ITV

Tag: application

  • Esports Premier League season 2 postponed due to govt’s ban on Battlegrounds Mobile India application

    Esports Premier League season 2 postponed due to govt’s ban on Battlegrounds Mobile India application

    Mumbai: The broadcasting of Esports Premier League (ESPL) season 2, the country’s first ever franchise-based esports league, has been postponed on account of the ban imposed by the government to remove Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) gaming application from Google play store & Apple app store.

    In a press statement, ESPL said, “This year’s league has been engaging gamers from across the country in high-voltage action of the battle royale game, BGMI which carries a massive prize pool of Rs 1 crore. After a month-long of riveting actions, packed with rivalries, gripping moments and thrilling finishes, the top sixteen teams were franchised and they were set to fight in a grand LAN finale from 1-5 August 2022.”

    The government banned the Battlegrounds Mobile India gaming application on 28 July.

    Also Read | Battle royale: Why govt’s ban of BGMI spells bad news for gaming in India | Indian Television Dot Com

    ESPL added that the entities concerned will evaluate or pursue the matter in accordance with the directions issued by the government.

    “We are therefore constrained to put the ESPL Season 2, on hold, in light of the government’s directions and the prevailing circumstances. This is an unfortunate situation for all esports enthusiasts, and also a huge setback for India, at this stage of the tournament,” it also said.

    “However, upon closure of the matter favorably, we intend to renew the ESPL from the stage where we are leaving it now, which means that the selected finalist teams will be invited again to take the tournament forward for the Finals” it further added.

  • ABP-Nielsen poll: BJP and Congress gain from AAP’s loss

    ABP-Nielsen poll: BJP and Congress gain from AAP’s loss

    MUMBAI: News channel ABP that carries out its election poll in association with research agency Nielsen India has come up with its latest prediction on which party’s shares have dropped or gained in the recent past.

    The opinion poll conducted between 9 March-16 March 2014 with 456 respondents claims a margin of error of ±5 per cent.

    The new poll predicts that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal is set to lose a few vote shares in Delhi. “It is likely to get around 34 per cent vote share and three seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as compared to 55 per cent vote share in the opinion poll conducted in January 2014,” says the poll statement.

    Congress on the other hand is predicted to be putting on a few extra vote shares which is an improvement from the poll prediction in January. According to the ABP News-Nielsen poll, ‘Congress is likely to benefit by AAP’s loss and is predicted to get a vote share of 28 per cent and one seat as compared to 14 per cent in February 2014 and nine per cent in January 2014’.

    Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to get 32 per cent vote share and three seats which is higher than the 30 per cent vote share and one seat that was predicted in February 2014 and 29 per cent share in January 2014.

    The ‘Kaun Banega Pradhanmantri’ (KBP) poll has also been launched as an application for android users that will allow subscribers to get updates about the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The app has sections such as top news, city polls, KBP show videos and live TV.

  • Suits Season 2 FB App: Are You a Real Suitor?

    Suits Season 2 FB App: Are You a Real Suitor?

    Brand and communication objectives:

    Promoting television shows – be it reality or drama or even comedy for that matter – is really serious business. Especially in a cluttered television space that is vying for audiences glued to their favourite programs. Viacom18 owned Comedy Central India, the Indian version of Comedy Central devoted to catering to our constant need to laugh, launched a social media game for the second season of its legal comedy drama series ‘Suits’.

    The objectives were twofold:

    1. To capitalize on the show’s wide appeal and provide a refresher to audiences before the second season
    2. To drive eyeballs to the latest episodes of the show

    Target Audience: Information on Demographics and Psychographics of intended target audience

    Comedy Central reaches an affluent, internet savvy audience. The average viewer is a working professional whose television viewing time is fairly limited.

    Campaign Details:

    How we achieved our outcome, including creative & media communication strategies and execution.

    Comedy Central created conversations around Suits through a “Suits challenge”. It tested die-hard fans of the show to find out if they have what it takes to be a real Suitor. It used an innovative approach of creating a treasure hunt across the web. Fans needed to hunt for clues across social media – spanning Comedy Central’s gamut of properties – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. Fans needed to watch a video on YouTube to complete a quote, find a hint on Pinterest image board or tweet with a hashtag #IfIWereJessica to @comedycentralin. In true Comedy Central spirit fans also needed to research funny laws and odd facts to complete the game.

    The game consisted of six levels and with six questions around the six key characters thereby increasing familiarity and recall. Participation was further incentivized with exclusive custom made Suits merchandise.

    The game was marketed through a mix of television and on-line promotions. And the fans loved it. Over 50,000 participants signed up to test their “Suits Quotient” giving us 308,000 page views and 199,160 unique views. A fairly healthy bounce rate of 30% proved that audiences were engaging with the content.

    Results:

    Comedy Central used a unique technology of weaving different social media platforms into a single game creating a truly platform agnostic experience. The application was integrated with Facebook and Twitter allowing fans to sign in and post and tweet without leaving the gaming interface.

    Another tricky element from a technology point of view was creating the mechanics of a Treasure Hunt. Fans could only move forward if each question was answered correctly. While they could keep trying again and again they were only eligible to win if they got all the questions right in their first try. This means that the backend needed to differentiate between users with single tries and users with multiple tries and throw up a unique “result page” for each category. This fed back into the campaign strategy of separating the true Suits fans from the others, while still keeping all participants engaged up to the end.

    The final question – did this campaign succeed in driving audiences to Suits Season 2? The answer is a resounding yes. Social media conversations around the show increased and the show hashtag  #SuitsS2onCC trended in India. 

  • Facebook buys WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion

    Facebook buys WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion

    MUMBAI: WhatsApp is an application that has seen exponential growth in the five years since its launch and it has become the most popular means of communication through mobile phones. In a deal announced today, popular social media website Facebook has acquired the messaging application for a whopping $19 billion.

     

    As per the terms of the transaction, $4 billion will be paid in cash to WhatsApp shareholders, $12 billion in Facebook shares and $3 billion in restricted stock units that will vest in the owners and employers of WhatsApp over four years after the deal is completed after regulatory approvals. WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will be joining the Facebook board of directors.

     

    After the acquisition, WhatsApp will continue to operate independently and will continue its policy of no advertising. Currently, the application has 450 million users and is adding a million users each day. A release from Facebook says that the acquisition supports Facebook’s and WhatsApp’s shared mission to bring more connectivity and utility to the world by delivering core internet services efficiently and affordably.

     

    “WhatsApp is a company of really hardcore engineers who are obsessing over perfecting messaging, not adding a lot of bloated features into a messaging app. Over time, I think people are going to pay for that,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

     

    Facebook was advised by Allen & Company LLC and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and WhatsApp was advised by Morgan Stanley and Fenwick & West, LLP.

     

    Koum said, “WhatsApp’s extremely high user engagement and rapid growth are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous messaging capabilities we provide. We’re excited and honored to partner with Mark and Facebook as we continue to bring our product to more people around the world.”

     

  • VivaConnect debuts ‘LiveTalk’ with Modi’s speech

    MUMBAI: While live events and gatherings are rejoiced by those who attend it, others who are left behind due to unavailability of tickets, far off destinations, no invitation, etc. Even though the reasons may be plenty, none is good enough for those who wish to be a part of it. Thus, with an aim to connect individuals to a live event VivaConnect has unveiled a service called LiveTalk.

     

    LiveTalk allows one to do audio streaming of live events over a simple phone call, wherein one has to call in a published phone number and experience it without any internet, smartphone nor a subscription to special or premium add-on services.

     

    The service was launched on 15 September and was deployed for BJP‘s Ex-Serviceman Rally held at Rewari, Haryana. The service was greatly appreciated as it connected over 1,00,000 callers across India with Narendra Modi‘s speech.

     

    BJP partnered with innovative firms like Zipdial and VivaConnect and offered a unique mobile connectivity model between vast mass of mobile users and BJP Leadership. “On the launch day more than 1 lakh callers dialed in 02245014501 to hear Narendra Modi‘s live speech at Ex-Servicemen Rally in Rewari.” says BJP IT Cell head Arvind Gupta.

     

    VivaConnect MD Vikram Raichura said, “We are honored to be associated with BJP and showcase one more possibility on how by leveraging mobility one can extend overall reach and even cater the far flung areas to achieve mass involvement on national & international scale.”

     

    LiveTalk is beneficial for covering political meets, social events, musical concerts, business seminars, award shows, sports events, educational conventions, etc. It can connect over a million callers during a three hour event. 

  • Apple makes iWork apps free, but only available on new iPhone 5S or 5C

    MUMBAI: Apple didn‘t only announce new iPhones at its press conference. The company also revealed that the apps in the iWork suite – Pages, Numbers, Keynote-plus iMovie and iPhoto – will now come free with new iOS devices. These productivity and creations apps usually cost $5- $10 each. By making them free, Apple is once again emphasizing that iOS isn‘t just for content consumption, but also content creation.

     

    Of the group, only iMovie and Numbers have a solid four-star rating on the App Store for the current versions. Pages and Keynote only rate at 3.5 stars, among iOS users. iPhoto has a rating of 2.5 stars for the current version. And though Apple added collaboration features with iWork for iCloud, there are many areas in which Google Docs is still better.

    Still, by making the iWork suite and other content creation apps free for new users Apple increases the chance that customers won‘t download third party apps and just stick with Apple‘s offerings, similar to the way many do on the Mac.

     

    This deal appears to be for those with newly purchased iOS devices only. At setup, new device owners will get a screen offering the option to download the apps for free. Existing customers can keep on paying $10 or $5.

     

    Currently, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie, and iPhoto are all still showing in the app store with their original pricing … on the old devices.

     

    For those unfamiliar with the suite, Pages is the iWork word processor, Numbers is for spreadsheets, and Keynote is the presentation maker. All of them work with their Mac equivalent programs and Microsoft Office. Beyond that, the supported file formats are very limited. It‘s possible to create and edit rich content in all three, but the apps can‘t do much of anything beyond pretty basic editing functions.

     

    iMovie and iPhoto are for editing and organising movies and pictures, respectively. Both are basic when compared to their Mac equivalents (no surprise since they‘re made to work on phones and tablets). They each provide ways to share and enhance media that are easy and accessible.

  • Microsoft builds a brand new collaborative portal for developers

    MUMBAI: Microsoft has released a new developer network experience portal developer.microsoft.com, an intuitive single point of entry to help developers interact with Microsoft. The collaborative portal will enable networking amongst the developer community, offer expert guidance to developers and remotely solve their queries, empowering them to be more efficient as they go from idea to app.

     

    The portal offers a set of functionality to help developers leverage the collective power of the community.  With the second largest developer population based in India with 1.6 million developers; this is a very powerful tool for the entire developer community.  It also allows developers in India to connect with their peers across the world. Experts from Microsoft are just a click away once the developers are on the portal.

    Developers can bounce off their app ideas in a specially crafted area called “Perspective”. Similarly, community blogs and social feeds in the “Connect” area allow developers to share their stories, get advice and connect with Microsoft experts. The new portal provides and organises content in a way that is easy to find, identify and collaborate with.

     

    “The new developer network portal provides a single point of entry for all developers. It also resolves the issue of finding the right information which is often spread between different locations and is difficult to access. It enables developers to be more efficient, learn faster & connect with the vibrant Microsoft developer community across the world,” said Microsoft Corporation (India) director – strategic audience marketing Pratima Amonkar.

     

  • Vodafone and Rockstand join hands to create a new digital reading revolution in India

    Vodafone and Rockstand join hands to create a new digital reading revolution in India

    MUMBAI: Vodafone, one of India’s leading telecommunications services provider, has announced its tie-up with Rockstand, one of India’s leading eBook and eMagazine application.

    This tie-up heralds a new chapter in the digital reading industry of the country. With this development, Rockstand has become the first eBook and eMagazine application that would include easy payment through Vodafone and thus reaching out to millions of users across the country.

    On the association, Rockstand Digital CEO Praveen Rajpal exclaimed, “Rockstand’s tie-up with Vodafone will further strengthen our relationship with them as well as with our users. We are receiving wonderful reviews for our application and recently we have crossed a mark of 50,000 downloads, which shows the growing popularity of digital reading in India. With Vodafone’s support, we will be reaching to urban as well as rural areas of the country on a strong network. We are sure this association will bear rich dividends for both Vodafone & Rockstand”

    There will be exclusive subscription option for Vodafone users where they can purchase books and magazines at Rs 7 per day.

    Apart from this Vodafone users will also have access to choose from the gamut of books and magazines of their choices, with just a click of a button from Rockstand – eBook/eMagazine collection like regional content, lifestyle, entertainment, computer, children magazine, computer books, celeb magazines and many more categories.

  • Apple TV gets Disney Channels app, Microsoft’s Xbox offers Time Warner Cable

    MUMBAI: Apple and Microsoft have added new channels to their streaming video devices that boost their available content. It’s a step forward for both gadgets but doesn’t break the a la carte wall just yet. Apple TV was upgraded to include apps for Disney channels – pay TV subscription required – Vevo and the Weather Channel, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console added a subscription-contingent Time Warner Cable app. The latter offers access to 300 TV channels including CNN, AMC and Comedy Central.

    Blair Westlake, corporate VP of Microsoft’s media and entertainment group, told the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog that his company had considered licensing channels directly from media companies to create a service similar to the kinds of online cable TV products planned by Intel and Sony. “We looked at it and said if we can deliver an app or apps like the one we are lighting up today” with Time Warner Cable, that’s “really what people expect.”