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Tag: Da Vinci Media GmbH

  • Cracking Chrome DM-Da Vinci code as legalities take over

    Cracking Chrome DM-Da Vinci code as legalities take over

    MUMBAI:  When business partners — erstwhile or otherwise— part ways acrimoniously, dirty linen gets washed in public. Almost a year after parting ways, Da Vinci Learning (DVL) TV channel, through its Indian JV partner Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd, has served a breach of contract notice to channel’s distributor Chrome Data and Media Analytics (Chrome DM), which has hit back with a counter legal notice to The Quint.

    DVL, which announced its formal launch in India November 2015, is a 50:50 joint venture in India between Da Vinci Media GmbH and Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd (The Quint),  a digital venture founded by Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, former founder-promoters of Network18 Group that was bought over by the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd. in 2014.

    The legally drafted notice from The Quint states that the data solution provider (Chrome DM) under-performed and could not deliver to what was discussed and decided by the two partners. The distribution of the educational channel DVL in India was entrusted to Brickworks Media, a sister concern of Chrome DM that is focused on quantitative and qualitative market research.

    According to information collated, Da Vinci’s Indian operations owes to Chrome DM approximately Rs 15 million (Rs. 1.5 crore) in unpaid bills.

    Chrome DM founder and CEO Pankaj Krishna, a media industry veteran, took to social media to voice his side of the story. In an open letter on Facebook late last week, he said, “Dear Raghav Bahl, you did manage to pleasantly surprise me when I happen to go though some letters you have sent to our registered office…And today u have resorted to some rather immature tactics of sending out unfounded letters and communication, 11 months after parting ways!!”

    Krishna went on to further state: “To rewind, it was the 25th of January, 2016 when you felt that you could usurp the Brickworks’ team efforts and investments towards Da Vinci and take on the balance project yourself and save on some hard earned money. Sadly, you failed and failed till date.”

    According to Krishna, Bahl and his team were initially game to make the payments later, but soon stopped accepting any calls or messages from the Chrome team.

    Indiantelevision.com sent an email to Bahl to get his reactions to Krishna’s FB post. After several attempts, though Bahl did not comment, Da Vinci Media (DVM)’s marketing director Monomita Mukhopadhyay replied to our mail.
    “Mr. Pankaj Krishna’s Facebook post is a reaction to a demand notice sent by Da Vinci Media to his company for breach of contract. There is no logic behind Mr. Krishna’s post; it’s his opinion. They did not deliver (on) to what was discussed and did not perform well. DVM and its lawyers are doing the needful,” Mukhopadhyay explained.

    However, Chrome DM marketing head Harnoor Kanwar told indiantelevision.com that it was The Quint/DVM that decided to part ways without fulfilling their financial obligations.

    “I have attended all the meetings with Raghav Bahl and his team. Our last meeting was on 25 January 2016 when he decided to turn the tables and took charge of the distribution of his channel. We all were simply surprised. Post that, he was very much a part of all my communications regarding the investments. He owes us a few crores (of rupees) but that was ok with us. But now, he has sent us this letter demanding damages. Why has he suddenly awakened after a11-month sleep? We surely are going to take counter measures,” Kanwar counter-punched.

    Chrome DM and Brickworks Media specialises in brand and other market related research, including those pertaining to television sector. Bahl and his wife-promoted Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd is a digital media company that has a joint venture with Bloomberg for the Bloomberg business news channel in India and also operates a co-branded news website, apart from other independent ventures.

    ALSO READ:

    Da Vinci Learning and The Quint launch India’s 1st Kids HD Educational Channel

    Da Vinci Learning partners with Airtel Digital TV, Siticable and Digicable

  • Cracking Chrome DM-Da Vinci code as legalities take over

    Cracking Chrome DM-Da Vinci code as legalities take over

    MUMBAI:  When business partners — erstwhile or otherwise— part ways acrimoniously, dirty linen gets washed in public. Almost a year after parting ways, Da Vinci Learning (DVL) TV channel, through its Indian JV partner Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd, has served a breach of contract notice to channel’s distributor Chrome Data and Media Analytics (Chrome DM), which has hit back with a counter legal notice to The Quint.

    DVL, which announced its formal launch in India November 2015, is a 50:50 joint venture in India between Da Vinci Media GmbH and Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd (The Quint),  a digital venture founded by Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, former founder-promoters of Network18 Group that was bought over by the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd. in 2014.

    The legally drafted notice from The Quint states that the data solution provider (Chrome DM) under-performed and could not deliver to what was discussed and decided by the two partners. The distribution of the educational channel DVL in India was entrusted to Brickworks Media, a sister concern of Chrome DM that is focused on quantitative and qualitative market research.

    According to information collated, Da Vinci’s Indian operations owes to Chrome DM approximately Rs 15 million (Rs. 1.5 crore) in unpaid bills.

    Chrome DM founder and CEO Pankaj Krishna, a media industry veteran, took to social media to voice his side of the story. In an open letter on Facebook late last week, he said, “Dear Raghav Bahl, you did manage to pleasantly surprise me when I happen to go though some letters you have sent to our registered office…And today u have resorted to some rather immature tactics of sending out unfounded letters and communication, 11 months after parting ways!!”

    Krishna went on to further state: “To rewind, it was the 25th of January, 2016 when you felt that you could usurp the Brickworks’ team efforts and investments towards Da Vinci and take on the balance project yourself and save on some hard earned money. Sadly, you failed and failed till date.”

    According to Krishna, Bahl and his team were initially game to make the payments later, but soon stopped accepting any calls or messages from the Chrome team.

    Indiantelevision.com sent an email to Bahl to get his reactions to Krishna’s FB post. After several attempts, though Bahl did not comment, Da Vinci Media (DVM)’s marketing director Monomita Mukhopadhyay replied to our mail.
    “Mr. Pankaj Krishna’s Facebook post is a reaction to a demand notice sent by Da Vinci Media to his company for breach of contract. There is no logic behind Mr. Krishna’s post; it’s his opinion. They did not deliver (on) to what was discussed and did not perform well. DVM and its lawyers are doing the needful,” Mukhopadhyay explained.

    However, Chrome DM marketing head Harnoor Kanwar told indiantelevision.com that it was The Quint/DVM that decided to part ways without fulfilling their financial obligations.

    “I have attended all the meetings with Raghav Bahl and his team. Our last meeting was on 25 January 2016 when he decided to turn the tables and took charge of the distribution of his channel. We all were simply surprised. Post that, he was very much a part of all my communications regarding the investments. He owes us a few crores (of rupees) but that was ok with us. But now, he has sent us this letter demanding damages. Why has he suddenly awakened after a11-month sleep? We surely are going to take counter measures,” Kanwar counter-punched.

    Chrome DM and Brickworks Media specialises in brand and other market related research, including those pertaining to television sector. Bahl and his wife-promoted Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd is a digital media company that has a joint venture with Bloomberg for the Bloomberg business news channel in India and also operates a co-branded news website, apart from other independent ventures.

    ALSO READ:

    Da Vinci Learning and The Quint launch India’s 1st Kids HD Educational Channel

    Da Vinci Learning partners with Airtel Digital TV, Siticable and Digicable

  • Da Vinci Learning, a hurdle away from launching

    Da Vinci Learning, a hurdle away from launching

    MUMBAI: It was in October last year that the news of one more edutainment channel – Da Vinci Learning – hitting the Indian shores broke.

     

    Since then, it has been a long wait for the channel which is still waiting for its license.

     

    With two other ‘edutainment’ channels – Zee Q and Discovery Kids – already on air, the channel didn’t let the wait period go futile. This one year it has primarily focused on the channel’s pre-marketing activities. One of the first activities was the channel’s partnership with DTH operator Airtel DTH and MSOs Digicable and Siticable to give viewers an opportunity to sample its content portfolio.

     

    “Recently, we initiated an activity, basically in print, where our content was inserted in activity papers printed by ‘Primary Plus’, which has tie ups with 2000 schools across India. The objective has been to reach out to our core TG through all mediums possible and showcase the wonderful world of Da Vinci Learning to them,” says the channel’s country manager Mohit Anand.

     

    The channel is hoping to get the license by the end of August, though it is still hesitant as it all depends on the new government. “If we are able to secure our license in August then we are confident that we will be able to launch our 24 X 7 channel by early October,” optimistically says Anand.

     

    Last year, when the launch announcement of the German media company Da Vinci Media GmbH launching a channel in India was made, it was in the initial stage of completing all the legal and other statutory compliance. 

     

    It has crossed two of the three stages of government approvals. “We have successfully received Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval (which was stage one) and subsequently established out wholly-owned subsidiary (second stage) and brought in the requisite funds as per the FIPB approval into the country. Post this we have applied to the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India, for a broadcast license,” elaborates Anand.

     

    The edutainment channel, targeted at kids in the 6-12 years age group, will offer knowledge-based programmes in an engaging manner. Currently, the focus is on the top 12 metros and will be available on digital platforms only across leading DTH players as well as MSOs.

     

    The channel will be in English, however, it is also evaluating other languages in India so that it can have a certain number of shows in vernacular languages to relate to a variety of its TG.

     

    To keep the buzz alive, it organised its first pre-launch event in the national capital on 12 July, where it aimed to familiarise the viewers to the world of learning through innovative live experiments, fun pool games and interactive quiz activities for kids as well as parents. Similar activities will be held in Mumbai and Bangalore, soon.

     

    It has partnered with Fourth Dimension which will handle the complete ad sales for it including the entire gamut of operations as far as ad sales is concerned right from conceptualisation to execution. For creative duties, it will be done in-house as the company follows it globally. Talks are still on to finalise on the media agency.

     

    “Apart from that, almost all the activities that we do across other markets will be replicated here in India as well,” informs Anand.

     

    Launched world-wide on 15 September 2007 by its parent media company Da Vinci Media GmbH – the edutainment channel – is aired across 29 territories in 15 different languages.