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Tag: Century Fox

  • Star Sports & McLaren-Honda to create exclusive content

    MUMBAI: Star Sports India has been unveiled as a Corporate Partner of McLaren-Honda as part of an agreement that will include the production of exclusive viewer content and fan competitions.

    Already a broadcasting innovator, Star Sports India has transformed sports coverage in its native country. The country’s leading sports network, Star Sports India engages audiences across ten dedicated sports channels (Star Sports 1, 2, 3, 4 and Star Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4 and Star Sports Select HD1 & HD2).

    Star Sports, as the exclusive broadcast partner of the FIA Formula One World Championship, plans to showcase the best-in-class Formula 1 experience on its Star Sports Select HD channels and continue to grow the sport’s fan base throughout India.

    The partnership will see McLaren-Honda and Star Sports India work together to create bespoke content, including exclusive interviews, for their TV and digital channels that will help bring viewers and fans even closer to the team and the global sport of Formula 1.

    As part of the agreement, viewers will have the opportunity to win an exciting range of prizes, including the chance to win a trip to join the team trackside at a grand prix race weekend, ride in a McLaren high-performance road car or meet the McLaren-Honda drivers.

    Star Sports India branding will be displayed prominently on the drivers’ overalls of McLaren-Honda teammates Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne throughout the season.

    Star Sports India is part of the Star India network which reaches around 650 million viewers every month and has been entertaining viewers for over 20 years. Boasting over 40 channels in eight languages, Star India is now one of India’s leading media forces, owns an entertainment channel portfolio that includes Star Gold, Channel V, Star World, Star Movies and Life OK. Star is a fully owned subsidiary of 20th Century Fox.

    As well as a leading presence in regional broadcasting, Star India also produces and distributes film content through Fox Star Studios, an affiliate joint venture company.

    McLaren Technology Group executive directo Zak Brown: “It’s always exciting to bring a new Partner onboard. I’ve had that feeling a few times in my career so far! With Star Sports India joining a brand as eponymous as McLaren the fit is as obvious as it is compelling. We are a sports and technology company – racers at heart, of course, and, therefore, innovators in everything we do. And talking to Star Sports India, we quickly discovered a similar innovative mind-set and shared passion for how we engage sports fans through great content. That’s why I’m really looking forward to working with the great team at Star Sports India and seeing what we can achieve together to bring fans even closer to the sport we love.”

    Commenting on the agreement, a Star India spokesperson said: “Star Sports India has always strived to build a multi-sport culture in the country and our strategic partnership with McLaren-Honda furthers this agenda. McLaren-Honda is one of the most successful teams in F1 history and their passion for technology and pushing the boundaries on innovation aligns with our mission here at Star Sports. Indian sports fans have always shown interest in engaging with multiple sports and this association will help viewers to closely engage with all the on ground action of Formula 1.

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  • Star eyes $500 million revenue from entertainment & sports by 2018: John Nallen

    Star eyes $500 million revenue from entertainment & sports by 2018: John Nallen

    MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is relying heavily on its subsidiary Star to lead its international growth.

     

    Explaining how Star’s growing entertainment ad revenues makes it a key player in the company’s plans to focus internationally, 21st Century Fox chief financial officer (CFO) John Nallen said, “One of the top priorities, uniquely for us is international. We’ve got a particular focus on growth outside the US. We continue to harness the assets we have in Star, FIC (Fox International Channels) and in Sky but we continue to be opportunistic to the extent we can outside the US.”

     

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, this falls in line with a recent Morgan Stanley report that valued Star TV at $11.2 billion, where $300 million is the network’s gross revenue from entertainment business as of June 2015.

     

    Given the growth rate, Nallen anticipates that number to reach $500 million by 2018. “We feel confident about the $500 million target for 2018,” he said.

     

    It may be recalled that earlier this year, 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch had said that Star India is likely to earn operating income of $1 billion by 2020.

     

    The growth, according to him, is coming from two factors – entertainment and sports. “The first is the continued growth of the entertainment business, which is the hallmark of the Star business. We get 23-24 per cent market share every night. It’s a market that is growing. In the last six months TV ad market grew 21 per cent, we over-indexed because of our strength,” said Nallen.

     

    While entertainment continues to be a source of revenue for Star, its sports section is doing equally well. Seeing the prospects the company had earlier made its biggest sports investment by launching six sports channels with Star, which paid off for the network as “an enormous viewing success.”

     

    Nallen, who was speaking on the company’s business strategy for the next couple of years, at an industry summit, also pointed out on the company’s strong focus on expanding its international reach and growth through Star TV. “Top opportunity continues to be international, led by Star, which clearly is going to lead a lot of our international growth,” he said.

     

    Calling its Indian subsidiary – Star India, an undervalued asset, Nallen pointed out the growth statistic predicted from Star, which rides on the network’s continued success rate in the entertainment section, unlike the parent company’s recent experience of the same in the US.

     

    “Our ad growth in the US is coming from news and sports, and not from entertainment. If you take our total revenue, roughly 30 per cent of it comes from advertising. Two thirds of that advertising total comes from news, sports and international. The place that we are focusing on and the place people feel more vulnerable is entertainment advertising in the US. That’s the rest of the one third left,” Nallen said.

     

    Additionally, Nallen also clarified that Fox has no plans of further incremental investment in Star this year. “Not much more investment (in Star). This year we grew the investment because we extended one of the sports franchises that we started, the local Kabaddi sport that has turned into a phenomenon in India. There is not a massive new incremental investment that we need for Star,” Nallen informed.

  • Thailand calls for greater cooperation among Asean film commissions

    Thailand calls for greater cooperation among Asean film commissions

    MUMBAI: The representatives from the Department of Tourism, Thailand Film Office have called for increased regional cooperation among film commissions in the Asean countries during the recently concluded Asian Film Commissions Network (AFCnet), ASEAN – ROK Cooperation Project in Vietnam and Myanmar.

    “AFCnet efforts at encouraging film commissions in the region to share their expertise and co-venture with one another is a way to expand our business efforts in a very competitive international environment,” said Thailand Film Office Film Business Promotion Section chief Worateera Suvarnsorn,.

    Suvarnsorn along with Ubolwan Sucharitakul, Chief of the Thailand Film Office Shooting Permit Consideration Section ,had presented a Thailand Case Study titled “Invigorating Tourism Through Films” at the event.

    Citing several of Thailand’s high profile foreign productions filmed in the Kingdom, such as 20th Century Fox’s The Beach (2000), and Warner Bros‘ The Hangover Part II (2011), Sucharitakul called for coordinated film tourism routes to be promoted which will facilitate increased tourism between neighboring countries.

    The Seminar, a series of information and networking meetings sponsored by AFCnet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, was held with film commission representatives of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Philippines in preparation for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) which will come into effect in 2015.

  • Star unveils downloadable video content on indya.com

    Star unveils downloadable video content on indya.com

    MUMBAI: The Star Group’s internet portal, indya.com has announced the launch of a digital entertainment store, by which users can download content. Among top shows on the network, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Koffee With Karan will be made available for download. indya.com is also working with other content providers to bring Indian documentaries, current affairs updates, films and music online.

    The service is powered by Direct2Drive, Fox Interactive Media’s digital retail store, which already offers an array of downloadable film, television and anime content from providers, such as 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Films, and Starz Entertainment. Users can access the service at http://broadband.indya.com.

    Single episodes are now available for free on a trial basis in order to allow users to sample the quality of the content and service. Additional episodes are priced starting from US$0.99 though special discounts are available for bundle purchases. Additionally, indya.com’s exclusive recap episodes will be available for top serials, chronicling an entire week of events in a 45-minute specially created recap. Recap episodes for shows like Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, are available now in the same week as aired on TV, with other shows to be added to the mix in the near future, informs an official release.

    It will be available worldwide and is targeted at broadband-enabled South Asian audiences in the U.S., U.K., Canada and South East Asia.

    The new service is offered via a “download-to-own” model, in which content is downloaded to the end-user’s PC. Purchased content is then playable on up to two Windows Media compatible devices, including portable players, allowing consumers to view their content on the go, adds the release.

    “This is the first time an Asian internet portal has made this kind of scale of entertainment content available online,” said Star India executive vice president and head, interactive media Ajay Vidyasagar. “We are very pleased to be able to launch the service with a number of Star’s popular properties and look forward to working with other content providers in order to offer broadband enabled South Asians the world over the best entertainment content for download.”

  • Sierra Ent. unveils ‘Ice Age 2: The Meltdown’ on Wii video games in US

    Sierra Ent. unveils ‘Ice Age 2: The Meltdown’ on Wii video games in US

    MUMBAI: Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, has announced that the video game Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, based on the animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown from 20th Century Fox is available at retailers across the US on the Wii video game system.

    “Ice Age 2 The Meltdown showed its strength as a popular movie-based kids video game with retail sales of over 1.3 million units and in the box office with sales topping $646 million worldwide,” said Vivendi Games president global retail Pascal Brochier. “We are expecting Ice Age 2 The Meltdown for Wii to follow a similar course.”

    The Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers allow players to guide their favourite Ice Age: The Meltdown pals through challenging puzzles and exciting mini-games.

    Fox Licensing and Merchandising executive vice president Elie Dekel added, “This game is the perfect complement to the film and a great way for fans to extend their experience with the story and its characters.”

    “Ice Age 2 The Meltdown and the Wii are a perfect combination for family fun this holiday season,” said Vivendi Games chief strategy and marketing officer Cindy Cook. “Fox has stepped up as a partner to offer an incredible amount of talent, assets, and effort to the game, which also takes full advantage of the Wii Remote’s motion sensors. The result is an action-packed adventure featuring non-stop entertainment that is sure to appeal to gamers of all ages.”