ITV

Tag: UK

  • ESPN Star Sports gives English football league the Hindi touch

    ESPN Star Sports gives English football league the Hindi touch

    MUMBAI:  ESPN Star Sports seems to be scoring well with its viewers with the telecast of Barclays Premier League (BPL) this year. And it’s no plain statement. The broadcaster which is airing the football league in both English and Hindi this season says it has seen a 254 per cent jump in its ratings on the inaugural day. Not only this, it points out that it has recorded a 105 per cent increase in the time spent per viewer on the inaugural day.

     

    The league which went on air from 17 August on Star Sports and Star Cricket has also been made available in Hindi for the first time. “We believe there is a huge potential for growth in football viewership and that Indian fans would love to consume non-cricket sports as well if the product is packaged well, communicated and presented in an interesting manner,” said ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput.

    It is important to explain the live action in a language and idiom which is clearly understandable by the viewers expounds Vijay Rajput.

     

    According to the data received by Indiantelevision.com, BPL’s viewership in the 15 plus age group of men in the ABC segment rose from the previous season’s 324 TVTs (esimated) to 760 TVTs. Day 1 of the league saw it record a reported 206 per cent increase in its reach. The stickiness among the football crazy fans has also witnessed a jump in the league this time around. Though last year the inaugural matches of BPL recorded 10 minute TSV (Time Spent viewing), this year it went up to 16 minutes – a rise of 105 per cent.

     

    The launch of BPL in Hindi is in-line with the channel’s strategy of pushing multi-lingual content. “The focus on English commentary/graphics by sports broadcasters till date has been a big deterrent in the growth in viewership. For viewers to understand the nuances of football and the league itself, we feel it is important to explain the live action in a language and idiom which is clearly understandable to one and all,” stated Rajput.

     

    The Hindi commentary is in addition to the English commentary which will also be available for all the televised matches from the full season. Under the dual audio feed system,DTH/digital subscribers can choose the language of their preference.

     

    ESPN Star Sports has decided to select two matches every week and telecast them in Hindi and English. “We are targeting to telecast close to 140 matches live with Hindi commentary in this season. In addition, almost 50 matches with Hindi commentary will have delayed telecast. So, overall about 190 matches would be covered with Hindi commentary,” he informed.

     

    The sportscaster caster has identified UK based commentators of Indian origin who will describe the proceedings on the field in Hindi for BPL. The Hindi commentary is being done from the stadium itself. “For viewers to understand the nuances of soccer and the league itself, we feel it is important to explain the live action in a language and idiom which is clearly understandable to one and all.”

     

    A three-pronged strategy has been put in place to promote the BPL: this includes: appointing MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador, covering select matches with Hindi commentary and have non-live Hindi programming around the tournament to ensure that more and more sports fans sample and understand the league’s nuances, its clubs and its stars.

     

    “We roped in Dhoni as the brand ambassador to excite sports fans who consume a lot of cricket to sample BPL as well with an ultimate objective of expanding the fan base of BPL in the country,” he informed.

     

    ESPN Star Sports has launched a mix of shows based on highlights/goals/review and preview of the latest in BPL which will be showcased week on week through the season.

     

    “We started off with six episodes of a buildup show ‘Superstar Football’ which focuses on multiple facets of the league – famous owners, top clubs and top players in the league etc. We will also showcase highlight shows of BPL in Hindi through the season. This fast paced snapshot of happenings in BPL will make for interesting television,” informed Rajput.

     

    The broadcaster is also looking at magazine shows every week, which will be a review of the season gone-by and a preview of the coming week’s matches. “This show will have colour/ feature stories from BPL.We will also telecast a half an hour show on goals every week. All the Hindi programming around BPL will be produced in India.”

     

    The work done around BPL has helped the broadcaster in not only receiving good ratings, but has also lured in the advertising dollars.   “We have received a very positive advertiser interest for this season. Even before the start of the league, we had monetised close to 85 per cent of the annual available inventory,” he informed. Tata Motors, Pernod Ricard, Adidas, Tata Teleservices, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) and Nokia India are some of the big names to have come on board as associate sponsors on-air for the live telecast.

     

    ESPN Star Sports tack to go local with Hindi commentary simulcast has found favour with cricket fans by contributing 40 per cent of the overall ratings for the India-Australia test series. The test series delivered an average rating of 2.05 TVR which was the highest average rating for a test series played by India in the past four years. “We also had a very successful inaugural season of the Hero Hockey India League in both Hindi and English, which delivered an impressive reach of 41.4 million.”

     

    With even the on-going IBL which is being showcased in both Hindi and English, the sportscaster is surely eyeing an eyepopping increase in viewership numbers. It clearly is serving (its customers we mean) right.

  • Colors goes FTA in the UK; gears up for battle

    Colors goes FTA in the UK; gears up for battle

    MUMBAI: The battle to capture the eyeballs of the UK-based Indian TV channel viewer is about to get fiercer. The Viacom18 group’s flagship brand Colors has announced that it is going free to air in the UK from 2 September. Following this, all of Sky Digital and Virgin Media’s cable TV viewers will be able to receive the channel as a free service.

     

    Says Colors CEO Raj Nayak: “We are elated to offer two of our leading brands, Colors and Rishtey, to our viewers in the UK. With this move, we will be reaching out to a much wider audience base giving them an enriching viewing experience of our top class fiction and non-fiction programming”.

     

    Colors became a part of Multiscreen Media’s ViewAsia bouquet (available on Sky as an Asian pack for pound sterling 17.99) in 2010 and was a pay channel there. Over the past year, ViewAsia tenants such as Sab TV, Sahara one and Aaj Tak opted to go free, leaving Colors to give company to Sony Max, B4U Movies, Sony TV Asia and ARY digital on ViewAsia. Now Colors too has headed for the exit, leaving question marks over ViewAsia’s pricing structure.

     

    Points out IndiaCast group CEO Anuj Gandhi: “The UK continues to be one of our most important markets – where in the past we have challenged the status quo with the launch and success of Rishtey and now with Colors going free to air, we are making our next big move towards leadership.”

     

    Over the past three years, the Network18 group and Viacom18 have launched Colors, Rishtey and News 18 – the first international news channel covering India- in the UK with the Viacom-Network18 joint venture Indiacast. The network says, Colors is available in close to 75 countries and its content is distributed in over 100 countries.

     

    ” Over the last 12 months, we have had phenomenal success with Rishtey that has made us the strongest challenger in the market. With Colors going free to air, we will neutralize the undue distribution advantage that some of the other south Asian channels have enjoyed in the market, making it a level playing field and we are confident of being the leading south Asian network in the UK in the near future,” says Indiacast COO Gaurav Gandhi.

     

    Adds IndiaCast UK’s business head Govind Shahi: “As a growing network, we are thrilled to independently deliver a broader spectrum of high quality entertainment to the consumer – with path breaking dramas, round-the-clock news, movie premieres and all-time favourite international formats like Bigg Boss, India’s Got Talent and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. Now with our channels reaching DTH homes in the UK, we are going to be the most potent and effective platform for the advertisers targeting South Asian homes.”

     

    Once it goes free to air, Colors will become a BARB rated channel in the UK. The latest BARB ratings for the week ended 11 August, show Star Plus is the leader in the UK market with 1.16 million viewers, UMP Movies is second with 994,000 viewers, Rishtey, third with 888,000 viewers, Zing – a part of the Zee Network – is at fourth with its best ever ratings of 621,000 viewers. At fifth place is Star Gold with 580,000 viewers. Sony SAB TV follows with 573,000 viewers. At seventh spot is Star Life Ok with 440,000 viewers.

     

    Cumulatively, the Star Network channels account for 2 plus million viewers in the UK – a stranglehold that the Netowrk18 group will be hard-pressed to try and break. But knowing the IndiaCast, Network18 and Viacom18, teams, well, they love a good joust. Get ready for a good fight!

  • Netflix loads up on kids shows yet again with Scholastic deal

    Netflix loads up on kids shows yet again with Scholastic deal

    MUMBAI: Netflix has been positioning itself as an online babysitter of sorts with a slew of deals for children’s content, thus it has sanctioned even more episodes of the kids’ genre.

     

    The streaming-video service said it has expanded an agreement with Scholastic Media, an arm of publisher Scholastic, to offer more of its TV series and video content, such as the shows based on the tween babysitting series, The Magic School Bus and Goosebumps. Most of the new content is available to Netflix members in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Latin America.

     

    Both Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service have been buying content for children. The idea is twofold: Go after a type of programming that – after sports – can be the most decisive sway factor when a consumer is choosing what entertainment to pay for. Then get children cozy with the format and style of internet-delivered content to create a new generation of subscribers.

     

    Netflix’s Scholastic deal marks the first time many of the episodes have been available in the streaming format, and Netflix has an exclusive hold on select programs like The Magic School Bus. However, most of the content is years old.

     

    “When we first added ‘The Magic School Bus’ and ‘Goosebumps’ for our members in the US and Canada earlier this summer we knew they would perform well, but after seeing just how popular they were we decided to expand our relationship with Scholastic and bring these great shows to more of our markets,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in a release.

     

    Three of the first five programs Amazon will produce as part of its original content push are children’s programs, and last month the company ordered up kids’ content solely for its next round of five pilots.

     

    Netflix is also working to fill a kids’ content void. The site declined high-demand Nickelodeon content earlier this year because parent Viacom wanted to bundle it together with less popular programs in a hulking deal. Amazon later snatched up the forsaken Viacom content.

     

    The latest deal with Scholastic however doesn’t include video content related to Scholastic’s most blockbuster brand, the Harry Potter series.

  • Amazon launches fine art marketplace

    Amazon launches fine art marketplace

    MUMBAI: The online retail giant that peddles everything from e-readers to UFO detectors is looking to change that and make fine art more accessible for everyone.

     

    Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of Amazon Art, an online marketplace that features more than 40,000 worlds of fine art from more than 150 galleries and dealers. At launch, Amazon Art features artworks from more than 4,500 artists. Amazon said it is one of the largest online collections of original and limited edition artwork for purchase from galleries and dealers.

     

    “We are excited to bring one of the largest selections of fine art direct from galleries to our customers. Amazon Art gives galleries a way to bring their passion and expertise about the artists they represent to our millions of customers. We’re thrilled to bring the excitement and emotional connection of art to our customers,” Amazon Marketplace VP Peter Faricy said in a statement.

     

    Like other Amazon Web properties, the new fine art marketplace features discovery tools to help you find pieces you might like, and detailed information about the works of art. You can search by using filters such as subject, style, color, size, price, and gallery.

     

    The marketplace includes art from galleries of all sizes in the US, UK, the Netherlands, and Canada, including Paddle8 in New York, Holden Luntz in Miami, McLoughlin Gallery and Modernbook in San Francisco and Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle.

     

    The store offers a little something for everyone, with pieces ranging from folk art to impressionism to modern art. Prices vary, with photographs starting at under $200 alongside iconic works from artists like Norman Rockwell, including the American master’s “Willie Gillis: Package from Home” available for a cool $4.85 million. Other available pieces include Andy Warhol’s “Sachiko” for $45,000 and Claude Monet’s “L’Enfant a la tasse, portrait de Jean Monet” for $1.45 million.

  • British zombie Film with Indian actors to open Frightfest in London

    British zombie Film with Indian actors to open Frightfest in London

    NEW DELHI: The Dead 2: India a zombie film shot in India and starring Indian actors will open the 14th edition of Frightfest, a genre festival in the UK.

    The Dead 2: India by the Ford Brothers is the sequel to the hugely successful zombie horror The Dead. The film is set in Rajasthan.

    The film follows the story of India-based American engineer Nicholas Burton (Joseph Millson) in a race against time to reach his pregnant girlfriend Ishani Sharma (Meenu). Burton enlists the help of an orphan street kid Javed (Anand Goyal) and together they make a perilous 300 mile journey across deadly landscapes as a zombie apocalypse threatens to engulf the entire nation.

    Howard and Jon Ford, the British director, writer and producer team behind the film said: “It‘s truly an honour to be the opening film – mind-blowing! Being at FrightFest for The Dead was such an incredible experience for us and one of the highlights of our whole journey with the film. It is an awesome event with a brilliant crowd and we both sincerely cannot wait to see you all there.”

    FrightFest will open from 22 August and continue till 26 August at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, in London.

  • “The appeal for Indian content amongst Britasians in the UK is strong”: Business Head – FTA channels, mainstream sales head at Zee Network UK Archana Kanade

    “The appeal for Indian content amongst Britasians in the UK is strong”: Business Head – FTA channels, mainstream sales head at Zee Network UK Archana Kanade

    Archana Kanade is the young and dynamic head of free to air channels business of Zee UK. Her job: increase the cachet that the two channels she heads – Zing and Lamhe – have with Britasians in the UK. In addition, she has the added responsibility of looking after mainstream advertising sales for the network.

    Under her leadership, Zing has become the most watched Asian lifestyle channel in the UK. She has also been responsible for the launch of ‘Cloud 9‘ – the UK’s first Asian drama shot locally.

    Kanade’s background is from mainstream sales, wherein she pushed Zee TV’s shows and film catalogue to global clients. This apart she has had a three year stint in Mumbai with Applause Entertainment, a former Birla group company, involved in production of TV shows and films.

    She recently spearheaded the luanch of Lamhe in the UK, giving it a snazzy look and feel. Indiantelevision.com spoke to her to get her perspective on the potential for Lamhe and Zing in the UK in a short bite interview.

    Excerpts:

    How large is the market for Indian content in the UK? How big is the TV advertising market in the UK?

    South Asians are the largest ethnic group in the UK, with a population close to three million. The appeal for Indian content amongst this group is strong with a large number of channels catering to them. Zee is the largest and fastest growing network catering to this group and aims to distinguish its offerings and provide the best in the genre for them. The advertising expenditure of the UK market is close to US $7.5 billion.

    How many viewers do you currently cater to? How many of those belong to the South Asian and Indian community?

    Zee’s two free-to-air channels are available across the major platforms – Sky on DTH and Virgin Media on cable as well as on the mobile TV service Yamgo. Zee offers premium South Asian content to the South Asian community. Its shows and movies offer English subtitles, making it accessible to the UK’s mainstream communities too. The appeal of the Indian culture and especially Bollywood is widespread across ethnic boundaries, which extends the reach of Zee’s content.

    Furthermore, many of Zing’s shows are in English and the channel aims to be a platform targeted to the second and third generation British Asians in the UK. It is showcasingCloud 9, which represents a milestone in Asian entertainment as it is the very first daily soap-series to be produced in the UK, specifically catering to the UK Asian audiences. This soap highlights the British Asian lifestyle, drawing on themes relevant to their way of life. In a never-before-seen method, the soap showcases the British Asian community in its true form, taking away stereotype perceptions regarding the UK‘s largest ethnic group – the South Asians.

    How many viewers are you catering to currently?
    The channel is available to DTH provider Sky’s subscriber base of almost 11 million, as well as on the cable service Virgin Media’s M+ Pack.

    Lamhe gives viewers the opportunity to view some of the most popular and award-winning shows in the history of South-Asian entertainment

    How are you promoting Zee Lamhe in the UK?

    The promotional plan of the new channel is designed to target the UK’s South Asian audiences through a complete 360 degree marketing plan across outdoor, print, TV, radio and the digital space. The mediums have been carefully selected to target the key pockets of the South Asian population spread in the UK to reach the almost three million strong South Asian community.

    Since both Lamhe as well as Zing are free to air channels are you planning to take them pay anytime soon?

    Zee operates along two models – its pay products and free-to-air offerings – both with distinct offerings. The premium pay products are Zee TV, Zee Cinema and Zee Punjabi. Lamhe offers a free to air window into the GEC space; it is a platform to celebrate the best in the genre of South-Asian dramas and Bollywood Classics. Zing is the UK’s number 1 Asian Lifestyle channel, delivering the best variety of the glamour of Bollywood – music, movies and news. Both channels offer content not accessible on other channels in the UK, which is why we want maximum viewers to enjoy it for free, with no current plan on making the channels subscription based.

    With the current line-up of shows that you have to offer, are you also looking at including more shows and if so, which ones?

    Lamhe gives viewers the opportunity to view some of the most popular and award-winning shows in the history of South-Asian entertainment, including classics such as:

    • Astitva – a popular series, winning many awards in 2005, focusing on the strength and courage of women’s identity.
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    • Amanat – one of the most popular Hindi television shows of its time that received the highest television ratings among many of 2000’s Hindi language shows in India.
    •  
    • Hasratein – one of the most popular television shows of the 1990s, looking at the bold topic of extra-marital relationships.
    •  
    • Kasamh Se – among the top shows in India in 2008, featuring the trials and tribulations of three sisters.

    The channel will also highlight the magnanimity of Bollywood with classic movies, featuring the best of evergreen stars such as Rishi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Kishore Kumar, plus a Raj Kapoor special season at the weekends. We are delighted to already receive great enthusiasm towards this content, with many requests for other classics that people are eager to watch again. We will be monitoring this in line with the remit of presenting the best of South Asian entertainment.

    We will be monitoring the feedback, researching and accordingly selecting the content that would connect with the audiences for Lamhe

    Since Zing is targeted at the youth and Lamhe is bringing back memories from the times passed, which is the target audience group that you are looking at?

    Lamhe is targeted at an audience that will enjoy the best in the genre of dramas and classic movies. Its content is relevant to both younger and older viewers due to the nature of the topics explored by the selected shows and also the treatment of the programming. The selected shows portray topics that were ahead of their times when they were first aired. They focus on strong storylines and their edit patterns mean they are more real to life, compared to many of today’s shows, which holds for an appeal to an international audience.

    Lamhe also endeavours to bring back memories of the time when Zee TV was the only Asian channel in the UK enthralling viewers and Zee was their home away from home. With Lamhe, we want to gift our viewers an opportunity to experience those beautiful memories once again.

    What kind of content would you like to showcase in the coming months? Any movie rights acquisition going forward?

    Lamhe’s content will be driven by what the viewers want to watch. We will be monitoring the feedback, researching and accordingly selecting the content that would connect with the audiences.

  • Helen Mirren crowned top actress at top UK theatre awards

    Helen Mirren crowned top actress at top UK theatre awards

    NEW DELHI: Dame Helen Mirren was crowned best actress at Britain‘s Olivier awards on Sunday for her portrayal of the Queen Elizabeth. A stage version of a novel about a boy with autism was on track to be the top winner of the Olivier awards.
     
    Mirren, 67, has won stellar reviews for starring in "The Audience", Peter Morgan‘s play about the private weekly meetings between Queen Elizabeth and the 12 British prime ministers during the six decades of her reign.
     
    She is no stranger to royalty having won an Academy award for the same role in the 2006 film "The Queen".
     
    The actress said the queen certainly deserved an Olivier award after receiving one of Britain‘s most prestigious entertainment honours, a BAFTA, earlier this month for her support for the film and television industry.
     
    "I think she deserves one for the most committed and consistent performance of the 20th century and probably the 21st century," said Mirren on accepting the award from Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe.
     
    Her co-star, Richard McCabe, won the award for best supporting actor for playing the prime minister Howard Wilson.
     
    But the biggest winner of the 37th Olivier awards was the play "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time" that opened at the National Theatre in London in 2012 and transferred to London‘s West End theatre district this year.
     
    The play, based on Mark Haddon‘s 2003 award-winning novel, was nominated for eight awards and picked up several in the first half of the glitzy awards ceremony at London‘s Royal Opera House.
     
    Luke Treadaway won the best actor award for playing 15-year-old Christopher, a maths prodigy with autism who sets out to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbour‘s dog.

  • The future of television rests in apps: Netflix

    The future of television rests in apps: Netflix

    MUMBAI: OTT subscription service Netflix has published a report called Long Term View. The report says that the evolution to Internet TV apps is already starting. It notes that existing networks, such as ESPN and HBO that offer amazing apps will get more viewing than in the past, and be more valuable. Existing networks that fail to develop first-class apps will lose viewing and revenue.

    “Apps that provide on-demand viewing are critical because people don‘t love the linear TV experience where channels present programmes at particular times on non-portable screens with complicated remote controls. Finding good things to watch isn‘t easy or enjoyable. In addition to Netflix, most of the world‘s leading linear TV networks are moving into Internet TV,” Netflix says.

    It has given the examples of HBO and ESPN. ESPN, Netflix notes will keep improving their app to try to stay ahead of MLB.tv, which it says is another terrific Internet TV sports app.

    “The HBO Go app makes HBO‘s films and series much more accessible than on HBO‘s linear channel. The BBC iPlayer app in the UK provides a rich and popular on-demand interface for a wide range of BBC programming. The other major linear networks are not far behind,” according to Netflix.

    Netflix adds that while Internet TV is only a very small per cent of video viewing today, the expectation is that it will grow every year because:

    1. The Internet will get faster, more reliable and more available;
    2. Smart TV sales will increase and eventually every TV will have Wifi and apps;
    3. Smart TV adapters (Roku, AppleTV, etc.) will get less expensive and better;
    4. Tablet and smartphone viewing will increase;
    5. Tablets and smartphones will be used as touch interfaces for Internet TV;
    6. Internet TV apps will rapidly improve through competition and frequent updates;
    7. Streaming 4k video will happen long before linear TV supports 4k video;
    8. Internet video advertising will be personalized and relevant;
    9. TV Everywhere will provide a smooth economic transition for existing networks;
    10. New entrants like Netflix are innovating rapidly.

    Netflix goes on to note that eventually, as linear TV is viewed less, the spectrum it now uses on cable and fibre will be reallocated to expanding data transmission. Satellite TV subscribers will be fewer, and mostly be in places where high-speed Internet (cable or fibre) is not available. The importance of high-speed Internet will increase.
     
    It cites examples of this transformation taking place in different nations. “In the UK, for example, the BBC is already starting to programme more for its iPlayer app than for its linear channels, given the large and growing viewing on the iPlayer. For most existing networks, this economic transition will occur through TV Everywhere. If a consumer continues to subscribe to linear TV from a multi-channel video programme distributor (MVPD), they get a password to use the Internet apps for the networks they subscribe to on linear.”

    The key to avoid cord cutting for networks, according to Netflix, is to keep their prime-time programming behind the authentication wall. It proposes that same consumer who today finds it worthwhile to pay for a linear TV package will likely pay for a ‘linear plus apps‘ package. Netflix further says that Internet TV apps will improve just like the mobile phone over the next 20 years.

    In addition to creating opportunity for linear networks, the emergence of Internet TV also enables new apps like Netflix, YouTube, MLB.tv, and iTunes to build large scale direct-to-consumer services that are independent of the traditional MVPD bundle. Netflix notes that while it competes for entertainment time with traditional networks, the scope of such time is quite large. Consumer time devoted to web browsing and video games, for instance, has expanded hugely over the last two decades without a corresponding diminution of TV viewing.

  • UK video rental market plunges

    UK video rental market plunges

    MUMBAI: The market for Blu-ray (BD) and DVD rental in the UK is expected to plunge by 22 per cent this year, as half the country‘s Blockbuster video stores shut down in a restructuring initiated by the company‘s new management.

    The UK market for physical-video rental will drop to GBP 202 million in 2013, down GBP 57 million, or 22 per cent from GBP 259 million in 2012, according to a newly updated forecast from IHS. While the market is generally on the decline, 2013 will bring the sharpest predicted annual decrease for the 11-year period from 2007 through 2017.

    By the end of 2013, only 264 Blockbuster stores will be open in the country, down 50 per cent from 530 in 2012. Blockbuster is the largest video rental chain in the country.

    IHS senior video analyst Tony Gunnarsson said, “The year 2013 is set to become a watershed for the UK video rental market as a result of the wholesale closure of Blockbuster UK stores. The massive downturn in the store-based video rental market represents a significant loss to the video market and will result in a major decline and radical transformation of the UK video market overall. From 2013 on, the UK physical-video rental business increasingly will be dominated by online rent-by-mail subscription services.”

    Both DVD and BD transactions are due to decrease across the store-based sector this year. DVD rentals will fall by a steep 53.2 per cent to 15.4 million. BD is set to drop by an even larger 61.3 per cent to 2.8 million respectively.

    Blockbuster gets busted up: After filing for administration in January 2013, Blockbuster‘s administrators Deloitte announced two separate rounds of store closures, including some 224 sites. In February 2013, supermarket chain Morrisons purchased 49 of these former Blockbuster stores in its drive to increase its store presence in southeast England.

    Out of the remaining Blockbuster stores, Gordon Brothers acquired a total of 264 locations, including a number of Blockbuster outlets earmarked for closure that will now remain open.

    Pay-TV killed the video store: In 2012, rental stores were responsible for 41.3 per cent of the video rental market based on consumer spending. In the latest forecast for 2013, however, the store-based sector is now projected to generate just 24.7 per cent of the overall market. This tilts the market toward the online sector, which will see its share of market increase massively from 58.7 per cent in 2012 to 75.3 per cent this year.

    At the same time, the lost rental business won‘t result in customers that used to rent at Blockbusters automatically signing up to become rent-by-mail customers with online providers, IHS believes. Rather, those customers are more likely to turn to a host of other video platforms, primarily pay-TV services.

    Video Rental Market Winds Down: In the longer view, the U.K. rental market will return to a normal trend of decline after 2013, with spending on renting physical video shrinking at an annual rate of under 5 per cent until 2017. By then, the retreat in spending is expected to be slightly more negative at seven per cent.

  • UK switchover almost complete with 98 per cent getting digital signals: Ofcom

    UK switchover almost complete with 98 per cent getting digital signals: Ofcom

    MUMBAI: A total of 25.1 million households in the United Kingdom were receiving digital TV across all platforms in the fourth quarter in 2012, marking an increase of almost five per cent from the year before.

    The Digital Television Update report by the British media watchdog Ofcom says digital TV is now received in 98 per cent of UK households following the completion of digital switchover last October.

    A total of 75 per cent households watched TV over digital terrestrial signals in the fourth quarter of 2012, an increase of 0.5 percentage points on the fourth quarter of 2011. In the fourth quarter of 2012, 54 per cent households subscribed to pay TV, up by two percentage points on the same period in 2011. A total of 37 per cent households subscribed to pay satellite in the fourth quarter of 2012, the same proportion in the corresponding period in 2011. A total of 13 per cent households subscribed to cable in fourth quarter of 2012, which was the same proportion in the corresponding period in 2011.

    In the fourth quarter of 2012, 3.4 per cent households had multi-channel platforms other than digital terrestrial, satellite and cable, up by 1.4 percentage points on the same period in 2011.

    There were an estimated 2.12 million free-to-view digital satellite households in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from 2.04 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the survey data.