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  • ‘Ted Lasso’, ‘The Crown’ win big at the 73rd Emmys

    ‘Ted Lasso’, ‘The Crown’ win big at the 73rd Emmys

    Los Angeles: Netflix’s “The Crown” and Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso” have won the Emmy for the Outstanding Drama and Comedy series respectively at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, which returned with in-person glitz and glamour on Sunday, after going remote in 2020 due to the pandemic.

    The ceremony honored the best in the US prime time television programming from 1 June 2020 until 31 May 2021, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences highlighting much of what folks have been watching during the pandemic.

    Among the closely watched categories were those in outstanding comedy, where a whopping 75 per cent of the nominees were new to the category. The big winner was “Ted Lasso” taking home the award for comedy series, as well as comedy lead actor, supporting actor, and supporting actress. The freshman comedy with 13 nominations walked away with four awards in all.

    “The Crown” which bagged a total of 11 nominations, won in the outstanding lead actor, drama (Josh O’Connor), lead actress, drama (Olivia Colman), and outstanding directing for a drama series (episode: ‘War’, directed by Jessica Hobbs) categories, in addition to five other wins.

    “The Queen’s Gambit” took home the award in the closely watched Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series race. “Mare of Easttown” surprised some pundits with wins for lead actress, supporting actor and supporting actress in the Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category.

    Cedric the Entertainer, hosting for the first time, kicked off the ceremony with a strong opening hip-hop performance set to Biz Markie’s iconic song, “Just a Friend.” Cedric enlisted the help of a few A-listers to the act including LL Cool J, Lil Dicky, Rita Wilson and more. “TV, you got what I need!” the group sang, as seemingly everyone in the audience joined in. 

    After a few trophies were handed out, Cedric brought his comedy A-game to the night with an opening monologue taking on Nicki Minaj, who was trolled online for her anti-vax commentary, the Jeopardy! host fiasco and also the royal family. Noting so much talent in the room, Cedric retorted, “Lock the doors, we’re not leaving until we find a new host for Jeopardy!”

    Television Academy CEO and chairman Frank Scherma gave an impassioned speech as he took the stage to introduce and present the winner of this year’s Governor’s Award. “It’s so great to see that television and the stories we tell are finally becoming a reflection of every part of our society,” said Scherma.

    Although television programming has seen a definitive rise in the representation of diverse characters, this year’s Emmy Awards is already being scrutinised since it had its most diverse field of nominees yet but failed to deliver. By the end of the night, no actors of color or LGBTQ actors had won any of the major acting awards.

    Multi-talented actress and dancer, Debbie Allen accepted the 2021 Governor’s Award from Scherma and with tears in her eyes shared a heartfelt tribute to women in Texas and Afghanistan and called on women worldwide to let the moment resonate. “It is time for you to claim your power, claim your voice, say your song, tell your stories,” she said. Allen, a Black woman was one of only a few people of color who won an award.

    RuPaul, the host and executive producer of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” became the most-awarded Black artist in Emmys history with 11 wins after the VH1 series won the award for top competition program for the fourth year in a row during Sunday’s ceremony.

    The attendees were drastically scaled back to around a reported 500 and were required to follow Covid-19 protocols that mimic safety measures put in place on Hollywood sets. This included proof of vaccinations and requiring guests to wear masks when not on camera.

    Complete list of winners:

    Outstanding Variety Talk Series: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”

    Outstanding Competition Program: “RuPaul’s Drag Race”

    Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Jean Smart, “Hacks” 

    Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso” 

    Outstanding Comedy Series: “Ted Lasso” 

    Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or a Movie: Ewan McGregor, “Halston”

    Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or a Movie: Kate Winslet, “Mare of Easttown”

    Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series: “The Queen’s Gambit” 

    Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Olivia Colman, “The Crown” 

    Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Josh O’Connor, “The Crown”

    Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Brett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso”

    Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”

    Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Tobias Menzies, “The Crown” 

    Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Gillian Anderson, “The Crown” 

    Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Evan Peters, “Mare of Easttown” 

    Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Julianne Nicholson, “Mare of Easttown”

    Outstanding Drama Serie: “The Crown”

    Outstanding Variety Sketch Series: “Saturday Night Live”

    Outstanding Variety Special (Live): “Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020: Democracy’s Last Stand Building Back America Great Again Better 2020”

    Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded): “Hamilton” 

    Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series: “Hacks” (Episode: ‘There Is No Line’), Directed by Lucia Aniello

    Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series: “The Crown” (Episode: ‘War’), Directed by Jessica Hobbs

    Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: “The Queen’s Gambit,” Directed by Scott Frank 

    Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series: “Hacks” (Episode: ‘There Is No Line’), written by Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs, and Jen Statsky

    Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: “The Crown” (Episode: ‘War’), written by Peter Morgan

    Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: “I May Destroy You,” written by Michaela Coel

    Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” 

  • Tata Sky Binge onboards two new OTT Apps this festive season

    Tata Sky Binge onboards two new OTT Apps this festive season

    Mumbai: In order to make the most of the festive season, Tata Sky has added two new apps to bolster its streaming platform Tata Sky Binge, taking the total number of partner apps on the platform to thirteen.

    The two OTT apps- EPIC ON & DocuBay helmed by IN10 Media Network will add thousands of movies, shows, reality TV content, and award-winning documentaries from around the globe to the existing bouquet of content on Tata Sky Binge, the company announced on Monday. Subscribers will be able to access the new content library on existing subscriptions across large screen connected devices (Tata Sky Binge+ Box and Tata Sky edition of the Amazon FireTV Stick) and the Tata Sky Binge Mobile App, it added.

    The streaming platform currently aggregates content from 11 premium OTT apps including Disney+ Hotstar Premium, ZEE5, Sony Liv, Voot Select, SunNxt, Hungama Play, Eros Now, ShemarooMe, Voot Kids, and CuriosityStream. “EPIC ON and DocuBay will add more diversity to our content catalogue driving further engagement. We believe such platform additions will only make Tata Sky Binge the absolute go-to destination for the viewers,” said Tata Sky spokesperson.

    EPIC ON will bring to the table a vast array of content including a mix of movies, TV shows, short films, reality TV content, food & travel shows. This includes Gandhi, Dharmakshetra, Siyasat, Raja Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniyaan, and Stories by Rabindranath Tagore. It also features several Korean Drama titles dubbed in Hindi and short films.

    While, DocuBay specialises in streaming documentaries from around the globe and will add informative content including award-winning documentary films on nature, science, history, wildlife, travel, crime, world events, and much more. This includes Victims of ISIS, Financing Terror, and Bitcoin: The end of money as we know it.

    IN10 Media Network’s Spokesperson further added, “With the digital ecosystem seeing immense growth and viewers looking for diverse content, our digital offerings – EPIC ON and DocuBay – provide a rich library of world-acclaimed content. We are happy to partner with Tata Sky as its reach and our varied content of shows, movies and documentaries will provide the customers an enriching and enthralling content-viewing experience every week.” 

  • Indian Film Exporters Association renamed to include all content owners

    Indian Film Exporters Association renamed to include all content owners

    Mumbai: Indian Film Exporters Association has been renamed as Entertainment Content Owners Association of India (ECOA) to adapt with the changing times. The association has also unveiled its new contemporary logo to reflect its refreshed identity.

    “ECOA is symbolic of the changing times & acknowledges the meteoric growth of TV, OTT & digital – hence the body also wanted to bring them in their purview & expand their membership to these platforms too,” said the association in a statement on Thursday.  

    In its new avatar, ECOA will extend its membership to all the entertainment content owners of all languages, genres & formats across all audio-visual platforms, and will not be restricted to films, announced ECOA president Sushilkumar Agrawal.

    “We are extremely happy to rechristen & relaunch ourselves and outspread our services to more platforms. The landscape of entertainment has changed drastically in the current times both in terms of production & exhibition, hence bringing its own set of challenges along with it,” said Agrawal. “We at ECOA invite all to be a part of our illustrious family & trust us with our history & expertise in safeguarding the content.”

    Other than Sushilkumar Agrawal, the other committee members of ECOA are Hiren Gada (vice president), Ashok Jain (secretary), and RK Duggal (treasurer) among others. 

    Indian Film Exporters Association was formed in 1963 by Lim Billimoria & few other Indian film exporters to promote & facilitate the commerce of Indian films abroad. ECOA is also a prominent member of various important associations and apex bodies like FICCI & FFI.

    The ECOA said it will create B2B opportunities on its website & platforms for content owners to promote & monetise their content globally. It will also participate in important film markets & festivals globally & represent the objectives of the association and the interest of the Indian entertainment content owners.

    The association is planning to soon approach the information & broadcasting ministry for appointing itself as an enlisted association for content registration & other related activities.

  • COLORS Bangla bolsters programming line-up with five new shows

    COLORS Bangla bolsters programming line-up with five new shows

    Mumbai: COLORS Bangla has just announced a line-up of five new shows including a musical reality show and four fictional dramas all of which will premier in the months of August and September.

    The channel has roped prominent producers like Nispal Singh Rane from Surinder Films, Snehasish Chakraborty from lues Production, and Shashi Sumeet who has done more than 40 shows nationwide to produce the upcoming shows. The non-fiction show will be produced by Raj Chakraborty, who was behind the launch of various non-fiction shows in the Bangla television industry. Jeet Ganguly and Anupam Roy are composing the title tracks for the shows.

    The new content line-up also marks the return of stalwarts like Papia Adhikari, Debolina Dutta, Anjana Basu, Sudipa Basu back to the small screen, said the channel on Thursday. 

    Speaking on the launch of COLORS Bangla, business head, Sagnik Ghosh said, “We are set for the launch of the first tranche of our content line up. Through our characters and stories, we want to alleviate the anxiety and adversities that the Bengali society and our core viewers are facing today. Our shows will encourage people to dream and aspire and provide our existing as well as new viewers with superior quality content and an enhanced viewing experience. “

    The upcoming content line-up includes:

    MOU ER BARI is the story is about the life and struggles of a woman who marries into a new family but gets her own parents to live under the same roof. Her husband is her support in her endeavours and helps her achieve everything that she ever wants. The show produced by Surinder Films will go on air from 30 August every day at 6.30 p.m.

    TEEN SHAKTIR AADHAR – TRISHUL is the story of three sisters, Tara, Durga and Kali hailing from a poor, village based weaving family. Affluent and powerful, Rajnandini is a fashion tycoon renowned worldwide. Circumstances bring the three sisters and Rajnandini face to face, and the sisters seek to avenge the humiliation meted out to them by Rajnandini. The show has been produced by Snehasish Chakraborty, and will go on air from 30 August every day at 7.00 p.m.

    MON MANE NA is a classic rugged love story between two diametrically opposite characters. This is the story of the love and hate relationship of Rudra, an uneducated and rowdy villager and Gauri, an educated woman who values principles above anything else. The show will be produced by Surinder Films, and will go on air from 30 August every day at 7.30 p.m.

    DUTTA AND BOUMA is an unusual love story where the role of daughter-in -law takes precedence over that of a wife. Can a daughter-in-law take charge of the family business? The story is set in a traditional Jewelry business family. The story will be produced by Shashi Sumeet production. The show will go on air from 30 August every day at 8.00 p.m.

    SANGEET ER MOHAJUDDHO is an epic saga of a musical battle to be hosted by Mir. The show produced by Raj Chakroborty, will have the best of talent- come together on one platform and fight for the crown. The show will be judged by the best names from the industry including Ustad Rashid Khan, Lopamudra Mitra, Jeet Gannguli and Abhijeet Bhattacharya. The show will go on air from 4 September every Saturday and Sunday at 8.30 p.m.

    The launch will be supported by a 360-degree marketing and communication campaign encompassing TV, cable, on-ground, radio, outdoor as well as digital platforms, and the channel is also planning for a fresh identity on the day of the launch. 

  • ShowBox rebrands to connect with young India

    ShowBox rebrands to connect with young India

    New Delhi: ShowBox, the music channel from the house of IN10 Media Network has unveiled its new logo and brand identity to reflect the channel’s evolution.

    The new identity – ‘a music channel for young India which follows its heart’ – will be reflected on the channel and social media starting 16 August. The new logo and the tagline, Dil Ki Sun, mirrors a rising young India that’s high on expressing themselves and represents the emotion of following one’s heart.

    “Today’s generation is very expressive and believes in two-way communication with no bars held back. ShowBox caters to this target group and hence, it was important to resonate that in our programming. Our new identity directly represents our vision of non-stop entertainment to music lovers and our limitless ability to inspire people,” said ShowBox vice president, programming and strategy, Clyde D’Souza.

    Keeping this in mind, the music channel will launch two new interactive shows: Luv U Zindagi, where viewers can vote and comment live on topics related to love and relationships. The love songs and topics are handpicked by the team scanning the social media and viral videos.

    The second show is ‘Reel Top 10’ – A countdown for the Instagram generation where the show will count down the top 10 songs and top 10 reels of the week.
    In the pipeline are many more shows with new packaging and dynamism. The channel also revealed a mascot called ‘Showman’, who will take the viewers through all that’s new on the channel while entertaining them in a different way.

  • Zee Entertainment’s net profit rises 604% in June ’21 quarter

    Zee Entertainment’s net profit rises 604% in June ’21 quarter

    New Delhi: Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ consolidated net profit rose 604 per cent to Rs 213.8 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 as against Rs 30.37 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2020. The company announced its Q1 FY22 results on Friday.

    Sales rose 35.29 per cent to Rs 1774.98 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 as against Rs 1312.03 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2020. With lockdowns in most states, TV viewership again jumped during the quarter, though lower than Q1 of last year.

    Domestic ad revenues for both Q1FY22 and Q1FY21 were impacted by lockdowns. However, the impact this year was much lower, reflected in 127.9 per cent YoY growth. Compared to Q1FY20, domestic ad revenues were lower by 22.7 per cent.

    In terms of subscription revenue, the network said embargo on pricing change due to NTO 2.0 litigation continued to hurt domestic television pay revenue growth. The 2 per cent growth over Q1FY21 was driven primarily by digital business.

    The programming cost increased YoY as original content production largely continued across the states during the lockdown at alternate locations. Increase in marketing cost on a YoY basis was on account of the release of Radhe and continued investments in ZEE5. The marketing costs in Q1FY21 was lower on account of much lower original content production.

    Lower ad revenues on one hand and increase in costs due to lockdown Rs. 271mn on the other affected EBITDA for the quarter.

    Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi movies continued strong performance, however, Zee TV, Zee Marathi and Zee Tamil performance was soft during the quarter, indicating headroom for growth in key markets. The company also said it will revamp the programming line-up for Hindi, Marathi and Tamil programming in Q2.

    Streaming platform ZEE5 witnessed 80.2mn global monthly active users and 7.1mn global daily active users in Jun ’21. It recorded a total of 190 minutes’ average watch time per viewer per month in Q1. As many as 11 original movies and shows were released during the quarter.

  • IAA to host panel discussion on gender sensitisation in media on 27 July

    IAA to host panel discussion on gender sensitisation in media on 27 July

    Mumbai: The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) is all set to host a high-powered virtual panel discussion with leaders of the Marcom industry on 27 July. The session on- ‘Gender in media and the impact on children and their future’ will begin at 3:30 pm.

    Discovery Communications India MD-South Asia and IAA president, Megha Tata, said, “A few weeks ago we released the top lines of the results of a unique market research conducted on 1,000 Indian advertisements by UNICEF and the Geena Davis Foundation. The IAA had facilitated this important research on gender representation in Indian advertising. On 27 July, UNICEF will present the results in depth, and then there will be a discussion on the implication of these findings on gender in media and the impact on children and their future. This will truly represent the industry as the Voice of Change.”

    The panelists include AAAI treasurer and Havas Group CEO, India, Rana Barua, ASCI chairman and BBH and Publicis Worldwide, India, chairman Subhash Kamath, BYJU’S head of marketing, Atit Mehta, filmmaker, artist and writer Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Ogilvy India chief creative officer, Kainaz Karmakar and Population First director Dr A L Sharada and Viacom18, head- Hindi Mass Entertainment and Kids TV Network, Nina Elavia Jaipuria, and UNICEF, senior advisor Shreyasi Jha.

    Speaking about the initiative, Viacom18 head – Hindi Mass Entertainment and Kids TV Network and IAA co-chair – Women Empowerment Committee, Nina Elavia Jaipuria, said, “Conversations and actions go hand in hand when tackling an issue as important and nuanced as gender representation in media and its impact. We are thus bringing together leaders across the ecosystem who can not only identify the change in discourse needed but also have the power to actually bring about that change.”

    “Gender-related stereotypes are formed at a very young age and prevent adolescents and young people from reaching their full potential. Advertising and media, more broadly, play a key role in forming and perpetuating stereotypes. UNICEF is delighted to be the knowledge partner with IAA and its members for this important event that is the beginning of a very important journey to promote positive gender roles and practices through advertising so every young person can live a life free from stereotypes and achieve their full potential” says UNICEF, senior advisor, Shreyasi Jha.

    The discussion has UNICEF as its knowledge partner, Colors as the industry partner, Havas Group as an Associate partner, and Clutter Cutters as the on-ground knowledge partner.

    Registration link:  https://bit.ly/IAAVoiceOf

  • Netflix’s growth slows down in 2021, adds just 1.5m subs in Q2

    Netflix’s growth slows down in 2021, adds just 1.5m subs in Q2

    New Delhi: After a meteoric rise in 2020, the US-based streaming giant Netflix’s subscriber growth in early 2021 has slowed down. According to the company’s latest financial results, the OTT platform has added just 1.5 million subscribers, compared to 10.1 million new sign-ins it reported during the same period last year.

    Netflix, thus ended the quarter with 209 million paid memberships.

    The APAC region represented about two-thirds of the global paid net adds in the quarter. However, its Q2 paid memberships in the US and Canada region were slightly down sequentially, as it lost 0.4 million paid memberships in the region. “We believe our large membership base in UCAN coupled with a seasonally smaller quarter for acquisition is the main reason for this dynamic”, said Netflix.

    In Q2, revenue increased 19 per cent year over year to $7.3 billion, while operating income rose 36 per cent year over year to $1.8 billion. Revenue growth was driven by an 11 per cent increase in average paid streaming memberships and 8 per cent growth in average revenue per membership (ARM).

    According to the company, Covid has created some lumpiness in the membership growth.

    “We finished the quarter with over 209m paid memberships, slightly ahead of our forecast. The pandemic has created unusual choppiness in our growth and distorts year-over-year comparisons as acquisition and engagement per member household spiked in the early months of Covid. In Q2’21, our engagement per member household was, as expected, down vs. those unprecedented levels but was still up 17 per cent compared with a more comparable Q2’19,” said Netflix on Wednesday.

    Netflix chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann said, “We had the kind of big pull forward in 2020 of subscriber adds. We also had to push in production of some of our kind of key returning titles and big tent-pole new releases until the latter part of the year. But overall, the business is performing well. Our churn is actually down relative to the more comparable two-year-ago period in 2019, Q2 of ’19 before Covid.”

    For Q3 ’21, the company forecast paid net additions of 3.5m vs. 2.2m in the prior-year period. “If we achieve our forecast, we will have added more than 54m paid net adds over the past 24 months or 27m on an annualised basis over that period, which is consistent with our pre-Covid annual rate of net additions. We forecast that ARM will grow roughly 5 per cent year over year on a FX neutral basis in Q3’21,” said Netflix.

    As the streaming war heats up, Netflix said it continues to target a 20 per cent operating margin for the full year 2021 vs. 18 per cent in 2020. “After our big global launch in January 2016, we committed to steadily growing our operating margin thereafter at an average rate of three percentage points per year over any few-year period. Some years we’ll be a little over (like in 2020), some years a little under (like in 2021). Assuming we achieve our margin target this year, we will have quintupled our operating margin in the last five years and are tracking ahead of this average annual three percentage point pace,” it stated on Wednesday.

    Netflix is also shifting focus to growing its live action and animated original film offering, with several impactful titles in Q2. Its non-English content investments are also growing both in scope and impact. “Our P&L content expense for this content category has more than doubled in the past two years,” it added.

    The company is also in the early stages of further expanding into games, building on its earlier efforts around interactivity (eg, Black Mirror Bandersnatch) and Stranger Things games.

    “We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV. Games will be included in members’ Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series. Initially, we’ll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices. We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games,” it added.

  • KAM Summit ’21- Decoding the digital native kid: How kids influence the decision-making process

    KAM Summit ’21- Decoding the digital native kid: How kids influence the decision-making process

    Mumbai: Children have become an important consideration for marketers when they plan promotions for products/services meant for family consumption. Marketers are weighing in on buying decisions on products and services beyond those meant for children.

    At the session, ‘Decoding the digital native kid: How kids influence the decision-making process’ held on the first day of the KAM Summit 2021, Kantar senior executive director Puneet Avasthi decoded what today’s children are all about and how do the little ones connect with the world around them in the current times. He dived deep into what kind of idioms and personality type do they actually aspire for and how technology impacts their decision-making.

    Decoding the digital native kid, Avasthi went on to explain how the Indian kid has evolved. He mentioned that the children are probably more tech-savvy than most of the other members of the house, hence a larger influence. “Kids are the key pillars of growth for a variety of digital sectors, including entertainment, edutech, gaming and influence that extends well beyond.”

    He further added, “Kids highly influence food (buying as well as what they eat) followed by household items and kids’ products. Parents allow the kids to dictate their media consumption. More than a third of TV viewing kids buy the product seen in the ad, if they like the ad.”

    At least 75 per cent of the time, the child’s sanction and permission is non-negotiable when shopping for them. Parents today dare not pick anything for their children without the approval of their kid. In circumstances where something was picked up without the child’s approval, they did not use the product at all in most cases. The emotional state of the kids is linked to their performance. Doing well in studies/sports makes them happy, confident, and proud; while doing bad in studies makes them sad.

    Instead of the child seeking approval, parents are seeking approval when it comes to buying anything for the house, like furniture. So, the shopping decisions of the kids these days go beyond food, clothes, and stuff meant for them. Parents rely a lot on children and the choices of the young ones go beyond simply picking products based on their favourite colour or cartoon. They decide what they like on the basis of their exposure to technology and the advertisements they watch. Avasthi went on to say that if at all there is a negotiation, “the child is the winner clearly.”

    At 33 per cent of the purchase decisions concerning buying cellphones are taken by kids, as Avasthi’s survey pointed out. Similarly, in 33 per cent of the cases, the little munchkins end up influencing their family’s decision to buy TV sets as well. 

    “Indian kids like affectionate and intelligent characters like Doraemon and Chota Bheem. So, if you want to aim at mass appeal for their age-group, do more sober, simple, and intelligent characters. Communicate with the kids. They are the buzz creators with lots of positivity and influence,” pointed out Avasthi.

    Kids prefer ads that are reality-based. Although kids like ads with their favourite celebrities, they may not always like the product. But, an interesting ad generates word of mouth. Although fitting in with a group of friends is important for more than half the kids, the majority of them don’t want to copy or blindly follow their friends. They are individualistic. 

    “Kids are very impressionable. One in three kids end up buying what they see in advertisements online or on television. Children have a strong influence on purchase of high value items for the household, besides merchandise they need,” Avasthi concluded.

    You can watch the session here from 50:02

  • COVID-19 impact: Smartphone usage spiked during the lockdown, says report

    COVID-19 impact: Smartphone usage spiked during the lockdown, says report

    KOLKATA: In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 and lockdown across India, people relied more on their phones to beat boredom. InMobi’s Second Wave Lockdown Audience Insights Report says that, mobile phone usage went up as users searched for entertainment, gaming, music, and social networking while staying indoors.

    According to the report, 2021’s lockdown saw users relying on their smartphones specifically around weekends, compared to weekdays in 2020. Students, working professionals, and mothers were among the most engaged during the second wave lockdown. 

    However, the users’ app consumption behavior varied for each group. Students relied more on music, gaming, and OTT, compared to working professionals who consumed news, OTT, productivity, social, and shopping, while mothers invested their time on gaming, lifestyle, and education apps.

    “We have witnessed a drastic acceleration of the mobile-first consumer economy since the onset of the pandemic. With the second wave, we see that these “new normal” mobile-first consumer habits and preferences have become more mainstream,” said InMobi Asia Pacific managing director Vasuta Agarwal.

    With states reporting all-time high Covid cases, the report observed that 25-35 years old stayed indoors the highest during the lockdown, mostly due to the limited vaccination opportunities. Interestingly, people in the 35-44 age groups were seen stepping out the highest.

    As per the report, hospitals, clinics, and medical stores witnessed a spike of 597 per cent compared to 398 per cent last year. Supermarkets and essential stores saw an 89 per cent spike against 44 per cent last year, as consumers visited local stores to meet their daily needs. While a lot of consumers found cooking as a hobby last year, this year witnessed an increase in footfalls in restaurants from 7 per cent to 23 per cent.

    This was a result of relaxed lockdowns where takeaways and deliveries were allowed, helping consumers break the monotony of home-cooked meals by occasionally eating out. The footfall at each of the above places of interest during the lockdowns in 2020 & 2021 was indexed against overall footfalls observed across the above-mentioned places of interest and supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, and flea markets.

    Despite transport being open to the public in the second lockdown, travel and transport hubs saw an all-time low during the second wave from 9 per cent last year to 4 per cent now. While rail travel had started to pick up until June, the new cases reported in India again forced people to shelter at homes. While footfall at movie theaters was at a decline, visits to lodging reduced further by 15 per cent, mounting on the already low footfalls due to the fear of the pandemic.

    “Social distancing, work from home, and lock-down regulations have boosted consumer mobile consumption as people rely on mobile entertainment spanning games, social media, and video streaming. With the second wave hitting us, consumers have adopted to the online world already and are well versed with this,” Agarwal added.