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Tag: ABP Ananda

  • CASE STUDY: How ABP Ananda put the ‘spotlight’ on Sunsilk for Durga Puja

    CASE STUDY: How ABP Ananda put the ‘spotlight’ on Sunsilk for Durga Puja

    Mumbai: Durga Puja marks the homecoming of goddess Durga and is the biggest festival in Kolkata. The grandeur and charm are no less in other parts of the country too and brands across categories release new campaigns to reach out to their target audience during this festive season. This past year the celebrations were somewhat muted due to the pandemic, however, ABP Ananda left no stone unturned to woo its audiences by lifting the pall of gloom with its special Durga Puja programming.

    Having partnered with a plethora of brands from diverse categories, ABP Network’s branded content division, ‘ABP Spotlight’ created several special integrations for partner brands such as Sunsilk to help achieve brand awareness and equity through interactive and customizable sponsor integrations.

    These properties have created exciting opportunities for brands to be involved in the channel’s programming in a meaningful way that doesn’t detract from its content, offering a high degree of presence and brand-building capabilities. For Sunsilk, ABP Spotlight created a five vignette series with each day defining a ‘Pujo look’. It shows the significance of all Pujo days from Sasthi to Dashami and the role of Bengali women in it.

    The vignette series brought together three talented and influential faces in Kolkata – upcoming model cum actress Darshana Banik, star hair-stylist Jolly Chanda and popular styling artist Sandip Jasiwal. Each of these vignettes features Darshana dressed up in new attire and look for each day of the Puja, aided by Chanda and Jasiwal’s professional expertise which make these vignettes even more interesting with their hair-do tips, anecdotes, and easy styling hacks that women can do at the convenience of their home. Thus, the essence of Girlgiri (Sunsilk positioning) and the mood of the festival have been synergized into creating this integration.

    Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w3iuHhcEV0

    During the anxious Covid times, Sunsilk wanted to spread some festive cheer amongst its consumers. The haircare brand wanted to promote easy DIY hairstyles during the Durga Puja. Their current brand communication of “Tyohaar wali feel, tyohaar wali deal” was converted into the Durga Puja Look of the day series. It showed the significance of all Pujo days- from Sasthi to Dashami, and the role of Bengali women in it.

    https://www.instagram.com/tv/CGrP2jpLAQR/?igshid=1w6k9y8sn75je

    https://www.instagram.com/tv/CGwYeXCA6H0/?igshid=19afnc6xzwdo

    Sunsilk brand owner HUL’s Sandhya Poojary said, “We partnered with ABP Ananda on Parae Parae Serar Lodai (PPSL 2020) which is a fun Contest between Pandal Committees. As a part of the campaign, ABP Ananda is helping us reach out to our girls by creating beautiful short stories around the festive looks for the five days of the Durga Puja and encouraging them to gear up for the festive season under our ‘Tyohar Wali Feel, Tyohar Wali Deal’ campaign, through a series of vignettes.”

    Durga Puja is not just a religious or a social event for Bengalis, it is an event that is woven into the social fabric of the society. It has a grip on values, beliefs, cultural orientation, fun, and the social quotient. Poojary added, “We hope to further inroad into the Bengal market and create recall in the hearts of all Bengalis. We look forward to many such associations with ABP Network in the future.” Hence this special vignette has been created which beautifully blends in with the core features of the haircare brand, the festive revelry aspect of Durga Puja, and the overall celebratory bonhomie. 

    Through creative and authentic integrations in their content, ABP Ananda has created tremendous value for the brand to shine and stand out this festive season. It not just creates value for ABP’s viewers but also allows Sunsilk to create a distinct and recognizable voice through the inventive collaboration.  This creative offering has posed a unique opportunity for the beauty & personal care brand to leverage the reach & prominence of the news channel and engage effectively with their audiences at a crucial time when creating brand equity in the market is paramount. This innovative approach to creative integration urged the channel’s viewers to forget the pandemic and partake in the festivities, successfully implementing new-age influencer marketing techniques.

  • ABP Network rejigs its sales leadership team

    ABP Network rejigs its sales leadership team

    New Delhi: ABP Network has recalibrated its sales leadership team by imparting additional responsibilities to its leaders, to keep up with the ever-evolving dynamics of the market and foster innovation within the organisation.

    The media company has elevated Amitosh Pal to national sales head – ABP Ananda. Pal will continue to assume the role of regional director, east zone, apart from driving sales for the Bengali channel.

    Parul Kamra has been promoted to national sales head – ABP Ganga. She will continue to assume the role of regional director, north zone, while also driving sales for ABP Ganga. 

    Rakesh Kumar has been elevated to national sales head – government. In his new role, he will be responsible for all government-related business across broadcast and digital, while Amit Kumar Singh, who currently handles digital sales –  government will directly report to him.

    All three members within the sales leadership team will continue to report to Munish Atrey, who will further report to ABP Network chief revenue officer Mona Jain who joined the organisation in 2019 and carries experience of over 30 years in media marketing and promotions, stated the company on Thursday.

    “2020-21 was full of unpredictability and unsurmountable challenges as far as business goes but despite all the odds – ABP Network’s sales leadership team performed and delivered targets consistently. The sales team has been instrumental in driving steady growth for the network. Their strong capabilities coupled with their dedication to helping the organisation reach its business and financial goals led to this well-earned promotion. We are confident that ABP Network will continue to grow many folds in the future,” said  Jain. 

    The network stated that it has been able to overcome the initial uncertainty and tumultuousness of the Covid2019 crisis, and has successfully maintained business continuity.

  • Most-watched regional news channels

    Most-watched regional news channels

    BENGALURU: Regional news is has more per capita consumption in respective languages than Hindi or English news . Further, the consumption of all regional news channels is larger than Hindi news.

    Data across three separate periods has been considered in this paper – For the current period, data for a 26-week period, starting week 13 of 2019 until week 39 of 2019, has been used. For the pre-NTO period, data across 23 weeks between week 35 of 2018 and week 5 of 2019 has been considered. For the post-NTO period, due to BARC’s adoption of an earlier method of treatment of landed pages and outliers, data across 17 weeks between week 23 and 39 of 2019 has been considered.To arrive at the per capita viewership or consumption, the author has considered the 17 weeks average (post NTO) and the 23 weeks average (pre NTO) number divided by the respective population of the respective market as per BARC India, Households and Individuals Universe Estimate – 2018 (BARC Population Estimates 2018).

    Why these specific periods?

    BARC started publication of viewership data in the public domain of news channels in the four South Indian languages in week 1 of 2019. Four additional regional news channels besides the four South Indian languages in the public domain were added in week 35 of 2018. Later, BARC had stopped publishing data in the public domain between weeks 6 and 12 of 2019 to enable viewership to stabilise. Hence the only stable data available in the public domain before the implementation of NTO was between weeks 35 of 2018 and week 5 of 2019, or for a 23-week period. After recommencement of publishing data in week 13 of 2019, BARC reverted to an older method of treating landed changes and outliers in week 23 of 2019.The latest data available at the commencement of writing of this article was week 39 of 2019, hence average viewership for this period of 17 weeks has been considered. For overall viewership trends in the current period, data between weeks 13 and 39 or for 26 weeks (roughly half a year) has been considered.

    Markets and Demography

    BARC has specified the following demographics of the news channels for the data that it releases in the public domain:

    Hindi news: Hindi Speaking Markets, both urban and rural or HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 15+ Individuals.

    Telugu news: Andhra Pradesh or AP/Telangana (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Kannada news: Karnataka (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Tamil news: Tamil Nadu/Puducherry (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Malayalam news: Kerala (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

    Oriya news: Odisha (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals.

    Assamese news: Assam / North East / Sikkim(U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals.

    Bangla news: West Bengal or WB  (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

    Marathi news: Mah/ Goa (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals.

    English news: All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals.

    BARC considers HSM or Hindi Speaking Market as All India without the four South Indian markets. Hence, the author has subtracted the NCCS 15+ population of the four South Indian markets from the All India NCCS 15+ population to arrive at the HSM 15+ population numbers. In the case of per capita consumption for South India, the author has taken the sum of average weekly impressions of the top 5 channels for each language and then added the four sums to arrive at the total average weekly impressions for South India, this total average has then been divided by the 2+ population figures for each of the four languages/six states as per BARC Population Estimates 2018. In the case of English news, the author has calculated the NCCS 22+ Males population by extrapolating the overall male and female ratio and the ratio of the 22+ individuals with the all India population with the sum of BARC numbers for NCCS A 22+ and NCCS B 22+. To arrive at the per capita consumption of news on the top 5 channels for the country, the 23 week average of the 10 languages has been divided by the 2+ population of India as per the above mentioned BARC Universe estimates. Individual HSM (R) and HSM (U) viewership numbers have not been considered to arrive at the per capita consumption of news on the top 5 channels for the country.

    Per Capita news Consumption post and pre implementation of NTO

    Please refer to the chart below for per capita news consumption of the top 5 channels of each language.

    Current Status

    The charts below covers data between weeks 13 and 39 of 2019, the last week for which BARC data was available at the time of writing of this report. This report covers approximately six months of calendar year 2019. BARC had stopped publication of data in the public domain after week 5 of 2019 to enable ratings to stabilise after the implementation of TRAI’s new tariff order and recommenced publication of the same in week 13 of 2019. Hence, here onward this paper looks at news-watching trends of top 5 news channels across 10 languages.

    The unit of viewership measure in all cases in the charts below is thousand weekly impressions. Please refer to the figure below:

    As is obvious from the chart above, viewership of the top 5 regional news channels of 8 languages is far higher, by an average of about 46.33 percent,than the viewership of Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) during the 26 weeks under review).

    Most-watched regional news channels

    Here below is a chart showing the viewership data for news channels in the eight languages mentioned above in their respective markets. As is obvious, Kannada news has a much bigger viewership even in absolute numbers than other languages.

    Most-watched Assamese news channels

    Five channels were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 Assamese news channels during all the weeks between weeks 13 and 39 of 2019. News Live was the most-watched Assamese news channel by far.

    Most-watched Bangla news channels

    There were five channels that have consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Bangla news channels during all the 26 weeks under review in this paper. As is obvious, ABP Ananda was the most-watched Bengali news channel, followed by Zee 24 Ghanta. Please refer to the figure below:

    Most-watched Kannada news channels

    BARCs weekly lists of Top 5 Kannada news channels between weeks 13 and 39 also had five channels that were consistently present during the entire period. TV9 Kannada was by far the most-watched Kannada news channel followed by Public TV during the period under consideration in this paper. Please refer to the figure below

    Most-watched Malayalam news channels

    Seven channels, each of them at least once, appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Malayalam news channels during the period under consideration. Of these 7, three have consistently appeared in the Malayalam news channels lists during all the 26 weeks under review. These three channels were – Asianet News, which is by far the most-watched  Malayalam news channel, followed by Manorama News and Mathrubhumi News. Please refer to the chart below:

    Most-watched Marathi news channels

    In the case of Marathi news also, five channels consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Marathi news channels. ABP Majha was the most-watched Marathi news Channel. During 15 of the 23 weeks under consideration, TV9 was the second most-watched Marathi news channel. However, since week 32 of 2019, Saam TV has been ranked second in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Marathi news channels. Please refer to the chart below.

    Most-watched Oriya news channels

    Seven channels, each of them at least once, appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Oriya news channels during the period under consideration. Of these 7, three have consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly Oriya news channels lists during all the 26 weeks under review. They are OTV, which was the most-watched Oriya news channel, followed News7 and Kanak News at second and third place respectively. Please refer to the figure below:

    Most-watched Tamil news channels

    Six channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Tamil news channels at least once. Three of these channels have consistently appeared during all the 26 weeks under consideration in BARC’s Top Tamil news channels list. Polimer News was the most-watched Tamil news channel by far and was followed by Thanthi TV and Puthiya Thalaimurai at second and third place respectively. Please refer to the figure below:

    Most-watched Telugu news channels

    Six channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 Telugu news channels at least once between weeks 13 and 39 of 2019. Three of these channels have consistently appeared during all the 26 weeks under consideration in BARC’s Top Telugu news channels list. TV9 Telugu was the most-watched Telugu news channel during the 26 weeks under consideration in this paper. NTV news was at second place followed by V6 news at third place. Please refer to the chart below:

    Closing Remarks

    Media groups and news networks such as the ABP Group and Associated Broadcasting Company Private Limited (TV9) have channels in more than one language that are among the Top 5 channels in that market or language.  Many of them have news channels in other languages/markets also.

    Television news is an important genre. India has multiple languages and small and big networks, independent channels – television broadcasters to be more precise – cater to viewers’ tastes by beaming in content that they prefer. News is an important genre, and there are news channels galore across languages – some of them have even been crowned as ‘views’ channels. The FICCI M&E 2019 report says that 43 percent of the 885 private TV channels in India were ‘news channels’. The FICCI report says that news, which commands a 7 percent share of viewership garnered a disproportionately high share of advertising volumes. The lion’s share totaling 77 percent of the viewership was taken by escapism – or movies and GECs. Yet, Hindi regional news was amongst the top 10 genres and had 5 percent of the advertisement share in terms of volumes of advertisements or insertions.The report also says that contrary to popular perception, TV viewership is high amongst youth (15-30 years) even in the digital age. Youth contribute 32 percent to total viewership with a 30 percent and 32 percent split between urban and rural India.

    An earlier BARC report says that news events cannot escape the lure of drama. And drama includes elections and election results, deaths of celebrities, high court and supreme court verdicts on celebrities and sensitive issues, major changes such as demonetisation announced by the central government, major public holidays such as Independence and Republic days, important events such as the Uri surgical strikes that pertain to terrorist attacks and counter-attacks, etc. Data for election results week – week 21 of 2019, could not be considered in this paper for analysis of per capita consumption because of the change in BARC’s methodology two weeks after election results week. However, week 21 data has been considered in other parts of the report.

  • ABP Ananda organizes its flagship event ‘Sera Bengali 2019

    ABP Ananda organizes its flagship event ‘Sera Bengali 2019

    MUMBAI: ABP News Network’s subsidiary ABP Ananda honoured nine eminent personalities of Bengal during the 15th edition of its flagship event ‘Sera Bengali 2019’ at The Oberoi Grand Hotel, Kolkata.

    ‘Sera Bengali’ is a platform to honour progressive Bengali personalities whose achievements in their respective fields have brought laurels to the state. The recipients of the 2019 Sera Bengali Award are as follows:

    S NO

    List of Awardees

    List of Award Categories

    List of Felicitators

    1

    Ustad Rashid Khan

    Music

    Haimanti Shukla, Singer

    2

    Bratya Basu

    Drama

    Debshankar Haldar, Actor

    3

    Smaranjit Chakraborty

    Literature

    Samaresh Majumdar, Author

    4

    Dipa Karmakar

    Sports

    Jhulan Goswami, Cricketer

    5

    Bimal Kundu

    Art

    Lalu Prasad Shaw, Artist

    6

    Ronojoy Dutta

    Business

    Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Managing Director of Bandhan Bank

    7

    Abir Chattopadhyay

    Film

    Prosenjit Chattopadhyay, Actor

    8

    Sandhya Mukhopadhyay

    Lifetime Achievement

    Sandhya Roy, Actor

    9

    Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

    Sera Sera

    Krishna Basu, Former MP of Lok Sabha

    Mr Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP News Network said, “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the winners whose outstanding contribution to Bengal and its cultural life is immense. We are proud of the awardees and their work. ANN is known for identifying and honouring eminent personalities from various fields in various regions and through this platform, we want to encourage more citizens of India to take a step forward and do their bit in shaping the future of the country.”

    ABP Ananda is the number 1 news channel of Bengal and has defined itself as a responsible channel known for fearless reporting with a fair and balanced approach.

  • BARC week 13: ABP Ananda & Oscar Movies Bhojpuri enter top five Bangla & Bhojpuri GEC

    BARC week 13: ABP Ananda & Oscar Movies Bhojpuri enter top five Bangla & Bhojpuri GEC

    MUMBAI: In week 13 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) all India data, leaders of respective genres continued to dominate their respective genres while in Bangla general entertainment  channels (GEC) ABP Ananda entered the top five channels list while Colors Bangla exited it. On the other hand  in Bhojpuri genre, Oscar Movies Bhojpuri replaced ETV Bihar Jharkhand in fifth position while the latter exited the list in week 13.

    Bangla GECs

    Star Jalsha continued to be at the number one position in the Bangla GEC space with 195471 Impressions’ 000. Zee Bangla stood at the second berth with 135235 Impressions’ 000 followed by Jalsha Movies in the third position with 49868 Impressions’ 000. ABP Ananda entered the top five channels list and bagged fourth slot with 34496 Impressions’ 000 and pushed down Zee Bangla Cinema toat number fifth with 30274 Impressions’ 000 while Colors Bangla exited the list.

    Bhojpuri GECs

    Big Ganga grabbed the pole position with 27086 Impressions’ 000 followed by Bhojpuri Cinema at the second position with 15875 Impressions’ 000. Dabangg bagged the third slot with 7395 Impressions’ 000. Dangal TV with 5363 Impressions’ 000 on fourth slot and Oscar Movies Bhojpuri replaced ETV Bihar Jharkhand with 2537 Impressions’ 000 on the fifth position respectively.

    Kannada GECs

    Colors Kannada stood at the top position with 2254203 Impressions’ 000 followed by Zee Kannada at number two with 165469 Impressions ‘000 and Udaya Movies at number three with 162407 Impressions’ 000. Suvrana grabbed fourth position with 154575 Impressions’ 000 and Udaya TV stood at number five with 122339 Impressions’ 000.

    Malayalam GECs

    Asianet dominated the genre at the first position with 311526 Impressions’ 000. Mazhavil Manorama took the second position with 103422 Impressions’ 000. Flowers TV bagged third position with 65560 Impressions’ 000 followed by Asianet Movies on fourth position with 55961 Impressions’ 000. Surya TV grabbed the fifth position with 49895 Impressions’ 000.

    Marathi GECs

    Zee Marathi took the top spot with 126910 Impressions’ 000 followed by Colors Marathi in second position with 91661 Impressions’ 000. Zee Talkies bagged third position with 57027 Impressions’ 000 followed by Fakt Marathi at the fourth position with  27359 Impressions’ 000. Star Pravah stood at fifth position with 25044 Impressions’ 000

    Oriya GECs

    Sarthak TV bagged the number one position with 104044 Impressions’ 000 followed by Tarang TV at the second berth with 51784 Impressions’ 000. Colors Oriya garnered third position with 13962 Impressions’ 000 while Odisha TV grabbed the fourth position with 11292 Impressions’ 000. Alankar stood at the fifth position with 10220 Impressions’ 000.

    Tamil GECs

    Sun TV stood at the top position with 935340 Impressions’ 000 followed by KTV at second position with 219025 Impressions’ 000. Star Vijay held the third position with 155479 Impressions’ 000. Zee Tamil with 99504 Impressions’ 000 and Polimer with 74912 Impressions’ 000 grabbed the fourth and fifth position respectively.

    Telugu GECs

    Zee Telugu took the number one spot with 411328 Impressions’ 000 followed by ETV Telugu at second position with 378141 Impressions’ 000. Maa TV remained at the third berth with 365280 Impressions’ 000 while Gemini TV bagged the fourth position with 296840 Impressions’ 000. Gemini Movies took the  fifth position with 208001Impressions’ 000.

  • BARC week 13: ABP Ananda & Oscar Movies Bhojpuri enter top five Bangla & Bhojpuri GEC

    BARC week 13: ABP Ananda & Oscar Movies Bhojpuri enter top five Bangla & Bhojpuri GEC

    MUMBAI: In week 13 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) all India data, leaders of respective genres continued to dominate their respective genres while in Bangla general entertainment  channels (GEC) ABP Ananda entered the top five channels list while Colors Bangla exited it. On the other hand  in Bhojpuri genre, Oscar Movies Bhojpuri replaced ETV Bihar Jharkhand in fifth position while the latter exited the list in week 13.

    Bangla GECs

    Star Jalsha continued to be at the number one position in the Bangla GEC space with 195471 Impressions’ 000. Zee Bangla stood at the second berth with 135235 Impressions’ 000 followed by Jalsha Movies in the third position with 49868 Impressions’ 000. ABP Ananda entered the top five channels list and bagged fourth slot with 34496 Impressions’ 000 and pushed down Zee Bangla Cinema toat number fifth with 30274 Impressions’ 000 while Colors Bangla exited the list.

    Bhojpuri GECs

    Big Ganga grabbed the pole position with 27086 Impressions’ 000 followed by Bhojpuri Cinema at the second position with 15875 Impressions’ 000. Dabangg bagged the third slot with 7395 Impressions’ 000. Dangal TV with 5363 Impressions’ 000 on fourth slot and Oscar Movies Bhojpuri replaced ETV Bihar Jharkhand with 2537 Impressions’ 000 on the fifth position respectively.

    Kannada GECs

    Colors Kannada stood at the top position with 2254203 Impressions’ 000 followed by Zee Kannada at number two with 165469 Impressions ‘000 and Udaya Movies at number three with 162407 Impressions’ 000. Suvrana grabbed fourth position with 154575 Impressions’ 000 and Udaya TV stood at number five with 122339 Impressions’ 000.

    Malayalam GECs

    Asianet dominated the genre at the first position with 311526 Impressions’ 000. Mazhavil Manorama took the second position with 103422 Impressions’ 000. Flowers TV bagged third position with 65560 Impressions’ 000 followed by Asianet Movies on fourth position with 55961 Impressions’ 000. Surya TV grabbed the fifth position with 49895 Impressions’ 000.

    Marathi GECs

    Zee Marathi took the top spot with 126910 Impressions’ 000 followed by Colors Marathi in second position with 91661 Impressions’ 000. Zee Talkies bagged third position with 57027 Impressions’ 000 followed by Fakt Marathi at the fourth position with  27359 Impressions’ 000. Star Pravah stood at fifth position with 25044 Impressions’ 000

    Oriya GECs

    Sarthak TV bagged the number one position with 104044 Impressions’ 000 followed by Tarang TV at the second berth with 51784 Impressions’ 000. Colors Oriya garnered third position with 13962 Impressions’ 000 while Odisha TV grabbed the fourth position with 11292 Impressions’ 000. Alankar stood at the fifth position with 10220 Impressions’ 000.

    Tamil GECs

    Sun TV stood at the top position with 935340 Impressions’ 000 followed by KTV at second position with 219025 Impressions’ 000. Star Vijay held the third position with 155479 Impressions’ 000. Zee Tamil with 99504 Impressions’ 000 and Polimer with 74912 Impressions’ 000 grabbed the fourth and fifth position respectively.

    Telugu GECs

    Zee Telugu took the number one spot with 411328 Impressions’ 000 followed by ETV Telugu at second position with 378141 Impressions’ 000. Maa TV remained at the third berth with 365280 Impressions’ 000 while Gemini TV bagged the fourth position with 296840 Impressions’ 000. Gemini Movies took the  fifth position with 208001Impressions’ 000.

  • Takkar time on ABP Ananda – the biggest coverage of Bengal’s biggest festival!

    Takkar time on ABP Ananda – the biggest coverage of Bengal’s biggest festival!

    MUMBAI: BIG is the key word for Bengal’s most awaited festival this year.

     

    “Eto boro! Shotti?” (So Big! Really?) cemented itself as the longest running teaser campaign in the market with a cement brand’s innovative Pujo claim hitting the market almost 3 months ahead of the festivities.

     

    The biggest Pujo Committees (Naktala Udayan Sangha, Agradoot Uday Sangha, Santosh Mitra Square) were quick to ambush the campaign and out-shout it through the biggest outdoor blitz seen in Kolkata.

     

    In this melee, Bengal’s biggest news channel has caught on to the Pujo pulse of one-upmanship and spirited rivalry and launched the big-on-attitude ‘Pujor Tokkor’ campaign.

     

    While the full plan covers the biggest foot print of 71 on-ground touch points (56 Pujo tie-ups, 15 societies), the marketing campaign is already on air, on Friends FM, across our web and digital pages and in The Telegraph.

     

    For the first time in our 10 year history we have launched 3 films at one go for Pujo. The films have been shot in Kolkata by the director of this year’s acclaimed Bangla hit Open Tee Bioscope and award winning musician, Anindya Chattopadhyay. The stories bring to life the true mood, color, competitiveness and strive for excellence that embodies the Bengali’s relationship with our beloved Durga Puja.

  • 2014: The roller-coaster year for West Bengal media

    2014: The roller-coaster year for West Bengal media

    A trip down memory lane in 2014 has seldom been a tempest in a teapot; but, a year fraught with a bumpy roller-coaster ride, at least for the media in West Bengal… almost as unpredictable and enigmatic as its leader. West Bengal, centre staged and witnessed many ups and downs on the news channels. Many bled during the year, with a slowdown in the second half, but only one channel triumphed and reigned supreme. It was none other than ABP Ananda, which was rated highest week after week.

    City-based ABP Ananda emerged as a great opinion maker, backed by concrete facts and figures, and powerful, impact reporting. “In fact, its viewership increased after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s diktat not to watch the channel,” quoted a media analyst.

    The channel has built a strong presence in the Bengal and Maharashtra markets and has firmed up plans in Punjab as well. ABP Group, in the year 2014, said that it aims to launch 3 – 4 regional news channels in the next 2 – 3 years in the western region, followed by northern India.

    Worthy of note, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), which has a major stake in the news share in the north and western India, gained control in the east through its 24×7 Bengali news channel – 24 Ghanta. The channel inducted veteran journalist and Hindustan Times deputy resident editor Anirban Choudhury as the new face on its board and saw a turn for the better in the programme content and style.

    TV18 Broadcast too launched a 24-hour Bengali news channel called ETV News Bangla in March 2014, in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The channel aims to redefine regional channels in Bengal. ETV News Bangla has caught the attention of various localities in Kolkata.

    Star India too hinted that it plans to start a Bengali sports channel. The Indian unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, Star India aims to expand beyond cricket coverage into sports such as hockey, football and even, kabaddi.

    There was excitement in the air! News of non-operational Mahua Bangla, a Bengali general entertainment channel and Mahua Khabor, a 24-hour Bengali news channel, spread like wild fire that they were to go live again in the year 2014! This sparked renewed vigour among job seekers as the parent company, Mahuaa Media Private Limited (MMPL), which closed down the two channels in 2013 in Kolkata, was “exploring all possibilities” to arrange funds in the range of Rs 150 – Rs 200 crore to breathe life into the sick channels.

    The most interesting development was that production company Channel Eight, which was earlier compelled to disassociate itself from the Bengali GEC Aakash Aath, after it didn’t get the 51 per cent stake in the channel as promised, within a month joined the channel again after it got its stake. The GEC said that though the focus of the channel has changed, it intends to keep news in the mixed bag. It also launched a couple of new shows such as comedy serial – Ghhente Gha directed by Manish Ghosh and scripted by Padmanabha Dasgupta.

    Focus Bangla, a 24×7 Bengali news channel, is bullish about its growth in the regional market. It had introduced many new slots for programmes featuring one-to-one interviews with experts from various fields.

    Narsingha Broadcasting also aimed to foray into television media business. The company was to launch a Bengali satellite news channel in 2014 but its plans were deferred to the early part of next year!

    On the whole, West Bengal, has a small market size with a few 24-hour satellite channels owned by big corporates, which makes it difficult for others to survive in the market place. In the past one and half years, the advertising pie in Bengal has also gone down. On top of that, the money market companies made their exit, further putting a severe fund crunch in the media market. The Saradha chit fund scam was a golden egg for most news channels.

    Bengali GECs, news, and other television channels which generated around 35 – 40 per cent of the advertisement revenue from Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFCs) till last fiscal year were all bleeding as the NBFC players understood that even after spending a huge amount, they were not being able to make an impression on the minds of people to invest in deceptive schemes, thanks to the Saradha Group’s chit fund business, which went bust in the beginning of the financial year 2013-14.

    Many other companies, which are engaged in money marketing have reduced their ad spend, firstly to stay away from the authorities’ watchful eye and secondly, they seem to think that even after spending a huge amount on ads, investors are not gullible enough to put in their hard-earned money into the chit fund schemes.

    In 2014, Bengal saw careful media coverage of Lok Sabha elections by the regional television channels. These included 24×7 Bengali news channels like ABP Ananda, 24 Ghanta, ETV News Bangla, Focus TV, Kolkata TV, Tara Newz, and infotainment channels like Aakash Bangla, which had three news slots for all the election coverage. 

    The 2014 elections were notable for the vast array of outlets that an interested consumer could avail to create his own media experience on multiple screens. However, a continuous simmering political situation called for more political debates, phone-in shows in 2014.

    On the other hand, the entertainment channels saw phenomenal growth as the regional market is growing. The advertising market is also growing day by day. The viewer bouquet is fast growing too.  Changes in programme structure have been incorporated in 2014. Serials, reality shows, films are given extra weightage.

    Each channel has grown in terms of viewership. The viewers just want consistent performances and channels, which can give them quality content and programmes; and hence, no one gets to lose their market share.

    Bengali viewers are natural lovers of football. Many of them have been losing interest; but, with the advent of Indian Super League (ISL), with daily exciting coverage, celebrity owners and great sponsors, it ensured more new viewers from all demographics. Not to mention that Sourav Ganguly’s Atlético de Kolkata, finally won the coveted Cup.

    The GECs continue to dominate the Kolkata advertisement market, with high production values and a robust content bank based on local programming.

    Overall, the Bengali media is surging ahead in leaps and bounds with more channels in the foray, new programmes on view and a bunch of creative minds behind them!

    With this change in tide, which is nothing but technology-driven, the media groups had taken the route of social networking sites and web as tools for promoting their programmes and started getting live viewership ratings and responses.

    The face of media is fast changing, where the media once uni-directional in its approach is now becoming bi-directional in communication and the future looks bright!

  • ABP’s Punjabi channel, Sanjha, finally gets its licence

    ABP’s Punjabi channel, Sanjha, finally gets its licence

    MUMBAI: It has been a painful and long wait for Media Content and Communications Service’s news company ABP. It has been eagerly waiting for the licence for its Punjabi news channel, ABP Sanjha, which has finally been approved by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) bringing much needed relief.

     

    MCCS had applied for the licence in early 2013 and since then has been showcasing content on its YouTube channel. Now that the licence has been approved, ABP Sanjha will be beamed off Insat 4A. The official date of launch and the names of the department heads will be announced soon, says an executive from MCCS.

     

    ABP currently has channels in Hindi (ABP News), Marathi (ABP Majha) and Bengali (ABP Ananda). Sanjha will be the third feather to its regional spread.

     

    Setting up of a regional news channel usually requires investment of approximately Rs 15 to Rs 20 crore with much of it going into distribution.  The state’s cable distribution is dominated by MSOs Fastway and Hathway and Siti Cable to a smaller extent, and hence will be the new channel’s first option.

     

    The channel will compete with Punjabi news channels PTC News, Zee Punjab/Haryana/Himachal and MH1 News.

  • ABP Ananda continues to be the chart topper

    ABP Ananda continues to be the chart topper

    KOLKATA: The week 26 of TAM TV Ratings has seen no major change from the previous week in the Bengali News space. ABP Ananda has gained highest in terms of gross viewership in thousands (GVT) as compared to other TAM subscribed channels in the state.

     

    The channel from the house of Kolkata headquartered ABP Group garnered 1,783 GVTs, up from the 1,477 GVTs it recorded in the previous week. 24 Ghanta bagged 1,674 GVTs this week and stood second in the ratings chart. The channel, last week had received 1,394 GVTs. 

     

    Focus Bangla scored higher than Kolkata TV by reporting 734 GVTs, again a hike from the 557 GVTs it received last week. Kolkata TV on the other hand garnered 185 GVTs as compared to 143 GVTs it managed in week 25.

     

    All the TAM findings take into account CS4+ for all the days in the state.