ITV

Tag: Amazon

  • IPL: Oppo, Vivo, Jio & Amazon ads ruled

    BENGALURU: Mobile handsets and mobile services, including data services ruled the air on the channels that broadcast the tenth season of the cricket T20 Indian Premier League (IPL 10 or IPL 2017) according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) for the weeks during which live IPL 10 matches were aired. The number of insertions by the top 10 advertisers and brands during IPL10 were 22.9 percent and 10.4 percent more respectively than the spots booked by the top10 advertisers and brands during IPL 9.

    The excitement built up for the event saw IPL 10 recording the highest viewership for the season in week 15 till date for all the Sony Pictures Network (SPN) channels that broadcast the event  – the two Hindi Movie channels – Sony Max and two Sports channel’s Sony Six.(English) and Sony ESPN (commentary in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Hindi).These channels have been collectively termed as IPL10 channels in this paper.

    IPL 10 commenced on Wednesday, 5 April 2017. The mega T20 cricket bonanza played by 8 teams comprising of over 200 players including 72 international players concluded with the finals on Sunday, 21 May 2017, after 60 matches  (59 played, one washed out) spread over 47 days.

    BARC week 14 commenced on Saturday, 1 April 2017 and ended on Friday, 7 April 2017. Three days of play with three matches played happened in week 14. The event concluded in the beginning of week 21 – only one match –the final, was played during that week. Ten matches were played during each of BARC weeks15, 16 and 18. Nine matches were played in weeks 17 and 19 and seven planned for week 20, with just one in week 21 as mentioned above.

    A total of 21,964 insertions were made by the top 10 advertisers during IPL 10 on the channels that aired the event. Last year the top advertisers had 17,870 spots on these channels.55.6 percent (12,223 insertions) of these spots were booked by two Mobile phone suppliers and two mobile services each – Oppo India (Oppo) was the largest advertiser on the SPN channels during IPL10 with 4,285 insertions followed by Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd with3,767 insertions. Mobile and data services provider Reliance Jio Infocomm was the third biggest advertiser during IPL 10 on IPL channels with 2,504 insertions. Vodafone Essar Limited was ranked the seventh biggest advertiser with 1,667 insertions. Please refer to the table below for the 10 largest advertisers on IPL broadcasting channels during IPL 10 weeks.

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    Oppo split the insertions mainly with two variants of it mobile phone model – Oppo F3 plus, which was the most advertised brand during IPL 10 on the channels that aired IPL 10 with 2,909 insertions and ads that combined both Oppo F3 and F3 plus with 1,376 insertions. The second most advertised brand during IPL 10 on IPL channels was Jio Digital Life with 2,317 insertions.  Like Oppo, Vivo split its spots with both variants of it mobile phone – the Vivo V5 and the Vivo V5 plus.Another mobile brand from Micromax – the Micromax Canvas 6 series was the eighth most advertised brand during IPL 10 on IPL channels with 916 insertions. Please refer to the table below for the most advertised brands during IPL 10 and IPL 9.

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  • Amazon ropes in Excel for Inside Edge (updated)

    MUMBAI: Amazon is leap frogging and getting more and more local production houses on board for the launch of its premium video service — Prime Video — in the country. After getting Vishal Bhardwaj and Vidhu Vinod Chopra on board, Amazon has now managed to rope in Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar-owned Excel Entertainment to make its show — Power Play, it is stated on Excel’s web site.

    Amazon Prime Video and Excel Media and Entertainment are also coming together to launch Amazon India’s original show, titled ‘Inside Edge’. It is a story that does not mince words, pulls no punch, and takes no prisoner. And beneath it all, it is a story of passion, courage, and love, New Kerala Dotcom reported.

    Amazon Video India director and country head Nitesh Kripalani said that they were very excited to announce Amazon India’s original “Inside Edge” partnering with Excel, launching in over 200+ countries worldwide. Indians love both cricket and entertainment; and Excel’s expertise in storytelling makes them the perfect choice for Amazon Original.

    Excel Entertainment’s director Ritesh Sidhwani confirmed that they are working on a series but has not revealed anything about Amazon’s involvement or other details.

    Sidhwani said that they have worked on the shows for the eight-nine months. Power Play is a show based on cricket and showbiz-theme. A person aware of the matter has suggested that Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti are also involved in the making of Power Play.

    This move from Excel is also tied to its move into the digital space. The company has recently acquired a 10 per cent stake in mobile application Flickbay.

    Another crime-based show is also said to be in the works. It is a gangster epic set in Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. The production for the same will start in December. It is said to be loosely based on Narcos, a series produced by Netflix. It will also be in Hindi and English and the producers will get a presence on Amazon’s global platform, including some degree of branding and promotion.

    Amazon has set aside around $300 million from Jeff Bezos’ recently announced $3 billion additional investment. The amount will be used to produce original content as well as acquire rights of the local content. Amazon has already hired Aparna Purohit as head for creative development.

    Netflix, which launched in India last year, has also announced its first Indian original series – Sacred Games.The series will be based on Indian Author Vikram Chandra’s critically acclaimed best-selling novel of the same name. For this, it has partnered with Phantom Films to produce and shoot the Hindi-English series in multiple locations of India.

  • Cricket, movies, TV shows and Amazon, according to Netflix’s Reed Hastings

    MUMBAI: Hotstar, Amazon, and Sony Pictures Networks India can heave a sigh of relief. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has stated that the global streaming powerhouse is going to continue to focus on entertainment; cricket is not on the table at all. What this means that it will be refraining from participating in the IPL cricket rights tender which will be coming up for bidding soon.

    Speaking with CNBC on Squawk Alley on 31 May from the Code Conference in California, Hastings was pretty emphatic that both, sports and news, are a no-go area for Netflix. He said: “You know, no plans on news and sports. Those are tough businesses and we’ve got a lot of room to grow in movies and TV shows. Expanding into standup comedy. Unscripted. So, we are going to really focus on that on a global basis.”

    He went on to add that Netflix could do movies about sports as the company was focused on video content that has repeat viewing. Said he: “It’s things that you don’t only want to consume once. Whereas the Warriors and the Cavaliers (two NBA teams) are going up again and people will be intense on that and then it won’t – you know, afterwards, there is no after viewing. Whereas our shows, there really is.”

    Hastings agreed that India was definitely a complicated market for a US company “But, for an Indian company, they feel fine about it,” he said. “We still have a lot to learn. Now, we’ve done awfully well in Latin America and in Europe and, of course, in North America. So, we’ve learned some things. But, we have a lot of room to grow in Asia and a lot to figure out still.”

    He is not disturbed by the explosion of OTT players rushing to grab a few cents from the consumer’s wallet. “Around the world, there’s all kinds of new options coming up that give people opportunity. It is like saying there are too many mobile phone apps. You know, there’s 100,000 but you probably only pay attention to 30. But, different people have a different set of them. So, i think it is great,” he said.

    Hastings disclosed that Netflix is more about being consumed on the mobile phone in Asia – as compared to the US where consumers are spending more time on it on traditional widescreen TVs. “About two-thirds of the viewing is on large screen televisions, either from your Xbox or Playstation or directly with the smart TV. When you get used to watching on a mobile phone, you watch all kinds of content and sports on a phone. You adapt to that,” he explained.

    “We are just doing great content and it is available on any screen. You paid $1,000 for a new television, you are going to use it. You look for the shows and the images. With that and with HDR, which has a color intensity. It makes the TV just pop. 4k transforms the in-home experience. That’s one of the big drivers and with mobile on the low end.”

    Hastings said that cord-cutting is not really being driven by the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. “Very few people have cut the cord. We are about 50 million in the US, and we have seen maybe two million or three million of 50 (million) cut the cord,” he elucidated.

    “Don’t think of it as a big overlap that we are driving cord cutting that is probably mostly from pricing. In general, if you look at cord cutting, it is like two to three per cent per year, like broadcast ratings over the last 30 years. It will take a very long, slow, secular decline no big calamity and then they will adjust the economics.”

    According to him, the rapid expansion of Amazon is what is alarming. He said: “Well, they are so scary. I mean, everything Amazon does is just so amazing. I mean, how are they doing so many different business areas so well? It’s like they are trying to repeal the basic laws of business of limited capability. So, we are continuing to watch them and be impressed with them. And they are helping to grow the industry because they are investing in the content.”

    However, he was clear that Netflix is not going to go head to head with the giant. He explained: “If we try to out-amazon Amazon, then that’s a losing battle. So, what we have to do is be the specialty play. We are trying to be Starbucks and they are trying to be Walmart. So, we have to have brand-intense love and focus. And, what they do is incredible at their breadth. So no, we wouldn’t focus on those things. We would focus on how do we be, really, the embodiment of entertainment, and joy, and movies and TV shows.”

    He maintained that Netflix’s content budgets are only going to grow. Its content purse for 2017 has around $6 billion in it, but that is not going to be enough going forward.

    “As we grow the membership base, we want to grow the content budget. There are so many great shows on Netflix but there are so many great shows we don’t yet have. We are going to continue as we grow the membership base to try to get more shows and more movies. (All this has) Been great for talent and writers for everyone. There is so much competition now between all the new players plus the existing players, like HBO, are beginning to grow. It is this new age of television. Nobody is sure where it is going, except for the quality of movies and TV shows is continuing to decline.”

  • To The New & Amazon decode digital transformation

    MUMBAI: To The New, a leading digital technology company, in association with Amazon Web Services, organized ‘Digital Transformation Summit’, a one of its kind exclusive event to decode digital transformation in Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry.

    The event was attended by technology leaders from almost all the M&E companies in NCR including Tata Sky, Times Internet, HT Media, NDTV, Den Network, Zee, BusinessWorld, Network 18, India TV News, Airtel D2H, News Nation, Sahara Media, A2Z News and Amar Ujala.

    To The New, a leading digital technology company, in association with Amazon Web Services, organized ‘Digital Transformation Summit’, a one of its kind exclusive event to decode digital transformation in Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry at a Delhi hotel.

    A remarkable event, driven by powerful discussions, the evening started with an exemplary keynote by Dr. Jai Menon, Group Director, Technology, HT Media. Dr. Menon discussed the e2i framework, a paradigm shift in the M&E space from an enterprise style of working to an internet style. It was followed by an engaging talk by Deepak Khullar from Amazon Web Services on how media companies can effectively leverage cloud for better performance, scalability, big data and analytics. Narinder Kumar, EVP, Technology at To The New spoke about innovations & trends in M&E industry and how companies are leveraging digital technologies to acquire and retain customers.

    The highlight of the evening was an interesting panel discussion which featured an impressive line of panelists such as Sudipta Banerjee, CTO, Wynk; Mahesh Subramanian, CTO, ScoopWhoop Media; Bharat Gupta, CMO, Jagran New Media; Retesh Gondal, Technology Head, ABP News Network; Ashish Bhansali, Product Head, ALT Balaji and Sushant Rabra, Director, Management Consulting, KPMG. The discussion was moderated by Deepak Mittal, Co-Founder & CEO, To The New, an industry veteran, who engaged the distinguished panelists for an insightful discussion.

    The industry experts highlighted the current scenario of digital disruption led by competitive marketing strategies & adoption of digital channels and technologies. They also discussed the key challenges existing in the ecosystem and their strategic move to counter the same. The event was attended by many top leaders in India, a list that includes eminent CTOs, CIOs, CXOs and media experts from different enterprises.

    In entirety, the Summit focused on the adoption of digital transformation and its impact on the M&E industry. With the rapid internet penetration in the age of Smartphones and OTT platforms, online video consumption has been increasing significantly. This pragmatic shift urges M&E players to create new revenue models, distribute content on multiple devices and platforms, provide superior omni-channel experiences, and increase engagement.

    Mittal stated, “We believe that the M&E players hold great potential to break barriers and create significant business opportunities. The idea behind conducting this event was to address all M&E enterprises that need to embrace digital transformation by exploring scalable technologies and re-inventing methodologies, to succeed in the highly competitive digital era.”

  • IGS-powered Infosys Data Lake on Amazon Web launched

    MUMBAI: Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services, announced the launch of the Infosys Boundaryless Data Lake offering powered by its Information Grid Solution on Amazon Web Services (AWS).The solution allows enterprises to do more with their data by making it possible for them to leverage the insights it provides to reduce time-to-market, create new revenue models, reduce latency and improve operational efficiencies through near real-time decision making.

    With the vast volume of information and data available, companies need to rethink ways to create and drive business intelligence insights without boundaries. Keeping this objective in mind, Infosys has developed its Information Grid Solution that powers the Data Lake offering on AWS. The solution enables universal access to data and has the ability to perform analytics pervasively, thereby amplifying the potential to get new business insights.

    A leading consumer packaged goods company leveraged the Information Grid Solution to re-platform its global distributor sales management application on AWS. The solution significantly reduced end-to-end data processing time, addressed performance issues with visualization and led to overall cost reduction.

    A professional tools manufacturer built its Data Lake on AWS using Infosys’ Boundaryless Data Lake offering leveraging AWS native services such as Amazon Elastic MapReduce (Amazon EMR), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Aurora. The solution helped reduce organizational complexity by transforming and correlating data from discrete sources, while optimizing manufacturing, supply chains and SKUs listing.

    “Infosys partnered with Levi Strauss & Co’s e-commerce business to build a first party data analytics solution on AWS,” said Abigail Johnson, Senior Program Manager eCommerce, Levi Strauss & Co. “The solution, built by Infosys, enables consumer insights of clickstream and e-commerce data to activate consumer revenue growth actions across marketing touch points.”

    Sandeep Dadlani, President and Head of Americas, Infosys said, “Our collaboration with AWS allows clients to fast track their data on to the cloud. The Infosys Boundaryless Data Lake offering powered by Infosys Information Grid Solution on AWS will help enterprises reduce latency, improve time to market and bring in operational efficiencies.”

    “Our enterprise customers are looking for powerful tools built on AWS that help them increase the business value they can generate from their vast amounts of data,” said Mike Clayville, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales at AWS. “These enterprises can use the Boundaryless Data Lake offering from Infosys to create the necessary foundation for a range of data and analytics needs, while also taking full advantage of the breadth of services and pace of innovation that AWS provides.”

  • OYO among LinkedIn’s top 10 for job-seekers

    MUMBAI: Action and engagement by over 500 million LinkedIn members have put OYO among the top 10 companies in India that attract the best talent. It is the only hospitality player among the top ten, rubbing shoulders with marquee global and Indian companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Flipkart, KPMG, Adobe and Reliance Industries. OYO has jumped seven places to the 9th spot (from 16th last year) in the second edition of the LinkedIn’s survey titled Top Companies 2017: Where India wants to work.

    “OYO is an urban innovator that continues to engage world-class talent driven by commitment and passion to transform the world,” said OYO founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal.

    OYO CHRO Dinesh R said, “OYO is a unique workplace that caters to diverse skill-sets bound by a common thread – the drive to excel and impact the world.”

    According to LinkedIn Tech Editor Adith Charlie “The list of market leaders in their chosen sectors represents the firms where LinkedIn members most want to work now. Our methodology takes into consideration three main pillars to uncover the companies our members are most interested in; job applications, both views and applies on postings; engagement with employees as well as with the company directly and retention.”

    In a short span of over three years, OYO expanded its network to become the largest hospitality company in India.

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  • GroupM launches Motion Content Group to meet demand for new economic models

    MUMBAI: GroupM, the world’s leading media investment group, today announced the launch of Motion Content Group (Motion), a new global content investment and rights management company, to meet the ever-growing market demand for new economic models for premium content across the entertainment and media marketplace.

    Motion will invest and partner with the world’s leading talent, producers and distributors to fund, develop, produce and distribute premium content. It will also consolidate and diversify GroupM’s content investments and operations to-date, as well as utilize GroupM’s & WPP’s worldwide network of relationships and content expertise for scale and competitive advantage.

    Motion also supports WPP’s ongoing strategic focus and investments into content, which has seen notable strategic investments into companies such as Imagine Entertainment (24, EMPIRE), The Weinstein Company (DJANGO UNCHAINED, THE KING’S SPEECH), Media Rights Capital (HOUSE OF CARDS, 22 JUMP STREET), MediaPro (MIDNIGHT IN PARIS) and All Def Digital, Russell Simmons’ digital venture.

    Richard Foster, currently the head of GroupM Entertainment, has been appointed CEO of Motion Content Group, which will be headquartered in London and Los Angeles. Motion incorporates GroupM Entertainment’s team and resources, and the full slate of programs it has partnered to develop and produce.

    Award-winning content funded by GroupM Entertainment has been distributed into markets around the world through partnerships with over 100 leading producers and more than 20 of the world’s leading distribution companies. Motion invests its own funds into content deals and partnerships and is therefore a separate but complimentary offering to the substantial amount of branded content work undertaken by GroupM’s agencies on behalf of their clients.

    Motion’s global reach, investments and partnerships will help support the editorial ambitions and commercial requirements of producers, networks and platforms, in order to help drive contextually safe, high-quality environments for advertisers.

    “With new content companies such as Netflix and Amazon growing rapidly, the competition for premium content is heating up across the globe. WPP is investing in Motion Content Group to strengthen our content creation and distribution capabilities, to help meet evolving viewer needs, and to help advertisers continue to reach consumers in high quality content environments,” said Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP.

    Kelly Clark, GroupM CEO, said, “We have always used our global scale and reach to find innovative approaches that strengthen the media ecosystem for advertisers and media partners alike. Motion is a major commitment by GroupM to expand on these efforts.”

    Richard Foster, CEO, Motion Content Group said, “Our objective is to help create and support editorially and commercially vibrant premium content for the benefit of our content partners and advertisers. We will achieve this by continuing to invest into the content industry and lead the development of new models, commercial content structures and partnerships with media networks, platforms, talent, producers, and distributors.”

  • Amazon renews ‘American Gods’ originals, starring Whittle & McShane

    MUMBAI: Amazon has announced that the highly-acclaimed Amazon Original Series American Gods, which premiered on 1 May, has been renewed for a second season. At present, American Gods is among the top 10 shows in India on Amazon’s international Prime Video service.

    Amazon claims American Gods, produced by FremantleMedia North America, garnered an overall rating of 8.6 on IMDb and a top critics score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Prime Video vice president – international Tim Leslie said, “We’re bringing a second season of Neil Gaiman’s riveting story.”

    As is known Amazon Prime Video is offering 30-day free trial for watching these and other Hollywood and Bollywood movies, US TV shows, kids’ programming and Amazon Originals.

    In Season one, viewers encountered a war brewing between Old Gods and New. The traditional Old Gods, with mythological roots from around the world, fear irrelevance as their believers die off or are seduced by the money, technology, and celebrity offered by the New Gods. Adapted from the award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman, American Gods stars Ricky Whittle (The 100, Austenland) as protagonist ex-con Shadow Moon, Ian McShane (Deadwood, Pirates of the Caribbean) as Mr. Wednesday, who enlists Shadow Moon as part of his cross-country mission, and Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, Legend) as Shadow’s wife, Laura Moon. American Gods Season one also features Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) as Media, the mouthpiece for the New Gods, Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies, Wicked) as Easter, Pablo Schreiber (13 Hours, Orange Is the New Black) as Mad Sweeney, and Yetide Badaki (Aquarius, Masters of Sex) as Bilquis.

    Written by Neil Gaiman in 2001, American Gods has been translated into over 30 languages and earned numerous accolades including Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel.

    Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Heroes”) and Michael Green (“Blade Runner 2049,” “Alien: Covenant,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Kings,” “Heroes”) are writers and showrunners. David Slade (“Hannibal,” “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”) directed the pilot and additional episodes. FMNA’s Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Berk are executive producers along with Fuller, Green, Slade, Adam Kane and Neil Gaiman. Senior Vice Presidents of Original Programming Marta Fernandez and Ken Segna are the Starz executives in charge of “American Gods.”

  • Amit Sadh is Gritstones’ new face

    MUMBAI: Gritstones has been creating an ensemble in the world of Men’s Fashion. With customers support and positive acclamation, Gritstones have been touching heights with its abundance presence in the online shopping market. Its association with Bollwood promotions and presence has formed a complete new picture for the brand. To make the picture more youthful and attractive, Gritstones have roped in famous Bollywood actor Amit Sadh as their brand face for their brand.

    Amit Sadh, being young, stylish and popular name among the people has a good fandom. Being a versatile actor, Amit is most welcoming to face new challenges and adjoin with new experiments and innovation. Similarly Gritstones have been evolving since then with sheer sense to grow and expand their fashion ranges in over multiple shopping stops. At present they are widely and easily available at top online fashion shopping portals like Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Snapdeal, Voonik, Myntra and Limeroad among many.

    “I genuinely feel that the clothes are very comfortable and very stylish. It has a very lower east- New York Jamaican vibes to it. The fitting is amazing and the styling is unique and i feel really sexy being in Gritstones. I have grabbed the latest collection of Gritstones and its time you guys grab it soon,” says Amit Sadh.

    Amit Sadh also started as a beginner with no godfather in the film industry and established himself as a brand by taking up television soaps then film acting as a career and became popular among us with his bold and mesmerising acting skills and dialogue delivery, same with Gritstones, they launched themselves online without thinking of the risk of failure or dissonance from the customers and now is one of the most trending and followed brand in the industry. Gritstones has always been developing according to the changing dynamics of the industry and has formulated itself as the most promising brand among the customers.

    Gritstones has bagged the award and recognition for “Most Trusted Fashion Apparel brand in India in quality and service” on Flipkart Marketplace for year 2016-2017.

  • Airtel & Amazon partner for Fire TV Stick with voice remote

    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel has announced a partnership with Amazon for Amazon’s Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote, which was launched in India today.

    Customers purchasing Amazon Fire TV will get free 100 GB high speed data via Airtel Broadband or Airtel 4G Home Wi-Fi to enable them to enjoy online content on their TV. In addition, Airtel Movies, the OTT app from Airtel, will offer Airtel mobile and broadband customers access to an exciting collection of thousands of popular Bollywood movies & premium TV shows across a host of genres.

    Bharti Airtel consumer business and chief marketing officer Raj Pudipeddi said, “We invite customers to experience the Amazon Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote Fire TV on Airtel and also enjoy thousands of movies with Airtel Movies.”

    While the data offer can be availed by existing as well as new Airtel home broadband and 4G home Wi-Ficustomers, free access to content on Airtel Movies will be available to all Airtel mobile customers as well. The data quota can be availed in buckets of 35GB per month for three months from the date of activation. To activate the Airtel offer, customers of Amazon Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote have to just launch Airtel Movies and follow a few simple steps.

    Airtel 4G is available to customers in all 22 circles across India and the Airtel 4G home Wi-Fi device enables a seamless high speed Wi-Fi experience in homes with the added benefit of portability. Airtel has been rated as fastest mobile network in India by Ookla. Airtel Broadband is available to customers in 87 cities and offers high speed broadband with speeds up to 100 Mbps with cutting edge offerings like V-Fiber that power digital homes of the future.

    Airtel 4G Home Wi-Fi is currently available only in Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, Kolkata, Punjab and Maharashtra.