Category: Software

MUMBAI: With the cricket World Cup scheduled to kick off in less than week‘s time new media interactive firm Intvo is looking to change the way people use their mobiles as far as the game is concerned.

The firm has launched its three applications – CricCast, Cric Playalong and Sports Guru. All the applications will have score posting features and the users can create their own cricket leagues (country leagues, city leagues, college leagues, company leagues, etc.).

Cric Playalong allows users to play along as a match is progressing. One can play along with a live match or a recorded match. Points are given depending on how one is doing vi-a-vis the actual player. The game is in a simulated animation form. One can chose the match and then the team one wants to play for. So if a user scores four runs in a ball while the player in the actual match gets out or scores less then one gets points. One can also be a bowler and choose where to pitch a delivery and the kind of ball to be bowled.

Cric Playalong allows users to play along as a match is progressing. One can play along with a live match or a recorded match. Points are given depending on how one is doing vi-a-vis the actual player. The game is in a simulated animation form. One can chose the match and then the team one wants to play for. So if a user scores four runs in a ball while the player in the actual match gets out or scores less then one gets points. One can also be a bowler and choose where to pitch a delivery and the kind of ball to be bowled.

Intvo has tied up with the service providers Airtel, Idea Cellular, Yahoo, IndiaTimes to make this service available for mobile users in animated form. Intvo will make the interactive applications available in Europe and USA too, through various carrier and media partners.The services will be available from 12 March 2007.

The CricCast application allows one to view a live match or highlights in animation form. This the firm says is particularly useful for people on the go. Mobile users in India can download the CricCast application from Wap portals of Airtellive, Idea, India Times and Yahoo Mobile. They can also download from the web portals of Ideafresh, Yahoo and India times. Cric Playalong can be downloaded from Airtellive, Ideaftesh and India Times.

Intvo is also launching their blogging application, Mojo Blog. This enables the users to blog on matches and other events from their mobile phones or from their computers. This application is currently available firom Intvo‘s Wap site and website for free.

Intvo Founder and CEO Kishan Bulusu said, ” We are expecting 20-30,000 users to avail of this product in India. The cost depends on the service provider. Airtel for instnace is charging Rs. 50 for the World Cup. The animation settings are on an average 90 per cent accurate compared to the real game. Our aim is to create. a new interactive entertainment experience for the consumer that will let them interact with the sports and other entertainment they like in ways which have not been possible until now.

“We have developed the interactive, patent pending Interactering platform and technologies to provide the interactive experience to the users and is working towards providing. Currently our interactive applications are available for GPRS users and we are extending the experience to SMS. We are planning to extend the same experience to the web and other platforms down the road”.

Bulusu says that the cricket applications also alow for advertising during the game. The firm is in the process of signing deals in this regard. The firm is also looking at taking the interactive concept to television shows like reality shows and soaps. It is also looking at making the simulation of other sports like soccer, golf, tennis available.

In the past lntvo piloted Soccercast, Soccer Playalong and Soccer Prediction applications in the Chinese market, localised for Chinese language, with China Mobile for last year‘s Soccer World. Plans are.under way to introduce soccer in China, Europe and the US.

NEW DELHI: The counsel for TataSky today pleaded with the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to ask Trai to regulate tariff on DTH platforms, and complained that despite the Tribunal‘s order on this issue, Trai had completely disobeyed this, as reflected in its latest Consultation Paper on DTH.

Arguing in the TataSky Vs Zee Turner case being heard at TDSAT, senior counsel for TataSky Ramji Srinivas reminded that the Tribunal in its order dated July 14 2006, had specifically ordered Trai to take up the issue of tariff control on the DTH platform, but the sector regulator has not done that.

Instead, Srinivas pointed out to the Tribunal, that the latest consultation paper from Trai specifically on the issue of DTH-related issues, says that the tariff issue is not being taken into consideration for the moment.

RN Chaubey, advisor (B&CS), Trai had earlier this week told indiantelevision.com that it was not considering the tariff issue, though this is for the moment.

During the course of hearing this year, TDSAT had asked Trai whether it would like to regulate tariff and look into the issue of transponder space constraint. In its reply to this, Trai had said that it was considering the issue and would issue a consultation paper soon. However, the paper issued by Trai on March 2 did not take this issue of tariff into consideration.

Srinivasan told the court that if there could be tariff regulation in the case of Cas, why has refused to get into tariff regulation for DTH, especially after the TDSAT itself had issued an order to this effect.

In arguing for his client, Srinivas said that the manner in which Zee Turner was forcing it to carry “junk channels”, thus cramming its limited transponder capacity, was not in line with the consistent insistence of the TDSAT and Trai that the key words in this whole new regime was freedom of consumer choice.

He argued that the Trai regulation on the issue did not imply a “must carry” clause, and said Trai had repeatedly reiterated this. However, Zee was interpreting the clause 7.6 of the Trai regulation saying that it implied “must carry” for all the channels it feeds the DTH operator with.

The court adjourned the case till tomorrow, and the matter remained part heard.

Zee Turner is set to argue its case in the final hearing slated for March 8.

NEW DELHI: The first consultative meeting of stakeholders on the issue of sharing of revenue of the FTA package was held here today, with cable operators fighting hard to retain the present system of COs getting all of the Rs 77 charge levied.

The system should be there for at least one year to let things pan out properly, before making any changes, Roop Sharma of Cable Operators Federation of India held, stating that the arguments of MSOs in support of their demand of 40 per cent share of the FTA revenue were based on wrong facts.

Trai itself heard out the representations and no decision has been taken yet.

The MSOs and broadcasters had their own demands, with Star saying the arrangement should be worked out through commercial negotiations between MSOs and COs, though WWIL has suggested to Trai that the FTA be shared, with MSOs retaining 40 per cent.

Importantly, Set Discovery Pvt Ltd has demanded that the TRAI should leave price fixation, revenue sharing and related issues to market forces, more so now with effective competition through DTH and other technologies becoming a reality.

Arvind Mohan of WWIL said MSOs ought to get this 40 per cent of the FTA revenue arguing that “It would be appreciated compliance with the Quality of Service regulations not only requires the capital expenditure, but also recurring expenditure.

“The stipulated revenue share of 30% for MSOs out of pay channel revenue is totally inadequate and insufficient to meet the recurring and variable costs associated with the provisions of the services,” Mohan has argued.

While MSOs are getting carriage fee, Mohan has said in his submission, this is a temporary phenomenon which may not be there in CAS regime because of digital delivery. In any case since the carriage is not a part of any interconnection arrangement and mainly a contractual matter.

This consultative process started when earlier, Trai had issued a notification for the process asking all the stakeholders, “What should be the share of multi system operators (MSOs) and cable operators out of subscription charges for basic service tier, and the basis for arriving at the distribution proposed should also be given.”

The parties that attended the meeting were Wire & Wireless (India) Ltd. Indusind Media & Communications Ltd., Col.VC Khare (Retd.), a cable TV industry expert; STAR India Pvt. Ltd., Set Discovery Private Limited, and Cable Operators Federation of India.

IndusInd Media, represented by Ashok Mansukhani, has made the most detailed presentation, stating that they believe there are not three but four streams of revenue between Broadcaster, MSO and LCO in a total perspective.

These are subscription charges for Pay channels; subscription charges for basic tier in analogue; carriage placement charges and advertisement revenues of pay channels which are carried in MSOs and LCOs networks, by which they earn the revenue.

“Any legitimate sharing mechanism should take all the four factors, since IMCL consider that the business models of broadcasters are dependent on ad revenue generated and subscription revenue.

“MSO‘s business model is based on subscription amount of pay channels; delivery carrier charges of FTA (for basic tier); and placement carriage charges. In all the three cases the MSO should be able to get a share, which can at least, take care of the basic costs,” IMCL has argued

Mansukhai gave IMCL‘s own example on how it has spent large amounts over the last few years for setting up the large fibre network up to LCO points at the its own costs; established centralised and localised headends too, ensuring a continuous supply by keeping entire infrastructure, etc., and even subsidy on STBs

IMCL has supported WWIL, expectedly, in the demand of 40 per cent of basic tier for MSOs, arguing that the basis for arriving at such a ratio can be the actual
investment costs of and the similar costs of LCOs.

Col VC Khare, the independent cable operations network, however, has demanded a ratio of 70 to 30 in favour of COs, arguing that the major cost for operating the system at the ground level is bourn by the COs.

Interestingly, Khare is the only one who has struck a different note on the issue of the quantum fixed for FTAs. “Rupees 77 per month does not measure up to the requirements of QoS conformity to Indian Standards,” Khare has said.

Understandably, the COs and its representatives have the most to worry if the FTA revenue is shared and thus, the Federation has argued strenuously that this should not be done, as the MSO Alliance‘s claim to share revenue because they have spent a lot of money is not true.

Thus it is that Sharma has said that implementation of CAS has just commenced in the notified zones of the three metros catering to only about a million subscribers.

“This is only a trial phase and needs to be carefully handled for at least six months to one year. It is too premature to review the revenue share formula and interconnect agreement at this stage as all necessary parameters are not available to reach a viable solution,” she has argued.

She added, “TRAI should think of changing the terms of interconnect agreement only after the stabilisation of the system. Till then fresh working of costs to stakeholders should be done to arrive at realistic figures in the present scenario, so that reasonable revenue sharing formula may be made.”

“MSO Alliance‘s response to the interconnect agreement draft as attached with the consultation paper does not carry much weight at this stage because MSOs do not own the entire infrastructure, as given in their response. They own only the headend and the trunk infrastructure. Last mile infrastructure is entirely owned by the LCOs.

In fact, the COs‘ federation has asked why the MSOs are not talking of sharing of revenue from their local channels with the COs.

Sharma has argued that a month after the rollout of Cas, the MSOs‘ entire calculations have gone haywire, especially on the issue of ‘perceived under-declaration by COs.

“Perceived under declaration by the LCOs is again no reason as facts may be very different from what has been presented. As an example, within one month of implementation of CAS the STB penetration has already crossed 25 per cent, which is higher than the 20 per cent the MSOs had presumed would be the final figure.

“In reality, it is only about 20 per cent subscribers that may opt only for FTA channels. Their whole calculations will go haywire as they progress in implementation of CAS,” Sharma has stated.

The meeting also discussed interconnection regulation regarding the share of revenue of pay channel fees.

MUMBAI: Intelsat has announced that UK-based View Africa and ViewAsia Networks have launched two regional platforms on the Intelsat system, expanding their program offering in Africa and Asia.

Through its multi-year contract on the Intelsat 7 and Intelsat 10 satellites, ViewAfrica Network is distributing a free-to-air programming bouquet that now reaches all the Sub-Saharan countries with specific DTH focus on South Africa and Nigeria, and ViewAsia is distributing its programming into the cable headends of Asia.

ViewAfrica Network, uplinking out of Telemedia in South Africa, carries a free-to-air bouquet of religious programming that currently includes the following networks: Daystar, LoveWorld, Divine Truth Broadcasting and Emmanuel TV. ViewAfrica is among 27 DTH platforms built on the global Intelsat system.

Intelsat 7 provides video, direct-to-home and telecommunications services throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Intelsat 10‘s Ku-band payload contains multiple high-powered beams focused on Africa, Europe, India, the Middle East, Central and Western Asia as well as Northeast Asia.

The beams on Intelsat 10 can be switched between the various regions, offering greater flexibility in the creation of new platforms for the delivery of video, data and IP-based services, a company release says.

BANGALORE: The total value of software seized in 2006 in the more than 200 anti-piracy raids carried out across the country is $2.1 million.

The raids were conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and its member companies collectively and individually. BSA has vowed to step up enforcement actions in 2007 to further bring down piracy rates.

Jeffrey J Hardee, BSA vice president and regional director, Asia-Pacific, said, “In over 200 actions that have been conducted by BSA and its member companies in 2006, we had found widespread use and sale of pirated software across Indian cities. With the high software piracy rate in India, it is important to highlight efforts of the industry in combating piracy through enforcement.”

The BSA and its members have carried out raids in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad in 2006.

As per the findings of the BSA-IDC study of 2005, the rate of PC software piracy in 2005 was 72 per cent. According to the statistics, the Indian software industry lost revenue to the tune of of $566 million in 2005.

Hardee added, “BSA adopts a three pronged strategy i.e. spreading the awareness on the perils of piracy, training and education of users including use of specialized tools like software asset management (SAM) and enforcement, in addressing software piracy around the globe. Whilst enforcement is a last resort, it is an important part of our approach as it serves to underline the seriousness of the matter.”

Pirated software that has been seized includes those from Adobe, Autodesk, McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec.

The BSA maintains a close working relationship with the government and industry associations in India such as Nasscom. According to an economic impact study conducted by IDC, if the piracy rate is reduced by 10 points by 2009, India could benefit with an additional 115,000 new IT jobs; an additional $ 5.9 billion pumped into its economy and increased tax revenues of $ 386 million.

MUMBAI: Hinduja TMT‘s scheme of demerger (Scheme of Arrangement and Reconstruction) has got sanction from the Bombay High Court. The demerged IT/BPO business under a new company is expected to list in two months.

“We expect the entire process to take two months. The fixing of the record date should take a month and then we have to get the approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for listing,” says an executive of the company.

HTMT is unifying its media subsidiaries under one umbrella while spinning off its IT/ITES business into a separate entity. HTMT Technologies Ltd will hold the IT/BPO business. The company proposes to change this name to HTMT Global Solutions.

The residual HTMT with media and real estate has a net worth of Rs 5.77 billion and a cash balance of Rs 2.06 billion (as of 1 October 2006). The IT/BPO company has a net worth of Rs 4.97 billion and a cash balance of Rs 200 million.

HTMT also informed BSE that the court sanctioned the “reduction of the issued, subscribed and paid up equity share capital of the company, effected by reducing the face value of the equity shares to 1 equity share of Rs 5 each (from 1 equity shares of Rs 10) and simultaneously, consolidating 2 such equity shares of Rs 5 each into 1 equity share of Rs 10 each.”

MUMBAI: MobiTV, which provides mobile and broadband television and music services in the US and other countries has exceeded two million paying subscribers worldwide.

It has more than doubled its fan-base in less than one year.

MobiTV CEO, chairman and co-founder Dr. Phillip Alvelda says, “The recent hype in the mobile media space isn‘t all that surprising given the new contenders looking to enter the marketplace some time later this year. But nothing tells an unequivocal story of success quite like a subscriber base soaring past two million and growing faster than ever
before.”

MobiTV has more than 100 television channels worldwide, and nearly 40 channels in its US offering including many of the very same live television stations available in homes via
cable; support for nearly all commercial network standards including existing operator networks as well as future 4G networks such as Wimax and DVB-H; a collection of supported mobile and broadband-connected devices; unlimited channel capacity; the first-ever interactive advertising platform complete with m-commerce capabilities; the industry‘s highest
video quality running real live television direct from the networks at up to full NTSC resolution and as high as 30 frames-per-second.

MobiTV president and co-founder Paul Scanlan says, “After more than three years of delivering real live television and video on demand services commercially for millions of customers, on almost every type of mobile or broadband network, MobiTV has quickly become the industry‘s go-to resource for mobile content delivery.

“There‘s nothing more satisfying than helping our carrier partners monetize their newly deployed, multi-billion dollar 3G networks with a next generation platform that seamlessly
transitions for 4G, Wimax and beyond.”

MUMBAI: US measurement service comScore Networks has reported the results of a study conducted on visitation to popular film-related Internet sites in conjunction with last weeek‘s 79th Annual Academy Awards.

On Sunday 25 February, 2007 139,000 US Internet users visited Oscar.com, a one-day increase of 219-per cent versus the 44,000 visitors that visited the site on 24 February, 2007.

comScore Media Metrix executive VP Jack Flanagan says, “For the audience watching the Academy Awards at home, the Internet has become an important part of enjoying the festivities. Whether they follow the action on the red carpet or view clips and trailers of nominated movies, consumers are supplementing their television viewing experience with web content.”

Tinternational visitor traffic to Oscar.com also spiked. Of the 422,000 total worldwide visitors to Oscar.com on Oscar Sunday, just one out of every three site visitors came from the U.S. while the remaining two-thirds came from international locations. Canada and Mexico, both of which were well represented among the various award nominees, combined to account for nearly 10 per cent of the worldwide audience.

European countries such as the UK and France also factored in prominently with 10,000 and 8,000 visitors, respectively. Nielsen Media Research meanwhile says that the Academy Awards which aired on US broadcaster ABC had 24 minutes of commercial time during the 3 hour and 10 minute broadcast (not including the Oscar pre-show). This was down slightly from 24 and a half minutes last year.

27 unique brands aired commercials that competed for viewers‘ attention for a total of 38 national advertisements in this year‘s broadcast. In addition, ABC aired three minutes and 50 seconds of promotional announcements.

General Motors was the top advertiser again this year, with 3? minutes of commercial time, 30 seconds less than last year. Coca-Cola and L‘Oreal tied for second place with three minutes each. J.C. Penney was the fourth largest advertiser with 2? minutes. These four companies have maintained the top slots for the last two Oscar telecasts.

MUMBAI: JumpTV, which broadcasts ethnic television over the Internet, has partnered with Joost a recently launched free-to-air Internet television service.

JumpTV will make a portion of its library of video-on-demand television content available on a series of JumpTV-branded ethnic television vertical channels on the Joost platform.

JumpTV currently broadcasts live over the Internet thousands of television programmes, news, music and sporting events from 270 channels from over 70 countries around the world on a subscription and advertising supported basis.

The initial JumpTV offering on Joost will feature programming regularly gathered from JumpTV‘s digitally rights compliant international television roster. The first JumpTV “channels” on Joost will feature Spanish-language series from Colombia, Chile and Peru, in addition to Arabic-language comedy, drama and news programs from some of the leading broadcasters in the Middle East.

JumpTV will be adding new programming on a daily or weekly basis, and intends to launch several more channels on Joost in other languages, including but not limited to Romanian, Turkish, Russian and Bengali.

JumpTV International president and CEO Kaleil Isaza Tuzman says, “We see Joost as a unique and important distribution /programming partner. Like us, the Joost team innately understands the power of viral, high-affinity long-tail content — for example, JumpTV‘s ethnic TV programming. Given the track record of the Joost founders, we believe that the Joost platform could be as transformational for online television as their previous ventures have been.”

Joost executive VP of content strategy and acquisition Yvette Alberdingkthijm said, “Content owners like JumpTV, with a diverse offering of channels that feed the global appetite for streamed online content, are a perfect match for Joost. Partnering with JumpTV will allow our viewers access to the best in global television programming in an Internet rights-compliant fashion.”

JumpTV head of global distribution Mike John-Baptiste said, “Joost, like JumpTV has been securing programming from key licensors of television content, so we were pleased to see that they recognised our singular commitment and leadership in ethnic television.”

“JumpTV is committed to providing our TV broadcaster content partners the broadest audience on the Internet as possible — whether through ISPs, mobile carriers or Internet portals.”

The partnership between Joost and JumpTV involves sharing of advertising revenues on the JumpTV-branded channels.

MUMBAI: According to a new Knowledge Networks study, US consumers who access content via TV networks‘sites are more likely to consider the brands that sponsor that content.

They also have high levels of engagement with streaming or downloaded video on network sites and are more likely to view those same shows on regular television.

The report, How People Use TV‘s Web Connections, shows that sponsorship of network TV web offerings is a potentially powerful
opportunity for marketing companies, while also offering substantial benefits to TV networks and stations themselves. The study shows that
— Nearly half (49 per cent) of TV network website viewers say that sponsorship of the streaming or download of an episode would increase their consideration of the sponsoring brand.
— Users of streaming or downloaded network video also are significantly more likely than Internet users overall (30 per cent vs. 22 per cent) to buy from companies that advertise on their favorite programmes.

The report also suggests that TV networks themselves benefit from offering streamed or downloaded videos:
— 78 per cent of viewers of these videos say that being able to watch episodes on-line increases their involvement with a programme.
— 25 per cent of viewers of streaming or downloaded network TV videos say that they are watching a regular TV programme more often because of what they have watched on Internet video.

Knowledge Networks VP custom research David Tice says, “We found that, for the most part, features on network and programme websites are building equity with programme viewers, for both the TV networks and their advertisers. And while these data indicate a good start to sampling the networks‘ revamped websites and Internet initiatives, there is much room to grow this crossover TV-Web audience.”