ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • SET senior VP and programming head Anupama Mandloi quits

    SET senior VP and programming head Anupama Mandloi quits

    MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment India (SET) India senior VP and programming head Anupama Mandloi has resigned.

    After a nine-and-a-half-year stint at the flagship channel SET, Mandloi officially says goodbye to the organisation tomorrow.

    For the near term, recently appointed chief creative director Sandiip Sikcand (former Balaji creative head ) will be overseeing Mandloi’s responsibilities. However, according to sources, the organisation has not taken any final call on whether to have a replacement for her position.

    In her time at Sony, Mandloi has held various positions — from on-air programming director, on-air programming head, creative director, to senior VP and programming head. She was also instrumental in setting up Sony’s flanking channel SAB TV, which was bought out last year.

    Prior to Sony, Mandloi worked with Plus Channel. She has also worked on projects with filmmaker Vikram Bhatt.

  • Discovery boosts India centric content with more variety

    Discovery boosts India centric content with more variety

    MUMBAI: Infotainment channel Discovery’s aim this year is to forge a closer viewer connect through more local content. To achieve this it has increased the Discover India block from one hour to two hours.

    This sees two different documentary specials airing back to back every Saturday from 8-10 pm with a repeat on Sunday from 9-11 am. A channel spokesperson points out that the aim is to bring in more diversity into the content. The channel, from September to December will showcase programmes on a variety of themes ranging from Aids to Kashmir to successful people in Mumbai.

    Coinciding with the World Aids Day in December, it will air the special Highway in My Veins, which will tell the personal story of truck drivers who are affected by the menace of Aids. They spend a lot of time away from their families and so some of them seek refuge in drugs. 14 million truck drivers carry millions of tons of cargo from one part of India to another. They are the lifeline for many Indians but they have to deal with oppressive and dangerous conditions each day of their lives.

    Non-literacy, lack of healthcare and difficult conditions contribute to their high-risk behaviour. Combined with the statistics of road accidents this has given them the stigma of being carriers of death rather than carriers of life.

    An animal themed special that will air is called Cherub Of The Mist. In the Kangchenjunga range the Cherub uncurls its innocent face with white markings, cat like whiskers and long racoon like tail in the misty mountains of the Singalila National Park.

    The show has footage from a Panda’s life. The aim is to unravel the mystery behind the secretive life of the little cherub and bring alive to the worldwide viewers the irresistible charms of the fire cat. The show marks the debut directorial venture by wildlife film-maker Naresh Bedi’s son. The special won the Vatavaran Awards for wildlife films in 2005.

    A special that looks at Kashmir through the eyes of a young man is called Floating Lamp Of The Shadow Valley. The protagonist Arif is the youngest boatman on the Dal Lake. Each day he toils to earn the living in strife-torn Kashmir.At 10 he is the sole bread-winner for his family of five. Abandoned by their father, a runaway militant, now an unemployed drug addict, Arif and his family live under perennial shadow of tyranny. Through Arif this documentary examines the state of Kashmir and the awakening of hope.

    Mumbaiites would be interested in Merchant Princes Of Bombay. The merchant princes that Discovery deals with are Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who dominated the so-called China (read opium) trade; David Sassoon, who owned the most powerful trading house in the Orient; Premchand Roychand, whose home came to be labelled “a miniature stock exchange”; and another legendary Jamsetjee, Jamsetji Tata, who ushered the Industrial Revolution in India.

  • Alfred Haber to distribute ‘Most Shocking’ reality show globally

    Alfred Haber to distribute ‘Most Shocking’ reality show globally

    MUMBAI: Alfred Haber Distribution (AHD) has entered into an agreement with producer Bruce Nash to distribute Nash Entertainment’s newest reality series Most Shocking. internationally.

    This is a 13-episode one hour show which will premiere on US broadcaster Court TV later this year.

    AHD founder Alfred Haber says, “Bruce Nash is one of the pioneers of reality television and one of the most successful, and bankable, reality producers in US network history.

    “Nothing is more shocking than reality and this new series allows audiences around the world to experience the dangers and thrills of actual police work — from the comfort and safety of their own living room.”

    Each episode of the series takes a look at the world of law enforcement. It includes themes as Most Shocking Police Shootouts, Most Shocking Dangerous Drivers, Most Shocking Prisoners On The Rampage, Most Shocking Hostage Standoffs, Most Shocking Citizens Under Attack, Most Shocking Drug Busts and Undercover Stings, and more.

    Nash says, “I am pleased to be teaming up again with Alfred Haber Distribution for what I believe will be one of the most compelling reality television series we have ever offered the international community.

    “This is a show where the action is nonstop, the drama is riveting and the heroism is the most incredible you will ever witness. Viewers in all lands will stand up and cheer as good triumphs over evil.”

  • HC seeks undertaking that only U, U/A movies will be aired

    HC seeks undertaking that only U, U/A movies will be aired

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has asked for an undertaking from broadcasters and cable service providers declaring that they will only be transmitting U and U/A films.

    The High Court bench, headed by Justice Lodha, also clarified that its 23 August order against the broadcast of adult movies did not restrain channels and cable service providers from airing movies with U and U/A certificates.

    The bench gave the clarification in response to an application made by a cable subscriber, the Press Trust of India news service reported.

    The court also directed cable service providers to remove the scrolls many of them were carrying which said movie channels were off the air because of the High Court order. The court termed such scrolls as a misinterpretation of its original ruling.

    The High Court said it had not stopped the channels which were currently off air in Mumbai from operating but had only restrained them from showing adult content.

    The nine channels — Hindi and English movie channels (Zee Cinema, Star Movies, HBO, Filmy, Star Gold, AXN and Max), and Hindi entertainment channels Star One and Sahara One — had originally been blacked out after the Mumbai police confiscated the decoders of major cable networks and beaming equipment of channels on the charge that they had violated the law by telecasting uncertified movies. This followed orders from the Bombay High Court that channels showing adult movie content should be taken off air.

    When the matter of the seized decoders was brought up, the bench told the broadcasters to arrange for replacements. Multi-system operators (MSOs) like Hathway and In Cable (who hold sizeable chunk of connections in Mumbai) as well as Zee Group controlled Siticable were among those that had their equipment confiscated in the police raids.

    The court’s ban order on adult movies had come on a PIL filed by a Mumbai college professor.

  • UTV, ISRO & Vigyan Prasar co-produce quiz show Chamatkar, to premiere on DD1

    UTV, ISRO & Vigyan Prasar co-produce quiz show Chamatkar, to premiere on DD1

    MUMBAI: UTV has tied up with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Vigyan Prasar to produce a quiz show, Chamatkar. Slated to kick off on 3 September at 9 am on Doordarshan 1 (DD1), the 26 episode series aims to introduce science in a fun, non-intimidating way. Sachin Khedekar will anchor the show.

    UTV COO Ronald D’Mello said, ”Through Chamatkar we plan to provide a refreshers course on the fundamentals in Science all over again through an interesting and exciting format of a quiz show, which will appeal to a larger target audience, not like the usual quiz shows that usually just has straight forward questions and answers.”

    The show adopts a simplistic approach with an aim to explain the basics of science to the layman. Questions will be related to things around us that will allow participants and viewers to explore the world of science in their daily lives and understand how it works. The principles of science will also be illustrated with experiments performed on the set by the anchor Sachin Khedekar.

    Sachin Khedekar adds, “Being an Environment Engineer myself, it gives me immense pleasure to be associated with Chamatkar, which aims at educating and entertaining simultaneously”.

    ISRO director of Development and Educational Communication Unit B. S. Bhatia says “We are happy to be associated with UTV through this quiz show and looking forward to making science easy and relatable for the viewers.”

    Vigyan Prasar director V. S. Kamble says, “Through Chamatkar, we hope to achieve our primary objective of popularising the subject of science. We are happy to constantly share information on scientific and technological developments taking place in India with the masses.”

    The series commences with the preliminary rounds of the West Zone and will be followed by the West Zonal finals. The pattern will be repeated for the other four zones i.e. South, North, East and Central zones. It will finally end with the zonal finalists competing in the National finals.

  • NBC gets lukewarm Emmy ratings

    NBC gets lukewarm Emmy ratings

    MUMBAI: While the Emmy awards on Sunday gave US broadcaster NBC the win in the 18-49 demographic, the ratings were down by about 15 per cent as compared to the the year before.

    Media reports state that 16.1 million Americans watched the broadcast. Whereas, last year 18.7 million watched the show on CBS. In 2004, 13.8 million viewers tuned in to ABC to watch the show.

    On Sunday night ABC re-aired Pirates of The Carribean. The film got 10.2 million viewers and managed to grow its viewership with each half hour.

    One reason for the decline in Emmy viewership compared to last year could have been the absence of television drama, Lost and Desperate Housewives from the nominees roster.

  • ESS partners with Special Olympics

    ESS partners with Special Olympics

    MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has announced a partnership with the Special Olympics, the international non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

    ESS says that it is well-positioned to deliver the Special Olympics message across Asia, including calling upon the services of sporting legends who have built a relationship with the network over the years.

    Among the media programmes lined up by ESS is the television production and broadcast of the 1st Special Olympics International Cricket Cup which will be held in Mumbai from 6-13 November 2006. 12 men’s and three women’s teams will take part in the inaugural competition, involving 272 athletes and over 600 volunteers, coaches and officials. The countries taking part in this inaugural event are India, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies. Female teams from India and Pakistan will also take part in this event.

    Special Olympics International chairman Timothy P. Shriver said, “We have been expanding and developing many programmes in the Asia Pacific region recently and have always had the goal to reach out to significantly many more people with intellectual disabilities worldwide. We have just reached two million athletes participating in 150 countries. Yet there are nearly 170 million more waiting. In addition, our message has to extend to the mass public in a much more powerful and significant way. ESPN Star Sports can make that happen.”

    Among the sporting stars who have stepped forward to lend their support to ESS’ commitment to Special Olympics are legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar, skipper Rahul Dravid, Irfan Pathan and Mohammad Kaif. Tailor-made public service announcements have been created by ESS featuring these Indian cricket legends.

    Special Olympics Asia Pacific MD Troy Greisen, says, “We are absolutely thrilled about this partnership with ESPN Star Sports as it is a great opportunity for us to spread the word and inspire people throughout Asia to get involved and support Special Olympics. ESPN Star Sports is the most powerful medium for us to achieve this as the premier sports network in Asia. Not only does ESPN Star Sports reach millions of viewers whose lives can be touched by our message and hopefully become supporters, it is also a great platform to showcase the ability of our Special Olympics athletes alongside other world class athletes.”

    ESS Asia MD Jamie Davis said, “Special Olympics is indeed a very special organisation. Its ideals are something we are very attracted to and something we want to fully support. Nothing will be more satisfying than to be able to play a small part in changing the lives of these special athletes.

    “ESPN Star Sports’ commitment will not stop at producing and broadcasting the flagship events of Special Olympics, which will start with the cricket tournament in Mumbai. ESPN and Star Sports will also run public service announcements to increase the awareness of people with intellectual disabilities and it’s staff will actively work with the Special Olympics athletes through volunteer coaching programmes”.

    ESS India MD RC Venkateish said, “Our network has a huge presence in India and we are looking forward to achieving something very important for Special Olympics in Asia. The continent has its own special athletes and through the powerful mediums of sports and television, we can help Asia play a more important role in helping people with intellectual disabilities.”

    Gavaskar said, “As a sportsman, getting involved in a cause as big as this, especially since it is about speaking for a group of athletes and promoting their cause throughout Asia, is perhaps one of main highlights of my career. If I am able to help achieve the goals that Special Olympics are looking for, then, it will perhaps even surpass what I have ever achieved in cricket.”

  • Siemens to showcase potential of IPTV, mobile TV at Berlin trade show

    Siemens to showcase potential of IPTV, mobile TV at Berlin trade show

    MUMBAI: When the international consumer electronics trade show IFA opens its doors in Berlin on 1 September, 2006, visitors will experience the look and feel of the new world of television at the Siemens Communications booth.

    Siemens says that with its mobile TV service via DVB-H, customers of communications companies can be more than just passive viewers of TV programs on their mobile phones. The company says that with services such as music voting, it is easy to let consumers have a say in shaping what they watch. IPTV in HDTV will mean a new era of home media use.

    The living room media center is supplied with programming from the Internet via DSL and has an intuitive user interface. At IFA Siemens will be using the example of the Dutch carrier KPN to show how an IPTV interface works.

    Traditional television Siemens says is entering a new era. Mobile TV and IPTV offer network operators a way to compensate for the drop in revenue stemming from falling prices for voice connections in wireless and fixed networks and to win customers with new media offerings. At IFA 2006 Siemens Communications will show how the new offerings can be structured and how the technology behind them works.

    Mobile TV via the DVB-H standard enables mobile operators to offer services. They include interactive television programs that let viewers participate in votes and surveys, access to information in the Internet at a click of the mouse, interactive games for several players and real-time traffic reports that integrate navigation systems are just a few examples.

    While the market for Mobile TV is still in its infancy, market researchers at Informa believe that by 2011 some 210 million people around the world will be using their portable devices as interactive TV sets and that around ten percent of all mobile handsets will have a TV receiver integrated in them.

    At IFA, Siemens will show that its own mobile TV solution already runs on a wide range of common mobile phones (e.g. BenQ-Siemens, LG, Samsung), on PDAs with special SDIO cards and on state-of-the-art UMPCs from Samsung with Intel technology – perfectly and in high quality. Siemens will be showing programs from various broadcasters in Berlin, including RTL Television, nt-v and Super RTL.

    Stefan Schneiders who is an expert for Mobile TV at Siemens says, “One thing is sure – carriers are very interested in tapping new revenue streams and winning their customers for trendy services that offer added value. Initial results from field trials, for example in Spain, show that Mobile TV has what it takes to fulfill the expectations of carriers and their customers.”
    Siemens will be showcasing the IPTV offering of its Dutch customer KPN at IFA 2006. KPN customers in the Netherlands who have a DSL connection can receive TV from their phone socket and use numerous additional services such as a personal video recorder or TV of Yesterday. In Berlin, visitors will be able to try out KPN’s user interface, as well as getting an impression of how intuitive and simple the user guidance is from other examples, and discover that PC expertise is by no means a must.

    They can also see what TV via DSL in high-definition quality using the compression standard H.264 looks like. Siemens says that it is committed to open standards for IPTV via HDTV. That also goes for the set-top boxes that are required for receiving IPTV and of which a selection will be shown in Berlin.

  • Sony sets out IPO plans; seeks controlling stake in Ten Sports

    Sony sets out IPO plans; seeks controlling stake in Ten Sports

    MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television (SET) India is stepping up plans for an initial public offering (IPO). The company is looking at a period after the cricket World Cup gets over in April 2007, a source close to the development says.

    The merchant bankers are yet to be appointed but the IPO plan is being actively pursued. “The board has approved an IPO plan, but subject to the capital market and other related conditions,” the source adds.

    Sony is also in active negotiations to buy a controlling stake in Ten Sports. SET India already has the rights to distribute the sports channel in India. “The negotiations are on to acquire a majority stake. But nothing has been finalised yet,” the source says.

    Ten Sports, it is learnt, is willing to part with a 50 per cent stake. No agreement has been reached on the valuation, the source says. It is worth noting here that a report put out by CNBC TV18 yesterday had said “the deal is believed to be worth between $ 55-60 million.”If this report proves correct, it would mean that Ten Sports has been valued at between $110 million to $120 million.

    When contacted, Taj Television Ltd CEO Chris McDonald said the company was in talks with several companies for strategic partnerships. “There is no deal at this stage,” he added. On being queried whether the company was willing to part with controlling stake, he refused to comment on specific details. Dubai-based Taj Networks owns and operates Ten Sports.

    SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta denied that anything definite on Ten Sports or the IPO had been decided at this stage.

    Zee Telefilms Ltd. (ZTL), which was in negotiations over a year back, has not resumed talks, a source in the company said. ZTL plans to bid for cricket rights like the ICC which will come up for grabs rather than buy a stake in Ten Sports, he says. Another reason that ZTL dropped any acquisition strategy in regards to Ten Sports is that the channel is already locked into a five-year distribution deal with the rival SET-Discovery One Alliance, the source adds. ZTL in any case runs Zee Sports, which is in the hunt for acquiring cricket properties to provide strength to the channel.

    Taj Entertainment has mandated Ambit Corporate Finance to find a strategic investor. With Harish Thawani’s Nimbus preparing to launch a sports channel, analysts say the acquisition price would continue to be high with more broadcasters chasing cricket properties.

    Ten Sports would require capital infusion even as the cricket properties it currently holds (Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan boards) come up for renewal. By doing a distribution deal with Sony, it will be assured subscription revenues on a guaranteed basis.

    “The buying into Ten Sports would be seen as a good time before the IPO,” a market analyst said.

    SET India has also conducted a restructuring exercise which is seen as a precursor to a public float. The company recently acquired sister company SET Singapore. Though it had obtained clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for this purpose a few years back, it had deferred this process as the proposed restructuring transaction would have attracted capital gains tax.

    “Sony is keeping everything ready for the right time to hit the market,” the source says.

    SET India had obtained clearance from the FIPB to acquire 100 per cent shares of SET Singapore through a share swap transaction. According to the proposal, one share of SET India would be exchanged for 16 shares of SET Singapore. Post-restructuring, 60.65 per cent of the SET India equity would be with the Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) entities, 19.83 per cent with non-resident Indians and overseas corporate bodies, 7.68 per cent with foreign institutional investors and 11.84 per cent with Indian shareholders.

    Taj Television is 100 per cent owned by Bukhatir Investments Limited, a UAE-based conglomerate with interests in banking, construction, real estate, trading, information technology, sports and broadcasting. Ten Sports is a sports channel which broadcasts in the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan and Hong Kong.

  • TV18 appoints Sify’s Surya Mantha as Web18 CEO

    TV18 appoints Sify’s Surya Mantha as Web18 CEO

    MUMBAI: Television Eighteen group has appointed Surya Mantha as the chief executive officer for its internet business arm – Web 18. Mantha brings with him 15 years of experience that spans business management, consulting, product and service development, product management and marketing across a range of business and consumer software, hardware and services companies.
    Prior to joining Web18, he was heading the interactive service business for Sify India based out of Chennai. He had also spent several years at RealNetworks in Seattle WA, USA, according to an official release.

    TV18 group CEO Haresh Chawla says, “Mantha brings with him a unique combination of skills & experience spanning both technology and consumer understanding, particularly in the internet space. This will go a long way in establishing Web18’s dominance in the consumer Internet space in India. We are also confident that his experience in a global environment will help scale up Web18 into the global league.”

    This follows close to the group acquiring three Internet companies – Cricketnext.com, Compareindia.com and Urban Eye, a web design and technology firm. The acquisitions will help the group consolidate its focus on the internet business further. This was the second round of acquisitions that Web18 has announced. The company acquired stakes in Yatra.com and Jobstreet.com India a few months ago.

    The Indian Internet industry is on the verge of explosive growth. By 2008, the online user base is expected to grow to 100 million. Web18 has been consistently growing its Internet presence organically as well as through relevant acquisitions in the consumer Internet space.