ITV

Tag: Channel Nine

  • Shane Warne’s peccadilloes cost him Channel Nine endorsement

    MUMBAI: Disgraced Australian leggie Shane Warne has been axed by the Australian broadcaster Channel Nine for “unsatisfactory behaviour” off-field. Warne had a contract worth $300,000 per year with the channel.
     

    Reportedly, Warne’s involvement with a 25-year old British student has cost him the lucrative job. Channel Nine was understood to have a clause inserted in Warne’s last contract allowing for termination if his off-field conduct was unsatisfactory. The station owner Kerry Packer made the decision to save the station’s image.

     

    The cricketer has been involved in several controversies before, including the one in which he was reported to have sent a series of lewd text messages to a British nurse two years ago.
     
     

    It was during his 12-month drugs ban in 2003 that Warne proved his commentating abilities with Channel Nine, an experience which made him stick to the broadcaster.

  • Australia’s Channel Nine, Seven to skip Ashes coverage

    Australia’s Channel Nine, Seven to skip Ashes coverage

    MUMBAI: While cricket rules the roost in India this piece of news should shed light on how hard it is for the bat and ball game to maintain its television share abroad.

    The Australian cricket team may be going from strength to strength but Australians wanting to watch the progress of Ricky Ponting and company against arch rivals England next year will probably have to subscribe to Fox Sports to watch the Ashes series.

    While no formal decision has been taken reports indicate that the Kerry Packer owned Nine Network and Channel Seven have decided to not to air the Ashes series in the future. This means cricket lovers wanting to watch the series will need to find at least Aus $50 a month for a basic Foxtel subscription. One in five Australian television homes subscribe to pay TV.

    Channel Nine spokesman David Hurley was quoted in The Age attributing the unlikeliness of the network bidding for the series partly to the event clashing with the Australian Football League, rugby league and Wimbledon. A report in ANI indicates that Channel Seven was criticised for restricting coverage of the 2001 Ashes series. This time the broadcaster is blaming the time zone and scheduling difficulties across Australia as the primary reason for cancelling the coverage of the series.

    The channels are also most reluctant to air the cricket instead of highly rated shows which constitute primetime programming like CSI or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Meanwhile Australia’s cricket legend Doug Walters has cited the popularity of what he described as “stupid soap operas” for the commercial Australian television networks shunning the Ashes series.

    “I guess that’s the sign of the times. Unfortunately that’s what we’ve got to put up with. People want to watch those other stupid soap operas and movies and they are the ones who have cost us. I think money has been talking. It should be a great series — hopefully it’s their loss.”

    Cricket Australia meanwhile cannot do anything about the situation. The debate has entered the political arena. Senator Conroy called on Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard to have talks with Foxtel about allowing the pubcaster ABC, SBS or community TV station Channel 31 to show the Ashes as well. ABC is believed to have found the cost for the free to air rights that the English cricket Board is asking for to be on the higher side.

  • Scripting for films and Television: No readymade script

    Scripting for films and Television: No readymade script

    The script is one of the most important elements of film-making but its creator – the scriptwriter – is shoddily treated, poorly paid, mostly plagiarised, and not given the importance that should be given. This was the opinion of the panel on scripting for films and television which was chaired by eminent filmmake Shyam Benegal. There is a tremendous paucity of scriptwriting training available in India, the panel which consisted of film maker Ramesh Sippy, once Channel 4 commissioning editor Farrukh Dhondy, scriptwriter Rekha Nigam, and former Channel Nine CEO Ravina Raj Kohli.

    Dhondy pointed out that with corporatisation coming into the Indian film industry the age of films being made without full scripts will come to an end. “The need for scripting particularly is going to be felt as without it banks will be unwilling to fund productions,” he said . “The entire cost and saleability of a film project can be decided only if a script is in place and besides scriptwriters need the money to survive,” he added.

    Scriptwriter, producer and actor Akash Khurana highlighted the fact that all the major successful films today were being scripted by the directors themselves. “Ashutosh Gowariker, Farhan Akthar, they wrote and directed their own films,” he said. “Screenwriting was self taught and one needed talent to write successfully, earlier, but we need more formal training now.”

    He praised the efforts taken by television services company Indian Television Dot Com (which runs this website) to improve the writers’ lot with their unique ongoing training workshop Qalam.

    Director Ramesh Sippy emphasized the need for a good script, particularly the saleablity aspect before scripts could be shortlisted.

    Ravina Raj Kohli spoke about how people prefer not to write for TV and the disrespect and problems a writer has to face. Hardly anybody wrote original scripts for television. In fact there were commitees specially in channels who were there solely to disapprove scripts, Kohli said, in lighter vein.

    Nigam echoed the other panelists and said that the lot of scriptwriters has to improve and that they should stand up for their rights.

     

  • “We have a long term vision for DD” : Ravina Raj Kohli-Channel Nine India CEO

    “We have a long term vision for DD” : Ravina Raj Kohli-Channel Nine India CEO

    HFCL-Nine Broadcasting CEO Ravina Raj Kohli is in a pretty aggressive mood. Stung by rumours that her company is on the verge of closing down, that it has reneged on its payment to DD for its Nine Gold Hour, and that it is laying off people, she is fighting back. In a free wheeling interview with indiantelevision.com’s Anil Wanvari she spoke about the issues and the vision that HFCL-Nine has for national reach public broadcasting in India.

    Excerpts:

     

    The charge is that you failed to make four payments of Rs 60 million over the past four fortnights to DD for the three hour slot you have on DD Metro. How true is this?
    The facts are not correct. Technically, there were only three defaults – or rather delays. We had not paid up because we were waiting and watching. We had submitted a proposal and were discussing extension of the current contract with DD. We paid up finally, earlier this week. We had the money.

     

     

    Is HFCL-Nine Broadcasting closing down?
    There is absolutely no truth in this. It’s absolutely damaging and destabilising gossip that is being hurled around. Both the partners – Publishing Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) and HFCL – have a long-term vision for this project and they are not giving up on it so quickly.

     

     

    What is the long term vision that HFCL-Nine has for DD?
    India is probably the only country where the national reach terrestrial broadcaster is not the channel of choice. It corners just 30 per cent of the advertising spend whereas satellite television has the remainder. And remember it is sitting on approximately Rs 8,000 billion worth of assets. It is dependent on government for financial support and it turns out revenues of barely Rs 6.6 billion annually.

    In markets such as the US, this would be anathema. Network television there garners a major chunk – more than 95 per cent – of the ad revenue.

    We have proposed that we are willing to put unlimited resources behind the state-owned broadcaster, build the asset, the brand, make it the medium of choice, give it the place it deserves with audiences.

    We believe that terrestrial network television should be advertising driven and satellite and cable TV should be subscription driven. And we will do this with no conflict of interest. Yes, we will make money along the way. Because we will derive value out of DD’s assets.

    We view the alliance as a strategic alliance – at least that was the new vision with the authorities for DD when it opened DD Metro for bidding. We would run it for a few years. And not have to renew the contract every year or every 11 months.

     

    Are you not renegotiating to lower your minimum guarantee of Rs 1,210 million for the period? What went wrong?
    There were certain commitments that DD did not live up to. It had committed that DD Metro would have similar coverage to what DD National has in urban homes. It had committed that it would add 60 more transmitters; it added only 26.

     

    DD had committed prime band penetration of 100 per cent on cable. They have not met that.

    We had also given the government a re-engineering docket which detailed how DD could be improved technically. This recommended purchase of some transmission equipment, power upgrades of low power transmitters in some locations to high power, and also purchase of broadcast equipment.

    The report has not been followed at all. And our financial numbers were based on a certain reach and growth of the network. We waited for nine months and only then did we start to question the feasibility of the deal.

     

    Mrs Sushma Swaraj has gone on record offering to extend the contract to 18 months, but we have told them it would not be feasible at this time. We want a longer-term relatioship.

     

    Have you really made a difference to the advertising revenues you have garnered from your time slot?
    We have made five times the advertising revenue DD made from the same slot last year.

     

     

    How do you see this settling down?
    We are in discussions with DD and the Prasar Bharati . We are hopeful a solution will be found. Even if we don’t continue on DD which is a priority for us, HFCL Nine will find plenty of reasons to stay.

     

     

    Will there be layoffs?
    If we feel we need to right size we will, but it’s not a reflection of our performance. When you start up you may initially hire more than you need. We have a few consultants on board, we will review the viability of having these people. No full time employees will be laid off. There is no reason to.

     

    How are you going to be impacted by the Ketan Parekh imbroglio? And his supposed links with HFCL and your company?
    The HFCL-Nine board consists of 51 per cent holding with HFCL with 49 per cent being with PBL. We are an Indian company. The board consists of Mahendra Nahata, Vinay Maloo, James Mclachlan of PBL, and Anthony Klok of PBL. Ketan Parekh has no direct or indirect involvement with this company.

     

    What about the rumours swirling of your joining Zee?
    Absolutely baselesss. The question did not even cross my mind. I was employee No 1 with this company. And I am going to be there as long as I can add value to it