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Tag: Yahoo

  • NDTV’s Shouneel Charles joins Times Network as SVP – digital

    MUMBAI: Times is inducting senior executives one after the other. After Nikhil Gandhi, Times Network has strengthened its senior leadership team with the appointment of Shouneel Charles as its senior vice president – digital. Based out of Mumbai, he will report to Times Network MD & CEO M.K. Anand.

    Times Network recently appointed Nikhil Gandhi as president – revenue, whose key responsibility is growth of profitable monetisation of the entire bouquet of channels under the network. Earlier too, he was a part of the core team at Zoom during the launch of the channel.

    On Charles’s appointment, Anand said, “We look forward to scaling heights and claiming our rightful position as a strong Digital Media Company with this induction and other senior level interventions that we plan. Given his experience in digital media, marketing and advertising, we are confident that we will be able to better engage with the New Media market.’’

    Charles said, “Leading the digital practice at a network that is known for its unique campaigns and initiatives is a huge responsibility. The growing digitisation throws a huge opportunity for established brands like Times Network.”

    In his previous assignment, Charles was leading the digital business at NDTV Convergence as the chief sales & marketing officer and chief revenue officer. He helped the media company set up a digital ecosystem, profitable internet and mobile based business.

    With close to 20 years of experience, Shouneel Charles has previously worked for multi-national companies such as Yahoo, Turner Broadcasting, HBO, Warner Brothers, STAR TV and The American Express Bank.

    Also Read:

    Nikhil Gandhi joins Times Network as president – revenue

  • “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    The $132.1 billion US telecom giant Verizon Communications provides communications and entertainment services over mobile broadband and the US’ premiere all-fiber network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. More than that that it operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with 113.2 million retail connections nationwide.

    In his letter to shareholders in the latest annual report Verizon chairman & CEO Lowell McAdam wrote: “Our strategy for continued growth  and profitability is straightforward:  deliver great wireless and wireline  services over our superior networks, develop new business models in platforms such as video and the Internet of Things, and create incremental revenue opportunities in applications and  content.”

    And that’s exactly what its offshoot Verizon Digital Media Services, the next-generation digital media platform,  sought to do when it announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel Limited India’s largest telecommunications services provider. The partnership saw it launch points of presence (PoPs) in four cities in India: Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi, marking Verizon’s significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India.

    Indiantelevision.com had a conversation with Verizon Digital Media Services VP of Technology, Kyle Okamoto, on what this partnership means, what it entails, and how Verizon will foray further into India.

    Excerpts:

    Why did you have to set up the four POPs in India? Why not three or two? And what is exciting you about the country? And what did you have to innovate on while setting up the POPs in India?

    We care about quality and performance. Given the infrastructure and network topology of India, only one or two or three POPs would not achieve the levels of performance that we want to provide to our customers.  The country is important to our customers and growing quickly. Innovation was mainly around performance optimizations regarding network routing utilizing Any case, in addition to the specific SSDs we used to maximize our cache efficiency for better quality.

    We want to be among the top three CDNs in India and for that we needed to invest. Which we have done.

    How much of an investment has gone in – into hardware and software?

    Millions. There was investment from a capital perspective, operational perspective, the data centre and in hardware  and software.  We had to do everything navigating keeping India’s infrastructure in mind.

    Over what period of time were the POPs set up? And who did the design, engineering and setting up? Who’s maintaining the POP now?

    Months of time was spent working out the arrangement with Airtel, while the physical provisioning of the POPs only took a couple of weeks. We did the design and engineering and worked with Airtel on the installation, configuration , testing and optimization.  Our engineers made multiple trips. And on the initial deployment which included the unboxing of the hardware and cabling.  Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. Ours is a collaborative partnership.

    What does your partnership with Airtel entail from both sides? And what does it allow each of you to do? Airtel can sell your services to other content companies? Your other solutions?

    Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. The four PoP installations mark Verizon Digital Media Services’ significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India. This partnership will ensure that content on the Verizon Digital Media Services platform can be accessed by digital media consumers in a fast, seamless and reliable way and will improve the experience for users in India.

    The launch of these strategic PoPs marks the beginning of a strong partnership between Verizon and Airtel Business and further cements our commitment to providing consumers in India, one of the fastest-growing markets for digital media consumption, with exceptional services and quality. This also allows us to offer amazing quality to our customers and to the consumers in India.  Airtel enjoys network efficiencies, improved quality, lowered costs and the ability to monetize content traffic.

    And yes, we can have conversations with each other on sales too. If a customer comes to us to work in India, we can forward them to Airtel and likewise.

    What kind of capacity have you built up through your POPs? How much of it is being utilised?

    We have built a significant amount of capacity to serve our customers and have prepared for a significant amount of growth. Additionally, we have built our POPs to handle very large customer spikes without affecting any other customers, i.e. gaming or live events or sports or software downloads. We have overbuilt significantly as India is a fast growing market and we wanted to prepare for the future. We are currently using only 2-5 per cent of the capacity we have built so far.

    What benefits have the Verizon-AOL/Yahoo acquisitions brought to the company and how will Yahoo’s presence in India benefit you?

    As Verizon chairman &  CEO Lowell McAdam had previously mentioned, the AOL acquisition enhances Verizon’s strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers. The Yahoo acquisition will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, while also helping to accelerate a revenue stream in digital advertising.  It also enables a wider stack and set of services to our digital media customers enabling creative monetization opportunities.

    How do you see your presence in India evolving?

    We expect to grow with our customers as they continue to offer amazing OTT experiences to their consumers.

    Will we see you offering your OTT end to end solutions in India? Do you see opportunity in this space in India?

    We already offer our customers a wide array of digital media solutions including our end-to-end Video Lifecycle Solution that covers the entire supply chain from content to consumer monetization. We do see India as a source of growth moving forward as more and more companies move to OTT and as infrastructure continues to improve. We also have a solution which allows us to build an OTT app in three days for our clients; and we have always met that challenge.

     

  • “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    The $132.1 billion US telecom giant Verizon Communications provides communications and entertainment services over mobile broadband and the US’ premiere all-fiber network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. More than that that it operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with 113.2 million retail connections nationwide.

    In his letter to shareholders in the latest annual report Verizon chairman & CEO Lowell McAdam wrote: “Our strategy for continued growth  and profitability is straightforward:  deliver great wireless and wireline  services over our superior networks, develop new business models in platforms such as video and the Internet of Things, and create incremental revenue opportunities in applications and  content.”

    And that’s exactly what its offshoot Verizon Digital Media Services, the next-generation digital media platform,  sought to do when it announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel Limited India’s largest telecommunications services provider. The partnership saw it launch points of presence (PoPs) in four cities in India: Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi, marking Verizon’s significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India.

    Indiantelevision.com had a conversation with Verizon Digital Media Services VP of Technology, Kyle Okamoto, on what this partnership means, what it entails, and how Verizon will foray further into India.

    Excerpts:

    Why did you have to set up the four POPs in India? Why not three or two? And what is exciting you about the country? And what did you have to innovate on while setting up the POPs in India?

    We care about quality and performance. Given the infrastructure and network topology of India, only one or two or three POPs would not achieve the levels of performance that we want to provide to our customers.  The country is important to our customers and growing quickly. Innovation was mainly around performance optimizations regarding network routing utilizing Any case, in addition to the specific SSDs we used to maximize our cache efficiency for better quality.

    We want to be among the top three CDNs in India and for that we needed to invest. Which we have done.

    How much of an investment has gone in – into hardware and software?

    Millions. There was investment from a capital perspective, operational perspective, the data centre and in hardware  and software.  We had to do everything navigating keeping India’s infrastructure in mind.

    Over what period of time were the POPs set up? And who did the design, engineering and setting up? Who’s maintaining the POP now?

    Months of time was spent working out the arrangement with Airtel, while the physical provisioning of the POPs only took a couple of weeks. We did the design and engineering and worked with Airtel on the installation, configuration , testing and optimization.  Our engineers made multiple trips. And on the initial deployment which included the unboxing of the hardware and cabling.  Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. Ours is a collaborative partnership.

    What does your partnership with Airtel entail from both sides? And what does it allow each of you to do? Airtel can sell your services to other content companies? Your other solutions?

    Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. The four PoP installations mark Verizon Digital Media Services’ significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India. This partnership will ensure that content on the Verizon Digital Media Services platform can be accessed by digital media consumers in a fast, seamless and reliable way and will improve the experience for users in India.

    The launch of these strategic PoPs marks the beginning of a strong partnership between Verizon and Airtel Business and further cements our commitment to providing consumers in India, one of the fastest-growing markets for digital media consumption, with exceptional services and quality. This also allows us to offer amazing quality to our customers and to the consumers in India.  Airtel enjoys network efficiencies, improved quality, lowered costs and the ability to monetize content traffic.

    And yes, we can have conversations with each other on sales too. If a customer comes to us to work in India, we can forward them to Airtel and likewise.

    What kind of capacity have you built up through your POPs? How much of it is being utilised?

    We have built a significant amount of capacity to serve our customers and have prepared for a significant amount of growth. Additionally, we have built our POPs to handle very large customer spikes without affecting any other customers, i.e. gaming or live events or sports or software downloads. We have overbuilt significantly as India is a fast growing market and we wanted to prepare for the future. We are currently using only 2-5 per cent of the capacity we have built so far.

    What benefits have the Verizon-AOL/Yahoo acquisitions brought to the company and how will Yahoo’s presence in India benefit you?

    As Verizon chairman &  CEO Lowell McAdam had previously mentioned, the AOL acquisition enhances Verizon’s strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers. The Yahoo acquisition will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, while also helping to accelerate a revenue stream in digital advertising.  It also enables a wider stack and set of services to our digital media customers enabling creative monetization opportunities.

    How do you see your presence in India evolving?

    We expect to grow with our customers as they continue to offer amazing OTT experiences to their consumers.

    Will we see you offering your OTT end to end solutions in India? Do you see opportunity in this space in India?

    We already offer our customers a wide array of digital media solutions including our end-to-end Video Lifecycle Solution that covers the entire supply chain from content to consumer monetization. We do see India as a source of growth moving forward as more and more companies move to OTT and as infrastructure continues to improve. We also have a solution which allows us to build an OTT app in three days for our clients; and we have always met that challenge.

     

  • Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    MUMBAI: After much anticipation and speculation, word is out that US based telecommunication giant, Verizon will buy Yahoo for USD 4.83 billion in cash at the end of a closely-scrutinized, six-month sale process.

    Yahoo first put itself up for sale in February and it fielded multiple bids from almost 40 different types of buyers including AT&T; Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert with financial backing from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett; and private equity firms TPG and Vector Capital Management.

    But finally Yahoo informed the other bidders on Saturday that it has sealed the deal with Verizon.

    “Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL,” said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a press release. “The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo. This transaction also sets up a great opportunity for Yahoo to build further distribution and accelerate our work in mobile, video, native advertising and social.”

    When it comes to how Yahoo, that was the front door to the web for many in the 90s and the early 2000s, and its internal functioning, Verizon has a few plans. It has been decided that Yahoo and AOL will be brought together as a new group that AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong will supervise. It must be noted that Verizon has earlier bought AOL for USD 4.4 billion last year.

    “Our mission at AOL is to build brands people love, and we will continue to invest in and grow them,” he said in a press release. “Yahoo has been a long-time investor in premium content and created some of the most beloved consumer brands in key categories like sports, news and finance… We have enormous respect for what Yahoo has accomplished.”

    Marissa Mayer is not expected to stay on board, but that has not yet been confirmed by either company.

    Verizon’s acquisition is of “core” Yahoo, which includes search, email, advertising products, and the media business (including Yahoo Finance).

    Verizon has made a string of acquisitions in an apparent effort to move beyond a telecom provider into a media-and-mobile-advertising powerhouse that can compete with Google. Many believe buying Yahoo is a savvy move for Verizon. In addition to getting the fifth-most visited web site in the US, Verizon gets assets like Tumblr, Flickr, Polyvore and digital ad tools Flurry and BrightRoll.

    (Sourced from nytimes.com and Yahoo Finance)

  • Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    MUMBAI: After much anticipation and speculation, word is out that US based telecommunication giant, Verizon will buy Yahoo for USD 4.83 billion in cash at the end of a closely-scrutinized, six-month sale process.

    Yahoo first put itself up for sale in February and it fielded multiple bids from almost 40 different types of buyers including AT&T; Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert with financial backing from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett; and private equity firms TPG and Vector Capital Management.

    But finally Yahoo informed the other bidders on Saturday that it has sealed the deal with Verizon.

    “Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL,” said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a press release. “The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo. This transaction also sets up a great opportunity for Yahoo to build further distribution and accelerate our work in mobile, video, native advertising and social.”

    When it comes to how Yahoo, that was the front door to the web for many in the 90s and the early 2000s, and its internal functioning, Verizon has a few plans. It has been decided that Yahoo and AOL will be brought together as a new group that AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong will supervise. It must be noted that Verizon has earlier bought AOL for USD 4.4 billion last year.

    “Our mission at AOL is to build brands people love, and we will continue to invest in and grow them,” he said in a press release. “Yahoo has been a long-time investor in premium content and created some of the most beloved consumer brands in key categories like sports, news and finance… We have enormous respect for what Yahoo has accomplished.”

    Marissa Mayer is not expected to stay on board, but that has not yet been confirmed by either company.

    Verizon’s acquisition is of “core” Yahoo, which includes search, email, advertising products, and the media business (including Yahoo Finance).

    Verizon has made a string of acquisitions in an apparent effort to move beyond a telecom provider into a media-and-mobile-advertising powerhouse that can compete with Google. Many believe buying Yahoo is a savvy move for Verizon. In addition to getting the fifth-most visited web site in the US, Verizon gets assets like Tumblr, Flickr, Polyvore and digital ad tools Flurry and BrightRoll.

    (Sourced from nytimes.com and Yahoo Finance)

  • Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    MUMBAI: Motivator, a GroupM agency, has appointed Upali Nag as National Head – Insights and Innovation. Upali will work out of the agency’s Bangalore office and will report to V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator. Her role will involve providing strategic business solutions and data-driven insights to Motivator’s growing client base besides building the business and project consulting practice.

    Speaking on the new addition to the team,Motivator MD Rabe Iyer said, “In the last couple of years, we have been fast tracking our journey to build a strong client business performance framework and product. Upali has fantastic experience to build sustainable strategies to deliver to broader client conversations. Upali will distinctly add value to nailing the clients’ central challenges in the context of marketing and manageable interventions. She will partner with Motivator, GroupM and WPP units to build a strategic framework to address the same. Her ability to identify and use the right lens in addressing client business issues will further fuel our performance centricity.”

    On her new assignment, Nag added, “I am extremely excited and happy to join Motivator- India. GroupM has always been ahead of the industry in terms of its vision and commitment towards building knowledge and people assets which are geared for the future. This, combined with the fact that most of the Motivator clients are intrinsically Indian clients, makes the journey even more interesting and exciting. This is my second stint at GroupM, and in many ways, feels no less than a homecoming.”

    An alumnus of MICA Ahmedabad, Upali brings to Motivator a rich experience of 18 years in media strategy, planning and development of business solutions. She started her career with the then known, Initiative Media, Lintas and since then has been associated with companies like Universal McCann, Starcom Mediavest Group, Yahoo and GroupM. Some of the brands she has worked on include TVS, Tata Tea, Himalaya Wellness, Wipro Consumer Care and SAB Miller among others.

    Upali Nag also has substantial experience in setting up organization teams, processes and in strategic consulting. Following her business consulting practice, she has successfully driven projects on Consumer Understanding, Business Development, CRM, Business Analytics, Data Solutions and Identifying Performance Metrics.

  • Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    MUMBAI: Motivator, a GroupM agency, has appointed Upali Nag as National Head – Insights and Innovation. Upali will work out of the agency’s Bangalore office and will report to V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator. Her role will involve providing strategic business solutions and data-driven insights to Motivator’s growing client base besides building the business and project consulting practice.

    Speaking on the new addition to the team,Motivator MD Rabe Iyer said, “In the last couple of years, we have been fast tracking our journey to build a strong client business performance framework and product. Upali has fantastic experience to build sustainable strategies to deliver to broader client conversations. Upali will distinctly add value to nailing the clients’ central challenges in the context of marketing and manageable interventions. She will partner with Motivator, GroupM and WPP units to build a strategic framework to address the same. Her ability to identify and use the right lens in addressing client business issues will further fuel our performance centricity.”

    On her new assignment, Nag added, “I am extremely excited and happy to join Motivator- India. GroupM has always been ahead of the industry in terms of its vision and commitment towards building knowledge and people assets which are geared for the future. This, combined with the fact that most of the Motivator clients are intrinsically Indian clients, makes the journey even more interesting and exciting. This is my second stint at GroupM, and in many ways, feels no less than a homecoming.”

    An alumnus of MICA Ahmedabad, Upali brings to Motivator a rich experience of 18 years in media strategy, planning and development of business solutions. She started her career with the then known, Initiative Media, Lintas and since then has been associated with companies like Universal McCann, Starcom Mediavest Group, Yahoo and GroupM. Some of the brands she has worked on include TVS, Tata Tea, Himalaya Wellness, Wipro Consumer Care and SAB Miller among others.

    Upali Nag also has substantial experience in setting up organization teams, processes and in strategic consulting. Following her business consulting practice, she has successfully driven projects on Consumer Understanding, Business Development, CRM, Business Analytics, Data Solutions and Identifying Performance Metrics.

  • Lycos extends deal with Yahoo! for enhanced search advertising, expects 10 per cent higher topline

    Lycos extends deal with Yahoo! for enhanced search advertising, expects 10 per cent higher topline

    New Delhi: Global Internet brand Lycos today announced the extension of its deal with Yahoo! for enhanced search advertising by one more year. The contract leverages Lycos; services to increase the reach of Yahoo! search and content offerings. Contextual advertising offerings of Lycos will in turn increase.

    This relationship – that allows LYCOS to serve globally on all platforms including search, mobile and other contextual advertising – is expected to increase LYCOS’ turnover by 10% in FY2016-2017.  

    The enhanced form of search advertising is a type of contextually targeted platform which allows online search advertisers to buy keyword-targeted traffic from sources other than search engine results pages.

    Lycos Internet Limited had reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 1957 crore  and a net profit after tax and minority interest of Rs 342.22 crore for the year ended March 31, 2015 (FY-2015). For the nine month period ended December 31, 2015, the company reported revenue of Rs 1782 crore reflecting a growth of about 18 per cent over the corresponding year ago period, and a net profit after tax and minority interest of Rs 321 crore.

  • Lycos extends deal with Yahoo! for enhanced search advertising, expects 10 per cent higher topline

    Lycos extends deal with Yahoo! for enhanced search advertising, expects 10 per cent higher topline

    New Delhi: Global Internet brand Lycos today announced the extension of its deal with Yahoo! for enhanced search advertising by one more year. The contract leverages Lycos; services to increase the reach of Yahoo! search and content offerings. Contextual advertising offerings of Lycos will in turn increase.

    This relationship – that allows LYCOS to serve globally on all platforms including search, mobile and other contextual advertising – is expected to increase LYCOS’ turnover by 10% in FY2016-2017.  

    The enhanced form of search advertising is a type of contextually targeted platform which allows online search advertisers to buy keyword-targeted traffic from sources other than search engine results pages.

    Lycos Internet Limited had reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 1957 crore  and a net profit after tax and minority interest of Rs 342.22 crore for the year ended March 31, 2015 (FY-2015). For the nine month period ended December 31, 2015, the company reported revenue of Rs 1782 crore reflecting a growth of about 18 per cent over the corresponding year ago period, and a net profit after tax and minority interest of Rs 321 crore.

  • NBC Sports & Yahoo expand digital sports alliance

    NBC Sports & Yahoo expand digital sports alliance

    MUMBAI: Yahoo! Inc and NBC Sports Group have renewed their multi-faceted partnership that combines the content and experiences of Yahoo Sports, including its fantasy sports product, with NBC Sports Digital’s video assets and promotional power.

     

    This expanded partnership brings even more content to Yahoo/NBC Sports viewers, including Premier League highlights, NBC Sports Regional Network team reports, and Golf Channel content. It also extends the reach of the digital and on-air experiences beyond desktop to mobile and Tumblr.

     

    Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports Digital will continue to collaborate on premium sports news and events coverage both online and on-air on NBC, NBCSN, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Regional Networks, NBCSports.com and Yahoo, while maintaining separate sites and editorial control of their respective newsrooms and digital properties.

     

    “Yahoo has been a great partner, and we are pleased to extend this very complementary alliance that will now include Golf Channel,” said NBC Sports Group SVP and GM – digital media Rick Cordella. “This partnership extends the digital reach of both sides, and allows us to collaborate on the creation of widely-consumed, cross-platform content, particularly around short-form video and fantasy sports.”

     

    “We’re thrilled to not only continue our relationship with NBC Sports, but also to expand the partnership as we work to bring more premium digital sports content to our users. The addition of the Premier League and Golf Channel complements the current lineup, and we’re excited to extend the reach of NBC Sports content to Yahoo’s mobile and Tumblr users,” added Yahoo SVP of corporate development and partnerships Ian Weingarten.

     

    Additional features of the alliance include Live Sports, Rotoworld + Yahoo Fantasy, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Regional Networks and Fantasy Football Live.

     

    Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports will continue to partner to provide scalable advertising solutions to reach engaged audiences through distinctive opportunities and sponsorships. In addition, Rotoworld.com will integrate with Yahoo Gemini for access to native advertising technology.