ITV

Tag: July

  • BBC Broadcast to set up base in US this July

    MUMBAI: BBC Broadcast Ltd (BBC’s commercial media services arm) which is widely known for its award-winning designs and creative and promotional excellence is gearing up to open offices in New York. Primarily targeting broadcast and cable networks, this move marks the next step for the BBC’s new commercial media services business’ aggressive US expansion strategy.

     

     
    As of July 2004, BBC Broadcast will open offices in New York in an effort to significantly increase its capacity to service new clients in North America. Providing a unique blend of creative and technical expertise across all areas of on-air branding and promotion, the new commercial BBC Broadcast venture is able to offer the full range of its channel solution services to external broadcasters and other commercial clients around the globe, with the US serving as its first major market expansion.
    BBC Broadcast has also initiated a search for a New York-based executive producer to handle industry outreach, business development and client services in the US.

    Over the last five years, BBC Broadcast has won over 100 Promax&BDA awards for its creative design and strategy throughout Europe. Also at the recent Promax Europe that were held in Rome on 22-23 March, BBC Broadcast was the big winner, leading the pack with 10 awards for promotional excellence including gold statuettes for Europe’s Best Television Image Campaign of the year, Best Drama Promo, Best Music Promo, Best News and Current Affairs Promo and Best Factual or Factual Entertainment Promo.

    “Our offering of high caliber award-winning work, talent and global entertainment perspective has not been available in the US until now,” explained BBC Broadcast’s director of creative services Andy Bryant who oversees the creative services group from London. “We see a tremendous opportunity in the US marketplace as the market continues to grow and the desire for a unique perspective is in demand. With an expert team of creative service professionals on-staff in London, supported by the efforts of our soon-to-be-named US executive, we are now able to offer that same level of quality marketing and design solutions to networks here in America. Working as a commercial entity, BBC Broadcast delivers incredibly effective concepts and designs at a very competitive rate,” he added.

    BBC Broadcast global business director for the unit Nigel Cole added, “The wealth of opportunity here in the US made it an ideal market for our expansion. America has an incredible number of successful broadcast and cable networks, it is a driving force in the digital channel environment, and it continues the exploration into new technologies and new platforms of distribution, all of which require distinctive strong brand imagery to stand out. As the song goes, ‘if we can make it here, we’ll make it anywhere,’ so we’re all very excited to open our New York office and get busy working with US network clients.”

    The New York office opening also coincides with the unit’s participation at the annual Promax&BDA Conference in New York which will be held from 23-25 June. Drawing top television marketing, promotion and design talent from around the world, BBC Broadcast’s team will also be presenting a special seminar on great storytelling on 25 June.

  • Potter mania to hit Crossword in July

    MUMBAI: As kids await the release of the sixth Harry Potter book — Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on 16 July, book store major Crossword has decided to dedicate the month of July to the popular bespectacled fictional character.

     

    Crossword will be hosting a range of exciting events and activities. The promotion will begin on 3 July and will go on till 31 July across all Crossword Stores in Mumbai.

    Kids can be a part of activities like story telling sessions, Harry Potter Word Search, Guess the ending of the Half-Blood Prince, Hogwarts Games Session and various other word games.

    On the day of the book launch a special party will be organised at all stores to celebrate the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where along with an entertaining magic show, kids can get their foreheads scarred (colour tattoos) just like Harry Potter!

  • NGC celebrates ‘No Borders’ internationally in July

    MUMBAI: National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) has announced that it will launch a new anthology of bold and provocative feature length documentaries in July. These will air in 152 countries.
     

    The programming initiative will showcase the work of passionate filmmakers from around the world. The initiative titled No Borders launches with 10 contemporary films from around the world. Each is based on strong stories with universal appeal. The line-up includes the world premiere of State of Fear, which tells the story of Peru’s battle against the brutal terrorism of The Shining Path movement.

    Based around the findings of Peru’s Truth Commission (the first of its kind ever held in Latin America), the film asks the very relevant question of what price a country is willing to pay to fight terror. Another film Shooting Under Fire follows three photojournalists from the Reuters bureau in Jerusalem and the Palestine territories as they cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
     
     

    Given a unique access, cameras follow them on their assignments and the film captures how they grapple with the realities of living and working in this incendiary region.

    NGCI executive VP content Sydney Suissa says, “No Borders is an important platform from which National Geographic Channel can support and showcase some of the great feature documentaries being made today. These films provide cinematic windows into the world we live in and embody many of the values that are unique to National Geographic.”

  • Tourist arrivals in Hong Kong touch 1.9 million in July

    MUMBAI: Hong Kong is the flavour of the season as a tourist destination and the record 1.99-million visitor count the country has recorded for July 2004 underlines the fact. Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has announced that visitor arrivals in July soared to 1,990,705 – the highest ever recorded in a single month.
     
     
    This is nearly 200,000 more than the previous highest monthly total of 1,792,698 in December 2003 and over 600,000 more than the previous best July figure, recorded in 2002, claimed the board.

    According to an official release, this strong performance is especially notable as July has not traditionally been a peak month. Key contributory factors were the appeal of the Hong Kong Shopping Festival and continued growth in individual visitors from Mainland China. The result represents 54.1 per cent growth compared to July 2003, when Hong Kong was starting its recovery from sars, and 45.4 per cent growth in July 2002.
     
     

    HKTB executive director Chong said that the Hong Kong shopping festival was proving effective in luring more visitors and nearly 2.27 million arrivals had been recorded between the festival’s start on 26 June and the end of July. “As the whole of August is still to be added in, we can be confident of exceeding our 3.7-million arrivals target for the full festival period,” she said. “Early figures indicate that August will be another very strong month, so it’s clear that the efforts we’ve been making since 2002 to promote summer shopping in Hong Kong are turning the summer months into another peak period for tourism.
    “With more than 6,500 shops and restaurants participating citywide, and a strong promotional emphasis being put on late-night shopping, dining and entertainment, the Festival is not only attracting more visitors but is also stimulating their spending and enjoyment,” added Chong.
     
     

    For the first seven months of 2004 to date, total arrivals now stand at 12,003,323, 65.8 per cent ahead of the same period in 2003 and 35.3 per cent ahead of the 2002 figure.

    Average occupancy rate across all categories of hotels and tourist guest houses in July was 92 per cent. This is the highest July figure since 1988 and it significantly improves on the 71 per cent recorded in July 2003, when the city’s tourism industry was still recovering from the Sars crisis, and 82 per cent in July 2002. Top tariff hotels averaged 86 per cent occupancy while those in the second tier reached 95 per cent.