ITV

Tag: Virgin

  • Netflix said to negotiate with US cable companies for set-top box app

    Netflix said to negotiate with US cable companies for set-top box app

    MUMBAI: Netflix is in talks with several US cable companies with the aim of making its video streaming app available on set-top boxes, according to various reports. The reports say that Netflix’s discussions with US operators, including Comcast and Suddenlink, are at an early stage with no deal expected soon. Last month the UK’s Virgin Media became the first cable operator to offer Netflix to its customers; companies in the US have so far been reluctant to embrace streaming services, seeing the technology as broadly competitive with their traditional content offerings.

    One reported sticking point in the negotiations is that Netflix is pushing for the cable companies to adopt its Open Connect content delivery network, which it argues will provide the best streaming quality. Previously Netflix had restricted 3D and what it calls “Super HD” content, which requires a higher bitrate, to internet service providers that participated in the Open Connect initiative, but Time Warner Cable argued that its network was “more than capable of delivering this content to Netflix subscribers.” Netflix later opened up Super HD streaming to all ISPs.

  • T-Series YBR label announces summer music launch

    T-Series YBR label announces summer music launch

    MUMBAI: T-Series big boss Bhushan Kumar is looking at transforming his very Indian music group, Super Cassettes into one that has international music on its roster. To achieve this goal, earlier this year, he flagged off YBR Records, headed by former Universal executive Vinay Sapru.

    Since then YBR has been jetting around the world, in order to sign on artistes at various festivals and markets. And Sapru reveals that his push has been a success. “We are on the verge of doing deals with two artistes from the US, a band and a girl singer from Czechoslovakia, and an artiste from Germany,” he says.

    Sapru points out that the artistes will have crossover appeal, in the sense that though they may be international in their broad approach, their music will have Indian elements built in so that it would appeal to Indian audiences. “It was earlier done with a band like Truth Hurts wherein we strung in strains like Kaliyon Ka Chaman into its track and the ploy worked like a charm,” he elucidates.

    Releases under the new label are expected to debut in the summer. “We will take the 360 degree marketing approach with radio, TV, live, outdoors, digital, online – the works while promoting the albums and the artistes. We have been very successful with Himesh Reshmaiyya if you see our track record.”

    Sapru, who is just back from Midem, believes that the annual music market which just concluded in Cannes a week ago is the best platform for the music trade. “We shook hands with most of our partners and the new artistes I am talking about at Midem,” he says. “We will be signing on the dotted line with them very soon.”

    Kumar points out that the group is looking at tying up with an international major very soon. With Universal, Sony BMG, Virgin already entrenched in the market who could it be? Both Sapru and Kumar are not telling but when it does happen it will bring in a new sound to the Indian music market surely.

  • Online music sales in Europe to help reverse decline in music sales in 2010

    Online music sales in Europe to help reverse decline in music sales in 2010

    MUMBAI: A new report by media researchers Screen Digest, Online Music in Europe: Market Assessment and Forecast predicts that rapidly growing online music sales in Europe will start to halt the decline in overall sales of recorded music, but not until 2010.

    The total European market for online music will have more than doubled from Euro 121 million in 2005 to a forecast Euro 280 million by the end of this year. By 2010 consumer spending on online music in Europe will generate more than Euro 1.1 billion.

    This explosive growth is being driven by rapidly growing broadband penetration and the massive increase in portable music player usage. Over seven per cent of Europeans now use one, up from two per cent in 2004. By the end of 2005 there were 29 million portable music players in Europe and this figure will rise to more than 80 million by 2010.

    However, the big picture is not so rosy for the overall European music market, which has been in decline – losing 22 per cent of its total value since 2001. Screen Digest predicts the market will continue to fall until 2010, at which point online music sales of more than Euro 1 billion a year will begin to offset the decline in physical sales.

    Screen Digest analyst and author of the report Dan Cryan comments, “Online music has been booming. However, online sales alone are not going to be enough to halt the decline in music sales. The music industry needs to make the most of new delivery platforms. We believe with the right strategy – including mobile and online – that the worst might be over by 2010. The industry must adopt a broader approach to selling music, looking beyond the traditional single and album.”

    The report analyses the causes of declining revenues for the music industry and shows that a wider view must be taken to understand and address the change in consumer behavior. It is easy to point the finger at piracy but data from music industry body IFPI suggests that piracy is declining. The number of tracks available on illegal file sharing networks declined from 1.1 billion euros in 2003 to 885 million euros in 2005.

    Instead factors like the gradual erosion of music dedicated shelf space in big retailers, like HMV and Virgin and its replacement with DVDs, books and mobile phones cannot be ignored. Seen in this light the fact that the decline in physical music sales corresponds to the boom in DVD sales begins to look less like a coincidence and more like a cause.