News - India's Leading New Publisher for Satellite Broadcasting and Broadband Industries: May 2013

Thursday, 30 May 2013

Shri Manish Tewari Condoles Death of Shri Rituparno Ghosh

Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Manish Tewari has condoled the untimely death of renowned Bengali film director, Rituparno Ghosh.

Cisco 2bn Internet video users by 2017

The Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2012-2017) projects that global Internet protocol (IP) traffic will grow three-fold between 2012 and 2017. Global IP traffic (fixed and mobile) is expected to reach an annual run rate of 1.4 zettabytes ― more than a trillion gigabytes per year – by 2017. Internet video users are projected to nearly double during the period, with 3D and HD Internet video comprising 63 per cent of consumer Internet video traffic.

On a monthly basis, global IP traffic is expected to reach nearly 121 exabytes per month by 2017, up from about 44 exabytes per month in 2012. (121 exabytes is equivalent to 30 billion DVDs; or 28 trillion MP3s; or 750 quadrillion text messages.) This updated study includes global fixed IP traffic growth and service adoption trends, complementing the VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast released earlier this year.

Netflix plans House of Cards in 4K

Netflix is planning to introduce a 4K video streaming service “within a year or two”. Chief product officer Neil Hunt, who runs the company’s all-important video streaming technology, says that much of the service’s House of Cards blockbuster was shot in 4K and that Netflix was looking to have a House of Cards4K encode later this year.

Asia Broadcast Satellite appoints Mohamed Youssif as Chief Operating Officer and President & Managing Director of the Middle East

Hong Kong, 29th May 2013 - Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) announced the appointment of Mohamed Youssif as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of ABS and President & Managing Director of the Middle East. As ABS’s Chief Operating Officer, Mohamed will be responsible for global sales and revenue for the company as well as directly managing business development for the Middle East region.

“We are extremely pleased to have Mohamed on board ABS. His capabilities and knowledge of the industry will vastly improve our global sales performance. Mohamed’s extensive experiences and leadership qualities will be an invaluable asset. We are confident he will lead us in the next phase of our growth of our business and services,” said Tom Choi, Chief Executive Officer of ABS. “Mohamed will be one of multiple Executive Committee members joining ABS this year.”

TRAI takes LCOs to court for not providing subscriber details

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has moved to a Delhi court against a dozen cable operators for not providing details of subscribers of set-top boxes to multi-system operators (MSO) which is necessary to ensure accountability in digitisation of cable TV services.

In its complaints before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Prakash, TRAI said cable operators were violating its regulations concerning implementation of Digital Addressable Cable TV System (DAS), for which a set-top box is to be attached with television set of the subscriber. TRAI said in its phased implementation of the DAS, details of subscribers along with their choice of services including choice of channels and bouquets are not being maintained by cable operators and not being forwarded to their MSOs, which is necessary to ensure accountability.

Music, TV and film piracy rises among UK internet users

Almost a third of UK internet users who stream or download music, TV and films did so at least once illegally in the quarter to the end of January, with almost 400m files digitally pirated in the three-month period, according to the media regulator.

Ofcom's latest online copyright infringement tracker report found that digital piracy of music, film, TV, books, video games and computer software rose in the three months to the end of January compared with the previous quarter.

Tangerine Digital to manage IndiaCast Digital Content

Tangerine will be responsible for curating and packaging all Video on Demand (VOD) content of IndiaCast ensuring stringent turnaround time for publishing of episodic videos.

IndiaCast Media Distribution, a strategic joint venture between TV18 and Viacom18, has appointed Tangerine Digital to manage the digital content of its flagship channels on digital platforms. IndiaCast is mandated to drive domestic and international channel distribution, placement services and content syndication for TV18, Viacom18, A&E Networks, TV18 and the Eenadu group.

Airtel digital TV launches video on demand service

Airtel digital TV, the DTH service arm of telecom operator Bharti Airtel, has launched an ‘On Demand TV’ feature on its HD and recorder set top boxes (STBs). The new feature will enable customers to download their favourite videos, including movies as well as those on fashion and lifestyle, health and fitness, home and family and devotional, from an on-demand video library. Subscribers will have to connect their STBs to their broadband connections via an Ethernet cable (this is not supported by Wi-Fi).

Airtel digital TV currently offers 375 channels and services, including 17 HD channels and six interactive services. The company claims that it had 8.1 million customers for the service as of March 2013. Apart from the On Demand TV, Airtel digital TV HD is 3D ready and has Dolby Digital Plus enabling TV viewing with Dolby surround sound. The STB also allows customers to record TV programmes by using a recording remote control and connecting an external USB drive to the device.

Airtel digital TV launches video on demand service

Italians shift TV times, shunt IPTV

A new report by an Italian university has found that nearly a third of the national population used time-shifted TV last year, while the number of subscribers to managed IPTV services appears to be falling alarmingly.

The study, published by the Politecnico di Milano, found that more than half (59%) of Sky Italia’s subscribers have used non-linear viewing, with the show ‘X Factor’ attracting the most time-shifting behaviour, followed by ‘Masterchef’.

Care World TV To Launch The First Of Its Kind Wellness Expo

Mumbai, May 29: Care World TV, Asia’s only satellite Health Channel, has announced the launch of the biggest and the grandest Wellness Expo ever convened in India. Participated by some of the best-known national and international brands, the Expo will showcase over 12,000 healthcare, beauty and wellness products and services. It will be held between June 13 and June 16 at Mumbai.

The Wellness Expo follows the commencement of India’s first ever Wellness Portal and a three hour slot titled ‘Wellness Mall’ in Care World TV. “This is a part of our overall strategy of informing and educating the Indian consumer about all the nuances and developments within the wellness sector. India is a nation that depends heavily on self-medication. If the self-medication, even when restricted to over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, is not accompanied by knowledge and information, can turn out to be harmful for the consumer. So between the Portal, Expo and TV channel, we have initiated a slew of activities singularly aimed at information and education,” says Mr. Ajit Gupta, Managing Director, Care World TV.

Trai issues Tariff Orders for Supply of STBs/CPEs

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI) on 27 May 2013 issued two tariff orders prescribing standard tariff packages for set top boxes (STBs) for digital addressable cable TV systems (DAS) and Consumer Premises Equipments (CPEs) for Direct to Home (DTH) services. The prime objective of these tariff orders, TRAI says, is to ensure effective commercial interoperability.

The said tariff orders have been finalized after receiving responses on the draft tariff orders for supply of STBs placed on TRAI website on 11 April 2013. These orders have been framed to make available STBs / CPEs at a reasonable price and, lucid and easy to understand, terms and conditions as well as to take care of the interests of the service providers. This would also promote healthy competition amongst the operators which would ultimately benefit all the stakeholders ofthe sector, including the consumers.The standard tariff packages for STB/CPE on rental basis are to be offered mandatorily by DTH and cable TV operators.

TV channels to limit ads to 12 minutes from 1 October

The broadcasting industry Monday agreed to abide by a 12-minute limit on advertising per hour of programming starting 1 October, agreeing to toe the regulator’s line.

The decision was made after broadcast industry representatives met Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) officials.

Dish TV and Tata Sky cash in on Digitisation Drive

While Cable TV is struggling to get over the teething problems of implementing mandated digitization drive of the government, DTH operators, who are already digital since long are cashing in on the move by hiking their package rates by 10-15%.

Consumers irritated with the half leaked implementation of digitization on Cable have only option of moving to DTH. DTH operators hope to increase their ARPUs by a minimum of 10% in this manner.

TRAI moved to court against Cable Operators for lack of subscriber details

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has moved to a Delhi court against cable operators for not providing details of subscribers of set-top boxes to multi-system operators (MSO) which is necessary to ensure accountability in digitisation of cable TV services.

TRAI moved to court against Cable Operators for lack of subscriber details

First analogue switch-off for Swiss cable

GGA Maur is the first Swiss cable operator to announce a switch-off date for its analogue TV. From 2 December 2013 the operator will only offer digital channels.

Customers will be able to receive 50 unencrypted digital TV channels in the basic package which they can access using any reception device of their choice, for example a TV with an integrated DVB-C cable tuner. A separate set-top box is not required. Households with older TV sets can obtain a digital converter from the cable operator free of charge.

Comedy Central manages stay from Delhi HC on MIB order

The Delhi High Court on May 28, 2013 stayed MIB’s order banning telecast of Comedy Central for 10 days. With this, the channel is back on air from May 28, after being off air for three days on May 25, 26 and 27

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had taken serious note of Comedy Central breaching multiple clauses of content code and had ordered the channel to go off air from May 25 till June 4 for telecasting ‘offensive’ words in its programmes ‘Stand Up Club’ and ‘Popcorn’, which were aired on May 26 and July 4, 2012 respectively.

ASCI creates consumer complaints council (CCC) plans weekly meet to reduce adjudication time.

Following the institution of National Advertising Monitoring Service (NAMS), industry body for self-regulation Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has announced the creation of an additional consumer complaints council (CCC).

It has also announced that the CCC will now meet once a week, instead of fortnightly, for speedier adjudication on complaints.

Dish TV lossed reduced

By Chris Forrester

Recent data revealed Dish TV, which also announced its results show that it has halved its losses, and added a net 200,000 subs this past quarter taking the total DTH subscribers to 10.7 million. Dish dominates India’s DTH market with a 27 per cent market share.

Overall revenues grew 7.5 per cent, with ARPU up 15.3 per cent. However, programming costs during the quarter rose by just over 20 per cent (although y-o-y programming costs were just 5.1 per cent up). Helping balance this rise was a fall in SAC, as well as lower advertising and marketing costs.

Virgin Media sponsors Commonwealth Games

Virgin Media has signed up to be a main sponsorship partner of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The deal marks Virgin’s first foray into sports sponsorship.

Virgin Media said its Commonwealth Games sponsorship deal will include being the presenting partner of athletics, which would likely see brand ambassadors Usain Bolt and Mo Farah appearing in ad campaigns next year, although the company refused to be drawn on its specific marketing plans.

Yahoo! joins Hulu bidders

By Colin Mann

Fresh from its $1.1 billion acquisition of microblogging platform and social networking website Tumblr, Yahoo! is the latest company rumoured to be interested in acquiring online entertainment service Hulu.

Yahoo! joins Hulu bidders

By Colin Mann

BBC axes £100MN Digital Media Initiative

New Director General Tony Hall has called off on the BBC’s controversial Digital Media Initiative (DMI) calling the £98.4 million spent to date a huge waste of Licence Fee payers’ money.

Closure followed immediately after an operational review of the five-year project found that DMI was not going to deliver on its stated objectives of moving the BBC’s production and archive operations to a fully integrated, digital way of working. The intended individual components of DMI were new production tools that could be used to create content digitally on a desktop; a store to house the newly created digital content; a database to search BBC archives and a place to store production reports digitally.

Intertrust introduces cloud-based content protection

Intertrust Technologies has launched an integrated content protection solution-as-a-service designed to be implemented by any service provider to protect high value entertainment and media content.

The company says that its new solution solves an existing headache for service providers whereby when launching a premium online service they had to jump through technical and operational hurdles to integrate robust content protection into their products. This was particularly the case when integrating licensing server software, building a custom backend system and ensuring that apps and devices work together. Such work has typically been expensive and prohibitive for small and medium-sized service providers.

News Broadcasting appoints New Chairperson-Justice Raveendran

After the death of Justice (Retd JS Verma) New Broadcasting Standards Authority(NBSA) appoints Justice R.V. Raveendran, former judge of the supreme court of India, is the new chairman .

NBSA is the self regulatory body of the News Broadcasters Association(NBA).

Murdoch proposed News Corp Split scheduled on 28 June

New York: News Corp’s board on 24 May 2013 approved the break-up of the News Corp into two independent companies, separating the high-flying entertainment assets from the struggling newspaper operations.

The decision, which sets a date for the split for 28 June, all but assures the implementation of a plan proposed last year by News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch.

No Channel Packages in West Bengal till Panchayat Elections

Further to our report on meeting of LCOs and MSOs with Urban Development Minister of West Bengal on 24 May 2013, Ratan Raj Jaiswal, spokesperson of Kolkata LCOs Sangram Committee informed us that the meeting with the Minister in which Soumen Roy Chowdhary, CEO of Indian Cable Net Co. Ltd and Surendra Agarwal also took part was very successful as government has asked the MSOs not to switch off any channels and force packages on Consumers till the Panchayat Elections. Government has also asked the MSOs to consult the LCOs before taking any further steps in implementing digitalisation.

Kolkata LCOs Protest unfair dealing by MSOs

LCOs in Kolkata have joined together against the MSOs for their unfair deals in revenue sharing.

Delhi High Court directs Facebook and Google to highlight safety measures for their young users

Delhi high court has asked Facebook and Google to submit suggestions on safety measures for online usage of such sites by minors in India within a period of four weeks.

Bengal govt to take over Tara Music and Tara News

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her government would take over Broadcast Worldwide Ltd—a media enterprise of the collapsed Saradha Group—to rescue its two television channels and save about 170 jobs.

Twitter tightens security after recent hacking spate

Micro-blogging site Twitter says it is bringing in an optional two-step login for users to beef up security following recent high-profile breaches.

The company said it would introduce the new system "to make sure it's really you" when a user signs in.

Viacom18 launches based mobile products to attract Youth.

Viacom18 has launched three new mobile products under three of its biggest kids and youth-oriented brands in the country - MTV, Vh1 and Nick.

The products include an IVR-based voice chat called MTV Gupshup, a mobile content shop called Vh1 Hub and a game for teenage girls called Stardom Saga.

Fresh appeal by NDTV against Nielsen in New York Court

In no mood to give up its fight against bungling in TRPs by TAM ,New Delhi Television(NDTV) has filed fresh case with New York state Supreme Court against research agency Nielsen on account of the TV ratings service it runs in India with global advertising giant WPP under TAM Media Research. NDTV has appealed against its decision earlier this year to dismiss its $1 billion suit against Nielsen and WPP.This time only Nielsen group companies have been named in the appeal, whereas earlier it had included both in its suit.

Earlier, the New York court had dismissed the suit saying that NDTV’s claim and complaint should be filed and contested in Indian courts where TAM, the Nielsen-WPP joint venture is based and not in New York.

ESPN Star Sports back on Airtel DTH

According to ESPN Star Sports release, dispute between ESS and Airtel DTH going for the last six months has been amicably resolved.

ESS has signed a multi-year agreement with Airtel Digital TV to enable distribution of its channels Star Cricket, Star Sports, Star Sports 2, ESPN, Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD on the latter's DTH platform.

ESPN Star Sports back on Airtel DTH

According to ESPN Star Sports release, dispute between ESS and Airtel DTH going for the last six months has been amicably resolved.

Mobile Phone overtakes mighty TV in Catching eyeballs

Dual or second screening, when users spend time on additional electronic devices while watching TV, has jumped 63% in the past year in India, according to a new study from mobile advertising network InMobi.

The Mobile Media Consumption Report, which surveyed 2,004 people across India, showed that 57% of respondents now engage in social networking while watching TV.

Indian audience goes online for IPL

The live online viewership figures recorded for the first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year have risen 52% to 75.2 million, from 49.3 million in 2012, according to the twenty20 cricket tournament's digital partner Times Internet.

In addition, the time spent consuming highlights and clips online from the sixth IPL season has grown a whopping 480% compared to last season.

NBC Universal appoints new SVP of Cable Ad Sales.

NBCUniversal today announced the appointment of a new senior vice president, cable advertising sales. The company named Cherie Cohen to the post.

Cohen will oversee the company’s regional sales offices in Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Sahara Withdraws from IPL, National Team sponsorship to stay

Following the spot fixing controversy last week, Pune Warrior (owned by Sahara India group) pulls out of the IPL completely.

Sahara India group took this decision following the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) insistence on encashing Sahara's bank guarantee after it failed to pay the franchise fee for this year's edition of the IPL.

Shashi Kant Sharma is the new CAG

Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma is appointed as the new Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG).The 61-year old 1976 Bihar cadre officer will succeed Vinod Rai.

"The President of India has appointed Shashi Kant Sharma, IAS, as the Comptroller & Auditor General of India, in terms of Article 148 (1) of the Constitution of India," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Sony Six bags Euro 2016 rights

MultiScreenMedia's (MSM) sports channel Sony Six has won the rights for the Uefa Euro 2016 soccer tourney across the Indian sub-continent. The channel will telecast live all 51 matches of the tournament. This year's edition takes place next month and the rights are with Neo.

The Euro Cup, it is the third most valuable soccer property behind the soccer World Cup and the English Premier League (EPL). The top European nations take part in it to find out which is the best in soccer. This acquisition is significant for Six as this marks its first entry into international football. The channel has aired the 2014 Fifa WC Qualifiers. The Euro 2016 event is the first successful acquisition of a major professional football competition by the channel.

Discovery acquires TV11

SBS Discovery Media has agreed a deal to acquire Swedish channel TV11 from the TV4 Group as it continues to expand its footprint across Scandinavia.

The channel will join flagship Kanal 5 and its sister channel Kanal 9 in SBS Discovery’s portfolio of Swedish channels. Jonas Sjögren, CEO of Sweden for SBS Discovery Media, commented: “The purchase of TV11 underscores our commitment to investing in the local market with the goal of deepening and broadening our portfolio of channels to drive value for viewers as well as our partners.”

Tablet growth fuels rise of four-screen household

Data from Kantar Media reveals that nearly one-quarter of the GB population (23 per cent) has access to four screens at home (TV, computer, smartphone and tablet) compared to only 11 per cent six months ago. As the range of media devices in the home grows, consumers are selecting their device according to the occasion.

YouTube demands Windows app removal

YouTube owner Google has sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist order to try and stop it distributing its new YouTube app for Windows Phone. Google demands that Microsoft “immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application.”

Peter Hutton leaves ESPN Star Sports; to join MP & Silva

MUMBAI: Longtime sports broadcast executive and managing director ESPN Star Sports Peter Hutton has put in his papers. He has been appointed COO of the MP & Silva Group and he is slated to join its London office in July. The company specialises in distributing television rights for sports federations, leagues and clubs globally.

Hutton had joined ESPN Star Sports in 2012. Prior to this, he was senior VP sports for Fox International Channels. He then relocated to Asia last year to head Star's sports business in the region after Disney and News Corp called off their JV.

Zee TV forays into peep-show TV with Connected Hum Tum

MUMBAI: It's a women's peep show if there was any. Six ordinary women, talking about their most intimate and private moments, their hopes, worst fears, insecurities, mistakes, triumphs, joys, sorrows - all on national television. To top it all, they have filmed all of it themselves.

We are talking about 'Connected Hum Tum', a show which is slated to premiere on Hindi GEC Zee TV, from 2 June and will air five days a week (Monday to Friday) at 10 pm. It will be replacing 'Badalte Rishton ki Dastaan'.

Asian Television Awards invite entries from Asian countries

NEW DELHI: The 18th Asian Television Awards (ATA) to be held in Singapore later this year has invited entries by 14 June for awards in almost 45 categories.

Celebrating excellence in programming, performance and production, ATA seeks to applaud the many master "magicians" who put in their heart and soul to create television "magic". The finalists and winners will be decided by a distinguished panel of judges comprising of industry experts, and the results will be tabulated and audited by international auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

YouTube announces direct live-streaming

MUMBAI: Forever now users who have desired to live broadcast to YouTube had to go the extra mile and stumble through many hurdles. There is some respite now from YouTube as they announced that channels with over 1,000 subscribers can now apply for live-streaming from their webcam or network connected video camera.

Earlier, users had to rely on Google+ and create a "Hangouts on Air" session while at the same time ensuring their respective YouTube account was synced, to add to other hurdles.

TRAI orders MSOs and payTV Broadcasters to file interconnect agreements

Taking note of many complaints from MSOs and Independent MSOs that broadcasters show undue reluctance in signing the interconnect agreements with them, TRAI has sent a directives to all ‘Pay’ Broadcasters and MSOs to provide them details of all interconnect agreements signed till date. This includes all agreements signed between Broadcasters and MSOs and MSOs and LCOs with details of service areas and validity of the agreements.

The directives were sent individually to all pay broadcasters/ aggregators and MSOs on 6 May.

Jai Chandiram, a veteran in Television Field is no more

Former deputy director general of Doordarshan and a veteran in educational television Jai Chandiram died on 11 May 2013 morning at the age of 75.

She had been battling cancer of the colon for some months. Chandiram is survived by her brother and two sisters.

ZTE taps Indian telecom operators to increase enterprise biz revenue

ZTE India is in talks with telecom operators to increase its revenue from enterprise business.“We are talking to telecom operators to procure our enterprise solutions for their own customers. This strategy will help us in significantly improving our enterprise revenue in coming years,” said ZTE Telecom India Director – technical and commercial Ranjan Sharma.

As part of the new enterprise business strategy, ZTE India will work with telecom operators such as Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, etc. Since these operators have enterprise portfolio, it will be easy for them to help us in enhancing business.

ZTE taps Indian telecom operators to increase enterprise biz revenue

NHK WORLD TV joins Virgin Media in UK

Japan International Broadcasting (JIB) has signed a deal with Virgin Media to bring its NHK WORLD TV channel to select customers of the UK cable TV service.

The 24-hour channel is designed to provide an English-language television service for viewers all over the world, offering news and a wide variety of programming fr0m Japan, Asia and the rest of the world.

Bhagyanagar secures digital migration with Conax

(As part of its strategy for transitioning pay-TV subscribers and securing new service offerings on digital platforms, Bhagyanagar Digital Services a Cable Operator Consortium in Hyderabad has selected Conax to deliver its cable TV operators with a content security (CAS) solution.

The company believes that partnership will enable its operators to reduce churn significantly, overcome the challenges of digitisation and harness the opportunities provided by the new digital environment.

SC Rejects IBF application, hearing on 8 July

The Supreme Court has once again rejected an application by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) for staying the court proceedings in the Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh high courts.

Chief justice Altamis Kabir, justice Vikramjit Sen and justice S A Bobde fixed 8 July as the date for further hearing on the petition by the IBF challenging the orders in the Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh high courts.

LCos plea on revenue share admitted in SC

The Supreme Court on 10 May admitted for hearing an appeal by united cable operators welfare association (Ucowa) challenging the revenue sharing model under the digital addressable system (DAS) for cable television.

Chief justice Altamis Kabir, justice Vikramjit Sen and justice S A Bobde also issued notice to the telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) and the Information & Broadcasting Ministry.

JAINHITS signs Ingram Micro as logistic partners

JAINHITS, the direct-to-network (DTN) digital cable TV service, based on HITS (Head end-In-The-Sky) technology, has entered in to a strategic alliance with Ingram Micro, a technology sale, marketing and logistics company.

Ankur Jain, Managing Director, JAINHITS said, “Ingram Micro is one of the leaders in providing logistics solutions on pan India basis. Through this partnership, Ingram Micro will provide an effective and efficient solution to JAINHITS to reach a large number of cable operators across India.”

YouTube launches paid channels

YouTube on 9 May launched a pilot program of paid channels for its online video service, calling it part of an effort "that enables content creators to earn revenue for their creativity."

The Google-owned video-sharing service said the launch with "a small group of partners" starts on Thursday with subscription fees starting at 99 cents per month.

Nimbuzz eyes unified licence for net telephony

Instant messaging service provider Nimbuzz is looking at the possibility of offering net telephony in India on top of its text communications platform.

The company may acquire the new unified licence for Rs 15 crore once the Government announces the guidelines.

SITI Cable appoints V. D. Wadhwa as Chief Executive Officer

Siti Cable Network Ltd, a multi-system operator promoted by the Essel Group, said on 9 May it has appointed V.D. Wadhwa as chief executive officer. SITI Cable is one of the largest Multi-System Operator (MSO) in India’s Cable Television Industry, reaching out to over 10 million viewers.

As Chief Executive Officer – SITI Cable, Mr. Wadhwa will be responsible for taking forward the organizational aspirations of growing the business of SITI Cable multifold through digitization. He will be based out of Noida.

GoM may discuss BSNL, MTNL entry into cable TV, broadcasting

A Group of Ministers is expected to consider a DoT proposal tomorrow that may clear the way for state-owned telecom firms, BSNL and MTNL, to venture into cable TV and broadcasting services to help infuse life into the loss making companies.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is learnt to have forwarded several suggestions to the Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, that include BSNL and MTNL entering cable TV and broadcasting services, according to official sources.

Rupert Murdoch (Star India) asked to step down as News Corporation chairman

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is being pressed once again by dissident shareholders to step down as chairman of News Corporation.

Shareholders from the US, UK and Canada filed a resolution, calling for News Corp to appoint an independent chairman.

BT sees its future in sports as BSkyB moves into broadband

BT Group Plc, the company once known as British Telecom and a descendant of the world’s first national telegraph operator, has seen the future: soccer, rugby and tennis.

As BT moves beyond its 165-year-old business of offering communications over wires, the company is entering the British sports-broadcasting arena — a competitive field that has frustrated more experienced entrants.

Time to merge BSNL and MTNL, says DoT

The Department of Telecom has reinitiated the move to merge Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, in a bid to streamline operations and improve profitability.

In a note prepared for the consideration of the Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the DoT has said that both PSUs face competition from pan-India operators who are in a position to extend benefits especially to enterprise and business customers, while BSNL and MTNL are hampered by their inability to offer a similar dispensation.

Broadcasters reject Parliamentary panel report on paid news

Broadcasters have raised their voice against the Parliamentary Committee’s report, making a case for controlling both print and electronic media. The panel has said that the control will be done on the basis of a statutory regulator, which will be formed to keep a tab on paid news, content violation and so on. As is known, the Parliamentary Committee has been investigating the issue of paid news since December 2010.

Broadcasters, on the other hand, affirm that self regulation is the best way to deal with this issue. Talking to exchange4media, Anil Mehra, Vice Chairman, TV Today Network said, “We feel that what we do is under the freedom of speech provided by our Constitution. There are enough industry bodies functioning effectively and in a very transparent manner. I don’t think there is any need for government regulation.”

TRAI extends date Comments on Consultation Paper on Guidelines/Accreditation Mechanism for TRP

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper on “Guidelines/Accreditation Mechanism for Television Rating Agencies in India” on 17th April, 2013, inviting written comments from the stakeholders by 9th May, 2013 and counter comments by 16th May 2013.

On request of the stakeholders, the last date for receipt of written comments has been extended up to 23.05.2013 and counter comments, if any, by 30.05.2013. The comments / counter comments may be sent, preferably in electronic form to Shri Rajkumar Upadhyay, Advisor (B&CS), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, New Delhi – 110 002, on the e-mail address rkupadhyay@trai.gov.in / traicable@yahoo.co.in.

Zoho launches Card Scanner app for iPhone

Zoho has announced the launch of Card Scanner, an online business card scanning application for Zoho customer relationship management (CRM).

With this application, users can take a photo of a business card and Card Scanner converts the image to text that is automatically saved either as a new contact or lead in Zoho CRM or as a new contact in Card Scanner.