ITV

Tag: Delhi

  • Delhi land scam accused surrenders in Zee News studio

    NEW DELHI: In his attempt to emphasise that his life was in danger and he may be forced to speak before being produced in court, Ashok Malhotra who is the alleged kingpin of the multi-million Delhi land scam surrendered to the Central Bureau of Investigation at the Zee News Studio in Noida.

    Before the surrender, Malhotra during the course of his interview with Zee News had made some startling revelations. He said his life was in danger, his relatives had been manhandled at home by the CBI, and he would only reveal everything in court. He admitted to knowing some officers of the Delhi Development Authority and to have relations with some local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. He denied ever having met Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit or having relations with Delhi Congress chief Ram Babu Sharma.

    He admitted that “MLAs Kunwar Karan Pal Singh and Surendra Singh Bittoo had helped in getting the VIP numbers for his cars,” but said he had only 17 cars and six motor cycles.

    He said, “There is no case against me and my property is not more than Rs 100 million”, and denied he had papers of 5500 plots.

    Malhotra is alleged to have acquired land meant for slum colonies and then sold these off at exorbitant prices. 

    The scam was unearthed during a CBI raid that is alleged to have yielded land papers of no less than 5500 plots in Delhi and over 50 cars with VIP numbers. The accused runs the canteen at the Delhi Vidhan Sabha and is alleged to have strong connections with key leaders across the political spectrum.

    This is not the first time that an accused has surrendered in the studios of a television channel. Sahil, an accused in the drugs case against BJP leader Pramod Mahajan’s son Rahul, had surrendered to police in the studios of Aaj Tak in Srinagar in June last year.

  • CNN-IBN starts reality news show

    NEW DELHI: CNN-IBN is launching a show Summer Showdown in a reality show format.

    Encouraging citizen journalism, the show will follow a family each from the five metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata – for five-weeks. They will be asked to report on all the civic problems that they feel are threatening to become a crisis this summer – from continuous power cuts, overflowing sewers to the dismal state of our roads.

    In addition, these citizen journalists will be provided opportunities to meet and interact with the local civic authorities to find solutions to these real and unrelenting problems and work towards realising them.

    The two-three minute daily basis stories of their personal experience will be carried on CNN-IBN’s Newswheel. The initiative will culminate in a one-hour special on 26 May that will track the previous week’s progress to see which city’s civic authorities were the most efficient in responding to their citizen’s appeals.

  • CNN hits the streets for marketing ‘Eye on India’

    NEW DELHI: In a unique marketing road show activity called ‘Express Yourself’, CNN branded vehicles are travelling around three Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore – encouraging youth to express their views on issues relevant to them.

    Coinciding with CNN’s week-long Eye on India: Generation Next, the innovative travelling exhibit is also distributing flyers that soliciting opinion on topics ranging from what it is like to be young in India today, the importance of religion, caste, arranged marriages, what makes the youth proud to be Indian.

    Eye on India: Generation Next is being promoted extensively through an aggressive, 360 degree marketing campaign, a press note from the channel says.

    It explains that with the aim of generating awareness and drive appointment viewing, the campaign includes a comprehensive mix of trade and consumer advertising, both in print and online; promotional television spots on CNN’s Asia Pacific and Europe/Middle East / Africa feeds; online consumer contests, etc.

    CNN’s Eye on India focusses on India’s growing youth population. More than half a billion people under the age of 25 or one in 12 people in the world is a young Indian, and CNN’s week of special programming trains the spotlight on this demographic. This edition of Eye on India will include a series of special programmes on CNN, along with highlights of Indian youth in various segments of life, in business, sports, industry, etc.

    The programme kicked off on 18 March, and the channel hopes this will provide CNN’s global audiences a comprehensive look at the country’s youth.

  • Pirated software worth $2.1 mn seized in 2006 raids

    Pirated software worth $2.1 mn seized in 2006 raids

    BANGALORE: The total value of software seized in 2006 in the more than 200 anti-piracy raids carried out across the country is $2.1 million.

    The raids were conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and its member companies collectively and individually. BSA has vowed to step up enforcement actions in 2007 to further bring down piracy rates.

    Jeffrey J Hardee, BSA vice president and regional director, Asia-Pacific, said, “In over 200 actions that have been conducted by BSA and its member companies in 2006, we had found widespread use and sale of pirated software across Indian cities. With the high software piracy rate in India, it is important to highlight efforts of the industry in combating piracy through enforcement.”

    The BSA and its members have carried out raids in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad in 2006.

    As per the findings of the BSA-IDC study of 2005, the rate of PC software piracy in 2005 was 72 per cent. According to the statistics, the Indian software industry lost revenue to the tune of of $566 million in 2005.

     
    Hardee added, “BSA adopts a three pronged strategy i.e. spreading the awareness on the perils of piracy, training and education of users including use of specialized tools like software asset management (SAM) and enforcement, in addressing software piracy around the globe. Whilst enforcement is a last resort, it is an important part of our approach as it serves to underline the seriousness of the matter.”

    Pirated software that has been seized includes those from Adobe, Autodesk, McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec.

     
    The BSA maintains a close working relationship with the government and industry associations in India such as Nasscom. According to an economic impact study conducted by IDC, if the piracy rate is reduced by 10 points by 2009, India could benefit with an additional 115,000 new IT jobs; an additional $ 5.9 billion pumped into its economy and increased tax revenues of $ 386 million.

  • Radio One now finds listeners a ‘Valentine’

    MUMBAI: Put on your best perfume, think of interesting opening lines and leave the rest to Radio One FM 94.3. Mentos presents Radio One Speed Dating, a totally fun event where single, interesting and eligible guys and girls get together for a fun evening.

    Speed Dating is an exciting concept and is based on the psychological evidence that most people make up their mind of whether they like someone in the first 60 seconds of interacting with them.

    Perfetti India and Radio One have signed up a deal to conduct Speed Dating sessions at leading nightclubs at 4 locations across the country i.e. Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

    Speaking on the concept and success of Speed dating over the years, Radio One FM 94.3 vice president Shariq Patel says, “This is the third speed dating event we are organizing and the registrations have increased with each event. This is also the second time in a row that Mentos has partnered with us. Given the previous years experience this year Mentos has signed up for the event across all 4 of our stations i.e. Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore apart from Mumbai.”

    Perfetti marketing head Samir Sunjea adds “Speed dating is a perfect fit for Mentos since it caters to our target age group. It is a ‘fresh’ concept in India and therefore echoes our brand’s core intrinsic values.

    Moreover, the Speed Dating concept adheres to the ‘Mentos Life’ philosophy – a way in which to avoid the dull and usual and to adopt a fun and innovative approach to ordinary life.”

    Event Details
    – 20 men and 20 women invited for the exclusive event
    – All have to register at the venue
    – When registering all the participants are given a badge and a memo card with interested/uninterested marked against every name.
    – Each participant will get around 5 mins for 20 one-on-one dates.
    – The men will keep moving while the women remain seated.
    – The participants will move to the next table at the sound of the bell
    – If two participants are interested in meeting again, they are to mark their memo card accordingly.
    – Only if both concerned people are interested in each other, as marked in their memo card are they matched
    – Radio One will provide the female participant with the male’s contact details. Only if she wants to pursue the friendship further will she call. Hence a completely safe way of interacting with people.

     

    To register for speed dating all you have to do is log on to www.radioone.in and register yourself. If you are a working professional above the age of 21, you have a chance to be invited for this exclusive event at your city.

    Mumbai-The speed dating event will happen at Squeeze in Mumbai on 8th February, 2007. The cast of the new film Just Married is also expected to attend the event. Esha Deol, Perizaad Zorabian and Bikram saluja .

    Bangalore- followed by Mumbai, the action will shift to Bangalore on Feb 11th at Athena. IT people, its all about working and networking!

    Chennai- Feb 12th, Chennai will rock like never before at Sparks, Hotel savera.

    Delhi- A day prior to the Valentines day, Delhi will conduct speed dating at Lizard lounge on Feb 13th. A day prior to the V day!

  • Star plans radio re-entry, to pick up 20 per cent in Radio City

    Star plans radio re-entry, to pick up 20 per cent in Radio City

    MUMBAI: Star Group plans to pick up 20 per cent in Music Broadcast Pvt. Ltd. (MBPL), marking a re-entry into the private FM radio business.

    Star is buying the stake from India Value Fund, (earlier GW Capital) a venture capital fund. With this, India Value Fund’s holding will drop from 75 per cent to 55 per cent.

    In early 2005, Star had sold its stake in MBPL, the company which operates its FM radio stations under the Radio City brand, for Rs 300 million. India Value Fund had acquired a controlling stake in MBPL.

    “Star is buying back the 20 per cent it had sold earlier in MBPL. The radio business is set to explode with the government changing its policy and opening up the second phase of private FM expansion,” says a source close to the company. He, however, could not confirm the price Star is paying to acquire the stake.

    MBPL chief executive officer Apurva Purohit was not available for comment. Star officials also could not be reached. The government regulations permit only 20 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the FM radio business.

    In May 2005, Star had discontinued its arrangement of supplying content to MBPL. Later in the year the country’s biggest television network in terms of revenue also ceased doing air time sales for Radio City.

    Since the inception of Radio City, MBPL had contracted Star to provide its expertise in the areas of programming, ad sales and marketing. The operations were handled through DigiWave, a 50:50 joint venture between Star and the PK Mittal-promoted Ispat group.

    Radio City is already operational in seven cities comprising Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai and Jaipur. The plan is to launch in 13 more cities including Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Sangli, Akola and Nagpur.

  • STBs moving fast in Mumbai, Delhi

    STBs moving fast in Mumbai, Delhi

    MUMBAI: Multi-system operators (MSOs) have in store 200,000 set-top boxes (STBs) and orders have been placed for importing more to meet the growing demand from consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Nripendra Misra tells Indiantelevision.com.

    The offtake of STBs has been slow in Kolkata while there seems to be a healthy demand in Mumbai and Delhi, he adds. MSOs have seeded 135,000 boxes in Mumbai, 105,000 in Delhi and only 24,000 in Kolkata.

     
    “Kolkata is slow to take off and our feedback is that most of the consumers are opting for free-to-air (FTA) package at this stage. But overall Cas (conditional access system) is getting accepted by the consumers,” says Misra.

    Mumbai with 130,000 has the maximum number of STBs in stock while Delhi has 55,000 and Kolkata 20,000. But the major MSOs like Incablenet, Hathway Cable & Datacom and Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL), who are operating in multiple cities, have no problems in shifting the boxes according to the consumer requirement.

    Misra admits, though, that there are “reports of shortages in some pockets.” Consumers falling under the Cas areas did not order for the boxes earlier and there is a rush only after Cas got implemented which has led to this current situation, he clarifies.

     
    The cable & broadcast regulator has called for a meeting with the MSOs on Friday to take stock of the Cas situation. The Trai will be sending teams to Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata from Monday to make spot assessments, Misra says.

  • ‘Rolling out of Cas has been the most significant development’

    ‘Rolling out of Cas has been the most significant development’

    The Olympic motto `Citius Altius Fortius’ a Latin phrase when translated means Faster-Higher-Stronger. We see strong parallels between the motto and the Indian Entertainment & Media (IEM) Industry. India is among world’s largest media consuming and content creating markets. Paradoxically, IEM is just 0.7 per cent ($10 bn) of the global $1.4 trillion industry. Till now, poor policies, fragmented markets, low investments and leakages have kept the moolah remarkably elusive. However, with sweeping changes in distribution, convergence and integration of models, we see IEM growing to $21 billion by 2010. We are bullish.”

    The above mentioned observations of SSKI research aptly sums up the present upbeat scenario on the television and distribution sector in India. 2007 has been full of various significant developments in the television industry, which have laid the foundation for technological convergence, digitisation and addressability, thus ushering a new era in the sector which would revolutionalise the television viewing experience in the ensuing years.

    The most significant and landmark development of the year has been the successful implementation of Conditional Access System (Cas) in notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. This is being regarded as a big leap towards migration from analogue regime to digital regime. The regulatory framework is acting as a catalyst in the process of digitization. Trai has already recommended to the government for extension of Cas in remaining areas of these three Metros.

    Trai has also submitted to the government a report of the Group on digitization for introduction of voluntary Cas in 55 more cities in a well defined time frame. It is now up to the information & broadcasting ministry, to trigger off the said process by laying down a clear cut road map.

    Prior to 2007 the digitisation rollout in cable was virtually negligible. However, now we expect it to be happening at an accelerated pace. It is estimated that by 2010, the total C&S homes are likely to increase to 90 million from present level of 68 million. It is expected that out of those homes, 37 million would be digitised.

    In October 2007, Trai had also sent its recommendations to the I&B ministry on the policy framework for licensing and issues pertaining to headend-in-the-sky (HITS), which too is a digital distribution platform. The ministry is examining them and once a final decision is taken on these recommendations, it is expected that the digitization in the cable segment will take off at a faster pace as HITS has potential of digitising the entire country within a short span of time.

    In addition to various benefits of digitization such as capacity augmentation and provision of Value Added Services (VAS) to consumers, digitisation also results in bringing transparency in the cable sector, which not only leads to better tax compliance and realisation of due taxes by revenue authorities, but also ensure equitable distribution of revenue across the value chain.

    The government is the biggest beneficiary of the shift from analogue to digital cable, as digitisation releases significant spectrum. The spectrum can be utilised for other services like telecommunications, defence, emergency, interactive platform and value added services. This is possibly what is driving the government to take the steps necessary for the evolution of digitisation.

    For instance, in Germany, the government subsidised Set Top Boxes for the low income group, whereas in Ireland, the government launched a company (Digico) to introduce digital terrestrial services.

    Digitisation in the cable segment will take off at a faster pace as HITS has potential of digitising the entire country within a short span of time
    _____****_____

    Similarly in DTH distribution, the market is going to witness fierce competition amongst five to six players. In addition to the existing DTH operators DD Direct, Dish TV and Tata Sky, new entrants Bharti, Reliance, Sun TV and Videocon are also expected to launch their services shortly. It is expected that by 2010 the DTH segment would also have about 16 million digital subscribers.

    Similarly, IPTV and Mobile TV both emerging digital technologies are also expected to register an impressive growth by 2010.

    The year 2007 also witnessed lot of activities and developments on the content front. Though already about 270 channels are existing yet, unfazed by the large number of existing channels, several new channels of different genres were launched during the year.

    However, on account of bandwidth constraints on analogue network, the new channels are required to spend heavily on carriage fee in order to ensure their placement on the visible band in the cable network. The existing channels also witnessed intense competition and the entertainment/current affair channels were mainly dominated by “reality shows”.

  • No extension on Cas deadline: I&B ministry

    No extension on Cas deadline: I&B ministry

    MUMBAI: Conditional access system (Cas) will be rolled out in the notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata from 31 December and no time extension is under consideration, the government said today.

    The deadline has been fixed by the Delhi High Court and there is no possibility of it being extended, an official statement from the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry clarified.

    “In an application moved by a multi-system operator (MSO) before the Delhi high court for extension of time, the court has already taken a view that no such time extension is possible. The I&B ministry does not have the power to order any extension in the date of implementation of Cas. The transition time to run encrypted and unencrypted channels and switching off pay channel signals in unencrypted format began from 16 December and will end on 30 December,” the release said.

    The ministry was reacting to a report in a leading news daily that the deadline for rolling out Cas had been relaxed. “The report is totally misleading and baseless,” the ministry said.

    The ministry also categorically denied that it had left open a month-long window after 31 December for implementation of CAS and said that there was no question of any channel being blacked out. The I&B ministry has not filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court seeking transition time after 31 December, it clarified.

    “In the advertisements on Cas released by the ministry from time to time in various newspapers, subscribers have been requested to apply sufficiently well in advance of 31 December for set-top boxes indicating their choice for pay channels lest their pay channels are blacked out on 31 December,” the release added.

  • Red FM strengthens Delhi operations

    Red FM strengthens Delhi operations

    MUMBAI: FM radio station Red FM has appointed Akash Verma as the station head for Delhi. He joins Red FM from Coca-Cola India.

    In his career spanning over a decade he has been actively involved with business management, innovations, consumer / customer marketing, media sales and events. He has extensive experience in communication development, project management, channel marketing, P&L management, consumer promotions, alliance management & consumer insights.

    As the station head he will look into the P&L accountability for Delhi station and will also be responsible for all functions like marketing, sales, programming, scheduling, finance and HR.