ITV

Category: GECs

  • Saregama to launch entertainment portal

    Saregama to launch entertainment portal

    MUMBAI: As part of its restructuring strategy, India’s oldest music company Saregama is increasing its digital presence. The RPG Group firm is launching an entertainment portal where it will make available music, movies and a whole host of other products.

    Consumers can download music through the portal and movies will be added on. “We will have a subscription and ad revenue model as well. The portal is likely to be called saregama.com. The aim is to make the portal the digital supermarket of entertainment,” says RPG Enterprises – Entertainment Sector president and CEO Subroto Chattopadhyay.

    Saregama generates 15 per cent of its revenues from the digital format. The company’s turnover stood at Rs 1.19 billion during the fiscal ended 31 March 2006.

    Saregama has also digitised 190,000 out of the 300,000 tracks it owns. “We will have the remaining content digitised. We will start work on it by April-May. We have a vast library of content. During the digitisation process, we discovered that we had 30,000 tracks in Tamil. The challenge is for us to go out and make our products locally relevant,” says Chattopadhyay.

    The company is making a re-entry into films and has taken on board BR Sharan of Lalita-ji Surf ad fame and noted film actor-director Aparna Sen who will look after the Hindi and Bangla movies. “We will be producing movies in these two languages initially. We have taken in Sharan and Sen for this purpose,” says Chattopadhyay.

    Saregama is also going to produce TV content in Hindi and Bangla. Sharan, Sen and noted cinematographer Vijaylakshmi will be taking care of the TV content business as well. The company already produces 14 hours of programming per week for the Sun network channels.
     

  • Celador completes first stage of buyout

    MUMBAI: UK production house Celador Productions, which developed the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? format, has completed the first stage of a management buyout led by its MD Danielle Lux.

    Reports state that Lux’s interest in acquiring the company became public after parent company Complete Communications Corporation (CCC) put Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, plus licensing and distribution arm Celador International up for sale last year.

    Outgoing Celador Productions chairman Paul Smith is supporting the buyout and will remain a shareholder in the company until his shareholding is purchased in its entirety by the management team. Smith will also keep an ongoing, non-executive role in the company.

    In addition to the management buyout team, Celador Productions management includes: Ruth Wrigley, the recently appointed head of entertainment; and Liz Anstee the head of the group’s radio interests.

    Lux said: “This is an amazing opportunity. It’s not every day that a fistful of programmes, including You Are What You Eat and one of Britain’s best production companies are landed in your lap. But that is what has happened to us.”

  • Bob Bakish appointed president, MTV Networks International

    Bob Bakish appointed president, MTV Networks International

    MUMBAI: Viacom veteran Bob Bakish has been appointed president, MTV Networks International (MTVNI), reporting to Bill Roedy, who will retain oversight of MTVNI in addition to his global role as vice chairman, MTV Networks.

    In the newly-created position, Bakish will take on day-to-day management responsibility for MTVNI, including the local and regional operations across Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, as well as International functions and business units. Reporting to Bakish will be the managing directors of the key regions and MTVNI Chief Operating Officer Alex Ferrari, who will continue in his current role.

    A 10-year veteran of the company, Bakish is currently Viacom’s executive vice president, operations and Viacom Enterprises, responsible for strategic planning, business development, Famous Music, Viacom Plus and IS&T. Bakish also heads up the company’s cross-divisional marketing council. MTV Networks is a unit of Viacom Inc.

  • MTV Networks names global digital media team

    MTV Networks names global digital media team

    MUMBAI: MTV Networks (MTVN), a unit of Viacom has announced a new global digital media executive team. The central team will provide strategic guidance to the company’s portfolio of multiplatform brands, driving cross-brand initiatives and sharing best practices in operations, technology, and distribution. The team will report to MTV Networks Global Digital Media president Mika Salmi and partner hand-in-hand with digital leaders at MTVN’s brands and business units.

    The team will help guide MTVN’s brands in digital distribution expansion, product development and technical support, and cross- brand programming, informs an official release.

    The global digital media team from throughout MTVN includes the following executives, Global Digital Media executive VP Operations Denmark West, MTVN Games and Interactive Media Group EVP and GM Nicholas Lehman, Global Digital Media EVP and creative director Kenny Miller, Digital Media Technology senior VP and chief technology officer Nick Rockwell, MTVN Mobile Media senior VP Greg Clayman and MTVN Global Digital Media senior vice president, online distribution and partnerships Jason Witt.

    Rockwell will continue to report to Viacom and MTV Networks chief information officer Joe Simon. Clayman and Witt will continue to report to MTVN affiliate sales and marketing president Nicole Browning, adds the release.

    “Our digital brands demonstrate the kind of innovation and creativity that have always been signatures of MTV Networks,” said MTVN chairman and CEO Judy McGrath. “Mika Salmi and his new team have the expertise to harness that collective power and deliver first-rate content across any and every screen.”

    “We’re all about connecting audiences with our content — and each other — through immersive environments that span TV, online, and wireless,” said Salmi. “With this team in place, we’re poised to deepen our audience connections, reaching them wherever they are, whenever they want, and on whatever screen they choose.”

    The company claims that the formation of the Global Digital Media team furthers MTVN’s strategy of developing brands that engage, empower and connect diverse and highly targeted consumers with culturally relevant creative content and unique experiences across every platform.

  • JumpTV adds 12 new TV channels; announces changes in management structure

    JumpTV adds 12 new TV channels; announces changes in management structure

    MUMBAI: JumpTV Inc. (www.jumptv.com), broadcaster of ethnic television over the Internet, has announced that the company has ended the year 2006 with 254 channel partnerships, is consummating the previously announced acquisition of Sports International Group and made several management appointments for 2007.

    JumpTV announced the signing of exclusive agreements with 12 new television channels before year-end bringing the total number of channels under license at 31 December 2006 to 254.

    The 12 new channels will be individually priced at US$9.95 per month when launched commercially, and some will become part of country/region-specific channel bundles at later dates. Banglavision will soon be included in JumpTV’s newly-launched Bangla Package of channels, which currently includes top Bangladeshi channels; Channel i, NTV Bangla and RTV Bangla. The addition of the 5 Pakistani and 2 Nigerian channels brings JumpTV’s Pakistani and Nigerian channel lineup to 9 channels and 3 channels respectively, and bundles will be launched for each of these countries soon, informs an official release.

    JumpTV International president and chief executive officer Kaleil Isaza Tuzman stated, “JumpTV is laser-focused on successfully executing against our three-phased strategy which began with (a) channel acquisition, followed by (b) building the best user experience for live video on the web and will be completed by (c) our subscriber acquisition efforts.

    The company’s board of directors has also announced that Kaleil Isaza Tuzman has been appointed of as president and chief operating officer of JumpTV Inc. He will however, continue to serve as president and chief executive officer of JumpTV International, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary.

    Alex Blum, who had previously held the position of president and chief operating officer of JumpTV Inc., will continue with the Company through the end of January to help facilitate the transition after which time he will serve on JumpTV’s Advisory Board and assume his new role as chief executive officer of a social networking and user generated content application service provider based in New York, adds the release.

    In addition, several other management appointments have been made to the team. JumpTV chairman and chief executive officer G. Scott Paterson said, “We have built an incredibly strong team of executives with global reach and experience. When I became CEO in May 2005, we had only seven exclusive channel partnerships and no third-party marketing/distribution relationships. Under Kaleil Isaza Tuzman’s leadership and tireless efforts, we have become the single largest carrier of ethnic television in the world with more than 250 exclusive channel agreements today, top-notch sports content and world-leading marketing/distribution partners. The board of directors and I are confident that in Kaleil’s expanded role he will provide the day-to-day leadership for our Company to achieve our objectives for 2007 and beyond.”

    In addition, JumpTV has previously announced the acquisition of Sports International Group LLC (SIG), the owner of www.SportsYa.com. The company anticipates closing the transaction no later than 8 January 2007.

    Former SIG CEO and majority shareholder Daniel Canel has become Chairman of JumpTV’s Latin American business unit, and will contribute materially to the company’s overall sports and corporate development initiatives.

    Pursuant to the acquisition, the company has issued 521,345 of its Common Shares. Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for these shares to be admitted to AIM, such shares are expected to be admitted to AIM on 9 January 2007, adds the release.

  • Navjot Singh Sidhu and Shakti Kapoor in a battle of humor on ‘The Laughter Champions Mahayudh’

    MUMBAI: From random puns, one-liners, funny gags to spoofs on saas-bahus and stand-up cts spiced with an urban topical flavor… Star One presents a spanking new 6 episode series – The Laughter Champions Mahayudh.

    With the wittiest and the most hilarious stand up comedians on the small screen competing with each other in a battle of humor, the show promises to cure weeknight blues with experimental laughter therapy.

    The battle would rage between two teams headed by none other than the Wizard of wit – Navjot Singh Sidhu and Bollywood’s charismatic villain Shakti Kapoor. Watch them as they take over and bring a fresh dose of laughter starting this Friday, January 19 2006 at 9:00 pm.

    Followed by the groundbreaking success of The Great Indian Laughter Champions and Challenge ‘Dwitiya’, the Mahayudh will bring together the best talents from both Season 2 to take millions of Indians to towering heights of frenzy and sheer delight! There will be 12 participants divided into Sidhu and Shakti’s team. The participants would be eliminated every round based on points given by the studio audience.

  • Catch Smriti Irani on ‘The Great Indian Laughter Champions Dwitya’ this Friday night at 9

    MUMBAI: Jokes, one-liners, satires, rib tickling comedy and much more… get ready as The Great Indian Laughter Champions ‘Dwitiya’ gears up for some entertainment with none other than Television’s most popular face – Smriti Irani.

    Watch Smriti as she gears up to leave behind the tears and share a few jokes with our laughter champions. And of course watch Sidhu executing his ‘shayris’ to charge up the atmosphere!

    The Great Indian Laughter Champions ‘Dwitiya’ will take millions of Indians to towering heights of frenzy and sheer delight! Watch them as they take over as the stand-up hosts bringing a fresh dose of laughter this Friday, January 12 , 2006 at 9:00 pm.

    So its time to cure your weeknight blues as Star One brings your dose of Vitamin ‘C’ (comedy) with The Great Indian Laughter Champions ‘Dwitiya’, every Friday at 9:00 p.m.

  • NDS, CyberLink to deliver TV entertainment to PCs

    NDS, CyberLink to deliver TV entertainment to PCs

    MUMBAI: NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, and CyberLink, a world leader in digital home software solutions, have partnered to integrate NDS VideoGuard PC technology with CyberLink’s PowerCinema home entertainment solution for PCs.

    PowerCinema supports full TV services including live broadcast channels, digital video recording (DVR) functions, Electronic Program Guides (EPGs), secure content downloads, on-demand services, and Video-on Demand (VOD). By integrating the NDS VideoGuard® technology, PowerCinema enables operators to expand their services to PC owners, and extend their market reach.

    The VideoGuard PC solution uses hardware-based security and a USB VideoGuard Key™ to provide a secure way of extending content usage rights beyond the set-top box. The VideoGuard PC solution ensures that you can extend your existing services such as broadcast TV and VOD to PCs. It also maintains secure storage for the ultimate solution of content protection convergence.

    “Our partnership with such a ubiquitous PC technology as CyberLink PowerCinema presents a win-win situation for our pay-TV operator customers, PC vendors, and consumers”, said Joseph Deutsch, Vice President of Product Marketing, NDS. “Because VideoGuard combines CA and DRM to protect TV services as well as the licensing and content rights, operators can rely on secure content transfer between DVRs, PCs, and Portable Media Players (PMPs). Users can therefore enjoy their high-definition content on their PCs along with the flexibility to move it to PMP devices or CDs without compromising the content owner’s rights.”

    Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink added: “CyberLink PowerCinema offers a complete TV solution for enjoying high-definition digital TV from satellite, cable and IPTV service providers. By working with NDS to integrate VideoGuard PC, we now support the world’s leading conditional access technology for premium pay-TV content. This collaboration delivers an extremely valuable solution for PC companies and pay-TV operators who can now expand TV’s reach onto a new PC platform within the digital home.”

    “We are delighted to integrate VideoGuard PC into PowerCinema” continued Chang. “We have decided to partner with NDS, a company that has the industry’s best track record for conditional access and digital rights management. This ensures that pay-TV operators will see our “Cyberlink inside” PCs as a natural extension to their network and provide subscribers the freedom to enjoy the best services and content beyond the living room”.

    This solution for the PC market follows NDS’s earlier integration of VideoGuard Mobile and Electronic Service Guide (ESG) with CyberLink’s Mobile DTV player, enabling any pay-TV operator to provide a true end-to-end secure multi-platform, multi-network service.

  • Tam’s Elite Panel data goes live

    Tam’s Elite Panel data goes live

    MUMBAI: It has taken quite a while but media research agency Tam has finally got its Elite Panel up and running.

    This latest value addition for the Indian TV industry will measure the TV viewership behaviour of the crème de la crème of the Mumbai and Delhi population.

    An Elite Household in the panel is defined as one which is SEC A1 owning AC & PC & Car.

    Tam’s Elite Panel is a mix of cable, DTH and Cas homes. The Indian Elite Panel captures the nuances of TV Viewing among the top three per cent of the Socio-Economic strata in Mumbai and Delhi. Tam Media Research CEO LV Krishnan says, “Across the globe, all Elite consumer media studies are recall based survey measurements. Very few attempts have been made to measure this exclusive set of consumers through a continuous panel based method. Tam’s Elite Panel is the world’s first such study to understand Elite consumers’ TV viewing habits.”

    “At this moment of time, I would like to thank every senior member of our industry who gave us a patient hearing, offered us valuable suggestions and stood the test of time to finally see the industry project through. What I am even more pleased about is that, throughout the two years it took us to implement the industry proposal, Tam received support from all constituents of the industry.

    The key question is how is this development viewed by the industry. Star India president, ad sales and distribution, Paritosh Joshi says that while he has not yet seen the numbers, in principle the Elite Panel together with Cas represents a strong plus for channels like Star Movies and Star World that target the affluent segment. “They will be able to offer more demonstrable numbers to clients. More and more brands that target the upmarket audience from sectors like hospitality, finance, automobiles, apparel and lifestyle are looking for the right media vehicles. This development will allow them to do that.”

    Zee Network’s ad sales head Joy Chakraborthy feels that the introduction of the Elite Panel is better late than never. “It is not fair that unique channels are measured in the same way as the general entertainment channels. That situation will change. So far unique channels have been bought on the basis of perception rather than on reality. It was a case of ‘if I am watching it then others must also be watching it’ scenario. This issue will now get addressed. We are still examining the data though, as we only just got it.”

    On the media side Starcom’s Manish Porwal was happy that the long awaited development had finally happened. “While we will wait and see how it fares in terms of consistency, the fact that it has happened is good news for the niche channels who will now get better exposure. Their representation earlier was small. It certainly allows us to look at the niche English genre with finer lenses and also allows us to better qualify the upmarket audience segment.”

    Spatial Access’ Meenakshi Madhvani says that so far the television ratings system has basically catered to the lowest common denominator i.e. the masses. Now though, one will hopefully get a better idea of what the small in number but important affluent consumers are watching. “It will allow us to get a better fix on the affluent viewers. Also the disadvantage that the niche channels had in terms of not having the numbers to show will not be there.”

    One of the additional USPs of the panel is that it has deployed the state-of-the-art Digital TVM5 peoplemeters. Commenting on this, Tam Media Research VP Pradeep Hejmadi says, “The Elite Panel comprises of homes receiving channels through a mix of Analogue cable, Digital set top box (Cas) and Direct –to-Home (DTH) platforms, making this the first technology-hybrid, platform neutral TV study.”

    Tam adds that across the globe, all Elite consumer media studies are recall based survey measurements. Very few attempts have been made to measure this exclusive set of consumers through a continuous panel based method. Tam says that its Elite Panel is world’s first such study to understand Elite consumers’ TV viewing habits.

  • ‘Open Season’ comes to your home this new year

    ‘Open Season’ comes to your home this new year

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment played Santa Clause to kids during the recent festive season. The exciting and fun-filled ‘Open Season’, the first animation film from the Sony Pictures stable, is now available in VCD format. The VCD will be sold across the country in an attractive gift pack.

    An ‘Open Season School Essentials kit’ will be given out free with every VCD of this fun, animated movie. The inside of the VCD jacket will have an exciting Boog & Elliot board game, which is based on the storyline of ‘Open Season’, where Boog, the bear is lost in the forest and he has to find his way back home, overcoming the hurdles that come in his way. This VCD will serve as the ideal gift from parents to their children irrespective of the occasion.

    To coincide with the release of this VCD, a contest was run which asked kids to match character names to the picture of the character. Lucky winners got to win cool Open Season Christmas gifts.

    Says Mr. Anupam Sengupta, Marketing Manager, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, India, “India is the first country in which this movie is being offered in VCD format & we are delighted to be distributing it this season. With this offering, we hope to able to help parents with their quandary of the right gift to give their kids this festive season. It will be a delight for the kids to receive especially since it comes with a school kit as well as a board game. Kids will just love showing off the kit at school.”

    Protecting wildlife and nature is probably the finest way to demonstrate love and concern for our threatened planet. Boog and Elliot reinforce this key message amongst kids and parents, after all “Open Season” is all about ‘conservation and not allowing man to abuse wildlife’.