News Broadcasting
NDS expands Indian ops with new office in Mumbai
MUMBAI: With Conditional acces coming in next year and DTH taking hold in the country the time is right for television technology firms to take a serious look at India. One such firm is the News Corp owned NDS, which provides technology solutions for digital pay-TV.
It has opened a dedicated sales and support operation in Mumbai. NDS chairman and CEO Dr Abe Peled, said, “NDS has had a research and development facility in Bangalore for over five years. This has grown to nearly 600 employees. NDS Bangalore is pivotal in our ability to roll out state-of-the-art technologies, such as advanced middleware solutions, digital video recorders (DVR) and interactive TV applications, to some of the world’s largest broadcasters.
“The opening of the NDS Mumbai office, is in recognition that the Indian market itself is ready for the wide-scale deployment of digital pay-TV. NDS has been growing at a compound rate of 15 per cent. We have 66.6 million active Smart Cards using our VideoGuard for conditional access globally. Our middleware is present in 45 million set top boxes. 4.2 million of our Digital Video Recorder (DVR) software has been shipped. Our innovation in DVR shows that we are ken on merging technologies. DVR marks a fundamental change in how people watch television. This basically is a shift from a time viewing paradigm to a content viewing one. ”
As of now NDS has two clients in India – the Tata Sky direct to home (DTH) service and MSO Hathway Cable Datacom. A point of note is that both companies are News Corp affiliates by virtue of the fact that Star has a 20 per cent equity in Tata Sky and a 26 per cent stake in Hathway.
Peled claims that NDS provides a competitive advantage because its services go beyond just securing content. “Our message to the cable fraternity is that you cannot afford not to have NDS. There is this notion that we are expensive. But when we have dialogues with them I think that they will be surprised at our edge. After all it is a long term investment for them and it is important to choose the right partner.”
30 per cent of NDS’ revenue goes into research and development activities says Peled. NDS India VP, GM Vladimir Ruppo says that the Bangalore center is fully responsible for delivery and product ownership. “The focus is on the Mediahighway middleware which is a software glue within the set top box and can also act as an end to end solution. It is built on Modular Architecture and can work on any set top box. It has already been integrated with 60 set top box vendors. Right now the Bangalore center is working on
developing a new Elecvtroni9c programme Guide (EPG).
“This solution is aimed at allowing a broadcaster to make dynamic changes and also the user can have a richer experience. The subscriber will be allowed to choose his/ her EPG scheme. The Bangalore office is also working an a solution for enabling mobile TV and also on high definition. It can also offer an end to end IPTV solution which will offer IP connectivity.”
Coming back to its existing deals in India NDS end-to-end systems are deployed by Tata Sky to offer a range of digital and interactive TV services that give their subscribers greater choice, control and convenience. The NDS systems deployed include NDS VideoGuard conditional access solution (CAS),MediaHighway middleware, and a bouquet of interactive
TV applications including the electronic programme guide (EPG) for viewer navigation. The PEG was customised to suit the broadcaster’s requirements.
For example there is a favourite channels feature which offers a display of key channels. Then there is the parental control feature which allows for disabling of channels deemed inappropriate for children by their parents. The EPG also sports multi lingual capabilities. So a bradcaster can offer a feed in multiple languages and the user can select accordingly. There is also fingerprinting to combat piracy.NDS points out that the main aim was to make the EPG simple use for anyone from 7-70 years of age. For Hathway NDS provided a customised EPG.
News Broadcasting
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
