ITV

Category: GECs

  • Bennett Media Worldwide announces programming line up at Mipcom 2006

    MUMBAI: Bennett Media Worldwide (BMW), the Bennett Group’s global distribution operation, has announced at Mipcom 2006, their programming slate for global broadcasters. It will feature three all-new high-defintion series, including Playing In Paradise, Beyond the List and Oh, No! It’s Kato!
    Said BMW president Paul Rich, “The Bennett Group reflects our company’s new industry positioning as a full-fledged, fully-integrated entertainment studio, with all areas of production and distribution all under one corporate ‘roof.’ Through Bennett Group’s four distinct divisions, we have the capacity to take a project from concept through every phase of production and post-production, as well as domestic and international distribution.”

    “Our new high-def line-up further underscores our company as the production leader in this burgeoning format,” said Bennett Productions president Casey Bennett. “We are recognized as a pioneer in the production of HD programming having created and produced high-def series and specials as far back as 1998. Today, Bennett Productions is widely regarded for our HD productions which are backed by complete surround sound audio.”

    The new-to-Mipcom Bennett Media Worldwide slate includes:

    Playing In Paradise – Viewers experience a new dimension of exotic travel as top bikini models guide the audience through the world’s most desirable locations from the Bahamas to Thailand.

    Beyond the List – It covers the hippest threads, cars, gadgets and what it takes to get a sneak peek into the world’s most exclusive lifestyles where only a recognized face or name on the list gains entrance.

    Oh, No! It’s Kato!- After being rejected by Hollywood, Kato Kaelin takes his quick wit and sharp tongue to hot spots around the world in Oh, No! It’s Kato! From crashing the sidelines for the inside story at the Lingerie Bowl to sneaking into the Spring Break bikini pageant in Cancun, viewers are able to join Kato on his mission-possible journeys where the perfect mix of comedy and adventure drive each episode, informs an official release.

    In addition to Bennett Media Worldwide, the newly established Bennett Group, housed at its West Los Angeles headquarters, encompasses: Bennett Productions, the content development and production division that includes state-of-the-art in-house soundstages; Bennett Music, a newly-created producer and supplier of both production and original music that is also home to complete recording studios as well as recording, mixing and mastering facilities utilizing the most current in digital recording technology; and Bennett HD/LA, one of the few fully-HD post-production facilities in Los Angeles.
     

  • Star Movies to present a recap of ‘Lost’ tomorrow

    MUMBAI: Fans of the action adventure show Lost which airs on Star Movies can catch up if they have missed certain episodes.

    On 7 September 7th at 9 pm the channel presents Lost: Revelation. This offers a recap of the first season and what has happened so far in the second season in a one-hour package. This special episode offers viewers a fresh perspective of the show.

    For the uninitiated the show deals with survivors of a plane crash who are stranded on an island. Viewers will discover the complete story of the grueling first 48 days on the island for the fuselage survivors and tailies after the crash of Oceanic flight 815.

    The channel says that since the beginning, Lost has mystified and intrigued viewers with its characters and storytelling. The first season dealt with the fuselage survivors, the hatch and a failed attempt to get off the island. Season two continues these stories and also introduces viewers to the survivors of the tail section.
    Lost: Revelation puts these two seasons together in a linear fashion that provides an illuminating view on one compelling story. See the sequence of the aftermath of the failed raft attempt, the opening of the hatch, how the tail section and fuselage survivors lived separately and the unwitting intersections of their lives, and how both groups ultimately collided in one catastrophic moment.
     

  • Breakthrough Animation forays into multi-platform programming

    MUMBAI: Breakthrough Animation Inc., a Canadian animation production company, announced at Mipcom 2006 that it will create cutting-edge multi-platform vignettes for three of its most popular animated series, Atomic Betty, Miss BG and Captain Flamingo.

    As announced by Breakthrough Animation Inc., executive producer and managing partner Kevin Gillis, the company is creating high-quality, original programming to ensure that they remains at the forefront of the industry as audiences gravitate toward diversified platforms for entertainment.

    Breakthrough Entertainment will distribute the content to broadcasters and Breakthrough New Media will distribute the mobile content to telecommunication companies and content aggregators for the mobile market, informed an official release.

    The vignettes developed for Atomic Betty will be a combination of humourous, space-based science facts, blooper reels, animated interviews and music videos. Along the lines of the original series, Miss BG’s vignettes will highlight her unconventional perspective on the world, her family and friends. While Captain Flamingo disseminates 101 ways to attain superhero savvy by revealing a sneak-peek into his extraordinary talents.

    “As audiences move toward accessing their content beyond the traditional television broadcast platform we want to provide unique programming for these new mediums. Traditional television content was intended to be viewed on an all-encompassing wide screen format to bring the audience into the program’s world. The advent of portable personal devices has created the opportunity for a one-on-one experience between our characters and our audience. Produced for the mobile screen, we have designed our multi-platform programming to provide distinctive content for these mediums because we believe global audiences will be looking for an original viewing experience that differentiates it from re-purposed fare,” said Gillis.

    Atomic Betty is a co-production between Atomic Cartoons, Breakthrough Animation Inc., and TeleImages Kids, the comedy-adventure animated series has already been licensed worldwide to major broadcasters in over 120 territories. Atomic Betty follows the adventures of Betty, whose double life as “Galactic Guardian and Defender of the Cosmos” takes her on a whirlwind journey through space. Extensive merchandising and licensing deals have been signed including Penguin Books for publishing and Hallmark for greeting cards.

    Miss BG is adapted from the acclaimed “Gudule & les Bébés” book collection authored by Fanny Joly and illustrated by Roser Capdevilla. Miss BG is a co-production between Ellipsanime, Breakthrough Animation, TVO, TFO (Canada) and France 5. Aimed at kids aged 5-8, the 3-D animated TV series centers around the world of Miss BG.

    Captain Flamingo is a co-production between Breakthrough Animation, Heroic Film Company, Atomic Cartoons and Pasi Animation, the animated hit is an original production for YTV Canada. Captain Flamingo follows the adventures of Milo Powell who, tired of being overlooked by big kids, dons his terrycloth cape as Captain Flamingo and saves the day for kids everywhere.

     

  • Zee TV commemorates 100 years of Vande Mataram

    Zee TV commemorates 100 years of Vande Mataram

    MUMBAI: Zee network will celebrate the centenary year of national song Vande Matram on 7 September, 2006, by simultaneously telecasting the Bharat Bala version of the anthem at 10 pm.

    The rendition will be the network’s tribute to the anthem and its own way of celebrating the pride of being an Indian. Bankim Chandra’s Vande Mataram celebrates the essence of the country and symbolizes the true spirit of a nation.

    Bankim Chandra Chatterji was one of the greatest novelists of India who gave the citizens of India their national song.

    Vande Mataram was adopted as a slogan by the Indians fighting the British colonial rule and was also treated as the national anthem of pre independent India. But after India gained independance, Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana, was chosen as the national anthem of independent India .following opposition from Muslim groups.

  • Tom Freston quits; Philippe Dauman named new Viacom CEO

    Tom Freston quits; Philippe Dauman named new Viacom CEO

    MUMBAI: Barely eight months after Viacom chairman Summer Redstone split the global media powerhouse into two units — CBS Corp and Viacom Inc — one of his anointed CEOs has announced his resignation.

     

    Viacom CEO Tom Freston’s decision, which was sudden and unexpected, comes at a time when the company’s stock price was falling (down 20 per cent since January when the split from CBS became effective). The key properties under Freston’s charge were MTV Networks, which he literally created and built, as well as Paramount Pictures.
     

     

    Viacom announced today that the 60-year-old Freston was being replaced as president and CEO by Philippe P. Dauman. The Viacom board also named Thomas E Dooley to the newly created position of senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer. Dauman will report to Redstone, while Dooley will report to Dauman.

     

    Both Dauman, 52, and Dooley, 49, have previously held a number of executive positions at the company, and both currently serve on Viacom’s board.
    The official release quoted Freston as saying: “I’ve spent over 26 years at Viacom, 18 of them with Summer. With my exceptional colleagues, we built a worldwide powerhouse of brands and businesses, literally from scratch. I leave many good friends knowing that they have an unmatched track record, a great plan going forward and incredible abilities to execute on it in this digital age.”

     

    Official comments apart, it is clear that Freston was forced out by Redstone. Newswire service Associated Press quoted Redstone as telling analysts on a conference call that the board wanted a more entrepreneurial and aggressive management team that would have a closer relationship with investors. Investors didn’t seem too thrilled by the news though, sending the company stock down nearly 6 per cent in early trading.

     

    But far more than the slip-sliding stock price, what probably had the biggest hand to play in Redstone’s dumping a loyal lieutenant who built MTV into a global entertainment powerhouse was over Freston’s failure to aggressively chase MySpace, the youth social networking phenomenon that has taken the world by storm.

     

    It irks Redstone no end that a site that was a perfect fit as far as MTV’s youth demographic is concerned was snapped up from right under Viacom’s nose by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for what in hindsight has turned out to be a steal at $ 580 million.

     

    “We bought a lot of little things and you can add it all up, but it’s not MySpace,” Redstone has been quoted as saying of the start-up that had been “sitting out there for a long time” before News Corp bought it out.

     

    Freston’s departure comes less than two weeks after Viacom announced it was parting ways with Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise’s production company, ending a 14-year relationship. Redstone’s stated reason for dumping Cruise was that his “erratic” behaviour made the association an unviable one.

    Viacom’s brands include MTV Networks (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, Spike TV, TV Land, Logo and more than 120 networks around the world), BET Networks, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Entertainment, DreamWorks and Famous Music.

  • Airtel crosses 3 mn mobile subscribers in Karnataka

    BANGALORE: Bharati Airtel has announced that their total mobile subscriber base has crossed three million in Karnataka. With this they claim to be the circle with the largest portion in the Airtel all India subscriber pie of 25.89 million (to end July 2006).

    Airtel joint president-mobility Sanjay Kapoor said, “This equals Singapore’s subscriber base.” Karnataka has been the growth engine for Airtel disclosed Kapoor.

    Bangalore has a subscriber base of roughly 50 per cent of Airtel’s Karnataka mobile subscribers according to Airtel Karnataka CEO Deepak Mehrotra.

    Airtel continues to be Karnataka’s no. 1 mobile network in telephony, even beating BSNL mobile services. The only other entity that could match Airtel coverage in numbers and reach is the BSNL landline. Airtel now covers over 12,000 towns and villages in Karnataka, of which more than 11,000 towns and locations have a population of less than 5000. This includes 96 per cent of the gram panchayat area in the state, and covers 63 per cent of the population. Around 500,000 subscribers have been added over the last three months, a million over the last six, informs an official release.

    Airtel plans to expand the gram panchayat reach to 100 per cent by March 2007. Mehrotra revealed that Airtel has spent around Rs.14.35 billion capitalization to date in the state and another Rs.3.5 billion have been earmarked till end March 2007.

    Karnataka and the Andhra Pradesh circle which stands third after Delhi both contribute to more than 20 per cent of the all India subscribers in the Airtel kitty. While Punjab stands fourth with a subscriber base of around 2.4 million, adds Airtel Karnataka COO V Venkatesh.

    Airtel executive director -southern regional hub, mobility Atul Bindal revealed that the southern hub comprising of five circles has had the fastest growth in the number of subscribers in the country.

  • K Sera Sera buys out Jhankar TV

    MUMBAI: K Sera Sera is buying out Hamara Samay TV News Network, the company that owns and operates music channel Jhankar TV.

    The acquired company will be renamed K Sera Sera Entertainment. It will become a subsidiary of K Sera Sera Productions Ltd, the listed company.

    The promoters of Hamara Samay TV News Network will be given around 20 per cent stake in K Sera Sera Entertainment. “We have applied for a change in shareholding. Hamara Samay promoters will hold close to 20 per cent in the subsidiary company,” says a source in K Sera Sera.

    Sapna Chaturvedi is going to head K Sera Sera Entertainment. Chaturvedi also owns a media company, Eternal Dreams.

    Jhankar TV will be given a new name and the channel will be relaunched. “We have not yet finalised on the name but it may be called K Sera Sera. Chaturvedi will be the managing director of the company and the channel is being revamped by Diwali,” says the source.
    K Sera Sera’s idea of running a music channel is seen as a strategy to synergise with its movie production business. The company spends substantial amount of money for promoting its movies on music channels. “We will still use the general entertainment channels for promoting our movies. But we don’t have to spend on music channels,” the source says.

    K Sera Sera also plans to ramp up its movie production business. The company yesterday approved an enabling clause to raise debt of up to Rs 5 billion. “We have big plans for our movie business. Having a music channel makes strategic sense,” says the source.

    Though K Sera Sera was also weighing options of launching the music channel on its own, it decided on the acquisition route. “Jhankar already enjoys distribution. We realise the problems we would have to face in distributing a new channel,” the source adds.
     
     

     

  • ADAG’s Big FM radio to roll out its first phase in six metros

    MUMBAI: The Reliance ADA Group has finally officially announced today that it will soon launch its radio station under the brand Big FM, which will broadcast on the full powered common frequency of 92.7 across its 45 stations.

    According to an official statement, the first phase will cover the six metros of Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, later spreading to the virgin territories like Jammu, Srinagar, Aligarh and Bikaner.

    In an attempt to offer a fresh new approach to the medium, the Big FM will indulge in high amount of interactivity on the station. Adlabs Radio COO Tarun Katial points out, “We will use it as a platform for consumers, taking on issues which are word of mouth and bring listener emotions to the fore.”

    Adopting a two-pronged launch strategy, Katial says, “While the metros are ideal to establish brand recognition and recall, the other virgin markets are completely new and fresh to explore, giving us an opportunity to provide an entertainment medium to the listeners.”

    “It is our endeavor to enthrall the local audiences and build a brand that connects at the grassroots. Credibility, maturity, relevance, entertainment and aspirational are our pegs for content as a product that reaches into every home and is of relevance to every listener.”

    By early next year, Big FM will be present across India from Srinagar to Trivandrum and Surat to Guwahati. This FM radio station will have its presence in 1000 towns and 50,000 villages across India – reaching 200 million listeners, informs the statement.

    The ADAG has geared up to tap the tremendous market share that is present. This leading corporate house known for its groundbreaking success in very business that it enters, will be positioning its stations in a unique and contemporary way that appeals to more mature audiences.
    The RJs that will give Big FM the voice and personality, have been selected via a careful and selective nationwide hunt. The station will present itself in a larger than life avatar and all morning slots will boast of highly acclaimed celebrity jockeys.

    With an investment of Rs 4 billion dedicated to transmission equipment, infrastructure and licensing, the proposed network for Adlabs Radio will be the largest ever, the release states.

    The overall manpower strength will stand at 1500 employees nationwide. The IP protocol technology being utilized for Big FM has been sourced from AXIA, USA making this station amongst the first to utilize such superior gear in Asia. Extensive research on consumer tastes and moods will ensure that the content aired complements the listeners’ tastes and provides them a dynamic, interactive platform.

  • Zee TV commemorates 100 years of Vande Mataram

    MUMBAI: Zee network will celebrate the centenary year of national song Vande Matram on 7 September, 2006, by simultaneously telecasting the Bharat Bala version of the anthem at 10 pm.

    The rendition will be the network’s tribute to the anthem and its own way of celebrating the pride of being an Indian. Bankim Chandra’s Vande Mataram celebrates the essence of the country and symbolizes the true spirit of a nation.

    Bankim Chandra Chatterji was one of the greatest novelists of India who gave the citizens of India their national song.

    Vande Mataram was adopted as a slogan by the Indians fighting the British colonial rule and was also treated as the national anthem of pre independent India. But after India gained independance, Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana, was chosen as the national anthem of independent India .following opposition from Muslim groups.
     

  • Star to distribute Nimbus’ sports channels

    MUMBAI: Nimbus Sports Broadcast, the Nimbus Communications subsidiary operating its sports broadcasting business, has entered into a deal with Star India wherein the News Corp network will be distributing its soon to launch bouquet of Neo Sports channels.
    The Star-Nimbus distribution deal is a five-year one that runs till 2010 and will apply to the two sports channels that will be launching by the end of the year as well as any future sports channels from the Neo Sports stable.

    Both companies also issued categorical denials of a report that appeared in pink paper Economic Times today that News Corp. would be buying roughly a third of Nimbus for around Rs 4 billion ($86 million).

    The release stated that Nimbus “is currently not engaged in any dialogue for inducting any new investors, whether financial or strategic.”
    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Star Entertainment India CEO Sameer Nair was equally categorical that there were no discussions on issues of equity. “This is a specific to India distribution deal, underpinned by cable and of course looking to leverage the potential that DTH offers.” Nair said. The Neo Sports channels will be distributed on the Tata-Sky DTH network in which Star has a 20 per cent stake.

    The first of the channels, the cricket centric Neo Sports, is set to be launched within the next three months. This will be followed by Neo Sports Plus, a sports entertainment channel, which is expected to be launched by the end of the year, states a joint statement issued by the two companies.

    With nearly 200 days of cricket every year lined up on Neo Sports, of which over 100 days will be live India cricket including all BCCI events and between 3-4 international series every year; Neo Sports expects to reach a majority of the cable & satellite homes.

    Nimbus paid $612 million for the telecast rights to the Indian cricket board’s matches for 2006-10.