Category: Software

The addition of MTV Networks UK to the Freewire TV roster includes core channels MTV and VH1 as well as MTV Hits, MTV2, MTV Dance, MTV Flux and VH1 Classic.

MTV Networks UK and Ireland director affiliate sales Arran Tindall said: “We are always looking to work with partners who can help us make MTV content available to as many people and in as many ways as possible, across multiple platforms. IPTV is a new and exciting way of experiencing TV and by joining together MTV and Freewire TV we will be ensuring we reach as wide an audience as possible, with a particular focus on the huge UK student population – who are already fans of MTV content.”

Inuk Networks is also adding new channels to Freewire TV as it adds pay TV channels to the platform and expands the service to residential customers later this year.

According to Inuk Networks, MTV‘s popularity with the youth market is a good fit with the on-campus student demographic which currently has access to Freewire TV.

Inuk Networks director marketing Nick Rucraz said, “Inuk Networks feels strongly about bringing the digital TV experience to disenfranchised communities around the country. As we expand the reach of our IPTV offering to cover more areas, we are also aiming to lessen the gulf between those that can and those that can‘t view the programmes of choice when and where they want. Offering the right mix of channels to cater to a wide variety of tastes is central to this approach. MTV is an important addition to the pay-TV channel line-up and with it, we are confident we have the right TV line-up to meet the programming needs of our target demographic.”

Motwani was handling operations at the national level and the branch heads of the different centres across the country were reporting to him. Before being promoted as president, he was senior vice president of IMCL and was handling operations only in Mumbai.

This is part of an informal examination being conducted in terms of the possibility of antitrust activity.

Media reports state that the EC has sent a note to the Hollywood studios in the middle of last month asking whether they had imposed restrictive agreements in choosing between Blu-ray and the other rival format HD-DVD.

Video rental store Blockbuster recently said that it would only stock films using Blu-ray.

The two competing standards have each won exclusive support from different studios. This has causied concern that antitrust regulations may have been violated.

The Sony backed Blu-ray format has won strong support from Hollywood. Disney, Fox and Sony Pictures have released Blu-ray discs but not the competing HD DVDs. That format was developed by a consortium led by Toshiba.

Universal Studios is the only studio which releases high-definition movies exclusively on HD DVD.

CASBAA has asked for a reversal of an appellate court decision to nullify search warrants issued against the local cable operator, for acts of copyright infringement.

“Protection of intellectual property is our highest concern and piracy is a real threat to the legitimate cable TV industry in the Philippines. The industry has no choice but to energetically appeal the appellate court decision. We believe that a comprehensive look at the evidence submitted to the Regional Trial Court in 2005 will lead the judiciary to reverse its ruling on the search warrants issued by that court.This will give the message that the government is serious in its battle against cable piracy,” said CASBAA CEO Simon Twiston Davies.

In its motion for reconsideration, CASBAA maintains that judge Antonio Eugenio Jr. of the regional trial court of Manila strictly complied with the rules on the issuance of search warrants by personally examining the facts and circumstances presented by National Bureau of Investigation Intellectual Property Rights division senior agent Joel Tovera and other witnesses under oath during the search warrant application hearings.

CASBAA also asserted that after an exhaustive process of probing the merits of the application, the warrants were issued based on real probable cause of illegal and unauthorised decoding, rebroadcast and performance of copyrighted programs from major content providers such as Discovery Asia, HBO, AXN, Buena Vista (Walt Disney Television International) CNN International, Star Group, National Geographic and ESPN Star Sports.

CASBAA has 120 corporations that in turn serve more than three billion people across Asia. It was responsible for bringing several cable piracy complaints to the NBI in 2005.

It is the world‘s first ever online music video premiere, states an official release.

The Ajay Devgan, Riteish Deshmukh, Zayed Khan, Esha Deol, Shamita Shetty, Diya Mirza, Suniel Shetty and Soha Ali Khan starrer movie has been directed by Anubhav Sinha.

The videos are available on Zapak.TV.

As part of the emoticon celebration, Yahoo conducted a
survey of 40,000 Yahoo! Messenger users, to reveal where and how emoticons play a role in everyday communication. The major findings of the survey say that 82 percent of those who use Yahoo! Messenger daily use emoticons in their IM conversations.

83 percent of respondents said that ‘happiness‘ and ‘flirting‘ are the emotions they express most often using emoticons.

The survey also reveals that 66 per cent of Yahoo! Messenger users have memorized the text characters for three or more emoticons whereas 19 per cent of respondents have memorized more than 10.

The majority of survey respondents say they best express themselves in IM using emoticons. 61 per cent rely on emoticons to best express their feelings, while 17 per cent rely on Internet slang and 13 per cent rely on photo sharing.

Respondents from the ages of 19 to 25 are the most avid emoticon users, with 68 per cent in this age group using emoticons on a daily basis. But it‘s not just the younger generation embracing emoticons – 48 per cent of respondents over the age of 50 are using emoticons in their everyday communication.

Professor Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University was the first person to bring in to use his form of non verbal communication, states an official release.

“For 25 years, the ‘smiley‘ 🙂 and his happy parenthetical-powered friends have added a critical layer of expression to our daily online conversations. When you can‘t hear someone‘s voice or see their face, emoticons are there to help us express what simple words can‘t,” said Yahoo! Messenger VP Jeff Bonforte.

“Nearly 85 per cent of people using Yahoo! Messenger daily rely on emoticons to add color and character to their communication. Our users are the experts and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the emoticon, we are asking Yahoo! Messenger users to create the next generation of smiley faces” added Bonforte.

As a part of this celebration Yahoo is also running a contest wherein the consumers are invited to submit their favourite expressions to compete for the next set of emoticons. The winners‘ emoticons will be featured on Yahoo! Messenger‘s service worldwide.

Yahoo! Messenger will add six new animated emoticons to its service in the coming months. To enter Yahoo! Messenger‘s Emoticontest, go to:http://messenger.yahoo.com /emoticontest.php and submit a photo of a signature look or favorite expression. The Bix online community will vote on the submissions and determine the next generation of emoticons in Yahoo! Messenger. The contest is running in the U.S., India and Vietnam until 31 July.

Now, a new online community from MTV, WannaBeMade.com, allows viewers to launch their own personal development journeys with the help of others.

Along the way, all the emotions including the ups, the downs, the setbacks and the leaps forward will be captured and expressed on-air as part of the new season of Made which recently premiered.

The site WannaBeMade.com provides a path for viewers to connect with and inspire one another as they work toward achieving specific personal goals. The site also compels them to give back to the community by becoming personal development ‘coaches‘ who share their own expertise and trials with others. The most emotional and rewarding stories will be incorporated into the current season of Made.

MTV president Christina Norman says, “Made taps into the powerful desires of our audience who relate to the young men and women they see on-air. With the launch of this site, we are providing a natural extension that will engage each viewer beyond simply watching the show and, instead, empower them to live and document the transformative process for
themselves.”

MTV Networks Music and Logo Group president of Entertainment Brian Graden says, “WannaBeMade.com will connect our audience in very personal ways to one another. The site will allow them to see their growth reflected
online and on television, two very powerful platforms that validate and substantiate their journeys.”

By visiting WannaBeMade.com, viewers who chose to “wanna be made” can quickly and easily find coaches to help them in a potentially endless amount of areas — from cheerleading to acting, break dancing to becoming a prom queen. A viewer, for instance, who wants to be made into a surfer can find surfing aficionados who can recommend all the right boards, offer tips on techniques, and share insight about the best surfing spots for beginners, experts and everyone in-between. Every journey will be chronicled on the viewer‘s profile page including diary entries and a personal progress rating.

The company’s video-rich site which aims to compete with Youtube will debut later this year with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips from myriad networks and two major film studios and with an unparalleled reach. With distribution partners AOL, CNet, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo!, the new venture will have access to 98 per cent of the monthly U.S. unique users on the Internet.

News Corp president and COO Peter Chernin says, “Jason’s product and consumer expertise in the world of e-commerce is arguably unrivaled in this business and gives him a great insight into what it takes to create a superior user interface. We already have access to world-class content and near ubiquitous distribution, and the next step is marrying it with the features and tools that will help define the ideal user experience for video content on the web. We think Jason is the ideal person to lead that effort.”

Kilar spent nearly a decade (1997 – 2006) at Amazon.com, where he quickly rose to help expand the company’s core business beyond bookselling. Kilar originally wrote the business plan for Amazon’s entry into the video and DVD businesses and ultimately led that unit as GM and VP.

The video and DVD business grew to several hundred million in revenue under his leadership. Kilar went on to become VP and GM of Amazon’s North American media businesses, which included the company’s books, music, video, and DVD categories.

He says, “As a team, we have a unique opportunity to create great customer experience through the combination of innovative technology and high quality content. In the process, I believe we can play a significant role influencing how consumers find, discover, and participate in premium content over the web. This is a big, inherently fun mission with which I’m proud and very excited to be associated.”

Capable of storing up to 300 hours of digital standard-definition (SD) or 60 hours of high-definition (HD) television programming based on 500 GB of hard drive storage, consumers can instantly expand their recording capacity by simply attaching the DVR Expander to one of the millions of Scientific Atlanta 8300 DVR Series set-tops currently deployed in the US.

The My Library Video Edition is aimed at consumers who need more room to store the ever-expanding HD entertainment options offered by their service providers.

WD VP, GM branded products and consumer electronics businesses Jim Welsh says, “As the adoption of storage-hungry HDTV continues to grow, the demand for additional storage becomes increasingly important to consumers.

“When it comes to entertainment, adding WD‘s DVR Expander to their DVR lets consumers save more of their TV shows
giving them greater control and convenience.”

Zapak.com has created a F1 Zone to give all the Formula 1 enthusiasts something to supplement their Formula One Grand Prix excitement with. In india, viewers can catch F1 fever on Star Sports.

Formula 1 fans can catch the session details live prior to the races and all the action on the day of the race. This Zone also features Team Standing, Player Standing, Team Profile, Player profile, Circuit details and Races Schedule to keep the F1 fans up-to-date with the action on circuit.