Star Utsav Joins Growing List on DD Free Dish in India

Star Utsav, now part of the
Disney India Group of channels

Digital Broadcast Vendor News notes yet another move by a subscription channel, Mumbai-based, Star Utsav  from June 10, 2020 has 'without pay' distribution on Door Darshan's DD Free Dish platform. Its Hindi language offerings cover the gambit of drama genres in prime time.  Anchoring the evening is Kasautii Zindagii Kay at 1900hrs, Mahabharat at 2000hrs and Nazar at 2300.

Star Utsav believes in specialising in dramas covering themes such as  mythology, romance, and fantasy. Such dramas are aimed for family friendly viewing.

Just a heads up that Star Utsav is part of the old Fox/Star stable now under the 'Walt Disney Company India' banner. 

Star Utsav Channel's history at a glance

Star Utsav was riginally launched in June 2004. The Star Utsav channel was converted into a Pay TV channel in August 2015. A foray into the UK market 2016-2018 proved unsuccessful after a dismal ratings performance. The channel currently is distributed via regional satellites and cable system deals to India domestically and abroad - in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Middle East nations, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore and the United States. 

BANGO Adds SUN Mobile in Hong Kong || Aim: Boost Billing Revenue 70%

Bango technologies Facilitate with Ease Google Play Store and Netflix payments for Mobile Subscribers 

Digital Broadcast Vendor News received from Bango plc, the major mobile commerce player of Cambridge, England  that it had launched its Direct Carrier Billing Platform on SUN Mobile in Hong Kong (May 22, 2020). The strength of Bango is its data processing that typically increases revenue by 20-40 percent, with some established operators achieving growth of more than 70 percent. It is not only in Hong Kong, but the Bango roll out has also been ain two other diverse mobile operators and locations, Entel in Peru and MTN in South Africa - all in a short space of time.  This means that those phone companies' subscribers can now pay for a massive array of content and services in Google Play and charging the cost to their phone bill, all powered by the Bango Platform a very proud British venture. 

What makes Bango a market leader in Direct Carrier Billing?

Pre and post-paid subscribers simply click-to-buy using carrier billing for instant access to their favorite games, music, movies and more. Interesting fact mentioned on tango.com - 80% of the highest spenders in Taiwan (lookalike audience) made in-app payment for the products and services in which they were engaging.

Top executive quote of the day:

Paul Larbey, CEO Bango PLC. Photo Credit: Bango

Paul Larbey, CEO at Bango

"Ever more operators across the world standardize on the Bango platform to bring mobile commerce experiences to their customers."

Mr Larbey says: "In addition to activating payments in Google Play and other app stores, Bango technology enables operators to offer third-party products bundled with their customer plans or marketed directly to their customers through Facebook and other platforms."

To ensure continuous revenue growth from carrier billing across these new routes, Bango technology will be applied to increase payment success, user acquisition and engagement.

Google Play is not the only collaborator with Bango. Netflix in Mexico already has a massive project with Bango in Mexico. The British company, established in 1999 is publicly listed on the London AIM exchange. The company is firmly entrenched with global merchant players including Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Bango was chosen by Youtube in November 2019 to handle the billing for YT's subscription based monthly TV package.

Bango has also other achievements from industry peers as this photo depicts: AIM AWARDS 2012 - Best Technology Award

Picture above shows, left to right:

David Snell, Partner and AIM Leader, PwC; David Worlidge, Merchant Securities; Susanna Reid, awards presenter; and Peter Saxton, Bango plc (winner). Photo: AIM AWARDS Organisation

Worldwide Review :: Broadcast Equipment Market to 2021

Digital Broadcast | Vendor News Asia points to the highlights of a new market report " Broadcast Equipment Market to 2021"  that indicates HD transition is a driving force across multi-screen devices and support equipment. The report was issued on December 12, 2016 by SBWire on behalf of  persistencemarketresearch.com  . 

Summary Highlights as follows:

"Asia Pacific is expected to represent a new growth area in the year to come due emerging economies, increasing awareness among the people about internet browsing and higher use of electronic items such as television, smartphones and tablets. Moreover, Asian countries such as India and China are highly fragmented by content type, region type and size of broadcasters."

The broadcast equipment market is driven by various factors such as transition from analog to digital broadcasting, increasing focus on production automation, growing acceptance of HD worldwide and rising number of digital channels. Moreover, content requirement at many places, increasing use of broadcasting equipment in sports broadcasting, worship places, news production and corporate conferences are also the factors driving the growth of broadcasting equipment at some extent. 

One of the key factors contributing to the market growth is the increasing the demand for HD programming and new ways to circulate the content such as internet protocol television (IPTV) and mobile TV are quickly developing and deploying. Moreover, the broadcasting equipment market has also been witnessing the rising inclination of the people towards multi-screen services. Enforcement of government regulations regarding digitalization is also expected to drive the market. 

In addition with the huge growth in the number of smartphones and tablets, the growth opportunities of video services have increased considerably in recent years. This is due to the fact that in recent times, there is an increasing habit among the customer for viewing movie, shows and sports through their mobile phones without compromising about the quality of the services.

However inconsistency in content distribution, higher price of broadcasting equipment such as cameras, cables, audio video mixers huge capital cost needed while installing new broadcast facility and lack of standardized method in content distribution are some of the factors which are restraining the broadcasting equipment market. Also competition among the vendors in the global broadcasting equipment market has increased considerably. This is due to the fall in price and entry of new players in the market which is further restraining the growth of the broadcasting equipment market.

There is a worldwide inclination towards the software based solutions, which are high on speed and can be IP connected so that upgrading may be possible with little hardware replacement. North America and Europe are expected to continue leading the market owing to the adoption of upgraded technology and more of the company's involvement in research and development programs to keep peace with rivals. Asia Pacific is expected to represent a new growth area in the year to come due emerging economies, increasing awareness among the people about internet browsing and higher use of electronic items such as television, smartphones and tablets. Moreover, Asian countries such as India and China are highly fragmented by content type, region type and size of broadcasters.

Some of the key vendors dominating the broadcasting market space are #Alcatel-Lucent SA, #ARRIS Enterprise Inc., #Brightcove Inc., #Cisco Systems Inc., #Ericsson A.B., #Harmonic Inc., #Microsoft Corp., #SeaChange International Inc., and #ZTE Corp.

Request to view Table of content @ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3547 

Some of the other vendors active in this market are #Alticast Solutions, #Anevia, #Ateme, #Azuki Systems Inc., #Edgeware AB, #Elemental Technologies, #Envivio Inc., #Imagine Communications, #Minerva Networks, #Seawell Networks Inc., #Thomson Video Networks, #UTStarcom Inc., and #Verimatrix Inc.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3178791#ixzz4TAmnT03C

Afghani Saraish Radio Launches BBC Uzbek Broadcasts

The Saraish Radio and #BBCUzbek Development

Digital Broadcast | Vendor News Asia has heard from the BBC Uzbek language service that it is now supplying Saraish Radio 91.1 FM in Shahr-e Sheberghan with its programming output. The significance of the deal is that Saraish Radio serves Uzbek speaking audiences in the Jowzjan and Sar-e Pol provinces in north-western Afghanistan.  

The BBC Uzbek team convinced Saraish Radio Founder and President, Ms Farida Rahim Azizi to take the daily one hour round up for broadcast between 17.30-18.30 local time. 

Saraish Radio 91.1 FM is a private station pioneering a role that focusses on women as its main target audience. The programming covers sensitive issues such as women’s education and their role in society.  It broadcasts news and current affairs, youth and educational programmes, talk shows, short dramas and sport.   

Shahr-e Sheberghan is located 130 km west of Mazari Sharif. It is also the single most important Uzbek dominated city in all of Afghanistan. The city and region's inhabitants reflect the Silk Road 'Arab' heritage yet where most of the region is multi-lingual in the Persian languages.  

Ms Farida said that everyone at Radio Saraish is excited about its cooperation with the BBC as an excellent development for the FM radio station and its listeners. It is clear that BBC Uzbek prides itself on its 20 year-old service that has built a strong reputation for impartial news, in a region where unbiased news is hard to come by.   

Digital Vendor | Jampro Antennas in New Delhi Move

Digital Broadcast Vendor News Asia :: Aditya Jain has joined Jampro Antennas as Regional Sales Manager for South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Mr Jain will operate from New Delhi. In his position of Regional Sales Manager, he will serve existing clients and work with Jampro US headquarters in Sacramento, California to develop strategies to target emerging markets. Jain joins Jampro following a tenure as Sales/ Marketing Manager for QuantM Net Technologies in New Delhi, India, an IT Systems Integrator and IBM partner. He was previously Accounts Manager of Horizon Broadcast Electronics (HBE) in Gurgaon, India. Jain holds an EE (Electrical engineering degree) from the Birla Institute of Technology / Science. Jampro, the antenna specialist supplying RF systems worldwide for TV/DTV/FM/DVB-T and DVB-H has been providing antenna systems to the Asia-Pacific region since the early 1960's and says it today leads the way with new technologies. Digital Broadcast Vendor News Asia understands that a major Jampro recent regional project was a complete upgrade of the TV antenna system for the state broadcaster - Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) providing multi-frequency, full coverage of the island nation. Jampro is in a major expansion phase, having enhanced production facilities in Sacremento in January 2008. Jampro is attending Singapore's BroadcastAsia2008: Stand # 7G1-08.

Digital Vendor Pharos.tv | New Singapore Regional Office

Photo: Patrick Keys
Pharos.tv is to open a Singapore Office. Pharos.tv the Reading, UK-based, automation specialist that provides broadcast management solutions has informed Digital Broadcast Vendor News that it is setting up a Singapore regional office for sales and support activities. The announcement, timed to coincide with the Broadcast Asia 2008 trade show this month in the Lion City says that the new Pharos facility will be situated initially at the New Tech Park in Lorong Chuan. In other words, close to key international broadcasters and playout service providers located in the specialized industrial park. Heading up the operation will be Patrick Keys, who has been with Pharos since its inception. Patrick initially worked as part of the Pharos Playtime automation software development team and is a veteran of many international Pharos projects including CNN Headline News in Atlanta and Network 7 in Australia. He also established the international support operation at Pharos' Reading UK headquarters and has developed customer training programs for Pharos installations including Technicolor, Viasat and Globecast. Of the Singapore move, Russell Grute, director of marketing for Pharos said: "To succeed and grow in South East Asia, many broadcasters and service providers need to work more efficiently. They face unique content management and distribution challenges to localize and promote content for their viewers across a complex region." Pharos sees itself as able to assist broadcasters achieve success in these niche areas with its solid project engineering and technical backup. Backgrounder: Pharos delivers better workflow management to broadcasters and service-providers in television, radio, IPTV and telecommunications. For 10 years Pharos has continually developed the unique Mediator, Playtime and Pilot desktop broadcast management solutions. Pharos workflow offers greater efficiency for library management, ingest, quality control, storage management, archival, transcoding, post-production and playout. Pharos solutions offer a next-generation platform to better manage multiformat content and enable rapid expansion in playout, presentation and publishing. Digital Broadcast Vendor News Asia says the salient point is that Pharos software architecture, integration and support services enable disparate broadcast and IT processes to be unified across the enterprise.

Australia Digital | ACMA Reviews IPTV Growth

Digital Broadcast Vendor News is pleased to know that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has at last published its investigative report on IPTV and multimedia and Internet video. The report is most welcome for the fact Australia is behind in IPTV and Internet Video applications as cited by just five IPTV providers and fifteen internet video providers whose services provide full-length professional content directly to consumers. Digital Broadcasters Vendors News first glimpse of the report, which is to be found at the ACMA web site is that the contents are well researched, comprehensive and useful. The date of the report is May 2008.

Digital Vendor | Simon Tsang New Asia Sales Head for Strategy & Technology

Digital Broadcast Vendor News Asia has been advised that Strategy & Technology Limited (S&T) specialist in interactive TV playout systems and MHEG-5** middleware, has appointed Simon Tsang as Regional Sales Manager – Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Tsang (pronounced Chung - as in hung, or Chang) is based in S&T’s recently expanded Asia Pacific regional office. He reports to Colin Prior, Director of International Sales, Tsang's main role is to support S&T’s broadcast customers and resellers as well as S&T’s numerous MHEG-5 middleware licensees throughout the region. Previously, Tsang was with Syno Systems, a telecoms system integrator. Other jobs included Tut Systems, an IPTV headend provider (acquired by Motorola) and publicly-listed, DVN a conditional access and head-end system provider. Tsang is an Associate in Electrical Engineering from Hong Kong Polytechnic and an MBA from the University of Hong Kong. Strategy & Technology Ltd, headquartered in the UK, regards itself as the leading independent company in the industry sector that supports the MHEG interactive TV standard and provides complete interactive applications and systems for broadcasters and manufacturers worldwide. S&T's TSBroadcaster and TSPlayer systems are used for the creation of MHP, MHEG and OCAP interactive TV transmissions. Its RedKey MHEG engine is licensed to digital receiver and set top box manufacturers worldwide. S & I made a name for itself originally as a provider of carousel creation and play-out systems for digital terrestrial television.

Digital Broadcast Vendor News Asia Note: **MHEG-5, or ISO/IEC 13522-5, is part of a set of international standards relating to the presentation of multimedia information, standardized by the Multimedia and Hypermedia Experts Group (MHEG). It is most commonly used as a language to describe interactive television services.