ITV

Tag: MSN

  • MSN ties up with LivePlanet for next gen online content

    MSN ties up with LivePlanet for next gen online content

    MUMBAI: Online content service provider MSN has announced an alliance with LivePlanet, a Los Angeles-based production company with the aim to bring a new generation of storytelling online.

    The first show that will be launched under this recently announced MSN Originals initiative is LivePlanet’s production Fan Club: Reality Baseball..

    The upcoming show aims to move unscripted programming into the big leagues of new media with always-accessible content and interactivity that puts the MSN audience at the center of a unique entertainment experience.Fan Club MSN says gives fans control of the Schaumburg Flyers, a real professional minor league baseball team based in a suburb of Chicago. Each day, new online content will tell the stories of the Flyers’ players, giving the fans intimate knowledge of “their” ballclub, as well as the team’s coaches, wives, girlfriends and personalities, revealing their dreams, demons, triumphs and difficulties, on and off the playing field.

    MSN users will manage the team on a daily basis, voting to determine such key decisions as the batting lineup, fielding positions and pitching roster. Fantasy baseball meets reality TV in “Fan Club: Reality Baseball,” where the fans run the team and control the action.

    MSN director of business development Joe Michaels says, “We are going to hit one out of the park with Fan Club: Reality Baseball. We were a bit stunned at first that a professional baseball team would allow our audience to manage it, but we quickly realized that ‘Fan Club’ is a fabulous programming concept which is perfect for the Web.

    “We are thrilled to be working with LivePlanet because they are great storytellers who can deliver the drama and excitement behind the scenes of this professional sports team. Fan Club is a great example of what we’re doing with MSN Originals: providing our audience with new and engaging entertainment experiences and opening up significant opportunities for advertisers.”

    LivePlanet CEO Larry Tanz says, “This is Bull Durham meets fantasy sports, and it’s all real. We expect ‘Fan Club’ to appeal to anyone who has ever yelled at their TV because they thought they could do a better job running the team — now the fans will have their chance.

    “Fan Club will appeal to sports fans and non-sports fans alike with the type of behind-the-scenes, unscripted drama seen in shows like Project Greenlight. Because MSN reaches hundreds of millions of users, the show will have access to a vastly larger audience than television. And the interactive features of MSN are the key to allowing fans to control their ballclub, something television can’t currently accomplish.”

    The Northern League in which the Schaumburg Flyers play divides its season in half, with the winners of each half meeting in the playoffs.

    Fan Club: Reality Baseball is slated to go live in mid-July in time for MSN users to manage the team day to day for the full second half of the 2006 season, determining whether or not the Flyers will make the playoffs.

  • 694 mn people use internet worldwide: Survey

    MUMBAI: A total of 694 million people, age 15+, used the internet worldwide from all locations in March 2006, representing 14 per cent of the world’s total population within this age group.

     

    These findings were delivered by the US-based comScore Networks, which looked at countries that comprise 99 per cent of the global internet population.
     

    The company also announced the launch of comScore World Metrix, which provides an estimate of global online audience size and behavior.

    comScore World Metrix includes measurement of the major Asian countries, including China, Japan, India and Korea, which represent nearly 25 per cent of the total worldwide online population (or 168.1 million users), and which, in the aggregate, are 11 per cent larger than the U.S. (152 million users).
     

    “Today, the online audience in the U.S. represents less than a quarter of Internet users across the globe, versus ten years ago when it accounted for two-thirds of the global audience,” said comScore Media Metrix president and CEO Peter Daboll. “This is a sea change of enormous proportion, and comScore is pleased to be able to provide measurement to aid the world’s largest marketers in understanding how the world uses the Internet.”

     

    MSN International vice president of sales Chris Dobson said, “Previously, MSN has attempted to harmonize disparate sources of data to get a global view. The fact that comScore World Metrix data are produced with a consistent methodology worldwide will make a significant difference, enabling us to analyze what is happening globally and truly understand consumer online behavior.”

     

    “This is a significant step forward for the industry and timed perfectly as the importance of markets outside the US grows, especially rapidly developing countries like China and India, which up to now have not enjoyed such insight,” he added.

     

    Top 15 Online Populations by Country, Among Visitors Age 15+*March 2006
    Total Worldwide – All Locations
    Unique Visitors (000)
    Source: comScore World Metrix
      Unique Visitors
    (000)
    Worldwide Total 694,260
    China 74,727
    India 16,713

    comScore also issued a preview of the top fifteen media properties worldwide, with MSN- Microsoft Sites topping the list with 538.6 million global users, followed by Google (495.8 million users), and Yahoo! (480.2 million users). Yahoo! Sites however, led all global properties in page views with 137.2 billion page views during March, followed by Google (108.7 billion page views), and MSN- Microsoft Sites (96.2 billion page views). comScore will officially release World Metrix statistics with the issuance of May data in June.

     

    “While the ‘big three‘ properties remain consistent among worldwide and U.S. audiences, Wikipedia has emerged as a site that continues to increase in popularity, both globally and in the U.S. Wikipedia’s popularity demonstrates the global power of the Web to unite and provide information across countries and languages, but the full extent of its global appeal is only measurable through this new worldwide measurement,” Daboll added.
  • NDTV clocks 24.5 % growth in FY06; revenues Rs 2.24 billion

    NDTV clocks 24.5 % growth in FY06; revenues Rs 2.24 billion

    MUMBAI: Prannoy Roy’s NDTV has recorded 24.49 percent growth in fiscal 2005-06 with total revenues of Rs 2.239 billion.

    NDTV’s revenues were up from the Rs 1.798 billion recorded in fiscal 2004-05, the company has stated.

    Q4 FY’ 06 saw NDTV hitting its highest ever revenues at Rs 704.4 million versus Rs 497 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, representing a 41.73 per cent year-on-year growth.

    Expectedly, the rise in personnel costs took a huge chunk out of the company’s net with profit after tax after ESOP for Q4 FY’ 06 standing at Rs 20.1 million. If ESOPs are discounted then net profit for Q4 has increased 22 per cent to Rs 125.5 million as against Rs 102.9 million in Q4 FY’ 05. There were no ESOPs granted last year.

    Following the results, NDTV has declared a dividend of 20 per cent.

    BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

    During the year the company made significant investments in building new businesses and strengthening and consolidating its existing business.

    NDTV’s advertising base has seen an impressive growth this year. The network has added 637 new advertisers and 810 new brands in its portfolio, taking its advertising universe to over 2000. A reflection of the group’s marketing strength is also the strategic tie-up with the Microsoft Network, under which NDTV’s subsidiary, NDTV Media Ltd represents and carries out all marketing activity for MSN exclusively in India.

    The reach of the NDTV News Network’s unduplicated reach amongst C&S households has increased to 90.8 per cent, the highest amongst all news networks. NDTV has also extended its global presence across Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. This year it entered into strategic tie-ups with DirecTV, BskyB and ATN to launch NDTV 24×7 in the US, UK and Canada respectively.

    NDTV’s website ndtv.com has emerged as India’s number one news and television portal, attracting over 200 million page views and 1.2 million unique visitors every month. The focus on monetizing the website by adding transaction based portals – Travel, Gadgets, Shopping, Commodities, Profit, Movies and Music, has begun to drive revenues this year.

    “In this year the company has put in significant investments into building new businesses and going forward we are committed to maximizing shareholder value by capitalizing on these investments,” NDTV chairman Dr Prannoy Roy was quoted in the statement as saying.

    Additionally, NDTV has entered into an agreement with Genpact a leading business and technology services company, to jointly offer outsourcing services to the global media and entertainment industry. This is the first of its kind Media Process Outsourcing company in India which will focus on providing cost effective, high quality media services.

    This year also heralded NDTV’s entry into high end-consultancy for news services. The company has entered into a joint venture agreement with Astro Broadcast of Malaysia to provide consultancy for setting up news channels in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Indonesian channel will be launched shortly.

    The NDTV Group, together with other strategic investors, also acquired a minority shareholding in 3 radio companies that hold licenses for FM radio broadcasting in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata under the brand name of RED FM. The company sees tremendous cross media synergies in extending its presence in the radio sector.

  • Mark Burnett, MSN renew interactive relationship for CBS’ ‘Rock Star’

    Mark Burnett, MSN renew interactive relationship for CBS’ ‘Rock Star’

    MUMBAI: MSN will be renewing and enhancing its relationship with Mark Burnett Productions by again providing exclusive programming online for the second season of CBS’ Rock Star, the reality show that revived the fortunes of international rock band INXS. For the first time, weekly behind-the-scenes episodes containing
    all original footage will be streamed exclusively on the web on MSN.

    Following last year’s success, MSN will again create dynamic content and provide interactive online features such as domestic and international online voting, extending the interactive experience for the CBS TV audience and MSN customers.

    Just as in season one, four types of content will be available each week: extensive and immersive behind-the-scenes unscripted drama (produced exclusively for MSN); one performance show and one results show (both produced exclusively for CBS); and, like last year, extensive original wireless content. The MSN behind-the-scenes unscripted drama will allow viewers to learn what it takes for the contestants to choose their songs and prepare for their weekly performances, and follow the characters as they develop and grow under enormous pressure. It will be available at http://rockstar.msn.com, enabling on-demand viewing via streaming.

    In addition, MSN will again host the official website, providing visitors with an experience through exclusive video footage that includes outtakes, the opportunity to replay contestant performances, music downloads, profiles of contestants, and MSN Spaces contestant blogs. During the show’s first season, MSN drew a tremendous number of visitors streaming over 20 million clips of superstar hopefuls competing to become the new lead singer of INXS. Recordings by all finalists appeared in the top 100 most downloaded tracks on MSN Music, and more than 14 million votes were cast online for
    contestants in the competition.

    “MSN did a fabulous job of extending and enhancing the Rock Star experience for consumers with fantastic online content. Our TV ratings increased as viewers used MSN to learn more about the contestants and chat with other fans in forming opinions. They began to learn way more than is possible in a traditional TV experience. Fans were taken deep inside the competition using MSN’s impressive array of online content properties. By increasing our online unscripted drama content and providing an even more immersive experience through behind-the-scenes episodes exclusive to MSN, we expect ratings to grow even further. In this day and age, content needs to be multiplatform, and I am excited about our growing relationship with MSN,” said CBS Rock Star creator and executive producer Mark Burnett.

    This year, a lead singer will be selected for a new band, Supernova, featuring famous musicians such as drummer Tommy Lee (Motley Crue), Jason Newsted (Metallica) and Gilby Clarke (Guns N’ Roses). Butch Walker, Rolling Stone’s 2005 “Hot” Producer of the Year responsible for the breakout albums of Pink and Avril Lavigne, is slated to produce the band’s first album. Dave Navarro and Brooke Burke will return as hosts, and each week the series will feature guest appearances by various celebrities and rock personalities.

    “We’re delighted to again work with Mark Burnett and his team on Rock Star. Millions of music fans will have the digital equivalent of an all-access pass to the backstage excitement and suspense of the band’s search for a lead singer. We welcome this opportunity to deliver an extraordinarily rich and varied entertainment experience to our customers and to once again provide advertisers with multiple platforms to reach a very attractive audience,” said MSN general manager entertainment and video Rob Bennett.

  • MTV US & MSN team for reality show created by students

    MTV US & MSN team for reality show created by students

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster MTV’s 24-hour college network mtvU in collaboration with MSN and Boston University (BU), will unveil Roller Palace.

    This is a comedy pilot entirely created and produced by students of BU’s Film and Television Department and the School of Theatre Arts at the College of Fine Arts.

    The pilot is the culmination of a union between mtvU, MSN and BU and marks the completion of a nearly 15 month journey. In January 2005, students in BU’s Advanced Television Writing course began pitching ideas and scripts to Professor Paul Schneider, a television director of shows such as Beverly Hills 90210 and Jag.

    At the end of the semester, the best sitcom ideas were presented to celebrity judges including E! Networks president and CEO Ted Harbert, NBC comedy development head Cheryl Dolans, and Fox television president Gary Newman. When Roller Palace was selected as the consensus choice, the show’s creators set off to develop, write, cast, produce and star in the original sitcom pilot.

    Roller Palace is about a pampered Manhattan debutante whose father has just been jailed for insider trading and whose mother is planning to marry her high school sweetheart — a New Jersey hot dog stand proprietor. The turn of
    events flips the spoiled daughter’s life upside down, leaving her stuck as a roller skating waitress on the Jersey Shore.

    Production of the pilot was made possible by MSN, which also lent back-end tech support throughout the production process. BU students used MSN technology, including MSN Messenger, while casting, developing, shooting and editing the pilot, and organically integrated the MSN brand into the final project. Professor Paul Schneider commented, “The student crew on Roller Palace had a priceless opportunity to create a television pilot from scratch — a demanding project that had all the challenges, complications and crises they will encounter in the professional world.”

    MSN branded content group manager Kathy Fiander “We are committed to helping college students and young people realise their dreams, and it’s been a pleasure working with mtvU and BU to facilitate this innovative educational opportunity. We congratulate the BU students on their achievement and also feel they did a great job of capturing how MSN Messenger can help users stay connected to those that matter most.”