ITV

Category: Television

  • Radio City ropes in Roop Kumar Rathod as RJ for new show ‘Shaam-E-Ghazal’

    Radio City ropes in Roop Kumar Rathod as RJ for new show ‘Shaam-E-Ghazal’

    MUMBAI: The private FM player Radio City 91 FM Mumbai unveils a fresh season of ghazals with the launch of a show solely devoted to ghazals. Starting 6 October, with the Shaam-E-Ghazal, Roop Kumar Rathod makes his radio debut as the host.

    The show holds an interesting blend of unplugged ghazals, mushairas and live on-air performance by the Roop Kumar Rathod. 

    The one hour show will aired every Friday at 9 PM, with a repeat telecast on Sunday at 9 PM Apart from broadcasting popular ghazals, the show would also look at reviving ghazal listening and giving a new dimension to it, informs an official release. 

    Roop Kumar Rathode will cite examples of shayaris and ghazals and explain the nuances, meanings of relevant words and difficult phrases through the show.

    ‘Shaam-E-Ghazal’ also presents a unique opportunity for the listeners to participate in a contest whereby getting a chance to send an interesting ghazal / shayari and win a music CD specially signed by Rathode.

    According to Radio City CEO Apurva Purohit, “Radio City has always believed in bringing to our listeners the best, through the best. We constantly push the envelope in terms of giving differentiated programming to our listeners through our music experts. With Life Ki Dhun With Sonu Niigaam, we pioneered the trend of celebrity RJs, which received tremendous response. With Shaam-E-Ghazal and more such programs in the next few months we will continue to treat our listeners to great music.”

  • Nat Geo Intl looks to bring Malaysia to the world

    Nat Geo Intl looks to bring Malaysia to the world

    MUMBAI: National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) and National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS) have announced a partnership agreement.

    They have commissioned two one-hour documentary programmes in high-definition (HD) to showcase Malaysia to the world and to encourage local filmmaking talents. 
    NGCI executive VP- production Bryan Smith says, “We are pleased to partner with Finas to produce high-definition documentaries for the global audience and to cultivate local filmmaking talents.”

    Finas DG En Mohd Mahyidin Mustakim said, “This is the first time that National Geographic Channels International and the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia have come together to promote the local filmmaking industry.

    “We are excited to be associated with this partnership as Malaysia has a pool of highly creative talents and Finas would like to encourage, preserve and enable growth and development of the filmmaking industry in Malaysia.”

    NGCI will kick-off the launch with a call-for-entries to all Malaysian-based production companies, the finished programmes will be aired globally on National Geographic Channel’s network in 164 countries.

    The successful grantees will be guided by NGCI’s senior producers to ensure a consistently high-quality production. The winning producers can also expect future opportunities with NGC.

    The call-for-entries is given a further lift as each successful grantee will receive up to $200,000 to make a one-hour of original production in high-definition. The local filmmaking talents are given an excellent opportunity to commission a high-definition documentary and rise to the Malaysia to the World challenge.

  • BBC Worldwide to showcase British dramas at Mipcom

    BBC Worldwide to showcase British dramas at Mipcom

    MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide the commercial arm of UK pubcaster comes to the television trade event Mipcom with new British dramas. Mipcom takes place in Cannes, France from 9-13 October 2006.

    The psychological thriller Torchwood will be presented for the first time at this year’s market. The sci-fi drama follows the adventures of a team of investigators who use scavenged alien technology to solve mysterious crimes. Led by the enigmatic Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, the Torchwood team delves into the unknown and fights the impossible.

    There is also a new adaptation of Robin Hood starring Jonas Armstrong as the lead and Keith Allen as the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, will also be making its debut. Produced by Tiger Aspect, the series is a blend of exhilarating action-adventure, wit and romance – updating the popular legend for a contemporary audience.

    Primeval sees evolutionary zoologist Nick Cutter make the terrifying discovery that prehistoric creatures are alive and well in the twenty-first century. The natural world is turned on its head and humanity faces extinction as unexplained anomalies rip holes in the fabric of time and allow creatures from the earliest stages of Earth’s development to roam the modern world.

    As well as fighting off evil forces in a range of cutting edge action-dramas, BBC Worldwide also premieres a raft of wonderful new children’s and factual programming in Cannes. From the creative team behind the global phenomenon Teletubbies, comes In the Night Garden. This is a modern interpretation of a nursery rhyme picture book aimed at preschoolers. It takes children on an imaginative journey to meet a host of wonderfully silly characters living together within a happy and caring community.

    The classic saga of Jane Eyre sees Toby Stephens takes on the role of the fiery Edward Rochester while Ruth Wilson plays Jane Eyre in the star-studded BBC adaptation of this infamous tale.Following the global success of Planet Earth, the BBC presents Galapagos, a look at the islands, which inspired Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’.

    Presented in a pioneering new visual style combined with exhilarating cinematography, the series examines the spectacular variety of wildlife and evokes the different characters of the islands.

    In addition, BBC Worldwide will be showcasing a wide range of other new titles at Mipcom including Nuremberg, Ancient Rome – The Rise and Fall of an Empire.

  • FremantleMedia to laugh out loud at Mipcom 2006

    FremantleMedia to laugh out loud at Mipcom 2006

    MUMBAI: Fremantle International Distribution (FID), the distribution arm of global production outfit FremantleMedia will bring a comedy line-up for the television trade event Mipcom in Cannes, France.

    FremantleMedia Enterprises CEO David Ellender, says that a raft of new and favourite comedy titles will make the trip to Cannes for the trade event from 9-13 October 2006.
    Fresh from its BBC2 debut, the newest addition to Fremantlemedia’s comedy family is That Mitchell & Webb Look. This is a sketch show featuring the comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb. As Mitchell and Webb bring their radio show to television, the new series is filled with riotous characters and ideas-driven sketches, lampooning the likes of the Nazis right through to Her Majesty the Queen. Intelligent, socially acute, sometimes satirical, sometimes bizarre, but always funny! 

    Best-selling author, child psychology expert and highly esteemed childcare guru – there isn’t a parenting problem for which Professor George Hartley hasn’t got a rational, reasoned answer. However, he’s never quite got round to the actual practical side of parenting. That is, until now. In the comedy, The Complete Guide To Parenting George finds himself thrown into the parenting deep end when his wife takes a job in Paris and he takes sole responsibility for their seven year old son, Jamie. Fortunately, George has people around him to help. Unfortunately, this assistance comes in the form of his inefficient, celebrity-obsessed P.A. and a foul-mouthed, Antipodean au-pair. Clearly this isn’t going to be child’s play!
    From Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette’s Coquette Productions comes Daisy Does America. In the comedy series actress-comedian Daisy Donovan travels the country in pursuit of the American dream, soon discovering that the phrase means different things to different people. Fast-paced and irreverent, it’s a look at some of America’s most extreme characters and lifestyles, as seen through the eyes of a Brit, and highlights the quirks and oddities of the American way of life.

    Along the way, Daisy pokes fun at herself and the characters she comes across in her unique, tongue-in-cheek style. As Daisy Does America, she strives to conform to the sometimes-bizarre characters and situations she encounters and the results are unpredictable and hilarious. 

    Man Stroke Woman is a sketch show that is silly and joyous in tone. The IT Crowd joins the fun with a comical look at the sub-species of I.T. gurus working in the basement of Reynholm Industries – a surreal, and very funny, look at the underclass of a company. Comedy Inc. tickles funny bones with its mix of sharp, fast-paced humour and irreverence, featuring sketch, TV and movie parody, non-existent cable shows, ads for products that don’t exist and characters that will become fixtures of popular culture for years to come.

    Ellender says, “FID has an unrivalled heritage of taking comedy to the world and we are pleased to continue the tradition with this extensive collection of sketch, sitcom, parody and observational humour. As a key genre for us, we are constantly working to identify, invest in and nurture the best up-and-coming writers and performers, to ensure that audiences will be laughing with FID for many years to come.

  • Cinemax India Limited files Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI for IPO

    Cinemax India Limited files Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI for IPO

    MUMBAI: Cinemax India Ltd., the exhibition theatre chain operating 10 properties with 33 screens and 9,316 seats, has filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO).

    Cinemax proposes to use the proceeds from the IPO primarily to meet the capital expenditure to be incurred for setting up screens across India. Apart from the expansion funding, the proceeds will be also be utilised for General Corporate Purposes including Acquisitions, as per an official release.

    Cinemax is part of the Mumbai-based real estate establishment Kanakia Group. For the year ended 31 March, 2006, Cinemax clocked a total income of Rs 438.60 million on a standalone basis with a net profit of Rs 67.64 million, states an official release.

  • Premium content to drive mobile industry

    Premium content to drive mobile industry

    MUMBAI: Mobile data services are the next wave of growth for the mobile communications industry amid the increasingly saturated subscriber base.

    While messaging will continue to be the main revenue contributor in most emerging and developing mobile data markets, much of the growth potential also lies in premium content. Greater 3G (third generation) coverage and deployment, expanding regional subscriber base, declining cost of advanced multimedia handsets, and the race to secure a continuous stream of content through partnerships are likely to drive growth of mobile data revenues.

    New analysis from global growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Premium Content Market, reveals that the market – covering 13 major Asia-Pac economies – earned revenues of $9.4 billion in 2005 and is estimated to reach $32.9 billion by end-2011.

    Frost & Sullivan industry manager Janice Chong says, “Subscribers in most Asia-Pac countries have strong preference for local content, which creates the impetus for the fast-growing mobile content market. The pace of 3G adoption, to a certain extent, influences the development of premium content applications by providing greater bandwidth and faster data transmission.”

    The Asia Pacific mobile data market is forecast to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 17.9 percent between 2005 and 2011. Messaging revenues still constitute the majority of operator-generated data revenues. In 2005, messaging accounted for approximately 39.6 percent of total operators’ data revenues (excluding revenue share of third-party content providers).

    The total premium content market, which includes both operator and third-party content provider revenues, held 29.5 percent of total mobile data revenues in 2005, and is expected to register a CAGR of 23.2 percent from 2005 to 2011.

    In certain Asia Pacific countries, the revenue share ratio skews in favour of mobile operators. As a result, content providers receive a small revenue split. Moreover, content providers are required to pay hefty royalties for applications to music label companies and associations. These factors have in some ways hindered the growth of the premium content industry in selected countries. While the revenue share model employed in Japan, South Korea and China may seem relatively favourable to content providers, similar business models may not apply to other countries across the region.

    Chong adds, “In markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines, mobile operators typically retain 60 to 70 per cent of the revenue from sale of content, while content providers receive the remaining smaller portion.

    “Content providers in such countries believe that they deserve a larger revenue share considering that the cost of content development is entirely borne by them.”

    This however is inherently characteristic in markets outside of Japan and South Korea, primarily due to the high use of SMS (short messaging services) based applications which contribute to low data traffic usage. The lack of a satisfactory level of revenue from data traffic usage would mean that operators will tend to seek a higher revenue share from content downloads to compensate for the low data traffic revenue.

  • Damian Grammaticas new South Asia correspondent for BBC News

    Damian Grammaticas new South Asia correspondent for BBC News

    MUMBAI: BBC News has appointed Damian Grammaticas to the post of South Asia correspondent, based in the BBC’s hub bureau in Delhi. A well-known journalist with over a decade’s experience reporting for the BBC from various parts of the world, Grammaticas will be reporting on news stories from South Asia across BBC World television, BBC World Service radio and the BBC News website, according to an official statement.

    BBC south Asia bureau editor Paul Danahar says: “At a time when India, and indeed South Asia, is holding focus on the global stage, the BBC is committed to its role, as the world’s leading broadcaster, to report on the developments in the region to the rest of the world. Damian is an experienced journalist. His sensitivity and understanding of local perspectives has always reflected in his reportage. I am very pleased that he is joining the South Asia bureau. His insightful reporting will add to the BBC’s newsgathering strengths in this region.”

    Damian Grammaticas adds: “This is an exciting time to be reporting on South Asia. Some of the most important stories of our day are concentrated here – be it India’s rise as a future global giant, or the struggle to control international terrorism, or the enormous changes brought by the region’s economic development. Reflecting the intricacies of these events, and the millions of individual, human stories they entail, is my challenge. It’s my privilege to be a witness to such important times.”

    In his previous assignment as the BBC’s Moscow correspondent, he has reported extensively from the countries of the former Soviet Union. He fronted the BBC’s coverage of the important news events such as the ‘Orange’ revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia, the conflict in Chechnya, the resurgence of Russia under president Putin, the lasting effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the tragic Beslan school siege.

    Prior to that, he was the BBC’s Hong Kong correspondent, when he covered stories from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Australia and the Philippines, including the Philippines revolution that overthrew president Joseph Estrada, the deposing of president Abdurrahman Wahid in Indonesia, the Bali bombings, and the brewing crisis over North Korea’s nuclear programme.

    He was also involved in the BBC’s reportage of the war in Afghanistan, including the battle at Tora Bora in 2001, and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has also done short stints of reporting from Israel and Washington, informs the release.

  • Zee South to bring talent hunt ‘My Parents are the Best’

    Zee South to bring talent hunt ‘My Parents are the Best’

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms has conceptualised a talent hunt for parents, My Parents are the Best, for its Southern channels. 

    Titled Ammananna Nenu for Zee Telugu and Nammappaamma for Zee Kannada, the hunt will look for those parents, who have not just been the parents that they will always be but have done something extraordinary to shape and change the lives of their child/children.

    The nominations should be filed by the children for their respective parent/parents.

    Each episode will talk about the achievements of the parents, about their happy moments and the times when they saw no hope. This concept is an effort to bring forward the unsung heroes of the society, as it is the contribution of each parent to his child which moves the society forward and still makes it a beautiful place to live, the release adds.

  • Fox launches on demand service in the US

    Fox launches on demand service in the US

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster Fox has launched FOX on Demand. This aims to bring full episodes of Fox primetime television series from the new fall season to millions of fans on an ad-supported basis through MySpace.com and the MyFoxLocal web sites, in 24 owned and operated markets in the US.

    In an industry first, Fox Interactive Media is leveraging both national and local online distribution channels to sustain enthusiasm for fall primetime programming while the network broadcasts Major League Baseball play-offs and the World Series games.

    Consumers can access previously-aired episodes from Fox’s shows like Bones, Prison Break and Standoff. Additional episodes of these and other Fox shows will be made available throughout October and November.

    On-air promotions during Major League Baseball broadcasts will push viewers to the sites to catch up on their favourite Fox shows through Fox on Demand.

    Fox president of entertainment Peter Liguori says, “We are fortunate to have partners like Fox Interactive Media and our Fox Stations Group making our entertainment programming available to viewers, while we turn over much of prime time to Fox Sports and post-season baseball.

    “MySpace provides tremendous exposure to our key demos and our O&O’s speak to local viewers and loyal fans of FOX in a very targeted way.”

    The launch of ad-supported streaming of FOX programming will support several strategic objectives, including building audiences during breaks in regular programming by utilizing an alternative distribution channel; demonstrating the value of online promotions to stations and advertisers; and allowing parallel entertainment offerings to grow audiences simultaneously.

    Fox Entertainment Group president, digital media Peter Levinsohn says, “Offering free access to Fox programming online during the MLB primetime take-over demonstrates the tremendous value that may be realized through a smart digital distribution strategy for premium content.”

    “The FIM network of sites and particularly MySpace, combined with our local television sites, provide the optimal platform for maintaining momentum with our existing audience and also attracting new viewers.”

  • World Poker Tour to introduce progressive platforms, content at Mipcom

    World Poker Tour to introduce progressive platforms, content at Mipcom

    MUMBAI: World Poker Tour Enterprises (WPTE) will attend the global television trade event Mipcom in Cannes, France, from 9 – 13 October 2006.

    The firm works in the area of poker entertainment. It also claims to be behind the worldwide poker television boom. WPTE will offer new sponsorship, licensing and programming opportunities for 2007.

    To foster increasing worldwide penetration, the WPTE aims to build its international partnerships via joint-ventures, local programming, merchandising, and other strategic alliances. WPTE will showcase the World Poker Tour Season IV, the flagship show in poker television at Mipcom.

    Executives will also present the premiere season of the Professional Poker Tour (PPT), which is currently airing on the Travel Channel in the US.

    WPTE executive director of international distribution Gary MacKinney says, “We look forward to leveraging a premiere tradeshow like Mipcom to strengthen relationships and create opportunities to further expand poker throughout the globe. The World Poker Tour will continue to add international stops while exploring locally-produced televised tournaments in key markets.”
    WPT programming currently airs in 154 countries, including Spain, Canada and Philippines. It recently inked pacts with Kanal 5 in Sweden, Macau Cable in Macau and MediaCorp in Singapore.

    WPTE executive VP Robyn Moder says, “When the WPT made its television debut five years ago, it incited a national poker phenomenon that continues to escalate.

    “As the WPTE begins to roll-out its international formats, we hope to use our excellent and well-seasoned production experience to help our international partners create for their audiences compelling poker programming of the same magnitude.”