ITV

Tag: European

  • After Mumbai, Fame rebranding to Inox commences in Bengaluru

    After Mumbai, Fame rebranding to Inox commences in Bengaluru

    BENGALURU: After commencing rebranding of Fame screens in Mumbai to Inox, it is the garden city’s turn now. Of the 73 multiplexes and 284 screens across 40 cities that Inox boasts of, 25 multiplexes with 94 screens belonged to Fame India.

    Inox has launched an extensive marketing campaign across print, outdoor, radio and digital activations across cities which have multiplexes under the Fame brand name. The campaign is being handled by Lintas.

    Speaking on the brand change at one of the Inox theatre’s in Garuda Mall in Bengaluru, Inox Leisure Limited (Inox) CEO Alok Tandon said, “In a country where movies are a way of life, we are grossly under-screened. Inox has been on a steady expansion mode through organic as well as inorganic growth on its journey to its current leadership position. Our goal is to maintain our leadership position by continuing our sustained momentum of growth. As we announce the brand change from Fame to Inox, we will continue to provide the best movie going offering to our guests and emphasise on our tagline ‘Live the movie’ experience as the complete Inox experience.”

    “All Fame mutliplexes are now 100 per cent 2K digital and 3D enabled,” he added.
    “We expect to complete the Fame rebranding to Inox across all the screens acquired by us over the next one to one and a half months. To begin with the brand change will be experienced by guests in Mumbai and Bengaluru followed by Kolkata and the remaining cities in a phased manner,” revealed Tandon to indiantelevsion.com.

    Tandon expounded that despite producing about 1,000 movies a year, India had only 10 screens per 10 lakh people as compared to European countries which have 35 screens per 10 lakh people and the US which has 125 screens per 10 lakh people.

    As mentioned earlier, besides plans to expand into cities like Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Jalgaon, Madurai, Jamnagar and Manipal as also increase the existing number of multiplexes in places like Lucknow, Raipur and Surat., Tandon explained that Inox is open to acquisition route for expanding its screens.

     

     

  • European Parliament backs new TV ad rules

    European Parliament backs new TV ad rules

    MUMBAI: The European parliament has backed the proposals to overhaul the 1989 Television without Frontiers Directive, last updated in 1997 and which has failed to keep pace with the rapid changes in the audiovisual sector.

    The new rules will be renamed to the audiovisual media services directive to reflect the changes in the marketplace over the last ten years.

    The Parliament stated that product placement should soon be legal across the EU, subject to some conditions. Films, TV series, sports programmes and entertainment will be allowed to carry product placement advertising, providing viewers are warned in advance and at least once every 20 minutes.

    News, current affairs programmes, documentaries and children’s TV programmes will not be allowed to carry product placements. Product placement for tobacco products will not be allowed.

    Parliament also agreed to allow breaks for commercials in movies and some other TV programs every 30 minutes, and not, as the Commission had proposed, every 35 minutes, or the Culture Committee, with 45 minutes.

    Centre-left spokesman Henri Weber said, “While the use of product placement will be limited, parliament has relaxed the rules on advertising.”

    MEPs mentioned that such broadcasts could only be blocked if they were fully justified for reasons of public policy, including the protection of minors or public security or public health or the protection of cultural diversity.

    They also drew up a list of criteria that national governments must fulfil to justify any such measures, and stipulated that the European commission should have the final say on whether programmes could justifiably be blocked.

  • Television sports agency Sportfive put up for sale

    Television sports agency Sportfive put up for sale

    MUMBAI: European sports television agency Sportfive will be sold.

    Media reports indicate that Sportfive’s owners – US private equity firm Advent International, media firm RTL, and investment bank Goldman Sachs – are hoping to take advantage of the interest in sports rights businesses in the wake of the Fifa World Cup. Goldman and Morgan Stanley are looking for a price in the reange of €800 million and €1bn.

    Private equity firms like Equity Partners, Apax Partners and Blackstone are said to be eying Sportfive.

    Advent and Goldman them own 65 per cent of the company. RTL has a 25 per cent stake and management has the remaining 10 per cent.

  • Stop! representatives meet European officials on piracy menace

    Stop! representatives meet European officials on piracy menace

    MUMBAI: Representatives from seven US government agencies are meeting European Commission officials to discuss anti-piracy initiatives.

    This is the second leg of the Strategy Targetting Organised Piracy (Stop!) initiative. Stop is an attempt to dry up the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, which is estimated at over $600 billion per year. Stop will target large-scale operations as opposed to individual file traders. In addition, the US is looking to apply pressure on foreign governments where piracy is rampant.

    Among the tools to be used by Stop! are the publication of annual lists of foreign companies profiting from pirated goods, targeting organised criminal groups involved in piracy, and overhauling US intellectual property laws.

    Stop! states that its outreach to Europe marks the continuation of the Administrations sustained global effort to build international cooperation against piracy and counterfeiting. Piracy hurts the marketplace for legitimate producers, discourages innovation and threatens the safety and well-being of consumers.

    Among the topics scheduled to be discussed with European officials are strengthening border control measures, boosting investigation and prosecution of money laundering crimes associated with trade in fakes, improving law enforcement methods and standardising the trademark registration process.

    Stop was formed last October to enhance intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement globally. Earlier this year in April members of Stop! had toured Asia to build a coalition of nations to join an international fight against IPR thieves. Stop! is looking to make life as miserable as possible for the counterfeiters and pirates.

    Since 2001, annual seizures of counterfeit goods at US ports have increased by 81 per cent. The value of the seized assets rose by 64 per cent to $90 million in 2003. In 2004, there was a 60 per cent increase in criminal IPR-related arrests.
     

  • BBC Worldwide in content deal with European ISP T-Online

    BBC Worldwide in content deal with European ISP T-Online

    MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial consumer arm, has concluded an agreement with European ISP T-Online to provide content for its Video on Demand service.

    The agreement will see science, factual and arts programming from BBC Worldwide available to subscribers via T-Online’s Video on Demand portal. Additionally, a selection of the programming will soon be accessible in High Definition (HD) format.

    For the introductory price of €1.95, subscribers can view their chosen programme as often as they like within the 24-hour rental period. All that’s needed is a DSL connection, a T-Online tariff and a PC or, for use on a living room TV, a Media Receiver certified ‘Ready for T-Online Vision’.

    BBC Worldwide head of German Speaking Territories IIsabelle Helle said, “Video on demand is revolutionising the way the world watches television. Today’s agreement will allow Germany’s T-Online customers to view BBC programmes in an exciting and innovative way. It also further emphasises BBC Worldwide’s commitment to this new and important method of content provision.”

    T-Online International’s Burkhard Graßmann, said, “This agreement strengthens T-Online’s place at the forefront of next generation home entertainment, providing our customers with the opportunity to enjoy a range of films and communication services direct to their living rooms. Furthermore, this partnership gives users the possibility to see a number of documentaries in trend-setting high definition quality.”

    The announcement with T-Online follows a number of other agreements which BBC Worldwide has secured to provide content for video on demand services to such international VoD providers as Versatel in Holland, Hot Vision in Israel, Ebismedia in Italy and Telefonica in Spain.

  • BVITV ties up with European & Asian broadcasters

    BVITV ties up with European & Asian broadcasters

    CANNES: Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) has announced a range of deals with broadcasters in Europe and Asia snapping up the company’s slate of kids’ shows, dramas and formats, on the first day of MipTV.

    The format for Extreme Makeover has been licensed to ICTV in Ukraine. ICTV also took the British version of Extreme Makeover, the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy as well as slate of features, among them Dick Tracy, The Waterboy and Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

    Also in Ukraine, New Channel has licensed the first three series of the hit comedy According to Jim plus the features Three Men and a Baby, Arachnophobia and Born Yesterday. In a separate deal, New Channel has also licensed Jetix Europe programming like W.I.T.C.H.

    Ukraine broadcaster STB also picked up a series of titles, among them The Color of Money, The Three Musketeers, Turner and Hooch and the reality series Miracle Workers.

    TV Nova in the Czech Republic has taken a raft of features, series, kids’ programming and TV movies. The network is set to launch Lost, which has been licensed to more than 210 markets, features like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Seabiscuit; and library features including Pretty Woman and Sister Act. On the kids front, TV Nova will launch a new Disney-branded kids’ block, Disney Club, running weekly for two hours, and has licensed a selection of Jetix Europe shows.

    In Thailand, BBTV has renewed its multiyear agreement with BVITV-AP for live-action series, current features and Disney animation, and has signed a new package deal for animated features from Disney’s Classic Treasures, which will air for the first time on Thai terrestrial television.

    Under the multi-year agreement, kids in Thailand will continue to have access to top Disney shows on the Disney Club block that runs every Saturday morning from 6:50 am. to 8:30 am. Also, terrestrial audiences will have access to a slate of international box office hits including Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Seabiscuit.