May 2013

CONVERGENCE NEWS

100M IPTV SUBS THIS YEAR

Worldwide IPTV subscriptions are forecast to top 100 million in 2013 and hit 181 million in 2017, according to Pyramid Research.

The share of IPTV within global pay TV subscriptions is expected to increase from 9.3% in 2012 to 15.8% in 2017.

Between 2012 and 2017, Pyramid Research forecasts that global IPTV revenue will increase at a 16 per cent CAGR, reaching $44 billion (€34 billion) at the end of the period.

According to Pyramid France and the US were the largest counties for IPTV in 2012, each having more than 10 million subscribers and accounting for a combined 53% of the market.

But the Asia-Pacific region was the largest single IPTV market, accounting for 45.3% (38.2m) of global IPTV subscriptions as of year-end 2012.

APP TO CURB VIDEO PIRACY

An anti-video piracy mobile application 'Indian Movie Cop' was launched in April. The app is developed by the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce in association with the Economic Bureau of the US Department of State and the US Consulate General, Hyderabad.

Speaking at the launch, the US ambassador to India Nancy J Powell said, "When a trademark, copy right, or patent is violated in any country we all lose." She said the Indian film industry is estimated to have lost 571,000 jobs and $ 959 million to piracy.

The new mobile app is supported by IOS, Android and other popular mobile operating systems. A registered user can give information about the piracy using the application.

TATA SKY TO MONITOR VIEWERSHIP

TRP ratings will soon cover DTH. Kantar Media will now measure the behavior and viewing habits of users on Tata Sky DTH. It's a multi-year audience measurement contract, and data will be measured using RapidView, a "return path data technology" which collects audience data directly from set top boxes. Kantar will work with IMRB.

It's not clear how that return path will be established.

GOOGLE MAY BUY WHATSAPP FOR $1 BN

According to reports, Google is planning to acquire m o b i l e application company WhatsApp. It could be Google's next billion dollar acquisition.

Earlier there have been reports of Fcebook panning to buy Whatsapp.

WhatsApp is consistently the number one paid app in more than 100 countries with a user base size spread throughout more than 100 countries and 750 mobile networks. According to the company, on New Years Eve 2012, WhatsApp saw a record 18 billion messages processed in a day.

MICROSOFT IPTV SOLD TO ERICSSON

Ericsson AB will buy Microsoft Corp.'s Mediaroom business, which is used by phone companies to deliver television over the Internet.

Mediaroom, based in Mountain View, California, has more than 400 employees globally and will help Ericsson be the largest provider of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) technology, with a market share of over 25%. The value of the deal wasn't disclosed.

The global IPTV market is estimated to reach 105 million subscribers in 2015, expanding to $45 billion by that year from $32 billion in 2013, Ericsson said. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.

VIACOM LOOSES YOUTUBE COPYRIGHT CASE

Viacom had accused YouTube of broadcasting 79,000 copyrighted videos on its website between 2005 and 2008 & claimed damages over Google's alleged unauthorized posting of video content.

A federal judge has thrown out Viacom Inc.'s lawsuit, for the second time in 3 years. The judge agreed that Google and YouTube were protected from Viacom's copyright claims by the "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

That 1998 federal law made it illegal to produce technology to circumvent anti-piracy measures, while limiting liability of online service providers for copyright infringement by users.

Viacom is controlled by Sumner Redstone and owns MTV, Comedy Central & Paramount movie studio. Google is based in Mountain View, California, and bought YouTube in 2006 for about $1.65 billion.

GOOGLE FIBER ADDS TV CHANNELS

Google Fibre has added HBO to its TV channel lineup. Google is trying to achieve scale and economics for its Fiber-To- The-Home project.

Google's pricing for HBO is about 25% higher than other cable operators.

SCV STBS OFFER FLIGHT & RAIL INFO

SCV (Sumangali Cable Vision) STB subscribers now receive round-the-clock flight and rail information on their television screens.

The 2 channels - I Flight & I Rail - will be free.

"We don't have a tie-up with the Airport Authority of India (AAI). Instead, we have agreements with some of the websites that offer this service. This is an attempt to boost the customer base in the city," said a top official of SCV.

The MSO also plans a cinema channel, I Cinema. Viewers can review ticket availability in various theatres.

RELIANCE JIO - BHARTI CABLE PACT.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm HAS signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel for exclusive use of 1 fibre pair on Bharti's 8 pair, 3,100-km submarine cable i2i connecting Chennai to Singapore. The deal is estimated at approx US $ 25 million.

With 4 submarine cables between India and Singapore, 30 Tbps is available but less than 1 TBps used. Only 0.3% of the internet content is hosted in Singapore, while 90% is in the US. So, connectivity to Singapore alone does not provide a complete solution.

Last month, Reliance Jio struck a deal with Reliance Communications to use its intercity fibre optic network for a onetime payment of Rs. 1,200 Crore.

CALLER TUNES EARN Rs. 8,185 CR

Paying Rs. 30 a month for a customised caller tune is a popular option. It has earned Rs. 8,185 Crore for operators in the 3 years ending March 2012, according to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Surprisingly, it is not the country's top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, with 186 million subscribers, or Vodafone India, the number two with 149 million users, which top the charts. The telco making the biggest amount from caller tunes is Idea Cellular, which began the service in 2004. It has earned Rs. 2,877 Crore from this in these 3 years, followed by Bharti Airtel at Rs. 2,088 Crore.

Vodafone earned Rs. 1,521 Crore, followed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) with Rs. 689 Crore, Tata Teleservices at Rs. 407 Crore and Aircel at Rs. 230 Crore.

Caller tune is the second biggest revenue earner (20%) among value added services (VAS), after SMS.

However, the companies are now seeing a drop in caller tune subscriptions, from about 100 million to 55 million during the past 18 months. n