ITV

Category: GECs

  • Kamal Haasan roots for Bengaluru to hold FICCI MEBC in future

    Kamal Haasan roots for Bengaluru to hold FICCI MEBC in future

    BENGALURU: The fifth edition of the FICCI MEBC (Media and Entertainment Business Conclave) came to a new location this year to IT City Bengaluru. MEBC president and actor Kamal Haasan rooted for Bengaluru to be a recurring location for the conclave to be held.

     

    Among the people present at the inaugural function were Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, Information and Broadcasting secretary Bimal Julka, Film Federation of India president Ravi Kottarakara, Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce president H D Gangaraju, Karnataka government IT BT and S&T secretary Srivatsa Krishna and Association of Bangalore Animation Industry president and technicolor India head Biren Ghose.

     

    “Bengaluru is the second largest IT hub in the world after Silicon Valley and in the years to come we want to surpass even Silicon Valley to become the hub of innovation and convergence of media and entertainment,” said Krishna.

     

    Kamal Haasan said that Bengaluru has all the things needed to make it an IT hub as well as keep FICCI MEBC going in the city. “We will give a push to the digital medium,” he added.

     

    Siddaramaiah emphasised the need for building qualitative online content that will give advertisers innovative ways to reach out to people. “The industry should look at remaking old movies with good value and rich in vernacular content,” he said. He also urged the need for creating programming and growth friendly policies for industry.

     

    Issues that were concerning the film industry were also raised by Kottarakara such as service tax and lack of support from banks for movie funding. “Film making is put in the ‘sinful’ industry along with gambling, drinking and smoking. It is not so,” he said.

     

    The sessions for the two day event included ‘formulating and implementing a viable media and entertainment policy for a state’, ‘reshaping mobile entertainment in the era of digital revolution’, ‘the challenge of news: defining number one in the dizzying newscape’, ‘the broadcasting ecosystem in the digital era’, ‘customising global VFX for Indian cinema’, ‘emerging trends of Indian IP in animation and their exploitation’, ‘the emerging gaming industry in southern India’, ‘emerging technologies and the impact on media and entertainment industry’ and ‘changing trends in regional TV: ratings, content and formats’.

  • Winners announced of the first Formats Asia Awards

    Winners announced of the first Formats Asia Awards

    MUMBAI: Formats Asia has concluded another successful event. This year Formats Asia was held during the CASBAA Convention, and saw intense and insightful discussions that dug deep into the issues and matters that are affecting the industry most. The event also celebrated the announcement of the winners of the first Formats Asia Awards.

     

    The Apprentice Asia (Sony SPE) took the top spot for the ‘Best Use of a Global Format in Asia’ award. It is an engaging show that pits aspiring young Asian entrepreneurs against each other in “the world’s toughest job interview” for a chance to work for Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes.

     

    In the ‘Best Original Asian Format’ category, the award went to The Challenger Muay Thai (Imagine Group). The series pits 16 world-class fighters against each other to win the ultimate title of Muaythai World Champion and $ 100,000 in prize money.

     

    Rounding off the awards in the ‘Best Non-Entertainment Format in Asia’ category was Jobs Around The World (MediaCorp TV). In this the entertaining duo, Bryan Wong and Kym Ng take viewers out of their comfort zone in an educational and cultural exploration of interesting, unusual and often surprising jobs across Asia.

     

    Formats Asia 2013 ended on a high with a plethora of issues discussed. The programme examined recent developments in China, explored relationships with sponsors and advertisers, investigated types of programming that work well in Asia, and focused on the emergence of drama and factual formats.

     

    Formats Asia founder and Lightning International CEO James Ross said, “I’m absolutely thrilled at this year’s event. We had some great discussions and debates, we saw a lot of examples of how formats are being localised within Asia, and we celebrated with our first Formats Asia Awards winners. The industry in Asia is really picking up, and judging by the sentiments coming from the sessions, we’ve got a lot of opportunities to capture for our partners, and the entire industry has plenty of business to capitalise on.”

     

    He added, “Overall, this year’s event focused on the need for creating great content, since ultimately, good material will always capture the imagination and attention of viewers. Broadcasters in Asia are also increasingly realising how formats can make their job easier. Formats are not just great ideas from popular brands. They are a complete “how-to-do-it” package, a proven blueprint that encapsulates the intelligence, insights and experience learned and gained by previous producers.”
     

  • Global ad spend goes upward in the first half of 2013

    Global ad spend goes upward in the first half of 2013

    NEW DELHI: Ad spends grew by a substantial 6.4 per cent in the first half of 2013, making it the largest growth among different regions of the world.

     

    Marketers continue to gradually increase their global ad spending, as expenditures grew 3.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2013 and 2.8 percent on a year-over-year basis for the January-June periods of 2013 and 2012, according to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.

     

    Although many marketers remain conservative with advertising budgets, those in Latin America continue to buck the norm, increasing their expenditures by 13.1 percent (to $13.5 billion) for the January-June period.

     

    All regions contributed to global growth for the first half of the year except Europe, where marketers remain modest with their ad budgets amid the regions’ continued fiscal crisis, resulting in a six percent decline for the period. Ad spend continued to recover after slumping during the economic downturn, with growth of 3.9 percent in the Middle East and Africa, and 2.7 percent in North America.

     

    Argentina contributed significantly to growth for the Latin America region with nearly 30 per cent growth. Indonesia, China and the Philippines all contributed to double-digit ad growth in Asia-Pacific for the first half of 2013, with expenditures reaching $51 billion. In Europe, ad spend increased in Norway, Switzerland, and Greece (2.5 per cent, 0.6 per cent, and 7.4 per cent respectively), while expenditures declined in all other countries in the region.

     

    Nielsen Global AdView Pulse measures ad spending for TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, outdoor, cinema and Internet display advertising. Ad spend is based mainly on published rate-cards. Some markets may exclude select media due to data availability.

     

    The external data sources for the other countries included in the report are:

     

    Argentina: IBOPE
    Brazil: IBOPE
    Croatia: Nielsen in association with Ipsos
    Egypt: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
    France: Yacast
    Greece: Media Services
    Hong Kong: admanGo
    Japan: Nihon Daily Tsushinsha
    Kuwait: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
    Lebanon: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
    Mexico: IBOPE
    Pan-Arab Media: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
    Portugal: Mediamonitor
    Saudi Arabia: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
    Spain: Arce Media
    Switzerland: Nielsen in association with Media Focus
    UAE: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)

  • I&B sets up Internal Complaints Committee for female staff

    I&B sets up Internal Complaints Committee for female staff

    NEW DELHI: In its attempt to strengthen the mechanism for redressal of grievances of the female employees working with it, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has renamed the Women’s Cell in the Ministry which will now be known as ‘Internal Complaints Committee’.

     

    The Committee will review the programmes and monitor implementation of development schemes for women in accordance with the guidelines suggested by the National Commission for Women. It will also function as the Complaint Committee in terms of the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in a matter relating to sexual harassment in the work place, which has since been included in the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 as Rule 3 C.

     

    Accordingly, this Committee will also look into all complaints of sexual harassment including such complaints filed against the heads of the media units under the administrative control of this Ministry in lines with Duty of Employer at workplace or other institution to prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment in terms of guidelines and norms laid by Supreme Court in Vishakha & Others versus the State of Rajasthan and others (JT1997(7)SC 3847).

    Headed by Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Supriya Sahu, directors Priyamvada and G. Jayanthy and S O Kamlesh Makker. While Centre for Media Studies director P Vasanti is a non-official representative of YWCA, Under Secretary (Films) S.B. Pandey is the lone male member.

  • Balaji quintuples y-o-y PAT for Q2-2014; EBIDTA more than doubles

    Balaji quintuples y-o-y PAT for Q2-2014; EBIDTA more than doubles

    BENGALURU: Balaji Telefilms Limited (BTL), the blue-eyed entity of the Indian media and entertainment industry, reported consolidated PAT of Rs 12.33 crore for Q2-2014, more than quintuple (506 per cent) the Rs 2.43 crore reported for Q2-2013 and  more than triple (342 per cent) of the Rs 3.61 crore for Q1-2014.

     

    The improved performance was driven essentially by its motion picture operations. BTL reported EBIDTA for Q2-2014 at Rs 10.95 crore, more than double the Rs 4.63 crore for Q2-2013. BTL’s EBIDTA for Q1-2014 was negative at Rs (-5.02) crore

     

    The company’s consolidated revenue from operations for Q2-2014 at Rs 194.16 crore was more than triple (329 per cent) of the Rs 58.96 crore for Q2-2013 and more than double the Rs 84.04 crore for Q1-2014.

     

    Let us look at the other figures reported by BTL for Q2-2014

     

    BTL has reported revenue from three streams: Balaji Telefilms (Television content production-Balaji); Motion Pictues – Balaji Moption Pictures Limited (BMPL) and BOLT Media Limited (BOLT).

     

    Its television content production stream reported revenue of Rs 30.33 crore for Q2-2014, which was 33 per cent higher than the Rs 22.80 crore for Q1-2014. Rs 32.32 crore were spent in Q2-2014 towards cost of production, acquisition and cost of telecast fees, staff cost, depreciation and other expense resulting in loss from operations of Rs (-1.99) crore. Other Income brought in Rs 3.02 crore and hence a PAT of 0.804 crore.

     

    BMPL with revenue of Rs 164.05 crore for Q2-2014, which was more than double (2.66 times) the Rs 61.67 crore for Q1-2014. Expense totaling Rs 152.23 crore resulted in a PAT of Rs 11.81 crore.

     

    BOLT had revenue of 0.27 crore and total expense of 0.59 crore resulting in a net loss of Rs (-0.32) crore.

  • ‘Tumhari Paakhi’ to replace ‘The Bachelorette’

    ‘Tumhari Paakhi’ to replace ‘The Bachelorette’

    MUMBAI: Life OK is all set to add a new show to its kitty – a differentiated love story called Tumhari Paakhi.

    Slated to premiere on Star Plus’s sister channel at 9.30pm on 11 November, the new series will replace the much-hyped Mallika Sherawat-starrer The Bachelorette India.

    Produced by Shashi-Sumeet Mittal Productions, Tumhari Paakhi is based on legendary Bengali author Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Navvidhan.

    About the show, Life OK general manager Ajit Thakur says: “With this show, we are innovating and venturing into a whole new genre of general entertainment; book-inspired fiction. It is inspired from the novel, and we are going to bring it alive in viewers’ drawing rooms.”

    Yuvraj Bhattacharya, programming team, Life OK, reveals the show has only four characters, and is the story of handsome but self-centred Shimla-based businessman Anshuman (Iqbal Khan) and pretty but unassuming Chittor-based guide Paakhi (Shraddha Arya).

    Married off as children, a grown-up Paakhi waits for Anshuman to acknowledge their relationship even as Anshuman seems unaware of it.

    Explaining how it is different from run-of-the-mill love stories, Bhattacharya says: “Paakhi has waited 18 years for an answer, to close the pages of their story. She stands strong, undeterred and hopeful. This is not a show, but it is only about these two characters.”

    At the time of writing this article, 12 episodes had already been canned; shot at various locations including Udaipur, Shimla, Chittaur and Panchgani, with the basic set located at Film City in Mumbai.

    The channel always needs to be experimentative in nature believes Yuvraj Bhattacharya

    Isn’t the choice of prime time a bit dangerous, considering there would be viewers hooked on to other soaps on different channels? “The channel always needs to be experimentative in nature. On other GECs, this slot is occupied with mostly soaps and saas-bahu content. So we came up with the concept, breaking all the common factors. People always want to watch new content on television, and Life OK is the perfect destination for a change. It depends on us how better we engage with the audiences and give them some freshness,” reasons Bhattacharya.

    That said, the show still faces tough competition from the likes of Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata hai on Star Plus, Big Boss season seven on Colors, Qubool Hai on Zee TV, Jeanie Aur Juju on Sab, and Jee Le Zara on Sony.

    Marketing wise, the channel has an official Facebook page which has not so convincing around 800 likes. On Twitter, the channel is constantly updating with news, polls and promo links using #TumhariPaakhi hashtag. The promos are already on air and lot of hoardings can also be seen across cities.

    So, will Tumhari Paakhi do for Life OK’s prime time slot what The Bachelorette was obviously unable to do?

    “The channel has definitely created out-of-the-box content, but it has never worked for them. Apart from shows like Mahadev and Shapat, which are the channel’s flagship properties, which it is known for, Life OK has experimented a lot in the past but it hasn’t really worked. People want to see something different and spicy. So taking that into consideration, I don’t think people can ever leave Big Boss and switch to this new show. Different would have been the case if the channel would have aired it during early prime time. Maybe channel loyalty could work for them,” says a highly-placed media planner.

  • Green Gold wins Licensor of the Year Award

    Green Gold wins Licensor of the Year Award

     MUMBAI: Green Gold Licensing & Merchandising has been awarded the ‘Licensor of the Year 2013’ at the eighth Star Retail Awards held in New Delhi. This is the second consecutive time that Green Gold’s licensing business has been recognised for its unique efforts.

     

    The Star Retailer Awards is a place which witnesses the coming together of the whole retail industry to celebrate and honour the best performers. The awards are presented by Franchise India Holdings.

     

    “This is the second successive year that Green Gold has achieved this recognition. We are really honoured and the star of the entire programme is Chhota Bheem. Three years back we had to put in a lot of efforts to set the licensing division and today with 100 + licensees on board, Green Gold is a big force to reckon with. Our aim is to continue bringing in the best products for Chhota Bheem fans and grow the licensing market in India. We have also signed up new licenses for Mighty Raju, our other show on Pogo,” said Sourcing & Licensing vice president Madhav Prabhala.

     

    Green Gold is the creator and producer of the hit series’ Chhota Bheem, Mighty Raju, Luv Kushh, Chorr Police, Krishna Balram on kids’ TV and cinema. Apart from licensing, the company is into animation, merchandising, franchising stores, gaming application development and movies.

     

    “With the licensing sector getting organised and process driven, we are happy with our growth and we thank all our licensees for being a part of our growth. We would like to sincerely thank the Franchise India team and the Jury for acknowledging and appreciating our efforts,” said Green Gold executive director Samir Jain.

  • Prime Focus appoints Vikas Rathee as group COO

    Prime Focus appoints Vikas Rathee as group COO

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus today announced the appointment of Vikas Rathee, an investment banking and corporate finance professional as its group chief operating officer.

     

    Rathee brings with him more than a decade of experience working with leading companies in the TMT (telecom, media and technology) sector with proven relationships and in-depth understanding of industry dynamics across US, Europe and Asia.

     

    In his new role, Rathee, will work as part of Prime Focus’ corporate leadership to position Prime Focus among target customers as a key strategic partner as well as the investor and financial community as an incredible growth story that is moving rapidly towards realising its full potential in the global media and entertainment universe.

     

     Announcing the appointment, Prime Focus founder Namit Malhotra said, “Vikas is a seasoned professional with unique combination of industry knowledge, corporate finance and capital markets experience, and M&A expertise who joins us at a perfect time, when we are at the cusp of our next aggressive wave of growth.  His inter-cultural global work experience and eye for investment opportunities are in-sync with our planned growth strategy. I have huge confidence in Vikas’ ability to accelerate Prime Focus’ growth momentum in the coming years.”

     

     Prime Focus India CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan said, “Vikas coming on broad has strengthened our leadership team and will accelerate our next wave of growth. He comes with strong knowledge of both media and IT that is a key differentiator for PFT as well. As Prime Focus grows from strength to strength, Vikas’ addition will be important in helping the team manage the business with discipline, diligence and dynamism. His industry networks and relationships globally will act as catalyst to the growth of Prime Focus”  

     

     “I am delighted to be part of the world leader in media and entertainment industry services, Prime Focus. As an investment banking professional focused on the TMT space, I have closely watched the growth, consolidation and evolution of this dynamic sector on a global scale. Prime Focus, through the last decade and a half, has made a significant contribution to this evolution not only in India, but is now also having a profound impact on the international media and entertainment industry as well. Today as a unique service provider straddling creative and technology domains, and working with some of the biggest names in this seamless global industry, Prime Focus is all set to fuel growth to the next level. I look forward to working with Namit and Ramki in making this vision a reality.” said Rathee, on his appointment.

     

    Vikas is an MBA in Finance and CFA, and comes with over 16 years of experience covering stints at Suzlon, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and ABN AMRO.

  • Amagi Media Labs enables ETV to generate custom feed for Singapore

    Amagi Media Labs enables ETV to generate custom feed for Singapore

    MUMBAI: Geo-targetted advertising was started in India by Amagi Media Labs that enabled channels to have particular ads in particular regions. But it didn’t just stop there. It has also started creating local feeds for channels that want to air in other countries.

     

    According to Amagi, at times, certain shows are not allowed to be aired in other countries due to broadcast regulations, so it is replaced with regional shows. Local content to cater to local audiences can also help in getting targeted advertising in the country.

     

    In the latest move, the channel has partnered with Eenadu Television to provide custom feed for ETV Telugu in Singapore through Amagi’s cloud enabled broadcast solution. Amagi’s localisation platform at SingTel’s Mio TV will be doing the job for the channel. Earlier, another Telugu network had done the same in Singapore. Maa Network’s Maa TV and Maa Movies also aired local shows to its viewers in Singapore earlier this year.

     

    ETV Telugu wanted to bring their linear feed to Singapore and it was asked to opt out of two hours of its programming. Using Amagi’s cloud based platform, they have been able to create a local feed for Singapore audiences. “We had a requirement to replace couple of hours of programming on every day basis for our distributor in Singapore while justifying the RoIs,” said Eenadu TV vice president Bapineedu.

     

    Amagi’s technology helps channels save a lot of resources of creating a new feed using satellite or fiber.

     

     “The system is designed in a manner such that the content masking process works in parallel to the satellite broadcast’s processes and scheduling,” said Amagi co-founder and CTO Srividhya S. “Unlike the traditional triggering mechanism used, Amagi’s barcoding based approach offers workflow flexibilities and 100 per cent accuracy in identifying and replacing content assets.”

     

    Recently Amagi has perked up on its geo targeted advertising for Nickelodeon and HUL as well as Zee TV.

  • BBC Worldwide signs a deal with AXN India

    BBC Worldwide signs a deal with AXN India

    MUMBAI:  BBC Worldwide in India today announced a deal with AXN India providing the broadcaster with more than 60 hours of BBC’s factual entertainment and drama programmes. Titles comprise of four series of Top Gear, two series of Orphan Black and three series Sherlock. The deal includes the presale of Top Gear (series 21 & 22), Orphan Black (series two), and Sherlock (series three). All programmes will be seen exclusively on AXN India throughout India and its subcontinent.

     

    BBC Worldwide Asia, SVP and GM and content lead Myleeta Aga commented:  “This new acquisition by AXN is the largest we’ve had with the broadcaster to date.  I’m very excited that viewers in India will now have access to some of the most popular and high quality drama and factual entertainment programmes that have come from BBC in the past year or so. Top Gear is the world’s largest and most popular motoring programme and is the ‘most watched factual programme’ in the world, according to the Guinness World Records. Sherlock has won multiple awards and catapulted its stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) and Martin Freeman (Watson) to international stardom. The first series of Orphan Black has received critical acclaim, won a number of accolades and has made a break-out star of Tatiana Maslany.”

     

    Talking about their association with BBC Worldwide, AXN India programming head Arpit Mankar, said: “We are very happy to extend our relationship with BBC. The first of our BBC acquired programmes, Sherlock (series one) will premiere on AXN India on 4 November on the Mon-Thu 9.30 pm time band.  We are confident that the series will be well received by our audiences; so much so that we’ve already ordered Sherlock series three even while it’s in production. Top Gear has innumerable fans in India and we are happy to now be the home of the latest series of Top Gear in India. Orphan Black has received such great reviews that we’ve acquired both series’ – even though series two is still being shot. The thriller is bound to take viewers by surprise!”

     

    Top Gear (series 20) started airing in mid October every Friday 9 pm while Sherlock (series one) will launch on November 4. Orphan Black is set to premiere first and exclusively on AXN this December.