TDSAT asks Seven Star & Sony to sign RIO deal

Sony Pictures Networks India Distribution (SPNID) and multi system operator (MSO) Seven Star have been directed by TDSAT to sign a deal based on reference interconnect offer (RIO) for Mumbai with effect from 1 December.

HD channel viewership registers 169% growth in two years: BARC Report

People are increasing favouring High Definition channels, as per latest report from BARC. The report said that there has been a huge growth in the number HD channels and their viewership over the last two years. BARC has studied 31-week average data (between week 8-38 of 2017).

Bharti Airtel faces heat from UIDAI for Aadhaar violation

If you are using Airtel SIM, you may have received an SMS seeking your permission to connect your Aadhaar number with your Airtel Bank account number. It is alleged that Airtel is opening Airtel Payments Bank accounts of customers surreptitiously while carrying out Aadhaar verification of their mobile numbers.

OTT players do not want to be regulated

After releasing its recommendations on net neutrality, the telecom regulator TRAI said it will soon release consultation paper on OTT. This has irked OTT companies as they do not like the idea of being regulated.

TRAI favours free 100 MB data to rural users

To give impetus to the Government’s ambitious plan Digital India, the telecom regulator TRAI is in favour of 100 MB free data to users in rural and remote areas; it also wants to boost connectivity and local language content to enable rural people better connect with the rest of India.

I&B Ministry prevails over IFF; bans film ‘S Durga’ from getting screened at festival

Controversial South Indian film “Sexy, oops S Durga” which has put TV journalist Rohit Sardana’s life in danger, has been blocked by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, as the Ministry prevailed over the International Film Festival of India (IFF).

TRAI asks broadcasters to remove analogue RIOs from their websites

The telecom regulator, on November 30, has directed that all service providers (broadcasters) must remove analogue RIOs from their respective websites. As a matter of fact, the government had already notified end of Phase 4 of digitization on 31 March 2017, and no analogue signal could be beamed from April 1.

BBC Worldwide & BBC Studios merge

BBC Studios and its commercial vertical BBC Worldwide have merged to become a single entity, BBC Studios. It will be headed by CEO Tim Davie and chief creative officer Mark Linsey. The single entity will look after integrated programme production, sales, and distribution.

Editor’s body condemns threat calls to Zee TV journalist Rohit Sardana

Rohit Sardana, the acclaimed Zee News journalist, recently questioned the alleged bias in the way matters related to freedom of expression were tackled. He tweeted on Nov 16, in the context of Sanal Sasidharan's controversial Malayalam film S Durga, and suggested that filmmakers tended to name films after women from the majority community, while refraining from names popular among minority communities.

Shemaroo announces three new senior hires

To strengthen its Product, Digital Marketing and Public Relations, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited has hired three top professionals. The leading content provider for television and digital platform has appointed Vaibhav Goyal as General Manager, Head of Products in New Media & Technologies.

Competition, debt & fall in revenue affect Ortel’s Q2 result

Debt, intense competition in Odisha and fall in revenue has affected the Multi system operator (MSO) Ortel Communication’s net loss for the fiscal second quarter ended 30 September. The loss doubled to Rs 5.7 crore compared to a net loss of Rs 2.9 crore in the quarter ended 30 June.

Nokia’s Bengaluru R&D facility to work on 5G, VoLTE and cloud

Nokia’s Bengaluru R&D facility will now work more aggressively on newer technologies such as 5G, VoLTE and cloud. The center employs more than 6,000 engineers. The engineers will also work on ‘big data’ analytics.

Telcos not happy with TRAI’s recommendations on net neutrality

The telecom regulator TRAI released recommendations on net neutrality on 27 November. While many are hailing it as a great move, telecom operators are not happy. They called it a “piece meal” approach and may contact DoT’s intervention on their issues.

RBTV Deal Twist: Pantel buys RDTV as well as RBTV’s buyer Veecon

In a dramatic twist, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom)’s DTH arm Reliance Big TV (RBTV) has now been sold to a new player (Pantel) which has also bought RBTV’s earlier buyer Veecon. IT and communications service provider Pantel Technologies, Veecon and RCom have entered into a binding Share Purchase Agreement (SPA).

Nat Geo content now available on Hotstar

The infotainment content of the National Geographic channel will now be made available as premium content on OTT platform Hotsar. Hotstar as well as NatGeo are owned by 21st century Fox.

Reliance Games enters AR, VR-based games; partners with GoPhygital

In a move to expand and woo young game lovers, Reliance Games has entered the fast-growing Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) space. It has partnered with GoPhygital, a Mumbai based venture focused on creating immersive AR, VR and MR experiences.

Punam Sharma becomes head of content at ‘Connected to India’

Punam Sharma, a veteran journalist, has been appointed as head of content by Singapore-headquartered online media company Connected to India. She will lead journalists, and oversee video content creation and monetization efforts for the platform.

India’s VoLTE subscribers base to reach 800 million by 2023: Ericsson Report

According t Ericsson, the VoLTE subscriber base in India will touch 800 million by 2023. Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India, said that LTE will be the most dominant technology in India by 2023. He added that 4G LTE will account for more than 60% of the total subscriptions in India by 2023 compared to the 12% LTE subscriptions in 2017.

TRAI Chairman bats for net neutrality

On 27 November, the telecom regulator TRAI released its recommendations favouring net neutrality. Although, many telcos raised their voice against it, the telecomRegulatorTRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma has vouched his full support in favour of net neutrality.

Viaccess-Orca & Rambus partner to secure TVs & STBs

Rambus Inc., a leader in digital security, services, semiconductor, and IP products, and Viaccess-Orca, a global leader in the protection and monetization of content, have reached an agreement to strengthen VO Shield Root of Trust (RoT) solution for dynamic, best-in-class security of TV and STB.

Amit Shah attends Zee News’ ‘Game of Gujarat’; predicts 150 seats for BJP

To know the pulse of Gujarat on the eve of general assembly election, Zee News organized its signature program ‘Game of Gujarat’, the biggest platform on Gujarat assembly elections. It was attended by BJP President Amit Shah who predicted BJP will win over 150 seats.

Investigation by ACE, CASBAA’s CAP forces shutdown of Australian ISD

A big supplier of IPTV set-top boxes, pre-loaded to play all types of pirated content was forced to shut its business following a joint investigation in Australia by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and CASBAA’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP).

TRAI favours net neutrality; releases recommendations

In its recommendations to the telecom department (released on 27 Nov), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) batted to amend license terms to prevent any kind of discrimination on internet services based on content, apps or any other service or data that travels on the internet.

Hathway & Microsoft partner for expansion

Software giant Microsoft and Cable broadband service provider Hathway Cable and Datacom have reached a deal to launch a special offer for Hathway’s broadband customers. The partnership will enable Hathway to offer all their customers a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal that includes Microsoft products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note, Outlook Access and Publisher.

ACT to offer Hooq TV, YuppTV to capture Bengaluru market

To keep its customers hooked and win new ones, fibre broadband ISP ACT Fibernet has launched a complete home entertainment package ACT Entertainment broadband plan in Bengaluru. To achive the target, it has partnered with leading OTT players like Hooq TV, YuppTV, and FastFilmz.

Amazon Prime Video India buys digital rights of Rajnikanth’s ‘2.0’

Rajnikanth’s “2.0” is the most anticipated film in India. To give its users an unmatched experience, Amazon Prime Video India has bought its streaming rights. Its users will be able to access the film in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi version.

Jio TV channel list reaches 527mark

To give its users an unmatched experience, Jio TV, Reliance JioInfocomm’s over the top (OTT) platform, has added 14 new channels, thus taking the total to 527, as on 25 November. The list includes 9 high definition (HD) channels.

OSN & Oman authority clamp down on illegal DTH receivers from India

The business of illegal DTH receivers from India is growing in many countries including Gulf nations. Legally speaking, Indian DTH operators do not have the licence to offer services in other countries, but black marketers and electronic retailers sell banned decoding receivers that allow consumers to watch Indian TV channels at a very low price.

YuppTV buys rights for Mental Madhilo

OTT operators are aggressively eyeing new releases in Bollywood as well as South Indian film industry. Recently, the digital, satellite & overseas rights of Mental Madhilo, a Telugu movie starring Sri Vishnu and Nivetha Pethuraj, directed by Vivek Athreya and produced by Raj Kandukuri, has been acquired by YuppTV,  the South-Asian OTT content platform.

Scientists develop high-speed encryption to protect data theft

Piracy, phishing, cybercrime and state sponsored cyber-attacks may soon be addressed as scientists have developed a new system with high-speed encryption properties that drives quantum computers to create theoretically hack-proof forms of data encryption.

DTH facing stiff competition from OTT players; OTT registers 160% growth

As people are consuming content in their privacy on their smartphones, the growth of OTT players like Netflix and Hotstar has been phenomenal.  This has alarmed DTH operators. Their active subscribers’ strength has gone down considerably. They are not able to compete with OTT players like Amazon Prime Video as latter offer original content in all languages.

Yepzon enters India with smart safety solutions

Yepzon Oy, the leading Finland based safety technology company, has entered Indian markets to offer mobile services with compatible positioning technology, cloud service, which together with the devices and a smartphone tracks a person in seconds.

COAI asks TRAI to meet telcos on new call drop norms

Despite so many interventions, and efforts by telcos, customers are still frustrated due to call drops and poor signals. To address the pesky issue, the Cellular association COAI wants the telecom regulator TRAI to meet players to discuss the results of the new call drop norms.

Govt launches Umang app to access all its services

In pursuance of public empowerment, the Government has launched one window app Umang, which enables users to access all services of the government through web and mobile. The app was recently launched by PM Modi.

TRAI to organize Customer Outreach Programmes & OHD

The telecom regulator will organize Customer Outreach programmes at two places. These  programmes are primarily  intended  to  outreach  to  the  customers, industry bodies, State Govt., various government bodies, CAGs and TSPs. Details of  venue,  date  for  the  programme  to  be  organized are 

RDTV Issue: TDSAT wants an assurance on outstanding dues

As Discovery and Sun TV have reached the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) seeking its intervention in recovering dues from now sold DTH operator Reliance Digital TV, TDSAT has sought assurance on the outstanding dues from Veecon Media which has bought RDTV.

31% rise in Kids TV viewership in the last five years: BARC study

According to a BARC India study, the kids’ TV viewership has gone up 31% in the last five years in the country and touched 31.6 billion impressions in 2017 compared to 24 billion impressions in 2012, thanks to the amazing content being offered by various broadcasters.

Travelxp 4K, Travelxp HD Europe enter France

Paris-based Turnaround TV has been chosen by Prashant  Chotani’sTravelxp 4K and Travelxp HD Europe as the exclusive distribution partner for France.

FB’s Free Basics’ Gate locking unacceptable: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Speaking at the Global Conference on Cyberspace Security, the IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that Gate Locking by Facebook’s Free Basics cannot be approved in the country. He explained that the idea behind Free Basics was that everything will be free, namely eduction, health, entertainment and others, if one enters the Net through one gate i.e. Facebook.

DD extends deadline to submit bids for agency to monitor ‘must carry’ channels

This is the second time that DD has stretched the deadline for bid submission for appointing an agency to monitor DD’s ‘must carry’ channels on cable TV headends and direct to home (DTH) platforms. The new last date to submit the bids is now 5 December.

Manish Dawar resigns from DEN Group

Manish Dawar, Group CFO, Den Networks, has resigned from Multi system operator. He came to DEN in February 2015. Earlier, Manish was the CFO of Vedanta Group-owned Konkala Resources. Having 17 year experience, Dawar is considered as a highly talented CFO.

Voot to start its latest original series ‘Time Out’

On 28 November, Viacom18’s OTT platform Voot will start its latest or tenth original series ‘Time Out’. Since Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are aggressively procuring and creating original series to keep the users hooked, Indian OTT platforms like ALTBalaji too are investing huge money in original series. 

Airport of Chandigarh launches its radio station; partners with Radio Indigo

In a major move, Chandigarh International Airport has partnered with International radio station Radio Indigo to start Chandigarh International Airport Radio (Chial Radio). As part of agreement, Radio Indigo will play international songs at the airport.

Irdeto & Foxtel partner for secure delivery of content

Foxtel an Australia pay-TV operator and Irdeto, which offers digital platform security, have partnered to deliver premium content in a secure way. It will minimize revenue leakage from all forms of piracy. According to company, Irdeto Cloaked CA will now securely deliver content through Foxtel’s latest fleet of set-top boxes (STBs).

24 IIS officers transferred by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

Twenty four senior officers of the Indian Information Service (IIS) have been transferred according to an official order by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B). The list of officers transferred included M V V S Murthy, who was the director general (DG) of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in Bengaluru; he has been transferred as the DG (South), PIB, Chennai, whereas K S Dhatwalia the current DG in PIB, New Delhi, has been made the DG (Northeast), PIB, Guwahati. There were also transfers of 22 additional director generals.