ITV

Tag: Manish Shah

  • Joy Chakraborthy steps down as CEO of Goldmines Telefilms

    Joy Chakraborthy steps down as CEO of Goldmines Telefilms

    Mumbai: Joy Chakraborthy has decided to step down as CEO of Goldmines Telefilms and is serving his three-month notice period. He joined the company in January 2022.

    “Since the time I joined Goldmines Telefilms, my promoter Manish (Shah) and I have worked in tandem to take our network to a new height in terms of viewership, brand perception, revenue etc.,” Chakraborthy told IndianTelevision.com. “We have seen monthly revenues jump more than three times what it was when I joined, with full implementation of sales processes and planning. During this period, we have also launched two more channels which will also be leaders in their genre.”

    “In spite of this growing curve, Manish and I have had certain differences in the principles of running a company, which can happen between any promoter and CEO. Keeping these in mind we have decided to part ways in an amicable way. I will be serving out my notice period as per my contract,” he further said.

    Chakraborthy is a media and entertainment industry veteran with almost three decades of experience. He has held several leadership roles including Enterr10 Television Pvt Ltd CEO, TV18 Broadcast Ltd president and CEO,  Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd director, TV Today Network CEO and  Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd executive director. He was also associated with Star TV as executive vice president.

  • Goldmines Telefilms goes big with Dhinchaak, aims to cover 90% HSM market

    Goldmines Telefilms goes big with Dhinchaak, aims to cover 90% HSM market

    MUMBAI: Goldmines Telefilms recently reached a new milestone with the launch of its free to air (FTA) Hindi movie channel Dhinchaak on India’s only FTA DTH platform DD Free Dish on 24 May 2020. Within three months of its launch, the channel rose through the ranks to become number one, that too in a highly competitive category with 30 plus rivals. Dhinchaak is now a leading movie channel in both the Hindi speaking market (HSM) overall (U+R) and rural market.

    In a chat with indiantelevision.com, Goldmines Telefilms director Manish Shah said that the company had participated in an auction of DD Free Dish and they were all set to go on air from 1 April 2020. But as the nationwide lockdown was imposed from 16 March, Shah was not able to launch Dhinchaak on time.

    “It has been a very exciting journey along with a lot of stress and we went into a scenario where everyone was working from home. It called for a lot of efforts. But since I have been running Goldmines Telefilms for the past 15 years and I have a better understanding of content, we know what audiences want and what they prefer,” added Shah.

    Dhinchaak came in on the number five spot with 48 GRPs in its first reported data in week 31, and grew steadily over the subsequent months to reach a 73 GRP mark in the week ending 1 October. The movie channel has been consistent, being the number one ranked channel for the last four weeks in HSM 2+ Overall and the HSM FTA Category. Five out of the top 10 movies in week 38 and 39 in HSM 2+ and nine out of the top ten movies in HSM rural in week 37 were from Dhinchaak.

    The channel is currently available on DD Free Dish, Dish TV, Tata Sky, DAN, Hathaway and InDigital cable among other distribution platform operators in India.

    Looking at the big picture

    Over the years, Goldmines Telefilms has become one of the biggest players in terrestrial television rights. The studio has assigned the satellite rights of many movies to major channels in the Hindi movie industry with a success ratio of over 80 per cent, said Shah. He is interested in designing content that can be watched by the entire family together. According to Shah, Goldmines has covered 70 per cent of the Indian market and the rest 30 per cent will be swept up in due course of time.  

    The company already has a powerful digital presence, with 15 channels and 42 million subscribers for the main Goldmines Telefilms channel on YouTube, and an ever-growing digital revenue model, revealed Shah.

    Besides having the biggest library of south Indian movies, Goldmines has also been a pioneer in their dubbing. But Shah is now looking at the big picture: he will distribute his content pan India, with Hindi-speaking market being the prime focus. He mentioned that the studio has covered 90 per cent of the Bihar and Madhya Pradesh segment whereas for Uttar Pradesh it is at 70 per cent. Till December, Shah aims to have a distribution model that will attract 90 per cent of the audiences.

    Read more stories on Goldmine Telefilms

    Content is king

    Elucidating more about syndication and acquisition of content, Shah said that the channel has a library of 2000+ blockbuster titles. From time-tested chartbusters like Sarrainodu, DJ, Kanchana, Kanchana 2, Theri, Bhairava, Betting Raja, they also have a slew of world television premieres lined up. Apart from dubbed south Indian movies Dhinchaak will also screen Hindi movies like Badhaai Ho, Kalank, Gentleman, India’s Most Wanted, Mohenjo Daro, among others.

    During the pandemic, the studio opted a digital route to acquire content. As of now the studio will continue using its own library to showcase movies on Dhinchaak but Shah is willing to source content from other production houses as well. However, he is clear that he will not syndicate his movies to anyone. Whatever content they have it is only for their channel. He considers Sony Max, Zee Cinema, Star Gold as their closest competitor.

    On marketing and monetisation

    As far as marketing and promotion are concerned, the Goldmines director is looking at organically growing the channel. “We have not spent a single amount on promotions, I always believed that your growth has to be organic. I am extremely happy with the responses that I receive. We do promotions through our own social media platforms. On YouTube we have 100 million views a day. Based on audience response, we create our content. Across all platforms we have 10,000 videos uploaded. On Facebook we are growing 100 per cent on a month-on-month basis. We are also present on Amazon, MX Player and other similar platforms,” he said.

    Shah is confident that with the help of Siddharth Chopra, who heads the revenue department for the network, he will be able to associate with major brands. Chopra’s last stint was with Times Network, where he was VP and national sales head of the English entertainment cluster. Shah also admitted that as of now the channel is not being monetized, but he is currently in talks with various advertisers and expects they will be onboard by mid-October.

  • News Corp’s BigDecisions.com nnveils ‘Money Talks’

    News Corp’s BigDecisions.com nnveils ‘Money Talks’

    MUMBAI: News Corp owned BigDecisions.com, India’s leading personal finance advisory platform, has announced the release of ‘Money Talks’– a first of its kind web-series on personal finance. The webisodes aim at making consumers confident about managing their finances and bring the fun back to finance by simplifying it.

    For this initiative, BigDecisons.com has partnered with financial services educator, Hansi Mehrotra – a CFA, ranked among the top ten ‘Voice for Money and Finance for 2015’ on LinkedIn; with over 77,000 followers on the professional networking site.

    The web-series ‘Money Talks with Hansi’ will be in the form of a talk show hosted by Hansi Mehrotra, addressing topics on personal finance, investments and other allied subjects. Hansi will interview a fictional character, Mr. Sikka – a manifestation of peoples’ lack of awareness on matters related to personal finance.

    The series will have 12 episodes spanning 5 minutes each and will be released on a weekly basis on BigDecisions.com

    The first webisode of Money Talks with Hansi – Are Women From a Different Money Planet – addresses the much debated topic ‘Women as Financial Planners’. It further debunks the myth of women not being good at managing their finances. Within 24 hours of its release, the video has garnered over 30,000 views on YouTube and Facebook.

    Speaking about the web-series, Manish Shah, Co¬Founder and CEO, BigDecisions.com said, “We at BigDecisions firmly believe in the power of engaging video content in influencing the minds of consumers in order to make them take effective decisions with respect to matters of personal finance.

    The ‘Money Talks with Hansi’ webisodes will break the clutter in the area of financial planning; substantiate financial advice with our proprietary and secondary data; and de-jargon technical terms which make personal finance fun and relatable.”

    “Till date, conversations around financial planning have been more of a one-way communication. Money Talks is a two-way street which encompasses problems faced by consumers. Additionally, it is in a form of a talk show that addresses the lack of awareness as well as peoples’ skepticism through video content which is a highly engaging medium,” added Hansi Mehrotra.

    Through this web-series, BigDecisions.com aims to aid financial literacy via video consumption which has a high rate of engagement and traction among viewers at large. CISCO’s Visual Networking Index Report (VNI) has predicted that online video traffic will contribute approximately 65% of all IP traffic in India by 2018. About 70 billion minutes of video content will be viewed across India per month. This proves to be a great opportunity for a web-series like Money Talks.

  • News Corp’s BigDecisions.com nnveils ‘Money Talks’

    News Corp’s BigDecisions.com nnveils ‘Money Talks’

    MUMBAI: News Corp owned BigDecisions.com, India’s leading personal finance advisory platform, has announced the release of ‘Money Talks’– a first of its kind web-series on personal finance. The webisodes aim at making consumers confident about managing their finances and bring the fun back to finance by simplifying it.

    For this initiative, BigDecisons.com has partnered with financial services educator, Hansi Mehrotra – a CFA, ranked among the top ten ‘Voice for Money and Finance for 2015’ on LinkedIn; with over 77,000 followers on the professional networking site.

    The web-series ‘Money Talks with Hansi’ will be in the form of a talk show hosted by Hansi Mehrotra, addressing topics on personal finance, investments and other allied subjects. Hansi will interview a fictional character, Mr. Sikka – a manifestation of peoples’ lack of awareness on matters related to personal finance.

    The series will have 12 episodes spanning 5 minutes each and will be released on a weekly basis on BigDecisions.com

    The first webisode of Money Talks with Hansi – Are Women From a Different Money Planet – addresses the much debated topic ‘Women as Financial Planners’. It further debunks the myth of women not being good at managing their finances. Within 24 hours of its release, the video has garnered over 30,000 views on YouTube and Facebook.

    Speaking about the web-series, Manish Shah, Co¬Founder and CEO, BigDecisions.com said, “We at BigDecisions firmly believe in the power of engaging video content in influencing the minds of consumers in order to make them take effective decisions with respect to matters of personal finance.

    The ‘Money Talks with Hansi’ webisodes will break the clutter in the area of financial planning; substantiate financial advice with our proprietary and secondary data; and de-jargon technical terms which make personal finance fun and relatable.”

    “Till date, conversations around financial planning have been more of a one-way communication. Money Talks is a two-way street which encompasses problems faced by consumers. Additionally, it is in a form of a talk show that addresses the lack of awareness as well as peoples’ skepticism through video content which is a highly engaging medium,” added Hansi Mehrotra.

    Through this web-series, BigDecisions.com aims to aid financial literacy via video consumption which has a high rate of engagement and traction among viewers at large. CISCO’s Visual Networking Index Report (VNI) has predicted that online video traffic will contribute approximately 65% of all IP traffic in India by 2018. About 70 billion minutes of video content will be viewed across India per month. This proves to be a great opportunity for a web-series like Money Talks.

  • News Corp’s BigDecisions.com surpasses 900,000 personal finance interactions

    News Corp’s BigDecisions.com surpasses 900,000 personal finance interactions

    MUMBAI: News Corp owned personal financial advice platform BigDecisions.com has empowered 900,000 users to make informed financial decisions.

     

    The announcement has come as the platform unveiled its full suite of new, free-to-use, data-backed personal finance advice tools, along with insightful articles and videos.  

     

    BigDecisions helps users prudently plan for their retirement, the education of their children, assessing their life and health insurance needs, and helping them to benefit from transferring their home loans. In addition, the platform also helps users decide whether to rent or buy a home, a critical decision amid a stagnant real-estate market in India. The platform uniquely uses Big Data, such as healthcare costs across India and sample household expense data over 20 years, to calculate likely inflation for retirement planning, while enabling users arrive at more realistic and actionable next steps with simple-to-use tools.

     

    In the nine months since News Corp acquired BigDecisions.com, the platform has had 700,000 different users take advantage of its tools and insights. The number of visitors per month has increased to 400,000 from under 50,000 in January.

     

    “Sources of financial empowerment based on unbiased information and smart analytics have been few and far between in India,” said Manish Shah, Co-Founder and CEO, BigDecisions.com. “The quality of content, the wealth of impartial data backed insights and the ease of use make it an engagement worthy experience for our users who see immense value in our offerings.”

     

    For example, BigDecisions allows users to figure out how much health insurance they need based on family structure and treatment costs in their city. It relies on a sophisticated, behind-the-scenes algorithm that assigns a probability to each member of the family falling ill, helping assess an appropriate amount of health-insurance coverage for the family. Users are then free to choose where and how they want to acquire such insurance, from a variety of vetted, licensed third-party product providers. All this happens online, at a user’s convenience and with full data privacy, and without the product-sales pitches that are commonplace in India with sales of such products.

     

    “We have designed tools that are easy to navigate, with information that is easy to find and act upon,” said Gaurav Roy, Co-Founder and Product Head. “Our new platform, with its improved usability on the phone, enables us to expand our user base into Tier II and Tier III towns as well.”

     

    The majority of BigDecisions.com users currently come from the top 8 cities of India.

     

    “The early response to BigDecisions.com validates our belief that Indian consumers are looking for unbiased and accurate advice, as well as user-friendly calculators,” said Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice-President, Strategy, News Corp. “A vibrant digital India needs financially empowered citizens who can rely on trusted sources in their journey to financial prosperity.”

     

    As part of its roadmap, BigDecisions plans to combine its data-backed insights with peer-to-peer shared user experiences (for instance, “people similar to you did this”) to enhance decision-making for its users, as well as work with banking, asset management, insurance and other financial services companies in India to create tailored solutions aimed at educating and empowering users.

  • Goldmines Telefilms’ Manish Shah denies hanky-panky deals with Sony India

    Goldmines Telefilms’ Manish Shah denies hanky-panky deals with Sony India

    MUMBAI: It seemed to be a day no different than any other for Goldmines Telefilms director Manish Shah as he got ready to go to his office in a rather non-descript building in the suburb of Goregaon west in Mumbai. At around 9 am, the film syndication specialist got a call from someone he knew that he had been mentioned in a newspaper report about alleged business malpractices at Sony India’s MSM network. It intrigued him but not enough to pull him away from his daily schedule of placing calls to clients and to broadcasters about the films he had acquired and wanted to pitch to them.

     

    Then he got a call from us at Indiantelevision.com requesting to meet him. He agreed but wanted an hour and a half to himself before speaking to us. He ordered a few copies of the newspaper and spent time reading the Bloomberg report over and over again until we arrived. The Bloomberg report stated that Sony Corp was investigating possible irregularities in business dealings following an anonymous email to Sony Pictures Television world wide networks president Andy Kaplan. The letter, which reached Kaplan on 6 October, stated that “the head of MSM’s motion-pictures unit was colluding with an agent to raise the cost of movies that Sony bought to air on TV by as much as 35 per cent in return for kickbacks.”

     

    And that agent was Manish Shah, who was once a television producer of both Gujarati and Marathi shows for channels such as Alpha Marathi (part of the Zee group), ETV Gujarati and Hungama before finding his mettle in buying and selling film rights to broadcasters and building a business in excess of Rs 100 crore. He hit jackpot with the regional films he acquired and dubbed them in Hindi, paying attention to creative detail.

     

    Shah welcomed us in offered us a cup of coffee and then began speaking his mind, pooh-poohing the allegations made against him. Said he, “The allegations are absolute crap. There is no question about us being favoured or dealing in kickbacks. Rajani was an extremely tough negotiator; in fact she would hammer down my prices when I started doing business with Sony in 2004. So what are they talking about me being offered inflated prices in exchange for kickbacks? I meet Sneha only rarely; there was a time when I met her more often. But I meet the folks at Star India more for the film titles I own.”

     

    Shah pointed out that Sony Entertainment – though a good client – is not amongst his biggest. “Last year Sony bought Rs 10 crore worth movies from me, UTV bought Rs 14 crore movies, while Star bought Rs 16 crore of movies. So what are you talking about? Last year Sony bought just three movies from me.”

     

    He added, “I don’t know where this has all come from. Sony is investigating the matter, let them do that. I can only say that if any broadcaster has to look at the return on investment, my movies give the maximum ROI. Whether it is for Star, or UTV or Sony.”

     

    Shah furnished tables and charts, which showed that close to 50 per cent of the FPC on Max was occupied by Goldmines syndicated films for about five days each week. “But it is these movies that are working for the channel and the network, giving them a good return on their investment. I know what works and the regional language films, which have a lot of action, humour and entertainment work. And I have given a substantial number of films to Sony, but my prices have been hammered by the acquisition people,” he said.

     

    For Shah it is a clear business model. “I buy the movie, which gets the rating or is successful and then offer it to broadcasters for satellite rights whether it is Zee, Star, Colors or Sony. Whoever gives me the best deal, I offer the movie to them,” he proffered.

     

    His company has been working with Sony and Zee since 2004, with Doordarshan since 2005 and with Star since 2006. “Once I have the rights, I am the owner of the movie and so I decide who will get it based on price,” he said. “But this process does not involve kickbacks at all so how can I get kickbacks? Broadcasters today are smart and they know which movie will work for them and they want it at the best price. I totally deny any of allegations that have been made against me.”