ITV

Category: Star

  • Star in multi-year TV series deal with Buena Vista; ‘Desperate Housewives’, ‘Lost’ in kitty

    MUMBAI: If you have one, makes sense to have the other as well, and all the rest of the best… After getting Desperate Housewives, arguably the biggest new scripted show on American television in the past five years, the Star group has added the other standout hit of the season Lost, to its roster.

    Star and Buena Vista International Television – Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP) today announced a multi-year agreement that will bring to Asia’s lead broadcaster most of BVITV’s new network series programmes.

    The announcement was made by Steve Macallister, senior vice-president and managing director, BVITV-AP and Ross Crowley, senior vice president, programming, Star.

    Desperate Housewives premieres on Star World on 15 July (it will air Fridays at 10 pm).

    Lost, however, will be airing on Star Movies. By the looks of things, in positioning Lost on Star Movies, a similar strategy to that used with Steven Spielberg’s mega series Taken is being followed.

    The strategy makes sense considering the scale on which the production has been made. It is worth recalling that just the one-hour pilot of Lost cost a whopping $ 12 million. Lost, from JJ Abrams (Alias), is an intense drama on the trials of survivors of a plane crash on a mysterious tropical island.

    Among the other BVITV drama series coming to Star World are Grey’s Anatomy and Kevin Hill; and a strong raft of comedies including My Wife and Kids (Damon Wayans), Scrubs (Zachary Braff), 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter (Katey Segal, David Spade), Hope & Faith (Kelly Ripa, Faith Ford), Less Than Perfect (Sarah Rue) and According to Jim (Jim Belushi, Courtney Thorne-Smith).

    Commenting on the development, Macallister said, “We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Star. This latest agreement is significant in that it will enable viewers across Asia to see some of the hottest and most talked about TV in the marketplace today.”

    Said Ross Crowley, “This multi-year TV series agreement with Buena Vista International Television accentuates Star’s commitment to bringing quality TV entertainment to viewers across Asia,”

    “In the coming years, our viewers will have access to critically-acclaimed and top-rated US TV series including Desperate Housewives and Lost, as part of our stable of must-see programming on Star,” Crowley added.

  • Star ‘Kismat Jagao’ contest launches third ‘Reverse Auction’

    MUMBAI: Star’s SMS contest Kismat Jagao 7827 Lagao Reverse Auction has now entered its third phase on 23 December. The third Reverse Auction will continue for 18 days till the midnight of 10 January 2005. The winner gets jewelry worth Rs. 2.5 million from Eros Jewelry.
     
    The second Reverse Auction was won by Bilaspur’s Rajesh Yelukar. Unlike a normal auction where one has to send the highest bid, Kismat Jagao 7827 Lagao is a Reverse Auction where the single lowest unique bidder gets the item on auction Yelukar’s lowest and unique bid was of Rs. 164.46.
     
    In order to participate in the auction, all that a mobile user needs to do is type ‘BID’ followed by a space and then their personal bid amount i.e. BID 6.44 or BID 16.94 etc, and send it to 7827. Bidding is allowed up to two decimal places.
     
    More information is available at www.my7827.com

  • Star in education partnership to combat Aids in India

    MUMBAI: The Rupert Murdoch owned Star Group in association with The Gere Foundation India Trust, Avahan-India Aids Initiative, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation have launched the Heroes Project.

    This is a three-year campaign to combat HIV/Aids in India.
     
     

    Star India/Star Care, which is a division of the Star Group has made a commitment worth $14 million over three years. The funds will be used towards cross platform media placement of HIV/AIDS public service messages (TV and radio), TV and radio entertainment programming and news coverage.

    The first television message, featuring Indian cricket star Rahul Dravid, will debut this month. In addition Star will institute its own HIV/Aids employee education curriculum.
     
     

    Meanwhile in China, China Central Television (CCTV) and MTV China have partnered to raise awareness about the menace of HIV/Aids in China. A new PSA will air on local cable and satellite systems. The campaign is conducted as part of Staying Alive. This is a global youth public education campaign

    The announcements were made by the United Nations-supported Global Media Aids Initiative. This is a collective of media companies from around the globe who have committed resources to the fight against Aids.

  • Star, Toyota form partnership to drive motorisation in China

    BEIJING: Rupert Murdoch’s Star Group and Toyota Motor Corporation have formed a partnership to promote motorisation in China.

    The unique partnership marks the biggest collaboration to date between the two parties and signifies Toyota’s long-term commitment to the world’s fastest growing automobile market.

    Leveraging on the popular and trend-setting content of Xing Kong, Star’s flagship entertainment channel in China, the partnership is set to transform the consumer perception towards cars from being primarily an utilitarian product to one that is fun and offers enhanced lifestyle.

    Under the agreement, Toyota will sponsor a strip of prime time programming on Xing Kong, which will be branded as ‘Zai Meng Xian Feng’ (literally meaning ‘pioneer in transporting aspirations into reality’). Xing Kong will produce three new shows which will be launched early next year. The shows will feature the latest trends and lifestyles in China, while highlighting the usage of cars in an innovative and trendy manner.

    Toyota’s senior MD Akio Toyoda says, “We would like to contribute to the development of the Chinese society, which is experiencing a robust growth in motorisation, by broadly introducing the concept of “Fun to Drive”. It is a concept emphasising enrichment and enhancing of life through motoring activities. We strongly feel that the most effective means of delivering this message is through TV. We are confident that partnering with Star which has a proven record of producing local popular content will enable us to achieve our goals.”