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  • CNN reveals Happiness And Your Health: The Suprising Connection

    CNN reveals Happiness And Your Health: The Suprising Connection

    MUMBAI: In HAPPINESS AND YOUR HEALTH: THE SURPRISING CONNECTION, CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins the eternal search for happiness. Talking with doctors, philosophers, teachers, business leaders and comedians, Dr. Gupta asks where happiness comes from, how to get it and whether people need it.

    Joined by guests including US comedian Richard Lewis (‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’) and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, Dr. Gupta reveals the surprising secrets of happy people, the ways in which happiness affects health and the intriguing results of an exclusive CNN poll.

    Fascinating aspects, issues and questions surrounding ‘happiness’ in the special include:

    ‘Born Happy’ – happiness experts say personality has deep roots in genetics. The programme features identical twins who despite growing up without knowing of each other’s existence for 25 years, noticed more than a few similarities when they first met.

     

    ‘Power of Laughter’ – “Laughing is halfway to healing” is the motto of laughter yoga. This movement, created by a Mumbai doctor, today claims more than 3,000 clubs in 40 countries. Dr. Gupta laughs along with a club in California, finding intricate links between happiness and health.

     

    ‘Unnatural Highs’ – psychiatrist Julie Holland and Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US, explain the effects that drugs – legal and illegal – have on the brain and compare these effects to natural highs.

     

    ‘How to be Happy’ – viewers will hear surprising research into what really makes people happy, as well as a life lesson from someone who found himself paralysed in a car accident at the age of 29, and who subsequently suffered the deaths of his second wife, sister and parents, yet emerged from those struggles happier and wiser than ever.

     

    Dr. Gupta said, “There is more than one route to happiness and well-being. This special will take viewers on a journey and hopefully help them live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives.”

    Airtimes: Indian Standard Times

    Sat, December 9 at 1230hrs and 2030hrs
    Sun, December 10 at 1230hrs

    Airtimes are subject to change.

  • ESS Asia MD Jamie Davis to speak at sports television forum in China

    ESS Asia MD Jamie Davis to speak at sports television forum in China

    MUMBAI: The 2006 China International Sports TV Forum takes place in Beijing on 24 August.

    With technology breaking new ground for sports television decision-makers in sports, technology, branding, sponsorship, government and finance will debate and discuss the opportunities and future of sports television.

    The speakers include ESPN Star Sports (ESS) Asia MD Jamie Davis, Total Sports Asia COO Ian Ayre, Beijing Olympic Broadcasting COO Ma Guo Li and BBC Sport head of major events Dave Gordon.

    The topics for discussion include: Using creativity to attract the sports TV viewer, In Practice – A Case Study, A made-for-TV sports event – How and why it worked, The Future of Sports TV Production, Sports TV on the Move, In the Big League – Global sports media rights, Changing the landscape of sports sponsorship for Beijing and beyond and How China is setting the pace with new media solutions.

  • Norwest Venture partners invests $10 million in Web 2.0 Sulekha.com

    MUMBAI: Sulekha.com, the online social media and local commerce destination for Indians,has announced Promod Haque’s global technology venture capital firm, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP)’s series A, investment of $10 million in the company.

     

    Sulekha.com plans to use the new capital to extend business development and marketing, primarily through alliances, and expand its service offerings into new vertical markets. NVP managing partner Promod Haque, has joined the Sulekha board of directors. Sulekha, founded and run by Satya Prabhakar, received prior funding from the Indigo Monsoon Group (IMG), led by Param Parameswaran and Harish Raghavan. IMG invests in early stage companies in the Indian Internet and Mobile domains.

     

    “Sulekha has been a Web 2.0 company even during the Web 1.0 days. It has positioned itself at the vortex of three of the largest Internet mega-trends: India, Social Media and Local Commerce through industry-leading services including Blogs, Social Networks, Classifieds and Yellow Pages. While the management of Sulekha has done a great job of developing reach and revenue, the real explosive potential, both in online and mobile platforms, is still in front of us,” said Haque.

     

    “NVP is one of the most reputed venture capital firms in the world with more than 45 years of experience in building successful companies. This, coupled with NVP’s strong interest, many investments and relationships across various industries in India, made NVP a great choice for Sulekha as we pursue aggressive growth plans in the coming year,” said, Sulekha.com founder and CEO Satya Prabhakar. “In particular, we look forward to working with Promod Haque who, with his valuable experience and vast global network, has helped numerous companies, both in U.S. and India, soar and succeed,” he added.

     

    “The marriage of trusted member to member interactions and its application to classifieds and business search/ratings holds incredible promise in spurring local commerce in India. Sulekha’s successful track record of aggregating member content and interactions by city and by vertical areas of interest will allow us to deploy the new capital to dominate this market niche,” said IMG and Sulekha.com Chairman Param Parameswaran.

     

    Sulekha’s Portfolio of Services – Interact and Transact
    By offering a user-generated platform and a trusted community network, Sulekha enables Indians to interact and transact with their peers and businesses through three popular services:

     

    Blogs and Social Networking – Sulekha provides the largest and most popular platform for Indians to voice their ideas, opinions and reviews in blogs. Users can also connect with other Indians creating online social networks. Just as social networking driven by expression has become a destination for US consumers, Sulekha brings the same experience to India and beyond.

     

    Sulekha has crafted successful offline partnerships with such companies as Penguin, DNA and Indian Express to create important additional distribution avenues for its tens of thousands of bloggers.

     

    Classifieds – Sulekha has the largest and most popular Indian classifieds marketplace for goods and services that fosters transactive relationships among its members in over 25 cities worldwide daily. With more than 250,000 ads and addressing 80% of online Indians worldwide, Sulekha provides unparalleled opportunities to connect members when they need to interact and transact.

     

    Yellow Pages – Sulekha.com is the provider of online yellow pages in India supporting millions of business searches every month. Sulekha leverages its vast audience to help local businesses reach customers on a daily basis, and includes user-contributed reviews, ratings and recommendations to enable consumers to make the most informed purchasing decisions. Sulekha’s yellow pages currently offer business listings in eight cities throughout India and US. Sulekha Yellow Pages is also integrated with WAP-enabled mobile phones for mobile downloads of listings.

     

    “While we are only recently witnessing tremendous interest in Web 2.0 startups worldwide, Sulekha has been a thought leader in this space for some time, and continues to make rapid strides. Sulekha’s strong and experienced management team is well-positioned to capitalize on the unprecedented Internet growth in India over the last year, and we believe the company has a first mover advantage in pursuing significant revenue-generating opportunities in the coming years,” added Haque

  • Rendezvous with ‘Rekha’

    MUMBAI: Star World will be airing a special episode of Rendezvous with Simi Garewal featuring the Bollywood star Rekha, on Sunday 12 November at 9:30 pm.

    This one and a half hour interview will be aired in three parts in three half-hour special episodes. This is Rekha’s first television interview in 20 years, asserts an official release.

    For the first time, Rekha will talk about her private life – her relationship with her parents, her marriage and also about the influence of superstar Amitabh Bachchan on her life and art. In this week’s episode, Rekha will talk about her childhood, her parents, living in the same city as her father and how she grew up without him. She also reveals to Simi how, as a 13-year-old girl, she hated living all alone and working in the Mumbai film industry.

    She also shares some lighter moments like how she used to sneak out of shoots to grab a chocolate as she was deprived of it for months. The episode also features Rekha giving an insight into her idea of a perfect relationship, adds the release.

  • Star Movies to premiere ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’

    Star Movies to premiere ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’

    MUMBAI: Academy Award® winner Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider) and Oscar® nominee Brad Pitt (Ocean’s Twelve), along with comedian Vince Vaughn (The Break-Up), star in the controversial Mr. & Mrs. Smith, believed by many to be the reason for the split between Hollywood’s former favourite couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. The sparks between the saucy Jolie and hunky Pitt brought in US$478 million box office worldwide.

     

    John (Pitt) and Jane Smith (Jolie) are an ordinary suburban couple with an ordinary, lifeless suburban marriage. But each is hiding something the other would kill to know: Mr. and Mrs. Smith are actually highly paid, incredibly efficient assassins, and they work for competing organizations.

     

    Mr. and Mrs. Smith discover a new source of excitement in their marriage, when they’re hired to assassinate each other… and that’s when the real fun starts. The result is the ultimate action spectacle, as Mr. and Mrs. Smith put their formidable skills to work and their marriage to the ultimate test.

     

    So don’t forget to tune in to the exclusive premiere of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, this Friday, November 24th at 9 p.m. only on Star Movies.

  • Radio City brings to listeners the Valentine’s Day Week

    Radio City brings to listeners the Valentine’s Day Week

    Express Yourself with Radio City…
    Radio City brings to listeners the Valentine’s Day Week

    Love is in the air!! With Valentine’s Day round the corner, Radio City, India’s premiere FM network brings to its listeners the Valentine’s Day Week from February 8-14, 2006. As part of the celebrations, the RJs of Radio City will be painting the town red with their various programming initiatives helping the listeners get together the right ‘Love Receipe’ to make their most special moments JUST RIGHT!!

    Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore & Lucknow
    ‘Salam-e-ishq’
    ” Love Tips From Love Guru: Love Guru Tips on how to get a partner for date. Feb 8-14, 2006
    ” Love Bytes from Celebrity Couples to each other

    ‘Dil To Shair Hai’
    ” Listeners are invited to send in their best ‘Babbar Shers’ or couplets on “dil vil pyar vyar” on the IVRS. The funniest and the best of these responses are aired on the 14th of February
    ” Contest starts on the 8th Feb till 13th Feb. Four best responses are aired on 14th Feb
    ” Celebrity Babber Sher: Get Celebrities to say a Babber Sher with the other shaiers giving their comments

    Delhi
    ” Radio City will air ‘Love Bytes’ in Delhi as part of the Valentine Day celebrations. An IVRS-led contest, ‘Love Bytes’ will invite listeners to leave messages on how best to propose the other person. The wackiest and the wildest answers will be aired on Radio City throughout February 14, 2006. The best 2 entries actually get an opportunity to propose his beloved on R.91 and win freebies.

    Lucknow
    ” In the city of Nawaabs, Radio City has segments like ‘Dil da mamla’, featuring superhit songs on the theme of ‘Dil’ like Dard-e-dil, Dil Se, Dilbar mere and so on! ” Further the ‘Be My Valentine Contest’ on Radio City will provide the listeners with an opportunity to have Hi-Tea with their favorite jock by answering a simple question like “what is the craziest thing you can do for your favorite jock?”
    ” On February 14, 2006, Radio City will feature a ’60 min V-Day Special’ on its popular shows like Jaagte Raho, RCS, KKM, RR and RN91 each.

    ” The highlight of the entire week would be the ‘Jodi No. 1 Contest’ starting from Feb 10 – 13 only RJ Anirudh’s show where he will search for the ultimate couple by putting the couple in question on test through his “Ek duje ke Liye” series of questions. Listeners can participate in this contest by sending the number of his/her loved one via sms. On 14th Feb, the RJs of Radio City will take the short-listed couples LIVE on air across all shows and ask them questions about each other. The
    most compatible and understanding couple would be announced as the JODI NO. 1

    Bangalore
    ” In the city of Bangalore, Radio City will air ‘Bangalore’s sweethearts, more than love stories’ starting from Feb 6-14, 2006. This segment will feature couples with interesting backgrounds – for eg. A fighter pilot who fought at Kargil and his wife, a couple married for 25 years, a young couple – boyfriend and girlfriend, newly weds, etc. participating in different contests all day long and proving their compatibility.
    The winning couple would be declared as the ‘Bangalore’s sweethearts’ and would form the flavor of the station on February 14 across all shows.
    ” ‘Cupid speaks’ capsules all day long will feature………
    ” The ‘Love coupons contest’ across all shows on February 14, 2006 will invite listeners to sms ‘love letters’ to their sweethearts and their loved ones. In every show, the winner with the best love letter will win a ‘love coupon’ that will enable him to spend some time with his/her beloved

    Bangalore’s sweethearts Feb 6-14

  • CBS Television tests the water with ‘Shark’

    CBS Television tests the water with ‘Shark’

    MUMBAI: AquaCell announced today that CBS Television, which has historically captured water cooler buzz for its comedies by advertising on Aquacell water coolers installed in retail stores, is diving into uncharted waters by promoting its new prime time drama Shark starring James Woods, on AquaCell’s water coolers installed in law offices.

    “We’re thrilled CBS is expanding its Coolertising program beyond the retail stores by advertising on coolers installed in lawyer’s offices. Lawyer’s offices are the perfect place for CBS Television to promote Shark,” said AquaCell Technologies president Karen Laustsen.

    This latest Coolertising promotion encourages those that are thirsty for something different to “Try a Cooler Courtroom Drama.” The program includes promotion on hundreds of water coolers installed in retail locations in the New York and Los Angeles areas, as well as law offices in the Mid-Atlantic region.

    AquaCell’s “Coolertising” advertising program provides unique “out-of-home” advertising. The company installs its patented self-filling AquaCell bottled water cooler system into various locations free of charge under a multi-year agreement and retains ownership of the “billboard” water cooler.

    Revenue is generated through the sale of the advertising space on the bottle band and cup holder of the permanently attached five-gallon bottle to companies that provide products and services pertinent to the demographics and location.

  • Dish TV pumps up the volume on interactive services, marketing

    Dish TV pumps up the volume on interactive services, marketing

    NEW DELHI: The Indian DTH market is all set to explode with Dish TV going ballistic with services and marketing activities ahead of Tata Sky’s imminent launch.

    Though Dish TV terms it as sheer coincidence that it’s unveiling a host of value-added services and as well as coming out with a media campaign over the last two days, the timing seems to be just correct.

    “We had planned our value added service from before and it’s purely a coincidence that our consumer-awareness campaign, which broke a few days ago in the media, comes ahead of Tata Sky’s proposed launch,” Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna told Indiantelevision.com today.

    Apart from a 360 degree approach through a media campaign — goodbye to cable problems. Hello Digital! — country’s first DTH platform Dish TV is also set to unveil a host of services from Monday onwards.
    Leading the pack of new initiatives is interactivity, which will come via Zee News.

    The digi-boxes of Dish TV would now allow the unique experience of interactive viewing. Consumers can surf while watching TV for detailed stories, headlines and weather reports.

    How does this work? A subscriber of Dish TV wants to see whether Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza has won her latest match or not and cannot wait for the sports segments to come in the news bulletin.

    So while a news bulletin is on on Zee News, a few presses of the buttons can take the viewer straight to the sports section for the Sania news story even as the main news bulletin continues.

    “Such interactive facilities will give Dish viewers more convenience, but will also mean the broadcaster’s (Zee News in this case) having to upload more feeds than usual to give the interactivity features a momentum,” Khanna said.

    By the end of next week, Zee News’ interactivity on Dish would be completed for all subscribers, he assures.

    Apart from news, Dish TV is also planning to go interactive with sports, starting with Zee Sports.

    Sports interactivity will involve freezing of shots from a particular angle, getting player details immediately without having to wait for the sports channel providing it and statistics about the game in progress and sports in general.

    The interactivity on Zee Sports will start with the Indian cricket board-recognised tri-nation series involving India, Australia and another country at a neutral ground from mid-September for which Zee has the telecast rights.

    “At this point of time only Zee Sports will go interactive, but we are talking to Sony Entertainment TV India for introducing the features for the ICC Champions Trophy that will air on Max,” Khanna said.

    Dish now has all the sports channel presently available on Indian cable networks, which include ESPN, Star Sports and Ten Sports. It also has some niche sports channels not beaming to cable subscribers.

    Asked which other channels can go interactive, Khanna opined that globally interactivity works best with news and sports programming.

    Next on the list is a dedicated gaming channel for people of all age groups. At any given point of time it will have eight games, which will be updated on a monthly basis.

    Hassle free and simple, PlayJam software would start downloading on set top boxes of subscribers from early next week onwards.

    The whole process will take a few days to be completed for all of the 1.25 million DTH subscribers of Dish.

    According to Dish TV AVP (interactive services) Manish Chawla, three to four games are likely to be added every month with the overall number of games available remaining at eight presently.

    The electronic programming guide had always been available to Dish subscribers, but from next week it will get fully activated with programming details of over 100 channels at one’s fingertips.

    The EPG will store three days’ information, which is likely to help viewers plan their viewing, Chawla explained as proper setting of the EPG will send out alerts before a particular programme starts.

    With Tata Sky (a joint venture between the Tatas and Rupert Murdoch’s Star) also planning to start its services soon, there will be hectic action in the Indian DTH market.

    Hong Kong based Media Partners Asia (MPA) says that India remains the most significant and accessible cable and satellite (C&S) opportunity in the Asia Pacific region.

    India began commercial DTH operations in October 2003 and by December 2004 reported over three million subscribers. MPA said India is poised to become Asia’s leading cable market by 2010, the largest satellite market by 2008 and the most lucrative pay TV market by 2015.

  • IPTV subscriber base set for explosive growth: iSuppli

    IPTV subscriber base set for explosive growth: iSuppli

    MUMBAI: The worldwide subscriber base for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services is expected to expand by a factor of more than 26 from 2005 to 2010, spurring a competitive battle between video providers both old and new, iSuppli Corp. predicts.

    Global IPTV subscribers will grow to slightly more than 63 million in 2010, rising at a stunning Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 92.1 per cent from 2.4 million in 2005, as presented in the figure below.

    The IPTV subscriber base will generate more than $27 billion in overall IPTV services revenue in 2010. While video services will account for the largest portion of these dollars, value-added media services and IPTV operator advertising will combine to represent more than 14 per cent of IPTV services revenue in 2010. Furthermore, across all IPTV services, the corresponding content licensing revenue will reach $11 billion in 2010.

    “The fight to capture the expanding base of IPTV subscribers will put telecom operators on a collision course with existing pay-TV market competitors and with a new class of broadband video portals as they roll-out progressively more sophisticated offerings,” said iSuppli vice president multimedia content and services Mark Kirstein.

    iSuppli categorises market deployment of IPTV services in three phases. The current global IPTV market is early in its first phase: basic service deployment. The second phase will add an array of value-added and interactive services. Phase three will bring dramatic improvements in integration and interactivity.

    Thus, in this pending battle for subscribers, providing a competitive video offering is merely the cost of entry for IPTV operators. Differentiation of IPTV services will be essential to bringing new capabilities to TV-based entertainment and attracting subscribers.

    Areas of differentiation will include:

    Interactivity, such as communication, community, voting, interactive advertising and television commerce (t-commerce).

    Integration across multiple platforms, across voice and data services and across content types, i.e. video, voice, music, gaming, data services and user content.
    Personalisation, including intelligent TV recommendations, individualised advertising and non-linear video programming, such as Video on Demand (VoD) and Digital Video Recording (DVR).

    Value-added services, including on-demand gaming, music, media applications, home networking management, security and data.

    Beyond the video service providers themselves, an array of companies will benefit from new opportunities arising from their roles as the “arms suppliers” for the battle over the next generation of television distribution. These companies include infrastructure gear manufacturers, set-top box makers, software vendors and semiconductor suppliers, iSuppli predicts.

    On a geographic basis, the European market has taken the early lead in the global IPTV market, both for subscribers and for revenue. However, Asia will generate faster growth than the other regions and will achieve the largest subscriber base by the end of this year. The Americas region will lead the world in terms of IPTV dollars starting this year because it will yield the highest Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

  • Cable TV to air CBFC certified film, music video

    Cable TV to air CBFC certified film, music video

    NEW DELHI: Determined to clean up the Indian cable TV of what it feels is indecent content, the government brought in other regulation relating to airing of songs and promos.

    The information and broadcasting ministry yesterday issued a notification that no film or film song or film promo or film trailer or music video or music album or their promos, whether produced in India or abroad, shall be carried through cable service unless it has been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) as suitable for unrestricted public exhibition in India.

    The move, according to the ministry, has been necessitated on the ground of a growing demand from the public to regulate airing of programmes containing obscenity, violence, cruelty etc., through cable TV networks.

    In this regard, the ministry also cited a judgement of the Bombay High Court, which had directed cable operators not to carry any programme that was unsuitable for unrestricted public exhibition.

    In a statement today, the I&B ministry said another rule relating to airing of ads has been amended.

    From now on, no advertisement, which violates the code for
    self-regulation for public exhibition, as adopted by the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI), shall be carried in the cable service.

    The new norms have been inserted as an amendment to the Cable Television (Network) Rules 1994.

    In the meanwhile, the government is still in the process of finalizing draft guidelines for content.