ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • Devashish Sarkar quits BBC-Times JV

    MUMBAI: Devasish Sarkar, until now CEO of Worldwide Media Ltd (WWM) which is a BBC-Times of India joint venture, has decided to go back overseas to take up a new assignment.

    Sarkar was with WWM for about four years. He helped in re-launching Femina and Filmfare, the latter becoming a fortnightly and coming out in a German edition. Some new titles in India like Top Gear and Grazia were also launched. 

    Sarkar was elected General Secretary of the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) at the Annual General Meeting last year. 

    Elder Pharmaceuticals with its product FairOne have signed a three-year deal to sponsor the annual Filmfare Awards. 

    Sarkar has worked earlier in various firms such as ITC and Tupperware and also for the Singapore Government.

  • CNBC-TV18 focuses on South India with ‘Up South’

    MUMBAI: CNBC-TV18 is all set to launch a new show Up South to capture a 360-degree view of southern India. The show will capture the buzz in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum and Kochi – from multiple perspectives.

    The show will telecast live on every Saturday at 10:30 am and a repeat telecast will be aired at 7 pm on Sundays.

    The show will include a content focus on small and medium enterprises, infrastructure problems, realty prices, private equity flows into the cities; government policy in the states and the entertainment from the South.

    CNBC-TV18 will report stories from the smaller towns and cities that go largely unheard. It claims to act as a trend spotter on the changing trends in southern India’s business landscape.

    Up South will also include a special segment for young viewers straight from major campuses such as IIT Chennai, ISB Hyderabad, IIM Bangalore and the likes — to hear the voice of young India on the key issues of the week. 

    TV18 business media director Ajay Chacko said, “Up South will allow us to aggregate our coverage of Southern India, increase our focus on new business trends in the region and create an appointment opportunity for our viewers”

  • ‘Bricking’ or distorting face of child victims on TV is meaningless: Renuka

    NEW DELHI: Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury today emphasised that the electronic media should not show the face of child or women victims of molestation, rape or violence of any kind.

    In a short chat with indiantelevision.com, the minister added that “bricking” or other tactics were pointless since people in the area always knew who the victims were and the identity was of no interest to those in other parts of the country.

    She suggested that the media should find other ways of giving the news, adding that perhaps a reporter could give the news without showing any face or environment.

    She also stressed that the electronic media should heed the guidelines about the method of questioning child victims pointed out in the report on “Study on Child Abuse: India 2007” prepared by her ministry. The report published in April last year had shown how children are generally questioned and made suggestions on how this should be done.

    Earlier, addressing a session of the 8th Editors Conference on Social Sector Issues organised by the Press Information Bureau, the minister called upon the media to write editorials and articles on issues like crimes against children and women, female foeticide and related issues like nutritious diets.

    Referring to a meeting she had held last week with principals and teachers in the aftermath of the incident in which a school student in Gurgaon killed a fellow student with his father’s gun, she said she intended to hold such workshops once every quarter in different parts of the country to find ways to curb the violent tendencies among children exposed to cinema, television and the Internet. 

    She would also be talking to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Central Board of Film Certification in this connection.

    She said that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights would examine cases of the effect on children of television advertising, animation serials and other programmes, and films. She called upon the media to support her in this effort.

    The minister also urged the media to devote the entire month of March to issues related to women, since the International Women’s Day falls on 8 March.

  • BBC Worldwide re-equips advertising sales team in India

    MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has rejigged the structure and responsibility of the advertising sales team in India.

    As part of the restructuring process, BBC Worldwide team is bifurcated into news and non-news streams. Seema Mohapatra has been promoted to regional sales director, BBC Worldwide South Asia. Mohapatra was earlier head of advertising sales for India.

    Taranjeet Singh has been elevated to head of advertising sales, News, BBC Worldwide, South Asia. Prior to the promotion, Singh was regional sales manager, BBC World, North and East India.

    Singh will be responsible for revenue generation, client servicing and performance management for BBC World and bbc.com. As part of his team, and reporting to him, will be Jabir Merchant who has been promoted to senior sales account manager, News, West, and Gaurav Pahwa, account manager, News, North.

    Neena Dasgupta has been elevated to the post of head of advertising sales, non–news, BBC Worldwide, South Asia. She was earlier regional manager, West and South.

    In her new post, Dasgupta will be focused on driving advertising sales for BBC Worldwide’s non-news portfolio of television and online products and services, from both existing clients and new categories and brands across the country.

    Likewise, Komal Sangani has been promoted to senior sales account manager, Non–news, West, and in New Delhi Jaya Chaudhry becomes senior account executive, Non–news.

    BBC Worldwide VP sales, Asia and Australasia Sunita Rajan said, “I am confident that our new team structure will further help strengthen the strategic direction required for growth in such a dynamic market, and across the wider South Asian markets, as well as bringing greater focus to our business across BBC World, Global Channels and bbc.com throughout the region.”

  • BBC radio now available on Bangladesh’s bdnews24.com

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC has teamed up with Bangladesh‘s news website bdnews24.com so that its users can listen to BBC World Service radio.

    Visitors to the site across the world can now access BBC radio programmes in English and Bangla. bdnews24.com is the first news site in Bangladesh to carry BBC radio content.

    bdnews24.com chief editor Toufique I Khalidi said, “We‘re absolutely delighted to be associated with BBC World Service. I‘m certain that this partnership will not only be of great convenience to many who‘d gotten out of the habit of listening to the radio but also will prove beneficial to BBC and bdnews24.com.”

    BBC World Service regional business development manager for Asia Neil Curry says, “We are committed to working with like-minded organisations across the widest possible range of platforms.”

    “Bangladesh is a very important country for the BBC, and this tie-up with bdnews24.com reflects our commitment. Availability of our radio content on this news website means further growth of the BBC‘s outreach around the world. It‘s an exciting development for us,” adds Curry.

  • CNN-IBN Awards: RK Laxman lifetime awardee, E Sreedharan Indian of the Year

    MUMBAI: Surprising everyone present, the CNN IBN Lifetime Achievement Award went to “Common Man” RK Laxman, the legendary cartoonist of “You Said It!” fame.

    Laxman broke down while receiving the award from former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and could not speak, partly due to a bad throat, but mostly because he became extremely emotional.

    The award was preceded by a minute’s silence in honour of Mahatma Gandhi.

    By open vote, the Indian of the Year award went to E Sreedharan, the man who masterminded Delhi Metro and has been recognised around the world, including France where he was honoured with the Legion of Honour, the highest civilian award of the country.

    Sreedharan, who is the Chairman of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, was also awarded the Indian of the Year in the Public Service category for setting a rare work ethic and transforming the face of transportation by effective time-bound execution of the Metro Rail project.

    In his speech, he mentioned that the Delhi Metro was looking to span 400 kms in the NCR by 2021.

    Members of the public present, including sportspersons and politicians cutting across affiliations, voted for Sreedharan.

    The Indian of the Year in Politics went to Union Minister of Finance P Chidambaram for engineering a spectacular growth rate and being an astute economic manager despite coalition pressures.

    Chidambaram joked that if there were any prize for a sinner, it would go to a politician, but added on a more serious note that people come to politics because they want to change society and the country for the better, emphatically declaring, “I am proud to be a politician.”

    Except for Laxman, the other awardees received their trophies from Vice President Hamid Ansari, who was the chief guest, with Kalam being the guest of honour.

    But perhaps even more surprising than the Laxman award was the one given to State Bank of India’s OP Bhatt in the Business Category.

    Bhatt’s citation said he got the award for his remarkable achievements in the ascent of the State Bank of India.

    He was responsible for showing how a public sector behemoth could take on the private players and emerge as a force in the fiercely competitive banking sector.

    Bhatt went into an emotional acceptance speech and said he was surprised as it is rare for a public sector enterprise to be recognised at such a magnitude.

    Dedicating the award to “Team SBI,” he further went on to say that this award would make the Team SBI strive to make the bank one of the top 10 in the world.

    For the Entertainment category, the honours went to Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni for delivering the year’s Best Idea Film Chak De India and demonstrating how a simple idea can make a runaway commercial success.

    Earlier, speaking on the sidelines, Rajdeep Sardesai told indiantelevision.com that this clearly shows that the CNN-IBN awards were not about star value, as Shah Rukh Khan was one of the nominees in the category, but the prize went to backroom geniuses.

    On receiving the award, Sahni mentioned the plight of the Indian women’s hockey team and pleaded with the government to take steps to improve the state of the game.

    The recipient in the Sports category was not at all a surprise. For his achievements in chess, Vishwanathan Anand took the award.

    The citation read that the award was presented to him for being one of the rare Indians to be the undisputed world champion in a sport and making chess a popular sport in India.

    Anand’s parents received the award, and his father mentioned that the one person responsible for this was Anand’s mother, who always encouraged him.

    Global Indian of the year was Arun Sarin of Vodafone for piloting more than US$ 11 billion FDI in India, one of the largest ever.

    An IIT-ian from IIT-Kharagpur, he is one of those small-town people to have made an impact globally. In his speech, he mentioned that if a small-town boy like him can make it this big, the scope for rise in India today was endless.

    Inaugurating the ceremony, Raghav Bahl, the TV 18 group patriarch, spoke of the fact that this was an honour for the group which has stuck to responsible and credible journalism.

    Bahl said that giving an award to people who have been reported in the channels, often unsparingly, “changed the terms of engagement” and made it that much tougher on deciding between the various nominees, all top rung individuals in their own fields.

    To underline the tough task that the jury had in hand, jury chairman and eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee said that he now realises how difficult it is to decide, and appreciated the judiciary in general because of the nature of job and added that they are often criticised despite their best efforts.

  • CNN appoints Reza Sayah as international correspondent based in Pakistan

    MUMBAI: Continuing its expansion into international newsgathering, CNN Worldwide has appointed Reza Sayah as an international correspondent based in Pakistan. CNN’s SVP of international newsgathering Parisa Khosravi announced the appointment.

    An investigative reporter and anchor for WXYZ/Channel 7 in Detroit for the past six years, Sayah joins the network as Pakistan recovers from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

    “Our expansion of personnel in Pakistan is part of our ongoing plan to gather and provide more content for all of CNN, especially since Pakistan remains a very important story on the international scene,” Khosravi said. “Sayah has a proven track record of solid reporting in the field and resourcefulness in getting to the critical elements of the story.”

    Through his 12-year career, Sayah has covered a variety of high-profile national and international stories including Hurricane Katrina and the sniper shootings in the Washington DC area.

    Born in Iran, Sayah speaks English, Farsi and French and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Pepperdine University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

  • NDTV wins Commonwealth innovative engineering award for record 5th time

    NEW DELHI: NDTV Labs Ltd was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Broadcasting Association or the CBA award for ‘Innovative Engineering’ and NDTV’s Features Editor Sutapa Deb was honoured with the prestigious ‘CBA-Thomson Foundation Journalist of the Year’ at the CBA’s Broadcasting Awards for 2008 presented in Nassau, Bahamas.

    NDTV Labs set an unprecedented record for media houses by winning this award for the fifth time in six years. NDTV Labs also took the opportunity to launch the nX series of software products at the Conference at the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association’s Broadcasting Awards for 2008.

    Sutapa Deb who won the CBA – Thomson Foundation Journalist of the Year award is the driving force behind India’s pioneering television series, India Matters. This rare series engages viewers with development issues at a time when most TV channels are catering to politics, cricket and films.

    About her work, Sutapa says: “There are thousands of stories waiting to be told. Often I wish there was a little less cynicism and a lot more idealism. Stories come and go before people can understand the context and because of this we have failed to deepen our understanding about a
    number of vital issues that face our society. Each story is important, and must be well told”.

    Some of Sutapa’s path breaking reports include Banker to the Poor and India’s Coming Out. The most recent series is on positive children who are neglected by the system. Her report looks at the lack of institutions for HIV orphans.

    Apart from the CBA-Thomson Foundation journalist award, Sutapa is the recipient of the Indian Telly Award for the best documentary of the year for her documentary Unsung Heroes of the Gujarat Earthquake, 2002 and the Ramnath Goenka award for excellence in journalism in 2006.

  • NDTV Metro Nation Chennai to launch by mid-year

    NEW DELHI: After the three new channels being announced to be launched from NDTV Networks, the company’s expansion plan now takes its Metro Nation channel down south.

    Sources told indiantelevision.com that NDTV’s internal memos have told staffers that the process of launching the new channel is on the countdown mode, and that Metro Nation will be launched in Chennai soon, expectedly middle of this year.

    A top official from the PCR at Metro Nation (Delhi) is being sent to Chennai in the middle of February to start recruitments for setting up a full team, as well as creating the infrastructure, sources said.

    The next step would be to start the Metro Nation from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata, which would be early next year, if plans work out well with the Chennai edition.

    Though NDTV is keen on the new content of music and Hollywood films, the expansion would be faster in the Metro Nation channels, sources said, as the company’s internal assessment finds its Delhi reception very encouraging.

    The distribution office has reportedly received very favourable response from the Delhi cable mandarins, where the niche, city-based channel was launched last year.

    More than 60 per cent cable networks in Delhi have started streaming NDTV Metro Nation, the internal assessment note says.

    There is a minor issue with the DTH platform, as at the moment, NDTV Metro Nation is seen on the backburner channels of TataSky.

    Sources said that the “hard launch” on TataSky’s premier bands will follow from the middle of next month.

  • Zee News Q3 operating revenue up 38.6 % at Rs 955 million

    MUMBAI: Zee News Limited (ZNL) has posted operating revenue of Rs 955.3 million on a stand alone basis for the quarter ended 31 December, 2007, up 38.6 per cent as against Rs 689.1 million in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

    Zee News’ stand alone net profit was 128.4 million for the third quarter of FY 08 and Rs 242.2 million on a consolidated basis.

    On a consolidated basis, the company’s operating revenue stood at Rs 983.1 million during the period.

    Commenting on the results, Zee News Limited chairman Shubash Chandra said, “Zee News Limited has delivered a laudable third quarter performance with a growth of 38.6 per cent in operating revenues compared to the corresponding quarter. This growth has been led by a substantial increase in advertisement revenues, which have grown 48.8 per cent. The Zee News channel deserves special mention given the excellent revenue and viewership performance in the quarter.

    Zee Marathi maintained its leadership position, while Zee Bangla attained the number one position in the third quarter. Channels under the ‘New Business’ comprising Telugu, Kannada and 24 Taas have done very well, with Zee Telugu and Zee Kannada registering a GRP growth of 93 per cent and 23 per cent respectively. With rapid transformation in the Indian media via digitization, the coming years hold a lot of promise, and we are confident of delivering long term shareholder value.”

    The ZNL owns and operates nine news /current affairs and regional entertainment channels namely Zee News, Zee Business, Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Punjabi, Zee Gujarati, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee 24 Taas.

    Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee 24 Taas which are considered as ‘New Businesses’ have incurred an operating loss of Rs. 397.4 million during the nine months period ended 31 December, 2007.

    For the period ended December 2006 ‘New Businesses’ consisted of only two channels. Zee 24 Taas was launched in February 2007.

    Zee Akaash News Private Limited – a subsidiary of the company (60 per cent equity holding) which operates 24 Ghanta, a Bangla news channel has incurred an operating loss of Rs. 6.9 million during the nine months period ended 31 December, 2007.

    Zee News Limited MD Laxmi Narain Goel said, “The quarter witnessed a sound growth in all our channels. Our flagship channel, Zee News continued to grow in revenue in this over crowded genre, which is still attracting new players. Zee News remains the only pay channel in the Hindi news channel genre. The other existing businesses of Zee News Limited have also shown consistent growth, with Zee Bangla attaining the number one position. Our efforts to add value to the content of Zee Telugu, has paid off, with the channel achieving encouraging ratings during the third quarter. Overall, the results have been very satisfactory with the revenues of both existing as well as New Businesses registering a growth of 37.8 per cent and 50.6 per cent respectively.”

    Zee News CEO Barun Das said, “Our tremendous revenue growth is doubly encouraging given that 8 of our 9 channels are Pay channels. In addition, the pay channels have continued to grow in viewer ship as well, which will result in further revenue enhancement. Our future strategy would be to have a focused business approach for every channel, which will certainly enhance growth potential. With a slew of initiatives, we have been able to achieve both our top and bottom line targets. We are committed to scale much higher than industry benchmarks for the next quarter as well.”