MUMBAI: OTT subscription service Netflix will become a component of the Nasdaq-100 Index, the Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted Index and the Nasdaq-100 Ex-Technology Sector Index prior to market open on 6 June 2013.
Netflix will replace Perrigo Company.
The California headquartered Netflix has a market capitalisation of approximately $12.1 billion. The move comes at a time when its stock price has more than doubled since the start of the year. The company is looking at creating more original content.
MUMBAI: Fanhattan, which is an entertainment technology company based in Silicon Valley has come out with Fan TV – an input 1 set-top box. This brings live TV, cloud DVR and streaming services all together in one place, with a touch remote. The device will allow users to access movies and shows.
Fanhattan is backed by the investors behind Tivo, Netflix and Sonos.
The company designed Fan TV in partnership with Yves B?©har. The touch remote with zero buttons fits in the palm of one’s hand.
fuseproject founder Yves B?©har said, “Fan TV is the deepest and most magical entertainment experience. Everything about Fan TV is about cohesiveness between hardware and user interface, when others still look at these elements separately,” said.
Fan TV eliminates the need for a scavenger hunt across multiple devices and remotes when figuring out what to watch.
Fanhattan CEO Gilles BianRosa said, “With the rapidly growing number of entertainment choices, services and technologies, finding what to watch and how to watch it has become way too complicated. People don‘t need a stack of devices in their living room, each delivering only part of their entertainment experience. Fan TV will replace the need for a separate cable box, DVR and streaming device, and will streamline your living room by bringing your entertainment life into one beautiful place.”
Fan TV will be available later this year, and will be complemented by a multi-screen experience that lets users discover, watch and share on-the-go. Fanhattan also is rebranding its free entertainment service Fan on iOS and the web. The web app is emerging from a limited private beta test and is now open to the public.
Fan integrates 29 streaming services making more than 100,000 movies and shows available to watch instantly across iOS and the web. On the TV, Fan will be working with many of its existing streaming partners for over-the-top content and leading pay TV providers for live TV and cloud DVR, to bring its service to America‘s living rooms.
MUMBAI: Mobile games marketing platform AppLift has raised $13 million from venture capital and growth equity firm Prime Ventures in series A funding round.
AppLift will use the funds to further invest in its marketing and monetisation platform and accelerates the global expansion with new offices and key personnel. One year after launch, AppLift is partnering with more than 80 mobile game publishers such as King, Wooga and Kabam and over 500 media partners like RTL and Closer. As a result AppLift delivers up to one million installs per month for top mobile game publishers. This year AppLift plans to hire 50 additional engineers, product specialists and business development professionals.
Founded by HitFox Group, Kaya Taner and Tim Koschella, AppLift has made a name for itself by delivering quality game players at scale. Media partners benefit from the opportunity to monetize in a non-intrusive and user-friendly way and receive eCPMs of up to $75. Headquartered in Berlin, AppLift has additional offices in San Francisco, Seoul and Paris.
HitFox was already active in the space of user acquisition with the portfolio company ad2games at the time when AppLift launched. The previously established game publisher relations and technology leveraged AppLift‘s fast start.
Serial entrepreneur and HitFox Group CEO Jan Beckers said, “The strong market position of AppLift is based on a world-class team, cutting-edge technology and a sustainable approach to partner relationships and an unwavering focus on flawless execution. With the new funding AppLift has everything required to become one of Berlin‘s biggest success stories.”
AppLift co-founder and CEO Kaya Taner said, “Prime Ventures‘ entrepreneurial mindset is a perfect fit for us. We met them, got along immediately and agreed on a deal within five weeks. HitFox Group gave AppLift a great initial push into the market. Now Prime is the perfect addition to expand and strengthen our position internationally.”
Prime Ventures partner Roel de Hoop said, “AppLift‘s team, technology platform and the synergies created through the HitFox Group and its portfolio companies quickly brought them ahead in the market. The closer we looked at AppLift, the more impressed we were. We saw the opportunity to invest in a leader within the fast-growing $10 billion mobile games market.”
King director of performance marketing Shane Horneij said, “It’s great to see that AppLift has secured $13 million in this round of funding. They have been a great partner in driving large volumes of installs across Android and iOS while maintaining high quality users. We look forward to launching more titles with their team in the future.”
MUMBAI: SoftBank Capital, a venture group affiliated with Japan‘s SoftBank has announced that it raised an additional $51.02 million to invest in early-stage New York State technology startups. The additional capital extends SoftBank Capital‘s position as a complete early-to-late stage investment partner with an ongoing commitment to New York‘s emerging technology scene.
SoftBank Capital New York partner Jordan Levy will oversee investments, with others including Ron Fisher (Managing Partner), Joe Medved (Partner), Ron Schreiber (NY Partner) and special partners, Eric Hippeau (Lerer Ventures) and Mike Perlis (President and CEO of Forbes Media), also helping to manage the fund. The major investments will focus on the high-growth sectors of social, ecommerce and software.
This team has previously led a series of investments in New York-based startups for SoftBank Capital. These included investments in companies such as Buddy Media, acquired by Salesforce.com, Huffington Post, acquired by AOL, OMGPOP, acquired by Zynga, and Hyperpublic, acquired by Groupon.
Levy said, “We were very pleased by some of the big successes with previous New York investments and feel our latest drop-down fund will be equally beneficial in helping to fuel the next generation of promising New York State startups.”
SoftBank Capital has already made its first investment, leading a $10 million investment round into Work Market with other firms Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, which follows along SoftBank‘s strategy of investing with the best firms on the eastern seaboard. Work Market provides a marketplace to revolutionise the way businesses work with freelancers, contractors and consultants. The company has also announced that Levy has joined Work Market‘s board of directors.
Work Market CEO and co-founder Jeff Leventhal said, “We view SoftBank Capital as perfect partner for us in being able to successfully grow our business and reach a key audience of entrepreneurs and businesses, which will create a real advantage for us going forward”.
The New York State investments are a key component of SoftBank Capital‘s diverse array of investment activities. Already this year, the firm has announced $250 million in funding targeted toward growth-stage, sector-leading technology companies intending to expand their Asian presence and a $20 million investment from Yahoo! Japan intended for early-stage investments for U.S. startups looking to break into the Japanese market.
NEW DELHI: The government has launched the pilot e-Gov application store to will bring functional efficiencies in the government and enable citizen to receive services in a more streamlined manner.
This e-Gov Appstore has been designed, developed and hosted by the Department of Information Technology through the National Informatics Centre.
Launching the Appstore, Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said the App Store governance aims to reduce uncertainty and improve transparency.
The e-Gov Appstore aims to be a National level common repository of productised applications, components and web services that can be used by various of government agencies/departments at Centre and in the States. This will enable acceleration of delivery of e-services as envisaged under NeGP and optimise the ICT spending of the government.
Core and common applications that have high demand and are replicable across the central and state levels would be available on the e-Gov Appstore, which shall be hosted on the National Cloud.
Currently 20 Applications, 8 Components and 1 Web Services are hosted. These applications are sourced from 8 distinct States/UTs and provide a gamut of G2C/G2B services. Going ahead, the applications will be productized and made available on the e-Gov Appstore for use
The present version of the e-Gov Appstore has the following features: (1) Sharing of applications (2) Search for applications (3) Provides basic information about an application on selection (4) Allows users to provide feedback and rate an application (5) Has two level approval process for contributing applications (6) Allows authenticated users to download application for consumption
This e-Gov Appstore will be augmented to include applications and components developed by various departments and agencies at Centre and States and by private players; and a complete eco-system will be established (including mechanism for funding, charge back, contract management, SLAs) and will become a part of the GI Cloud initiative under government of India.
MUMBAI: California headquartered Roku, which creates streaming software platform for delivering video, music and casual games to the TV has announced that it has received a $60 million investment that readies the company for growth around its streaming software and services businesses. Led by institutional investors, the investment includes participation from large global media and television distribution companies.
Two new Roku investors participated in the Series F round-the institutional investor and Hearst. They join prior Roku investors, including BSkyB and News Corp in the Series F round.
The new investment will fuel Roku‘s growth which has accelerated in the last year. Best known for its lineup of streaming players, including the new Roku 3 which has quickly become the new streaming standard in the US, the company is extending its streaming platform by working with other consumer electronics brands. Today, Roku is working with two dozen OEMs who are making more than 3.5 million Roku Ready® devices, predominantly TVs that will be in retail by the end of the year. Roku Ready devices access the Roku streaming platform through the Roku Streaming Stick™, a small USB-sized device sold by Roku. In the coming months, Roku will continue to expand access points to its streaming platform.
Hearst Ventures senior MD Ken Bronfin said, “Roku has built a strong brand that is widely recognised for great technology and a broad selection of high-quality content. We are truly impressed that Roku has built such a unique position in the market and we look forward to working with them to develop innovative products and services for our television audiences.”
As well as expanding distribution for its platform, Roku continues to provide streaming entertainment made for the TV experience. Last year Roku had streamed more than one billion hours of video and music.
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said, “Roku has a significant portfolio of investment and strategic partners with very successful global businesses. Their recognition of our brand success and belief in the Roku platform is a tremendous endorsement of our potential to shape the future television experience.”
“BSkyB and News Corporation are exceptional partners and we look forward to deepening our relationship with Hearst in the months to come,” he added.
MUMBAI: US Video on Demand (Vod) service Hulu‘s senior VP of international, Johannes Larcher, has stepped down.
His departure comes ahead of reports that the company will be sold. There are seven companies chasing it including Yahoo!.
Larcher joined Hulu in 2009 and two years later oversaw the site‘s move into the Japanese market. This is its only foreign launch so far.
Larcher led the company‘s expansion to Japan two years back and was tasked with launching the service in other territories.
MUMBAI: Star Sports has launched a digital campaign to engage cricket fans on-line for the on-going ICC Champions Trophy 2013. An extension of the main marketing campaign, this digital initiative is built around the main promotional theme – ‘Zor Lagao, Champions Banao‘. The channel has launched a microsite http://cheercam.starsports.com inviting people to show support for their favourite team and wish them all the best for ICC Champions Trophy 2013. Select cheers or entries with most views or shares online will be aired on-air during the pre/post programming show ‘Cricket Live‘.
Cricket aficionados can cheer for their favourite team using the CheerCam application which allows them to express their feelings in as expressive a way as possible. The more different one‘s cheer is, the more traction he or she will generate in the digital universe. The CheerCam application aggregates cheers across different social platforms like Facebook Posts, Likes, Shares, Tweets etc.
Users can also share their cheers on their individual Facebook walls, invite their friends to participate
and also tweet about it. The campaign will have extensions of the “Zor Lagao” theme on the Facebook page – www.facebook.com/starsportsindia, where fans can go and record/upload/share/write their cheers for their country. On Twitter, fans can cheer for their teams using the twitter hash-tag #ZorLagao.
ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput said, “The campaign is based on the powerful insight that there is a symbiotic relationship between a spectator/fan & a player and that the spectator is as much part of the game as the player. The idea here is to inspire fans to support their favourite team who further gain strength when millions of fans express their support in the most vociferous way. We believe that fans should do their part – “Zor Lagao” and fervently hope that their favourite team comes back victorious from the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 – “Champions Banao.”
This campaign will have on-air support on the entire Star network. As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com Star Cricket and Star Cricket HD will showcase all the 15 matches of the event with English commentary while STAR Sports 2 will showcase all matches with Hindi commentary. Besides, the sports broadcaster will also showcase four of the six kick-off matches live before the start of the main tournament. India takes on Sri Lanka on 1 June while India Australia kick-off match is scheduled for 4 June.
MUMBAI: Samsung is planning to bring to the market a new Smart Media Player set top box with a CableCard slot for traditional subscription video services and a broadband connection for over-the-top (OTT) streaming video services, according to a recent filing with the FCC.
The device is slated for a summer release, though no other launch details have been confirmed since the filing still has to meet FCC approval.
TiVo already makes a DVR set top box with CableCard that covers both traditional TV and OTT video, and actually requested the same allowance from the FCC previously, but the governing body has yet to make a ruling.
The FCC stipulated new rules in December 2012 that allows cable operators to add basic tiers to their all-digital systems. Samsung‘s proposed media player would apparently include a QAM digital tuner, but not an analog one. The company cites fall in demand now that cable operators are almost fully digital as its reason. Adding analog tuners to conform to the FCC rules would make the device more expensive because of power requirements and other factors.
Samsung hopes the FCC can expedite the waiver to enable the company to launch the box this summer. Since TiVo also petitioned for a similar change, it might give the regulatory body the chance to broaden the scope of the waiver so as to cover CableCard-enabled devices in one fell swoop.
Eager to get the device to market, Samsung issued a statement: “If Samsung cannot provide Smart Media Players to retailers by the end of the summer, it risks losing the opportunity to obtain any shelf space in 2013, including during the all-important holiday season. This would delay consumer access to the Smart Media Player until early in 2014, an unnecessary wait that would be unfair to consumers and serve no purpose.”
MUMBAI: It‘s worked its magic. Big Magic, the general entertainment channel (GEC) for the core Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Bihar and Jharkhand – from the stable of Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) has signed a distribution deal with Airtel Digital TV, the DTH service arm of the leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel.
Airtel Digital has 375 channels and services including 17 HD channels and six interactive services. With this strategic agreement, Big Magic will now have access to the 8.1 million customer base that Airtel boasts of (as on March 2013).
RBNL‘s carriage deal with Airtel for Big Magic, makes it the second Indian DTH operator to carry the channel, apart from Reliance Digtial TV.  Viewers can now tune into Big Magic on their Airtel Digital TV on channel no 631 from today. The channel airs a mix of locally relevant entertainment, including drama, crime, socio-mytho, game shows and talent shows.
Says RBNL CEO Tarun Katyal: �As a broadcaster, we’d like to reach maximum audience and we are glad to be associated with Airtel.�
Adds a media observer: “The deal is significant as Airtel has a sizable subscriber base in the markets that Big Magic is targeting. The expectation obviously is that the extra audience will lead to extra advertising revenues.”