Tag: Media

Netflix is Heading to the Middle East

Netflix, the internet media streaming service, is planning to widen its reach by entering into the Middle East. The service is looking to target a population of 370 million, which includes a young, media hungry demographic.

John Evers, vice president and head of communications for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Netflix, confirmed plans of expansion by the end of next year. “We plan to complete our global expansion by the end of 2016. Of course the Middle East is part of that, hence our hiring,” he told the IGN Middle East gaming news website.

Starz, IcFlix, Telly and OSN Play are some OTT subscription services that already exist in the Middle East and have received a fair bit of subscribers already, which suggest that the market is ready for the big one.

Icflix was launched in 2013 and reportedly has 250,000 subscribers across the Middle East and North Africa, which include Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. The streaming service offers Hollywood, Bollywood, and Arab content which include Egyptian productions as well.

Meanwhile, Netflix currently caters to over 69 million subscribers in more than 50 countries. Netflix is on a global expansion mode and is expected to cross 100 million subscribers in 2018. India is yet to receive the service, and we may just hear something on that front soon enough given that India has a a huge number of OTT subscribers as well.

October 29, 2015
Virtual Reality is Now Affordable Thanks to Samsung’s $99 Gear VR

The Netflix experience is about to get a whole lot better. Samsung announced the newest edition to Gear VR in collaboration with Oculus , along with a slew of new features and apps. The headset will have a redesigned trackpad, a new Xbox-style Gamepad with dual analogue design, and a new, lower price that’ll be available this November in the United States.

The Gear VR is also getting a major media boost with Netflix, Hulu and Twitch among the few new services that will be available for the headset. The Netflix app, for example, creates a virtual living room for the viewer to watch in. The virtual television in front of you will have the Netflix UI on the screen. You simply look to move the cursor and tap the touchpad on the side of the Gear VR to make your selection. Currently the app allows almost no choice for the user in terms of the environmental changes or the distance of the screen.

The Oculus -made Samsung Gear VR will work with the whole 2015 line of Samsung Smartphones including the Note 5, S6, S6 Edge, and S6 Edge+, and will be priced at $99, a $100 less than the previous Gear VR.

“Virtual reality that’s accessible to consumers is still very young and so it was all about developing the ecosystem,” said Jim Willson, director of immersive products and VR at Samsung. “We had to make sure there was enough content, both in terms of video content … and on the gaming side.”

Wilson hinted at a captive audience that an app like Netflix can provide with more number of hours being spent with these media apps. Apart from Netflix, Oculus also announced 20th Century Fox and Lionsgate, as well as Hulu, Twitch, TiVo and Vimeo for VR apps.

Samsung is looking to expand its consumer base and is looking to make the Gear VR not just a device for niche audience. It may take a while before people take to the virtual reality experience, but with PlayStation also working on its VR gaming technology, the future of media technology looks pretty clear. So, for those who want to experience the next season of Daredevil in virtual reality can get their hands on the Gear VR from November.

September 25, 2015
Here’s How Facebook Might Become Your Go-to News Source

According to reports, Facebook is working on a new mobile application as part of its Facebook for Business Initiative. It is said that a few companies were chosen by Facebook to pilot the app. However, Facebook has declined to comment on the story.

With vague details and reports, it is suggested that the app is currently in an early testing phase and will work once users download a new mobile app created by Facebook. Users can also choose publications and topics that they want to follow; this will allow them to receive news alerts and articles specifically from those publications.

The report stated that the partnering publications will be able to create mobile notifications that can blast out to all of the followers instantly, as fast as a tweet would. The alerts allow up to a hundred characters of text and URL to the news article, so that one publication cannot create a notification for another. Once the blasts go out, the user can click on the link to read the article.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://www.businessinsider.in/Facebook-is-working-on-a-Twitter-like-app-that-lets-publishers-send-mobile-breaking-news-alerts-to-the-masses/articleshow/48444931.cms”]Business Insider[/tw-button]

August 12, 2015