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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3762)	2/18/1999 11:53:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

SK Modi plans $750 million pay-TV gateway The Modi Group -A profile modi.com modi.com Anjan Mitra in New Delhi The SK Modi group, in association with London-based Regent Communications, plans to build and operate a national, terrestrial wireless (microwave multipoint distribution system or MMDS) 'gateway' for providing access to pay-television in India. The estimated cost of the project is $750 million and the Modi group will hold a majority stake in the venture. The deal will be formalised when norms on MMDS are finalised. The government had, a few years ago, issued licence to Noida-based Catvision to operate MMDS services in Bihar. The project will provide educational, tele-medicine, training facilities and Internet and related services to remote areas which cannot be accessed through cable TV and where direct-to-home (DTH) services are not possible. "Our plan is to offer digital and interactive MMDS with a focus on rural India," Chris North, managing director of Australia-based Wattle Park Partners Pty, said. Wattle Park has an equity stake in Regent Communications. According to North, MMDS will provide a cheaper and more effective alternative to DTH services. "The vastness of MMDS provides excellent business prospects for us and the subscribers can benefit from an efficient system which is cheaper than DTH," North said. Modi-Regent, the proposed joint venture, has submitted to the government that the US-MMDS is becoming the technology of choice for high-speed Internet access and can be used to deliver video on demand. Making a case for the government's concern over cultural invasion through skies, North pointed out that MMDS will give the government capability to control satellite broadcasting and to prohibit, when necessary, broadcast of subversive or offensive material. However, North has ruled out localised MMDS -- akin to that of Catvision -- as it is not commercially viable. MMDS are terrestrial systems that enable transmission of video and data to homes (point-to-multipoint). Such services operate on radio frequencies between 2-3 gigahertz providing up to 30 channels (depending on bandwidth) using analogue technology. Digital MMDS, which Modi-Regent is proposing, will increase channel capacity to over 200 and also pave the way for interactive capability for educational services.

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3762)	2/19/1999 12:02:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

Pentafour Software bags US animated film deal Pentafour Software-Stock Price as of 02/18/98 Symbol PENTSFWARE Exchange: NSE Previous Open High Low Close close 923.40 960.00 970.00 912.10 920.00 Our Bureau in Chennai Multimedia major Pentafour Software and Exports Ltd has bagged a contract for the creation of an animated film, scheduled for release in the United States in the summer of 2000. The total budget of the film is estimated to be about $40 million. This is the first project that has come out of a strategic alliance that Pentafour recently forged with Cyber Arrow Technologies, a subsidiary of the US-based New Media Venture Partners Inc. The alliance would bring together the digital and multimedia production capabilities of Pentafour Software and New Media's marketing, sales and distribution capability throughout the Americas. The venture is to focus on providing multimedia products and services to top clients in the US, Canada and Latin America. Pre-production work for the new film has kicked off and the project itself is to be completed in a year. "This will be the first major film in the world to be produced entirely in digital," Christopher Cain, the producer and director of the film told reporters in Chennai. "The film is about technology and about 70 per cent of its total content would be animation, which would be sourced from Pentafour Software," he added. "The film is expected to involve about 100,000 hours of special effects and animation and the rates per hour for such projects vary from $70 to $100 per hour," said the chairman and managing director of Pentafour Software, V Chandrasekaran. "Creative production rates in India are extremely competitive. A similar project would involve a cost of $200 to $300 per hour. International rates are about three to four times more expensive," said New Media chairman, Scott McKinley. New Media is currently producing three more films. One is a sequel to the $40 million digital movie project. The follow-up is also being developed simultaneously as it would result in cost and time savings, besides utilising advertising costs better. "The first movie is to be released in the summer of 2000 and the sequel would be ready by Christmas the same year," Cain said. New Media's third project is to contain a 15 per cent special effects, which will also be sourced from Pentafour Software. The company is also planing another epic movie project, which will be shot entirely in India. Pentafour Software is currently in the post-production stage of the world's first 3D motion capture animation film, Sindbad.