ITV

Category: iWorld

  • Ditto TV partners with Hull to power customer engagement

    Ditto TV partners with Hull to power customer engagement

     MUMBAI: Ditto TV, a distribution platform from Zee New Media, the digital arm of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has announced its partnership with the unified customer engagement platform, Hull to strengthen its customer engagement activities.

    The partnership with Hull will provide unified identity management, cross-domain single sign-on, social login and engagement mechanics across their next-generation iOS, Android and Web applications users. These features will be available to Ditto TV’s over one million registered customer base and a potential audience of 700 million plus.

    On this development, Ditto TV business head Manoj Padmanabhan said, “We chose Hull because they were ahead of the competition with their ability to offer a single interface to all customer interaction across every device, their quick turnaround, high availability, and rich feature set.”

    Hull was competing against many different solution providers including in-house development and bagged the partnership thanks to its affordable price, scalability, flexibility and rich feature set, making it the best choice to quickly build a large-scale unified user experience across all of Ditto TV’s platforms.

     

    “We are pleased to have Zee Entertainment utilizing our Hull connected consumer platform as a central hub that gathers all data into a unified user profile and enables multi-channel communication,” commented Hull president & CEO Stefan Koenig.

     

  • India Games, Aamir Khan launch official mobile game: PK

    India Games, Aamir Khan launch official mobile game: PK

    MUMBAI: Indiagames, a part of Disney India’s Interactive business, today announced the launch of the official mobile game ‘PK’ based on the most awaited movie of the year. PK, produced by Vinod Chopra Films and Rajkumar Hirani Films in association with UTV Motion Pictures is slated for a worldwide release on Dec 19th, 2014. This mobile game brings alive the world of ‘PK’ in an adventurous form allowing you to play as the several avatars of Aamir Khan showcased in the movie. Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Raj Kumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Managing Director, Disney India and Sameer Ganapathy, VP and Head, Interactive, Disney India launched the game today at the Reliance Digital Store in Juhu amidst much fanfare. Aamir and Anushka showcased their gaming skills by competing with each other.

     

    Developed for both feature phones and smartphones, the game was launched today on Google Play, iOS App store and Windows platform. In the game, the player gets to don many avatars of Aamir Khan as seen in the movie along with a special avatar of Anushka Sharma as he embarks upon an exciting endless running adventure. Set against an Indian background, the gamer will run amidst the by-lanes of Delhi, railway tracks in a desert as seen in the movie and collect maximum number of paans, as PK is seen enjoying eating paan in the movie. The gamer has to avoid a number of obstacles on the way, which includes cows, buses, Delhi trains, rickshaws, traffic jams and more. The various backdrops used in the game will give the player the feel of the actual movie.

     

    “I am thrilled with the way this game has shaped-up. The game is engaging and has integrated the movie elements, such as my avatars, the transistor, trumpet and lots more, really well. I am hopeful that my fans will love and enjoy the game and become a part of this exciting, endless journey of ‘PK’, said, actor Aamir Khan, at the launch event of PK mobile game.

     

    “I have never had a game avatar made for any of my film characters before, so this is really exciting for me. I love playing games in the middle of my shots and while travelling. Now with the launch of this game, I am sure I’ll be spending a lot of time on playing with my avatar,”  said Anushka Sharma

     

    Director Rajkumar Hirani said, “Gaming is a great way to engage with your audience today and it is very exciting to see the movie PK being construed in a game. There are a lot of similarities in the process of film making and game development like putting together the plot, the characters, the backdrop, the entertainment etc. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself in this process with the Disney India team.”

    Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra said, “It’s amazing how movies are now being extended on multiple platforms to increase engagement with the audiences. With the PK game now launched, all the pieces around the movie are coming together really well and we are really excited for the movie release.”

    “Gaming is a great extension to a movie, it engages the audience with the characters, some key elements of the movie and also adds immense buzz around the movie. The PK game is a good example of how a movie can be made into a fun game with an immersive gameplay. Aamir and Raju Hirani have worked closely with our team to bring out a fantastic game that their fans will be happy playing for sure. Hope everyone enjoys playing it as much as we enjoyed making it.” said Siddharth Roy Kapur, Managing Director, Disney India.

     

    “With the PK game, our endeavor has been to capture the essence of the movie and thereby enhance the interactivity for the consumers with the lead pair, giving them the opportunity to play as both – Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma’s characters.” said Sameer Ganapathy, Vice President and Head, Interactive – Disney India.

     

  • GOSF: Bringing out the shopping bug

    GOSF: Bringing out the shopping bug

    MUMBAI: The e-commerce sector is booming and how. The very purple patch, every now and then, gets a boost with OTT sale bonanzas.

    The addictive online shopping portals lured customers through Big Billion Sale or Diwali Dhamaka Week throughout this year, but the icing on the cake has been the Google promoted Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF).

    The 72 hour shopping festival was expected to bring out the crazy shopaholic within us all, and if stats are to be believed then it has succeeded in many ways. For instance, in  December LimeRoad, witnessed explosive growth that sent its implied revenue run rate shooting up to Rs 450 crore on the first day of GOSF 2014 – this despite the platform being only focused on women.

    Quick deliveries, cash on delivery, and big deals have made it hard for even non-shoppers to resist the temptation to shop online.

    The portals too are glad to have made the most of it.

    “Successful in creating a delightful shopping frenzy, Google Online Shopping Festival this year has witnessed a great response from the consumers. Three days of this shopping carnival is not less than some annual festival that customers await around this time of the year. On the first day itself, we have observed an extraordinary leap with our revenue rising four times compared to our sales on any regular day.  There has been a rise in revenue from mobile at least by six times as compared to the last GOSF.  Even the traffic from GOSF on the website has significantly risen by eight times as compared to the last year. This tremendous excitement shown by our customers has made us open doors to some of the best offers from exclusive brands like River Island, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and more. All in all, we are geared to double the excitement and make this festival bigger, better and brighter like never before,” said Jabong.com founder and MD Praveen Sinha.

    Added, LimeRoad founder and CEO Suchi Mukherjee, “Whilst the growth in sales is interesting and a reflection of our non-linear growth curve throughout the rest of this year, we are super delighted both at the scale and at the trajectory of our organic traffic.”

    Speaking about the response on GOSF 2014, CouponDunia.in CEO and founder Sameer Parwani said, “So far we have seen a very good response to GOSF. Our traffic increased 4X as compared to the daily traction on the website. There was a massive spike as soon as GOSF started during midnight however the traffic peaked the highest on the first day of GOSF during lunch hours.”

    However, he believes that GOSF 2014 was comparatively lukewarm if 2013 edition is taken into account. One of the reasons for this is the kind and number of deals merchants provided compared to GOSF last year or even for that matter deals during Diwali, a few months back. “GOSF 2014 deals were both, less in number and not providing as deep discounts as we’d expected. Also some of the bigger players, have already exhausted their best offers due to their own festivals like Flipkart’s Big Billion Day, Amazon’s Appiness day and Snapdeal’s ongoing 9am to 9pm shopping fest. Most of them have offered almost 40-50 per cent discounts on regular days or their special days, so they do not have anything bigger than that to offer at the moment.”

    He also added, “As a result of frequent online shopping festivals, these festivals are no longer a novelty factor for the consumer. They have higher expectations and expect the best from everyone and are not impressed easily now it is the e-tailer’s turn to come up with better and bigger deals every festival to meet these demands and expectations.”

     

  • YouTube launches buffer-free offline video in India

    YouTube launches buffer-free offline video in India

    MUMBAI: YouTube has launched an offline feature in India as part of a larger initiative to make YouTube easier to enjoy on mobile devices, while lessening the burden of data for its growing base of mobile users. This is part of YouTube’s first release of its ad-supported offline feature on Android and iOS, which was announced earlier this year with the launch of Android One smartphones.

     

    The new offline feature for the YouTube app lets people take videos offline, using WiFi or their data plans.  Once taken offline, the videos can be viewed without an internet connection for up to 48 hours, allowing people to enjoy YouTube videos without worrying about slow connections. For videos where this feature is available, people can choose to add the video for offline viewing by tapping on the offline icon that sits under the video frame.

     

    YouTube vice president of engineering John Harding said, “In a country like India, the future of the internet is mobile. 85 per cent of the internet population will connect to the internet with a mobile phone before any other device. Already, we’re seeing over 40 per cent of our traffic in India come from mobile devices, and we want to make sure we are making YouTube as enjoyable as possible for these mobile-first users. By launching this offline experience on YouTube in India today, we hope to help people move past the challenges of data connection, speed and cost to enjoy a smooth, buffer-free version of YouTube.”

     

    Much of India’s popular YouTube content is ready for people to view offline from indie comedy to Hindi movies and select Bollywood and pop Bhangra music.

     
    “We are delighted to launch this new offline experience on YouTube with some of India’s household names for entertainment and music, including T-Series, Saregama and Yashraj Films. Making these popular videos available for temporary offline viewing will help fans connect more easily with their favourite content, and we hope to continue helping Indians affordably access YouTube over the next year. This new feature will also help our partners bring more viewers to their content and find even greater success on our platform,” said YouTube Asia-Pacific regional director of YouTube partnerships Ajay Vidyasagar.

     

    The launch of YouTube’s offline feature is YouTube’s latest effort in a series of initiatives to make video content more affordable and accessible to the large base of mobile internet users in the country. Earlier this year, YouTube worked with Tata DoCoMo to introduce “YouTube Recharge,” a new video data add-on for prepaid users that gave them more affordable access to YouTube on their mobiles devices.

     

    Saregama India MD Vikram Mehra said, “As a partner of YouTube we welcome this new feature which will allow people from small towns who are surfing from poor bandwidth to enjoy our vast repertoire.”

     

    Added Shemaroo Entertainment director Jai Maroo, “We are one of the oldest partners of YouTube India and have a very successful partnership putting the best of bollywood content and monetizing it, where today we do between 46 to 60 million views per month.  Given the access and pricing issues to date in this country, we do see that user behavior that somewhere consumption gets restricted and this offline initiative will help increase consumption.   YouTube has created a win win situation where this feature is easy and seamless for the user while still protecting the interest of the content owner and the advertiser.” 

  • India’s entrepreneurial arena touches new horizons with the Myntra Fashion Incubator programme

    India’s entrepreneurial arena touches new horizons with the Myntra Fashion Incubator programme

     MUMBAI: In a development that is expected to boost the growth of the thriving fashion industry in India, Myntra.com, today created history in the world of fashion by announcing the shortlisted candidates for the Myntra Fashion Incubator (MFI) program. Renowned designers from the fashion industry, experts in the retail industry along with Myntra’s leadership team revealed the shortlisted names after a rigorous selection process held at Crowne Plaza, Bangalore.

    Close to 30 promising applicants were asked to present their creative and scalable business ideas to the jury explaining their strategy on how their designs and ideas can be transformed into a sustainable business venture through the MFI platform. Live demonstrations of sample designs were displayed by the applicants for the benefit of the judges and audience. The judges–Wendell Rodricks, Rina Dhaka, Rohit Gandhi & Rahul Khanna and Paras Bairoliya–analyzed each participant’s design concept and announced the best applicants in the evening. Industry officials like Anant Daga, CEO,TCNS Clothing company, Sandeep Mukim, CEO, Proline India Ltd, Simeran Bhasin, CMO, Wildcraft were also part of the jury.

     As part of the one year Designer In Residence (DIR) Program, Myntra will provide the selected candidates necessary design and work infrastructure, capital support and mentorship from a team of acclaimed designers. The DIR Program would cover essentials like branding, consumer behaviour, product design & development, pricing, inventory planning, retailing and financial planning among others.

    The first batch of the incubator program will occupy the design space inside the Myntra campus by 15th January 2015 and work full-time on their brand. MFI will also provide these candidates an opportunity to showcase their brands in various platforms as well as to be retailed on Myntra.com. After completing one season, they can also pitch their fashion designs to MFI advisory board for investments to scale their business.

    Abhishek Verma, Sr. VP, Myntra Fashion Brands said, “We have been excited about this initiative since day one, and now as this program is brought to life with these finalists, we believe it is going to revolutionise the fashion industry and set a new hallmark.”  He further added, “At Myntra, we value and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and therefore with initiatives like MFI, we aim to provide support to young talent and empower them to create sizeable indigenous fashion brands in the long-run. Through this initiative, we will also strengthen our commitment of building original, aspirational brands designed to be at par with latest global trends.”

    Myntra, of late, has strengthened its private brands portfolio and entered into exclusive tie-ups with designer and international brands. The company has furthered its vision to create great fashion experiences for consumers and help them look good with services like the Style Helpline, ‘LookGood’ blog and the ‘Customer Wow’ initiative to name a few.

     

  • YouTube 2014 Rewind: Year of Bollywood stars

    YouTube 2014 Rewind: Year of Bollywood stars

    MUMBAI: 2014 is winding up and YouTube has already given us its top trending videos of the year in India. Videos that people chose to watch repeatedly, shared and made them the most popular ones of the lot.
    This year seemed to be the year of Bollywood celebrities, embracing YouTube as a means to connect with fans, do something madcap and establish their positions as youth icons. Whether it was the ice bucket challenges or film promotional strategies, celebrities have greatly benefited from YouTube in 2014!

    Taking the top spot with over 8.8 million views is the episode of Comedy Nights with Kapil which featured sultry adult movie star Sunny Leone and producer Ekta Kapoor promoting Ragini MMS 2. Not surprisingly, Leone’s music video “Baby Doll” is also graded by YouTube as the top trending Indian music video of 2014 with nearly 40 million views. 

    Alia Bhatt made a stellar debut on YouTube this year when she paired up with All India Bakchod (AIB) and made the hysterical “Genius of the Year” mockumentary which garnered over 6.8 million views. That is not all – Bhatt’s unplugged version of “Samjhawan” highlighted her singing capabilities and increased curiosity for the film, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. The video was watched by more than 16 million people.


    Closely following Bhatt and Leone’s popularity meter on YouTube is Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh. As part of the promotion for his upcoming movie ‘Bang Bang’, actor Hrithik Roshan dared Singh to a challenge on the streets of Mumbai. In his usual feisty spirit, Singh danced to the popular “Main Aisa Kyon Hoon” in the Krissh get up.  His fanatical “Bang Bang Dare” video acquired over 3 million views.  
    2014 also saw innovative and effective content that sought to entertain the audience while at the same time, sending out valuable messages to the viewers. For instance, Nestlé India’s “Good food, Good Life” advertisement, which ranks in the top 10 trending videos of India with over 6 million views, is truly a moving commercial that teaches us the joy of sharing. The public service announcement video entitled “SeatBelt Crew” received close to 4.7 million views.  The unique concept featured a group of transgenders delivering a lesson in safe driving that motorists will carry for the rest of their lives.


    Independent video creators like The Viral Fever and AIB, also took YouTube by storm this year with their spoof parodies and original content.  Their popular videos “Bollywood Aam Aadmi Party – Arnab’s Qtiyapa” and “Nayak2: The Common Man Rises” attracted over 4 million and 3 million views respectively.


    Other trending YouTube videos In India include Aap Ki Adalat’s episode feature Narendra Modi with over 4 million views, “Lion shows tourists why you must stay inside your car”, “Top 50 English Nursery Rhymes” and “Wheels on the Bus”. Amongst the music videos, “Chaar Botal Vodka” featuring Yo Yo Honey Singh takes the second most popular spot with over 28 million views. This is followed by “Tu Meri” from the movie Bang Bang, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Zaroori Tha”, “Yaar Naa Miley” from Kick, “Tune Maari Entriyaan” from Gunday and “Jumme Ki Raat” from Kick.

  • Narendra Modi triumphs again, this time on twitter

    Narendra Modi triumphs again, this time on twitter

    MUMBAI: Twitter as a global social platform, has always allowed netizens to express themselves in 140 characters, during moments of celebration, protest, mourning and joy. The micro blogging site receives more than 500 million tweets per day. And we Indian’s are not far away.

    Politicians, actors, cricketers, opinion leaders and citizens have taken to the platform quite well this year. But for the year 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t just steal the show during the elections, but also on twitter.

    The Golden tweet aka .the most-retweeted tweet for India in 2014 was Modi’s election-winning tweet. It received more than 70,000 RTs as it became the most retweeted tweet ever in India. The tweet read, “India has won. Bharat Ki Vijai. Aache Din Aane Wale Hain.”

    Globally, the golden tweet went to the Ellen Show’s starry photo from the Oscars telecast, which gave rise to the selfie phenomenon world over. It received more than 33,67,817 RTs.

    Meanwhile, India’s list of power tweeters is dominated by Bollywood stars, apart from Modi. In the top 10, Amitabh Bachchan leads with 1,18,18,056 followers, followed by Shah Rukh Khan at 1,02,46,755. Cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli too make their entry but at number 15 and 16, respectively. Author Chetan Bhagat adds variety to the list, rounding off the top 20 for India.

    Rohit Sharma’s smashing the world record for the highest individual ODI cricket score of 264, on 13 November was the top peak moment for twitter. In fact, of the top 10 moments, three are related to cricket including the Indian Premier League. The second largest peak in twitter conversation for the year was Rajinikanth’s arrival on twitter. With over 2,00,000 followers in the first 24 hours and now over 1.1 million in total, it’s clear that he has many loyal fans both off and on twitter. Hardly surprising, two of the top five peaks in conversations were about Modi.  With 8.5 million followers, he is currently the second most followed political leader in the world (after President Barack Obama) and continues to grow his followers at a rapid pace.

    The fastest rising Twitter hashtag trends in India saw a mixture of sports, disasters and political campaigns. Conversations around the 2014 FIFA World Cup lead the trend, followed by the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight, MH370. Meanwhile, Mufflerman, a campaign led by the fans of the Aam Aadmi Party in support of leader Arvind Kejriwal, gathered momentum towards the end of the year.

     

  • Qyuki and Fullscreen join forces to enhance opportunities for content creators

    Qyuki and Fullscreen join forces to enhance opportunities for content creators

    MUMBAI: Qyuki, a multichannel network founded by Shekhar Kapur, Samir Bangara and A. R. Rahman and global youth media company Fullscreen, has announced an exclusive alliance that becomes one of India’s multichannel networks.

    Indian creators in the Qyuki-Fullscreen network will receive opportunities to develop, monetise and distribute their content and leverage technology, production and optimisation of services from both networks.

    Speaking about the development Qyuki co-founder and managing director Sanir Bangara said, “The internet is about collaboration and as we build out our vision to create the largest online media company for Indian youth, we believe we have found a great partner in Fullscreen which will enable us to not only grow the Indian market rapidly but also present Indian talent at a global scale”.

    Indian creators will have access to Fullscreen’s tools and services that intersect every aspect of their careers. Its proprietary technology, the ‘Creator Platform’, offers production, audience development and measurement tools.

     Fullscreen president Ezra Cooperstein commented, “Qyuki has built a strong network and content studio featuring some of India’s most creative and acclaimed talent in music and storytelling. This partnership will strengthen our global creator network and further empower the next generation of Indian creators with Fullscreen’s global best practices in content creation and monetisation.”

    Marquee creators in the Qyuki network include AR Rahman, Ranjit Barot, Salim-Sulaiman, and YouTubers Shraddha Sharma, Gaurav Dagaonkar and Siddharth Slathia, amongst several others.

     

  • Ditto TV offers discounts during GOSF

    Ditto TV offers discounts during GOSF

    MUMBAI: This holiday season, Ditto TV will offer exclusive discounts through their alliance with Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF).  

    Ditto TV, India’s first OTT (Over-The-Top) TV distribution platform from Zee New Media, the digital arm of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), hosts 150 channels across leading genres and rich on-demand video content globally. Today, the platform has over 5 million users.

     

    Through the GOSF association, Ditto TV will give subscribers a flat 70 per cent off on the yearly subscription pack of Rs 1099 which will be available for Rs 299 starting from 10 to 12 December 2014.

    To ease the payment system, Ditto TV will offer cash on delivery. Subscribers can also pay online through net banking using the promo code: GOSF299.

    The users will have access to its content library of over 150 live television channels and more than 10,000 hours of videos, TV shows and Bollywood movies.

    Ditto TV business head Manoj Padmanabhan said, “GOSF is one of the most popular online shopping festivals which draws the interests of a large number of people across the country. Through this association we are confident of gaining access to a wide user base, and a hitherto untapped audience for Ditto TV. Introducing them to LIVE TV and Video on Demand (VOD) through varied Internet enabled devices.”

    Ditto TV, which was set up in February 2012, has partnered for content with IndiaCast, Multi Screen Media (Sony Entertainment Television), Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., TV Today Network, BBC, Turner India, Bikini TV, ZEE etc.

     

  • The Huffington Post and Times of India Launch “HuffPost India”

    The Huffington Post and Times of India Launch “HuffPost India”

    MUMBAI: The Huffington Post Media Group and The Times of India Group, India’s largest media conglomerate, today announce the official launch of an Indian edition of The Huffington Post, a leading global source of breaking news, opinion, entertainment, and community. GroupM, the world’s largest media investment conglomerate also comes on board as a strategic partner for brand synergies and advertising in India for the Huffington Post.

     

    HuffPost India will combine The Huffington Post’s award-winning news and blogging platform with the local expertise and reach of The Times of India Group. The announcement was jointly made today by Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, and Satyan Gajwani, CEO of Times Internet (TIL), the digital arm of The Times of India, with advertising partner CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia.

     

    “I’m delighted to launch HuffPost India, which will be our 13th edition since we began our international expansion three years ago,” said Huffington. “The launch comes at a moment when India is facing huge and unique challenges, but also when India’s spiritual traditions have taken their place at the center of a global conversation about what it means to live a good life. It’s in looking back to these ancient traditions and tools that so much of the wisdom and strength needed to build the future will be found. I’m thrilled that HuffPost India will be there to chronicle this story and – just as important – help Indians tell their stories themselves.”

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Gajwani said – “We are very excited to launch Huffington Post India. Huffington Post is the first real digital-first news success story globally, and their impact is seen across the world. They’ve coupled a best-in-class technology platform with a fresh way of approaching the world’s issues today. They have been a pioneer in doing a great mix of contemporary news coverage alongside great lifestyle, health and positive uplifting content. We look forward to bringing HuffPo’s conversational approach to news to a large section of Indian audience.”

     

    Commenting on the partnership with Huffington Post, Mr. CVL Srinivas¸CEO, GroupM South Asia said “GroupM has been at the forefront of driving digital media innovations. Our strategic partnership with Huffington Post in India is another step in that direction. While advertising on digital has been growing at a healthy pace we believe brands are yet to harness the full potential of digital media. With an iconic player like Huffington Post, brands have a great opportunity to connect with their audiences. We will be working together to create these opportunities and are very excited about this partnership.”

     

    “As the world’s largest democracy, and with a middle class of more than 250 million people, India is a critical destination for any global media company,” said Huffington Post Media Group CEO Jimmy Maymann. “And with Indian household consumption predicted to continue to grow nearly 20% per year, this partnership gives us an ideal entry into what is expected to become the world’s fifth-largest consumer market within the next ten years.”

     

    The Huffington Post and The Times of India Group have established an editorial team based in New Delhi. The English-language website will cover everything from politics, media and entertainment to technology, religion and lifestyle, and open up The Huffington Post’s blogging platform to anyone in the country with a story to tell.