MUMBAI: Raghav Bahl’s Television Eighteen India Ltd has informed the BSE that its board has declared an interim dividend of 40 per cent or Rs 2 per equity share of Rs 5 each.
Meanwhile, TV18 holding company Network 18 announced today that it has okayed the rights issue of partly convertible cumulative preferential shares (CCPS).
Network 18 shareholders will get one CCPS of Rs 200 face value for every five shares held.
Category: News Broadcasting
-
Television Eighteen declares 20 % interim dividend
-
Kainthola takes over as executive director in LS TV
NEW DELHI: Indian Information Service officer Bhupendra Kainthola has taken over as the new executive director (programmes) of Lok Sabha Television, filling the vacancy created in January after the termination of services of Sudhir Tandon, without ascribing reason.
Kainthola has been posted to LS TV on deputation for three years. He is an IIS officer of the 1989 batch.
His last posting was as the deputy general manager (media) for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the past two years, but he has earlier worked for several years in Doordarshan News in the Mumbai and Delhi kendras. He also functioned in the Press Information Bureau for one year.
The post of the ED (P) has been held as an additional charge first by the executive producer Vartika Nanda-Sahai, and then by the executive director (marketing), Sunit Tandon, who is in the channel on deputation from the National Films Development Corporation.
Sudhir Tandon had retired as deputy director general in August 2005 from the charge of Director of the Delhi Kendra of Doordarshan before joining LS TV. He had received a termination order in late December ending his three-year contract (in just over a year), without assigning any reasons.
The LS TV was first conceived by the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and offered to Doordarshan.
However, the public broadcaster had demanded financial support for a minimum of 250 employees. Bhaskar Ghose – a former Director General of Doordarshan and also Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry – was then given the task of running the channel with a strength of less than 80 people.
He was appointed with the designation of media adivsor to the speaker and chief executive of the channel. LS TV was formally launched as a 24×7 channel from July 24, 2006 when the Monsoon session commenced.
Commencing with the Budget session, the channel is now in charge of transmitting the signals to the Doordarshan tower from where these are uplinked. Earlier, this work was being handled by DD staff.
Furthermore, two more studios are coming up to augment the facilities, but sources in the channel told indiatelevision.com that there was no corresponding increase in staff strength which was now just over 100.
The channel still does not have any funds of its own and has to depend on the Audio Visual Unit of the Lok Sabha Secretariat for its expenses and infrastructure.
-
Al Jazeera Children’s Channel signs MoU with Malaysia’s Multimedia Development Corporation
MUMBAI: Middle East broadcaster Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Multimedia Development Corporation in Malaysia (MDeC),
Al Jazeera Children’s Channel vice chairman Dr. Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani says, “I am pleased to see the attempts and efforts of the past months come to fruition. This extended collaboration demonstrates our mutual commitment to pursue common projects and develop business alliances to ensure high standard Television and Media productions”.
The strategic partnership with JCC is expected to benefit the Malaysian content industry as it created opportunities for local players to take up content development work tailor-made to the requirements of JCC in the areas of animation, games, mobile and digital content.
MDeC will work with JCC to create and promote awareness among the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) member countries on policies and key issues affecting the development of the content industry.
-
International visitors boost traffic at Oscar.com during Academy Awards
MUMBAI: US measurement service comScore Networks has reported the results of a study conducted on visitation to popular film-related Internet sites in conjunction with last weeek’s 79th Annual Academy Awards.
On Sunday 25 February, 2007 139,000 US Internet users visited Oscar.com, a one-day increase of 219-per cent versus the 44,000 visitors that visited the site on 24 February, 2007.comScore Media Metrix executive VP Jack Flanagan says, “For the audience watching the Academy Awards at home, the Internet has become an important part of enjoying the festivities. Whether they follow the action on the red carpet or view clips and trailers of nominated movies, consumers are supplementing their television viewing experience with web content.”
Tinternational visitor traffic to Oscar.com also spiked. Of the 422,000 total worldwide visitors to Oscar.com on Oscar Sunday, just one out of every three site visitors came from the U.S. while the remaining two-thirds came from international locations. Canada and Mexico, both of which were well represented among the various award nominees, combined to account for nearly 10 per cent of the worldwide audience.European countries such as the UK and France also factored in prominently with 10,000 and 8,000 visitors, respectively. Nielsen Media Research meanwhile says that the Academy Awards which aired on US broadcaster ABC had 24 minutes of commercial time during the 3 hour and 10 minute broadcast (not including the Oscar pre-show). This was down slightly from 24 and a half minutes last year.
27 unique brands aired commercials that competed for viewers’ attention for a total of 38 national advertisements in this year’s broadcast. In addition, ABC aired three minutes and 50 seconds of promotional announcements.
General Motors was the top advertiser again this year, with 3? minutes of commercial time, 30 seconds less than last year. Coca-Cola and L’Oreal tied for second place with three minutes each. J.C. Penney was the fourth largest advertiser with 2? minutes. These four companies have maintained the top slots for the last two Oscar telecasts.
-
Intelsat to distribute ViewAfrica, ViewAsia Networks programming
MUMBAI: Intelsat has announced that UK-based View Africa and ViewAsia Networks have launched two regional platforms on the Intelsat system, expanding their program offering in Africa and Asia.
Through its multi-year contract on the Intelsat 7 and Intelsat 10 satellites, ViewAfrica Network is distributing a free-to-air programming bouquet that now reaches all the Sub-Saharan countries with specific DTH focus on South Africa and Nigeria, and ViewAsia is distributing its programming into the cable headends of Asia.
ViewAfrica Network, uplinking out of Telemedia in South Africa, carries a free-to-air bouquet of religious programming that currently includes the following networks: Daystar, LoveWorld, Divine Truth Broadcasting and Emmanuel TV. ViewAfrica is among 27 DTH platforms built on the global Intelsat system.
Intelsat 7 provides video, direct-to-home and telecommunications services throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Intelsat 10’s Ku-band payload contains multiple high-powered beams focused on Africa, Europe, India, the Middle East, Central and Western Asia as well as Northeast Asia.The beams on Intelsat 10 can be switched between the various regions, offering greater flexibility in the creation of new platforms for the delivery of video, data and IP-based services, a company release says.
-
BabyTV launches an online social network for parents
MUMBAI: US new media firm BabyUnivers which works in the pregnancy, baby and toddler marketplace, has announced the launch of BabyTV.com.
This provides the first full-featured video-driven social networking site for parents and expecting parents. BabyTV.com was previewed to select users in late December 2006 as the first Internet-based television network devoted to moms, and the official debut of BabyTV.com brings a rich user experience with high quality video content and interactive functionality for parents, parents-to-be, and caregivers.
BabyTV.com offers a catalogue of streaming television programming targeted to new and expectant parents from recognized experts throughout the industry. Viewers can tune into the linear schedule of programming and video-on-demand (VOD) library filled with entertaining and informative videos from content partners Oxygen Media and Alpha Mom.
The website also allows parents to submit original video to share with other parents, using the MyBabyTV functionality which has already been dubbed by some the ‘YouTube for Mommies’ Unlike YouTube, however, all uploaded video content can be quickly reviewed by a BabyTV.com moderator using state- of-the-art tools, allowing MyBabyTV to serve as a family-friendly environment for sharing the special moments of a newborn’s life.
Importantly, this content screening capability also provides advertisers with protection from negative associations with inappropriate content that has become so common on other video-sharing sites.
Throughout the site, parents and parents-to-be can use interactive functionality to share their opinions about BabyTV content by providing feedback on specific videos, participating in polls, and posting original comments in video forums. BabyTV also offers a library of text-based articles written by industry experts that are available to users of the site.
BabyUniverse chairman and CEO John Textor says, “Our goal is to create the ultimate social networking destination for moms who are looking to share ideas and stories and to find out more about the highly individual journey that we call parenthood.”
“BabyTV brings a wealth of next-generation community features for site visitors, allowing users to create membership profiles, participate in message boards and polls relating to pregnancy and parenting topics, and upload their own videos –providing the premier and most all- encompassing online environment for parents today.”
The launch of BabyTV.com is also changing the rules on the behind-the- scenes work of bringing live TV programming and VOD to viewers, debuting a new Internet content delivery platform that has been implemented by John Studdard, the company’s executive VP of new media. Studdard, who is known for creating the enterprise architecture behind
VirtualBank.com /Lydian Trust Co. which allowed it to scale from startup into a multi-billion dollar diversified financial services company, has strong credentials for developing next-generation content delivery platforms.Studdard says, “BabyTV is a significant milestone for Internet broadcasting as well as the BabyUniverse family of online websites, providing a robust platform for the next generation of media-driven networking sites,” . As the first web property to be completely deployed on our new enterprise content management system (CMS), BabyTV provides a way to gain efficiencies of scale in rolling out video, text and community assets across multiple sites.”
The company’s CMS platform allows BabyUniverse to leverage content throughout other BabyUniverse sites, easily moving video and text content created by a centrally located creative and editorial staff throughout the sites, when and where it’s needed, in real time.
-
JumpTV in deal with Joost
MUMBAI: JumpTV, which broadcasts ethnic television over the Internet, has partnered with Joost a recently launched free-to-air Internet television service.
JumpTV will make a portion of its library of video-on-demand television content available on a series of JumpTV-branded ethnic television vertical channels on the Joost platform.
JumpTV currently broadcasts live over the Internet thousands of television programmes, news, music and sporting events from 270 channels from over 70 countries around the world on a subscription and advertising supported basis.The initial JumpTV offering on Joost will feature programming regularly gathered from JumpTV’s digitally rights compliant international television roster. The first JumpTV “channels” on Joost will feature Spanish-language series from Colombia, Chile and Peru, in addition to Arabic-language comedy, drama and news programs from some of the leading broadcasters in the Middle East.
JumpTV will be adding new programming on a daily or weekly basis, and intends to launch several more channels on Joost in other languages, including but not limited to Romanian, Turkish, Russian and Bengali.JumpTV International president and CEO Kaleil Isaza Tuzman says, “We see Joost as a unique and important distribution /programming partner. Like us, the Joost team innately understands the power of viral, high-affinity long-tail content — for example, JumpTV’s ethnic TV programming. Given the track record of the Joost founders, we believe that the Joost platform could be as transformational for online television as their previous ventures have been.”
Joost executive VP of content strategy and acquisition Yvette Alberdingkthijm said, “Content owners like JumpTV, with a diverse offering of channels that feed the global appetite for streamed online content, are a perfect match for Joost. Partnering with JumpTV will allow our viewers access to the best in global television programming in an Internet rights-compliant fashion.”
JumpTV head of global distribution Mike John-Baptiste said, “Joost, like JumpTV has been securing programming from key licensors of television content, so we were pleased to see that they recognised our singular commitment and leadership in ethnic television.”
“JumpTV is committed to providing our TV broadcaster content partners the broadest audience on the Internet as possible — whether through ISPs, mobile carriers or Internet portals.”
The partnership between Joost and JumpTV involves sharing of advertising revenues on the JumpTV-branded channels.
-
Network 18 to raise 2 billion via rights issue
MUMBAI: Network 18 will be raising around Rs 2 billion through a rights issue to fund the film business, pay back debt and enter into other media opportunities.
The company, which holds TV 18 Group, also houses Studio 18 and Shop 18. While Studio 18 is engaged in film business, Shop 18 is a television network dedicated to home shopping.
“We will be using the money to fund our movie business and also retire some debt. We are also looking at opportnities in entering into new lines of media business,” says a source in the company.Network 18 board today also approved the rights issue of partly convertible cumulative preference shares (CCPS) of Rs 200 (face value) each in the ratio of 1:5.
A detailed structure and other terms of the issue will be decided later. The rights issue committee of the Network 18 board will work in consultation with the lead managers to the issue.
Director Sanjay Ray Chaudhuri shall be excluded from the promoter category of the company. “In any future correspondence with the Stock Exchanges / shareholders etc., name of Chaudhuri shall not be included in the Promoter / Promoter Group of the company,” Network 18 said in a statement.
Meanwhile, TV 18’s board has declared an interim dividend of 40 per cent or Rs 2 per equity share of Rs 5 each.
Network 18 fell 6.2 per cent on the BSE to close the day at Rs 322.25 even as its board approved a rights issue. TV 18, on the other hand, slipped 5.42 per cent to end at Rs 525.20.
-
Endemol COO Tom Barnicoat resigns
MUMBAI: Tom Barnicoat, chief operating officer of television format owner and distributor Endemol, has resigned, the company announced today.
Endemol, best known as the creator of the Big Brother format, offered no explanations as to the reasons for Barnicoat’s departure except to state that he would be stepping down with immediate effect.
The responsibilities of Barnicoat will be taken over by other members of the Endemol management board until further notice.
Barnicoat was previously Endemol UK CEO. He was appointed Endemol COO in January 2005.
Barnicoat will receive a severance and pension payout of ?2.79 million (? 2,599,999 and ? 191,042 respectively).
-
MTV to launch ‘Sound Check’ on 10 March
MUMBAI: To address the varying demands of young consumers in the present day, MTV is set to launch yet another ‘check point’ titled Sound Check on 10 March.
Unlike countdown shows that the network is known for, this one adds a twist to it with a bunch of funny animated graphic characters (speakers) rather than a VJ, to offer expert comments coupled with crazy stunts.
One character (a speaker) does the ‘snake’ dance to others tunes
On the lines of fashion based show Style Check and gadget and gizmo focussed Tech Check, the latest addition to complete the trio will “review music albums from Bollywood and International artists for which we have devised our own unique currency,” MTV VP creative and content and GM Ashish Patil told Indiantelevision.com.All the speakers do the Mexican wave!
Apart from the cliché trivia and information, these vignettes of five minutes each which will have five animated speakers, created by the in-house graphic team, will elaborately predict the fate of the selected album.
On a five point rating scale, these guys will perform stunts to depict the success of an album by either shooting themselves in the head or teaming up to do the Mexican wave and other such bizarre behaviour.
Stopppp…This speaker hates this song!
Although MTV attempts to bring out its core proposition that is in sync with the youth funda – ‘Enjoy,’ Patil says that behind these comical characters are key MTV programming experts that will critically appraise the various music albums on parameters like rhythm, melody, lyrics etc. to determine what’s going to be hot!
Tracking the changing needs of Indian youth, Patil says that extensive research points to the various touch points that youth connect with, including style and fashion, adventure, technology, cricket and even casual dating, therefore the network has attempted to bring their brand to each of these genres through an array of differentiated programming.
Although, music is part of the core proposition of the channel, it currently supports 30 per cent of non-music content with Hero Honda Roadies, Lycra MTV Style Awards, GPL, Aila Tendulkar, Semi Girebaal and the likes…. As advocates in identifying youth trends, MTV will continue to deliver all these different genres, with wit and humour at the crux of it all!