The Indian government is all set to announce new rules that govern online and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Hotstar and Amazon Prime today, according to a report by financial news channel ET Now. The IT and Information & Broadcasting ministries will hold a combined press conference at 2 PM today to […]
The management of Chennai-based Sun TV Network seems to have abandoned the earlier ‘hybrid strategy’ for its digital platform and come to the conclusion that an advertising-led model will likely not work in the video-on-demand universe in the longer term. The company’s Sun NXT app has been by far the most aggressive player as far […]
GTPL Hathway, one of India’s top cable TV and cable internet providers, indicated it was not overly worried about telecom players like Bharti Airtel luring away its local cable operator partners under their new LCO partnership strategy. Bharti Airtel had announced some weeks ago that it plans to authorize local cable operators (LCOs) to resell […]
Sun TV Network, one of India’s largest home-grown broadcasting companies, said it will redraw at its investment plans for SUN NXT over the next three months in light of the app’s performance and the company’s cash flow. The company had, a year ago, announced that it will invest Rs 150 cr over 18 months to […]
Bharti Airtel has become the first major DTH or cable company to free up its content app, Airtel XStream, from its hardware. All other major cable and DTH companies in India offer their app only on their own device — typically a stick or a set-top-box — and do not allow the software to be […]
Several video-on-demand services in India, including Youtube, Hotstar, Tiktok, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Zee5, have decided to suspend the streaming of high-definition content as long as the Coronavirus lockdown is in place. They will continue to offer HD content on wired broadband, such as fiber and copper networks. The move is to prevent the […]
Viacom18, the entertainment-focused joint venture of TV18 Broadcast and US-based ViacomCBS, will launch a new content app focusing on premium, English language content, CEO Sudhanshu Vats said today. Commenting on his company’s third quarter results, Vats said the app is currently undergoing beta testing. Viacom18 currently has two apps, Voot — which largely offers Indian […]
Tata Sky’s much awaited Android set-top-box, Tata Sky Binge+, is all set to become available in the coming 2-3 weeks as a dealer has leaked the technician’s reference guide for installing the service. The manual, leaked on social media, confirms what has already been reported — it will be built on top of Android TV […]
Chennai-based Sun TV Network, which operates to the most widely watched pay channel in India, has inked a content licensing deal with Reliance Jio, India’s biggest telecom operator. Under the deal, Sun TV’s content — including those that it has purchased digital rights for — will be made available on Jio’s apps. With this, thousands […]
ZEE5, the video app from Zee Entertainment Enterprises, will introduce cheaper plans soon to take on rivals in the market, company CEO Punit Goenka said. “We are working on lighter packs which we will roll-out in the next couple of months,” the CEO said. ZEE5’s annual pack is currently priced at Rs 999. Goenka was […]
When cellular telephony started in India, Bharti and Reliance took two divergent approaches towards launching cellular services — Airtel decided to focus on providing the services, leaving third party players to provide the hardware, while Reliance decided went with CDMA, a technology in which everything was more tightly controlled. Despite the obvious technological shortcomings of […]
Flipkart, Amazon’s biggest competitor in India, has started rolling out a video streaming service on its mobile app similar to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. The service is very similar to other streaming apps, and offers videos classified into different sections based on genres and languages. Both movie and non-movie content are available. Non-movie content, […]
Reliance Jio GigaFiber, the new wired broadband and cable TV service from India’s biggest telecom operator by volumes, is likely to offer free cable TV and high-speed broadband for Rs 500 per month. The customer is likely to have to make an initial upfront payment of around Rs 3,000, which would enable him to avail […]
Hotstar, India’s largest premium streaming platform, said 15.6 million (1.6 cr) people used its video streaming app at the same time on June 16, when India played Pakistan in the ICC World Cup in England. In all, 10 cr people logged into the service some time during that day. This is a record for the […]
Bharti Airtel has made ring-back tones or caller tunes free for anyone with a monthly plan of Rs 129 or above. The service used to be charged at Rs 36 per month and lets users specify a song or sound-track of their choice for callers to hear, instead of the regular brr brr. The move […]
The number of smartphone users in India is expected to almost double by 2022 from 47 cr registered at the end of 2017, a joint study by ASSOCHAM and PwC said. Fueled by cheap data and the explosion of ‘over the top’ services, the total number of smartphones will hit 86 cr by 2022, which […]
Bharti Airtel has introduced a competitor to Youtube, which accounts for more than half of India’s mobile internet consumption, with the launch of Wynk Tube — a Youtube like app that will focus more on music and music videos. Unlike Youtube, which does not let its free users switch to an audio only mode, Wynk […]
The Delhi High Court today dismissed a petition by a lawyer’s organization, Justice For Rights, seeking censoring of online content such as Game of Thrones, Spartacus, Vikings and Sacred Games. The petition, filed late last year, claimed that such videos constituted “unregulated, uncertified, sexually explicit, vulgar, profane, and legally restricted content”. The lawyers wanted the […]
As Netflix inches closer to saturation point in its North American home market, it is desperately looking for growth abroad. India being the only billion plus market where it can operate with ease, it is no wonder that its push is aggressive here. However, as Netflix’s market share stagnates, does it risk meeting the same […]
Reliance Jio has pulled its enormously popular Jio Music app and replaced it with JioSaavn, a new app based largely on Saavn, a competitor that the company had acquired in March. Users who have enabled auto-updating of their apps will be upgraded to the new application automatically. With over 100 mln (10 cr) downloads, Jio […]
