ITV

Tag: Hathway

  • DEN Networks allots Rs 7.5 mn worth shares for eSOP

    MUMBAI: DEN Networks Limited has informed the corporate  relationship department of the National Stock Exchange of India and BSE Limited that it has allotted shares under DEN eSOP Plan B, 2014.

    In a communique signed by DEN company secretary Jatin Mahajan, it stated: This  is to inform you that the Securities  Committee, in its meeting dated 21 July, 2017, has issued  and allotted 7,50,000 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each at par to eligible employee(s) under DEN ESOP Plan.

    In a separate earlier report, Dish TV, Hathway & Den Networks were amongst the top 10 global Pay TV platforms, according to the Global Pay TV Operator Databook from Digital TV Research.

    Also, as reported earlier, three years after it announced its intention to get into TV home shopping, the Samir Manchanda-promoted  multi systems operator Den is exiting from it.  The company had launched a channel called DEN Snapdeal Home Shop in 2016   (in partnership with the ecommerce site) only to have its partner exit from it in March 2017.

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  • GTPL boosts channels & OTT with Harmonic, can deliver to 8 mn homes

    MUMBAI: Harmonic, a leader in video delivery infrastructure, announced that GTPL, India’s leading digital cable TV distribution company, which reaches an estimate of more than 8 million households in more than 189 cities, has deployed a next-generation software-based unified video headend system from Harmonic.

    At the heart of the solution is Harmonic’s Electra™ X2 advanced media processor that supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC encoding for both traditional cable television and live OTT multiscreen services, saving GTPL significant space and power consumption.

    “To remain competitive in the television distribution space, we needed to further differentiate our offering with compelling content, deliver higher video quality at a lower cost of operation and prepare for OTT,” said Aniruddhsinh Jadeja, managing director at GTPL Hathway. “Harmonic provides us with a complete headend solution for CATV and live OTT, with distribution of up to 650 cable television channels and 50 OTT channels from a unified management system. We can also support advanced features such as graphic overlay and scroll insertion, which are integral to our business. We are currently delivering live TV and have plans to explore catch-up TV, nPVR and 4K video in the future to provide an even better viewing experience to subscribers.”

    According to Frost & Sullivan, there are approximately 66 million unique connected video viewers in India, and about 1.3 million OTT paid video subscribers. The ability to support CATV and live OTT services from a unified headend provides interoperability capabilities, operational efficiency and opens up revenue opportunities for GTPL by enabling the operator to launch OTT offerings when ready.

    “Migrating to a software-based unified video headend for CATV and OTT delivery allows GTPL to roll out new offerings quickly and reduce costs through decreased space, power, equipment and personnel requirements,” said Tony Berthaud, vice president of sales, APAC, at Harmonic. “In the future, as GTPL further improves upon its video quality and service offerings, Harmonic’s software-based infrastructure will make it easy to adapt new codecs and formats.”

    The Electra X2 processor maximizes the efficiency and flexibility of statistical multiplexing through tight integration with Harmonic’s ProStream® video stream processor, allowing the operator to increase bandwidth efficiency and broaden its channel count. The unified headend also includes ProView™ integrated receiver-decoders for reception and ProMedia™ Package multiscreen stream packager for deploying secure live OTT services. Everything is managed through the NMX network management solution.

  • Dish TV, Hathway & Den amongst top 10 global Pay TV platforms

    MUMBAI: Indian companies — Dish TV, Hathway & Den Networks are amongst the top 10 global Pay TV platforms, according to the Global Pay TV Operator Databook from Digital TV Research. For the top 10 operators, the global TV revenue share was 55 per cent in 2016, with the leading 50 operators taking three-quarters of the total.

    Despite high number of subscribers but low ARPUs, Asia Pacific’s top operators are much less prominent in the PPV and subscription rankings with respect to revenue. This is where the US companies were leading – with six among the top 10 in 2016.

    Subscribers of Pay-TV for 522 operators reached a significant number — 839 million in 2016 (that is, 87 per cent of the 959 million global subscribers).

    In all, 50 leading operators accounted for two-thirds of the global Pay-TV subscribers by end-2016, Advanced Television reported. At that time, 10 million paying subscribers were using the services of 15 operators, according to the Databook.

    Globally, China Radio & TV is the largest pay-TV operator with a huge gap. Chinese government policy to consolidate cable TV translated as China Radio becoming the globe’s largest by 2016 — accumulating 227 million subs.

    Digital TV Research principal analyst Simon Murray said that India and China’s dominance of the top pay-TV operator rankings had been increasing, as US operators lost subs and the two nations subscriber bases swelled.

    PPV and subs revenues for the 522 operators were around Rs 11.9 trillion (US$185 billion) in 2016. Around 30 pay-TV operators earned more than Rs 64.5 billion (US$1 billion) revenue.

    MUMBAI: Indian companies — Dish TV, Hathway & Den Networks are amongst the top 10 global Pay TV platforms, according to the Global Pay TV Operator Databook from Digital TV Research. For the top 10 operators, the global TV revenue share was 55 per cent in 2016, with the leading 50 operators taking three-quarters of the total.

    Despite high number of subscribers but low ARPUs, Asia Pacific’s top operators are much less prominent in the PPV and subscription rankings with respect to revenue. This is where the US companies were leading – with six among the top 10 in 2016.

    Subscribers of Pay-TV for 522 operators reached a significant number — 839 million in 2016 (that is, 87 per cent of the 959 million global subscribers).

    In all, 50 leading operators accounted for two-thirds of the global Pay-TV subscribers by end-2016, Advanced Television reported. At that time, 10 million paying subscribers were using the services of 15 operators, according to the Databook.

    Globally, China Radio & TV is the largest pay-TV operator with a huge gap. Chinese government policy to consolidate cable TV translated as China Radio becoming the globe’s largest by 2016 — accumulating 227 million subs.

    Digital TV Research principal analyst Simon Murray said that India and China’s dominance of the top pay-TV operator rankings had been increasing, as US operators lost subs and the two nations subscriber bases swelled.

    PPV and subs revenues for the 522 operators were around Rs 11.9 trillion (US$185 billion) in 2016. Around 30 pay-TV operators earned more than Rs 64.5 billion (US$1 billion) revenue.

    Top 10 operators by subscribers (000)
    Ranking Operator Country 2016
    1 China Radio & TV (total) China 226,535
    2 China Telecom (IPTV) China 52,038
    3 BesTV (IPTV) China 26,019
    4 AT&T (total) USA 25,065
    5 Comcast (total) USA 22,508
    6 Charter merged (total cable) USA 16,836
    7 Dish TV (satellite) India 13,582
    8 Hathway (total) India 13,300
    9 Den Networks (total) India 13,000
    10 DISH Network (satellite) USA 12,521
    Source: Digital TV Research

  • Hathway’s outgoing exec Panesar yet to firm up future plan

    MUMBAI: In a dramatic development, Hathway video business CEO TS Panesar has quit following the move where Hathway Cable and Datacom chose to opt out of its cable TV business to a wholly-owned subsidiary retaining the broadband operations in the parent company. Confirming the news, Panesar communicated to indiantelevision.com that he was yet to firm up his new plan and future course of action.

    The reformist Panesar, having a multifaceted 20 years of experience in the broadcasting sector, decided to call it off after spending two and half years in the cable TV distribution entity. The executive, who had moved in from Star India, played a pivotal role in reforming the TV and cable operations unveiling a battery of value-added services (VAS).

    The CEO also launched ‘Hathway Connect’, an online portal for local cable operators (LCOs) which helped them maintain their expenditures, revenues, reduce operational costs, to raise the profits and make transactions more transparent. Among other things, the former CEO contributed to the growth of Hathway in DAS Phase III areas and led the company’s foray into VAS. Panesar was responsible for the launch of an ad-free value added services (VAS) titled ‘Hathway Special’ for subscribers who wanted quality content. 

    Panesar’s exit comes after Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar quit in November 2016. Following Kumar’s exit, Hathway had reshuffled its top management team.

    Also Read:

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  • Hathway builds brand Special, adds two service categories

    MUMBAI: Hathway Digital, a leading MSO, has announced the introduction of ‘Play My Play’ – an exclusive and first-ever kind of service on television featuring full-length plays for Hathway’s theatre-loving patrons, and ‘Hare Krsna’ focused on eternal well-being by bringing out the deep learnings associated with ISKCON.

    Hare Krsna will be available initially only in Maharashtra with a subsequent rollout across India. Available under the Hathway Special brand, subscribers can view Hare Krsna and Play My Play at no additional cost for the first month starting 15 June. Later, a nominal price of Rs. 40 for Play My Play and Rs. 25 for Hare Krsna will be charged on a monthly basis. Hathway Special was launched earlier in February which made Hathway the first among MSOs to launch VAS.

    Play My Play will bring to Indian homes the leisure of watching over 350 of the best and never before seen plays produced and dramatised for Indian theatre. The 24×7 service will screen plays in English, Hindi, across a range of genres and will feature plays by renowned writers like Premchand, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Shakesphere, Manto in addition to popular Bollywood writers like Piyush Mishra, D P Sinha, Danish Iqbal, Badal Sarkar and many more. Khidki, Perfect Wedding, Roop Aroop, Aik Machine Kabadi Ki, Aurangzeb, and Gang of Girls are a few plays available on Play My Play.

    Hare Krsna on the other hand will be catering to the spiritually inclined and focus on transformation and wellbeing of its followers. This service will feature International music festivals, documentaries, human interest stories on how ISKCON has transformed lives, the most vivid and assorted Rath-Yatras from around the world, complete recitals of the Bhagavad Gita, lessons on SATVIK cooking, Kirtans, etc. It will also have a special section dedicated to kids with animated stories on Lord Krsna.

    Hathway Video Business CEO T.S. Panesar said, “The success and continued positive response we have been receiving for Hathway Special reiterates the fact that we are living up to our promise of delivering unique v-added service. With the two launches, we will be adding two categories of services under the brand. We will continue to expand our service categories.”

  • Hathway ropes in R Madhavan as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: Hathway broadband, India’s leading player in fixed line broadband internet service announced the appointment of actor Madhavan (popularly known as Maddy) as the national brand ambassador, adding star power to drive the internet and broadband business.

    Hathway broadband, India’s leading player in fixed-line broadband internet service announced the appointment of actor Madhavan (popularly known as Maddy) as the national brand ambassador, adding star power to drive the internet and broadband business.

    Talking about the power of high-speed broadband actor Madhavan said, “Internet is the future of the new India. The power of broadband connectivity to make services and applications available to all is fundamental in transforming India digitally. I am happy to be associated with a brand like Hathway that is committed to the vision of digital India.”

    Proudly welcoming the actor into the Hathway family, Rajan Gupta, Managing Director of Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd said, “It is quite well known that actor Madhavan has been among the early movers in tapping into the digital phenomenon and we are extremely proud to have him as the face of the brand. Maddy’s huge popularity, pan-India acceptance, and charismatic personality as the youth icon, will help us increase our customer footprint across India.”

    Hathway will be shortly rolling out a multimedia campaign featuring the new brand ambassador that will highlight Hathway’s cutting edge GPON, Fibre to home (FTTH) technology and Ultra High-Speed broadband network.

    With the growing number of internet consumers, speed and data plan have always been the constant benchmarks for choosing a broadband connection. With the rollout of GPON Fiber to home technology, Hathway seeks to create a whole new breakthrough in the internet broadband industry with an unprecedented speed at affordable mass pricing while offering practically unlimited data. Through this Hathway aims to democratise broadband, making it accessible for internet consumers pan India.

  • Arnab’s Republic ready for news battle

    MUMBAI: It seems to be one of those rare media projects that is launching with a battery of advertisers and sponsors. Also, it is an exceptional new television channel that had little or no difficulty in reaching out to the right audience through myriad platforms — linear TV, through cable and MSOs, and OTT.

    Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV, which is being launched at 10am on 6 May as www.indiantelevision.com reported weeks ago, will have a strong digital presence through Reliance Jio‘s over-the-top (OTT) platform Jio TV and Star India’s video-on-demand (VoD) platform Hotstar.

    Star and Jio happen to be among the eight original sponsors of Republic TV. Others advertisers include Renault, Vivo, Hike Messenger, Ola, Yes Bank, Microsoft and Future Group. Vivo is also the presenting sponsor of the 9-pm show, while Microsoft is the technology partner. 

    It appears as if it is having a near-perfect launch. With a high decibel marketing campaign – online, outdoors, on ground – which has made almost everyone in the major metros sit up and take note.

    Republic TV will be available  on cable TV, direct-to-home (DTH) and OTT platforms, its digital avataar being republicworld.com. Amongst the DTH platforms which have given it carriage, according to reports,  include: Videocon2h, Tata Sky and some say even Airtel has hopped on board. The MSOs which have reportedly signed on the dotted line include: DEN, Hathway, Manthan, and Ortel. However, some cable and DTH operators may not offer the channel for free or it would be made a part of a bouquet.

    Goswami’s ‘pro-military and nationalistic’ and may be pro-establishment, will have the biggest OTT advantage with Hotstar 135 million downloads. The free-to-air (FTA) channel will bridge the Indian national news vacuum in Hotstar’s portfolio. Hotstar, which offers premium, free and original content across genres, live-streams Sky News and Fox News owned by 21st Century Fox, its parent company. Star earlier exited from the news business as regulation does not allow foreign holding of 51% in television news franchises.

    Goswami believes (being on Hotstar) was the first step as news produced in India goes digital, and then global, since the non-FTA paid VoD platform would take news to  90 million-plus viewers every month. 

    The former Times Now editor had teamed up with Kerala NDA vice-chairman and Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar in launching Republic TV. Other investors in ARG Outlier include DEN Networks promoter Sameer Manchanda, senior investment banker Hemendra Kothari, Aarin Capital’s Ranjan Ramdas Pai, Asian Heart Institute’s Ramakanta Panda and TVS Tyres’ R Naresh etc.

    Headed by an idealistic journalist and master-presenter, a near-perfect launch of a nationalistic channel in  times of nationalist dispensation notwithstanding, it remains to be seen how it performs in the jungle of warring news channels. As a senior executive  of a long standing English news broadcaster says: “Republic TV has made the right kind of noises at launch phase. Its key challenge will be sustainibility and that too over the long run. Rivals have deeper pockets and clout; they have not really reacted aggressively against it. When they do, it will have to put up its best, and that will determine its road ahead.”

    Also Read:

    Of Arnab’s Republic, nationalism, need for opinionated media & ‘outdated’ BBC

    Republic TV buzzing with pre-launch teasers featuring ‘soft’ targets, issues

  • Hathway launches GPON in Chennai, to invest Rs 500 cr in south

    MUMBAI: Internet service-provider (ISP) and cable multi-system operator (MSO) Hathway, over the next three years, plans to invest to the tune of Rs 500 crore in south India as part of its strategy to launch highspeed broadband service. It will be establishing data centres and other infrastructure so as to cover five lakh customers in three years.

    A senior company official told PTI that the Mumbai-based firm, which is into providing internet service through “Docsis 3” technology, has made commercial launch of the service through Gigabite Passive Optical Networks Fiber to Home (GPON Fibre to Home) technology. The company on Thursday announced the launch of its services in India with ultra-high-speed broadband technology.

    Consumption of OTT content from the likes of Amazon Prime, Netflix and HOOQ has been increasing and this would require high-speed dependable services. With broadband business present in 10 cities, Hathway has tied up with Cisco, Oracle, ZTE and Nokia for hardware and software components.

    Hathway Cable and Datacom managing director Rajan Gupta said, in Chennai, they had observed an explosion in demand (for broadband internet) last year. The average broadband consumption across the country is 45GB whereas, in Chennai, it was 90GB per month. It has just commercially launched in Chennai with GPON technology, he added.

    Noting that the incumbent operators provided broadband service through copper wires, Gupta said that Hathway would offer high-speed end-to-end fibre solution through fibre cables with the package starting at Rs 999 a month for speeds up to 150Mbps and 1000GB data unload.

  • BARC India in talks with DTH ops, MSOs for RPD to boost robustness

    NEW DELHI: India’s incumbent audience measurement organization Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) is in talks with DTH operators and MSOs for return path data (RPD) via their respective digital set-top boxes at customer premises to augment the robustness of viewership vital stats it dishes out.

    What does this mean?  It entails capturing passive data collection of household viewership from digital cable and DTH homes via existing set-top-boxes (STBs). This would therefore enable measurement based on a larger sample.

    Broadcast industry sources while confirming that talks are on between BARC India and various DTH operators for additional data that can be generated from non-BARC meters, added that the findings can help almost all stakeholders in the media to further fine-tune their strategies regarding consumer targeting. According to the buzz, talks are on with the likes of Airtel DTH, Sun DTH, Hathway, Tata Sky and DEN among others.

    The proposal on RPD is in addition to moves that BARC India has been making over the last six months to give more credibility and robustness to its data as also insulate itself from allegations of hacking and other malpractices. The organization, in this regard, is also proposing to revamp its Ethics Committee into a Disciplinary Committee that will have semi-judicial powers under a retired court judge.

    TV viewership in India is monitored and measured on the basis of 20,000 BARC India panel homes — that is, homes where it has its BAR-o-Meters installed. BARC is committed to raise that number every year by 10K to reach a total panel of 50,000 homes. However, Indian media industry sources also highlighted the issue whether Indian the eco-system can support an audience panel size larger than what has been planned for as any additional data generated via BARC India and non-BARC boxes would entail a financial cost, which would have to be borne, at the end of the day, by the industry players.

    RPD would substantially increase the sampled base for BARC India, helping further improve accuracy of its data. A larger sample will also minimize effect of any skews in sampling and make tampering difficult. Additional data would also help in reporting viewership of niche channels, apart from helping the measurement organization in reporting VoD, OTT, time shifted viewing and HD channels. Stats regarding smaller geographic regions and split beams of TV channels too would become possible.
    Such tie-ups will also help BARC India’s DTH/cable partners gain insights into TV viewing within their subscriber base in terms of linear TV, VoD and interactive services. Such data also likely to help them understand utilization of content packs and guide the pricing and packaging of services of platform operators.

    Meanwhile, RPD has been employed by data collectors in more developed and matured TV markets like the US, the UK, Australia and also in some parts of Asia for quite some time now. “The ubiquity of digital set-top boxes means that many cable and satellite operators can collect subscriber behaviours as a by-product of their subscriber management processes. Specifically, return path data can provide an economical way for the cable and satellite businesses to enhance the currency TV audience measurement in a manner dedicated to the needs of the multi-channel television industry,” Hong Kong-headquartered Asian media industry organization CASBAA had stated in one of its recent reports on multi-channel advertising in APAC.

    The FCC’s proposal to open cable set-top boxes to competition had thrust them into the spotlight. In 2016 when the Obama-government nominated FCC chief had proposed to throw open the STBs to competition and third-party manufacturers, Multichannel News had reported that “the role that STBs play not as content portals, but as providers of return-path data (RPD)” too is important.

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  • Premium VAS: Shemaroo, Hathway tie up

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd, one of the leading content owners, is joining hands with Hathway, one of the largest cable networks to change the dynamics of TV viewing in India.

    For the first time now, the audience can enjoy premium paid ad-free services on cable TV. A platter of popular services namely Miniplex, Comedywalas, Om Shakti, Ibaadat, Lamhe Movies and Yippee are now available on cable TV as well.

    As part of the launch, the said services are offered free to the consumers for the first month, ushering them with an experience of next generation TV viewing. Post this period, these services will be available at different price points.

    Shemaroo director Hiren Gada said, “This is a big leap, not only for Shemaroo but for the industry as well. Shemaroo Entertainment has always been among the pioneers when it comes to changing technology and consumer needs and adapting the same to reach and better serve our audience.”

    He also added, “Having successfully launched a number of VAS (Value added service) services across genres on multiple DTH platforms, Shemaroo Entertainment now expands its reach to cable viewers. Our tie up with Hathway will usher a new era in Cable TV viewing.”

    Hathway CEO T. Panesar said, “Shemaroo happens to be the leader in media content with a hold of the largest content library in India. Hathway’s all new Value Added Services – Hathway Special promises to offer the maximum and the best to its subscribers. We are happy to partner with Shemaroo and are confident that with this partnership, we will fulfil our promise by providing quality and the best services to all our subscribers.”