ITV

Category: GECs

  • Sony to premiere ‘Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanumaan’ on Sony Liv app and web

    Sony to premiere ‘Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanumaan’ on Sony Liv app and web

    MUMBAI: “Digital is the future.” While one has been hearing this on various occasions over the years, it’s only recently that the Indian television industry has started thinking digital.

     

    What started with sports channels putting content on the digital platform has now moved to the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) as well.  The genre which so far was looking at targeting mostly housewives is now going young, thus making presence on digital even more important.

     

    Taking cue from that, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is premiering its upcoming mythological show Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanumaan on Sony Liv mobile app at 12 noon on 4 May, way before its on-air telecast at 8 pm.

     

    The show will present the tale of the mightiest God – Hanumaan from the perspective of Lord Krishna. Born to God Kesari and Anjani Devi, Hanumaan is considered to be the greatest devotee ever born on earth. The show will take viewers on a journey of his beautiful and eventful life right from his childhood from being a devotee of Lord Ram to being the vanquisher of all evil.  It will also bring out his qualities and derive morals from his life which are relevant in everyday life. With extremely advanced VFX, the show promises a never-seen-before visual experience.

     

    Sony Liv is aimed at providing entertainment on the go for young India on the move and this new step further reinstates this brand promise. The video on demand (VOD) service has been consistently bringing marquee shows from Sony’s stable to its viewers on devices that they could access anywhere, anytime, including shows like KBC, Indian Idol etc.

     

    Sony Entertainment EVP and digital head Uday Sodhi said, “Sony Liv mobile app is one of the leading entertainment app and it is featured amongst the top apps in the app world. The show offers a perfect blend of untold and popular mythology around Lord Hanumaan in a never seen before format, state-of-the art special effects, immersive visuals and stellar acts and performances. The show will present the tale of the mightiest God from his childhood, in a whole new way.”

     

    Sony Entertainment Television senior vice president marketing Gaurav Seth added, “Our marketing innovations and promos have already created a lot of buzz for the show. Besides the web premiere, the show has also seen some unique digital innovations like live streaming of the Grand Press Conference held at Kingdom of Dreams and an auction of Mahabali Hanumaan’s Gada! Looking at the excitement over the internet and social media, we have decided to bring forward the launch and give netizens an exclusive preview of our most awaited show.”

  • Viacom launches ‘Vantage’ ad sales data product

    Viacom launches ‘Vantage’ ad sales data product

    MUMBAI: Viacom has launched an innovative, data-driven ad product called Viacom Vantage that enables advertisers to reach their custom targets at the program level across the Viacom Media Networks portfolio.

     

    The new approach transforms traditional media planning and offers advertisers more choice, more flexibility and increased accountability. Through a combination of enhanced consumer targeting and a deep understanding of how various audience segments consume content across our platforms, Viacom Vantage predicts, which content will perform the best for our clients across MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Nickelodeon, CMT, Spike, TV Land and Logo.

     

    “Our guiding principle is to offer best-in-class and client-centered products for our advertising partners. Viacom Vantage is our latest cutting edge product to deliver on that promise by enabling our clients to close the gap between how they define their true segments and where their messages can work best in reaching that audience on our shows,” said Viacom Media Networks head of sales Jeff Lucas.

     

    Developed in-house over a year ago, Viacom Vantage’s beta version was successfully piloted with a select group of national partners including Horizon Media. Viacom Vantage offered each of these clients deep data integrations, customized capabilities and took on operational and inventory management efforts to drive unique media plans and help set new industry standards.

     

    “When Viacom came to us with this new ad solution, we recognized immediately it was a novel approach that could greatly build upon the effectiveness of our client’s investment. The results far exceeded our expectations by directly identifying and reaching our targeted consumers and providing us with precisely the right programming that would generate the highest return,” said Horizon Media senior vice president, director of national television Dave Campanelli.

     

    Now in its second year and available at scale to clients, Viacom Vantage is the result of years of strategic investment in data, proprietary research and ongoing optimization to build out new predictive models. It goes far beyond the traditional age and gender demographics and provides the capability to integrate attitudinal and behavioral segments with other off-the-shelf segments by using a unique algorithm that is custom fit to each advertiser’s goals.

     

    “Our holistic and highly customizable approach to data is far ahead of the industry curve and leverages the unparalleled social and digital reach of our programming to help unlock insights into the commercial and digital behaviors of our audiences. By effectively merging our expansive data footprint with syndicated research, we can continuously optimize media plans to integrate our advertisers’ messaging on the exact right shows at the exact right time,” added Viacom Media Networks executive vice president, data strategy and consumer intelligence Kern Schireson.

  • &TV to launch global singing reality show ‘The Voice’ in June

    &TV to launch global singing reality show ‘The Voice’ in June

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (Zeel) new Hindi general entertainment (GEC) channel &TV is all set to air the Indian edition of the internationalsinging reality show The Voice.

     

    Owned by Talpa Media, the format is touted as one of the most successful and groundbreaking vocal competitions across the globe.

     

    With 60 local productions entertaining audiences in more than 180 countries and over 500 million viewers around the world, The Voice is produced and adapted by Endemol in India and is slated to go on air this June.

     

    The Voice is the purest form of a singing reality show where the contestants are chosen through blind auditions, only on the basis of their voice and not appearance. For an unprecedented show like this, the channel has roped in mentors like Himesh Reshammiya, Mika, Shaan and Sunidhi Chauhan.

     

    Talking about the format, &TV business head Rajesh Iyer said, “We are excited to present viewers with The Voice, a show, which is already a global sensation as one of our biggest non-fiction offerings. The show takes a unique route in its selection process and focuses on quality of talent, which differentiates the format. For the first edition, we have a formidable panel of coaches that includes country’s best musicians that will mentor new talent.”

     

    Talpa Global managing director Maarten Meijs added, “We are very pleased to be collaborating with &TV to bring The Voice to India. The format has proven to be such a global hit that we’re fully confident viewers in India will also sit up and take notice.”

  • Third edition of ‘The Edutainment Show’ to be held in three cities

    Third edition of ‘The Edutainment Show’ to be held in three cities

    MUMBAI: The third edition of India’s largest educational exhibition, summit and awards, ‘The Edutainment Show’ is back and upping the ante by showcasing the summit in three cities namely Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata where students can explore exciting career options in Media, communication and design education and participate in informative workshops with media stalwarts.

     

    While the first two years were a huge success in Mumbai, with over 40 top industry speakers and over 4000 students attending the exhibition and summit, The Edutainment Show 2015 grows to 3 more cities creating the largest platform which promises to be a one-stop platform of information, fun and an educational experience (Eduperience) with the leading institutes and experts of Media, Communication and Design education under the same roof.

     

    The two-day event in each city by Event Capital will see the top schools and institutes across verticals like Events, Films, Fashion, PR, Advertising, Radio, Performing arts, Music, Television, Jewellery, Graphic design, Animation design showcasing their courses through an intensive platform that reaches out to the students exclusively. Some of the exhibitors who shall be participating in 2015 edition are Ecole Intuit.Lab, Whistling Woods International , Neeta Lulla School of Fashion, ISDI Parsons,  Laureate Design, BD Somani, Annapurna- ISFM, Mod’ Art International, Pearl Academy,  Istituto Marangoni, Raffles Design International, Amity, SIMC, Srishti, WLC, NIFT, Amity Today to name a few.

     

    The Edutainment Summit 2015 will bring together veterans and field experts in every city aimed at introducing the student community to the specialized fields, develop and expand their knowledge in the chosen industry through interaction with the speakers. The platform is a must visit for students who wish to pursue careers in media, communications and design industry (under graduates, graduates & post graduates). Some of the experts who are slotted to speak this year are Siddharth Kannan – RJ; Roshan Abbas – MD, Encompass; Sophy Shivaraman -Executive Director, Indian Documentary Foundation; Anurag Batra, CEO – Exhange4media and many more.

     

    The Edutainment Awards 2015 will take place in Delhi for which entries from institutes are still pouring in to vie for the top spots. The Awards received an overwhelming response last year with over 20 institutes awarded under various categories and judged by an expert jury panel. For the coming edition, the organizers shall be accepting entries until 20th April 2015. Some of the jury members this year are Dr. Bhaskar Das, Group CEO, Zee Media; Amith Prabhu, Owner- SCoRe; Umesh Upadhyay, President, Network 18;  Durbar Ganguly, Publisher- Editor, Millennium Post Daily; Anand Gurnani, Founder & Director Animation Express; Cyrus Dastur, Founder – Shamiana Short Films to name a few. To avail details on the same, one can contact gitanjali@eventcapital.in .

     

    Deepak Choudhary, Director & CEO, Event Capital says, “The Edutainment Summit has been really close to me. With its third year in India, I feel privileged to see the various institutes and students benefitting from the show and we aim at having 20,000+ students engaging in career discussions and being nurtured from the celebrity in the industry. The idea of evolving in media, design and communication for aspiring students will allow us to work on a bigger and better stage in 2015 and provide a bridge for the unconventional professions to meet the right candidates.”

     

  • Star launches campaign with celebs to drive donations for Nepal & N. India

    Star launches campaign with celebs to drive donations for Nepal & N. India

    MUMBAI: Star India has launched a nationwide public service campaign ‘Ek Padosi Hi Padosi Ke Kaam Aata Hai’ with the NGO CARE India to mobilise relief for the natural disaster that struck Nepal and parts of northern India claiming more than 5,000 lives.

     

    A massive earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck Nepal on 25 April, 2015, the worst to hit the Himalayan Kingdom in 80 years. In India, states of Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have also suffered the wrath of the earthquake.

     

    The Star India campaign will involve Bollywood celebrities like Ranbir Kapoor, Karan Johar, Anushka Sharma, Preity Zinta and a host of Star network’s icons, who will appeal to Indians for donations, which will be channeled directly to CARE India. Viewers will have an option to donate online, or through cheques or demand drafts. The campaign will work along the lines of Operation Maitri, initiated by the Indian government.

     

    “A tragedy has struck our neighbouring country resulting in a devastating loss of life, infrastructure and resources. We believe it is our responsibility to leverage the power of television as a force for good to help mobilise relief and provide immediate life-saving assistance to those affected. We are happy to associate with CARE India, an NGO highly respected for its humanitarian and development work in India and extremely humbled to see that our initiative has been embraced by some of the leading lights of the entertainment industry to appeal for relief,” said Star India CEO Uday Shankar.

     

    CARE India is assessing the situation on the ground in all the affected areas of Nepal and moving relief material where it is needed most. CARE has begun distribution in some of the areas and hopes to reach out to more than 50,000 people in the coming days.

     

    “We would appeal to all Indians for funds to ramp up the emergency response and provide immediate life-saving assistance to those affected. We are thankful to Star India for helping us raise funds for Nepal where millions are awaiting humanitarian relief. The country is running out of food, water and shelter and the onus is now on us to help them,” added CARE India board chair Dr. Nachiket Mor.

     

  • Zeel repackages content; dubs two Marathi shows in Hindi

    Zeel repackages content; dubs two Marathi shows in Hindi

    MUMBAI: In a first of sorts in the Indian broadcasting space, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) will be dubbing two of its Marathi language shows from Zee Marathi for its Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Zee TV.

     

    The two shows are Julun Yeti Reshimgaathi and Eka Lagnachi Teesri Goshta, which have been titled as Mohe Piya Milenge and Mile Sur Mera Tumhara respectively for Zee TV. The shows will be aired at 5 pm and 5.30 pm respectively for five days a week. 

     

    Zee TV business head Pradeep Hejmadi says, “These are Zeel IPs and we tested all the stories, which have been sitting in our library in terms of appeal in the Hindi market. What we found is that there are very interesting connects of these stories in the interim.”

     

    The channel activated the dead early prime time slots, as it is confident of a positive reaction from central India on the shows.

    However, Hejmadi is of the opinion that sans any time period, these shows nonetheless have their own run pattern. “We will be looking at sustaining the 5 – 6 pm time band eventually with original programming as well,” he informs. 

     

    Additionally, as the eighth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) draws to a close on 24 May, Zee TV will be launching a set of shows with new concepts. “With our weekday and weekend bands performing quite decently and our promise of always re-inventing ourselves, we have a slew of new shows lined up to roll,” says Hejmadi.

     

    Not expecting any nasty surprises when Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) rolls out its new television ratings system on 29 April, Hejmadi believes that it is unlikely that industry will witness any major change. “Let’s not forget that the geographies and the methodologies that are being used by BARC are the same. What it should probably allow is greater grid terms into the data. Otherwise I don’t expect any earth shattering figure changes especially for a channel like our size and scale, which appeals to a large audience base.”

     

    The channel has already started rolling out its new slate of shows. First up, on 27 April it launched Zee Rishton Ka Mela, a tactical short drama 10 episode series planned against the backdrop of a vibrant fair. The series will have a run-away bride Dipika, who enters a fair where she meets eight other women including Zee TV’s popular iconic yesteryear faces. 

     

    Once the two-week series comes to an end, the channel will launch a show titled Tum Hi Ho Bandhu Sakha Tum Hi. Produced by Shashi Sumit Productions, it will hit television screens from 11 May and will air from Monday to Friday. The show explores dynamics of a modern day joint family. 

  • Sony to embellish ‘Hanuman’ with VFX and stunts

    Sony to embellish ‘Hanuman’ with VFX and stunts

    MUMBAI: Taking a cue from the popularity of mythological shows on the small screen, Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) general entertainment channel Sony Entertainment Television is all set to roll out a show on Hanuman.

     

    With an emphasis on the creative aspect, Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman will showcase Hanuman’s unique voyage in a manner, which is hitherto untapped. The channel, along with the production house Contiloe Productions, will be using state of the art visual effects and stunts to give the show a larger than life look and feel.

     

    Contiloe Productions CEO Abhimanyu Singh said, “Contiloe has always experimented with multiple genres. This would be our first mythological show and we are pretty excited about it. The show will project the tale of the Hanuman ji from his childhood. We will be using state of the art visual effects and stunts to tell this great tale of Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman. I hope the audience enjoys the show as much as we have while creating it.”

     

    The show will go on air from 4 May, 2015 and will air from Monday to Friday at 8 pm. 

     

    SET India senior vice president and marketing head Gaurav Seth said that Indian viewers would be treated with extensive visual effects and high technological developments. “In this series we will show a number of never seen before imagery of Hanuman and large scale of visual effects to make the end product look as allusive as possible. It will be a larger than life avatar of Hanuman and that makes the series interesting. We cannot change the concept as Hanuman is a mythological character but we added whatever we could to make it a worthy experience for viewers,” Seth said.

     

    Sony has backed the launch of Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman with innovative marketing activities. “We have organised a drone that will fly Hanuman in 12 cities across the Hindi speaking territory. This is something that we are doing for the first time and is witnessing success so far. In the 12 cities, we take a busy location and fly Hanuman with the help of a drone and people gather to enjoy the sight. Besides that, we have built huge creatives of Hanuman in various cities. We also constructed a mobile friendly interactive website to connect with people and are also distributing the Hanuman Chalisa in different temples. Besides the normal marketing activities, these are the extra efforts that we put for Hanuman,” informs Seth.

     

    With Leo Burnett as the creative agency on board, Sony ran the outdoor campaigns in 35 cities across the Hindi Speaking Market.

     

    The entire show will be reverberating around courage, power and faith, which are few words synonymous with the mighty Hindu God, Hanuman.

     

    Sony Entertainment Television senior executive vice president and business head Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “We, at Sony Entertainment Television, would like to bring a mix of various genres to our viewers. We feel that adding the mythology genre to our offering, completes the channel and we are happy to present the story of Lord Hanuman in a very unique format to our viewers. The show explores a mix of untold and popular mythology around Lord Hanuman, in a never seen before format, with mindblowing visuals and powerhouse performances. We are delighted to collaborate with Contiloe Productions once again, with whom we have tasted phenomenal success with the show Bharat Ka Veer Putra Maharana Pratap. We are confident that Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman will set a new benchmark on how mythological shows are presented on television.”

     

    Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman will see Nirbhay Wadhwa as Lord Hanuman.

  • James Murdoch bets big on Star India; expects $1 billion EBIDTA by 2020

    James Murdoch bets big on Star India; expects $1 billion EBIDTA by 2020

    MUMBAI: The country’s leading broadcaster – Star India is betting big on the future. Star India, which has made a mark in the general entertainment as well as the sports broadcasting space, is looking at turning the company into a billion dollar entity by the turn of the decade, said 21st Century Fox co-chief operating officer James Rupert Murdoch.

     

     “We love the India business. It has now evolved enormously from Hindi entertainment to regional language broadcasting and now we are a national platform. The sports business for us is a new pillar and we are looking at the business in a long-term time frame. And if we keep innovating and investing in putting more creative and innovative content on screen, Star India will become a billion dollar EBIDTA by the turn of the decade,” said Murdoch at the just concluded Asia Pacific Pay-TV Operators Summit 2015 held in Bali.

     

    Addressing the gathering at APOS, Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “Media content has a huge role in shaping the sensibilities of the society and this role should not be underestimated.”

     

    Stressing on the role of sports, Shankar added, “I am prejudiced towards aspirational content and cynical about cynical content. This is something we have always kept in mind while creating all of our content and it is the same philosophy that we are bringing to sports as well. Sports has a huge role to play in empowerment, especially in a country like India, where we need to make the society believe that even an uneducated person can aspire to something greater if he is talented in a sport. This is what has worked with Kabaddi in a big way.”

     

    Star has applied the same entertainment business philosophy into sports. “We are creating content with deep local affinity using the audience aggregation power that cricket gave you. Sports broadcasting has been plagued by laziness and lack of innovation, treated merely as a distribution agent of acquired rights, which is what we have tried to change with multiple local leagues. If it is your team that’s playing, even if it is not the best team, you would be deeply passionate about it. Creating a hierarchy of leagues across the country can be huge empowering phenomenon,” opined Shankar.

     

    Speaking about content creation and regionalization, he said, “India is a giant country with varied cultures and tastes. We used Asianet as a beach head for the south and elevated the quality of content dramatically with sharper storytelling, involving the best of the creative fraternity and breaking the caste divide between film and TV. For logistic reasons outsourcing production might make sense, but unless you internalize the core creative skill, you will not be able to sustain success, which is why we have build a robust internal creative team to ensure this.”

     

    Star India’s recently launched video on demand (VOD) platform Hotstar has become a talking point of sorts. “Our objective behind Hotstar was quite simple actually – a lot of audiences were consuming our content on other screens, but we were unhappy with the inability to control their viewing experience. We realised we own all of this IP and so came Hotstar. I do not think that this is a ‘free model.’ We need to keep the consumer at the center while thinking about this and in a market like India, where data costs are still pretty high, the consumer is still paying a lot for the data – so it’s not particularly consumer friendly to have them pay twice, especially at such a nascent stage.”

     

    Shankar is also buoyed by the over-the-top (OTT) services space as it allows for democratisation of creativity. “However this is not the same as saying that anyone can create content,” he said.

     

    He also stressed on the use of big data and analytics by the network. “At Star, we use a lot of data and we value it deeply. However, let’s not become data monkeys. Data helps understands patterns but to understand these patterns and take a leap to what should be created next, will still require creativity. No matter how much data we have, I don’t believe we will be able to automate the definition of the next blockbuster,” concluded Shankar.

  • Arab visual media industry pegged at $2 billion; TV holds 95% share

    Arab visual media industry pegged at $2 billion; TV holds 95% share

    MUMBAI: Award winning Egyptian producer and director Mohamed Hefzy, who is also an expert in Arab cinema industry, feels that the industry is still lacking a commercial approach, thus hampering its growth.

     

    According to Hefzy, the Arab visual media industry is currently worth $2 billion, with TV commanding 95 per cent share, while cinema is below five per cent and digital stands at a mere one per cent.

     

    “There is a strong need for commercial mainstream productions targeting the wider Arab audiences, rather than making films for local markets,” says Hefzy.

     

    Hefzy, a globally renowned film maker, lamented that cinema and TV industry is still in infancy in the Gulf but added that it was set for a growth of over 30 per cent in five years’ time; however, he cautioned that the sector was still not mature enough as far as production budgets are concerned, including big productions like movies, and many of them were making losses.

     

    He also called for regulating, streamlining and professionalizing the entertainment production industry in the region. He said the industry has huge untapped potential, as there is an audience of nearly 300 million hankering for good world-class entertainment.

     

    Fortress Capital Investments managing partner Hamed Mokhtar said, “More investments are needed in Arab entertainment sector to enable the players to raise the bar. Direct investment in this industry helps foster integrated partnerships between creative experts and cinema and TV production bodies, bringing the vibrancy and breadth of the arts in the Arab world to life on screen in innovative ways. More inflow of investments could help this industry flourish by leaps and bounds in the Arab world.”

     

    Hefzy added, “The streamlining, developing and professionalizing the industry is a must; it is equally important to take commercial aspects very seriously. Providing the right infrastructure, tools, facilities and funding and regulations to the industry as well as professionals’ training and development can result in raising the quality of productions. What is needed is a greater focus on educating people cinematically and culturally.”

  • Star Plus’ new finite series ‘Gulmohar Grand’ to launch on 3 May

    Star Plus’ new finite series ‘Gulmohar Grand’ to launch on 3 May

    MUMBAI: Star Plus is all set to launch a new series revolving around the hotel industry. Called Gulmohar Grand, the finite series will be of 26 episodes, wherein each episode will have a different story.

     

    The show is slated to launch on Star Plus on 3 May. The weekly show will be aired every Sunday at 10 pm.

     

    Giving an insight into the world of a Five Star hotel, Gulmohar Grand will not only showcase the glamorous and luxurious world of hotels but also gives an insight in the world of hotels in a way that has never been seen before on Indian television.

     

    Produced by Sunshine Productions, the show stars Gaurav Chopraa and Aakansha Singh in the lead role and is being shot in a hotel in Mumbai.

     

    Sunshine Productions’ Sudhir Sharma said, “When you shoot in a live environment, you get to learn a lot of things about what’s happening in the real world and therefore, it is easier than creating a set for it. Following a certain schedule also has its cons, but since the hotel is functional, the benefits are much more. Even if we would have built a set, we could not have brought the kind of live environment that the current hotel is giving us.”

     

    The show is going to face a tough competition with DID Super Moms on Zee TV, Savdhaan India on Life OK, Comedy Nights with Kapil on Colors, CID on Sony and Yam Hain Hum on Sab.