Category: Software

MUMBAI: Mauj Telecom, mobile value added services company has announced the appointment of Manoj Dawane as chief executive officer.

In his new role, Dawane will run the day to day business affairs of Mauj Telecom and will work with Anupam Mittal and the senior management team to keep the company on its aggressive growth path while expanding into international markets, informs an official release.

People Group CMD Anupam Mittal said, “Within a short span Mauj Telecom has carved a significant niche for itself in India in the mobile value added services industry and as we scale to the next level – operational excellence, disruptive innovation, and an unflinching focus on discovering customer needs is what we will need to distinguish ourselves.  Manoj’s vast experience in the telecom and software industries in senior marketing and operational roles will be a key asset in this strategy.  I look forward to working with him.”

Prior to joining Mauj, Dawane led the Western U.P. and Uttranchal circles for Airtel.  He has also held the chief marketing officer position for Airtel’s Mumbai circle previously and brings with him a total of 15 years of telecom and software industry experience.

Mauj Telecom is part of People Group, which also owns Internet businesses (Shaadi.com, Fropper.com and Astrolife.com,) as well as entertainment businesses under People Interactive and People Entertainment.

Founded in 2003 by Anupam Mittal, Mauj Telecom  works closely with Telecom operators in India and is focussed on developing products and services that enable mobile music, mobile gaming, mobile commerce and mobile marketing. Mauj Telecom develops services on platforms including J2ME, Smartphone, BREW, Symbian, SS7 and I-Mode.

NEW DELHI: Sector tribunal TDSAT has reprimanded Sun TV for not implementing its interim order and asked it to forthwith give signals of all its channels to TataSky on an a la carte basis, while the latter was given freedom to pay Sun on actual subscription as seen from SMS records.

The tribunal was yesterday hearing an appeal on its interim order issued earlier, and held that the consistent stand of TDSAT had been that interim orders must be complied with before any subsequent application for review was filed, and Sun had not done that.

In its significant pronouncement on 19 March that could have far-reaching implications for the broadcasting industry, the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal had passed the interim order asking Sun TV to stream its signals on an a la carte basis to TataSky, at 50 per cent of the cable charges.

However, Sun yesterday sought a review of the order trying to ride on a new angle, saying that if it had to give signals of all its channels to TataSky, it would violate its IPR agreement with many outside content providers who created programmes for it.

Sun argued that it has agreements with producers of programmes who are not its own in-house content makers, which are shown on some of its channels. The agreement between these outside producers and Sun TV is that their programmes could be shown on cable and satellite TV only, Sun‘s senior counsel said.

Thus, if these channels were shown on DTH (TataSky), it would contravene the agreements mentioned above, he averred.

Sun also wanted the tribunal to issue an order that TataSky ought to pay Sun for its entire subscription base, not on a la carte basis, that, is not for those subscribers alone who chose to watch Sun channels on the DTH platform.

TDSAT said that this was not acceptable to them, and asked Sun to give signals of all its channels to TataSky, but the latter would pay Sun on the tribunal stipulated 50 per cent of cable charges, but only for those number of subscribers who are actually watching Sun channels on TataSky.

At a point in time during the arguments, the tribunal said that all along it has been insisting on consumer interest, addressability, level playing fields for every player, transparency, etc., but if TataSky is asked to pay for its entire subscriber base, all that would go out the window.

The tribunal had held: “On merits, the main controversy revolves around the fact that the respondent wants to give all its 20 channels as a package and on a price quoted by it, whereas the petitioners‘ case is that the respondent has not made all its channels as part of a package or a bouquet.

“They are being offered on a-la-carte basis and therefore, the petitioner is entitled to take whatever channels it wants to take on the price quoted by respondent as part of a-la-carte rates reduced by 50 per cent.”

Meanwhile, TataSky‘s DTH rival Dish TV, which plans to take Sun TV on its DTH platform, already has an agreement in place with Sun, but it will implement that after a joint marketing campaign with Sun TV is worked out, sources told indiantelevision.com.

NEW DELHI: A division bench of Delhi High Court today disposed off the Cas case, and reiterated its earlier orders of 20 July, 2006 regarding implementation of Cas “in letter and spirit”, and said if any parties, including MSOs, were not satisfied with that implementation, they could reapproach the court.

The court held that the government Letter Patent Appeal (LPA) was infructuous because Cas has been implemented by the government, but said also that government is free to pursue separate remedies in if any arising out of the 10 March 2006 order.

The court held that the case was infructuous because Cas has been implemented by the government, but said also that government is free to pursue separate legal remedies if any, arising out of the 10 March 2006 order.

This has reference to the government wanting to raise the issue that if it has a legal right to switch on Cas it had a commensurate right to switch off Cas.

Jubilant MSO and LCO sources said that this would mean that as per the March 10 order, read with the order today, Cas has to be implemented in the four metros and their surrounding areas as well, taking note that the court had mentioned Delhi and NCR as the area of implementation.

“This will finally give the choice to the people who have shifted from the main cities to the suburbs but have purchasing power, and do away with the north-south divide that has developed in the four metros,” said a senior legal counsel, requesting anonymity.

The Delhi High Court had on 20 July last year ordered that CAS (conditional access systems) should be introduced in all three metros on or before 1 January 2007.

The court, in its order, had also made clear its resolve not to allow further delays in the matter, declaring that all pending and any new issues related to CAS raised by the government would be taken up only after the CAS‘ implementation deadline of 31 December 2006.

The notification stated: “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 4A, read with section 9 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (7 of 1995), the Central Government, having been satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, and having regard to the aforesaid order dated the 20th July, 2006 of the Hon‘ble High Court of Delhi, hereby notifies 31st December, 2006 as the date from which it shall be mandatory for every cable operator to transmit or re-transmit programmes of every pay channel through an addressable system in the areas notified by the Government of India in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting vide number S.O. 792(E) dated the 10th July, 2003.”

The areas that fall under the CAS notification are the Kolkata Metropolitan areas, the areas covered by the Municipal Council of Greater Mumbai and the National Capital Region of Delhi.

The Union government had filed the LPA, which has been disposed off today, stating that the time given it was too little, and hence had wanted a decision on the issue.

This is what the Delhi High Court ordered today, pointing out that since the government had already (partially) implemented Cas, the LPA is infructuous, and the order of July 20, 2006 has to be implemented “in letter and spirit”.

Industry sources said that this means since the July 20 order was on the issue of the March 10 order by a single-judge bench, which had ordered implementation of Cas across the metros, the order issued today by the Delhi High Court would clean up the path for the implementation of Cas across the metros.

MUMBAI: Galleon Entertainment, the UK-based intellectual property owner, developer and manager, is taking its multi-platform entertainment property Apollo‘s Pad to this month‘s television trade event MipTV 2007 in Cannes, France.

The aim is to sign up regional partners for online, mobile and TV broadcast deals

The all-new multi-platform property set for launch online, on mobile platforms and on air later this year has gone into production. The comedy animation series uses breakthrough animation technology to revitalise everyone‘s favourite songs in a way that can be broadcast through online and mobile platforms as well as through traditional channels such as TV.

Apollo‘s Pad takes classic music tracks and by adding humour and animation reaches a whole new young audience of 16-34 years old. The show has the format of the Muppet show with the humour of the Simpsons. Each episode features two minutes of gag based comedy followed by an animated music video which features a classic hit re-recorded to reach a new audience. The first episode will feature the song I‘m a believer, the classic Monkees hit.

The episodes are set in an animated live music venue, called Apollo‘s Pad, where each character is the personification of a music genre. Each episode follows the adventures of the king of disco dudes, club manager Hudson and the bunch of music loving maniacs that work and perform in Apollo‘s Pad.

Galleon Entertainment is also launching Apollo‘s Pad on apollospad.com, a content rich website that will provide streaming, premium downloads and user generated content.

Galleon Holdings CEO Stephen Green says, ” “Apollo‘s Pad has multiple revenue streams and over time, it will extend into traditional licensing and merchandising formats including apparel and gifting”, added Green. “MIPTV gives us the perfect opportunity to forge relationships with TV, online and mobile partners throughout the international and regional arenas.”

Galleon Entertainment had signed an exclusive agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment (UK) at Mipcom 2006 to develop and launch Apollo‘s Pad. The comedy animation series is being produced by London-based Good Story Productions with animation from Canada-based Copernicus Studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Now the parties have announced that Advertising.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL, will be the ad management services partner for the site.

Through this alliance, News Corporation and NBC Universal will launch the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled, featuring full-length programming, movies and clips representing premium content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios.

Under the agreement, Advertising.com will provide display and video advertising management and fulfillment for the new video site and for the dedicated video player embedded on that site as well as across its distribution partners. Advertising.com will leverage its Lightningcast video ad serving platform to deliver and manage advertising to support the thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips that will be available across the network.

NBC Universal chief digital officer and interim leader of the newly announced strategic alliance George Kliavkoff said, “The cross-platform nature and expansive reach of this new alliance make Advertising.com the right candidate to provide ad management services.”

Advertising.com president Lynda Clarizio says, “We are pleased to assist this groundbreaking new alliance with advertising fulfillment and inventory monetization. Not only will this new video network offer consumers access to an unprecedented catalog of top-notch programming, it will also provide advertisers with an online opportunity on par with the best in television and movie advertising.”

The new alliance the parties state promises to offer innovative ad sales opportunities. Sales of the extensive advertising inventory, adjacent to thousands of hours of video programming and spread across a network of distribution partners, will be shared between the new alliance and its media partners. In addition, display and video advertising inventory not utilized by the site‘s direct sales teams will be monetized by Advertising.com.

MUMBAI: US technology firm Apple has announced a Complete My Album iTunes service.

This allows customers to turn their individual tracks into a complete album at a reduced price by giving them a full 99 cent credit for every track they have previously purchased from that album.

Apple VP iTunes Eddy Cue says, “Music fans can now round out their music collections by upgrading their singles into complete albums with just one click, and get full credit for those songs they have previously purchased from iTunes.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment president, global digital business and US Sales Thomas Hesse says, “iTunes continues to revolutionise the digital music industry by offering music fans innovative ways to explore and enjoy new music. With Complete My Album, iTunes is giving music fans the best of both worlds—the ability to discover great new music by buying just the single and a credit toward the purchase of the complete album.”

Complete My Album offers customers up to 180 days after first purchasing individual songs from any qualifying album to purchase the rest of that album at a reduced price. When users buy any song on iTunes the corresponding album will immediately appear on their personalized Complete My Album page with the reduced price listed.

For example, a user who’s already purchased three 99 cent singles and decides to buy the corresponding $9.99 album would be able to download the remaining songs to complete the album for just $7.02, without having to buy the singles again.

MUMBAI: Samsung Electronics; STMicroelectronics which works in the area of set-top box chips and Metalink which provides wireless and wireline broadband communication silicon solutions have collaborated to launch a set-top box.

This supports high-definition (HD) TV quality based on 802.11n wireless IPTV standard.

Samsung’s SMT-H6155 is specifically designed for the delivery of HD IPTV over wireless Lan. It is equipped with an STi7109 chipset providing the HD video decoding technology from STMicroelectronics, and Metalink’s 802.11n WLANPlusÔ chipsetenabling the wireless delivery of multiple HD video streams throughout the home.

Samsung’s STB development group VP Hee-Won Park says, “Our customers have shown great demand for high-definition multimedia content via IPTV and the ability to facilitate content using Wireless Lan. We believe that Samsung‘s SMT-H6155, equipped with STMicroelectronics’ decoder and Metalink’s 802.11n chipsets, will satisfy our consumers as a top-of-the-line set-top box for HD IPTV. The SMT-H6155 will be a product that consumers can come to trust and believe in as it represents Samsung‘s highest standard for quality.”

STMicroelectronics corporate VP, GM home entertainment group Christos Lagomichos says, “Samsung is a global leader in set-top box products and a major customer of ST. We are happy that our market leading HD decoder in cooperation with Metalink’s WLANPlus allows us to provide Samsung with the most innovative and robust solution in the market today.This platform demonstrates the capability of ST’s advanced decoders, such as the STi71xx family, which allows the set-top box to become a core multimedia appliance in the home network, for both operator and retail markets.”

MUMBAI: Panasonic US which among other things works in trhe area of Plasma HDTVs has created two new unit companies that will be responsible exclusively for the increasingly strategic digital display business, including Plasma, LCD technologies.

Hideaki Harada will lead Panasonic‘s new consumer enterprise as president of Panasonic Display Company and Andrew Nelkin will lead the new business-to-business professional enterprise as President of Panasonic Professional Display Company. They will report to Panasonic US chairman and CEO Yoshi Yamada.

Harada says, “In creating the Panasonic Display Company, we are making a radical change in the way we get the job done and extending the transformation that Panasonic launched more than two years ago.

“This new organisation will shorten distances between product development, our factories and our sales and marketing functions enabling Panasonic to react even more swiftly to meet channel partner and customer demands.

“Our main objective is to continue to expand upon our leadership in Plasma TV market share while also growing our LCD and MMD business to build a leadership position across the entire flat panel industry”.

Panasonic says that it has been the consumer Plasma market share leader for 108 of
the past 115 weeks, and Panasonic is also currently the professional display market share leader.

Nelkin sats, “Commercial flat panel displays are a very strategically important part of our business. Some of the leading sports arenas, hotels, restaurant chains and network television broadcasters feature Panasonic flat panel displays. We‘ve established this new company to put an even greater emphasis on the professional side of the flat panel business led by our 103″ Plasma HDTV, the world‘s largest.”

Most recently, Panasonic announced deals for the installation of more than 5,000 Plasma HDTVs at the new Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, 103″ Plasmas on the set of NBC‘s Football Night In America programme,
and a range of large-screen flat panel displays at Miami‘s Dolphin Stadium.

MUMBAI: GlobeCast WorldTV, which aggregates and distributes international television in America, and Sivoo which claims to be the first US net TV network of multicultural on-demand entertainment programming have announced a deal.

Content from more than 60 of GlobeCast‘s WorldTV channels will be carried by Sivoo when the service becomes available in June.

GlobeCast WorldTV will license a range of programming to Sivoo. The television packages will be distributed via SIVOO‘s Internet TV network. Content will be available in languages including Tamil, Chinese, Russian, Telegu, Persian, Bengali and Romanian.

GlobeCast America CEO Mary Frost says, “Sivoo is focussed on the same objective as we are: to bring quality multicultural programming to the burgeoning ethnic audiences of the United States.

“This agreement reflects that shared aim and signals the start of a mutually productive relationship of which benefits will be realized by both organizations and, especially,
visitors to sivoo.com.”

As a global content management company, GlobeCast delivers worldwide more than 700 full-time television and radio channels to leading DTH, cable, IPTV, broadband and mobile platforms via its global fiber and
satellite aggregation and distribution network.

Through its WorldTV international channel distribution arm, and via its IPTV broadcast center in Los Angeles, GlobeCast uniquely distributes content in full broadcast
quality high-bandwidth video, providing optimum signal quality for full-screen television viewing via broadband.

Sivoo CEO Burhan Fatah says, “GlobeCast WorldTV represents and distributes some of the best and most popular multicultural content, regardless of platform. Sivoo is thrilled to be adding an initial 60 WorldTV channels to the Sivoo Internet TV network.

“The programming will be available in the languages of many of America‘s fastest growing ethnic audiences, making sivoo.com a more attractive venue for viewers and advertisers alike.”

NEW DELHI: If you have an Airtel Post Paid connection in Delhi and national capital region (NCR), your mobile phone could become your mobile email service, Airtel announced today, and Airtel calls it Easy Mail.

This is a specially designed email solution for its Post Paid customers in the Delhi NCR Circle.

“With these solutions, life on the move is enriched and becomes far enhanced, since the Airtel customers will be able to access email which works on the revolutionary Push-based technology on a range of GPRS enabled handsets of their choice, says an Airtel release.

The company is launching call centre updated ARCs in line and dedicated sales teams to campaign though spreading word of mouth and also its website for a major awareness campaign, the company said in response to a query.

“The Product works on a Real Time Synchronization between linked mail server and customer‘s Handheld (Push Technology),” said a company spokesperson, though he refused to answer all questions relating to Airtel‘s Post Paid subscriber base, projected revenue growth through this technology or investment made for this.

“Airtel Easy Mail is a hassle-free solution targeted at the Enterprise Users to check their corporate mails while they are on the move,” the company claimed.

The service is Push-based mail where Airtel customers using a range of Symbian and Windows enabled mobile devices with GPRS connectivity can enjoy the service.

The mails are directly pushed to the handsets as soon as they reach the mailbox, instead of logging on to the service provider‘s server to check for new mails.

This service offers true push technology with real-time synchronization of mail on mobile devices with the corporate mail server.

It enables the mail to arrive on the mobile device just as it appears on the mail server and also supports most popular attachment types like Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

It also synchronises calendar on-line to work as a planning tool while a customer is on the move.

There are two options for accessing the Enterprise Edition – Rs. 899/- unlimited usage or Rs. 199/- with 5 paisa / 10 KB download.

Apart from the above, Airtel is also offering Airtel Easy Mail in an Internet Edition where individual customers can access their personal Web-Based Email through a GPRS enabled handset anytime anywhere, according to the company.

All the widely used web-based email services and ISP based accounts can be accessed. Mobile Mail is delivered through a visually comfortable & graphically interfaced (unlike SMS based services) on a wide range GPRS enabled handsets of the customers‘ choice.

Commenting on the service, Mr. Christopher Tobit, CEO of Bharti Airtel Limited Delhi and NCR, said, “We design our email-based products after a much-detailed research on usage patterns of demographic profiles of all kinds.

“As always, we endeavour to meet and suit the unique needs of all our customer segments.

“The GPRS based email solutions offer a high degree of functionality at an affordable cost and hence this initiative will definitely enhance GPRS usage among our Customers since email is a product that cuts across all sections of the market,” he said.