MUMBAI: Television format owner and creator Endemol has announced that Elías Rodríguez-Viña Cancio is its CEO.
Rodriguez-Viña comes from Telefónica, where he has been responsible for the Group’s non-core subsidiaries. Before that, he was Terra Lycos CFO and has worked for companies such as Arthur Andersen, General Electric and UBS.
As reported last month by Indiantelevision.com, the former CEO Joaquim Agut had quit citing personal reasons.
MUMBAI: Eros International plc, the international media and entertainment group that owns and distributes Bollywood content globally in a variety of formats, began trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, under the ticker ‘EROS’. The company was listed on 4 July.
The flotation follows a placing of the company’s shares which raised over £22.5 million ($41 million). The company will be capitalised at approximately £176.0 million ($321 million), at the placing price of at £1.76 per ordinary share, states an official release.
The company also said it would use the funds raised to expand its business and exploit content over new media such as online cable, wireless and mobile.
Eros International chairman and CEO Kishore Lulla says, “This is an exciting day for everyone at Eros and a new chapter in the growth of our business. We are proud to bring Eros to the market as a publicly traded company.”
Eros International also promotes the B4U television channel network. Founded in India in 1977, the company has a film library containing more than 1,300 titles and more than 110 employees in India, Britain, the United States, United Arab Emirates, Australia and Fiji, as per the release.
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC is looking to turn its comedy shows into feature films. Kenton Allen, an Oscar-winning producer who produced this year’s Academy award winning short film Six Shooter will lead the development initiative for the comedy department that produces shows like Little Britain, Extras, Ideal and Funland.
Alongside exploring the potential to develop existing brands into feature films, Kenton Allen and the Comedy team will also work with a wide variety of writers and writer/performers to develop feature films. Allen said, “Many of the comedy talent we work with ultimately want to paint on a bigger canvas, and this relationship with BBC Films means that we can now offer them that opportunity.
“From initial development in Radio and the Internet, through Television and on to Film, BBC Comedy can offer the best comedy talent the best possible development path for their work.
“BBC Comedy has a fine tradition of developing iconic comic voices from Ronnie Barker to Ricky Gervais and I’m confident that this opportunity will lead to some truly original film making.”
BBC Films head David Thompson said: “I am very excited about working with Kenton and The BBC Comedy team. Comedy is very much a target area for us at the moment, with several interesting projects in development, the recent successful releases of Debbie Isitt’s Confetti and Michael Winterbottom’s A Cock & Bull Story.”
MUMBAI: US-based ION Media Networks, Inc. and Sony Pictures Television have announced a programming agreement that provides ION with the rights to broadcast dozens of classic television series and a large selection of award-winning feature films from the Sony library on the i television network, reaching over 90 million homes.
“This agreement reflects our strategy of strengthening our i network’s programming schedule with popular series and theatrical hits with proven audience appeal,” says ION Media Networks CEO Brandon Burgess. “We look forward to working with Sony on developing a compelling entertainment line-up that continues to appeal to our current audience, while attracting new viewers to the network.”
“The i network and its stations will benefit from a wide variety of titles from our extensive library of television series and feature films, which have proven to deliver audiences,” adds Sony Pictures Television president distribution John Weiser. “We are pleased to be in partnership with ION, helping them grow and making them a destination for great programming.”Under the terms of the agreement, ION will have access to many of SPT’s most popular TV series from the last three decades, including Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, The Partridge Family, The Monkees and Silver Spoons, among others.
In addition, titles from Sony’s extensive library of theatrical films will be available to ION, including A River Runs Through It, Oliver!, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Short Circuit and many more.
“We are pleased to have access to Sony’s diverse collection of movies and classic TV shows,” says ION SVP of programming and strategic planning Stacey Nagel Galper. “We will begin scheduling the Sony movies on the i network this month, with plans to launch the television series in August.”
MUMBAI: The original Indian rap king Baba Saigal and popular RJ Siddharth Kannan team up to entertain viewers with Zoom’s first comic bonanza, Santa & Banta Unlimited. This new show aims to redefine ‘time pass viewing’, with it’s two hosts Siddharth Kannan aka Santa and Baba Saigal aka Banta.
The one thing that the duo is confident about is that they just come on sets to have a whole load of fun to create a zara hatke comical show that will deliver everything from topical news, lifestyle issues, film reviews, TV gags of other shows, parties, call ins for “love” problems and other Gyaan, in true Santa Banta style, which is a comical rhapsody, witty repartees and award winning one liners.
Joking about his rapport with Baba, Kannan remarks with his trademark tongue-in-cheek twist, “We are like a husband and wife team. But we haven’t figured who is the husband and who is the wife. We are two contrasting people with a zest for life. As people in Mumbai would say, we are truly bindaas.”
“Anchoring is a part of me. It has a different kick, different popularity and a different feedback,” says Baba about his experience. “I have known Siddharth since the past 12 years. We’ve developed a great chemistry and that will be evident on-screen.”
MUMBAI: Handling everything from players’ and journalists’ accreditations, to transmitting photos and match details around the world in real time, the converged network from Avaya, an official partner of the 2006 Fifa World Cup has managed a communication network that’s free of errors.
Avaya, which provides business communications applications, systems and services. The converged network – which combines voice and data on the same infrastructure — connects the 12 host stadiums, the stadium media centers in Munich, Berlin and Dortmund and the Fifa headquarters in Berlin.
Players, coaches, volunteers and fans alike benefit from the network that is being used to issue accreditations for players and journalists, report results, track materials and inventory, confirm accommodations at Fifa’s official hotels and maintain security systems.
According to Avaya, at the halfway point in the tournament, the network has performed flawlessly and without any downtime, which is critical for a highly visible event such as the Fifa World Cup. For example, for the first 20 matches, the cumulative worldwide television viewing audience was almost 1.26 billion people. The total of voice and data bytes transferred over the network since it went ‘live’ on 1 June 2006 is 9.8 terabytes (or 9.8 trillion bytes of traffic). The average amount of traffic transmitted on Avaya network each day during the Fifa World Cup is 250,000 gigabytes.
People have logged onto the converged communications network approximately 567,000 times, to date, and over 296,000 phone calls have been made on the network, which represents 632,297 minutes of calling time.
Thousands of people have been using the high-speed Wireless Lan access from Avaya that have made connectivity easy and convenient for staff working temporarily in an area of the stadium or Fifa Headquarters Hotel.
Journalists and photographers working in the stadiums can quickly connect to the Internet via an Avaya wireless Lan network and send photos and stories directly from the field.
Avaya’s Fifa World Cup programme director Andrea Rinnerberger says, “Whether it’s our team of Avaya technical experts or the team of players on the field, the same rules apply: excellent preparation is critical to success. For months, the network Avaya built for the Fifa World Cup underwent rigorous testing in configuration, fail-over and resiliency.
You might say we were in ‘intensive training’ for the tournament. Achieving 99.99 per cent network availability and reliability to date is the result of these high-powered IT ‘workouts’ that enable us to be fully ready for the expected and unexpected.”
The unexpected arrived for the Avaya team of technicians working at a match at the Fifa World Cup stadium in Munich when Argentine football great Diego Maradona ducked into the stadium’s technical center to escape autograph seekers, and found himself surrounded by blinking monitors and racks of media servers and gateways that comprise the network Avaya built for Fifa. After his — and the Avaya team’s — initial surprise, the former football star was introduced to the world of high technology, with a tour of the network that Avaya deployed.
Rinnerberger said, “It’s a ‘World Cup moment,’ but it illustrates Avaya’s dedication to being prepared for anything and everything. We bring the same dedication to the enterprise customers we serve around the world.”
MUMBAI: Jennifer Harrington has been appointed the formats head for Granada International. Based in London, Harrington, who sued to be the sales director at Twentieth Century Fox International Television, will head up all international format activity worldwide for Granada International. She will be responsible for the sale of Granada International formats and unscripted material, from both ITV Productions and independent producers.
In addition, she will lead the push to acquire formats from external sources to complement the range of hit formats Granada International distributes from its in-house production companies, particularly focusing on the US market.
She will report to Granada International sales director Tim Mutimer and will also work alongside the director of acquisitions and co-productions Emmanuelle Namiech on securing new formats from the worldwide independent production sector.
Granada International’s formats cover a wide range of shows, from I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Saturday Night Takeaway to Hell’s Kitchen, Nanny 911, Dancing on Ice, Soapstar Superstar and ITV1’s fly-on-the-wall docusoap format, Airline. Granada International also has a portfolio of classic game shows such as Chance of A Lifetime, Alphabet Game and All New Catchphrase.
MUMBAI: One of the action oriented AXN’s biggest on ground initiatives for this year is The Amazing Race Asia. Like its American counterpart, the reality show will see contestants from different Asian countries running from one location to another on specified modes of transport to emerge as a winner and get $100,000.
The host of the show will be Singapore-based TV personality Allan Wu. He has in the past participated in the US reality series Fear Factor which also airs on AXN. As had been reported a few months ago by indiantelevision.com, over 1,000 teams had applied to participate in the race.
As a marketing initiative, AXN will conduct a series of road shows in the region to engage the public. AXN will be holding the Amazing Race Fan Tour from July to October. The places it will visit are Delhi on 8 October, Korea on 8 July, Bangkok on 5 August, Singapore on 26 August, Kuala Lumpur on 9 September and Manila on 30 September.
AXN says that it was searching for a host that could not only relate to various Asian cultures but who would be able to keep up with the intense physical demands of the race.
SPE Networks Asia GM Ricky Ow says, “Having participated in another world-class TV show, Allan Wu understands what it takes to be the host of The Amazing Race Asia. He embodies the spirit of AXN and The Amazing Race Asia. As a big fan of The Amazing Race, Allan will be able to give interesting insight to the Asian version of this hit reality show.
“And it doesn’t hurt that Allan is easy on the eyes. His good looks and natural charisma will offer a different appeal from the US version, and will definitely ‘Wu’ new fans for The Amazing Race Asia.”
AXN has also announced a raft of sponsors for the event. They are Malaysia Tourism and Promotion Board, and the regional sponsors are: Official Camera Partner – Sony Electronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd, Official Airline Partner – AirAsia, Caltex, MSN, Official Mobile Partner – Nokia, and Official Hospitality Partner – Bintan Lagoon Resort and Bintan Resorts. Ford is a local sponsor.
Production on The Amazing Race Asia finished last month. Post-production work will shortly commence and the show will air in 13 episodes across Asia later in the year.
Each team comprises of two people with a pre-existing relationship like husband – wife, mother – daughter.
As with the US version, participants will be perpetually guessing their next destination as venturing into the unknown has always been the entertaining hallmark of the show. This sense of the unknown puts everyone on a level playing field.
MUMBAI: Just two days before the final of the 2006 Fifa World Cup between Italy and either France or Portugal, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, will be the setting for a big football party: The ‘Football for a Better World – From Germany to South Africa’ show will kick off the four-year journey to the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a joyful celebration of football and music.Admission is completely free.
The show features multi-platinum selling acts from across the globe. Germany is represented by Xavier Naidoo, Wir sind Helden and Die Fantastischen Vier. South American star Ivete Sangalo will bring the samba spirit, dancehall and hip hop superstars Sean Pau,l Wyclef Jean and Lumidee will be moving the crowd all night long, and further special performances by Patrizio Buanne and other special guest stars are also lined-up.
One of the highlights of the evening will be the super-group put together spontaneously and specially for this show by African music legend Youssou N’Dour.
This unique group features fellow African artists such as, Angélique Kidjo, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Vusi Mahlasela, MC Solaar und Rokia Traore. Freshlyground, South Africa’s top selling artists complete the high quality line-up. The show will be presented by popular German TV sports and entertainment anchors Monica Lierhaus and Matthias Opdenhövel and stand-up comedian Michael Mittermeier will present a special set of his unique brand of humour.
High-ranking dignitaries such as the General Secretary of the UN Kofi Annan, South Africa president Thabo Mbeki, Fifa president Joseph S Blatter, the president of the 2006 Fifa Organising Committee Franz Beckenbauer, as well as the Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit will be addressing the show audience in Berlin and millions of television viewers watching the broadcast in over 120 countries. The former South African president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela will be joining in via a video message from the 2010 host country.
In keeping with the upcoming change in venue for the soccer World Cup legends of African football will also grace the stage with stars such as George Weah, Roger Milla and Abedi Pele unveiling a special treat for the Berlin audience. The Giant video screens at the Fan fest will replay the greatest moments of the 2006 Fifa World Cup and provide the context for all the evenings entertainment. Fifa will also highlight its Official Charity Campaign “6 villages for 2006” in conjunction with SOS Children’s Villages. This project aiming at creating six new SOS children’s villages in Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Ukraine, and Vietnam, providing a new home to at least 800 children in need.
With this show, the world governing body of football wants to emphasise the power of football far beyond the boundaries of the pitch by bringing together with artists, football icons and world leaders to deliver a joint message to the world. The show, broadcast from Germany’s biggest public viewing event the Fan Fest Berlin, will spotlight the “Football for a Better World” alliance, which will allow the implementation of one of the main goals of world football’s governing body, which is to strive to build a better future through football, especially in Africa, but also throughout the world.
MUMBAI: The Zee Network owned music channels ETC and Zee Music have decided to take on T-Series, the audio company which controls a large of chunk of the Bollywood music market, over what they assert are pending dues amounting to over Rs 70 million.
ETC Networks has issued a notice declaring that it has “with immediate effect stopped accepting bookings for telecasting of film trailers and promos of film and non film music from Super Cassette Industries Ltd (T-Series).”
Countering the charge, T-Series has denied any outstandings and has retaliated by claiming that it is Zee that has infringed on the intellectual property rights of the entire film industry, including T-Series.
The ETC release, meanwhile, points out, “All concerned producers who have made bookings through Super Cassette Industries may kindly note that their trailers and promos will not be telecast by us on account of deliberate and purposeful default of payment.”
ETC has also highlighted that “all producers who are interested in telecasting their film trailers and promos of film and non film music with immediate effect as well as in future are requested to directly approach the company.” The statement further says that ETC is ready to provide “new revised and reduced rates and terms” specially for producers.
T-Series holds the audio rights of some big upcoming releases in 2006 including Babul, Salaam-e Ishq, Jaaneman and the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don, so how the face-off plays out could well have far-reaching implications across the industry.