Category: Software

Besides it will also add content to the Zune online store, music community and Zune Pass monthly subscription service.

Zune is expanding its video store to include downloads of popular television shows from Comedy Central, Funimation Entertainment, MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Starz Media (including Manga Entertainment), Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and VH1 that consumers can sync to their device and enjoy on the go.

Consumers can choose from more than 800 episodes of television series to download and watch on their computer. Each television show will be priced at 160 Microsoft Points per episode (approximately $1.99) at launch. The Zune online store has more than 3.5 million tracks, two-thirds of which are available in pure MP3 format, 800 television shows, 4,800 music videos and 3,500 audio and video podcasts.

The growing Zune online music community enables consumers to explore, discover and share music. Members will get a free, customisable Zune Card: a snapshot of their favorite tracks and the music they’re playing on their Zune.

Now consumers with the Zune Pass subscription have the ability to take what their friends are listening to from the Zune music community via Zune Card personal playlists for easy exploration and access. The Zune Pass subscription allows consumers to explore millions of tracks with no commitment other than the monthly fee similar to the price of one CD — $14.99 per month.

Microsoft GM global marketing for Zune Chris Stephenson says, “Consumers want more than the traditional transactional model of an online music store plus portable device. Zune is putting the strong combination of an online music community together with subscription to deliver a new experience centered on music discovery that’s good for consumers, artists and the industry. This approach exposes consumers to music they might not have otherwise tried, keeps them coming back, and gives them purchasing options that suit their preferences.”

New updates to the Zune online music community include Syncing Zune Cards, enhanced friends search, instant friends, artist and album review, reputation badges.

The features include the following :

• Syncing Zune Cards to a device. Consumers simply drag and drop Zune Cards from friends to a Zune device and get updates on what friends are listening to every time they sync. If the song is available with Zune Pass, subscribers automatically have the full tracks on their Zune while nonsubscribers have full album information and artwork. If consumers hear something they like, they can add it to their collection with one click. Next time the user syncs his or her Zune, he or she will be asked to confirm the purchase.

• Enhanced friends search. Consumers now have the ability to add their name, location and bio to their Zune music community profile, making it easier than ever to find their friends.

• Instant friends. The true power of the Zune online music community is unlocked when friends are added and consumers can follow the music they’re listening to. Now, when new Zune owners join the Zune online music community, they’ll find the top music editors from the Zune Marketplace team already added to their friends list, giving them a head start in finding new music.

• Artist and album reviews. Inside the Zune music community, members have the ability to write and post their own reviews for artists and albums, providing another community-driven feature to support the exploration and discovery of music. The music community helps to find and recommend the best music.

• Reputation badges. Now members of the Zune community can earn badges that are displayed on their Zune Card showing they’re passionate fans or active members.

Video and audio clips are now embedded within story pages on the sites, allowing users to access the content more easily and send on to their friends.

On bbc.co.uk/news the average number of daily unique users of audio and video has risen from 528,000 to 762,000, while average daily plays of content have increased from 636,000 to 978,000. Click throughs – when a user chooses to access audio or video from a text story page – are up from an average of 2.5 per cent to 20 per cent, with some stories as high as 90 per cent, the pubcaster claims.

Some of the highest impact videos have included footage of the Burma cyclone with 248,000 views on 6 May, the BBC exposing a Facebook flaw with 303,000, and Ronnie O‘Sullivan‘s 147 break at the World Snooker championship with 157,143.

The tribunal, hearing the arguments of the IMCL counsel, stated that its previous order is clear enough and will be implemented as ordered. It asked IMCL not to delay in implementing the previous order and let the process start, as the commissioner had been appointed only on 29 April.

The tribunal had found prima facie that the disconnections had not been done in a legal manner and no valid notice had been issued before disconnecting, and hence the interim order.

However, IMCL had on 29 April complained to the tribunal that of the four, Sai Ganesh Enterprise had not complied with the order and the former had filed a petition of contempt and pleaded for the appointment of a court commissioner.

Tdsat had then appointed senior lawyer and former Trai counsel Meet Malhotra as the commissioner and said that it would be his responsibility to visit the premises of Sai Ganesh and implement the reconnection order.

However, IMCL had filed a plea asking for a clarification of this order ensuring that the subscriber actually gets the IMCL feed.

To this the tribunal said that there was no further need for any explanation and the court commissioner would have to implement the order.

Three separate cases have been filed in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) involving the three broadcasters, and notices have been issued to the parties.

“We are already operational in Rajarhat (Kolkata), and this experience, gave us the confidence to move into Vizag,” a company official says.

Rajarhat is a small and upcoming township adjacent to the upmarket Salt Lake City in Kolkata.

Though Ortel has been in Rajarhat for the past few months, Zee has not given the signals to the MSO. “We have filed a petition against the company in Tdsat, which is slated to be heard on 1 May,” the official said.

Ortel is offering all the major channels like Star, Zee, Sony, ESPN and Star Sports in this market. “Sun TV and ETV have been deferring provision of their signal to Ortel‘s Vizag network since the past four months. We are not getting Gemini, Teja and ETV Telugu. We are, however, getting a few Telugu channels,” the official said.

Ortel has filed petitions with the appellate authorities against Gemini TV and ETV for depriving its customers from their signals,” the official said

Tdsat has admitted the case and issued notices to the parties. The first hearing will be held on 8 May.

When contacted, a senior official of ETV did not wish to comment on the issue.

This is in contrast to the government‘s stance which had proposed no changes in the existing cap of 49 per cent for cable and 26 per cent for news and current affairs. In the FM radio sector, the government had proposed to up the limit marginally from 20 per cent to 24 per cent.

For DTH (direct-to-home), teleport and HITS (Headend-In-The-Sky), Trai‘s recommendations are in line with the government proposal. Trai has suggested lifting the cap to 74 per cent (from 49 per cent) for DTH and teleport. In case of HITS (where there is no FDI policy as of yet), the sector regulator also wants the limit to be at 74 per cent.

For mobile TV, Trai has recommended 74 per cent foreign investment limit. At present, there is no policy on FDI in mobile TV.

On satellite radio, the sector regulator will be sending its recommendations separately. Trai has maintained status quo in case of uplinking of non-news TV channels and downlinking of TV channels where the foreign investment limit is at 100 per cent.

Justifying the reason for raising the cap on cable networks, Trai said the issue is to have a framework which will encourage flow of funds into this segment. “This will then lead to consolidation in the last mile cable operations as well as upgradation of the network. It is also expected that consolidation will lead to greater competition in the last mile because large corporate entities cannot be easily stopped from expanding their area of operation into the territory served by the rival cable operators. This will greatly benefit the consumers,” the regulator pointed out.

Further elaborating, Trai said: “The roadmap should protect the existing investments in the cable networks and guide the incremental investments towards upgradation and modernization of the infrastructure.”

The information and broadcasting ministry had expressed concern that being the backbone of TV distribution system, it wasn‘t advisable to allow cable networks to pass into foreign hands.

Terming this as an overcautious approach, Trai said “it is inconceivable that even after consolidation all these networks will pass on into foreign hands.” Besides, there are already four functional DTH operators, and three more are in the pipeline. All these DTH operators are large corporate entities and they would provide competition to the incumbent cable operators, whether foreign owned or domestically held. The cable network will be in a better position to face competition if revamping through higher investment is accomplished.

As for raising the cap on news, Trai said it would not result in management or editorial control getting transferred to foreign entities. “The better way to ensure that subversive content is not broadcast through TV channels is by having proper content monitoring and regulation through content code, instead of using foreign investment limits as the the tool for this purpose,” Trai added.

The recommendations also cover the procedure for approval and suggest that within the composite foreign investment limit of 74 per cent (wherever applicable) for carriage services, foreign investments up to 49 per cent may be permitted under the automatic route, beyond which FIPB approval would be required as prescribed for the telecom sector.

“For content services, it has been suggested that FIPB approval should be required for foreign investments,” Trai said.

Playin’TV is looking to innovate by offering a new games portal for the entire family, especially designed to satisfy the needs of its subscribers. Improvements of the channel include:

– A simpler and more user-friendly navigation (game classification per category).

– More games (34 on Sky TV).

– Optimal downloading times.

Available in New Zealand on Sky TV, channel 50, the new portal with unlimited access to 34 games, is available for only $595 per month. To celebrate the launch, the first month for April subscribers will cost $1.

Visiware senior VP Pascal-Hippolyte Besson says, “The Playin’TV games portal which Sky subscribers in New Zealand can now enjoy is the result of many years of research and development. Its features make it a highly ergonomic product which meets the needs of our subscribers by providing a greater gaming experience. The new version of our Playin’TV portal will be deployed progressively throughout the world, starting with Dish Echostar in the US”.

ROKR U9 was unveiled by Motorola’s brand ambassador and international rocker & musician Wyclef Jean who presented the first ROKR U9 to Miss India World 2008 Parvathy Omanakuttan.

Depending upon the features that one selects, the price of a ROKR U9 will range from Rs 10000 to Rs 15000, according to Motorola officials.

Motorola claims that through unique advancements in mobile entertainment technology, ROKR U9 makes music a multi-sensory experience and lets consumers rock out and look good – with an elegant form factor, Stereo Bluetooth®4, CrystalTalk™ Technology, external touch sensitive music controls and a unique external display that magically reveals floating, animated screensavers that appear on the external display.

“We are working on a marketing campaign with our brand building team and will come up with a campaign across multiple media, including television and the print media,” said Motorola India Mobile devices head of retrial marketing for India and South West Asia Yatin Naik while speaking with www.indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of the launch press conference. “We are targeting the style conscious youth – this is someone who mixes music with style,” added Naik.

Additional in-demand features include: Up to 25MB of on-board user memory and an optional microSD memory card of up to 4GB; CrystalTalk™ technology for better call clarity; Stereo Bluetooth wireless technology; Advanced “speaker independent” voice recognition dialing and talking phone features; 2.0 megapixel camera with 8x zoom, multi-shot feature, video capture and playback; Messaging capabilities via MMS, SMS, Push Email; Motorola Setup, Backup and Text for setup of the device for Internet browsing, phonebook and text message backup over the air on to secure servers as a free service to users; Music ID that allows users to easily identify the song.

“I‘m excited to be working with Motorola to explore new ways to get my music to my fans,” said Jean, who is currently visiting India for the VH1 ‘Handpicked Series’ of concerts. “The ROKR U9 makes sure I‘m never without my music and looks great too.”

Seamless, small and light weight, the ROKR U9 has been designed to fit in the pocket or hand. Its metallic gloss finish comes to life with animated screen savers that appear to “float” across the borderless external display. The external display is not just for show, however, as touch sensitive, digital keys let users control their music player from the outside. Motorola has also created an ecosystem of additional products, accessories and services that make it easy to access and enjoy a wide array of digital music.

ROKR U9 is expected to be available for purchase across India by the end of May 2008. The deluxe pack will contain1GB of micro SD card and the premium pack will come with a 2GB micro SD card and the wireless stereo Bluetooth ROKR S9.

INX News chairperson Indrani Mukerjea said, “We are confident that the discerning viewers of Tata Sky will respond well to NewsX.”

MUMBAI: Christian Finnegan will be hosting the MI6 awards this year which begins on 8 April this year and terminates on 9 April in San Francisco. MI6 is a non-profit association involved in the interactive entertainment.

Writer-actor Finnegan has appeared not only in his own half-hour special on Comedy Central and Comedy Central Presents Christian Finnegan but also on CBS‘s The Late Show with Craig Ferguson, VH1‘s Best Week Ever and TVLand‘s Game Time.

“We are shaking up the traditional awards ceremony by putting emphasis on entertainment and the quality of work that has been produced over the past year. We‘re going more ‘Golden Globes‘ less ‘Academy Awards,‘ and Christian‘s comedy is a perfect fit for the tone we are aiming to set for this fun evening,” said MI6 president Jonathan Block-Verk.

Finnegan has also appeared regularly on Comedy Central‘s Dave Chappelle Show and NBC‘s The Today Show.

The MI6 awards celebration, which will witness a host of participants like Microsoft, Google, Activision, Nokia and ABC Entertainment, plans to highlight the best in marketing, advertising and promotion within interactive and game entertainment.

MUMBAI: Indiatimes 588888 introduces Mobile Voice value-added service (VAS), which enables a user to start listening to the gossips, news, astro tips and music.

The service is live across all major telecom operators including Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Tata, MTNL and BPL, and will be backed by a 360-degree campaign across media vehicles.

Indiatimes 58888 claims of a user base of 30 million subscribers and being accessible to the entire mobile base of 250 million mobile users across the country.

Times Internet Ltd CEO and MD Dinesh Wadhawan said, “This is the first and only pan-operator pan-India single number service which is common to voice, SMS and Wap. With this launch, we are going to change the way consumers use their phones. We will not only fill the current voids in the mobile VAS segment but also constantly deliver new and relevant products.”