ITV

Category: GECs

  • Sahara to transfer broadcasting operations to listed firm

    Sahara to transfer broadcasting operations to listed firm

    MUMBAI: Sahara Group will be transferring the broadcast operations of its entertainment channels to the listed company, Sahara One Media & Entertainment.

    This is part of the commitment made to C Sivasankaran and BCCL (Times Group holding company Bennet Coleman & Co Ltd) when they acquired stakes in Sahara One Media & Entertainment last year, a source familiar with the deal says. While Sivasankaran’s Aircel Televentures (later renamed Siva Ventures) picked up 14.98 per cent for Rs 1.2 billion, BCCL acquired close to 6 per cent stake in the company.
    The broadcast operations are currently under Sahara India TV Network, a division of Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd. “The plan is for the listed company to also have the broadcast operations under it,” says the source.

    The transfer will mean that Sahara One Media & Entertainment will be able to capture the advertising revenues from the two existing channels, Sahara One and Filmy. The company currently earns from the programming it licenses to Sahara India TV Network and from its motion pictures business.

    “Sahara One will be able to capture the full part of the value chain. The entire infrastructure will be under one company,” says the source.

    The cost of running the channels including transponders and carriage fee will, thus, come under Sahara One Media & Entertainment. But there would be no transfer of the assets and liabilities of Sahara India TV Network. “The idea is to start with a clean slate and then build the broadcasting value,” says the source. “Under the current system, Sahara One does not run any commercial risk in the TV business as it produces content and passes it on to the channel on a cost-plus-commission basis,” he adds.

    Sahara’s news channel business also has a separate broadcasting arm and is under Sahara India TV Network (2). Sahara runs six news channels – in the national, regional and city-centric space.

    Meanwhile, the Sahara One Media & Entertainment board has approved raising of resources up to $ 20 million through foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs).

    “This will be used to meet the company’s working capital and content acquisition requirements,” says the source. Earlier, Sahara One had planned to come up with a provision to raise up to $50 million as it was at that stage in talks to acquire an equity in Ten Sports. Later Zee Group bought a 50 per cent stake in the sports channel for $57 million.

  • Radio Mirchi in film placement for Honeymoon Travels

    Radio Mirchi in film placement for Honeymoon Travels

    MUMBAI: In its latest on ground activity for a film, Radio Mirchi brought the star couples of the soon to be released film Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd face to face with eight couples who participated in a Mirchi contest where they narrated their most hilarious honeymoon experiences.

    The stars and the eight couples travelled on the ‘honeymoon travels bus’ from Hilton Towers to Salt Water Grill in Mumbai.

    Radio Mirchi also features in the film along with RJ Harsh who plays a radio jockey called Sunny Singh in the film who hosts a show called ‘Pyar Ke Lamhe’. RJ Harsh hosts the morning show on Mirchi called Hello Mumbai.

    The director of the film Reema Kagti revealed, “We need a narrator or a sutradhar for the film. A voice that could discuss individual characters, reveal secrets about them and their past in the movie. I first heard Harsh’s voice while I was stuck in a never-ending traffic jam on the streets of Mumbai. At that time I was searching for a voice to dub for the character of the RJ. His voice was perfect for the part and I immediately decided to use him as the sutradhar and the voice on the radio show called ‘Pyaar ke Lamhe’ in the movie.”

    Speaking at the event producer of Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd Ritesh Sidhwani said, “In the competitive environment that we operate in, we are constantly seeking novel ways to promote our movies. We have to take the movie to the audiences and we were convinced that the best way to reach them is through Radio Mirchi and taking our stars to their listeners. We came up with this wonderful idea to utilize one of our key characters and our set – the star bus to drive around the streets of Mumbai.”

    Radio Mirchi station director and vice president Mumbai Hitesh Sharma said, “Radio Mirchi has always strived to connect with listeners through out-of-the-box content and on-ground promotions. Radio Mirchi has been the exclusive radio partner for several other blockbuster movies in the past. We have become the preferred choice for producers as our content is innovative and we have the widest reach.”

    Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd is a film about six couples, a guide, a driver and a handyman riding in a bus from Bombay to Goa. Woven into the hectic four day honeymoon schedule is the radio show – “Pyaar Ke Lamhe”.

    Radio Mirchi is the exclusive radio partner for the film which stars Shabana Azmi, Boman Irani, Kay Kay Menon, Raima Sen, Minnisha Lamba, Karan Khanna and Sandhya Mridul and director Reema Kagti accompanied by producers Farhaan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani and Zoya Akhtar.

  • Zee Kannada supports Men in Blue through signature campaign

    Zee Kannada supports Men in Blue through signature campaign

    Bangalore: Team India will appreciate all the support it can get. If the initiative is as novel as Zee Kannada’s signature campaign it will also bring in more cheer.

    The channel is launching a unique handkerchief signature campaign to support Indian players in the forthcoming Cricket World Cup.

    The campaign will be launched on Thursday 22 February with the first handkerchief being signed by Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra.

    The Zee Kannada team will travel across the state and put up collection boxes at select locations like schools, colleges, orphanages and institutes for the disabled, malls and coffee shops. People have to sign wishes on their hankies and drop it off in the collection boxes.

    Fans can also SMS or email their messages to the channel.

    All the handkerchiefs received will be tied together to form the biggest ever chain of signed handkerchiefs which will be handed over to the Indian Cricket team before the start of the tournament.

  • Cannes 2007: 33 directors to tribute 60 years of film fest

    Cannes 2007: 33 directors to tribute 60 years of film fest

    MUMBAI: 33 of the world’s renowned directors from 25 countries will be making short films about what it is like to go to the movies in the 60th year of the Cannes Film Festival. The organizers have commissioned these directors to produces the shorts.

    Festival director Gilles Jacob pointed out that directors have been allotted three minutes each and given a theme: Moviegoing. The shorts, will then be bundled into one film, and screened on 20 May at the premier global film festival held in the French Riviera. .

    Jacob revealed that among those who have been invited and commissioned for the shots include: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel, 21 Grammes), the Coen Brothers (Fargo), Roman Polanski (The Pianist), David Cronenberg (A History of Violence), Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves) and Wong Kar-wai (In the Mood for Love).

    The Cannes film fest website says that: “In this particular case, it was a matter of reuniting a group of creators – all universally famous – who represent both their countries and a proud conception of cinema, for a stroll around a unique theme, springboard for their inspiration.”
    The website says that none of the other filmmaker is aware of what the other is doing or the plot of their shorts. It adds that Wenders has so far filmed in the Congo, Tsai Ming Liang in Kuala Lumpur and Cronenberg in the… toilets!

    The website reveals they have all accepted “to discover them at the same time as the festival-goers themselves, on May 20th, as well as the general public, as it will be replayed the very same evening on television on Canal Plus.

    The list of directors who have been invited is as follow:
    Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Chen Kaige, Michael Cimino, Ethan & Joel Coen, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Manoel De Oliveira, Raymond Depardon, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, Aki Kaurismaki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raoul Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Tsai Ming Liang, Gus Van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar Wai and Zhang Yimou.

    Earlier in January, the Festival had announced that Stephen Frears director of the UK blockbuster The Queen would preside over the Cannes Film jury. Frears has also been behind movies such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick up Your Ears, Dangerous Liaisons, Accidental Hero, The Grifters, The Snapper, High Fidelity, and Dirty Pretty Things.

    Additionally, the festival office had announced that super model and actress (Helen of Troy) Diane Kruger would be be the Master of Ceremonies for the 60th Festival de Cannes. On 16 May she would be welcoming jury president Stephen Frears onto the stage of the Palais des Festivals. She will also host the closing ceremony, on Sunday 27 May, during which the Awards will be announced.

    She succeeds in this role to Monica Bellucci, Laura Morante, Cécile de France and Vincent Cassel.

  • XM, Sirius satellite radios announce merger

    XM, Sirius satellite radios announce merger

    MUMBAI: XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. until now rivals in the US satellite radio industry, have agreed to combine in a deal.

    The shareholders of both companies will own approximately 50 per cent of the combined company. However, Sirius will be giving a substantial premium of $4.57 billion of its stock to XM shareholders.

    Sirius chief executive Mel Karmazin will lead the combined company, and XM’s CEO Hugh Panero will stay on only until the deal is closed. XM chairman Gary Parsons will continue in that role.

    The deal announced on 19 February faces substantial regulatory hurdles in Washington, including a Federal Communications Commission provision that specifically forbids the two companies from combining. Analysts note, however, that the FCC could change the rule or allow an exception to it.

    The merger would also have to meet antitrust approval from the Department of Justice. The companies are expected to argue that they compete not only with each other but also with traditional radio and a growing base of digital audio sources such as iPods, mobile phones and non-satellite digital radio.

    Investors and analysts have been speculating about this deal for months, and are hoping that the cost savings that would result would make up for softening retail demand for satellite radio units. Both services offer dozens of channels of talk and commercial-free music for monthly fees of about $13.

    XM radio receivers can’t receive signals from Sirius, and vice versa. But Karmazin and Parsons said in an interview that the companies are working on developing a receiver that could receive both signals. In the meantime, they said, assuming the deal goes through, the companies would make other arrangements to bring programming that’s currently exclusive to one provider to listeners of the other, such as getting Major League Baseball games – currently only available on XM – to Sirius listeners.

    “We will be taking every effort to find the best possible programming combination,” Parsons said. While it’s too early to say what the deal will mean for subscription prices, the merger could bring down the cost of providing service, but at the same time give the company more pricing power as the only U.S. satellite radio provider.

    Neither XM nor Sirius have turned a profit yet due to heavy spending on programming lineups and subscriber bases. Both stocks declined more than 40 percent last year on concerns about their continued growth in subscribers.The combined company would have had about $1.5 billion in revenues in 2006 and about 14 million subscribers, they said. The companies said they would work together to decide on a new name and also to determine where it would be based. XM is based in Washington, while Sirius is based in New York.

    The new company’s board will have 12 members, including Parsons, Karmazin, four independent directors named by each company, and one representative each from General Motors Corp. and Honda Motor Co. A group representing radio companies, the National Association of Broadcasters, put out a statement Monday urging federal regulators to block the satellite radio deal.

  • Anil’s Reliance ups stake in TV Today to 11.93 per cent

    MUMBAI: Anil Ambani’s interest in the media sector seems to be growing. Reliance Capital’s subsidiary Sonata Investments has taken its shareholding in TV Today to 11.93 per cent, after buying an additional 1 per cent stake on Monday.

    Sonata bought 583,000 shares in an open market transaction. With this, the company now has 6.9 million shares of TV Today, up from 6.3 million. Earlier on 12 February, the company had purchased 557,000 shares, or 0.96 per cent stake, of TV Today for an estimated Rs 65 million.

    Ambani’s Reliance Capital has also taken an exposure in Global Broadcast News, recently acquiring 6.27 per cent stake for an estimated Rs 870 million.

  • PCCW bags rights for Italian Serie A soccer

    PCCW bags rights for Italian Serie A soccer

    MUMBAI: Hong Kong communications firm PCCW has announced that its broadband platform now TV has won the media rights to broadcast Italy’s soccer event – the Serie A Championship – in the 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons.

    Serie A is contested by 20 clubs in a round-robin competition format and comprises a total of 380 matches per season. Under the package acquired from Media Partners & Silva /Dentsu which jointly distribute serie A media rights in Asia, now TV has the television, broadband, IPTV and mobile TV rights for not less than 130 live matches, including most home games featuring major Italian teams such as AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus and Roma.

    All Serie A matches available on now TV will be included as further enhancements to the Mega Sports Pack offered for $218 per month on a 12-month term plan. Customers subscribing to the Mega Sports Pack before 30 April, 2007 will be able to enjoy an early bird offer of $178 per month (mini-pack price), with five months’ free viewing if they sign for 18 months.

    The Mega Sports Pack includes not only soccer championships, such as Uefa Champions League, English FA Cup and Serie A, but also other top sporting events like the 2007 FIVB World Grand Prix, 2007 FIVB World Cup and
    IAAF Grand Prix Athletics 2007

    Now TV currently serves an installed customer base of more than 700,000 and offers a choice of more than 120 channels including HBO, Star Movies, ESPN and Star Sports.
     

  • Red FM presents ‘live’ music preview of Nishabd

    Red FM presents ‘live’ music preview of Nishabd

    MUMBAI: Red FM promises constant innovative programming to its listeners. Keeping in line with this, the station presented a ‘live preview’ of Ram Gopal Varma’s soon to be released film, Nishabd at a press conference on 17 February.

    Director RGV along with Vishal Bharadwaj, Manmohan Shetty, Amar Mohile, Bhushan Kumar and the star cast Amitabh Bacchan and Jiah Khan were present at this unique preview which was aired across all its FM stations live. Recreating a radio studio right on the stage , RJ Malishka presented the show chatting with the director, music director and stars of the movie.

    Commenting on this unique initiative Red FM COO Abraham Thomas said, “This is first for any radio station in India. With this event we have raised the bar in terms of providing excellent content and innovative programming for our listeners. This association helps Red FM further strengthen its commitment towards bringing the best of Bollywood for its listeners!”

    Speaking about the music launch, director Ram Gopal Varma said, “Nishabd is a beautiful movie with a very sensitive subject and needs to be promoted with extreme maturity. Red FM has done an excellent job of showcasing the music of the film and we are extremely pleased with the kind of reach the movie has received with this first ever live music premiere on Red FM.”

  • TV remote inventor Robert Adler passes away

    TV remote inventor Robert Adler passes away

    MUMBAI: Robert Adler, co-inventor of the TV remote, has passed away.

    Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died a few days ago of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at the age of 93
    His developments spanned from the Golden Age of Television into the High-Definition Era, earning him more than 180 US patents. The US Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch-screen technology, on 1 February 2007.

    His six-decade career with Zenith Electronics Corporation began in 1941 when he joined Zenith’s research division. He was named associate director in 1952, vice president in 1959, and vice president and director of research in 1963. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served Zenith as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics.

    In the consumer electronics field, Dr. Adler has been widely recognised as the co-inventor (with fellow Zenith engineer Eugene Polley) of the wireless TV remote. Dr. Adler’s ‘Space Command’ ultrasonic remote control for TV sets was introduced by Zenith in 1956. He received the 1958 Outstanding Technical Achievement Award of the Institute of Radio Engineers (now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE) for his “original work on ultrasonic remote controls” for television state media reports.

  • SET Discovery targets Rs 4.5 billion in FY07 on back of World Cup

    SET Discovery targets Rs 4.5 billion in FY07 on back of World Cup

    MUMBAI: Riding high on the ICC cricket World Cup wave, SET Discovery expects to garner a revenue of Rs 4.5 billion in 2006-07. This would mean a growth of 40 per cent in a tight subscription market with cable operators resisting any big increase in payouts to broadcasters.

    “SET Discovery is targeting a total income of Rs 4.5 billion in 2006-07. This will include for the first time income from direct-to-home (DTH) which should be contributing eight per cent of the overall kitty,” says a source in the industry who is close to the company.

    SET Discovery signed a contract with DTH service provider Dish TV in June 2006 and subsequently with Tata Sky.
    When contacted, SET Discovery president Anuj Gandhi declined to talk on the financials of the company. “We had set an aggressive target this year and we are going to hit it,” he said.

    Despite a slide in Sony TV’s ratings, analysts say SET Discovery’s growth in the fiscal would be greatly helped by a rich lineup of cricketing properties that include ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC World Cup.

    SET Discovery’s revenue stayed flat in 2004-05 but rose 15 per cent to Rs 3.2 billion last fiscal as it added Ten Sports in its distribution bouquet. Sony signed a distribution deal with the sports channel which has key cricket properties that include the Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies boards.