ITV

Category: News Broadcasting

  • Television producer David Kelley to be honoured at Vision Awards

    Television producer David Kelley to be honoured at Vision Awards

    MUMBAI: Many of Hollywood’s talents in film, television and music will descend in Beverly Hills on 24 June for the 33rd Annual Vision Awards.

    Television producer David Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice) will be honoured. Also being honoured is director Rob Marshall who made Memoirs Of A Geisha and actor cum director George Clooney who was Oscar nominated for directing and writing Good Night and Good Luck.

    This is a gala fundraising event, which has become an annual Hollywood tradition. It honours entertainment luminaries and companies who have exhibited exceptional gift of “sight, foresight and insight” in the creative arts, related technologies and medical research.

    The campaign Hollywood Cures Blindness, Hope Is In Sight will be launched under the guidance of the 2006 Vision Awards chairman Arthur Hiller.

  • Sky News’ head Nick Pollard to quit in September

    Sky News’ head Nick Pollard to quit in September

    MUMBAI: Sky News’ head Nick Pollard who ran the network for a decade is set to quit in September. He will be succeeded by the current executive editor John Ryley as the head of the network.

    The announcement of Pollard’s opting to leave the organisation comes eight months after the channel’s expensive re-launch last October, inform media reports.

    In January Pollard admitted that recent months had been “the toughest time in Sky News history” after viewers reacted negatively to the relaunch, which failed to attract new viewers.

    Under his leadership, Sky News was recognised for its live reporting from the field of events such as the Asian tsunami, the Iraq War and the Kosovo crisis when the channel was the first to provide live pictures from inside Kosovo on liberation day.

    Since the October relaunch, Sky has featured less rolling news and more distinct programmes plus the introduction of new presenters such as Eamon Holmes and James Rubin.

    Before joining Sky as head of news in 1996, Pollard spent 13 years at ITN where he was executive producer of News at Ten. He began his career as a local newspaper journalist in 1968, before moving to the BBC where he remained until 1980.

  • Sahara One bags telecast rights of Rockstars 2006 concert

    Sahara One bags telecast rights of Rockstars 2006 concert

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Television has bagged the telecast rights of the Rockstars 2006 Bollywood concert, which involves names like Salman Khan, John Abraham, Shahid Kapur, Zayed Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat and Esha Deol. These stars are currently touring Canada, US and UK for the same.

    The Rockstars 2006 concert consists of 15 shows over a period of 45 days to be held across the above mentioned countries in May and June. However, the telecast date of the shows on Sahara One have not yet been decided.

    Apart from telecasting the concert, Sahara One will also be airing a 12-episode interactive special on the concerts with the stars. Behind the scenes of their stay and exclusive footage from rehearsals, interviews, run-up to the big show, the hustle of the green room, and the moments building up to the final show is what is lined up on the channel.

    Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited CEO Shantonu Aditya said, “It has always been our constant endeavour to connect with our audiences by reinventing entertainment options. Bollywood is something that perks up every Indian soul. The fact that the Rockstars 2006 will be held at USA, Canada and UK explains the huge appeal of Bollywood in these countries. We wanted to give our Indian audiences a feel of the same vibe and are therefore pleased to bring the Rockstars 2006 to our viewers.”

  • NDS to deploy full end to end system to Romania’s DTH platform Boom TV

    NDS to deploy full end to end system to Romania’s DTH platform Boom TV

    MUMBAI: News Corporation’s NDS Group has announced that a leading digital satellite pay-TV broadcaster in Romania, DTH Television Group has contracted NDS to deploy a full end-to-end system including NDS VideoGuard conditional access, MediaHighway middleware and EPG on their newly launched digital pay-TV platform, Boom TV. NDS is the provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV.

    The platform had launched in May to homes in Romania. The NDS VideoGuard will protect all content delivered to new digital subscribers.

    DTH Television Group chose the full end-to-end system to secure their premium subscription content and will also take advantage of new services offered by NDS, including interactive TV applications, informs an official release.

    NDS Group chairman and CEO Dr Abe Peled said, “We’re delighted that DTH Television Group has selected our proven solutions for their new service, Boom TV. This is an important contract for NDS as Romania, which has a population of over 40 million, is a significant TV market with the highest TV viewing figures in Europe by a wide margin. It also signals our expansion into the high-growth Eastern European broadcasting market, which we will continue to develop over the coming months and years.”

    Boom TV CEO Isaac Waldman said, “NDS is an important partner in being able to offer our subscribers enhanced TV services to make their viewing experience more entertaining.”

  • BBC Worldwide announces new management team in Hong Kong

    BBC Worldwide announces new management team in Hong Kong

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide has announced that following a review of its organisational structure in Hong Kong, it has appointed a new management team, reporting to managing director Asia Pacific David Vine.

    Pierre Cheung has been appointed to the new role of senior business development manager. He will be responsible for new business development initiatives across the Asian region working with the television, content and production and new media divisions and the sales teams in Hong Kong. Pierre and his team will also be responsible for the TV business in China , Hong Kong and Taiwan.

    Linfield Ng is the senior television sales manager and will manage the television sales team responsible for sales across Asia, excluding China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Freda Chan will continue to manage the publishing and licensing businesses.

    Helen Wong is the senior finance and administration manager. She will provide business and financial support and guidance to the sales teams and operational support staff in Hong Kong and is responsible for the overall administration of the office.

    Zwanenberg will return to his role in BBC World as regional director, Distribution and Business Development, responsible for the channel’s development across Asia and will continue to work from the Hong Kong office.

    BBC Worldwide MD, Asia Pacific, David Vine said, “I would like to congratulate the team on their new appointments and look forward to growing our business further in this important region for BBC Worldwide. In addition, I would like to offer special thanks to acting GM Nic van Zwanenberg for his invaluable support over the past 4 months and his contribution to BBC Worldwide’s business in Asia during this period of transition.”

  • ‘Our aim is to give history a more broad based appeal, which is why we are focussing on entertainment’

    ‘Our aim is to give history a more broad based appeal, which is why we are focussing on entertainment’

    Live the Story! With the aim of competing better in the English entertainment space The History Channel is pursuing a new strategic direction in India. The aim is to spread the appeal of the channel to more viewers and increase the stickiness level through a variety of shows. These include television movies, documentaries, mini series and long running series.

    Indiantelevision.com’s Ashwin Pinto caught up with The History Channel India MD Nikhil Mirchandani to find out about the plans and what lies in store.

    Excerpts:

    Could you talk about The History Channel’s new direction?
    I would like to point out that we have not changed our positioning. We own the theme of history and will continue to do so. Our aim is to give history a more broad based appeal, which is why we are focussing on entertainment. Over the last three years we did a few things that set the stage for what we are trying to do today.

    We established our positioning of history that no other channel has. History is our middle name so to speak. In a scenario of over 300 channels distribution is very important. We managed to do that since we are a part of the Star family.

    We are the 16th best distributed channel in the country. We established a loyal viewer and advertiser base. We have also marketed ourselves well like getting Diana Hayden to host Biography. Moving towards entertainment is the next logical stage of evolution in our product lifecycle. Our aim is to attract more viewers and advertisers.

    In what way has the programming strategy been embellished?
    We begin our primetime with factual content at 8 pm. Then there are drama series at 9 pm There will be classic product from our library at 10 pm. At 11 pm there will be a thriller band. On the weekends you have a television movie on Friday at 9 pm For example Hitler The Rise of Evil.

    There will also be a combination of fact and fiction. For instance you could see a biography of Marilyn Monroe followed by a drama or a television movie. We are also targeting women in the afternoon with programming that we are confident will appeal to them.

    The primetime moves from a youngish factual content to drama to thriller. That evolution of our programming blocks is logical.

    According to research how do viewers perceive the channel?
    Viewers perceive us as a well respected credible authority on the subject of history. They have constantly expected that of us and we will not dilute that offering. They find us interesting as we deal with personalities like Hitler, Helen of Troy.

    The great thing about the History Channel is that it is not restricted by formats. That is not the case with a movie channel that focuses on blockbusters. If they deviate one immediately notices that. Our only concern is whether the story is historically relevant. I would say that English movie channels are undifferentiated from each other.

    We have a wide basket from the lifestyle genre, to thrillers to even perhaps stories on 9/11. It will be in terms of formats. By this I mean documentaries, movies, series, one off biopics, long series. The topics have also grown. We will also showcase concerts like Woodstock. History is never going to be the same again and we take advantage of that.

  • VSNL to buy Indian ISP for Rs 750 million

    VSNL to buy Indian ISP for Rs 750 million

    MUMBAI: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) is strengthening its broadband presence in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) segment. The telecommunications giant has agreed to buy out Direct Internet Ltd (DIL) and its wholly owned subsidiary Primus Telecommunications India Ltd (PTIL) for Rs 750 million ($16.7 million).

    US-based Primus Telecommunications Group Inc will exit from India, selling its entire 85 per cent stake in DIL. VSNL is also buying out the remaining 15 per cent held by an Indian partner. The deal is expected to be completed in a few weeks, VSNL said in a statement.

    PTIL provides fixed broadband wireless internet services to SMEs in several Indian cities. The company has close to 1,000 SME and 10,000 retail customers. Out of a total revenue of around Rs 550 million in FY 2006, nearly 80 per cent came from the SME segment. Retail business accounted for 15 per cent while Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) contributed to around seven per cent of the company’s income.

    The retail customers are likely to be rehomed in VSNL while DIL will focus entirely on the SME segment. The company’s operations will continue to be run with the old management. “The huge infrastructre of VSNL will allow DIL an opportunity to expand in the SME segment. VSNL has massive bandwidth which will offer DIL’s operations greater efficiencies. In the past, we were buying bandwidth on a leased basis and this was consuming 60 per cent of our costs,” says DIL and PTIL founder-CEO Tilak Sarkar.

    This will be VSNL’s first SME-specific acquisition in the internet space. VSNL had earlier acquired DishnetDSL for Rs 2.7 billion and Tata Power broadband for Rs 2.39 billion which gave it broadband subscribers in the retail as well as the SME segments. DIL, on the other hand, has mostly SME subscribers.

    “The SME segment is a lowly penetrated but growing market. VSNL sees this as an opportunity to expand its presence in the broadband space,” says an analyst.

    VSNL has been aggressive in acquisitions over the last one year. While it bought Tyco International’s global under-sea fibre optic cable network unit in July 2005, recently it acquired telecoms network service firm Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd.

    Nasdaq-listed Primus Telecommunications, an integrated communications services provider offering international and domestic voice, VoIP, internet, wireless, data and hosting services to business and residential retail customers, had reported a net revenue of $1.19 billion in the 2005 fiscal.

  • Radio Mirchi felicitates Mother’s Day on 14 May

    Radio Mirchi felicitates Mother’s Day on 14 May

    MUMBAI: The FM radio brand Radio Mirchi will be celebrating a week long Mother’s Day from 8 May to 14 May.

    Radio Mirchi has made plans to take all mothers to shop and party with the Mirchi jocks on the occasion.

    How? Mere paas teri maa hain…tere paas kya bacha hain?… is an attempt to kidnap all Mumbai moms. Listeners or family members have to call up Radio Mirchi on 40983983 between 8 May and 13 May and respond to the question, Mere paas teri maa hain…tere paas kya bacha hain? The 10 wittiest responses will get their mothers enrolled with Mirchi, informs an official release.

    On 14 May, the selected mothers will join the Mirchi team to celebrate Mother’s Day.

  • BBC chairman Grade emphasises delivery of quality services at lowest price

    BBC chairman Grade emphasises delivery of quality services at lowest price

    MUMBAI: A few days ago a seminar on the subject of UK pubcaster The BBC’s licence fee took place. On the occasion BBC chairman Michael Grade pointed out that a proper balance needs to be struck between the public appetite for range and quality on the one hand, and on the other their efficient delivery at the lowest possible price.

    “The new BBC Charter establishes new governance arrangements for the BBC, at the core of which lies a clear separation of the new Trust from the BBC executive. It places on the new Trust a clear responsibility to ensure that the licence fee is properly, effectively and efficiently used, and requires it to be fully accountable to those who pay it. We are already proceeding on that basis,” says Grade.

    He adds that in its continuing focus on value for money, the BBC’s board of Governors continues to exert pressure on costs. “Any ways which are identified to decrease the cost of the licence fee or to improve what the BBC can offer, will be welcomed by the Board. The licence fee represents a deliberate intervention in the market. The value and benefits of that intervention are well understood, but the wider effects must always remain under scrutiny.”

    He went on to state that what the BBC does affects other businesses. “All those with legitimate concerns about the market impact of the BBC should be reassured by the White Paper’s imposition of real and detailed duties on the new Trust. This is not the land of paper promises: the service licences, PVTs and other tools are there to do a job, and to do it transparently. I should also emphasise that our duty to represent the interests of the licence fee payers is not narrowly focussed on what the BBC provides. Our remit extends to safeguarding their interest in sustaining choice in the wider market.”

    Grade says that the decision on the level of the licence fee is for the Government alone and it is a complex equation to consider, involving broadcasting aspirations, public appetites, public policy objectives, commercial impact and value for money.

  • Zee Cafe to launch three comedy shows

    Zee Cafe to launch three comedy shows

    MUMBAI: Zee’s English channel Zee Cafe has announced the arrival of three more shows in the comedy genre. The programmes to be launched are Comedy Inc., Will & Grace Season 7 and Caroline in the city Season 4.

    Comedy Inc. will premiere on Tuesday 9 May at 9:30 pm. Will & Grace Season 7 premieres on 9 May at 10 pm.

    As of 2005, Will & Grace has been nominated for 49 Emmys, 24 Golden Globes, fourteen SAG Awards and six People’s Choice Awards. Among its 12 Emmy wins, the show won as Outstanding Comedy Series in 2000. In 2002 and 2003, it had more Emmy nominations than any other comedy series. Additionally, it’s been nominated for an American Comedy Award, three Glaad Media Awards and a Founders Award from the Viewers for Quality Television.

    Caroline in the city Season 4 will premiere on 9 May at 10:30 pm. A situational comedy centered on Caroline Duffy, a young cartoonist living in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City. Each episode begins with a brief animated sequence reflecting the autobiographical nature of her syndicated newspaper cartoon strip Caroline in the City, explicitly compared with the real comic strip Cathy in several episodes.