Category: TV Channels

Hungama TV’s comedy band delivers good numbers

MUMBAI: Hungama TV has beaten the summer heat with new refreshing comedy shows launch this month in the band called ‘Ha Ha Hungama Band’. The comedy band has struck the right chord with viewers giving the channel GRPs of 116 vis-à-vis Pogo’s 102 in the C&S 4 – 14 SEC ABC Hindi speaking markets in week 15 (9 – 15 April). Cartoon Network still stands tall with GRPs of 198 in the same market.

The ‘Ha Ha Hungama Band’ that has shows like Doraemon, Gol Gol Gullam, Kochikame, Peep and Telematches contributed 60 GRPs in its launch week.

The latest Tam ratings, the channel claims, have revealed a consistent week-on-week growth in the channel’s market share, with shows like Amdriver and Kochikame topping the charts in their respective time bands.

What’s more, the channel also claims that it is the No. 1 kids channel in the key Mumbai market across SEC A, B, C in the C&S 4-14 category.

UTV COO Zarina Mehta said, “The Ha Ha Hungama band is a super treat to our viewers and will definitely bring relief to kids from the heat by replacing it with fun and laughter.. The consistent increase in GRPs reiterates the fact that our multi-genre programming appeals to a wide spectrum of audiences. This is essentially the product of a thorough understanding of what our viewers desire and our capability in delivering the goods.”

April 26, 2006
Cartoon Network US announces a new broadband venture

MUMBAI: US kids broadcaster Cartoon Network and Viz Media have announced a joint venture called Toonami Jetstream.

The broadband service which launches on 17 July 2006 will provide on-demand, full-length streaming episodes of a number of hit animé and action series, including acclaimed hit series Naruto and Samurai Jack. In addition, users will also be able to watch full-length episodes of series like Hikaru No Go, Mar and The Prince of Tennis that are not currently offered on US broadcast or basic cable television.

Cartoon Network and Viz Media will jointly manage and administer acquisitions and programming. Each week, new episodes will be added to the site while previous episodes will also be available through the Toonami Jetstream archive. Toonami Jetstream, an online extension of Cartoon Network’s long-running and successful Toonami action-adventure television franchise, is a free service, supported by advertising that includes both banners and streaming video ads.

Cartoon Network senior VP, GM new media Paul Condolora says, “Cartoon Network has long been the dominant TV provider of the best animé and action. And we were the first to stream, in 2001, full-length animé series online. Now, with this joint venture with Viz Media, we will give our fans the chance to view popular shows on-demand and follow new series that cannot be seen anywhere else.

“We also believe that this will bring new fans to the action/animé genre, create interest in new shows and build the overall popularity of Toonami on Cartoon Network.”

Viz Media executive VP John Easum says, “Toonami Jetstream will provide our current fans and new fans alike with unlimited opportunities to view our popular hit shows such as Naruto. It will also give us the opportunity to share with our fans an unprecedented variety of Japan’s newest and most exciting animated series. We are thrilled to be expanding our strong relationship with Cartoon Network. Viz Media is one of the industry’s leading licensors of Japanese animation and Cartoon Network is the preeminent broadcaster of Japanese animation and we believe that our collective forces will make Toonami Jetstream the online destination of choice for action-adventure animation fans.”

Five series are currently slated for the July launch of Toonami Jetstream. In Naruto, an evil Nine-Tailed-Fox demon that terrorised The Hidden Leaf Village was sealed inside the body of a baby in order to end the decimation of the village. A rule that forbade anyone to tell him that he possessed the spirit of the Nine-Tailed-Fox left Naruto unaware of why the villagers shunned him. Now a teenager, he attempts to earn the villagers’ respect by training to become the village’s top ninja.

As Naruto develops his skills, he must learn to control his special powers to become the respected master ninja. Through exciting adventures, the young ninja learns the importance of friendship, teamwork, loyalty, hard work, creativity, ingenuity and right versus wrong.

Samurai Jack which is one of Cartoon Networks most popular shows encounters an array of cultures and civilisations as he travels the world seeking the portal to send him back to his own time. A man of few words, Jack relies on his mental and physical training as a warrior to help him fend off the evil wizard’s forces.

Hikaru No Go tells the story of Hikaru Shindo, a young student who stumbles across a dusty old Go board while exploring his grandfather’s attic. Trapped inside is Fujiwara-no-Sai, the ghost of an ancient Go master that enters Hikaru’s consciousness, allowing him to communicate with the spirit. Sai, newly awakened, wishes for nothing more than to play Go again. Urged on by Sai, Hikaru reluctantly begins playing Go. As he begins to appreciate the complexities of the game, Hikaru makes it his quest to become the ultimate Go champion.

Mar features Ginta, an average 14-year-old boy, until a mysterious portal suddenly transports him into the fairy tale realm he envisions in his dreams, the World of MÄR. In MÄR, Ginta acquires super human strength and Babbo- a talking magical weapon knows as an ARM. Together, Ginta and Babbo embark on a quest to save the World of MÄR from total domination by the evil chess pieces.

In The Prince of Tennis the backdrop of middle school tennis serves as the setting for this sports drama and coming-of-age story. The Prince of Tennis, created by Takeshi Konomi, depicts the on-and off-the-court adventures of Ryoma Echizen, who joins the Seishun Academy tennis team, known for being one of the most competitive teams in Japan. With his undeniable talent (and sometimes shamelessly cocky attitude), Ryoma is ready to lead his team to victory.

Viz Media works in the field of manga (graphic novel) publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content.

April 26, 2006
Up-Mobile acquires rights to Fifa Mascot TV series

MUMBAI: Up-Mobile, an interactive mobile applications and service provider specialising in Hispanic audiences, today announced that it has acquired the mobile rights to offer Spanish-language content in the US and Latin America.

The product in question is the 2006 Fifa World Cup Official Mascot TV Series.

The company says that in today’s media-driven society, mascots are images that fans can identify with. Goleo VI, the Official Mascot, is a warm-hearted lion and a versatile ‘living’ character together with his sidekick Pille, the strong-minded football; he can dance, talk, sing and make people laugh.

The show consists of two separate productions, the first being a live-action puppet format with 21 episodes of 40 seconds each, and the second, a 3D animation made up of 24 spots of 10 seconds each.

Ready for mobile distribution, Up-Mobile plans to take full advantage of their rights to distribute the series. Up-Mobile’s packages include video clips from the series, 3D animations capturing the most interesting moments of Goleo VI’s road to the 2006 Fifa World Cup, all adapted to view on the go.

Up-Mobile founder and COO George Rincon says, “A love of soccer runs deep in the veins of Latino sports fans. We are thrilled to take part in the momentum surrounding the 2006 Fifa World Cup and are proud to be the exclusive Spanish-language provider of mobile content featuring the 2006 FIFA World Cup Official Mascot TV Series in the US and Latin America.”

April 26, 2006
ARY Digital to Exclusively Broadcast Australia v Bangladesh ODI Series in UK & Europe

ARY DIGITAL will broadcast exclusively in UK and Europe territory the 3 cricket ODI’s between Australia and Bangladesh beginning tomorrow April 23, 2006 at Chittagong.

The remaining 2 ODI’s will be played on:

April 26, 2006 2nd ODI Dhaka

April 28, 2006 3rd ODI Dhaka

“We felt the importance of bringing this upcoming team’s endeavors against the reigning champs to the cricket loving population in UK and Europe”, said Mr. Salman Iqbal, President and & CEO of ARY DIGITAL Network. “As a commitment to our viewers, we continuously strive to bring them the best of international cricket,”

ARY DIGITAL Network is by far one of the largest international broadcasters of first class cricket and the single largest broadcaster of cricket in the UK and Europe.

Over the years ARY DIGITAL has brought to viewers in Pakistan, the Middle East, North America, Europe and UK several high profile cricket series including the coveted Indo – Pak rivalry – All Pakistan’s home matches, the Asia Cup 2004, Videocon Cup, Afro Aisa Cup, World Cup, ICC tournaments and also the recently concluded England’s tour of India.

Currently ARY DIGITAL owns the cricket broadcasting rights of the PCB, BCCI for the Europe and UK territory, All ICC tournaments including the World Cup and the Champions Trophy for Europe territory.

April 26, 2006
Fox host Tony Snow to be named Bush spokesman

MUMBAI: Conservative radio presenter Tony Snow is to be named as US President George W Bush’s new press secretary. Snow is expected to be named on 26 April. He replaces Scott McClellan, who resigned last week.

The 50-year old Snow presently hosts two shows on the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News network, Tony Snow Show on Fox News Radio and Weekend Live with Tony Snow on the Fox News Channel. He has also served in the administration of President George H.W. Bush as White House speechwriting director and later as a deputy assistant to the president for media affairs.

According to the US media reports, Snow however has declined to say whether he had been offered the job. The news was leaked by Republicans close to the White House, who said the press secretary’s job had been offered to Snow and that he had accepted.

April 26, 2006
Hinduja TMT to de-merge media, IT/BPO biz

MUMBAI: Hinduja TMT Ltd. will de-merge the company’s IT/BPO and media businesses into separate entities. The board of directors of the company are meeting tomorrow to provide in principle approval for this.

The media business is likely to be brought under a holding company, a source said. HTMT has been weighing several options while deciding on separating its IT from media business. One option is to have the cable TV and broadband business under one entity while keeping the content business separate. Another possiblity could be to have a common entity for the media businesses.

“I have nothing to comment at this stage. The board is meeting tomorrow,” HTMT MD K Thiagarajan said.

Last month, speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Thiagarajan had admitted that de-merger was very much in the plans. “It couldn’t be done in 2005-06 fiscal because of certain taxation issues. The programme is still alive and we hope to de-merge early this fiscal. A committee of directors are looking into the issue.”

HTMT has subsidiary companies which are into cable TV distribution, a cable movie channel, and movie financing and production. IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL) runs cable TV through the Incablenet brand while CVIL operates CVO, a Hindi cable movie channel. IN Network Entertainment Ltd. (INEL), a wholly owned subsidiary of HTMT, is in film and content finance, production and distribution.

Recently, Zee Telefilms had announced its plans to de-merge Siticable, a wholly owned subsidiary, into a separate company called Wire and Wireless (India) Limited (WWIL). This would bring specific focus into the cable business and be attractive to investors.

April 25, 2006
George Alagiah joins BBC World to present ‘NewsHour’

MUMBAI: George Alagiah, one of the BBC’s well-known news presenters, will join BBC World to present a brand-new programme NewsHour. Beginning in June, the programme will broadcast each weekday during peak times in the key markets around the world, including the US breakfast peak and Asia evening peak.

Alagiah will present NewsHour at 12 PM (GMT) from Monday to Thursday. He currently co-presents the BBC’s Six O’Clock News in the UK, and will continue in that role in addition to presenting NewsHour, informs an official release.

BBC Global News Division director Richard Sambrook says, “We are extremely pleased to have a journalist of George’s calibre on board to present our new programme. George has achieved tremendous success in the UK for his objective coverage, in-depth international knowledge, and his sharp interviewing skills. His experience and his ability to uncover the news behind each story will be crucial for the success of NewsHour, which was created to ensure that BBC World delivers continuous and authoritative news programming to its audiences in the US during peak morning hours, and in East Asia in the evening.”

“As a foreign correspondent for a decade, I saw first-hand how people around the world turned to the BBC for its sheer breadth of coverage and the authority with which it came. Now, more than ever, American audiences are interested how global events can have an impact on their lives and Newshour will bring them the day’s international news stories from an impartial and global perspective.”

Alagiah joined the BBC in 1989 and worked as a foreign correspondent specialising in Africa and the developing world. In March 2002, he launched BBC Four’s international news programme and began presenting BBC’s Six O’clock News in January 2003.

He has reported on many issues and events including the famine in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, the civil war in Liberia, Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Iraqi Kurds and the aftermath of the terror attacks on New York.

Alagiah has won several awards for his reporting and has interviewed many prominent international figures including Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat and Tariq Aziz of Iraq.

The introduction of NewsHour is part of the channel’s plan to establish regular NewsHour programmes throughout the day, to ensure BBC World delivers tailored news programming at the breakfast and evening peak-times across key time zones.

April 25, 2006
Private broadcasters resist fee proposal for DD Direct+

NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati’s bid to demand carriage fee from broadcasters to be on its DTH platform, DD Direct+, has met with initial resistance from private sector players.

This was amply clear in a meeting that was held today at the Prasar Bharati headquarters here to discuss the fee issue with private broadcasters who are already present on DD Direct+.

The private sector channels, which have been on DD Direct+ for over a year now, feel that the demand for a carriage fee on the pubcaster’s DTH platform is “unjustified.”

According to a representative of a private broadcaster, “We had assisted Prasar Bharati to launch its DTH service keeping national interest in mind. Now that the service is doing well, this sudden demand is unjustified.”

Early April, Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma, while making a presentation before the media during the announcement of its annual financial result, had said there is a proposal to charge private channels on DD Direct+ an annual fee of Rs. 10 million from May when the total number of channels would be increased to 51.

The private broadcasters on DD Direct+ are understood to have argued today at the meeting that as a gesture of goodwill towards them and their contribution in the success of the DTH Platform, they should not be charged any fee.

“If at all Prasar Bharati wishes to charge a carriage fee, it should do so from newcomers who join the platform now,” a general entertainment channel representative said.

Prasar Bharati is India’s public service broadcaster and manages Doordarshan and All India Radio. The DTH service, which has over 900,000 subscribers as per claims made, doesn’t charge the consumer any monthly subscription fee. The hardware comes at a cost of approximately Rs. 4,000.

Publicly funded Prasar Bharati has said there’s a long queue of Indian and foreign broadcasters waiting to hop on to DD Direct+ in an efforts to establish their presence in a market where all TV homes number over 90 million. Of this, 61 million are C&S homes.

The proposal to levy a fee to ride the DD Direct+ bandwagon is also an effort of the pubcaster to increase its annual income, which falls much short of its total yearly expenditure. For the year 2005-06, ended 31 March, the pubcaster’s revenues stood Rs. 12.38 billion, up a whopping 67 per cent from the Rs 8.31 billion it earned previous year.

Of this, national broadcaster Doordarshan accounted for Rs 9.6 billion riding heavily on cricket and Hindi movies. Most significant was the growth on the radio side though, with All India Radio registering a 59.6 per cent jump in revenues at Rs 2.7 billion.

April 25, 2006
Disney ties up with AirTel for mobisodes

MUMBAI: After Star India, it is Walt Disney Television International (India) that is exploring the mobile-enabled episode (mobisode) phenomenon.

The company has tied up with AirTel to develop mobisodes, games, ringtones, wallpapers and animation in the ‘Disney Mobile Theatre’ featuring popular cartoons. This is the third telecom operator Walt Disney will have tied up with, the other two being in Asia.

“It is a sunrise segment for Walt Disney. But it is rapidly growing, particularly in the East Asian markets like Japan,” The Walt Disney Company India managing director Rajat Jain said.

AirTel will, thus, become the first provider of Disney Mobile Theatre in India providing characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto on the mobile.

The wallpapers will be priced at Rs 10 per download, whereas the mobisodes, videos, ringtones and Hello Tunes have been priced at Rs 15. A Disney game can be downloaded for a charge of Rs 99. However, company officials were reluctant to divulge the revenue sharing ratio between the two for the same.

AirTel customers can have access to six Disney animated series in the form of 30 second episodes exclusively made for mobile devices. The content can be downloaded from Airtel’s entertainment portal – Airtel Live! and music and ringtones can also be downloaded from Airtel’s Hello Tunes.

“With voice pricing coming down, we expect this to be a significant revenue stream for us. Across the globe, telecom operators generate 12-20 per cent revenues from non voice segment,” Bharti Airtel director marketing and communications Hemant Sachdev said.

“We have always admired the Disney brand for the difference it makes to lives across the globe – bringing millions of people fun, laughter and wholesome entertainment. We are now pleased to partner with Disney to deliver outstanding creative content and entertainment. With Disney Mobile Theatre, Airtel customers can enjoy the Disney experience on the mobile for the first time in India from wherever they are,” he added.

Walt Disney Internet Group executive vice president and managing director international Mark Handler said, “The launch of Disney branded mobile content on Airtel, including Disney Mobile Theatre and personalisation, content and games, combines Disney’s rich story telling legacy and unparalleled brand equity with Airtel’s leadership in wireless voice and data services to create an engaging and unique mobile experience for customers.”

Added Jain: “India is a priority for the entire company, and we are delivering on our strength to expand our presence here. We have a huge competitive advantage, thanks to the strength of the Disney brand, which is aspirational. We embrace new technology innovations in developing quality Disney entertainment and as leading content creators are best positioned to capture new ways of delivering it when and where the consumer demands. Using technology to advance our content and its distribution will play a fundamental role in securing our future.”

The Walt Disney Internet Group has mobile content distribution in 12 other markets in the Asia Pacific region including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Macau. Close to 695 million mobile consumers have access to Disney mobile content in this region.

Late last year, Star India had tied up with Hutch to create mobisodes of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (TGILC), which aired on Star One. The price of a one time download of a mobisode of TGILC is Rs 10 per. Additionally, subscribers can also call 7827 (Star India’s short code) to listen to the TGILC jokes for Rs 6.

Soon after, Zee Telefilms director and business head of Zee TV channel Punit Goenka had told Indiantelevision.com that the company was seriously exploring the phenomenon of mobisodes and were in the process of identifying the properties which were best suited for it.

Now with Disney also tapping the rapidly growing mobile content and entertainment space, it won’t be long before the others too follow suit.

April 25, 2006
Genios secures US distribution rights to Tartan titles

MUMBAI: The US-based producer and distributor of home entertainment products Genius Products, Inc. is adding a library of more than 60 independent films to its slate of DVD releases through an exclusive distribution agreement with Tartan Video USA.

The deal was announced by Genius Products CEO Trevor Drinkwater and Tartan Video USA President Tony Borg.Established in September 2004, Tartan USA boasts a library of more than 60 world-renowned eclectic-and often controversial-feature length independent films. The library includes Tartan’s Asia Extreme line of horror films, a fast-growing contemporary genre featuring the best of cinema from the Far East with such cult favorites as the 2004 Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner Oldboy, A Tale Of Two Sisters, and Takashi Shimizu’s Marebito. The library generated approximately $6 million of net revenue in 2005 and is expected to grow to $9 million in 2006, states an official release.

In addition to distributing Tartan’s library of critically acclaimed films, Genius will distribute all new releases from Tartan Video USA, the American arm of Hamish McAlpine’s Tartan Films. The first titles set for release this summer represent both the Asia Extreme and Tartan Video brands.

“The Tartan Video library is a remarkable line-up of films that have been recognized around the world as not only entertaining and inspiring, but thought-provoking as well. The titles represent another example of the ever increasing quality of content distributed by Genius through the expanded infrastructure we created to handle major titles from The Weinstein Company. With our newly implemented Vendor Managed Inventory system, we anticipate even greater success for Tartan’s library,” says Drinkwater.

“Our agreement allows us to expand our distribution reach with a partner whose product line complements our own. We believe our world-renowned independent films, critically acclaimed Asia Extreme catalog and future branded labels are a great match with Genius’s already impressive catalog,” adds Borg.

April 25, 2006