ITV

Tag: Indiana

  • Watchit Media Inc. launches Convention Television

    Watchit Media Inc. launches Convention Television

    MUMBAI: Cotelligent, Inc. yesterday announced that its wholly owned subsidiary – Watchit Media, Inc. is launching Watchit Convention News (WCN), a unique television product focused on presenting same-day coverage of conventions and conferences in major US markets.

    The company produces WCN to bring dynamic video coverage to private television networks. Watchit Media currently narrowcasts video content to 45 gaming casinos and approximately 50,000 hotel rooms in Nevada, California, New Jersey, Mississippi, Indiana, Oregon and Louisiana.Cotelligent chairman and CEO James Lavelle said, “In January, we had issued a release defining our marketing strategy for Watchit which included the televised coverage of major conventions and conferences initially in Las Vegas, then to other major US markets. Over the past several months, our market research and analysis has confirmed that there is a significant opportunity for WCN to bring entertaining, informative, educational and influential televised programming to this unaddressed market.”

    In conjunction with conventions and conference organisers and major convention facilities, WCN will offer hotel guests, attendees, exhibitors and the convention facility a way to expand their reach during the convention. Watchit Media currently presents its video content to 21 hotels in the Las Vegas market and hopes that WCN will be an exciting new way to add value to its hospitality customers and to improve their guest’s experience.

    “Our customers are looking for creative ways to improve the guest experience and generate more revenue,” said Lavelle. “We view each hotel as having the capacity to run a Watchit private video network. The private video network of the future will give the hotel the ability and flexibility to include its own advertising and program content with highly profiled custom television programming like WCN.”

    In addition to its private network convention coverage, Watchit also announced the introduction of FINDIT, its fully indexed digital convention floor plan and map guide. FINDIT provides convention attendees with a new computerised tool to facilitate the process of viewing exhibitor products and services, identifying those of greatest interest and mapping the clearest path getting the most out of the convention experience. FINDIT can be accessed by the convention attendee via the Internet on their computer or PDA and is also available on DVD.

    “FINDIT represents the first demonstration of our ability to take advantage of the convergence of Internet, video media and wireless technology to improve the way things are done. And the applications for this convergence are just beginning to be revealed,” said Lavelle.

  • Colour TV clocks polychromatic half century

    Colour TV clocks polychromatic half century

    MUMBAI: Colour TV turned 50 on Thursday.

    It was on 25 March, 1954, that the Radio Corporation of America’s (RCA) plant in Bloomington, Indiana, produced the first CT-100, a $1,000 set (approaching $7,000 in today’s dollars) that historians call the first mass production color TV. The 160-pound unit had 1,012 parts, 36 vacuum tubes and 150 feet of wire.

    Called The Merrill, the model hit US stores in April 1954. Only about 5,000 of these 12-inch sets were manufactured however. This was because colour took its time to spread its reach, high cost the culprit. Most Americans saw the Kennedy assassination in 1963 in black and white. It was only in 1967 that colour outsold black-and-white for the first time – with more than 5.5 million sets sold. By 1973, more than half of all American households had colour.

    In India, colour came into television with the Asian Games in 1982. Today, about 32 million households in the country have colour TV sets, while the majority of 56 million households still has black and white sets. Last year, a total of seven million TV sets were sold, of which approximately seven per cent were 21 inches or of the “flat” category. The television market, which has been growing at a rate of 11-13 per cent annually, is expected to maintain this momentum, if not up it.

    According to reports, the domestic colour TV market has grown 50 per cent in three years from five million units in 2000, with the growth rate hovering around 10-15 per cent, as against five -10 per cent in China and three to five per cent in Europe and North America .

    With flat screens and new technology making their way into Indian households, the high growth rates are likely to hold in the coming years. While the market size is miniscule compared to bigger markets like China and the US, it is fast catching up, reports indicate.

    50 years ago, NBC made history with the first live broadcast in colour; the event – the Tournament of Roses Parade in California.

    The first cartoons that aired in colour were The Flintstones and The Jetsons in 1962.

    However many industry experts consider the first definitive colour show to be the western Bonanza., which started airing on NBC from 1959.

    In India, colour TV bloomed with national colours with the New Delhi Asiad and flowered with the coming of the satellite age and multi-hued programming from overseas. Lowering import duties and relaxation of rules on the import of colour picture tubes added to the colour lure.

    Today, consumer electronics companies (with the TV enjoying pride of place) vie for sponsorships of important events and sports on television.

    With flat screens, HDTV and even better technology, television has a colourful future ahead.

  • Americans use media more than they realise: Study

    Americans use media more than they realise: Study

    SOUTH CAROLINA: Americans spend more time than they realise with the media, especially television. They often use multiple media simultaneously. These findings are contained in a new study which was released at a conference on media convergence at the University of South Carolina.
     

    The study concluded that residents of Middletown, USA (Muncie, Indiana) spend 10 and a half hours a day using media. For around a quarter of that time, they are using at least two media simultaneously. Television, at 4.5 hours a day, is the most used medium. It is followed by computers (2.4 hours), radio (1.9 hours), reading (1 hour), music (55 minutes), phone (53 minutes), video games (12 minutes) and e-mail (seven minutes).

    An academic team compared reported media use from telephone surveys and personal diaries to actual, observed use. Researchers followed 101 subjects for an entire day from the time they got up to the time they went to bed. The researchers found that the group shadowed spent substantially more time with the media than indicated by more traditional research methods. The greatest discrepancy was in television viewership. The closest correlation between reported vs. observed behavior was in time spent reading. The study suggests self-reporting may be unreliable and that to be effective, research should measure more than one medium at a time.

    The study also offers new insights into the reported drop in television viewership among 18 to 34 year old males. The men in this group observed by the researchers watched less TV than other demographic groups. They spend more time listening to music, watching videos and playing video games.