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Tag: Maa Movies

  • Star India elevates Kevin Vaz as CEO of regional entertainment channels

    Star India elevates Kevin Vaz as CEO of regional entertainment channels

    MUMBAI: Star India has promoted Kevin Vaz as CEO of regional entertainment channels. The regions include Maharashtra, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Karnataka.

    Previously, Vaz was CEO of South entertainment channels. He has spent 22 years serving Star India. Before heading the entertainment channels in Southern market, he was the business head of English cluster. In 2015, he was roped in to head the youth and entertainment channel, Channel V.

    Vaz, who has also worked as Star India’s president ad sales, became head of English channels (FX, Fox Crime, Star World, Star World HD, Star World Premiere HD, Star Movies, Star Movies Action) and Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies in March 2013.

    Star India has a very large bouquet of regional entertainment channels which includes, Star Jalsha, Star Pravah, Jalsha Movies, Maa Movies with their HD versions, Maa Gold, Maa Music to name a few.

    Regional channels are outpacing many other genres in terms of growth and all large broadcasters have or are planning to enhance their regional channel bouquets. Most are entering markets not with just a GEC, but with a combined offering across entertainment, movies, kids and music.

    In FY18, however, the ad expenditure on Hindi GECs declined by 9 per cent while the regional channels saw a spike of 5.4 per cent, outlining the overall growth of the regional market in India, according to KPMG in India’s Media and Entertainment report 2018.

    According to FICCI 2018 Re-imagining India’s M&E sector report, the top 10 channel genres accounted for 47 per cent of total ad volumes. Of these, 30 per cent of all ad volumes were on Hindi channels, while the balance 17 per cent were from Tamil, Telugu and Bangla.

  • Demand for regional commentary in tier 3 & 4 towns: Chrome DM

    Demand for regional commentary in tier 3 & 4 towns: Chrome DM

    MUMBAI: From only speaking in English to including Hindi to now giving each region a voice in its own language, cricket commentary in India has progressed over the years. There is a fair demand from consumers to watch and listen to content in their language. Commentary in regional languages not only multiplies the excitement among the viewers but also increases the fun and entertainment quotient of the game.

    Chrome Data Analytics & Media conducted a detailed research to understand the response of the public on the Indian Premier League (IPL) commentary in regional languages and the commoner’s preference of the language.

    The survey was carried out in the Indian markets with a sample size of 873 with 64 per cent males and 36 per cent females between the age groups of 15 and 55+.

    Star India has devoted four channels for the regional feeds of the IPL apart from Hindi—Star Sports 1 Tamil (Tamil), Suvarna Plus (Kannada), Jalsha Movies (Bengali), Maa Movies (Telugu).

    From the sample, 83 per cent watch IPL and the remaining 17 per cent are not interested. 26 per cent of the respondents stated Tamil as their mother tongue, 23 per cent said it was Telugu while 20 per cent responded with Kannada.

    Hindi is the most preferred language for IPL commentary followed by English and Tamil. The language of commentary does affect the viewership as a large portion of respondents would prefer to watch the match in their regional language.

    According to the survey, 100 per cent people speaking Bengali and Kannada are willing to watch the matches in their language, 67 per cent of the Malayalam speaking audience is willing to watch the matches in its mother tongue and 33 per cent is comfortable with other languages as well. The Telugu-speaking audience doesn’t concentrate on the commentary with 82 per cent being comfortable in any language and just 18 per cent want the commentary in their mother tongue.

    Cricket commentary in regional languages will not only foster new connections with existing viewers but will also increase the viewership as new audiences will find it a comfortable proposition.

    While the IPL cricket commentary was primarily in English, with the increase in its viewership from tier III and IV cities, the demand for regional language commentary has grown manifold. Customised regional content, especially cricket commentary, can bridge the language barrier between semi-urban dwellers and the sport.

    Also read:

    Star India lines up innovation filled IPL 2018

    Star to air IPL on 10 channels, in 6 languages; live on Hotstar

  • India boasts of 830 TV channels even as MIB cancels permission of 125

    India boasts of 830 TV channels even as MIB cancels permission of 125

    NEW DELHI: The total number of television channels uplinking from or downlinking into India has risen to 830, with the permission of as many as 125 channels cancelled by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

     

    Thus, the government had given permission to a total of 955 channels, which included those who have been later denied permission.

     

    Of the permitted channels, 398 are news and current affairs channels while 432 are general entertainment channels (GECs).

     

    Twenty channels including seven news channels have been permitted to uplink from India but not downlink within the country, as of 30 November, 2015. 

     

    A total of 725 channels including 349 GECs are allowed to uplink and downlink in the country while 85 including 70 GECs are uplinked from overseas but allowed to downlink into TV homes in the country.

     

    Star India brought into its fold the Maa cluster of channels including Maa TV, Maa Movies, Maa Music, and Maa Gold. NGC Network India launched National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Wild HD, Nat Geo People HD, Nat Geo Music HD, National Geographic HD, Fox Life and Fox Life HD in other Indian languages. Eenadu TV launched ETV Life, ETV Plus and ETV Abhiruchi that are Telugu channels permitted for uplinking. Additionally, Colors TV launched Colors Infinity and Colors Infinity HD.

     

    Other channels that received permission this year include 9X Bajao (earlier 9X Bajaao and 9X Bangla), Rengoni, Asianet HD, Australia Network, Da Vinci Learning (non-news channel), Sharnam, Tulsi TV (earlier Vedas Om TV); the multi-lingual Sree TV, Naaptol HD (earlier All Time), Media One Life in Malayalam and English; Sangeet Marathi; MNGK Star in English and Indian languages; Ishwar in English and Indian languages; Baby TV HD; Seven Sisters Rainbow; Positive Health; Shubh TV; Swadesh News; Cartoon TV (earlier Maha Mazza); Teleshop; Home Shop 18 Tamil; V S Entertainment; Nick HD+ (earlier Bandhan); Veria Living and Zee Café HD (for downlinking).

  • “Sports like Pro Kabaddi League will make India a sports nation:” Dr Subhash Chandra

    “Sports like Pro Kabaddi League will make India a sports nation:” Dr Subhash Chandra

    MUMBAI: Star Sports’ Pro Kabaddi League has found many admirers and amongst them is none other than Essel Group chairman Dr Subhash Chandra.

     

    Speaking about Pro Kabaddi League, Chandra said, “Star Sports is doing a great job and is packaging the sport well. It is sports like these, which will make India a sporting nation and not just a cricket nation.”

     

    When asked if Essel Group was mulling at starting something in the league, he said, “I am sure my sports team would be looking at it.”

     

    The second season of Pro Kabaddi League has picked up, not only in terms of sponsorships, but also viewership. According to the TAM Sports analysis, the sport has seen a 60 per cent growth in viewership as compared to the last season for the first 26 matches.

     

    The League, for the first 26 matches, has bagged 1.24 TVR as compared to 0.77 TVR in the last season. What’s more, Pro Kabaddi League season 2 has seen a 13 per cent growth in its average reach as well. This year it registered 4.45 per cent average reach as compared to 3.92 per cent in the last season.

     

    The Time Spent per Viewer (TSV) has gone up from 15.77 in season 1 to 19.91 in season 2.

     

    It can be noted that while in season one Pro Kabaddi League was being telecast on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 4, Star Gold, Star Sports 3 and Star Sports 2, in the second season, it is being aired on Star Gold, Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD2, Star Sports HD3, Maa Movies, Star Sports 2, Plus Suvarna and Star Pravah, thus giving it a larger reach and visibility.

  • Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League signs Allu Arjun as brand ambassador

    Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League signs Allu Arjun as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League, which opened to packed stadiums through its first leg in Mumbai, has now set its sight on the south. In a move to captivate the southern market, it has roped in Telugu cinema’s reigning star Allu Arjun as its brand ambassador in the two Telugu states namely Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

     

    The actor, who has won multiple awards for his work, will promote the sport and the league for the millions of Kabaddi enthusiasts in the Telugu speaking states. The Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad will host the eight city franchise league from 4-7 August 2015. 

     

    Talking about the development, Star Sports head Nitin Kukreja said, “At Star, we are committed to reinvent the great Indian sport of Kabaddi and set it in today’s context. The task is to make the game relevant and aspirational for the millions of young and passionate fans across India. Allu Arjun is an actor par excellence and a youth icon with following that cuts across all sections of the society. We believe he is the apt ambassador of the sport in this geography and are confident that this association will further the sport of Kabaddi in the region.”

     

    This season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi has created a place of pride for the National Anthem. Every day during the league, eminent personalities, local musicians and bands sing the anthem in a manner that captures the essence of the entire country. One of India’s biggest superstar, Amitabh Bachchan sang the National Anthem on 18 July followed by Sunidhi Chauhan on the second day in Mumbai and Saurav Ganguly on the opening day in Kolkata. Arjun will be performing the National Anthem on Day 1 when Hyderabad hosts its first ever Kabaddi game on 4 August.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Arjun said, “Kabaddi is a true Indian sport and Star Sports Pro Kabaddi has helped the game gain its due recognition in the country. I am truly honoured and proud to be singing the National Anthem at the start of the Hyderabad leg of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi. Being a physical fitness enthusiast, I am excited to associate with the league and will help promote the great Indian sport across the region.”

     

    Star Sports Pro Kabaddi is being broadcast in five languages- Kannada, Telugu and Marathi along with English and Hindi, across eight channels of the Star network as well as on Hotstar. The league is currently on air in Telugu on Maa Movies.

     

    MAA TV chairman N Prasad said, “Season one of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi successfully established Kabaddi in the mainstream, breaking it out of its hinterland niche and transforming it into a sport enjoyed just as much by an urban audience. We are happy to partner with Star Sports to broaden Kabaddi’s appeal even further by taking it closer to fans in Telugu States. We believe Kabaddi, being an aspirational contact sport, has a lot of potential and is set to become very popular.”

     

    The Indian game of Kabaddi is also being telecast to a huge global audience in over 100 countries, including viewers in the United States, United Kingdom, Middle East and Latin America. It also has commentary from the field of play, a never seen before phenomena in Indian sports, actively engaging their role on camera.

  • Star India to broadcast Pro Kabaddi League in 5 languages across 8 channels

    Star India to broadcast Pro Kabaddi League in 5 languages across 8 channels

    MUMBAI:  Pro Kabaddi League season 2 has just got bigger. Star India, the official broadcaster of the league will telecast the sport in five languages across eight channels. With this, Star India aims to take the traditional Indian sport closer to fans across the country. The language feed is in sync with Star’s effort to nurture and grow the sport, which witnessed spectacular success in its inaugural season.

     

    The second season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League, which kicks off on 18 July 2015, will be telecast in English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi across the Star network. The English feed will be carried by Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD2, the Hindi feed by Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD3 and Star Gold. Recently acquired Maa Movies will broadcast the Telugu-language feed while one can enjoy Kabaddi in Kannada on Suvarna Plus. Star Pravah will broadcast Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League matches in Marathi on Sundays only.

     

    Star India spokesperson said, “Season one of the Star Sports PKL saw us successfully establish Kabaddi in the mainstream, breaking it out of its hinterland niche and transforming it into a sport enjoyed just as much by an urban audience. We want to build on this success in the second season and broaden Kabaddi’s appeal even further by taking it closer to fans in different parts of the country. This move is further sign of our commitment to the growth of Kabaddi and our broader goal of fostering a multi-sport culture in India.”

     

    Built along the lines of a franchise model featuring eight teams from all corners of the country, Pro Kabaddi League enjoyed a phenomenally successful inaugural season last year. The League, which repackaged Kabaddi into a modern sport, produced modern heroes, created new team affiliations and was watched by over 435 million viewers nationwide. That made it the second most watched sport in the country, with the season-finale alone recording a reach of 86.4 million. It witnessed meteoric rise across social media, recording a whopping 2.3 billion plus impressions. 

  • Amagi Media Labs enables ETV to generate custom feed for Singapore

    Amagi Media Labs enables ETV to generate custom feed for Singapore

    MUMBAI: Geo-targetted advertising was started in India by Amagi Media Labs that enabled channels to have particular ads in particular regions. But it didn’t just stop there. It has also started creating local feeds for channels that want to air in other countries.

     

    According to Amagi, at times, certain shows are not allowed to be aired in other countries due to broadcast regulations, so it is replaced with regional shows. Local content to cater to local audiences can also help in getting targeted advertising in the country.

     

    In the latest move, the channel has partnered with Eenadu Television to provide custom feed for ETV Telugu in Singapore through Amagi’s cloud enabled broadcast solution. Amagi’s localisation platform at SingTel’s Mio TV will be doing the job for the channel. Earlier, another Telugu network had done the same in Singapore. Maa Network’s Maa TV and Maa Movies also aired local shows to its viewers in Singapore earlier this year.

     

    ETV Telugu wanted to bring their linear feed to Singapore and it was asked to opt out of two hours of its programming. Using Amagi’s cloud based platform, they have been able to create a local feed for Singapore audiences. “We had a requirement to replace couple of hours of programming on every day basis for our distributor in Singapore while justifying the RoIs,” said Eenadu TV vice president Bapineedu.

     

    Amagi’s technology helps channels save a lot of resources of creating a new feed using satellite or fiber.

     

     “The system is designed in a manner such that the content masking process works in parallel to the satellite broadcast’s processes and scheduling,” said Amagi co-founder and CTO Srividhya S. “Unlike the traditional triggering mechanism used, Amagi’s barcoding based approach offers workflow flexibilities and 100 per cent accuracy in identifying and replacing content assets.”

     

    Recently Amagi has perked up on its geo targeted advertising for Nickelodeon and HUL as well as Zee TV.

  • Maa TV partners with Amagi to launch customised channel feeds to Singapore

    Maa TV partners with Amagi to launch customised channel feeds to Singapore

    BENGALURU: India’s Telugu language Maa Television Network is using Amagi’s localisation platform for creating customised local feeds to Singapore for its “Maa TV” and “Maa Movies” channels claims Bangalore headquartered Amagi Media Labs.

    Maa TV has gone live with custom feeds on SingTel mio TV since April, 2013. Maa TV network uses its existing satellite feed playout for India as the base feed for Singapore as well, but masks few hours of programming and all advertising everyday on its feed to Singapore using Amagi’s localisation platform.

    Amagi says that broadcasters with common multi-country broadcast feeds can now adapt Amagi’s patent-pending localisation platform to easily fine-tune programming played out in individual countries. Broadcasters can ‘opt out’ of specific programs or even specific spot advertising in a country and replace it with some other locally appropriate content for the country by utilising Amagi’s cloud-based localisation platform.

    “We are able to ‘reliably’ and ‘cost effectively’ comply with all regulatory aspects related to programming and advertising for Singapore on both channels. Amagi gave us an end-to-end solution which has seamlessly merged with our existing systems and workflows”, said Maa TV COO J Sekhar

    Maa TV’s Sr. general manager, P Masthanaiah added, “We were looking for solution which would efficiently enable us to generate a local feed for Singapore from our India feed and Amagi offered just that. The technology is simple yet powerful and augments the existing systems effortlessly.”

    “Regionalisation of content is a pressing need for broadcasters. Amagi’s platform can easily integrate with existing workflows and systems of a broadcaster and reliably address regionalisation needs like local advertising, local programming to meet audience preferences, content masking for regulatory or copyright restrictions, etc. We are extremely pleased by the positive response to our exclusive platform from global broadcasters and are delighted to add Maa TV network as the latest customer”, said Amagi , Co-founder and CTO S Srividhya.