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  • Uniform regulatory norms across all media on govt’s agenda: Arora

    MUMBAI: The government is looking at a near uniform approach across all forms of media, said information and broadcasting ministry secretary SK Arora while explaining the policy of 20 per cent cap on foreign holding in case of radio. Print media (except non news publications where 100 per cent is allowed) and news channels, on the other hand, were permitted 26 per cent foreign equity.

    The government, he admitted, has taken a “little more conservative approach towards radio” and kept news out of it. “The reach of radio is far more than print media. And monitoring is far more difficult in radio than in case of television. But we have kept the foreign holding in case of print publications and news channels the same,” he said.

    Arora was delivering the inaugural address at the seminar on “Future of print media,” organised by FICCI.

    Big print media companies have entered into TV, radio and the Internet. Media is getting integrated and the reach is being extended. The government is watching these trends closely as more media outfits are getting vertically integrated and horizontally spread across all media. “The challenge for the government is to determine what kind of cross media policy we should have. We have to decide to what extent we can encourage this trend and to what extent we should regulate it,” Arora said.

     
     
     

    PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India executive director and leader – entertainment and media practice Deepak Kapoor threw light on the global growth and revenue trends in print media in the US, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Asia Pacific and the Indian region.
     
     

    According to Kapoor, the trends were as follows:

        Improved economic conditions
        Audience erosion to TV and Internet from print.
        Strong emergence of free publications
        Paid circulation on the fall except in the Asia Pacific region and positive growth in India and China

    India is seeing an annual compounded growth of 6.6 per cent while China was growing at 12.3 per cent. Dwelling on India specifically, he said that the two major trends in 2004 were the revised policy for FDI and a flurry of new publications that were launched in India (specifically Mumbai). This, he said, had generated a new interest in this segment and would drive growth.

    Kapoor also mentioned that public issues and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) were going to be the way forward in the print sector.

    The four key growth drivers in the print segment according to Kapoor are:

        India is a growing market with a booming economy and that will lead to the growth in the need for new publications.
        Content is always the driver
        Regulatory corrections
        New delivery platforms with emerging digital technologies.

    The session on the Business Dynamics of Print Media was moderated by Zee Telefilms CEO and DNA (Daily News and Analysis) board of director Pradeep Guha. The panelists were India Today Group executive director Ashish Bagga, Mid Day managing director Tariq Ansari, Dainik Jagran CEO Sanjay Gupta, Sakal managing director Abhijit Pawar and Delhi Press Group publisher Paresh Nath.

    Guha pointed out two critical challenges that the sector will be facing — (i) of being relevant to the youth readership and keep attracting them since they are light readers and consume media horizontally. It is a huge challenge to keep the connect and create touch points with them. (ii) content leadership, which flows from the youth connect. “These challenges will lead to the fusion of information and entertainment,” said Guha.

    Bagga concurred with Guha saying that content leadership and the youth segment was most important. “Going forward, readers will have to pay more and therefore content has to be richer, more relevant and engaging. Differentiation is another important aspect and media owners should see to it that that differentiation creeps down to the lowest level,” he said.

    Ansari pointed out that reducing price of the papers was not going to lead to an increase in circulation. “There is a need to get more out of consumers and increase in price is a must. We have to stop depending on advertising for our revenues,” he said.

    Guha added that the print medium is an age old medium but is not a mature one. “It has never seen competition and that will be a challenge. And if FDI is permitted in a larger way, then the actual competition will take place.”

    Dainik Jagran’s Gupta said that the challenge that any newspaper faced was to cater to a wide segment of the population covering SEC A to SEC D. “We have actually dropped our prices to increase circulation of our publication but that trend is not good for the industry. The industry needs better content and journalists,” he added.

    The last session of the day titled – The Content Challenge – was chaired by India Today group editorial director Prabhu Chawla. The panelists were The Tribune Group editor-in-chief H K Dua, Cyber Media Group CMD Pradeep Gupta, Mid – Day group editor-in-chief Aakar Patel, Reader’s Digest editor Ashok Mahadevan and Malayala Manorama deputy editor and senior general manager Jayant Mammen Mathew and writer Shobha De.

    Chawla too stressed on the point that content differentiation was key in the print medium and that would be ensured by speed in delivery, quantity of content and the credibility of the delivery system. “The challenge is to ensure generation of new content and how to report it correctly. Ultimately credibility is everything,” he said.

    Dua, on the other hand, started with an optimistic line saying that print media will survive despite the increase in the television and radio channels and also the emergence of the Internet as a medium of news delivery. However, he did agree on the point that the time spent on print had reduced.

    “The basic problem is what kind of a bond do we have with our readers? Newspapers and magazines are not products. They are a service to the society and should do the same,” Dua said. He further went on to say that today publications were not reporting on India as a whole. “A chunk of the country is not being reported on. North East India is hardly reported on and such is also the case with peripheral India and rural India. Content needs to change. It is the duty of journalists to report on this part of India, only then will there be a bond with the consumers. People report on the limited class of the shining India. They don’t realise that that shining India may be due to the huge chunk of the country which is never reported on,” Dua emphasised.

    Mid Day’s Patel stressed on the fact that there was a huge challenge for Mumbai papers since competition had increased. “The challenge is to retain our readers and advertisers. Today a paper is judged by its weight (number of pages) and not by its content. That needs to change since it can prove to be dangerous for journalists,” he said.

    According to Mathew, the main challenge newspapers were facing was that they were “becoming like a niche magazine with a huge number of supplements on sports, lifestyle, career etc because the editors don’t know what their readers want.”

    He said that the way forward was going to be in utility journalism wherein the players would invest in finding out what appeals to their readers. “The future is going to be local news but there will be a few issues that need to be overcome in that area. Also you have to establish emotional connect with the readers. Multi-skilled journalists who can write for a newspaper, mobile, Internet, magazine and can also anchor on television are what is needed. “

    De, on the other hand, said, “If the truth be told, every newspaper is an advertorial as everything comes with a rate card. As of now, what we are facing is survival and that is the biggest challenge. Vision and passion is what is missing today among journalists and print media owners and if that is brought on, there is still hope.”
     

  • ATN to Launch Sony Entertainment Television across Canada

    MUMBAI: Toronto-headquartered Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) has received regulatory approval from the CRTC to add Sony Entertainment Television Asia (SET Asia), to the list of Eligible Satellite services for distribution across Canada on a digital basis.
     
     

    Sony Entertainment Television is seen in over 40 million households throughout India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Middle East. ATN in collaboration with the Canadian Cable and Satellite Industry will soon announce the launch date and plans for this service.
     
     

    ATN owns and operates six television channels across Canada and has been awarded 16 more digital television licenses by the CRTC. As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, ATN will soon add Zee Cinema, Zee Gujarati and Zee Music to its currently popular South Asian bouquet of channels across Canada.

    ATN has programming alliances with Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Television, B4U, Alpha ETC Punjabi, Jaya TV, ARY Digital, Aastha TV, NDTV, ATN Bangla and Kairali.’

  • ‘Fear Factor’ to shoot in homes across the US

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    MUMBAI: With so new many reality shows scheduled to debut in the US in the coming months the challenge for those in existence is in keeping the concept fresh. The producers of Fear Factor are looking at doing just that.
     

    Fear Factor which typically films in and around e Los Angeles will shoot 22 home invasion stunts this summer featuring fans who won’t have to leave their homes to eat bugs or perform similarly crazy stunts. Winners will receive a $5,000 Capital One credit card. In India Sony recently bought the format rights to the show. The US version airs on AXN.

    The producers of the show in the US have announced open calls. The show’s producers have stated that they are now searching for the most energetic and fearless households- families, friends, or roommates – to convert from Fear Factor watchers to Fear Factor participants, right in their own living room.
     
     
     

    The producers are looking to invade homes in several American cities like San Francisco, Boston and Memphis. All aspirants have to do is visit the Fear Factor website and send an email. The aspiring participants should include a brief description of why the producers should travel all the way to their homes and give them the chance to play the ultimate Fear Factor Home Game.

    In the past Fear Factor which is hosted by comedian Joe Rogan, has visited New York, Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida to film special episodes. An attraction based on the show also recently opened at Universal theme parks in California and Florida.
     
     
     
  • Star News’ ‘Red Alert’ and ‘Sansani’ exposes hundreds of ‘tantriks’ across the country

    Star News’ ‘Red Alert’ and ‘Sansani’ exposes hundreds of ‘tantriks’ across the country

    MUMBAI: Star News recently made a bold exposé of ‘tantriks’ in the country, which blew the lid off a startling and rather widespread racket. The channel uncovered the fraud on a daily basis for 21 days through its popular crime bulletins – Sansani and Red Alert. Captured on camera, these tantriks have admitted to gross wrongdoing. Some of the crimes perpetrated by this widespread tribe of offenders include rape, extortion and even murder.

    These tantriks often initiate their trickery with a Rs 100 fee and later extract anywhere between Rs 5000 – Rs 100,000 making false promises to the innocent victims. If the victims refuse to comply with their demands they threaten to get them possessed by an evil spirit and other dire circumstances.

    Subsequent to the overwhelming response from the viewers on the initial revelations, Star News kicked off an aggressive campaign to expose this evil. The channel threw open a dedicated phone line for viewers to report about such fraudulent tantriks they have encountered or are aware of.

    Close to 40,000 viewers called in since the night of 27 December, 2004, and complaints poured in from different parts of the country, which in itself was a proof of the rather wide spread social evil. This campaign lasted 21 days and resulted in exposing the conniving ways of close to 100 tantriks across the country and the arrests of many tantriks in Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur and in other parts of the country. Many others have even shut shop due to fear of being exposed.

    In some cases, Star News reporters accompanied the complainants to help them recover what is their rightful and hard earned money. In most cases reporters have ingeniously disguised themselves as customers and captured these tantriks ‘in the act’ on camera and exposed their wrong ways.

    This campaign reinforces Star News’ promise to its viewers and illustrates once gain its investigative prowess.

  • TBWA Worldwide bags coveted awards across 4 continents

    NEW DELHI: TBWA Worldwide, the creative advertising network and part of the Omnicom group, has proved its supremacy across four continents by bagging the Network and Agency of the Year 2002 award .

    The other agencies vying for the Agency Network of the year included DDB Needham, BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi and Lowe, states a release.

    Making its mark in innovative advertising, TBWA Worldwide has also been recognized by the advertising gospel – Campaign magazine for its award winning campaigns for John Smith’s and ‘Five’ (formerly, Channel 5, in the UK), across US, Europe and Asia for 2002. ‘Five’ garnered the honour of Campaign’sMedium of the Year award.

    According to the press release, TBWA Worldwide also won the Campaign of the Year award for Apple “Switchers” in the US, Sony Playstation in Europe and S K Telecom “Be the Reds” in Asia.

    In 2002, best selling ale brand, John Smith’s was at the centre of a whirlwind campaign, recently named by Campaign magazine as the Campaign of the year. Challenged with following up on the successful “cardboard cutout, no non-sense man” campaign, the agency team helped tap into the core values of the John Smith’s brand and articulate it more explicitly and dimensionally than before, adds the release.

    “We are extremely happy that TBWA has received such accolades from the advertising and marketing community. It is elating to note that TBWA has emerged as the chosen ‘Network and Agency of the Year 2002’ while competing for the global title with other advertising majors”, TBWA Worldwide, president and CEO Jean Marie Dru is quoted as saying in the release.

    Meanwhile, TBWA Anthem, India has made significant gains with a spate of recent client wins including BBC World Service, Hughes Escorts, Loctite, Samsonite and British Gas Broadband.