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  • HAF awards announced

    HAF awards announced

    HONG KONG: The Hong Kong Asia Financing Forum co organized by the Hong kong Trade development Council(TDC) and Hong Kong Kowloon and New Territories Motion Picture Industry Association Ltd.(MPIA) presented six awards to outstanding film projects .
    HAF was held over a period of three days and was responsible for over 630 meetings by directors from Asia to discuss their projects with lawyers, distributors, film financers,bankers and producers.Attendance was up by 20% this year as compared to last year.

    The six Awards carry a total sum of HKS$ 410,000 in cash as well as HKS$ 200,000 value in kind.

    Sponsored by the Hong Kong Asia Film Finnancing Forum, The Rome Film Festival, The Hubert Bals Fund, as well as Technicolor Thailand Ltd., they were a culmination for the three day forum held from 20 to 22 March 2006.

    The awardees are HAF Award ( Hong Kong) – Fat Englishman directed by Lawrence Gray produced by Asad Sultan

    HAF Award (Outside Hong Kong) was awarded to – 132 directed by Royston CHAN (Singapore) produced by Eric KHOO / James TOH

    And

    -The Unspeakable curse of the OX family directed by SU Chao-pin(Taiwan) produced by Jimmy HUANG Chih-ming The two awards carried a cash prize of HK 100,000/- Approx USD 13,000/- each and were presented by the Hong Kong asia Film Finnancing Forum

    Rome Film festival Award -Utopia directed by Apichatpong
    WEERASETHKUL(Thailand) produced by Apichatpong WEERASETHKUL The above award carried a prize of approx USD 15000/- (approx HKD 117,000) and was awarded to a project that demonstrated the best of innovative talent by an Asaian filmmaker and was selected by representative from the Rome Film Festival

    Technicolor Thailand Post production Award was awarded to – Air, directed by ZHANG Yang produced by Er Young

    And

    – The Maid -A New Beginning Directed by Kelvin TONG produced by Daniel YUN/CHAN Pui-yin /SEAH Saw-yam

    The award consists of two awards of approx 13000/- USD each (Approx HKD 100,000 And were given to projects
    1) with the highest potential FOR film Finnancing
    2) of which the directors have directed at least one film, TV commercial or Documentary or TV program and
    3) which is willing to undertake post production in Thailand.
    This award was selected and decided by representatives from Technicolor Thailand Ltd.

    Hubert Bals Fund award – Part Ocean, Part Flame directed by Liu Fan Dou produced by Liu Xia Dian The above award was presented by Hubert Bals Fund, International Film Festival Rotterdam. This award carried a cash component of EUR 10000/- approx HKD 93000/-

  • Subscription revenues to touch Rs 306 billion in 2010

    Subscription revenues to touch Rs 306 billion in 2010

    MUMBAI: Subscription revenues will drive growth in the television segment, jumping 29 per cent compounded annually over the next five years, from an estimated Rs 86 billion to Rs 306 billion in 2010.
    The average monthly cable TV subscription fee is expected to go up from Rs 130 to at least Rs 250 per month by 2010, according to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report titled Indian Entertainment and Media Industry – Unravelling the Potential. This growth is projected to be lower in the initial years, primarily due to regulatory interventions such as the price freeze on cable rates.

    Further fueling the growth will be the increase in number of television households, especially in the lower socio-economic strata. “Cable and satellite (C&S) households are projected to grow faster than the growth in the number of television households and the number of C&S homes are projected to reach 90 million by 2010, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 per cent in the next five years,” the report said.

    Television advertising, estimated at Rs 54.5 billion in 2005, is expected to touch Rs 105 billion by 2010. While Rs 95,000 million will come from C&S homes, Rs 10,000 million will be from terrestrial. In 2005, C&S advertising revenues are estimated at Rs 47,900 million and terrestrial Rs 6,600 million.

    “The share of ad pie of terrestrial and C&S networks have not changed over the last two years and are not projected to change for the next five years, as both the broadcast mediums are expected to gain from the increasing advertising pie,” the report said.

    The television segment is slated to grow from its present size of Rs 148 billion in 2005 to Rs 427 billion in 2010. Subscription revenues will increase its share from 58 per cent to 71 per cent, according to the report.

  • International firms should localise but creative consistency is imperative

    International firms should localise but creative consistency is imperative

    MUMBAI: With the world eye on India, more and more global companies are setting foot here in order to flourish in a nascent but booming market. In a scenario like this, it is imperative for companies to localize and manage their brands according to Indian sensibilities.

    The session titled ‘Managing an International Icon Brand’ had speakers from Walt Disney and Cartoon Network throwing light on the strengths and weaknesses of international icon brands and personalities in local Asian markets.

    The Walt Disney Company vice president retail sales and marketing and emerging markets Asia Pacific Ken Chaplin listed the four Bs of branding as badges, bonus, beacon and best bet. “The missing ingredient here is that of love. The reason why brands won’t cut it anymore is because they are worn out from overuse, no-longer mysterious, they don’t understand consumers anymore, they have been captured by formula and they are smothered by conservatism,” he said.

    Chaplin explained the meaning of a ‘Lovemark’ saying it is “when a brand experiences loyalty beyond reason from consumers, is owned by the consumers who love them, moves beyond irresistible to irreplaceable and moves from most respected brand to most loved.”

    He pointed out that a company will only make money when loyal, heavy users use their products all the time. “Having a long term love affair is better than having a short term relationship,” he said.

    Chaplin pointed out Disney’s nine priorities for managing an international icon brand. They are as follows:

    Get people to experience our best entertainment products
    Do a good job branding
    Make local content live up to the brand
    Keep the brand fresh and broadly relevant
    Make the brand’s commercial exploitation positive for consumers
    Keep the right company
    Evangelize the brand, inside and outside the company
    Take the floor with the press

    Cartoon Network Enterprises Asia Pacific executive director Sashim Parmanand said, “Brands are not names, symbols or designs but rather they are personality of the product. All brands have specific values and it is these values that make up the different facets of a brand.”

    The key thing, she pointed out, was to know your product and target market. “Once that is clear, research and market testing is important. A brand should gain local insights through researching target demographics and then develop a positioning statement for the brand,” she said.

    Another important thing to keep in mind is that the brand positioning and creative process around the same is consistent. “One should localize but at the same time creative consistency is imperative,” Parmanand added.

  • UK minister for culture, media, sport Jowell lays emphasis on India UK film co-production treaty

    UK minister for culture, media, sport Jowell lays emphasis on India UK film co-production treaty

    MUMBAI: A film co-production treaty between India and the UK was signed last year. 10 films are expected to be made in the first year..

    This announcement was made Britain’s secretary of state, department of culture, media and sport Tessa Jowell at Frames. “Last year, I signed the main body of the Indo-UK co-production treaty. The treaty will enable both our film industries to take fuller advantage of the new opportunities of the digital age.

    “We estimate that in the first year around 10 films would be made. This will benefit UK and India by around 155 million pounds. Cineworld cinemas in the UK are showng Indian films. There were 2.6 million visitors to Hindi films in the UK last year. Indian films accounted for 16 per cent of all releases in the UK last year, taking in 12 million pounds at the UK box office last year.

    “The treaty will benefit both nations’ creative skill sets. There will be creative and technical collaborations from film festivals and marketing to production management services and the sale of cinematography equipment. It has been fantastic to the UK Film Council distribution and exhibition Fund to support The Rising. Veer Zaara took in 2.3 million pounds at the UK box office.

    “We have just completed a White Paper on the BBC where a key theme is bringing the world to UK and UK to the world. Coupled with developments in the BBC Asian Network and the Window of Creative Competition which will open BBC production to a wider range of creative talent, we will surely see further collaboration between the two cultures and countries.”

    She noted that this kind of progress is important not just in the film contest but as part of the UK government’s aim to nurture the creative sector. “The global market value of creative industries has increased from $831 billion in 2000 to $1.3 trillion in 2005. This represents more than seven per cent of the total GDP. In the UK creative business contributes 11.4 billion pounds to our trade balance. This is one pound in ever 12 pounds in our GDP. My job is to ensure that the creative sector is the first to benefit from the economic changes wrought by globalisation. For the film industry we know that digital technology is enabling better production, distribution and access.

    “It is starting to fully examine the potential of this new technology in the ciontext of games, animation, individual and producer platforms as well as providing opportunities for areas like multiplex development.

    Indian innovation is making waves across the world being the first to stream a film on mobile for instance,” said Jowell.

    Jowell says that the UK government is encouraging the creative sectors to work together and share best practice and skills. “We have encouraged the BBC to work with organisations like Visit Britain and the Tate galleries. We have recently launched a flagship Creative Economy programme which is getting together luminaries from the creative sectors of film, music, fashion, advertising, publishing and computer games.”

    The result, Jowell says, is that the UK is seeing regional clusters of creative business. In the film industry, the UK is seeing investment in regional production firms, visual effects firms, post production houses and film financiers.

  • Home video to boost film entertainment business revenues

    Home video to boost film entertainment business revenues

    MUMBAI: Film entertainment business will see a wider revenue spread across its segments with faster growth coming from home video and overseas box office collections.

    The home video segment is expected to grow from Rs 4 billion to Rs 21 billion as the price of VCDs and DVDs fall, according to a FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

    The home video households is also expected to increase from 3 million to about 13 million by 2010.

    Though domestic office collections is slated to go up from Rs 53 billion to Rs 102 billion in 2010, it is projected to lose its share from 78 per cent to 67 per cent with the film entertainment business growing from its current size of Rs 68 billion to Rs 153 billion.

    Multiplexes are also going to increase and will help increase the average price of a movie ticket. Digital technology will also induce growth in the film industry, the report said.

  • MIPTV selects 24 finalists for ‘Content 360’ competition

    MIPTV selects 24 finalists for ‘Content 360’ competition

    MUMBAI: The world’s audiovisual and digital content market MIPTV featuring MILIA announced the 24 finalists for the inaugural ‘Content 360’ international digital commissioning competition.

    Of these finalists, the six winning projects chosen on 6 April, will share €80,000 in development funding.

    Sponsored by Vodafone and organized in partnership with the BBC, the Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC) and the National Film Board of Canada, Content 360 is a new initiative to commission innovative content and interactive applications for mobile and broadband.

    Launched on 17 January 2006, the inaugural Content 360 attracted 181 entries from 120 companies and 23 countries. “The number of entries underlines the need to provide development funding for projects which are embracing user demand for new kinds of content and services in a digital, multi-platform world,” notes MILIA director Ted Baracos. “What’s been especially welcome has been the extraordinary quality of the projects, which has made the initial selection of the 24 finalists very hard.”

    The finalists are competing in six separate categories :

    – Long Tail Content: Navigating the BBC Archive. BBC digital commissioners will choose the project which makes best use of BBC archives on new platforms.

    – Animation Projects for Mobile Platforms: The National Film Board of Canada will select an innovative mobile animation project for co-production. The judges will also take into consideration production and distribution business models.

    – Web 2.0: Next Generation Collaborative Web Concepts. Blogs, feed readers, social networks, P2P, audio and video podcasting… In the digital world, everyone is a creator and a distributor. The BBC will select the most innovative project in this field.

    – DMB -Digital Multimedia Broadcasting: Mobile Content and Applications: This category is designed to reward content innovation specific to mobile TV broadcasting.

    – Rich Media-Made for Mobile: The BBC will judge the best proposal for rich media which pushes the boundaries for mobile content experiences.

    – Total Mobile & User-Generated Mobile Content: BBC digital commissioners will select the best idea which marries user-generated content with interactivity between the user and the content distributor.

    In conjunction with the competition, Content 360 will have a dedicated pavilion within MIPTV featuring MILIA providing networking opportunities and a showcase for the finalists.

  • Deutsche Telecom to use Microsoft’s IPTV technology in Germany

    Deutsche Telecom to use Microsoft’s IPTV technology in Germany

    MUMBAI: Europe’s biggest telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom will use Microsoft software to power new internet-based television services it plans to offer in Germany before the end of 2006.

    The tie up will see the service launched across Deutsche Telekom’s VDSL network using a Microsoft IPTV platform. The companies have promised a range of entertainment products, including regular programming in standard and high-definition formats, as well as interactive TV, digital video recording and video on demand. The latter feature will allow viewers to access selected feature films, TV series or documentaries at the touch of a button.

    The deal cements Microsoft’s position as the leading supplier to providers of internet protocol TV, with 13 telecoms groups now installing or testing its IPTV software. It also represents a milestone for Deutsche Telekom in its bid to be one of the first telecoms groups to offer high-definition TV, voice and data services on new, ultra-fast internet lines.

    Deutsche Telecom previously had been conducting a trial of the Microsoft IPTV software. The service is planned for launch in mid 2006 in 10 major German cities including Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich. Other Microsoft IPTV customers include AT&T, Telecom Italia and Swisscom.

  • Maharashtra Budget; tax levied on cable TV up by 50 per cent

    Maharashtra Budget; tax levied on cable TV up by 50 per cent

    MUMBAI: Get set to pay more for your cable TV connection. The state finance minister Jayant Patil presented a surplus budget of Rs 305.85 crore for 2006-2007 in the Assembly. With a view to mop up an additional revenue of Rs 500 crore, Patil proposed a hike in taxes which included a 50 per cent hike in entertainment duty levied on cable operators, among other items.

    Unchanged since the year 2000, this increase means that your monthly cable bills could rise anywhere between Rs 5 to Rs 15.The amount would differ from place to place, as specified by the state government.

    According to news reports, those areas under municipal corporations, such as Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur, would see their tax rise from Rs 30 to Rs 45. Also, Grade-A municipal council areas would now pay Rs30 instead of Rs 20, while Grade-B & C municipal council zones would pay Rs15 instead of Rs10.

    “This hike will pinch the consumer. This is extremely unfair, especially, when the government recently reduced the tax on DTH services from Rs90 to Rs30 per connection,” said a Sena MLC Anil Parab to a Mumbai newspaper.

    “We cannot charge our customers in slums an exorbitant amount. They can’t even pay Rs30 as tax. So, we subsidise the rate by charging other customers more. We are likely to do the same to implement this hike,” said Cable Operators & Distributors’ Association president Ganesh Naidu in the same news report.

    The Budget also proposes a hike in taxes on other items like liquor, motor vehicle tax on four wheelers and water charges. But, the Budget does bring some cheer for state finances. Apart from a revenue surpus for the second year in a row, this year’s total plan outlay is Rs 14, 829 crore and growth is projected to be 8.6 per cent.

  • I&B ministry finalizing terms of law on broadcast regulator

    I&B ministry finalizing terms of law on broadcast regulator

    MUMBAI: The terms of reference of a law that will bring about a separate broadcast regulator are almost ready.
    This was revealed to Indiantelevision.com by Information & Broadcasting secretary SK Arora on the sidelines of the convention for the business of entertainment, Ficci Frames, this morning in Mumbai.

    Once the framework of the law is finalized, it would be distributed among the interministerial committee for comments and any possible fine tuning, Arora said,”From here, the document would have to be scrutinized for a final say by the Union cabinet, after which it would then be presented before Parliament.”

    While Arora declined to give a time frame under which this process would move forward, he expressed confidence that from his ministry’s end, the law would be ready “at the soonest”.

    Queried about the role of the current regulator for both the telecom and broadcast sector, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Arora noted that the challenges for the broadcast industry and telecom are different. First, it is important that convergence is facilitated within the broadcast sector. After that one can look at facilitating convergence between sectors i.e. broadcast and telecom. The regulatory body will work towards ensuring that the fruits of development are not vitiated by adversarial relations. “The aim of regulation is to preserve development. We will also be coming out with a regulation on content code,” he said.

    Ficci is assisting in formulating the draft of the regulation. The Group of Ministers (GoM) who concentrate on the Ice industry will fine-tune it. Then it will be sent to the cabinet. It will be passed when the cabinet approves of it. A further announcement on this regulation is expected in the coming weeks.

    Basically it is aimed at being a self regulatory mechanism. Arora however conceded that regulation always lags behind technological changes. The broadcast industry has been no exception. He also stressed the importance of content providers and creators reaching remote areas of the country. “Whether it is cable, DTH, cinema halls, no villager should be left behind. If we work on this, then the potential will be double than what has already been achieved.”

    Arora also highlighted the concern of piracy. He said that the government has been working with Ficci on the Optical Disc Law and this work will continue in the months ahead. “The reason why we approach the industry is that we want to have a regulatory framework that helps the industry move forward.”

    “Another important area that is growing is animation and gaming. We need investment from foreign players and leaders in this area. The challenge for us is to attract foreign firms in this area. At this time, there are foreign firms coming into India while Indian firms travel abroad. Foreign firms bring their brand in. However, Indian firms when they go abroad do so under an international brand. The exception is the Indian film industry and for this I want to congratulate them,” said Arora.

  • Convergence 2006: tech & trends galore

    Convergence 2006: tech & trends galore

    NEW DELHI: The 14th Convergence India 2006, which was inaugurated yesterday by the minister of state for telecommunications Shakeel Ahmed, saw over 60,000 visitors on day two, clamouring to have a peep at new technology on display.

    The event also hosted a high-powered round table conference comprising infotech secretaries from the states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka (that has been the home to some of the biggest Indian infotech success stories).

    The round table meet focussed on bridging the digital divide and a host of other issues.

    The three-day event, boasting of 386 exhibitors, 1,500 delegates and 23 countries, is aimed at highlighting India’s information, communications and telecom (ICT) prowess.
    Designed around the theme of `ushering the ICT revolution’, Convergence 2006 has global and Indian corporates showcasing technology and equipment in the field of mobility, broadcasting, infotech and network security.

    The event is jointly organized by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Exhibitions India.

    According to Exhibitions India MD Prem Behl, “Alongside the display of latest technologies and innovations in telecom, India’s leading mobile service providers are showcasing innovations being brought into the market.”

    Director-general of COAI TV Ramachandran said that the organization is confident such an event will bring additional focus to the needs of the industry that are essential for the overall growth of the sector.

    “The B2C and B2B environment at the event will translate into extensive exhibitor coverage converging into genuine business opportunities,” he added.

    Known for facilitating business deals and throwing up new ideas for discussion during conferences that are held simultaneously, the event is also being used by companies to launch new products.

    For example, Chinese telecom major Huawei today launched eight new CDMA handsets and it is also showcasing its globally award-winning exhibit booth at the Convergence 2006.

    Some of the participating companies include 3M Electro & Communication India Pvt Ltd, A&P Technologies of Korea, Accelink China, Acceltree Software Pvt Ltd India, Ace Marketing China , AFL Telecommunications of the US, Canada’s Aheeva Technology Inc, Ai-Logix APAC of China, ALV Arion of Israel, Andrew Telecommunications India and Avitec of Sweden.

    Also, taking part in the event are Beijing Fibridge Co Ltd, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, BindView Corporation of the UK, Biometrics Direct of the US, China Broadcasting Journal, Consumer Electronics & TV Manufacturers’ Association (CETMA) India, department of IT, India, Enterprise Networks Asia of Hong Kong, Euromedia of the UK, Lucent Technologies Hindustan Pvt Ltd, Scientific-Atlanta (HK) Ltd, Shenzhen HXT Technology Co Ltd of China, Shin Satellite of Thailand and ZTE Corporation.