ITV

Category: Software

  • Disney, EA in multi-year ‘Star Wars’ games agreement

    Disney, EA in multi-year ‘Star Wars’ games agreement

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Disney and Electronic Arts have announced a new multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish globally new games based on ‘Star Wars‘ characters and storylines.

    Under the agreement, EA will develop and publish new ‘Star Wars‘ titles for a core gaming audience, spanning all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres, while Disney will retain certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.

    Disney Interactive co-president John Pleasants said, “This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the ‘Star Wars‘ franchise for years to come. Collaborating with one of the world‘s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new ‘Star Wars‘ titles to our fans around the world.”

    EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said, “Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe. Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. Dice and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay.”

    Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

  • Zoho launches Card Scanner app for iPhone

    Zoho launches Card Scanner app for iPhone

    MUMBAI: Zoho has announced the launch of Card Scanner, an online business card scanning application for Zoho customer relationship management (CRM).

    With this application, users can take a photo of a business card and Card Scanner converts the image to text that is automatically saved either as a new contact or lead in Zoho CRM or as a new contact in Card Scanner.

    Card Scanner is currently supported iPhone and will support iPad and Android devices going forward.

    With the launch of Card Scanner app, Zoho users can now eliminate the process of manually entering data into their CRM module. The Card Scanner extracts names, company information, phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter handles and other card information – regardless of business card size, font and format.

    Users who don‘t use Zoho CRM can store card information in the Card Scanner‘s native contact manager.

    To avoid errors (poor lighting conditions, multiple photo angles, complex logos) that could impact the quality of data extraction, the application highlights unclear images in red. This allows users to easily identify and rectify information before saving.

    The key features of the app are- saves time and resources, eliminates importing from spreadsheet, automatically locates address on the map, scans business cards in five languages and increases social connections. If the business card includes a Twitter handle, it automatically downloads the photo from the Twitter profile and syncs it with Zoho CRM.

    Zoho chief evangelist Raju Vegesna said, “Entering data manually into any CRM application is a daunting task. Automating this process and making it simple for our users is the primary idea behind the launch of our new mobile app for Zoho CRM – Card Scanner. The App lets users save business cards on their iPhone while at meetings, events, conferences and trade shows – thus saving time and digitizing the process.”

    The app is currently available for the iPhone at $4.99.

    Zoho is a division of Zoho Corporation a privately-held company, with offices in California, Austin, New Jersey, Chennai, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing. Customers use Zoho products to run their business processes, manage their information and be more productive while at the office or on the go. Zoho has online products – from CRM to mail, office suite, project management, invoicing, web conferencing and more.

  • Aereo files pre-emptive lawsuit against CBS

    Aereo files pre-emptive lawsuit against CBS

    MUMBAI: Aereo, which offers online streaming of television channels in the US has filed a request in New York federal court.

    It wants a declaratory ruling that its Internet TV service is legal. The aim is to pre-empt any attempts by channels like CBS to hinder its planned expansion to Boston next week.

    Aereo‘s spokesperson Virginia Lam said, “In response to the CBS companies‘ repeated threats to sue Aereo in every market that it enters, Aereo has filed a declaratory judgment action in New York naming CBS, its Boston affiliates and its wholly owned and operated companies located in Aereo‘s initial expansion markets.

    “In 2012, CBS and other broadcasters chose to file copyright lawsuits against Aereo in the federal courts in New York. Last year, the trial court denied CBS‘s and the other broadcasters‘ request for a preliminary injunction against Aereo; and, last month, the appeals court affirmed that decision. The fact that CBS did not prevail in their efforts to enjoin Aereo in their existing federal lawsuit does not entitle them to a do-over in another jurisdiction. We are hopeful that any such efforts to commence duplicative lawsuits to try to seek a different outcome will be rejected by the courts.”

    The filing names CBS as well as their owned and operated affiliates, and covers expansion cities. The complaint argues that a decision was already made by the Second Circuit that Aereo was not guilty of infringement and should not be shut down with a preliminary injunction. Therefore, following Aereo around the nation as it expands and leveling the same action against them from court to court would be improper.

    Earlier both CBS and News Corp had threatened to move to cable if Aereo succeeded.

  • DAS stay extended in Madhya Pradesh to 15 May

    DAS stay extended in Madhya Pradesh to 15 May

    NEW DELHI: The Madhya Pradesh high court today extended till 15 May the stay on switch-off of analogue signals in the cities of Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur covered in Phase II of digitisation.

    The extension came after the Jabalpur bench of the court noted that some of the respondents (mostly multi-system operators) had not filed their replies to the notice issued in the last hearing, and counsel Greesham Jain for one of the petitioners said he had received the replies in some cases just yesterday and wanted more time to file his counter-affidavit.

    The court is hearing five petitions – including a public interest litigation by a lawyer, a consumer body, one LCO including Rashmi Dubey, and one by an MSO run by Nilesh Rawal linked to Digicable – citing shortage of set top boxes, billing issues and some other problems linked to digital addressable system.

    As on 21 April, the status of seeding in Madhya Pradesh was 86.32 per cent in Bhopal, 103.04.per cent in Indore, and 45.84 per cent in Jabalpur.

    Meanwhile the stay in the Andhra Pradesh for the cities of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam was extended to 4 June. Stay also continues to be in force in Chennai, which was part of Phase I.

  • Prime Focus Tech pockets cloud computing orders from broadcasters & studios

    Prime Focus Tech pockets cloud computing orders from broadcasters & studios

    MUMBAI: Media and entertainment companies have been sailing on the cloud of cloud computing. And one of the companies that is bearing the fruits of this is Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), the technology arm of media and entertainment services leader Prime Focus.

    PFT today announced that it has secured orders worth Rs 2 billion in the previous quarter from existing and new clients in India, and the US which are to be executed over the next three to five years.

    The company was unwilling to name the clients on account of NDAs with them. All it said was that the new clients include the world‘s largest news aggregator, a prominent Indian studio and a new Indian television channel, each of which have signed multi-year deals for PFT‘s Hybrid Cloud Technology – Clear, a cloud-based Media ERP and technology infrastructure platform that helps manage the business processes of M&E companies.

    PFT works with major content owners like Star India, Eros International, Sony Music, Viacom 18, Multiscreen Media BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), the IPL (Indian Premiere League), Hindustan Unilever, The Associated Press, A & E TV Network, Netflix, Schawk! and WPP.

    Says PFT founder, president & CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan: “Increasingly M&E companies are adopting cloud technologies across the enterprise content operations. They are not only migrating to digital file-based workflows but starting to adopt a Media ERP solution to manage the business processes around content. Clear‘s proven credential of managing over 300,000 hours of content is helping the growth of our order book.”

    Meanwhile, parent company Prime Focus today announced that it has entered into an initial non-binding memorandum of understanding with US-based Medient Studios. Under this, Prime Focus and Medient shall execute a definitive agreement within 90 days for the provision of production and post-production equipment, work flow technology and skill transfer by the former for the latter‘s megastudio project.

    Medient chairman & CEO Manu Kumaran has ambitious plans to develop a 1500 acre site in Effingham, Georgia, in the US which will house movie studios, entertainment facilities and a campus at an initial investment of $90 million. He estimates that the Prime Focus contribution is worth in excess of $40 million.

  • BigFlix records 1 mn registered users

    BigFlix records 1 mn registered users

    Mumbai: BigFlix, a movie-on-demand service that caters to movie buffs across the world, has recorded 1 million registered users.

    According to the company, with the recent addition of diverse catalogues and an upgraded user interface, BigFlix has been the preferred personal blockbuster theatre among film enthusiasts. “With consumers across the world watching films on-the-go at anytime, anywhere, the BigFlix app, which is available across platforms, has revolutionised the movie watching culture.”

    To celebrate the milestone achieved, BigFlix has announced a special celebratory offer for all its existing subscribers who have been a part of the journey of BigFlix since the very beginning. As a part of the offer, subscriptions worth Rs 1 million are to be gifted to certain invaluable customers who have been a part of the journey.

    BigFlix business head Shreyash Sigtia said, “This is indeed a milestone for BigFlix. We have come a long way from where we first began, and every single user who has joined us in the journey has made it possible for BigFlix to grow. It has been an honour for us to serve 1 million registered users so far by means of constantly introducing interesting movie catalogues in a number of languages and by consistently improvising on the user interface and customer service. With this success, our endeavour is to continue providing high quality, ad-free films across languages and genres to consumers across the world on PC, tablets and mobile.”

    Commenting further on the celebratory subscription offer he added, “The success of our service is attributed to the users of BigFlix. The subscription offer is a small token of appreciation from our side to the users who have been an integral part of the BigFlix journey.”

    The celebratory subscription offer is being conveyed to the customers by means of personalised mailers. The offer is valid throughout the month of May 2013.

  • Isobar works with Facebook to develop SeeitShopit

    Isobar works with Facebook to develop SeeitShopit

    MUMBAI: Global digital agency from the Dentsu Aegis Group Isobar has worked with Facebook to create an e-commerce product that enables brands to deliver an interactive shopping experience directly within people’s Facebook news feeds.

    Isobar worked with Facebook to develop SeeitShopit which launches globally this week across desktop, tablet and mobile.

    SeeitShopit provides a “unique” shopping experience to complement Facebook’s current advertising formats. It allows retailers to monetise Facebook fans, by showcasing collections of products within a single post. Facebook users will be able to browse through brand collections, share individual items, share SeeItShopIt with friends and go directly through to purchase. As the first interactive shopping tool of its kind on Facebook, SeeItShopIt is set to play a significant role in the way brands monetise their fan bases.

    Littlewoods, a digital department store, is the first brand to bring SeeItShopIt onto its Facebook page, initially using the tool to launch Myleene Klass’s exclusive new swimwear collection. Using SeeItShopIt, Littlewoods has plans to bring 10 new collections to its Facebook fan base throughout May and June.

    Littlewoods retail director Gary Kibble said, “Littlewoods always looks to be leading customer experiences, whether online or offline. The SeeItShopIt tool gives us the ability to deliver a new way for our Facebook fans to connect with our products.”

    “We created SeeItShopIt to deliver an interactive shopping experience directly within Facebook’s news feed, where users spend most of their time. The tool will allow any brand with a broad product portfolio to monetise their Facebook fan base by providing a seamless shopping experience,” Isobar CTO Rick Williams added.

  • Fun2shoot – A new age video social networking platform

    Fun2shoot – A new age video social networking platform

    MUMBAI: Singapore based Maverick Media & Technologies Pte Ltd‘s live video broadcasting application Fun2shoot will now be available for Symbian, Windows mobile and Android devices as well.

    It is a free application which allows users to easily shoot and share live streaming video from their mobile devices to their social networking sites and contacts, which can be viewed, live either on the mobile device or a web browser.

    This is certainly the birth of a one of a kind video social networking service which will allow users to broadcast live videos from a mobile phone to another mobile or web in nearly real-time. The developers claim that the user‘s experience of broadcasting and registering and shooting can happen in as less as five minutes.

    Instead of recording a video and then going home and uploading it to another site, Fun2shoot presents its users with an easy way to broadcast live events and news as they happen while sharing with a larger audience. It can do video streaming using 2.5G, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity.

  • DEN Networks to raise $160 million through share sale

    DEN Networks to raise $160 million through share sale

    Mumbai: That India’s cable TV digitization drive in phases is going to soak up a lot of investment – running into a few billion dollars – is well known. Some of the MSOs have been working to stay ahead of their capital requirement curve. Take national MSO DEN Networks founded and led by former TV executive Sameer Manchanda.

    It has a presence in roughly 11 million households in over 150 cities across 13 key states in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The MSO has been at the forefront of digitising cable TV nationally since mid-last year and with the next phase of digitization into smaller towns going on and expected to intensify in the next year, it desperately requires cash.

    And it is reaching out to foreign institutional investment to meet that need. It announced on 6 May that it had got board approval to sell equity to raise about $160 million. This was communicated to the stock exchanges on 6 May.

    Part of that will be raised through a preferential equity allotment to Goldman Sachs’ Singapore registered affiliates Broad Street Investments and MBD Bridge Street 2013 Investments for a total amount of $110 million at a issue price of 217.50 per share (face value: Rs 10).

    The allotment is of course subject to shareholder and other regulatory approvals.

    In addition to this, it got the board’s go-ahead for a qualified institutional placement plan to qualified institutional buyers for raising another $50 million at a price of Rs 217.23 per share.

    DEN had got board approval in end March to divest 26 per cent of its paid up share capital.

    An April end extra ordinary general meeting saw it getting shareholder approval for increasing its FII limit. Earlier this year, it had doubled its borrowing powers from Rs 1000 crore.

    The company’s share rose 2.14 per cent at its closing price of Rs 226.75 on the BSE on 6 May.

  • Digital Commerce Market to spike by 33% in 2013

    Digital Commerce Market to spike by 33% in 2013

    MUMBAI: The total digital commerce market in India was valued at Rs 473.49 billion in December 2012 and is expected to grow by 33 per cent to achieve Rs 629.67 billion by the end of 2013. This is according to the latest Digital Commerce Report, by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, released today.


    Source: IAMAI-IMRB International

    The report claims that while Online Travel, which includes booking rail, air, bus tickets, hotel accommodations and tour packages comprised a majority 71 per cent of the whole Digital-Commerce pie in 2012, E-Tailing, which includes purchases of various consumer products or services such as electronics, apparels, footwear, jewellery, home & kitchen appliances, consumer durables, furnishings, constituted 16 per cent of the overall share.

    Financial Services, which include services such as paying insurance premiums and renewals, paying utility and mobile bills, trading shares and securities amounted to 6 per cent of the overall share. B2B and B2C Classifieds (jobs, matrimony, car, real estate etc.) contributed 5 per cent, whereas other online services such as online entertainment ticketing, online food delivery, buying discounts/deals/vouchers etc. constituted 2 per cent of the overall digital commerce market in 2012.

    Source: IAMAI-IMRB International

    According to the report, online travel industry has on an average grown by 32 per cent from Rs 149.53 billion in 2009 to Rs 345.44 billion in 2012 and is estimated to grow by another 30 per cent and be valued at Rs 449.07 billion by the end of December. The E-Tailing category has grown from Rs 15.5 billion in the year 2009 to INR 64.54 billion in year 2012. This category is estimated to grow by 55 per cent and cross 100 billion by the end of this year.

    Financial services market was valued at Rs 28.86 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow by 25 per cent and reach to Rs 36.07 billion by the end of the year. According to the report, Classifieds market has seen a significant growth and has reached Rs 23.54 billion in 2012. Classifieds as a category has grown with a CAGR of 45 per cent growth from 2009 and is expected to grow by another 30 per cent to Rs 30.61 billion by end of the year.