ITV

Category: MAM

  • Mid-Day Radio Go 92.5 relaunches as Radio One 92.5

    Mid-Day Radio Go 92.5 relaunches as Radio One 92.5

    MUMBAI: Radio Mid-Day Go 92.5 FM has undergone a change in its brand identity as well as positioning of the FM channel. From a niche player, Go 92.5 FM is set to create a mark as a mass player. Towards that end the station has undergone a name change to Radio One.

    Radio One is a Mid-Day Multimedia and BBC Worldwide venture.

    Earlier this year, BBC Worldwide Holdings B.V. entered into a deal with Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd to invest Rs 318.5 million for a 20 per cent stake in Radio Mid Day West (India) Pvt Ltd.The venture has bagged licenses to operate FM stations in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune. While the Mumbai station is operational, other metros like Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi will go on air in the next few months.

    Interestingly, one of the radio brands from the BBC Worldwide stable is called BBC Radio 1. BBC Radio Service also runs BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Five Live in the UK. 

    BBC Radio 1 specialises in popular music and targets the 16-24 age bracket. It was launched in September 1967.

    “With Radio Mid-Day becoming a national player in seven major metros around the country, it was only natural that we would evolve what we were doing in Mumbai into what is going to be a robust national play,” says Radio Midday CEO Rajesh Tahil.

    “As a single city player, being niche made sense, but a national presence gives us the opportunity to go back to the drawing board and look at opportunities to shed our niche image and broaden our markets, both in terms of audience and revenue,” Tahil adds.

    Commenting on the opportunities that the Phase II licensing allows for the growth of private FM in India Tahil adds, “For both Mid-Day Multimedia and the BBC, being a significant national radio player is of great strategic significance.”

    Radio Mid-Day and operating head of the Mumbai station Radio One Shariq Patel said, “We have tested the new format and have seen a healthy improvement in numbers from our own internal tracking. With FM becoming a truly mass medium, we’re on our way to building a mass brand.”

    The company has also brought about a change in its programming strategy. According to a statement issued today, the change in programming for the Mumbai station will be the first big change in the play-out of the national brand through which Radio Mid-Day aims to become the number one station in the cities it transmits.

    “The new radio station will still have the flavour of Go and the essence of what the brand stood for, which is fun, energy and exuberance reflecting the city of Mumbai. This will all remain though the language and the context changes a little,” says Radio Mid-Day VP programming and brand Vishnu Athreya. “For us, music and Bollywood are an integral part of the programming mix. Hindi music itself has come a long way and the attitude that Abhishek Bachchan reflects in a new Bollywood film or the fact that Himesh Reshammiya queues up playlists at a club shows us the new age of a changing audience.”

    The company is also optimistic about the new format giving a boost to revenues. “As the market share (audience) of the radio station increases, we are certain the share of revenue will increase as well. Already we have seen interests from a wider list of advertisers that may not have considered us a necessity earlier,” Radio Mid-Day VP advertising sales Avinash Pillai, who has recently joined, concludes.

  • Your Number is up!

    The Media Review – Most men have a problem comprehending figures (except those of the female form). Figures intimidate men and take them back to memories of how euphoric they felt when they made it to college and it dawned on them that mathematics was optional. These men spend the best part of their lives ignoring any numbers thrown their way. On the other hand there are those (select few) whose very world is around numerals. For whom creating pie charts, bar graphs and any other vulgar representations of data, is like chicken soup for the soul. The media review is the forum where these two opposing philosophies meet.

    ‘One-two-three-four, lord I can’t take figures no more’ the fake American drawl failed to mask the heavy Chinese accent, as Chai-La (the mystical Chinese canteen boy) delivered his nursery rhyme sounding pearl of wisdom plus the customary tea cup to Ram Shankar, before vanishing into the footnote of a pie chart.

    The agency and the client teams had gathered for the annual media review, taking place in the agency conference room. It was meant to be a very important assessment of where the client was spending his budgets and how efficiently the agency was buying for him.

    The agency President had begun the meeting by saying, “Planimus, our media head, has put together a presentation that frankly made no sense to me. But hopefully will be seen in a better light by all of you. Can we have more lights please?” he finished with a thunderous laugh, meant to awaken the dead and generally frighten some of the numbers on the presentation that were eager to come out.

    Planimus, who was a person who did his media plans with almost gladiatorial passion (hence the sobriquet, his real name was lost in the annals of time) was hardly cheered by that remark of the President. He quickly shot a glance at Vikas (the account head and Ram’s boss) urging him to open with something more sensible.

    “Thank you sir,” started Vikas, patronizingly patting the President’s hand to calm him down, “We are gathered here because Planimus has worked out a past assessment and more importantly a future implication of our media plans and budgets. So lets absorb what he has to say and then make our budgetary decisions in a more evolved and scientific manner. After all it’s all about spending money more wisely.”

    Ram knew that while that was a good opening, Vikas’s knowledge and interest in media ended there.

    Mr Bose, the client marketing head, spoke up, “Why don’t we call in PP (the creative director) he should also be a part of this.”
    An uncomfortably silent five minutes later PP entered like his name was just short listed for the train to Auschwitz

    “Ok, let’s begin with a GRP analysis, region wise, and see how these met with our set objectives,” started Planimus with almost lusty enthusiasm and then without warning displayed a slide that had a table on it, on which the figures looked as if they would be much happier elsewhere.

    There was a collective inward groan from most people in the room.

    “Why are you showing so many figures? What’s the story behind them?” asked a visibly dazed Vikas.

    “The story, my young fellow,” began Planimus in a tone that Vikas instantly hated, “is how we are doing across the country against what we had set to do.”

    “Then why don’t you just say it in a line?” PP enquired

    “It can be, but this is an analytical process and we would lead to that, also don’t you think that the client deserves to be walked through every step, especially when monetary considerations are involved?”

    “I don’t think you should dwell on this too much,” interrupted the President resurfacing briefly after he had instantly popped off to sleep just about the time Planimus had stood up to present.

    “Ok,” said Planimus with a huff and jumped 19 slides in the presentation, though clearly working under protest.

    “Why are we falling short of our GRP’s?” enquired Mr.Bose.

    “Don’t worry about these things,” boomed the President, “These are just figures, I don’t even think there is much scientific basis to them,” Planimus clearly miffed by that point raised an outraged eyebrow, which the President glossed over with the casual flick of the wrist, “but maybe if the GRP’s are down you need to spend more.” He concluded with a wicked twinkle in his eyes.

    “Why don’t we try and isolate the pattern that is emerging?” asked Bose in a tone that he hoped would make his IQ level shoot twenty points.

    “Well, we started with bar graphs, then we graduated to pie charts, soon Planimus will be plucking numbers from the very fabric of the cosmos,” concluded the President again finishing with that thunderclap of a laugh that shook a few numbers out of their reverie.

    “What’s the point of these numbers? I never see our commercials on TV?” queried PP.
    “You are in office till midnight everyday, you don’t even watch TV, plus you aren’t the target audience,” retorted Planimus.

    “PP has a point though,” began Mr Bose, as the face of Planimus began changing colors with the speed of an agitated chameleon. “Why don’t we see the commercials, even the chairman complains that his wife never sees them?”

    Planimus was tempted to say something unconstitutional about the Chairman’s wife, but years of wisdom prevailed.

    “We judge media on the basis of how well our target is being exposed to the message. Our target as we all know is the lower middle class, what use is it, even if the chairman’s wife sees our ad, for groin itching creams? We have only that much money to spend.”

    “Are you saying that you want more money?” asked Bose in a rather bellicose tone.

    “Yes, of course we always need more money,” chimed in the President and was instantly knocked out when Planimus exposed him to a slide with 144 matrix cells.

    “What I am saying is that we have to balance the fine line between those who will give us sales versus those whom we just have to pamper and as you know the latter is a statistically insignificant number,” said a defiant Planimus

    “Why don’t we just look at the larger picture and make our conclusions thereof?” interjected Vikas, doing his ‘servicing bit’ to preserve the tender equilibrium of the meeting. There was a marked rise in the temperature in the room, beyond the scope of work of the air conditioner.

    “We can, but things will only make sense if you people change your attitude towards numbers and stop being so intimidated by them.”

    “Who is intimidated?” nothing intimidates me, said the President awakening fresher.

    “We all understand numbers Planimus, numbers are the very basis of our functioning,” added Mr Bose, though cold sweat beads began to form on his forehead as the ‘144 matrix cells’ slide had not been changed over the last ten minutes.

    “Please,” gasped Vikas, “Change that slide, its beginning to suffocate me.”

    Planimus, with a sardonic smile, pushed the page down button to reveal a new adversary, four pie charts that had all the colors of the rainbow on them. PP dashed out of the room covering his mouth. Planimus felt that he had registered a moral victory of some sort.

    “I think Planimus you just type out a mail summarizing the entire presentation, and don’t use any numbers in it. Please also indicate that we will need more budgets.”
    “And analyze each and every number to its logical conclusion, Ram will help you do that, he is good at that and will bring in an account management perspective,” uttered Vikas, adjusting his tie in his reflection on Mr. Bose’s spectacles.

    Ram groaned with disgust, fear and boredom all rolled into one. He dreaded talking to Planimus about numbers, that man was numerically insane.

    “Where did more budgets come from? I never concluded that?”

    “Don’t worry Bose, that’s the sum and substance of the presentation, now let’s go and have a good lunch. Planimus you can come along as long as you don’t start asking for break ups on the bill and drawing bar graphs on the napkins.”

    So the President, Mr Bose, Planimus and Vikas checked out of the room like they had to catch a flight, pie charts still lying appetizingly unattended to on the screen.

    “Media review meetings are very short, because people who attend then have a long history with numbers,” the hushed Chinese accent, the express delivery of the tea cup and Chai-La disintegrated into a Fibonacci sequence of numbers.

    Ram wearily started to go through the first ten slides of the presentation, when almost at once he began to feel that his eyelids were being pulled down by forces beyond his control, he was overcome with the same feeling of nausea one gets when seeing the Indian batting line up perform abroad.

    Then his world went 100 percent black.

  • Your Number is up!

    By VINAY KANCHAN

    The Media Review – Most men have a problem comprehending figures (except those of the female form). Figures intimidate men and take them back to memories of how euphoric they felt when they made it to college and it dawned on them that mathematics was optional. These men spend the best part of their lives ignoring any numbers thrown their way. On the other hand there are those (select few) whose very world is around numerals. For whom creating pie charts, bar graphs and any other vulgar representations of data, is like chicken soup for the soul. The media review is the forum where these two opposing philosophies meet.


    ‘One-two-three-four, lord I can‘t take figures no more‘ the fake American drawl failed to mask the heavy Chinese accent, as Chai-La (the mystical Chinese canteen boy) delivered his nursery rhyme sounding pearl of wisdom plus the customary tea cup to Ram Shankar, before vanishing into the footnote of a pie chart.


    The agency and the client teams had gathered for the annual media review, taking place in the agency conference room. It was meant to be a very important assessment of where the client was spending his budgets and how efficiently the agency was buying for him.


    The agency President had begun the meeting by saying, “Planimus, our media head, has put together a presentation that frankly made no sense to me. But hopefully will be seen in a better light by all of you. Can we have more lights please?” he finished with a thunderous laugh, meant to awaken the dead and generally frighten some of the numbers on the presentation that were eager to come out.

    Planimus, who was a person who did his media plans with almost gladiatorial passion (hence the sobriquet, his real name was lost in the annals of time) was hardly cheered by that remark of the President. He quickly shot a glance at Vikas (the account head and Ram‘s boss) urging him to open with something more sensible.


    “Thank you sir,” started Vikas, patronizingly patting the President‘s hand to calm him down, “We are gathered here because Planimus has worked out a past assessment and more importantly a future implication of our media plans and budgets. So lets absorb what he has to say and then make our budgetary decisions in a more evolved and scientific manner. After all it‘s all about spending money more wisely.”

    Ram knew that while that was a good opening, Vikas‘s knowledge and interest in media ended there.


    Mr Bose, the client marketing head, spoke up, “Why don‘t we call in PP (the creative director) he should also be a part of this.”
    An uncomfortably silent five minutes later PP entered like his name was just short listed for the train to Auschwitz


    “Ok, let‘s begin with a GRP analysis, region wise, and see how these met with our set objectives,” started Planimus with almost lusty enthusiasm and then without warning displayed a slide that had a table on it, on which the figures looked as if they would be much happier elsewhere.


    There was a collective inward groan from most people in the room.


    “Why are you showing so many figures? What‘s the story behind them?” asked a visibly dazed Vikas.


    “The story, my young fellow,” began Planimus in a tone that Vikas instantly hated, “is how we are doing across the country against what we had set to do.”


    “Then why don‘t you just say it in a line?” PP enquired


    “It can be, but this is an analytical process and we would lead to that, also don‘t you think that the client deserves to be walked through every step, especially when monetary considerations are involved?”


    “I don‘t think you should dwell on this too much,” interrupted the President resurfacing briefly after he had instantly popped off to sleep just about the time Planimus had stood up to present.


    “Ok,” said Planimus with a huff and jumped 19 slides in the presentation, though clearly working under protest.


    “Why are we falling short of our GRP‘s?” enquired Mr.Bose.


    “Don‘t worry about these things,” boomed the President, “These are just figures, I don‘t even think there is much scientific basis to them,” Planimus clearly miffed by that point raised an outraged eyebrow, which the President glossed over with the casual flick of the wrist, “but maybe if the GRP‘s are down you need to spend more.” He concluded with a wicked twinkle in his eyes.


    “Why don‘t we try and isolate the pattern that is emerging?” asked Bose in a tone that he hoped would make his IQ level shoot twenty points.


    “Well, we started with bar graphs, then we graduated to pie charts, soon Planimus will be plucking numbers from the very fabric of the cosmos,” concluded the President again finishing with that thunderclap of a laugh that shook a few numbers out of their reverie.


    “What‘s the point of these numbers? I never see our commercials on TV?” queried PP.
    “You are in office till midnight everyday, you don‘t even watch TV, plus you aren‘t the target audience,” retorted Planimus.


    “PP has a point though,” began Mr Bose, as the face of Planimus began changing colors with the speed of an agitated chameleon. “Why don‘t we see the commercials, even the chairman complains that his wife never sees them?”


    Planimus was tempted to say something unconstitutional about the Chairman‘s wife, but years of wisdom prevailed.


    “We judge media on the basis of how well our target is being exposed to the message. Our target as we all know is the lower middle class, what use is it, even if the chairman‘s wife sees our ad, for groin itching creams? We have only that much money to spend.”


    “Are you saying that you want more money?” asked Bose in a rather bellicose tone.


    “Yes, of course we always need more money,” chimed in the President and was instantly knocked out when Planimus exposed him to a slide with 144 matrix cells.


    “What I am saying is that we have to balance the fine line between those who will give us sales versus those whom we just have to pamper and as you know the latter is a statistically insignificant number,” said a defiant Planimus


    “Why don‘t we just look at the larger picture and make our conclusions thereof?” interjected Vikas, doing his ‘servicing bit‘ to preserve the tender equilibrium of the meeting. There was a marked rise in the temperature in the room, beyond the scope of work of the air conditioner.


    “We can, but things will only make sense if you people change your attitude towards numbers and stop being so intimidated by them.”


    “Who is intimidated?” nothing intimidates me, said the President awakening fresher.


    “We all understand numbers Planimus, numbers are the very basis of our functioning,” added Mr Bose, though cold sweat beads began to form on his forehead as the ‘144 matrix cells‘ slide had not been changed over the last ten minutes.


    “Please,” gasped Vikas, “Change that slide, its beginning to suffocate me.”


    Planimus, with a sardonic smile, pushed the page down button to reveal a new adversary, four pie charts that had all the colors of the rainbow on them. PP dashed out of the room covering his mouth. Planimus felt that he had registered a moral victory of some sort.


    “I think Planimus you just type out a mail summarizing the entire presentation, and don‘t use any numbers in it. Please also indicate that we will need more budgets.”
    “And analyze each and every number to its logical conclusion, Ram will help you do that, he is good at that and will bring in an account management perspective,” uttered Vikas, adjusting his tie in his reflection on Mr. Bose‘s spectacles.


    Ram groaned with disgust, fear and boredom all rolled into one. He dreaded talking to Planimus about numbers, that man was numerically insane.


    “Where did more budgets come from? I never concluded that?”


    “Don‘t worry Bose, that‘s the sum and substance of the presentation, now let‘s go and have a good lunch. Planimus you can come along as long as you don‘t start asking for break ups on the bill and drawing bar graphs on the napkins.”


    So the President, Mr Bose, Planimus and Vikas checked out of the room like they had to catch a flight, pie charts still lying appetizingly unattended to on the screen.


    “Media review meetings are very short, because people who attend then have a long history with numbers,” the hushed Chinese accent, the express delivery of the tea cup and Chai-La disintegrated into a Fibonacci sequence of numbers.


    Ram wearily started to go through the first ten slides of the presentation, when almost at once he began to feel that his eyelids were being pulled down by forces beyond his control, he was overcome with the same feeling of nausea one gets when seeing the Indian batting line up perform abroad.


    Then his world went 100 percent black.


    After stints at Lowe, Mudra and Everest the author is now general manager Client Service Network Advertising. In addition to that he is also patron saint of Juhu Beach United – a movement that celebrates obesity and the unfit ‘out of breath‘ media professional of today. To join up contact vinaykanchan@hotmail.com


    (The views expressed here are those of the author and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)

  • North India leads India’s organized retail growth, even small towns have immense potential, said Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s

    Day 1 at ‘THE SHOP’ – North India leads India’s organized retail growth, even small towns have immense potential, said Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s – Young India is gaining confidence and wants change, retailers have to provide their consumption needs, said Sanjeev Agrawal, President-Marketing, Future Group

    New Delhi, June 28, 2006: THE SHOP, the two-day summit on organized retailing, commenced today at the Taj Palace, New Delhi with the inaugural address from Vikram Bakshi, Managing Director of cDonald’ (North & East India), who stressed that North India is leading the growth of organized retail in India. The SHOP is the first ever retail forum focusing on India’s most promising retail zones. The Retail Theatre at The SHOP had international experts, captains of the industry, CEOs of India’s key retail chains across formats and categories addressing key retail issues – presenting Views, Reviews, Trends, Possibilities, Success stories, Vision of marketing Gurus, SWOT analysis and a lot more.

     

    According to Mr. Vikram Bakshi, Managing Director, McDonald’s, “The retail industry in India is witnessing a very interesting phase where different retail formats and categories are emerging and opening up, not just in the metros and larger cities, but also in smaller towns. Northern India is an emerging retail market with all International brands and national retailers targeting the North. Among the northern states in India, Punjab has the highest potential to develop as a key growth market for retailers. McDonald’ s itself has 88 outlets in India, 64% of which are located in the North.”

     

    “The Shop” is the zonal version of the annual “India Retail Forum” event that takes place in September in Mumbai and is the Asia-Pacific’s largest platform for retailers across the globe to come together and discuss the latest trends, visions and ­­­­­­­ challenges of the Retail Industry.

     

    Speaking at the forum, Mr. Sanjeev Agrawal, President – Marketing, Future Group, said, “Retail as a medium is about being inclusive and not exclusive keeping the real India in mind. The ‘Real India’ frame has many more people than we think. It is imperative to recognize the section of consumers one is targeting. And in India the debate is not between aspiration and value but in creating a convergence of both. We at Pantaloon, believe that retail must constitute everything for everyone and through our brands we wish to target every segment of the retail market.”

    Mr. Sushant Dwivedy, Business Head Leed, Microsoft Business Solution said, “Mass marketing is dead and every individual consumer needs to be treated separately. Technology can be used in the Retail Industry to provide better service to consumers and build loyalty factors. The Industry needs more web enabled services. Success for retailers will be driven by smarter operations.”

    ‘The Shop’ introduced new retail formats to retailers and potential franchisees and retail real estate developers and equip regional players with necessary support and systems and learning from masters in the business of retail. Showcasing the best in retail offering, providing an in-depth analysis of retail business trends and formulating a differential winning strategy, THE SHOP saw the participation of the very best retail concepts, successful brands, retailers and distributors from all over India.

     

    Mr. Amitabh Taneja, Editor in Chief, Images Group and organizers of the summit, said, “We will witness retailer

    s who have their own well-merited views and concepts which would change retail thinkers to reset enchmarks in many areas and share their huge aura of experience with the audience. IMAGES is now all geared up to focus on India’s most promising Retail zones with a series of events titled ‘THE SHOP’ felicitating interaction of international and national players with these regions in order to facilitate retail expansion and strengthen sourcing from regional brands and manufacturers.”

     

    Over these two days the forum will witness national and regional retailers
    across formats & categories, shopping centre developers, potential
    franchisees, investors, retail support & systems, vendors, govt officials, trade bodies. Some renowned people like Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s, Andrew Levermore, CEO, HyperCity Retail, Vijay Menon, CEO, Mobile Next, Sanjeev Agarwal, President, Marketing, Pantaloon Retail, Sushant Dwivedy, Business Head Leed, Microsoft Business Solutions, Sam Matthew , Head- Client Solutions, Total Outsourcing, Wipro, N. Sathiyanarayanan, Senior VP, Lifestyle, Denny Gerdeman, CEO, Chute Gerdeman, USA, Ratan Jalan, CEO, Apollo Health and Lifestyle, Sandeep Ahuja, CEO, VLCC, Tim Eynon, CEO Prozone and Director Provogue, Bipin Gurnani, CEO, Piramyd, Gopalratnam Kannan, Country Manager, Swatch Group India, Partha Datta Gupta, CEO, Barista and many more.

     

    Over the years Images has received global recognition for its bold initiatives to support retail growth in India and Images (that includes Conclaves, CEO meets, Exhibitions and Awards) are known for their impact — attracting industry big wigs with almost cent per cent attendance of the key stakeholders.

    About Images Multimedia

    IMAGES is an industry support platform – specific to the Fashion & Lifestyle, Retail and Retail Real Estate sectors – deriving support from its competencies in Research, B2B and B2C publications, Education & Training, Consulting, and Events and Awards of international standards. The Group has been closely involved with over 1000 key lifestyle brands, retailers, the entire retail support network, and real estate developers from across the globe for over a decade now.

    IMAGES Fashion & Retail magazines enjoy the largest readership in their segments across the Indian sub continent & Middle-East with over half a million readers. IMAGES F&R Research wing has been closely monitoring the trends in the market and has been feeding industry, government and media with vital information for strategy formation in association with world’s top consulting & research organizations like McKinsey, AT Kearney, KSA, AC Nielsen ORG MARG, etc.

    For more information please contact: Bhavya Suri, Perfect Relations,
    9871597740, Reena Varghese, Perfect Relations, 9910234004

     

  • EMI releases music catalog on Qtrax

    EMI releases music catalog on Qtrax

    MUMBAI: EMI Group would make its music catalog available to the first advertising supported peer-to-peer service as the entertainment industry embraces the same technology that once nearly crippled it.

    The service, called Qtrax, was developed by LTDnetwork, and at launch, will provide consumers the ability to download songs for free only as well as the option to subscribe to a premium version of the service or to purchase music tracks and albums on an a la carte basis.

    The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

    “Working with Qtrax is just one way EMI is actively supporting emerging business models, technologies and platforms to deliver music to fans,” said EMI Music North America chairman and CEO David Munns. “We believe Qtrax offers a good consumer experience and significant up-selling opportunities. Our collaboration with Qtrax will give us great consumer insight and help us gauge the boundaries between sampling and purchasing music. Ultimately, the feedback we get from Qtrax will help EMI be more responsive to consumer demand. The Qtrax service will also ensure that our artists are compensated for their works and that the value of their music and integrity of our content is protected.”

    In an official release, Qtrax will offer two tiers of service: the first is a free, advertising-supported tier designed to work with and filter copyrighted content from existing peer-to-peer networks.

    The second tier is a premium subscription service which will require a monthly fee. The two-tiered business model is intended to attract a broad base of consumers to try out the service, and then graduate those consumers to purchase music permanently or subscribe.

    In the ad-supported, free tier, users will be able to search the network for specific tracks, and those tracks registered with Qtrax will be made available for download in Qtrax’s proprietary “.mpq” file format.

    Users will then be able to play the downloaded .mpq file in full-fidelity sound quality for a pre-defined number of times. Each time a consumer plays a track, the Qtrax player will also offer fans click-to-buy purchase options, as well as the opportunity to upgrade to a premium subscription service for a flat monthly fee.

    The premium subscription service tier uses Microsoft’s Janus DRM technology, which allows consumers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music in the Qtrax network. Subscribers will also have the ability to transfer content to Windows Media enabled portable devices for as long as the subscription stays active.

    The service will also include consumer-friendly community-building and music discovery tools, which enable fans to easily access to a vast selection of music and other content, all while generating revenues for artists and content owners.

    In addition, Qtrax will offer incentive programs that will allow fans to accrue points redeemable for additional plays for tracks acquired through the free service, or for discounts off a la carte purchases or subscription fees.

    “Qtrax is an innovative approach to creating a legitimate P2P offering, so we are pleased that EMI has agreed to be the first of the major music companies to participate. In addition to offering a great consumer experience which we believe will get more consumers excited about digital music, Qtrax will ensure that artists are getting paid when their songs are accesses in a P2P environment. In addition, EMI and other music companies will share in Internet advertising revenues, which according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers reached a new record of $3.9 billion for the first quarter of 2006 in the US — a 38 percent increase over Q1 2005,” said Brilliant Technologies parent company of LTDnetwork president & CEO Allan Klepfisz.

    The Qtrax service is expected to enter a test phase later this year and will initially pilot the service in the United States. In preparation for the launch, EMI will immediately begin delivering and registering its content with Qtrax’s filtering system, powered by Audible Magic.

  • Intelsat ranked first among teleport service providers

    Intelsat ranked first among teleport service providers

    MUMBAI: Intelsat has announced that it placed first on the World Teleport Association’s (WTA) annual rankings of the top teleport operators. Intelsat led the list of the 2006 global top twenty.

    Intelsat is a provider of fixed satellite services.

    WTA’s global top twenty ranks companies based on revenues from all satellite-related sources which includes independents, satellite carriers, fiber carriers, and technology providers.

    Intelsat SVP global marketing Vicki Warker said, “Our leadership in this sector of the satellite industry is a testament to the growth of our hybrid GlobalConnexSM managed solutions business. Since its introduction in 2002, our GlobalConnex revenues have grown dramatically and now represent an annualised run-rate of approximately $130 million.”

    “We provide seamless, secure and easy delivery of voice, data, video and IP traffic anywhere in the world through bundling our satellite capacity with our global teleports, points of presence and ground network infrastructure,” he added.

    Intelsat’s GlobalConnex services are among its highest growth services, driven by demand for corporate data and voice over IP applications, asserts an official release.

    The offering also provides end-to-end support for media, internet trunking, WiFi hotspots, distance learning, and point-of-sale transactions. Another component of Intelsat’s teleport services includes hosting disaster recovery facilities for broadcasters and other operators, adds the release.

  • Shailesh Velande likely to replace Divya Radhakrishnan at Optimedia

    MUMBAI: Nearly one and half months after Zen Optimedia VP Divya Radhakrishnan left the organisation to join The Media Edge, the agency seems to have finalised the name of the candidate who will replace her.

    There are strong indications that Shailesh Velande will head the media planning and buying operations at Zen Optimedia. At present, media manager Bala Gopal is been managing the show; Bala Gopal will report to Velande as and when he comes aboard. Media independent Optimedia has billings to the tune of Rs 1.5 billion.

    Media veteran Velande has worked with some of the bigger agencies including Lowe’s Initiative Media (IM). After leaving IM, Velande had gone abroad and worked in Singapore.

    Radhakrishnan, who had a long innings (nearly 16 years) with the Publicis, has joined The Media Edge, the company that handles Dentsu, Young and Rubicam’s media business, as VP Media. Radhakrishnan reports to Divya Gupta who is heading the show.

    Media reports indicate that Radhakrishnan grabbed the opportunity to head the Tata AOR. For the record, The Media Edge was awarded the media buying business way back in October 2001. Optimedia has handled certain Tata brands earlier.

  • Digital cinema to go low-cost route in India

    Digital cinema to go low-cost route in India

    MUMBAI: Digital cinema is about to take off in India with major players like Anil Ambani-controlled Adlabs Films and Subhash Chandra’s E-City chalking out rollout plans, speakers at a seminar in Mumbai said.

    There are around 400 theatres who have installed digital systems and many more are in the pipeline. But the model being followed so far is low-cost digital cinema or “e-cinema” in contrast to the 1200 installations of “d-cinema” (top quality) made across the world.

    “E-cinema is going to be the larger play in India because of its low-cost model. There is no proper initiative of d-cinema with just two installations so far,” Texas Instruments India business development manager of DLP Products S Ganesh said while speaking at the sixth exhibition of Cinema India 2006.

    Though digital cinema is yet to catch on, this year will see growth from the US which had 600 installations till 31 March 2006. “D-cinema installations are expected to touch 2500 in FY07 with US seeing close to 1800 screens,” said Ganesh.

    Mumbai-based UFO Moviez, a service provider, services 300 theatres in B and C centres. Though it also uses hard disk mode of distribution, the main format to download movies is through satellite delivery. “Digital cinema was a dormant market that was not addressed. Digital delivery of movies has made it possible for B and C centre theatres to have first day releases of big movies. This has meant more audiences and revenues for them,” said Valuable Media Pvt Ltd chief technical officer Sanjay Chavan.

    There are three modes of digital delivery of movies. At the low end is the hard drive model which is loaded into the server in the theatre. Big telecom players like Reliance Infocomm can use their fibre optic backbone to deliver content. The most cost-effective model is the satellite distribution system but it would require more bandwidth.

    “Interoperability and playability across the service providers need to be tackled. We provide solutions which can interchange packages with Dolby and Kodak among others,” said real Image Media Technologies director Senthil Kumar.

    Real Image, which recently received funding from Intel Capital, serves 70 cinema theatres in Tamil Nadu. The Chennai-based company has also sold servers to theatres in the US. “Digital cinema enables democracy in filmmaking and can beat back video pirates. Only a complete end-to-end digital solutions can completely prevent piracy,” says Senthil.

    There is a big task at hand if digital cinema has to be a major force as India has converted only 400 out of a total of 8,000 theatres. While there are 110,000 theatres across the world, the US has 35,000 screens.