ITV

Category: Television

  • MTV Movie Awards nominates ‘40-Year Old Virgin, ‘Wedding Crashers’

    MTV Movie Awards nominates ‘40-Year Old Virgin, ‘Wedding Crashers’

    MUMBAI: More than an award show, but a film unto itself! MTV in the US has announced the nominees, of the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.

    The comedies 40-Year Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers each received five nominations. The event will air in the US on 8 June.

    The show will have new categories of Best Hero, Sexiest Performance and the mtvU Student Filmmaker Award. And, in another first, all of this year’s categories, including Best Performance will make no distinction between male and female. Breaking the gender barrier and award show tradition, both actors and actresses will be vying for the same coveted golden popcorns.

    MTV US president Christina Norman says, “This year’s Movie Awards will be more than an awards show — it’s an experience completely inspired by the movies, and everything we love about them. This year’s cast of movies and stars are all deserving nominees, and there is no doubt this year’s Movie Awards will in itself, be a movie to remember.”

    Competing for best film are The 40 Year old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, Sin City, King Kong and Batman Begins. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall who play gay cowboys in Brokeback Mountain have been nominated for best kiss. Their heterosexual competition consists of Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard for Hustle and Flow, Anna Faris and Chris Marquette for Just Friends, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Rosario Dawson and Clive Owen for Sin City.

    For on screen sexiness Beyonce Knowles for The Pink Panther, Jessica Alba for Sin City, Jessica Simpson for The Dukes of Hazzard, Ziyi Zhang for Memoirs of a Geisha and Rob Schneider for Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo have been nominated.

    Showing the huge gap between what critics consider a great film and what the youth want, critically acclaimed films like Crash which won the Best picture Oscar, A History of Violence, Capote, Munich and Syriana have all been shut out.

  • Hinduja TMT to de-merge media, IT/BPO biz

    Hinduja TMT to de-merge media, IT/BPO biz

    MUMBAI: Hinduja TMT Ltd. will de-merge the company’s IT/BPO and media businesses into separate entities. The board of directors of the company are meeting tomorrow to provide in principle approval for this.

    The media business is likely to be brought under a holding company, a source said. HTMT has been weighing several options while deciding on separating its IT from media business. One option is to have the cable TV and broadband business under one entity while keeping the content business separate. Another possiblity could be to have a common entity for the media businesses.

    “I have nothing to comment at this stage. The board is meeting tomorrow,” HTMT MD K Thiagarajan said.

    Last month, speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Thiagarajan had admitted that de-merger was very much in the plans. “It couldn’t be done in 2005-06 fiscal because of certain taxation issues. The programme is still alive and we hope to de-merge early this fiscal. A committee of directors are looking into the issue.”

    HTMT has subsidiary companies which are into cable TV distribution, a cable movie channel, and movie financing and production. IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL) runs cable TV through the Incablenet brand while CVIL operates CVO, a Hindi cable movie channel. IN Network Entertainment Ltd. (INEL), a wholly owned subsidiary of HTMT, is in film and content finance, production and distribution.

    Recently, Zee Telefilms had announced its plans to de-merge Siticable, a wholly owned subsidiary, into a separate company called Wire and Wireless (India) Limited (WWIL). This would bring specific focus into the cable business and be attractive to investors.

  • George Alagiah joins BBC World to present ‘NewsHour’

    George Alagiah joins BBC World to present ‘NewsHour’

    MUMBAI: George Alagiah, one of the BBC’s well-known news presenters, will join BBC World to present a brand-new programme NewsHour. Beginning in June, the programme will broadcast each weekday during peak times in the key markets around the world, including the US breakfast peak and Asia evening peak.

    Alagiah will present NewsHour at 12 PM (GMT) from Monday to Thursday. He currently co-presents the BBC’s Six O’Clock News in the UK, and will continue in that role in addition to presenting NewsHour, informs an official release.

    BBC Global News Division director Richard Sambrook says, “We are extremely pleased to have a journalist of George’s calibre on board to present our new programme. George has achieved tremendous success in the UK for his objective coverage, in-depth international knowledge, and his sharp interviewing skills. His experience and his ability to uncover the news behind each story will be crucial for the success of NewsHour, which was created to ensure that BBC World delivers continuous and authoritative news programming to its audiences in the US during peak morning hours, and in East Asia in the evening.”

    “As a foreign correspondent for a decade, I saw first-hand how people around the world turned to the BBC for its sheer breadth of coverage and the authority with which it came. Now, more than ever, American audiences are interested how global events can have an impact on their lives and Newshour will bring them the day’s international news stories from an impartial and global perspective.”

    Alagiah joined the BBC in 1989 and worked as a foreign correspondent specialising in Africa and the developing world. In March 2002, he launched BBC Four’s international news programme and began presenting BBC’s Six O’clock News in January 2003.

    He has reported on many issues and events including the famine in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, the civil war in Liberia, Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Iraqi Kurds and the aftermath of the terror attacks on New York.

    Alagiah has won several awards for his reporting and has interviewed many prominent international figures including Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat and Tariq Aziz of Iraq.

    The introduction of NewsHour is part of the channel’s plan to establish regular NewsHour programmes throughout the day, to ensure BBC World delivers tailored news programming at the breakfast and evening peak-times across key time zones.

  • Private broadcasters resist fee proposal for DD Direct+

    Private broadcasters resist fee proposal for DD Direct+

    NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati’s bid to demand carriage fee from broadcasters to be on its DTH platform, DD Direct+, has met with initial resistance from private sector players.

    This was amply clear in a meeting that was held today at the Prasar Bharati headquarters here to discuss the fee issue with private broadcasters who are already present on DD Direct+.

    The private sector channels, which have been on DD Direct+ for over a year now, feel that the demand for a carriage fee on the pubcaster’s DTH platform is “unjustified.”

    According to a representative of a private broadcaster, “We had assisted Prasar Bharati to launch its DTH service keeping national interest in mind. Now that the service is doing well, this sudden demand is unjustified.”

    Early April, Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma, while making a presentation before the media during the announcement of its annual financial result, had said there is a proposal to charge private channels on DD Direct+ an annual fee of Rs. 10 million from May when the total number of channels would be increased to 51.

    The private broadcasters on DD Direct+ are understood to have argued today at the meeting that as a gesture of goodwill towards them and their contribution in the success of the DTH Platform, they should not be charged any fee.

    “If at all Prasar Bharati wishes to charge a carriage fee, it should do so from newcomers who join the platform now,” a general entertainment channel representative said.

    Prasar Bharati is India’s public service broadcaster and manages Doordarshan and All India Radio. The DTH service, which has over 900,000 subscribers as per claims made, doesn’t charge the consumer any monthly subscription fee. The hardware comes at a cost of approximately Rs. 4,000.

    Publicly funded Prasar Bharati has said there’s a long queue of Indian and foreign broadcasters waiting to hop on to DD Direct+ in an efforts to establish their presence in a market where all TV homes number over 90 million. Of this, 61 million are C&S homes.

    The proposal to levy a fee to ride the DD Direct+ bandwagon is also an effort of the pubcaster to increase its annual income, which falls much short of its total yearly expenditure. For the year 2005-06, ended 31 March, the pubcaster’s revenues stood Rs. 12.38 billion, up a whopping 67 per cent from the Rs 8.31 billion it earned previous year.

    Of this, national broadcaster Doordarshan accounted for Rs 9.6 billion riding heavily on cricket and Hindi movies. Most significant was the growth on the radio side though, with All India Radio registering a 59.6 per cent jump in revenues at Rs 2.7 billion.

  • Ekta Kapoor launches talent hunt for ‘Kyunki…’ cast

    Ekta Kapoor launches talent hunt for ‘Kyunki…’ cast

    MUMBAI: Indian television’s most successful television soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is set for a 20-year leap and the next generation of actors will be chosen from a talent hunt.

    Walk-in auditions have been planned in three northern cities: New Delhi, Chandigarh and Shimla and the hunt will kick start on 29 April.

    The leap makes way for a host of new characters to make their appearance on the small screen. The Ekta Kapoor headed creative team of Kyunki…. is stepping out of Mumbai to search for these new faces, informs an official release.

    “The highlight of this talent hunt is the search for “Krishnatulsi” who takes over the mantle of Tulsi from Smriti Irani as she takes over the mantle of Baa,” says Balaji Telefilms creative director Ekta Kapoor.

    “We are always on the look out for fresh talent but this time around it is very special. We are looking for the next generation of the Virani family. We started Kyunki… five years back with a large part of the cast selected from the masses and most of them, today, are well established artists with their own fan following. It therefore makes complete sense for us to go back to the masses to look for the next generation of the Virani family,” says Kapoor.

    The dates for audition in each city are:

    New Delhi — 29 and 30 April at Marwah Studio Noida.
    Shimla — 1 May at Chaura Maidan College.
    Chandigarh — 2 May at Dev Samaj College for Girls.

    The auditions are open to professional actors, models, theatre artists and the general public in the 18 to 25 years age group. Good diction, brilliant attitude and acting skills are factors critical in being short-listed, states the release.

  • Disney ties up with AirTel for mobisodes

    Disney ties up with AirTel for mobisodes

    MUMBAI: After Star India, it is Walt Disney Television International (India) that is exploring the mobile-enabled episode (mobisode) phenomenon.

    The company has tied up with AirTel to develop mobisodes, games, ringtones, wallpapers and animation in the ‘Disney Mobile Theatre’ featuring popular cartoons. This is the third telecom operator Walt Disney will have tied up with, the other two being in Asia.

    “It is a sunrise segment for Walt Disney. But it is rapidly growing, particularly in the East Asian markets like Japan,” The Walt Disney Company India managing director Rajat Jain said.

    AirTel will, thus, become the first provider of Disney Mobile Theatre in India providing characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto on the mobile.

    The wallpapers will be priced at Rs 10 per download, whereas the mobisodes, videos, ringtones and Hello Tunes have been priced at Rs 15. A Disney game can be downloaded for a charge of Rs 99. However, company officials were reluctant to divulge the revenue sharing ratio between the two for the same.

    AirTel customers can have access to six Disney animated series in the form of 30 second episodes exclusively made for mobile devices. The content can be downloaded from Airtel’s entertainment portal – Airtel Live! and music and ringtones can also be downloaded from Airtel’s Hello Tunes.

    “With voice pricing coming down, we expect this to be a significant revenue stream for us. Across the globe, telecom operators generate 12-20 per cent revenues from non voice segment,” Bharti Airtel director marketing and communications Hemant Sachdev said.

    “We have always admired the Disney brand for the difference it makes to lives across the globe – bringing millions of people fun, laughter and wholesome entertainment. We are now pleased to partner with Disney to deliver outstanding creative content and entertainment. With Disney Mobile Theatre, Airtel customers can enjoy the Disney experience on the mobile for the first time in India from wherever they are,” he added.

    Walt Disney Internet Group executive vice president and managing director international Mark Handler said, “The launch of Disney branded mobile content on Airtel, including Disney Mobile Theatre and personalisation, content and games, combines Disney’s rich story telling legacy and unparalleled brand equity with Airtel’s leadership in wireless voice and data services to create an engaging and unique mobile experience for customers.”

    Added Jain: “India is a priority for the entire company, and we are delivering on our strength to expand our presence here. We have a huge competitive advantage, thanks to the strength of the Disney brand, which is aspirational. We embrace new technology innovations in developing quality Disney entertainment and as leading content creators are best positioned to capture new ways of delivering it when and where the consumer demands. Using technology to advance our content and its distribution will play a fundamental role in securing our future.”

    The Walt Disney Internet Group has mobile content distribution in 12 other markets in the Asia Pacific region including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Macau. Close to 695 million mobile consumers have access to Disney mobile content in this region.

    Late last year, Star India had tied up with Hutch to create mobisodes of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (TGILC), which aired on Star One. The price of a one time download of a mobisode of TGILC is Rs 10 per. Additionally, subscribers can also call 7827 (Star India’s short code) to listen to the TGILC jokes for Rs 6.

    Soon after, Zee Telefilms director and business head of Zee TV channel Punit Goenka had told Indiantelevision.com that the company was seriously exploring the phenomenon of mobisodes and were in the process of identifying the properties which were best suited for it.

    Now with Disney also tapping the rapidly growing mobile content and entertainment space, it won’t be long before the others too follow suit.

  • Genios secures US distribution rights to Tartan titles

    Genios secures US distribution rights to Tartan titles

    MUMBAI: The US-based producer and distributor of home entertainment products Genius Products, Inc. is adding a library of more than 60 independent films to its slate of DVD releases through an exclusive distribution agreement with Tartan Video USA.

    The deal was announced by Genius Products CEO Trevor Drinkwater and Tartan Video USA President Tony Borg.Established in September 2004, Tartan USA boasts a library of more than 60 world-renowned eclectic-and often controversial-feature length independent films. The library includes Tartan’s Asia Extreme line of horror films, a fast-growing contemporary genre featuring the best of cinema from the Far East with such cult favorites as the 2004 Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner Oldboy, A Tale Of Two Sisters, and Takashi Shimizu’s Marebito. The library generated approximately $6 million of net revenue in 2005 and is expected to grow to $9 million in 2006, states an official release.

    In addition to distributing Tartan’s library of critically acclaimed films, Genius will distribute all new releases from Tartan Video USA, the American arm of Hamish McAlpine’s Tartan Films. The first titles set for release this summer represent both the Asia Extreme and Tartan Video brands.

    “The Tartan Video library is a remarkable line-up of films that have been recognized around the world as not only entertaining and inspiring, but thought-provoking as well. The titles represent another example of the ever increasing quality of content distributed by Genius through the expanded infrastructure we created to handle major titles from The Weinstein Company. With our newly implemented Vendor Managed Inventory system, we anticipate even greater success for Tartan’s library,” says Drinkwater.

    “Our agreement allows us to expand our distribution reach with a partner whose product line complements our own. We believe our world-renowned independent films, critically acclaimed Asia Extreme catalog and future branded labels are a great match with Genius’s already impressive catalog,” adds Borg.

  • Crest Animations’ ‘Jakers!…’ wins Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding children’s animated program

    Crest Animations’ ‘Jakers!…’ wins Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding children’s animated program

    MUMBAI: Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks has won a Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program. Crest Animation Studios provided all the overseas services like modelling, rigging, texturing, animation, lighting, rendering and compositing for this series.

    Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks is a 3D, computer animated series that follows the adventure of a spunky eight-year-old pig named Piggley and his friends Dannan the Duck and Ferny the Bull, who live on a farm in Ireland.

    The award was conferred at the 33rd Annual Creative Craft Daytime Emmy Awards on 22 April. The 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards is a presentation of the National Television Academy in cooperation with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

    Crest Animation Studios CEO A K Madhavan said, “It is a matter of great pride for us to be recognised for our quality of work by one of the most powerful body representing the American Television Industry. We have won accolades in the past like the BAFTA award and an ANNIE nomination for our work in Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks. We have also won the Apsara Award for Tenali Rama; it is a special feeling, to be one of the best among the international players.”

    Crest is moving ahead on its way to become a globally recognized Computer Graphics Imaging (CGI) animation studio. Crest’s US-based subsidiary, RichCrest Animation (RCA), and Lions Gate Entertainment (LGE) have announced a three-picture co-production and co-financing arrangement to produce three state-of-the-art animated feature films for worldwide theatrical release.

    RCA and LGE would equally share the cost of production, as well as the profits. The rights to the first film under the agreement – Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, based on the Caldecott Medal-winning story by William Steig (the creator of the blockbuster Shrek) have been acquired, and the film is in development.

  • AOL launches KOL Jr. on the Web

    AOL launches KOL Jr. on the Web

    MUMBAI: Preschoolers now have their own website, with the launch of KOL Jr., AOL’s website for kids aged 2 to 5, at http://www.koljunior.com/. The site contains original cartoons, games, music, bedtime stories and other fun, interactive features designed to help parents introduce the Internet to their young children.

    The launch of KOL Jr. also marks the debut of a brand new cartoon called Pilar’s Adventures, which covers topics that engage preschoolers’ imaginations while helping them deal with everyday life experiences.

    “Parents want to be as involved as they can with their young kids while they are online,” said AOL Kids & Teens SVP Malcolm Bird, “At KOL Jr., parents and their children will have fun learning and playing together, with fresh content and activities that aren’t available anywhere else online.”

    Developed by a former teacher and current programming director for AOL, Pilar’s Adventures follows Pilar, a young horse with a wild imagination who joins her new friends in Farmer Roxy’s barnyard. Pilar and the gang — Cleg the horsefly, Hampshire the pig and Susa the owl — explore new places all while learning new and valuable life lessons.

    The animated cartoon will launch with 10 five-minute episodes. Beyond Pilar’s Adventures, young kids will also find other engaging activities on the new KOL Jr. service including:

    ” – Animal Videos – Watch videos from National Geographic and footage of dolphins swimming at the National Aquarium.

    ” – Games – Play games featuring Pilar’s Adventures’ characters, such as coloring and dot-to-dot, and educational games from AOL Learning Games.

    ” – Music – Dance along to popular tunes by the Wiggles, Strawberry Shortcake, Hi-5, Barbie Princesses and Barney.

    ” – TV – Check out kid-friendly movies and DVDs clips such as Muppets, Trollz, Chicken Little, Cinderella, Bambi, Care Bears and Scooby Doo will be available.

    ” – Toy Time – Become official Toy Time Testers. Parents and kids work together to rate toys from all the biggest toy companies.

    ” – Printables – Print out some of their favorite characters including Pilar characters, KOL Gliders, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Winx and many others.

    This launch follows the success of KOL – AOL’s highly popular service for kids aged 7 to 12, and will compliment other content already available for kids on AOL.

  • HBO Latino new boxing series to debut 27 April

    HBO Latino new boxing series to debut 27 April

    MUMBAI: HBO Sports introduces an exclusive Spanish-language boxing series that will launch on HBO Latino on 27 April. Five additional boxing events will be presented in 2006.

    The Generación Boxeo series, an innovative and dedicated original program created for HBO Latino, will feature the best young Latino fighters, behind-the-scenes interviews and round-by-round Spanish-language commentary by Raul Marquez and Mario Solis.

    “The Generación Boxeo series captures the action, spirit and fury of the ring for boxing enthusiasts,” said director Brand Development at HBO Adrion Porter, “This is another great opportunity for us to continue the event-level type of sports programming that “Oscar De La Hoya Presenta Boxeo De Oro” did on HBO Latino previously.”

    The 27 April event will feature the delayed broadcast of three fights: Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., son of legendary Mexican champion Julio Cesar Chavez, against undefeated challenger Tyler Ziolkowski in a junior welterweight bout; unbeaten Mexican-American Juan Diaz defends his lightweight title against Jose Miguel Cotto, brother of Puerto Rican boxing sensation Miguel Cotto; and Mexican Jorge Arce, considered one of the best young fighters of the moment, takes on veteran and two-time champion Rosendo Alvarez of Nicaragua in a flyweight title fight.

    Available in 45 per cent of HBO’s cable households, HBO Latino is a dedicated Spanish-language channel designed to reflect the diversity of Latino culture in the country. HBO Latino features U.S. premieres of Spanish-language movies and documentaries; music videos; and original short-form programming, such as “Habla,” that spotlights entertainment and cultural issues; plus a mix of popular Hollywood films and the best of HBO’s originals.

    Along with Generación Boxeo, boxing coverage on HBO Latino includes HBO’s flagship World Championship Boxing series, with live ringside Spanish-language commentary, and the critically acclaimed HBO Boxing After Dark, states an official release.