ITV

Tag: Digital

  • NDTV Convergence Q1 revenue jumps by 65%; parent company reports loss

    MUMBAI: NDTV’s digital business, NDTV Convergence, has enjoyed spectacular growth. Its revenue has jumped by 65 per cent to Rs. 380 million from Rs. 230 million in the same quarter last year. However, the parent company, NDTV, reported a consolidated loss of Rs 220.01 million for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 (Q1-18, current quarter) as compared to a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 76.1 million in the immediate trailing quarter (Q4-17) and a loss of Rs 445.5 million for the corresponding year ago quarter.

    NDTV Convergence now has 135 million unique visitors a month,which is more than 100 per cent increase over same period last year. Profit after Tax improved to Rs. 70 million compared to a loss of Rs. 30 million in the same quarter last year

    The company launched RailBeeps,a new offering which allows users the fastest possible experience in tracking updates on their railway bookings. The product currently tracks live data on over 12,000 Indian trains, and allows users to discover the best trains, organize all their routes and trips in one place.

    NDTV’s consolidated total income was almost the same year-on-year in Q1-18 at Rs 1,096 million as compared to Rs 1085.7 million, but declined sharply quarter-over-quarter from Rs 1,525.2 million.

    NDTV’s consolidated total expenditure in the current quarter at Rs 1,284.3 million was substantially lower y-o-y than the Rs 1,477.6 million in Q1-17 and also lower q-o-q than the Rs 1,393.2 million in Q4-17.

    The company’s television segment reported slightly lower y-o-y revenue in Q1-18 at Rs 1034.8 million as compared to Rs 1064.1 million in Q1-17 and lower q-o-q than the Rs 1,459.2 million in the immediate trailing quarter.

    The group EBITDA improved by Rs. 19 million compared to same quarter last year. EBITDA from Television & Digital segments achieved break-even in this quarter, says the company.

    The Group EBITDA loss was reduced from Rs. 210 million last year same quarter to Rs. 2 million in current quarter due to improved contributions from the digital business, cost reduction initiatives, improved productivity and reduction of losses in e-Commerce business.

  • Guest Column: Start-up hacks: A cheat sheet for success

    With the convergence of technology and media, we are witnessing tremendous activity in the start-up space.  From content to distribution to broadcast to affiliate opportunities, there is no dearth of new ideas and their backers.  Surprisingly not all of them are covering all their bases to crack the start-up success code.

    Having been a part of four start-ups in leadership positions along with all the insights gained through studying hundreds of others, here are 9 ways that help us better understand them and reasons that make them succeed.

    1. Start-ups are not smaller versions of large organisations. Bonsai have a different life and game plan as compared to large trees. The two should not be compared and start-ups should not be expected to emulate the large organisation. 

    2. Start-ups do not adhere to a ‘set’ business plan – in most of the cases the challenge is to find one. As Mike Tyson famously said on his opponent’s pre-fight strategies: everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face. Business Plans are a necessary evil but for a start-up they are nothing more than fictional plans and rarely do they survive their first contact with customers.

    3. Customer Plan is much more important than the business plan. This may include customer engagement, customer stickiness, brand advocacy score, net promoter score, etc. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning,” said Bill Gates.

    4. Data is the new oil. Data undergirds everything. Period.

    5. Start-ups need to fail fast, fail often, fail cheap and fail better. Constant experimentation and continuous learning is the name of the game rather than elaborate planning. Start-ups need to keep their persistence levels high. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over,” as famously told by Richard Branson.

    6. Iteration is the key word for every aspect of the business. Launch and iterate. And again. Everything is changeable except the intent to give one’s best to making it big.

    7. Repeatability and scalability are two pivots to search in the early life cycle stage. Investing in growth in stage 0 is almost a sure-shot pre-requisite. Mostly start-ups are dealing with a new concept and/or a habit change. This may initially require selling only on the strength of price (not the brand or anything else) and may call for disproportionate investments and therefore profitability may be a long way off.

    8. Turmoil and chaos are integral to the existence of a start-up. Those who cannot stand the heat, need to get out of the kitchen.

    9. Lastly as Jeff Bezos said – Entrepreneurs must be willing to be misunderstood for a long time.

    The M&E industry as much needs start-ups as the rest of the economy.  As research shows, the success quotient can go up if the above factors are kept in mind.

    public://piyu.jpgPiyush Sharma, a global tech, media and entrepreneurial leader, created the successful foray of Zee Entertainment in India and globally under the ‘Living’ brand. The views expressed here are of the writer’s and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.

  • Guest Column: M&E industry in India: 5 not-to-be-missed trends

    The Indian M&E industry is growing at 15 per cent CAGR and is expected to double in size over the next five years. Almost all the sub-segments are growing in double digits. The existing ones are those in the middle of a consumption trend like on-demand content or beneficiaries of a regulatory push like digitisation.

    Here are the five biggest trends to watch out for:

    1.OTT

    Personalisation of content and delivery and real time access on multiple devices and platforms to make OTT mainstream. Big data through instant consumer analytics to become indispensable

    2.Digital Content as growth driver

    Growth to be driven by digital content in the internet industry in India as it doubles to $250bn in 5 years. Unprecedented proliferation of digital-first media brands like AIB, TVF, etc. Existing traditional media brands may reorient themselves to being digital-only brands. Repurposing widely popular content of the past on digital for consumption across multiple content formats may be a unique sound strategy.

    3.Immersive content as lead format

    Immersive content (VR/AR) to play an unexpected big role in the future. May become larger than any other format in the years to come.

    4.Technology to disrupt more than just content

    Technology to continue to disrupt the traditional ways of buying and selling advertising as programmatic, geo-targeting, etc becomes the new normal. TV and digital measurement to converge too as marketers look for platform-agnostic strategies.

    5.Convergence of M & E & Technology to undergird everything

    With cheap economics dictating the rationale, cloud-based services to drive content faster from creation to consumption thereby re-defining movement, distribution and management of content. Rapid convergence of media, entertainment and technology is interlinking content creation, distribution and consumption experiences.

    New media – signifying interplay between technology and media – is where the real excitement is. It offers a range of opportunities in content and platforms across gaming, video and music. Other than that, there are consolidation plays in traditional media like C&S distribution, film exhibition etc.

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    (Piyush Sharma, a global tech, media and entrepreneurial leader, created the successful foray of Zee Entertainment in India and globally under the ‘Living’ brand. The views expressed here are of the writer’s and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

     

     

  • Droom to invest Rs 1k mn in 3 TVCs, Rs 250 mn for CSR

    MUMBAI: Droom, an online automobile transactional platform, has come out all guns blazing in its latest announcement of initiating a massive Rs 2250 million marketing budget. Beginning with three TVCs to be aired in coming days, Droom plans to carry out extensive marketing efforts throughout the country that firmly re-enforces its position as the #1 online automobile transactional marketplace facilitating buyers and sellers to avail the best value-for-worth offers and propositions when it comes to anything on wheels.

    Of the budget Rs 1000 million has been assigned to the TVCs, was allocated to carry out all-encompassing efforts spreading awareness in the entire country regarding the numerous benefits of online automobile transactions and Droom’s central role in the same. By introducing OBV (for used vehicle pricing, Eco (for auto inspection), Droom History (for used vehicle auto reports), and Droom Credit (instant auto loan for used vehicles), Droom has established itself as an end-to-end services provider and a leader of the automobile services ecosystem in India. From building trust to transparency to algorithm based pricing estimates to world-class auto inspection, Droom provides user with varied tools to ensure the buying/selling experience of automobiles becomes a breeze.

    Increase of marketing spend from Rs 100 crore last year to 225 crores in next 13 months corresponds to the rapid growth it recorded this year.

    Droom CEO Sandeep Aggarwal said, “At Droom we have built the entire ecosystem for used automobile buying and selling ground up and with performance based marketing program and data driven approach, we want to now make Droom a household name in India.”

    Apart from the three TVCs, the campaign will also feature extensive print, BTL, OOH, digital and online video campaigns to achieve nationwide brand recognition. Droom is allocating Rs. 25o million in CSR related campaigns on road safety, pollution, driving rules and used vehicle buyer’s rights.

  • Stiff competition from TV & digital has little impact on print, 2.4 cr copies added in 10 yrs

    MUMBAI: Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) has been continuously certifying circulation figures of member publications every six months. The trend of certified circulation figures by ABC show that the print medium (member publications of ABC) is thriving, growing and expanding in India inspite of stiff competition from all other mediums namely, Television, Radio and Digital.

    Publishers voluntarily enroll themselves as members of ABC to get their circulation figures audited. Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) certifies circulation figures after a stringent audit process through more than 90 empanelled Chartered Accountants, audit firms. ABC also has a provision for surprise press and market visits by empanelled firms of Chartered Accountants which further strengthens the audit process.

    As on date, ABC certifies:-
    – Daily & Weekly Newspapers 910
    – Magazines & Annuals 57

    Other members of ABC:-
    • Media and Ad Agencies
    • Print medium Advertisers
    • Govt. Organisations & DAVP

    ABC certified circulation figures are of immense value to advertisers, marketers and government departments (DAVP) whilst preparing their media plans since they are available across geographies for any town/district/state spread all over India.

    A few reasons why print publications are growing in circulation:-
     Impact of education – Growth in literacy and education have created substantial -headroom for growth of newspapers.

     Advantage of India’s Economic growth – It is believed that the growth of-
    newspapers in India is directly related to urbanization leading to higher aspirations, heightened interest in buying assets etc.

     Reading newspaper a part of daily routine combines well with ease of reading at -your own time.

     Easily accessible and available at home – newspapers are home delivered in -India, unlike in the West

     Competitive pricing – newspapers are the cheapest source of news.-

     Customized sections and pull outs cater to various segments of readers together -with localised content.

     Power of the written word – Newspapers have continued their strong traditions -over the years to provide accurate and reliable news to their readers.

    As compared to the world print market, India is one of the brightest spots in the print media:

    • India one of the few countries where print advertising revenue is growing

    • India’s paid-for daily circulation is growing whilst most other countries are declining

    • No. of paid-for titles in India highest in the world & growing while no. of titles in other countries declining More details of certified circulation figures of member publications are available on Bureau’s website:
    www.auditbureau.org

    INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
    Print is growing at an incredible 4.87% increase in CAGR over a 10 year period. 2.37 crore copies added in the last 10 years accompanied by
    an increase of 251 publishing centres.

    TOP 10 PUBLICATIONS AS CERTIFIED BY ABC FOR THE AUDIT
    PERIOD JULY-DECEMBER 2016

    1 Dainik Jagran Hindi 3,921,267
    2 Dainik Bhaskar Hindi 3,813,271
    3 The Times of India English 3,184,727
    4 Amar Ujala Hindi 2,961,833
    5 Hindustan Hindi 2,611,261
    6 Malayala Manorama Malayalam 2,441,417
    7 Eenadu Telugu 1,866,661
    8 Rajasthan Patrika Hindi 1,840,917
    9 Daily Thanthi Tamil 1,710,621
    10 Mathrubhumi Malayalam 1,473,053

     

  • Maiboli to premiere ‘Shortcut’ on 30 April

    MUMBAI: SABGROUP’s Marathi channel Maiboli is set to entertain the audience with the broadcast of the Marathi Blockbuster ‘Shortcut –Disto pan Nasto’a moviefeaturing for the first time on the small screen. “Maiboli”, a regional Marathi language channel, showcases the Marathi culture and heritage.

    The telecast is scheduled on 30 April,2017 at 1:30pm& repeat at 7:30pm, featuring stars like Vaibbhav Tatwaddi, Sanskruti Balgude& Rajesh Shringarpure.

    ‘Shortcut – Disto pan Nasto’, a blockbuster Marathi thriller directed by Harsh Raut is based on the ups and downs in Rohit’s life who plays the protagonist. A movie that went on to receive many industry accolades.

    To add to the excitement, Maiboliwill be running a “Shortcut to Win” contest, where viewers can win big with the prizes such as home theater speaker systems, LED TV & Bluetooth Headphones by simply answering couple of questions asked during the movie.

    Magnifying this World television premier, an extensive marketing campaign has been unfolded across Maharashtra including TV, Digital, Outdoor, Print & PR campaigns.Brand like FeviKwik and Reliance trends are on board with this special screening as the powered by sponsor & associate sponsor respectively. Also on board are media partners – Dainik Saamna and Manas Creations.

    Tatwadi said, “I am so excited that Maiboli is doing a world television premier of one my special films – Shortcut. This film is very close to me because the character I have played has never been portrayed in Marathi films before.”

    Balgude said, “Shortcut is a thriller movie that will keep you asking for more, my character is very glamorous and with the “shortcut to win” contest it is just going to add to the excitement.

  • BARC India to solve digital puzzle with ‘EKAM’

    MUMBAI: BARC India today announced the phased roll-out of its much-awaited digital measurement service along with the brand name and logo of its digital measurement products. The digital products will be launched under the brand name EKAM (Sanskrit for “One”). The logo of EKAM draws inspiration from the four colors (Red, Blue, Yellow and Green) as BARC India. The branding highlights BARC India’s commitment to provide industry with a single platform for all measurement products, across TV and Digital.

    The EKAM suite of products will include: EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam, EKAM Stream, EKAM Ad-Scan and EKAM Integra.

    EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India. EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a Digital device . EKAM Stream, will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. BARC India will also provide industry with EKAM Ad-Scan – which will be a global first-of-its-kind product. It will give an overview of digital ads in India, look at where the advertising money is being spent and which sectors are producing more digital ads. The final product in this suite – EKAM Integra – will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this, BARC India’s TV data will be tied with Digital Video data with the help of Single-Source and Digital Booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

    Advertisers in digital space face several issues today. These include: dependency on publishers/platforms for data, lack of quantifiable differences in impressions, inability to see unique and de-duplicated reach & frequency across publishers/platforms and lack of knowledge on ROI, among others.

    BARC India, as a Joint Industry Company, has been studying the problems and has developed the EKAM suite of products based on industry-specific needs. By providing unique Reach and Frequency across devices de-duplicated by Brand, Campaign, Site or Placement, the EKAM solutions will allow analysis and comparison of different platforms and their offerings. With a Single-Source Panel, large TV and Digital Booster panels, Census level impressions and Big Data on Digital side, EKAM will offer a much more robust and accurate ability to show key metrics like incremental reach.

    “We are happy to announce the launch of the EKAM, our digital offering. The ecosystem needs Measurement of both Video Ads and Content, whatever the pipe and device maybe. As the brand name suggests, BARC India is working towards its goal of integrating TV and Digital measurement. Our EKAM suite of products will be rolled out over the next 18-24 months. It will provide the industry with independent third party measurement, verification of audience and eventually viewability of video ads and content,” said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India.

  • Gionee unveils campaign by Mullen Lintas

    MUMBAI: As a smartphone player that harbors ambitions of captivating the populace of this country with its offerings, Gionee has done itself proud by emerging a hot favorite amongst other emerging players. In a short span of time, it has managed to cross over 1.25 crore customers and the numbers continue to rise every passing day. After the successful launch of S6s smartphone a few months ago, Gionee has announced the launch of another model called A1.

    The A1 is a great innovation from Gionee and is backed by a phenomenal design and other noteworthy attributes. While it’s loaded with best-in-class features, the idea is to launch A1 with great fanfare and make it a desirable phone in India. A1 is the first flagship model under #Selfistan and will be followed by the launch of other models under the same umbrella. The main highlight in all these models is that they will all possess a selfie flash. To announce the launch of A1 in India, Gionee has launched a new campaign starring brand ambassador Alia Bhatt. The campaign beats everything done in the past and is well placed to take the world of ‘selfie’ way forward.

    Mullen Lintas Delhi has developed an idea called “#Selfiestan”, which is how an ideal world should be. A world of equals and a world where people come closer to each other, where one can express their emotions freely and connect with strangers. ‘#Selfiestan’ as an idea is aimed to differentiate Gionee A1 from any comparison in the world of selfies. Incidentally, Gionee A1 also happens to be great on battery life and other features.

    Gionee India MD Arvind R Vohra said: “The Gionee A1 is the new language of fun, laughter and sharing. As we launch the new device in India, we want to offer a new expression to young users today. #Selfiestan is the embodiment of a world where people can express themselves freely and showcase their love for selfies. We at Gionee India are proud to bring our own version of selfies to India with the #Selfiestan campaign. The film reflects the unique concept perfectly.”

    The campaign has been made exciting by roping in Alia Bhatt, one of the brand ambassadors of Gionee. Alia Bhatt has done a commendable job in driving the idea of ‘Selfiestan’ further. Mullen Lintas Delhi has designed the campaign to leverage the uniqueness of the content. Given that it’s a new launch of the phone, the campaign starts with a teaser on Outdoors and TV and is backed by aggressive drive across Print, Digital, Radio and Activation as well.

    Alia Bhatt said: “#Selfiestan is truly a special world where you and I can express ourselves freely through selfies. It is one big tribe of selfie lovers who change the notion of selfies being just a narcissistic form of expression to a more inclusive ‘smile-and-the-world-will-smile-with-you’ kind of place. A kind of place where all of us can coexist feeling really amazing, all the time! So I welcome you all to Selfiestan!”

    Mullen Lintas chairman & CCO Amer Jaleel said: “While other brands are still saying why they are good for Selfies, Gionee chooses to take the larger platform, that of owning the world of Selfies, which we branded as #Selfiestan. It is the equivalent of Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ anthem for today”.

  • Campaign for investor awareness ‘Sahi Hai’

    MUMBAI: Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), the trade association of Asset Management Companies (AMCs) of all Mutual Funds in India today launched a comprehensive media and communication campaign, as a part of the mutual fund industry’s investor awareness outreach program, that is aimed to position Mutual Funds as a preferred investment option for potential investors.

    In order to create better awareness about mutual funds as a distinct asset class, SEBI has mandated mutual funds to set apart a small portion of their net assets i.e., 2 bps for investor education, out of which half the amount is now being pooled with AMFI for better utilisation of the funds at the industry level. With these funds, AMFI has launched a new media campaign with an aim to increase the number of mutual fund investors multi-fold.

    The campaign is being launched with the message – “Mutual Funds Sahi Hai” – through different media such as TV, Digital, radio, print, cinema and outdoor hoardings with simple, but very clear messaging through interesting advertisements in different languages. With everyday situations as the backdrop, the campaign impresses on the mind of the prospective investors that mutual funds are the right option for them – Mutual Funds Sahi Hai – as the tag line of the campaign says.

    The campaign was launched by SEBI member G. Mahalingam, who said, “It is for the first time in the history of financial services, that all industry participants have come together to promote the category.”
    AMFI chairman A Balasubramian said, “There is a need to encourage households to shift from physical savings to financial avenues, especially mutual funds.”

    J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was entrusted with the creative work for the campaign. JWT managing partner Rajesh Gangwani said, “We see this as a big platform idea which is multi-layered, multimedia and multi-narrative and can run over a long time frame.”

    JWT Mumbai VP & ECD Hanoz Mogrelia said, “Sahi hai may seem like a very simple idea. But, to execute this idea, we had decided to stay in the space of warm, real conversations between friends. We shot eight commercials over a fortnight using absolute ‘non-models’, we shot at real locations, using live sound recording.”

  • Digital measurement: Star leads the way, partners Zapr

    MUMBAI: Even as India’s only television rating body BARC India plans to get into digital measurement arena, Star India has made a major splash and taken a strategic minority stake in Zapr Media Labs, one of the largest media intelligence repositories and cross-device targeting platform which enables brands and media-owners to identify their offline media audience and re-target them on mobile and web.

    BARC India’s intent, through its planned foray into digital measurement, is to measure total unduplicated audience across all devices and platforms, measuring combined program impressions or advertisements regardless of where and how content/ad is being consumed, through a Single Source Panel. BARC had planned to provide a TV+ Digital viewership measurement service across the globe covering over 50 per cent of media spends between TV and digital. BARC was said to be in talks with an Israeli media technology company to customise for it tools for measurement, which is likely to be rolled out in phases from sometime in 2017 or early 2018.

    However, in what seems to be a march ahead of BARC India, Hotstar, one of India’s leading OTT platforms, and Zapr today announced a strategic partnership to drive the next wave of mobile audience analytics in India. The partnership is accompanied by a minority investment into Zapr from Star.

    For Hotstar, the partnership signals a clear intent to evolve from a media startup to a full-fledged technology and analytics company that shapes the next wave of mobile usage and advertising in India. With more than 60 million users in the month of January and a sharp uptick in user growth in the last few months, the platform already boasts of some of the highest daily engagement amongst its followers.

    In what is certain to be an exciting development for advertisers and agencies, the two companies will work together to create a deep understanding of mobile audiences that can be leveraged by brands to create personalized communication and offers. The two will collaborate to create deep audience segmentation and razor sharp targeting as a trail-blazing move for the mobile advertising ecosystem

    Zapr Media co-founder and CEO Sandipan Mondal informed www.indiantelevision.com, “Our partnership with Hotstar and Star reinforces the great response we’ve received from our industry partners, and we look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with the media and advertising industry.”

    Mondal added, “At Zapr Media Labs, we’re focused on building one of the world’s largest media consumption repositories and audience targeting platforms. Over the past few years, we’ve been working very closely with our partners across brands, agencies and broadcasters on deeper audience segmentation, sharper targeting and richer insights.”

    While access to the Internet has been exploding in India in the last few years, especially on the mobile screen, mobile marketing has been constrained till date by the lack of availability of platforms that marry deep user engagement and audience segmentation. While many brands have deployed significant amounts of money on mobile in the last few years, especially through banner and in stream display ads, marketers have been frustrated by the lack of brand building vehicles online that allow them to leverage deep audience analytics. In what is clearly a trail blazing move for digital marketing, the partnership could herald the emergence of more robust audience analytics and better accountability for results in the mobile marketing world.

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan said, “In the transition from the broadcast world to the digital world, advertisers got a data bonanza but in the process had to give up the ability to engage consumers who are actually paying attention to what they are saying. Hotstar has the opportunity to build the world’s first platform on digital where consumers are engaged and immersed while at the same time delivering deep audience understanding that allows brands to talk to individuals rather than segments. We believe that we have a shot at creating the world’s premier truly personalised advertising service, which benefits both brands and consumers.”

    Mondal added, “We look forward to accelerating the pace of our research & development, growing our product portfolio and building a deeper and long lasting relationship with the larger media and advertising industry.”

    Zapr’s proprietary technology platform analyzes television viewership across 600+ channels in India providing targeted digital analytics and insight into offline consumption behaviour. Zapr has built an analytics platform that combines this proprietary understanding with enriched data that allows advertisers to use it for sharper audience targeting and analysis.

    The announcement is a big step in the direction of becoming the premier personalised advertising service.