ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • BBC Magazines’ ‘Top Gear,’ ‘Top of the Pops’ boost circulation

    BBC Magazines’ ‘Top Gear,’ ‘Top of the Pops’ boost circulation

    MUMBAI: BBC Magazines’ Top Gear and Top of the Pops are two of the publisher’s success stories as part of a strong performance across its portfolio, according to the latest ABC circulation figures released in the UK.

    Total circulation for BBC Magazines is up 5.9 per cent year on year. Top Gear broke through the 200,000 circulation barrier for the first time, at 200,286, an increase of 5.4 per cent year on year. Top of the Pops magazine shows the biggest growth in the teen market, with 124,852, an increase of 18.9 per cent. Preschool titles are up 8.3 per cent at 605,290, with In the Night Garden reaching over 100,000 copies. The magazine had launched in September 2007.

    BBC History also shows growth at 58,395, up 8.6 per cent, its highest ever ABC. Radio Times though is slightly down at 2.6 per cent. As far as the BBC Food titles are concerned, Olive is up 25 per cent at 90,236 and Good Food is at 365,978 up 4.4 per cent. 

    BBC Magazines MD Peter Phippen says, “I am delighted with yet another great set of results for BBC Magazines. I believe this shows that when you offer consumers informative, quality titles with clearly defined propositions, demand for magazines in this multi-media age is stronger than ever.”

    Top Gear magazine associate publisher Simon Carrington says, “Top Gear magazine has delivered its highest ever ABC cracking the 200k copies mark – an exceptional total representing the magazine’s tenth consecutive period of growth.

    “Top Gear’s latest ABC of 200,286 has been achieved by a series of great covers, a successful marketing programme and a huge public demand for the brand. This result means that we now outsell our nearest motoring rival What Car? by 92,474 copies.

    “Subscription sales, a great benchmark for success, have also performed fantastically for Top Gear. The magazine now has over 50,000 loyal UK readers subscribing on a monthly basis. It’s also great to see a good performance from the general motoring market which continues to show stability, proving that there remains a strong consumer appetite for motoring titles.”

  • CNN-IBN to showcase ‘India’s Incredible Homes’

    CNN-IBN to showcase ‘India’s Incredible Homes’

    MUMBAI: CNN-IBN is launching a special series India’s Incredible Homes on 16 February. The half-hour show at 12:30 pm will showcase homes ranging from an urban dwelling, a nature getaway to an unusual abode or a famous celebrity’s customised residence.

    The new show will consist of a number of segments “Personality Homes,” “Away from the City,” “Funky Homes” and “Back to Basics.” The Personality Homes special will talk about homes that reflect the persona of various well-known personalities. Away from the City segment will highlight the homes that take care of the dweller in the lap of nature – from mountains to beaches. Funky Homes segment will present to its viewers the homes that celebrate the marriage of ideas and design, convergence of traditional design and modern amenities; the Back to Basics section will present homes that embody the integrity of ‘domestic’ life and the simplicity of design.

    CNN-IBN and IBN7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai said, “It is widely believed that homes are an expression of one’s ideas and a reflection of their dreams. CNN-IBN’s India’s Incredible Homes will reveal just this as it presents model homes from across the country that are the pride and joy of their owners.”

    “A feature series unlike any other on CNN-IBN, India’s Incredible Homes is bound to appeal to a wide audience and therefore prove an excellent platform for companies choosing to associate their brands with it,” said CNN-IBN and IBN 7 national sales head Sanjay Dua.
     

  • India TV settles CCL dues, to move to new premises by November-end

    NEW DELHI: Ending one of the most vicious spats in the media industry, India TV and Century Communications Ltd have settled out of court the issue of overdue rent.This has normalised things, with the channel agreeing to shift office at a later date.

    CCL and India TV had crossed swords over the issue of rent, with the latter claiming last year that more than Rs six crore had not been paid by the channel in terms of rent for the premises as well as the hi-tech digital news rooms that CCL had also rented to the channel.


    The full amount has been paid off by India TV, sources said, and it has agreed to move to a new facility they are developing by the end of November 2009. Until that time, they would occupy the same premises in Noida Film City.


    The drama had gone on for several months, with CCL officials alleging in a press conference last year that the lives of the owners had been threatened, and that they had written to the Union Home Minister for protection.


    India TV owner Rajat Sharma could not contacted, and the company COO Rohit Bansal was out of town at the time of writing.


    CCL officials did not want to elaborate further, as the matter had “happily concluded, and no further controversy should arise.”

  • GBN to change name to ibn18 Broadcast

    GBN to change name to ibn18 Broadcast

    MUMBAI: Global Broadcast News (GBN) will be changing the name of the company to ibn18 Broadcast. For this purpose, the members of the company are going to have an extra ordinary general meeting (EGM) on 10 March.

    GBN currently operates English news channel CNN-IBN and Hindi news channel IBN 7. It has already entered into an equal joint venture with Lokmat to launch a Marathi language news channel. GBN is also launching a general entertainment channel (GEC) in a joint venture with Viacom.

    Meanwhile the GBN board has approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 6 billion through qualified institutional placement (QIP). The company has also got FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) clearance to raise up to Rs 5 billion.

  • CNN-IBN launches special series ‘Whose City is it Anyway?’

    CNN-IBN launches special series ‘Whose City is it Anyway?’

    MUMBAI: CNN-IBN has launched a weeklong series Whose City is it Anyway? that explores the rising threat of a clash between locals and migrants over space, jobs and other urban opportunities.

    Each day, the series delves into the inside story of the conflict between old and new in the cities that include Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Guwahati and Ludhiana.

    CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai said, “What has happened in Mumbai is a manifestation of the growing anger and intolerance that is taking place in all major cities across the country.

    Whose City is it Anyway? takes a city-by-city look at what is plaguing some of India’s most populous urban centres with regard to rising migration.”

  • BBC renews contract with RMS for cash schemes reprocurement

    BBC renews contract with RMS for cash schemes reprocurement

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC has completed a reprocurement exercise for the management of its TV licencing cash schemes and the TV licencing savings card.

    The contract has been awarded to the incumbent Revenues Management Services Ltd (RMS), an iQor group company.

    BBC’s head of revenue management Pipa Doubtfire said, “We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with RMS which is committed to the high standards of customer service that we demand for licence fee payers. The new contract offers excellent value for money for licence fee payers.”

    The new five-year contract will be rolled out from 1 April 2008.

    The BBC ran an Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) procurement during 2007 that sought the best organisation to deliver the required services, while offering the best value for money for the licence fee payer.

    This is the publication in which all contracts from the public sector which are valued above a certain threshold must be published.

    TV licensing is a trading name used by agents contracted by the BBC to administer the collection of television licence fees and the enforcement of the television licensing system.

    The majority of the administration of TV licencing is contracted to Capita Business Services Ltd, with the administration of cash easy payment schemes contracted to RMS, and marketing and public relations activities contracted to the AMV Consortium.

  • NewsX goes into dry run, brand campaign starts this month

    NewsX goes into dry run, brand campaign starts this month

    NEW DELHI: NewsX has gone into a 24-hour dry run, covering news across the country. The brand campaign will start later this month, said NewsX news room head Arup Ghosh.

    Ghosh, who joined on 5 February, said sigificant progress had been made towards the launch of the news channel, having turned from producing a mere 30-minute news show to going 24 X 7 within a few days.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, founder-promoter Indrani Mukerjea confirmed that the 24-hour dry run has started, and that the editorial is “fully staffed”.

    “We are fully staffed. Though we have not put a date to the launch so far, it will be soon,” Mukerjea said.

    The team is working out from six major bureaux, six smaller ones and scores of other linkages. “We are also working out the programme slots,” said Ghosh.

    The brand campaign will start with a teaser campaign, on outdoors and also on television, and will be followed by AV promos that will show the entire team.

    “We have got all relevant licenses, with the main license having come our way some months ago, and now we have the licenses for uplinking from OB vans as well,” Ghosh said.

    He added that all the bureaux are linked and each is watching NewsX bulletins rolling out from the other centres as well – from Mumbai (“which is a “super bureau”, he said), Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Chandigarh, as well as the other smaller bureaux.

    There are altogether 200 persons working already in the editorial department and more are joining, he said.

    Ghosh confirmed that some top of the rung editorial personnel are going to join, in key positions like Political Editor, as well as assignment and forward planning editors.

    “They are coming from some of the top channels. I can’t yet reveal names, as you know it takes time to resign from one company and join a new one,” Ghosh said.

    The announcements will be made over the next two weeks and once that process ends, the date for final launch will be decided, he added.

    He revealed too that the look and packaging has been done by a renowned British company, which has also designed the graphics.

  • BBC Worldwide sells shows to Australia’s Seven Network

    BBC Worldwide sells shows to Australia’s Seven Network

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide has sold several shows to Seven Network in Australia.

    The shows that the Australian network has purchased include The Whistleblowers, Mistresses, Judge John Deed, Gavin and Stacey and In India with Sanjeev Bhaskar.

    Starring Richard Coyle (Coupling) and Indira Varma (Bride and Prejudice, Rome), The Whistleblowers is a thriller in which two former lawyers expose political and corporate mismanagement, negligence and greed. It looks at the cost of integrity, and the risks of speaking out.

    Mistresses offers a take on modern life and love from Ecosse Television. Starring Sarah Parish and Sharon Small, this part-drama, part-thriller follows a group of girlfriends whose lives have taken very different turns.

    Meanwhile, perennial ladies’ man but all-round good chap Judge John Deed returns for a fifth series.

    The comedy slate is led by Gavin and Stacey, the new comedy from Baby Cow Productions. It tells the story of an ordinary boy and an ordinary girl (Joanna Page) and how their brand new love affair proves that there is no such thing as ordinary after all.

    In India with Sanjeev Bhaskar attempts to get under the skin of modern India and to explore the legacy of the Raj.

    BBC Worldwide’s senior sales manager (Australasia) Amber Knight says, “From sexy contemporary drama to brand new comedy to Sanjeev Bhaskar’s very personal journey to modern India, there is certainly something for everyone. It’s a superb collection and we are thrilled to have concluded this deal with the Seven Network.”

    Seven’s head of programming (strategy and acquisitions) John Stephens says, “The product will definitely enhance Seven’s already strong 2008 schedule, and certainly be more than useful in attracting larger audiences, particularly to our Saturday night lineup, where for the past couple of years the Network has achieved good returns with a purposeful slant towards British content.”

  • Zee News signs licencing, distribution deal with BBC Worldwide

    Zee News signs licencing, distribution deal with BBC Worldwide

    MUMBAI: Zee News has inked a marketing, licencing and distribution deal with BBC Worldwide. BBC Worldwide will market, licence and distribute Zee News’ archive clip footage worldwide on BBC Motion Gallery website.

    As per the deal, BBC will source news and current affairs content only from Zee News in India for its Motion Gallery website.

    Zee News CEO Barun Das said, “Worldwide, Zee News is viewed as a responsible and serious news channel. It’s little wonder that Zee News Limited is the only news and current affairs media company in India from whom BBC will source content for its prestigious Motion Gallery website.”

    Following this, Zee News will join the league of some of world’s leading broadcasters like BBC, CBS News, NHK Japan, CCTV China and ABC Australia in providing content to BBC Motion Gallery which houses video clips that have been selected from the archives of these broadcasters worldwide.

  • Regulatory bill for TV channels soon, Govt tells SC

    Regulatory bill for TV channels soon, Govt tells SC

    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting is under intense pressure from the judiciary on the issue of a content code and has informed the Supreme Court that it is soon going to introduce a Broadcast Regulation Bill and Content Code.

    The ministry has told the court that it has set up a committee comprising its own officials, as well as those from the ministries of women and child welfare, health and the trade body Advertising Standards Council of India to look into the issue.

    The apex court had asked the ministry to respond to a writ filed on by Pilot Baba that a news sting show on him had been doctored and put him in a bad light, and asked what the government was thinking on these lines.

    This is the third court order and suggestion on the sticky issue of content on news TV. The Delhi HC had already issued an interim order last month on media bodies and to the I&B officials to discuss the issue of stings and content, and report it to the HC within the next month.

    Earlier, the Delhi HC had suggested that the ministry look into forming a committee to vet every sting operation before it is aired. Alhough that was not an order, indications from Shastri Bhavan in the wake of the SC case are that there could be little option now but to do something on these lines.

    Government sources pointed out the Mumbai Police banning two channels for repeatedly showing the recent violence and distorting events in the process.

    The violence let loose by Raj Thackeray’s MNS workers on the North Indians and Big B in Mumbai had taken place on Sunday last. But way through Monday, it was being shown on all channels, giving the impression that the violence remained uncontrolled.

    Mumbai Police has said that this was a distortion because the violence had taken place for less than an hour and communal passions were being stoked by showing the same clippings throughout the day.

    The ministry had already told Indiantelevision.com that the repetition of scenes of violence and distortion of time and the extent of such violence will not be tolerated and the editors of channels must take a call on that, but the recent reportage has again shown that the media is not listening, insiders said.

    Insiders also said that the ministry had decided to give the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) some more time as the current thinking was to take the industry along for an inclusive Content Code. This seems to be the reason why the government has not taken any action when the NBA failed to send its own draft code as promised on 31 January.

    However, the situation as it is panning out from the court’s mood is leaving the ministry with very little option but to usher in the Content Code and a regulatory mechanism.