Date: 26th to 3rd July 2009
Segments: Editors Picks, Earnings, Your Picks, Events, Lists

Editors Picks

– Saleem Mobhani To Join Airtel As Mobile Entertainment Head

Editor: By far, among the biggest stories of the last month, in terms of traffic and offline discussions. Mobhani’s move after nine years at Hungama to the client side at Airtel has provoked reactions of both hope and skepticism in the VAS Industry

– Rediff CEO Ajit Balakrishnan On 3G Licensing, VCs In India, Indic Languages, Broadband, E-Commerce

Editor: Balakrishnan’s talk irked a few Venture Capitalists at the IAMAI Digital Media conference, and while others took a while to recover from the reality check that his speech provoked. However, as one attendee put it – “He talked about what needs to be done, but not how we should go about it.”

– Budget 09: Economic Survey: FDI In Telecom, DNC, USO Fund, BSNL Deal; e-Payment
– Budget 09: Economic Survey Suggests MSME Support, Spectrum Trading, Opening Local Loop

Editor: Some pragmatic suggestions from the Economic Survey, focused on bringing transparency to telecom allocations and deals, apart from means to increase broadband penetration. There’s also some data on the state of the telecom deployment.

– Why The SIM Card Should Be India’s National ID Card

Editor: A Guest post from MChek CEO Sanjay Swamy was the most discussed post at MediaNama over the last week or so, provoking reactions both in favour of using a SIM Card as a National ID Card, and against: the reactions are as interesting as the post itself.

Earnings

– Deccan Chronicle: Q4-09: Deccan Chronicle Net Profit Slides 53%; Raw Material Costs
– TV18: FY09: TV18 Posts Losses Of Rs. 1.6B; Revenue Up 23%; Key Developments
– Web18: FY09: Web18 Revenues At Rs 712.1 M Up 8%; Marketing Costs Written Off

Note: We were disappointed by the lack of detailed Web18 financials from TV18.
– Adlabs: FY09: Adlabs Films Posts Rs.513.7M In Losses; Big Cinemas To Expand
– Saregama: FY09: Saregama Reports Rs. 81.4 Million Loss; Music Biz Improves In Q4
– Pyramid Saimira: Pyramid Saimira Posts YoY Losses Of Rs. 1.37B; Animation & Gaming Writeoff; Four Screens Shut

Your Picks
– Facebook Usage In India Grows As Orkut Misses A Trick
– Manish Agarwal To Join UTV New Media As CEO
– Updated: The New Rediffmail: Minimalist & Mobile; Text Ads
– NDTV Convergence COO Salil Kumar Puts In His Papers
– Virgin’s New Data Card: Competition & Tata Indicom

– RCOM Brings BBC News Radio In Hindi, Tamil, Urdu & Bangla
– Vodafone Eyes ISP Business In India; Gets Approval For Divesting Ortus
– NDTV Launches Gaming Subsite Powered By Zapak
– e-Choupal: ITC Scaled Down Commodities, Launched Tamil Portal In FY09
– Malayala Manorama To Launch Education Portal
– Updated: Pearson Invests $12.5Mn In TutorVista, JV With EduComp & Future Plans
– Roundup: Handset, DTH Taxes; Pyramid Saimira; Industry Moves; Oxigen; Bindass; FM Licenses

Events

– 10th July 2009: VAS Asia, Delhi
– 11th July 2009: Mobile Monday, Delhi

Lists

– Circlewise List Of Telecom Operators
– Short Code Services in India
– Statewise Broadband Subscribers
– Digital Payment Companies in India

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