Within months after launch, the Yahoo! Cricket site (cricket.yahoo.com) has emerged as India’s leading online destination for fans across the nation. As per *Comscore April 2009 data, Yahoo! Cricket attracted 2.4 million unique users per month emerging as the top cricket site in India.

In February this year, Yahoo! India entered into a 3-year partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC), becoming the exclusive online partner for all ICC events, including ICC World Twenty20, ICC Champions Trophy and ICC Cricket World Cup.

Yahoo! Cricket is already covering the ongoing ICC World Twenty20 at England from June 5 – 21. The T20 coverage includes exclusive cricket content, player chats, videos and images from the tournament. cricket.yahoo.com will serve as a comprehensive online destination for cricket fans covering the history of the game as well as up-to-date statistics on cricketers. The coverage also includes features like series stats and records, data on women’s cricket teams, audios, non-match & match related videos, fantasy game, among others.

With this, Yahoo! India reiterates its commitment to bring the game closer to the fans and further strengthens its delivery of compelling online content.

According to Gopal Krishna, VP and Head of Audience, Emerging Markets, Yahoo!, “We have taken the entire cricketing experience online within a short time span. Our upcoming coverage on T20 is just the tipping point for all the cricketing action that is to follow on the Internet.”

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: “Yahoo! Cricket is now the leading cricket site in India. It shows how much the partnership between the ICC and Yahoo! has caught the imagination of the cricket-loving public in India. The reality is that not everyone in the world will be afforded the opportunity to be in England for the ICC World Twenty20 so the Yahoo! website will be a way for millions of cricket fans in India and elsewhere to stay in touch. They won’t have to miss a ball.”

Several key advertisers have also leveraged this opportunity to reach their targeted consumers by partnering with the # 1 online cricket destination in India (cricket.yahoo.com).

Notes to editors:
Yahoo!’s partnership with the ICC, also extends to activity in Europe this summer:
* With action online and at the matches Yahoo! Eurosport is the home of cricket in the EU
* Twenty20 England Cricket Captain, Paul Collingwood, will be blogging on Yahoo! Eurosport daily at www.yahoo.co.uk/cricket
* Paul Collingwood will be commenting on cricket matches and cricket news throughout the ICC World Twenty20 and Ashes on Yahoo Eurosport

About Yahoo! India:

Yahoo! India (www.yahoo.in), launched in June 2000, has established itself as the pioneering and leading Internet portal providing value added services for Web users in India and users abroad with special interest in India.

-Offers value-for-money and convenience to new and existing customers-

New Delhi, June 11, 2009: digital TV-the DTH service from Bharti Airtel- today announced the launch of 8 Annual Packages for all its customers- new and existing – across the country. They offer a strong bargain for customers on both price and convenience. The Annual Packages for new customers are at 3 different price points – Rs. 3450, Rs. 4350 and Rs. 5450–and include the Installation Cost and 12 months’ subscription. For existing customers, the new packages are at 5 different price points – Rs.1088, Rs.1265, Rs. 1850, Rs. 2750 and Rs. 3850 – and include cost savings ranging from Rs. 109 to Rs. 850. South Special variants of these packages are also available for customers.

According to Sugato Banerji, Vice President-Marketing, Bharti Telemedia, “Over the last eight months, the quick adoption of our service across the country has encouraged us to innovate and further improve our service. With these 8 new Annual Packages we offer our customers across the country, the choice of affordable prices and freedom from the inconvenience of monthly recharges. Annual Packages are increasingly popular with our DTH customers as they see the benefits of price protection for a full year with the added convenience of just a one time recharge.”

New Airtel digital TV customers can choose from the following Annual Packages:

1. @Rs.3450–includes the installation cost and 12 months’ subscription to Economy Pack

2. @Rs.4350–includes the installation cost and 12 months’ subscription to New Mega Pack

3. @Rs.5450–includes the installation cost and 12 months’ subscription to Ultra Pack with Rs.350 cash back.

Existing Airtel digital TV customers can choose from the following Annual Packages:

1. @Rs. 1088 – includes 12 months’ subscription to Super Value Pack

2. @Rs. 1265- includes 12 months’ subscription to New Value Pack

3. @Rs. 1850 – includes 12 months’ subscription to Economy Pack

4. @Rs. 2750 – includes 12 months’ subscription to Mega Pack

5. @ Rs. 3850 – includes 12 months’ subscription to Ultra Pack

With their connection, each Airtel digital TV customer receives the latest MPEG4 standard with DVB S2 technology, which translates into exceptional picture clarity and consistent high-quality audio. He experiences a Universal Remote which operates both the Set Top Box and TV set and next-generation Interactive Applications which offer the freedom to order pizzas and book movie tickets, amongst others. The Airtel digital TV customer also has the pleasure of listening to 10 ad-free satellite radio channels from Worldspace. All this is backed by 24×7 customer care.

For further details, please visit www.airtel.in/digitaltv

About Bharti Airtel Limited:

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is Asia’s leading integrated telecom services provider with operations in India and Sri Lanka, with an aggregate of 100 million customers. Bharti Airtel Limited has been voted as India’s most innovative company, in a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units – Mobile services, Telemedia services and Enterprise services. The mobile business offers services in India and Sri Lanka. The Telemedia business provides broadband and telephone services in 95 cities, DTH services and has recently forayed into the IPTV services. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel’s high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 101,337 Rkms covering all the major cities in the country. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai that connects two submarine cable systems – i2i to Singapore and SEA-ME-WE-4 to Europe. For more information, visit: www.bhartiairtel.in

HotMail Co-Founder and Telecom Serial Entrepreneur to Accelerate Market Penetration and Growth of Telephony Applications.

Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) June 8, 2009 — SabSe Technologies, Inc. (www.SabSeBolo.com), a leading developer of value-added applications for telecom providers — co-founded by HotMail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia, and proven serial entrepreneur Yogesh Patel — today announced it has acquired jaxtr, the world’s largest social communications company. Over the past several years, jaxtr has built a robust consumer service currently providing free and low-rate international calling to over ten million members around the globe.

Under the terms of the deal, SabSe will maintain and expand upon the jaxtr service, which will continue to operate under the jaxtr brand, alongside the company’s existing SabSeBolo brand. SabSe’s acquisition of jaxtr brings together two valuable consumer and business telecom applications now on a common platform. Jaxtr’s large active user base will enable SabSe to accelerate deployment of its additional applications, and to leverage an instant audience for its innovative technology.

“Jaxtr’s consumer services complement SabSe’s SMB portfolio perfectly,”
noted Bhatia, who also serves as SabSe’s chairman. “Aside from increasing our market penetration, this acquisition will enable serious growth for SabSe as we work with the local markets jaxtr currently serves,” added Patel, SabSe CEO. “Jaxtr’s customer base, technology, and active users will be significant in our accelerating SabSe’s sales and market presence at a tremendous pace.”

SabSe Technologies has developed a strong platform aimed at providing “Telephony Applications as a Service” (TAAS), coupled with a web-based API, allowing for unprecedented rapid development for telephony applications. In the last few years, SabSe has become a leader in the developing value-added applications, which are easily deployed by telcos around the world. SabSe’s customers include AirTel, Tata and Celcom, among others.

About jaxtr
Jaxtr is a leading social communications company based in Menlo Park, CA. More than 10 million jaxtr users in 220 countries have linked their phone to the Web, so they can save money on international mobile calls, send free SMS messages worldwide and get a free global voicemail box online. Jaxtr members can find like-minded people in café jaxtr and actually talk with members who share their interests, whether or not they are online. By posting their jaxtr link on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking profiles, members can hear from callers worldwide while keeping their existing phone number private and screen calls before their phone even rings.

Jaxtr works with any mobile or landline phone, and no download is required even if calls are initiated from a mobile phone. Jaxtr is venture-backed by leading investors, including three of the original Skype investors. The company has raised more than $20 million dollars in funding.

About SabSe
Based in Mountain View, CA, SabSe was co-founded by Sabeer Bhatia, an original co-founder of Hotmail who was named among TIME Magazine’s People to Watch in International Business in 2002, and CEO Yogesh Patel, a proven serial entrepreneur and founder of numerous start-ups, including Hotvoice Communications International, Inc. SabSe’s current offerings include a hosted PBX and an Audio Conferencing application provided to telcos on its TAAS (Telecom Applications as a Service) platform.

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Mumbai, June 8, 2009: CNBC-TV18, India’s No.1 business medium, presents the second season of ‘Riders in the Strom’ starting June 13th, 2009. This season, ‘Riders in the Storm’ will focus on leading Indian companies and their strategies to ride the downturn, strengthen market presence and innovate strategically.

While speaking about the program Mr. Neel Chowdhury- Vice President, Marketing, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC AWAAZ said “Riders in the Storm’ was started to highlight the spectacular efforts of India’s best companies in managing the economic slowdown and thwarting challenges. The second season comes at a time when India Inc is trying to expedite growth rates and capitalize on the improved sentiment post the elections. We believe the series will be a great value add to CXO’s planning the next strategic move for their organizations and to students of corporate strategy as well”

Hosted by Menaka Doshi, CNBC TV 18, ‘Riders in the Storm’ will focus on understanding how business leaders with their core teams are translating the corporate vision into ground reality and planning for counter cyclical measures.

About CNBC-TV18: CNBC-TV 18 is India’s No.1 business medium and the undisputed leader in business news. CNBC TV-18 has been an integral part of the Indian economic story, spearheading and mirroring these enterprising times. The channel’s benchmark coverage extends from corporate news, financial markets coverage, expert perspective on investing and management to industry verticals and beyond. CNBC-TV18 has been constantly innovating with new genres of programming that helps make business more relevant to different constituencies across India. India’s most able business audience consumes CNBC TV-18 for their information & investing needs. This audience is highly diversified at one level comprising of key groups such as business leaders, professionals, retail investors, brokers and traders, intermediaries, self employed professionals, High Net Worth individuals, students and even homemakers but shares a distinct commonality in terms of their spirit of enterprise.CNBC-TV18 is currently available in over 30 million households in India.

Qtel and Tata Communications today announced a strategic alliance that will strengthen both companies’ network reach in the region and internationally.

Under the terms of the agreement, both the companies will align their infrastructures and work together to provide secure, scalable and flexible connectivity solutions including Ethernet, MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) and a wide variety of managed services to their global customers.

Ahmed Al-Derbesti, Executive Director, International Services, said: “Qtel has a clear strategy in place to deliver the strongest possible communications framework for the growth of business in Qatar today. Partnership with companies like Tata Communications, which is a recognized leader in communications solutions, is a core part of that development strategy.” (more…)

Adding to the excitement around IPL 2009, Contests2win (C2W) launched its virtual betting application – Cricket Bookie on Orkut. After a thrilling season that saw more than 50,000 visitors on Orkut bet, win and lose millions in virtual cash everyday over serious triumphs and upsets, the app is now making a global splash to cricket fanatics on Facebook & MySpace!

With the ICC T20 World Cup on, expect things to get bigger & better with higher stakes, a global leaderboard, more bettors, down to the wire cricket matches and social network loyalists competing to show whose the best.

For the uninitiated – Cricket Bookie is a Social Networking application on Orkut, Facebook and MySpace (the 3 largest networks in the world) that allows users to bet on everything exciting and unpredictable about cricket matches. Users stake their virtual cash on match results and outcomes of interesting ball by ball situations. Apart from the obvious – ‘Who will win the match?’ or ‘Which country will win the cup?’ users can place live bets on ‘How many sixes will be hit in the over?’ or ‘What will happen on the first ball on the match?’

So what gets everyone hooked to the app? Apart from the thrills of betting, Cricket Bookie gives users a chance to compete with friends & thousands of bettors across social networks over a game they’re passionate about. The joy of winning and agony of losing is as real as it can get.  Moreover, by the end of the season, leading bettors can win prizes and not to forget – the priceless bragging rights that come with it!

A simple click on the daily betting slip and you’re sure to get in knee deep.

Raj Menon, COO, Contests2win.com, says, ‘Every Indian is an armchair expert on cricket and has point of view for any cricket situation.’ He adds, ‘Cricket Bookie is a great application for users to put their virtual money where their mouth is. The guaranteed adrenaline of betting and the excitement of betting against friends – Cricket Bookie is a great way for users to indulge in predictions and leaves them looking forward to watching each match!’

Users can now keep up with the latest with regular tweets throughout the day!

Chennai, India, June 5th 2009. Sify Technologies Limited (Nasdaq National market: SIFY), a leader in enterprise data services and consumer Internet with global delivery capabilities, announced today users can log on to twitter.com/sifydotcom to receive tweets on all the latest from www.Sify.com. These can also be received on the mobile.

Mr Venkata Rao Mallineni, Head-Portals and Consumer Marketing, said, “This initiative recognizes that a growing number of our users are on Twitter, and this is a convenient form of staying in touch with them and keeping them updated on all that’s happening on Sify.com. As users get more networked and connected using multiple platforms and applications, more such opportunities to interact with them and to keep them updated on what may be of value to them are available”.

From Barack Obama to Manmohan Singh`s, stock tips to board room talk, the latest celebrity hook-ups to tinsel town break-ups, India’s crowning glory in cricket to WWE wrestling mania, games to recipes, reality shows to the latest news, the tweets from Sify.com will keep everyone current.

Follow what’s going on in your world with Sify.com on Twitter, or on your mobile.

Log on to twitter.com/sifydotcom.
About Sify
Sify is among the largest Managed Enterprise and Consumer Internet Services companies in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common telecom data network infrastructure reaching 500+ cities and towns in India.
A significant part of the company’s revenue is derived from Corporate Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services, enterprise applications and hosting. Sify is recognized as an ISO 9001:2000 certified service provider for network operations, data center operations and customer support, and for provisioning of VPNs, Internet bandwidth, VoIP solutions and integrated security solutions, and ISO 27001 certified for Internet Data Center operations. Sify has licenses to operate NLD (National Long Distance) and ILD (International Long Distance) services and offers VoIP back haul to long distance subscriber telephony services. The company is India’s first enterprise managed services provider to launch a Security Operations Center (SOC) to deliver managed security services. A host of blue chip customers use Sify’s corporate service offerings.

Consumer services include broadband home access, dial up connectivity and the e-port cybercafé chain across 249 cities and towns. Sify.com the consumer portal of Sify has sub portals like www.samachar.com, www.walletwatch.com, www.sifymax.com and www.chennailive.in, www.bangalorelive.in, www.mumbailive.in, www.hyderabadlive.in the city based live video on the web. The content is available in 5 Indian languages, which include Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.

For more information about Sify visit www.sifycorp.com

New Delhi, 4 June 2009

During this IPL season, if you had walked into any of the major outlets of McDonald’s or Nirulas, the DT Mall Food Courts and any of 27 prime retail locations across the Delhi NCR region, you would have seen a crowd of young people engrossed in a futuristic, interactive touch-screen kiosk. This was the Dilli Dil Se Network, part of the Coca-Cola Dilli Dil Se marketing program celebrating the Delhi Daredevils and India’s first ever network of multimedia, broadband-enabled entertainment kiosks.

The Dilli Dil Se kiosk network was conceived and developed by acclaimed multimedia producer Raja Choudhury and his digital agency, C3CUBE Multimedia for Coca-Cola India as part of its integrated marketing program to leverage its sponsorship of the Delhi Daredevils during the DLF IPL 2009. This program also included a website, www.DilliDilSe.com, designed by C3CUBE.

Traditionally, touch-screen kiosks are visible in banks, at airports, stations, museums aimed at facilitating customer transactions, information or ticketing. This is the first time a kiosk network has been created solely for the purpose of promoting a sporting event and providing entertainment in a safe, fun-filled environment. And the formula worked! During the DLF IPL 2009, over 20,000 enthusiastic users between the ages of 13 and 30 logged on to the Dilli Dil Se kiosk network to cheer and celebrate the Delhi Daredevils steady climb to the top of the league table, and into the semi-finals.

The cutting-edge kiosk network integrated a large 19 inch letterbox touch-screen interface and a 32 inch LCD TV and provided dynamic content such as a promotion, games, a private social network, video mail, SMS tweets, a juke box, Bluetooth 2.0 downloads, videos, ads, team player game cards, 3D virtual tours and much more.

“This is a first-of-its-kind entertainment kiosk network” says Raja Choudhury, who has been building award-winning kiosks, websites, videos and TV programs in the US, UK and Indian markets since 1993. “We believe such a network that integrates Web 2.0, flash games, a social network, Bluetooth, video mail, SMS and music over a 2 Mbps broadband connection, has not been deployed so far. Coca-Cola India believed in our vision and we were able to make this possible during the IPL.”

C3CUBE and Coca-Cola India were able to attract some key partners to this pioneering experiment during the DLF IPL event including McDonald’s, Nirulas, DLF DT Malls, Kwality Group, Pind Baluchis, Zenga Mobile Apps, Waves, INOX cinemas, Vikings Game Zone and Airtel Broadband.

Mansoor Siddiqi, Director – Integrated Marketing Communications at Coca-Cola India said that “The Dilli Dil Se kiosk network was a fresh initiative in the marketing of a brand asset. It enabled local Delhi Daredevils fans to cheer their team on, in an involving and fun manner, and achieved engagement metrics beyond our expectations.”

C3CUBE Multimedia is a two-year old agency with offices in New Delhi and New York that has already notched up major interactive successes including 2 Webby Honoree Awards in 2008 for www.OurWeddingDay.com and www.CBCWorldwide.com as well as numerous awards for www.JadeNYC.com and the documentary film “Spirituality in the Modern World.” The company now plans to launch a series of public multimedia projects in the Indian market, including a new tourism, information and entertainment kiosk network for Delhi called the Delhi I-Zone in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

About C3CUBE Multimedia Pvt. Ltd.

C3CUBE is a full service digital communications company with offices in New Delhi and New York. The company is headed by acclaimed multimedia producer Raja Choudhury and is built upon a foundation of creativity and communications in the digital age. We combine award-winning design and conceptualization services with the innovative use of digital technology, management and global sourcing to deliver successful projects.

C3CUBE’s diverse portfolio extends from acclaimed Web and Multimedia Campaigns to Kiosk Installations and compelling Videos and TV films. Our recent successes include DilliDilSe.com and the Dilli Dil Se Kiosk Network (Coca-Cola India), OurWeddingDay.com (Webby Honoree), CBCWorldwide.com (Webby Honoree), JadeNYC.com (Adobe Site of the Day) and many other websites, videos and installation.

June 05, 2009 – New Delhi : Affle today announced the launch of a new technology which would allow advertisers to derive significantly higher Return on Investment (ROI) from their Mobile Advertising campaigns on Affle’s SMS2.0 service. This would thus create a paradigm shift for advertisers as their Mobile advertising campaigns could now have much richer interactivity options like – Add to Contacts, Add to Calendar and Add to Bookmarks, which would significantly enhance the value an advertiser could derive on this medium.

Commenting on this launch, Anuj Kumar, Executive Director (South Asia), Affle said “Affle has continuously strived to add more value to its users and advertiser partners. With the launch of these enhanced interactivity options on SMS2.0 we are very confident of adding longevity to an advertiser’s campaign, and also providing them unmatched interactivity. On an overall level I am very confident that this would help us attract more advertiser partners and also provide them a unique and valuable engagement.”

He added, “These options would be particularly beneficial to companies who would want users to call them for fulfillment of transactions like restaurant chains or for those who would want to build appointment like TV channels, or to those who want to drive higher traffic to their mobile/web site. Thus a person seeing an SMS2.0 ad for a TV Show could now just click on it and the reminder to watch this show will automatically be set on his mobile phone calendar. Similarly with just a click on a Pizza Delivery ad, the phone number of the Pizza chain will be added to the user’s phone contacts”.

Since the launch in India, Affle has had significant success in building partnerships with leading Mobile Network Operators, Advertisers & Agencies making it’s SMS2.0 service the largest rich media on mobile, delivering over 125MN monthly impressions. Advertisers too have derived significant value from SMS2.0 as they have used this media to communicate their message effectively in a non intrusive environment to a large involved audience with multiple interactivity options. As a result leading advertisers in the FMCG, Media, Consumer Durable & Automobile industries have regularly used this media to reach out to their targeted users.

The returns from these new interactivity options could now be reaped by these advertisers much beyond their campaign period, as the contact and calendar entry will continue to stay on the user’s phone. With the launch of these new interactivity options Affle expects to add a lot more value to its partners and significantly enhance mobile advertising effectiveness much beyond the traditionally defined campaign period. This is thus expected to significantly boost the rapidly growing Mobile Advertising industry in India.

About Affle:

Affle is a leading mobile media company. They offer cutting edge technologies with a value proposition for consumers and business partners. The solutions and products from Affle have been specially designed to enhance user experience and make mobile media a reality. Affle’s SMS2.0 service has been deployed across Asian markets with multiple mobile network operators and has already become one of the largest mobile media in India.

Affle recently announced a Strategic Partnership with Microsoft which also makes Microsoft a shareholder in Affle. Affle currently operates in six countries including Singapore, India Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and UK. The company is in the process of strategically expanding to other top mobile markets soon. Affle has already established strong partnerships with leading Mobile Network Operators, Original Equipment Manufacturers, Content Providers, Media Agencies, and Advertisers, across various geographies. For more information, visit www.affle.co.uk.

Mass-market 2.5G mobile TV now available across India with live and
on-demand channels to include full length movies

London 4rd June 2009: ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile
technologies, applications and services company, today announces the
launch of TINY TV across India with leading mobile operator BSNL.

BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) is the largest Communication
Service Provider (CSP) in India with a 24% market share and a customer
base of more than 90 million people across its mobile, fixed-line and
internet service companies to include 4.6 million CDMA and 54.2
million GSM Mobile subscribers.

TINY TV is the first nationwide, subscription-based, mobile TV service
in India to be streamed over mass-market 2.5G GPRS.

Offering a range of live and on-demand mobile TV channels to include
local and international news, sports, music and movies, TINY TV is
priced at Rs 150.00 (approximately $2.70c) per month payable via
reverse-bill SMS.

Specifically, TINY TV channels include News 24 (Hindi news), E-24
(Bollywood entertainment), ROK Bollywood (celebrity news), Geet (Hindi
songs), Green (evergreen Bollywood music), Red (latest music from
Bollywood), Gyan (devotional), regional channels of Gujarati – Marathi
for West India, Bengali for the East Zone,Tiny Sports TV, Tiny
Comedy, Mobifun and a Movie Channel offering a regularly updated list
of full length movies wherein the users can pause, fast forward and
rewind, plus a Sony package of SAB TV – Channel SET and Channel PIX.

“India is a massive mobile market with a fast-growing appetite amongst
consumers for mobile entertainment ” said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman
and CEO of ROK “so we are delighted to be working with BSNL in the
deployment of TINY TV across India.”

About ROK Entertainment:

Founded in 2004, ROK Entertainment Group is a mobile technologies,
applications and services development company. Headquartered in the
UK, ROK is best known for its award-winning mobile TV services and has
5 patent awards and more than 40 further patent applications in place.
For more information, please visit: www.rokent.com.