BIG TV, a Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group venture and one of the leading DTH players in the country, today announced the launch interactive Election Special as part of their interactive service iNEWS, powered by India’s Best English News Channel – CNN-IBN. iNEWS is an enhanced value added service available to all Reliance BIG TV users. This interactive service is a television application which allows viewers to access current news and information, short text based stories, headlines and tickers which are powered by content from CNN-IBN in a complete interactive and user friendly interface.
With iNEWS, BIG TV viewers can now take complete control of how and when they choose to watch news and can navigate through an 8-window PIP mosaic of video feed options with supporting audio feeds. The user screen includes dedicated news and highlight feeds as well an access to sub genre-based text news stories, news headlines and tickers. Viewers can choose from eight windows including live feeds of CNN- IBN & IBN 7, Top Headlines, Lok Sabha 09 (dedicated feed for news & views on General Elections 2009), Sports and Weather.
Reliance BIG TV viewer also has exclusive access to text news stories via the numerical buttons genre-specific menu. All this is driven by CNN- IBN, which will ensure the freshest, latest and the highest quality news and content a viewer could wish for.
"Reliance BIG TV has always been at the forefront of enhancing customer value through relevant and easy-to-use innovative product features. We are delighted on our partnership with CNN-IBN - India's leading news channel, with such topically relevant Election Special with interactivity through a 8-window mosaic framework. This will define a new paradigm of customer experience with quality content.” said Mahesh Prasad, President Reliance Communications.
Sameer Manchanda, Joint Managing Director – IBN18 Network, said, “iNews is a pioneering service - a platform that gives viewers the flexibility to consume news the way they want to. iNews combines the richness of television news with the flexibility of a website or a newspaper. Those wanting the headlines only can select that section, while those wanting sports only can go for the sports bulletins. iNews is a first step towards delivering news that is truly customized for the individual viewer.”
“We are very happy to have Reliance BIG TV as partners in this pioneering initiative.”
iNEWS is an interactive application which provides an 8 mosaic video PIPs and a scrolling ‘Ticker Text’ display by Topic/Category.
Reliance BIG TV DTH:
A wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications, India’s largest integrated telecom service provider, offers India’s first fully Digital Home Entertainment Service using MPEG-4 platform, under BIG TV DTH brand. The world’s most advanced MPEG4 DTH technology platform enables BIG TV DTH to offer over 200 TV, Cinema and Audio channels, the highest by any other DTH operator in the country. With 32 exclusive movie channels in English, Hindi and Regional languages, BIG TV DTH offers a choice of 600 new movies every year, unmatched by any DTH or cable operator in the country.
The country’s largest on-ground infrastructure for a Home Entertainment created by TV DTH would enable the company to serve over 5 million new customers every year and will offer multiple price points and packaging BIG offers to suit needs of all customer segments. The state-of-the-art Customer Service mechanism is fully functional and ready to serve a minimum of 50,000 customers every day in 11 Indian languages. Available at launch at 1 lakh retail outlets across 6500 towns, over 2000 exclusive Reliance branded stores, BIG TV DTH is the largest retail rollout of a Home Entertainment Service in India. BIG TV DTH Toll Free Number: 1-800-200-9001; Website: www.BIGTV.co.inSMS.
Network18[BSE: 532798,NSE: Network18] is one of India's leading full play media conglomerates with interests in television, print, internet, filmed entertainment, mobile content and allied businesses. Through its holding in Television Eighteen India Ltd (TV18) [BSE: 532299, NSE: TV-18], Network18 operates India’s leading business news television channels, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz. It also runs one of India’s largest Internet players - Web18, as well as one of India’s leading real time financial information and news terminals - Newswire18. TV18 has recently expanded into print with Infomedia18, a newly formed entity following the acquisition of Infomedia, India's leading player in the special interest publishing and printing operations space.TV18 has also announced collaboration with Forbes media for the launch of a business magazine in India. Through its holding in ibn18 Broadcast Ltd (ibn18) [BSE: 532800,NSE: ibn18], Network18 operates in the general news and entertainment space with leading general news channels CNN-IBN and IBN7 and has launched IBN Lokmat, a Marathi news channel in partnership with the Lokmat group. ibn18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom, called Viacom18 which houses the MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon channels in India - as also Studio18, the Group’s filmed entertainment operation and has launched ‘Colors’, a Hindi general entertainment channel. Additionally, Network18 holds the Group’s online & on-air home shopping venture, Homeshop18 and its full spectrum events management venture, E18.
