ITV

Tag: Australia

  • TV show X-Files comes to an end and its finale will be aired on 27 Feb on Star World Premiere HD

    TV show X-Files comes to an end and its finale will be aired on 27 Feb on Star World Premiere HD

    MUMBAI: The much anticipated TV show X-Files comes to an end on an abrupt note. The event series finale of X-Files airs on 27 February at 9 pm on Star World Premiere HD.

    X-Files franchise creator Chris Carter said, “I can tell you this: Fox owns this show. I can’t imagine, with the ratings that we’ve got and the way we ended this season, that there won’t be more X-Files. They will find a way to get that done. Because I spoke about it briefly with Fox CEO Dana Walden today, so there’s an appetite there and a chance certainly to find how we’re going to get ourselves off this precipice.”

    He further added, “I think we put everything I could think of in there. But there are always things you want to do and are unable to. There is something, but I can’t remember what it is. I was lucky to put the Lone Gunmen back in. We had to bring one of the actors all the way from Australia to do it. So that’s a case of actually getting what you want.”

  • TV show X-Files comes to an end and its finale will be aired on 27 Feb on Star World Premiere HD

    TV show X-Files comes to an end and its finale will be aired on 27 Feb on Star World Premiere HD

    MUMBAI: The much anticipated TV show X-Files comes to an end on an abrupt note. The event series finale of X-Files airs on 27 February at 9 pm on Star World Premiere HD.

    X-Files franchise creator Chris Carter said, “I can tell you this: Fox owns this show. I can’t imagine, with the ratings that we’ve got and the way we ended this season, that there won’t be more X-Files. They will find a way to get that done. Because I spoke about it briefly with Fox CEO Dana Walden today, so there’s an appetite there and a chance certainly to find how we’re going to get ourselves off this precipice.”

    He further added, “I think we put everything I could think of in there. But there are always things you want to do and are unable to. There is something, but I can’t remember what it is. I was lucky to put the Lone Gunmen back in. We had to bring one of the actors all the way from Australia to do it. So that’s a case of actually getting what you want.”

  • Disney’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ crosses $2 billion global box office mark

    Disney’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ crosses $2 billion global box office mark

    MUMBAI: Star Wars: The Force Awakens has crossed the $2 billion mark worldwide on 6 February, which was its 53rd day of release, thus becoming only the third film ever to do so and just the second to do it in original release. 

    Additionally, the movie also crossed the $900 million mark at the North American box office and is the only film in history to reach this milestone.

    “This is a historic moment for Star Wars, for Lucasfilm, and for Disney, and all of us here are extremely gratified to be a part of this journey with fans around the world who have made Star Wars: The Force Awakens such an extraordinary success. The film’s achievements are truly astounding, and it’s our great honor to relaunch this cinematic galaxy not only for all the devoted decades-long fans but for a new generation who will keep the Star Wars legacy alive for many years to come,” said The Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn.

    Through 4 February, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned an estimated $899.1 million in North America and $1,095.6 million internationally for a global total of $1,994.7 million. Opening internationally 16 December and in the US on 18 December, Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted the all-time biggest global and domestic debuts with $528.9 million and $247.9 million respectively.

    Over the course of its eight-week run, it has set numerous other records, including:
    – Biggest domestic preview gross ($57 million)
    – Biggest opening day domestically ($119.1 million)
    – Biggest domestic second weekend ($149.2 million)
    – Biggest domestic third weekend ($90.2 million)
    – Biggest opening week domestically ($390.8 million)
    – Biggest opening weekend in 18 territories: UK (4-day), Australia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland (3-day), Denmark (5-day), Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia, New Zealand
    – Fastest film to $1 billion globally (12 days)
    – Biggest film of all time in the US and the UK

    Directed by J.J. Abrams, written by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams and Michael Arndt, and produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams and Bryan Burk, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was named one of AFI’s top ten films of 2015 and has received five Academy Award nominations, for film editing, visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing, and for series composer John Williams’ original score.

    The Star Wars Saga continues 15 December, 2017, in Star Wars: Episode VIII, picking up in the wake of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Later this year, Rogue One, a new adventure detailing events prior to Star Wars: A New Hope, will take flight on 16 December, 2016.

  • Disney’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ crosses $2 billion global box office mark

    Disney’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ crosses $2 billion global box office mark

    MUMBAI: Star Wars: The Force Awakens has crossed the $2 billion mark worldwide on 6 February, which was its 53rd day of release, thus becoming only the third film ever to do so and just the second to do it in original release. 

    Additionally, the movie also crossed the $900 million mark at the North American box office and is the only film in history to reach this milestone.

    “This is a historic moment for Star Wars, for Lucasfilm, and for Disney, and all of us here are extremely gratified to be a part of this journey with fans around the world who have made Star Wars: The Force Awakens such an extraordinary success. The film’s achievements are truly astounding, and it’s our great honor to relaunch this cinematic galaxy not only for all the devoted decades-long fans but for a new generation who will keep the Star Wars legacy alive for many years to come,” said The Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn.

    Through 4 February, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned an estimated $899.1 million in North America and $1,095.6 million internationally for a global total of $1,994.7 million. Opening internationally 16 December and in the US on 18 December, Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted the all-time biggest global and domestic debuts with $528.9 million and $247.9 million respectively.

    Over the course of its eight-week run, it has set numerous other records, including:
    – Biggest domestic preview gross ($57 million)
    – Biggest opening day domestically ($119.1 million)
    – Biggest domestic second weekend ($149.2 million)
    – Biggest domestic third weekend ($90.2 million)
    – Biggest opening week domestically ($390.8 million)
    – Biggest opening weekend in 18 territories: UK (4-day), Australia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland (3-day), Denmark (5-day), Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia, New Zealand
    – Fastest film to $1 billion globally (12 days)
    – Biggest film of all time in the US and the UK

    Directed by J.J. Abrams, written by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams and Michael Arndt, and produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams and Bryan Burk, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was named one of AFI’s top ten films of 2015 and has received five Academy Award nominations, for film editing, visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing, and for series composer John Williams’ original score.

    The Star Wars Saga continues 15 December, 2017, in Star Wars: Episode VIII, picking up in the wake of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Later this year, Rogue One, a new adventure detailing events prior to Star Wars: A New Hope, will take flight on 16 December, 2016.

  • Ipsos launches location-based customer satisfaction tracking service in APAC

    Ipsos launches location-based customer satisfaction tracking service in APAC

    MUMBAI: Ipsos has launched a new suite of tools to conduct location-based surveys in Asia-Pacific, starting with Japan and Australia.

     

    The new offering is powered by the Google Consumer Surveys platform that allows users to survey a representative sample of their target population among millions of respondents across the web and mobile devices.

     

    Ipsos had introduced geo-triggering capabilities through its own mobile application, currently in use in more than 80 countries. Today’s announcement brings an additional capability to reach users in Japan and Australia.

     

    Geo-triggering – the ability to share a survey to a respondent’s smartphone when they enter/exit a certain location – enables marketers to better reach consumers and shoppers in a wide variety of situations, including when entering or exiting a shopping area or before or after attending an event.

     

    With an ever-changing marketing landscape, being able to reach consumers in a particular location is critical. As such, Ipsos now offers its clients one of the most comprehensive suites of mobile-driven solutions, to deliver in-the-moment insights.

     

    Ipsos Interactive Services APAC CEO Arnaud Frade said, “Our clients need more immediate and faster insights, to inform marketing and sales activities at the same speed as their now consumers and shoppers operate – this great partnership offers yet one more option to do this.”

     

    Google Consumer Surveys APAC partnerships manager Valentin Cornez added, “We are excited to be working with Ipsos on this new initiative. e’re interested to see how the combination of our Google Consumer Surveys platform with Ipsos’ research expertise will drive new and differentiating insights to our users.”

     

    As part of our launch activities, an exclusive client seminar, reserved to Ipsos clients, will be held in Tokyo on 13 January. A similar event will also take place in Sydney at a subsequent date.

  • ‘Star Wars’ propels Disney’s 2015 global box office to $5 billion

    ‘Star Wars’ propels Disney’s 2015 global box office to $5 billion

    MUMBAI: With final numbers now in, Star Wars: The Force Awakens rose above estimates to post an all-time industry-high $248 million in North America plus $281 million internationally for an all-time record global debut of $529 million since opening day-and-date 16 December. This excludes any grosses from China, where the film opens 9 January, as well as Greece and India, where it opens this week.

     

    Domestically, Disney now holds four of the top five debuts of all time. In addition to posting the biggest Thursday preview gross ($57 million) and the biggest Friday and single-day ever ($119.1 million), Star Wars: The Force Awakens set a new Sunday record of $60.5 million. Internationally, it was the biggest opening weekend ever in numerous territories including the U.K. (four-day), Australia, Russia, and Germany.

     

    Yesterday, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said of the historic debut, “Our sole focus has been creating a film that delivers that one-of-a-kind Star Wars experience, and director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and the Lucasfilm team have outdone themselves. To all of the fans around the world who not only came out in Force to make this such an exciting and astronomical debut but who treated this film as their own and helped preserve the experience for their fellow fans by not spoiling it—thank you, we do.”

     

    Company Box Office Milestones Reached:

     

    The galactic debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has pushed The Walt Disney Studios to its highest year on record. Today, Disney will cross the $5 billion mark in global box office in a calendar year for the first time ever, surpassing the previous full-year record of $4.73 billion set in 2013. The studio has also reached new highs domestically with $1.851 billion and internationally with $3.134 billion through 20 December. The previous best for each was also set in 2013 with $1.719 billion domestic and $3.013 billion international.

     

    These 2015 milestones were reached with outstanding performances from films across Disney’s brands, including Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron ($459 million domestic; $946 million int’l; $1.4 billion global), Disney• Pixar’sInside Out ($356.4 million domestic; $499 million int’l; $855.4 million global), Disney’s Cinderella ($201.1 million domestic; $341.4 million int’l; $542.5 million global), Marvel’s Ant-Man ($180.1 million domestic; $339 million int’l; $519.1 million global), as well as Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 2014 release Big Hero 6 ($305 million globally during the 2015 calendar year).

  • ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ takes biggest ever opening weekend

    ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ takes biggest ever opening weekend

    MUMBAI: The opening weekend for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is officially the biggest in North American box office history, ahead of its India release on 25 December.

     
    The movie’s first weekend in theaters, the seventh film of the franchise brought in $238 million. The previous record-holder was Jurassic World, which made $208.8 million during its debut weekend over the summer.

     
    Globally, Star Wars brought in $517 million, coming in just under the $525 million that Jurassic World made. However, the latter had the advantage of opening in China as well; The Force Awakens doesn’t come out there until 9 January, 2016.

     
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted the highest Thursday preview gross ($57 million), the highest single-day and Friday gross ($120.5 million), and it is the first film to surpass $100 million in a single day. It also posted the highest theater average for a wide release with $57,568.

     
    Marking the biggest opening weekend ever in numerous key territories, including the UK, Germany, Australia, and Russia, Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted an estimated international opening weekend of $279 million (third highest reported opening weekend in industry history, behindJurassic World at $316 million including around $97 million China and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 at $314 million) and topping the previous December record held by Avatar ($164.5 million).

     
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens storm-trooped its way across the global landscape (except for China) this weekend to post an amazing estimated $517 million global gross.

     

    Star Wars: The Force Awakens also generated a record-breaking estimated $48 million from Imax screens globally, beating the previous Jurassic World record of $44 (which included China).

     

    Star Wars: The Force Awakens was on over 30,000 screens internationally this weekend. It opened at #1 in all markets throughout the world with the exception of Korea and Vietnam, where it was the #1 western films.

     

    In the Asia-Pacific, the movie raked in $75.7 million, whereas in Latin America, it totted $36.0 million.

     
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens is directed by JJ Abrams and stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

     

    The movie opens in India on 25 December in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

  • Indian advertising market to grow fastest at +10.7% in APAC: MPA

    Indian advertising market to grow fastest at +10.7% in APAC: MPA

    MUMBAI: The Indian advertising market is poised to grow fastest over the next five years in the Asia Pacific region at a rate of 10.7 per cent.

     

    According to report by Media Partners Asia (MPA), in spite of an overall slow rate of growth in advertising revenue in APAC at 5.3 per cent in 2015, India emerged as one of the fastest growing markets with a growth rate of 10.8 per cent. The report shows that India has taken over China, which stands at a growth of 8.5 per cent of advertising revenue, followed by Vietnam with 8.1 per cent.

     

    Over the next five years, after India, the fastest growing market in the APAC region will be China at 8.4 per cent followed by Indonesia at 8.2 per cent; the Philippines at 7.7 per cent, and Vietnam at 7.3 per cent.

     

    By 2020, China’s net advertising revenues will total more than $85 billion and Japan will remain the region’s second-largest ad market, followed by Australia, India, Korea and Indonesia.

     

    DIGITAL ADVERTISING TO OVERTAKE TV

     

    Staying in line with other industry predictions, MPA also foresees digital advertising taking over television advertising by 2017. Digital’s share of the advertising market in APAC is projected to overtake that of TV by 2017 and grow to 44.2 per cent by 2020 from 30.7 per cent in 2015. The biggest drivers will be Australia, China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

     

    Although the rapidly growing markets of India and Indonesia will also contribute, TV will continue to be the biggest ad medium in key markets such as India, Japan and Korea by 2020.

     

    Furthermore in Southeast Asia, TV will incrementally grow its share of advertising from 54 per cent in 2015 to 54.9 per cent by 2020, driven by the launch of digital terrestrial TV (DTT) in the Philippines and Thailand and a rebound in free-to-air (FTA) TV demand across Indonesia. In Asia Pacific, on average, MPA projects that TV’s share of total advertising will decline from 36.5 per cent in 2015 to 30.7 per cent by 2020.

     

    MPA projects an increase to 5.8 per cent growth in 2016 and a CAGR of 5.5 per cent for 2015-20, reflecting stable but more moderate economic growth across both mature and emerging markets.

  • Ofcom to hold spectrum auction in 2016 with ?70 million reserve price

    Ofcom to hold spectrum auction in 2016 with ?70 million reserve price

    MUMBAI: UK communications regulator Ofcom will be releasing valuable new airwaves by holding a high-capcity spectrum auction that could be used to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband services. It has set reserve prices totalling ?70 million for the spectrum.

     

    The auction is planned to take place in early 2016 for the spectrum, which has been made available by the Ministry of Defence as part of a wider Government initiative to free up public sector spectrum for civil uses.

     

    A total of 190 MHz of high-capacity spectrum is being made available in two bands – 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz – which are particularly suited for high-speed mobile broadband services, because they can carry large amounts of data. This is equivalent to around three-quarters of the spectrum released by Ofcom through the 4G auction in 2013.

     

    Ofcom spectrum group director Philip Marnick said, “Spectrum is the essential resource, which fuels the UK’s wireless economy. This auction is an important step in ensuring that the UK has the wireless capability to deliver and support new technology. We’re responding to rapid change and innovation in the communications sector, which is placing greater demands on spectrum. Part of our plan to meet this demand is by making new spectrum available and allowing it to be used in a number of different ways.”

     

    More spectrum for mobile broadband

     

    There will not be a cap on the amounts bidders can buy. Ofcom believes that any cap could prevent a bidder from buying large blocks of adjacent spectrum. Large blocks have the potential to support very fast download speeds, meaning even faster mobile broadband for consumers, which helps pave the way for 5G.

     

    The auction is designed to be fair and transparent, enabling the spectrum to be awarded to those who can put it to the most efficient use in the best interests of consumers. Ofcom proposes to auction the spectrum in lots of 10 MHz for the 2.3 GHz band and 5 MHz for the 3.4 GHz band.

     

    Many existing mobile handsets from major manufacturers, including the Apple iPhone 6, HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy, are already compatible with the 2.3 GHz spectrum. The band is so far being used for high-speed 4G mobile broadband networks in ten countries outside Europe, including China, India and Australia.

     

    The 3.4 GHz band is currently being used for 4G wireless broadband in six countries including the UK, Canada and Spain.

     

    Planning for the future

    Demand for mobile data services is expected to rise considerably in the coming years. To address this, more spectrum is needed – together with new technology to use spectrum more efficiently, and networks of small wireless ‘cells’ to provide greater capacity over local areas.

     

    Ofcom supports industry and research groups to enable these developments and ensure the UK’s wireless infrastructure continues to play a central role in the growing digital economy.