Category: Software

MUMBAI: Personalisation and interactivity will be the key drivers of mobile TV according to a new report commissioned by Nokia and conducted by London School of Economics Lecturer Media and Communications Dr Shani Orgad.

The report, titled This Box Was Made For Walking, examines the future impact of mobile TV on the broadcasting and advertising industries, asserts an official release.

The report predicts that the introduction and adoption of mobile TV will ultimately give way to a more personal and private TV experience than that of traditional broadcast TV, with big implications for users, content providers and advertisers.

Users will be able to receive content anytime, anywhere, choose what is most relevant to them, and even create and upload their own television content, while content providers and advertisers will be able to tailor their offerings more specifically to the user.

Dr Orgad said, “For mobile TV to become more than just television on the move, it will have to build on existing channels, programmes, and ways of watching television and using the Internet.Mobile TV will become a multimedia experience with an emphasis on personalisation, interactivity and user-generated content.”

“We are currently entering a new era in television, that of personal TV and video consumption. This LSE report highlights the opportunities for both broadcasters and advertisers in this new mobile television era, ” added Nokia director multimedia Harri Männistö.

According to the report, the current trend of user generated content, as seen by the growth of YouTube, will be a key feature of mobile TV. As consumers increasingly use their mobile devices to create video content, new broadcast platforms will emerge to distribute this content to other mobile users, adds the release.

Introducing the five second ad spot Dr Orgad examined the impact of mobile TV on the advertising industry and predicts new opportunities for the industry as it is able to better target and interact with key audiences. On mobile TV, advertisers will be able to pinpoint their messages to users according to very specific levels not possible with traditional TV and at success rates higher than those of the Internet.

The report also reveals that advertisers are currently experimenting with five and seven second-long ad spots to be better suited to the snacking culture‘ of mobile TV viewing.

What will people watch?

The report predicts that mobile TV programming will be a combination of original content from broadcast television and new content made specifically for mobile, as the release states.

It is expected that the most popular genres and programmes on mobile TV will be news, entertainment (soaps, reality shows, comedy, animation), sport, music and children‘s programmes. Moreover, the content will be tailored with the mobile viewer in mind:

– Much shorter and more concise news bulletins

– User interactivity in the plots of reality TV shows and game shows

– Growing importance of user-generated content

– New distribution formats

New TV content

The mobile TV viewing experience is also likely to see new programme formats emerging. These include:

– Talking heads and close ups – due to the small screen size, broadcasters will need to focus on talking heads, where viewers will be able to watch close-ups and see the details, rather than capturing a wide screen.

– Snackable content – mobile TV content will need to be suitable for ‘snacking‘.

– Mobisodes – mobisodes are fragmented and small made-for-mobile episodes that cater to bite-sized portions of content on the go.

– Visual spectacle – programmes will need to emphasise visual spectacle over conventional narrative and be image-orientated.

– Local content – content should be relevant for the here-and-now of viewers.

New prime times

Broadcasters are likely to see a new mid-day prime time with mobile TV according to the report. This is backed up by consumer trials of mobile TV in Europe which revealed heavy usage of mobile TV during the day as well as during the more traditional early morning and late evening prime times.

This Box Was Made For Walking written by Dr Orgad is based on a review of existing literature, analysis of mobile TV consumer trials, interviews with experts in the fields of television, mobile media, advertising and other media, and attendance at industry events.

The event will be webcast live on www.nokia.com/press/mobiletvreport from 1:30 pm GMT on Friday 10 November

MUMBAI: Among television households with digital video recorders (DVRs) in the US, more than 78 per cent of all viewers who watch recorded broadcast primetime shows within a week play them back within two days. 84 per cent of them play them back within three days.

That is one of the findings from recent analysis of DVR playback viewing by Nielsen Media Research, for the week of 25 September.

TAmong viewers age 18-49, 76% played back broadcast network primetime programs within 48-hours. During the same time period, 84% watched primetime shows they recorded off advertiser-supported cable networks; and 85% viewed time-shifted syndicated shows within two days. By the third day, those percentages rose to 84% for primetime broadcast, 90% for primetime cable and 91% for total syndication.

Nielsen Media Research senior VP planning and analysis Pat McDonough says, “The TV landscape is changing rapidly, and as consumers increasingly decide for themselves when to watch their favorite shows, Nielsen will establish new means to track their behaviour.

“This latest analysis allows clients to better understand how DVR playback affects viewing over seven days. It will enable us to work with clients to determine the most appropriate way to incorporate this data into our measurements.”

Nielsen says that viewers age 18-49 constitute the largest targeted buying group within the television industry. Other key findings with respect to DVR playback of primetime programming among persons 18-49 reveal that:

Among all households age 18-49, 2.6 per cent of viewing time is DVR playback, but among households with DVRs, 22.9 per cent of all primetime minutes viewed are via DVR playback.

Among total minutes of primetime programming viewed by households with DVRs within seven days, the percentage that is played back from DVR is:
Broadcast Networks: 41.1 per cent
Ad-Supported cable: 17.9 per cent
Syndication: 14.1 per cent

MUMBAI:Hyderabad-based MagnaQuest has bagged a contract to manage the broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) billing services of Hyperia Ltd, Nigeria‘s leading internet service provider.

Hyperia has selected MagnaQuest‘s convergent customer management and billing solution, MQSubscribe, for its triple play services. This will help support Hyperia‘s increasing subscriber growth and value added offerings.

MQSubscribe integration with network elements, mail server for provisioning and mediation of services will form part of the implementation. Hyperia offers a wide range of services like internet access, email, web hosting, wireless internet access and value added services.

Says MagnaQuest managing director Vijay Debbad, “As we continue to increase our customer base across the world, and specifically in Africa, the choice of MQSubscribe by Hyperia is a testimony to the unique value proposition delivered by MagnaQuest. Hyperia is a premier name in the ISP services industry and we are proud to offer our CM&B solution to smoothen their operations.

Adds Hyperia Ltd executive director Sandeep Jayaswal, “Rating and billing of multiple services involves a number of challenges. MagnaQuest’s experience in providing such sophisticated solution to similar business models will enable us to handle these challenges. These strengths of MagnaQuest have convinced us that they can provide a cost-effective and customized solution that will suite our existing and future business model.

MagnaQuest Technologies provides customer care and billing solution for the video, data and content service providers. The company has a global presence with over 30 customer installations worldwide spanning Europe, Africa, South East Asia, Middle East and India.

MUMBAI: Optibase Ltd. and its partner Time Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, broadband content services operator, are expanding their IPTV solution to India‘s state-owned telecom service provider, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).

MTNL recently launched IPTV services through Time Broadband, utilising Optibase‘s IPTV MGW 5100 platforms for its digital IPTV head-end operation at the company’s network operating centre.

Time Broadband is all set to deploy IPTV services on both TV and PC delivery through network and internet service providers across India. Following the initial deployment of Optibase MGW 5100 IP video head-ends providing 26 channels of telco-grade streaming, Optibase has now supplied an additional 74 channels, totaling 100 MPEG-4 Part 10 H.264/advanced video coding (AVC) channels, asserts an official release.

Together with Time Broadband, Optibase is enabling the launch of their IPTV services in Delhi – one of the affluent areas in terms of average revenue per user (ARPU), with high sign-on rates for broadband internet services.

Time Broadband Services managing director Sujata Dev said, “During the initial deployment, Optibase demonstrated their extensive IPTV know-how relating to H.264 AVC. We decided to select the Optibase MGW 5100 integrated digital head ends for the full-scale commercial launch. We are confident that this productive relationship with the high level of commitment from Optibase will continue into the future with our plans for further growth of our IPTV services in prominent locations of the Indian market through multiple telecom operator relationships.”

Optibase CFO Danny Lustiger added, “We are delighted with the success of our first installation of Time Broadband at MTNL Delhi network and look forward to a long-term collaboration with our globally eminent CDN partners, driving the large scale deployment of IPTV in India. Optibase combines high quality products with world-class services, providing MTNL with a carrier-grade IPTV solution required for the expansion of triple-play services in the Delhi metropolitan high growth potential market.”

MUMBAI: Star India‘s internet portal indya.com has registered over 1.1 billion hits and 234 million page views on its iccchampionstrophy.indya.com site since its 8 October 2006 launch.

As the official internet partner of the International Cricket Council, indya.com was designated by the ICC to develop, host and market the official global web destination for the Champions Trophy, asserts an official release.

“Cricket lovers throughout the world have counted upon indya.com to deliver the best online cricket experience available, and I believe that the results speak for themselves,” said Star India Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair.

“The success we achieved makes icchampionstrophy.indya.com, Star India‘s most successful web property to date and as the ICC Champions Trophy serves as a precursor to the 2007 Cricket World Cup, we anticipate an even larger response in the future,” he added.

The website hosted country specific packages which were available at different price points, allowing internet subscribers to buy into a ‘match pack‘ – a gateway to live clips, highlight packages, and expert comments of every match in the tournament. The site served over one million video and live-streaming requests.

iccchampionstrophy.indya.com also offered a feature rich application called Matchcast that allowed users to access live scores, ball-by-ball updates of on-going matches, player and team backgrounds and a host of other information cricket enthusiasts would bowl their arm out for, adds the release.

Sponsors on the site throughout the month long tournament included Lufthansa Airlines and Monster.com.

NDS solutions enable broadcasters, network TV operators and content providers to profit from the deployment of digital TV technologies including innovative solutions for digital video recorders, interactivity, secure broadband, home networks and content on the go. NDS boasts an impressive customer list, featuring some of the world‘s leading pay-TV operators, such as BSkyB, DIRECTV, SkyLife and FOXTEL, informs an official release.

“NDS is pleased to join the Anytime Technology Partner Program. We regard this as an important technology alliance to enable our customers to implement VoD services in a timely and seamless fashion,” said Sue Taylor, VP & GM of NDS Asia Pacific.

“With their in-house expertise, ANYTIME will help us test and review a complete range of IPTV products and solutions and develop reference architectures for our customers. The Anytime Technology Partner Program is the answer to fast-tracking VoD deployments in Asia Pacific.”

NDS joins a rapidly growing number of the world‘s leading technology vendors including Verimatrix, SecureMedia, Concurrent and Tatung as members of the Anytime Technology Partner Program.

The Anytime Technology Partner Program has two levels of agreement – Technology compliance, and Cooperation & Co-marketing. If accepted into the Program, vendors can work with Anytime to ensure their products, services or solutions, comply with the highest industry standards for VoD content delivery.

The Program is open to STB manufacturers, middleware vendors, Conditional Access and DRM hardware and software makers, VoD server manufacturers, and Systems Integrators. It is vendor-agnostic, ensuring that Telcos, ISPs and Digital Cable providers receive impartial advice and information on VoD delivery technology, the release adds.

MUMBAI: Sybase, Inc. a provider of enterprise infrastructure and mobile software has announced its completion of the acquisition of Mobile 365, Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at $417 million. Net of acquired cash, the transaction is valued at $397 million.

Mobile 365 will now operate as Sybase 365, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Sybase Inc. senior vice president corporate development and marketing Marty Beard will lead the new subsidiary as president, asserts an official release.

The Sybase mFolio business will be integrated into Sybase 365 immediately, and certain assets of Sybase AvantGo will be integrated into Sybase 365 early in 2007, adds the release.

Sybase chairman, CEO and president John Chen said, “Built on unique intellectual property and a comprehensive global network, Sybase 365 provides the messaging infrastructure-of-choice for interoperability and content delivery. With this acquisition, we expand our unwired enterprise offerings and our ability to deliver information anytime, anywhere, to any type of device.”

Through its network of approximately 700 mobile operators, including Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cingular, Telefonica and China Mobile, Sybase 365 will continue to focus on enabling the content providers and global brands, such as Citibank, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN and Twentieth Century Fox to mobilise their content and applications.

Verizon Wireless vice president wireless internet and multimedia services Jim Straight said, “As we approach the fifth anniversary of Mobile 365 launching carrier services here in the U.S., i‘m pleased they have found a corporate parent who brings additional resources and opportunities to the market and that Mobile 365 will continue to serve us as they have in the past.”

“The acquisition solidly positions Sybase between mobile operators, content providers, and global brands-further extending our worldwide leadership in enterprise mobility,” said Beard.

MUMBAI: The annual Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) prizes awards ceremony, hosted by China Central Television (CCTV-China) has presented awards to broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region in recognition of programming and broadcast engineering excellence.

211 entries were received for the annual award‘s radio and TV categories. There were 147 entries for the TV categories, and 64 for radio.

TV categories included drama, entertainment, children, youth, news, documentary, and sports. Additionally, a special jury prize was also kept for programmes targeting broadcasters from less developed countries which showed creativity despite the limited resources available.

Categories for radio were drama, infotainment, children and youth, news, documentary, external broadcasts, and the special jury prize.

“We are most delighted with the quality of entries this year. The interest in the radio programme category has increased over the past year and in particular, there was serious competition for the TV documentary category,” said ABU director of programmes Tatsuya Nakamura.

ABU Prize for sports programmes chairperson Remesh Kumar added, “It was nice to see a whole range of broadcasters and producers from a variety of nationalities submitting their work. There was also a spectrum of presentations relating to sports from live productions, to studio presentations to documentaries.”

The winners for ABU prizes 2006 are:

– Radio winners for ABU prizes 2006

Drama
Haru‘s Diary (NHK-Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japan)

Special commendation for drama

At the very Beginning (RTHK-Radio Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Infotainment
Could This Be A Mozart (TBS-Tokyo Broadcasting System, Japan)

Children and youth
Voice of Happiness (IRIB-Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Iran)

News
The Breaking Point-From Teach to Kill (RTHK- Radio Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Documentary

A Green Song Coming from the Desert (RTPRC/CNR-Radio and Television of the People‘s Republic of China/China National Radio, China)

External broadcasts
A Childhood Shaken by Bird Flu (RTPRC/CRI-Radio and Television of the People‘s Republic of China/China Radio International, China)

Special jury prize
Life in Green Hills (BB-Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh)

– TV winners for ABU prizes 2006

Drama
The Ice Wall Ep.2 A Mortal Challenge (NHK-Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japan)

Entertainment
Changing Our Child‘s Behaviour (SBS-Seoul Broadcasting System, Korea)

Children
Hurray! Cool Daddy! (EBS-Korea Educational Broadcasting System, Korea)

Youth
Victory of Youth (RTPRC/CCTV- Radio and Television of the People‘s Republic of China/China Central Television, China)

News
Dying Alone (NHK-Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japan)

Documentary
Two Lives and an Old Mountain Lodge (NAB/Chubu Nippon Broadcasting, Japan)

Sports
2006 World Cup Games (MBC-Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Korea)

Special jury prize
Crossing Fires-Peace and Harmonies (YATV-Young Asia Television, Sri Lanka)

– ABU CASBAA Unicef child‘s rights award

Conquering the Darkness – The Fight Against Memories of Abuse‘, (Shinichi Sugimoto, Kansai Telecasting Corporation-Japan)

– Technical Prizes

ABU Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award 2006

Engineer in chief All India Radio (AIR) India, Ansu Sekhar Guin.

ABU Engineering Industry Excellence Award 2006
RandD laboratories, pioneer corporation general manager and director general of corporate Dr Osamu Yamada.

ABU Technical Review Best Article Prize 2006
Character appearance retrieval and analysis (CARA) system for TV Programmes by Jung Byunghee and Park Sungchoon from KBS-Korean Broadcasting System Korea.

Dennis Anthony Memorial Award 2006 for outstanding news coverage by an Asiavision member

Islamic republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) Iran.

MUMBAI: MTV Networks and international game publisher Nexon have announced a partnership to create a new user experience for MTVN‘S Neopets. one of the youth communities on the internet, and includes MTVN‘s marketing of the launch of Nexon‘s casual MMOG game titles in North America via its portfolio of television and online brands.

The announcement was made by MTVN kids and family group executive vice president Stephen Youngwood and Nexon Japan CEO David Lee at the GSTAR 2006 Gameshow.

This new service will provide users the ability to purchase premium level virtual items for customisation and personalisation, in addition to those currently available on the site. Nexon will also provide marketing and promotional support in Asia across its games portal for the new Neopets services.

MTVN will also become a strategic marketing partner for the launch of Nexon‘s first three games to be distributed in North America. Marketing campaigns will be run across a portfolio of MTVN television and online brands including MTV, MTV2, MTV U, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, The-N, Neopets.com, Shockwave.com, Addictinggames.com, Gametrailers.com and XFire.

Neopets senior vice president and general manager Kyra Reppen added, “We are very excited about this opportunity to further widen the creative net for Neopets. This premium level experience will provide our members with an exciting new means to enhance their personal involvement with the site and represents a significant new business opportunity for our company in Asia, where Neopets will benefit tremendously from Nexon‘s creative and marketing expertise.”

NEW DELHI: Rajshri Group, one of the oldest production and distribution houses in the country, has launched a broadband entertainment portal, www.rajshri.com, that will offer streaming and downloading of various forms of content including movies, music videos, concerts, and documentaries.

Rajshri‘s latest movie, Vivah, will be premiered on the portal simultaneously along with its theatrical release on Friday. This is the first time in India that a film is being made available on the internet at the day of its release.

The downloading of Vivah will be at a payment of $9.9 through an international credit card, said Rajshri Media (P) Ltd managing director Rajjat Barjatya. The copies do not run the risk of being pirated because of a special software that has been used, he added.

Rajshri Media (P) Ltd will be the group‘s digital media initiatives arm. This will cover streaming services which users don‘t have to pay for. Among the broad gamut of content available is the historic midnight speech of late Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru on 15 August 1947. “We are also soon going to add humor, management-related content and spiritualism to our site,” said Barjatya.

Describing the new initiative as an “historic moment,” Barjatya said the company had been working on this project for the past two years. The aim seems to be converting the ‘non-consumers into consumers‘ while attempting to break the stranglehold of piracy.

Barjatya is also targeting about 25 million Indians abroad, NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) put together, who are “extremely keen to stay in touch with their roots and will pay for rich and origial Indian content as against the pirated one.”

About 51 per cent Indians abroad spent time daily on the net, he revealed. Besides, Indian content was also becoming extremely popular among non-Indians across the world.

“Each of these screens are a different experience and one cannot replace any of the other. It is one thing to see a film on the Net alone, and quite another doing so with the family on a TV set, or watching it in a dark hall with a lot of people, so there is no cutting into turfs,” he added.

The delivery of movies through the internet could also cut down piracy. “If there is a viewer in say Finland, I can now get to him before the pirates can,” Barjatya said.

A key feature of the site is that the movies can‘t be pirated. “We have used a software which ‘wraps around the programme‘ and while it is being streamed, it cannot be copied, nor downloaded. Even while it is ‘sitting‘ on the hard disk for 72 hours, it cannot be made into a CD or DVD,” he said.

The portal is also aimed at the tech-savvy younger audience. “The site has a lot of features. You can actually saute the film, slice and dice it, rate it, send a link to a friend and read what others have to comment about it,” Barjatya said.