ITV

Tag: Android

  • DEN readies Android-based STB for Feb launch

    DEN readies Android-based STB for Feb launch

    MUMBAI: Multi-system operator (MSO) DEN is all set to revamp its old hybrid set top box (STB) into a smart STB. The new STB will support 4k HD as well as internet access. 

    A trial for the same is already in process is what DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma informed analysts. He added that the revamped STBs have been planted across the country and the response so far from the subscribers has been good. The trial will go on till February and the prices will be announced during the middle of the month itself. 

    The MSO is also in talks with two Indian broadcasting giants, Star and Zee. It also renewed deals with Sony and IndiaCast in 2017 for a span of two years.

    DEN, which has 13 million cable audience and 8.4 million active subscribers, is also planning to grow its broadband business. The company will be sharing its plan by the end of financial year 2017-18. DEN currently has a net subscriber base of 2.15 lakh with 60 per cent active subscribers. 

    Currently in only 10 select cities across 4 states of the country, MSO has plans to stretch in more 10 cities. 

    DEN Networks CFO Rajesh Kaushal predicted that the future expenditure will be more in broadband and less in cable, as most of the boxes are already lifted and the subsidy is very less on it. 

    DEN previously spent Rs.11 crore for seeding in the existing 10 cities and for expanding to more 10 cities the cost will be around Rs.10 crores.

  • Niche regional OTT player Hoichoi offers Bengali content on iOS, Android and Chromecast

    Niche regional OTT player Hoichoi offers Bengali content on iOS, Android and Chromecast

    MUMBAI: As predicted by most observers, regionalisation as well as niche services are coming to the VOD or OTT ecosystem in India. It’s happening at a trickle now, but could gain momentum over the next few months. For with its large population of more than a billion mobile users, there is room for more — for sure. Kolkata-based Bengali entertainment major Shree Venkatesh Films (SVF), is the latest to take the plunge with its OTT play called Hoichoi.

    Vishnu Mohta – one of the promoters – who has worked with KPMG Risk Advisory and Lloyds TSB corporate strategy in their London offices, is the driving force behind the new platform which is targeting 220 million Bengalis globally. With original web-series, short films, and documentaries exclusively for Hoichoi in the pipeline, the service will also offer over 500 Bengali Movies and 1000 songs for subscribers. Recently, in the run-up to the Hoichoi launch, SVF had rolled out an innovative social media campaign to promote its upcoming original web series, an adult-comedy, Dupur Thakurpo.

    Among the big players in the game figure global players such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, and homegrown startups such as Hotstar, dittoTV, Voot, ALT Balaji and SonyLiv, as well as independent platforms such as TVF Play and Spuul. The congested Indian OTT market has around 32 plus players – some with an overwhelming or exclusive content, some with niche content or pricing plans and others who want to be counted.

    SVF, on its part, had selected ViewLift, a global content distribution and monetisation platform, as its technology partner. The VOD service claims to provide the largest collection of the best in Bengali entertainment content on Web, iOS, Android, and Chromecast. ViewLift CTO Manik Bambha states, “Hoichoi is well positioned to capture significant opportunities in the space with a niche offering meant for Bengali consumers. Hoichoi will benefit from our extensive marketing, data and analytics tools that will help them enhance interaction with their audience.”

    “ViewLift is an expert in the OTT space,” says Vishn, who has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bond University Australia and MSc in International Business from Aston University Birmingham, UK. With enhanced service architecture, extensive data and analytics insights, and global client support, ViewLift delivers high quality video consumption experiences worldwide.

    SVF is helmed by Shrikant Mohta, Mahendra Soni and Vishnu. Shrikant is SVF’s creative muscle who produced the internationally acclaimed ‘Chokher Bali’ and five other national award-winning films — ‘Raincoat’, ‘Memories in March’, ‘Apur Panchali’, ‘Chotoder Chobi’, and ‘Chander Pahar’. President of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA), and an active member of Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), he initiated the shooting of Bengali films abroad.

    Under Soni’s leadership, SVF distributed almost 900 films including blockbusters like ‘Dangal’, ‘Sultan’, ‘Dabangg’, ‘Ghajini’, ‘’Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’, ‘Kahaani 2’, ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘Kapoor & Sons’, ‘Neerja’, ‘Airlift’ and Drishyam.’ He also drives satellite and music syndication deals, along with film acquisitions.

    Mohta and Soni are pretty gung-ho about Hoichoi. The Indian consumer who has access to OTT entertainment — with internet penetration around 32-34 per cent today, and one-third owning smartphones — may well be spoilt for choice, now.

  • Ownzones’ SVoD brings ‘Best Westerns Ever’ to Amazon, Roku, iOS & Android

    MUMBAI: The Western genre rides again thanks to a new SVOD channel being launched by Ownzones Media Network. The OTT EntTech company will bring Best Westerns Ever to Amazon video channels and via the Ownzones app currently on Roku, iOS and Android platforms beginning today, giving fans exclusive access to hundreds of iconic Western films and TV series at a nominal monthly subscription fee of $1.99.

    Today’s news comes on the heels of Ownzones’ successful rollout of Best TV Ever, a subscription content service for fans of vintage TV series that has seen exponential growth, revealing a great demand for niche programming. ‘Best Westerns Ever’, the next in Ownzones’ plans for a full stable of niche vertical channels, was created to satisfy this demand for underserved fans of the Western genre.

    ‘Best Westerns Ever’ will boast more than 400 film and TV titles featuring the genre’s biggest stars, including John Wayne, Dennis Hopper, Gene Autry, Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando, Bob Denver, Roy Rogers, Jane Russell, Fred Astaire, Burt Lancaster, and Maureen O’Hara, along with cult classics and rare treasures, such as “The Cisco Kid” and “Bonanza” and films like “Rawhide,” “Billy the Kid Wanted,” “Red River Valley” and “The Over the Hill Gang.”

    “In launching these niche channels, we are recognizing and responding to vastly underserved audience segments by developing exciting, affordable consumer offerings that appeal to their viewing passions,” said Ownzones head of programming Doug Lee.

    “’Best Westerns Ever’ is a robust channel offering sure to delight Western superfans, who will no longer have to pay high prices to gain access to the titles they love. We’re delivering the best of the genre in feature films and series with one-click convenience.”

    Lee adds that, as the end of the traditional TV bundle nears, viewers will be looking to subscribe and spend more in niche OTT services that are of interest to them.

    Ownzones’ launch of ‘Best Westerns Ever’ and success of Best TV Ever validate the company’s business model, which leverages the consumer’s purchase mindset with the organic search capabilities of its partners.

    These new content services will continue to expand to other distribution platforms to meet the growing consumer demand. Both products will also be available on Ownzones.com.

  • Android future of TV, but many unwilling to pay

    NEW DELHI: Around 72% of respondents in a recent survey are considering Android implementations as a part of their set-top box (STB) strategies. In addition, 50% of respondents in a global survey see Android as being important for their goals within the next five years.

    These are among the findings of a research done by digital security platform Irdeto and OvumConsulting indicating that a majority of video service providers have either Android TV or Android Open Source Project (AOSP) on their technology roadmaps.

    Conducted in February 2017, the study “Is Android the future of the set-top box?” covered 300 TV industry professionals.

    Around 106 respondents were from APAC, segregated by Ovum into two categories: Developed which had 58 respondents and developing which had 48 respondents. India figures in the latter category.

    It also identified a variety of benefits they perceive Android TV to offer, including the availability of new features and services, faster time-to-market, an attractive user interface and cost efficiencies.

    However, while a majority of respondents indicated a commitment to Android, only 54% of video service providers are willing to pay more for Android chipsets than traditional chipsets with embedded middleware.

    Features, specifically the ability for users to download additional apps, are the driving force leading Android implementations. Video service providers with more than one million subscribers (43%) and those with less than one million subscribers (34%) both said that this was the number one driver for adoption.

    However, despite service providers’ confidence in the benefits of Android TV, there are significant concerns around piracy and cyberthreats. By allowing easy installations of other applications onto the STB, 43% of respondents believe there will be an increased attack surface, while 41% are concerned that their subscribers could install apps for illegal streaming.

    “Video service providers are feeling pressure to continue to innovate their offerings to satisfy consumer demand for an optimal user experience,” said Irdeto director of Product Management Frank Poppelsdorf. “These results indicate that Android TV is not only on pace to play a critical role in the future of TV distribution, but are essential for the industry to meet growing consumer demand for new and innovative services. However, the open nature of the technology brings up several security concerns, especially in regard to piracy. As the industry continues to shift toward more open platforms for the set-top box, it will be critical for video service providers to implement a robust 360-degree security approach to ensure their premium content is protected while optimizing flexibility and time to market.”

    While many expect Android to dominate the TV landscape in the near future, the survey revealed that more education on the differences between Android platforms may be needed. Only 52% of those surveyed understand the differences between Android TV and AOSP.

    “Education on Android platforms is critical for video service providers to understand the capabilities, benefits and drawbacks of each technology in order to make the best strategic decision concerning their technology roadmap,” saidOvum Practioce Leader TV Ed Barton. “These types of insights identified in our survey with Irdeto are key to help pay TV operators, broadcasters and OTT streaming providers better anticipate the opportunities and challenges ahead. We were pleased to work with Irdeto on this survey of C-Level executives as well as professionals across multiple disciplines to identify Android strategies that will shape the pay TV market in the years ahead.”

    As platforms like Android TV become the new norm in the TV landscape, it will be important for operators to employ a holistic, 360-degree security approach to secure these next-generation devices. Stofa, Denmark’s most innovative supplier of cable TV and broadband internet services, recently selected Irdeto Cloaked CA to securely deliver content through its upcoming new Android set-top box (STB). Not only will subscribers have the full range of Stofa services on the STB, they will also have direct access to the Google Play app store and to streaming services such as YouTube. Stofa intends to revolutionize the user experience with its new Android STB and with Irdeto’s latest renewable and cardless software security, any form of content delivered to customers will be robustly protected.

    The survey was commissioned by Irdeto and conducted in February 2017 by Ovum. 301 TV industry professionals spread across six regional groupings, including APAC, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa and North America participated in the survey. All respondent companies provide video services as part of their business and the service provider types were Internet service providers, OTT video providers, pay TV operators (cable, DTT and satellite) and telecoms providers. The survey targeted an informed audience with a representative proportion of C-level respondents alongside technology, content, marketing and network security.

  • HDFC Life to use Haptik chatbot to create awareness

    MUMBAI: HDFC Life, one of India’s leading private life insurance companies, announced the launch of India’s first life insurance chatbot in collaboration with Haptik, India’s largest chatbot platform. The chatbot will act as a financial guide to help users choose the most suitable life insurance plans and solutions.

    This chatbot aims to assist the customers with insurance advice – ranging from Health to Tax Planning & Retirement, based on a simple 60-second quiz which enables it to compute their Insurance Quotient. Calculated using different parameters under each insurance category, the Insurance Quotient is an indicative score for each individual, based on which, HDFC Life can recommend the best suited insurance plans for the user. The chatbot not only works as a personal financial advisor, but also brings to the forefront the universal need for life insurance.

    HDFC Life CDO Suresh Badami said, “Many of us in our country, particularly the millennials, are under-insured and need a simple platform to access relevant information about insurance. We have invested heavily in the adoption of cutting edge technology to offer insurance solutions across customer segments through multiple touch points. One such initiative is to pilot the use of artificial intelligence to act as personal assistant to the discerning new age customer. Haptik’s chatbot enables us to do this and reach the millenials through the medium that they are most accustomed to and are comfortable with.”

    Haptik CEO Aakrit Vaish added, “We are extremely excited to partner with HDFC Life to build the India’s first Life Insurance chatbot. We believe chat as an interface simplifies tons of complex everyday experiences, and nothing gets more complex than the process of understanding Life Insurance. HDFC Life was the ideal partner who understands the value a bot could bring, and timing it the financial year end made a lot of sense.”

    The chatbot will be live for only two weeks from the date of its launch on the Haptik app, which is available on both iOS and Android.

  • ALT Balaji working with OTT specialists Diagnal and Xstream

    MUMBAI: ALTBalaji, the digital platform from Balalji Telefilms, marks its entry into the world of global OTT entertainment space. Launched with the aim to reach out to individual audiences directly, ALTBalaji provides differentiated content with original shows spanning some 300 hours in the first year itself. This subscription based platform will be commercially available from mid-April 2017.

    ALTBalaji is developed, designed, and integrated by OTT specialists – Diagnal; the platform is powered by Xstream’s cloud based video management system, Xstream MediaMaker™. The multiscreen platform is available on iOS, Android, Windows, Roku, AppleTV, and many more operating systems.

    Created to provide an alternative to mainstream Indian entertainment & TV content, ALTBalaji brings fresh & interesting stories to audience. Offering unparalleled high quality shows featuring popular artists, acclaimed writers, and award winning directors, the platform fills in the existing void in the entertainment space and provide a real, exciting alternative to regular television based options.

    Unlike similar premium Subscription Video on Demand OTT service providers in the market, ALTBalaji allows users to watch select content and previews without requiring an active subscription. Content accessibility provides users with the opportunity to explore service features before choosing a subscription package that suits their content needs and budget. Premium subscribers to the service will have full-access to content and features like parental control and download to watch offline.

    Commenting on this association ALT Digital Media Entertainment CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “Consumers across the world are evolving aided by growing mobile reach; their requirements are becoming niche, rather than one formula fits all and this is where ALTBalaji belongs. We are excited to be associated with Diagnal and Xstream to bring in the best of technology and scalability together. ALTBalaji will offer extensive range of languages and genres to all age group and regions, both in India and abroad.”

    ALTBalaji is fully cloud based, using Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to deliver incomparable performance and durability, ensuring high performance video delivery to all subscribers. ALTBalaji’s highlights include:

    ● A subscription based Video-on-Demand service with original and exclusive premium content at competitive prices to customers
    ● Pre-subscription access to selective content and previews
    ● Service across multiply connected devices with a seamless cross device user experience
    ● Parental control allowing kids to watch kids content while preventing them full access to all content
    ● Full scale analytics backbone with an inference engine and knowledge data store

  • Pankaj Pachauri’s Go News unveils logo

    NEW DELHI: Another one has bitten the digital bullet. This time it’s former NDTV news anchor and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s media advisor Pankaj Pachauri who’s going digital with his first entrepreneurial and news venture called Go News. And, keeping in tune with times, the logo was unveiled in a short video on Twitter.

    “Dear all, our news venture is getting ready for launch. We seek your support, blessing s and retweets!” Pachauri tweeted recently and it promptly got pinned and retweeted by media personalities and celebs. The tagline for the on-the-go news venture is `Credible, Co-creative, Concise.’

    The news venture, which is claimed to be a not-for-profit endeavour, is targeting all those who want their news on the go and on their hand-held devices, mostly smart phones. The product will be available across a variety of mobile platforms, including the popular Android and iOS.

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    According to industry sources, though Go News is still a work in progress as hiring of staff continues and other fine-tuning happens, the message is quite clear: take the traditional TV newsroom and journalism online — something that another digital entrepreneur Raghav Bahl described in a column for indiantelevision.com as “gods of the digital newsroom.”

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    Though there are several credible digital news ventures in India up and running, two of the recent high-profile ventures include Arnab Goswami’s yet-to-be-launched Republic TV (renamed from the original Republic after political grandstanding by a politician and which will have a digital avatar too apart from the traditional look of a TV news channel) and former NDTV news anchor Barkha Dutt’s tie-up with Bahl’s The Quint for online video and written coverage of the ongoing State elections.

    Go News is being pegged as top class journalism available on hand-held devices in a country that soon may become the world’s largest mobile phone market. India may boast of over a billion mobile phone subscribers — which need not necessarily mean that one billion people own phones — but the Mint newspaper quoted a Pew Research Center survey released early 2016 as stating that only 17 per cent Indians owned smart phones and India stood among the lower half of surveyed countries in Internet usage between 2013 and 2015. Things may have changed for the better since such surveys, but availability of bandwidth and its quality remain amongst the top challenges for consumers here

     

  • 66pc Indians polled access pirated content, consumer education vital: Irdeto

    66pc Indians polled access pirated content, consumer education vital: Irdeto

    MUMBAI: A new online consumer survey from Irdeto, the world leader in digital platform security, found that 71% of Indian consumers polled are aware that producing or sharing pirated video content is illegal, and 64% know that streaming or downloading pirated content is illegal. Despite this high level of awareness, 66% of respondents still choose to watch pirated content. However, the survey also found that over half (56%) of Indian consumers who watch pirated content could be convinced to pirate less, or even stop watching, when told that piracy could hinder studio investment and cause a drop in the quality of content. The online research was conducted in partnership with YouGov and polled over 500 Indian adults aged 18+.

    The research found that one in three consumers (30%) who watch pirated content in India are most interested in watching movies that are currently being shown in the cinema, followed by TV series (23%), and live sports (13%) and Blu-ray edition of movies (13%). Interestingly, only 6% of consumers who watch pirated content are interested in viewing digital service movies or TV programmes from content providers like Netflix, Hulu, etc. This reflects the state of video consumption in India, which is still rooted in a preference for local content but increasingly demonstrating an appetite for Hollywood content and more regional films.

    “India’s OTT market holds huge potential for operators and content providers, especially with the rise of 129 million urban mass consumers who will drive India’s consumer story. Demand for content on any device will only grow – but so will piracy if it is not adequately addressed,” said Irdeto country manager – India Sanjiv Kainth. “Piracy not only damages revenue streams, but also deters content creators from investing in new content. It impacts the creative process and could provide consumers with less choice. It is important that consumers are aware of the long term impact of this behavior, and that content providers have a 360-degree approach to security and anti-piracy that can prevent pirates from stealing additional market share.”

    In regard to the most popular devices used to consume pirated video content, Irdeto’s survey found that 48% of Indian consumers who watch pirate content use their laptops and computers most to watch this content while 25% use their smartphones. Streaming sites and devices were among the least popular channels to watch pirated content, standing at 1% each, while smart TVs, Google Chromecast and Android set-top boxes are used by a mere 3-4% of consumers, among those who watch pirated content.

    “Pirate businesses will continue to capitalize on increased demand for content, but innovative operators are making headway in the fight against piracy,” said Irdeto vice president of services Rory O’Connor. “Consumer education, a compelling legal video service and a robust security and anti-piracy program are the best ways to mitigate online and streaming piracy. A comprehensive anti-piracy strategy that includes watermarking, detection and enforcement can prevent pirates from stealing market share.”

    Methodology

    The research was commissioned by Irdeto and conducted online from January 11, 2017 – January 18, 2017 by YouGov. Total sample size was 502 Indian adults (aged 18+). The figures have been weighted and are representative of the urban population of adults in India (aged 18+).

     

  • MatrixCloud OTT enables IPTV operators roll out OTT services in 60 days

    MatrixCloud OTT enables IPTV operators roll out OTT services in 60 days

    MUMBAI: MatrixStream has introduced the MatrixCloud OTT solution for IPTV operators enabling end-to-end IPTV and OTT platform rollout in less than 60 days. Operators can utilize MatrixCloud OTT to launch skinny channel bundles and subscription VOD to complement existing IPTV offerings or to release a standalone video package to bundle with high-margin broadband and wireless services.

    MatrixCloud OTT dramatically reduces time-to-market, even for the largest IPTV operators, enabling service providers to deploy next generation TV services as quickly as possible to increase sales from existing customers and to protect user-base from competitors choosing other IPTV and OTT platforms.

    In-house OTT solution rollout can add up to tens of millions of dollars or more and thousands of hours of integration across multiple hardware and software providers. The MatrixCloud OTT platform and SaaS- based pricing is specifically designed avoid CAPEX and OPEX nightmares through a one-vendor, end-to- end IPTV and OTT solution.

    Tier one operators with millions of customers on many continents are already capitalizing upon Matrixstream’s years of successful IPTV and OTT solution experience to increase average revenue user (ARPU) MatrixStream and to overcome slower-moving competitors.

    In 2017 alone, Matrixstream is launching and expanding services with many of the world’s top multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). Take advantage of our easy, incredibly-customizable ITPV and OTT solution to generate far higher profits from existing users and reach new users with next generation TV offerings.

    The MatrixCloud OTT platform for IPTV and OTT operators includes the following:

    1. Operator-branded apps and clients for Android and iOS mobile phones and tablets, PCs, Macs, Apple TV boxes, Android TV boxes, Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire.

    2. Support for up 100 live linear channels in each 42u rack with full MatrixCloud DVR support.

    3. SaaS capacity-based pricing that delivering savings of up to 80% over typical per-user pricing and hardware service agreements.

    4. Highly-customizable, targeted advertising across all user devices.

    5. Cloud-based operator BSS and OSS with integrated voucher payment, multiple currencies and third-party mobile money support.

    6. End-to-end MatrixStream OTT IPTV solution can be deployed live in less than 60 days.

  • MatrixCloud OTT enables IPTV operators roll out OTT services in 60 days

    MatrixCloud OTT enables IPTV operators roll out OTT services in 60 days

    MUMBAI: MatrixStream has introduced the MatrixCloud OTT solution for IPTV operators enabling end-to-end IPTV and OTT platform rollout in less than 60 days. Operators can utilize MatrixCloud OTT to launch skinny channel bundles and subscription VOD to complement existing IPTV offerings or to release a standalone video package to bundle with high-margin broadband and wireless services.

    MatrixCloud OTT dramatically reduces time-to-market, even for the largest IPTV operators, enabling service providers to deploy next generation TV services as quickly as possible to increase sales from existing customers and to protect user-base from competitors choosing other IPTV and OTT platforms.

    In-house OTT solution rollout can add up to tens of millions of dollars or more and thousands of hours of integration across multiple hardware and software providers. The MatrixCloud OTT platform and SaaS- based pricing is specifically designed avoid CAPEX and OPEX nightmares through a one-vendor, end-to- end IPTV and OTT solution.

    Tier one operators with millions of customers on many continents are already capitalizing upon Matrixstream’s years of successful IPTV and OTT solution experience to increase average revenue user (ARPU) MatrixStream and to overcome slower-moving competitors.

    In 2017 alone, Matrixstream is launching and expanding services with many of the world’s top multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). Take advantage of our easy, incredibly-customizable ITPV and OTT solution to generate far higher profits from existing users and reach new users with next generation TV offerings.

    The MatrixCloud OTT platform for IPTV and OTT operators includes the following:

    1. Operator-branded apps and clients for Android and iOS mobile phones and tablets, PCs, Macs, Apple TV boxes, Android TV boxes, Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire.

    2. Support for up 100 live linear channels in each 42u rack with full MatrixCloud DVR support.

    3. SaaS capacity-based pricing that delivering savings of up to 80% over typical per-user pricing and hardware service agreements.

    4. Highly-customizable, targeted advertising across all user devices.

    5. Cloud-based operator BSS and OSS with integrated voucher payment, multiple currencies and third-party mobile money support.

    6. End-to-end MatrixStream OTT IPTV solution can be deployed live in less than 60 days.