ITV

Tag: Kunal Dasgupta

  • Sony to offer interactive feed for World Cup in DTH, Cas homes

    Sony to offer interactive feed for World Cup in DTH, Cas homes

    MUMBAI: With the World Cup scheduled to kick off later this month, Sony is ready with a few plans up its sleeve. One of these involves adding a value added feed for direct-to-home (DTH) and Cas (conditional access system) subscribers.

    Addressing a media briefing this afternoon Sony Entertainment Television (SET) India CEO Kunal Dasgupta says that the channel is looking at having two angles – stumps and mid wicket. They are also looking at making this interactive feed available in Cas homes. “The coverage from different camera angles will help DTH. We are also in talks with multi-system operators (MSOs) to offer this to their set-top box subscribers,” Dasgupta adds.

    SET India has sold out its entire inventory for the World Cup and expects an all-time high audience for the big event with the matches favourably positioned for prime time viewing in India. The company had earlier indicated that it was targeting Rs 5 billion in ad revenues from the ICC Championship and World Cup.

    The matches will not be shown on flagship Hindi general entertainment channel Sony TV (they will be telecast on Max, Sab and Pix) as the cricket telecast will disrupt viewing of its tradional programming content. Instead, the movie list on the Sony channel will be enhanced during the World Cup.

    “We are in the process of rebuilding Sony TV which has slipped from its number two position. When we put up matches on the channel in the last World Cup, we suffered. We won’t make that mistake this time. We are getting Indian Idol back and in the coming three to four months we will be coming out with new shows that we are confident will see the channel move up,” says Dasgupta.

    Sab TV, which Sony acquired to have a two-channel strategy in the general entertainment space, will be relaunched after the World Cup.

    In terms of viewership, Dasgupta says that the number of C&S homes have more than doubled from 32 million when the previous World Cup took place in 2003 in South Africa. DTH platforms will also give a boost. “There is a strong lead in which was not the case in South Africa where matches started at 2:30 in the afternoon.”

    He adds that this time there will be a lot of out of home viewing as the match starts at 7 pm. Already 70 organisations have asked Sony for permission to air matches during parties. “Places like Goa will have a carnival atmosphere. The trend will be for people to watch matches till late in the night. The World Cup will really kick off from 23 March when India plays Sri Lanka.”

    Dasgupta, however, was critical of the high acquisition cost for cricket properties. “As a standalone, it is a loss leader in the portfolio. You take it to boost other areas of the network like distribution and weaker properties.”

    In terms of ad revenue Sony recently came out with a 12 match package for spots. This involves the India games, the semi finals and the final. The other spots package it offers to advertisers is for the final 27 matches.

    Doordarshan will get to telecast 19 (including the India contests, semi-finals and final) out of the 51 World Cup matches.

  • Filmfare Awards in a new avtar

    Filmfare Awards in a new avtar

    MUMBAI: The 52nd Fair One Filmfare Awards for excellence in Hindi cinema will be held on 24 February. Filmfare announced the nominations for the popular awards categories.

    The awards event which started in 1954 has been a public event with performances by the stars until now. This year World Wide Media, the company which owns the title decided to make the event a black tie affair taking off from the Oscars. This year the annual awards night will be held at an indoor venue exclusively for the film fraternity.

    Speaking about the awards WWM CEO Devashish Sarkar said, “The event will be a black tie event held along the lines of the Oscars for the film fraternity. The dance and musical entertainment will be pre-recorded for the TV audience. This twin format will allow both the film fraternity and our film fans to enjoy the evening in the manner they ought to.”

    Commenting on the second year of its association with the awards, Elder Pharma director Dr. Anuj Saxena said, “Elder is proud to continue its association with the Filmfare Awards for yet another year. The Fair One Filmfare Awards function is to be very different than in the past – but yet equally spectacular. Elder welcomes the role of celebrating talent and beauty in any field, an undertaking that the company continues to support and encourage through all its ventures, one such initiative being the “Fair One Face of the year Award” category. We hope that this year the Awards will set a trend in the way award ceremonies are held”

    The Awards will be telecast on Sony television on 25 February at 7:30 pm. Speaking about the Awards, SET India Pvt. Ltd CEO Kunal Dasgupta said, “We are extremely proud of our decade long association with Filmfare- ‘the queen of all awards’. Our conviction in this partnership led to the inception of the ‘Sony Face of the Year Award’ and the growing popularity of this award category only strengthens our endeavor to applaud women with talent and proven records of excellence in their chosen fields”.

    The Fair One Filmfare Awards is sponsored by Elder Pharmaceutical, along with associate sponsors Bisleri and Ashrafi Finance.

  • Sony beefs up 10 to 11 band with new soaps

    Sony beefs up 10 to 11 band with new soaps

    MUMBAI: Two new shows Durgesh Nandini and Jeete Hain Jiske Liye from the Sony stable will hit the small screen starting 5 February. The two soaps have been clubbed in the 10 to 11 pm band and will air from Monday to Thursday.

    While Durgesh Nandini replaces the recently concluded reality television series Bigg Boss slotted from 10 to 10:30 pm. The 10:30 to 11 pm slot was reserved for repeats of various shows on the channel. This slot will now air Jeete Hain Jiske Liye.

    According to the recently released TAM data for the last six months (15 July ’06 to 13 Jan ’07) – Sony is facing a long, hard climb at number three with its relative channel share at 12 to 13 per cent compared to Star Plus now at 40 per cent relative share and Zee hovering around 23 (Hindi GEC / TG CS 4+/ HSM Market).

    The two shows have been positioned to compete with Star’s K-sagas, especially the predominant players Star’s Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thi that airs within the same time band.

    Sony Entertainment Television chief creative director Sandiip Sikcand said, “It’s clear that Indian audiences will watch shows that bring out their best emotions. So Durgesh Nandini has a subtle tone of humour while Jeete Hain Jiske Liye is more intense. But both are essentially stories of women with grit and determination.”

    While the channel claims that its immediate focus is to spruce up this band, it has also revealed that it is planning to beef up its 9 to 10 prime time slot with new programming. Without giving out details, the channel is all set to look at a sitcom and even a game show.

    Sony Entertainment Television COO NP Singh says, “Around March-April 2006, we decided to take stock of our programming and come up with a healthy mix of fiction and non fiction programming. Reality series like Fear Factor, Jhalak Dikhla Jaa and Bigg Boss were results of that. While a third season of Indian Idols is already on the cards, we also wanted to get back to daily soaps.”

    While Durgesh Nandini is a comedy/drama loosely based on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel, SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta revealed that Jeete Hai Jiske Liye has been adapted from an international telenovella. Both of them have women as their main protagonists. No surprises there. But Jeete Hain Jiske Liye star cast includes Renuka Shahane who will make a return to television after a five-year gap. Her popularity among television viewers should prove to be a huge factor in roping viewership for the show.

    Talking about bringing back some of the old shows in an attempt to garner viewership Singh says, “We believe that old brands which we have invested in and have been successful should be revived and made best use of. We decided to go back to shows like Boogie Woogie, CID, Aahaat and now Karamchand.”

    Sony made cricket and entertainment synonymous and the network is all geared up for World Cup 2007. While Max, Sab and Pix will air matches and shows around it , the channel is determined to keep Set cricket free and provide more entertainment for those taking a break from the game.

  • Zee, Ten-Infront, Nimbus table ICC global rights bids

    Zee, Ten-Infront, Nimbus table ICC global rights bids

    MUMBAI: The bidding for the audio-visual rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) conducted events from late 2007 to 2015 is certainly not going according to the expected script. For starters, there have only been three global bids tabled and a significant absentee from the list is ESPN Star Sports.

    As it turns out, two of the global rights bidders — Zee Telefilms and Ten Sports-Infront — are acting in consort while the third contender is the now familiar name in all matters cricketing — Harish Thawani’s Nimbus.

    As for ESPN Star Sports, sources familiar with the developments say it has tabled a territory bid that covers the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East.

    Confirmed bids have also come in from DirecTV (North America); a combined bid by Supersport and SABC (South Africa Broadcast Corporation) for the Africa territory; News Corp’s Sky for the UK; Geo TV (for the Pakistan territory); and ARY for Middle East/Pakistan/ Europe and UK.

    Another likely bidder is Channel 9/Fox for Australia.

    ZEE’S GLOBAL BID $ 620 MILLION?

    What seems to be emerging out of all this is that the fears of “crazy bidding” that Set India CEO Kunal Dasgupta expressed, which ultimately kept Sony out of the bid process altogether, might well prove unfounded.

    This is best exemplified by the comments Zee Telefilms CMD Subhash Chandra made in an interview to business news channel CNBC TV18 following that announcement that his company had taken a 50 per cent controlling stake in Taj Television, the Dubai-based holding company that owns and operates Ten Sports.

    Asked a direct question as to whether Zee’s bid was above or below $ 750 million, Chandra stated it was well below that. The figure Zee has bid is in the region of $ 620 million, industry sources aver. If that figure proves correct when the tenders are opened on Friday at the ICC’s headquarters in Dubai, it will mark the first serious “correction” in cricket rights bidding since 2000, when Chandra and Rupert Murdoch had fought over the ICC rights.

    It is worth noting that in 2000, Zee’s global bid was an astronomical $ 650 million. This is not to imply that Zee has actually gone lower this time round though. One condition that the ICC has introduced for the current tender is that if a company bids for worldwide rights, then it has to deduct production costs (approximately $ 70 million) from the bid before submission. Add those costs and Zee’s bid works out to $ 690 million or $ 40 million higher than what it bid in 2000.

    Queried by TV18 as to the reasons for his being so conservative when Zee had nothing by way of cricket properties other than BCCI neutral venue event rights, Chandra said: “We would go up to the point where it makes sense and it makes profit. We will not be buying it as a loss leader. If it comes sensibly, then we will take the rights, otherwise we will wish good luck to whosoever buys those ICC rights at a much higher price.”

    If that much higher price is dished out by new channel on the Zee block Ten Sports, it would add yet another angle to the still unfolding equations at play. If the joint bid of Ten Sports and German sports marketing company Infront is higher than that of Nimbus, then one can expect Zee Sports to take the India rights, Ten Sports the Pakistan and Middle East rights and Infront the international rights. On the other hand if Nimbus’ bid prevails, then one would expect Thawani to keep the international rights while ESS would take up the Indian subcontinent / Middle East rights.

    That would be the logical expectation but since nothing in this drama has unfolded according to script there is another possibility that could crop up. Which is of current ICC rights “incumbent” Sony making a late play from the sidelines. Dasgupta did say as much when he earlier spoke to Indiantelevision.com regarding his network’s withdrawal from the bid process: “We believe that the terms (of the tender) are quite onerous. We do not want to put our company at risk so we are constrained to hold back our bid. But that does not take away our right to enter into post-bid arrangements with the winning bidders.”

    Friday is when the financial bids are expected to be opened (going by Chandra’s comments in the interview), so expect some more interesting twists to the tale before the final denouement.

  • Sony withdraws from ICC rights bid process

    Sony withdraws from ICC rights bid process

    MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television India, the “incumbent” holder of telecast rights for ICC cricket in the subcontinent, has withdrawn from the bidding process for the next round of bids, for which the deadline for bids submission is 10 November.

    Up for grabs are the audio-visual rights for 18 ICC tournaments starting from the second half of 2007 till the World Cup in 2015. The last agreement began in 2000 and ends with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the West Indies next March.

    The Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) board was unwilling to bankroll the bid, which was seen as being too fraught with financial risk.

    Confirming the developments to Indiantelevision.com, Set India CEO Kunal Dasgupta had this to say: “We believe that the terms (of the tender) are quite onerous. We do not want to put our company at risk so we are constrained to hold back our bid. But that does not take away our right to enter into post-bid arrangements with the winning bidders.”

    Dasgupta made it clear that Sony did not want to get sucked into a bidding frenzy similar to what was witnessed in February when Harish Thawani’s Nimbus Communications walked away with the telecast rights to India cricket after putting in a bank-breaking $612.18 million composite bid. Nimbus’ bid was nearly $ 200 million higher than the base price of $425 million that had been set by the Indian cricket board.

    A point also worth noting is that Sony’s composite bid for the BCCI rights, made through Set Satellite Singapore Pte, was $478 million for the global rights and $397 million for the India territory.

    AGAIN A FACE-OFF BETWEEN MURDOCH AND CHANDRA?
    With Sony out of the reckoning, it could well be the same two who finally face off for the current block of cricket property, with Subhash Chandra squaring off against one time ally and now bitter foe Rupert Murdoch. It was Murdoch who won that particular skirmish so there will be some interesting history at play when the bids are opened at the ICC’s headquarters in Dubai tomorrow.

    To rewind to 1999, the News Corp controlled Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) had paid out $550 million to secure the rights after a fierce bidding war with Chandra’s Zee Telefilms. At the time of bidding, the GCC was a 50:50 JV between News Corp and World Sport Nimbus (itself a 50:50 JV between Nimbus and the UK-headquartered World Sport Group). News Corp subsequently bought out WSN’s stake in the JV.

    The GCC had sold the satellite rights for the Indian subcontinent territory to Sony Entertainment Television India for $ 208 million.

    One player that will definitely not be in this particular game is Nimbus. It has been taken out of the equation by the News Corp distribution deal. And neither, for that matter, will News Corp be bidding as a separate entity from ESPN Star Sports.

    Market speculation on how high the bidding will go this time round ranges from at least a billion dollars to even crossing $ 1.7 billion.

  • ABC to air ‘Ugly Betty’ full season

    ABC to air ‘Ugly Betty’ full season

    MUMBAI: The American version The Ugly Betty or the original Colombian show Yo Soy Betty La Fea or the Indianised version Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin has charmed audiences of all territories. 

    The US network ABC has given a full-season order to Ugly Betty, which has emerged as the most-watched new series of the 2006-07 season.

    Produced by Salma Hayek and stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, the show has already established itself a solid second to CBS’ Survivor at 8 pm. 

    Among the age bracket of 18-49 years, the show Ugly Betty has drawn an average rating/share of 4.7/13, while holding the top position on average with adults 18-34 year (4.0/12). The show has improved the time period for ABC by 96 per cent in total viewers (15.3 million against 7.8 million) and by 92 per cent in adults 18-49 (4.8/14 against 2.5/7) over the same nights last year, according to media reports.

    ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson noted, “In just two weeks Ugly Betty has given us an impressive foothold leading into the Grey’s Anatomy hour on Thursday night. The show has proven to be competitive in a very strong time period, and we’re thrilled with Ugly Betty’s performance.”

    In India, the version Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin aired on Sony and had won 3.6 average TVR for the first week of its launch in 2003. The show and the lead character Jassi had become the unofficial mascot for Sony. 

    SET CEO Kunal Dasgupta told to indiantelevision.com in 2004, that Jassi had fetched Sony four million new viewers in the general entertainment category, while the slot sampling too has grown by 300 per cent in the first one year. “The TVRs, naturally, have also shot up by over 300 per cent,” he says.

  • Almeida made Sony business head; Rajani takes over at Max

    Almeida made Sony business head; Rajani takes over at Max

    MUMBAI: In a top level executive reshuffle, Max Channel business head Albert Almeida has been handed over the responsibility of the flagship channel Sony Entertainment India business head.

    At Max, Almeida will be replaced by Sneha Rajani, who is presently heading Max Programming & Acquisitions.

    Albert and Sneha will report to Set India COO NP Singh. The new appointments have been made with immediate effect.

    On the new leadership team, Set India CEO Kunal Dasgupta says, “As an organisation our efforts have always been focused on creating a combined powerhouse of channels where each of our channels are led by strong professionals who are able to provide sound and effective leadership. In order to further strengthen this leadership these movements have been made where Albert and Sneha can take their teams to greater heights”.

    Commenting on this new announcement, Set India COO NP Singh said, “Both Albert and Sneha have contributed immensely to the growth of the network and now leading SET and Max respectively will give them an opportunity to further grow these brands. Albert will however continue to oversee ICC Champions Trophy till the end of the tournament.”

    Almeida has been with Set for over three years and has provided leadership as marketing head of Set Channel as well. Rajani has been with the company for over seven years and has been involved in areas such as programming, acquisitions & cricket.

  • Sony appoints Balaji’s Sikcand as chief creative director; announces other promotions

    Sony appoints Balaji’s Sikcand as chief creative director; announces other promotions

    MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television India has appointed Balaji creative head Sandiip Sikcand as the chief creative director of its flagship channel SET. Sikcand will report to SET India COO N P Singh.

    Apart from this new appointment, SET India has also initiated some other organisational restructuring.

    SET India executive vice president ad sales and revenue management Rohit Gupta has been given additional responsibility of the digital, licensing and telephony group. Gupta continues to report to SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta. Set India VP licensing & telephony Kaushal Modi, who has been reporting to N P Singh, will now report to Gupta.

    The network has also created a new enabling and technical services group, which will be under Anjani Kumar, who has been heading HR and admin functions for the network so far. The new group that Kumar will head comprises human resources, information technology, post production, administration and web and new media activities. Kumar will continue to report to Singh.

    Speaking on the new appointment and restructuring, Dasgupta said, “Sandiip comes to SET with a lot of experience in the creative domain. I am sure he will contribute in the process of driving the creative vision of our flagship channel and take it to new heights. Leading the digital and licensing group will give Rohit an opportunity to further grow and consolidate a new revenue stream for the company that has got huge potential and is the gateway to future. Also, creating the enabling and technical services group under Anjani will help bring in more efficiency into our working system and provide a seamless access to resources across the network.”

    Singh added, “Sandiip’s appointment comes at a time when the network has taken up several challenges and we are sure, with an illustrious career behind him, Sandiip will bring in fresh perspective and creative excellence to the channel. The restructuring also shows our agility to alter structures as per the needs of time and keep moving our best people in the most challenging roles.”

  • Broadcast Bill: Ficci to examine legal implications

    Broadcast Bill: Ficci to examine legal implications

    NEW DELHI: A meeting on the draft Broadcast Bill 2006, which has been tormenting the media industry over the draconian clauses it contains, has decided that a core committee should be formed to examine legal implications of the proposed legislation.

    Organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) here today, representatives of media organizations were unanimous on one issue: the draft Bill should be opposed; either partially or fully. Indiantelevision.com learns after talking to various participants that Ficci would join issue with other apex media organizations to frame a representation to the government on issues bothering the media industry.

    For example, while a representative of one media organisation opined that instead of opposing the Bill in its entirety only certain sections should be opposed, others felt that the whole Bill ought to be junked.

    However, after sifting through various opinion it seems that participants were more worried over two issues — cross media restrictions and government’s powers to crack down on TV channels, including news, for reports that it thinks are ‘biased’ and ‘against’ national interest.

    Additionally, there were some discussions on the proposed mandating of 15 per cent of a week’s total programming to locally sourced content on TV channels and its merits and whether it makes sense for private broadcasters to air or fund a certain quantum of content categorized as public service broadcasting.

    In the absence of any official communication — the meeting was not open to general media reporters though the issues related to media in general — it is also learnt that some cable operators did support the Bill partially, pointing out that the Indian broadcasting industry cannot do without any regulation and legislation.

    Those who attended the meeting included Reliance’s Amit Khanna, Discovery India EVP and MD Deepak Shourie, Sony Entertainment Television India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, Zee Group’s Jawahar Goel, cable industry reps Rakesh Dutta and Roop Sharma, Moving Pictures’ chief Ramesh Sharma, a couple of media corporate lawyers and executives of ESPN Star Sports, Star India and the Times of India Group.

  • SET-Discovery announces sign-on to Dish TV

    SET-Discovery announces sign-on to Dish TV

    MUMBAI: It’s now official. The Sony-Discovery One Alliance today announced a distribution tie-up with India’s first direct-to-home service Dish TV to carry their channels.

    The announcement confirms the exclusive report put out by Indiantelevision.com last week (7 June) that the two parties had arrived at a memorandum of understanding and the official signing would happen withinin the next few days.

    The official signing of the deal means that all the channels from ‘TheOneAlliance’ bouquet – SET, MAX, Discovery Channel, Ten Sports, SAB, Discovery Travel & Living, AXN, Animax, MTV, PIX, Animal Planet and Nick – will be available on the Dish TV DTH platform by today. Currently, Dish TV carries more than 120 channels and is available across the country.

    Commenting on the tie-up, SET India CEO SET-Discovery chairman Kunal Dasgupta said, “We expect significant growth in the subscriber base for Dish TV and for the DTH market in India due to this tie-up between SET Discovery and Dish TV.”

    “We welcome the SET Discovery channels on Dish TV. We have been growing at a healthy rate in the last year and the addition of ‘TheOneAlliance’ bouquet of channels will enable us to offer our customers a complete family package at affordable prices.” said Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna.

    Elaborating on the SET Discovery – Dish TV tie-up, Deepak Shourie, EVP & MD, Discovery Networks India and Director, SET Discovery said, “We are extremely pleased with this arrangement as we believe that it would enhance a Dish TV consumer’s television viewing experience and take it to a new level.”