Category: Software

MUMBAI: US media conglomerates News Corp and NBC Universal have announced the addition of Fuel TV, Oxygen, Speed, Sundance Channel and TV Guide as content patrners to their upcoming online video joint venture.

NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff says, “Each of our new content partners has a reputation for creating premium entertainment experiences designed to fulfill television viewers’ more eclectic needs. We are delighted they have all agreed to contribute their compelling content to our venture, which will help ensure our ability to satisfy the more personalised demands of the growing number of Web video consumers.”

Under the terms of its agreements with Fuel TV and Speed, the new venture will distribute both partners’ short-form content across its distribution network and will host their programming on its destination site. The venture’s distribution network currently includes some of the most-popular sites on the Web, including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo, Comcast and CNet.

Woemn‘s network Oxygen will contribute short-form content from its array of unconventional and original programming, initially including The Bad Girls Club, Fight Girls, 50 Funniest Women and Our Bodies, Myself.

Oxygen president of distribution Mary Murano says, “Oxygen is committed to making our content available on every platform that our audience is, and this is an excellent opportunity to do just that. Broadband is fast becoming the future of content distribution and it is important for Oxygen to be at the forefront. We are looking forward to a great partnership with some of the industry’s leading companies.”

The new venture will also distribute Sundance Channel programming, including full-length original series, exclusive webisodes, short films, original short-form content shot exclusively for the Web and clips from feature films and documentaries. Included in the offerings are selections from Sundance Channel’s new weekly environmental block, The Green, featuring all 13 episodes from the original series Big Ideas for a Small Planet as well as short form series Ecoists and Eco Biz along with original webisodes exploring each week’s eco theme hosted by Simran Sethi. All six episodes of Sundance Channel’s series One Punk Under God, looking at alternative Christian minister Jay Bakker, will also be offered.

Sundance Channel’s president and CEO Larry Aidem noted, “Sundance Channel’s participation in this venture underscores our strategy and efforts to expand the reach of Sundance Channel content beyond the linear network to a thriving audience seeking our content across multiple platforms.”

In addition to distributing content from TV Guide Broadband, an advertising-supported video service offering programming about the world of television and entertainment, across all its distribution partner sites, the venture’s destination site will offer fresh and entertaining short-form video content from TV Guide Broadband, including: TV Guide’s recommendations for the best shows, movies and music on television; interviews with top celebrities; behind-the-scenes from the hottest TV shows; and highlights from TV Guide Network’s original programming.

NEW DELHI: The information & broadcasting ministry is finally taking the decisive step towards full rollout of Cas in the three metros with a meeting scheduled for 5 June between the ministry officials, Trai mandarins, the nodal officers and respective chief secretaries.

Sources said that the officials have been invited by the ministry to decide on the announcement of Cas extension within the next few weeks, and it would be implemented from December.

Meanwhile, Trai has convened a meeting on 8 June to resolve one of the most burning issues that has marked the first and limited phase of Cas rollout: the feud between multi-system operators (MSOs) and broadcasters over SMS systems and proper payment of actual number of viewers.

It is learnt that the two meetings would complement each other because broadcasting sources said they would lobby with the government to stop full Cas rollout unless their woes are taken care of. Extension would mean a jump from roughly 15 million households to a universe of around 80 million, and losses would mount tremendously.

Senior officials also said that this time it would not be a part-by-part announcement, and the extension through the entire areas of the metros and the adjoining areas would be announced at one go, but the implementation would be in phases.

What is crucial is that the time schedule for each phase would also be announced at one go, because that would give all the players time enough to get their business plans and infrastructure ready, and all the phases would have to be covered by June 2008, sources disclosed.

But more importantly, said one source, the plan to announce the schedule for all the phases in all the metros at one go is aimed by the government to bring down the prices of set top boxes drastically, so that the poorest of households can more readily go for digital, encrypted feed as part of the government‘s `Go Digital‘ programme.

“If the majority of households, who are financially weak, have to pay through their noses, there is a good chance of them not wanting to go for the STBs and illegal feeding could take place on a wide range,” one official said.

Interestingly though the ministry has sent the invitations, they have not laid out the parameters of discussion, and most invitees do not know who are the other likely attendees.

Trai senior officials told Indiantelevision.com: “We know we have been invited, and the CC marked is for the four nodal officers of the four metros, and we know that this meeting is for the extension of Cas, but we are not aware of either who all are invited, or what the ministry exactly wants to do. We have said they should extend Cas to the entire areas under the four metros.”

Asked if Trai sees any hitches and problems in full extension to such a large universe, the official said: “There will not be any problem. All the players, including us and the ministry have learnt from the first experimentation, and the main problem just in the initial phase had been shortage of reliable STBs.

“There is no problem on that account any more and other infrastructural issues have been tackled well by the large MSOs already in the field. We hope the government will give us a six-month period from announcement to implementaion, so that the smaller new MSOs are also ready, because we want to promote competition.”

MSOs, however, are unhappy that they have been left out of the ministerial meeting, and feel that their issues needed to be placed at that level too.

Even broadcasters have reportedly not been called and this is where the latter feel that unless they get paid for the precise number of STBs that are viewing each channel, they would resist Cas extension, because that would mean huge losses. There could be any number of law suits on this score.

“This would change nothing, because the whole point was to make the system addressable, and if we still do not get paid as per number of boxes on which we are being watched, Cas has failed. So why extend a failed system?” a senior broadcaster told Indiantelevision.com.

However, the 8 June meeting, which was earlier to take place on 6 June, is expected to sort that out.

“I am sure a satisfactory resolution will come. After all, the MSOs and broadcasters have to do business together, and if MSOs are finding it difficult to feed the data on to SMS, may be they would ask for more time. Broadcasters would give their solutions as well,” a Trai official said.

However, Trai has not worked out any formula for this, and would leave that between the parties concerned. “We will facilitate a proper resolution” the official said.

MUMBAI: Google Inc. has acquired FeedBurner, a specialist firm in delivering podcasts, weblogs, news and advertising to internet browsers.

Based in Chicago, FeedBurner is a “web feed” firm that lets online publishers constantly send updated news, commentary and other content directly to readers with tools such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

The volume of web content and advertising delivered via RSS and Atom feeds has increased significantly in recent years. This acquisition is likely to help Google capitalize on its growth and expand its advertising reach.

During a conference call with reporters, Google vice president for product management Susan Wojcicki said, “We are thrilled with this acquisition. We believe the two companies are very complementary and it will enable Google to bring hundreds of thousands of new sites into AdSense network.”

Google co-founder Dick Costolo said that more than 763,000 ‘live feeds‘ run through FeedBurner daily, delivering content from approximately 430,000 publishers including major news organisations. “The number of feed publishers continues to explode and the number of people subscribing has exploded,” he said.

MUMBAI: Last year, Radio Mirchi launched visual radio in collaboration with HP and Nokia. But the concept has yet to catch on as private FM operators are in a rush to launch more stations.

Radio on mobile phones has a 40 per cent penetration in metros like Delhi and Mumbai. In such a situation, mobile should be put into work by the radio broadcasters, observed GCAP Media digital content manager Nick Piggot.

Text messages can provide a database of the listeners, their profile and a list of their most preferred songs. Piggot explained how this could be achieved. The listeners‘ request should be received through text messages; it unburdens the phone from being jammed; and the request text can be returned by a ‘thank you‘ message which is sponsored by any brand.

NEW DELHI: In its closing day before the summer vacations, Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal has ordered Bhaskar Cable Network to pay all dues to Zee Turner within five weeks – which Zee officials said would come close to Rs 110 million – or face disconnection after that.

The tribunal observed that this was an interim order, without prejudice to the main case that was going on.

The tribunal order said that with the 2005 subscriber base (some 88,000 odd), Bhaskar Cable would pay Zee for an admittedly increased base of 20 per cent from January to September 2006 and from October 2006 till date at an increased subscriber base of 25 per cent of the 2005 figure.

Bhaskar itself had admitted that its annual rise in subscriber base was 20 per cent, though Zee had wanted that to be corrected to 25 per cent. The tribunal accepted Bhaskar‘s admission till September 2006 and thereafter granted Zee‘s request for payment at a 25 per cent enhanced base.

After a clamourous argument between Abhishek Singhvi and Maninder Singh, senior counsels for Bhaskar and Zee respectively. The tribunal also told Bhaskar and Zee to prepare and sign a new agreement for the year 2007 by 1 July.

The tribunal also took exception to the fact that Bhaskar had not produced the subscriber base of Star, based on which the MSOs agreement with Star had been worked out. It ordered the MSO to make sure that that this was done before the next hearing.

While Singhvi agreed to give that, he held that the document would be given to the tribunal only and not shared with Zee.

Singh wanted the tribunal to rule that the stay that had been granted to them may be vacated, without which the MSO would never come to terms. “Vacate the stay (on disconnecting Zee signals) and they will resolve the issue within a week,” Singh had pleaded.

However, the stay will hold for another five weeks and Zee can disconnect if the entire arrears are not paid within the stipulated time.

Bhaskar, which said it had a market share of 75 per cent in Indore, 50 per cent in Bhopal and 80 per cent in Jaipur, contended that Zee was wanting them to charge for a subscriber base of nearly 600,000 for Jaipur alone, but contested it saying that was not its base. Rather, that was a figure given by the National Readership Survey, which was not acceptable to Bhaskar.

Interestingly, Zee disclosed that they were giving signals to Bhaskar, despite the fact that they had not signed any agreement with the broadcaster for the entire duration of 2006, and most often not being paid for them either.

Singh reminded the tribunal that the MSO has been abusing the stay by not complying with the commensurate order to Bhaskar to pay up, pointing out also that even for March and April this year, the payments were made only in May, not as per stipulated dates.

Zee had disconnected the signals in two of the three cities mentioned. It had given a notice for disconnection in the third city as well, when the MSO had moved the TDSAT, which had granted them a stay.

The main case would come up for hearing after the vacations end on 30 June.

MUMBAI: Apple in the US has launched iTunes Plus. This consists of digital rights management DRM free music tracks featuring 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings—for $1.29 per song.

iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalogue of recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time.

iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today —128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM —at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside the higher quality iTunes Plus versions when available. In addition, iTunes customers can now easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to iTunes Plus tracks for just 30 cents a song and $3.00 for most albums.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says, “Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus. We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”

EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli says, “This is a tremendous milestone for digital music. Consumers are going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from their favorite EMI artists with no usage restrictions.”

With the release of iTunes Plus, customers can now download tracks from EMI artists without limitations on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. iTunes is also offering customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to the iTunes Plus versions.

EMI music videos are now also available in iTunes Plus versions with no change in price. iTunes Plus songs purchased from the iTunes Store will play on all iPods, Mac® or Windows computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV™ and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.

The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 500 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over two million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

MUMBAI: The exponential growth in the number of people using video to communicate and collaborate is creating a video landscape filled with new service and revenue opportunities for video operators and service providers. As more and more consumers enjoy the freedom to access all types of content and services across a variety of devices, they are beginning to live The Connected Life.

Cisco, Scientific Atlanta and Linksys offer unique capabilities and innovative end-to-end solutions to help video operators and service providers bring The Connected Life to consumers, whether at home or at work.

Extreme Video Quality at Low Bit Rates :

The Scientific Atlanta D9054 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) encoder delivers the latest compression technology to video operators and service providers, provides bandwidth maximization technology for advanced services, and accelerates the ability to launch new or expanded services, such as high-definition broadcast and video on demand. The encoder’s single-slice encoding architecture, designed to deliver a performance at bandwidth-saving bit rates for years to come.

IPTV from Start to Finish : Cisco IP Next-Generation Networks (IP NGNs) provide the network intelligence designed to deliver a scalable Video 2.0 experience from carrier routing systems and Carrier Ethernet solutions optimised for high-quality video transport, content-delivery systems that support both broadcast and on-demand services, high-definition and standard-definition encoders available today over content aggregators and transraters, to a comprehensive line of IP set-tops supporting both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 and a wide range of DRM systems.

Video on Demand, Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device : Cisco recently launched an enhancement to its Content Delivery System (CDS), adding Internet streaming-media capabilities that allow service providers to offer an ever-expanding scope of online content to help meet their customers’ expectations of accessing any content, anywhere, anytime and on any device. The enhanced Cisco CDS offers much more than other video-on-demand and streaming systems.

The Cisco CDS Internet Streaming solution incorporates applications for delivering video to digital televisions and set-top boxes as well as delivering video, voice, music and data to a wide range of IP devices such as personal computers, Wi-Fi-connected mobile phones and personal digital assistants.

Flexible Digital Content Management : Scientific Atlanta’s Digital Content Manager (DCM) delivers game-changing, massive video processing horsepower for SD and HD programming, plus the versatility to deliver seamless regional digital program insertion (DPI) and local ad insertion. The DCM’s SuperCrypt network and content security solution delivers session-based scrambling to protect content and can be located in either the modulation site or locally in the main headend.

Voice, Data and Wireless Solutions : The Scientific Atlanta EPC2505TM downstream channel bonding cable modem provides a throughput of more than 100+ megabits per second, and the EPC2434TM wireless home gateway with embedded multimedia terminal adapter (eMTA) combines a cable modem, two-line VoIP terminal adapter, router and wireless access point in a single device.

Complete DVR Experience : The Explorer 8455DVB high-definition video recorder allows viewers to time-shift television and watch what they want when it is convenient, enabling service providers to generate more revenue. Scientific Atlanta’s extensive DVR experience and new interactive 8455DVB HD DVR with optional IP multi-Room capability takes advantage of the bandwidth maximization and video storage benefits of MPEG-4 part 10/H.264 compression for high-definition television and personal video recorder services.

Additionally, three video tuners in the set-top will allow customers to record three shows simultaneously. Leading third-party middleware and conditional access solutions are also supported.

MUMBAI: Real Networks unveiled an updated version of its RealPlayer. The company will make available the beta version of the new player on its website.

Users can avail the downloads by clicking on ‘download this video‘ button atop Internet videos at any time during the viewing process. Apart from downloading several videos simultaneously, users can also share video links with others and burn them to CDs and DVDs.

“Time-shifting of recorded or downloaded content is a natural next step in the progression of the online video distribution and consumption,” said Gartner, an analyst firm‘s, VP Michael McGuire, in a statement made to pcmag.com.

MUMBAI: The online movie download space jhas ust got more exciting. Unlike sites like netflix.com which offer direct-to-home video rentals, Jaman.com has decided to differentiate itself by delving into hi-definition downloads of socially driven cinema, produced by India‘s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

The California based website and NFDC have signed a 30-film online distribution deal wherein films from directors like Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal and Mrinal Sen will be available for download on website.

Jaman‘s CEO and founder Gaurav Dhillon said, “While excellent films are made all over the world every year, less than one percent of them get traditional distribution in the U.S. Our partnership with NFDC makes the work of India‘s top directors available to anyone with internet access. These films clearly show that alongside a prolific Bollywood film industry, India has a deep and rich history of cinematic excellence.”

The long-term Jaman and NFDC deal will kick off with 30 worldwide premieres that includes titles like Kundan Shah‘s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Sudhir Mishra‘s Main Zinda Hoon, Saeed Mirza‘s Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro, Ketan Mehta‘s Mirch Masala, Govind Nihalani‘s Party, Basu Chatterjee‘s Tok Jhal Misti, Murali Nair‘s Arimpara amongst others.

The NFDC is the Indian government‘s primary agency dedicated to promoting excellence in cinema and it has produced over 300 films. Several of these films have won national and international awards.

MUMBAI: Toonz Animation Academy has announced the appointment S Ramaprasad as executive director.

As part of its expansion plans, Toonz Animation is launching an Animation academy in Mumbai in June, which will be followed by Animation academies in Nagpur, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. Ramaprasad will spearhead the operations in all these centres.

Ramaprasad has 20 years of experience as a senior management professional. Most recently, he was Maini Info Solutions Pvt. Ltd. president and CEO. Previously, he served as Aptech GM, overseeing its operations in Karnataka and Goa.

Toonz Animation India CEO P. Jayakumar. “Ramaprasad‘s career accomplishments and experience in IT education will be of great benefit to the Academy.”