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  • US IPTV company Kasenna appoints Kumar Shah as CEO

    US IPTV company Kasenna appoints Kumar Shah as CEO

    MUMBAI: The California-based IPTV firm Kasenna has appointed Kumar Shah as CEO. Shah succeeds Mark Gray, who will continue to serve on the Kasenna Board as its Chairman and also continue to drive strategic partnerships across the globe.

    Kasenna provides video-on-demand (VOD) content and MPEG-4 ready IPTV applications for Triple Play services over broadband networks.

    “With our rock-solid and battle-tested VOD Server, innovative LivingRoom Middleware Platform, and industry leading ViewNow Content Aggregation and Management business, Kasenna has clearly established a demonstrable technology and product leadership in the IPTV market,” said Kumar. “I am excited about joining Kasenna at this crucial inflection point for Kasenna and for the IPTV market. I am looking forward to leveraging our product and technology leadership into a global leadership position in the IPTV market.”

    An industry veteran with more than 20 years of business, marketing, and sales management experience, Shah was recruited by the Kasenna board members from US Venture Partners, where he was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR).

    Prior to that, Shah was involved with a number of venture capital funded start-up companies, most recently as President & CEO of Occam Networks (OTC: OCNW) and prior to that as Chief Marketing Officer of AccessLan Communications, which was acquired by Advanced Fibre Communications, which in turn was acquired recently by Tellabs.

  • Chandra to pump in Rs 7.5 billion into WWIL, Dish

    Chandra to pump in Rs 7.5 billion into WWIL, Dish

    MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra has big investment plans for the two de-merged entities of Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL). Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd. and Dish TV, engaged in the cable TV and direct-to-home (DTH) businesses respectively, will together be pumping in Rs 7.5 billion to fund their expansion plans.

    WWIL will have an investment requirement of Rs 5 billion over the next three years to give a big push to digitisation of cable TV, broadband and voice services. The cable company also expects to rope in an investor. “WWIL has a business plan which would take in an investment of Rs 5 billion over three years. The strategic thrust will be on rollout of digital cable. We are also looking at triple play offerings. We have a network which can be made available to telecom operators for voice,” Essel Group chief executive officer of corporate strategy and finance Rajiv Garg tells indiantelevision.com.

    WWIL is looking at a debt-equity ratio of 1:1. “The net worth of the company currently is not that strong to support that sort of debt. We would like a 1:1 debt-equity ratio,” Garg says.

    Operating revenues from ZTL’s cable line of business stood at Rs 1.5 billion for the fiscal ended 31 March 2006 while net profit was at Rs 7 million.

    For Dish TV, the DTH outfit, there is a Rs 2.5 billion investmen plan over the next two years. The net expenses for DTH operations thus far is Rs 3.8 billion, says Garg. “We project a gross revenue of Rs 3.2 billion from our DTH business in FY07. We aim to have 2.4 million DTH subscribers in the fiscal while the average revenue per user (ARPU) should go up from Rs 190 to Rs 250 a month because of the launch of value-added services,” he adds.

    The operating revenues for the DTH business stood at Rs 818 million in FY06. On the back of subsidies and marketing expenses, the DTH operations incurred a loss of Rs 790 million during this period.

    The de-merged DTH and cable companies are likely to opt for an initial dilution of up to 26 per cent to investors. They are open to both private equity and strategic investors.

  • Weume Infosys bags mobile rights for Fifa World Cup

    Weume Infosys bags mobile rights for Fifa World Cup

    MUMBAI: Swiss sports event marketing major Infront Sports & Media AG has sold the India territory mobile broadcast rights for this year’s Fifa World Cup to Weume Infosys Private Limited, a Chennai-headquartered provider of mobile content and Internet services.

    Infront made the announcement as part of four agreements it has signed for its World Cup new media rights package; the other three territories being France, Canada and Sweden.

    The agreements enable the licensees to transmit up to four minutes of key match footage for “near-live” and/or delayed coverage over the Internet and/or via mobile networks to mobile phones, geo-blocked for user access only within each territory.

    The exclusive mobile broadcast rights Weume Infosys has acquired, covers English and Hindi languages and applies also to archive video material of the 2002 event, which took place in Korea and Japan.

    Weume (pronounced as We-U-Me) will distribute the content through Weume’s portal as well as mobile networks and mobile portals within the territory. The company’s target is to reach approximately 85 million subscribers, the announcement states.

    Meanwhile, telecommunications operator France Telecom has secured the non-exclusive French-language rights for Internet highlight coverage of all World Cup matches for the territory of France. France Telecom will offer the match footage via its Internet platform.

    In Canada is Rogers Communications Ltd, a diversified Canadian communications and media company, that is exclusively licensing the English-language Internet and mobile telephony rights in Canada to all 64 matches of the World Cup as well as archive material from the 2002 edition of the tournament. Rogers will leverage the rights acquired on its multiple platforms including Rogers Wireless, Rogers Cable and Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet. Rogers Sportsnet, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications, is already a World Cup television rights holder.

    Swedish territory rights have gone to the Scandinavian nation’s largest commercial television broadcaster TV4 AB, which has acquired the Internet and mobile telephony rights to all 64 matches and archive access to 2002 tournament’s matches in Swedish and English languages. TV4 is already a television rights holder.

    Infront has so far concluded new media agreements for almost 100 countries worldwide. With more such deals in the pipeline, Infront asserts that the 2006 Fifa World Cup will be the most diversified of any international sports event to date.

  • BBC. HBO to collaborate on ‘Tsunami’ drama

    BBC. HBO to collaborate on ‘Tsunami’ drama

    MUMBAI: Following the success of Rome, the BBC and HBO will collaborate on a two part drama that deals with the tsunami tragedy and the events that followed.

    Tim Roth, Toni Collette, Sophie Okonedo are among the actors that will star. The drama will focus on the aftermath of the cataclysmic natural disaster.

    Developed and written by Abi Morgan, Tsunami is a Kudos production for BBC Two and HBO Films and will air later this year.

    A tale of personal loss, Tsunami follows a group of fictitious characters whose lives are irrevocably transformed by the natural disaster. Based on extensive research and interviews, the drama explores how governments, the media and aid agencies respond, when without warning, they are tested by a natural disaster of this scale.

    The drama will also tackle the relationship between mankind and nature.

    Kudos has been collaborating with local communities and the piece will feature a variety of locations and landmarks affected by the tsunami. Filming on location in Phuket and Khao Lak has commenced.

    BBC controller of drama commissioning Jane Tranter says, “A thought provoking drama of loss, survival and hope, Tsunami is another example of BBC Drama’s commitment to deliver ambitious and distinctive projects that reflect the world in which we live by delving into the headlines and revealing the stories behind them.”

    Kudos executive producer and joint MD Jane Featherstone says, “The catastrophic events of Boxing day 2004 had a profound and lasting effect on people across the globe. Through meticulously researching real life events, real people and working closely with the survivor groups Abi has written a wonderful, powerful drama that purposely asks what mankind can learn from the event, as well as reflecting on the far reaching emotional and political repercussions of that fateful day.”

    BBC Two controller Roly Keating says, “It is a tribute to the power of Abi’s writing that such an extraordinary cast has come together for this important TV event.”

  • CBS launches broadband television network ‘Innertube’













    MUMBAI: US network CBS has launched a new broadband television network to capture a greater share of the booming internet advertising market.


    The network Innertube will offer streaming video of programmes developed specifically for the internet, programmes that serve as companions to existing CBS shows, as well as material from the media group‘s vast library.

     

    The revenue model for Innertube, which is offered as free to viewers, is based on paid advertising. “In every discussion we‘re having with advertisers, the discussion includes interactive possibilities,” CBS Digital president Larry Kramer has been quoted in media reports as saying.

     

    Kramer supported the new revenue model, describing CBS‘s recent success offering an advertising-supported webcast of the annual college basketball tournament. Reportedly, the webcast drew 5 million visits, and led to more than 15 million downloads.

  • US IPTV company Kasenna appoints Kumar Shah as CEO

    MUMBAI: The California-based IPTV firm Kasenna has appointed Kumar Shah as CEO. Shah succeeds Mark Gray, who will continue to serve on the Kasenna Board as its Chairman and also continue to drive strategic partnerships across the globe.


    Kasenna provides video-on-demand (VOD) content and MPEG-4 ready IPTV applications for Triple Play services over broadband networks.


    “With our rock-solid and battle-tested VOD Server, innovative LivingRoom Middleware Platform, and industry leading ViewNow Content Aggregation and Management business, Kasenna has clearly established a demonstrable technology and product leadership in the IPTV market,” said Kumar. “I am excited about joining Kasenna at this crucial inflection point for Kasenna and for the IPTV market. I am looking forward to leveraging our product and technology leadership into a global leadership position in the IPTV market.”


    An industry veteran with more than 20 years of business, marketing, and sales management experience, Shah was recruited by the Kasenna board members from US Venture Partners, where he was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR).


    Prior to that, Shah was involved with a number of venture capital funded start-up companies, most recently as President & CEO of Occam Networks (OTC: OCNW) and prior to that as Chief Marketing Officer of AccessLan Communications, which was acquired by Advanced Fibre Communications, which in turn was acquired recently by Tellabs.

  • I&B minister to take CAS review meeting

    NEW DELHI: Information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi will review developments on CAS vis-a-vis court cases.


    The meeting was scheduled to happen either today or early next week. Pointing out that the government is committed to implementing CAS, Dasmunsi told indiantelevision.com on Friday, “I‘ll review CAS in a meeting and try to understand the issues that have beset it.”


    The minister however, refused to spell out in detail his agenda on CAS. “The ministry‘s broad stand on CAS has been conveyed to the (Delhi) high court.”


    In a reply filed before the Delhi HC some days back, the government sought eight to nine months‘ time to implement the court‘s order on rolling out addressability in Indian cable homes in select cities.


    Dasmunsi also hinted that a big roadblock in the way of smooth implementation of CAS are the different voices in which the various industry stakeholders are speaking.


    “There hardly seems to be a consensus amongst them,” the minister said on the sidelines of a book release function in the capital.


    On 10 March 2006, the Delhi HC had directed the government to roll out CAS in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata within 30 days time.


    The directive came on a petition filed by a bunch of MSOs, including Hathway and INCablenet, alleging that a delay in implementing CAS since 2004 has resulted in huge financial losses to them.


    The I&B ministry held a series of meeting with the industry, NGOs and consumer bodies soon after the court order, but said in view of inconsistency in the approach of the stakeholders, more time would be needed to iron the differences.


    The next date of hearing of the CAS case is 24 May.
     


    Also Read:
    CAS: MSO Alliance hits back at broadcasters


    IBF board to discuss CAS on 5 April


    No final solution on CAS rollout; call for channel MRPs


    Delhi HC orders Government to implement CAS within four weeks

  • Karnataka Opening Up!

    In the last two years, the South Indian television market has witnessed much churn in terms of fresh investments and new initiatives. In all the languages combined, at least 10 new channels were launched during this period. In this two-year period, there has been one market missing all the action – Karnataka.

    However, 2006 holds something different for the Rs 1.5 billion Kannada television market. Zee has made the first move by launching its second South Indian channel Zee Kannada, a pay channel, on 11 May. Not to be left behind, the Hyderabad-headquartered Associated Broadcasting Company Pvt Ltd, which runs Telugu news channel TV9, is targeting a July launch for its Kannada news channel – TV9 Kannada.

    Exploring the news space further in the market will be Kannada Kasturi, promoted by chief minister Kumaraswamy‘s wife Anitha. The news channel is expected to launch by year-end.

    Though the Kannada television market is the third largest player in the regional space (behind Tamil and Telugu), it, surprisingly, didn‘t help much in attracting new investments. While the Rs 1.25 billion Malayalam (Kerala) television space witnessed the launch of about five channels in 2005, Karnataka received just one single player, Udaya 2, a youth-oriented music channel from the Sun Network stable. And it required two outside players – Zee and TV9 – to bring some changes in the pattern.

    “It has something to do with people‘s mindset. It looks like Kannadigas are not very enterprising when it comes to television. They are more involved with the film business. Also it requires a mammoth effort to make your presence felt in the market since you have two established players — ETV and Udaya — to compete with. Then, Hindi also attracts audience here,” points out Shyamsundar, head of the production house Yantra Media.

    Explains ETV chief producer Manvi: “The Kerala market is different from Tamil and Telugu because, here it is not a one-sided competition. Asianet and Surya are going neck and neck, but you have smaller players also making significant contributions. The market attracts fresh investments since it is open to all kinds of experiments and fresh programming strategies. In Kerala, new players are thriving on this confidence. Other regional markets are yet to deliver that confidence.”

    In that case, what is the strategy that Zee has zeroed in on to take on ETV and Udaya in Karnataka? The media behemoth had suffered a setback five years ago when it first entered the South market through Kannada with Kaveri TV through a joint venture with Asianet. Understandably, Zee has done its homework before making the second attempt as an independent venture now.

    The preparations included extensive field research involving about 700,000 households to get its programming mix right. Soaps, films and telefilms will constitute 25 per cent of the channel programming. Gameshows and talk shows will make up another 25 per cent. As for the rest of it, there will be a stress on current affairs programmes, events and film-based shows.

    Zee Kannada‘s positioning is in direct contrast to that of its southern sibling Zee Telugu. The one-year old Telugu channel targets the young upwardly mobile viewer segment, while Zee Kannada is following the traditional strategy of going for the mass audience.

    “Being the second largest player in the regional space, you can afford to experiment a lot in the Telugu space. We had our options to choose our target group (TG) in Telugu. But Kannada is a comparatively a smaller market. Hence, the plan is to follow the traditional strategy,” states head of Zee South Initiatives Ajay Kumar.

    Most importantly, Zee Kannada will be making a conscious attempt to be very close to Kannada culture and retain the local flavour in its programmes. According to market sources, Zee has adopted this strategy from ETV Kannada.

    “ETV‘s programmes are very local oriented and that is the channel‘s USP. Almost 95 per cent of the programmes are done by local producers. Zee Kannada seems to be following the same strategy by signing up a chunk of local producers. At the same time, Udaya follows a different gameplan as it explores the whole of South and Hindi as well (Balaji Productions),” says a source.

    Shedding light on the programming strategies of the leading channels, both Udaya and ETV Kannada have created their own compartments in the space. ETV banks on serials and fiction programmes, while Udaya is known for its films and film based programmes. Udaya has three more channels in Udaya News, Ushe (film and music) and Udaya 2.

    One common strand in any South market is films and this plays a crucial role in Kannada television as well. Acquisition costs for a blockbuster film ranges from Rs 15 million to Rs 20 million.

    Knowing that having strong film content would matter a lot for the channel‘s strategy in the movie-crazy market, Zee Kannada has acquired a combo package of new and old films to create its movie library.

    “Since the TG is the same, Zee Kannada will have a head-on collision with Sun Network‘s Udaya TV and its sister channels. In this context, having strong film content will be crucial,” says a source.

    “Though ETV Kannada acquires many good films every year, Udaya is ahead when comparing the number of films acquired,” adds Shyamsundar.

    Switching to the news space, we have TV9 Kannada and Kannada Kasturi gearing up to explore the relatively virgin land. Finally offering some competition to the lone player in the segment, Udaya News. Kannada Kasturi is still in the process of streamlining its strategies whereas TV9 Kannada is preparing the ground for a July launch.

    Driven by the tagline “Close to your heart”, TV9 Kannada is positioned as a young-at-heart, urban news channel with an international look and feel. TV9 has adopted its Telugu strategy for Kannada as well.

    “We targeted the urban youth and women with TV9 Telugu. We are following a similar strategy for TV9 Kannada also. Within a short duration, TV9 Telugu reached an impressive position in the market, and we are confident of repeating this performance in Kannada as well,” states TV9 chief news coordinator Rajasekhar.

    TV9 Kannada is planning to create a space for itself in the film-crazy, entertainment-oriented market through efficient coverage and innovations. “The idea is to crack the market by providing something fresh. Kannadigas are used to the traditional methods of news delivery and presentation. Our attempt will be to take it to a new level, with a lot of innovations. The plan is to woo the urban crowd by offering them international standards in the local language,” says Rajasekhar.

    Inspired by the entry of new players, the Kannada television market is targeting a 25 per cent expansion this year. Market analysts feel that this would also inspire more local advertisers, including retailers, to try television.

    “The ratio between local advertisers versus national advertisers is as low as 10 per cent versus 90 per cent in Karnataka. The television advertising here totally depends on Mumbai and Bangalore clients. We hope this will change with the entry of players such as Zee and TV9,” says Shyamsundar.

    “The market has the potential to touch even the Rs 2 billion mark in a short time. New players mean competition, but it is surely a good sign for the business,” adds Manvi.

  • Chandra to pump in Rs 7.5 billion into WWIL, Dish

    MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra has big investment plans for the two de-merged entities of Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL). Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd. and Dish TV, engaged in the cable TV and direct-to-home (DTH) businesses respectively, will together be pumping in Rs 7.5 billion to fund their expansion plans.


    WWIL will have an investment requirement of Rs 5 billion over the next three years to give a big push to digitisation of cable TV, broadband and voice services. The cable company also expects to rope in an investor. “WWIL has a business plan which would take in an investment of Rs 5 billion over three years. The strategic thrust will be on rollout of digital cable. We are also looking at triple play offerings. We have a network which can be made available to telecom operators for voice,” Essel Group chief executive officer of corporate strategy and finance Rajiv Garg tells indiantelevision.com.


    WWIL is looking at a debt-equity ratio of 1:1. “The net worth of the company currently is not that strong to support that sort of debt. We would like a 1:1 debt-equity ratio,” Garg says.


    Operating revenues from ZTL‘s cable line of business stood at Rs 1.5 billion for the fiscal ended 31 March 2006 while net profit was at Rs 7 million.


    For Dish TV, the DTH outfit, there is a Rs 2.5 billion investmen plan over the next two years. The net expenses for DTH operations thus far is Rs 3.8 billion, says Garg. “We project a gross revenue of Rs 3.2 billion from our DTH business in FY07. We aim to have 2.4 million DTH subscribers in the fiscal while the average revenue per user (ARPU) should go up from Rs 190 to Rs 250 a month because of the launch of value-added services,” he adds.


    The operating revenues for the DTH business stood at Rs 818 million in FY06. On the back of subsidies and marketing expenses, the DTH operations incurred a loss of Rs 790 million during this period.


    The de-merged DTH and cable companies are likely to opt for an initial dilution of up to 26 per cent to investors. They are open to both private equity and strategic investors.

  • Disney signs VoD deal in Germany

    MUMBAI: Disney‘s international TV distribution arm Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) has concluded a multi-year agreement with German video-on-demand (Vod) operator HanseNet.


    The German firm will air a selection of upcoming, current and library movies from BVITV‘s portfolio on its new set top box VOD and TV service Alice homeTV.


    With this agreement, Alice homeTV‘s customers will be able to enjoy a selection of current and upcoming features from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films via the new set top box service.


    Titles include The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, its upcoming sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest. The agreement also includes recent titles such as Flightplan and Cinderella Man. Subscribers will also be able to enjoy a selection of library features, and a selection of local German acquisitions such as Die Wilden Kerle 3.


    The agreement also includes provisions for co-operation between BVITV and Alice against piracy of BVITV‘s content, while at the same time appropriately safeguarding the privacy of Alice‘s service subscribers and remaining consistent with local law. Under the agreement, Alice will forward notices to its internet subscribers allegedly engaged in the unauthourised distribution of BVITV‘s copyrighted works, without identifying the subscribers to BVITV.