Category: Software

Zingarelli takes over the operational responsibilities of co-founder Erik Lumer who will now turn his focus to strategic product development.

Beyond the completion and refinement of the technical platform, Zingarelli will lead Babelgum into the next phase of launch as a new global media platform aimed at delivering targeted content to sharply profiled viewer groups everywhere in the world. This goal requires a complex international organisation, new resources and additional skills. The explicit goal that Babelgum has defined is to grow its employee base to approximately 100 by the end of the year.

Babelgum chairman and co-founder Silvio Scaglia said, “We are now moving to phase two in the development of Babelgum. The core technology has been proven and whilst our focus right now is on bringing together compelling content, we will soon turn to user acquisition and advertising. Valerio’s appointment is a reflection of that changing focus”.

Over the next nine to 12 months the company will concentrate on the following sequential priorities:

1) Building a sufficient quantity of professional content to offer viewers enough variety and choice to satisfy individual passions and interests. This target will be achieved through direct acquisition of content and automatic upload by independent content owners.

2) With an extensive library of content available, Babelgum will initiate a marketing campaign aimed at launching first to English-speaking viewers around the globe.

3) Once both content and viewers are in place, Babelgum will address the advertising market to build the revenue stream.

Scaglia adds, “I have known Valerio since 1995 when, as Chief Technology Officer of Omnitel, he built what is still considered by many to be the best mobile network in Europe. He was instrumental in developing an organisation that grew from nothing to a staff of 1000 serving millions of customers. His knowledge and first hand experience in managing the technical and operational demands of rapid and sustained growth are exactly what we now require at Babelgum.”

Zingarelli says, “I can’t think of a more exciting sector to be involved in at the moment. Babelgum is right at the heart of a revolution in television, building a truly personal global media capable of delivering a huge amount of professional television quality content to millions of users around the world. It’s a new kind of distribution that is uniquely suited to satisfying individual passions and interests through the innovative Smart Channels concept – channels defined individually by users”.

Kapur is returning to X|Media|Lab after being an International Mentor at the recent X|Media|Lab in Mumbai.

“Digital media companies will have access to some of the sharpest industry minds in the world during X|Media|Lab ‘Digital Worlds: Social, Virtual, Mobile‘ conference at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), August 10 – 12, Melbourne,” said the Victorian treasurer and minister for innovation John Brumby in Melbourne.

Also attending X|Media|Lab Melbourne “Digital Worlds” is a delegation from the Cyber Recreation District in Beijing, which includes the president and CEO, the chairman, and VP of Technology. The CRD is the biggest digital media industry development project in China.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for Victoria‘s digital media companies to expand their networks with China and India, and to work one-on-one with a range of the world‘s digital media power-brokers,” he said.

The 2007 Melbourne Lab is looking for ten projects along the general theme of “Digital Worlds: Social, Virtual, Mobile” – social media, virtual worlds, mobile applications, video, interactive entertainment and content, and web applications, states an official release.

X|Media|Lab is the internationally acclaimed think-tank and creative workshop for digital media professionals across the emerging digital media disciplines in computer games, animation, digital cinema, interactive content and entertainment, and mobile applications.

The service is available to all broadband-connected TiVo Series2 and Series3 subscribers. They can choose from thousands of movies to rent from $1.99 to $3.99, purchase from $9.99 to $14.99, or thousands of television shows to purchase for $1.99 per episode.

Tivo creates television services for digital video recorders DVRs.

Amazon Unbox director Roy Price says, “We are excited to make Amazon Unbox on TiVo even easier to use by making it possible to purchase and rent movies and TV shows not only on the Web but also with your remote control“.

Tivo VP content services Tara Maitra says, “The ability to purchase or rent movies and TV downloads directly on the TV makes it as easy as possible for TiVo subscribers to access premium content from Amazon Unbox.

“People know how much we love TV at TiVo, but this is just another illustration of how much we love great content in general, be it from the big screen or the small screen. It’s never been easier to unwind on these hot summer nights with a cool classic movie, all without ever having to leave the couch.”

Tivo subscribers can now browse, purchase and rent within the TiVo user interface from pre-selected categories of popular movie & TV titles from Amazon Unbox, including movies, kids and family, foreign films.

In addition, Amazon Unbox fully integrates with Tivo’s new innovative search function, Universal Swivel Search, which allows viewers to seamlessly link from descriptions of one program to all others that have common elements, including program name, actors, or suggestions based on other viewers’ feedback. With these two browse and purchase methods, customers can easily access thousands of movies, television shows and other video titles that Amazon Unbox on TiVo offers.

America’s leading and most trafficked website has crossed the 70 million active monthly unique user mark in the United States, meaning that nearly one in four Americans used MySpace last month, according to newly released data from comScore MediaMetrix.

comScore MediaMetrix’s new data shows that users are more engaged on MySpace than on any other social network; the site gained two billion page views from May to June. Total time spent on MySpace by users is three times its closest competitor and the site continues to lead in average minutes spent per person per month with more than 200 minutes on average, according to comScore.

Additionally, among teen Internet users MySpace ranks as the brand with the highest overall Differentiation and Brand Stature, according to Young and Rubicam’s industry standard BrandAsset® Valuator.

A report issued by Forrester shows that nearly 80 per cent of 12-17 year olds use MySpace at least weekly which is three times more than any other social network.

MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe says, “This is just the beginning of MySpace’s evolution and we’re excited to see the continued growth and engagement among our users. Whether uploading a video, registering to vote, or catching up with friends, MySpace continues to be a central part of people’s lives.”

comScore Media Metrix executive VP Jack Flanagan says, “MySpace is clearly leading the social networking category with the largest, most engaged audience as compared to all other social networks. Our data also shows that MySpace continues to grow at a strong pace.”

Bav Consulting MD Ed Lebar says, “MySpace is in a unique position as one of the strongest, most valued brands in the highly coveted teen audience. Our BrandAsset Valuator showed MySpace as outpacing all other social networks and portals in terms of brand Differentiation and Energy.”

• MySpace users visit the site 20 per cent more often than the closet competitor in the social networking category

• MySpace users spend about 10 minutes more each month on the site than the closest competitor in the social networking category

• MySpace has three times more minutes on the site than its closet competitor in the social networking category

• MySpace gets three times more visitors on the average day than its closet competitor in the category

In addition to domestic growth, MySpace is experiencing strong international growth and has plans to expand into 10 additional countries in the next year. MySpace currently has localized communities in 18 countries and seven languages including France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Sweden, Latin America and the UK. By visiting MySpace’s online global map, users are empowered to log on and view their profile through the lens of any of country or language.

This week, MySpace UK broke the 10 million active user mark according to comScore, meaning that approximately one in six people in the United Kingdom are on MySpace and, according to statistics. As the leading social networking community in the UK, MySpace has seen its growth triple, up 286% from 3.6 million users since its launch in April 2006 to this week’s landmark milestone of 10.2 million users.

MySpace‘s total unique U.S. visitors in June are 70.5 million, an increase of 1.6 million unique visitors compared to May. MySpace‘s total U.S. page views in June are 46.4 billion, an increase of 2 billion total page views over May‘s 44.4 billion, according to recently released comScore data.

This success comes on the heels of the recent global launch of MySpaceTV and explosive video growth driven by user interface changes and dozens of industry content partnerships.

According to comScore, 38 per cent of people streaming video on the Internet in the US are doing so on MySpace and the company’s total number of unique streamers has gone from 35 million in January to more than 50 million in April, a 40 per cent increase in past three months. Future integration with Fox Interactive Media’s recent acquisitions of Flektor, a cutting-edge online media editing tool set, and Photobucket, the online photo sharing site are expected to help continue driving MySpace’s explosive video growth.

MUMBAI: Bet Networks, an entertainment channel belonging to dedicated African Americans and online TV service Brightcove, have announced a partnership to distribute ad-supported Internet video channels in the UK.

Through its partnership with Brightcove, Bet International will extend the distribution of its compelling content — including entertainment, music and celebrity programming — to online audiences in the UK via the new Internet video site, BETonBlast.co.uk.

BET will also take advantage of Brightcove‘s viral promotion features to enable consumers to share and embed BET Internet video content on websites, blogs and social networks in the UK. All Internet video channels will also offer online advertising opportunities sold by Viacom Brand Solutions in the UK.

Bet International senior VP, GM Michael D. Armstrong says, “We are excited to continue building the BET brand around the world, and with the launch of our beta broadband site in the UK, users can get an early taste of our forthcoming multiplatform offering that‘s set to debut later this year.

“We are also looking forward to working with Brightcove, whose technology allows us to tap into the power of Internet video, while maintaining control over the quality of the viewing experience and the revenue potential of our video content.”

Brightcove chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire says, “Bet is one of the most popular cable networks in the United States with a programming line-up that has strong worldwide appeal. We are thrilled to be working with BET and chosen as the Internet video platform for their expansion into Europe.”

Bet International is dedicated to building a global distribution footprint to deliver BET content to consumers of Black culture around the world. With the Bet on Blast site in the UK, Bet International is taking another step in its strategy to expand the Bet brand in the global marketplace.

Bet International recently announced that it will launch its hit music countdown show 106 & Park in Japan, and will announce other expansion initiatives in Europe and Africa in the near future.

Building on a long-standing relationship between the two companies, AT&T selected Sun for the performance and overall value of its technologies. Sun Fire X4600 servers will help deliver video to customers of AT&T U-verse TV, the only 100 per cent IP-based television service to be offered by a national provider.

AT&T U-verse TV currently offers more than 320 linear channels and more than 26 high-definition (HD) channels. AT&T will also deploy Sun StorageTek storage arrays, which will provide easy and continuous access to the U-verse TV Video-on-Demand library.

The servers and arrays will be rolled out in new deployments of IP-video super hub offices and IP-video hub offices in the AT&T U-verse network.

The complete AT&T solution from Sun will also include Sun Fire X4500 servers, which combine the performance of a four-way Sun x64 server and the highest storage density available, with high-data throughput for about half the cost of traditional solutions. AT&T will also use Sun Support Services and Sun Professional Services to help manage the system.

Sun Microsystems executive VP Systems Group John Fowler says, “Sun is helping to radically reset the economics of IPTV. Sun offers an exceptional IPTV infrastructure that scales to support a massive number of consumers. This means we can help AT&T deliver video and other online services to consumers in a cost-effective way which wasn’t possible just a few years ago.”

AT&T U-verse services are available in parts of 23 markets across eight states. AT&T plans to continue launching new markets throughout this and next year and to expand availability in current markets.

BBC Audio Zone (www.bbcaudiozone.com) will allow users to sample, purchase and download most of the company’s spoken-word audio in a fast and secure way.

Users can download their favourites onto their iPod, MP3 player, mobile phone, or even burn CDs.

The site offers more than 1400 BBC Audio titles, including well-known comedy talents from the past, like Around the Horne and Tony Hancock, to the present, such as Little Britain and Mitchell and Webb. The range of unabridged and dramatised audio books includes complete works from Alan Bennett, Michael Palin and Phillip Pullman alongside selected old favourites from Douglas Adams. Customers will also see a list of categories such as crime and thrillers, children‘s classic fiction and self-development amongst others, so they can easily be directed to their favourite genre.

As part of the launch, three major online magazines; radiotimes.com, topgear.com and bbcgoodfood.com will all feature direct links to BBC Audio Zone, guiding their readers to the download site.

In addition, the new BBC Audio Zone will be highlighted on Audible‘s home page and a click on the link will take the consumer straight to the BBC Audiobooks‘ ‘shop‘ which will feature an Editor‘s Pick, new releases and the top 20 bestsellers.

It also contains network‘s latest programms including show descriptions, downloadable press releases, color art and cast bios.

Using this press website people can explore sneak peek video clips of latest shows in ‘Video Of The Week‘ which links to VSPOT, VH1‘s broadband channel.

MUMBAI: Visiware, which provides interactive TV games, has launched its games on TrueVisions, the largest pay-tv broadcaster in Thailand.

Visiware’s iTV games channel Playin’TV will be launched on September 2007 and will later propose games by subscription. The channel will consist of games in different categories such as puzzle, sports, cards, board and casino games. It will be accessible via TrueVisions PVR portal.

In addition, TrueVisions is planning to launch Playin’TV Junior around the end of the year. This channel will be dedicated to children aged from 6 to 14 years and will propose arcade games mostly.

Both services will be available through the TrueVisions PVR.

The case is a reversal for TataSky, which had been given a favourable judgement earlier by the tribunal, which had said that there is no “must carry provision” in the Trai Act, and that TataSky could not be forced to take and run all the 32 channels of Zee Turner in its five bouquets.

Zee had asked TataSky to carry all its 32 channels – or get none in accordance with an earlier TDSAT judgement in the case of ASC vs. Star, arguing this would give the TataSky subscribers genuine choice to enjoy all the channels.

TataSky, unwilling to distribute all the 32 channels, had approached the TDSAT. The sector tribunal, vide its interim order dated 26 October last year, had directed Zee Turner to supply all its 32 channels to TataSky at 50 per cent of their cable rates (Rs 149.85) per subscriber per month, i.e. at Rs. 75/-.

Accordingly, Zee Turner had been providing all its 32 channels to TataSky and the latter started carrying all these channels on its DTH platform till the pendency of the case.

TDSAT in its final judgement dated 31 March this year, accepted the contention of TataSky and held that it could carry only the 19 channels it had wanted from Zee‘s Bouquet-I and Bouquet-II at the rate of Rs 42/- per subscriber per month.

TataSky discontinued and removed the other 13 channels of Zee Turner from its DTH platform from 23 April. Zee Turner had gone in appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the TDSAT order, and the case is pending.

Meanwhile, TataSky informed Zee Turner that even for the period during which it was distributing 32 channels of the broadcaster, that is, from September 2006 to 23 April this year, it would not pay at the rate of Rs 75 per subscriber per month.

It said it would pay at the rate of Rs 42 per subscriber per month to Zee, whereas Zee said that this went against TDSAT‘s interim order.

Zee Turner contested this position of TataSky and requested it to make the payment of the entire outstanding amount at the rate determined by TDSAT. The total outstanding amount due from TataSky to Zee Turner presently is around Rs 90 million.

TataSky again approached TDSAT today for getting a refund of the amount, which according to them was in excess of what they were supposed to pay.

TDSAT, after hearing the parties today, dismissed the DTH player‘s petition, saying that since it had availed of the channels till 23 April, and had raised subscription money from its subscribers, it has to pay the broadcaster for that.

TataSky then requested TDSAT to allow them two weeks time to make the payment of entire outstanding amount, which was granted.