Category: Software

The revamped website will include an added set of features including SMS-alerts, bulletin boards and chat enabled services aimed to make it more interactive between people scouting for talent and artists.

This portal basically helps models, actors, singers, production people; technicians and suppliers find agencies, producers, directors, photographers and others by allowing direct communication between members.

Company director Dilip Bhanushali said, “On 15 July, we‘ll relaunch the portal with new features which will enable chat, discussion through forums, a section on success stories, tricks of the trade and execution of special effects for films.”

Elaborating further he said, “We launched in December 2006 with the support of Prasoon Joshi, Ram Madhvani and Abhinay Deo. The objective of the portal is to create a bridge between technicians and artists and to erase the possibility of the so-called casting couch. This will enable direct access for talent hunters. Producers will be able to announce audition calls and also time their auditions into a schedule. At a single click, over 300 SMSes can be shot-off to aspirants.”

The portal currently has database for talent wherein models can upload their portfolio. It also has listed over 37,000 locations across India with multiple images for each location. Production properties, equipment, talent, technicians, creative agencies, shootings, line producers, production houses and agents are amongst the listed entities also available for upload on the portal alongwith their portfolio or show-reel.

“We‘ve gathered information on shooting locations from film commissions from about 120 countries. For India, we successfully used 28 RTI applications to the Archaeogical Survey of India (ASI) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) and organised permissions to shoot at restricted sites. We‘ve also applied to the police commissioner (Mumbai) and the customs for and received a detailed listing for shoot dos and don‘ts, fee structures, rights and privileges,” he says.

Currently the portal is running on an advertiser-driven revenue model and Bhanushali said they‘re in plans to create presence offline as well in the form of a comprehensive directory listings. Users who are not regular on the Web will soon be able to sign-up for SMS-alert scheme a monthly fee of Rs 75.

Producers like Karan Johar, Anjum Rizvi, Hats Off Productions, Rajkumar Santoshi have reportedly used the website to scout for associate directors, actors for their upcoming projects.

The company, which operates under the One Alliance brand, has made a series of allegations including the illegal telecast of Copa America football matches on the Asianet network through Dubai Sports.

“Dubai Sports is not registered by the central government. Asianet can‘t carry Dubai Sports on its network in terms of the Cable Network Regulation Act and the Downlinking guidelines,” clarifies SET Discovery president Anuj Gandhi.

One Alliance has deactivated the signals of its channels to Asianet since 21 June due to non payment of dues. It claims the MSO has paid “a paltry ad-hoc amount of Rs four million” as against a “whopping outstanding of approximately Rs 2,49,00,000.” One Alliance issued public notices in newspapers on 16 May in line with the Trai (the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) regulations, intimating the public that the signals of the One Alliance channels including Ten Sports “is likely to be deactivated to Asianet for non payment of dues.”

Sony and Max channels also ran a scroll message to inform the viewers about the possibility of a deactivation. SET Discovery accuses Asianet of unilaterally blacking out the signals of Sony and Max channels with effect from 1 June as a retaliatory measure.

When contacted, Asianet Satellite Communications CEO Mahesh Kumar declined to comment. “The matter is sub judice. The case comes up for hearing on Friday,” he said.

The new offering on iTunes, which is named Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show, includes 23 of the show‘s classic episodes. Individual episodes will be priced at $1.99 and the entire collection is available for $34.99.

“I am thrilled that The Larry Sanders Show will be available on iTunes because it will make it easier for me to watch episodes of my own show from wherever I am, and hopefully easier for everyone else, too,” said Shandling. “It can now be revealed that I am the “I” in iTunes!”

“We are going to send the report very soon now, may be latest within a week,” a senior government official says.

This would remove one of the more serious worries of the ministry, which is holding back on the announcement of the next phase of extension of mandatory Cas in the three metros, as Kolkata had been the weakest in implementing the Cas regime.

Reportedly, the ministry had been awaiting the Kolkata report to see how much the eastern metropolis would be able to cope with and how fast, and now the decision for the overall announcement would become easier with Kolkata sending the report, sources felt

Kolkata has had a 20 per cent penetration of set-top boxes (STBs) in the Cas market. This is due to several factors, including the fact that the area chosen (Behala and adjoining areas) are where the people in any case watch the FTA Bengali channels.

The extension in Kolkata would be in Zone 2 and Zone 4, which includes the entire North and South Kolkata neighbourhoods, a vast stretch with roughly eight lakh additional cable TV homes, as per the household data from the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation database, which is the closest one can estimate more or less scientifically, a source says.

The Kolkata-based Indian Cable Net, which was acquired by the Zee Group, is more comfortable with the Phase 2 and 4 going first. The multi-system operator feels that would be too much on the plate, and could mess up thing. Thus, while Zone 1 (Behala and surroundings) has happened, Zone 2 and 4 would set the pace for Zone 3 (parts of the KMDA across the river Hooghly, which is in Howrah district).

For the implementation of Cas in the other pockets of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, the government is expected to give a six-month gap after announcement so that all cable operators are given an opportunity to build in the Cas solutions.

The LCO-based Sristi Cable TV Network Ltd seems buoyant about the future of Cas.

“We expect to seed a huge number of boxes in our areas and would order more from the day Cas extension is announced,” says Sristi director Raj Kumar Mitra.

According to the related agreement, a selection of Chinese language music from RMG‘s repertoire will be made legally available for streaming at no charge to all users of Baidu. Internet advertising will be displayed while users listen to music licensed under the agreement.

“This partnership with RMG, the world‘s leading Chinese language record label, reflects growing industry recognition of the advertising-supported free music streaming model,” said Baidu‘s chairman and CEO Robin Li. “Advertising- supported music provides more listening options for Internet users and gives online advertisers a powerful marketing platform.”

RMG‘s founder Sam Duann said, “RMG has long been a leader in original music production as well as a pioneer in innovative music distribution. By leveraging Baidu‘s leading position in the Chinese language search market and its premier digital music platform, this partnership will bring value to music lovers, record companies and advertisers alike.”

With this offering, all Nokia GPRS enabled handset users in Kerala will be able to get national and international news in their native language across categories of news – sports, travel, music, astrology and movies amongst others.

Speaking at the launch of this service, Nokia India director marketing Devinder Kishore said, “Ease-of-use is a key Nokia proposition. Currently the internet penetration is still very low, especially in smaller cities and rural areas. Services such as the mobile newspaper will ride on the larger penetration of mobile phones and bring the internet revolution to the masses. With the launch of this service, we are transcending the language barriers and extending the benefits of the Data services over mobiles to the people who are not conversant with English.”

The service will be offered in 10 languages which include Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. This application also supports ‘Search‘ and ‘Mobile Advertising‘, while making the ‘internet‘ and the ‘Search‘ facility available to the non-English literates.

Manorama Online COO Mariam Mathew said, “We are committed to provide our readers newer and innovative way to consume news and this will help us to further our bond with our consumers. True to the Manorama tradition, we will strive to reach out to all Malayalis, wherever they are – inside or outside India, on a desktop or on the move.”

Users can download the Nokia Malayalam Manorma news portal icon by typing MM and sending an SMS to 5555. The user will then receive a URL on their handset and can download the icon by clicking on the URL and view the latest news updates instantly which will be refreshed every 30 minutes. The application can be activated on all Nokia GPRS handsets.

The redesigned main page aims to make it easier for consumers to discover, search for and find millions of videos from across the Web. A redesigned video search experience leverages Truveo video search technology and features better presentation of Web search results to help users more easily find what they are looking for.

A new embedded playback experience where consumers can find and watch videos from other popular video sites on the AOL Video site.

AOL Video senior VP Fred McIntyre says, “Online video consumption is likely the fastest growing behavior in the history of the Internet and AOL was one of the first to bring video content to the online masses. Consumers want just one place where they can go to find and watch all of the videos they‘re looking for and our new AOL Video portal gives them just that: a single website that brings together millions of videos from across the Web.”

In addition, AOL also announced the availability of a new Windows Vista-ready sidebar gadget which enables consumers to watch popular AOL Video content while using other applications. The AOL Video Gadget features five channels – News, Music, Movies, Comedy and Business – each showcasing 10 of the most recent or most popular videos in each channel.

The Gadget features 12 ‘skins‘ in various colours and patterns, as well as a real-time ticker that highlights relevant videos as they are added to the Truveo search index of videos from all across the Web.

The aim is to lower the barriers to entry for filmmakers to produce and distribute movies in the HD DVD format through the innovative manufacturing-on-demand technology of CustomFlix, a part of an Amazon group of companies.

Jointly sponsored by Amazon and Microsoft, the project will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000 selected indie titles.

Amazon.com VP music and movies Peter Faricy says, “This collaboration with Microsoft is a great opportunity for independent filmmakers to reach Amazon customers with their films via the HD DVD format. By working together with Microsoft and leveraging the proven CustomFlix DVD on Demand model, we can lower the barriers to entry for independent filmmakers and dramatically increase the selection we offer our customers.”

The project will be spearheaded by CustomFlix, which will bring as many as 1,000 feature-length independent films to Amazon customers using the CustomFlix DVD-on-demand technology, which produces and ships DVDs only as they are ordered. This model greatly improves the cost structure for independent filmmakers by eliminating the need for costly inventory.

Sundance channel will be reviewing the high-definition features for potential broadcast on the network as well as making its own HD original eco-series, “Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” available for purchase through Amazon’s HD DVD programme.

Microsoft corporate VP for the Consumer Media Technology Group Amir Majidimehr says, “Amazon’s participation in this project will be a major benefit to independent filmmakers wanting to break into the high-definition market segment. The use of Microsoft technology and authoring expertise will ensure that all the HD DVD titles offered by Amazon have impeccable quality, thanks to the VC-1 codec and innovative interactive scenarios with HD.”

While saying that the disconnection was illegal, the Tdsat has asked Incablenet to pay Zee a sum of Rs two million.

It observed that the original agreement between Zee and Incablenet was to run the channel free of cost, and for a carriage fee accruable to Incablenet for running on a specific frequency, for three months.

Though that formal written agreement lapsed after December 2005, Incablenet still ran the channel on an oral arrangement and request from Zee, as a promotional measure for the channel, as an FTA.

Meanwhile, Zee Sports turned into a pay channel with a price declared with Trai at Rs 10 per subscriber. Zee Turner decided to disconnect it from Incablenet countrywide on 8 September 2006, on the eve of the Malaysian cricket tri-series.

Incablenet had then appealed to Tdsat against Zee‘s alleged illegal disconnection and the court had in the interim asked Zee to reconnect, but also asked Incablenet to deposit Rs two million with it till the parties reached an agreement.

In passing the final order on 3 July, the court made an important observation:

“Since this re-connection of Zee Sports was ordered by us and the petitioner enjoyed the signals, we feel that some consideration is due to the respondent.

“It goes to prove that it was interested in the channel during the Malaysian Triangular Series, when it was a pay channel and therefore the petitioner is under obligation to pay for that period to the respondent at the rate of Rs 10 per subscriber which is the rate declared by the respondent with the Trai.

“We would like to deal with an argument on behalf of the petitioner (Incable) that if at this stage the petitioner is asked to compensate the respondent, it will not be able to recover the amount from the subscribers.

“In this behalf we would only like to say that the petitioner had approached this Tribunal seeking interim order for continued supply of signals.

“We passed a conditional interim order requiring the petitioner to deposit Rs two million in this Tribunal before the supply of signals could be restored to the petitioner (and) the petitioner complied with the said order, which led to the supply of signals being restored to it.

“If the petitioner was not happy with the condition under the interim order of this Tribunal, it need not have complied with the order.

“Obviously the petitioner complied with the order because it saw some benefit under the order.

Having reaped the benefit of the order it does not lie in the mouth of the petitioner to raise an argument that it will not be able to recover the amount from the subscribers.

“Therefore, we see no merit in this argument,” the court concluded, asking Incablenet to pay the sum forthwith.

Neo has been told to supply its justifications to Trai within the next two weeks, and the sector regulator has been asked to consider these justifications, as also the other data available pertaining to other channels before issuing a fresh direction on the price for the channels and the bouquet.

Trai has been asked thereafter to issue a fresh direction fixing the price of these two channels and bouquet of Neo Sports.

While fixing such prices, Trai must give basis on which it has done so, the tribunal said, and the process has to be completed in 60 days.

At the end of the highly attritious case, hearing both parties, the tribunal held that “the manner in which both parties have conducted themselves leaves something to be desired”.

The tribunal said that while Neo did not submit its details as to how it fixed the prices of its channels, Trai failed to fix prices of individual channels and also failed to give the basis as to how it arrived at the price of Rs.37.25 for the bouquet.

However, till the fresh direction is issued, the present price fixed by Trai will hold, and Neo will not be able to change this over the next two months.

From the legal point of view, there have been a few important observations that will affect future directions by Trai.

However, the court observed that Trai had issued the order under its powers to ‘intervene‘ which is derived from Section 11(B), and thus the sector regulator had not functioned under a wrong legal provision.

The court also observed that Trai had issued a Tariff Order u/s 11(1)(b)(ii), (iii), (iv) and 11(2) on 10 October 2004.

This exercise was basically tariff fixation which as per the Act was correctly done in exercise of powers vested in Trai under Section 11(2) of the Act. This is known as the Principal Tariff Order.

Subsequently, Trai issued notification dated 31 July 2006 exercising its powers under the same Sections as in the main tariff order whereby it amended its original tariff order by incorporating additional clause 3B as under :-

The court said: “The principal Tariff Order dated 01.10.2004 was the source for the impugned order and, therefore, the impugned order could not be said to be a fresh exercise of fixation of tariff.

“Moreover, for individual channel the Trai could not be expected to go into the gamut of entire procedure before tariff fixation every time,” it added.

Lastly, on the Neo argument that its channels were different even within the genre of sports channels because they were cricket centric, Tdsat said that Neo had destroyed its own argument.

“According to the appellant its channel NEO Sports is totally for cricket while its other channel NEO Sports Plus is a general Sports Channel. The appellant has priced both the channels equally.

“This in our view destroys the argument of the appellant about its channel having a distinct identity.

“The appellant has itself equated the two channels when one of them is totally cricket-centric and the other is not so.”