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Net portal Lycos teams up with PermissionTV for online TV platform

MUMBAI: US net portal Lycos is working with the broadband TV platform PermissionTV to offer a variety of video programming to its 25 million visitors. PermissionTV is a system for media companies and content owners to distribute television programming via the Internet.

The two companies will team up to deliver a high quality TV entertainment solution to the nearly 25 million visitors to the Lycos Network of sites.

Lycos will use the PermissionTV platform to offer a variety of video programming to the Lycos audience. Lycos says that the deal reinforces its core strategy to provide consumers with quality video programming and entertainment enhanced with the interactivity of the web, and a platform for creators to showcase and market quality content.

Lycos CEO Alfred Tolle says, “We chose to work with PermissionTV because we considered it to be one of the most powerful broadband TV platforms available today, allowing us to offer high quality video to our end users that is television-centric, while providing our content partners their own customized channels with a completely unique look under the Lycos brand.

“By teaming with PermissionTV, Lycos is uniquely positioned to become a leader in the television internet space.” Lycos plans to leverage the PermissionTV platform to acquire a wide range of on-demand content from episodic television, to independent films and programming, to long-form films, providing a totally unique broadband based video experience.

PermissionTV CEO David Graves says, “The combination of Lycos’s reach, and PermissionTV’s advanced technology is an attractive proposition for video programmers who want to attract a large audience in the most compelling way. This platform makes it easy to get up and running, allowing content providers to build an audience for their own brands.”

For sponsors, the enhanced online programming offers exactly what they have been seeking: the targetability of web advertising with content that fit expectations of traditional TV viewers. With the PermissionTV platform, Lycos is able to offer media companies and content owners a new distribution channel with subscription, advertising or VOD (video on demand) packaging options. Advertisers get a robust and cost-effective way of reaching potential buyers, while viewers get a controllable on-demand viewing experience that feels like TV.

Tolle adds, “The era of merging the interactivity of the Web with traditional broadcast television programming is here. Lycos can bring an instant audience, immediate distribution and traffic, and consistently re- engage our users with new content, making this platform particularly attractive to content partners and advertisers alike.”

The first programming kicked off on 9 June 2006 with the launch of Lycos’ behind- the-scenes video coverage of the soccer World Cup. For the remainder of World Cup, Lycos will give an insider’s look at World Cup culture, featuring exclusive video from embedded Lycos videographers on the front lines, available only at worldcup.lycos.com and powered by PermissionTV. Additional programming will be launched in the coming weeks, including branded television- and movie- related offerings that lend themselves to mainstream audience demand.

June 21, 2006
MTV Asia to hold first movie awards show in October

MBAI: MTV Asia will roll out the red carpet and welcome the biggest stars of Asian and international movies when it stages its first movie awards show on 7 October 2006 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

As part of the creative vision of the event, the iconic Southeast Asian performance venue will be fitted-out in true Hollywood glitz and glamour to accommodate the star-studded night and will set the tone for a night of awards, superstar presenters, musical tributes and celebrity antics.

As is the case with the US show the MTV Asia Movie Awards will take a unique twist to ‘traditional’ movie kudofests by offering off-the-wall categories appealing to MTV’s audience such as “Best Kiss” and “Best Fight” filling out the list of golden popcorn trophies awarded on the night.

The awards will also feature live performances from international and regional acts, making the event a blend of movie glamour and popular music.

MTV notes that Asian stars, directors and films are increasingly captivating the global movie buffs. The show will feature the biggest names from Hollywood to Bollywood. Industry A-listers from India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore will share the spotlight with international headline-grabbing celebrities who top the list of nominees, presenters and attendees taking part in the MTV Asia Movie Awards.

MTV executive VP creative David Flack says, “The MTV Asia Movie Awards will give a unique spin to the only telecast hailed as the wackiest awards show around. With so many Asian filmmakers, stars and movies impacting global pop culture, there has never been a better time for MTV to celebrate and highlight the Asian Movie Industry with its unique sense of fun and humour.”

The MTV Asia Movie Awards will be staged under the US$50 million strategic alliance formalised between MTV Asia and the Singapore Tourism Board in February 2006. Singapore will host 17 MTV and Nickelodeon events under the alliance; the first MTV Fashionably Loud event featured Placebo in March, with Coldplay performing at the upcoming MTV Centrestage in July.

June 21, 2006
Dan Rather to leave CBS News after four decades

MUMBAI: News veteran Dan Rather will leave US broadcaster CBS News after 44 years.

CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus said, “Of all the famous names associated with CBS News, the biggest and brightest on the marquee are Murrow, Cronkite and Rather. With the utmost respect, we mark the extraordinary and singular role Dan has played in writing the script of not only CBS News, but of broadcast journalism. There will always be a part of Dan Rather at CBS News. He is truly a ‘reporter’s reporter,’ and he has helped to train several generations of broadcast journalists. His legacy cannot be replicated.”

CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves says, “For more than four decades, Dan Rather has approached the job of broadcast journalist with a singular passion, dedication and, always, an unwavering desire to tell the story to the American public. The unique mark he has left on his craft is indelible.”

CBS News is currently finalising plans for a primetime special on the newsman’s legendary career at CBS News. It is scheduled to be broadcast sometime this yea. CBS News also will make a contribution to Rather’s alma mater, now called Sam Houston State University.

Rather joined CBS News in 1962. He covered virtually every major event in the world for CBS News in the past 44 years. Rather regularly landed the biggest interviews with the world’s most important and compelling figures, from the famous to the infamous. CBS says that his passion for the news, for getting the story and for taking on the most challenging assignments in journalism is unmatchedsomething his competitors knew only too well–and he has dedicated himself to delivering to the American public coverage that is fair and accurate, no matter the size and scope of the story. Rather has interviewed every US president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Bill Clinton and virtually every major international leader of the past 30 years. He landed two news-breaking interviews with Saddam Hussein. The first occurred in 1990 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Then, in February 2003, with coalition forces poised to invade the country, Rather secured the most sought-after interview in the world, an exclusive one-on-one with Saddam in Baghdad, the first the Iraqi leader had conducted with a Western journalist since 1991. Rather and his team at 60 MINUTES II also broke, arguably, the biggest story of the year–the abuse of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison–in April 2004.

June 21, 2006
Single network to ease dilemma faced by broadcasters

SINGAPORE: Broadcasters – with their need to transport uncompressed studio-quality video – are the most demanding customers for video, voice and data networks. Broadcasters face an expensive and complicated future with the task of upgrading networks to enable digital terrestrial television, HDTV and Video on Demand (VOD) and upgrading data and telephony to meet today’s standards, unless they can implement a single network that can meet all of these needs.

NetSight Sweden global director operations Thomas Wahlund threw light on how European broadcasters such as Eurovision and Broadcast Services Danmark have recently implemented unified Next Generation networks to provide video for contribution, distribution, and digital terrestrial television plus audio for radio, internet and even telephony.

“Using Asynchronous Serial Interface (ASI), a very common interface used to transport MPEG compressed video to satellite uplinks, between studios and for distribution in for example CATV networks, PCR jitter has to stay under 500 nanoseconds in order for a correct decoding to be done. Since the format is compressed, if only one of these frames arrives out of spectrum it could make the decoder loose synchronisation and it could take several seconds before the service is restored. In the ad-driven world of broadcasting even a few seconds of black screen is obviously unacceptable,” Wahlund said.

Delivery channels – terrestrial, cable and satellite, need to keep pace with the ever-increasing demands of the content to be streamed, the demands upon spectrum and the constant high and sometimes unreasonable expectations of the viewer.

Each professional uncompressed standard video stream requires 270Mbps, which is more than 50 times the requirement for a cable -TV movie. Due to the demands of video, broadcasters deploy separate networks for voice and data.

Broadcasters are now looking to upgrade their analogue TV networks with digital TV networks. Singapore, Japan, Australia and Taiwan have rolled out Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), and most Asian countries will do so in the coming years. With DTT or DVB-T, digital TV signals are transmitted from terrestrial antennas to digital TV receivers in the households. The benefits of this are lower operational costs, a higher picture quality and the ability to transmit up to four times more TV channels on the same frequency range.

Wahlund further added, “The requirements on video transport will also soon increase, as broadcasters change from SDTV to large – scale deployment of HDTV. As a norm, an HD feed takes up roughly four times the bandwidth of a standard definition feed. Today’s delivery mechanisms will not be sufficient to handle the increased bandwidth. Broadcasters are now faced with a dilemma of upgrading their data and telephony networks to meet today’s standards.”

In Europe, several major broadcasters have actively acquired their own networks. The European Broadcast Union (EBU) and Broadcast Service Danmark (BSD), the provider of analog and digital distribution of TV and radio in Denmark, each built its own next generation networks to provide video for contribution and distribution plus audio for radio, internet and even telephony.

“They are now using the networks to connect production studios with film banks, stadiums and other production sites. These optical networks handle a mix of video, audio, data and even telephony without massive over provisioning of bandwidth, delay, jitter and constant (and costly) traffic engineering. Broadcasters have been able to increase the services such as HD and VOD and they have also been able to improve workflow, and substantially save on operating and capital expenses,” Wahlund said.

“They are meeting the challenges of providing new services such as HDTV and digital television by building next generation multi-service fibre networks that can provide these services. They are achieving additional benefits by intelligently using the additional bandwidth these networks to provide state of the art contribution and distribution networks and upgraded data and telephony services. They are also benefiting from reduced operating expenses from a unified management system. This is proving to be a rare win-win proposition for all,” he concluded.

June 21, 2006
Sweeney, Bodenheimer to deliver keynotes at Mipcom

MUMBAI: The upcoming television trade event Mipcom 2006 which takes place in Cannes from 9-13 October has announced four keynote speakers.

This year’s conference programme is called Reshaping Media. The speakers include ESPN US president George Bodenheimer, Disney-ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney, NBC Universal president, digital media and market development Beth Comstock and MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan.

This year’s programme will focus on the changing landscape for traditional TV programming and the advertising business, film financing and distribution, as well as exploring the new opportunities offered by internet TV and mobile TV.

Named the Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter, one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune and one of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes, Sweeney is responsible for Disney’s entertainment and news television properties globally. Under her guidance ABC went from strength to strength with shows like Desperate Housewives and Lost.

At Mipcom Sweeney will share her vision of the future and the impact of digital on all forms of media. She will offer an insight on the changing landscape of television and evolving consumer demands.

As part of a new conference focus at Mipcom 2006 highlighting new financing and distribution opportunities for film Sloan, will present the new invigorated MGM business strategy to hundreds of Mipcom delegates. A core business for MGM, Sloan will be addressing the new opportunities for cinema in television distribution, channel operations, home entertainment and new media. Sloan headed three media companies before joining MGM in October 2005. They were SBS Broadcasting, Lions Gate Entertainment and New World Entertainment.

Comstock drives NBC Universal’s digital strategy and leads the company’s content and distribution efforts across new and emerging digital platforms. In her keynote speech, she will discuss NBC Universal’s 360 degree content approach to capitalise on opportunities in the digital age and strategy for success in this era of the pull consumer.

Bodenheimer will be looking into the reasons and strategy behind the growth of the ESPN brand as part of the day’s spotlight on cross-platform and mobile content. Bodenheimer was named president of ESPN in 1998 and his focus on creativity and cutting-edge innovation has led the company to expand its brand to over 50 business entities.

June 21, 2006
Online channel MediaZone to provide coverage of Wimbledon

MUMBAI: Online broadcaster MediaZone, has announced a partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to provide live and on-demand broadband video coverage of Wimbledon.

The new service, Wimbledon Live, is available globally at www.wimbledon.org/live, and will include live and on-demand broadband broadcasts of more than 250 matches from up to nine concurrent courts — an unprecedented depth of coverage for this world-class event.

MediaZone CEO Michelle Wu says, “It is an incredible opportunity to serve as the Worldwide Broadband Partner to the Wimbledon Championships and provide the most in-depth tournament coverage available via the internet to date. The Wimbledon Live service we‘ve developed with the Club provides an intimate feel for the atmosphere at Wimbledon 2006 to tennis and sports enthusiasts around the world, allowing them to share the experience at their leisure throughout the championships.”

From the first round through the finals, Wimbledon Live will feature the most comprehensive full match coverage available, as well as three free Radio Wimbledon channels of live commentary and 10 hours of classic archive footage showcasing rallies and matches that have taken place throughout the history of the tournament. To better serve the international community, the entire site will be localized in Chinese and an overview of the subscription will be available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese.

Wimbledon Live will be integrated with the official Wimbledon website, www.wimbledon.org, which allows viewers to combine video coverage with player information as well as live scoring and statistics from all matches at the championships.

All England Lawn Tennis Club CEO Ian Ritchie says, “We are thrilled by the relationship forged with MediaZone to offer, for the first time in the 120 year history of Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, daily live online coverage of the tournament to tennis fans around the globe.

“Given MediaZone‘s extensive experience successfully broadcasting live sporting events globally via the Internet, we feel they are the ideal partner to distribute the tournament to audiences worldwide.”

A special advance order All Access Pass for Wimbledon Live is available for GBP 9.95 in the UK and $19.95 in the US and the rest of the world prior to the first day of competition.

June 21, 2006
Net portal Lycos teams up with PermissionTV for online TV platform

MUMBAI: US net portal Lycos is working with the broadband TV platform PermissionTV to offer a variety of video programming to its 25 million visitors. PermissionTV is a system for media companies and content owners to distribute television programming via the Internet.

The two companies will team up to deliver a high quality TV entertainment solution to the nearly 25 million visitors to the Lycos Network of sites.

Lycos will use the PermissionTV platform to offer a variety of video programming to the Lycos audience. Lycos says that the deal reinforces its core strategy to provide consumers with quality video programming and entertainment enhanced with the interactivity of the web, and a platform for creators to showcase and market quality content.

Lycos CEO Alfred Tolle says, “We chose to work with PermissionTV because we considered it to be one of the most powerful broadband TV platforms available today, allowing us to offer high quality video to our end users that is television-centric, while providing our content partners their own customized channels with a completely unique look under the Lycos brand.

“By teaming with PermissionTV, Lycos is uniquely positioned to become a leader in the television internet space.” Lycos plans to leverage the PermissionTV platform to acquire a wide range of on-demand content from episodic television, to independent films and programming, to long-form films, providing a totally unique broadband based video experience.

PermissionTV CEO David Graves says, “The combination of Lycos‘s reach, and PermissionTV‘s advanced technology is an attractive proposition for video programmers who want to attract a large audience in the most compelling way. This platform makes it easy to get up and running, allowing content providers to build an audience for their own brands.”

For sponsors, the enhanced online programming offers exactly what they have been seeking: the targetability of web advertising with content that fit expectations of traditional TV viewers. With the PermissionTV platform, Lycos is able to offer media companies and content owners a new distribution channel with subscription, advertising or VOD (video on demand) packaging options. Advertisers get a robust and cost-effective way of reaching potential buyers, while viewers get a controllable on-demand viewing experience that feels like TV.

Tolle adds, “The era of merging the interactivity of the Web with traditional broadcast television programming is here. Lycos can bring an instant audience, immediate distribution and traffic, and consistently re- engage our users with new content, making this platform particularly attractive to content partners and advertisers alike.”

The first programming kicked off on 9 June 2006 with the launch of Lycos‘ behind- the-scenes video coverage of the soccer World Cup. For the remainder of World Cup, Lycos will give an insider‘s look at World Cup culture, featuring exclusive video from embedded Lycos videographers on the front lines, available only at worldcup.lycos.com and powered by PermissionTV. Additional programming will be launched in the coming weeks, including branded television- and movie- related offerings that lend themselves to mainstream audience demand.

June 21, 2006
Online channel MediaZone to provide coverage of Wimbledon

MUMBAI: Online broadcaster MediaZone, has announced a partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to provide live and on-demand broadband video coverage of Wimbledon.

The new service, Wimbledon Live, is available globally at www.wimbledon.org/live, and will include live and on-demand broadband broadcasts of more than 250 matches from up to nine concurrent courts — an unprecedented depth of coverage for this world-class event.

MediaZone CEO Michelle Wu says, “It is an incredible opportunity to serve as the Worldwide Broadband Partner to the Wimbledon Championships and provide the most in-depth tournament coverage available via the internet to date. The Wimbledon Live service we’ve developed with the Club provides an intimate feel for the atmosphere at Wimbledon 2006 to tennis and sports enthusiasts around the world, allowing them to share the experience at their leisure throughout the championships.”

From the first round through the finals, Wimbledon Live will feature the most comprehensive full match coverage available, as well as three free Radio Wimbledon channels of live commentary and 10 hours of classic archive footage showcasing rallies and matches that have taken place throughout the history of the tournament. To better serve the international community, the entire site will be localized in Chinese and an overview of the subscription will be available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese.

Wimbledon Live will be integrated with the official Wimbledon website, www.wimbledon.org, which allows viewers to combine video coverage with player information as well as live scoring and statistics from all matches at the championships.

All England Lawn Tennis Club CEO Ian Ritchie says, “We are thrilled by the relationship forged with MediaZone to offer, for the first time in the 120 year history of Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, daily live online coverage of the tournament to tennis fans around the globe.

“Given MediaZone’s extensive experience successfully broadcasting live sporting events globally via the Internet, we feel they are the ideal partner to distribute the tournament to audiences worldwide.”

A special advance order All Access Pass for Wimbledon Live is available for GBP 9.95 in the UK and $19.95 in the US and the rest of the world prior to the first day of competition.

June 21, 2006
Syniverse Technologies acquires telecommunications business of ITHL

BANGALORE: Syniverse Technologies , a provider of technology services to wireless telecommunications companies worldwide, today announced that it has acquired the telecommunications business of Interactive Technology Holdings Limited (ITHL) for up to US$45 million in cash, including potential earn-out payments of up to US$7 million if certain financial goals are achieved.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, ITHL is a leading provider of value-added services to carriers in the Asia Pacific region. It has approximately 180 employees and nine regional offices including offices in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan. The acquisition expands Syniverse’s footprint in the Asia Pacific region, adds a complementary customer base, new products, advanced development capabilities, and in-region customer support.

“The acquisition of ITHL is an important step in Syniverse’s strategic plan for global expansion and product development,” said Tony Holcombe, President and CEO of Syniverse Technologies. “ITHL provides many new customers, most of whom are GSM operators, and a strong set of advanced products, including prepaid, messaging, video and number portability products that complement Syniverse’s existing suite of services. Additionally, ITHL expands our presence and provides us with additional development capabilities in the heart of the world’s most advanced wireless market.”

ITHL chairman & CEO Raymond Cheung says, “The combination of Syniverse and ITHL’s Telecommunications business represents a strong strategic fit and provides each company with expanded sales and marketing opportunities. The Asian wireless telecommunication carriers have been leaders in the adoption of 3G products, and ITHL has been a leader in 3G solutions development for many years. With complementary product sets, we will be able to leverage Syniverse’s scale and global customer base and will have an opportunity to provide these next-generation wireless solutions to other operators around the world.”

Syniverse will maintain ITHL’s nine existing offices and gain approximately 180 full-time employees. The acquisition will be accounted for as a purchase transaction and is expected to be accretive to earnings in 2006.

June 21, 2006
The human side of business

SINGAPORE: While the talk of High Definition and digital training remained the buzzword for the major part of the day, there were also a few presentations that focussed on people who make these changes possible. Though, not too many attended these sessions, a few who made it added the human dimension to it.

So how can broadcasters survive in the rapidly changing world where they can perish at the very next moment? How do managers, policy makers, programmers understand the real needs of people in the developing nations? Also, the huge media boom in the Asia Pacific region has brought in certain manpower and human resource issues which were discussed.

In all, the afternoon session on the training needs of the media and entertainment industry across the world emphasised the need of training individuals to deal with change. Moving away from traditional methods of face-to-face training, the experts present offered many solutions – like distance or e-learning with the help of CDRoms, training by societies and engineers, self training for broadcasters. The session also turned out to be pretty interesting with live demonstrations.

Broadcast Electronics Inc, USA’s Charles W Kelly, set the tone when he said, “If we ask the viewer what do they want – more resolution on the TV screens or better writers, the answer is obviously better writers who can write newer concepts and bring in fresh programming.” So, if there are 100 channels why do they all look the same? The answer perhaps lies in capacity building of people involved in the industry and training them.

Here the panelists discussed the need of training writers who can change the face of television. This is again related to the lack of trained human resources, because of which channels have to bank on amateurs; which in the long run takes a toll on the business.

There are training needs to be met at the senior level. Say for example, how does an executive from the radio industry make a transition to the television industry or the other way round.

Drawing on his experiences from the Philippines, SBETP president Armand Ursal said, “It is very essential to train broadcast engineers to adapt to the changing technology needs. Also, when they have to deal with things like digital radio, and TV, it can take its toll.”

I think engineer training is very important for the coming of age of the broadcast industries in all countries. Also, the manufacturers have to be brought into the loop to understand consumer demands.”

Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia programme officer Rukmini Vemraju emphasised the need for face-to-face training along with interactive. Marcel Gomez, Programme Manager, AIBD, Malaysia said, “We can help TV professionals across the world transit to the interactive world with the help of CDs.”

Gomez, who has been involved in the project of developing such CDs gave live demonstrations to the people present. He said, “We develop instructional, interactive CDs on topics like how to develop your writing skills, learn news reporting etc. A rather expensiive exercise wherein we get experts from across the world to develop such content.”

The final word came from Charles W Kelly, who summed up the whole session. “TV is not just an investment but also a responsibility, and we as an industry have to continue to keep learning to adapt to the rules, so that we are able to address the real needs of the people.”

June 21, 2006