ITV

Category: GECs

  • UTV woos ‘Bindass’ youth

    After carving out a separate space for Hungama TV in the kids genre, Zarina Mehta is at work again. Her challenge this time is to hook the youth onto a general entertainment channel.

    Finding a target group that wasn‘t specifically tapped by the other channels was her first task. She commissioned research firm PQR to help her discover what she calls “our zone.”

    Four months on, she has decided to tap the 15-24-year-olds. And within this segment, she has identified college-goers in the age group between 17-21 years as the core constituency of her channel.

    “There is a common characteristic that runs in the blood of this age group. They reflect the brand values of fun, frolic, fearlessness and freedom. They want to do things, are optimistic and find joy in being young,” says Mehta.

    Arriving at Bindass as the name of the channel was a natural extension. “We were clear that the channel would reflect the spirit of the movie Rang De Basanti. Synovate conducted a survey with 1,000 respondents and came up with the name Bindass,” she says.

    As UTV Youth venture COO, Mehta is geared up with a three phase plan and a piggy bank of Rs 1 billion (drawn from Rs 2 billion outlay over three years) devoted to the first year alone. In GENX, the joint venture company that will roll out the channel and other youth-related initiatives, Malaysia-based Astro will be a 50 per cent equity partner.

    “We will have broadcast operations but also have an extended web (communities and entertainment), mobile, gaming, events and retail play,” says Mehta.

    The age group that Mehta is targeting occupies 23 per cent of total TV viewing in India. As they constitute a large part of GEC viewing, her task will be to migrate them to a content format that is unique.

    “We have to discover our prime time. The 9-11 pm band clearly belongs to Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony.”

    Set for launch in June-July, the channel‘s content recipe is still a mystery. But there will be no music, no soap operas and no lifestyle. “There is plenty of opportunity to get this target segment. Since it is very competitive, I can‘t reveal what kind of content we are going to have in the channel,” says Mehta.

    Movies will be an essential ingredient but the channel drivers will still be shows. “We will need to have a library of 50-60 feature films aimed at this segment. The acquisition process is on,” Mehta says.

    Though the channel will also source international content, the focus will be to create “India‘s first local youth entertainment brand.” Mehta hasn‘t frozen on the full content of the channel yet, but animation may be included. “We need to be fearless and experiment. We have to take risks,” she says.

    As part of its approach, UTV seems to be adopting a multiple revenue model that old timer music channels MTV and Channel [V] have tried and tested in the market. MTV VP creative and content Ashish Patel calls this form as ‘multi-platformication’ which includes online, mobile, events, retail and merchandise.

    In order to trap this highly elusive segment of the populace, a diverse offering would be the key. What it also symbolizes is a brand building exercise that connects on multiple levels with the core TG.

    The first phase of rollout will include revenue from web play, mobile games and on-ground events. Having a spread out portfolio in areas of movies, TV content, gaming, animation and airtime sales, UTV will hope to leverage from its existing operations.

    “We have acquired a majority stake in Indiagames and will use this to extend our channel presence in terms of brand and revenues. We will also tie up with mobile operators. And to reinforce the brand, we plan to have three big events in a year,” says Mehta.

    In the second phase, Bindass will foray into the retail segment (probably with an outlet such as a coffee shop or cyber café, a highly frequented venue for youth) and simultaneously roll out merchandising activities. “Retail will be a separate investment outside Rs 1 billion. We will go with a partner for this venture and should have a presence by December. The effort is to have an integrated approach and create a holistic youth brand experience,” says Mehta.

    Though not a direct threat, music channels have been targeting a similar demographic segment. “UTV, however, seems to be having a sharper focus within that TG by eyeing programming at the 17-21-year-olds. But we are essentially music channels and having been in existence for so long, are not really worried,” says Channel [V] head honcho Amar Deb.

    Mehta is looking at a co-existential approach to the genre. “I think both MTV and Channel [V] are great brands. But they are music channels. We don’t have music, we can totally co-exist with these two channels. Even tie up with them perhaps.”

    Bindass, however, will be different from the MTV and Channel [V] brands. “At its core Bindass is Indian, no micro-miniskirts, no fleshy videos, we need to reach deeper into the core needs of the viewer and hopefully become their preferred choice,” avers Mehta.

    What do the general entertainment channels think of the core TG Bindass is targeting? “It is too narrow a segment and there will be hard pressure on scaling up revenues. The space is too niche and in any case all local GECs are tapping it in their 15-34 TG,” says SET India COO NP Singh.

    Surely, Mehta has a tough task cut out for her. Building a youth brand will require all the right ingredients and big money needs to be continuously pumped in. Deriving strong revenues from merchandising to support the youth brand has also failed against a dominant pirated market in India.

    But not many had predicted the success of Hungama TV which was pitched against multinational brands like Cartoon Network and Walt Disney. If Bindass succeeds, it will hit MTV and Channel [V] hard even as they are planning to be more than just music channels.

  • Star Group pays Rs 72 million for 20 % stake in Radio City

    Star Group pays Rs 72 million for 20 % stake in Radio City

    NEW DELHI: Star Group has received FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) approval for investing Rs 72.02 million to pick up a 20 per cent stake in Music Broadcast Pvt. Ltd. (MBPL), the company that operates FM radio business under the Radio City brand.

    The acquisition is being made through Mauritius-based Acetic Investments. Star had earlier exited from Radio City, having sold its stake for Rs 300 million. India Value Fund had acquired a controlling stake in MBPL.
    Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that Star was making a re-entry into the FM radio business by buying 20 per cent equity from India Value Fund (earlier GW Capital). With this, India Value Fund’s holding would drop from 75 per cent to 55 per cent.

    “It may be a buy back arrangement Star had with India Value Fund. Being the second largest player, the valuation of Radio City will be pretty high,” says a source who is tracking the industry.

    The government regulations permit only 20 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the FM radio business.

  • Big B on Zee’s Titan Antakshri

    Big B on Zee’s Titan Antakshri

    MUMBAI: The special episode of Titan Antakshri on Zee Television was made even more memorable for the visually impaired participants with the presence of Amitabh Bacchan. Big B regaled the audience with a rendition of Khalid Hashmi’s “Main Prakash Hoon, ajar amar andhakar ek nirav gunjan”. The poem specifically reflected the fact that blindness in not a drawback.

    Zee TV Titan Antakshari has devoted a six-part mini series looking at socially relevant issues like problems faced by the visually impaired, shelter for senior citizens and rehabilitation of street children. The series called Music for a Cause. The telecast of the mini series will start from 23 March at 8:30 pm. The show featuring Amitabh Bacchan will be aired on 31 March.

    The show will also feature two visually challenged girls who presented a letter to Bacchan wishing his mother Teji Bacchan a speedy recovery.

    Bacchan had himself played the role of a teacher training a visually impaired student to understand the world and stand on her own feet in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black and was touched by the gesture.

    Zee Titan Antakshari was brought back on the channel this year after the original team led by Gajendra Singh moved to Star camp.

  • Discovery takes an in-depth look at the video gaming industry

    Discovery takes an in-depth look at the video gaming industry

    MUMBAI: The video game revolution, underway for decades, has progressed from simple amusements created in the 1950s to an all-pervasive force in today’s popular culture that rivals films and television. What began as a sub-culture pastime has evolved and transcended genres to become a e form of expression impacting everything from modern warfare to interpersonal relationships. Discovery will give viewers an insight at this successful multi-billion dollar behemoth in the show I, Videogame.

    The show will air eevry Thursday at 10 pm from 1 March 2007.

    The show will explore the past, present and future of video games and video gamers. Featuring interviews with giants in the gaming industry of yesterday and today, this five-part series examines the evolution of the videogame and its cultural impact on the world of entertainment today.

    From the early days of Pong to today’s ever-popular Halo 2 and from Atari 2600 to Nintendo and PlayStation, the show narrates the story of the people, their ideologies, the technology behind video games and how it exploded into a cultural phenomenon.

    The first episode shows how the concept of the video game came into being. In the 1950s, the Cold War quickly evolved between the world super powers of the United States and the Soviet Union. Mutually assured destruction enforced an uneasy stalemate, yet also drove computer technology to create missile simulations in order to predict the results of a nuclear war.

    This same computer technology was used to develop the first computer game in 1958 – Tennis for Two. The space race and Vietnam coincided with Steve Russell’s game Space War and the emergence of the first true giants in the video game business – Nolan Bushnell and Atari. Space Invaders and Pac-Man soon followed, and the Golden Age of videogames was born. Video games emerged as a form of entertainment where the player was in control, as opposed to the more passive diversion of watching television.

    The second episode looks at the scene in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Instead of controlling things like spaceships and tennis rackets, video game technology let players command recognisable characters with real faces and back stories. Game developers were liberated to create more complex videogames with heroic journeys – and Japanese creators like Shigeru Miyamoto rose to prominence with star characters Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda.

    But in the 1990s, Generation X emerged and the games of their childhood couldn’t satisfy the new teen angst that now permeated pop culture. With Sega’s Genesis and Sony’s PlayStation, gamers dismissed cute cartoon characters in favour of grittier heroes like Sonic the Hedgehog and anti-heroes in games like Grand Theft Auto III. This episode features interviews with Trip Hawkins (Silicon Valley entrepreneur and co-founder of Electronic Arts), Al Lowe (creator of Leisure Suit Larry), Tim Schafer (creator of Full Throttle) and other figures in the gaming industry.

  • TV hardware market in Asia worth $22 billion

    TV hardware market in Asia worth $22 billion

    MUMBAI: The total size of the television hardware market in Asia measures at nearly $22 billion

    GfK Asia has released its 2006 year end pan Asian consumer electronics data summary. This highlights the trends in the region’s consumer electronics sector. The report includes data from 13 countries overall including China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

    For the first time, LCD televisions are the largest television category, equaling 40 per cent of the total market value, compared to conventional televisions (39 per cent), plasma televisions (18 per cent), and rear projection televisions (three per cent).

    On a volume basis, LCD televisions out-sold plasma televisions four-to- one in 2006. In all, more than 50 million televisions were sold by retailers in 13 countries across the Asian Region last year. In 2006, 83 per cent of televisions sold in Asia were conventional televisions, a figure that is predicted to slip to 75 per cent in 2007.

    GfK Asia commercial director of consumer electronics Steven Kaiser says, “The future is certainly bright for LCD screens in Asia. We expect that LCD televisions to continue a strong advance in 2007 and see a regional growth rate of 72 per cent for volumes in the year ahead.”

    Markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam that had seen relatively low LCD television volumes in 2005 exhibit robust increases in 2006 as the product gains a solid foothold throughout the Asian Region.

    Further evidence of the product’s vitality is seen in China where more than four million LCD televisions are reported sold at Chinese retailers in 2006 and is forecast to reach eight million units in 2007.

    DVD Player and Recorder: DVD recorders enjoy a banner year in 2006. The market value of DVD recorder retail sales across 12 countries in the Asian Region is nearly $500 million, representing 22 per cent of the overall DVD player market. On aggregate, more than 23 million DVD players are reported sold in 2006 in the Asian Region. The DVD player market is forecast to hold steady in 2007.

    Kaiser explains, “With the two next-generation hi-definition video disc formats finally becoming a reality, it is not surprising to see current-generation DVD players reaching a natural sales plateau. Yet, despite the impending ‘hi-def’ future, DVD recorders are actually flourishing in today’s market by offering Asian consumers a strong value proposition: a rich feature- set at ever-better price points.”

    Audio Home System and Home Theatre System: In the audio sector, a China boom is expected for home theatre systems next year when the market volume is forecast to increase by 33 per cent in 2007.

    The total market volume of audio home systems and home theatre systems combined in 2006 stands at just below four million units across the Asian countries measured. Regionally, no growth is forecast for home audio products in 2007.

    MP3 Digital Portable Audio Player and MP4 Digital Portable Video Player: More than 20 million digital portable multimedia players (digital portable audio players and digital portable video players combined) are reported sold in retail shops. Approximately six million of these devices feature playback of digital video; the number of these devices is forecast to rise to nine million units in 2007.

    Kaiser adds, “Such is the pace of technology. The digital portable video player segment did not exist two years ago. Today, video playback is a feature on nearly one-third of all players sold in the Asian Region. We expect memory prices will continue to drop and video content will become even more accessible, positioning digital portable video players as the likely successor to portable video disc players in the
    marketplace.”

    Portable Radio Player: The market for portable radio players is currently tracked in 11 Asian countries. The market size is measured at nearly $300 million. China and Indonesia have the largest base of consumers for portable radio players in the Asian region, with the total market volume measured as 2.6 million units and 1.5 million units respectively in each country in 2006.

  • Pyramid Saimira, Moser Baer in deal for home video market

    Pyramid Saimira, Moser Baer in deal for home video market

    MUMBAI: Cinema chain operator Pyramid Saimira Theatre has entered into a strategic alliance with Moser Baer India for exploiting revenues from the home video market.

    Under the arrangement, Moser Baer’s range of home video titles will be available at all the theatres owned or managed by Pyramid Saimira. “The space cost will be taken care by us while Moser Baer will spend on furnishing the shops where the home video products will be sold. They will be able to reach out to more consumers through this retail chain,” says Pyramid Saimira Theatre managing director PS Saminathan.

    Pyramid Saimira will also allow its new films for Moser Baer to release in the home video format after a short window period. The plan is to release 100 films in South India across the country. Moser Baer will kick off by releasing Pyramid’s new Tamil film Mozhi (released on 23 February). “The window period will be drastically reduced and our films can be available on Moser Baer’s home video after one month of theatrical release. We believe we can get huge volumes as the DVDs are to be priced at Rs 34,” says Saminathan.

    Adds Moser Baer CEO, entertainment business, Harish Dayani, “This strategic tie up offers an excellent opportunity to increase our retail presence and availability. We are delighted that Pyramid Saimira Theatre is going to offer their new Tamil film content in home video format for the first time within a short period of releasing the film in the theatre.”

    The profit will be split equally between the two companies. This will include revenue generated from advertisement in VCDs and DVDs. The availability of DVDs at such low prices is aimed at killing the piracy market while also expanding the home video segment.

    Pyramid Saimira has also agreed to release films produced or distributed by Moser Baer in its theatres. Currently Pyramid has 255 screens in 225 locations.

    “Under the strategic alliance if we manage to generate volumes in the home video segment, we hope to add Rs 500 million to our bottomline every year without any increase in costs. While we take the content risk, they run the expenses for production of DVDs,” says Saminathan.

  • ‘Higher price cap than Rs 5 would have allowed us to play within that float’ : Anuj Gandhi – SET Discovery president

    ‘Higher price cap than Rs 5 would have allowed us to play within that float’ : Anuj Gandhi – SET Discovery president

    SET Discovery has been riding high on the wave of ICC cricket for over four years. Having the ICC Championship and World Cup in a single year, the company is targeting a 40 per cent growth in turnover to end 2006-07 at Rs 4.5 billion.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Sibabrata Das, SET Discovery president Anuj Gandhi talks of the challenges digital cable faces and how the distribution scenario would shape up in future to impact the pay-TV broadcasting business in India.

     

    Excerpts:

    Are you happy with the way Cas has rolled out so far?

    We are terribly disappointed. The multi-system operators (MSOs) were not fully prepared. Their systems were not in place and there weren’t enough set-top boxes (STBs). Some operators were even providing boxes without smart cards.

    MSOs say broadcasters created an uncertain environment till the end by approaching the courts. Isn’t it true that they got very little time for actual preparedness?

    There was enough indication that Cas would happen. We were challenging the pricing and not introduction of Cas. Broadcasters signed their contracts with the MSOs on time. Some local cable operators (LCOs) who were against Cas, moved the courts but could get nothing in their favour. If Cas has to take off, this blame game has to stop. All the stakeholders have to play their role.

    Is it a case of low consumer demand for boxes?

    That is a separate issue and, if need be, can be tackled with different marketing schemes. We are in a situation where the MSOs aren’t quite ready. There is lack of information flowing into us, the subscriber forms have not been filled up, and in some Cas markets analogue signals are available of popular general Hindi entertainment channels in prime time.

    Why then couldn’t this market substantially move to direct-to-home?

    DTH is more expensive. It has a higher entry price and there is no big subsidy on the STBs. Besides, DTH operators took time to service this market. With cable operators not capitalising heavily on Cas, we have lost an opportunity to create a build up for a massive ramp up in demand for STBs at the time of the World Cup.

    Will the World Cup drive a 40 per cent penetration in STBs as predicted by some positive analysts?

    We see the World Cup acting as a catalyst and expect the STB penetration to touch 45-50 per cent in the Cas markets. Only when we reach that level can all the stakeholders make money. Already DTH service providers Tata Sky and Dish TV have announced their schemes for the World Cup. MSOs should also be sorting out their issues and coming out with a plan for the big event.

    Is SET Discovery targeting a revenue of Rs 4.5 billion in 2006-07 on the back of the World Cup?

    We have set an aggressive target this year and are going to hit it. We will benefit from key cricketing events like the ICC Champions Trophy and the World Cup. Besides, we had cricket on Ten Sports. For the first time, we would be capturing revenues from DTH as we signed up Dish TV and Tata Sky during the year.

    Will Cas affect the business?

    In the overall scenario, Cas has a very limited number of cable and satellite homes. Besides, Cas has come into effect only in the last quarter of the fiscal.

    Do you see broadcasters dropping prices of their weaker channels in a bid to push sale of STBs?

    With a price cap on a la carte channels at Rs 5, it won’t make business sense to further drop rates. The whole justification for this is to have higher volumes. But we could have got the current levels of box penetration with a more liberal pricing.
    ‘DTH growth for the last six months has been as we had expected. It is only digital cable numbers which have been disappointing‘

    Are you suggesting a price ceiling but at a higher rate?

    This would have allowed us to play within that float. We could have weighed the weaker channels, observed their relative strengths in the marketplace, and come up with a differential pricing while staying competitive. The whole subscription model at Rs 5 doesn’t give us scope for such pricing play and is unfair to niche channels. There is precious little that content providers can do and dropping prices would be bad for the MSOs as well. Besides, we haven’t yet got any billing data from the MSOs on the Cas subscribers to chalk out a strategy.

    Are you planning to take any action as the deadline has crossed?

    It should have come to us by 15 February, but we haven’t received any information from them yet. If we don’t get any feedback from them in the next few days, we will issue them notices as specified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in order to safeguard our interests.

    Trai is trying to push for voluntary Cas. How do you think this can speed up in other parts of the country?

    Digitisation is a reality but will take a while to happen. Cas has been a learning process and we have to evolve a phase-wise strategy for digitalisation. We have to fix a sunrise and a sunset date where we have to give adequate time taking into account availability of boxes, prices and investments by MSOs.

    MSOs are saying that broadcasters should be more understanding and not ask for more subscribers in voluntary digitalisation as the collection of money from the LCOs doesn’t improve. Isn’t entering into commercial agreements between MSOs and broadcasters crucial for the success of voluntary Cas?

    The analogue and the digital markets have to be distinguished. The MSOs can’t argue that they can’t recover money and so can’t pass it on to us. Then how will broadcasters make money from voluntary Cas? There has to be some incentive for broadcasters to push for digitalisation.

    In the newly notifuied Cas market, we are seeing a three-MSO play. Do broadcasters welcome such a strong wave of consolidation?

    There shouldn’t be a problem so long as the business is transparent. If there was one monopoly player emerging in the cable TV distribution arena, then it would have concerned us. Besides, the market is large enough for other players to emerge. And the independent operators who have aligned with the MSOs would continue to remain as franchisees. We don’t see them disappearing from the chain.

    Will carriage spread to new towns where Tam has expanded its reach?

    It is too soon to say how carriage will impact in Tam’s new panel. A lot will depend on how the channels are getting affected. The market has more or less stabilised. Broadly, however, as ratings towns get added, carriage will move there. But I don’t see budgets of broadcasters towards carriage really bloating. What would happen is that they would be picking and choosing the places where they want better placement and carriage.

    When do you see DTH significantly contributing to the kitty of the pay-TV broadcasters?

    It will take DTH a while for getting those numbers. But it has certainly started impacting the business because MSOs are having to think twice before blacking out channels so that they don’t upset their subscribers. And DTH growth for the last six months has been as we had expected. It is only digital cable numbers which have been disappointing, but we will soon see that changing too.

    SET Discovery will have no cricket to play with in the next fiscal while in the GEC space, Sony TV is dropping in ratings. How tough will it be for the company to post growth?

    Cricket, no doubt, is a big play in India. In a MSO market, you can still do with no big impact hitting us. But when you go down into the interiors, this is the only driver. We have grown rapidly for over four years on the back of cricket. We will try to maintain what we have and ask for realistic increases. But we have no channel as such that will make carriage on cable networks a problem; there is strength in our bouquet.
  • Impasse over Tamil Channels continues in Bangalore

    Impasse over Tamil Channels continues in Bangalore

    BANGALORE: The impasse over the airing of Tamil channels continues here, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka, with seemingly no end in sight since the Kannada organizations are strongly against broadcast of the same.

    MSOs had stopped telecast of Tamil channels after the verdict on sharing of Cauvery river waters that Karnataka finds unfavorable for it.

    A source in the Karnataka State Cable TV Operators Association reveals that MSOs and cable operators are in favor of restarting airing Tamil Channels, but are facing stiff resistance from Kannada activists. “We fully support the people of Karnataka on this issue, as do the Tamil people based here in Karnataka. Entertainment should be kept away from issues that are politicized. Have Tamil channels on DTH been stopped? Have flights or trains between Tamil Nadu been stopped?” pleads a cable operator. “Cable is reachable and hence threatened,” adds another.

    The Tamil basket in Karnataka consists of around eight or nine channels, depending upon the MSO, area and the cable operator, from a possible bouquet of 11-12 channels. Of these, the Sun Group has five, Raj TV three, Jaya TV two, along with one each from DD and Vijay.

    Currently 2-3 channels are being aired in Bangalore. Sun’s KTV and Star’s Vijay were available in some areas while some had DD’s Tamil channel and other areas had Sun being aired since today, and yesterday. One Sun Tamil channel was switched on in monochrome in some areas.

    Regular Tamil channel broadcast in many areas of the state are on against token resistance from activists, as per information from some districts. However, the situation in some sensitive areas such as Mandya, Mysore and the surrounding areas could not be verified at the time of filing this report.

    The sharing of the Cauvery waters issue has plagued the southern states, with the major protagonists’ being Karnataka and Tamil Nadu since the past few decades. The interim water sharing verdict in December 1991 saw riots break out in Bangalore and the state, with loss of life and property. Even the 5 February verdict saw protests and a ‘bandh’ recently.

    The Karnataka government has yet to file an appeal against the 5 February verdict – they have 90 days to do so.

    Meanwhile, the people of Bangalore, a significant percentage of whom are non-Kannadigas, with Tamils forming a big chunk, are impatient and want entertainment to be kept away from these kinds of issues and enjoy their TV fare.

  • Senior bureaucrats-cum-journalists pass away

    Senior bureaucrats-cum-journalists pass away

    NEW DELHI: Two senior journalists-cum-bureaucrats belonging to the Indian Information Service, passed away over the weekend. While former editor of the Hindi wing of the United News of India, UNIVARTA, Mr Kashinath Joglekar died in the capital on Saturday aged 80, Mr Amitabh Chakrabarti died of a heart attack in Varanasi on Sunday aged 60.

    Defence Minister A K Antony and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today expressed sorrow over the death of Mr Chakrabarti, who was to have retired later this year and was currently the Registrar of Newspapers in India. The last rites were performed this morning.

    Mr Antony recalled Chakrabarti’s stint as head of the Publicity Wing of the Defence Ministry. Mr Mukherjee in his condolence message said that Late Mr Chakrabarti was a sincere and upright officer, whose career in the Indian Information Service was exemplary for its brilliance. Earlier in the day, Mr Mukherjee and Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutta visited the residence of late Chakrabarti. Both the deceased had held the post of Registrar of Newspapers in India during their careers.

    Mr Joglekar is survived by a son and two daughters. Mr Joglekar’s wife had died a few years ago. Before becoming Univarta’s first editor in 1982 , Mr Joglekar was director of Information Department of the All India Radio. After retiring from Univarta, Mr Joglekar regularly contributed columns and articles for various newspapers and magazines.

    Hailing from Kashi, Mr Joglekar began his career with a small newspaper in Varanasi, after obtaining a degree in Science and Law. During his career, he was also associated with the Allahabad edition of the Amrit Bazar Patrika as well as a newspaper called ‘Northern India’. During the Janata Party rule at the Centre, Mr Joglekar was the press secretary of the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai. After retiring from Government service, he was appointed editor of Univarta and remained in that position for five years. He was also honoured with the Ambika Prasad Vajpayee award instituted by the Uttar Pradesh Literary conference.

    Mr Chakrabarti had gone to Varanasi for some official work when he suffered massive heart attack. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

    A 1971 batch IIS officer, Mr Chakrabarti had worked in various capacities holding senior posts like Additional Director General News and Current Affairs in Dordarshan News. He had worked as Additional Principal Information Officer in the Defence Ministry. He was also Prasar Bharti’s Correspondent in Washington DC

     

  • Reuters launches pan-African news and financial data website

    MUMBAI: Busines and financial news service Reuters has launched Reuters Africa — a new commercial website dedicated to pan-African news and financial data.

    Reuters Africa, www.reuters.com/africa, showcases Reuters extensive coverage of the continent and offers breaking news, in-depth features and financial information from across Africa. HSBC has joined Reuters as the exclusive launch advertiser.

    The launch of Reuters Africa supports Reuters commitment to cover Africa in detail and from all angles, to give a wider sense of the issues and their contexts, and to explore the individual countries and cultures. Reuters Africa will target both those living on the continent, and anyone globally who follows African development, investment and news.

    John Chiahemen has been named the editor of Reuters Africa. Chiahemen, who has over 25 years of experience with Reuters covering the continent, was previously Reuters chief correspondent in southern Africa. Chiahemen will use his extensive knowledge of the continent to build out the site and develop its content over the coming months.

    Reuters Africa features an interactive map to access local Reuters news across the continent, organized by country. Reuters Africa also provides extensive economic, business and financial news and data, including stock and currency market data and company information, from around the continent. Reflecting the importance of commodities to many African economies, the site features exclusive online content on metals and mining, energy and oil, and agricultural commodities.

    As part of Reuters continuing efforts to incorporate a wider set of voices and commentary into its news content, the site will incorporate country-specific blogs via GlobalVoices, the international network of bloggers coordinated through the Berkman Center at Harvard University. In addition, links to Reuters AlertNet, a project of the Reuters Foundation, are integrated across the site, providing the latest news, images and insight from the world’s disasters and conflicts.

    Chiahemen said, “Reuters Africa will be an essential source for news as Africa becomes more integrated into the global economy. As multi-national corporations continue to expand their presence on the continent, they increasingly need up-to-date and reliable commodities, economic, political and general news. Our goal is to be the leading online source for African news for both Africans and for the world.”

    Reuters Foundation chairman Geert Linnebank who coordinated work on the site said, “Africa is changing fast. And people- in politics, business, or simply as travellers or interested citizens- can no longer afford to ignore what’s going on across the continent. Reuters journalists have chronicled Africa since the late 19th century, reporting news first hand. Now, Reuters comprehensive coverage of the continent can be found on a dedicated site along with a forum for readers and local bloggers to contribute to the discussion as well.”