Friday 30 November 2012

Digital, Legal and Anywhere – TV in Singapore

CASBAA and international media and technology law firm Olswang launched Singapore's first online directory of digital content available from legitimate sources. The pilot directory is available to all at finddigitaltv.com and allows users to search for content by genre, device or just search for content that is free.
The directory is being launched in tandem with "Digital, Legal and Anywhere – TV in Singapore Today", a new report showcasing the varied and abundant audio-visual content available through non-traditional media platforms and delivery mechanisms in Singapore. In the course of researching the report, Olswang found that the offerings were far more prolific and advanced than many were aware. A key problem however appeared to be consumer-awareness of this, and the directory is therefore hoped to be a first step towards addressing this problem.

LG U+ Deploys Envivio Solution for First Google TV Service in Korea

Envivio (NASDAQ: ENVI), a leading provider of live and on-demand multi-screen IP video processing and delivery solutions, announced that LG U+ has deployed Envivio encoding solutions to power its new LG u+tv G multi-screen service, the first service offering in South Korea to support Google TV. LG u+tv G offers subscribers access to live channels and on-demand TV integrated with apps including Search, YouTube, Google Play and Chrome, via an Internet-connected set-top box.
LG U+ uses Envivio encoders to power its TV Everywhere service, providing more than 126 channels of video to TVs, PCs, tablets and smartphones. LG U+ is a telecommunications service provider in Korea and a subsidiary of LG Group.

Thursday 29 November 2012

Cable TV operators in combative mood against Arasu Cable Featured

“They have fixed the minimum package rate at Rs.70 without consulting any of us” 
The government-run multi-system operator Arasu Cable is not delivering on its promise – specifically of eliminating monopoly in cable TV distribution in the State and safeguarding the interests of last mile operators – according to Tamilnadu Federation of Cable TV association, a collective of various cable TV operator associations in the State. 

Saurabh Yagnik quits Star India to head Sony Pix

Saurabh Yagnik, Sr V.P. and Business Head, English Channels Cluster, Star India, has put his resignation after a five-year stint. He will be joining Sony Pix as Executive VP. 
Yagnik had joined Star India from Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in 2007 as Vice-President, Financial Planning & Analysis. He was responsible for financial planning and Treasury for the Star TV group in India. In May 2010, Yagnik was given the responsibility to head Star India’s English channels as Senior VP & Business Head, English Channels Cluster. 

UK PM says media need independent regulator

Britain’s scandal-tinged media need an independent system of regulation, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday, the day he received findings of a public inquiry into press ethics that is widely expected to advise statutory controls.
The press is battling to avoid tougher statutory regulation ahead of Thursday’s report by judge Brian Leveson, who was tasked with investigating media ethics after the phone-hacking affair at Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World.

Ministry of I&B Approves Anti Piracy Initiative in the XII Plan

The Government today approved a Scheme under 12th Five Year Plan for carrying out an Anti Piracy Initiative in the audio-visual sector. This new scheme of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has an outlay of Rs2.0 crores for the Plan period 2012-17.
Piracy continues to be a key challenge for the Indian film sector and has been a prime reason for decline of Home Video market in India. It is estimated by the FICCI-KPMG report for 2011 that the piracy market accounts for 600-700 million unit sales of DVDs each year with more than 10000 vendors operating in illegitimate DVD market. With increased competition within this sector, prices of pirated DVDs are declining as compared to previous years.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

DigiVive launches a new music channel

Mobile value-added service provider DigiVive has launched an English music channel called nexGTv Music. 
The nexGTv platform has about 100 live channels, short movies as well as movies. 

Nagra and Kantar Media Collaborate on Viewer Behavior Service

NAGRA, the digital TV division of the Kudelski Group and the world's leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, and Kantar Media, a market-leader in audience research and competitive intelligence, have announced plans to collaborate in the area of subscriber behavior, giving service providers the ability to capitalize on the wealth of data available through in-home devices while fully ensuring viewer privacy. The service will be available pre-integrated with OpenTV 5, NAGRA’s newest and most open media convergence platform, taking full advantage of its multi-device TV measurement capabilities.
“By combining Kantar Media’s world-class experience in audience measurement and research with our newest multi-device, multi-service technology, we are giving our customers access to some of the most advanced reporting and analysis capabilities available today,” said Samir Mehta, Senior Vice President, DTV Solutions for NAGRA. “Together, we’re making it possible for them to capture critical subscriber generated information such as PVR and advertising interactions and taking a major step toward enriching and personalizing the television experience.”

News Corp US shareholders sue over hacking

A class action against News Corp has been filed by disgruntled shareholders in New York’s Southern District Court. The suit brought against News Corp, News International, and certain directors including Rupert Murdoch,James Murdoch, Les Hinton and Rebekah Brooks, alleges that the individuals violated the US Securities Exchange Act.
Brooks’ lawyers, in an 18-page submission, applied to the Court to have the action against her dismissed on the basis that the Action has failed to allege any facts to support a claim against her and that “no injury” was caused by any act in the US, and that the Court has no jurisdiction over her. Brooks herself was employed by a UK-based operation (News International Group Ltd).

Desmond Tutu develops new African leadership in fly-on-the-wall Al Jazeera series

A fresh generation of African leaders is to be featured on new Al Jazeera English series Tutu’s Children.
The four special documentaries will follow the exploits of participants in the leadership programme Desmond Tutu leads, which attempts to build a new network of African leaders who are together committed to tackling their countries' most stubborn problems.

Sony Six sports gets onboard Tata Sky & Airtel Digital

The eight-month old sports channels from Multi Screen Media (MSM) signed distribution agreement with Tata Sky and Airtel Digital increasing its hold on major DTH platforms including Dish TV and Videocon D2H.
N P Singh, COO at Multi Screen Media said, “DTH platforms have achieved a strong distribution reach and with this development, we will be able to further strengthen our distribution in India.”

Another 2G Auction may create complications –Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on 27 November 2012 said the government's plan to conduct another airwaves sale before March 2013 to find bidders for unsold spectrum, could 'create complications',
and also asked the Centre to explain why it did not sell all radio frequencies vacated by companies whose permits were cancelled earlier this year.
The court further said that companies that won back their licences in the recently-concluded auctions must pay market price for airwaves during the interim period. The apex court had quashed 122 permits issued by former telecom minister A Raja in February this year and initially allowed these companies to operate for four months (till June), but later extended this to January 2013 after the government sought more time to complete the spectrum auctions.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

New version of Internet addresses available in India

Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN) has started issuing next version of Internet addresses 'IPv6', which would make it easy for security agencies to identify each Internet user. 
The Internet addresses under the present version Ipv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), are limited and service providers often assign single IP address to many users, making it difficult to identify the end user. 

ZengaTV brings the next evolution in Mobile TV

ZengaTV the leader in mobile TV with more than 22 million monthly unique users launched the next evolution in mobile TV experience. First available on Android, choice of 75% of smartphone users globally, the app provides the much needed super alternative to the second TV needs of users. 
Delivering an immersive user interface with Social media integration, the latest ZengaTV viewer features Dynamic categories with search optimized directory listings. Personalized playlist viewing helps users create their own channel lists of favourites. Advanced app design offers HD viewing and faster in-app browsing for Live TV, movies and VOD sections alongwith pause and play for VOD and movies. 

TDSAT has said ESPN to continue giving its signals to channels especially Dish TV

TDSAT asked the global sports broadcaster to send its officials to the premises of Dish TVBSE 0.52 % for conducting an audit of the subscriber base and verification of accounts.
TDSAT said that the entire process should be completed within two weeks and Dish TV would provide full cooperation to ESPN officials.

Dish TV gets approval for its shareholders to raise $200 million

Subhash Chandra-owned Dish TV, the leading direct-to-home (DTH) television services provider, has received approval of its shareholders to raise $200 million through issue of equity to fund expansion and growth of the highly capital intensive business.
Dish TV will consider raising the amount through issue of equity or convertible bonds in the domestic or overseas market. If it decides to raise the money through a qualified institutional placement (QIP), the company may consider offering a discount of up to 5 per cent of the price to QIP investors.

Saturday 24 November 2012

AIB appoints a new Regional Head in South Asia

The Association for International Broadcasting has appointed Amitabh Srivastava as its Regional Head in South Asia. This appointment is the first of a series of AIB’s expansions in a number of regions of the world. 
As Regional Head, Srivastava will oversee the growth of AIB’s membership in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, countries where there is significant expansion in the number of TV channels and radio stations. Significantly, a growing number of these broadcasters are developing international services. 

Life OK appoints Pratik Seal as marketing head

STAR India has appointed in Pratik Seal as marketing head for its second general entertainment channel (GEC), Life OK. 
Prior to this, Seal was heading the marketing functions at Micromax. 

Communications industry growing at 31 per cent annually: Govt

The government said communications industry has been growing at an annual average growth rate of 31.07 per cent during the last three years with total number of telephone connections rising to 95.14 crore at the end of March 31, 2012. 
"The total number of telephone connections have increased to 951.35 million as on March 31, 2012 from 429.73 million as on March 31, 2009," Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. 

Google’s YouTube drops channel partners

YouTube will only provide continued funding for about 30% to 40% of its original US channel partners during the coming year. A year ago, the Google-owned video portal invested $100 million into creating 100 professionally produced channels to steer the site away from its image of just offering user-generated content.
Now, YouTube will only fund those that channels that proved to be successful and that includes those concentrating mainly on genres such as humour, music, cars and sports, aimed at a younger audience. A celebrity name alone, such as Madonna, Jay-Z, Deepak Chopra, Tony Hawk and Rainn Wilson, is not enough to make the channel a success. Come December, the company aims to start a new round of funding of US channels with a limited number of existing ones and new ones being added. This move does not affect Google’s investment in the 60 European channels, which includes the BBC and Endemol.

Ofcom consults on devices to open up white spaces

Ofcom has published a framework for the operation of white space devices that would run between existing UHF spectrum used for the broadcast of digital terrestrial television (DTT).
Key to the regulators requirements is the management of potentially harmful interference to existing users of the UHF band. Devices used on the spectrum will need to run a sequence of operations, interacting both with each other, and databases detailing available spectrum.

State govt denies allegations against Arasu Cable

The State Government has denied allegations of attempt to create a monopoly in cable television business through Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation (TACTV). It claimed that 35,248 Local Cable Operators (LCOs) and 2,641 Multi System Operators (MSOs) across the State (except Chennai) had enrolled with it voluntarily sans any force or coercion.
S.K. Prabakar, Secretary, Information Technology Department, made the submission in a counter affidavit submitted before a Division Bench of Justices K.N. Basha and P. Devadass who were seized of a public interest litigation petition filed by K. Murugan, general secretary of Federation of Consumer Organisations Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (FEDCOT) against TACTV in the Madras High Court Bench here.

TRAI releases recommendations on “Amendment in the ISP Licence Agreement for incorporating the terms and conditions mentioned in Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for use of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum”

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its recommendations on “Amendment in the ISP Licence Agreement for incorporating the terms and conditions mentioned in Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) dated 25.02.2010 for use of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum”.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) received a reference from Department of Telecommunication (DoT) seeking TRAI’s recommendations for amendment in the ISP Licence Agreement to incorporate the terms and conditions mentioned in Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for use of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum.

Friday 23 November 2012

Shashi Sinha appointed BARC TechComm Chairman

BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) has appointed Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India as the Chairman of the TechComm. Also appointed on the committee are Paritosh Joshi, who is involved with industry research endeavours such as the RSCI (Readership Studies Council of India) and consults with India TV and Smita Bhosale from Hindustan Unilever. 
Punit Goenka, MD and CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and BARC’s Chairman further informed that the technical committee would now present the way forward to the board. “We will examine their recommendations and then take that forward,” Goenka said. 

Huawei launches Network Operation Centre in Egypt

Global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider Huawei has launched its Network Operation Centre (NOC) in Egypt to provide services in the North African region.
Huawei has Global Network Operation Centres (GNPC) in India and Romania with the one in Mexico under progress.

Tony Hall new BBC DG

Tony Hall, chief executive of the Royal Opera House, was on 22 November appointed the BBC’s new director-general to succeed George Entwistle who was forced to quit after being in office for just 54 days — paying the price for a story that wrongly implicated a senior Tory politician in a child abuse case.
The Trust said: “Lord Hall is currently Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, was Chairman of the board for the Cultural Olympiad and was head of BBC News and Current Affairs from 1996 to 2001. He was a digital pioneer, launching BBC News Online, as well as Radio 5 Live, BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament. At present he is Deputy Chairman of Channel 4.

Murdoch still excluded from ITV

The UK’s cross-media ownership rules currently forbids any newspaper group which has more than 20 per cent share of the British newspaper market from owning either a “Channel 3/ITV” licence or a stake in a Channel 3 broadcaster greater than 20 per cent.
It was these rules that scuppered News Corp’s plans to acquire a larger stake in ITV.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Sterlite Tech takes Rs 200 cr order from Arasu Cable

Even as the Madras High Court is hearing the Cable TV digitisation case, it is learnt that state-run MSO Arasu Cable Corporation has placed orders for set top boxes. The Rs 200 crore order has been bagged by Vedanta Group companySterlite Technologies .
It must be noted Arasu Cable Corporation is yet to get licence for DAS from the I&B Ministry. Arasu is the only MSO which did not get licence, while other seven MSOs did.

ACA teams with Dish Network, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable on retransmission-consent reform

The lobbying group that represents small cable operators is teaming up with rivals Dish Network, DirecTV and major cable MSO Time Warner Cable to lobby the FCC on retransmission-consent reform. In a joint filing on Tuesday, ACA and the pay TV providers asked the FCC to prohibit local TV stations owned by separate companies from coordinating retransmission-consent negotiations. ACA said it documented 65 instances of sharing arrangements involving affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in 58 markets.
"Prices paid by [multichannel video programming distributors] negotiating with a single negotiator representing two non-commonly owned stations range from 21.6 percent to 161 percent higher than for separately owned or controlled broadcast affiliates," ACA wrote in the letter that was signed by executives from Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and Dish.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Kudelski Group launches Kudelski Security

The Kudelski Group the world’s leading independent provider of media content protection and value-added service technology, announced on 21 November 2012 the launch of Kudelski Security, its new Cyber Security division.
“Having dealt with security for a few decades and having fought piracy on behalf of our customers for the last 20 years, we have developed an unmatched talent pool with a unique skillset that we want to leverage by offering a new protection paradigm to anyone exposed on the internet,” said André Kudelski, CEO of the Kudelski Group. “In an increasingly connected world, companies, families, individuals are all targeted by the new cyber threats and action is needed now,” he added.

NDS Collaborates with Sichuan Cable TV Network to Deploy Advanced TV Services and Flexible Viewing for 15 M Subscribers in China

NDS, now part of Cisco, announced on 21 November 2012 that it is collaborating with one of China’s largest cable operators, Sichuan Cable TV Network (SCTV), to deploy advanced functionality that will provide an enriched subscriber experience with greater flexibility for over 15 million subscribers.
SCTV are utilizing the two-way nature of their network to provide subscribers with more flexible viewing, including the ability to catch-up on missed programs, restart live TV and personalize their service through features such as ‘My planner’.

CASBAA TV Upfronts – Thrilling Manila

CASBAA’s TV Upfronts road show 2012 landed in Manila on November 14 with a programme of dynamic Ad Sales presentations for agencies, clients and media. Produced in association with Campaign Asia-Pacific and in-market partner SkyCable, “The Philippines Screenings” followed similarly successful engagements in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
A showcase for leading pay-TV networks to screen their upcoming programming, “The Philippines Screenings” included presentations from BBC Worldwide, Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, History, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Monica Tata quits Turner International India

After a stint of eight years, Monica Tata, General Manager, Entertainment Networks, South Asia, Turner International India has resigned from the company. 
Tata would continue to serve her notice period at Turner till the end of the year. 

Harris Corporation Secures Multi-Million Dollar Digital TV Transmission Contract in Bulgaria

Bulgarian TV transmission network operator NURTS Digital EAD has awarded Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) a nearly $8 million contract to transition the country to DVB-T over-the-air digital television (DTV).
The project will spread services into more sparsely populated rural areas and represents the completion of Bulgaria’s TV digitization strategy as the government moves toward an analogue TV switch-off date in early 2013.

DIVArchive® Brings Workflow In-House and Speeds Content Retrieval for The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

Front Porch Digital, the global leader in solutions to migrate, manage, and market media content, today announced that The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (NIBG) has installed DIVArchive® to manage its broadcast and film files.
DIVArchive gives the Institute — one of the largest A/V archives in Europe — a complete in-house workflow and centralized archive, which ensures more control and a quicker response time than with its previous solution.

Turner Broadcasting Selects Digital Rapids’ Kayak Workflow Platform for Multi-Screen Media Operations

Digital Rapids announced today that Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) has chosen the Kayak™ dynamic workflow platform as the technology foundation to power Turner’s media processing operations for its current and future multi-screen video initiatives.
The two companies have expanded their relationship, collaborating on advanced workflows to bring Turner’s extensive range of premium content to audiences across an expanding range of viewing platforms.
As the technology platform powering the upcoming version 2.0 of the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager® high-volume media processing software, Kayak integrates seamlessly with existing Transcode Manager deployments while adding unprecedented new levels of intelligent automation and new video processing functionality not available in any other solution on the market.

Saturday 17 November 2012

Second round of 2G spectrum auctions by March 2013: Kapil Sibal

India intends to conduct another sale of airwaves before March 2013 to find bidders for unsold spectrum, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday. 
Sibal blamed 'sensationalism' and the "environment created by extrapolation of figures (resulting in) limited policy prescriptions available with the government" for the failure of the recently concluded auctions, which raked in less than a quarter of the Centre's revenue targets. 

High Spectrum costs to result in increased tariffs

The industry expects operators to raise calling charges from the third quarter of this financial year or withdraw promotional and discount schemes. These would also lead to a 25-30 per cent improvement in voice-per-minute realisations over the next four quarters. 
“Of course, it will go up, and that’s clearly the direction of tariffs now. You can’t price the key ingredient, spectrum, at high prices and expect the operators to absorb the impact,” Cellular Operators Association of India Director-General Rajan Mathews said. 

Thomson Broadcast is now Ampegon AG.

With the official registration of the new brand “Ampegon” at the registration office in Baden, Switzerland the name change of the former Thomson Broadcast AG and its sister companies has been completed.
Thomson Broadcast AG is now Ampegon AG and Thomson Broadcast GmbH, Germany, became Ampegon Antenna Systems GmbH.

Anritsu corporation opens India subsidiary in Bangalore

Anritsu Corporation, a global provider of innovative communications test and measurement solutions for more than 110 years, today announced the opening of 100% India subsidiary in Bangalore. The new office brings together the functions of marketing, sales, engineering, services, and support. By co-locating all the departments, the company expects to accelerate the rate of delivery of new products and provide better and broader support to its growing customer base in India. It will also plan to start a branch office operation in Noida within this fiscal year.
“We are pleased to reach the day we open our full-scale presence in India.India’s emerging market is part of our overseas business expansion strategy; the telecommunications industry will witness further growth due to the new telecom policy and will continuously outpace its global counterparts. We foresee India business growth by 20% per cent annually with the increased demand for test & measurement equipments”, said Mr. Kenji Tanaka, Senior Executive Vice President, Anritsu Corporation.

STMicroelectronics Reveals Class-Leading High-Stability Real-Time Clock for Smart Utility Meters and Precision Applications

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has achieved record low power consumption in a highly accurate temperature-compensated real-time clock chip for utility meters and other equipment including medical devices and industrial systems that require stable, precision timing.
Typically drawing only 0.8 µA with temperature compensation fully operational,the M41TC8025 single-chip real-time clock has lower power consumption than any alternative device. This helps reduce operating costs for electronic utility meters and can extend the lifetime of battery-powered equipment. Temperature compensation guarantees accuracy to within 2.5 minutes per year (±5 ppm) over the entire specified temperature range from -40 to +85 °C. In metering applications, this allows precise time stamping and tariff switching across seasons and in various climates.

MCI contracted to Modernize HR HF-broadcast complex in Frankfurt.

In April 2012, the Studio Hamburg Media Consult International (MCI) GmbH had been commissioned by the HR broadcasting service (Hessischer Rundfunk) to modernize four broadcast complexes in Frankfurt / Main including the option to modernize a fifth.
The broadcasting complexes, which were taken in use in the year 1999, continuously met the limits of today’s technology and functionality. Therefore a replacement and a conversion to current technology was unavoidable. MCI, as the general contractor, is responsible for the supply, the installation, the initial operation, the documentation as well as for the trainings on the new equipment, which is applied, in the four new broadcast complexes.

BBC Worldwide launches YouTube channel

BBC Worldwide has launched Earth Unplugged, a new YouTube channel from BBC Earth, BBC Worldwide’s global natural history brand.
The channel will feature films created for a digital audience by BBC Earth Productions and is set to become a destination site for wildlife and nature.

Government bodies not to get into cable TV

The central I&B ministry is likely to accept the TRAI recommendation that State Government or its controlled body should not operate cable TV network. If this comes into effect then Arasu TV run by the Tamil Nadu government will have to shut shop.
As early as 2008, TRAI had in its recommendation said that State Govt. should not control cable TV network because it would lead to the govt to decide what the public should see and not to see. This could lead to State censorship of TV channels, the regulatory body pointed out.

Monday 12 November 2012

2G spectrum auction begins on Monday

It isn't going to be a usual Monday morning at Telenor and Videocon offices. Several executives at the two companies, which along with Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are in the fray to acquire 2G spectrum, would have entered their offices by the time most people start their drive to work. 
After all, by 9am they have to log on to a special website to begin the first round of bidding on Diwali eve. While Bharti and Vodafone are looking for top-up spectrum in some of the circles, the stakes are particularly high for Telenor and Videocon, which are on the verge of losing all their licences and spectrum following a Supreme Court order cancelling 122 licences awarded controversially during A Raja's term. 

Thursday 8 November 2012

Harmonic's Customized Cable Headend Solution Eases Digital Television Transition in India

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, is now offering a cable headend solution designed to help Indian cable operators cost-effectively meet the 2014 government-mandated transition to digital TV services.
Tailored to the specific requirements of the Indian cable television market, Harmonic's cable solution features industry-leading Electra®, ProStream® with ACE®, and Ion™ video processing solutions capable of delivering superior-quality digital video content and increased channel lineups while minimizing operational costs. "Cable operators in India are challenged to respond to the mandatory digitalization legislation enacted by the government," said Gidi Raz, director of Indian sales, Harmonic. "Based on our extensive deployment experience in the Indian as well as global cable and broadcast markets, we have developed a highly scalable cable headend solution that meets the specific channel requirements and capabilities of Indian cable operators by ensuring optimal video quality for digital television services while keeping overall headend costs down."

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Countdown starts for Phase II

A High Level meeting headed by Secretary, Information and Broadcasting, Shri Uday Kumar Varma today reviewed the preparedness for Phase II cities, wherein the digitization deadline in 38 cities in 15 States expires on 31st March 2013.
Ministry had issued a notification dated 11th November 2011 notifying Phase-wise digitization of Analogue Cable Television Networks in India. Digitization of the Analogue Cable Television Networks was completed in the metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. As on 5th November 2012, 22.4 lakh Set Top Boxes (STBs) have been installed in Mumbai, 25.15 lakh in Delhi, whereas in Kolkata 17.74 lakh STBs have been installed. The matter is sub-judice in the Madras High Court about Chennai. 29 lakh subscribers have DTH connections in the four metro cities.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

ITV Network ropes in RK Arora as CEO

ITV Network has appointed RK Arora as the Chief Executive officer for its broadcasting initiatives. This comes in the wake of the ITV network’s aggressive market strategy, including its recent entry into the English news television business through acquisition of national English news channel News X and new look of India News at a national level. 
Arora comes with a proven track record and wide experience spanning over 20 years and would be responsible for business operations of Hindi news channel India News, five regional channels and English news channel News X. He would be leading the Group’s expansion plans and provide the vision and strategic leadership for all aspects of the business, said an official release. 

Friday 2 November 2012

Bharti approaches TDSAT against Tata over termination charges

Bharti Airtel moved to TDSAT against Tata Teleservices over the issue of unpaid termination charges of SMSes. While acting, TDSAT issued notice to TTSL and directed it to file its reply within two weeks.
The tribunal has also asked Bharti Airtel to file rejoinder over the reply filed by TTSL within a week and directed to list the matter on November 24 for an interim order. 

Jindal-Zee defamation case final hearing on Nov 26

The Bombay High Court has ordered Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) to produce evidence against Zee News by November 17. Adjourning the case on Tuesday, Justice S.J. Kathawala said the final hearing would be on November 23.
“How can you make such allegations of blackmail and extortion without producing any prima facie evidence or copy of the video or audio CDs or transcripts to support your claims,” Justice Kathawala asked the JSPL officials present in court.

Aadhaar leak: EPFO discontinues services provided through Common Service Centre

Following fear of Aadhaar data leak, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on May 2 said it has discontinued services provided t...