ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • SPTI acquires five formats from 12 Yard Productions

    SPTI acquires five formats from 12 Yard Productions

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has acquired the Asian format rights for five game shows from 12 Yard Productions, the format creators and producer in the UK.

    SPTI’s agreement with 12 Yard Productions includes Beg, Borrow or Steal, No Brainer, In It To Win It, Eggheads, and Dirty Money, which SPTI will offer to Asian broadcasters at Mipcom. The event which will be held on 9 October to 13 October at Cannes.

    The announcement was made today by SPTI VP format sales international production Paul Gilbert.

    The show In It To Win has been aired as a weekly series on BBC 1 and has just completed its fifth series. While, Eggheads has aired on BBC 2 and on cable channel, Challenge. Dirty Money has aired as a daily series on Sky One and ran for one series. Beg, Borrow or Steal has aired as a daily series on BBC 2 in 2005.

    “12 Yard Productions has been highly successful in turning out creative, successful, quality formats, and SPTI is thrilled to team up with 12 Yard in this exciting agreement” said Gilbert. “SPTI has an incredibly successful history as a global distributor and we look forward to further exciting deals of this nature in the future.”

    12 Yard Production deputy managing director Mike Beale says, “We are very pleased to be working with SPTI in this collaboration as we believe they are ideally positioned to successfully market these game formats into key territories in Asia.”

    The announcement follows a series of other successful formats that SPTI has distributed and or produced in the Asian region including Dragons’ Den, You’re Hired and the Gong Show.

    SPTI has produced over 9,000 hours of television programming in over 30 countries, with production offices in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Miami, the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

    The division oversees the production and distribution of such formats as the hit reality show Dragons’ Den, The Dating Game, Pyramid, The Newlywed Game, You’re Hired, Russian Roulette, Karaoke Showdown, Zulu Bingo and Party of Six.

  • CNN-IBN and IBN 7 the official promotional partners for 37th International Film Festival of India

    CNN-IBN and IBN 7 the official promotional partners for 37th International Film Festival of India

    New Delhi, November 22nd 2006: CNN-IBN and IBN 7 are the official promotional partners for the 37th International Film Festival of India – country’s annual celebration of cinema -taking place from November 23rd to December 3rd 2006 in Goa, India.

     

    CNN-IBN and IBN 7 will present to its viewers exclusive interviews of IFFI delegates and celebrities on the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Aamir, Sudesh Bhonsle, and Bombay Vikings etc and will also preview the film screenings. In addition, the channels will also air the official launch of various movies like ARYAN, 90 MINUTES BY IQBAL RIZVI etc.

     

    Dilip Venkatraman, Director Marketing and online projects, CNN-IBN and IBN 7 says “International Film Festival for India is the biggest gathering and a must attend event for business and entertainment leader from around the world. IFFI 2006 is an excellent opportunity for CNN-IBN, as the official promotional partner to increase awareness of the channel and extend its offering to the masses.”

  • South Asian music & social networking portal SaffronConnect.com launched

    South Asian music & social networking portal SaffronConnect.com launched

    MUMBAI: SaffronConnect.com, an online social networking platform centered around South Asian audio and video content, has announced its official launch. 

    Saffron Connect promises to serve the global South Asian market and seeks to be the first-of-its-kind online music and social networking destination directly targeting the South Asian community.

    The portal will provide content and entertainment services through online, mobile, emerging, and traditional distribution channels, as per an official release.

    In terms of content, SaffronConnect.com will include a range from established bands to upcoming artists, major music labels to independent producers. The ‘Desi’ or South Asian market includes the residents of India, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as well as the non-resident community who live around the world, the release adds.

    The platform will allow independent artists, music labels and video content owners to upload, share and sell their content to a community of users with interests in South Asian media. Users, in turn, will be able to sample, hear, download and share songs among their friends and other members. Some key artists whose content is currently available on Saffron Connect include Bally Sagoo, Rishi Rich, Gunjan, Karmacy, and Bohemia. Content from Saffron Connect will also be distributed to services such as iTunes and Yahoo Music.

  • ESPN to air Himachal Biking Challenge

    ESPN to air Himachal Biking Challenge

    MUMBAI: Hercules MTB Himachal 2006, the second edition of India’s first Mountain Cycling ride and race is scheduled to take place in Himachal Pradesh from 4-13 October 2006.
    The event is being marketed and promoted worldwide by IMG/TWI. IMG/TWI will produce and broadcast this event on Trans World Sport reaching 260 million households over 131 countries worldwide. IMG/TWI will also broadcast this event via SNTV that delivers sports news 365 days of the year to 850 million people. In India, the event will air on ESPN.

    Being tagged as one of the most adventurous sporting event of the country in its first year, the second edition of the challenging ride promises to be bigger, better and more exciting. With over 160 international and Indian riders competing for the championship, the race will be test of physical endurance and mental determination.

    In this second edition, the riders will be pedaling the distance of over 600 kilometers in the wilderness trails of Himalayas. The riders will be challenged to make their way through single track, double track, and broken tarmac and sometimes-just footpaths. The entire terrain of over 600 kilometers will see long down hills and grueling up hills.

    As cyclists will pass through straight stretches, there are sections of hike and bike, and there are fast paced gravel roads. Hercules MTB Himachal 2006 promises to offer little bit of everything for riders of all initiations (Mountain Bikers, Road Riders etc), and just not dirt roads and single tracks.

    Hercules, which manufactures mountain terrain bikes in the country, is sponsoring the event. Conceputlised in 2005, Himalayan Adventure Sports and Tourism Promotion Association (Hastpa) are the orgnisers of Hercules MTB Himachal. Hastpa is an organisation working towards sustainable tourism development in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Hastpa is organising the race under the aegis of the International Mountain Bicycling Association and the event is supported by the Department of Tourism, Government of Himachal Pradesh.

    The event is being organised as a wilderness mountain bike race, where participants sleep in tent villages that are set up prior to their arrival and broken down immediately after the start each morning. Enthusiasts will be faced to endure the climate and physical challenges of the Himachal Himalayas. All legs begin at 8:00 am and riders are expected to reach the finish line by 6:00 pm daily. Stages include breakfast, a pre-designated lunch area, beverages along the route, dinner and an awards ceremony each night where the winners are awarded Leader Jerseys.

  • News Corp buys UK jobs site

    News Corp buys UK jobs site

    MUMBAI: In a further attempt to connect with a younger demographic, US media conglomerate News Corp will buy a UK jobs recruitment site Milkround Online.

    Media reports state that the site which was launched in 1997 targets new students and graduates with job advertisements.

    A Reuters report points out that earlier this year News Corp had bought a stake in Simply Hired, a US-based job search engine.

  • HT Media & Time of India Group to join hands to publish newspaper for Delhi

    HT Media & Time of India Group to join hands to publish newspaper for Delhi

    MUMBAI: The two print media heavyweights HT Media Ltd and The Times of India Group will now be embarking on a joint venture to publish a newspaper in Delhi. 

    The endavour is meant to cater to changing needs of the reader and the arrival of Delhi as an International city. The joint venture will draw strength from the competencies of both Groups, allowing them to work together to efficiently grow an exciting and nascent market.
    The 50:50 joint venture (JV) has to be approved by the board, as informed to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

    HT Media Ltd vice chairperson Shobhana Bhartia said, “We are pleased to collaborate with BCCL on this value creating opportunity which reflects our commitment to delivering Highly relevant editorial content. We believe that the new paper will give advertisers an opportunity to engage the reader on an unprecedented level.”

    The company’s flagship Hindustan Times newspaper was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1924. It also publishes the Hindustan (Hindi paper) and will shortly launch FM radio stations and a daily business newspaper in key Indian metros.

    The Times of India Group holds some of the leading newspaper, magazine, radio, Internet and television brands in the country. The Group also has a significant presence in music, filmed entertainment, events, out of home advertising and multimedia.

  • ESS selects Omneon MediaGrid and Spectrum for tapeless production environment

    ESS selects Omneon MediaGrid and Spectrum for tapeless production environment

    MUMBAI: TOmneon Video Networks has announced that ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has purchased a MediaGrid active storage system and Omneon Spectrum media server systems.

    This will serve as the core of a new production system capable of handling 2,000 hours of media at 50 MB/s. The storage and server implementation, which is being designed and supplied by UK-based systems integrator TSL, will support a new file-based environment and a much more flexible and collaborative production workflow for the network’s live sports and sports news coverage.

    Combining grid storage and grid computing through the use of multiple intelligent, interconnected-yet-independent storage servers, the Omneon MediaGrid system dramatically enhances the efficiency of digital media access for users and applications across the entire broadcast workflow. The MediaGrid system provides centralized shared storage that is scalable in capacity, bandwidth, and media processing power.

    The modular MediaGrid system uses industry-standard components and connectivity to create a highly configurable, reliable, and cost-effective system. Components of the system communicate over standard Ethernet networks and generate massive aggregate bandwidth that is available to external clients of the system, eliminating bottlenecks associated with traditional shared-storage environments. Each storage component is also a media-processing engine, making computational resources available to applications for media-processing functions while content resides within the storage system.

    The Omneon-based storage system will be managed by an OmniBus OPUS News & Sports Logging system and deliver archive content to a new Front Porch Digital DIVArchive system. The initial system build and test of the overall production system at ESS is scheduled for January 2007.

    ESS senior VP, operations and technology Tom McVeigh says, “In the fast-moving world of multiregion, multilanguage live sports, we need technology that allows us to enhance the offerings we provide to our viewers. Omneon’s storage solutions are flexible, scalable, and future-proof systems we can rely on to deliver cost-effective storage for our production environment.

    “The MediaGrid will integrate well with our existing systems and with other new gear to enable a complete overhaul of our production workflows. It is one of the more critical pieces in this puzzle, and it will play a key role in enabling us to achieve our overall project objectives.

    ESS is moving from a totally tape-based production environment to a fully server-based environment, which will allow the network to establish far more rapid turnaround of sports content to its 13 television networks. The project, dubbed Home Run will incorporate the Omneon MediaGrid system and four Omneon Spectrum media servers equipped with 50 I/O ports and linked directly to 25 Apple Creative Studio systems, equipped with Final Cut Pro® nonlinear edit systems, to enable immediate edit-in-place capability at multiple workstations simultaneously. Within this collaborative workflow, production staff will not only gain faster access to media, but also gain the ability to view and work with other packages under production.

    TSL head of sales Russell Grute says, “The timely and accurate production of sports content for 13 channels broadcast in four languages to 26 countries presents an enormous technical challenge. Omneon’s storage systems in conjunction with OmniBus’ Opus will greatly enhance the capacity, flexibility, and speed of operations at ESS, enabling the new Home Run system to offer a faster and more collaborative workflow. A whole new approach to production and media lifecycle management for a busy sports and news broadcaster like ESS.”

  • Fox partners with Orange for on demand initiative

    Fox partners with Orange for on demand initiative

    MUMBAI: Mobile firm Orange has entered into a multi-year video-on-demand agreement with Fox in France 

    This agreement will provide Orange access to over 75 new release and library feature films each year.

    With this agreement between Fox and France Telecom’s Orange service, subscribers to Orange’s digital television by DSL or broadband internet services in France will be able to access new films distributed by Twentieth Century Fox such as In Her Shoes, New York Taxi and The Family Stone plus classic library films such as Alien, Chariots of Fire, Ice Age and Moulin Rouge.

    Subscribers to 24/ 24 vidéo will be able to watch films on either their TV or PC. For between EUR2 and EUR5, a film can be rented for unlimited viewing within a 24 hour period, with the ability to pause, rewind and fast-forward in dubbed or subtitled versions.

    Twentieth Century Fox is the latest partner for 24/ 24 vidéo, a growing video-on-demand offering in the French market. 24/ 24 vidéo now offers a variety of films making over 2200 titles of all genres available from major studios and independent producers and distributors.

    24/ 24 vidéo is able to respond to the expectations of a broad audience by providing diversified and quality programming.

  • CNN documentary profiles US Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld

    CNN documentary profiles US Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld

    MUMBAI: CNN will air the documentary, CNN Presents: Rumsfeld: Man Of War on 7 October at 11:30 am and 7:30 pm and on 8 October at 11:30 am. The documentary takes an up-close look at US secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

    CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno was given rare access to the defense secretary, his allies and critics of his stewardship of the war in Iraq. During an exclusive interview and tour of his Pentagon offices, a candid Rumsfeld admits that he did not anticipate the strength of the Iraqi insurgency – but he also challenges those who have questioned his war planning.

    Sesno reports that Rumsfeld, who achieved extraordinary success in turning around two corporations as a CEO in the 1980s and 1990s, brought a business executive’s cost-cutting sensibility to the Pentagon. While supporters say he listens to ideas and is eager to hear opposing views, his critics say that once he has staked out a position, it is nearly impossible to change his mind.

    Both Rumsfeld’s allies and his detractors talk plainly about his management style, his decision-making and the chronology leading up to the current state of affairs in violence-plagued Iraq. In the documentary Rumsfeld and his war planners accept a share of responsibility for the failure to adequately plan for the insurgency in Iraq.

    Critics of Rumsfeld – several of whom have called for his resignation – say planning failures for Iraq resulted in a breakdown of law and order, a lack of confidence in the American presence, and, ultimately, a longer and more dangerous war.

    Although Rumsfeld oversees the most technical and logistical transformation in the history of the American military, most agree that the defense secretary’s place in history will be determined by his management of U.S. forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

    CNN Productions VP and senior executive producer Mark Nelson says, “Associates tell us that he can be brutally combative but also fair and generous. No matter what your view of the man might be, there is no doubt that his iron-fisted leadership of the Pentagon is defining the war on terrorism and will determine the shape of our military for years, even decades, to come.”

  • Disney’s BV Games adds ‘Disney Princess’ & ‘The Little Mermaid’ titles in the US

    Disney’s BV Games adds ‘Disney Princess’ & ‘The Little Mermaid’ titles in the US

    MUMBAI: Disney Princesses and Ariel are joining the “Disney on the Go” portfolio of handheld video games. New handheld video game titles based on the Disney Princess and The Little Mermaid franchises will now be available at retail stores throughout North America. 

    The new line-up from Buena Vista Games (BVG) includes: Disney’s The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure for the Nintendo DS, Disney’s The Little Mermaid: Magic in Two Kingdoms for the Game Boy Advance and Disney Princess: Royal Adventure for the Game Boy Advance, informs an official release.

    “Inspired by the award-winning film, ‘The Little Mermaid’ handheld games provide interactive adventures that kids can take with them on-the-go,” said Buena Vista Games vice president of marketing Craig Relyea. “With the release of Disney’s new two-disc ‘The Little Mermaid’ Platinum Edition DVD today, fans of Ariel and her friends will have ample opportunities to share in the fun this holiday season.” 

    Featuring six of Disney’s beloved princesses, Disney Princess: Royal Adventure on the Game Boy Advance will be released alongside The Little Mermaid titles. 

    “Since its debut in 2000, the Disney Princess franchise has become a leading girls lifestyle brand. Building on the franchise’s popularity, the new Disney Princess: Royal Adventure game enables young girls to interact with their favorite characters in a new magical adventure,” said Relyea.