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Tag: Airtel

  • Airtel to acquire Warids Congo Brazzaville Operations

    Airtel to acquire Warids Congo Brazzaville Operations

    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel (Airtel), a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in over 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has entered into a definitive agreement with the Warid Group (Warid) to fully acquire Warid Congo SA. The agreement is subject to regulatory and statutory approvals.

     

    The agreement marks the second in-country acquisition by Airtel in Africa. It had acquired Warid’s Uganda operations earlier this year. The latest acquisition will make Airtel the largest mobile operator in Congo Brazzaville with around 2.6 million customers. At present, Airtel is the second largest operator in the country with over 1.6 million customers, while Warid is the third largest with around one million customers.

     

    The agreement looks at bringing together the strengths of Airtel and Warid in Congo Brazzaville and benefit customers in the form of affordable tariffs, superior 2G/3G network, affordable voice and data services and superior customer care. In addition, existing Warid customers in Congo Brazzaville will join Airtel’s global network of over 280 million customers and enjoy the benefits of ‘One Airtel’ network with affordable roaming rates across Africa and South Asia, besides other exciting bouquet of innovative 2G and 3G services.

     

    Speaking on the agreement, Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (International) Manoj Kohli says: “This acquisition is in line with our stated strategy of strengthening our market position through in-country acquisitions, as and when suitable opportunities come along. We are at an advance stage of successfully integrating Waird’s Uganda operations with that of Airtel and look forward to a similarly swift transition in Congo Brazzaville as well. As already demonstrated in Uganda, the merger will bring more value for the customers in the form of affordable data and roaming tariffs, innovative products, Airtel Money, world-class networks and customer care. We would like to express our deep gratitude to the government and look forward to its support to this deal.”

     

    Speaking on the agreement Warid, Congo Brazzaville board member Sriram Yarlagadda says: “This agreement creates a win–win situation for the customers and provide them with an opportunity to be part of one of the largest mobile services providers in the world. The customers can look forward to enjoy affordable voice tariffs and 3G data services on the most extensive network. On this occasion, we would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the government for its support and look forward to its continued cooperation towards a successful transaction.”

     

    With presence across 17 African countries, Airtel is the largest telecom service provider across the continent in terms of geographical reach and had over 66 million customers at the end of quarter ended September, 2013. Globally, Airtel is ranked as the fourth largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers.

  • North East Live in talks with DTH players

    North East Live in talks with DTH players

    Kolkata: ‘North East Live’, the first 24×7 satellite news channel launched in Arunachal Pradesh at the beginning of this month, is in talks with DTH (direct-to-home) players like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel, etc to get itself integrated in the list of channels offered to subscribers by them. For this, the channel has earmarked an annual budget of Rs 12 crore-Rs 13 crore.

    In Arunachal Pradesh, the DTH players charge around Rs 4.5 crore every year as carriage fees.

    The news channel also plans to start a beauty pageant very soon. It has tied up with Femina Miss India in order to make participating in the contest easier for the girls from north east India. The girls can directly get in touch with the channel.

    ‘North East Live’ is a sister channel of Guwahati-based Pride East Entertainment Private Limited running three other channels-namely ‘Newslive’, a news channel; while ‘Rang’ and ‘Ramdhenu’ are general entertainment channels (GEC) channels.

    “This is the fourth venture of Pride East Entertainment. The news would be telecast in Hindi, English, Assamese and Bengali. We would focus on the political beat more as north eastern states are likely to see many developments,” said Caushiq Bezboruah, chief executive officer, Pride East Entertainments.

    Pride East Entertainments has around 350 employs working for them. For the ‘North East Live’, there is a team of 50 people. “We have set up a studio at Arunachal Pradesh and for the Guwahati reporting, the infrastructure and manpower of ‘Newslive’ are used,” said Bezboruah.

    Talking about their plan to get them included on the DTH platform, Bezboruah says that the DTH players have strong foothold as compared to local cable operators in the state. “The players would take a view of the percentage of our acceptance among viewers. They will do a survey probably,” he said.

    While talking about the tie up with Femina Miss India, he said that many aspiring women miss the opportunity because of the difficulty of travelling to Kolkata. “But this would make it easier for them,” he said.

    He even thinks that with this new works out, the people across the country and abroad will be able to know more about north east India via their channels. “The information about north east India missed by the mainstream channels will reach the rest of the country and the world from now on through this satellite channel,” he said.

    On being asked about the media scenario in the north eastern region of the country, Bezboruah said it is very similar to the other parts of the country and revenue generation is challenging.

  • Vuclip to power video of Airtel VAS entertainment store

    Vuclip to power video of Airtel VAS entertainment store

    NEW DELHI: Vuclip is powering the video section of the Re 1 Entertainment Store at telecom major Bharti Airtel.

    The mobile entertainment store of Airtel offers services including music, games, photos and videos.

    According to the mobile VAS deal, Vuclip is the mobile video media partner responsible for the technology, product, analytics, and content aggregation engine for the video section of the Airtel Entertainment Store.

    Launched on 16 August, the Airtel entertainment store has garnered more than 10 million consumers accessing the site.

    Airtel India CEO – Data N Rajaram said the Re 1 video initiative is the beginning of Airtel’s effort to bring video to the masses. In the entertainment store’s initial weeks, it has received an overwhelming response in terms of new user acquisition as well as engagement.  

    Airtel entertainment store offers more than 250,000 videos that runs on Vuclip’s dynamic adaptive transcoding technology that streams video on a real-time basis without buffering on any device and on any network.

    Mobile VAS is expected to grow to $200 billion by 2017 from $161 billion in 2012. Recently, Aircel and Techzone have tied up for offering mobile video download called as Video store@ Re 1 to Aircel subscribers. Aircel’s Video store@ Re1 will offer a library of 20,000 + videos to its subscribers at Re 1/video. Apart from viewing and downloading the users will also be able to share the videos with their friends via Facebook and Twitter.

  • Reebok India launches Running Squad for Delhi Half Marathon 2013

    Reebok India launches Running Squad for Delhi Half Marathon 2013

    MUMBAI: Reinforcing its commitment to fitness in India, Reebok has announced the ‘Reebok Running Squad’. The initiative is aimed at training consumers for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon scheduled to take place on 15 December 2013.

     

    An integral part of the Reebok Fit India movement, the Reebok Running Squad provides consumers professional training and guidance across seven locations in New Delhi.  Runners will also get a chance to earn their Reebok branded special runner kits, personalised training schedules and many more exciting prizes., A former national level marathon and Arjuna award recipient Sunita Godara is the master trainer for the program.

     

    The Reebok Running Squad has been specially designed keeping in mind that running the half marathon requires stamina, endurance and strength. According to adidas India managing director Erick Haskell, “Reebok is committed to fitness and through our initiatives we wish to engage the customer at every touch point and encourage them to adopt the philosophy of ‘Fit for Life’. Reebok Running Squad is a one of a kind fitness initiative which has been designed to specifically train consumers to run a half marathon or develop the right running technique for their everyday run. We hope that through this initiative we can encourage more and more people to participate in regular fitness activities and lead a more active and healthy lifestyle’’  

     

    The Reebok Running Squad training program will begin on 15 October 2013 and will include eleven weeks of grueling workouts.

  • Why Star sponsored Indian cricket for 2013-14?

    Why Star sponsored Indian cricket for 2013-14?

    MUMBAI: It came as a bolt from the blue – actually in this case the greens on which the sport of cricket is played. The BCCI has decided to award the title sponsorship of all domestic and international tournaments in India for 2013-2014 for a reported price of Rs 2 crore per match, around Rs 1.5 crore less than that paid by the previous sponsor Airtel.

     

    What goes? Why is Star going hell for leather putting money behind the game? One can’t but forget that the Star Group beat competition from Multi Screen Media (Sony) to bag the six-year broadcast and digital rights of India’s international cricket matches at home and domestic events like Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and the Irani Trophy. The Rupert Murdoch-owned company’s six-year contract is valued at Rs 3,851 crore and will cover 96 matches in all.

     

    One of the reasons, Star India COO  Sanjay Gupta says is that the network is going all out to promote not just cricket but also other sports. Says he: “We are betting big on sports and even more betting on cricket. Currently we have the rights to telecast the matches on television as well as on other multi-screens.”

     

    As a strategy the Star group, he says, is ideally looking for something similar to what it did for IPL, Star sponsored IPL through its brand – Star Plus. Plans are focused on deepening its relation with cricket and also using cricket to promote its brands in a big way.

     

    “So looking from the Star brand point of view we would like to use this sponsorship, for obviously Star Sports and also Star Plus and Life OK,” expounds Sanjay.

     

    He further states that Star will use its entertainment network to build the awareness and enthusiasm for cricket likewise. And then conversely use the cricket platform to build awareness for other sports in the country. “So when people are watching cricket we should be able to sample other sports to them, and thus give them more to watch, so that is the strategy we are putting in place,” says Gupta.

     

    Telecasting the action on the field in different languages is another tack. “One of the major challenges of sports in the country has been that for the last 10 years, sports were being telecast in only one language and that’s English, but that is not the primary language for consumption in most of India.”

     

    Research has revealed that TV viewers would be better served if they get to consume sports coverage in either Hindi or their local languages. “As we know that in entertainment the language used makes a big difference, so our attempt is to build content for both key sports – cricket and football – in Hindi, so that people are able to consume the content in a much better manner,” exults Gupta.

     

    Star will continue the English commentary for both cricket and football as it has a great panel of commentators for both these sports and the content is enjoyed by a huge chunk of its viewer base. “But we are equally building affinity with the content in the Hindi speaking markets (HSMs) and the response has been really encouraging and proves that our strategy is working well with our loyal fan base,” Gupta explains.

     

    With digitisation still an ongoing process what kind of changes can be witnessed in the near future? Reveals Gupta, “It hasn’t really brought about a fundamental change, but people who were in analogue had limited access to content as they could only see 20-30 channels, and some of the sports channels were hit at that time as many of the operators would replace it with some other channel if a live match was not on, may be a movie channel or something else. But with digitisation kicking in not only sports but the content for overall channels has improved dramatically and that’s a welcome change as people will be able to watch the sports channels everyday rather than on a need-be basis.”

     

    Star is striving to build its sports portfolio, and that is the reason that it is trying to get in other sports like football with the Barclays Premier League, motor-racing through F1 and several other sports.

     

    Giving his view on HD as a format Gupta says, “It is very powerful, and we initiated it a couple of years back, as the quality of experience goes up, and with roughly two million HD households consuming HD content across different platforms, the growth of HD will only accelerate.”

     

    Star has recently also launched Star World Premiere HD only strengthening the fact that it believes that is a very big opportunity for all premium content including sports. “We are going to be investing heavily in HD content across genres as we seriously believe HD is the way ahead,” says Gupta.
    Bringing about interactivity with the audience is also something that Star plans to bring about in the near future. “We have already seen that with www.starsports.com when we put cricket, there is a lot of interactivity even in content consumption and not only commenting & social networking but people can see the match and equally see the players’ performances and enjoy highlights even as the live action is going on in the field. So we do see interactivity as a very big tool for the younger generation of the country to connect with sports,” ends Gupta.

  • Mogae launches mobile couponing ecosystem

    Mogae launches mobile couponing ecosystem

    MUMBAI: Mogae Media today announced that its MoCoupons business vertical has signed up over 2000 grocers and general merchants in Delhi in its very first month of operation. MoCoupons is Mogae’s mobile couponing ecosystem by which mobile subscribers receive discounts. Hitherto, while mobile discount coupons could be originated by different brands, the encashing of the discount, or the offer was limited to company owned outlets which are very few in numbers.

    MoCoupons is a major step forward in the last yard connectivity between consumers and brands,” says Tanya Goyal, Executive Director, Mogae Media. “We at Mogae have invested a lot of time and money in creating an end-to-end solution for FMCG brands which have a large number of retail outlets that they need to reach across dispersed geographies. We can now target not only the desired customer profile for FMCG companies, but more importantly fulfil the redemption of the coupons through on-ground tie-ups with the local kiryana stores”.

    The MoCoupons couponing system not only serves, tracks, validates and encashes coupons delivered on the mobile to consumers, but also gratifies the trade in one complete transaction loop. The entire system has been developed in-house by Mogae Digital, the sister company of Mogae Media.

    “We have a large field force out in Delhi signing up grocers, general merchants and OTC pharmacies. In the first month we have crossed 2000 signups. We are currently testing the coupons of two of our partner FMCG companies. In the month of September we will cross 4000-5000 signups in Delhi and NCR,” adds Tanya Goyal.

    Mogae Media plans to cover all the metros by end of 2013. In the next 12 months thereafter, MoCoupons will extend to top 20 cities across India.
    Mogae Media, co-promoted by Sandeep and Tanya Goyal, former India JV partners of Dentsu, raised Rs 100 crores in private equity earlier this year from Multiples. Mogae Media are the sole and exclusive partners of India’s largest telecom operator, Airtel for mobile monetization. Today Mogae Media handles over 120 brands for mAdvertising.

  • Five brands sign on-air deals for Bundesliga on NEO

    Five brands sign on-air deals for Bundesliga on NEO

    NEO Sports Broadcast has announced a list of sponsors for the German Football League.

     

    The associate sponsors for the Bundesliga’s 51st season in 2013-14 are Airtel, Lava, Loreal, Bose and Nike. More brands are in the process of signing up the channel revealed.

     

    The number of sponsors announced is amongst the highest for any football league broadcast in the country. Through these associations, NEO has nearly sold out all inventories on the Bundesliga, the broadcaster claims.

     

    NEO Prime and NEO Sports will showcase close to 300 hours of live and non-live programming from the 2013-14 Bundesliga season. Apart from the live action every weekend, this includes previews, match highlights and magazine shows covering the latest news and developments from the league.

     

    Live coverage of the current Bundesliga season on NEO runs from August 2013 to May 2014.

     

    NEO Sports Broadcast Sr. VP advertising revenue Sudip Roy said, “Football viewership is on the rise in India, and among the top European football leagues in the last season, the Bundesliga had the highest growth in reach on the digital cable platform. Fans love watching winning teams and with Bayern Munich having won a historic treble in 2012-13, we only expect the league to further grow in popularity. Sponsors have recognised this and we are delighted with their support.”

     

    Alliance Advertising director Arshad Nizam said, “These are exhilarating times for the broadcast of professional football in India. The interest shown by multiple sponsors in the Bundesliga reaffirms the growth of the commercial value of the sport here.”

  • Big Magic strengthens distribution network, hops on board Videocon d2h

    Big Magic strengthens distribution network, hops on board Videocon d2h

    MUMBAI: Big Magic, the flagship GEC from the Reliance Broadcast Network stable amplifies its reach with the announcement of a distribution deal with Videocon d2h. After meeting with a great success in the heartland of India, it is Big Magic’s endeavor to extend its assorted entertainment offering across the Hindi Speaking markets and this alliance takes it to an additional 8mn subscriber base.

    The alliance allows Videocon d2h to offer its viewers an excellent television viewing experience, while the GEC reaches its content to a relevant audience base across relevant markets. Its programming mix which ranges from family dramas, crime shows, reality shows, cookery shows, game shows to weekend movies promise to offer a stimulating and refreshing entertainment experience. The Channel, which launched in April 2011, is in the process of strengthening its reach, offering audiences a programming offering that is backed by their very own predilections.

    Speaking on the occasion, Big Magic business head Sunil Kumaran said: “We are happy to announce our alliance with Videocon d2h, which allows Big Magic to immediately grow reach by an additional eight million subscriber base. We are confident of our product, which has been designed as per audience penchants and want to strengthen our reach. We look forward to reaching a matchless entertainment offering to maximum audiences of India.”

    Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added: “Big Magic has performed well since its launch. We are extremely happy to provide this channel on our platform as it promises content across various genres. We are certain that our audience will enjoy and appreciate the addition of this channel on our platform.”

    Big Magic is already available across key DTH players ranging Airtel, DD Direct, Dish TV, Reliance Digital TV along with Hathway, Incable, Digicable, DEN, 7 Star, ABS, Siticable, Star Broadband and GTPL amongst others.

  • Airtel’s Aapli Boli, Aapla Network campaign rings in Maharashtra

    Airtel’s Aapli Boli, Aapla Network campaign rings in Maharashtra

    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa says Hello to Maharashtra with a new campaign – “Aapli Boli, Aapla Network”. The new advertisement reiterates Airtel’s commitment to offer seamless network connectivity and enrich lives of its customers.

    The new TVC showcases varied cultural background of different districts in Maharashtra yet connected with one network anywhere, anytime! It highlights the strength of Airtel’s network across the state helping customers to stay connected with their loved ones wherever they go – from Kolapur to Solapur, Nasik to Nagpur , Auranagabad to Pune!

    Mr. Ashok Ganpathy, Hub CEO – Maharashtra, Goa & Gujarat, Bharti Airtel said “Our new campaign, “aapli boli aapla network” reinforces the seamless network experience Airtel provides in the state of Maharashtra- a large state with a rich and diverse culture. The campaign connects the brand with the region through its catchy and inclusive lyrics- bringing in a feeling of togetherness. We believe this campaign will further strengthen our brand in the minds of consumers, whilst they enjoy the superior network experience.”

    Powered by its extensive coverage reach, Airtel has delivered on all network quality benchmarks in Maharashtra as defined by TRAI – for instance Availability of Network, Ease of originating a Call or a Data Session, Voice Clarity and Ability to successfully complete the Calls and Data Sessions.

    Airtel has planned a strong 360- degree campaign spread using TV, outdoor, radio, print (selective) and retail signage’s to support the campaign.

    Created by the media agency Taproot, the campaign complements its earlier brand campaigns ‘Har Friend Zaroori Hai Yaar’ campaign and ‘Jo Tera Hai Woh Mera Hai’ to tap the youth audience.

  • Nirmika & The Few Good Men Live at Hard Rock Café, Mumbai

    Nirmika & The Few Good Men Live at Hard Rock Café, Mumbai

    After playing to a packed crowd at Hard Rock Café, Pune, city-based pop-rock outfit Nirmika & The Few Good Men are all set to hit the stage at Hard Rock Café, Mumbai on August 1, from 8.30 pm onwards. Known for their bilingual numbers and lyrically rich compositions, the band will perform a mix of originals from their upcoming debut album as well as covers at this gig.

    WHAT: Nirmika & The Few Good Men Live in Performance
    WHEN: August 1, from 8.30 pm onwards
    WHERE: Hard Rock Café, Mumbai
    ENTRY: Rs 150
    CONTACT: 6651 1209

    BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

    Nirmika & The Few Good Men is a pop-rock, reggae and urban folk band band based in Mumbai, fronted by singer-songwriter Nirmika Singh. Besides performing their Hindi-English songs, they’ve also added regional languages like Konkani and Brij to their repertoire. In the recent past, Hungama Music’s digital music platform Artist Aloud chronicled the band’s journey by filming a rockumentary on them for their initiative – TGIF: Thank God It’s Rock On Friday-a music documentary series that has covered established acts like Parikrama, Raghu Dixit, Agnee,Something Relevant among others. Their single, Mujhko Fikar Kya had also topped the Artist Aloud indie music charts.

    The band comprises Nirmika Singh (vocals), Cris Victor (bass), Jose Neil Gomes (Keyboard/sax/violin/flute), John Fernandes (guitars) and Sanjay Gupta (drums).

    Recently, Nirmika was also listed as one of the most promising female artistes in Gibson Guitar’s feature on women who are rocking the indie music scene.
    http://gibsonguitar.in/News-Lifestyle/Features/hi-in/The-Women-Rocking-the-Indian-Indie-Music-Scene.aspx
    Currently, the band is in the process of recording its debut album, Shor Macha, which will comprise of nine multi-generic and multilingual songs.
    GIGS
    The band has performed at live music venues across cities such as Blue Frog (Mumbai), F Bar (Delhi), Firangi Paani (Mumbai), Howzzat (Gurgaon), QBA (Delhi), Cavala (Goa) among many others. Their corporate shows include those for Airtel, Nokia, BMW, Xerox, SAIL, Bajaj, Tuborg. As a participant on travel show, Road Diaries on UTV Bindass, Nirmika also composed the official song, Shor Macha, for the reality series. Here’s the video: http://youtu.be/hJmqubvlPsE