Category: Software

MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media (MSM) has launched a fun-filled application, Indian Idol Junior App on Windows Phone App Store. The application comes with new features and games and is available for download free of cost, on any Windows phone.

The mobile application was previously available only on Android application stores and the iTunes store and has been downloaded by around 150,000 users across devices. Around 66 per cent of the total votes for the favorite Indian Idol Junior have been sent across using the application.

Speaking on the launch, Sony Entertainment Network executive VP new media, business development and digital/syndication Nitesh Kripalani commented, “The idea behind launching the app on Windows Phone App Store was to reach out to and engage with the fast growing fan base on the Windows Phone Platform. Indian Idol Junior is undoubtedly the number one music reality show from Sony Entertainment‘s stable and is loved by people across the country. Mobile penetration in India is burgeoning and our endeavor is to bring our popular shows right to the finger-tips of our audience. We have created a compelling second screen experience so that our fans don‘t miss out on the fun, even while they are on the move”.

“Apart from voting for their favourite Indian Idol Junior contestant and helping them win, people can use the dynamic ‘Popularity Meter‘ to see how popular their favourite ‘junior‘ is in the social universe, plus enjoy several other exciting elements and games” he added.

The application comes with inbuilt features like “Bachpan Ki Awaaz, a feature wherein users can record their voice into the app and the app fetches a voice of how the user sounded when he was a child. The sound clip can be shared for free on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Games include a Jigsaw puzzle where users can put pieces together to re-create their favourite scenes from Indian Idol show. Additionally, another gaming application “Catch the Musical Notes”, where musical notes fall through the screen display; users are to catch the maximum number of musical notes within a fixed time frame to win. Scores can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

MUMBAI: SES has announced that the Philippine direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV provider Global Satellite (GSAT) has contracted its fourth transponder on NSS-11, cementing SES‘ orbital position of 108.2 degrees east as one of Asia‘s leading video neighbourhoods.

The multi-year deal will see the transfer of current capacity usage by GSAT from NSS-11 to SES-9, currently scheduled for launch in 2015. When launched, SES-9 will be the largest SES satellite dedicated to the Asia-Pacific region. The new spacecraft will be providing expansion capacity for DTH, enterprise, mobility and government services across the region.

GSAT, the satellite division of First United Broadcasting Corp (FUBC), launched its DTH service in 2008 on the NSS-11 Ku-band satellite, providing subscribers with access to an improved mix of international programmes including English, Mandarin, Korean, Tagalog, Japanese and Spanish channels. With this additional capacity, GSAT will be offering 12 high definition (HD) channels and 47 standard definition (SD) channels to more than 200,000 subscribers across the Philippine archipelago.

FUBC president and CEO Philip J. Chien said, “Our ability to offer highly reliable DTH satellite TV to our growing base of subscribers in the Philippines is largely due to the comprehensive footprints of NSS-11, and, from 2015, SES-9. We are confident that SES‘ expertise will enable us to grow in our market and increase both the quality and quantity of channels in our pay-TV offerings.”

SES Asia-Pacific and the Middle East sr. VP commercial Deepak Mathur said, “We are delighted to confirm that GSAT, our long-term customer on NSS-11, will become a key anchor customer on SES-9. At SES, we are investing in new satellites to make sure that our customers enjoy business continuity, as well as delivering vital capacity to support their growth in some of the most dynamic media markets in the world.”

MUMBAI: DirecTV CEO Michael White gave investors a reason to stick with the company after the results didn‘t reflect positive results. He signaled in a call with analysts that he‘d be receptive to the idea of a merger with Dish Network.

“I don‘t think it‘s productive for me to speculate what regulators may or may not do, but the competitive landscape is very different than it was 10 years ago” when the FCC rejected a Dish-DirecTV merger plan, he said. For one thing, “the balance [of power] between content distributors and providers is out of whack.” He has long charged that programmers are demanding dangerously high new fees for their content – a position he reiterated today. “I‘ve seen more customer complaints about the price increases,” he says.

“My own view is that it‘s not going to change in the short term. But it‘s clear that this isn‘t sustainable beyond the next couple of years. Something is going to have to give.” He adds that Liberty Media‘s John Malone, who wants cable and satellite companies to consolidate to help them fight programmers, “is 100% correct. Scale matters.” So does technology, especially as DirecTV considers strategies to avoid paying high retransmission consent fees to broadcasters. It has considered offering customers antennas to receive local signals for free. In addition, “we looked at what Aereo is doing” with its controversial local TV streaming service that broadcasters say infringes on their copyrights.

A merger between DirecTV and Dish Network would be compelling for both companies that will be worth waiting for even as the fundamentals begin to show the long-awaited signs of erosion.

MUMBAI: Cox Communications, the third-largest US cable provider, has held talks about combining with Charter Communications, according to reports on the matter.

Cox president Pat Esser has discussed a deal with representatives from Liberty Media, which owns a 27 per cent stake in Charter. The structure of a potential deal hasn‘t been determined; including which company might be the acquirer.

Liberty and Charter are also still pursuing an acquisition of Time Warner Cable, the people said. Billionaire John Malone, who controls Englewood, Colorado-based Liberty, has said he wants Charter to get bigger so it can gain leverage in negotiations with TV networks, which have sought higher prices for the use of their programming.

Cox has 4.8 million video subscribers, while Charter has 4.4 million, according to Craig Moffett, an analyst at Moffett Research LLC in New York.

Malone sees mergers as an appealing way for the cable industry to cope with the lower video profit margins that have come from higher programming costs and fewer new customers.

Malone‘s strategy isn‘t just about traditional cable. The high-speed internet connections that companies like Charter provide to US households are the key to the future of the TV industry, Malone said at the June meeting. He cited the growing viewership of streaming-video services, also known as over-the-top.

Dissolving the trust is a step toward Cox gaining flexibility to merge the cable company.

NEW DELHI: Cable is down, DBS and telcoTV is up, and more than 80 per cent of American broadcast TV signals are now high-definition, says the latest Federal Communications Commission‘s annual Video Competition Report. 

“As of the end of 2011, 1,501-82.2 per cent-of full-power stations were broadcasting in HD, up from 1,036 stations in 2010,” the report said.

Household adoption of HDTV sets also rose. As of 2012, 85.3 million (74.4 per cent) of US TV households had sets capable of displaying HD signals, up from 75.5 million (65.1 per cent) in 2011. DVR adoption rose as well, from 46.3 million households (40.4 per cent), to 50.3 million households (43.8 per cent).

However, Acting FCC chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said she was concerned because “Not all of our citizens are realising the promise of these competitive benefits. Nearly three out of 10 rural Americans do not have access to high-speed internet, sufficient to receive online video distributors‘ services, and I sincerely hope that these consumers are not forgotten.”

Reliance on over-the-air TV has remained steady at around 11.1 million households, according to the report. This figure is in agreement with one proffered by Nielsen in January, but far short of another published last month in GfK‘s Home Technology Monitor, an annual survey that found 19.3 per cent of U.S. TV households rely exclusively on over-the-air reception. 

Broadcast TV station revenue followed the political cycle-$22.22 billion in 2010; $21.31 billion in 2011; and a projected $24.7 billion for 2012, a rise in part attributed to retransmission consent fees. However, TV stations were said to make about 88 per cent of their revenues through advertising, “A slight decline from the last report.”

Prime-time ad rates for a 30-second spot in the top 100 TV markets, based on composite figures, rose from $26.76 CPM (cost per thousand households) in 2010, to $28 in 2011, and $32.08 in 2012.

Local news is said to account for 35 to 40 per cent of advertising revenues. In 2011, the average TV station aired 5.5 hours of local news per weekday, up from 5.3 hours in 2010.

Network compensation, once paid to TV station affiliates by the networks, has “All but disappeared,” the report said. Network compensation dipped from $48.2 million in 2010 to $25.1 million in 2011, according to SNL Kagan numbers cited in the report. The 2012 figure is projected at $287,000. Networks have reversed the compensation model by taking a percentage of retransmission fees from stations.

Retrans fees comprised 8.1 per cent of TV station revenues in 2011, or $1.76 billion; and 9.4 per cent or $2.36 billion in 2012.

Ancillary DTV revenues were nearly negligible. Broadcasters can use a portion of their spectrum for revenue-generating activities such as subscription video or data transfer, but they must pay the FCC five per cent of those revenues. In 2012, 81 licensees made total ancillary DTV revenue of $499,970. The peak year was 2010, when 99 licensees brought in more than $7.1 million in ancillary revenues.

Clyburn said she was “Encouraged by the pro-consumer trends it reveals,” adding “Options for accessing video programming are swelling,” she said. “Nearly all consumers now have a choice among three. MVPDs, and today, more than one-third of all households can choose from four or more providers. I note that broadcast TV remains one of the most affordable sources of entertainment and news,” she continued. “As the report shows, 11 million American [households] still rely on free, over-the-air broadcast signals as their exclusive source for TV viewing.”

While the commission has been bullish on reducing the spectrum available for TV broadcasting, it did give stations props for public service: “Since the last report, full-power television stations have continued to take advantage of digital broadcasting technology to offer improved service to the public. In addition to high-definition content, broadcasters are using multicasting to bring more programming to consumers by expanding the availability of established networks and adding new startup digital networks-including networks targeting minorities and programming targeting niche audiences-and Spanish language offerings.”

Multicast diginets include Bounce TV, which now has 154 affiliates, This TV, with 133, and Retro TV with 44 affiliates. Established networks have also benefited from multicasting. The CW is on 115 multicast channels; MyNetworkTV, on 92.

Total day audience share for the network affiliates held steady between 2011 and 2012 at 28, per cent with the total broadcast share at 33 per cent, compared to 52 per cent for ad-supported cable networks. In prime time, network affiliates held 33 per cent of the audience; all broadcast, 38 per cent; and ad-supported cable, 51 per cent.

The availability of mobile DTV grew between reports, from 60 stations in 2010 to 105 stations at the end of 2011. 

The National Association of Broadcasters said the total now stands at 130 stations in 30 states delivering 150 channels.

Despite ongoing reports of cord-cutting, the FCC found that pay TV subscriptions rose slightly between the end of 2010 to June 2012, from 100.8 million to 101 million households. Cable‘s share fell however, from 59.3 per cent to 55.7 per cent as of June 2012. Direct broadcast satellite TV providers picked up 600,000 subscribers in the time period to end June 2012 with 34 million, or 33.6 per cent of all pay U.S. pay TV subscribers.

TelcoTV grew by 1.7 million subscribers during the period, to 8.6 million, according to the report. However, it noted that the total comprised “AT&T‘s Uverse and Verizon‘s FiOS services,” but not other small telcoTV providers around the country.

Technologically, cable systems are catching up with telcoTV, which delivers only the channels being watched at a given time versus the entire package a la traditional cable. At the end of last year, more than half of the footprint of the top eight cable providers was all-digital, with 43 per cent of that portion using switched digital video delivering only those channels watched.

The average price of a basic cable subscription increased by 6.2 per cent to $20.55 between 2011 and 2012, with expanded basic up 4.8 per cent to $61.63. The basic price-per-channel was up 1.5 per cent to 63 cents, while expanded price-per-channel fell one-tenth of a penny in the 50 cent range.

The Video Competition Report divides TV distributors in to three types-broadcast, multichannel video programming distributors (cable, satellite and telco pay TV), and online video providers, or OVD. The commission cited SNL Kagan numbers indicating that the number of internet-connected TV households grew from around 26.6 million (22.8 per cent) at the end of 2011, to an estimated 41.6 million (35.4 per cent) by the end of 2012.

The commission said OVD accounted for a growing portion of internet traffic during peak hours, and noted that most major cable operators imposed bandwidth caps or metered pricing during the first half of 2012. Phone companies are said to be following suit.

NEW DELHI: In separate hearings in Lahore and Peshawar High Courts earlier this month, it became clear that the Pakistan government is not keen to restore the usage of YouTube in the country.

The Peshawar High Court was told on 1 August by Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom Additional Secretary Muhammad Ijaz Mian that it was in the interest of public to keep the video sharing website blocked.

He said an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) had reviewed the matter on 8 February 2013 and found that the public stance was the same and the situation had not changed on blasphemous content. He added that since there was no technical solution at the hands of ministry to ensure 100 per cent blockage of controversial URLs, it was decided, keeping in view the security situation and the sentiments of public to continue with the decision of blocking YouTube.

In the Lahore High Court the same day, Minister of State for Telecom & IT Anusha Rehman Khan and the Secretary IT failed to appear. An additional secretary for the minister who appeared before the court said she could not come as she was busy in making IT policy for the country whereas the Secretary IT had an eye infection that did not allow him to attend the court.

Although the Court summoned both on 7 August, it was observed during the hearing that the government has not been able to resolve the issue of blasphemous content since September 2012, the month YouTube was blocked by the then PM Pervaiz Ashraf.

The High Court said an intelligent solution and regulation was required from the government.

Peshawar High Court was told that the Ministry had issued directives to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for finding a state of the art technological solution to overcome the problem but the authority has not responded positively on the issue.

The Ministry representative told the Court that it had contacted google administration to remove the content from its server which the search engine giant refused on grounds that it worked under the laws of the United States and existing law in Pakistan did not force it to fulfill the demands of the Pakistan government.

Google has already told the ministry to pass intermediary legal protection legislation in the country. A worldwide phenomenon, which will make the search engine comply by the local rules and regulations.

On the other hand, Lahore High Court has stated that it is not a solution to block the entire website which also has very valuable information for general public. There should be an intelligent solution to deal with the menace of anti-social and blasphemous content instead of blocking the entire website.

The court clearly stated that information flow cannot be controlled in this way and there should be self-regulation in every house as well. A worst action would be to block the whole internet in the country that will also severe links to the outside world.

NEW DELHI: The Growth of OTT Content: Opportunities and Challenges for Service Providers, a new global survey of cable and broadband operators, finds that most are fairly optimistic about the potential impact of over-the-top services, with 70 per cent saying the potential benefits outweigh the risks.

The results were part of a survey of operators in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa conducted by Incognito Software, a provider of broadband software provisioning and service activation solutions.

“The widespread growth and popularity of OTT content across multiple devices is forcing cable operators to rethink their business models and how best to add value to their subscribers – and the survey results show that there is no single answer when looking at operators of different sizes and across multiple geographies,” said Incognito Software President and CEO Stephane Bourque. “Whether operators take a positive or negative view of OTT content, one thing is constant: their network usage is going to increase.”

The study also found that nearly 82 per cent of respondents have already upgraded their network infrastructure to cope with increased subscriber bandwidth usage and that 75 per cent of the providers who reported a growth in bandwidth consumption attributed the increased demand to streaming video sites.

In terms of managing OTT consumption, the survey found that the most popular approach was fair usage policies (40 per cent), followed by bandwidth caps (34 per cent), and proprietary OTT services (22 per cent), the company reports.

Nearly half of the providers in North America utilise bandwidth caps as their primary means of managing OTT, the survey found. Fair usage and service add-ons are the next most common approaches (33 per cent).

NEW DELHI: NHK World TV, the 24/7 English-language channel for Japan‘s largest broadcaster NHK, is now live on the Opera TV store app platform, enabling viewers to live-stream the station‘s huge selection of entertainment content.

From the free NHK World TV app on their connected TVs, audiences can reach news, documentaries, music, cooking programs, fashion trends, technology insights and much more from Japan, Asia and the rest of the globe.

The Opera TV store, by Opera Software, brings viewers a rich variety of HTML5-based apps tailor-made for Smart TV. In addition to NHK World TV, the Opera TV store also offers apps for video, music, games, social media, news and utilities.

“The world truly is flattening when premium regional broadcasters like NHK give viewers anywhere in the world more choice of exciting on-demand content,” said Opera Software TV & Devices senior vice-president Aneesh Rajaram. “NHK is extremely savvy with seeing the potential of early technology trends, and viewers will agree that its app adds even more engaging and entertaining content to the Opera TV Store.”

The Opera TV Store is an HTML5-based app platform that gives users a rich selection of entertaining apps. It has already launched globally on Smart TVs and Blu-ray Disc players from Sony and TCL, and has also been selected by Humax, Hisense and MediaTek.

The Opera ecosystem spans more than just the Opera TV Store, with the Opera browser and Opera Devices SDK powering the web experience on tens of millions of devices, including those made by Sony, Samsung, Philips, TCL, Sharp, Loewe, Boxee, Freesat+, Vestel and Altech.

NEW DELHI: Sony and Panasonic have signed a basic agreement with the objective of jointly developing a next-generation standard for professional-use optical discs, with the objective of expanding their archive business for long-term digital data storage.

Both companies aim to improve their development efficiency based on the technologies held by each respective company, and will target the development of an optical disc with recording capacity of at least 300GB by the end of 2015.

Sony and Panasonic will continue to hold discussions regarding the specifications and other items relating to the development of this new standard.

Optical discs have excellent properties to protect them against the environment, such as dust-resistance and water-resistance, and can also withstand changes in temperature and humidity when stored. They also allow inter-generational compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be read even as formats evolve. This makes them a robust medium for long-term storage of content.

Both companies have previously developed products based on the Blu-ray format, leveraging the strengths of optical discs. However, both Sony and Panasonic recognised that optical discs will need to accommodate much larger volumes of storage in years to come given the expected future growth in the archive market, and responded by formulating this agreement.

In recent years, there has been an increasing need for archive capabilities, not only from video production industries, such as motion pictures and broadcasting, but also from cloud data centers that handle increasingly large volumes of data following the evolution in network services. Both Sony and Panasonic have a proven track record in developing Blu-ray disc format technologies, and by actively promoting the adoption of a new standard for next-generation high-capacity optical discs, they intend to offer solutions that preserve valuable data for future generations.

MUMBAI: Sport1 US, a new pay-TV channel dedicated to US sports, is launching in Germany, Austria and Switzerland today.

The channel has secured carriage on the platforms of Kabel Deutschland, Sky Deutschland as well as Unitymedia and Kabel BW. Sport1 secured a comprehensive rights package from ESPN Sports Media to feed the channel. It also acquired broadcast rights from the NFL for additional live matches, building on a previous deal. Sport1 has also been awarded further pay-TV rights from the NBA, allowing it to air three live games per week.

Constantin Medien CEO Bernhard Burgener commented: “With Sport1 US we are extending our digital portfolio under the multimedia umbrella brand Sport1 to include another pay-TV offering – alongside our already superbly established channel Sport1+. There are a great many fans of US sports in the German-speaking region, too, and we want to satisfy the demand in future with a broad range of premium US sports on Sport1 US.”