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MUMBAI: Percept Picture Company’s television division – Percept Television – has completed a year of operations and the company, which until now was producing shows only for Sahara One, is looking at other channels too. |
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According to reliable industry sources, apart from Sahara One, Percept Television is in talks with Walt Disney Television International (India), Zee Television and Zoom for developing shows for them. |
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However, when queried by Indiantelevision.com, Percept Television business head Akhauri Sinha would only confirm that the company was in talks with a few channels but refused to divulge any names or details citing that it was too premature to talk about it. “We’re working on a comedy, thriller and a couple of non-fiction comedies. Some of these should come up in the next six months on Sahara One as well as other channels. Initially, we started out only with Sahara One but now it is our intention to broad base ourselves. We are still discussing the modalities. Hopefully in a couple of months, things should fall in place,” informs Sinha. However, if talks with Disney fructify, it would mean that Percept Television would be venturing into kids’ programming very soon. Since its inception in 2004, Percept Television has rolled out different genres of programming like Dial One Aur Jeeto, A.D.A, Power Trip (which was pulled off air after a few months and was hosted by Shobhaa De), Rajshri’s Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki (of which they are executive producers) and more recently Hare KKaanch Ki Choodiyaan. All these shows air on Sahara One. Sinha says, “We’ve gone across genres and formats – fiction, nonfiction and a game show. Hopefully we will continue to experiment with formats and hence build a wider repertoire.” Percept Television’s Dial One Aur Jeeto recently got an extension of Rs 80 million from Sahara One keeping in mind the success and popularity of the show. “After we got the extension, we revamped the format and made it a one hour show. The number of calls that we receive has gone up by almost 60 – 70 per cent. Apart from that, we receive almost 50,000 SMSs per day,” says Sinha. When queried as to why Power Trip was pulled off the channel and whether there were any plans of bringing it back, Sinha says, “It was not doing as well as our other shows are doing. For us, it was a question of a perception and look changer, so in terms of that we got a lot of good feedback from the audience. The good thing was that Shobhaa knew a lot of these people personally, so she was able to bring that equation in the show. We have suggested bringing the show back to the channel, but they also need to figure out other things before they decide to bring it back.” He also informed that in the future, the company was looking at trying their hand at different genres like comedy shows, regional programming, shows for news channels and possibly animation too. “We would like to make our television business a lot bigger and broad base our selves. We are looking at animation and since I was with UTV earlier, I have a background in animation. It’s not something that you plunge into without thinking. It’s not as simple as it is made out to be,” he says. |
Tag: develop
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Percept Television looks to develop shows for channels other than Sahara One
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OpenTV, Playboy sign deal to develop iTV applications worldwide
MUMBAI: interactive television company Open TV and adult content provider Playboy Enterprises, have signed a multi-year agreement.
The two parties will jointly develop, integrate and launch digital interactive software applications for deployment on Playboy’s worldwide suite of television programming networks. As part the agreement, the companies expect to develop interactive applications capable of running on all software platforms, and will not be limited to any specific set-top box middleware or any proprietary iTV solution.
Under the agreement, OpenTV will also support Playboy in marketing a wide variety of interactive applications and games to network operators worldwide, and general consulting and advisory services.
OpenTV’s senior VP and GM marketing and applications products Tim Evard says, “We are delighted to partner with such a powerful global brand like Playboy to develop innovative interactive television applications. This commitment reinforces the compelling value proposition that we offer in the applications space, and we look forward to building unique, reliable and stable technologies and applications that increase viewership and revenue for both Playboy and their network operator distributors around the world.”Playboy has stated that it is committed to helping its distribution partners drive maximum value from the programming it offers. Playboy believes that iTV applications will be a powerful tool for its partners and will also provide a more compelling viewingand transactional experience for the consumer.
OpenTV claims to be deployed in approximately 47 million digital set-top-boxes in 96 countries. The company’s software enables a wide array of functionality, including enhanced television, a full-featured IPTV solution interactive shopping, interactive and addressable advertising, games and gaming, personal video recording, and a variety of consumer care and communication applications.
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‘Spiderman’ creator Stan Lee to develop new superhero franchise
MUMBAI: The man who gave us the classic superhero Spiderman as well as X-Men Stan Lee has got further superhero plans up his sleeve.
His company Pow! Entertainment has forged a joint venture partnership with former Beatle Ringo Starr to create and launch an original entertainment franchise.
The animation concept will transform Starr into an evil-battling, earth-saving albeit reluctant superhero with a great sense of rhythm. The venture will be financed, produced and distributed by IDT Entertainment.
The superhero project will be developed by Lee with Ringo Starr’s entertainment company Rocca Bella for television, home entertainment/DVD, publishing and all categories of licensing and merchandising.
Production on the animated television series will begin later this year. DVDs will be rolled out in the first quarter of 2006. The superhero will be based on Ringo’s famed persona. Lee said, “Ringo is beloved worldwide for his commitment to people and his singular wit. Our Ringo superhero character will combine these qualities, along with Ringo’s secret powers which people generally didn’t know about because he has kept them secret, until now.
“What a blast this’ll be! Ringo Starr is one of the most colourful, creative guys I know. Between the two of us, we’ve cooked up enough wild ideas for music, humor, action and superhero surprises in our new animated project, featuring the rollicking, ringed and bearded Ringo, to keep the fans happy and excited for years to come”.
Starr said, ” I am so excited to become a ‘reluctant superhero’. How great to hang out with Stan and laugh, laugh, laugh, as we’re in the first stages of creating this soon to be masterpiece. Adding music to this adventure is something I am also looking forward to. See you in animation land — soon!”
Rocca Bella executive producer Marjorie Bach said, ” Ringo is not just a legendary drummer and musician but also an extremely talented artist and storyteller. Stan Lee invented the modern superhero, revived a dying industry and created a mythology. What a team! This animated project will allow us the freedom to create fantasy worlds based on Ringos’ superhero character that will delight and inspire everyone, from the children of the 60’s to the kids of today.”
IDT Entertainment focusses on developing, acquiring, producing and distributing computer-generated and traditionally animated productions and other productions for the film, broadcast and direct-to-consumer markets.
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TNSSport’s develops SportsI brand recognition software
LOS ANGELES: TNSSport has announced that it is developing advanced image recognition technology to track the television exposure and value of brands within sports.
Already capable of measuring exposure from advertising boards, the new SportsI system is being developed with BrandTraX. TNSSport claims to be the world’s leading sports research company.
An official release informs that the company is partnering with BrandTraX, which is leveraging advanced image recognition technology originally developed by Bell Labs, the R&D division of Lucent Technologies. Over the past 20 years, television exposure data has been collated manually. While this will continue to some extent the use of this technology is a pivotal moment for the sports research business, states the release.
Requiring relatively little manual input, the recognition software measures the exposure time a brand receives during a sports broadcast. Whilst this sounds relatively simple, the technology is groundbreaking and can produce analysis currently not possible to capture using a manual process. Bell Labs first developed this technology to detect and extract data from documents such as financial statements and faxes. This image recognition technology has proven to be applicable across a range of disciplines and industries. Bell Labs has licensed this technology to BrandTrax and is providing R&D services to them to meet the evolving demands of its the sports media measurement business.
TNSSport’s managing director Mark Cornish says, “Undoubtedly this will have a significant impact upon the industry. The technology is such that it improves both the accuracy and type of data we can extract from sports broadcasts, ultimately allowing us to precisely and consistently measure value. For years the industry has demanded that sponsors’ television exposure should be sold like advertising – but this is difficult due to accurate measurement. This new technology now makes this a distinct possibility”.
BrandTraX’s president Dick Gold adds, “The demand for accurate electronic tracking of sponsors’ signage is mandatory for valuation of exposure. As such, our use of Bell Labs’ advanced image recognition software is the most efficient technology to electronically advance a currently manual tracking system to a fully computerised solution.”
