Category: Software

MUMBAI: Media conglomerate Viacom‘s unit MTV Networks, which brought in the music video fad, is foraying into new digital music service and will be competing with the music store of Apple Computer Inc.‘s iTunes, which has a strong dominance in the online music market.

The broadcaster has teamed up with Microsoft to launch the beta of a new online music service, called Urge, that will be integrated in Windows Media Player 11 is set to make its debut on 17 May.

Offering more than two million songs from the major labels and thousands of independents, Urge will encompass all musical genres from alt-country to zydeco. In addition to a broad catalogue of music choices, Urge will deliver a deep well of exclusive MTV Networks programming and original, hand-crafted content.

Urge, the subscription and download music service, though not first in the market, can be purchased for 99 cents each or as full albums starting at $9.95. The service will also offer a two-week trial without requiring any commitment or credit card number, according to media reports.

The service also will offer unlimited downloads at a monthly rate of $9.95 or $14.95 for the ability to transfer songs to any or more than 100 compatible portable music players.

It has celebrity playlists, streaming radio stations, artist profiles and an increasing number of blogs. One can download billboard charts by genre and year, watch music videos, and explore music by genre.

MTV Networks’ music group president Van Toffler said, “Urge will serve as a ‘psychic concierge,’ introducing fans to new artists and helping them to develop a deeper connection to old favorites.”

“By combining our expertise in digital media with the music leadership and marketing savvy of MTV Networks, we have created a powerful and unique way to experience music. This landmark collaboration will bring innovative new experiences to millions of music fans,” said Microsoft media/entertainment and technology convergence group corporate vice president Blair Westlake.

“As with everything we do at MTV Networks, every element of Urge will be developed with our audience in mind. Beyond providing a simple transactional service, Urge will provide a musical playground where fans can experiment, customise, discover and download new music,” said MTV Networks chief digital officer Jason Hirschhorn.

Urge will be promoted through multiple venues, including the MTV, Vh1 and CMT channels, which on average collectively reach more than 165 million US viewers, as well as through the respective brands’ web sites and Urge.com.

MUMBAI: Football association Uefa has announced a victory in the High Court in the UK over the illegal streaming of Uefa Champions League matches via the internet.

Uefa had issued proceedings in March this year in the High Court in England against the owners and operators of a series of websites unlawfully streaming and making available to subscribers television coverage of Uefa Champions League matches.

The claim alleged infringement of copyright in the broadcasts and all the separate ancillary copyright works included in those broadcasts, namely the UCL music, the UCL on-screen graphics, the sponsored video sequences and the UCL Starball.

The judge granted summary judgment, issued a permanent injunction restraining the broadcasting of UCL matches over the Internet, ordered the confiscation of all equipment used in the pirating process as well as ordering that the defendants pay the substantial costs of the claim with the precise level of damages to be assessed.

Uefa CEO Lars-Christer Olsson said, “This is a landmark decision in favour of Uefa and of rights holders everywhere. We see this as a major victory against the unauthourised and illegal streaming of UEFA Champions League matches over the Internet, and therefore a full endorsement for the protection of the rights of the official broadcasters who have purchased the right to show these matches.”

MUMBAI: As the networked home market in the US reaches the mass-market adoption stage, multimedia and entertainment-centric networking solutions are likely to drive the demand for home networking and become strong revenue generators.

Moreover, increasing broadband penetration and expanding range of applications and services are ushering in new growth opportunities for all stakeholders in this nascent market.

Research firm Frost and Sullivan finds that spurred by the increase in multiple PC households, falling hardware prices, increasing number of IP applications and rise in broadband adoption; the number of networked homes in North America is likely to increase from 22.5 million in 2005 to 63.8 million in 2012.

Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Piyush Arora notes, “Entertainment-based home networks and emerging broadband services and applications such as IPTV and personal video recording are likely to be key contributors to future growth of home networking. The growth in network-enabled consumer electronic devices and the burgeoning online and offline digital content, will also fuel this trend.”

Last year only five per cent of total networked homes had a multimedia network with at least one non-PC networked device such as a television, DVD player or set-top box. However, by 2012, multimedia networks are likely to post a stronger growth and increase their share to 25 per cent of total networked homes.

The increasing penetration of broadband is also expanding the range of potential applications of home networks — from sharing broadband access between computers to streaming multimedia content between networked consumer electronic devices. Networked storage, home automation and home security are also likely to become strong contributors to home networking growth.

Furthermore, networked homes will be ideal for service providers to deliver triple-play services and other service bundles to attract new customers. In fact, service providers are becoming an important component of the distribution channel for networking products and solutions.

Last year, around 15 per cent of total home networking equipment revenues in North America came from the service provider channel. This share is likely to increase to 37 per cent by 2012 as service providers — including cable companies, telcos, and other broadband ISPs — increase their service bundling initiatives and start playing a more active role in offering home networking solutions.

In the long term, it is essential for service providers, networking equipment vendors, and other stakeholders to forge more effective partnerships and develop networking solutions that provide a simpler set-up experience for consumers and reduce ongoing maintenance issues.

“Given the complexity of setup, installation, and troubleshooting, developing a more lucid support management framework and new customer support tools are crucial for the widespread adoption of home networks,” concludes Arora.

MUMBAI: Mobile video clips are in vogue! Various services such as news, entertainment, sports and games can be accessed and what‘s more, Coruscant Tec has now launched videos of the Anant Pai comic entitled Shiri.

Shiri is a political satire and along with the Surabhi Foundation, Coruscant Tec will be showcasing its monuments, temples, places of interest, culture and people on the Reliance Infocomm network.

The Reliance subscribers can view interesting videos of the ancient Khajuraho Temple, Konark Temple, Golden Temple, Alleppey boat race, peeling of a coconut with fingernails in record time through R-World. The Surabhi videos will be accessible for Rs 7 per view. The video clips are a mix of religious sites, the unusual and places of interest. All clips are approximately 45 seconds long with a background musical score.

On the other hand, the Shiri comic strips are available for Rs 2 per view and are updated weekly.

“Today people explore their mobiles increasingly for entertainment combined with information and visuals. The videos from Surabhi foundation have exciting Indian monuments and places of religious interest, which are very appealing to people with traveling interests. At the same time, the Shiri comic strips will appeal to all age groups. We will continue to develop such innovative and exciting applications in the mobile content space,” said Coruscant Tec founder and MD Ajay Adiseshann.

Surabhi, a popular cultural show, which used to air on the DD network in the 90’s was anchored by Siddharth Kak and Renuka Shahane and is still regarded as the quintessential audiovisual archive of Indian culture and monuments.

R-World holds a wide range of applications, which includes TV news clips, ball-by-ball cricket score and other information, latest movie clips, city and TV guides, railway reservations, banking, bill payment and examination results.

NEW DELHI: Information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi will review developments on CAS vis-a-vis court cases.

The meeting was scheduled to happen either today or early next week. Pointing out that the government is committed to implementing CAS, Dasmunsi told indiantelevision.com on Friday, “I‘ll review CAS in a meeting and try to understand the issues that have beset it.”

The minister however, refused to spell out in detail his agenda on CAS. “The ministry‘s broad stand on CAS has been conveyed to the (Delhi) high court.”

In a reply filed before the Delhi HC some days back, the government sought eight to nine months‘ time to implement the court‘s order on rolling out addressability in Indian cable homes in select cities.

Dasmunsi also hinted that a big roadblock in the way of smooth implementation of CAS are the different voices in which the various industry stakeholders are speaking.

“There hardly seems to be a consensus amongst them,” the minister said on the sidelines of a book release function in the capital.

On 10 March 2006, the Delhi HC had directed the government to roll out CAS in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata within 30 days time.

The directive came on a petition filed by a bunch of MSOs, including Hathway and INCablenet, alleging that a delay in implementing CAS since 2004 has resulted in huge financial losses to them.

The I&B ministry held a series of meeting with the industry, NGOs and consumer bodies soon after the court order, but said in view of inconsistency in the approach of the stakeholders, more time would be needed to iron the differences.

The next date of hearing of the CAS case is 24 May.
 

Also Read:
CAS: MSO Alliance hits back at broadcasters

IBF board to discuss CAS on 5 April

No final solution on CAS rollout; call for channel MRPs

Delhi HC orders Government to implement CAS within four weeks

MUMBAI: The California-based IPTV firm Kasenna has appointed Kumar Shah as CEO. Shah succeeds Mark Gray, who will continue to serve on the Kasenna Board as its Chairman and also continue to drive strategic partnerships across the globe.

Kasenna provides video-on-demand (VOD) content and MPEG-4 ready IPTV applications for Triple Play services over broadband networks.

“With our rock-solid and battle-tested VOD Server, innovative LivingRoom Middleware Platform, and industry leading ViewNow Content Aggregation and Management business, Kasenna has clearly established a demonstrable technology and product leadership in the IPTV market,” said Kumar. “I am excited about joining Kasenna at this crucial inflection point for Kasenna and for the IPTV market. I am looking forward to leveraging our product and technology leadership into a global leadership position in the IPTV market.”

An industry veteran with more than 20 years of business, marketing, and sales management experience, Shah was recruited by the Kasenna board members from US Venture Partners, where he was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR).

Prior to that, Shah was involved with a number of venture capital funded start-up companies, most recently as President & CEO of Occam Networks (OTC: OCNW) and prior to that as Chief Marketing Officer of AccessLan Communications, which was acquired by Advanced Fibre Communications, which in turn was acquired recently by Tellabs.

MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra has big investment plans for the two de-merged entities of Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL). Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd. and Dish TV, engaged in the cable TV and direct-to-home (DTH) businesses respectively, will together be pumping in Rs 7.5 billion to fund their expansion plans.

WWIL will have an investment requirement of Rs 5 billion over the next three years to give a big push to digitisation of cable TV, broadband and voice services. The cable company also expects to rope in an investor. “WWIL has a business plan which would take in an investment of Rs 5 billion over three years. The strategic thrust will be on rollout of digital cable. We are also looking at triple play offerings. We have a network which can be made available to telecom operators for voice,” Essel Group chief executive officer of corporate strategy and finance Rajiv Garg tells indiantelevision.com.

WWIL is looking at a debt-equity ratio of 1:1. “The net worth of the company currently is not that strong to support that sort of debt. We would like a 1:1 debt-equity ratio,” Garg says.

Operating revenues from ZTL‘s cable line of business stood at Rs 1.5 billion for the fiscal ended 31 March 2006 while net profit was at Rs 7 million.

For Dish TV, the DTH outfit, there is a Rs 2.5 billion investmen plan over the next two years. The net expenses for DTH operations thus far is Rs 3.8 billion, says Garg. “We project a gross revenue of Rs 3.2 billion from our DTH business in FY07. We aim to have 2.4 million DTH subscribers in the fiscal while the average revenue per user (ARPU) should go up from Rs 190 to Rs 250 a month because of the launch of value-added services,” he adds.

The operating revenues for the DTH business stood at Rs 818 million in FY06. On the back of subsidies and marketing expenses, the DTH operations incurred a loss of Rs 790 million during this period.

The de-merged DTH and cable companies are likely to opt for an initial dilution of up to 26 per cent to investors. They are open to both private equity and strategic investors.

MUMBAI: Disney‘s international TV distribution arm Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) has concluded a multi-year agreement with German video-on-demand (Vod) operator HanseNet.

The German firm will air a selection of upcoming, current and library movies from BVITV‘s portfolio on its new set top box VOD and TV service Alice homeTV.

With this agreement, Alice homeTV‘s customers will be able to enjoy a selection of current and upcoming features from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films via the new set top box service.

Titles include The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, its upcoming sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest. The agreement also includes recent titles such as Flightplan and Cinderella Man. Subscribers will also be able to enjoy a selection of library features, and a selection of local German acquisitions such as Die Wilden Kerle 3.

The agreement also includes provisions for co-operation between BVITV and Alice against piracy of BVITV‘s content, while at the same time appropriately safeguarding the privacy of Alice‘s service subscribers and remaining consistent with local law. Under the agreement, Alice will forward notices to its internet subscribers allegedly engaged in the unauthourised distribution of BVITV‘s copyrighted works, without identifying the subscribers to BVITV.

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has re-launched its search engine with a new audio-visual search capability, a new user interface and enhanced usability and quality.

For the first time, users will be able to search for selected television and radio programmes in addition to audio and video content from the BBC‘s News, Radio and Sports archives.

Users will be able to quickly and easily locate EastEnders highlights, the latest edition of The Archers and The Chris Moyles Show.

A limited amount of the BBC‘s audio and video content will be initially available; the full range of BBC content is likely to be made available later this year.

BBC director new media and technology Ashley Highfield said, “This re-launch marks the first stage in our aim of creating services that enable our audiences to find BBC content – whether text, audio or video – through ever easier navigation.

“It‘s also a first step towards a radical overhaul of our website. It will open up an initial index of around 300,000 clips and a selection of BBC programmes for the first time.”

The re-launched BBC web site search engine is to be powered by enterprise software company Autonomy, while Microsoft‘s Windows Live Search will power the BBC internet search.

The BBC is required to re-tender its search provision every three years, and the reprocurement has been done through the European OJEC process.