The Indian government declared 2007 the "Year of Broadband," setting a goal of 20 million broadband users in 2010, but is unlikely to reach that total, according to market researcher eMarketer. In its India Online Overview report, eMarketer expects India to reach 10.5 million broadband households by 2011. eMarketer estimates 25.5 million Indians used the Internet at least once a month in 2006 and it predicts India's online population will rise to 33.2 million in 2007 and 71.6 million by 2011. … [Read more...] about India’s Year of Broadband ‘unlikely’ to reach target

Sydney- A short but spirited bidding war for Beyond International Limited resulted in the Beyond board agreeing to a takeover offer from private equity firm Navis Media Pty Ltd (Navis Media). Navis Media will acquire all stock in Beyond for $A1.22 cash per share, a 31% premium to the average price of the last six months, valuing the Australian television producer-distributor at $A74.6 million ($US62 million). That trumped a bid four days earlier by Mariner Financial Limited, which offered $A1.15 … [Read more...] about Navis Media to buy Beyond International

Sony Corporation Hong Kong Limited and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union have joined forces to promote and develop the broadcasting industry in the region by recognising the contributions of the business’ best performers through a broadcast engineering excellence award. Sony will sponsor the winner of the 2007 ‘ABU Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award’. Now into its fifth year, the Award is conferred on an individual to recognise outstanding contributions in broadcast … [Read more...] about Sony and ABU to collaborate on broadcasting award

The worldwide video game market is expected to grow to $US47 billion in 2009, up from $33 billion in 2006, according to a new report from DFC Intelligence. The newest generation of video game consoles is driving this growth, despite uncertainty over the three major video game console systems: Sony PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360. Based on sales so far, DFC raised its forecast for the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 and lowered its forecast for Xbox 360. It estimates … [Read more...] about Video game market set to soar

Sydney- Parliament last week passed legislation establishing a range of previously announced screen production incentives in what was almost certainly the last week of parliament before the federal election. There was one major amendment, extending the rebate for animation series to episodes of 15 minutes, rather than 30 as proposed originally. The government rejected calls from the Screen Producers Association of Australia to prevent Australian broadcasters from accessing the rebate for series … [Read more...] about Laws for new screen production incentives passed Down Under