ITV

Tag: division

  • UTV expands Toons division

    MUMBAI: UTV is ramping up its animation division – UTV Toons. In its endeavour to continually grow this business and provide the Indian market with quality animation, UTV has deployed multiple licenses of Autodesk 3ds Max 8 software, which is the latest offering from Autodesk.

    Designed to meet the present and future demands of increasingly complex 3D production environments, 3ds Max 8 software will allow UTV to increase the overall productivity of its animation division by 20 – 30 per cent.

    Over the next three months, UTV plans to expand its Toons division to house 200 animation technicians at its facility in Mumbai. Additionally, the company expects to migrate at least 80 per cent of all future projects to 3ds Max 8.

    Coming in close on the heels of their $10 million outsourcing partnership with US-based BKN New Media Inc., this deployment takes on added significance for UTV as it highlights the company’s commitment to the global market and growing its international profile as well.

    In addition to this UTV Toons is also currently executing projects such as Tripping the Rift, a popular animated sitcom in the US, Magic Cellar for the South African Broadcasting Corp., and Freej the first animation project funded by Dubai’s media city.

    UTV Toons animation and new media vice president Jyotirmoy Saha said, “Although we have been using 3ds Max for a while now, we felt that it was absolutely necessary for us to expand our facilities in order to service our current and future projects. We chose 3ds Max 8 in addition to offering a 30-40 per cent improvement in rendering time, as it also comes equipped with enhanced features such as advanced character development, modeling, texturing and scripting tools. This coupled with the high level consulting and domain expertise that Autodesk Media and Entertainment offers, is a compelling reason to partner with them.”

    “We’re delighted that UTV Toons has selected 3ds Max 8 software. UTV has always been a quality conscious customer, keen to deliver the best to the Indian and global markets. Having begun our association with them in 2002, we have witnessed their business grow over the years and rise to an impressive leadership position. We foresee a long standing relationship with UTV and look forward to partnering with them in their long term growth plans,” Autodesk Media and Entertainment regional sales manager – animation and desktop video, South East Asia and India said Raman Madan.

  • Endemol creates mobile division

    CANNES: Peter Bazalgette, chief creative officer, Endemol Group believes the mobile is the “greatest opportunity the content industry has had” and is willing to put his money where his mouth is on that score.

    Said Bazalgette during Wednesday’s mobile and cross-platform keynote, “I’m convinced that the growth predictions (on mobile TV content) we’ve seen will prove too low. I believe that the demand for mobile content will grow much faster than expected.”

    And Bazalgette is going full steam ahead on that front. Following the launch three weeks ago of the Endemol Reality Channel for mobile phones, he announced a slew of other initiatives in the space. Next up on his launch pad is Extreme Reality Channel after which will be the rollout of the Endemol Comedy Channel.

    Bazalgette also announced that his company had created a new division called Endemol Mobile, “which for the moment is a prototype in the UK but will be in other territories very soon.”

  • ESS strengthens its events division

    MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has announced a new appointment to its events management team with Harvey Davis taking on the role of senior director, Event Management Group.
     
     

    Davis who was previously senior director, International X Games, based in New York, will relocate to Singapore and report directly to ESS senior VP programming and event management group Manu Sawhney.
     
     

    Davis will oversee the strategic direction and
    financial performance of the Event Management Group, as well as oversee event operations, client servicing, and sponsorship sales. He will also take a lead role in identifying new projects and revenue streams for the Group.

  • Zee ropes in investment banker to spearhead convergence division

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Limited (ZTL) is beefing up its convergence division. The company has appointed London-based investment banker Neil Chakravarthy as senior V-P business strategy and convergence.
     

    ZTL has identified multiple focus areas like content, strategy and technology to strengthen the division. Based out of Mumbai, Chakravarthy is overseeing the content and strategy part.

    Speaking on the significance of convergence in the network’s business, ZTL CEO Pradeep Guha says that the division has been given the status of a third revenue stream.

    “Convergence is becoming a big stream of revenue. Right now, we are basically concentrating on telephony, including the mobile technology. In the next phase, we will be bringing in more platforms,” he says.
     
     

    As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, Zee Network is betting big on the wireless segment. It has aggressive plans to explore the technology to drive interactive viewership. Apart from upgrading its mobile interactive technology with rich media content like mobile videos and imageries, the network has plans to launch a mobile based interactive service that will address public grievances.

  • Disney to reorganise strategic planning division

    MUMBAI: In order to address the rapidly evolving global business landscape US media conglomerate Disney has announced a restructuring of the company’s corporate strategic planning division.
     

    The division will be restructured to more closely align with the company’s growth priorities, including creativity and innovation, new technologies and international expansion.

    Many of atrategic planning’s activities will be incorporated into the company’s four business segments — studio entertainment, parks and resorts, consumer products and media networks, as well as Disney’s international organisation. A smaller corporate group will continue to develop the corporate five-year plan and focus on acquisition opportunities, emerging businesses new to the company’s existing portfolio and new technologies.
     
     

    Disney president and COO Robert Iger who will succeed Michael Eisner as CEO later this year said, “Strategic planning will continue to play an important role in identifying the opportunities and challenges presented to our company as we grow our leadership position as the most valuable entertainment brand in the world.

    “This new structure will create efficiency with accountability and empower our business unit leaders in their ongoing efforts to create new, differentiated and compelling entertainment experiences that will ultimately generate long-term shareholder value.”

    Peter E. Murphy will step down from his current role as senior executive VP and chief strategic officer. He will serve as a senior adviser to Iger. Murphy will advise the company on long-term strategic and technological trends affecting Disney and identify major growth opportunities.

    Disney CEO Michael Eisner said, “For more than 15 years, Strategic Planning has been an essential catalyst to Disney’s growth by identifying new opportunities and expanding existing businesses. We have been extremely well-served by their efforts and now, the size, scope and dynamic nature of our individual businesses allow for this evolution”.

  • Lowe revamps planning services; launches strategy division

    MUMBAI: In a move to ensure rigour in understanding business issues and hurdles to growth, Lowe India has revamped its planning services with the launch of a strategy division.

    This division will be manned by eight brand strategists, most of whom have over 10 years experience in advertising, market research and marketing. The brand strategists will be assisted by a team of 20 other planners across the agency.

     
     
    The roles of the brand strategists too have been redefined. A strategist at Lowe will go beyond formulation of brand communication game plan. Also, planners would guide the teams through line executions, where needed, rather than just mass media campaigns.

     
     
    The newly-formed division will embark upon a number of knowledge projects on an ongoing basis. These projects would focus on observing changing consumer and market trends in the overall area of marketing and communication.

    For example, Lowe’s just-released ‘Lowe Faces of Asia report’. This is part of an Asia Pacific regional study covering countries like China, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines, in addition to India. The study focuses on `Mrs. Urban India,’ housewives in urban areas, and builds a comprehensive picture of their values, lifestyles, media habits and product consumption behaviour.

    “Our strategists will complete at least five more knowledge projects like ‘Faces’ during the current year and share the knowledge with our clients”, Lowe president and COO Pranesh Misra was quoted as saying in an official statement.

    According to him, “We have always believed in creative products and will continue to do so. The strategy division will add another significant dimension to our service offering and, hopefully, build another point of differential for the agency.”

  • Viacom exploring division of business: Redstone

     MUMBAI: Division for shareholders benefit and further unlocking of value! That is what media conglomerate Viacom chairman and CEO Sumner M. Redstone is looking to achieve this fiscal.

    He has announced that he is exploring with the board of directors the possible division of its businesses into separate publicly-traded companies.
     

    Redstone said that Viacom’s Board has authorised the company to explore the separation as a means to achieve important corporate objectives and to better deliver value to shareholders in a tax-efficient manner.

    Viacom expects to announce further details regarding the possible separation in the second quarter of the year.
     
     

    Redstone said, “Viacom has an outstanding stable of assets with leadership positions and excellent future prospects and I have for several months been considering various alternatives to maximize our business opportunities in a way that would best serve our shareholders. It is clear that, despite our success in operating our businesses for maximum return, Viacom’s businesses have inherently different growth characteristics and investment attributes that appeal to different types of investors.

    “Furthermore, it has also become clear that this important distinction is likely to continue to limit Viacom’s ability to receive full value for its assets and its prospects in the investment community. We believe that a separation of our businesses into distinct and strong operating entities would allow us to optimise our capital structure and create unique investments that are more appealing to investors with different objectives.”

    Redstone avered that the new publicly-traded entities could each pursue strategic paths that would maximise their long-term potential. The separation could highlight high-growth businesses, such as MTV Networks. The first entity would be operated by Viacom co-COO Tom Freston. Redstone maintains that this could give Viacom added flexibility to pursue internal growth and to enhance these operations through the creation of an attractive high-multiple currency that could be used for accretive acquisitions.

    Redstone states that separation would allow the company to deliver greater value to shareholders. The second entity would be operated by Viacom co-COO Les Moonves. This would combine CBS broadcast television businesses with the outdoor business and free cash flow operations, such as radio. This group of assets would also have the potential to participate in a programme of stock buybacks and increased dividends Redstone noted.
     

  • Mediaedge:cia rebrand sponsorship division

    LONDON: WPP’s Mediaedge:cia (MEC) has created MEC:Sponsorship as the specialist sponsorship consulting division of MEC.

    The global media communications specialist is looking to reinforce its commitment to providing clients with a holistic communications service. Building on the success of its UK operation, MEC claims to have accelerated the growth of the sponsorship business with the newly christened division.
    Specialising in strategy, negotiation, management and activation across all forms of sponsorship, MEC:Sponsorship which was formerly known as Total Sponsorship will work in partnership with MEC to deliver insightful and innovative solutions for new and existing clients worldwide.

    MEC:Sponsorship managing director Jeremy Clark said, “In the past two years, we have doubled the size of the team in the UK as a result of the changing media environment and increasing demands from clients for sponsorship expertise. We hope that this re-branding will help to stimulate additional interest among clients for an independent sponsorship consultancy service that is wholly focused on maximising the return on their sponsorship investment.”

    MEC UK chairman Rob Norman added, “Our sponsorship division has clearly demonstrated its ability to add value to our clients. It is a live symbol of our group’s commitment to communications planning and implementation. The brand change from Total Sponsorship to MEC:Sponsorship will enable more MEC clients to take advantage of the services that are on offer.’

    MEC:Sponsorship recently created Norwich Union’s Do the right thing campaign, using its sponsorship of UK Athletics as a platform to assess and address the decline in physical activity among children across the UK. The company also runs Visa’s Olympic leverage programme across Europe. In addition it has managed broadcast sponsorships for Sony Ericsson and Schwarzkopf.

  • TNS expands brand and advertising division

    MUMBAI: TNS, the world’s third largest global market information organisation, has announced the expansion of its brand & advertising division. It will be headed by research industry leader and branding/advertising expert Larry Mock. Mock was formerly president and CEO of The Council for Marketing & Opinion Research (CMOR) and VP of Procter & Gamble’s Consumer and Market Knowledge Group Worldwide.

    The announcement comes in the wake of TNS’ recent rebranding announcement and builds upon the company’s philosophy of being the Sixth Sense of Business. Mock said, “TNS is one of the world’s most dynamic and comprehensive global market research organisations. As such, TNS is in a strong position to anticipate market trends. Today’s global marketplace and complex consumer base offer a distinct challenge to marketing organisations to raise the bar in terms of creating brands, building brand value and developing compelling and motivating communication of that value.

    “For example, we see more clients approaching us with a unique tableau of branding and advertising issues that necessitate a new approach to brand/ad understanding and research. These needs can be importantly addressed by leveraging TNS’ global footprint and extensive product portfolio.”

    CEO, TNS Intersearch Bruce Shandler said, “The driving force behind the brand and advertising division is TNS’ proactive response to a growing market demand for new research methodologies that not only collect data, but offer greater analysis, integration and synthesis of information and insights to support multi-national brands. Larry will create the capability to make all of this possible.”