ITV

Category: Television

  • ‘Big Brother’ comes a knocking on Sony this November

    ‘Big Brother’ comes a knocking on Sony this November

    MUMBAI: Big Brother, Endemol’s top format show of 2005 in terms of turnover, is all set to launch on Sony Entertainment Television this year.

    Likely to hit the air waves right after the Champions Trophy ends in November; the show will have 12 celebrities from the films, television, music, modelling and sports frat under house arrest for 100 days and that too under constant surveillance by 35 cameras. Some of the personalities that the channel is in talks with are Pooja Bedi, Simone Singh and Arshad Warsi, to name a few.

    Big Brother, which contributes to over 25 per cent of Endemol’s revenues internationally, also has a lot of scope for spin-off segments. “We can have segments with psychiatrists talking about the behaviour of people who are participating in the show. There will also be an eviction talk show, wherein people who are voted out in each episode can speak about what transpired inside and why they feel they were voted out. More such spin-offs on the show like Big Brother’s Little Brother, Big Brain and Big Mouth will also be there,” says Endemol India managing director Rajesh Kamat.

    What’s more, Sony will also be looking at streaming Big Brother episodes on the internet. “Web streaming is definitely a possibility and we are looking at it very seriously,” says SET India senior vice president and programming head Anupama Mandloi.

    “In India we have seen that soaps and stories that are told well, deliver. Big Brother is a queen of all soaps and is very unpredictable too. We are sure that it is going to be huge and will break the clutter. The show will also be toned to match Indian sensibilities and culture,” Mandloi adds.

    Apart from Big Brother, preparations are also underway to launch Extreme Makeover some time early next year, which is being produced by Miditech. The call for entries began on 4 July and will continue till 18 July.

    And if you thought that was all from the Sony stable, think again! Shooting for the second season of Fear Factor India is also currently under way in Argentina. While last time we saw telly actors participating in the show, this time round one can look forward to some Bollywood actors doing some real time stunts – minus the body doubles – in Fear Factor India. Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan are two action stars who come top of mind… well we’ll have to wait and watch if they’re there!

    So it’ll sure be another reality bonanza on Sony!

  • Radio City dominates inaugural edition of 2006 Promax India Radio Awards

    Radio City dominates inaugural edition of 2006 Promax India Radio Awards

    MUMBAI: The first edition of the 2006 Promax India Radio Awards, which reward creative brilliance in radio, unfolded the Indian talent in radio marketing and promotion.

    Radio City stole the limelight by bagging seven awards which included three gold and four silver awards. The radio station pocketed the gold awards for best promotional item for a radio station or programme (Musical-e-Azam), best original music composition for a promo (Namma Naadu Karunaadu) and best promotional campaign by a radio station or programme (Musical-e-Azam).

    The brand took home silver awards for best original music composition for a promo (RC song), best promotional item for a radio station or programme (Musical-e-Azam), best interactive promotion for a radio station (city bajao car le jao) and best use of outdoor advertising (Asha Bhosale live on Musical-e-Azam).

    The newly re-launched Radio One, which was formerly called as Go FM, took home two gold for best print piece for a radio station or programme (Legends) and best interactive promotion for a radio station (The Go FM website). The station picked up one silver award for best promotional campaign by a radio station or programme (Jaggu’s Mission 10k).

    Radio Mirchi pocketed a silver award for best radio promo in-house; music station/programme (Mirchi Delhi Bollywood under arrest) and gold for best use of library music for a promo (Mirchi Delhi cricket India England ’06 series promos).

    Red FM won the gold for best radio promo in-house; music station/programme (Prayas-Breaking News) and silver for best use of library music for a promo (Anda Mix).

    O&M bagged gold for the best use of outdoor advertising for its Worldspace campaign Unwind. The agency also won the best print piece silver for a radio station / programme for its work Genre Based for Worldspace.

    The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the inaugural Living Legend Award, which has been presented to the eminent radio personality Ameen Sayani. The living legend award has been jointly constituted by the Ficci and the India Radio Forum.

    The awards statuette presented to the award recipients renders a human figure reaching skyward in triumph. The award jury included Abraham Thomas (Red FM), Arun Raman (Media Futures), G Sharath Chandra (Radio Mirchi), Gaurav Narula (Deep Emotion Music), Jaikishin Chhaproo (Hindustan Lever), Kahlid Sayed (IMG), Kartik Mani (Madison Communications), Nirupam Sonu (Adlabs), Vikas Varma (Radio City) and Vishnu Ahtreya (Radio One).

  • AXN to roll out Sci-Fi, Crime Networks in Central Europe

    AXN to roll out Sci-Fi, Crime Networks in Central Europe

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has announced plans to launch two new thematic channels in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary: AXN Sci-Fi and AXN Crime.

    The ad-supported channels will be dubbed into local languages in their markets and will also feature locally produced interstitial material. Both will deliver series on weekdays and movies on weekends, and both new networks will be overseen by AXN Central Europe GM Stephen White.

    White says, “These new thematic channels build on the success story of AXN in Central Europe since its launch in 2003 and the move is supported by research and feedback from AXN’s viewers which shows that there is a great demand for high quality sci-fi and crime programming. AXN is the first in the Central European region to dedicate channels to these popular genres.”

    AXN Crime will offer up the SPTI series The Shield and the David Caruso police detective drama Michael Hayes, among others, while AXN SCI-FI’s key offerings will include Star Trek: Enterprise, Andromeda, Sliders, Charlie Jade, Battlestar Galactica and Trucks.

  • ‘Dus’ wins award for action film at AXN Action Awards

    ‘Dus’ wins award for action film at AXN Action Awards

    MUMBAI: The action packed Dus won the award for best action film at the AXN Action Awards which were presented by Dino Morea.

    Dus also won awards for action sequence and action director. Amitabh Bachchan won the lifetime achievement award. Best Action Actor went to Akshay Kumar while Best Action Actor in a negative role went to Rahul Dev for Insan.

    SPE South Asia director marketing and sales Rohit Bhandari says, “The Thums Up and AXN Action Awards was conceptualised purely to felicitate our Bollywood superstars for their action extravaganza on the big screen. Our viewers have truly chosen the right action stars and we are exhilarated and thankful to all our viewers and action heroes for making this show a success. AXN looks forward in delivering the best in original entertainment hope to make the action awards an annual event”

    The AXN Action Awards was presented by Thums Up with associate sponsorship by Mahindra Scorpio and Sony Ericsson K750i. The Promotion Partner for the event was the multiplex Inox.

    Those who missed the show can catch it on 15 July at 5 pm and on 16 July at 11 am.

  • Indiagames partners with Airtel to launch ‘Games on Demand’ service

    Indiagames partners with Airtel to launch ‘Games on Demand’ service

    MUMBAI: Indiagames has launched its new service ‘Games on Demand’ with Airtel Broadband and telephone services. The service was launched with cricketing maestro Sachin Tendulkar playing an online rally game.

    This service offers legal games at a bare minimum monthly subscription fee of just Rs. 199. Indiagames has partnered with a number of leading games publishers like Microsoft, Atari, Playfirst, Alawar, Merscomm, Cenega, Meridian, Techland, amongst others, to be able to bring a variety of premium single and multiplayer games, which include popular titles such as Age of Empires, Driv3R and Flight Simulator to this service, states an official release.

    Commenting on the launch of its Games on Demand service (G.o.D), Indiagames CEO Vishal Gondal said, “With over 85 per cent of games in India being sold illegally, we believe that with our unparalleled price offering we will significantly expand the segment of legitimate sales and bring the experience of high quality online gaming to millions of gamers in India. Our online gaming service would give consumers a legitimate reason to opt for a broadband service, thus accelerating the growth of the broadband user base in India”

    “Today, customers are looking for rich content to enhance the overall broadband experience. As a leading service provider, we aim to offer the hottest on-demand content through as many channels as possible,” says Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services CMO Akshay Kumar. He added, “Online gaming is fast gaining popularity across the world and with the Games on Demand service on Airtel, we are gearing up to give our customers a cool and enhanced gaming experience with the power of a high-speed network.”

    The G.o.D. service offers advantages like high speed downloads without additionally charging for data transfer during download, multiplayer compatible games, automatic patching and security. To further enhance the value proposition Airtel and Indiagames will be offering the service with all its features on a free trial basis for the first fifteen days. To experience this service, consumers can log on to http://www.airtelbroadband.in/games.

  • Online players cash-in on Fifa World cup & score goals with web content: IAMAI

    Online players cash-in on Fifa World cup & score goals with web content: IAMAI

    BANGALORE: The Football world cup, which concluded last week, attracted sports lovers across the globe to the Internet. All major portals and mobile content providers in India had specially redesigned their content for the World Cup to feed the demand of football fans.

    Online add-ons such as mobile download of wallpapers of some of the popular football players and online and mobile games attracted the maximum number of fans to the internet, according to an official release from the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

    Says IAMAI president Dr Subho Ray, “The World Cup bonanza shows that the Internet has emerged not only as an alternative medium but as a parallel medium to a large section of the people in India. With the advent of broadband as well as mobile phones, it is possible to keep a track of the matches even on the go. Websites and mobile content companies are gradually realising the potential of both these mediums and hence are increasingly beefing up their content for such mega events and in the process successfully attracting more and more users and advertisers”.

    HT Media, for example, recorded a 5 per cent to 7 per cent increase in the online revenues, claims Hindustan Times GM Business Development Salil Kumar. Kumar also mentioned that the number of hits during the prime time period at 9 30 pm reached an average of 15,00,000, at post-midnight averaged 20,00,000 and evening 6 30 pm reached an average 5,00,000.

    According to Kumar, in terms of city-wise access to World Cup related activities, Delhi/Chandigarh topped with 40 per cent, followed by Mumbai 30 per cent, Pune 5 per cent, Ahmedabad 5 per cent, Bangalore 10 per cent, Hyderabad 5 per cent and others 5 per cent.

    States Sify Ltd VP Interactive Services Surya Mantha, “Thousands of clips of World Cup football related content were viewed on Sify’s broadband portal Sify Max in the first two weeks of the tournament”. He added that the most watched clip was related to the Brazil v/s France match on 2 July, which was viewed 25,000 times.

    Soccer fans around the world treat their favourite sport as a religion and hence increasingly want to know more and more about their favourite players. This has resulted in an offbeat category on websites, which provides other such information to the football fans. In the offbeat category, Mantha says, “A video featuring the wives/girlfriends of star football players was the most popular”.

    Online advertisers took full advantage of the World Cup fever. MSN India had advertisers such as Lenovo and LIC Housing, informs MSN India Sales and Marketing head R. Rajnish. He also mentioned that netizens mostly in the age group of 18-35 years visited their website for World Cup related activities, the release adds.

    “For Rediff.com”, says chief media revenue officer Arvindra Kanwal, “increased page views resulted in more ad inventory which in turn resulted in better revenue”. He adds, “Football as a platform brought a set of advertisers like Ranbaxy, Maruti Swift, Gillette, Microsoft, Apollo Tyres and others. Our response in page views and sponsor interest mirrored cricket and largely caught the interest of Sec A & B urban audiences in eight metros. Smaller towns were slow to respond”.

    Airtel on the other hand was one of the presenting sponsors of the Fifa World Cup on ESPN, which had the exclusive telecast rights. It provided soccer fans World Cup updates, sourced from ESPN Mobile. It also offered the official song of the FIFA World Cup as a Hello Tune & Ringtone for all Airtel customers.

    Says Bharti Airtel Ltd joint president (Mobility), “Football and World cup related content were among the most popular downloads on Airtel Live, the multi-access entertainment portal of Airtel. As per data available over the last 30 days, the official Fifa World Cup game is among the four most downloaded games. In this visually engaging game, gamers experienced the 12 official stadiums as they took one of their 32 national teams from qualification to glory. ‘Time of Our Lives’, ballad by Il Divo & Toni Braxton, which was the official Fifa World Cup song, has been among the top 10 downloaded songs in the non-film category on Airtel. Football related images were among the top five downloaded wallpapers.”

  • Hurray! enters wireless service pact with MTV China

    Hurray! enters wireless service pact with MTV China

    MUMBAI: Hurray! Holding Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese firm in wireless music distribution and other wireless value-added services has announced its decision to enter into a partnership agreement on wireless value-added services with MTV China.

    Under this agreement, Hurray! will become the official partner for MTV China to deliver wireless value added services to MTV audience interactive with MTV programs, states an official release.

    Commenting on the development, Hurray!’s chairman and chief executive officer QD Wang said, ”We are pleased to establish this important partnership with MTV China. Our wireless value-added services users have remarkably similar demographics with MTV audience. This partnership will not only give both companies a new way to better service its customers, but also further strengthen Hurray!’s leadership in music related wireless products and services. We look forward to bringing best wireless music experience to MTV audience in China.”

    Hurray! offers music and music-related products such as ringtones, ringbacktones and truetones to mobile users in China through SMS, IVR, RBT, WAP, MMS and Java wireless value-added services platforms over mobile networks and through the Internet. The company also provides a range of other wireless value-added services to mobile users in China, including games, pictures and animation, community and other media and entertainment services.

  • Primetime in JV with South African firm for radio services

    Primetime in JV with South African firm for radio services

    MUMBAI: Radio can turn out to be a game for the big boys. Radio Mirchi, Radio City, Sun TV group and Anil Ambani-controlled Adlabs have aggressive rollout plans and are willing to loosen the purse strings.

    Small and regional FM radio operators are toying with the idea of forming a consortium to sell advertising and buy equipment in bulk to match the size of the national players.

    Foreign companies are eyeing this as an opportunity to offer their management and technical expertise. One such company has announced its entry into India.
    Kagiso Media, a leading radio company in South Africa, has floated a 50:50 joint venture with Mumbai-based Primetime International Services, an independent media sales firm.

    The new entity, Primetime Kagiso, will offer comprehensive services to radio stations and advertisers. “Our aim is to assemble a group of radio stations and handle their ad sales. We are close to signing an agreement with Malar Publications and a Delhi-based firm. We also plan to provide management consultancy and training facilities,” says Kagiso Media executive director Omar Essack.

    Malar plans to operate in six cities including Chennai, Madurai and Pondicherry. Primetime Kagiso is scouting for other regional operators so that it can form a big consortium.
    Primetime has been an active player since 1985 in marketing time and space across media including TV, Out-of-Home and are now venturing into the radio domain.

    B.A.G Infotainment Ltd is also planning to lead a 40-member consortium which will give it a national footprint to present before advertisers. Speaking at the India Radio Forum 2006 on “The challenges before regional/local FM radio broadcasters,” BAG Infotainment COO Rajiv Mishra said, “Through the consortium, it will offer more number of stations and volume discounts to the national advertisers.”

    Agreed Gwalior Farms promoter Manmeet Gulzar: “Radio Mirchi is already an invisible competitor in the Gwalior radio space. Though it does not exist in the city, it still has a high recall value here. The advertisers may take to the big players.”

  • Turner to launch Cartoon Network in Korea

    MUMBAI: Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) has teamed up with South Korea‘s media group JoongAng Ilbo (JAI) to launch Cartoon Network Korea.


    The agreement was signed by TBS Korea vice president Ron Lee and JoongAng Broadcasting Corporation (JBC)- a JAI media group company- president and CEO Mun-Yeon Kim.


    In keeping with the Korean broadcast regulations, the majority stake in the joint venture will be held by JAI‘s JBC, with Turner holding a 49 per cent stake in the partnership. Cartoon Network Korea will be languaged in Korean.


    To debut later this year, Cartoon Network Korea will showcase the best in animation, offering both Korean and international animation. Predominantly an animation channel, it will bring together a unique mix of new as well as recognised programming to Korean kids.


    Kim said, “The launch of Cartoon Network Korea is a very significant event for us and for the Korean television industry as the launch of the Network officially kicks off. Cartoon Network Korea will combine the unique strengths of both partners, and will build on our unrivalled knowledge and expertise to create a kids‘ channel that will raise the bar and set new standards of excellence in the kids‘ entertainment genre. Cartoon Network Korea will offer a variety of multi-genre animation titles from its world-renowned library, and will provide more than just Japanese titles or a single style of animation genre.”


    Lee added, “To successfully operate in a highly developed market such as Korea, it is imperative to enter into an alliance with a local partner. In JoongAng Ilbo, we are partnering with an acknowledged leader in the Korean media business. The partnership is a natural extension of our long standing relationship with JAI and is further strengthened by JAI‘s deep understanding of our brand philosophy. By making this strategic investment to create a unique kids‘ entertainment channel in Korea, we are demonstrating our commitment to cater to the specific viewing preferences of the young Korean audience.”


    “As a leading player in the kids‘ entertainment genre in Asia-Pacific, we understand that effective localisation is key for a network to resonate with the audience. Given our experience in successfully delivering specialised Cartoon Network services across the Asia-Pacific, we are confident that our compelling and diverse array of content, specially engineered for kids in Korea, will open up a whole new viewing experience for them,” said Turner Entertainment Networks Asia senior vice president and general manager Ian Diamond.


    Cartoon Network Korea will provide a diverse mix of content drawn from production companies from around the world including Japan, Korea and Cartoon Network‘s own library – comprising more than 14,000 Warner Bros., MGM, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Originals series and shorts. Cartoon Network Korea will also work closely with JAI to examine opportunities for the development of animation in Korea.

  • Comedy Central celebrates comic icons with a new show

    Comedy Central celebrates comic icons with a new show

    MUMBAI: PUS media conglomerate Viacom’s comedy channel Comedy Central is kicking a documentary show Legends later this year in September.

    The channel says that Legends is a new type of documentary series that takes an inside look at the legends of comedy as told through the voices of comedy insiders and those who worked with them and knew them intimately.

    It is a modern tribute that focusses on each legend’s on-stage persona and off-stage personality, while examining how and why they ascended to the ranks of comic royalty and their influence on the modern-day comedy scene.

    It will have clips of memorable performances and interviews with peers and acolytes, each individual, hour-long episode of Legends will retain its own style and unique flavour, just like the legends themselves. The first comedian who will be profiled is the late comic icon Rodney Dangerfield.

    The other comic personalities that will be profiled include talk show host Jay Leno, actor Ben Stiller and Jerry Seinfeld.