ITV

Category: News Headline

  • K Sera Sera buys out Jhankar TV

    MUMBAI: K Sera Sera is buying out Hamara Samay TV News Network, the company that owns and operates music channel Jhankar TV.

    The acquired company will be renamed K Sera Sera Entertainment. It will become a subsidiary of K Sera Sera Productions Ltd, the listed company.

    The promoters of Hamara Samay TV News Network will be given around 20 per cent stake in K Sera Sera Entertainment. “We have applied for a change in shareholding. Hamara Samay promoters will hold close to 20 per cent in the subsidiary company,” says a source in K Sera Sera.

    Sapna Chaturvedi is going to head K Sera Sera Entertainment. Chaturvedi also owns a media company, Eternal Dreams.

    Jhankar TV will be given a new name and the channel will be relaunched. “We have not yet finalised on the name but it may be called K Sera Sera. Chaturvedi will be the managing director of the company and the channel is being revamped by Diwali,” says the source.
    K Sera Sera’s idea of running a music channel is seen as a strategy to synergise with its movie production business. The company spends substantial amount of money for promoting its movies on music channels. “We will still use the general entertainment channels for promoting our movies. But we don’t have to spend on music channels,” the source says.

    K Sera Sera also plans to ramp up its movie production business. The company yesterday approved an enabling clause to raise debt of up to Rs 5 billion. “We have big plans for our movie business. Having a music channel makes strategic sense,” says the source.

    Though K Sera Sera was also weighing options of launching the music channel on its own, it decided on the acquisition route. “Jhankar already enjoys distribution. We realise the problems we would have to face in distributing a new channel,” the source adds.
     
     

     

  • ADAG’s Big FM radio to roll out its first phase in six metros

    MUMBAI: The Reliance ADA Group has finally officially announced today that it will soon launch its radio station under the brand Big FM, which will broadcast on the full powered common frequency of 92.7 across its 45 stations.

    According to an official statement, the first phase will cover the six metros of Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, later spreading to the virgin territories like Jammu, Srinagar, Aligarh and Bikaner.

    In an attempt to offer a fresh new approach to the medium, the Big FM will indulge in high amount of interactivity on the station. Adlabs Radio COO Tarun Katial points out, “We will use it as a platform for consumers, taking on issues which are word of mouth and bring listener emotions to the fore.”

    Adopting a two-pronged launch strategy, Katial says, “While the metros are ideal to establish brand recognition and recall, the other virgin markets are completely new and fresh to explore, giving us an opportunity to provide an entertainment medium to the listeners.”

    “It is our endeavor to enthrall the local audiences and build a brand that connects at the grassroots. Credibility, maturity, relevance, entertainment and aspirational are our pegs for content as a product that reaches into every home and is of relevance to every listener.”

    By early next year, Big FM will be present across India from Srinagar to Trivandrum and Surat to Guwahati. This FM radio station will have its presence in 1000 towns and 50,000 villages across India – reaching 200 million listeners, informs the statement.

    The ADAG has geared up to tap the tremendous market share that is present. This leading corporate house known for its groundbreaking success in very business that it enters, will be positioning its stations in a unique and contemporary way that appeals to more mature audiences.
    The RJs that will give Big FM the voice and personality, have been selected via a careful and selective nationwide hunt. The station will present itself in a larger than life avatar and all morning slots will boast of highly acclaimed celebrity jockeys.

    With an investment of Rs 4 billion dedicated to transmission equipment, infrastructure and licensing, the proposed network for Adlabs Radio will be the largest ever, the release states.

    The overall manpower strength will stand at 1500 employees nationwide. The IP protocol technology being utilized for Big FM has been sourced from AXIA, USA making this station amongst the first to utilize such superior gear in Asia. Extensive research on consumer tastes and moods will ensure that the content aired complements the listeners’ tastes and provides them a dynamic, interactive platform.

  • Zee TV commemorates 100 years of Vande Mataram

    MUMBAI: Zee network will celebrate the centenary year of national song Vande Matram on 7 September, 2006, by simultaneously telecasting the Bharat Bala version of the anthem at 10 pm.

    The rendition will be the network’s tribute to the anthem and its own way of celebrating the pride of being an Indian. Bankim Chandra’s Vande Mataram celebrates the essence of the country and symbolizes the true spirit of a nation.

    Bankim Chandra Chatterji was one of the greatest novelists of India who gave the citizens of India their national song.

    Vande Mataram was adopted as a slogan by the Indians fighting the British colonial rule and was also treated as the national anthem of pre independent India. But after India gained independance, Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana, was chosen as the national anthem of independent India .following opposition from Muslim groups.
     

  • ‘Barbie as Rapunzel’ to premiere on Cartoon Network on 10 Sept

    MUMBAI: As part of the month long ‘Barbie special’, Cartoon Network will premiere the animated movie Barbie as Rapunzel on Sunday 10 September at 12 noon. In conjunction with the ‘Barbie’ theme this is the second Barbie blockbuster being aired on the network during the month.

    The story revolves around the life of Rapunzel, who is believed to have the most beautiful radiant hair the world had ever seen. She lived as a servant of Gothel, a jealous scheming witch who kept her hidden deep in a forbidden forest, guarded by the enormous dragon Hugo and surrounded by an enchanted glass wall.

    However, in a twist of fate, Rapunzel’s discovery of a magic paint brush leads her on a journey that will unravel a web of deception, bring peace to two feuding kingdoms and ultimately lead her to love with a handsome Price Stefan. She succeeds with the help of Penelope, the least intimidating dragon.

    An inspiring and magical tale, Barbie as Rapunzel touches every girl with the message that with courage and imagination, anything is possible. With Ken co-starring as Prince Stefan and with a host of endearing supporting characters, this exciting new Barbie adventure is also a story of romance and highlights the importance of friendship and loyalty.

    The movie has been produced using computer generated animation and features a song by Samantha Mumba and music by London Symphony Orchestra.
     

  • Star to distribute Nimbus’ sports channels

    MUMBAI: Nimbus Sports Broadcast, the Nimbus Communications subsidiary operating its sports broadcasting business, has entered into a deal with Star India wherein the News Corp network will be distributing its soon to launch bouquet of Neo Sports channels.
    The Star-Nimbus distribution deal is a five-year one that runs till 2010 and will apply to the two sports channels that will be launching by the end of the year as well as any future sports channels from the Neo Sports stable.

    Both companies also issued categorical denials of a report that appeared in pink paper Economic Times today that News Corp. would be buying roughly a third of Nimbus for around Rs 4 billion ($86 million).

    The release stated that Nimbus “is currently not engaged in any dialogue for inducting any new investors, whether financial or strategic.”
    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Star Entertainment India CEO Sameer Nair was equally categorical that there were no discussions on issues of equity. “This is a specific to India distribution deal, underpinned by cable and of course looking to leverage the potential that DTH offers.” Nair said. The Neo Sports channels will be distributed on the Tata-Sky DTH network in which Star has a 20 per cent stake.

    The first of the channels, the cricket centric Neo Sports, is set to be launched within the next three months. This will be followed by Neo Sports Plus, a sports entertainment channel, which is expected to be launched by the end of the year, states a joint statement issued by the two companies.

    With nearly 200 days of cricket every year lined up on Neo Sports, of which over 100 days will be live India cricket including all BCCI events and between 3-4 international series every year; Neo Sports expects to reach a majority of the cable & satellite homes.

    Nimbus paid $612 million for the telecast rights to the Indian cricket board’s matches for 2006-10.

  • Reliance Communications’ Falcon Cable System becomes operational

    MUMBAI: Reliance Communications owned Falcon Undersea Cable System has started its operational from today unleashing international bandwidth between India, Middle East and Europe.

    The Flag Telecom Global Network would be the world’s largest undersea cable system covering 65,000 route kms, with the launch of Falcon. The current bandwidth on India-Europe route is controlled by VSNL and Bharti.

    “Falcon will have an equally powerful impact on the economic front, driving higher levels of trade, commerce and global integration,” Reliance ADA chairman Anil Ambani said.

    The vision at Reliance ADA group is to ‘give millions of ordinary people across the world the means to realize their dreams, the power to shape their destiny, the chance to fulfill their true and diverse potential,” Ambani added.

    The Flag Global Network bridges the distance between 35 diverse developed and developing economies, connecting the global economic hubs in USA, UK, Germany, France, Middle East, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Japan to name a few.

    The Company’s Flag is the first global network of this scale to provide integrated connectivity on one seamless network to the three highest growing regions; India, Middle East and China; in terms of international bandwidth demand.

  • Zee Studio follows ‘The Path to 9/11’ with five hour miniseries

    MUMBAI: To acknowledge the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 events Zee Studio will air the five hour miniseries The Path to 9/11 on 10 September from 9-12 pm and on 11 September from 9-11 pm. In the US the show will air on ABC on the same days.

    The miniseries is based on the 9/11 commission report.
    The report documents the trail from the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 to 9/11 in 2001. The miniseries has been shot in Toronto, New York, Washington and Morocco.

    The show takes viewers inside the world of the FBI, CIA, White House and into the world of the likes of Dick Cheney, CIA director George Tenet played by Dan Lauria, Condeleeza Rice, Madeleine Albright. Also playing an important role is veteran actor Harvey Keitel as FBI agent John O ‘ Neill who spent years chasing Bin Laden.

    The miniseries starts on 11 September 2001 showing teams of hijackers boarding four American airliners.
    Using mobile phones they keep in touch with each other for a progress update prior to the hijacking. The miniseries then goes back to 1993. On a similarly ordinary day, New York was shocked by a deadly bombing at the World Trade Center. The miniseries reveals the fact that the bombing could have been stopped. Unfortunately the authorities did not take seriously the warning of an informant Emad Salem.

    “They did not think you’ll were clever enough to do something like this” he is told by CIA analyst Patricia Carver played by Amy Madigan. In fact Salem was dropped by the agency after asking for $500 a week only to be reinstated after the bombing. Madigan’s character keeps asking her bosses to take stronger action against terrorism. America was very complacent regardless of whether the Republicans or the democrats were in power. In that and other respects the miniseries tries to be fair.

    Later on it also shows how the Clinton administration messed up capturing Bin Laden and not just once. For instance later on in the miniseries when the CIA surrounds Bin Laden’s house in Afghanistan they are unable to get authorisation to capture him for fear of a political repercussion should civilians get harmed. Political decorum it would seem is an ally of terrorism. Another strong point is that a lot of the sequences like the bombing have visual panache. The viewer gets disoriented at such moments as he/she should be.

    It is also unfortunate that there seemed to be perhaps too much awareness of jurisdiction which could prevent initiative. For instance when two NYPD officers take evidence from the World Trade center site in 1993 as they feel that it will damaged by rubble they are fired by their superior as it is then FBI’s case. Also the democrats apparently put up a wall that prevented the agencies from sharing information with each other. How is one supposed to tackle a threat if the left hand does not know what the right one is doing?

    A big plus is that the miniseries also focusses for a little bit at least on the terrorists. That way the viewer is able to see two sides of a coin. In fact the terrorists view the 1993 bombing as a failure. The aim at that time was to bring down the twin towers which was what they managed to do in 2001. In a telling scene in a nightclub they brag about how what they are doing will force America to change its policies. One member talks about having invented a small bomb that can be pieced together on a plane and then detonated using a Casio watch.

    Actor Nabile Elouahbi registers strongly as Ramzi Yousef who masterminded the 1993 bombing. Sometime later he had tested a small bomb on a plane that killed a passenger and nearly brought the plane down.

    In Manila there is a fire at his lab and the efforts of an alert policewoman lead to the discovery of his laptop, which show that he had planned to take terror to another level by using a dozen airliners in the US. He also planned to assasinate Clinton when he visied philipines by using a truck. The American officials look on in disbelief when they learn of this. It seems incompreghensible that anyone would have the audacity to plan such a complex attack.

    Yousef is eventually brought down in Pakistan after managing to evade the Philippines authorities and by doing that Keitel’s character is put on Bin Laden’ trail. Yousef was in fact told that Bin Laden was a wealthy man who could provide finance.

    It is to the credit of actors like Elouahbi that the depiction of terrorists is not one dimentional. The show also earns points for being as realistic as possible. This writer saw the first hour of the show and it should be more intriguing and complex as it goes along. It should be well worth watching for those who want to know not just about how 9/11 happened but also why and the circumstances around it.

     

  • CCL’s Pearl Media acquires rights to air ‘Tom & Jerry’ in Southern market

    MUMBAI: Century Communication Limited (CCL), has announced that it’s media sales arm Pearl media has tied up with Saregama Films Ltd for airtime sales rights to Cartoon network’s programme, Tom & Jerry.

    With this strategic alliance, Pearl Media will have the airtime sales right of the programme, available to be telecasted on major south based channel- Sun Network, informs an official release.

    As reported by Indiantelevision.com, CCL currently holds complete ownership of Pearl Media after it bought out ex-UTV Anil Mishra’s 30 per cent stake for an undisclosed amount last month.

    The versions of this Tom & Jerry available on a daily basis on each of the channels are follows: Kuttees Choice in Tamil on Sun TV at 5 pm, Chinnoos Choice in Kannada on Udaya TV also at 5 pm and Kutties Choice in Malayalam on Surya TV at 5.30 pm.

    Commenting on this development, Century Communication Ltd COO Parvinder Bhatia said, “Pearl Media is the market leader in media ad sales for general entertainment programs on the Sun Network. With this association, CCL has furthered its foray into the international world of quality content and has added kids’ genre to its current bouquet of programs. This will mark a good opportunity for marketers to sell their products to the southern market using the kids’ genre.”

    Century Communication Limited is an integrated media and entertainment company with interests in airtime sales, post production of video and film, radio, digital news room services and other growing aspects of the media business.

  • Dominos reinforces ‘Customer is King’ strategy with new brand positioning

    MUMBAI: The ‘pizza’ has been around in the Indian market for a while, but inspite of its “old association”, it is still perceived as a fairly extravagant meal. In an attempt to do away with this notion, Dominos has launched a nationwide “Fun Meal for 4-There’s one for everyone!” offer to cater to the family segment. In the process, it addresses the problem of ‘affordability’ that has been a major roadblock towards the expansion of the food retail chain.

    Hence, the brand is now looking at a whole new strategy, with the prime focus to attract new customers and expand the current consumer base by making it more family-centric.
    Towards this end, the company has set aside a marketing budget of Rs 40 million to drive this forward and consciously change existing perceptions. The company has always followed a cost effective policy and a large portion of their ad spends are diverted to two key mediums, specifically, ATL activities via television and what they call ‘Local Store Marketing.’

    As part of this theme of repositioning the brand, Dominos Pizza India Ltd. chief of marketing Dev Amritesh promises lots more exciting stuff in the pipeline. A fresh advertising campaign has been launched to push this proposition forward and a 40 second TVC has been rolled out on a host of niche channels including MTV, Channel [V], HBO, Discovery Travel & Living, AXN, Star One, as well as sports channels like ESPN and Ten Sports. Mass based channels have in the past been strategically omitted, however, there is now an element of entry level consumers and therefore, they have for the first time considered going on air on a mass based channel like Zee TV. With the core characters being a dacoit and a thakur, the new campaign spots can been seen on the Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’s kiddies special Lil’ Champs, among others.

    This year also marks the 10th Anniversary of Dominos in India and this time round, Dominos even has plans to enter the radio scene. Work is underway as some “exciting radio scripts” are being evaluated. With a lot of buzz being created around this medium, the creative guys from Contract Advertising are figuring out how best to use this emerging media.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com Contract Advertising associate VP account management Bhaskar Ghosh said, “The key objective is to convey that Dominos provides an affordable offer not compromising on variety, thus bringing big value to the consumer. The story board and characters in the TVC further this objective to reposition the product. We have attempted to dwell into consumer behaviour to see how we can increase the frequency of purchase. In addition, more active and aggressive plans will be rolled out depending on the consumer demand and opportunities that we foresee in the market.”

    When queried about the company’s plans to enter into the emerging branded entertainment segment, Amritesh opines, “We did experiment with this medium and our first attempt with in-film product placement was implemented in Phir Hera Pheri. Yet the challenge in using this medium is to measure the effectiveness of the marketing initiative. We did get a good deal of qualitative feedback but this was not quantifiable. Through a film, the softer elements of the brand are reinforced but the risks associated with this are greater. Thus, we need to look at a more long term initiative. It’s not that we are ruling out this medium, but neither are we looking at encashing on it in a big way.”

    The apprehension to venture into newer mediums of advertising emerges from the fact that they have always tried to use the most cost effective strategy to appeal to their audience. Yet not wavering from the their core ideology of rewarding the ‘consumer’.

  • ABC expands site with enhanced features for ‘Lost’, ‘Dancing With The Stars’

    ABC expands site with enhanced features for ‘Lost’, ‘Dancing With The Stars’

    MUMBAI: In order to expanding its network and channel brands across multiple platforms and connecting viewers with their favorite shows anytime and anywhere, the Disney-ABC Television Group in the US has announced that it will offer enhanced features and additional content, including over 100 short-form videos each week at www.ABC.com.

    ABC Entertainment VP digital media Alexis Rapo says, “We are adding a significant amount of unique content, especially video, to ABC.com to make it the primary destination for fans of our programming.”

    “We have increased the amount of short-form video content including, trailers and originals, by 330 per cent from last season. We are seeing success already — on the premiere day for Dancing with the Stars. 60 per cent of the video viewed on the site was for that show alone.”

    Fresh to ABC.com this year are new sites for five returning series The Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Greys Anatomy and Lost. There are also sites for four new series The Knights of Prosperity, The Nine, Six Degrees and Ugly Betty. Additional content includes blogs, podcasts, behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with the cast and producers.

    Dancing with the Stars gets a new website design with enhanced features and content. There is original online video content backstage interviews, dancer/celebrity spotlights, rehearsals. There is also an online voting component, a mobile SMS campaign, an online dancing game and blogs.

    Greys Anatomy has weekly podcasts with producers, weekly blogs from show writers, exclusive online behind-the-scenes features.

    For Lost ABC will be coming out with a new website design with many interactive features created for fans, as well as new viewers, including The Lost Theories Board, Lost Connections backstory feature Weekly podcasts and video podcasts with producers.