Category: News Broadcasting

Vijay TV launches new bouquet of shows starting 30 October

MUMBAI: Vijay TV is launching a whole new bouquet of shows ranging from music, movies, chat, drama and talent starting 30 October.

An all-new afternoon band with a bunch of shows targeted mainly at the women audience. Shows that entice with shopping sprees, exciting trips and out of the box opinions interlaced with some of the hottest movie tracks.

Vijay Television general manager Ravinath Menon said, “After launching format shows like Hutch Kalakkapovathu Yaaru, Airtel Super Singer, EQ and Jodi No.1 and strengthening the weekends, we are now excited to offer a great line-up of shows to make the weekday primetime viewing much more exciting. These shows will definitely attract not just the youngsters but viewers of all ages with its unique and differentiated content.”

Shopping Sundari at 3 pm, provides the best guidelines of shopping be it annual sales or discount sales, Shopping Sundari Janani knows it all. Ladies Club at 3.30 pm, especially for the women is a platform to voice out their views on anything that matters in an open forum presented by the witty Shailaja. Point to Point at 4 pm, is a travelogue of Priyanka who takes you on a joyride to places never seen before by road. Topped with the best budget stays, food and local flavor. Dum Dum Dum at 4.30 pm, is for those prospective brides and grooms eagerly looking for their perfect match, presented by the popular host Gayathri Priya.

Going a step further, Vijay is all set to launch three new dailies Amaran, Kana Kaanum Kaalangal, Kanden Seethaiyei and an all new Jillunu oru Jodi for the youth and the women audience alike.

The new sci-fi series set in outerspace Amaran is a modern adaptation of the Ramayanam with some great special effects. It would be telecasted from monday-thursday at 7.30 pm.Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal, the first soap on Tamil television focusing on adolescence is the story of friendship, first love, innocence, mischief and all those great memories of school life, telecasted from monday-thursday at 8 pm. Kanden Seethaiyae, a poignant soap opera starring the popular actress Kaushalya is based on the story of Seetha who faces conspiracies from near and dear and struggles to keep the family near. Shot in the exotic locales of Singapore promises to be a visual treat every monday-thursday at 8.30 pm.

Amidst all the excitement, Vijay’s format shows continue to keep audiences glued. On weekdays, the spooky thrills of Kathu Karuppu at 9 pm; followed by the crime reality show Kuttram at 9.30 pm.

Saturdays are just as spiced up as ever with Garnier Fructis Jodi No 1 which has been extended to 1 ½ hours. Followed by Alive Koffee with Anu at 9.30 pm and the non-stop action fest on Adhiradhi Thiruvizha at 10.30 pm.

Sundays starts off with the story of the saint Saibaba at 8 am followed by Sangamam at 9 am in a new format, where budding singers of the current generation get together to pay tribute to the greatest singers of yesteryears. And to top it all off, Vijay presents a palette of Hollywood films both on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 am to cater to the young and the old like.

October 24, 2006
Vertu Constellation touches base in India

MUMBAI: Vertu, luxury mobile phone manufacturers unveiled their new collection of hand crafted handsets ‘Constellation’ in Mumbai today. To cater to a niche clientele, this range offers seven handsets as part of its collection and targets globe trotters.

Crafted by creative director Frank Nuovo, the inspiration for this collection has be derived from an aircraft and thus, the details on the phone resemble the wing form, propellers and air inlets. The Constellation collection ranges from stainless steel to gold finishes with an array of colourful leather backs and the distinguishing feature of a ceramic keypad that is said to be scratch resistant. Depending on the model the price could differ from two to nine lakhs.

“The fluid surface developments are inspired by classic aircraft – in particular, the classic cross section of the leading edge of wings combined with the high polished metal and small fasteners along many edges. Symbolically, the microphone port design is a subtle tribute to the powerful force that made our first aircraft fly – a classic propeller fan. Vertu Constellation has a sleek and confident low profile. Leather is a dominant material to increase the tactile delight in the hand. I wanted the elegant sophistication and dramatic appeal of Vertu Signature with a slight softening and a small degree of visual simplification of form and line”, said Frank Nuovo.

Showcased by Vertu Global marketing director Chris Harris, the collection is being distributed solely by Matrix Distribution Pvt. Ltd. Currently available in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, the later half of this year will see outlets in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. It will be available at select high end jewellry and watch outlets like Popley La Classique at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai, The Helvetica at Spencer’s Plaza in Chennai, Rodeo Drive in Bangalore, the Johnson Watch Company and the Regent Watch and Jewellry Co. Maurya Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi.

The collection will be showcased in fashion and lifestyle magazines and the buzz created around this brand should provide incentive enough for high flyers to make their style statement with this new accessory.

When queried about the demand for such a high end phone in the Indian market, Matrix Distributors Pvt Ltd Tusshar Alvani said, “The brand value of Vertu is huge internationally and in India too we have far exceeded our expectations. This is a luxury phone that gives a sense of accomplishment and reward to its owner.”

Taking luxury travel to another dimension ‘Constellation’ is the third addition to the Vertu stable. Prior to this, Vertu launched its Signature and Ascent collections based on the themes of luxury watches and Formula 1, respectively. The Signature collection used precious metals and the upper end model a platinum solitaire diamond handset was priced at 22 lakhs, while the Ascent F1 race track series gives the aggressive look and feel associated with the sport.

“The design of Vertu Constellation began with the precise understanding of our achievements with both the Vertu Signature and the Vertu Ascent models. The Vertu Constellation design was conceived in order to complement both of these Vertu originals and reinforce the style and design quality of the Vertu Brand,” stated Nuovo.

Vertu Constellation was designed to assist the demanding traveller encompassing a quad-band engine with connection in over 180 countries around the globe; real-time flight tracking that enables Vertu Constellation to provide flight information, in the lounge or en-route to the airport. The real-time currency converter provides correct currency information when required, and the world clock tells the time at home as well as away, in up to three locations simultaneously. To complete the navigation facility Vertu Constellation has world weather facilities that let one know exactly what to expect when you get to your destination.

Vertu Concierge complements the Vertu Constellation and allows one button access to lifestyle services 24 hours a day from virtually anywhere in the world. Vertu Concierge can help from recommending local restaurants and making theatre bookings, or simply sending a gift to someone around the globe.

Available at 300 authorised retailers across 40 countries worldwide, the brand has also made its mark in India with Sabyasachi, Shobha De, Leander Paes and Atul Kasbekar posing as its brand ambassadors. The Ascent F1 model was gifted to SRK by Karan Johar, in addition, other owners of Vertu phones include Katrina Kaif and Jaya Bachchan, while the Beckham couple along with pop diva Madonna also own Vertu phones.

October 24, 2006
Sony has a slate of new soaps ready to roll

MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television India’s ratings starved flagship channel Set is going in for a heavy dose of soaps in the coming months as compared to reality shows. The channel has lined up a slew of shows that it will be rolling out in the next five to six months.

The shows are aimed at strengthening its 8 pm to 11 pm band and attracting a new set of eyeballs and building up its viewer base.

For starters there is Jeetiya Hai Jis Ki Liye, produced by Tony and Diya Singh whose earlier Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin has been the only significant ratings success that Set has enjoyed on the soaps front in the recent past. The show will star Renuka Shahane, who will be making a comeback after her success as anchor on the popular cultural tele-magazine Surabhi.

The channel has also tied up with the Anuj Saxena’s Maverick productions for a drama titled Akhand Sau Bhagyawati, says Sony’s chief creative director Sandiip Sikcand.

The channel is also working with actress turned politician turned producer Smriti Irani aka Tulsi Virani for Viruddh. Irani had recently tied up with Kumarmangalam Birla’s media house Applause Entertainment. She is at the moment co-producing along with Balaji Telefilms for Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Sa Aasmaan (Star Plus).

As far as the channel think tank is concerned, the programming overhaul is necessary if the third-placed network is to be able to face the stiff competition from its rivals. Reality shows will be relegated to Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, while the rest of the week will see soapy dramas taking centrestage.

That’s not to say reality shows will do the vanishing act from Sony’s weekday prime time.The third season of Indian Idol will make its comeback in May, Sikcand points out.

“Sony is also devising its own little reality show, which will be aired twice a week which we are targeting to launch in February or March,” Sikcand says. Without offering much by way of detail, Sikcand adds that the channel was yet to finalise on certain aspects of the show.

“A variety talk show is also being designed, for which the channel has roped in Anupam Kher as anchor. This one hour weekend show will basically deal with hopes and aspirations,” he explains.

Getting back to the soap train, Sikcand say Set has in its kitty Khamoshi as well. Additionally, there is also a show that Sony has commissioned Film Farm to do, he adds.

October 23, 2006
CNN Intl plans multi-platform coverage for US mid-term elections

MUMBAI: With less than a month before the US mid-term elections are held CNN International rolls out America Votes 2006 across its global television, internet, broadband and wireless services.

The channel notes that the stakes could not be higher with US Republicans battling to keep both houses of Congress and Democrats hoping public discontent with the War in Iraq will give them an advantage. CNN’s team of political correspondents will bring coverage to more than 198 million television households, millions of internet users via CNN.com and via broadband on CNN Pipeline. Additionally, CNN’s coverage will be available on wireless services around the world.

CNN International VP Rena Golden says, “No other broadcaster can bring a global audience the depth of coverage, the analytical background or quick breaking news like CNN International. Our audiences, whether on television, the internet or wireless, deserve the very best and our award-winning team provides it.”

The channel’s coverage culminates on 8 November with live Election Night with programming from New York featuring Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn and Lou Dobbs who will all provide wall-to-wall news and analysis in CNN’s new state-of-the-art studios at the Time Warner Center.

CNN correspondents and affiliates from around the world will also offer up-to-the-minute reports and analysis on how the election results impact the world. Leading up to the election and on Election Night, coverage from the U.S. will be led by senior political correspondent Candy Crowley; chief national correspondent John King; senior national correspondent John Roberts; senior political analysts Bill Schneider and Jeff Greenfield; congressional correspondents Dana Bash and Andrea Koppel; White House correspondents Ed Henry, Suzanne Malveaux and Elaine Quijano.

As the campaign moves into its final stages, CNN International will air a series called Broken Government. These programmes will be featured on Inisght with Jonathan Mann.

· To Do Nothing Congress – CNN White House correspondent Eds Henry – a veteran of a decade covering Capitol Hill – portrays the paralysis brought on by partisanship and obsession over raising money for elections. It airs on 31 October 2006 at 9:30 am and 3:30 pm.

· Power Play – Chief national correspondent John King returns to his former beat, the White House, to report on the Bush administration’s controversial efforts to wrest back executive authority stripped away by Congress in the years following Vietnam and Watergate. This airs on 1 November at 9:30 am and 3:30 pm and on 4 November at 8:30 pm.

· Two Left Feet – Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley will examine why Democratic candidates seem to have such a hard time getting elected and are often out-manoeuvred by Republican opponents who appear to be better organized and faster on their feet. It airs on 4 November at 12:30 pm.

· Where the Right Went Wrong – Senior political analyst Jeff Greenfield looks at those most deeply committed to the conservative cause and their enragement over out-of-control government spending, political pork, nation-building and the president’s more lenient approach to immigration. This airs on 3 November at 9:30 am and 3:30 pm and on 5 November at 12: 30 pm.

In addition extended versions of Your World Today will provide in-depth analysis on the day’s leading political stories in the week leading up to Election Night. Real-time results will be available on CNN.com and on CNN Pipeline, the site’s live broadband video news service. Additionally, CNN.com’s special election section can be found at www.CNN.com/elections and provides a complete look at the political arena, featuring on-going political news coverage with multimedia packages, galleries, interactive maps, user feedback, expert analysis, quizzes, streamed video and podcasts.

CNN’s coverage of the US mid-term elections will also feature heavily on wireless services around the world. CNN’s wireless election coverage is available in live video streaming, email alerts and updates, on-demand video and internet access.

October 23, 2006
Classic TV show ‘Fraggle Rock’ to make the transition to the big screen

MUMBAI: The Jim Henson Company now confirms what millions of internet fans have speculated.

The company is developing a film about the Fraggles, stars of the 1980’s television show Fraggle Rock. In India the show used to air on Doordarshan.

The untitled film will for the first time take Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red on an adventure outside of Fraggle Rock where they will interact with the strange beings in “outer space” (also known as humans). The treatment is being written by author Ahmet Zappa who will also executive produce the project with Brian Henson and Jason Lust. Jim Henson Company co-CEO Lisa Henson will produce.

Henson said, “Fraggle Rock has remained a favorite project at our Company and has certainly continued to be loved by its many devoted fans. So we are thrilled to begin work on this project. With its message of celebrating diversity and its ambitious goal of promoting world peace, now is the perfect time to embark on a new Fraggle adventure.”

Zappa says, “I’m very excited to be working with The Jim Henson Company on this project. So much of my childhood was spent watching Fraggle Rock. I never missed an episode. I am also really looking forward to using music to tell the story; it played such a central role in the original series and truly helped create the Fraggle Rock that we know and love today.”

Fraggle Rock premiered on HBO in 1983 and over five seasons garnered multiple awards and a global fan following. The show was created by Jim Henson as an international co-production and was adapted for each territory to meet the needs of its audience. By showing cooperation and conflict resolution among the different inhabitants of the Rock (the Fraggles, the Doozers and the Gorgs), the show taught the concepts of mutual respect and peace.

Recently, devoted fans petitioned online for a DVD release of the series. The season one box set exceeded expectations and its incredibly strong consumer response led to the successful season two release.

October 23, 2006
Eutelsat awards contract to deliver Hot Bird 10 broadcast satellite to Astrium

MUMBAI: Global satellite operator Eutelsat has announced that Astrium will build the Hot Bird 10 broadcast satellite which will be launched in first quarter of 2009 and positioned at the Group’s 13 degrees East location.

Following Hot Bird 8 and 9, it is the third high-power broadcast satellite based on Astrium’s Eurostar E3000 platform that will be located at Eutelsat’s premium video neighbourhood for cable and satellite broadcasting.

The procurement of Hot Bird 10 underpins Eutelsat’s objectives to continue to renew capacity at its Hot Bird neighbourhood, to raise
in-orbit redundancy and security for broadcasting clients and to increase overall flexibility across its satellite fleet.

Eutelsat’s 13 degrees East neighbourhood broadcasts 950 television channels and 540 radio stations to 110 million cable and satellite homes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Astrium’s Eurostar E3000 platform was selected by Eutelsat for the Hot Bird 8 satellite, which went into full commercial service this month, and Hot Bird 9 which was ordered from Astrium in May this year. With each satellite equipped with 64 high-power Ku-band transponders spanning the entire range of 102 Ku-band frequencies at 13 degrees East, they will together deliver customers security and in-orbit redundancy for the development of digital entertainment services and HDTV channels.

Hot Bird 10’s deployment in 2009 will also enable Eutelsat to pursue its objective to develop video activities at other orbital locations. The new satellite will release the group’s Hot Bird 7A satellite from 13 degrees East in order for it to be repositioned at the 10 degrees East neighbourhood. The proximity of these two neighbourhoods enables reception of channels from both positions with a single antenna equipped with a dual feed.

This new video mission will be initiated first by Eurobird 10 (formerly Hot Bird 3) which is scheduled to enter into service at 10 degrees East later this month, having completed its mission at 13 degrees East. Eurobird 10’s replacement by Hot Bird 7A will further increase capacity for video services in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa by providing up to 38 Ku-band transponders at 10 degrees East.

Eutelsat CEO Giuliano Berretta says, “By boosting our resource at established and growing video neighbourhoods we are in a privileged position to benefit from the strong dynamic of broadcasting markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Hot Bird 10 will further consolidate our premium Hot Bird position and will also expand the associated resource we can offer broadcasters from 10 degrees East for standard digital television, High-Definition Television and new video services using MPEG4 compression.

” We are also very pleased to renew our confidence with Astrium who has demonstrated the performance of its technology in our new Hot Bird 8 satellite.”

Astrium Satellites’ business unit CEO Antoine Bouvier said, “We are extremely pleased that Eutelsat confirms their confidence in our technology by ordering a third Eurostar E3000 to perfect the core of their prime broadcasting neighbourhood. Hot Bird 10 is a Eurostar E3000 satellite, identical to Hot Bird 8 and Hot Bird 9 with the same mission capacity. Hot Bird 10 is also the third satellite ordered by Eutelsat from Astrium this year, following W2M in February and Hot Bird 9 in May, and the seventh communications satellite contract overall won by Astrium in 2006.”

Hot Bird 10 is the 15th satellite commissioned by Eutelsat from Astrium. With the early implementation of this programme the group is advancing in-orbit investments to 2007- 2009 which were originally forecast after 2010.

October 23, 2006
Al Jazeera tops Forbes’ list of top 40 Arab brands

MUMBAI: Forbes has compiled its list of the top 40 Arab brands based on extensive international survey measuring brand loyalty and consumer perception. Al Jazeera ranks number one in Forbes Arabia’s list, followed by Emirates, Almarai and Al Arabiya Media. Overall, companies from eight countries made the final cut. Represented industries include media, airline, retailing, real estate development, leisure, food and beverages, and cosmetics.

Forbes Arabia is the Dubai-based Arabic edition of the business magazine Forbes. Arab companies that cater to markets throughout 19 Arab countries were eligible for the list. To identify the Top 40 Arab Brands, Forbes Arabia factored in customer perception, and how well companies adapt their brand to a changing market environment.

Forbes Arabia editor-in-chief Sulaiman al-Hattlan says, “With competition heating up in Arab countries, brands have become an effective way for a company to distinguish itself from competitors in terms of image and product offerings. The key question for those building Arab brands is how to think globally and act locally. The first of its kind, the Forbes Arabia Top 40 Arab Brands list looks at companies that have created strong brands not only in Arab countries, but that are also gaining recognition worldwide” .

An online survey was conducted for Forbes Arabia by UK market research firm YouGov that drew on consumers from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The Forbes Arabia research team ranked each brand by giving points to how well customers recognised, and trusted each Arab brand, and how well companies adapted their brand to a changing market environment to service their customers.

October 23, 2006
VSNL plans cable link to India, Middle East, Western Europe

MUMBAI: Tata group company Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has inked an MoU with global telecom firms to construct a new submarine cable linking India, Middle East and Western Europe (IMEWE).

The company has joined hands with Etisalat, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle to work jointly on the new submarine cable.

The cable will connect the major countries in the region including India, UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France to provide interconnection facilities with several existing and emerging systems in the regions.

The telecom consortium expects to get the IMEWE cable ready for service by mid 2008. The construction contracts are expected to be being awarded by end 2006.

The network, upon its commissioning, will provide high-speed connectivity to the Asian, Middle East, North & East Africa and Western Europe regions, and meet their exponentially growing bandwidth requirements.

October 23, 2006
Nielsen to provide video game rating service

MUMBAI: Drawing on its resources in media audience measurement, Nielsen Media Research has launched GamePlay Metrics in the US.

This is a new rating service for video games. The all-electronic ratings service will establish new metrics for the buying and selling of advertising in video games, while also tracking the activities of gamers across other media platforms, such as TV and the Internet.

GamePlay Metrics will be the first offering from the newly created Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services division. The new data will
enable the video game industry to develop an advertising business model to offset the steep development costs of new titles for next-generation consoles.

In addition, the metrics will give advertisers a greater level of precision for targeting the digital consumer. Nielsen’s new measurement service will provide advertisers, agencies,
hardware manufacturers and game developers with independent, high-quality, quantitative demographic data for negotiating the buying and selling of in-game and around-game advertising.

Nielsen’s GamePlay Metrics service also will provide advertisers with analysis on how video game play affects or complements the
use of other electronic media. For example, the data will show what television programmes gamers watch when they’re not playing games. This unified data source increases the precision of advertisers’ target marketing, and enables them to allocate their ad dollars in a more
efficient manner.

Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services VP Jeff Herrmann says, “The value of an entertainment medium is directly proportional to how well it is measured. A reliable and accurate standard of measurement for video gaming will drive advertising investment in this medium and help convert video game advertising from a discretionary advertising experiment to a must-have option.

“Nielsen’s unmatched resources, including its portfolio of intellectual property, extensive technology infrastructure and decades of media measurement expertise, are the foundation of the Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services business.”

Denuo gaming division Play’s group director Saneel Radia says, “For games to gain prominence as both a medium and a communication platform, the gaming industry must deliver the tools brands need to leverage it most effectively. A credible set of data and learnings such as those provided by Nielsen’s GamePlay Metrics Service will provide marketers the confidence they demand, expanding the size and type of deals in this burgeoning space.”

Collecting Video Game Data : The new service builds on Nielsen’s Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative — which provides integrated ratings for video
consumption across multiple media platforms — by harvesting information from existing Nielsen samples.

Nielsen’s national television sample of more than 10,000 households in the US currently collects information on video game use through existing People

Meter technology. Nielsen GamePlay Metrics will use a patented approach to harvest this existing information from current and next-generation video game consoles within these sample households. The new service will passively record the titles of games while capturing key demographic detail about players. Moreover, because it is based on Nielsen’s national TV ratings sample,

Nielsen GamePlay Metrics also will provide advertisers with data on what TV programmes are consumed by active gamers. Nielsen GamePlay Metrics will begin providing video game ratings data in mid-2007. Subscribing clients will receive, on a weekly basis, easy-to-access ratings charts and rankings which show the most-played video games. Clients will be given necessary elements — titles, platform, genre, daypart and demographics — from which to base their advertising and planning decisions.

Nielsen has been working with major clients in the video game industry, including the manufacturing and advertising sectors, to develop the specific metrics that will be used to measure game playing. In order to process the data to be collected from game consoles, the Nielsen GamePlay Metrics service is developing a new audio system to process data on video game, movie, music, video and other media usage.

This system builds on Nielsen’s existing experience with its Active/Passive metering technology, and eventually this same type of collection system will be leveraged by Nielsen’s other A2/M2 initiatives.

In preparation for the launch of the service, Nielsen is also building a reference data base of game titles to be measured, while creating the system for reporting information to clients.

Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services was recently launched as a business unit to provide measurement services to the video game and wireless industries. The new unit will draw upon the resources within VNU’s Media Measurement and Information (MMI) Group, including Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen Entertainment, which recently reported the Nielsen Active Gamer 2006 study.

The key client base for Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services will include wireless carriers, handset manufacturers, application providers, technology and infrastructure companies, video game console manufactures, publishers/developers, agencies and advertisers.

The new unit is led by Herrmann, who has held various senior marketing and product strategy roles within Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen//NetRatings. Most recently, he served as VP business development and strategy for the VNU Media Measurement and Information Group responsible for evaluating new business opportunities as well as mergers and acquisitions.

October 23, 2006
BBC to outsource financial services to India based Xansa

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC is outsourcing some of its accounting and financing services to India in a move aimed at saving 20 million pounds a year for the next decade. The BBC has selected Xansa as the preferred supplier for the BBC’s outsourced finance and accounting services. The new contract will run for a period of ten years.

It is the result of the re-tendering of services that were successfully outsourced to Medas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDS, in 1997. Xansa will work closely with the BBC to deliver finance and accounting services across the BBC, including purchasing and sales transaction processing, artist and contributor payments, financial management and project accounting, payroll processing and expenses and customer support.

The ten-year contract will cost the BBC approximately £8.5 million per annum, and will generate savings for the BBC in the region of £20 million per annum. This will be a major contribution to the BBC’s target of releasing £355 million of savings to invest in programmes and services.

The BBC is currently conducting a simplification of its business processes as part of its Future Finance programme, which is delivering further savings of £17 million.

Xansa will provide their services from a blend of locations in the UK and India. All voice contact (Customer Support) with Xansa will remain in the UK; other services, including transaction processing, will be carried out at Xansa’s location in Chennai, India.

In this way the BBC is taking advantage of the significant savings of globalisation while maintaining the benefits of more local customer support. The original outsourcing of these services to Medas in 1997 was seen at the time as being a ground-breaking deal which included a successful implementation of a common systems platform (SAP) across the BBC.

Medas also successfully transformed the BBC’s transaction processing operation, delivering a fit-for-purpose and efficient service to the BBC. Xansa was selected from a shortlist of four companies (Capita, EDS, Infosys BPO and Xansa) after a rigorous evaluation process against a number of criteria which included value for money, cultural alignment with the BBC, service delivery capability; the ability to drive improvements to the BBC’s business and financial processes, and transition and exit planning.

Xansa will act as prime contractor working with Siemens Business Services.

BBC group finance director Zarin Patel said, “I congratulate Xansa on winning this major contract. The BBC will benefit from Xansa’s proven expertise in managing outsourced Finance and Accounting Services, and we look forward to developing a close relationship with them. I believe this is an excellent deal for the BBC, and I am confident that Xansa will help us further to transform our finance and business processes.

“By moving our transaction processing to India we are demonstrating that we are prepared to take bold and imaginative decisions that offer the licence-fee payer great value for money, while still maintaining the highest quality of service delivery. I would like to thank our colleagues in Medas for their valuable support over the last nine years: in that time they have helped us transform the BBC’s finance and accounting processes, delivered a sound SAP implementation, managed our transaction processing, expenses and business systems and left us with a fit and stable operation to build on in the future.”

Xansa CEO Alistair Cox said, “We are delighted that Xansa has been selected as preferred partner to deliver Finance and Accounting Services across the BBC. Our expert technology and back office services allows our clients to do more with their own business and we are confident that we will, as the UK leader in F&A services, enable the BBC to minimise its administrative costs and to free up funds to invest in its own core business of creative programming.

“We are particularly pleased to be the BBC’s first offshore BPO partner, and this week’s award win as offshore operator of the year is another terrific endorsement of our leading offshore position and capability.”

October 23, 2006