'What's On India's EPG powers series recordings for Airtel digital TV recorder
What's on India will enable digital video recordings on Airtel digital TV recorder with it's highly accurate and intelligent EPG
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Mr. Atul Phadnis, Founder & CEO, What's on India
-- India's largest Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) company, 'What's On India', has collaborated with Airtel digital TV- the DTH service from Bharti Airtel, for their newly launched Airtel digital TV recorder. Under this association, What's on India's EPGs will power video recordings for channels distributed by Airtel digital TV. The Airtel digital TV recorder offers customers the convenience, to record their favourite shows using their mobile phones from anywhere in the world.
What's On India is India's largest and official EPG provider, aggregating schedules from 300 plus TV channels and transforming those into intelligent EPGs. The EPGs provisioned by the company are also highly accurate, with their 99.9% track record owing to real-time updates as well as a proprietary technique known as 'Just-in-Time EPGs'.
What's-On-India's EPGs are currently used by millions of consumers to search-&-find TV shows on their DTH/ Cable/ IPTV Set-Top-Boxes. However, when it comes to Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), the EPGs become even more vital. Recordings can be triggered only with the help of EPGs since the PVR system understands the slot to be recorded based on the details given by the EPG.
Also, certain features such as 'Series Recordings' need intelligent IDs to signal to the recorder that all multiple episodes under one program are linked. For e.g. If a user sets the PVR to record the Indian Idol Season 5 series, the recorder needs to understand that all episodes from the audition to the final are a part of the same program series and hence need to be recorded. This is done through the details provided in the What's On India EPGs. The special flags provided in the EPGs also make the system capable to record only the original telecasts of each episode and skip the repeats.
Additionally, the intelligent IDs also enable recordings set on the PVR via the mobile phone. For this every programming event requires special flags that both devices - the PVR and the Mobile Phone can identify to complete the recording transaction.
Commenting on this new proposition, Mr. Atul Phadnis, CEO, What's on India, said, "We have been at the forefront of creating breakthroughs in EPG solutions and for us this collaboration is about creating yet another milestone - this time in PVR. We are happy to be playing our role in enabling a first-time-in-India DVR feature like mobile based remote recordings and promise to continue to innovate in this domain."
Commenting on this relationship with What's on India, Sugato Banerji, Chief Marketing Officer, Airtel Digital TV said, "Our association with What's on India goes back a long way, we are assured to get the best technology and support in our endeavour to offer our consumers Industry's best. They have provided their world class technology for our viewers to enjoy a truly rich television EPG experience, and we are confident this association will prove to be of great value to our viewers yet again."
While the EPG relationship between Airtel and What's-On-India is almost 2 years old, What's-On-India also runs their TV Guidance channel on Airtel's Home Channel position (Channel Number 100).
Notes to Editor
About What's On India:
What's-on-India Media Pvt Ltd. is India's largest Consumer TV Guidance company. Set up in 2005, at the inflection point of the Analog Indian TV industry turning Digital, the company powers electronic program guides (EPGs) into millions of set-top-boxes across DTH, Cable and IPTV operators. What's-On-India has designed and developed a proprietary, indigenous India-specific EPG Production Platform that integrates Programming information and Schedules from hundreds of TV channels to convert into EPGs. These EPGs are multi-platform, multi-lingual and yet real-time given the dynamic nature of the Television business. The company recently launched India's first consumer TV guidance channel which guides viewers round-the-clock on what to watch on Television. The Mumbai-based company has been backed by Sequoia Capital India and Nexus Venture Partners. For more information visit www.whatsonindia.com
