Category: News Broadcasting

America crowns Taylor Hicks its 5th ‘Idol’; viewership hits 35.4 million

MUMBAI: Twenty-nine-year old Taylor Hicks from Alabama beat LA gal Katharine McPhee to be crowned the American Idol in the finale of the fifth season. A whopping 63.4 million votes were cast and America made its choice. According to host Ryan Seacrest, Hicks took the majority of the fan votes, though he did not reveal how close McPhee came.

Taylor Hicks — The winner takes it all!

Hicks now joins the likes of Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino, who have been previous season winners. However, the result of fifth season of American Idol doesn’t come as a surprise as Hicks had wooed TV audiences with his raw singing style and boisterous personality.

Hicks foisted the ubiquitous catchphrase “Soul Patrol!” on an unsuspecting audience and turned it into a national movement. What Hicks has won is an RCA recording contract and his first single will be Do I Make You Proud.

Katharine McPhee and Taylor Hicks on judgement day
As for the network that airs the show in the US – Fox, the two weekly Idol episodes remain the top-rated shows in the US, raking in tens of millions of dollars for the network.

The American Idol seasons have been a ratings goldmine for Fox. The show has continued to rate high even in its fifth season and has given the network the biggest hit in prime time, propelling the broadcaster to first place this season in the ratings race for viewers aged 18 to 49.

‘AMERICAN IDOL’ FINALE DRAWS 35.4 MN VIEWERS

It was not only Taylor Hicks that emerged winner on American Idol’s fifth season finale. Fox, too emerged as a major winner in terms of the ratings it clocked. According to Nielsen Media Research, the finale of Fox’s two-hour American Idol special was a big hit among viewers, drawing an audience of 35.4 million people.

Idol opened at 8 pm with 27.4 million viewers, climbing steadily to a peak of 42.9 million in its final half-hour as Hicks edged past Katharine McPhee to take the crown.

This makes it the second most-watched Idol finale ever behind 2003’s competition, which was watched by 38.1 million viewers. Last year’s contest won by Carrie Underwood was seen by 30.3 million.

In Canada, CTV said the American Idol season finale peaked at 5.2 million viewers when Hicks was announced as winner.

The American Idol TV audience was only about two million viewers shy of the Oscars for being the most-watched television event of the year after the Super Bowl.

What has also added to the popularity and interest levels in American Idol through the seasons is the incessant coverage by the print, internet and television media.

Shows like Entertainment Tonight and Saturday Night Live give constant updates on every twist and turn on Idol. Dedicated websites and blogs have also kept the interest levels high. On the other hand, producers of the show claim that the success of season five came from the fact that they had a particularly good batch of talent.

The finale of the fifth season had plenty of star power with the likes of Ben Stiller, Heather Locklear, Mary J. Blige and David Hasselhoff. What’s more, the Baywatch star got all teary eyed when Hicks was announced the winner. Prince too made a surprise appearance on the show and performed.

After the winner was announced, runner-up McPhee was reportedly quoted as saying that she hadn’t expected to win and didn’t have any regrets.

McPhee said she planned to take a week’s break before heading for the American Idol tour with Hicks and the other finalists.

May 25, 2006
Yahoo!, eBay form strategic partnership

MUMBAI: Internet powerhouses Yahoo! and eBay today announced a multi-year strategic partnership aimed at taking on the likes of search engine leader Google and Bill Gates’ software giant Microsoft.

A joint statement issued by the two companies says the partnership is “designed to mutually benefit both companies by better serving their user, merchant, and advertising communities in the US. The agreement consists of four major components in the areas of search and graphical advertising, online payments, a co-branded toolbar, and the opportunity to explore ‘click-to-call’ functionality.”

Yahoo! and eBay will begin to roll out the initiatives outlined in the agreement this year. This will include a testing phase that will take place over the next several months, with a plan to achieve full implementation in 2007.

According to the deal, Yahoo will be the exclusive third-party provider of all graphic ads throughout eBay’s auction site. Yahoo! and eBay have also agreed to collaborate on ways to increase the quality and comprehensiveness of Yahoo! Web search results for eBay.com.

Yahoo has also chosen eBay’s online payment system PayPal to allow its own customers to pay for Yahoo Web services. PayPal will be integrated and promoted as Yahoo!’s payment solution to Yahoo!’s merchants and publishers, which includes the Yahoo! Publisher Network, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and other small business services.

“Our consumers will benefit from the combination of Yahoo! and eBay’s leading technology and services, providing them with one of the best online experiences,” said Yahoo! chairman and CEO Terry Semel. According to Semel, the partnership offers an opportunity to extend the two companies’ sponsored search and graphical advertising reach on the Web,” he added.

Said Meg Whitman, eBay president and CEO, “Working together, we can create more exposure for our properties, which in turn makes them more valuable to our users.”
access.”

May 25, 2006
Cinema India Expo 2006 kicks off in Mumbai

MUMBAI: The sixth successive International Exhibition and India’s only established tradeshow and convention Cinema India 2006 began in Mumbai today. The three-day conference will take a look at Digital Cinema Technology, Film Production, Cinema Theatre Equipment and Multiplex Design and Solutions.

Global players in the film technology industry including Kodak, Real Image, Sim2, Projection Design, Panasonic and Kinoton will be present on the Cinema India exhibit floors. Valuable Media, E-City Digital and Real Image has set up digital cinema demos in their auditoriums o the floor of the expo.

The highlight of the opening day has been a panel discussion on FM Radio industry. The panel featuring India Today Group GM Commercial Uday Chawla, Radio Masti CEO Rajiv Mishra and BMG Deep Emotions Music Publisher Achille Forler discussed the opportunities and challenges of FM Radio. The session was moderated by Pro Sound Magazine editor Anil Chopra.

Explaining the challenges FM radio industry faces, Mishra highlighted the lack of effective government policies on the satellite radio sector. “FM radio is targeted at people on the move, while satellite radio is understood as a stationary medium. The repeater technology can change this scenario for satellite radio operators. So we need solid government policies on satellite radio,” opined Mishra.

On Internet Radio, Chopra said the technology was not feasible in India at the moment. “But the cost will surely come down in the near future once the technology gets cheaper.”

Speaking on the niche spaces for FM radio, Chawla said it depended on the intensity of competition. “If we have three or four players in a market, everybody would be targeting the same general audience segment. But once you have about ten players fighting out in a market, some of them would obviously go for niche segments such as western music and classic music,” he said.

May 25, 2006
Premiere selects NDS MediaHighway middleware solutions

MUMBAI: Pay TV operator in Germany and Austria – Premiere – has chosen the NDS MediaHighway middleware solution to set-up an interactive platform paving the way into advanced digital TV services.

The middleware-based TV platform will enable customers to interactively use innovative add-on-services – all with the ease of using their remote control via a return channel over the internet. Based on the NDS MediaHighway middleware, Premiere will launch this innovative platform that will offer a range of TV services to Premiere subscribers from August 2006.

NDS MediaHighway, running an open middleware language, will play a key role in operating the interactive TV architecture, that combines broadcast and IPTV technologies into a single service on a hybrid STB. The cornerstone of the new platform will be a middleware enabled easy-to-use STB user-interface, that ensures the same look and feel over a variety of STBs and provides convenient and instant access to the services. The new infrastructure will enable Premiere to further extend its exclusive content offering combined with maximum usability for the viewer.

The technological architecture of the platform unites the advantages of classic broadcasting with the individual and on-demand features of the internet. While the viewer will enjoy a premium quality TV experience, customers will be able to use interactive applications such as making pay-per-view orders at the touch of the remote control on their STB. Premiere will build up its range of interactive applications and add-on-services progressively based on open application standards.

NDS is working closely with Premiere to launch this platform that will mark the start of middleware-supported and advanced interactive TV services in Germany and Austria. The agreement is a major reference for the NDS MediaHighway middleware solution and the first large scale customer win for NDS in Germany.

Premiere CEO Dr. Georg Kofler said, “NDS is the ideal partner for us for establishing our interactive platform. NDS MediaHighway middleware has proved itself around the world, and is already running on more than 38 million set-top-boxes. It is extremely powerful and flexible and covers all the functions that we need, from interactive and add-on services to advanced PVR technology. We are thus gaining a fast and efficient entry into modern, interactive television.”

“We could not think of a better reference than Premiere for our NDS MediaHighway middleware and hybrid TV solutions. We are delighted to be working with Premiere as our first large scale customer win in Germany. NDS will be supporting the company now to unlock the opportunities of advanced, interactive television,” said NDS France vice president and general manager Caroline Le Bigot.

May 25, 2006
Katzenberg announces India animation intent

CANNES: It’s official and its coming from DreamWorks SKG cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg’s mouth. “We are coming to India in a big way,” he told indiantelevision.com at the Cannes Film Festival where he was promoing Over the Hedge. “In what shape or form we don’t know as yet, but we will.”

Katzeberg said he had been to India three times in the past nine months. “India is a very exciting place and has potential for great animation…no other place has greater potential than India for great creative work,” he explained. “You have an excellent pool of creative talent. ”

He however added that Dreanworks foray into India would not be in the form of outsourcing. “:It will be definitely more than that.”

Katzenberg pointed out that what animation is witnessing is its second renaissance. “The first wave was in the eighties and was more handdrawn,” he pointed out. “Today, animation s driven by digital, by computers. It is a great time for animation. Some of the finest movie producers are taking it up. We at Dreamworks Animation are committed to producing at least two animation movies a year.”

May 25, 2006
Uefa wins case against streaming sites

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.”

May 25, 2006
Cell users worldwide prefer GSM: study

MUMBAI: The subscriber results from Informa Telecoms and Media’s World Cellular Information Service for 1Q 2006, 3G Americas reports that cell phone users across the globe choose GSM 10 to one over any other wireless mobile technology.

According to the study, the customer base for the GSM family of technologies which include, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA — grew by nearly 120 million additional subscribers in 1Q 2006 alone, compared to the total net growth of CDMA of about 12 million customers.

Today, the 1.85 billion users of the GSM family of technologies make up more than 81 per cent of the wireless mobile market worldwide, with total subscribers of CDMA at less than 300 million and a 13 per cent market share. There were 57 million customers using UMTS services at the close of 1Q 2006.

The results also indicate that from Q1 ’05 to Q1 ’06, the GSM family of technologies showed continued growth throughout the Western Hemisphere, adding nearly 95 million new customers — 3.5 times as many as CDMA – and approaching a quarter of a billion customers in this region alone.

CDMA’s customer base in the region grew to a total of 169 million in the same time period with 27 million new customers and market share declining to 34.6 per cent, along with CDMA to 11.6 per cent. By contrast, the growing market share for GSM reached 47.8 per cent. Latin America and the Caribbean once again nearly doubled their GSM customer base in these 12 months, growing from 77 million customers in March 2005 to 150 million by March 2006.

In this region, more than 19 million GSM users were added, versus 2 million for CDMA. GSM now has nearly 150 million customers in Latin America and the Caribbean and over a 58 per cent share of market, indicating that it is the no.1 technology for wireless mobile services.

In the US and Canada, GSM operators reported exceptional growth, with 4.8 million new customers added in the 1Q 2006 for a customer base of 84 million.

3G Americas president Chris Pearson said, “The majority of wireless customers are selecting GSM service for the value and variety of products and services that are supported by a global eco-system of manufacturers, encouraged by open technology standards versus proprietary standards.”

“In addition, carriers throughout the Americas and worldwide continue to choose EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA as leading next generation technologies for wireless data services for many compelling reasons, such as spectral efficiency, global roaming, economies of scale, handset availability, as well as the potential for increased revenues from 3G services,” he added.

According to a release, the growth of GSM is evident in the number of carriers upgrading or changing their technology platforms in the industry for a variety of strategic business reasons. These include veteran CDMA operators such as Telstra in Australia, and KT Freetel and SK Telecom in Korea who are deploying UMTS/HSPDA. Chinook Wireless (Montana) made a similar announcement to deploy GSM/EDGE to ‘enable their subscribers to benefit from higher performing network service with increased coverage, higher voice quality and advanced digital data services like multimedia messaging and Internet browsing.’ To date, at least 11 operators have announced CDMA to GSM migrations or dual technology deployments.

Globally, the GSM family of technologies continues its rapid evolution to 3G high-speed wireless data. EDGE is commercially offered by 133 operators across 80 countries, including 31 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. There are 81 additional EDGE networks planned or in deployment. Currently, there are 105 UMTS networks in service across 50 countries, with 59 more planned or in deployment. HSDPA, which is an enhanced version of UMTS for high speed mobile broadband, was launched first in the world by Cingular Wireless in 16 markets in December 2005.

Now, five months later, HSDPA is commercial on 22 networks and 73 additional operators have networks planned, in deployment, or in trial. Rogers Wireless of Canada will deploy HSDPA before year end 2006; T-Mobile USA has announced plans to do the same when spectrum resources are acquired. It is expected that nearly all UMTS operators will deploy HSDPA, essentially a software upgrade to UMTS, resulting in a significant increase in data capacity and offering operators a much-reduced network cost for data services.

Additionally, through its level of scale, GSM serves emerging markets, providing a sub $30 GSM cost handset to the market and reducing typical capital expenditure for deploying a GSM network to a quarter of that required for CDMA, according to the GSM Association.

This data is based on figures from Informa Telecoms & Media, which provides business intelligence and strategic services to the global telecoms and media markets.

May 25, 2006
Fingerprint Pictures acquires remake rights to ‘A Better Tomorrow’ from Fortune Star

MUMBAI: Fingerprint Pictures, a production company set up by producer Park Hyung Jun has acquired the remake rights to multi award winning film A Better Tomorrow (originally directed by John Woo, starring Chow Yun Fat) from Fortune Star Entertainment, the distribution division of Star Group.

Fingerprint Pictures is currently recruiting scriptwriters and a director for the Korean remake, which is planned for production in 2007. Fingerprint Pictures is also working with Fortune Star Entertainment to bring in a high profile producer for the project.

Fingerprint Pictures together with Fortune Star Entertainment will handle the international distribution of the remake outside of Korea.

“We are delighted to work with Fingerprint Pictures, a renowned production company, to remake this classic title from our library, A Better Tomorrow. We are especially excited about the prospect of bringing this incredible story back to a new generation of viewers in Asia as well as the rest of the world,” said Fortune Star Entertainment general manager Peter E. Poon.

Hyung Jun added, “We are thrilled and honored to have acquired the rights to remake one of the most prestigious films in Hong Kong’s history. This remake represents a landmark cooperation between the film industries of Hong Kong and Korea, and we look very much forward to bringing this wonderful story to new audiences everywhere.”

A Better Tomorrow tells the story of two brothers: one a successful counterfeiter and the younger a fledgling police academy graduate. The plot revolves around the conflict caused by the younger sibling learning about his brother’s criminal lifestyle. Meanwhile, the older sibling is struggling to change his evil ways. Along the way are a number of action-packed heists, double-crosses and shootouts.

In 1986, A Better Tomorrow won awards for Best Film and Best Actor (Chow Yun Fat) at the 6th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards and for Best Director (John Woo), Best Actor (Ti Lung), Best Cinematography (Horace Wong Wing Hang) and Best Sound Recording at the 23rd Annual Golden Horse Awards.

May 25, 2006
Al Jazeera International sees delay in launch

MUMBAI: The proposed English news and current affairs channel Al Jazeera International has delayed the launch of the channel from April to September at the earliest.

The channel an offshoot of the Qatar-based Arabic network has pushed the launch date on account of series of constructions and technical glitches at its four centres in London, Doha, Kuala Lumpur and Washington, according to The Guardian.

The channel is said to be still experiencing problems and thus, the launch has now been stated to be early September.

The executives of the channel are said to be increasingly fed up with the slow pace of progress. “Staff are extremely frustrated, as is the management, who are tearing their hair out at the inefficiency of support staff,” said a source to the publication The Guardian.

The bosses at the English-language service were concerned about “meddling” from Al-Jazeera’s Arabic owners, who are thought to be worried the new channel could end up a “watered down version of the BBC or CNN” and a “damp squib managed by non-Muslim westerners”.

Although the broadcaster has inked a deal with the Sky Digital in UK, it is however finding difficulties in striking deals in the key American market.

The Al-Jazeera spokeswoman speaking to The Guardian said that the broadcaster was not releasing an official launch date. However, she said the channel’s management had a particular date towards which they were working.

“They are waiting on their technical requirements to be fulfilled,” she said.

CNN and BCC are the main competitors to the Al-Jazeera International targeting the English-language news audiences, particularly in its coverage of the Middle East.

The broadcaster has already roped in high-profile personalities, including Sir David Frost, former CNN Riz Khan, former CNN Rageh Omaar, Channel Five news presenter Barbara Serra for the London newsroom, and as well as other journalists from Sky, ITN and elsewhere.

Recently, the channel hired a host of presenters for sports coverage.

Al-Jazeera launched in Qatar in November 1996, bankrolled by the Emir of Qatar, but came to international prominence during the US attack on Afghanistan in 2001 when it was the only foreign broadcaster in Kabul.

Al-Jazeera, which has been credited with changing the face of Arab television news, has faced criticism from the US as well as several Arab states. The channel is always surrounded by controversies by screening messages from the most-wanted man Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaida.

The British Broadcasting Corporation has announced plans to set up its own Arabic news channel next year and has roped in former Al-Jazeera executive Salah Negm as news editor.

May 25, 2006
Quick-start, long-play internet television arrives with Zattoo P2P IPTV

MUMBAI: To date, television on the Internet hasn’t been like television at all; video streams tend to skip, stutter and break, image quality is low, and very little content is live. That’s about to change.

Making its worldwide debut at Streaming Media East in New York City, Zattoo has unveiled a new peer-to-peer IPTV service that makes live, quick-start, long-play Internet Television a reality for broadband users, broadcasters, content owners and advertisers.

The first Zattoo P2P IPTV broadcasts begin in Switzerland with the availability of every action-packed minute of the 2006 soccer world championship (known globally as the FIFA World Cup(TM)), streamed live to Swiss viewers starting with the first match in June and culminating with the championship match on 9 July 2006, states an official release.

“Advances in broadband, video compression, and multicast streaming technology are rapidly lowering the technical hurdles for Internet and television to merge on a PC. However, there is still the matter of cost. Our streaming network solves that problem by reducing broadcasters’ costs by a factor of ten, making it compelling for them to switch to our technology and broaden their service offering,” says CTO and co-founder of Zattoo Sugih Jamin. “Also, Zattoo’s proprietary P2P streaming technology ensures a video delivery and smoothness that has until now been impossible to achieve.”

Developed by researchers and software engineers from University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Zattoo offers a DRM-secure, commercial peer-to-peer network optimized for streaming video that is uniquely capable of serving the needs of consumers, broadcasters, content owners and advertisers, adds the release.

“End users are tired of islands of content. They want a single place to go where they can switch channels as easily as pressing channel up and down on their current TV remote,” says CEO and co-founder of Zattoo Beat Knecht. “Zattoo offers such a single point of access to the widest variety of content, delivered with the highest possible quality and reliability. Users may watch news at work, educational programs at school, or movies in the privacy of their room, all without set top box, as long as they have broadband access.”

May 25, 2006