ITV

Tag: Jaharkhand

  • RTL-Reliance Broadcast terminate Big RTL Thrill joint venture

    RTL-Reliance Broadcast terminate Big RTL Thrill joint venture

    MUMBAI: First CBS exited from its three channel joint venture with the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) late last year. Now the RTL Group and RBNL have decided not to continue with the joint venture that the two had set up to run the male-skewed action channel Big RTL Thrill.  RBNL has stepped in and bought out RTL’s holding as a consequence.

     
    RTL – owned by German media behemoth Bertelsmann –  had got into bed with RBNL in May 2011, with the Big RTL Thrill channel launching in November  2012. The content for the same had been acquired from international production majors such as FremantleMedia, Endemol, Red Bull, along with a library of international action films. Amongst the key shows which ran on the channel figured:  Fear Factor, Cobra 11, Criss Angel, Wipe Out and Baywatch.
     
    Just three years later, the two broke up with RBNL buying out the Luxembourg-based entertainment network’s holding. The transaction was completed in May.
     
    With the parting of ways, RBNL has dropped RTL from the channel’s name calling it simply Big Thrill. All the international content on Big Thrill will be dropped and replaced by locally produced programming as the licensing deals come to an end. Big Thrill will give company to the other RBNL  regional Big Magic channels which are targeted at Bihar, Jaharkand and Punjab.
     
    RTL sources acknowledged – in international media – the contribution of RBNL in understanding the Asian market. And they said that they would now be focusing on their Singapore-based partnership with CBS Studios International – RTL CBS Entertainment Network. The two got together in August 2013 to launch two thematic channels in English and local languages and distributed in up to 29 Asian markets including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

     

    The first channel named RTL CBS Entertainment rolled out last year with general entertainment hits such as RTL Group’s The X Factor, America’s Got Talent and Celebrity Apprentice as well as CBS’s Elementary, Under the Dome, Late Show with David Letterman and Entertainment Tonight.

     

    The second branded RTL CBS Extreme launched in March 2014 with a menu consisting of action adventure, reality series and extreme sports. Programming included  Fear Factor, Red Bull, NCIS: Los Angeles and Hawaii Five-0.  The venture has access to first-run shows and library titles from RTL Group’s content arm, FremantleMedia, and from CBS, which owns America’s number one network, and a vast catalogue of more than 70,000 hours of programming.

  • GD Foods to expand its presence in the Eastern markets

    GD Foods to expand its presence in the Eastern markets

    KOLKATA: The fast-moving consumer goods (FMGC) company, GD Foods Manufacturing (India) that has two brands – Tops and Royal Taste – under it, plans to expand in the eastern region.

     

    In the present fiscal (2013-14), the company has earmarked four per cent of the turnover on the marketing spend that would include on-air and on-ground activities. However, in the next fiscal the spends would increase marginally, going up to five per cent.

     

    The company wants to expand its presence further in the eastern region by increasing the spends as well as by entering with the Royal Taste products beginning with Kolkata market in the next five-six months.

     

    The company has no plans to set up its manufacturing base in the eastern region but in order to capture the markets of Bihar, Odisha, Jaharkhand, it is looking at the best distribution possibilities.

     

    In the current fiscal, the company spent around Rs 8 crore on marketing and advertising initiative.

     

    Also, GD Foods which witnessed a turnover of Rs 153 crore in the last fiscal (2012-13), is confident to cross sales of Rs 200 crore in the current fiscal 2013-14. “Our turnover is likely to be higher than Rs 200 crore in FY14,” said GD Foods VP, Marketing Monika Solanki.

     

    Before foraying in the Kolkata market, the company is looking at hitting 360 degree marketing campaigns including outdoor media, regional television and newspapers papers. “Our own team is working on below-the-line activities that also include on-shop activities,” she added.

     

    The flagship company of the group – Tops – with key consumer products categories like jam, tomato ketchup, pickles, instant mixes, custard powder, culinary sauces, vermicelli, jelly among others has crossed 167 stock keeping units. “Tops pickles and culinary sauces are the main categories of products that largely drive GD Foods,” said Solanki.

     

    A media and brand expert from the eastern region says that because of Tops’ popularity, the company will have to be really innovative to make a mark with Royal Taste. “If the company is looking to enter the eastern region with ‘Royal Taste’, it has to do innovative campaigns to win over the existing national and regional players in Kolkata and eastern region,” said the expert.