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  • Oxygen puts a new twist to the relationship reality genre

    Oxygen puts a new twist to the relationship reality genre

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster Oxygen will put a twist on the relationship reality genre with Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty.

    The television star comes to the rescue of men and women who are unable to muster up the courage to break off their toxic relationships with bad boyfriends/girlfriends, frenemies, or tyrannical bosses.

    Doherty joins forces with people in relationship peril who want to get out but just cant seem to do it on their own. She will listen to the plight of her new client and put their mates to the test by creating a fictitious situation caught by a hidden camera – to determine the true character of the relationship.

    If the test is failed, Doherty then helps put the relationship out of its misery. In each episode, Doherty will then help mastermind the break-up, and be on the scene to deliver the news and resolve the break-up. The goal at the end is for both parties to agree that its all for the best and its time to move on.

    Oxygen says that Doherty is the ideal addition to its roster of funny and fascinating women.

  • Disney set to cut down on costs with fewer films

    Disney set to cut down on costs with fewer films

    MUMBAI: Despite the fact that the Pirates of The Carribean sequel set a record by crossing the $100 million mark in the first three days of release, US media conglomerate Disney is set to cut the number of films made each year from 18 to eight.

    Media reports indicate that the trend among Hollywood studuios is to reduce their overall costs, whether it is in production, marketing, distribution or legal costs. Disney’s plan is to make less films under both Touchstone and Miramax. It will focus on making films under its own brand name.

    The number of people employed in its film division will be reduced by upto 25 per cent. Disney is said to be looking to focus more on family films as there is more revenue potential there in terms of merchandising opportunities.

    Apart from the Pirates sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia did really well last year. At the same time, there were failures with Alamo bing the biggest. Media reports indicate that studio revenue is being affected by production and marketing costs. The DVD market is also slowing down.

  • Discovery US manages double digit ratings increase

    Discovery US manages double digit ratings increase

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster Discovery has announced that it managed to achieve double-digit ratings gains in households and average primetime audience in both the second quarter of 2006 and June 2006.

    For the quarter, Discovery garnered a year-over-year primetime household ratings increase of 13 per cent (0.9) and the network delivered an average primetime audience of 1,143,000 viewers (P2+), also representing a 13 per cent increase over the year-ago timeslot average.

    The performance was helped by the return of the show Deadliest Catch, averaging nearly 2.6 million viewers over its second-season run. Mythbusters averaged 1.3 million viewers P2+. New shows Perfect Disaster and Future Weapons also contributed to the ratings gains.

    The debut of Egypt’s New Tomb Revealed on 4 June and Krakatoa: Volcano Od Destruction on 11 June each logged significant increases in households (1.8 household rating; Egypt; 1.8 household rating, Krakatoa) and total viewers (2.3 million P2+ each for the two shows.)

  • Former US president Bill Clinton in an exclusive interview with CNN’s senior International correspondent Satinder Bindra

    Former US president Bill Clinton in an exclusive interview with CNN’s senior International correspondent Satinder Bindra

    Discusses his plans to fight against AIDS in India
    through the William J. Clinton Foundation

    Interview aired on: Sunday, February 19, 2006 at 17:30hrs (IST)
    Former US President, Bill Clinton announced another initiative in New Delhi in his ongoing fight against AIDS. The latest plan is to train more Indian nurses to deal with 5 million HIV positive patients in India. President Clinton has over the years managed to convince pharmaceutical companies to bring down the prices of AIDS fighting drugs. To find out more about his plans, CNN’s senior International correspondent Satinder Bindra met up with him and started by asking him what the world should be most concerned about in the battle against AIDS.

    Given below is the full transcript of the interview:

     

    Bill Clinton: Clinton
    Satinder Bindra: Bindra
    Clinton: The thing that I am most worried about is that there were approximately 5 million new infections last year, and that primarily is because 90 per cent of the people who are infected, don’t know it. That is, when you and others including me, say that there are 43 million people in the world who are HIV positive – truth is we are guessing. So I think that’s the next big frontier here besides finding a vaccine and ultimately a cure.

     

    Bindra: With your foundation, these tests to find out if someone is HIV positive are cheaper, you have also brought down the price of AIDS fighting drugs but does more still need to be done?

    Clinton: We know for about fifty cents can give people the test which will tell you in 20 mins if you are HIV positive. We have brought down the medicine very low and we can test and see whether it’s working and we are now working on the second line of drugs. But, its all irrelevant unless we have people in the rural areas, for example, who are trained to do this, so we are doing more and more work to train personnel that’s what we are doing here in India working with nurses in rural areas. Even in India, which has the largest number of doctors anywhere including in rural areas, there are still numerous areas without doctors, without enough nurses, and paramedical people to do this work.

     

    Bindra: When you first approached these companies Mr. President asking them to reduce the prices of these drugs, how did they look at you, what was their reaction…
    Clinton: We knew that the reason these drugs were priced as they were, as I was told, relatively speaking, a low volume, high profit margin business where the buyers were often poor countries where payment was often delayed and sometimes uncertain. So we said that we want you to go to a high volume low profit margin business with prompt and certain payment. We will work out the prompt and certain payment and we’ll get the volumes up. That’s what got the prices down. None of these people are losing money. None of our partners lose money, but, they have a whole different business philosophy now.

     

    Bindra: If you and me were to meet Mr. President a year from now, would 8,000 people still be dying of this disease every day?
    Clinton: Probably! but I think that a year from now instead of a million people getting the medication we should have 3 million or more. A year from now, we should have far more people, like the nurses we are talking about here. And that means that the more you have education prevention and testing. I hope a year from now it would have drastically increased by millions, tens of millions the number of people getting tested. It will take a little while once you do all three things. Then that 8,000 a day will go down. Don’t, let anybody tell you that you can’t do it, I saw the death rate in Brazil drop 80 per cent in two years. In my first term, we dropped the death rate in America by 80 per cent.

     

  • Content differentiation key for FM radio business

    Content differentiation key for FM radio business

    MUMBAI: Radio has the potential to grow at a compounded rate of 30-35 per cent over the next 10 years. “In India, radio has the potential to become a 13 per cent medium. Currently, its share is just 3 per cent while the world averages 7-8 per cent,” said Radio Mirchi deputy CEO Prashant Pandey while speaking at the India Radio Forum 2006 here today.

    Several issues, however, need to be addressed, Pandey pointed out. “Spectrum needs to be freed, infrastructure needs to be set up. Radio operators must be given the permission to operate multiple frequencies in a city. Music royalty has to be settled. The government should also open AM for privatization too,” he added.

    Speakers at the Forum agreed that FM radio stations had to fix a differentiation strategy. “FM radio has to strive for differentiation while targeting an aggregated mass of listeners. In India it is difficult to carry out a segmentation by genre or even, perhaps, by era,” said Radio One CEO Rajesh Tahil.”

    Red FM COO Abraham Thomas stressed on difference in the delivery and advertising revenue should not be the only support, but to look for alternative revenue stream. Being aware that music is the only content available amongst the operators, thus bringing a differentiation in content is a task.

    Lintas Media Group chief strategy officer Raj Gupta pointed out that, 22 per cent of products advertised cater to youth. This accounts for 59 per cent of total adverting.

    He also said, 61.2 per cent of the population is below the age group of 30, and hence, the youth constitutes the main audience segment for any medium. “The Youth reach and spend more time on radio and hence, radio holds a lot of potential for the advertisers in terms of youth appeal. Radio has moved from background to foreground and has become relevant to the youth,” opined Gupta.

    Gupta also threw light on commodised content. “This has led to undifferentiated content and similar audiences,” he said.

    The session was moderated by Banyan Tree chief managing director Anish Trivedi.

  • Radio Mirchi to launch visual radio in Delhi

    MUMBAI: Radio Mirchi will unveil a visual radio in Delhi by the end of this month, making it the third city in the world to adopt a technology that will open up a new revenue for the private FM radio operator.


    Radio Mirchi is partnering with Hutch and Airtel to offer this service. The broadcast will be available on Nokia mobile phones with Hewlett-Packard (HP) as the technology provider.


    “We have identified four key markets including Mumbai for launching visual radio. Though it is too early to exploit strong revenues from this medium, it will give us a presence in emerging platforms like mobile phones,” says Entertainment Network (India) Ltd managing director and CEO AP Parigi.


    Radio Mirchi will speed ahead of Virgin Radio which is planning to launch visual radio later this year. “We are doing test runs and will launch it this year,” says Virgin Radio UK director of digital media James Cridland.


    Helsinki in Finland and Singapore are the other two places where visual radio has kicked off commercially. The plan to launch in Delhi was announced today by Radio Mirchi deputy-CEO Prashant Pandey at the India Radio Forum 2006.


    Radio stations are turning to new revenue streams as they are facing competition from emerging technologies. Specific threats from MP3, which had an estimated 55 million devices in the market in 2005, and internet webcasting are eating into the earnings of traditional radio. So the way out is to adopt into new digital platforms like direct-to-home (DTH) and digital audio broadcasting (DAB).


    Virgin is moving its content to such platforms. “About 28 per cent of our audience is coming from new platforms. As for visual radio, it is important to have a presence in this segment. Nokia will have 100,000 handsets in UK for visual radio by the end of the year,” says Cridland.

  • Radio City dominates inaugural edition of 2006 Promax India Radio Awards

    Radio City dominates inaugural edition of 2006 Promax India Radio Awards

    MUMBAI: The first edition of the 2006 Promax India Radio Awards, which reward creative brilliance in radio, unfolded the Indian talent in radio marketing and promotion.

    Radio City stole the limelight by bagging seven awards which included three gold and four silver awards. The radio station pocketed the gold awards for best promotional item for a radio station or programme (Musical-e-Azam), best original music composition for a promo (Namma Naadu Karunaadu) and best promotional campaign by a radio station or programme (Musical-e-Azam).

    The brand took home silver awards for best original music composition for a promo (RC song), best promotional item for a radio station or programme (Musical-e-Azam), best interactive promotion for a radio station (city bajao car le jao) and best use of outdoor advertising (Asha Bhosale live on Musical-e-Azam).

    The newly re-launched Radio One, which was formerly called as Go FM, took home two gold for best print piece for a radio station or programme (Legends) and best interactive promotion for a radio station (The Go FM website). The station picked up one silver award for best promotional campaign by a radio station or programme (Jaggu’s Mission 10k).

    Radio Mirchi pocketed a silver award for best radio promo in-house; music station/programme (Mirchi Delhi Bollywood under arrest) and gold for best use of library music for a promo (Mirchi Delhi cricket India England ’06 series promos).

    Red FM won the gold for best radio promo in-house; music station/programme (Prayas-Breaking News) and silver for best use of library music for a promo (Anda Mix).

    O&M bagged gold for the best use of outdoor advertising for its Worldspace campaign Unwind. The agency also won the best print piece silver for a radio station / programme for its work Genre Based for Worldspace.

    The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the inaugural Living Legend Award, which has been presented to the eminent radio personality Ameen Sayani. The living legend award has been jointly constituted by the Ficci and the India Radio Forum.

    The awards statuette presented to the award recipients renders a human figure reaching skyward in triumph. The award jury included Abraham Thomas (Red FM), Arun Raman (Media Futures), G Sharath Chandra (Radio Mirchi), Gaurav Narula (Deep Emotion Music), Jaikishin Chhaproo (Hindustan Lever), Kahlid Sayed (IMG), Kartik Mani (Madison Communications), Nirupam Sonu (Adlabs), Vikas Varma (Radio City) and Vishnu Ahtreya (Radio One).

  • ‘Big Brother’ comes a knocking on Sony this November

    ‘Big Brother’ comes a knocking on Sony this November

    MUMBAI: Big Brother, Endemol’s top format show of 2005 in terms of turnover, is all set to launch on Sony Entertainment Television this year.

    Likely to hit the air waves right after the Champions Trophy ends in November; the show will have 12 celebrities from the films, television, music, modelling and sports frat under house arrest for 100 days and that too under constant surveillance by 35 cameras. Some of the personalities that the channel is in talks with are Pooja Bedi, Simone Singh and Arshad Warsi, to name a few.

    Big Brother, which contributes to over 25 per cent of Endemol’s revenues internationally, also has a lot of scope for spin-off segments. “We can have segments with psychiatrists talking about the behaviour of people who are participating in the show. There will also be an eviction talk show, wherein people who are voted out in each episode can speak about what transpired inside and why they feel they were voted out. More such spin-offs on the show like Big Brother’s Little Brother, Big Brain and Big Mouth will also be there,” says Endemol India managing director Rajesh Kamat.

    What’s more, Sony will also be looking at streaming Big Brother episodes on the internet. “Web streaming is definitely a possibility and we are looking at it very seriously,” says SET India senior vice president and programming head Anupama Mandloi.

    “In India we have seen that soaps and stories that are told well, deliver. Big Brother is a queen of all soaps and is very unpredictable too. We are sure that it is going to be huge and will break the clutter. The show will also be toned to match Indian sensibilities and culture,” Mandloi adds.

    Apart from Big Brother, preparations are also underway to launch Extreme Makeover some time early next year, which is being produced by Miditech. The call for entries began on 4 July and will continue till 18 July.

    And if you thought that was all from the Sony stable, think again! Shooting for the second season of Fear Factor India is also currently under way in Argentina. While last time we saw telly actors participating in the show, this time round one can look forward to some Bollywood actors doing some real time stunts – minus the body doubles – in Fear Factor India. Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan are two action stars who come top of mind… well we’ll have to wait and watch if they’re there!

    So it’ll sure be another reality bonanza on Sony!

  • Online players cash-in on Fifa World cup & score goals with web content: IAMAI

    Online players cash-in on Fifa World cup & score goals with web content: IAMAI

    BANGALORE: The Football world cup, which concluded last week, attracted sports lovers across the globe to the Internet. All major portals and mobile content providers in India had specially redesigned their content for the World Cup to feed the demand of football fans.

    Online add-ons such as mobile download of wallpapers of some of the popular football players and online and mobile games attracted the maximum number of fans to the internet, according to an official release from the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

    Says IAMAI president Dr Subho Ray, “The World Cup bonanza shows that the Internet has emerged not only as an alternative medium but as a parallel medium to a large section of the people in India. With the advent of broadband as well as mobile phones, it is possible to keep a track of the matches even on the go. Websites and mobile content companies are gradually realising the potential of both these mediums and hence are increasingly beefing up their content for such mega events and in the process successfully attracting more and more users and advertisers”.

    HT Media, for example, recorded a 5 per cent to 7 per cent increase in the online revenues, claims Hindustan Times GM Business Development Salil Kumar. Kumar also mentioned that the number of hits during the prime time period at 9 30 pm reached an average of 15,00,000, at post-midnight averaged 20,00,000 and evening 6 30 pm reached an average 5,00,000.

    According to Kumar, in terms of city-wise access to World Cup related activities, Delhi/Chandigarh topped with 40 per cent, followed by Mumbai 30 per cent, Pune 5 per cent, Ahmedabad 5 per cent, Bangalore 10 per cent, Hyderabad 5 per cent and others 5 per cent.

    States Sify Ltd VP Interactive Services Surya Mantha, “Thousands of clips of World Cup football related content were viewed on Sify’s broadband portal Sify Max in the first two weeks of the tournament”. He added that the most watched clip was related to the Brazil v/s France match on 2 July, which was viewed 25,000 times.

    Soccer fans around the world treat their favourite sport as a religion and hence increasingly want to know more and more about their favourite players. This has resulted in an offbeat category on websites, which provides other such information to the football fans. In the offbeat category, Mantha says, “A video featuring the wives/girlfriends of star football players was the most popular”.

    Online advertisers took full advantage of the World Cup fever. MSN India had advertisers such as Lenovo and LIC Housing, informs MSN India Sales and Marketing head R. Rajnish. He also mentioned that netizens mostly in the age group of 18-35 years visited their website for World Cup related activities, the release adds.

    “For Rediff.com”, says chief media revenue officer Arvindra Kanwal, “increased page views resulted in more ad inventory which in turn resulted in better revenue”. He adds, “Football as a platform brought a set of advertisers like Ranbaxy, Maruti Swift, Gillette, Microsoft, Apollo Tyres and others. Our response in page views and sponsor interest mirrored cricket and largely caught the interest of Sec A & B urban audiences in eight metros. Smaller towns were slow to respond”.

    Airtel on the other hand was one of the presenting sponsors of the Fifa World Cup on ESPN, which had the exclusive telecast rights. It provided soccer fans World Cup updates, sourced from ESPN Mobile. It also offered the official song of the FIFA World Cup as a Hello Tune & Ringtone for all Airtel customers.

    Says Bharti Airtel Ltd joint president (Mobility), “Football and World cup related content were among the most popular downloads on Airtel Live, the multi-access entertainment portal of Airtel. As per data available over the last 30 days, the official Fifa World Cup game is among the four most downloaded games. In this visually engaging game, gamers experienced the 12 official stadiums as they took one of their 32 national teams from qualification to glory. ‘Time of Our Lives’, ballad by Il Divo & Toni Braxton, which was the official Fifa World Cup song, has been among the top 10 downloaded songs in the non-film category on Airtel. Football related images were among the top five downloaded wallpapers.”

  • Indiagames partners with Airtel to launch ‘Games on Demand’ service

    Indiagames partners with Airtel to launch ‘Games on Demand’ service

    MUMBAI: Indiagames has launched its new service ‘Games on Demand’ with Airtel Broadband and telephone services. The service was launched with cricketing maestro Sachin Tendulkar playing an online rally game.

    This service offers legal games at a bare minimum monthly subscription fee of just Rs. 199. Indiagames has partnered with a number of leading games publishers like Microsoft, Atari, Playfirst, Alawar, Merscomm, Cenega, Meridian, Techland, amongst others, to be able to bring a variety of premium single and multiplayer games, which include popular titles such as Age of Empires, Driv3R and Flight Simulator to this service, states an official release.

    Commenting on the launch of its Games on Demand service (G.o.D), Indiagames CEO Vishal Gondal said, “With over 85 per cent of games in India being sold illegally, we believe that with our unparalleled price offering we will significantly expand the segment of legitimate sales and bring the experience of high quality online gaming to millions of gamers in India. Our online gaming service would give consumers a legitimate reason to opt for a broadband service, thus accelerating the growth of the broadband user base in India”

    “Today, customers are looking for rich content to enhance the overall broadband experience. As a leading service provider, we aim to offer the hottest on-demand content through as many channels as possible,” says Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services CMO Akshay Kumar. He added, “Online gaming is fast gaining popularity across the world and with the Games on Demand service on Airtel, we are gearing up to give our customers a cool and enhanced gaming experience with the power of a high-speed network.”

    The G.o.D. service offers advantages like high speed downloads without additionally charging for data transfer during download, multiplayer compatible games, automatic patching and security. To further enhance the value proposition Airtel and Indiagames will be offering the service with all its features on a free trial basis for the first fifteen days. To experience this service, consumers can log on to http://www.airtelbroadband.in/games.