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Tag: Australia

  • ICC World Cup 2015 launched: India and Pakistan grouped together

    ICC World Cup 2015 launched: India and Pakistan grouped together

    MUMBAI: Co-hosts of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, Australia and New Zealand, have been drawn in the same group for the tournament, while title-holders India will face off against arch rival Pakistan, it was announced on Tuesday.

     

    The first match of the prestigious one-day tournament will be held in Christchurch, the New Zealand city devastated by an earthquake in 2011, when the locals take on Sri Lanka on 14 February.

     

    The day-night final match will be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 29 March.

     

    Australia and New Zealand are grouped with England, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and two qualifiers.

     

    Title-holders India are pooled with Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and one other qualifying team.

     

    The top four sides from each group will move on to the knockout stage.

     

    49 matches will be played in 14 venues across the two host nations, with Australia staging 26 games at grounds in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

     

    New Zealand will host 23 games in seven cities, including Christchurch where international cricket is set to return for the first time since the 6.3-magnitude quake which killed 185 people in 2011.

     

    Other New Zealand cities to host games are Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Napier, Nelson and Wellington.

     

    Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who launched the tournament in Melbourne, said the contest would likely be watched by a global television audience of one billion.

     

    Pool A

     

    England, Australia (co-host), Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand (co-host), Qualifier 2 (TBD), Qualifier 3 (TBD)

     

    Pool B

     

    South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Qualifier 1 (Ireland), Qualifier 4 (TBD)

  • Amazon expands Appstore availability to 200 countries

    Amazon expands Appstore availability to 200 countries

    MUMBAI: Amazon.com continued the global expansion of its Appstore by announcing that developers can now submit their apps for distribution in nearly 200 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India, South Africa, South Korea, and even Papua New Guinea and Vatican City.

    These apps will be made available in the coming months when the Amazon Appstore for Android launches internationally for consumers. Registered developers who want international distribution will have their apps automatically made available for download, unless they designate otherwise. This international expansion is the latest in a series of Amazon Appstore for Android launches, which have included the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan.

    “Amazon‘s platform is a complete end-to-end solution for developers wanting to build, market and monetize their apps and games on Kindle Fire and Android devices,” said Amazon Vice President of Apps and Games Mike George.

    “Allowing developers to target distribution of their apps and games in even more international countries is yet another important milestone as we strive to serve consumers and developers globally. Many of our existing developers have localized their apps and games for international consumers, and we look forward to working with new developers that have been waiting to bring their apps to more Amazon customers across the globe.”

    Amazon.com claims that developers throughout the world are experiencing strong monetisation and user engagement through Kindle Fire and the Amazon Appstore.

    The success is being driven by Amazon‘s large customer base and industry-leading e-commerce features like 1-Click purchasing, Amazon‘s APIs for In-App Purchasing (IAP) and A/B Testing, and GameCircle, Amazon‘s gaming experience for Kindle Fire. A recent study of more than 500 games that utilize in-app purchasing on Amazon found that GameCircle-enabled mobile games earned 83 percent more average revenue per user (ARPU) than non-GameCircle games.

  • Ticketek appointed ticketing provider for ICC CWC 2015

    Ticketek appointed ticketing provider for ICC CWC 2015

    MUMBAI: ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 organisers have appointed Ticketek as the ticketing provider for the International Cricket Council‘s flagship tournament, to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand in February and March 2015.

    The ICC Cricket World Cup will be the biggest sporting event in the world in 2015.

    ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Chief Executive John Harnden said the Ticketek partnership was an important step in creating a fan-friendly tournament.

    “Ticketek will enable us to give fans a seamless solution across the two countries and worldwide,” said Harnden.

    Ticketek CEO Geoff Jones said the company was proud to provide ticketing services for such a prestigious international tournament.

    “Ticketek is the leading ticketing provider in Australia and New Zealand for major events and sports. We will be using the latest innovations for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to ensure fans in both countries – and around the world – have the very best experience,” said Jones.

    Australia and New Zealand last jointly hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1992. The pools, venues and schedule for the tournament are expected to be announced later this year.

    Ticket pricing and sale dates will be released in due course.

  • ‘Game of Thrones’ breaks online piracy records in many countries

    ‘Game of Thrones’ breaks online piracy records in many countries

    MUMBAI: The season premiere of ‘Game of Thrones’ is breaking records on multiple fronts, with a million downloads on BitTorrent in less than a day and proving that never before have so many people shared a file at the same time with more than 160,000 simultaneous peers.

    Data gathered by TorrentFreak further shows that Australia has the highest piracy rate of the popular download destinations, while London tops the list of pirate cities.

    One of the reasons cited for the popularity among pirates is the international delay in airing. Outside the US, fans of the show sometimes have to wait a while before they can see the latest episode. HBO is trying to close these gaps as best it can.

    The new season premiere of ‘Game of Thrones’ has, as expected, generated quite a bit of activity on various BitTorrent sites.

    Thousands of downloaders went out to grab a copy of the show, breaking the record for the largest BitTorrent swarm ever in the process. A few hours after the first torrent of the show was uploaded, the OpenBitTorrent tracker reported that 163,088 people where sharing one single torrent. A total of 110,303 were sharing a complete copy of that particular torrent while 52,786 were still downloading.

    Previously, the record for the largest BitTorrent swarm belonged to the season premiere of the TV-show ‘Heroes’ with 144,663 peers.

    Counting all the different releases, it is estimated that the latest ‘Game of Thrones’ episode has been downloaded over a million times already.

    Delays are just part of the problem though. The fact that the show is only available to those who pay for an HBO subscription does not help either. This explains why many people from the US prefer to use BitTorrent.

    The US comes out on top, followed by the UK and Australia. The number three spot for Australia is impressive and with a population of just over 22 million people it has the highest piracy rate. Looking at other cities, most downloads come from London, before Paris and Sydney.

    But according to HBO, piracy is not killing the show. While HBO would prefer if everyone paid for ‘Game of Thrones’, their programming President Michael Lombardo does not fear piracy. He sees it as a compliment and does not believe it negatively impacts DVD-sales.

  • Film on Hazare marks opening of Nashik festival

    Film on Hazare marks opening of Nashik festival

    MUMBAI: Pahlaj Nihalani declared the fifth edition of the Nashik International Film Festival (NIFF) open at a colourful function at Raosaheb Thorat Hall yesterday.

    The festival opened with a short film ‘On the Footprints of Mahatma‘ on veteran social activist Anna Hazare. It was also the world premiere of the 15-minute film that focuses on the projects undertaken by Hazare especially in the field of water conservation in his decades-long life as social activist. The film has been produced by Pune-based lawyer and independent film maker Vasant Patil.

    Nearly 200 films and documentaries, including films from Australia and France will be shown at the four-day event organised by the Metro Foundation of India.

    Speaking on the occasion, Nihalani said that the country‘s main international film festival should be held in Nashik as it is the native place of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema.

    One of the highlights of NIFF is display of 22 films produced by cinema enthusiasts from Malegaon, a powerloom town near here in north Maharashtra.

  • Vision Asia selects Telstra for Australia and New Zealand market

    Vision Asia selects Telstra for Australia and New Zealand market

    MUMBAI: Direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcaster, Vision Asia, has selected Telstra to provide managed satellite services for its Australian and New Zealand viewers in a deal worth more than $24 million over 10 years.

    Telstra receives the Vision Asia content from its international source, encrypts, encodes and multiplexes at its Perth teleport, and then transmits the complete package to Vision Asia’s customers across Australia and New Zealand.

    Telstra Global head of voice, satellite business Peter Hobbs said, “Telstra’s new managed global satellite service offers a quality alternative for Australian broadcasters and continues the company’s growth in its suite of network application and services. Vision Asia will be the first organisation to benefit from Telstra’s DTH broadcast services.”

    Telstra’s managed satellite solutions are provided via Telstra’s teleports in Perth, Sydney and Hong Kong. These teleports provide access to a global network of major satellite systems, which enables Telstra satellite customers to efficiently and quickly acquire live international television feeds, as well as a comprehensive suite of other satellite services.

    The Vision Asia services are delivered via the IS-19 satellite which utilises advanced, high-powered transponders giving single beam and single footprint coverage of both Australia and New Zealand. Telstra’s platform supports the latest media transmission technologies including DVBS2 and MPEG4, and HD encoding.

    According to Vision Asia CEO Gurudutt Satigrama, the Telstra deal is a win-win situation both for his company and his customers. “Through the new Telstra solution, we are able to benefit from not only a higher quality and more efficient international satellite service, but also from the local market service expertise and track record .Telstra has in delivering best in class content distribution and management services to the Australian media Industry."

    Telstra Global provides innovative and flexible global communications services and solutions for organisations looking to maximise the benefits of globalisation, particularly across growth regions such as Asia, whilst driving sustainability and enhancing business agility.

  • Vision Asia chooses Telstra for managed satellite services

    Vision Asia chooses Telstra for managed satellite services

    MUMBAI: Direct-to-home (DTH) services provider Vision Asia has selected Telstra to provide managed satellite services for its Australian and New Zealand viewers in a deal worth more than $24 million over 10 years.

    Telstra Global head of voice, satellite business, Peter Hobbs said, “Telstra’s new managed global satellite service offers a quality alternative for Australian broadcasters and continues the company’s growth in its suite of network application and services. Vision Asia will be the first organisation to benefit from Telstra’s DTH broadcast services.”

    “We receive the Vision Asia content from its international source, encrypt, encode and multiplex at our Perth teleport, and then transmit the complete package to Vision Asia’s customers across Australia and New Zealand.

    “These new solutions add to our already substantial experience in providing services to the media sector. These include our wholly owned and operated Digital Video broadcast network, our IPTV Content Delivery Network, and our recent managed content cloud services, which provide clients with end-to-end solutions reaching web, phone, tablet and connected TV viewers.”

    Vision Asia CEO Gurudutt Satigrama, said that the Telstra deal was a win-win situation both for his company and his customers. “Through the new Telstra solution, we are able to benefit from not only a higher quality and more efficient international satellite service, but also from the local market service expertise and track record Telstra has in delivering best in class content distribution and management services to the Australian media Industry.

    “We have recently completed the transition to Telstra and are now offering Vision Asia customers an enhanced viewing experience.”

    Telstra’s managed satellite solutions are provided via Telstra’s teleports in Perth, Sydney and Hong Kong. These teleports provide access to a global network of major satellite systems, which enables Telstra satellite customers to efficiently and quickly acquire live international television feeds, as well as a comprehensive suite of other satellite services.

    The Vision Asia services are delivered via the IS-19 satellite which utilises advanced, high-powered transponders giving single beam and single footprint coverage of both Australia and New Zealand. Telstra’s platform supports the latest media transmission technologies including DVBS2 and MPEG4, and HD encoding.

    Telstra Global provides innovative and flexible global communications services and solutions for organisations looking to maximise the benefits of globalisation, particularly across growth regions such as Asia, whilst driving sustainability and enhancing business agility.

  • Facebook launches Messenger app on Android

    Facebook launches Messenger app on Android

    MUMBAI: Facebook has launched a new messenger app for Android phones which will allow mobile users to sign up for a messenger account with name and phone number and send messages to their phone contacts instantly.

    The app has been launched on Messenger for Android, first in India, Australia, Indonesia, Venezuela and South Africa, and then to countries soon.

    "Users can now sign up for a messenger account with just their name and phone number, so they can send messages to their phone contacts instantly," Facebook said in a statement. "The goal is to make the new messenger experience better by expanding its reach and giving its users the ability to connect with all of their phone contacts."
     
    The Messenger will allow anyone with a phone number, and not just those on Facebook, to send and receive messages. While an update to Messenger for Android is available today, the Messenger accounts will become available over the next few weeks. It is a stand-alone mobile application and is free to download. It will use customer‘s existing data plan.

    People who do not have the Messenger app on their phone will receive chats and messages sent to them wherever they log on to Facebook.

  • Social media revitalising future of television: Initiative

    Social media revitalising future of television: Initiative

    MUMBAI: Social media is having a profoundly positive impact on TV viewing, as a new group of “highly-engaged” TV viewers is using social media to talk about TV programming and advertising and to influence the content and brand choices of their social peer group, according to Initiative’s latest global report, a research and analytics into social television.

    Titled “The New Power of Television: How Social is Revitalising the Future of TV”, the report explores how television is enjoying a revival because of the new digital technology and the rise of social media.

    Initiative, IPG‘s media agency, said over the past decade, experts across the advertising world have been proclaiming the demise of TV, and marketers and agencies have been searching out creative and media options beyond the 30 second spot. However, the research conducted by Initiative shows that the future for TV has never looked so healthy.

    Using its online consumer panel The Connections Panels, Initiative spoke with consumers in Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, the US and the UK to learn about how TV and social media are now working in combination to provide a hugely powerful advertising medium.

    The digital technology has given TV more screens and devices on which to broadcast and given rise to a social media phenomenon that is actually amplifying both programming and creative messaging, the report said.

    Television viewing working in tandem with social media has created a new group of highly influential consumers, the “TV Talker”. Making up more than half of TV viewers aged 16-54, they share ads they like and post frequently to their larger social network, sharing brand stories and driving ad messaging.

    The report also revealed that television is driving online conversation which, in turn, is driving people to watch more TV. Initiative has identified a series of key pointers for marketers looking to tap into this resource: Create fully-orchestrated TV Talking experiences over time – before, after and, critically, during broadcast, create a multi-screen and multiple element experience to make your brand easy to share and easy to explore, Implement social governance strategies to maintain your relationship with the valuable TV Talkers, Invest in analytics to prove the value of TV Talk on brand equity and Test and learn new technologies to give your brand “first-mover” advantage.

    Initiative director, EVP communication planning, worldwide Sarah Ivey said, “The synergistic effects between television and social are just the beginning of the possibilities. What is fascinating is that television is now a central navigation point in a brand experience where people can engage and create their own version of the brand story across many screens. Brands are being rewarded when they innovate in this space…it‘s a truly exciting opportunity.

  • Fremantle signs more licensees for Cbeebies show

    Fremantle signs more licensees for Cbeebies show

    MUMBAI: FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has announced new licensees in the UK and Eire for their hit pre-school series Cbeebies‘s show ‘Tree Fu Tom‘.

    The latest deals cover a wide range of partners and categories, including: Blues clothing for daywear; MV Sports for wheeled toys; Flair for arts and crafts; VMC for accessories and dress up; Gemma for greeting cards and party products; Ravensburger for puzzles; Egmont for annuals; and Rainbow Productions for character costumes.

    The latest round of signings are in addition to current partners Giochi Preziosi, who are the master toy licensee, Random House for publishing, Aykroyd and TDP for children‘s nightwear and Character World for bedroom textiles and accessories.

    A second series of Tree Fu Tom was recently ordered by CBeebies for 2013 and the show is also distributed globally by FME, finding audiences in a number of territories around the world including France, Australia and Latin America. With a global licensing programme underway as well as a complementary home entertainment strategy, Tree Fu Tom is one of the hot brands to watch.

    FME VP UK licensing and retail Pindy O‘Brien said, “With a host of new licensees on board, a new series commissioned for CBeebies and some exciting new international TV distribution deals, Tree Fu Tom is proving to be a great success both on and off screen.”

    Aimed at 4-6 year olds, ‘Tree Fu Tom‘ combines innovative elements of heroic action, fantasy and magic, coupled with unique interactive physical activity. Set in an enchanted world where movement creates magic, viewers are encouraged to interact with the show through physical actions that have been devised and approved by movement development specialists to assist in the development of children. Former Doctor Who stars Sophie Aldred and David Tennant voice the lead characters Tom and Twigs.

    With animation by Blue Zoo Animation, Tree Fu Tom is a co-production between FME and the BBC for CBeebies. The executive producers for the BBC are Jackie Edwards and Alison Stewart; and Bob Higgins and Sander Schwartz for FME. Tree Fu Tom was created and produced by Daniel Bays.