Tag: licensing

  • Where Advertising Can’t, Content Can: Vinit Karnik National Director, Sports and Live Events of GroupM ESP

    Where Advertising Can’t, Content Can: Vinit Karnik National Director, Sports and Live Events of GroupM ESP

    Marketers for brands, consumer products, retail chains, media and entertainment are struggling to redefine and reinvent “advertising” for a new generation of empowered consumers.

    Media proliferation and fragmentation is making it harder to reach consumers with traditional formats of “interruption” advertising. New technologies, media platforms and consumer behaviors are affecting every aspect of traditional marketing and thereby dramatically impacting marketing effectiveness.

    There is a strong need to create “engagement” advertising models with digital at the core which will facilitate more sophisticated, powerful and profitable connections between brands, content creators and their target audiences….

    There is a strong need to create “engagement” advertising models with digital at the core which will facilitate more sophisticated, powerful and profitable connections between brands, content creators and their target audiences.

    Internationally, the content-commerce partnership evolution is gathering momentum. Brand entertainment partnerships are changing the rules of developing creative campaigns, marketing and advertising planning and production.

    In response to these challenges, GroupM India launched GroupM ESP to help brands harness the power of content based solutions by activating the power of movies, music, sports, live, celebrities and characters.

    GroupM ESP specialises in evaluating, negotiating, developing, activating and measuring strategic content platforms and partnerships around movies, music, sports, celebrities and characters. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of the media and the sports and entertainment industries, the ESP teams focus on developing innovative content strategies and solutions with a digital core that embed advertiser’s brands in consumer passion points using multimedia leverage and multifaceted partnerships.

    GroupM ESP also works closely as a high end consultant with clients and rights owners to help create and own multi-media content assets of long term value and their exploitation through media distribution, marketing, licensing and retailing to build deeper and more valuable connections with consumers.

    The Indian entertainment and sports market, the largest in the world by size, offers advertisers and their brands, unique and multiple passion points to reach and engage target audiences with profitable and proven content solutions, embracing all the learnings from traditional media and advertising. New technologies and new channels incorporating licensing need to be harnessed creatively using insights with marketing ROI rigorously quantified.

    The Indian entertainment and sports market, the largest in the world by size, offers advertisers and their brands, unique and multiple passion points to reach and engage target audiences…

    The GroupM ESP content team comprises more than 50+ specialists (the largest for any advertising or media agency in India) has been providing end-to-end solutions for over a decade now. Known for its transparent dealings, easy and preferred access to content and talent (International, National and Regional), GroupM ESP is also able to seamlessly deliver the benefits of parent GroupM media volumes, relationships and specialist units backed by robust systems and processes. All this has been recognised through more than 50 awards at various industry and company platforms.

    Through its high profile alliances and partnerships with content creators, rights owners and talent across every domain and geography, the GroupM ESP team is able to offer expanded capacity and capability to handle complex projects smoothly.

    As we move from a decade of “Airing” to “Sharing”, digital needs to be at the core of any marketing program and the GroupM ESP team is adequately equipped to impart a strong digital dimension in all its projects. An in-house ESP digital team backed by the parent GroupM resources ensures that solutions are digitally centered and executed.

    More than 100 advertisers in India have benefited from their association with GroupM ESP.

  • Govt revenues from DTH licensing fees zoom

    Govt revenues from DTH licensing fees zoom

    New Delhi: The six private direct-to-home operators paid Rs 3.078 billion as licence fee to the government for the year 2011-12, compared to Rs 1.778 billion in 2010-11 and Rs 1.262 billion in 2009-10.

    The revenue in 2008-09 was Rs 893 million from four operators, since both Airtel Digital TV (Bharti Telemedia Ltd.) as well as Videocon d2h (Bharat Business Channel Ltd.) had not commenced services.

    The other DTH players are Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct TV, and Reliance Big TV.

    Under DTH licensing norms, the platforms pay a non-refundable entry fee of Rs 100 million and an annual fee equivalent to 10 per cent of gross revenue every financial year. Thus, the platforms have paid Rs 600 million as one-time entry fee.

    Interestingly, Tata Sky paid a licence fee of Rs 793 million in 2011-12 as against Airtel Digital’s Rs 618.7 million and Dish TV’s Rs 300 million. Sun Direct paid Rs 360 million, Reliance Big TV paid Rs 95 million, and Videocon d2h paid Rs 50 million.

    DTH services are governed by the DTH Guidelines and terms and conditions issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on 15 March 2001 and amended from time to time.

    The seven DTH players in the country including Doordarshan’s free-to-air DD Direct Plus cover around 35 million TV homes.

  • Govt needs to regulate distribution and licensing of news channels

    Govt needs to regulate distribution and licensing of news channels

    NEW DELHI: Television news content is getting redefined as costs spiral and revenue is under constant pressure, senior newscasters said here today.

    The investment in news gathering is being sacrificed and content is much weaker today amid an uncontrollable distribution cost, launch of a plethora of channels, and glamorisation of the profession.

    “As an industry, there has been a decline in content. Better TV journalism was done 10 years back. We can’t look at content in isolation from the commercial environment we operate in,” said IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, while speaking at the third Indian News Television (NT) Summit.

    The chase for eyeballs, in fact, has resulted in news getting commoditised. The fundamental challenge for content makers is to free from these “ratings pressures” and create differentiated content.

    “The real crisis is the lack of distinction. In an age of clutter, how different can we be. That is the important question,” said NDTV managing editor Barkha Dutt.

    A glaring example is the “sameness” of guests across news channels. “We have started working on formula,” admitted Aaj Tak news director QW Naqvi.

    Elaborated Dutt: “The crisis is more with political journalism.”

    The problem at hand, particularly in the case of Hindi news broadcasters, is when there is a collective effort to swing from a niche to a mass market as this means introducing higher doses of entertainment content.

    “We have created an industry solely dependent on ad revenues while we have to pay heavily for distribution. Channels are forced to cut costs to stay afloat. Editors are moving into jingoism or trivialisation and news is getting commoditised. English news channels are beginning to learn from Hindi channels,” said Sardesai.

    While noting that self-regulation of content was bound to happen, Sardesai said the government should also ensure regulation of distribution and licensing of new channels. “Less than 10 per cent of the cost is being spent on content. Around 50 per cent is going into distribution,” Sardesai said.

    Naqvi said news selection is done often on the basis of what will ‘sell’ or accepted. He blamed the problem of TRPs but said this was something that news channels could not avoid.

    Author and former TV journalist Nalin Mehta said Indian television was the third largest and fastest growing medium in the world, but was also the most unregulated. There was necessity to put an independent regulator in place. Despite complaints that news on Indian channels appeared similar, the viewership of news channels had gone down by 30 per cent in the past year.

    Sahara Media India CEO and Editor-in-Chief Sanjeev Srivastava who moderated the discussion accused most news channel heads of being ‘escapists’ who did not want to try anything new. He also blamed lack of research for this.

  • Nickelodeon inks footware licensing deal with Crocs, US

    Nickelodeon inks footware licensing deal with Crocs, US

    MUMBAI: Crocs, Inc. has announced that it has entered into a creative licensing agreement with Viacom’s kids channel Nickelodeon, and will introduce an exclusive, limited edition line of footwear incorporating Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants characters. The new line will be available at select U.S. retail locations in summer 2007.

    Crocs CEO Ron Snyder stated, “We are thrilled to partner with Nickelodeon, as we bring the favorite network for kids together with kid’s favorite footwear. Crocs will be launching a new line of exciting footwear for our young customers featuring characters. Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants are a great fit with Crocs and we see this licensing agreement as a fantastic opportunity to connect with our target consumers, and grow our brand and business.”

    “Nickelodeon is a big fan of Crocs and we are delighted to bring this innovative partnership and our new footwear products to consumers just in time for summer,” said Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products senior vice president/soft goods Hal Snik. “When you combine the fun of Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants with a colorful and irresistible product like Crocs, moms and kids are sure to respond.”

  • Sierra Ent. unveils ‘Ice Age 2: The Meltdown’ on Wii video games in US

    Sierra Ent. unveils ‘Ice Age 2: The Meltdown’ on Wii video games in US

    MUMBAI: Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, has announced that the video game Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, based on the animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown from 20th Century Fox is available at retailers across the US on the Wii video game system.

    “Ice Age 2 The Meltdown showed its strength as a popular movie-based kids video game with retail sales of over 1.3 million units and in the box office with sales topping $646 million worldwide,” said Vivendi Games president global retail Pascal Brochier. “We are expecting Ice Age 2 The Meltdown for Wii to follow a similar course.”

    The Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers allow players to guide their favourite Ice Age: The Meltdown pals through challenging puzzles and exciting mini-games.

    Fox Licensing and Merchandising executive vice president Elie Dekel added, “This game is the perfect complement to the film and a great way for fans to extend their experience with the story and its characters.”

    “Ice Age 2 The Meltdown and the Wii are a perfect combination for family fun this holiday season,” said Vivendi Games chief strategy and marketing officer Cindy Cook. “Fox has stepped up as a partner to offer an incredible amount of talent, assets, and effort to the game, which also takes full advantage of the Wii Remote’s motion sensors. The result is an action-packed adventure featuring non-stop entertainment that is sure to appeal to gamers of all ages.”