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Tag: Abhijeet Saxena

  • Essel targets January 2007 launch of digital venture; plans web portal

    Essel targets January 2007 launch of digital venture; plans web portal

    MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group will unveil a set of digital initiatives under the banner of its newly-formed digital arm Digital Media Convergence Ltd (DMCL) by January 2007, including a web portal.

    The plan is to explore new media platforms such as mobile and IPTV and the online space in a full-fledged manner to distribute various formats of digitised content.

    “We will be unveiling our initiatives in three months time. We are going to create various in-house formats and shows. Apart from this, we are speaking to various foreign players as well to acquire internationally acclaimed formats. We are sending a special programming delegation for the upcoming Mipcom session. Though the stress is on delivering fresh content, we are keen on the Zee digital library as well,” says DMCL CEO Abhijeet Saxena.

    DMCL will concentrate on acquiring, digitising and making available content on various delivery platforms. “Apart from our library products, we are keenly looking at providing our services to all the content owners who want to distribute their content in these platforms. The company will also be exploring the interactivity segment to tap the potential this space offers to the maximum,” Saxena adds.

    To enrich its platforms, DMCL will be creating special interest content, apart from making use of the Zee Network library on a selective basis. DMCL has already initiated talks with various Indian as well as international companies to acquire programming formats and various genres of content.

    According to Saxena, the company is thinking beyond mobisodes and other existing mobile value added services (VAS). He says the plan is to launch multiple formats of shows, targeting various segments of the consumer.

    “We have thought about the viability of the services from a consumer point of view and the practicalities of making it a popular medium. Hence, we will offer various price rates depending on the duration and uniqueness of the formats. For example, we are working on multiple formats for movies, not just abridged versions. To market these multiple segments, we have classified the services into premium and mass oriented,” Saxena offers.

    DMCL expects to contribute to the mobile VAS in a significant manner with the initiatives. “The existing mobile VAS market size comes about $500 million and this space is expected to reach $10 billion by 2010. DMCL expects to be a major contributor to the expansion,” says Saxena.

    DMCL has recently roped in Intel and IBM for its back-end technology support. The company has already brought most of the telecom operators on board for the initiative.

  • Essel, Intel partner on digital content

    Essel, Intel partner on digital content

    NEW DELHI: The Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group has launched DMCL (Digital Media Convergence Ltd) as a company that will facilitate the availability of digital content in India.

    Infotech major Intel will partner the Essel Group in this digital venture, according to senior Intel company executives at the ongoing FICCI Frames event in Mumbai.

    DMCL, to be headed by Zee Telefilms president Abhijeet Saxena, will concentrate on acquiring, digitising and making available on various platforms a wide variety of content.

    This content could be special interest content sourced from outside India for the Indian audience as well as Indian/Bollywood content for use in India and outside.

    DMCL will also engage in creating special interest /niche content that will be of immense value to select audiences in India.

    Announcing the initiative, Saxena said, “We have always been very conscious of offering the best in entertainment to our consumers. Keeping our sights on the future of entertainment in the digital new media scenario, we will be at the forefront of providing both new and existing content across various consumer gadgets.”

    Dwelling on shaking hands with Intel, he added, “While selecting the technology and partner for implementation, performance and expertise in successful implementation was given prime consideration. As Intel is a domain specialist, we are very happy to collaborate with them for this effort. We are confident that we will have mutually beneficial partnership with Intel for this gigantic strategic initiative.”

    Intel Corp launched its Intel Viiv technology platform for home entertainment devices at the CES show California in January 2006.

    The Intel Viiv technology is designed to make it easier for people to download, view, manage and share digital entertainment on a variety of viewing screens and networked devices such as portable media players, digital TVs and routers.

    The company is working to bring the Intel Viiv platform to India in the near future.

    DMCL and Intel will work towards offering digital content over the Intel Viiv platform in India. DMCL will offer an agnostic platform, by being an aggregator (including doing re-purposing) for other content owners, starting with Zee Telefilms Ltd.’s content.

    Intel will work with other players in the industry to introduce DMCL as an Intel Viiv content service provider in India. This joint industry supporting effort means that the consumers who procure Intel Viiv will get a ready service available on the platform for them to access information, entertainment and other services.

    Essel Group has diverse national and global business interests, encompassing media programming, broadcast and distribution, specialty packaging, entertainment and trading.