Business News
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February 2012
DELHI HC WARNS GOOGLE & FACEBOOK
The Delhi High Court has warned Google and Facebook to comply and devise a mechanism to control objectionable content, or they just might be blocked in the country. This was done following Google India's petition in the Delhi High Court saying that it does not exercise any control over content on YouTube, Google, Orkut or Blogspot in India, and thus can't be summoned to an Indian court in a criminal case against it related to inflammatory images of Gods and Goddesses.
Refusing to accept Google India's argument, Justice Suresh Cait said that liability of content falls on it as it is a 'beneficiary' and does business in India. "Like China, we can block all such websites (who don't comply). But let us not go to that situation," Cait said in the courtroom.
RAPID IPTV GROWTH IN CHINA
Shenzhen Media Group's chief engineer, Fu Fengchun, has told reporters that before network convergence trials began, China's telecom operators had only around 5 million IPTV users. However, this figure has significantly increased to 15 million users.
IPTV services in many locations now also offer the same HD TV content that is available on digital CATV & the growth in number of new digital CATV homes has fallen, in many areas, where Telcos have commenced unauthorised IPTV services.
IPTV in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces has been very popular, with over 4 million IPTV subscribers here alone.
COMCAST TO OFFER DISNEY ON MOBILES
Walt Disney Co. has entered into a 10 year carriage deal with Comcast Corp. to provide access to the Disney group of channels to more than 22 million Comcast customers via their mobile devices and through on-demand services. The Disney channels that will be offered on Comcast's Xfinity service include ABC, ESPN, ABC Family and Disney Channel.
Cable companies are pushing mobile device delivery of all subscribed channels, to counter the threat of consumers shifting to wireless broiadband for their TV entertainment from sites like Netflix & hulu.
SIFY UNDERSEA CABLE IN MUMBAI
Sify Technologies Ltd has established an undersea cable landing station in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 40 to 50 Crore. This landing station supports up to 4 cable systems, said Mr Raju Vegesna, CEO and Managing Director.
Sify built this cable landing system to upgrade to the latest technology and provide increased capacity.
West Asian-based Gulf Bridge International with its 10 terra-bits per second capacity will be the first to connect to the Sify landing station. It connects West Asia, European and African markets.
Sify has also signed a Landing Party Agreement with MENA submarine cable system SAE. MENA connects Europe, Africa and Asia.
INDIAN INTERACTIVE TV CHANNEL LAUNCHED
Cellcast Interactive India has launched a new and unique social TV channel, MyTV. It will bring about interactivity across three platforms - television, Internet (including social media platforms) and mobile. Viewers participating in any show will be able to see interactions from other mediums as well as in real time.
"We have an investment outlay of Rs 75 Crore for MyTV," said Thakar.
The programming of the channel will remain ad free but the content will be created in such a way that brands can be integrated into it.
MyTV is being made available across the western, eastern and northern belts of the country. The company claims to have done distribution deals with Hathway, Airtel Digital TV and Reliance Digital TV apart from independent operators in Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Punjab markets.
"Our aim is to reach to over 35 million analogue and digital homes in the first phase itself," Cellcast COO - Television Ashutosh said.
BAG Network is the official distribution partner of Cellcast's MyTV, especially across the Hindi-speaking belt in India.
The channel features over 20 hours of programming with shows like Bid2Win, My Studio, The Big Deal etc.
YOUTUBE TO COMPETE WITH TV
Google owned video mega-website YouTube is expanding its offerings and spending $100 million to bring a variety of professional video content providers, from fitness and sports to politics and entertainment, aboard the service in 2012, reports USA Today.
More companies are jumping aboard the online medium, says R.J. Williams, the founder of YouTube channel Young Hollywood, which creates "snackable" bites of entertainment interviews. Williams predicts everyone will soon migrate online.
A recent survey by Nielsen, the ratings and research firm, finds the average person views a half-hour of online videos a week, and that doubles among 25- to 34-year-olds.
MEGAUPLOAD SHUT DOWN - FOUNDERS ARRESTED
Megaupload, One of the world's largest file-sharing sites has been shut down & its founder and several company executives were charged by the US for violating piracy laws.
Megaupload.com has been accused of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The charges were leveled a day after Wikipedia closed for a day in protest against 2 congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy.
The US Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested in New Zealand & 2 others are at large.
ASIA'S FIRST HOLOGRAPHY STUDIO
Asia's first holography studio is set up at Kovalam near Trivandrum by Kerala-based Light Logics Holography & Optics, company official said. Commercial operations will commence by February 2012. The company has developed a holographic solar panel technology which increases the efficiency of the solar panels.
"We are also in the process of commercialising digital holographic non-destructive testing camera for evaluation of aerospace components, developed from ISRO technology. The same camera can be used in precision testing and evaluation of undersea petroleum pipelines as well as airplane tyre testing," said Dr. P.T. Ajith Kumar.
They also plan to commercialise a holographic dot matrix mastering machine used for originating very high security holograms in currency notes, visas, passports and high security documentation.
BSNL LAUNCHES HELLO TV
BSNL has announced the launch of Hello TV for BSNL customers across the country in collaboration with PK Online.
The service provides entertainment to BSNL users while they are on move on laptop, tablets and PCs. Subscribers have 30 TV Channels to choose from, including Star, Times, Raj Tv & others.
Subscription packs range from Rs 10 for 3 channels for 1 day to Rs 99 for 30 channels for 1 month.
INDIA: SATPHONES BANNED
The government of India has said it will penalize anyone using satellite phones in the country without necessary authorization.
It pointed out that the Thuraya Satellite set phone service is not permitted in India and anyone using any telegraphic devices, including Satphone, violates section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
The directive came a day after India gave Internet telephony pioneer Skype and the makers of BlackBerry handsets a deadline to fall in line with strict security-monitoring regulations. n
