ITV

Tag: Dish

  • ABS partners PT Sarana Media to launch Indonesian DTH FreeViews platform

    ABS partners PT Sarana Media to launch Indonesian DTH FreeViews platform

    MACAU: Leading satellite operator ABS has announced today that it will partner with PT Sarana Media Vision (SMV), using SMV’s DTH license to launch a consumer FreeView satellite service – FreeViewSat – across Indonesia in January 2017. The service will be called SMV FreeViewSat and will initially broadcast over 60 television channels via the ABS-2, ABS-2A and ABS-6 satellites in both Ku and C-band.

    For the first time in Indonesia, a free-to-view platform will be available throughout the entire country, allowing advertisers the opportunity to reach the full potential of the Indonesian audience.

    The FreeViewSat model will promote maximum distribution and the cost of the STB & dish will be less than US$35. Customers will only need to make this one-time purchase to enjoy all the TV channels on the platform (with no monthly recurring subscription fees).

    Tom Choi, CEO of ABS commented that “SMV’s FreeViewSat will be very attractive for Indonesia by providing great quality international and unique domestic programming to the entire country. The goal is to deliver high quality entertainment and educational content affordably to all – For the first time, everybody, not only the affluent or those in the urban areas, will be able to receive high quality programming for free, with just a one-time purchase of a set-top box and dish. FreeViewSat will also give advertisers the first real opportunity to reach the whole population of Indonesia, even in rural areas. ABS is delighted to be partnering and supporting this highly worthwhile venture.’’

    At launch in January, FreeViewSat will carry at least 30 local Free-to-Air channels and more than 30 high quality international channels. The number of channels will continue to grow to over 100 channels in the first 6 to 12 months as new and interesting content is added.

    FreeViewSat will be available via 75cm Ku band dishes from 75E on ABS-2 and ABS-2A, and via 1.6m C-band antennas from 156E on ABS-6 simultaneously, so that consumers have the choice of small dishes, or larger ones with better rain protection. Since Indonesia already has over 10 million C-band antennas installed, the adoption rate is expected to be rapid.

    ABS has selected the ABV conditional access and middleware system, along with Ali chips for its Set-Top Boxes.

    Confirmed channels for launch include:

    TV9 Nusantara, TVRI Nasional, DAAI TV, TV One, ANTV, Metro TV, Trans 7, Trans TV, SCTV, Indosair, Kompas TV, Net TV, Bali TV H2, Bloomberg TV, France 24, Fix & Foxi, Action Hollywood Movies, Pulse TV, Al Jazeera English, CCTV-News, CCTV-4, CCTV-9, Russia Today, MediaCorp Channel, Landscape HD, TRACE Urban and TRACE Sport Stars, B4U Music, B4U Movies, NDTV 24/7 and NDTV Good Times, and many more

  • Free Dish capacity to go up from 80 to 104 TV channels before year-end

    Free Dish capacity to go up from 80 to 104 TV channels before year-end

    NEW DELHI: Free Dish, the country’s only free-to-air direct-to-home television platform, will increase its capacity to carry around 104 channels within the next few months.

    A senior Doordarshan official told indiantelevision.com that the process of switching over from MPEG2 to MPEG4 had been completed and was being tested. This had already taken the headend capacity to 112.

    Free Dish at present carries eighty television channels including its own, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV, and private channels, apart from 32 channels of All India Radio.

    The official said the platform had been encrypted by adopting the Indian Conditional Access System (iCAS) developed by ByDesign India Pvt. Ltd. of Bangalore. But he clarified that the platform would remain free-to-air and the aim of iCAS was only to keep track of the number of households that were using Free Dish and keep a check on the quality of set top boxes.

    (It is also learnt that Doordarshan is expected to issue an Expression of Notice within a month for manufacture of compatible STBs for Free Dish.)

    Meanwhile, the official said Free Dish was also hopeful of re-launching Gyan Darshan on its platform shortly as the problems that the Indira Gandhi National Open University was facing when DD was forced to take the channel off-air have been ‘virtually sorted out’.

    However, the official said no communication had been received from the Human Resource Development Ministry in this conection so far.

    He denied reports that any channels of the Human Resource Development Ministry were currently under test transmission on Free Dish.

    The official said DD was aware of the announcement by Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Jawadekar that 32 Direct to Home (DTH) Television Channels are to be launched by September for providing high quality educational content to all teachers, students and citizens across the country interested in lifelong learning.

    DD was also aware that the HRD Ministry had acquired two transponders on G-SAT 15, which could possibly be used for this.

    Meanwhile, the official said that all information on Free Dish was available on the ddindia.gov.in website and denied that Free Dish had established any separate website Freedish.in. When his attention was drawn to the website, he said attempts would be made to find out who was running the website which was clearly illegal.

  • Free Dish capacity to go up from 80 to 104 TV channels before year-end

    Free Dish capacity to go up from 80 to 104 TV channels before year-end

    NEW DELHI: Free Dish, the country’s only free-to-air direct-to-home television platform, will increase its capacity to carry around 104 channels within the next few months.

    A senior Doordarshan official told indiantelevision.com that the process of switching over from MPEG2 to MPEG4 had been completed and was being tested. This had already taken the headend capacity to 112.

    Free Dish at present carries eighty television channels including its own, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV, and private channels, apart from 32 channels of All India Radio.

    The official said the platform had been encrypted by adopting the Indian Conditional Access System (iCAS) developed by ByDesign India Pvt. Ltd. of Bangalore. But he clarified that the platform would remain free-to-air and the aim of iCAS was only to keep track of the number of households that were using Free Dish and keep a check on the quality of set top boxes.

    (It is also learnt that Doordarshan is expected to issue an Expression of Notice within a month for manufacture of compatible STBs for Free Dish.)

    Meanwhile, the official said Free Dish was also hopeful of re-launching Gyan Darshan on its platform shortly as the problems that the Indira Gandhi National Open University was facing when DD was forced to take the channel off-air have been ‘virtually sorted out’.

    However, the official said no communication had been received from the Human Resource Development Ministry in this conection so far.

    He denied reports that any channels of the Human Resource Development Ministry were currently under test transmission on Free Dish.

    The official said DD was aware of the announcement by Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Jawadekar that 32 Direct to Home (DTH) Television Channels are to be launched by September for providing high quality educational content to all teachers, students and citizens across the country interested in lifelong learning.

    DD was also aware that the HRD Ministry had acquired two transponders on G-SAT 15, which could possibly be used for this.

    Meanwhile, the official said that all information on Free Dish was available on the ddindia.gov.in website and denied that Free Dish had established any separate website Freedish.in. When his attention was drawn to the website, he said attempts would be made to find out who was running the website which was clearly illegal.

  • Zeel ties with Dish and Sling TV to expand reach in US

    Zeel ties with Dish and Sling TV to expand reach in US

    MUMBAI:  Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) announced a landmark agreement with Dish and Sling TV to further strengthen its presence in the US Territory the media conglomerate announced in a release.  As a part of the agreement, Dish and Sling TV will carry 27 new channels in addition to the existing 10 Zee channels, which will be available in varied languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Rajasthani and Urdu. Post this alliance, the total number of Zee channels available in the US market will be 37 with a combined reach of 52 million or 5.2 crore homes (that includes English and Spanish HHs).

    Further, Sling TV and Dish will be the ‘exclusive provider’ in the US of Zee’s premium on-demand library, which includes movies and over 400 additional popular video titles.  Over time, Sling TV will become the exclusive over-the-top (OTT) provider in the US for all but one of Zee’s South Asian channels. In the coming months, Zee will transition viewers from its direct-to-consumer services to Sling TV or to authenticated access only.

    Speaking on the partnership, Zeel CEO of International Broadcast Business, Amit Goenka said, “America is one of the most important markets for our International business. The deal with Dish further consolidates our leadership position and is in line with our ambitious 2020 goals. We are very delighted to announce that with this deal not only has our reach in the Mainstream American market for our Z Living network quadrupled, but we will also now be serving the high potential Spanish language subscribers with two 24×7 networks. With this deal we will cater to 16 different language groups in America across 5 genres. Zee and Dish have been natural partners for the last 18 years and we both share our vision on future growth of pay TV in USA.”

    “Our agreement with Zee enables us to provide a vast amount of entertainment to fans of South Asian content, while also giving customers a more streamlined way to access and enjoy both linear and on-demand content,” said Sling TV & Dish senior vice President of Programming Chris Kuelling. “Zee shares our goal of growing the South Asian market, and together we are able to better serve this community, as well as the other language groups served by Zee.”

    To broaden the options available to fans of South Asian content, Sling TV and Dish are launching a new ‘Hindi Gold Pack,’ which will contain all of the Zee Hindi channels, plus other leading Hindi channels. In addition, &TV, one of the most requested Hindi channels by current Sling TV and Dish customers, will be added to the existing lineup. Zee’s on-demand content will be available at no additional charge to Dish and Sling TV subscribers with the Hindi Gold Pack.

    Dish and Sling TV will also add two Spanish-language channels, Z Living Español and Zee TV Español, and two Brazilian channels, Zee TV Portuguese and Z Living Portuguese, to their respective line-ups.  The new Spanish channels can be found on Dish in the DishLATINO Clasico, DishLATINO Dos, DishLATINO Plus and DishLATINO Max packages, and the Best of Spanish TV package on Sling Latino.

    Zee Alwan and Zee Aflam, two popular Arabic channels will launch in the Dish Arabic Super Elite and the Arabic Mosaic Pack on Sling TV as well.

  • Zeel ties with Dish and Sling TV to expand reach in US

    Zeel ties with Dish and Sling TV to expand reach in US

    MUMBAI:  Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) announced a landmark agreement with Dish and Sling TV to further strengthen its presence in the US Territory the media conglomerate announced in a release.  As a part of the agreement, Dish and Sling TV will carry 27 new channels in addition to the existing 10 Zee channels, which will be available in varied languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Rajasthani and Urdu. Post this alliance, the total number of Zee channels available in the US market will be 37 with a combined reach of 52 million or 5.2 crore homes (that includes English and Spanish HHs).

    Further, Sling TV and Dish will be the ‘exclusive provider’ in the US of Zee’s premium on-demand library, which includes movies and over 400 additional popular video titles.  Over time, Sling TV will become the exclusive over-the-top (OTT) provider in the US for all but one of Zee’s South Asian channels. In the coming months, Zee will transition viewers from its direct-to-consumer services to Sling TV or to authenticated access only.

    Speaking on the partnership, Zeel CEO of International Broadcast Business, Amit Goenka said, “America is one of the most important markets for our International business. The deal with Dish further consolidates our leadership position and is in line with our ambitious 2020 goals. We are very delighted to announce that with this deal not only has our reach in the Mainstream American market for our Z Living network quadrupled, but we will also now be serving the high potential Spanish language subscribers with two 24×7 networks. With this deal we will cater to 16 different language groups in America across 5 genres. Zee and Dish have been natural partners for the last 18 years and we both share our vision on future growth of pay TV in USA.”

    “Our agreement with Zee enables us to provide a vast amount of entertainment to fans of South Asian content, while also giving customers a more streamlined way to access and enjoy both linear and on-demand content,” said Sling TV & Dish senior vice President of Programming Chris Kuelling. “Zee shares our goal of growing the South Asian market, and together we are able to better serve this community, as well as the other language groups served by Zee.”

    To broaden the options available to fans of South Asian content, Sling TV and Dish are launching a new ‘Hindi Gold Pack,’ which will contain all of the Zee Hindi channels, plus other leading Hindi channels. In addition, &TV, one of the most requested Hindi channels by current Sling TV and Dish customers, will be added to the existing lineup. Zee’s on-demand content will be available at no additional charge to Dish and Sling TV subscribers with the Hindi Gold Pack.

    Dish and Sling TV will also add two Spanish-language channels, Z Living Español and Zee TV Español, and two Brazilian channels, Zee TV Portuguese and Z Living Portuguese, to their respective line-ups.  The new Spanish channels can be found on Dish in the DishLATINO Clasico, DishLATINO Dos, DishLATINO Plus and DishLATINO Max packages, and the Best of Spanish TV package on Sling Latino.

    Zee Alwan and Zee Aflam, two popular Arabic channels will launch in the Dish Arabic Super Elite and the Arabic Mosaic Pack on Sling TV as well.

  • Big Ganga to air ‘Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali’ in Bhojpuri

    Big Ganga to air ‘Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali’ in Bhojpuri

    MUMBAI: Bihar and Jharkhand’s leading Bhojpuri channel Big Ganga plans to strengthen its mythological band with a new daily show ‘Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali’. JJJB will air Monday to Friday at the 7.00pm time slot. The mythological show which takes viewers through the life of Bajrang Bali from his childhood to being a Shiva avatar is currently running on BIG Magic in Hindi as well.

    The story revolves around lesser-known mythological events surrounding the trials and tribulations of Hanuman, while he was combating the evil and malevolent forces espoused by characters such as Raavan.

    BIG Ganga is distributed across all cable operators across the states of Bihar, Jharkhand & UP and spread across the likes of DEN, Digicable, WWIL, Hathway, Darsh and Maurya amongst others and DTH players like Airtel, Dish, Reliance Digital, DD Direct and Videocon

  • Big Ganga to air ‘Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali’ in Bhojpuri

    Big Ganga to air ‘Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali’ in Bhojpuri

    MUMBAI: Bihar and Jharkhand’s leading Bhojpuri channel Big Ganga plans to strengthen its mythological band with a new daily show ‘Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali’. JJJB will air Monday to Friday at the 7.00pm time slot. The mythological show which takes viewers through the life of Bajrang Bali from his childhood to being a Shiva avatar is currently running on BIG Magic in Hindi as well.

    The story revolves around lesser-known mythological events surrounding the trials and tribulations of Hanuman, while he was combating the evil and malevolent forces espoused by characters such as Raavan.

    BIG Ganga is distributed across all cable operators across the states of Bihar, Jharkhand & UP and spread across the likes of DEN, Digicable, WWIL, Hathway, Darsh and Maurya amongst others and DTH players like Airtel, Dish, Reliance Digital, DD Direct and Videocon

  • Dish files reply with FCC on proposed Time Warner Cable, Merger, says not in public interest

    Dish files reply with FCC on proposed Time Warner Cable, Merger, says not in public interest

    MUMBAI: Dish Network Corporation has filed a reply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) countering arguments made by Charter Communications, Inc. (Charter), Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) and Bright House Net works (BHN) defending t he proposed merger between t he companies. In t he reply, DISH out lines how t he applicant s have f ailed t o prove t hat t his proposed merger is in t he public interest and reiterates its call for t he FCC t o deny the merger.

     

    “If the proposed merger is approved, 90 percent of the nation’s high speed broadband homes would be cont rolled by two companies, and t he combined ‘New Charter’ would have every incentive t o sabot age OTT services like Sling TV that compete with the old school cable bundle,” said Jeffrey Blum, Dish senior vice president and deputy general counsel. “The proposed merger is harmful for consumers, competition and innovation, and should be denied.”

     

    Following are key point s DISH makes in today’s filing. The complete filing can be found here.

     

    Merger Will Not Serve the Public Interest:

     

    New Charter will have an increased incentive and ability to Harm OVDs:  New Charter would have a particularly heightened incentive t o discriminate against competing OVD services, especially live streaming services like Sling TV – which is a total substitute for linear pay television.

     

    New Charter is Likely t o Increase Broadband Prices, Further Prejudicing Rival OVDs:  New Charter will be able t o deploy another win- win strategy t o make it s broadband business more profitable, while still protecting its linear video business: raise t he price of broadband accesses it her directly or indirectly.

     

    T he Merger Will Create a Dominant Duo poly wit h t he Incentive t o Engage in Anti-Competitive Parallel Conduct:  As Dish explained in it s Pet it ion t o Deny, t his transact ion will create a broadband duopoly, with Comcast and New Charter cont rolling about 90 percent of the high- speed broadband homes in t he country. Parallel action, with one of the two following the other, will be enough to foreclose an OVD from almost all high- speed homes in t he country.

     

    T he Merger “Benefits” are Nothing More than Repackaged Plans and Conjecture: Charter also f ails t o provide any evidence t hat t he combination of Charter wit h TWC and BHN is necessary t o achieve many, if not all, of the benefit s it  t out s. From infrastructure through jobs and cost savings, Charter has offered lit t le more than recycled (non- merger- specific) business plans and conjecture. 

  • Dish, NAB & others urge FCC to deny Charter-Time Warner Cable merger

    Dish, NAB & others urge FCC to deny Charter-Time Warner Cable merger

    MUMBAI: The Charter Communications, Inc – Time Warner Cable, Inc merger is facing a lot of opposition from broadcasters. 

     

    The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it should not approve the merger unless it is also willing to change broadcast ownership rules, which limits the number of radio and TV stations that a single entity can own.

     

    Joining the NAB is Dish Network Corp, which has filed a petition with the FCC to deny the proposed merger citing substantial harm to competition and consumers. Additionally, set top box maker Zoom Telephonics also asked the FCC to deny the said merger between the two over the issue of access to third-party modems.

     

    As broadcast ownership rules limit mergers, NAB said that broadcasters have far less negotiating power than big cable companies, which will only get bigger if the FCC allows the latest cable merger to proceed.

     

    According to the NAB, the greater imbalance will harm broadcasters in retransmission consent negotiations, in which cable operators pay broadcast stations for the right to air their channels.

     

    NAB said that if the pending merger was approved, then the top four multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) will control 79 per cent of the nationwide MVPD market, measured in terms of subscribers, and the top three alone, according to SNL Kagan, “will control two-thirds of the video delivery universe.” If consummated, the merger also would exacerbate concentration levels at the local and regional levels, with clear implications for consumers, as empirical research has shown that large, clustered cable companies charge higher prices than smaller, unclustered ones.

     

    The creation of yet another pay-TV behemoth would further competitively disadvantage local broadcast stations kept by outdated ownership rules from achieving a fraction of the vital economies of scale and scope that MVPDs enjoy and, as the FCC has recognized, can advance the public interest. The gross regulatory disparities between the pay-TV and the free-TV industries are illustrated in any number of ways, including the sheer size of MVPDs compared to TV broadcasters. The market capitalization of the combined AT&T/DIRECTV, for example, is more than 200 times larger than the market cap of several of the most sizable broadcast TV companies. New Charter – which the merging parties describe as “modest” in size – will have a market capitalization 72 times larger than some of the biggest broadcast TV station groups. Beyond this national scale, single pay-TV providers control access to significant percentages of viewers in many local markets. Even standing alone, Time Warner Cable (TWC), for instance, controls over 40 percent of the total MVPD market in 30 different Designated Market Areas (DMAs), and in eight DMAs, TWC’s share of the entire MVPD market exceeds 60 percent. Broadcast TV stations unable to combine under the FCC’s local TV ownership rule are at a notable disadvantage in negotiating retransmission consent agreements with such locally and nationally consolidated MVPDs.

     

    On the other hand, Dish Network Corp’s petition to deny the merger, outlines, among other things, the critical role that high-speed broadband plays in the video industry and the potential for the merger to significantly damage competitive development of over-the-top (OTT) video and limit consumer access to online video programming.

     

    Dish Network said that the merger presents risk of significant harms:

     

    New Parties, Same Harms: The proposed transaction would be no better for the public interest than the one proposed between Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

     

    A Suffocating Duopoly: The transaction will create a suffocating duopoly. Where a Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger would have created one behemoth, this transaction will result in two broadband providers (Comcast and New Charter) controlling about 90 per cent of the nation’s high-speed broadband homes between them.

     

    Threats to Online Video: The top two cable providers post-merger will not need to collude in order to bring their collective weight to bear on an online video distributor (OVD). Parallel foreclosures, with one of the two following the other, would be enough for an OVD to be shut off from most of the homes in the country.

     

    Concentration of Broadband Subscribers: The impact of New Charter would cause a significant proportion of the combined company’s high-speed broadband subscribers to lack access to alternative high-speed broadband options. Indeed, Charter admits that almost two-thirds of households in the New Charter footprint will not have access to at least one alternative high-speed broadband provider. For these customers, switching ISPs is not just an inconvenience, but an impossibility.

     

    Choke Points on the Charter/TWC Broadband Network: New Charter would have a panoply of foreclosure techniques at its disposal. It would be able to foreclose or degrade the online video offerings of competing MVPD and OTT video providers at any of three “choke points”: (1) the points of interconnection to the combined company’s broadband network, in effect the “on ramp” to the New Charter network; (2) the “public Internet” portion of the pipe to the consumer’s home; and (3) managed or specialised service channels, which can act as super HOV-lanes and squeeze the capacity of the “public Internet” portion of the New Charter broadband pipe. In addition, New Charter would have increased leverage that it could use to coerce third-party content owners and programmers to withhold online rights from online video platforms, thereby stifling a source of competition and innovation in the video industry.

     

    Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch states, “I believe that the proposed merger…. would cause significant and irreparable harm to emerging competitive online video products and services, as well as the performance of traditional satellite television service, ultimately reducing competition and choice for consumers. Accordingly, I believe that the merger as currently constructed is not in the public interest and should be denied.”

  • Viacom 18 launches HD feed of Aapka Colors in US

    Viacom 18 launches HD feed of Aapka Colors in US

    MUMBAI: Viacom 18 has launched the high definition (HD) feed of its channel Aapka Colors in the US.

     

    The channel will be available to viewers from 3 June, 2015 on US pay-TV provider Dish and on Sling International.

     

    Currently, the channel’s SD feed is available to subscribers of multiple MVPDs including Dish, Sling TV, AT&T, RCN and Verizon Fios among others. The introduction of the HD feed offers Dish and Sling subscribers all current content of Aapka Colors with an even more immersive viewing experience – clearer picture and superior sound.

     

    IndiaCast group COO Gaurav Gandhi said, “With the launch the HD service of Aapka Colors on Dish and Sling, we further enhance our offering on those platforms. We at Viacom 18 and IndiaCast, strive to bring the best of Indian entertainment to the South Asian diaspora around the globe. The fact that US will be the first market after India where we will launch the HD service of the channel demonstrates our commitment and focus towards the market. Together with Dish and Sling, we look forward to offering a truly world class viewing experience to our audiences who have contributed phenomenally to the growth of our business in the US.”

     

    On the communication approach to promote the launch of the HD feed, IndiaCast US operations head Sameer Goswami added, “Aapka Colors enjoys high resonance with the South Asian diaspora in the US and the launch of the HD feed of the channel will further help the brand to get even more entrenched with the local viewers in the region. We will leverage the reach of popular mass media, social platforms, along with in-cinema and out-of-home promotions for the launch of Aapka Colors HD.”

     

    Dish and Sling SVP – international programming Chris Kuelling added, “We are proud to be the first pay-TV provider in the US to deliver Aapka Colors in HD, giving our customers an enhanced viewing experience and delivering on our ongoing commitment to provide high quality, affordable entertainment that connects viewers to their culture.  And with Sling, viewers will be able to access Aapka Colors in HD on almost any device including IOS, Android, Roku, Xbox, Amazon Fire and more.”