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Tag: Digital Business

  • Sagar Panda Joins Lokal App as Regional Head – Digital Business for West & North India

    Sagar Panda Joins Lokal App as Regional Head – Digital Business for West & North India

    MUMBAI: Sagar Panda has joined Lokal App as Regional Head – Digital Business – West & North India Market. With nearly two decades of experience in the media and advertising industry, Sagar brings a wealth of knowledge in integrated digital media sales, Branded content advertising, and business development.

    He joins the Publisher Platform from Sakal Media Group after working as Regional Business (West & South) for more than a year. Sagar Panda posted about this development on his LinkedIn profile.

    Previously, Sagar served as Associate Director – Growth & Partnership at Zee5. Over the course of his career, he has held leadership and sales roles across several well-known organizations including Zee Entertainment, Sakal Media Group, The Hindu Group of Publication, India Television, Network18 Media, and Dalal Street Investment Journal.

    Sagar Panda comes with more than 15+ years of experience contributing to organisations namely Zee Entertainment (Zee5), Sakal Media, The Hindu Group, India Television, News18 and Dalal Street Investment Journal.

    Sagar’s areas of expertise span Advertising, Online Ad Sales (Display & Programmatic), Brand Solution Sales, Native Content Sales, Sponsorship-driven IPs, Concept Selling, Direct Sales, and Revenue Forecasting. His comprehensive experience also includes team building and management and consistently achieving revenue targets across traditional and digital platforms.

  • Shemaroo’s digital business contributes 48 per cent to FY22 revenue

    Shemaroo’s digital business contributes 48 per cent to FY22 revenue

    Mumbai: Shemaroo Entertainment posted its financial results for the fourth quarter and financial year ended on 31 March. The company’s digital business contribution has grown from less than 10 per cent in FY14 to 48 per cent in FY22. This includes revenues from its OTT platform ShemarooMe and its content distribution agreements with telcos and OTT players.

    For the fourth quarter, the company posted Rs 936 million in revenue from operations and Rs 20 million net profit. The company reported 465 million in revenue from its digital media business registering 25.9 per cent growth year on year (YoY). It earned Rs 471 million from its traditional media business, a growth of 15.7 per cent.

    The company posted revenue of Rs 3814 million and profit after tax of 53 million for the financial year 2021-22. Its digital media revenues stood at Rs 1814 million which grew by 21.4 per cent year-on-year. It earned Rs 2000 million from traditional media which grew by 23.7 per cent year-on-year.

    Shemaroo Entertainment launched its third satellite free-to-air channel named ‘Shemaroo Umang’ in April. The company also released 15 new titles during the quarter with content across movies, web series and plays on its OTT platform ShemarooMe.

  • Asianet News’ digital business turns profitable

    Asianet News’ digital business turns profitable

    Mumbai: Asianet News Media and Entertainment, one of the leading players in the Indian media industry has closed the financial year 2021-22 EBITDA positive for its digital business. The group has a multi-media presence across the country in multiple languages via its digital platform (asianetnews.com, indigomusic.com), TV channels (Asianet News and Asianet Suvarna News), print publication (Kannada Prabha) and radio channels (Indigo).

    On the back of significant revenue growth and cost optimisation, the digital business of AMEL delivered positive EBITDA for the first time. During the year, the company has re-organised many parts of its business with a focus on increasing ARPUs and on delivering positive unit economics.

    Executive chairman of the group Rajesh Kalra spoke about how tough times brought people together to deliver despite all odds. “It has been phenomenal to witness how our teams came together during the most trying times to optimize and grow at a record rate. The determination and discipline that our hands-on leadership team and our immensely talented colleagues have tirelessly demonstrated has resulted in this outstanding performance. I am confident that this is just the start of much greater things to come for the group,” he said.

    “FY-22 was a tough year on multiple fronts. Many of us lost near and dear ones, but the way our teams with complementary skill-sets have supported each other and remained focused towards our common goal was heartening to see,” commented Asianet News chief operating officer Ruchir Khanna. “Top/bottom line growth is only a reflection of a healthy ecosystem that we have been able to form in the last year. We will continue to pull on our P&L levers in the coming year, and launch several new products that will drive our audience reach, engagement and retention.”

    Commenting on this achievement for AMEL, chief business officer Samarth Sharma said, “The last FY posed several challenges at both personal and professional levels. The synergies drawn from the adversity that the teams witnessed last year have translated into our digital business delivering record revenue There have been several innovative revenue initiatives from our teams across the globe that contributed to this success and we’d like to thank our client, agency, data and intelligence partners for showing faith in us in our journey.”

    Besides strengthening its Indian language footprint across the country, Asianet News has also made significant investments in English and Hindi to extend its dominance pan India.

  • Zeel’s Amit Goenka awarded 21st Century Icon Awards at House of Lords

    Zeel’s Amit Goenka awarded 21st Century Icon Awards at House of Lords

    Mumbai: Zeel president – digital business and platforms Amit Goenka was awarded the 21st Century Icon Awards at House of Lords, London for his contribution to the growth of the media & entertainment Industry.

    Organized by Squared Watermelon Ltd, the 21st Century Icon Awards are organised every year to support and promote the next generation of inspiring leaders as well as offer them a platform to showcase their achievements in their respective fields. Goenka was chosen in the “Outstanding Media & Entertainment Award” category for pioneering the digital business at Zee.

    Goenka has been instrumental in spearheading the growth of Zee5, the company’s streaming platform and “catapulting the company into its next phase of growth, by aggressively expanding its footprint in the international arena and driving data and technology to build a truly robust consumer experience across digital screens.”

    “Winning in the Outstanding Media & Entertainment category is not just a recognition of our success, it is a firm testament of the consistent hard work put in by our teams. Together, we have built the digital businesses and platforms of Zee Entertainment to be at the forefront of ushering in the next era of entertainment for new-age consumers across connected devices,” said Goenka. “At Zee, our sharp focus is on creating engaging content supported by parallel investments in technology and talent, leading to a robust offering and delightful consumer experiences across languages. I am confident that our digital businesses are well poised for immense success in the future and such acknowledgements will further fuel our passion and the strife for higher growth and success going forward.”

    Squared Watermelon president and chief executive officer Tarun Ghulati and co-founder and chief creative officer Preeti Rana said the 21st Century Icon Awards endeavour to appreciate and bring forth the next generation of business leaders who have played a major role in transforming their company. “Amit Goenka is a prolific business personality who is a role model for the next generation of leaders and it is our honour to recognise his contribution to the business fraternity and add his name to our prestigious list of past winners,” Ghulati said.

    Conducted annually, the prestigious 21st Century Icon Awards judges business leaders on attributes such as personal integrity, impact, spirit, financial acumen, influence and community along with humbleness.

  • Zee Media appoints Abhishek Nigam as chief operating officer for digital business

    Zee Media appoints Abhishek Nigam as chief operating officer for digital business

    Mumbai: Zee Media has announced the appointment of Abhishek Nigam as its chief operating officer for the digital business. He was previously associated with Airtel as product head for its B2C platform.

    Nigam will be responsible for the entire digital operations that include 20 brands across 12 languages touching more than 300 million viewers across digital replicas of Zee Media’s 14 linear news channels along with websites such as  India.com, BGR.in, BollywoodLife.com, TheHealthsite.com, and CricketCountry.com, the company said in a statement.

    Commenting on the appointment, Zee group chief strategy and innovation officer Bibek Agarwala said, “Irrespective of the prevailing challenges, Zee Digital has reported exponential growth within last few years through strategic communications and technological advancements. With extensive experience and knowledge in the technology, product, and sales domain, Abhishek Nigam will definitely add value to the company’s vision and the overall implementation and development trajectory.”

    “Moving ahead, we are looking forward to an aggressive growth roadmap that will help achieve a differentiated and sustainable competitive positioning for Zee Media’s digital assets in this dynamically changing digital ecosystem”, he added.

    Commenting on his new role, Nigam shared, “I am delighted to join hands with India’s most diversified digital publishing group. It would be an honour to work with the highly knowledgeable leadership. My endeavour would be to help Zee Media scale new heights across the globe by aligning all the Digital assets and bringing in synergies through strategic measures and latest technological innovations.”

    As a seasoned professional with 15 years of experience, Nigam has worked with Times Internet and Jagran Group across product leadership roles. He also holds expertise in handling the vernacular language market. An IIT-Delhi alumnus, Nigam holds a B. Tech and M. Tech degree. His educational qualification also includes a senior management program from IIM, Calcutta, and AI professional program from Stanford University.

  • Nykaa onboards Vikas Gupta as CEO – B2B Business

    Nykaa onboards Vikas Gupta as CEO – B2B Business

    MUMBAI: Flipkart’s head of customer, marketing and digital business Vikas Gupta has joined online beauty & personal care products marketplace Nykaa as CEO of its b2b business.

    The e-commerce portal posted the development on its LinkedIn page.

    “We are delighted to welcome on board, Vikas Gupta, the new CEO of our B2B business at Nykaa. Having held leadership roles for over two decades, Vikas is an expert at building business for digital-first enterprises that are data driven and fast-evolving. We are excited to have him on the team to drive a new wave of growth at Nykaa,” read the post.

    Gupta has over two decades of leadership experience at companies such as Unilever and more recently, Flipkart, where he was the head of customer and marketing function, the company said. 

    His work over the years has won him several recognitions including 14 effectiveness awards (Effies and AMEs), 27 innovation and creative awards (16 Cannes Lions) and 10 top Unilever awards.  

    Gupta shared the news of his appointment on LinkedIn saying, “Incredibly excited to start this new journey at Nykaa. Big Thank you to the wonderful people at #Flipkart for the lasting learnings and friendships and an everlasting gratitude to my family at #Unilever #hindustanunilever as I begin this new chapter of my life.”

    At Nykaa, Gupta will be setting up the e-distribution arm that aims to become the one-stop shop for retailers across the country to source beauty and personal care products, the company said.

  • Sony Music appoints Mairu Gupta as head of digital business in India

    Sony Music appoints Mairu Gupta as head of digital business in India

    KOLKATA: Sony Music India has announced the appointment of Mairu Gupta as digital business director. Gupta will lead the company’s digital business with its streaming partners in India and will collaborate with Sony Music’s global teams to drive and enhance digital revenue and market share.

    Gupta brings more than 15 years of business experience and thought leadership to Sony Music India and has won multiple awards for developing breakthrough digital content throughout his career. His most recent stint was at the NBA, where he led the content and media distribution business for the League for more than 3.5 years. He bolstered the NBA's considerable digital footprint through an expansive strategy that involved growing and engaging fan bases through localised and original content such as the musically-led, award-winning NBA Hoop nation series.  

    “We are excited to have Mairu join us as we grow our strategic partnerships in the digital business,” Sony Music India managing director Rajat Kakar said. “Mairu comes with proven leadership and entrepreneurial experience that will play a key role in building new partnerships that provide new opportunities to expand the reach of our artists.”  

    Prior to the NBA, Gupta served as Vice President and Business Head of Jack in the Box Worldwide for nearly two years. In addition to setting up and leading the organisation’s New Delhi office, Gupta created strategies that significantly grew their digital communications consultancy business, winning multiple awards for excellence in digital content.

    “There is significant opportunity for Sony Music to lead the digital future of the Indian music industry, especially when considering the added benefits of being part of the wider Sony family,” added Gupta. “It’s great to be joining such an innovative company and I look forward to working with the team and our partners to build even more creative opportunities for our artists.”

    Gupta is the latest hire as part of Sony Music India’s strategy to grow its market share across the various repertoires and genres of the Indian music industry. In June, Sony Music India announced the appointment of Jagjit Singh Bhogal as Head of A&R to grow the Company’s existing artist portfolio across languages, with a special focus on garnering worldwide exposure for Indian artists.

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  • Shemaroo projects 25-30% digital business growth in FY 2020

    Shemaroo projects 25-30% digital business growth in FY 2020

    MUMBAI: Content powerhouse Shemaroo started its initiatives for digital business comparatively earlier than many other traditional media companies in India. The company has now stepped up its new media segment which is almost 30 per cent of the overall business with the launch of ShemarooMe. Shemaroo is taking a slow but steady approach and does not intend to go head-to-head with giants like Amazon and Netflix.

    Talking to investors in a conference call after posting Q3 results, Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd CEO Hiren Gada said that the new OTT business has been built at a significantly low capex model making it sustainable. According to him, India being a highly heterogeneous market leaves the opportunity for even late entrants. Despite some segments being covered by existing players, a significant chunk of potential segments are still open.

    “We looked into our own content pie and saw that there are few segments where we have a significant offering and strong market position in terms of either being number one, two or three in terms of content or share of viewership etc., and we looked at actually how we can leverage those opportunities to create the connect. ShemarooMe is the short consumer connect bit that we are looking to do,” Gada said. The core strategy is to establish the new OTT platform as the best option for consumers in its core categories.

    However, it won’t get into web series since Shemaroo holds a steady ground in nonfiction content like classic films, devotional etc., which it believes is a better value add to its core.

    Moreover, Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd COO Kranti Gada expects TV-friendly content catalogue to see good consumption since initial tests on YouTube proved favourable. ShemarooMe has a large number of popular Bollywood movies on the platform and Hiren Gada thinks digital will have movies as a significant consuming category.

    Although Shemaroo is witnessing significant growth in YouTube channels viewership, the revenue from the segment has been flattish due to several reasons. But the management is optimistic as digital ad spend is headed up and expected to keep growing at a certain rate. Shemaroo CEO thinks YouTube being the largest video platform will capture a good share of that growth.

    “What is heartening more than anything else is the fact that there are core consumption and viewer habit formation of coming to the platform, consuming, interacting, seeking out content and engaging with it,” he added.

    Hiren Gada projects that the overall digital pie of the company will see a 25 to 30 per cent growth in FY 2020 as the industry level growth is between 20-25 per cent. Shemaroo has always aspired 5 per cent higher than the sector. Hence if the industry grows at a higher pace, he seems confident that Shemaroo’s digital business will grow faster.

    On being asked about the company’s debt reduction plan, Hiren Gada said, “We are hoping that now with ShemarooMe and hopefully with a better YouTube growth, those trends should continue in the direction that we all are expecting and overall on the debt front even this quarter there has been a slight marginal reduction. So the debt is at a broad level the content requirement for on a so content acquisition versus monetisation so all the acquisition is being funded by internal accruals from monetisation at this point in time.”

  • Eros Now driving Eros International growth

    Eros Now driving Eros International growth

    MUMBAI: The popularity of digital content has got traditional media scrambling to understand and shift to newer mediums. Leading production house Eros International’s digital arm is gradually emerging as the driving factor for the company’s growth given its Q1 result while its theatrical business revenue declined. Eros Now has not only seen a huge subscriber jump but also largely contributed to the record revenue digital and ancillary business. After gaining momentum in India, the company is seeing an influx of B2C subscribers from international markets boosting the platform’s overall growth.

    “International is starting to track in line, we just started with some independent state campaigns in the US and the UK over summer. So we are going to start seeing a lot more action from international,” Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla said in an earnings call. Along with international, India’s B2C conversions are happening earlier than expected since B2B2C was targetted first.

    Eros Now stands with 10.1 million paying subscribers as of 30 June. Initially, it did not opt for advertising so that people get accustomed to subscription. However, the company is also very confident about reaching its target of 16 million subscribers by the end of FY 2019.

    It is now looking at nonintrusive brand integration. Lulla said that though it has not integrated with any brand yet, the initial conversations with several brands are on. “We’d probably see something being rolled out within the next quarter and hopefully we will start seeing a bit more revenue recognition from that post one quarter,” she said.

    To scale up the digital business, the company is looking at a robust library including movies and originals. The target is to premiere minimum one to two movies in each week of a month leading to a total of 50 to 100 movies a year. In terms of originals, it is looking at 18 to 20 flagship originals, which is minimum one a month, and then two in some months. Other than flagship shows, the platform will have ‘normal originals’ also.

    While the number of originals will be increased, the cost will be adjusted from the allocated $250 million capex. The content production powerhouse is looking at a mix between the movie and digital content production. Since Eros Now is helping margins to build the scales may be tiled in favour of more original shows.

    “[For] the big tenfold movies, the cost has doubled and the box office of those movies are going down and thereby the other movies, the good script and the star cast, which are not being paid more are performing well and hence you have seen increase in the margins for those movies and less capex. That’s the reason [for] the less capex for those movies. Between that Rs 250 million allocated, we could allocate the capex for the originals,” Eros international executive chairman and CEO Kishore Lulla explained the strategy.

    Eros International is looking at spending $750 million for all its businesses in the next three years. Though the amount may seem huge but cash flow from the studio business, Eros Now, gives the company the confidence that it won’t enter negative cash flow in the average of three years.

  • ATF 2016 conference to tackle pragmatic concerns across digital business

    ATF 2016 conference to tackle pragmatic concerns across digital business

    MUMBAI: The Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) 2016 has announced a new approach to its annual conference, taking place from 6 to 9 December 2016. Significant emphasis on strategy and investment is set as the milieu, where tactical financing and ventures into new domains are presented.

    C-Level Summit

    ATF’s C-Level Summit, focused on the digital space, will allow decision makers to discuss the very real issues of business today, as the industry is compelled to steer into the online world, a realm set to continue in its disruption of traditional content consumption and monetization.

    “ATF aims to provide a platform where attendees can tap on the brightest minds internationally, with topics tailored on the region. Each year, we place emphasis on gathering the most relevant and current industry leaders, so that delegates can obtain the keys to navigating today’s dynamic Asia content market, as they discover the latest trends and opportunities to leverage,” said Yeow Hui Leng, Senior Project Director of ATF and ScreenSingapore.

    The roster of significant speakers hold successes in their own right and represent the various pillars of the digital world, coupled with conventional giants who have made weighty partnerships in line with necessary pre-emptive adjustments, and natural aggregators who are looking at their own advantage to innovate and expand.

    C-suites from Southeast Asia’s noteworthy telcos, including Winston Damarillo, Chief Strategy Officer of PLDT Group and Prashant Gokarn, Chief New Business & Innovation Officer at PT Indosat Tbk, alongside other top management, will sit to have a discourse on their own OTT offerings, as they hold the combination lock to infrastructure and mobile partnerships.

    Chief Content Officers of digital native businesses, including Krishnan Rajagopalan, co-Founder of the Hooq Group and Kazufumi Nagasawa of Hulu Japan, along with Chris Erwin, Chief Operating Officer of Big Frame and Joanne Waage, Senior Vice President of Partnerships & Programming of Viki, Inc, will address ROI issues against a somewhat bearish landscape. CEOs, including Clifton Dawson, Founder and CEO of Greenlight VR, deliberate as content being king, will have to take on the daunting responsibility across various screens.

    The C-Level Summit will also highlight brand expansion opportunities in technology and new markets. Involving veterans in virtual reality and new digital studios (Multi-Channel Networks), the Summit will harness new facets of the digital business unseen at ATF in the past.

    Immerse in a new reality

    Continuing the mark from conference to market floor, virtual reality is played out as a new but vital piece that the industry is attempting to incorporate into individual manoeuvres. In the virtual realm, creativity will abound on the market floor like never before, as transmedia is presented at the VR Zone in the only worthwhile way it should; via an experiential method.

    The zone will be developed into a seminar-cum-workshop session, where some of the most avant-garde players in the VR space chat on exceptionally progressive productions within the cybernetic sphere. This is backed by an undeniable inroad of the content industry’s symbiotic relationship with the technology domain. The blending of creativity and technology has never been more pertinent, as ATF presents the likes of Okio Studio, Honkytonk, Innerspace VR, Silex Films, Dailymotion and AGAT Films, among other revolutionary ventures.

    More information about the conference and speakers is available at www.asiatvforum.com/en/programme.

    ATF is co-located with ScreenSingapore, and is part of the Singapore Media Festival (SMF).