ITV

Tag: Maharashtra

  • Parle Wafers launches new campaign

    Parle Wafers launches new campaign

    MUMBAI: Everest Brand Solutions has conceptualized the latest campaign for Parle Wafers keeping in mind the objective of carrying forward the message ‘Parle‘s Wafers khaane kaa match jeetaane ka, aapka kya hai funda‘ to occasions beyond cricket and other aspects of its TG‘s life. The commercials are produced by Nirvana Films.

    The main challenge was to reinforce the ‘Parle‘s Wafers khaane kaa funda‘ concept in the consumer‘s minds based on the proposition that when they consume Parle‘s wafers something good happens to them and hence it becomes their ‘funda‘ for consuming Parle‘s Wafers.

    The TV campaign has two commercial simultaneously on air, both showing how the protagonists discover their superstition/lucky charm while eating Parle‘s Wafers. The first commercial revolves around social networking sites mainly Facebook. Keeping in mind the target audience of the product, Parle came up with the FB funda for their new TVC, with the belief that it leads to a favorable outcome each time you bite Parle‘s Wafers, so that youngsters can relate well with it.

    The TVC shows a nerdy character surfing the net in the middle of the night. He picks up Parle‘s Wafers from the pack and receives a friend request from an attractive girl. On picking up another wafer he receives a similar friend request. The boy is amazed and sees a connection here as he realizes what is happening. He picks another wafer and the happiness continues…

    The second TVC shows a young couple ‘hanging out‘ on their first date on a park bench. They look conscious and awkward. Just then, the boy eats a Parle‘s wafer and out of nowhere lightning strikes. The girl gets very scared and hugs the boy involuntarily. The couple is surprised and as the boy has another wafer the same thing happens all over again. The boy realizes the connection and mischievously smiles and has another bite.

    The brand was initially called ‘Musst Chips‘ when it was first introduced in April‘08 in Maharashtra and was later extended nationally in a phased manner. In July‘10 the brand was re-launched as ‘Parle Wafers‘ bringing a younger appeal to it and building on the equity of Parle.

  • PVR opens PVR Talkies in Nanded

    PVR opens PVR Talkies in Nanded

    MUMBAI: Multiplex major PVR has launched a new four-screen multiplex at Treasure Bazaar Mall in Nanded, Maharashtra.

    The multiplex, spread across an area of 47,988 sq ft has capacity of 1,004 seats. It is divided into three categories — Silver, Gold and Platinum.

    The company has kept the ticket price from Rs 50 – Rs 100.

    PVR chairman and MD Ajay Bijli said, “We are pleased to announce the launch of PVR Talkies in Nanded. This is our third PVR talkies in Maharashtra after having opened in the cities of Latur and Aurangabad.

    “The launch has been planned keeping in mind the growing needs of the discerning audience in tier II & III cities for a quality cinema viewing experience. We have a target of operating 500 screens by the end of 2014 and of this around 100 screens would be set up in smaller towns and cities.”

    PVR Talkies now has presence in four cities including Vadodara, Latur and Aurangabad.

    With this launch PVR now has 166 screens in 38 cinemas in 22 cities across India.

  • Pune Intl. fest goes underway on 12 January

    Pune Intl. fest goes underway on 12 January

    MUMBAI: The curtains of the 10th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) will go up on 12 January at City Pride, Kothrud in Pune.


    The eight-day festival, jointly organised by the Pune Film Foundation and Government of Maharashtra, will screen 200 films from 40 countries.


    Films in various categories will compete for cash awards. While the World Competition section will have 14 films, the Marathi Competition section will have seven and the Whistling Woods International Student Competition section will consist of 18 films.


    Also, different sections will highlight global cinema, retrospectives, contenporary Indian cinema, Marathi cinema, documentaries and tributes.


    This year the special ‘Country Focus’ section will screen 47 films from Germany.


    As per a tradition of PIFF, the SD Burman award for creative music and sound is given to a person who has made a significant contribution in the field of music.

  • Paras Dairy assigns creative duties to Rediffusion Y&R

    Paras Dairy assigns creative duties to Rediffusion Y&R

    MUMBAI: Popular dairy brand Paras Dairy has assigned Rediffusion-Y&R to handle its creative duties while its media duties will be handled by The Media Edge (TME), a sister agency of Rediffusion.


    Rediffusion won the account in a multi-pitch process in which agencies like Grey and Crayons among others participated. Earlier, Percept/H used to handle the business of the dairy. Though the contract is for a year, it is renewable every year.


    The size of the account, however, could not be obtained at the time of filing this report.
     
    Confirming the development to indiantelevision.com, Paras Diary brand manger Sumit Mohan said, “We have assigned the creative and media duties to Rediffusion-Y&R and TME respectively based on their credentials of handling large businesses, as well as the strategic and creative prowess shown by their team.”


    Paras Dairy has created a network of 5,000 villages as collection centres for milk across western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat and currently sells over 2,50,000 litres of milk per day in Delhi.

  • ‘TRP chasing has done major damage and it is time we took a call on that’

    ‘TRP chasing has done major damage and it is time we took a call on that’

    I will describe this year as one of the lowest points in Indian TV journalism. This has been the year with the most serious crisis of content. And this year has clearly shown how ratings and TRPs can affect content.

    There is a serious need to look at the ratings system. If the ratings system goes on like this, where it is impacting the kind of content that is defining the channel, then it is a bleak future of TV news journalism.

    This has been a particularly bad year, which is why there has been so much hue and cry and there is so much hostility towards TV news channels. The common man is fed up and everyone is saying that there is no news in TV news channels.

    This has been a particularly bad year, which is why there has been so much hue and cry and there is so much hostility towards TV news channels
    _____****_____

    And in the coming year, there is a dire need for all the editors and proprietors to rethink which direction they will take their channels. And if the only factor is ratings, then we should seriously look into the ratings system. A time will soon come when people will lose faith in the news channels.

    And it is this debate that has given the government the alibi to come out with a Content Code so that they can have control over the news channels. We have given the government the entry to come restrict the freedom of expression.

    That’s one thing. About my own channel, we can say that we were bold enough to stand our ground saying, “Whatever rubbish is going on the other channels, let them do it, but we shall not do that.” I won’t say we have been 100 per cent successful, but very, very successful and I am proud that we are probably the only Hindi news channel that can call itself a news channel.

    We provoked ourselves to get news in the right perspective. We have been aggressive and this has given us excellent results, maybe not in terms of ratings, but in terms of perception. We have severely shaken up the political establishment repeatedly.

    We provoked ourselves to get news in the right perspective. We have been aggressive and this has given us excellent results
    _____****_____

    It was our stories on Maharashtra or Uttar Pradesh that has angered the governments and got Mulayam Singh annoyed with us. After he left, we did excellent reporting on the Mayawati government and they were also very angry with us, which I think is a compliment. This showed that we were not targeting any particular government, and this is why our channel was shut thrice in UP.

    The same thing happened with us in Gujarat also, where we had a tough time. Our channel was shut for about a week when we did the story based on Guajrat Riots expose done by Tehelka..

    We have stood firmly on our feet during these difficult times, and even in terms of ratings also, we have improved vastly. When we started last year, we had six points, and in a year, we doubled that and touched 14 per cent market share, so it is not as if people are not watching news channels. And yet, there is a crisis of content in the news industry as a whole.

    The present ratings system is does not define what is a news channel.

    The problem with TV is that if there is anything dramatic happening, whether it is news or not, people have a tendency to watch that. And a few channels have realised that if they have to improve their ratings, then they have to get that kind of content. It is sex that has become very, very important… it is the gory that has become very, very important…

    In fact, I call them low cost reality channels rather than news channels. People go back home after the whole day and want to see what has happened in India or across the world, but what they see is everything other than news.

  • IBN Lokmat to launch by March; TG ‘aspirational’ audience

    IBN Lokmat to launch by March; TG ‘aspirational’ audience

    NEW DELHI: IBN Lokmat, the Marathi news channel from the GBN stable, is all set to launch latest by March.

    The channel is currently in its trial run and will launch as soon as the new facility in Vikhroli is ready and once the ongoing 360-degree training by US experts concludes, Nikhil Wagle, editorial director tells indiantelevision.com.

    Wagle insists that the network created by IBN is unprecedented in regional journalism and includes 13 bureaux spread across the state, with 100 stringers, allowing “us to reach the last man in the village”.

    Wagle says he visited hundreds of journalism schools in the state and 2,000 students were interviewed; hence the editorial staff is representative of the entire state, not Mumbai-centric.

    Lokmat is the biggest newspaper chain with multiple editions in the state, and the new company, IBN Lokmat News Pvt Ltd, owns the channel, but is a part of the GBN group, and hence, committed to the same standards of journalism as CNN IBN, Wagle explains.

    Asked whether infotainment or even crude videos (of the kind seen on Hindi news channels) will also find a place on the channel, Wagle denies it, arguing that historically, the Maharashtrian news consumer has been more tuned to social values than those from the Hindi heartland.

    “That sort of news won’t be accepted here,” he says, adding that in any case, the company is committed to hard news that is of relevance to people.

    Wagle reveals that the core content for IBN Lokmat would be driven by the aspirational aspects of Maharashtra’s economy today.

    Sixty-four per cent of Maharashtra lives in urban areas, the highest in the country after Tamil Nadu, he says.

    “Every small town is trying to become a metro and larger towns are aspiring to higher status and this is the real issue today, so this aspirational aspect will be widely covered, along with traditional hard core news.”

    With malls and cineplexes coming up, businesses expanding and the youth lifestyle changing rapidly, urbanisation and its challenges would also be a core issue on the channel.

    Asked whether they would also include programming content like astrology, which has recently surfaced in IBN 7, GBN’s Hindi news channel, Wagle says, “There is no place for astrology in a news channel and the Marathi viewer is not interested. When they watch a news channel, they want deep-rooted investigative news.”

    There will be rural coverage as well, but Wagle says it will not just be sensational news of farmer suicides.

    “There are different angles to showing something, and we are not chasing TRPs, so when we cover farmer suicides, we shall show all the angles that exist, not just the sensational aspect,” he said.

    Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of CNN IBN, says that the top layer of editors are the cream of Marathi journalism and will be totally driven by hard core journalism, saying, “Nikhil Wagle is no less a hard core journalist than any in the country, and so are most of the others, who all have a minimum of 15 years of journalism behind them.”

  • Bharti Airtel signs $400mn network deal with Nokia

    Bharti Airtel signs $400mn network deal with Nokia

    MUMBAI: Nokia has bagged a $400 million network expansion and services deal for over three years from Bharti Airtel Ltd, mobile services provider. 

    As per the three year contract, Nokia will provide managed services and expand Airtel networks to cover all towns and cities in the eight telecom circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Kolkata, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh (including Chattisgarh), according to an official release.

    The network monitoring operations will be carried out from Nokia’s global network services center in Chennai.

    Nokia will also deploy its WAP solution across Airtel’s national network to enhance its mobile packet core network capabilities. 

    The WAP gateway to be implemented by Nokia shall enable easy usage of data services, thereby increasing the consumption of content on the Airtel network. Nokia will
    provide consulting services and integrate the WAP gateway into a multi-vendor environment.

    Nokia will also deploy the latest radio and core network equipment including softswitch, flexi-base stations and mini-Ultrasite base stations and provide services based on Bharti’s capacity requirements, delivering a cost-efficient rollout of on-demand capacity.

    The contract also has stringent service level agreements and performance metrics for both parties which are designed to provide consistently high quality services to subscribers and continuously enhance the user experience.

    Bharti Airtel president Manoj Kohli said, “Our network leadership across India is a critical driver in the Bharti Airtel success story. Our partnership with Nokia reinforces our commitment to this cause and Nokia will provide us the latest technology and expertise to drive growth in the latent market in Eastern India and rapidly expand our coverage in Western parts of India.

    “Nokia is proud to collaborate with Bharti on its initiative to take mobile services to millions of unconnected Indians and enhance the mobile data experience of its existing customers,” said Nokia India country director Ashish Chowdhary. “Our extensive managed services capability, powered with a comprehensive and high quality product portfolio makes Nokia a catalyst for providing affordable mobile services to rural consumers.

  • Delhi High Court restrains 92 cable operators from unauthorised telecast of World Cup

    Delhi High Court restrains 92 cable operators from unauthorised telecast of World Cup

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi Court granted stay to ESPN Star Sports, the official broadcaster of the Fifa World Cup, in favor of its application for a civil suit filed against 92 cable operators across the country for unauthorised broadcast of the Fifa World Cup restraining all the cable operators from showing Fifa through any other channel other than ESPN Star Sports.

    The channel has an exclusive deal with Fifa to telecast all the matches of the Fifa World Cup in territory of India. After this order anyone still showing FIFA World Cup through any other channel will be held in contempt of court and liable for prosecution, says an official release.

    Elaborating on this, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd AVP Affiliate Sales Rajesh Kaul says, “No other channel, whether pay, free to air or terrestrial is authorised to provide, show or distribute the Fifa World Cup Germany 2006 in the territory of India. Also carriage, reception or distribution of the Fifa World Cup Germany 2006 by any MSO, Cable Operator, Sub-Operator without written authorization from ESPN Star Sports is a violation of copyrights and hence an illegal activity. Strict and legal action will be taken against the operators who violate the court orders. Post the order; police raids have already been started.”

    The 92 cable operators restrained from the unauthorized telecast are from Tamil Nadu, Jharkand, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam, Tripura, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar and Punjab, adds the release.

    “The 92 cable operators across the country were broadcasting by means of wireless diffusion the services of free to air international channels like TV 5 Cambodia TV, CC5 Channel, CCTV1, Super Sports, Multi-choice and Dream Satellite, thereby infringing the copyright of ESPN Star Sports. Today after an application in the Delhi High Court, the judge has restrained these operators from carrying and distributing the World Cup by any means whatsoever, without authorized permission from ESPN Star Sports. Operators showing the Fifa World Cup through other channels should stop this to avoid legal court action,” adds Kaul.

  • Maharashtra chief minister woos entertainment industry

    Maharashtra chief minister woos entertainment industry

    Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has invited the entertainment industry to come up with suggestions to help develop Maharashtra as a bigger player in the entertainment industry. While speaking at the FICCI seminar in Mumbai yesterday, Deshmukh said he would like suggestions from captains of industry to take his state forward.

    “This region should be developed as a satellite hub,” he pointed out. “I see earth stations coming up to make this as a centre of activity for television.”

    He added that his government was going to come up with a package to allow for the setting up of cinema multiplexes in the state. “We are examining what the other states are doing on this front. Top of our minds is making the sector viable.”

    He added that his government was working on setting up a new training institute for film and television in the state.

  • Essar to build telecom site infrastructure for sharing with operators

    Essar to build telecom site infrastructure for sharing with operators

    MUMBAI: Essar Group has floated a new company, Telecom Tower and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (TTIPL), to build telecom site infrastructure and share it with various telecom operators. This will push down the cost for telecom infrastructure.

    The company has already built 150 sites for Hutchison Essar in the BPL Communications’ circles of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala. “We plan to have 500 sites by May. We have also responded to a tender floated by Tata Teleservices for building base towers,” says Essar Teleholdings president Ajay Madan.

    Hutchison Essar is a joint venture company with Hutchison Whampoa and is one of India’s largest telecom companies with a national presence and a subscriber base close to 14 million.

    Essar is hunting for a CEO to head TTIPL, says Madan. The company was incorporated recently and aims to help reduce costs for telecom operators by focusing on sharing the same infrastructure with multiple players.

    TTIPL will acquire, design and construct the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) site and provide the tower allied facilities including civil, electrical and other requirements. Provision of stable power and air conditioning for housing the equipment will also be undertaken by the company, says Madan.

    Cellular operators will have the advantage of not locking up their funds in building civil and electrical infrastructure. Since TTIPL will focus on site acquisition and maintenance on a massive scale, it will have built in operational efficiencies which it will be able to transfer to the cellular operators, says Madan. No license fee is payable by the operator for this method of infrastructure sharing.