ITV

Category: Television

  • MTV to celebrate anniversary of Live8 concert globally

    MTV to celebrate anniversary of Live8 concert globally

    MUMBAI: One year on from the historic Live8 concert, MTV Networks International is celebrating the first anniversary of the momentous music event by airing a new special this month called Live8: What A Difference A Day Made. This is being done through a partnership with Network Live. An estimated three billion people all from all over the world watched Live8, billed as the greatest show on earth, where the crème of the world’s music artists came together to perform with one message – make poverty history.

    MTV will premiere the 90-minute special reaching 480 million households around the world in major markets including US, Japan, UK, France, Germany and Latin America. In addition to providing viewers the chance to relive the music spectacular of Live8, Bob Geldof will introduce the programme by giving a retrospective on how far we have travelled since the historic event and why it’s important to remember one year later.

    The programme is a selection of highlights from most inspirational performances and presentations that took place across 10 cities including London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Ontario, Toyko, Johannesburg, Philadelphia, Moscow and Edinburgh. Live8: What A Difference A Day Made relives the moments when U2, Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Madonna, Youssou N’Dour and Dido, Robbie Williams, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Paul McCartney and others captured the hope and optimism of the world and rallied the crowds to fight against poverty in Africa and to lobby the G8 leaders to makes promises on debt relief, Aids drugs, trade tariffs and education.

    The special will air on MTV’s channels in the lead up the G8 Summit 2006 on 15 July in St Petersburg, Russia where G8 leaders are expected to discuss international issues such as global energy security, infectious diseases and education. Live8 was executive produced by Network Live CEO Kevin Wall.

    In 2005 in the week leading to the G8 Summit and Live8 concerts, UK Prime Minister and chair of the G8 summit Tony Blair and Live8’s leading force Bob Geldof took tough questions on African poverty, debt relief and US President George Bush’s policies on climate control from MTV viewers representing 24 countries around the world – including seven African nations.

  • P2P service provider Peer Impact offers TV shows from Fox, Warner

    P2P service provider Peer Impact offers TV shows from Fox, Warner

    MUMBAI: Wurld Media, creator of peer-to-peer (p2p) service Peer Impact, has announced that select movies and television titles from Fox and Warner Bros. are now available via digital download on their entertainment network in the US market.

    This announcement follows Peer Impact’s agreement with NBC Universal to include their catalogues of movie and television event titles for on-demand rental, also now available on the service, making Peer Impact the first p2p model to offer content from three major motion picture studios.

    The company says that as major content providers continue to address the growing demand for online distribution methods, Peer Impact presents a solution by enabling users to legally download and share licensed content while protecting both the license holders and the consumer.

  • Spiderman creator Stan Lee working on a reality show

    Spiderman creator Stan Lee working on a reality show

    MUMBAI: Comic creator legend Stan Lee, who created Spiderman and X-Men among other superheroes, will premiere a reality show from his company Pow! Entertainment on US broadcaster NBC’s Sci Fi Channel later this month.

    Who Wants To Be A Superhero? kicks off on 27 July 2006. This is a six-episode, one-hour weekly competition reality series that will challenge a lucky few to create their very own superhero and reward the winner with the best reality competition prize yet: immortality. Each contestant begins

    with an original idea for a superhero, a self-made costume, and their best superhero mojo. From thousands of hopefuls, Stan Lee chooses 11 finalists who must live together during the entire competition in a secret lair. There they will begin their transformations — and the competition begins for the opportunity to become real-life superheroes. Over the course of the series, they will test their mettle, try to overcome their limitations, and do what it takes to prove that they truly are super.

    The finalists will leave their former lives behind and live as their brainchild heroes 24/7. Stan Lee, who is taking a leaf from Donald Trump’s Apprentice, will be both judge and jury. As each week progresses, Pow!’s aspiring heroes will be challenged with competitions designed to test their true natures. The superhero contestants will be tested for courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and resourcefulness — all traits that every true Stan Lee superhero must possess.

    In the end, only one aspiring superhero will have the inner strength and nobility to open the gates to comic-book immortality. The winner of this six-week competition will walk away with their character immortaliaed in a new comic book created by Stan Lee. The winning character will also appear in a Sci Fi Channel movie.

  • Spike TV’s Blade premieres with 2.5 million viewers

    Spike TV’s Blade premieres with 2.5 million viewers

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Viacom’s cable channel for men Spike TV has announced that its first original action show Blade: The Series, which premiered a few nights ago, saw 2.5 million viewers tuning in. This is the highest premiere in its history for an original series. The show takes off from the vampire films Blade, which star Wesley Snipes.

    Additionally Blade: The Series was the number one entertainment show for the night with men 18-34 and 18-49. It tallied triple-digit gains in all key male demos versus last year including up 517 per cent in M18-34 (2.6 rating, 680,000 viewers), up 472 per cent in M18-49 (2.2, 1.17 million), up 277 per cent in viewers (2.5 million), and up +247 oer cent in household rating (2.0, 1.8 million).

  • Global soccer fans are united and divided in their passion for the sport: Octagon study

    Global soccer fans are united and divided in their passion for the sport: Octagon study

    MUMBAI: Throughout the Fifa World Cup, a global audience has witnessed the exuberance that football fans have for the sport. Aside from national pride, what drives the passion fans from different countries have for football?

    Studies conducted in the past year by sports marketing agency Octagon quantify for the first time the key factors that ignite the passion fans have for football. Analysis from Octagon’s Passion Drivers study of football fans from World Cup participants Germany, France, the U.K., Australia and the US, the 2010 World Cup host nation South Africa, and China reveal similarities and differences.

    Octagon’s VP of research and creator of the study Simon Wardle says, “Fans from countries like the U.K., France and Germany, where a longstanding football tradition exists and the sport holds a dominant position, share similar motivating passions for the sport but with some differences.

    “Why fans from Europe follow the sport differs significantly from the factors that motivate fans in countries where football is less dominant.”

    The fan profiles developed by Octagon are based on 12 Passion Drivers factors. In varying degrees of intensity and in different combinations, these factors contribute to the passion fans have for football.

    Wardle adds, “Understanding ‘why fans are fans’ is critical for companies who sponsor sports to engage consumers with their brands. The relationship that Europeans have to football is first and foremost driven by Team Devotion.”

    “This factor truly differentiates ‘the beautiful game’ and its supporters from other sports. German and English football fans are very similar in the relationship they have with the sport. UK fans seem to be more team focussed and avid than their German counterparts. The chance to gloat over fans of rival clubs is much stronger among German fans.”

    TCompared to German and UK fans, the study revealed the French are more overall fans of the sport itself. For the French fan, the pure enjoyment that comes from watching football is oftentimes more important than which teams are playing and the outcome of the match.

    Wardle goes on to explain that in European markets, Team Devotion starts almost at birth. This contrasts to Chinese fans who do not have deep rooted team affinities. They are primarily motivated by an overall love of the game. The skill exhibited by world-class players and strategy employed by the top clubs, regardless of where these teams come from or a players’ nationality, are far more important than the outcome of the match.

    In South Africa, the opportunity football provides to socialise is the dominant motivator. Football also conjures a sense of nostalgia for many South Africans who grew up with the sport and appreciate the role football played in their personal and country’s history. However, the Team Devotion factor is growing more important in this developing football market as it prepares to compete as host nation in the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

    As a market influence, football remains in its formative stages in Australia and the US. The US and Australia are unique in their passion being primarily fuelled by a current or past involvement playing or coaching the sport, a Passion Drivers factor called Active Appreciation.

    Wardle notes that Australia’s success in the 2006 Fifa World Cup (they narrowly lost in a last minute penalty to finalists Italy) could accelerate its transition to a developing football market. The US holds the distinction as the world’s least homogeneous football market in terms of the factors that drive its fans’ passion for the sport. Along with active appreciation, US football fans are strongly driven by the opportunities the sport presents to talk and socialise. Nostalgia is also important for the many fans who emigrated from Europe and Latin America.

    Octagon conducted Passion Drivers studies in eight countries among more than 20,000 fans of their nation’s most popular sports. “With a deeper understanding of what drives their consumers’ passion for sport, sponsors can truly harness the power of sports to differentiate their brands and engage consumers in meaningful, lasting ways,” said Wardle.

  • Dish TV, Tata Sky lock horns over DVRs

    Dish TV, Tata Sky lock horns over DVRs

    NEW DELHI: Existing DTH player Dish TV has locked horns with Tata Sky over interoperability — or its waiver — of digital video recorders to be made available to consumers of a DTH service in India.

    DTH license holder ASC Enterprises, which operates the Dish TV brand, has told the broadcast regulator that if digital video recorders (DVRs) are not interoperable, as mandated in DTH guidelines, it would “compromise” consumer interest.

    On the other hand, Tata Sky and technology company NDS (controlled by Rupert Murdoch) have said that “interoperability is not feasible on high end devices” like DVRs.
    “The technical specifications vary with the (DVR) models that are introduced and these were not envisaged when BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) drew up STB specifications,” Tata Sky has said in its submission to the regulator.

    ASC Enterprises has counter-punched by saying that existing clauses on interoperability of boxes protect the “consumer interests by ensuring they switch over their service providers for the basic functionality of watching the broadcast channels as per their option and choice.”

    If that was not enough, Tata Sky and residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) have come out in support of multi-dwelling unit (MDU) technology, which has been strongly opposed by all sections of the cable industry, including Cable Operators’ Federation of India (COFI), which feels cable ops stand to become redundant.

    MDU technology, being tested by Tata Sky for its proposed DTH service in a few cities, envisages making available a DTH service to multiple homes through a common dish antenna, but separate set-top boxes.

    The technology is being touted by its supporters as cost effective for consumers and as a safeguard for “aesthetic” senses in concrete jungles that Indian cities are turning into.

    Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had asked for comments on various issues related to DTH, including whether certain clauses in the DTH guidelines need to be amended to exclude DVRs from being interoperable.

    Fifteen individuals/organizations, including a clutch of RWAs, have submitted their feedback, baring the fact there isn’t consensus on matters like DVRs and MDU technology, which have the potential of changing the way people consume television fare in India.

    Even a company like Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infocomm, whose DTH license application hasn’t been processed by the government, feels that DVRs should be kept interoperable.

    “The clauses 7.1 & 7.2 of DTH license conditions need not be amended to exclude digital video recorders. All set top boxes whether simple STB or personal video recorder/ DVR-enabled set top boxes should be interoperable,” Reliance has stated

    The full text of feedback, peppered with technical jargons and occasional innuendoes hitting at opponents, can be seen on the regulator’s website, www.trai.gov.in.

     

  • Vikram Thukral appointed as VP distribution for Times Now and Zoom

    Vikram Thukral appointed as VP distribution for Times Now and Zoom

    MUMBAI: Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd. (BCCL) has fused the distribution team of the two channels Zoom and Times Now to drive in penetration and bring in revenues. The distribution will be overseen by the newly appointed VP- distribution Vikram Thukral.

    Thukral fills in the space vacated by Hitesh Sabharwal who was handling the distribution aspect of Zoom.

    Vikram Thukral will be reporting to the Times Now CEO Sunil Lulla and Zoom CEO Suresh Bala respectively. At Star, Thukral has led each of the regions of east, north and west expanding Star’s household reach and earning significant revenues from distribution, informs an official release.

    And the distribution teams of both the pay channels; the glamour and lifestyle channel Zoom and the English news channel Times Now will be reporting into Thukral.

    In a joint statement issued, Bala and Lulla stated, “We welcome Vikram’s leadership and believe both channels will be served better with combined efforts, in growing each channel’s household reach.”

    Over the next few weeks, both channel teams will be integrated for a common customer facing team. Time Now is owned by Times Global Broadcasting (A Times Group & Reuters Company) and Zoom is fully owned by Bennett Coleman & CO Ltd.

  • ICC chief lambasts Zee TV’s racism allegations on cricket rights

    ICC chief lambasts Zee TV’s racism allegations on cricket rights

    The International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive David Richards has labelled Zee TV’s allegations that the council was racist in its decision awarding telecast rights to its tournaments to the World Sports Group/News Corp consortoium as “ridiculous.”

    In an interview to air on ESPN’s Inside Cricket Richards has said that the racism allegation can be shown to be demonstrably untrue. “The ICC is made up of people from all over the world of cricket, from many different cultures, from many different backgrounds, but all with a common love for cricket,” he is believed to have said during the interview. “And there are constituencies within that grouping of member nations from all over the world. It’s just too easy and trite to say that this group did this or that group did something else. The decision taken by the group was, I say, on commercial grounds and it was in the best interests of the long term development of international cricket in all parts of the world.”

    Richards also pointed out that there was no indication of any rebel tour being started by Asian member nations of the ICC. “They are all responsible organisations and all are key members of the ICC. So if there were any suggestions of breakaway cricket teams or tours that would not be done through the official boards.”

  • CN gets on to DD with a branded block

    CN gets on to DD with a branded block

    NEW DELHI: Not content with ruling the kids’ space in India via satellite, Cartoon Network now wants a slice of terrestrial viewership too.

    It announced has just a new one-hour programming block, Cartoon Network Duniya, on Doordarshan National.

    Starting 8 July, the new block will air every Saturday from 10:30 am to 11:30 a.m. and will feature two of Turner’s most popular and highly successful original productions, M.A.D. (Music, Art and Dance show) and Codename: Kids Next Door.

    Cartoon Network Duniya will also showcase other popular series, including Turner’s most awaited original production, Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian version of globally renowned pre-school series, Sesame Street.

    “Doordarshan’s extensive reach across India will enable kids in non-C&S homes to enjoy Turner’s engaging original production that has so far been limited to C&S homes. In the preliminary stage, the highly rated M.A.D. and popular animation series, Codename: Kids Next Door will serve as the perfect introduction to new viewers,” an official statement quoted Turner International India MD Anshuman Misra as saying yesterday.

    Misra added that later in the year Galli Galli Sim Sim will further enhance the appeal by showcasing content that is both educational and entertaining in nature.

    M.A.D. is an off-the-wall, interactive journey for 8-12 years olds and their families and is filled with fun tabletop ‘makes’, dynamic performances, a bit of humour and some art stunts.

    Galli Galli Sim Sim is an initiative undertaken by globally recognised, Sesame Workshop and Indian kids’ entertainment leader, Turner India.

    The show is aimed at serving the 157 million children under the age of six in India and is committed to supporting India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or universal access to education.

  • Fresh take on ‘Head Honchos’ on Janmat

    Mumbai 27th June 2006: Head Honchos, a new show on Janmat hosted by Anish Trivedi in his impeccable style is creating waves in the television duniya. Every week at 7.30p.m. on Saturday, Anish interviews a corporate honcho selected from a panel from Janmat.

    Warm and intimate, this is a no frills show, with the predominant mood being two people talking at leisure, about not only success at business but the person who has made it possible. The show is not shot in the corporate’s company office, but rather in an informal setting. The venue of the interview is often decided by the corporate head, usually at a place where he/she likes to relax and unwind. The place can range from a favorite golf course, his house, farmhouse, club etc. In the case of a female corporate, it could also be her favorite beauty parlor, her gymkhana, her jogging track or even the comforts of her house that displays her home settings.

    The theme and objective behind the interview is to uncover different aspects of a corporate head’s life ranging from his / her personal family life, to their favorite movie, dressing, hobbies, and professional life, to their opinion on current events, vision for their company, innermost desires and the goals still not reached.

    Hosted by Anish in his inimitable style, the show is in English and targeted to attract people from the corporate and allied fields. For young minds yearning to find their place in the world, Head Honchos will show the way to dream big and perform bigger!

    Head Honchos has been receiving recognition and support from industrialists, executives from across the corporate world and viewers who get a thrill from learning from successful people.

     

    With two episodes to their credit, Head Honcho has so far got Adi Godrej (CMD, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. and Niranjan Hirandani (MD, Hiranandani Group of Companies) on their shows. More top line CEOs are all set to let you in on their most personal lives and their rise to the top.

    Some of the big names in the industry that will soon be featured on Head Honchos future episodes are Piyush Pandey (National Creative Director, O & M, Ashwini Kakkar CEO & MD, Thomas Cook ( India ) Ltd, Sanjeev Agrawal MD, World Gold Council. Anil Khera COO, Sansui and Dr. Dewan Nanda, CMD Topsgrup.

    In the space of 6 months, Janmat has forged ahead of channels like Times Now, NDTV Profit, Zee Business and Headlines Today. Janmat bombards the viewers with news, brought out in a synchronized manner that enables assimilation. Wherever Janmat has gone, it has made sure that the issues were addressed BY the people, FOR the people and THROUGH the people. This has helped the ordinary voter to gain clout and power to fight against the system.

     

    Positioned as India’s first Views Channel, JANMAT has brought a fresh breeze in the country’s TV viewing landscape. JANMAT is a 24-hour current affairs channel targeted towards the discerning Indian audience. JANMAT has an ear to the ground, and allows the common man to express his grievances for swift redressal.