MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) and Optus have signed an agreement to launch an interactive broadband service Disney Connection on the Optus broadband portal. The service will offer kids and families a broad range of media-rich Disney entertainment and learning activities. It will be available to Optus broadband customers in July 2006. |
The agreement marks the Australian launch of the popular Disney-branded internet channel, which is available in eight other countries, including the US, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Argentina. “We‘re very pleased to work with Optus to make this high-quality broadband content available to Australian consumers,” said Walt Disney Internet Group International executive vice president and managing director Mark Handler. “Disney Connection provides unique, high-quality and differentiated online entertainment that kids and families can enjoy. We look forward to bringing more of our rich library of online interactive entertainment to this market,” he added. Disney Connection will offer Optus broadband customers a regularly-updated slate of interactive games and activities, as well as video, based on both classic and new Disney characters. Its Studio Showcase will provide video shorts from Disney, including Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney clips, cartoon shorts, music videos, and movie trailers. “As Australians increasingly embrace broadband, we are pleased to launch an interactive and educational entertainment destination designed especially to meet the needs of children and families,” said Optus Consumer group director products and delivery Chris Lane. “This is a cornerstone deal in Optus‘ strategy of featuring the internet‘s leading online brands and entertainment providers. It is another step in Optus‘ vision of a digital future where PC and mobile phones become sources of everyday entertainment,” he added. Disney Connection content on the Optus broadband portal will be refreshed every other week. Kids and families will be able to personalise their site experience through the “My Disney” link by selecting their favourite theme – from Buzz Lightyear to Disney Princess – and choosing their preferred games and other content to appear on the Disney Connection home page. A separate mobile section will highlight Disney-branded mobile content available on the Optus Zoo WAP portal. In the Asia Pacific region, Disney.com has well-established, localized Internet sites in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Australia. WDIG launched its first broadband content service in Japan in 2003 with NTT FLET‘s broadband network, reaching more than 7.9 million subscribers. In June 2005, it launched its first broadband service in Taiwan with Chungwa Telecom‘s HiNet ADSL, the country‘s leading broadband provider, with more than 3.5 million subscribers. WDIG has mobile content distribution in 13 markets in the Asia Pacific region, including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Macau. In this region, more than 695 million mobile consumers have access to Disney-branded mobile content. |
Category: Television
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Disney and Optus to launch Disney Connection in Australia
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MTV Germany to continue broadcasting ‘Popetown’
MUMBAI: MTV Germany has decided to broadcast the cartoon series Popetown in its entirety. Following the broadcast of the first episode last Wednesday, the remaining nine episodes will be broadcast from today – 10 May.
A couple of years ago the BBC had pulled the plug on the show due to pressure from the Catholic community. The show is set in a fictional Vatican.
MTV Germany programming director Elmar Giglinger says, “We have decided to broadcast all episodes of Popetown. Our decision is based on the reaction of the viewers, who were clearly in favour of the programme’s broadcast, as well as the FSF’s assessment that the submitted episodes of Popetown are legally unobjectionable.”
Internet users were asked their opinion on Popetown in a recent poll, conducted by market research institute PhoneResearch on 3 and 4 May 2006. More than 94 per cent of those asked said that this type of series should be broadcast.
Comments from ‘MTV News Mag Special – Popetown’, the live discussion programme which took place on 3 May, were also taken into account in the decision-making process. During the discussion, representatives from the Federation of German Catholic Youth, the FSF, the Junge Liberale (Young Liberals Organisation), the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Cologne Conference (international film and television festival) and members of the music and entertainment communities voiced their opinions on Popetown, with nobody calling for a ban of the show.
Viewers were also invited to take part in the live discussion both online and by telephone. The response was enormous. During the show, the Berlin MTV Studio switchboards were jammed and over 15,000 comments were submitted to the online forum at www.mtv.de/popetown, with the overwhelming majority of people supporting the broadcast of Popetown.
In the run-up to the broadcast of MTV News Mag Special – Popetown, a random representative household sample of 1,004 people between the ages of 14 and 39 were asked their opinion on Popetown by PhoneResearch. Asked whether this type of series should be allowed to be shown on German television, 78 per cent answered “yes”, 16 per cent “no” and the rest were undecided. Ninety one per cent of those asked found the televised discussion and the network’s handling of criticism generally good.
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Playhouse Disney launches ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’
MUMBAI: Playhouse Disney, the preschoolers block on Disney Channel has launched the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, a learning-focused series for tiny tots. The show is named after Disney’s favorite mascot.
The show will be aired on Saturdays and Sundays at 8:30 am.
The series has been created by producer Bobs Gannaway, producer and director of the Emmy Award-winning Disney’s Mickey Mouse Works. The series later evolved into Disney’s House of Mouse, that featured not just Mickey, but virtually all of the Disney animated characters.
Although the character designs are referential to 1940s drawings, the show has 3D computer animation, a logical next step for the characters that have evolved, along with film technology, from black and white, to color and now to digitally rendered 3D.
In order to ensure that each episode is entertaining and comprehensible to this core audience, Disney Channel writers and researchers visited preschools where they read story books based on the shows to students to see if they enjoyed it, if they understood the concepts and were engaged enough to participate.
“The shows that have worked best with young kids are interactive ones, where the audience feels they’re playing along as opposed to just sitting back and watching. It’s always been Mickey’s way to connect one-to-one with kids, making him the perfect choice to further develop a close relationship with kids in a preschool learning environment,” said Walt Disney Television International (India) director programming and production Nachiket Pantvaidya.
“The show helps to broaden the definition of math skills to include not just counting, but learning shapes, patterns, colors and fractions. Early math skills are key to preschoolers’ development because if it is embedded right from the beginning, kids will embrace the subject. The wonderful thing is that kids of this age love to count and master skills. They don’t see it as a chore or a lesson, they’re really proud of being able tell you what’s bigger and what’s smaller, what’s near and what’s far. It’s not work to them, it’s really fun,” he added.
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will help define the series’ educational goals and have an age-appropriate curriculum with the help of the Sensational Six: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy and Donald.
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Al Jazeera International lines-up weekly sports magazine ‘Sportsworld’
MUMBAI: Doha based – Al Jazeera International, yet to launch 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel has revealed their line-up of sports presenters and also the sports offering.
The channel’s weekly magazine programme Sportsworld will also take viewers behind the scenes of some of these major sporting events. The team will interview not only the leading stars but also the unsung personalities – adhering to the channel’s aim of giving our viewers a 360 degree perspective on what is happening in the world of sport, both professional and amateur.
Al Jazeera International’ sport head Stuart Young, has assembled a team of experienced reporters and presenters, whose diversity and own areas of expertise complement each other: Carrie Brown formerly of Eurosport; Brendan Connor formerly of CBC Canada; Imran Garda formerly of South Africa’s Supersport channel; Joanna Gasiorowska who joins the channel from ITV’s Evening News; Dara McIntosh formerly of ESPN and NBC in the USA; Rahul Pathak from the UK’s Five News as well as Andrew Richardson formerly of Five News in the UK.
Young says, “I am delighted to have such a group of individuals whose breadth of knowledge, depth of experience and all-round strengths will take us to the forefront of sports reporting.”
“Together, we will work to bring viewers around the globe the latest from the world of sport. From countries often overlooked, on sports often under-reported, we hope to inform and enlighten as well as entertain and excite,” he continued.
In keeping with the channel’s fresh approach, the sports coverage will be a mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar, the expected and the surprising, which includes the football leagues in Europe and South America, the tennis grand slam events, the golf majors, cricket test matches, rugby internationals, Formula 1 and MotoGP, North American sports, athletics, boxing, cycling, sailing and winter sports.
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Time Warner plans job cuts at AOL
MUMBAI: Time Warner Inc. is planning to cut about 1,300 jobs at its AOL internet unit. This is in line with the company’s plans to reduce costs by $1 billion.
AOL will close its call centre in Florida and will eliminate jobs in its other call centres located in Ogden, Utah and Tucson. It will be cutting 780 jobs in Jacksonville. The Tucson call center will eliminate 300 jobs and Ogden will cut down 125.
Two years ago, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons had decided to cut costs of the organisation. Accordingly, AOL cut its workforce by 700 people in the fourth quarter. It also eliminated 400 jobs in other divisions, including its publishing outfit.
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Zee Sports to telecast Qatar Telecom German Open 2006
MUMBAI: Zee Sports will telecast the WTA Qatar Telecom German Open live. This Tier I $ 1.3 million, tournament will be played from 8 May to 14 May, 2006 on the grounds of LTTC, Rot-Weiss.
The quarter final matches will be played on 12 May, from 3 pm onwards. Semi Final matches will be held on 13 May and the matches will begin at 4:30 pm. The final will be played on 14 May at 5:30 pm.
The eight top seeded players, including world number one Amelie Mauresmo, defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne, last year’s finalist Nadia Petrova and Germany’s top player Anna-Lena Grönefeld, will start competing in this tournament.Some of the other women tennis stars competing will be Justine Henin Hardenne of Belgium , Nadia Petrova and Elena Dementiva of Russia will also be participating in this tournament, states an official release.
Zee Sports’ presenter Tina Sharma along with Indian Tennis star Ankita Bhambri will present the preview and review show of each of the match. SportsCafe, Zee Sports daily news program will present the highlights and analysis of the best moments of the matches, the release adds.
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Ahead of deadline, 41 TV channels apply for downlinking in India
NEW DELHI: Talk about cutting it close. With just a day remaining (10 May 5:00 pm to be exact) for the deadline to adhere to downlink norms, 41 television channels have applied for registration in India.
“Around 40 channels have submitted their applications for registration in India,” the Press Trust of India quoted an an official in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as saying.
PTI quoted the I&B official as saying that the channels seeking registration include the Star Group, Sony, Zee, Discovery, Anil Planet, Cartoon Network, CNN, Pogo, MTV, Channel V, Toon Disney, Hallmark, HBO, Ten Sports, Channel News Asia and Times NowThose yet to send in their applications include Fashion TV, ESPN-Star Sports and BBC, the report adds.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com on the matter yesterday, a BBC spokesperson had said, ”BBC World is aware of the timetable set out by the Indian government for completion of all formalities of registration under the new down linking guidelines issued on 11 November 2005. In compliance with the timetable, BBC World has prepared its application and will submit the same within the 10 May deadline set.”
The government, meanwhile, clarified that all those channels that have applied for landing rights on or before 11 May 2006 could continue to be carried on cable networks till the channels’ are denied the right.
“A cable operator may continue to carry or include in his cable service any television broadcast or channel, which has made an application for registration to the central government on or before the date of commencement of the notification, for a period of six months from the date of such commencement or till such registration has been granted or refused, whichever is earlier,” a government statement posted on the site of I&B
ministry said.The statement also said that amendments to the Cable Television Network Rules 1994 and DTH guidelines will be notified separately and issued on 11 May 2006.
Those channels that had been granted permission for uplinking from India before 2 December 2005 shall be treated as “registered” television channels and can be carried or included in the cable service. The full list is available under Codes & Guidelines section at mib.nic.in.
Yesterday, a senior government official had admitted to Indiantelevision.com that the number of applicants seeking landing rights in the country is still “very low” compared to doubts and queries being raised. “This is surprising
considering the deadline is 10 May,” the official added.The government issued an ultimatum last week that those channels not fulfilling all the downlink criteria by 10 May 2006 would be denied landing rights.
The I&B ministry also posted on its website communications sent to the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, Star Group, Time Warner and a lawyer. The missive made it clear that the deadline of 10 May stays.
The lobbying against the downlink norms as a whole and partly is understandable. The moment a television company sets up a permanent establishment (PE) in India, as per downlink norms, its tax liabilities in India would go up drastically. Rather, more the revenues collected in India, higher would be the tax component.
Recently, Economic Times reiterated this fact in a report also. “After unveiling the downlinking policy for satellite television channels, the government is set to re-examine the tax treatment of revenues earned by foreign TV channels (FTCs). These companies earn advertising revenues from ad agencies, sponsors, and subscription revenues from cable operators.
“The task force on emerging issues in non-resident taxation, constituted by the finance ministry, is understood to have made an attempt to bring greater clarity and certainty in the tax treatment of FTCs. This, in turn, may enable India to get a larger share of the pie. Going by the recommendations,
FTCs will be liable to pay tax in India if they have a permanent
establishment (PE) here. Alternatively, a dependent agent who has the authority to conclude contracts, also constitutes a PE,” the newspaper said.Before 2001, foreign TV channels used to pay taxes on a presumptive basis on their advertisement revenues earned in India, which ranged between 35-40 per cent.
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Time Warner Telecom delivers data, internet and voice solutions to Inoveris
MUMBAI: Time Warner Telecom Inc. has installed a full suite of voice and data communications services for Inoveris, LLC of Dublin, Ohio. The product-to-market solutions provider is using these services to support mission-critical software applications, operational efficiency initiatives and business growth.
“These new services allow us to streamline our business internally so that we can support more business and enhance employee productivity,” says Inoveris director for Dublin, Roy Gilliam. “By turning up high-capacity metro Ethernet and centralizing our production data center into a resilient collocation facility, we are able to integrate our workflow infrastructure so our three locations — Ohio, Utah and Canada — work together as one. This gives us the 24 by 7 availability our operations require.”
Time Warner Telecom is delivering a wide range of services to Inoveris to support its nationwide communications network. These services include 10 Mbps of Ethernet Internet service capability and 100 Mbps metro Ethernet connecting the Columbus collocation site and the Dublin-based headquarters. Local and long distance voice services as well as long-haul DS-1 and Internet connectivity to Inoveris in Orem, Utah, are also provided by Time Warner Telecom, states an official release.
“We rely heavily on our extranet to communicate with and process manufacturing and distribution orders from our customers,” says Inoveris network manager Jonathan O’Connor. “From a revenue and reputation standpoint, we simply had to go with a provider that met our high uptime criteria. The customer service we’ve received from Time Warner Telecom far exceeds any we’ve seen from other providers and that played a key role in our decision.”
“Infrastructure consolidation has become a strategy for businesses to cut costs, increase efficiencies and improve employee productivity,” says Time Warner Telecom VP and GM for Columbus, Brad Thien. “Our end-to-end solutions offer the voice, data and collocation services that make these goals possible. Our highly reliable fiber-based services are particularly important to businesses like Inoveris, where downtime of any kind can affect their efficiencies.”
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Windies tour: SC bars Doordarshan from coercing Ten Sports on feed share
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has brought to an abrupt halt pubcaster Doordarshan’s “unfettered acess” to coverage of the India cricket team’s tours abroad.
In a ruling that will for the present hold only for the forthcoming West Indies tour by the Indian cricket team, the apex court ordered today that Ten Sports has exclusive telecast rights to the series and need not share it with the pubcaster.
A two-judge Bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice LK Panta directed that Prasar Bharati (which manages DD) will not take any coercive step or action for taking the live feed of the matches, a Press Trust of India report said.
India is scheduled to play five one-day matches and four Tests in the Caribbean in a tour that kicks off with the first ODI on 18 May.
The court, according to one of the parties involved in the case, said that the clause in the downlink guidelines relating to making available feeds of all events of national importance to DD on a mandatory basis lacks proper legal teeth.
In the absence of a detailed and written order, which will be issued later by the court, the ramification of this order cannot be fully gauged in terms of the overall downlink guidelines, which is being sought to be implemented by the government from 10 May by when all stipulations have to be fulfilled by a channel to get landing rights in India.
“Going by what the court has said DD will have to do without the West Indies tour, but the ruling is limited to only Ten Sports and the cricket tour concerned for the present,” DD director-general Navin Kumar told Indiantelevision.com.
Asked if DD will be restrained from carrying French Open tennis, for which Ten Sports holds exclusive rights for the region, Kumar added, “I suppose Ten Sports will have to move a separate application in the court for that. We cannot comment at the moment on what will be our future course of action.”
Last week, Dubai-headquartered Ten Sports had moved the court arguing that if interim relief was not granted to it this time round, a judgment of the court delivered before the recent Indo-Pak series would become infructuous.
Taj Television Ltd, owner of Ten Sports, had in its original petition on the matter sought a stay on the government guidelines making it mandatory for the sports channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.
It also contended that the court should be guided by the earlier verdict in the India-Pakistan series wherein DD was just a carrier of the Ten Sports signals on its terrestrial network and had also deposited a sum of Rs 150 million in the court towards possible compensation to Ten Sports.
Ten had said it has already sold distribution rights of the West Indies tour to Set Discovery Pvt Ltd, which will have the right to license throughout the country.
The Bench had given an inkling on its thinking on the matter at the last hearing itself in actual fact. During the brief hearing last Friday, the Bench observed that last time it was a series with Pakistan and “matches of Indo-Pak series are different from the others.” It added, “For West Indies, many people may not be interested.”
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Balaji Telefilms Q4 net at Rs 155 million
MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms has posted a net profit of Rs 155.03 million for the quarter ended 31 March 2006 as compared to Rs 96.47 million a year ago.
The total income has increased to Rs 781.40 million, up from Rs 568.44 million during this period.
For the entire fiscal, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 596.428 million as against Rs 412.962 million for the year ended 31 March 2005.
Total income for the year was Rs 2.9 billion, up from Rs 2.01 billion a year ago.
The board of directors has recommended a full and final dividend of Rs 3 per share (150 per cent on par value of Rs 2 per share), subject to the approval of members at the ensuing annual general meeting.
Balaji Telefilms chief financial officer V Devarajan has put in his papers, the company said. Sandeep Jain will take over as the CFO of the company.