ITV

Category: Viewership

  • Chikoo and Bunty’s universal appeal will drive co-viewability for Nick: Anu Sikka

    Chikoo and Bunty’s universal appeal will drive co-viewability for Nick: Anu Sikka

    Mumbai: Kids’ entertainment franchise Nickelodeon is all set for the launch of its 11th animated IP “Chikoo Aur Bunty.” Starting 18 October, the 11-minute episodic series will bring alive the epic sibling banter and the playful rivalry between them through the story of the two brothers Chikoo and Bunty, who live with their parents and a playful and intelligent dog Barfi. The channel has roped in Philips, Pediasure, and Flipkart shopsy as sponsors for the upcoming launch.

    Nickelodeon witnessed a successful last year on the back of its tenth IP launch and the lockdowns boosting viewership for the kids category. The growth story continues unchallenged in 2021. Overall, the Nickelodeon franchise including Nick, Sonic, and Nick Jr. had the highest network share of 33 per cent over Disney’s (26) and Turner’s (17) and reach of 50 million over Turner (34) and Disney (32) as per Barc data (India U+R, 2-14 NCCS ABC, Week 14-38’21, 07-23hrs). According to Ormax Small Wonders, August 2021, five out of the top ten characters and eight of 20 belong to Nick.

    Entering into the spooky comedy space, Nickelodeon came up with the animated series ‘Pinaki & Happy – The Bhoot Bandhus’ on Sonic in November 2020. The show which commands 30 per cent of Sonic’s viewership today was a runaway hit among kids, consistently appearing in the top 10 highest rated slots of the category every week since its launch.

    On the advertising front, Nickelodeon claims to be the leader commanding a 35 per cent revenue share for FY21. The channel has seen a proliferation in the categories of advertisers coming on board, especially owing to the recent trend of co-viewership wherein kids are joined by young parents and other family members in watching animated shows. While FMCG continues to dominate the genre, e-commerce and F&B brands are also picking up in comparison. The overall kids’ category, though, continues to be under-indexed despite accounting for seven per cent of total TV viewership which had shot up to nine per cent during the pandemic.

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with Viacom18, head – creative content and research for kids’ TV network, Anu Sikka to discuss her content strategy that has propelled Nick to success. 

    Creating new characters and stories

    With shows such as ‘Happy & Pinaki – The Bhoot Bandhus’, ‘Ting Tong’, ‘Golmaal Jr.’, ‘Motu Patlu’, ‘Shiva’, ‘Rudra’ and others, Nickelodeon boasts 700+ hours of content and over 1500 episodes across genres including a slice of life, slapstick, magic, action-adventure, and spooky-comedy, among others. As a brand that recognises the importance of localised content that’s appealing to Indian kids, ‘Chikoo aur Bunty’ will be another addition to Nick’s shows in the slice of life genre where the concept of sibling rivalry has not been explored earlier. 

    Sikka tells us that the two key factors that are considered before coming up with any new IP, character or show at Nick are ‘how relatable is it for kids’ and ‘does it fire up or capture their imagination’. In the case of ‘Chikoo aur Bunty’, says Sikka, “the sibling rivalry being an everyday, unending saga in every family, the relatability factor is going to be very high. It is not just the story of these two characters, but that of every kid.”

    Nick credits its success to the fact that it owns all its IPs that are developed by its team of young professionals. The brand relies on the power of observation to find new characters and plots which are then mapped onto the white spaces in content.

    Sikka shares that the strategy of translating these observation-based concepts into the first few episodes and then tweaking them based on feedback from children has worked well for the brand. Commenting on whether the advertising potential of the characters and plots is factored in during the development stages, she adds, “The primary purpose for us is to create a successful show. Once you have these characters becoming popular with the audience then it can lend to various other things such as video games, advertising, and endorsements.”

    Popular formats

    Nick has content ranging from 60-second shorts to 90-minute TV movies. The shows are mostly seven, 11, and 22 minutes. There are mini-movies of 45 minutes and longer ones of 60, 75, and 90 minutes.

    This ensures a variety of content, “all of which is enjoyed by kids, although the 11-minuters are most popular with them” according to Sikka. “Majority of the shows on Nick are 11-minute stories. While the character and backdrop of a series stay the same, each one is an independent story. Even when two 11 minuters are played out in a 22-minute slot, the track we follow is independent, and not linear. The idea is that kids who do not have the patience to sit for long can walk in any time and enjoy the content that’s available.”

    These 11-minuters have also shown the highest repeat value with kids, as compared to 22- minute stories. “Children are used to watching stories that are crisp. 11-minuters allow you to create a script where you are able to tell the stories effectively while doing justice to all elements. For instance, for our chase comedy ‘Pakdam Pakdai’ seven minutes is perfectly justified, but if you have to tell a story that has more than one element such as humour and action, 11 minutes is the perfect duration,” Sikka adds.

    Changing viewership trends

    Viewership for the kids category is quite fluid and seasonal, with the prime time depending heavily on the kids’ school calendars. However, with children staying home during the pandemic, the time band from 8 am to 1-2 in the afternoon witnessed a substantial boost.  This also holds for vacation times when more content is watched in the morning and afternoon, rather than in the evening.

    As schools re-open in a staggered manner across the country, Sikka informs that she and her team are closely observing the developments and planning lives accordingly. “For now as we sail in both the boats, we are ensuring original content in the morning, followed by an immediate repeat in the evening time band. We will make scheduling changes as needed.”

    Another important and very positive trend that picked up steam during the pandemic years was that of co-viewership happening on the channel. Sikka hopes that with the exception of toddlers who will find it difficult to comprehend the new dialogue-heavy comedy, ‘Chikoo aur Bunty’ will drive this trend forward with its across-the-board appeal. 

  • Invesco offered a merger proposal with a ‘large Indian group’ in Feb, says Zeel MD Punit Goenka

    Invesco offered a merger proposal with a ‘large Indian group’ in Feb, says Zeel MD Punit Goenka

    New Delhi: In a major development, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) MD Punit Goenka has informed the Company Board that Invesco representatives had covertly offered a merger proposal to him with a “large Indian group” in February, early this year.

    The “deal” involving the merger of the Company and certain entities owned by a large Indian group (Strategic Group) was presented by Invesco’s representatives Aroon Balani and Bhavtosh Vajpayee, the Zeel MD told the Board in a note. According to the deal, upon completion of the merger, the Strategic Group would have held a majority stake in the merged entity and Goenka would have been appointed as the MD & CEO. Through several correspondents, Invesco even “acknowledged Goenka’s reputation, experience, and capabilities as a professional and insisted that he would be paramount in leading the operations and business of the merged entity,” wrote Goenka.

    The Zeel MD also told the Board that as per the deal, the merging entities of the Strategic Group were over-valued, and it would have resulted in a loss to the stakeholders of the Company. “If the proposed deal would have been approved, the shareholders of the Company would have suffered a loss of at least Rs 10,000 crore,” claimed Goenka.

    But, when he expressed his apprehensions regarding the deal, “Invesco told him that they had already finalised the key commercial terms of the merger with the Strategic Group and there was no room to negotiate or even diligence the entities to be merged or the valuations of those entities,” he wrote. “In fact, I was asked to ensure that the Company consummates the deal within a period of just five days!”

    The promoter group of the Company was being offered 3.99 per cent shareholding of the Merged Entity, and Goenka was further offered employee stock options (ESOPs) (with no vesting conditions), representing approx. four per cent of the shareholding of the Merged Entity. Accordingly, the existing promoter group of the Company along with Goenka would have held up to eight per cent in the Merged Entity.

    Goenka maintained that the latest turn of events, confirms that Invesco is blatantly trying to take de-facto control of the Company without adhering to any take over regulations.

    The letter comes in the backdrop of the intense board room tussle that the Company has been facing, with the two investors- Invesco Developing Markets Fund and OFI Global China Fund LLC Invesco who together hold an 18 per cent stake demanding an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove Goenka as MD. However, the latest move by Goenka has raised further questions over the motives behind the investors’ persistent calls for an EGM.

    Last week, Invesco wrote a biting Open letter stating how they have been in talks with Zeel’s management for over two years, regarding the “repeated governance failures” and “underperformance” of the Company. The letter signed by Invesco’s chief investment officer Justin M. Leverenz even termed the Sony-Zeel merger as a “camouflage to distract from the primary issue before the company.”

    Goenka highlighted that Invesco’s stance in their Open Letter sent on 11 October that they “will oppose any strategic deal structure that unfairly rewards select shareholders, such as the promoter family, at the expense of ordinary shareholders,” runs contrary to the very deal Invesco was proposing itself a few months ago. Accordingly, public securities markets have been misinformed by Invesco, he maintained.

    The Company Board discussed Goenka’s letter on Tuesday, and concluded, that “Invesco’s actions over the past few weeks, have been motivated by circumstances that are extraneous to the Company’s business or performance, or issues of corporate governance or the public interest.” The Board added that it will separately respond to certain unjustified comments made in the Open Letter.

  • Colors doubles down on weekend programming with ‘The Big Picture’

    Colors doubles down on weekend programming with ‘The Big Picture’

    Mumbai: With few days left for the launch of its new show, ‘The Big Picture’, Colors TV is gearing up to cement its position as one of the most preferred weekend destination for TV viewers. The new launch builds on the success of its previous unscripted shows – ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi’, ‘Dance Deewane’ and ‘Bigg Boss’.

    All set to launch this Saturday, 16 October, ‘The Big Picture’ will also mark the Television debut of Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, who will host the quiz show based on general knowledge and visual memory. According to the channel, the new show will air between 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekends followed by ‘Bigg Boss 15’ hosted by Salman Khan. With these two big entertainers, the channel hopes to see record viewership on the weekends.

    According to Viacom18 – head of Hindi and Kids TV network Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Colors TV currently occupies 24 per cent market share in terms of viewership on weekends. “The pandemic has led to a trend where families are coming together to watch on TV. So, we are doubling down on the weekends with two big properties,” said Jaipuria. “There was a clear white space that we wanted to address for our viewers. Audiences have missed theatres for 18 months, so we brought Ranveer Singh, one of the most versatile actors in Bollywood, to drawing rooms.”

    The 26-episode show will air over 13 weeks and feature multiple contestants vying to win the grand prize of Rs five crore. The show format is owned by ITV Studios Global Entertainment B.V and is produced by Banijay Asia and SKTV. “Everybody has been bogged down by the pandemic. So, when there was a programming opportunity at Colors, we took the show to them because the format encouraged audiences to play along,” said Banijay Asia – founder and chief executive officer Deepak Dhar. “And, there was a tremendous response for the digital auditions of the show that began in July.”

    Viacom18 believes in a TV+ strategy and ‘The Big Picture’ format definitely has an interactive element, where viewers can ‘Play Along’ via the OTT app Voot. Apart from fixed commercial time (FCT) inventory, the channel is keen to take away a bigger share of the advertising wallet as the festive season spends grow bigger.

    “It’s a win for advertisers because they won’t just engage with the audience via regular inventory on the channel but have the opportunity to customise and communicate their brand messaging and reach their customers in a clutter-breaking manner,” said Jaipuria ahead of the show’s launch. The show’s sponsors include BYJU’S, Bikaji, LIC, and Haier refrigerator.

    The channel has cleverly incentivised audiences to engage with the show by adding monetary rewards for viewers. For example, there is an element called ‘India wale lifeline’, where a contestant may choose to ask a friend for help with a question. The show has made it such that the person who helps with the correct answer will also share in the prize money. “If I win Rs 100 by getting the correct answer, the person who helped me will get Rs 25” explained Jaipuria.

    The channel has gone live with a multi-media campaign on 8 October across TV, digital, print, and a high decibel OOH campaign covering billboards, bus shelters, auto-rickshaws, and kiosks across cities like Bombay and Delhi and states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat.

    “We have the largest reach on TV with 121 viewers and a solid fanbase of 110 million on digital,” said Jaipuria. The show will be also promoted across Jio platforms which has a reach of 300 million. Viacom18 has also engaged with fans by sending them a personalised invitation from Ranveer Singh to catch the show premiere.

  • OACT 2021: Bringing the digital ecosystem to linear TV

    OACT 2021: Bringing the digital ecosystem to linear TV

    Mumbai: “We see linear TV more like virtual linear TV because it is so easy to plug and play and join the digital ecosystem,” said The Q India, chief executive officer Simran Hoon at the OTT Advertising and Connected TV Summit 2021’ organised virtually this year. “Today, delivery is not important, remarks Hoon, everything is platform agnostic.”

    Technologies like free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) have become ubiquitous in the North American market with players like Pluto, Roku, and Samsung+ seeing their revenues double year on year. The FAST industry revenues grew from $2.1 billion to $4.2 billion in a year and the trend is happening in India as well where connected TV users are at 5-7 million growing fast to touch 40 million in 2025, according to a report by E&Y.

    Hoon is a media professional with 27 years of experience in ad sales with some of the biggest TV networks including Sony, Star, Zee, and Viacom18. She joined most of these media companies when they were at the launch phase and has worked across functions in the broadcast media industry. Now, she is leading the Hindi general entertainment channel The Q in India.

    Speaking at the two-day event organised by Indiantelevision.com, and co-powered by mediasmart, an Affle company and summit partner – The Q, Hoon shared her views on ‘Driving new synergies between linear TV and digital ecosystem.

    The Q India is pioneering unique TV initiatives by driving synergies with the digital ecosystem. The channel recently announced a syndication deal with the OTT platform MX Player to bring their popular web series “Aashram” to TV viewers. The channel had earlier partnered with short video platform Chingari to hold the auditions for its crime series “Crime Aur Kanoon”.

    Bringing “Aashram” to TV required the broadcaster to convert nine one-hour episodes into 18-episode length series after editing the content to make it more appropriate for TV audiences, said Hoon. The channel is also in talks to bring another OTT series to TV in November and “Aashram 2” in December.

    Its main proposition has been to bring the best of digital content to TV. According to Hoon, there is a vast young free audience on TV that has been migrating to digital because they are not being served on TV. The soap opera fare that is broadcast by traditional free-to-air channels is not catching the fancy of these audiences where the mean age is 28 years old. The Q India brought youth media creators, starting from content creators and influencers on YouTube, and amplified their reach by bringing their content to the TV.

    “A YouTube creator with 10-12 million audience reach, can be exposed to a whole new audience on TV. That’s the biggest kick for influencers and the value proposition of The Q,” noted Hoon.

    Last year, the channel was rated by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India and crossed the 45 GRP mark over a span of 19 weeks.

    “The Q reaches to Tier II, III young family audiences that are watching the channel’s content across platforms, whether it be connected TV, OTT, or linear TV,” said Hoon. “We are available in 100 million homes, but there are still 210 million TV households to go. 70 million households are yet to buy a TV. Even though India is a smartphone market, today there are smart TVs that are selling cheaper than smartphones. We want to be omnipresent because we believe great content pulls viewers and hence advertisers, creating a virtuous cycle.”

    The channel is available on DTH providers like Tata Sky and D2H and also on the big Cable operators such as GTPL Hathway. It has partnered with connected TV manufacturers such as Samsung TV+ and Mi India. According to Hoon, the channel is available on 700 personal machines.

    The Q India is a part of the North American media company QYOU Media that was co-founded by Curt Marvis and Sunder Aaron. The company has also roped in TV veteran Andy Kaplan to be chairman of The Q India. It has three big verticals – its broadcast channel, an influencer marketing company Chtrbox, and its distribution arm.

    “Chtrbox is one of the largest influencer marketing companies in India with 3.50 lakh influencers in its network. We have started doing integrated sales, where brands also look at influencers and their YouTube channels when buying advertising on The Q India TV channel. Chtrbox uses AI to match the brand and the influencer depending on the region or target audience the brand is looking at,” explained Hoon.

    This is much harder to do than it seems, from a technology perspective, maintained Hoon. The channel is still experimenting with this approach and expects to see giant strides being made in this space in the next six to nine months. “Today, it is so easy to be digitally connected to your TV. The opportunity to be more targeted and programmatic on virtual TV will drive more advertising dollars compared to linear TV,” said Hoon.

  • Prasar Bharati to phase out most analog terrestrial TV transmitters by March

    Prasar Bharati to phase out most analog terrestrial TV transmitters by March

    Mumbai: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has clarified that with the exception of 50 analog terrestrial TV transmitters placed in strategic locations, it will phase out the rest of the obsolete technology by the end of March.

    The pubcaster said that till now 70 per cent of all analog transmitters have been phased out and rest are being sunset in a phased manner while ensuring appropriate measures are taken for redeployment and manpower.

    The statutory body governing All India Radio and Doordarshan network addressed misinformation put out by certain media outlets that it was planning to shut down its DD Silchar and DD Kalaburagi channels. “Prasar Bharati has made it clear that these DD centres shall continue to generate program content for broadcasting on the satellite channels of Doordarshan dedicated to their respective States, apart from maintaining their presence on digital media via YouTube and on social media. For instance, program content generated by DD Silchar and DD Kalaburagi shall now be broadcast on DD Assam and DD Chandana respectively,” it said in a statement.

    “Prasar Bharati has been swiftly phasing out obsolete broadcasting technologies like Analog Terrestrial TV Transmitters, paving way for paradigm shift to emerging technologies and new content opportunities,” it added.

    The pubcaster stated that analog terrestrial TV is an obsolete technology and phaseout of the same is in both public interest and national interest as it makes valuable spectrum available for new and emerging technologies such as 5G apart from reducing wasteful expenditure on power. 

  • OACT2021: Plugging the gap of measurability

    OACT2021: Plugging the gap of measurability

    Mumbai: The burgeoning of OTT content consumption in the past couple of years fuelled a proportional increase in the demand for third-party viewership data which, in turn, led to the proliferation of tools and technology available for digital measurement. Some of the important trends and challenges that emerged as a result of these developments were discussed at the OTT Advertising and Connected TV Summit organised by Indiantelevision.com on 7 and 8 October. The two-day event was powered by Mediasmart, an Affle Company and summit partner The Q.

    During the session titled ‘Plugging the gap of measurability’ the expert panel comprising of Integral Ad Science- India Country Head, VP Engineering & Operations – Mehul Desai, DoubleVerify- head of sales, India, Nachiket Deole, Synamedia- principal product manager, Advanced Advertising – Synamedia, Daniel Wohlfart, and Nielsen Media India MD, Dolly Jha shed light on why digital measurement cannot be a simple ‘plug and play’ game, and the need for evolving metrics, for data sharing as well as well-thought-out measurement strategies optimised for through-the-funnel advertising. The discussion was moderated by Madison World, Madison Media Sigma CEO Vanita Keswani.

    Sharing some stark facts to explain the emergence of fraud prevention as the top trend in the digital measurement space, Integral Ad Science’s Mehul Desai said, “Annually, close to 35 billion advertising dollars are lost to global ad fraud. It is the second biggest industry, after drugs, in terms of organised crime.” Daniel Wohlfart further pointed out that “almost every ad campaign in Europe comes with a built-in requirement for ad verification by third-party.”

    In the Indian context where OTT measurement is in the early stages and many advertisers are starting out on their digital journeys, trends point towards increasing awareness on the issue.

    At Neilsen, measuring the percentage of ad fraud is one of the deliverables on every campaign, yet “not more than 25-30 per cent of ad spends are getting measured currently,” observed Dolly Jha. She added that systematic and consistent measurement of ROIs, the technology and tools for which exist and are being implemented as well, has to be set in to scale up ad fraud prevention, attributions, data sharing, and other aspects of OTT measurement.

    As Desai indicated the growing importance of brand suitability for a particular ad environment and context matching in a world where “advertising has changed from being persona and user-driven to being context-driven”, Nachiket Deole of DoubleVerify shared his understanding of marketers moving beyond traditional metrics such as CTR, VTR, CPRP, and even polls and attributions to measure the impact of consumer action in real-time – how consumers are responding to/engaging with their campaigns. “We always recommend our clients to optimise campaigns on all aspects – ad fraud, viewability, brand safety. Every single impression must pass through all three quality parameters for it to become a quality impression and deliver results.” 

    With the above, almost all components for evolving a third-party cross-platform digital measurement ecosystem – the demand for which is seeing a significant push from advertisers across categories, are in place, except the industry has to work around accessing, and not breaching, the Walled Gardens. Jha shared that while there has been some tight-fisting from expected quarters “the number of publishers that have come on board for measurement at Nielsen in the past nearly 18 months has been phenomenal.”

    Concerted efforts are needed to sustain this extremely positive development towards the inevitable goal. “There is increasing awareness among the walled gardens and independent broadcasters/publishers of third-party cross-platform measurement as a thing that advertisers want to achieve. The unique identifiers that these broadcasters have are their most valuable asset; naturally, they want to be able to monetise as well as safeguard it. As platform providers, it is important for us to convince and enable them – through tech and tools – to buy at their own standards, because otherwise, the budgets are just not there,” Synamedia’s Wohlfart explained in his closing remarks to the session.

  • Mipcom 2021: Stage set for world’s largest content market

    Mipcom 2021: Stage set for world’s largest content market

    CANNES: All the naysayers must be regretting not hoofing it down to the south of France for the annual jamboree of the content trading and production community – Mipcom 2021. Not only were the planeloads coming into Nice full of TV, streaming, and feature film executives, the weather gods too seemed to be playing fair, by keeping the sun out blazing strong, and the rain away.

    The streets of Cannes were bustling with people most unmasked, the restaurants overflowing onto the sidewalks. Tables at favourite restaurants were hard to get.  Welcome Back, read the signs everywhere. It felt like the old times of the content market were back. The Palais was playing host to screening some of the most premium series and TV films. Conversations were being struck in bistros, on the Croisette, on sidewalks. There were smiles everywhere as new acquaintances were made, and old friendships revived.

    The reality, however, is that RX France (into which Reed Midem has now been absorbed) announced that it was expecting 4,000 attendees for MIPCom from 11-14 October. That may pale compared to the 13,000-14,000 professionals, it attracted in Mipcom 2019, but once again if truth be told, the number is impressive in pandemic times:

    – when only select vaccines are recognised in Europe;

    – when media and entertainment companies are still reeling from the financial side effects of covid 2019;

    – when travel red alerts and bans continue to be in place between nations;

    – when corporate cutbacks have not been reversed,

    – when fear and confusion continue in the minds of all about the stage we are in conquering the virus

    – when the virus continues to mutate and the new Delta Plus bug now seems to lay millions to waste the world over.

    For those not in the know, the Palais’ basement or P-1 where almost 30-40 per cent of the exhibitors used to collect in their booths, is shut this year on account of safety protocols. Riviera 7 area is this year’s new basement as the premium area has been reorganised to accommodate as many booths as possible. But it is here where some of India’s leading content producers, distributors, has decided to locate themselves.

    Zee Entertainment (called Zee Content Sales), Indiacast, and AnimationXpress (part of Indian Television Dot Com group) have set up the tent in this very premium location. Around 35 Indians are slated to attend this year’s extraordinary Mipcom. Among some of the known professionals: the new head of Zeel content syndication Ashok Nadmboodri, the new Indiacast distribution boss Sheetal Mehra. Of course, Mipmarkets India, Pakistan Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh head Anil Wanvari was seen going from stand to stand to resolve any issues Indian clients face or requests they may have.

    Hopes were running high that offers would be made; deals and collaborations would be struck from 11-14 October.

    For those in the Riviera 7 and eight sections of the Palis de festival, however, things were buzzing as the clock counted down to the opening of the exhibition. And those who have chosen to stay back home can also be part of the Mipcom experience by signing up for the digital version of MIPCOM.  With a simple-to-use user interface and networking tool, RX France has outdone itself, corrected, whatever errors popped up in the previous edition.  

  • NCLT gives Zeel time till 22 Oct to file reply to Invesco plea

    NCLT gives Zeel time till 22 Oct to file reply to Invesco plea

    Mumbai: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday gave Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) time till 22 October to file its reply to a plea by its shareholder, according to a report by PTI. The decision was taken after the company approached National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) which declared that ‘reasonable and sufficient opportunity’ should be given to Zeel to respond to the investor’s plea.

    Zeel had approached the appellate body challenging the NCLT order dated 5 October which asked the company to submit its reply to the investor’s demand for calling an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) by Thursday.

    The NCLT hearing had been deferred to Friday after the NCLAT reserved its order on the plea until later in the evening on Thursday.

    Zeel two top investors Invesco Developing Markets Fund and OFI Global China Fund LLC who combined own 18 per cent stake in the company had sent a requisition notice to Zeel on 11 September to call an EGM even after two weeks, the investors moved to NCLT, citing provisions of Company Law, according to which the company is bound to call for an EGM within a specific number of days, if stakeholder demanding it owns more than 10 per cent of the company.

    The investors had also sought the removal of long-standing directors and close associates of the Chandra family from the board. The two independent directors Ashok Kurien and Manish Chokhani have already submitted their resignations.  

    The investors moved to have six nominees appointed to the board of Zeel, which included Surendra Singh Sirohi, Naina Krishna Murthy, Rohan Dhamija, Aruna Sharma, Srnivasa Rao Addepali and Gaurav Mehta as independent directors of the board for a term up to five consecutive years. The notice was received by Zeel on 12 September, and it informed the stock exchanges on 13 September, adding that the appointments are subject to approval by the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B).

    Last week, Zeel refused to conduct the EGM citing ‘shareholders interest,’ and moved to Bombay high court seeking to declare the requisition notice as ‘illegal and invalid.’

  • OACT2021: What are the opportunities for OTT & CTV advertising

    OACT2021: What are the opportunities for OTT & CTV advertising

    Mumbai: Is it the right time for monetisation of OTT from a business perspective for advertisers?

    This set the ball rolling for the panel discussion on – ‘The opportunities for OTT and CTV Advertising’ on the first day of the OTT Advertising and Connected TV Summit being organised by Indiantelevision.com. The two-day event is co-powered by mediasmart, an Affle company and summit partner – The Q. 

    The panel was led by Patanjali Ayurved COO-media and communications Anita Nayyar, Airtel VP-media Archana Aggarwal, Pyxis One CEO- APAC Neel Pandya, Samsung Ads India & South East Asia – senior director Prabhvir Sahmey and moderated by EY partner and national leader – advisory markets Monesh Dange. 

    Responding to the question, Nayyar highlighted that the time is perfect for monetisation for OTT platforms, as the content has never been more important than now in the pre-, post-, and during the Covid-19 time. “For advertisers, ROI is very important. The clichéd conversion will always stay as it is. But as of now, the industry is at an evolving stage that is clearly a top of funnel scenario with reach, awareness, engagement -all that’s happening. But whether we can attribute that directly to a bottom-funnel is not very clear at this point of time,” she added.

    On whether the digital boom in content was bound to happen or it happened due to the time available on hand due to the Covid-19 era, Airtel’s Archana Aggarwal noted that the start of the revolution was with the crash in data prices and affordability of smartphones and people using a lot of mobile internet. “Obviously, Covid accelerated it due to the dearth of new content on linear Television and no new movies being released in theatres, etc. But it was a matter of time that people would start consuming a lot of content on OTT,” she said.

    Talking about how majority of the premium content available on OTTs is behind the paywall, Aggarwal said, “What is it that the OTTs want to monetise- Do they want to monetise through advertisements or through subscription? That is something which OTT players need to think through – how to find the right balance between the two.”

    Neel Pandya of Pyxis One added another insight on the OTT boom by commenting that it takes just twenty-one days for a person to build a habit and they were talking about 1.5 years of watching digital content. “So it’s a very strong habit which consumers have built and it’s not going to go easily,” said Pandya. “Obviously it’s not an artificial boom completely, but it has gone 5X from what the acceleration would have been in normal circumstances.” 

    From Samsung Ads’ perspective, Prabhvir Sahmey said, “We are relatively a new business and also a unique proposition where we are bringing the advertising opportunity directly on the device itself, it’s not running on the back of a content.”

    He added, “It’s still at a very nascent stage, in fact we are in a testing category. We will try to plug the gap in measurability, and develop a multi-device solution for advertisers.”

    Taking the discussion further, Pandya said it is high time that OTT as a platform starts attracting ad spends, attracting avenues. “It is growing globally really fast. The only new thing we need to attract new users is measurement. OTT needs to bring more customised solutions for brands and take some bold decisions,” he added.

    Nayyar shared insights on the current dynamics of OTT and how it is similar to what happened a couple of decades back on television from one Doordarshan to multiple TV channels when the satellite boom materialised. “So it is important for OTT players to put some skin in the game collectively as an industry with accountability and measurement if they want to scale up monetisation,” she added.

    Talking about Patanjali and its investment in OTT, Nayyar said that Patanjali is working to upgrade the brand and make it more premium by targeting the youth. “OTT is a very important medium to influence youth. The first deal we went with was Dance Plus on Disney Hotstar,” she added. 

    While Airtel has been advertising on OTT as well as connected TV for a long time now, and have been experimenting with it. “We are looking at on-target reach & duplication of audience. It’s important for us to look at what kind of audience the platforms are giving us. We have evolved from being broad-based to being more targeted, focused on a set of audiences,” shared Aggarwal.

    Transparency, when it comes to the results of the campaign, is a very critical factor, was agreed by everyone.

    Prabhvir Sahmey of Samsung Ads said the elephant in the room for every publisher is revenue ad risk and that has to be addressed. “Everybody knows there is significant overlap at the end-user behavior,” he added.

    With acceleration to OTTs, the question of whether television is going to disappear was met with a unanimous ‘No.’ The panelists agreed that TV as a screen or as a medium is not going anywhere. At the most, it may evolve to connected TVs, rather than remain as a device of one-way linear transmission.

    For more information: https://indiantelevision.com/events/oact-summit-2021/

  • Star Plus maintains top position in week 39: Barc

    Star Plus maintains top position in week 39: Barc

    Mumbai: Hindi GEC Star Plus maintained its hold at the top position in Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) week 39 (from 25 September to 1 October). With a weekly AMA of 2802.45 (000’s), the channel garnered more viewership than last week when this figure stood at 2744.83 (‘000s) AMA. Tamil GEC Sun TV was the second most viewed channel, clocking 2727.68 AMA as against last week’s 2650.54 (‘000s), revealed the Barc data.

    Riding the IPL wave, Star Sports 1 Hindi which made a direct entry at the sixth spot in week 38, replaced Star Maa at the third spot. The Telugu GEC has been a consistent performer at second or third place for the past many weeks. While Star Sports 1 Hindi bagged 2725.57 (‘000s) AMA, Star Maa finished fourth at 2502.61.

    The remaining order was occupied by Star Utsav, Colors, Sony SAB, Star Vijay, Zee Telugu, and Sony Pal.

    Week 39’s Mega Cities list looked different with Star Sports 1 Hindi at the fourth position with a weekly AMA of 386.62 (‘000s). Sun TV led the tally at 473.73 AMA. Star Plus and Colors bagged the second and third slots respectively. Star Vijay finished last.

    Sun TV was the top performer in the South Market as well, where it recorded 2720.54 AMA. Star Maa, Star Vijay, Zee Telugu, and Zee Kannada followed.

    In the regional circuits, Star Sports 1 Hindi was among the top five most-viewed channels in UP, Odisha, West Bengal, and Maharashtra/Goa.

    Star Pravah led the Maharashtra/Goa market with 1419.85 (‘000s) AMA. Zee Bangla was the top performer (1041.27) in West Bengal, Tarang (390.25) in Odisha, Zee Kannada (1434.64) in Rajasthan, Star Utsav (253.6) in Rajasthan, and Zee Anmol (354.63) in UP/Uttarakhand.