. Currently, there are three private and one public DTH service providers. But Reliance, Bharti and Videocon are the other players who are preparing for the launch of their service.

MUMBAI: British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), the British pay-TV firm, is planning to make a bid of more than 2.5 billion euros ($4 billion) for Spanish pay-TV platform Digital+, according to media reports.

BSkyB is looking at the group as it seeks to build its presence in continental Europe. Spanish media group Promotora de Informaciones SA (or Prisa), which owns Digital+ are expected to auction Digital+ later this year in order to repay debts.

According to the Financial Times, Spanish groups Telefonica and ONO, France‘s Vivendi and France Telecom‘s Orange unit may also be interested in buying Digital+.

Nimbuzz will use this latest funding to develop its product offering for the wide range of handsets, across multiple IM and social network communities and different countries. The team will also work to extend Nimbuzz’s reach to other platforms including Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android and will implement additional social and presence-based features to its clients.

The second round of funding was led by Naspers/MIH with Nimbuzz’s other major existing investor Mangrove Capital Partners also participating.

Lugt added, “By incorporating our applications, social networks can offer their users fully integrated real-time communication services like voice calls, chat, file sharing and access to their friends in other popular IM communities such as Skype, AIM, Yahoo, MSN and GTalk. Additionally, their online social networking experience can be extended to the mobile phone, allowing them to become completely connected.”

Nimbuzz claims of dealing with 10 major social networks and three operators already.

Last year, Nimbuzz had raised $10 million in funding, led by Mangrove Capital Partners with investments from Naspers / MIH Group and Holtzbrinck Ventures. The money was used for the development of the current product offering, which allows users who download Nimbuzz access to free mobile VoIP calling, conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, as well as photo and file sending across multiple IM communities. It also offers a widget which provides voice to 23 social networks, including Facebook and MySpace.

MUMBAI: Visiware, the worldwide publisher of games for pay television, announces the launch of ‘Tweezle Lab’ on its interactive TV game channel Playin’TV. Tweezle Lab catapults the player into a crazy universe where a mad scientist is cloning extraterrestrials.

The ‘Tweezle Lab’ game addresses the entire family. It will be shown on all the networks broadcasting the Playin’TV channel: Dish TV (India), Echostar Dish Network (United States), Bell ExpressVu (Canada), Canalsat, TPS and Numericable (France), Sky Italia (Italy), Sky TV (New Zealand), StarHub (Singapore), Austar and Foxtel (Australia).

The player can enjoy Tweezle Lab on any platform – television, PC/internet or ARCHOS Generation 5 portable multimedia WiFi player.

Seven National Film Board of Canada shorts will feature on YouTube‘s new channel The Screening Room, which offers viewers a selection of the best international animated shorts.

The first NFB gem to screen on the world‘s number one video sharing Web site will be the 2007 Oscar winner The Danish Poet by Torill Kove, who attended the launch in Los Angeles.

The company has appointed Dubai-based Media Solutions, headed by Altaf Alimohamed (former Star TV EVP) to spearhead its push into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other Middle Eastern countries.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are members of GCC.

The project cost will be around Rs 450 million, CDI chairman Suresh Kumar tells Indiantelevision.com.

The gaming software, to be applicable on all platforms like mobile and internet, will be outsourced to Laser Infomedia which is owned by the promoters of CDI.

“We aim to complete the project by the end of this fiscal. We are currently structuring the funding,” says Kumar.

The equity financing will be to the tune of Rs 200 million while the balance will be supported through bank debt.

The Singapore company will invest Rs 80 million while CDI will put in Rs 30 million.

Laser Infomedia will raise Rs 90 million to complete the equity part of the funding. “The promoters of Infomedia plan to invest in the project. We are also looking at raising capital from private equity,” says Kumar.

As part of the restructuring plan, CDI has decided to focus entirely on animation. The Chandigarh-based company has also decided to withdraw from the production of live-action films. Earlier, CDI had announced that it was getting into producing live-action films with Guru of Sex and Playing with the Enemy.

“We have been with the animation film industry since the past six years and we need more time to settle down with our core business, which is outsourcing work. We have decided not to diversify into other areas till such time that we consolidate our animation business. We are retrenching from production of live-action films,” says Kumar.

Industry sources told indiantelevision.com that the set-up has been created last week and is running from the Becil office in the Indraprastha Complex, a sprawling complex sitting on the banks of the Yamuna river here

“This has nothing to do with Prasar Bharati. Becil is doing the monitoring and Dish TV has given the STBs at a cost but no charges for subscription,” a source revealed.

Sources said that the set-up, which has drawn much flak from the news channels, has been created at a cost of Rs 200 million and monitors 100 channels. Eventually, it will monitor 200 channels.

The sets are using a software called Multiviewer, supplied by a foreign company called Avertz, and in this technology, each screen can be split into four channels to be monitored simultaneously.

Earlier, the court had suggested that the ministry could think of vetting every sting operation before it is aired, but it had not taken a call on that, since it was only a suggestion, and the government did not want to be seen as being dictatorial with the media.