Category: Software

The Chevy brand will be integrated throughout MSN and will consist of online and banner ads across the MSN platforms, including Windows Live Spaces, Messenger and Hotmail. Developed with Campbell-Ewald, the campaign seeks to raise awareness about Chevy’s solutions for achieving better fuel economy and for decreasing our dependence on oil by showcasing advanced technologies in our vehicles.

The multi-media campaign includes newspaper, magazine, out-of-home and online advertising, with television to follow later this year. The campaign kicked off with a major online platform – the recently held Live Earth concerts and environmental awareness content on liveearth.msn.com, where Chevy is the exclusive automotive digital sponsor of the MSN online global broadcast event to raise environmental awareness.

Chevy is sponsoring “green” content throughout MSN and will be integrated throughout the network with branding, banner ads and video.

Chevrolet GM Ed Peper says, “Teaming up with MSN as the exclusive online automotive sponsor for LiveEarth.MSN.com was natural for Chevy because, in addition to our high fuel economy cars and crossovers – 8 that get over 30 mpg, Chevy offers more alternative fuel vehicles than anyone. We have over 1.5 million E85 FlexFuel vehicles on the road, cars that can run on clean-burning, mostly renewable ethanol fuel sources. Later this year, a fleet of 100 Fuel Cell Equinoxes will hit the road as part of Project Driveway.

“And we’ve recently shared our innovations for the Volt Concept car – an electric powered car that requires no gasoline and emits zero emissions.”

The Chevy ad campaign will continue throughout the year, with print and online ads about Fuel Efficiency, E85 FlexFuel, and advanced technologies for Fuel Cell Vehicles and the Volt Concept car. Print components of the campaign will kick off with a 16-page insert in select influencer publications, a six-page unit with automotive enthusiast books, as well as full-page ads that will carry the campaign through the end of the year.

Also part of the campaign are full page newspaper ads in USA Today and select local market papers. All of these are layered on top of a significant digital presence and the launch of a radio campaign with multiple executions on network radio, as well as XM Satellite Radio.

comScore which provdes measuring services for the digital world, has released a review of Internet behavior covering 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The comScore World Metrix study reveals that in May there were nearly 284 million people aged 15 years above who accessed the Internet from either a home or work computer in the region.

This represents 10 per cent of the Asian-Pacific population who are 15 years of age and older. The average person in the Asia-Pacific region visiting the Internet is 13.8 days in the month and time spent is 20.2 hours with a total viewing of 2,171 pages. This compares to the global averages of 17.1 usage days per month, 25.2 hours per month, and 2,519 pages per month, indicating that the Asia-Pacific region’s PC-based Internet usage is somewhat lower than the rest of the world.

China clearly has the largest online population with 91.5 million people (age 15 or older accessing the Internet from either a home or a work computer in May 2007), but this translates to a penetration of only 9 per cent of the country’s population. Japan has 53.7 million users (49 per cent penetration) and South Korea 26.3 million (65 per cent penetration). Combined, these three countries account for 60 per cent of the region’s Internet population.

South Korea has the most active online population, using the Internet an average of 17.4 days per person in May, and dedicating 31.2 hours to viewing 4,546 pages during the month – twice as many pages as the regional average of 2,171 pages per user.

New Zealanders constitute the smallest online population in the region (1,949 million people) but are online 16.4 days per month, versus the regional average of 13.8 days.

The court has dismissed the writ filed by SET Discovery and Star as not maintainable, and has ruled that Trai has the power to regulate tariff for broadcasters, as well as interconnection issues.

The channels had last year filed the writ saying that Trai is a telecom regulator and since broadcasting is not a telecom service, it did not have powers over the broadcasting sector.

They had argued that Trai‘s powers were illegal because they violate Constitutional rights under Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 19 (1) a (freedom of speech and expression), but the court ruled that out.

The court has said that under Section 2 (1) K of the Trai Act, the Parliament had the power to extend any service to be put under the regulatory powers of Trai, and since the Parliament is sovereign, and has extended broadcasting to be under the regulator, the case was not maintainable.

Earlier, the service was deployed in about 200 homes in New Delhi.

The MTNL-Aksh IPTV service will bring new features at a monthly tariff, beginning at only Rs 90 a month with options to select individual pay channels based on personal choice. Users will be able to select from the list of pay channels listed on screen and select the channels they‘d like to subscribe to, on the screens itself and start watching them immediately.

An online television guide, available at a click of the remote, will detail all programs scheduled for the week by all channels available on the system. The “Time-shift TV” facility will allow viewers to “rewind” a live broadcast channel to catch a program that they might have missed and these programs can be stored up to one full week.

For advertisers the “A-Tube” feature will allow them to upload full-length campaigns, product AV‘s and detailed trailers, without the limitation of prescribing to 10-20-30 second formats.

A Video-on-Demand facility that is not restricted by the service provider‘s bandwidth (as with CAS and DTH) will also be available and the service is being launched with over 100 movie titles in Hindi and English. Plays and soaps in Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi and Bangla will also be part of the library that will be expanded on a weekly basis with a target to double it in 4-weeks.

The biggest advantage IPTV will offer to consumers is the ability to integrate television broadcast with other IP-based services like high speed Internet access and voice-over-internet – all accessible on the television set.

Features like booking of movie tickets with the television remote, video-calling, music on demand, online chats, virtual classrooms – these applications are expected to be part of the platform.

Being an open platform, IPTV will also allow creation of thousands of third-party applications that can be offered through the system – from placing orders for cakes and flowers to trading of stocks while watching a business news broadcast channel and even advanced tele-medicine for which the remote center only needs an MTNL line and a television set.

Consumers can call up 22 22 1500 to register and get IPTV running in 48 hours.

Since June 2006, MediaCorp had conducted an HDTV trial where 1000 households, community clubs and retail outlets got to experience HD programmes such as CSI, Smallville as well as MediaCorp’s locally-produced productions and co-productions with China. From the trials, about 50 per cent of homes are able to receive the HD signal.

MediaCorp Deputy CEO Television Chang Long Jong says, “Our decision to launch an HD channel this year is based on the very favourable feedback received from our trial users. We hope to offer our viewers the ultimate tv viewing experience harnessing the latest technologies in visual and sound.”

Between now and the launch date which will be announced later, viewers who can receive the signal and have the requisite HD equipment will experience better clarity of programmes on the new HD channel – HD 5. HD5 is a simulcast of Channel 5 with programmes enhanced for display on HD-Ready TV sets.

The review is statutory and is required to satisfy the BBC‘s obligations under the EU Public Procurement Regulations.

The required activity will include targeted promotions for specific brands, services, programmes or marketing campaigns and the development of appropriate content, across relevant digital channels.

The agency/agencies will work alongside the BBC‘s advertising and media roster agencies across the breadth of the public services portfolio including BBC One, BBC Two, digital channels, radio networks and other New Media services.

The two companies will collaborate to leverage the capabilities of the CDMA2000 technology by addressing the increasing needs of rural, urban and enterprise consumers through the introduction of more affordable and feature-rich handsets, wireless Internet data cards and a host of data applications.

RCL also announced their CDMA2000 network expansion covering more than 20,000 towns in India. RCL‘s network expansion is believed to be the world‘s largest and fastest infrastructure deployment project. Once completed, this project is expected to help India meet its ambitious teledensity targets and provide telecom services across the many Indian villages which do not have any connectivity today.

To address the needs of the enterprise segment, RCL has launched Reliance Netconnect, which offers uninterrupted, anytime, anywhere wireless Internet connectivity in more than 8000 towns, 300,000 villages and along major highways and railway routes in India.

As per an official release from Qualcomm, RCL chairman Anil Ambani said, “We are committed to the continued explosive growth of telecommunication services in India”, while adding, “We remain focused on achieving ever higher levels of profitable growth, by delivering long term value to our consumers.”

Qualcomm CEO Paul E. Jacobs said, “Reliance is a key driver of the fastest growing telecom market in the world, and we are pleased to enhance our long standing collaboration with them. We are committed to support Reliance in its mission to grow the CDMA2000 market in India. Our latest goal is to bring consumers an exciting new range of data offerings in mobile broadband, including multimedia and entertainment.”

Mediaware Infotech has announced a slew of software modules, designed as ERP modules for the various players of the advertising and media industry.

For businesses to take full advantage of the Internet’s connectivity, it makes sense that today’s software should be designed as inter-locking modules for an entire industry. This ensures that different modules dove-tail into each other. And that the modules ‘talk’ to industry resources as well as each other via standards like XML.

Mediaware sales head Prasun Kumar says, “Mediaware has been specialising in solutions for the advertising and media business for more than a decade. So it makes imminent sense for us to take this initiative.”

Obvious technological benefits apart, this is probably the first time an ERP has been announced for an entire industry rather than a vertical segment.

“Of course, we cannot expect 100 per cent market share. Nobody can! But, with this design approach, we will certainly offer the much-needed superior, on-the-fly integration with third-party softwares and databases.”

Besides offering IT solutions, Mediaware Infotech is actively involved in consultancy for various aspects of advertising and media – including consultancy for setting up of channels to systems for stream-lining marketing and sales as well as technology platforms for e-sales. Also, its Media Database Group offers current media knowledge databases to help keep media/marketing updated on industry happenings.

The agreement will make a range of Eros new release and catalogue movies available through the TitleMatch DVD On-demand service in the US.

The category does more business in the US than films from any other country, according to the Internet Movie Database, an organization that tracks box office sales in several countries.

Eros US operations CEO Ken Naz says, “TitleMatch offers an intelligent way for us to quickly expand our market presence in the retail channel. The TitleMatch service is unique in its ability to eliminate inventory manufacturing and shipping costs, which can be quite significant.”

The latest announcement follows a recent deal with Internet retailer Overstock.com and the January unveiling of a DVD on-demand system that uses the Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption, which has been deemed essential by most major Hollywood studios for on-demand production of premium entertainment.

TitleMatch entertainment president Syd Dufton said, “Eros commands a significant presence in the international movie industry and their movies represent an enormous revenue opportunity for TitleMatch and our retail partners. Bollywood movies in particular are growing in popularity here in the U.S. and our DVD on-demand service is the perfect way to bring more of these and other popular movies to market. Our shareholders and customers should look forward to more exciting announcements as momentum for our service continues to grow with Hollywood studios and retailers.”

The TitleMatch DVD On-demand system lets movie studios and retailers burn video content directly in stores and at website distribution centers at the time orders are placed. For online orders, consumers browse and select available titles from an e-tailer‘s website with orders produced at product distribution centers or store locations by using the system‘s TitleMatch Factory.

At retail stores, consumers can browse and select available products from multi-media touch-screen display terminals located on the sales floor. Orders are produced behind the counter on the TitleMatch Factory by store personnel in minutes.

Microsoft has also promised to reimburse customers who already have had to pay out of pocket for repairs or replacement machines by taking a charge of more than $1 billion.

Microsoft is promising to repair or replace any Xbox 360 that dies within three years of purchase and will pay the shipping charges to boot. Previously, the company offered a one-year warranty.

In a conference call, Microsoft entertainment and devices division president Robbie Bach said, “We‘re not doing a good enough job in one area of business that we deeply care about. We‘re taking responsibility to make sure every Xbox 360 owner has a great gaming experience.”

“The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that we sincerely apologise,” he said.

Microsoft will expand its global Xbox 360 warranty to cover for the problem —identified by an error message of three flashing lights error message —to three years from the date of purchase to cover for the problem. Previously, it had insisted that the failure rates for the system were within an acceptable level.

The apology comes in at a time when the company is in a heated battle with Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 in the latest round of the game-console wars.

Although the Xbox 360 is the leading console in terms of units sold, Nintendo‘s Wii has been quickly closing the gap, far outselling the Xbox 360 in the United States and in Japan in recent months.

Microsoft officials declined to say how many machines had been returned or had been affected by the problems.