ITV

Category: Television

  • Norwest Venture partners invests $10 million in Web 2.0 Sulekha.com

    MUMBAI: Sulekha.com, the online social media and local commerce destination for Indians,has announced Promod Haque’s global technology venture capital firm, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP)’s series A, investment of $10 million in the company.

     

    Sulekha.com plans to use the new capital to extend business development and marketing, primarily through alliances, and expand its service offerings into new vertical markets. NVP managing partner Promod Haque, has joined the Sulekha board of directors. Sulekha, founded and run by Satya Prabhakar, received prior funding from the Indigo Monsoon Group (IMG), led by Param Parameswaran and Harish Raghavan. IMG invests in early stage companies in the Indian Internet and Mobile domains.

     

    “Sulekha has been a Web 2.0 company even during the Web 1.0 days. It has positioned itself at the vortex of three of the largest Internet mega-trends: India, Social Media and Local Commerce through industry-leading services including Blogs, Social Networks, Classifieds and Yellow Pages. While the management of Sulekha has done a great job of developing reach and revenue, the real explosive potential, both in online and mobile platforms, is still in front of us,” said Haque.

     

    “NVP is one of the most reputed venture capital firms in the world with more than 45 years of experience in building successful companies. This, coupled with NVP’s strong interest, many investments and relationships across various industries in India, made NVP a great choice for Sulekha as we pursue aggressive growth plans in the coming year,” said, Sulekha.com founder and CEO Satya Prabhakar. “In particular, we look forward to working with Promod Haque who, with his valuable experience and vast global network, has helped numerous companies, both in U.S. and India, soar and succeed,” he added.

     

    “The marriage of trusted member to member interactions and its application to classifieds and business search/ratings holds incredible promise in spurring local commerce in India. Sulekha’s successful track record of aggregating member content and interactions by city and by vertical areas of interest will allow us to deploy the new capital to dominate this market niche,” said IMG and Sulekha.com Chairman Param Parameswaran.

     

    Sulekha’s Portfolio of Services – Interact and Transact
    By offering a user-generated platform and a trusted community network, Sulekha enables Indians to interact and transact with their peers and businesses through three popular services:

     

    Blogs and Social Networking – Sulekha provides the largest and most popular platform for Indians to voice their ideas, opinions and reviews in blogs. Users can also connect with other Indians creating online social networks. Just as social networking driven by expression has become a destination for US consumers, Sulekha brings the same experience to India and beyond.

     

    Sulekha has crafted successful offline partnerships with such companies as Penguin, DNA and Indian Express to create important additional distribution avenues for its tens of thousands of bloggers.

     

    Classifieds – Sulekha has the largest and most popular Indian classifieds marketplace for goods and services that fosters transactive relationships among its members in over 25 cities worldwide daily. With more than 250,000 ads and addressing 80% of online Indians worldwide, Sulekha provides unparalleled opportunities to connect members when they need to interact and transact.

     

    Yellow Pages – Sulekha.com is the provider of online yellow pages in India supporting millions of business searches every month. Sulekha leverages its vast audience to help local businesses reach customers on a daily basis, and includes user-contributed reviews, ratings and recommendations to enable consumers to make the most informed purchasing decisions. Sulekha’s yellow pages currently offer business listings in eight cities throughout India and US. Sulekha Yellow Pages is also integrated with WAP-enabled mobile phones for mobile downloads of listings.

     

    “While we are only recently witnessing tremendous interest in Web 2.0 startups worldwide, Sulekha has been a thought leader in this space for some time, and continues to make rapid strides. Sulekha’s strong and experienced management team is well-positioned to capitalize on the unprecedented Internet growth in India over the last year, and we believe the company has a first mover advantage in pursuing significant revenue-generating opportunities in the coming years,” added Haque

  • Rendezvous with ‘Rekha’

    MUMBAI: Star World will be airing a special episode of Rendezvous with Simi Garewal featuring the Bollywood star Rekha, on Sunday 12 November at 9:30 pm.

    This one and a half hour interview will be aired in three parts in three half-hour special episodes. This is Rekha’s first television interview in 20 years, asserts an official release.

    For the first time, Rekha will talk about her private life – her relationship with her parents, her marriage and also about the influence of superstar Amitabh Bachchan on her life and art. In this week’s episode, Rekha will talk about her childhood, her parents, living in the same city as her father and how she grew up without him. She also reveals to Simi how, as a 13-year-old girl, she hated living all alone and working in the Mumbai film industry.

    She also shares some lighter moments like how she used to sneak out of shoots to grab a chocolate as she was deprived of it for months. The episode also features Rekha giving an insight into her idea of a perfect relationship, adds the release.

  • Star Movies to premiere ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’

    Star Movies to premiere ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’

    MUMBAI: Academy Award® winner Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider) and Oscar® nominee Brad Pitt (Ocean’s Twelve), along with comedian Vince Vaughn (The Break-Up), star in the controversial Mr. & Mrs. Smith, believed by many to be the reason for the split between Hollywood’s former favourite couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. The sparks between the saucy Jolie and hunky Pitt brought in US$478 million box office worldwide.

     

    John (Pitt) and Jane Smith (Jolie) are an ordinary suburban couple with an ordinary, lifeless suburban marriage. But each is hiding something the other would kill to know: Mr. and Mrs. Smith are actually highly paid, incredibly efficient assassins, and they work for competing organizations.

     

    Mr. and Mrs. Smith discover a new source of excitement in their marriage, when they’re hired to assassinate each other… and that’s when the real fun starts. The result is the ultimate action spectacle, as Mr. and Mrs. Smith put their formidable skills to work and their marriage to the ultimate test.

     

    So don’t forget to tune in to the exclusive premiere of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, this Friday, November 24th at 9 p.m. only on Star Movies.

  • CBS Television tests the water with ‘Shark’

    CBS Television tests the water with ‘Shark’

    MUMBAI: AquaCell announced today that CBS Television, which has historically captured water cooler buzz for its comedies by advertising on Aquacell water coolers installed in retail stores, is diving into uncharted waters by promoting its new prime time drama Shark starring James Woods, on AquaCell’s water coolers installed in law offices.

    “We’re thrilled CBS is expanding its Coolertising program beyond the retail stores by advertising on coolers installed in lawyer’s offices. Lawyer’s offices are the perfect place for CBS Television to promote Shark,” said AquaCell Technologies president Karen Laustsen.

    This latest Coolertising promotion encourages those that are thirsty for something different to “Try a Cooler Courtroom Drama.” The program includes promotion on hundreds of water coolers installed in retail locations in the New York and Los Angeles areas, as well as law offices in the Mid-Atlantic region.

    AquaCell’s “Coolertising” advertising program provides unique “out-of-home” advertising. The company installs its patented self-filling AquaCell bottled water cooler system into various locations free of charge under a multi-year agreement and retains ownership of the “billboard” water cooler.

    Revenue is generated through the sale of the advertising space on the bottle band and cup holder of the permanently attached five-gallon bottle to companies that provide products and services pertinent to the demographics and location.

  • Dish TV pumps up the volume on interactive services, marketing

    Dish TV pumps up the volume on interactive services, marketing

    NEW DELHI: The Indian DTH market is all set to explode with Dish TV going ballistic with services and marketing activities ahead of Tata Sky’s imminent launch.

    Though Dish TV terms it as sheer coincidence that it’s unveiling a host of value-added services and as well as coming out with a media campaign over the last two days, the timing seems to be just correct.

    “We had planned our value added service from before and it’s purely a coincidence that our consumer-awareness campaign, which broke a few days ago in the media, comes ahead of Tata Sky’s proposed launch,” Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna told Indiantelevision.com today.

    Apart from a 360 degree approach through a media campaign — goodbye to cable problems. Hello Digital! — country’s first DTH platform Dish TV is also set to unveil a host of services from Monday onwards.
    Leading the pack of new initiatives is interactivity, which will come via Zee News.

    The digi-boxes of Dish TV would now allow the unique experience of interactive viewing. Consumers can surf while watching TV for detailed stories, headlines and weather reports.

    How does this work? A subscriber of Dish TV wants to see whether Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza has won her latest match or not and cannot wait for the sports segments to come in the news bulletin.

    So while a news bulletin is on on Zee News, a few presses of the buttons can take the viewer straight to the sports section for the Sania news story even as the main news bulletin continues.

    “Such interactive facilities will give Dish viewers more convenience, but will also mean the broadcaster’s (Zee News in this case) having to upload more feeds than usual to give the interactivity features a momentum,” Khanna said.

    By the end of next week, Zee News’ interactivity on Dish would be completed for all subscribers, he assures.

    Apart from news, Dish TV is also planning to go interactive with sports, starting with Zee Sports.

    Sports interactivity will involve freezing of shots from a particular angle, getting player details immediately without having to wait for the sports channel providing it and statistics about the game in progress and sports in general.

    The interactivity on Zee Sports will start with the Indian cricket board-recognised tri-nation series involving India, Australia and another country at a neutral ground from mid-September for which Zee has the telecast rights.

    “At this point of time only Zee Sports will go interactive, but we are talking to Sony Entertainment TV India for introducing the features for the ICC Champions Trophy that will air on Max,” Khanna said.

    Dish now has all the sports channel presently available on Indian cable networks, which include ESPN, Star Sports and Ten Sports. It also has some niche sports channels not beaming to cable subscribers.

    Asked which other channels can go interactive, Khanna opined that globally interactivity works best with news and sports programming.

    Next on the list is a dedicated gaming channel for people of all age groups. At any given point of time it will have eight games, which will be updated on a monthly basis.

    Hassle free and simple, PlayJam software would start downloading on set top boxes of subscribers from early next week onwards.

    The whole process will take a few days to be completed for all of the 1.25 million DTH subscribers of Dish.

    According to Dish TV AVP (interactive services) Manish Chawla, three to four games are likely to be added every month with the overall number of games available remaining at eight presently.

    The electronic programming guide had always been available to Dish subscribers, but from next week it will get fully activated with programming details of over 100 channels at one’s fingertips.

    The EPG will store three days’ information, which is likely to help viewers plan their viewing, Chawla explained as proper setting of the EPG will send out alerts before a particular programme starts.

    With Tata Sky (a joint venture between the Tatas and Rupert Murdoch’s Star) also planning to start its services soon, there will be hectic action in the Indian DTH market.

    Hong Kong based Media Partners Asia (MPA) says that India remains the most significant and accessible cable and satellite (C&S) opportunity in the Asia Pacific region.

    India began commercial DTH operations in October 2003 and by December 2004 reported over three million subscribers. MPA said India is poised to become Asia’s leading cable market by 2010, the largest satellite market by 2008 and the most lucrative pay TV market by 2015.

  • IPTV subscriber base set for explosive growth: iSuppli

    IPTV subscriber base set for explosive growth: iSuppli

    MUMBAI: The worldwide subscriber base for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services is expected to expand by a factor of more than 26 from 2005 to 2010, spurring a competitive battle between video providers both old and new, iSuppli Corp. predicts.

    Global IPTV subscribers will grow to slightly more than 63 million in 2010, rising at a stunning Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 92.1 per cent from 2.4 million in 2005, as presented in the figure below.

    The IPTV subscriber base will generate more than $27 billion in overall IPTV services revenue in 2010. While video services will account for the largest portion of these dollars, value-added media services and IPTV operator advertising will combine to represent more than 14 per cent of IPTV services revenue in 2010. Furthermore, across all IPTV services, the corresponding content licensing revenue will reach $11 billion in 2010.

    “The fight to capture the expanding base of IPTV subscribers will put telecom operators on a collision course with existing pay-TV market competitors and with a new class of broadband video portals as they roll-out progressively more sophisticated offerings,” said iSuppli vice president multimedia content and services Mark Kirstein.

    iSuppli categorises market deployment of IPTV services in three phases. The current global IPTV market is early in its first phase: basic service deployment. The second phase will add an array of value-added and interactive services. Phase three will bring dramatic improvements in integration and interactivity.

    Thus, in this pending battle for subscribers, providing a competitive video offering is merely the cost of entry for IPTV operators. Differentiation of IPTV services will be essential to bringing new capabilities to TV-based entertainment and attracting subscribers.

    Areas of differentiation will include:

    Interactivity, such as communication, community, voting, interactive advertising and television commerce (t-commerce).

    Integration across multiple platforms, across voice and data services and across content types, i.e. video, voice, music, gaming, data services and user content.
    Personalisation, including intelligent TV recommendations, individualised advertising and non-linear video programming, such as Video on Demand (VoD) and Digital Video Recording (DVR).

    Value-added services, including on-demand gaming, music, media applications, home networking management, security and data.

    Beyond the video service providers themselves, an array of companies will benefit from new opportunities arising from their roles as the “arms suppliers” for the battle over the next generation of television distribution. These companies include infrastructure gear manufacturers, set-top box makers, software vendors and semiconductor suppliers, iSuppli predicts.

    On a geographic basis, the European market has taken the early lead in the global IPTV market, both for subscribers and for revenue. However, Asia will generate faster growth than the other regions and will achieve the largest subscriber base by the end of this year. The Americas region will lead the world in terms of IPTV dollars starting this year because it will yield the highest Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

  • Cable TV to air CBFC certified film, music video

    Cable TV to air CBFC certified film, music video

    NEW DELHI: Determined to clean up the Indian cable TV of what it feels is indecent content, the government brought in other regulation relating to airing of songs and promos.

    The information and broadcasting ministry yesterday issued a notification that no film or film song or film promo or film trailer or music video or music album or their promos, whether produced in India or abroad, shall be carried through cable service unless it has been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) as suitable for unrestricted public exhibition in India.

    The move, according to the ministry, has been necessitated on the ground of a growing demand from the public to regulate airing of programmes containing obscenity, violence, cruelty etc., through cable TV networks.

    In this regard, the ministry also cited a judgement of the Bombay High Court, which had directed cable operators not to carry any programme that was unsuitable for unrestricted public exhibition.

    In a statement today, the I&B ministry said another rule relating to airing of ads has been amended.

    From now on, no advertisement, which violates the code for
    self-regulation for public exhibition, as adopted by the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI), shall be carried in the cable service.

    The new norms have been inserted as an amendment to the Cable Television (Network) Rules 1994.

    In the meanwhile, the government is still in the process of finalizing draft guidelines for content.

  • Filmy to launch Hollywood dubbed movie block; revamps programming

    Filmy to launch Hollywood dubbed movie block; revamps programming

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Media & Entertainment Ltd’s Hindi movie channel Filmy is entering the second half of its first year with a slew of new initiatives. One key move on the programming front would be the launch of a Hollywood dubbed movie segment.

    “We want to explore the Hollywood action movie genre for Filmy. For this, we are planning to have a dubbed movie block. Filmy will be unveiling the segment very soon and we are working on the slots. At present we are in talks with a couple of foreign players for movie acquisition,” says Filmy business head Ashutosh, while not divulging further details.

    According to market sources, Sahara is in talks with at least three international studios for acquiring the international titles. The list includes Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, the motion picture and television feature distribution company owned by The Walt Disney Company.

    This move will see Filmy joining rival channels Max and Star Gold, which are already into telecasting dubbed versions of popular Hollywood movies. However, Zee Cinema has been distancing itself from the strategy of telecasting Hollywood movies dubbed in Hindi.

    As part of the programming revamp, Filmy is also increasing the footage of its wrap-around content, which includes film-based shows and spoofs. The channel’s anchors Rokki, Lal Gulab, Lallan and Ruchi Reporter will now do more shows on the channel during the breaks.

    The decision to up the wrap-around programming was taken on the basis of an audience study Filmy conducted after completing three months, according to Filmy marketing and content head Shailesh Kapoor.

    “We have received feedback from our viewers, asking us to increase the participation of our anchors in our programming. They want to watch more of the film-based content. Accordingly, We have a new segment ‘Filmy Hot Break’, which will be of the duration of 60 to 90 seconds. Our anchors will be presenting various forms of content, based on the particular movie on air at that time, during these breaks. This segment comes in 21 movies a week, in each time slot of 10 am, 3 pm and 8 pm,” says Kapoor.

    The learnings have inspired Filmy to take a re-look at its film news programming as well. Accepting the demand for the latest film news updates, the channel has now started airing 60 second capsules of film news throughout the day, Monday to Friday. In the weekends, the channel continues telecasting its 30 minutes film news programme Aaj Ka Filmy Khabar. “The effort is to break stories and offer our viewers live updates on the happenings in the entertainment industry,” reasons Kapoor.

    The Filmy Short Film Festival contest, which is positioned as one of its big ideas of 2006, will start rolling from the third week of August. Filmy will be telecasting the shortlisted entries Monday to Friday and during the weekends, it will air some of the best entries handpicked by the jury head Madhur Bhandarkar. The channel will be announcing the final winner in September.

    On the marketing front, Filmy is following the strategy of taking its lead anchors off air and positioning amidst the public. The channel recently associated with Rakesh Roshan for his latest release Krrish and had Lallan performing in the respective theatres. Similarly, Lallan will be doing a Shahrukh act in theatres where Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna would be releasing.

  • Bahl sells 2,00,000 TV18 shares to Network 18 Fincap

    Bahl sells 2,00,000 TV18 shares to Network 18 Fincap

    MUMBAI: Network 18 Fincap Pvt Ltd (previously known as SGA Finance and Management Services Private Limited) has acquired 2,00,000 equity shares of Television Eighteen India Ltd (“TV18”) from founder-promoter Raghav Bahl at Rs 650.25 per share.

    The transaction was by way of block deal executed on the stock exchange, TV18 said. “Pursuant to the sanction to the Scheme of Arrangement by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi, Network 18 Fincap Private has acquired 2,00,000 shares from Bahl,” the company informed the NSE.

  • Get shaken & stirred on Discovery Travel & Living new series Cocktail Kings

    Get shaken & stirred on Discovery Travel & Living new series Cocktail Kings

    MUMBAI: Aiming to break away from the routine family dramas and soaps, the lifestyle channel Discovery Travel & Living has been showcasing a variety of shows to spearhead the emerging trend of contemporary alternative television.

    Starting today and to be aired every Thursday at 10 30pm, the new series Cocktail Kings introduces two professional cocktail makers, Colin Asare-Appiah and Dimitri Lezinska as they travel to cities across Europe and the USA where they meet the locals, see the sights, uncover the best things to do and the best places to be seen doing them.

    A 13 episodes series, it focuses on different locations from Colin’s home turf in London and Dimitri’s in Paris, to Milan, Berlin, Athens, other cities across Europe, then over to the US to New York, Miami, San Francisco and Seattle.

    Spending two days at each location, Colin and Dimitri experience the more unusual activities each city offers, apart from seeking out the most stylish bars, restaurants and hotels.

    Once completely saturated in the culture and personality of each city, Colin and Dimitri each then create a brand new cocktail based upon their experiences. Of the two, the cocktail that best reflects the city’s style will be placed on the cocktail list at one of the city’s coolest bars – where a cocktail-making session will take place.

    Committed to providing content that gets viewers to escape from the day-to-day grind of everyday life, Cocktail Kings is all set to woo the discerning viewer.