ITV

Tag: India

  • ITW Consulting bags rights for T20I series against India in Ireland

    ITW Consulting bags rights for T20I series against India in Ireland

    MUMBAI: ITW Consulting, India-based Sports management company, has acquired in-ground and broadcast production rights from Cricket Ireland. Cricket Ireland is organizing the two T20Is against India that will be played on 27 and 29 June 2018 at Dublin. The exclusive deal involves title sponsorship, on-ground and in-stadia advertising rights along with their broadcast production respectively. 

    ITW Consulting won the rights as they offered value for the inventory amongst other agencies. ITW Consulting is permitted to market the in-stadia advertising rights and can enter into contract with potential clients and agencies towards exploiting the rights commercially. Additionally, the broadcast production will be done by the TSG-innovative, an independent broadcast vertical of ITW Consulting. 

    Commenting on the association, M.S. Muralidharan, Director, ITW Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (a Global Sports Commerce affiliate) said, “Our vision is to make ‘ITW’ synonymous to the idea of best in class organization in promoting, encouraging investments and laying the foundation to ‘sports’ as a leading industry. We are pleased to be associated with Cricket Ireland and with this partnership we are hoping to infuse more energy into them and looking forward to our journey together.”

    Talking about the rationale behind the deal, ITW Consulting Pvt. Ltd, Co-Founder, Bhairav Shanth said, “Our team has extensive catalogue of cricket work. Instilling innovation as a core of our business has enabled us to succeed in supporting various cricket boards and many global brands. Our sales team expertise and innovative on-ground technologies help the brands to stand tall and cherish seamless branding experience whilst enhance the fan experience during the matches. It is undoubtedly evident that the series will be a platform for brands across the world to build strong and strategic engagement. Additionally, our independent broadcast production vertical TSG-innovate – with its proven success in past – will help enhance optimum broadcasting quality to global viewers.” 

    Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, Warren Deutrom said, “This summer pushes us forward as an organisation and as a sport – it is a real investment in making cricket a mainstream sport in Ireland. We anticipate that the T20I series against India will be the biggest worldwide TV audience of any event – sporting or otherwise – ever staged in Ireland. ITW’s innovation and production standards are widely acclaimed and we are delighted to form this partnership with ITW Consulting. It is great to be associated with such progressive team who has vast experience in this sector.”

    The Cricket Ireland will be organizing the Test Matches against Pakistan from 11-15th May 2018 followed by Afghanistan Series in August 2018.
     

  • We are becoming more platform and screen agnostic: Sudhanshu Vats

    We are becoming more platform and screen agnostic: Sudhanshu Vats

    He heads the youngest Indian network engaged in general entertainment television. Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO, has, over the past six years, steered Viacom18 India into launching a clutch of new channels catering to the different regions of India as well as niche segments. He has built a rock-solid leadership team to run the services, which have been growing at a rapid clip.

    Vats, a former long-serving Hindustan Lever (Unilever India) executive, has also seen the company transition from being a joint venture with global media major Viacom to one which is now majority owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.

    A thought leader in the industry, he is constantly propagating the message that India is rich with media and entertainment potential at both domestic and international confabs. Vats was at the Media Partners Asia-run APOS in Bali late last month. On stage having a conversation with Vivek Couto, Vats spoke freely on a range of topics right from Viacom18, the Reliance ownership, Voot and the pay TV ecosystem in India. Excerpts from the interview.

    Your views on the pay TV ecosystem in India?

    At one level, the pay TV ecosystem is not developing as well as it should. Partly, all of us, as part of the ecosystem, are to blame. There is lack of addressability. There is lack of customer centricity and customer service attitude with the distribution partners. India being a poor country there will also be a pressure on free to air up to a particular stage.

    My view of the country is that it will be a hybrid ecosystem of both pay and free to air. And, in my opinion, both can exist. But for pay to exist, pay will have to earn its right. And as content players, we are concerned because it’s not going the way we would like it to.

    Free to air is growing and will grow and we need to find models, largely advertising-led models, to make that happen–that piece is okay. But the pay subscription growths are not commensurate–the addressability is not there. Recognition of change of viewership; change of pattern is not there today.

    And I think no better than us, we have leading channels in almost all genres; but our ability to get subscription income is very little. Because it is all dependent on this. Pick up a genre and we have a leading channel. We are not recognising the changes; we are not addressing the customer and not being customer specific.

    How is the Indian television ecosystem faring overall?

    There were two events in India in the last couple of years—GST and demonetisation. They affected ad sales in my opinion. But the good news is that in the last two or three months, it is coming back. We are clearly seeing certain sectors performing very well—FMCG is back and very strongly. Automobile is back in a reasonably big way. Consolidation in telecom will lead to more telecom spends. Handsets are there, they have always been there. Rural economy is also doing quite well. We are seeing a surge in the regional rural pieces quite a lot within our portfolio.

    If you look at Viacom18 per se – I think we have had a pretty good year in FY18, which we closed. We delivered 20 per cent top line growth led by our performance in films as well with Toilet ek Prem Katha. But even in ad sales, we have delivered a mid-teen growth for the year.

    And interestingly this has come at a time when our leading channel Colors was slightly muted because of the impact properties on Colors that came in. It’s the portfolio, which we built that has helped us—its regional, it’s FTA, it’s niche. I personally feel, moving forward, the ad sales will rebound to the levels that India has been used to seeing.

    The ad market will go to mid-teens and some of the better companies may look at doing even high teens.

    How has the change of majority ownership impacted the organisation you head?

    The advantage for us with the consolidation with Reliance is two-fold. Ambition and the things we can do is one big thing today. The second big thing is the resources that can come in which could be of a different level. Because, as a joint venture, we were balancing some of those pieces. Now perhaps we can take concurrent bets as we go forward. So that’s fantastic news for Viacom18. We need to continue to motor on what we have built as a culture that is critical for us. So, if we retain that culture and we bring in that ambition and resources, it’s good news.

    Your digital piece, Voot, how is that faring?

    Voot has been primarily advertising led. The good news here is that we have been growing quite rapidly. We exited March of 2018 at 3X the number we were at March of 2017 on almost all parameters.  So, today, according to App Annie, we are number two in everything which you see after Hotstar. We are number two in downloads; we are number two in active users. We are actually number one sometimes in time spent. We are between one and two in time spent. We have about 35-40 million monthly actives and close to about 45 minutes of watch time.

    The Voot service is doing very well. Interestingly, there is a lot of work which we are doing which is tailored for it. If you look at our content: the breakup of our viewership – if I were to give you an order of magnitude – would be about 60 odd per cent of what you have on television – that’s catchup maybe 60 to 65 per cent. About 20-odd per cent or sometimes 20-22 or 25 per cent is what we call Voot exclusives or content around content. So it is content which is running on television, that is the theme is running on TV – especially non-fiction – and there is a lot of content which is not on television which is shown here. That’s gaining a lot of traction. And finally there are originals and kids. That stacks up the full piece.

    What plans do you have for Voot?

    Our thinking moving forward is that this is just the beginning. It’s an AVOD piece, again advertising is coming in reasonably well from a very small base – we are doubling every year. But what we also do is we’ve built in a freemium layer, for people who are at the higher end where we offer them an ad free environment, maybe additional services—that is the thinking that is there.

    The second thinking that is there is that we are going to do something for Voot Kids. That’s a space we are very bullish on. We want to go well beyond video, we want to well beyond watch, we will go into spaces of watch, learn, play and all that. We are looking at the edutainment piece. You will come into it for entertainment, but you will have light gaming, some number of e-books, some amount of learning or options available to you particularly at the pre-school stage. We are not getting into pedagogy or hard-core education. That’s not the space we want to be in.

    We are looking four to five million daily active users currently. The kind of data you are seeing now is pretty rich. And we are just about beginning to learn to mine that data.
    On the original front, it has been part of our journey. This year you will see us going into overdrive or at least accelerate our originals. You will see a lot more of them in Hindi, you will see them in regional. And as we speak, there is work happening on many of them. We may use some of them to go behind our freemium service as well.

    You seem to have changed your mind on sports as a piece of content? Will Viacom18 drive deeper into sports?

    We have dabbled a bit in sports. We piloted a few things. We actually did the Nidahas Trophy on our channel. We are looking to see if there is a way of putting sports together that may not have cricket. Cricket, as you may know, is with Uday now. We are continuously looking at areas that might be of interest to us.

     

  • Barbie dons the colours of India

    Barbie dons the colours of India

    MUMBAI: Barbie, from the house of Mattel Toys, has launched an India-exclusive collection of dolls inspired by several cultural aspects of India. The collectibles, from the Colours of India series, will see Barbie in six different avatars, uniquely inspired by six heritage sites across the country.

    Colours of India series brings to life several aspects of each iconic monument that inspired the doll-maker to create the collection. With distinct shifts of cultures at every step, each doll in the collection has found a unique muse in the beauty India has to offer. Barbie has seamlessly weaved in elements of iconic Indian heritage destinations into the collection that reflects contemporary designs in traditional wear. Inspiration from each design comes from unique architectural and design elements of monuments in India such as the ‘jharokas’ of Hawa Mahal from the pink city Jaipur, the mystical paintings from Ajanta Caves from Maharashtra, the opulent courtyards of Mysore Palace from Mysuru – the city of Palaces, the grand arches of South Indian heritage palace, Thirumallai Nayakkar Mahal in Madurai, the vibrant colours from Sikkim’s Gompas and the striking sheen of marbles from India’s wonder of the world Taj Mahal. These elements are flawlessly integrated in the dolls’ designs and packaging as well.

    Mattel’s head of marketing Lokesh Kataria says, “We, at Mattel, have always encouraged development through creative play and believe that when you play with a doll, you open your mind to endless possibilities. We are elated to launch a collection of Barbie that is so close to home. With this edition, we aim to drive a local connect with our audiences by showcasing the vibrant and diverse Indian culture inspired by iconic sites across the country. Bringing a unique concept of Barbie visiting India, we intend to generate curiosity amongst young girls and inculcate in them the rich treasures of Indian heritage through meaningful play.”

    The packaging designs were conceptualised by Design Orb. Speaking on the range, 

    Design Orb founder director Poornima Burte mentions, “This was a great design opportunity to help little children rediscover our country with Barbie. The Colours of India series firmly roots Barbie in the Indian context. Barbie is curious about India and is on a travel spree to find out more. She is inspired by every place she visits – its unique architecture, motifs and colours, and chooses to style herself in her interpretation of every place she visits. Each pack tells the story of the amazing destinations of India that span the length and breadth of our diverse country. Inspiration for the colours, motifs and architectural styles have been borrowed from the monuments of each destination. Barbie welcomes all her little friends to take this enriching journey of discovery with her.”

    The Colours of India will be available at leading retail stores and e-commerce websites. In line with the theme of Barbie traveling across India, the pack also contains a mini DIY kit where girls can make a paper suitcase for the doll.

    Mattel Toys has focused its efforts around the core philosophy of play with purpose where each toy developed by the global leader has an intrinsic benefit linked to it. For over 58 years, Barbie has led girls on a path to self-discovery. After over 180 inspirational careers and diverse range of collectibles, Barbie—along with her friends and family—continues to inspire and encourage the next generation of girls that they can be anything.

  • Netflix deal will help in customer retention, revenue enhancement: Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal

    Netflix deal will help in customer retention, revenue enhancement: Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal

    Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal has been a bit of an early mover in terms of innovation and building a world-class satellite TV operation. Whether it has been in the case of HD or VAS or top-notch customer services, Tata Sky has been driving many of the path-breaking initiatives in the DTH sector. Nagpal announced a major strategic partnership with Netflix under which Tata Sky subscribers will be able to watch the world-class streamer’s on-demand content, including TV shows, films and documentaries, in the coming months through the direct-to-home operator’s platforms.

    Nagpal was in APOS Bali and was on stage for a conversation with MPA’s Vivek Couto. He openly spoke about the reasons behind the Netflix partnership, how it will benefit customers, what it means for Tata Sky and how does he see the satellite TV leader continuing with its leadership status. Sources indicate that Tata Sky is generating close to a billion dollars in revenue from about 15 million subscribers. Excerpts from the conversation:

    Why the Netflix tie-up?

    We don’t look at us as satellite TV platforms, we look at ourselves as the equivalent of grocers in this industry that produce and distribute content. We are a distributor part of the content, depending on the customer, whenever he wants to buy wherever he wants to watch we are privileged to provide him that—that was our thinking.

    Some customers of ours—not all, a very small fraction in India—are having access to good quality broadband, which can carry video. Also, they have the capability of paying for the broadband. And third, they don’t have the time to watch when it is broadcast; they’d rather watch it at their time.

    Who are these customers?

    Unlike the western world, where almost everybody falls in this category, in our country, a very small fraction falls in this group. Fortunately, we are providing linear television services to this kind of customers and today there are about 3.5 million such customers who are paying about $10 plus per month on content in a country whose ARPU is much lower. We have two million of these customers. So, it’s been our endeavour to create a platform. Because the lunch is lying in front of me, I would rather eat it rather than wait for someone else to come and eat it. We met Reed (Hastings) and Bill two years ago at their villa in Bali during APOS. And the rest is history.

    How will you differentiate from other service providers and mobile companies?

    We are going to distribute almost everything but not on-demand content like the mobile guys did. Mobile guys could best take a phone and put in five, six, seven eight apps. We were distributing television very differently. We were going to Sony, Star, Zee, Colors and buying content in bulk but providing it to the customer by genres making content discovery easy. That means if a linear TV customer says I don’t have kids, I like music, I don’t like sports, and I speak Malayalam, then I see no reason why he should not be watching on-demand content in the same way.

    It is my job to get all the content from various sources or on demand platforms and make the content discovery as easy as I have made it on the TV screen. We are giving him probably seven days catch-up TV for what he is subscribing on linear. To that you add Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, YouTube, and whatever else become the prominent apps. You distribute that content via genre and offer it to him for a little over what he is willing to pay for linear TV.

    Is the Netflix addition mostly about ARPU enhancement in India?

    It’s retention and revenue enhancement. We have noticed that a customer when he gets into one of our services, his inclination to churn reduces. To the extent of around 75 per cent. The moment he gets dependent on a DVR, the 12 per cent churn becomes three per cent churn.

    So one more dependency for another service which is OTT will drive down the churn or deactivation even if it is for a short duration. The premium segment which accounts for 15-20 per cent of our base, there is no more price increases you can take on them and hence grow revenue.

    They are also consuming almost every single genre of content that is there. There is no genre to go into and select. We can lure in these guys by giving him additional services.

    Will the tie-up work against Tata Sky? Don’t you fear competition?

    Competitive intensity is good for the industry especially at the stage we are in. We need more high-quality competition to come into this business. I don’t want to run a monopoly because monopolies become very lethargic and they don’t feed the customer and they don’t grow the industry. At this stage, the more, the larger number of good quality competition that comes in it will keep us on our toes it should be there. It will help get good quality of product to the customer and is welcome.

    It’s not going to be a single platform. It’s going to be a combination. Just like a set top box is HD, DVR, SD and all those kinds of things. It’s going to be low cost to high cost. Even the customer price models will be different. You pay upfront a lot and don’t make me subsidise, you pay less per month. You make me subsidise the equipment, you pay me more per month.

    Has not the pay TV market slowed down in India? What about free to air?

    Deceleration is not happening. First of all the pay TV mass in India was not growing. What was happening was the transition from analog cable to digital platforms. If you look at the last five or six years, the pay TV base has not grown tremendously. 50 million people we have migrated from cable TV to DTH. That was growing at a pretty fast pace earlier. In the last two years, it slowed down. First year was because of free to air (FTA). We licked that problem in May last year. And since that the FTA growth has been curbed.

    There has been a lack of competitive intensity amongst the DTH competitors in the last one year. Primarily because a couple of them were busy panning out the merger and they were not participating in the competition in the market. Which has probably led to the slowing down of migration from cable TV to DTH. It’s a momentary thing, I guess. It’s going to come back.

    We don’t treat FTA as competition. FTA is a good thing. FTA provides me a pool from which I can source customers from. Because the customer does not buy a TV and decide to pay subscription simultaneously. He first buys it as subscription is going to be free. Then some of them upgrade to a paid service and that’s the pool we can tap into.

    Where do you see growth coming from?

    I see growth coming from phase IV. Two thirds of India lives in phase IV. They

    live in small villages which have 50 and 100 households. Drawing a cable to that village is uneconomical. If the cable operator who was serving those 150 households, if he loses 50 households then serving the balanced left-over subs become uneconomical.

    Will the march of the telcos like airtel, Jio, Idea Vodafones into content and distribution also impact your business?

    I welcome the telcos getting into the content business because it will keep the addiction to content alive. Compare it to the time when we only had land lines, we talked for 200 minutes a month. And we added mobiles, we are talking for 600 minutes a day. Because I am not restricted to my sofa and talking. I can be in the car, on the road, in the loo, wherever. Similarly, if I am restricted to my living room, then there are chances of addiction not become addictive enough.

    If I have the option I am watching something on the phone then I come back and again watching it on the TV, the addiction will stay. So, it’s additive not subtractive. And nobody has watched content on a six-inch screen if a 42-inch was available in front of him. You will watch it if the remote is taken from you by your wife or the kid, you will watch it on the mobile sitting in the same room: I am not deprived of the content I want to watch.

     

  • Vice India raring to break into a sprint

    Vice India raring to break into a sprint

    MUMBAI: Vice India is betting big on its creative agency Virtue Worldwide, which has helped provide solutions to brands in several markets.  Among the brands under its banner are ABInBev, Samsung, Uber, Airbnb and Google.

    Now, the agency within the Shane Smith, Suroosh Alvi-founded outfit is rolling out its suite of brand solutions in India.  Among the first partnerships, it has announced, is the one with PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew.

    The collaboration will see the Vice crew follow and explore the journey of a real-life hero Arjun Vajpai as he attempts to climb Mt Kangchenjunga – one of the most difficult summits to conquer.

    “We are excited to be the first to work with Vice India, that aims to be the vehicle and voice for the Indian youth. This partnership represents the convergence of two brands coming together to tell an inspiring story of courage to millions of young consumers across the country,” says Pepsico India associate director –Mountain Dew Naseeb Puri.

    Adds Vice India chief executive officer Chanpreet Arora:  “We are happy partnering with PepsiCo on one of our first content pieces in India so that the stories we want to tell reach out to the country with the help of one of India’s biggest and most recognisable brands.”

    Arora, along with head of content Samira Kanwar, has been working on roping in more than 40 young journalists, editors, producers and creatives in India to focus on content production, editorial, creative services and content distribution. The focus, according to a Vice India release has been to put in place “a local, young and experienced leadership team, deeply embedded in the culture of India.”

    She hopes that other brands will sign on with Vice India, which is being positioned as a full-scale media company with content at its centre and a multi-platform distribution plan – producing scripted, film, news and culture content from India for television, SVOD, OTT and digital platforms. The launch date is planned for April, and the teams in both the cities have been working at a frenetic pace to get things up and running by D-Day.

    Points out the Delhi-based Arora: “We are committed to building a company that speaks to a generation that is defining today’s cultural conversation in India and that is based on values of empathy, equality and inclusion. All our decisions, including choice of partners, must reflect this core belief.”

    Vice India’s planned local content will span conversations across topics like food, music, sex, identity, nightlife, arts, politics, literature, and comedy, showcasing the realities and diverse aspects of India without conforming to the boundaries set by multiple languages or cultures.

    Reveals the Mumbai-based Kanwar who is spearheading all the content offerings that Vice will dish out: “Content sits at the centre of everything we do. We hope to create content and experiences that matter to India’s youth irrespective of the language or regions we come from. Vice India will be a platform for young people to speak up, be heard and also feel at home about their own identities and ideas.”

    Adds Vice CEO Asia Pacific Hosi Simon: “Vice India’s goal is to be deeply locally relevant for youth across all parts and cultures of India. We are very thankful for our partnership with The Times of India, led by Times Bridge. Together, we have architected as ambitious a launch as Vice has put together anywhere in the world.”

    The Times Group investment arm Times Bridge CEO Rishi Jaitly, highlights that Vice India is poised to delight millennial and GenZ audiences across the country from day one. Says he: “The stories and experiences produced by Vice India will engage youth culture here in a manner not previously seen. We’re proud of our team and look forward to a breakthrough 2018.”

    For Vice globally, one of the big changes that happened earlier this month was the elevation of Shane Smith as executive chairman from CEO and the stepping in of former A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc as his replacement. A&E was one of the earliest investors in Smith’s vision for Vice.  Smith was kicked upstairs to focus on content creation and forging strategic deals and partnerships to grow the company. 

    Also Read :

    Chanpreet Arora appointed CEO of Vice Media India

    Vice Media to launch Vice India on April 2

    Vice Media to build largest OTT platform, expand to 80 markets by early ’18

  • BCCI extends India media rights submission till 3 April

    BCCI extends India media rights submission till 3 April

    MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has extended its last date for submission of bids for the media rights for international and domestic matches at home for the next five years from 27 March to 3 April.

    The BCCI media rights contract with Star India has been extended by 15 days to accommodate the Indian women team’s ODI series against England, according to a report.

    The decision was taken by BCCI because the Indian women team is supposed to take on England in a three-match ODI series, which is part of the ICC women’s ODI championship, on 6, 9 and 12April at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. Star’s contract with the BCCI was earlier supposed to end by 31 March but now will end on 15 April 2018.

    The rights have been split across three categories – global television rights plus rest-of-world digital rights package, an Indian subcontinent digital rights package, and a global consolidated rights package.

    BCCI has set Rs 33 crore per match base price for the global TV rights and the rest of the world digital rights package, Rs 7 crore for the digital rights package for the Indian sub-continent, and Rs 40 crore for the consolidated package for global rights. This gives the bidders an option to submit separate bids for the global rights, Indian subcontinent rights or a consolidated bid for all the rights. The bid increment was fixed at Rs 50 lakh for the global TV and digital rights as well as the consolidated global rights and at Rs 12 lakh for the Indian sub-continent digital rights.

    Also Read:

    Sports sponsorship in 2017 up by 14%: SportzPower-GroupM report

    Paytm is the official ticketing partner of Kings XI Punjab’s home games for VIVO IPL 2018

    Tata Motors signs three-year IPL deal with BCCI 

  • Netflix hires TV vet Sameer Sabnis as manager for physical production

    Netflix hires TV vet Sameer Sabnis as manager for physical production

    MUMBAI: Netflix India is plumping up its local talent. Amongst the latest to be hired is television veteran Sameer Sabnis who joined the company earlier this month as manager –physical production.

    In the Netflix scheme of things, Sabnis is expected “to help manage both internal and third party co-productions from an international originals perspective to support international original series. Responsibilities include establishing and curating vendor and staff/crew relations, reviewing budgets and supporting/suggesting best practices from pre production through delivery.”

    Sabnis has extensive work experience having worked with Star India and Fox Television Studios as technical director and as vice-president- creative and production. After a short stint with Reliance Mediaworks in 2011, he moved onto media advisory practice  Benchmark Media Advisory Services for five years. Following that he turned consultant helping Discovery Communications on its production management during the launch phases of Discovery Kids and Jeet and is also advising the Sameer Nair-headed Applause Entertainment as it builds its programming slate.

    Sabnis is believed to have a keen eye for the picture having worked as a cinematographer and director of photography and producer and director for numerous TVCs, documentaries and sports films.

    Meanwhile, Netflix continues to search for more of the core team that it wants to bring on board as it ramps up its local production slate in the country.  Among the positions it is looking to fill up include: director international originals in India, manager post-production –international originals etc.

    Also Read :

    Pleased with India progress, says Netflix’s Reed Hastings

    Localised content the way forward for Netflix in India

    Indians among top commute streamers for Netflix

  • GoDaddy targets SMEs in latest campaign

    GoDaddy targets SMEs in latest campaign

    MUMBAI: GoDaddy, the world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small, independent ventures, has launched a new national campaign that raises awareness on the benefits for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to work together with web professionals and resellers to build a powerful online presence.

    The new campaign focuses on accelerating the usage and adoption of GoDaddy’s fast and reliable website hosting solutions and creating awareness on how the right hosting solution can positively impact an online presence. As a part of the campaign, GoDaddy is offering a special promotional pricing on its hosting products for a limited time.

    The campaign includes a new quirky and humorous television commercial that reiterates the key digital needs of SMBs – namely that of putting their business on the internet with reliable hosting and trusted security protection. Using an engaging narrative, it illustrates how ‘GoDaddy web pros’ help SMBs get an effective online presence without any hiccups.

    Commenting on the new initiatives, GoDaddy India vice president and managing director Nikhil Arora says, “Our technology and partner ecosystem can help to enhance SMEs growth and we are committed to working with them to help eliminate barriers that prevent them from getting online. Bringing customers together with our network of GoDaddy web professionals and resellers can help accelerate their digital adoption.”

    GoDaddy’s ecosystem includes India’s best web professionals and resellers who are experts at creating an optimum online presence for SMBs, using the latest GoDaddy products and services. GoDaddy recognises that India is a do-it-for-me market, with small business owners often looking to professionals to help build and manage their websites.

    As a part of this initiative, GoDaddy will conduct a series of offline training and skill building seminars for small businesses that will include web professionals and resellers. The first of these seminars was held at the recent BlogX Event in New Delhi.

  • U Sports aims to launch Indian e-sports federation

    U Sports aims to launch Indian e-sports federation

    MUMBAI: With an aim to make India a serious player globally, U Sports founder Ronnie Screwvala and its co-founder and CEO Supratik Sen are discussing with the Ministry of State, Youth Affairs and Sports India to form the official e-sports federation of the country.

    Screwvala is likely to be the president of the association. It will be the governing body for all Indian e-sports events and interact with partner nations. The aim is to encourage, organise, educate and train e-sport athletes. He says, “We believe there is tremendous talent in India. By forming an official Federation, we want to provide e-sports athletes the ratified government support they need to compete at global or international levels and to also evolve a structured and fair e-sports competition. Now international markets like the US formally  distinguishing e-sports as an official sport and granting visas for professional e-sports players, and  universities announcing athletic scholarships to e-sports players, India is not far away from recognising this sport and its players as a career option.”

    This body will represent India and promote e-sports for 206 million gamers, 10 million serious gamers and 300 million e-sports fans across the world. The ultimate aim is to create bodies at state levels to get the ambition going at the grassroot level.

    Sen added, “This sport is a global phenomenon and India is not far behind. We have the talent, and the passion and with an official body, these athletes will only get encouraged to showcase their talent. This Federation will help widen the player base and allow people to see the bigger picture of the sport.”

    E-sports is officially announced as an exhibition sport in the 2018 Asian Games and is listed in the 2022 Asian Games in China.

    Also Read:

    U Sports launches India’s first ever Multi-Platform Multi-Game E-Sports Championship – U Cypher with MTV

    U Cypher begins new innings for e-sports in India

  • BCCI invites bids for e-auction of India rights

    BCCI invites bids for e-auction of India rights

    MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited bids for media rights of international and domestic cricket matches in India for a five year period from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023. This time, the rights will be decided via an online auction on 27 March which will start at 2 pm.

    The BCCI has three media rights package. This includes global TV rights plus rest of the world digital rights package, Indian sub-continent digital rights package and global consolidated rights package.

    Star India in 2012 had won the media rights for Rs 3,851 crore. The invitation inviting tender (IIT) document can be bought for Rs 680,000 or $10,000 (non-refundable and non-adjustable) by demand draft or pay order (both payable in Mumbai).

    The interested broadcasters or companies can also make a consolidated bid for all the three packages. A bidders workshop has been scheduled on 7 March at 11 am to educate the interested bidders on the online bid process.

    The IIT documents are available for collection from the BCCI office from 10 am to 5 pm from 20 February to 5 March. The parties may submit their bids latest by 10 am on 27 March, which means up to five hours before the start of the online auction process.