ITV

Tag: Indian subcontinent

  • Viacom18, Jio to offer unmatched reach & ad opportunities for IPL: Anil Jayaraj

    Viacom18, Jio to offer unmatched reach & ad opportunities for IPL: Anil Jayaraj

    Mumbai: Viacom18’s strategic partnership with Jio will offer unmatched targeting and personalisation opportunities for the Indian Premier League (IPL). In a letter addressed to staff, Viacom18 CEO sports Anil Jayaraj said, “We will be able to offer a compelling proposition to advertisers with better reach and targeting than any other rival & legacy platforms in the country.”  

    Recently, Viacom18 bagged the exclusive rights to digitally stream the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in the Indian sub-continent for the 2023-2027 seasons. This also includes the special digital package of 18 games. The value of the combined digital rights stood at Rs 23,758 crore, more than the TV broadcast rights at Rs 23,575 crore.

    Viacom18 has also won the television as well as digital rights to three of the five international territories including Asia, Canada, Australia, the Caribbean Islands, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, and the UK and Europe.

    “The focus on bidding for digital rights comprehensively comes from the core belief that our company is committed to building world-class digital platforms of the future,” said Jayaraj.

    He further added, “Our partnership with Jio gives us unparalleled access and reach to each and every Indian. Not only will we be able to build the most successful streaming company in the country, we will also, along with our other businesses, build India’s most profitable digital media and entertainment brand.”

    In just ten months, Viacom18 sports has built a formidable line-up of sports programming. It has acquired the rights to FIFA World Cup, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 in the Indian subcontinent. It will offer badminton, tennis and NBA on its channels. With its acquisition of IPL digital rights, it will be able to offer the most high-profile cricket league to audiences globally.

    “Viacom18 will take India’s biggest sporting event IPL to every nook and corner of the country and make it available to every Indian consumer, something that even television has failed to do,” asserts Jayaraj.

    Viacom18 currently operates the channels Sports18 SD and HD and Sports18 Khel that is available on Free DTH platform DD Free Dish. Its sports content is also available on its streaming service Voot and Voot Select. Paramount Global’s streaming service Paramount+ is expected to launch in India in 2023 in partnership with Viacom18, in which Paramount Global is a stakeholder.

    Bodhi Tree Media, backed by James Murdoch and ex-Star Uday Shankar, are investors in Viacom18.

  • BBC World Service to showcase series on World War I

    BBC World Service to showcase series on World War I

    MUMBAI: This autumn the BBC World Service will broadcast specially commissioned programmes exploring how the First World War changed the subcontinent. India made an unparalleled contribution to the British War effort. There will be two one-hour radio documentaries, and a debate open to the public focussed on India and Imperialism recorded in Delhi. The season will explore the experiences and stories of those involved in WW1, many of which have remained largely untold in India today.

     
    Steve Titherington, Senior Commissioning Editor, BBC World Service says: “The war that changed the world touched every country. Over a million men from the dub continent fought with the British and others. Hundreds of thousands were killed or wounded or captured. We will examine their stories, and just as importantly debate what the effect was on the struggle for independence and the life of the region still. We have debated the war in St Petersburg, Istanbul, Germany and London. Delhi is next and it’s vital to our understanding of the legacy of this global conflict.”

     

    In a special debate from Delhi, the BBC’s Razia Iqbal will be joined by historians Prof Mridula Muckherjee and Dr Srinath Raghavan and a public audience to explore the impact of the First World War on Imperialism. Shashi Tharoor will also discuss Imperialism and independence in a specially commissioned essay performed at the event at the India International Centre, in partnership with the British Council.

    The War That Changed The World: India and Imperialism

     

    Saturday 8th November 1900-2000 GMT

     

    To mark the centenary of World War One, the BBC World Service and the British Council are hosting a series of ten debates around the world to explore the war’s lasting global legacy. Having already visited Bosnia, Germany, UK, Turkey and Russia the sixth edition of The War That Changed The World comes from India.

     

    The Indian army was key to the British military effort in the First World War. More than one million men served, many departed from Bombay in October and arrived on the Western Front within weeks. There were far more Indian soldiers defending the Empire than there were British men in the field. Some were moved by a genuine desire to come the Britain’s aid at its time of need and many believed that by fighting they would help the cause of India’s Home Rule. Home Rule was not granted, discontent grew and the war and its aftermath had a huge effect on Indian nationalism and the fate of the Empire.

     

    In this special debate from Delhi, the BBC’s Razia Iqbal will be joined by historians Prof Mridula Muckherjee and Dr Srinath Raghavan and a public audience to explore the impact of the First World War on Imperialism.

     

    Shashi Tharoor will also discuss Imperialism and independence in a specially commissioned essay performed at the event at the India International Centre, in partnership with the British Council.
     
    The Documentary: India’s Forgotten War

     

    Wednesday 29th October, 2000-2100 GMT

     

    As part of the WW1 centenary programming on the BBC World Service Anita Rani travels to India to discover how the war affected the country and its people. In the capital Delhi stands India Gate, the largest memorial to the war for which 1.5 million Indian men were recruited, but Anita discovers that The First World War is something of a forgotten memory there today, mostly seen as part of its colonial history. In this programme she sets out to uncover some of the forgotten stories.
     
    The Documentary: Ghostly Voices of World War One

     

    Saturday 8th November 2000-2100 GMT

     

    Hidden away in the backrooms at Humbolt University and the Ethnological Museum in Germany are some of the most remarkable sound recordings ever made. They date back to the First World War, and provide a unique archive capturing the voices of some of the ordinary men who fought in what was known as ‘the war to end all wars’. They were recorded by German academics who realised they didn’t have to go abroad to research some of the world’s many different languages. Instead, they were able to focus on captured soldiers from the furthest reaches of the British Empire who were being held at prisoner of war camps all over Germany. Among them were a group of Hindus, Sikhs and Indian soldiers imprisoned at camps on the outskirts of Berlin.  They performed poems, songs and stories which were recorded using Thomas Eddison’s latest invention. How these men lived out the rest of their lives has, up until now, been cloaked in obscurity. On a quest to discover what happened to them and how they died, and armed with the recordings, Priyath Liyanage travels from Germany across the world to some of the villages in Northern India where these men lived.

     

  • ‘India is the only market where we pay carriage’ : Bruce Dover – Australia Network CEO

    ‘India is the only market where we pay carriage’ : Bruce Dover – Australia Network CEO

    Australia Network, the international channel from the stable of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), has a hybrid mix of news, drama, lifestyle and kids programming.

     

    The state-funded channel, which has an international presence in over 44 countries across Asia, the Pacific and Indian subcontinent, is planning to launch a kids channel for the pre-school and the 8-14-year-olds.

     

    The expansion plan in India also includes introduction of subtitles in English and Hindi. Co-production deals are part of the agenda to keep in line with India as a focus area for growth.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Ashwin Pinto, Australia Network CEO Bruce Dover talks about how the hybrid programming model has worked in many markets. An old hand at media, Dover was Rupert Murdoch’s right hand man in Beijing. He went on to write a book titled Rupert Murdoch’s Adventures in China.

     

    Excerpts:

    Being a single channel broadcaster is a tough proposition. Are you planning to launch more channels in India?
    The ABC is looking at an Australian kids channel. This would cover both pre-school and the 8-14-year-olds. The idea is to roll the channel out early next year. But this would depend on the funding that we get from the Australian government.

    The BBC made an entry into India after syndicating their content to the pubcaster. Do you have any such plans?
    We have to be careful not to cannibalise our content. Otherwise you might want to start a kids channel, but find that you have already sold your content to other channels.

    How do you plan to grow in India?
    We are planning to introduce subtitles in the fourth quarter of this year. Perhaps, this is necessary because of the Australian accent that our coverage would have. We are also looking at Hindi subtitling for our movies, dramas and documentaries.We already do subtitling in Vietnam. Indonesian subtitles have been introduced this week.

    India is flooded with strong English international channels. How would Australia Network make a mark in India?
    Our speciality is that we are a hybrid channel with a varied programming mix. We have news and current affairs which make up 25 per cent. Then there is lifestyle and dramas, documentaries and children’s programming.

    Earlier the thinking was that TV channels fit single genres the best. International channels like NHK, though, are now following our model.

     

    The lifestyle content is in terms of travel shows and what it is like to be an Indian student in Australia and vice versa. We have a show called Student Postcard where one learns about the good, the bad and the ugly of studying in an Australian university. Can you go out? Can you meet girls? You want to know if certain areas are safe to go out at night.

     

    Our aim is to give Indians more insight into Australia. We do English language learning which is popular in India. This is for students who want to study overseas. We have programming as well as a site which helps you learn and become more proficient in English. Also, there is the cricket link. This helps drive interest in our channel.

    India is a difficult market to get such a niche channel like yours distributed. How much is Australia Network spending on carriage?
    India is the only market where we pay carriage fees. I can’t get into the specifics of that, but we are working with the Setpro team and they have good relations with the operators. We have a five-year deal with them.

     

    Almost 70 per cent of our viewership comes from the South. We are on the Sun Direct DTH platform. We are also available on several cable networks across the country. We have identified 15 towns where we want a sizeable presence.
    ‘Though the government funds us, the people of Australia support us. We fill up a void left by the commercial broadcasters in kids programming. Our news and current affairs content also does not carry ads‘

    Are you looking at co-productions in India?
    It is one of the areas we are looking at. We feel there is a big opportunity here. You could get an Australian cricketer and an Indian cricketer coming together for a show. Factual content around interesting issues would be our area of focus.

     

    We are also looking at doing co-productions around children’s content. We have some IP software. We do kids science programming in other countries. The software and the textbooks can be recreated.

    How many feeds does Australia Network have?
    We have three. One is for the Pacific region, which is important as there are not many channels carrying independent news in this belt. Then there is one for North and Southeast Asia. A third feed is for South Asia. We are now looking to have a feed for the Middle East.

    Which are your key markets?
    Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong are key markets for us. We recently launched in Indonesia and Malaysia and are satisfied with the progress we have made.

     

    India is also an important market for us. We just went through a re-branding process with the tagline ‘From Our World to Yours.’ It is about introducing Australia to India.

    What was the aim of the rebranding?
    We wanted to make it more relevant. We did work with Saatchi and Saatchi as they had the Tourism Australia advertising contract. They spent half a million dollars on research and focus groups as the contract was worth $40 million. We went to them to find out how brand Australia is being perceived in the market.

    How difficult is it to be a public service broadcaster when you have to depend on government for funding?
    We only earn 10 per cent of our costs. The government funds us. The ABC gets its budget every three years. But the people in Australia have no problem with that. The ABC has a long history of producing world class children’s programming. There is an educational bent to it and we have shows like Wiggles. Besides, we do not carry ads, something which parents love. We fill in a void left by the commercial broadcasters.

    Our news and current affairs content also does not carry ads.

    How has the global downturn affected ABC?
    The current economic situation provides an opportunity for us as private networks scale back on their expensive dramas, news and current affairs. They are forced to focus more on studio-based cheap reality shows.

    Do you have plans for the digital space?
    We will take this up as our focus area next year. We are looking at English learning applications. We will also provide news and current affairs video content on the mobile platform.