ITV

Tag: MTV India

  • MTV explores ‘What Women Love’ through ‘Splitsvilla 8’

    MTV explores ‘What Women Love’ through ‘Splitsvilla 8’

    MUMBAI: With the motive to kill boredom, music and youth channel MTV is all set to kickoff the eighth season of Splitsvilla. Themed, ‘What Women Love’, the new season is set to cross extreme boundaries.

     

    MTV Splitsvilla season 8 has roped in Karbonn Smart as the title sponsor with Airtel and Schmitten luxury Chocolate as co-presented sponsors. Spraymintt, Glam-up, Bacardi Breezer and Manforce are the powered by sponsors.

     

    The many firsts’

     

    The makers have tweaked the format this season. The odds are tripped in favour of the girls as it is the boys who will be seen doing all the hard work to find a way into their lady love’s heart. To show what women truly value in a man, the creators are pitting eight celebrity boys against eight non-celebrity boys to woo 14 girls.

     

    “Last season, we explored with getting celebrity boys on the show and we got good eyeballs. So, this year we thought of getting more celebrity boys as part of the format,” explains MTV EVP and business head Aditya Swamy.

     

    The eight celebrity boys are, ex-winner of Splitsvilla 5 Paras Chabra, MTV Roadies X2 winner Prince Narula, MTV Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan fame Utkarsh Gupta, model and radio show host Ishaan Chibber, model Viren Singh Rathore and TV actors Amaad Mintoo, Zaan Khan and Yash Pandit.

     

    Secondly, the all new combination of actor Sunny Leone and VJ and actor Rannvijay Singh as hosts will give the show a whole new flavour as they mentor the girls and boys.

     

    Thirdly, to add on to the action, for the first time, the show that goes on-air from 4 July will kick off as a bi-weekly, airing on both Saturday and Sunday at 7 pm for the first two weeks, thereafter being showcased every Saturday at the same time.

     

    “When you launch only on a Saturday, people have to wait for one whole week for the second episode, but this season in 24 hours viewers will get to see the next episode,” says Swamy.

     

    Splitsvilla is in a more controlled environment

     

    The seventh season of the show reached the 100 million viewers mark and registered 60 per cent growth over the previous season.

     

    Making a reality show is not a piece of cake. Unlike Roadies, where the channel is working rigorously for 11 months, Swamy feels Splitsvilla is in a more controlled environment. “Roadies is a travel based show, Splitsvilla is shot on one location. The time it takes is less than what it takes to do Roadies which starts from one place and ends at another,” he opines.

     

    MTV content and programming head Shalini Sethi who finally sealed the theme ‘What Women Love’ informs that this wasn’t the only theme that came to the creator’s mind. “We did discuss a couple of other themes, but we locked on this one keeping in mind what is happening in today’s time where the country is talking about issues relating to women and women empowerment among others.”

     

    An extensive survey was also conducted amongst the target audience, especially women and girls to understand what they expect from men. “Everybody had a different perspective, yet meaningful,” asserts Sethi.

     

    This season, the creators have chosen Goa as the love destination. Except for the finale, the entire show was canned in 45 days. It took three-four months for the channel to execute the new season.

     

    Swamy reveals that the planning for the next season begins on the very day the last episode is shot.  “We treat our shows as brands. So when you are working on a series, you hope that it will last for weeks, but when you are building a brand, you are building it for a lifetime. The whole idea is to build Splitsvilla as a brand. And it is so difficult for a seven year franchise to let go off it,” states Swamy.

     

    He believes that the coming in of new people brings a lot of freshness to the show. “We keep challenging ourselves to do better every season. Internally we had new minds coming in and contributing for the new season. We had Sethi who has recently come onboard; she had her own points to put,” says Swamy.

     

    With always having a mix of old and new people, the channel has roped in a new co-producer in Vikas Gupta’s Lost Boy Productions, with Colosceum being the producer.

     

    Digital marketing

     

    MTV has close to 13 million fans on Facebook, a million and a half Twitter followers and close to 95,000 followers on Instagram. The website grabs eyeballs of 20 million visits. “We have been able to use the digital environment very well. We also have a vast network of channels within Viacom18. There are 18 channels within the network and MTV will use that to promote it. To top it all, there are several brands like Airtel, Breezer, Karbonn etc having their own marketing plans. Content marketing is the in-thing today,” says Swamy.

     

    On the marketing front, Swamy reveals that the spent is too less as a lot of marketing is driven on its own assets. “If you put a value to it, it’s huge, but we own a lot of these assets ourselves, so it is not paid marketing. We invest a lot in content,” quips Swamy.

     

    A media planner believes that the ad rate for a show like Splitsvilla ranges anywhere between Rs 1.30 lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh for a 10-sec slot. “Look at the show today, it has already tasted success and still counting. The reach, visibility and also the content is growing season after season which is good for any youth reality show,” concludes the media planner. 

  • Outbrain expands network to drive growth for Indian publishers

    Outbrain expands network to drive growth for Indian publishers

    MUMBAI: Content discovery platform Outbrain has experienced substantial growth in developing its publisher network in India since the beginning of 2015.

     

    Joining its list of premium publications in India and around the globe are leading titles across all major verticals, including: news, lifestyle, finance and youth.

     

    Publishers that have recently joined the Outbrain network include Indian Express, ABP Live, Financial Express, MTV India, ScoopWhoop, Sanjeev Kapoor, StoryPick, MissMalini, and fossBytes.

     

    Additionally, Outbrain has also renewed its partnership with Network18 in India.

     

    India continues to be one of the company’s fastest growing markets and Outbrain already counts The Times of India, The Hindu and ESPNcricinfo within its network of premium publications.

     

    Network18 vice president and head of mobile business Kavi Madan said, “Outbrain is constantly innovating its product and services to provide something truly valuable to online publishers. We decided to renew our partnership with them because over time they have provided the highest quality recommendations and best monetisation across desktop, mobile and apps for Network18.”

     

    “Outbrain has been an integral part in helping us figure out how to drive engagement with our audiences, as well as supporting our efforts to improve personalisation. This isn’t just about that widget that you see at the bottom of an article. Through the Outbrain Engage solution, we are able to serve the best of our content to all kinds of audiences and deliver what users crave – the best content recommendations,” said Indian Express head of product Vikas Handu.

     

    The continued expansion of Outbrain’s publisher network across all major verticals in India further extends the content marketing opportunity for brands in this region and significantly increases marketers ability to strengthen their audience relationships and get their content discovered. Outbrain’s network combines both local publishers and global sites such as CNN and recent wins like Time Inc., ESPN and Mashable.

     

    Outbrain general manager SEA & India Gulshan Verma added, “We are thrilled to welcome these new publishers to the Outbrain network, as well as renew our partnership with Network18. Outbrain’s focus on trust and audience experience is what brings real value to our publisher partners. Our vision is to maximise the monetisation of our audience for publishers, while at the same time driving increased audience engagement, and providing key insights and analytics about their core digital users.”

  • MTV India hops on to Hong Kong’s now TV platform

    MTV India hops on to Hong Kong’s now TV platform

    MUMBAI: Starting June, youth entertainment channel MTV India has hopped on to now TV in Hong Kong. Now TV is one of the world’s largest commercial deployments of IPTV and Hong Kong’s largest pay TV provider. It offers a wide range of local and international content on its platform in Hong Kong.

     

    MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy said, “It is extremely exciting for MTV India to enter Hong Kong with now TV. Being the universe of the young, we have never been boxed by geographical boundaries. Our service goes to over 35 countries, broadcasting a heady dose of our local pop culture.  The catchy Bollywood tunes, our original music productions and our super hit reality and drama series will entertain young people across varied cultural backgrounds bringing them together in their love for all things MTV.”

     

    IndiaCast group COO Gaurav Gandhi added, “With the launch of MTV India on now TV, we have further strengthened our relationship with the platform. Together, we look forward to providing the very best of South Asian Entertainment to the diaspora in Hong Kong. This launch increases MTV India’s international footprint to 50 countries as the channel continues to entertain global audiences through its unique offerings including original music programming, Bollywood music and successful fiction and non-fiction format shows targeted to the youth.”

     

    Pay TV PCCW’s executive vice Loke Kheng Tham said, “now TV is Hong Kong’s largest pay-TV provider, offering more than 190 top-class channels to our 1.2 million customers. Adding MTV India to our lineup further demonstrates now TV’s commitment to providing all customers with a wide range of program choices. Indians in Hong Kong can now watch their favorite shows exclusively on now TV as part of the Indian Pack.”

     

    Currently, MTV India is available in 49 countries including the US, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Nigeria, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Singapore among others.

  • MTV revamps Coke Studio format; to air all year round

    MTV revamps Coke Studio format; to air all year round

    MUMBAI: An experiment that began with fusion music over three seasons back is all set to return once again. Coke Studio @MTV season four is all set to telecast in a new format this year.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about the same, MTV EVP and business head Aditya Swamy said that the success of the property today lay in the fact that filmmakers have started asking music composers to produce songs, which have a Coke Studio feel to them.

     

    MTV and Coca Cola have followed two cues to take the show’s new season forward. “Firstly, we have decided to bring audio and video together to refresh audiences through music videos. Secondly, it has been learnt that people are consuming singles rather than albums. Therefore, we will move from episodes to singles throughout the year.”

     

    The format for this year will see a change. The property will move from seasons to “always on” for one year now. It will be narrated in the form of a story instead of just vanilla songs. The series will begin on 1 March 2015 and will air every first Sunday of the month at 8 pm. 

     

    The production will include three elements. The first element of the show will include producer profiles and the idea behind the song. Secondly, it will have studio sessions and the setup of the band and lastly there will be a novel element, which will be a stylized video and audio told in the form of a story. Each of these videos and audios will release simultaneously across all MTV platforms. It will be deployed across all audio and video platforms like YouTube, Saavn, Gaana and iTunes by Zee Music. The channel will also be re-releasing two audience favourites “Madari” and “Kattey” with new music videos.

     

    Speaking about the learning’s the channel has picked up so far, Swamy said that it has been to come up with better innovations. “In the technical sphere we have learnt to produce audio and video side by side. With the response we have garnered, we could find courage to innovate and come up with a format that not only caters to loyalists but also help bring on board new consumers,” Swamy informed.

     

    Talking about the brand integration concept, Swamy said that the two have seen a long term investment partnership. “People will take to branded content if the music is good, but if the content is not good and is in the consumers face directly they will hate the same,” he opined.

     

    The global beverage brand Coca Cola owns the IP of the property, which has its presence in other countries like Pakistan and therefore the channel does not resort to other advertisers coming onboard. 

     

    Speaking about the brand’s association with MTV, Coca Cola India and South West Asia VP marketing and commercial Debabrata Mukherjee said, “We are constantly in touch to come up with engaging content. When we began, we did not realise the groundswell response we would receive. Since 2013 to 2014 we have visited more than 15 cities visiting different colleges as part of our on ground events.” 

     

    This year Coke Studio will continue bring the live experiences through 50 concerts and outreach programmes reaching 100 colleges across 10 cities.

     

    Mukherjee informed that the property has become hugely popular over seasons. Sharing some insights, he said Coke Studio @MTV has registered over 150 million+ reach across all three seasons. On social media platforms, it has garnered 64 million view on YouTube and 2.9 million fans on Facebook. He also informed that the brand is open to inviting international artists to India.

     

    Speaking on the association of the two partners Group M ESP national director- entertainment sports and live events Vinit Karnik opined, “The property has become very much synonymous with the brand. There is also a lot of cult following that consumes this kind of music. At some point in time, it will definitely resonate with the brand and the TG. From a relevance point of view this has worked for the brand Coca Cola as people have become very much synonymous with the brand.”

     

    The line up for this season includes the likes of Amit Trivedi, Pritam, Papon, Clinton Cerejo, Sachin-Jingar, Ram Sampath, Sneha Khanwalkar, Harshdeep Kaur, Raftaar and Rekha Bhardwaj. 

     

    When asked about the property’s USP, Bhardwaj said, “Coke Studio @MTV has allowed us artists to treat the platform as our own. It has also helped popularise folk as well contemporary music through fusion. Every episode will feature a single song and will allow us to take our own interpretation to the audiences.”

  • 12 years on, ‘Roadies X2’ continues to enjoy strong audience base

    12 years on, ‘Roadies X2’ continues to enjoy strong audience base

    MUMBAI: It’s been more than a decade but the show still stands strong. While one would think that a reality show that provokes its guests non-stop on national television, would be doomed at the outset, MTV Roadies, even in its 12th year has kept its audience glued to their television sets. 

     

    The show continues to rule the genre, thanks to two factors, one, impressive numbers and two, strong audience base available for the programme. 

     

    Just as any other reality show, this one has its own audience (though not as big as one on a GEC), a digital presence, merchandising units and marketing campaigns.

     

    Even after ruling the small screen in the youth space for 11 years, this year too the show has proved its might. Season X2, which hit the television screens with the audition phase on 24 January has already become the number one youth reality and fiction show. 

     

    It had an impressive opening as it clocked around 175 TVTs compared to other shows like Sadda Haq on Channel V with 165 TVTs, Love By Chance on bindass with 128 TVTs and Dare 2 Date on Channel V with 65 TVTs in the week four of TAM TV ratings. The ratings are in CS 15-24 AB in HSM markets. 

    In the sixth week, the show garnered 139 TVTs. 

     

    According to MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy, the franchise has lived happily for 12 seasons and Roadies X2 has ripped the format open. “This season, we went for a complete makeover. From bringing in a new format to new judges to brining in some unexpectedness,” he informs.  

     

    The channel states that the cult show has witnessed a hike of 60 per cent in viewership as compared to the last season. Moreover, its reach increased from 1.1 per cent in episode one to 2.2 per cent.

     

    According to Swamy the major viewership of the show comes from the HSM markets, mostly from Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

     

    The key highlights for the success of the show, according to Swamy are: Core understanding of its target audience. “We brought in fresh twists to keep the old audience surprised and new audience hooked. We dared to be different by getting in personalities that the youth can easily relate to. From one Bollywood personality to one sportsman and television personality while Rannvijay continues to garner female attention,” he informs. 

     

    Before the launch of the show, the channel continued to build engagement via other mediums as well. It launched a mobile Torrentz app where users can download complete episodes and watch them at their own convenience for free.  

     

    To further up the entertainment quotient for the youth, the channel will be launching Roadies Fantasy League – which for the first time will see a sport-like fantasy team competition for a reality show.

     

    It will also have the Roadies Prediction application – which will have a betting environment where people can bet on outcomes of the show.

     

    MTV will continue doing Audiosodes – Podcasts where people can catch up on what happened in an episode. To top it all, it will come up with a section called Fast Forward on its website which is like a highlights package and has the entire episode crunched in around seven minutes. 

     

    On the digital front, the official Facebook page of Roadies X2 garnered 18,347 likes at the time of filing this report. On Twitter the buzz is strong too with the show’s official page delivering around 64.3 thousand followers. 

     

    This season Hero MotoCorp continues to be the title sponsor and Vivo Smart Phone has come onboard as the associate sponsor along with traditional long term partners like Mountain Dew, Ceat tyres etc. In all, the channel has roped in 12 sponsors this season. 

     

    “The evolution of a show is a big reason for its success. Many thought that Roadies is incomplete without twin hosts Raghu and Rajiv and the new judges won’t be able to pull off the show very well. But the numbers says it all,” says a media planner. 

  • MTV India strengthens team

    MTV India strengthens team

    MUMBAI: 2014 has been a year of wins for the universe of the young, MTV. To further establish itself in the space, the channel has roped in Shalini Sethi and Keegan Pinto as programming and creative heads respectively. 

     

    Sethi will be responsible for further building original content based on her understanding of media consumption habits of young people. Working closely with young producers and talent, she will strengthen existing franchises while parallelly building new properties. 

     

    Keegan, who has worked on the biggest brands in the country, will bring his edgy creative sense to drive the bite across all communication elements including brand messaging, show promotions and short format content for multi-screen consumption.

     

    Both will be reporting to MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy. 

     

    Talking about the new additions to the team Swamy said that people are the biggest asset of his business and the channel continuously looks for talent that believe in the power of MTV and are also hungry to push the envelope and challenge the status quos. 

     

    “Shalini and Keegan have an infectious energy and are key drivers in taking MTV into its next phase in the India journey.  I am thrilled to have them as part of the part and I am excited about the madness that we will unleash together,” Swamy said. 

     

    Speaking on her new role, Sethi added, “Looking in from the outside, MTV is the benchmark for everything ‘cool’ when it comes to the youth. And now that I’m here, I can already feel the excitement that drives this brand. It is indeed a pleasure to be here at a time when the channel is adding some very interesting shows and also delving deeper into fiction. I’m looking forward to working with the great set of people that I’ve met here and hoping that I’ll be able to create some great content for an iconic brand like MTV.”

     

    Pinto said, “MTV is the first and last word on youth and the young at heart. It is a monument, a legacy, a bastion of pop-culture and music so much so that people tend to forget it’s an acronym and quote it as if it were a word. It is synonymous with innovation, passion and is known for reflecting the way the youth like to be and express themselves.”

     

    He further added, “To be working with people who have been instrumental in defining generations of young people and head the creative team is an extremely exciting idea for me. To add to a brand of this stature, a brand that I grew up with, a brand that enriched my imagination as a creative person, is a humbling honor. I love edgy content and MTV is all about bite and bigness. I look forward to being part of this fascinating culture which encourages creativity and being unabashed in every aspect of work.”

     

    Prior to joining MTV India, Sethi led programming at bindass. She began her career as a production assistant with Picture This Co and soon moved to AIM Television, a production house where she worked on TV shows such as Khubsurat and Indian Holiday. Moving from Delhi to Mumbai she worked on many projects such as Breakfast with Zee and Deepa Mehta’s movie Earth 1947. Post which she joined the Moving Picture Company.

     

    With more than a decade of experience, Pinto’s previous stints were with Lowe Lintas, Bates 141, Rediffusion Young & Rubicam, O&M and Colenso BBDO Auckland, New Zealand. His work has won him accolades in both the international and national circuits including the prestigious D&AD, One Show, Adfest, Cannes Lions, Abbys and Effies.

  • MTV ‘Roadies X2’ takes a different route

    MTV ‘Roadies X2’ takes a different route

    MUMBAI: MTV Roadies has become India’s longest running reality show and this time round, there’s something different in store. “It’s the 12th season and yet it feels like the first,” says MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy about the cult youth reality show.

     

    So what is special this season? For starters, the show has gone for a complete makeover. This year it is breaking the format wide open, thus bringing in the unexpected.

     

    Going the unexpected way…

     

    This season, few changes in the format are the highlight:

     

    1) Sans the bad boys Raghu and Rajiv, it brings on board a whole new legion of gang leaders to join the original roadie Rannvijay Singh. The new gang leaders are actress Esha Deol, Olympic medalist and boxer Vijender Singh and television actor Karan Kundra.

     

    According to Swamy each one of them represents a certain factor. For instance, Vijendra represents the fact that winning is all that matters; Kundra represents that Roadies is just not about being physically tough but also being smart and Deol represents the girl power.

     

    “Each of them brings new packet to the show and along with them they will bring their own fan base that will increase the viewership base for the show itself,” adds Swamy.

     

    2) Having a female personality as a gang leader in Deol itself is a novelty this season.

     

    3) MTV wants to reflect youth power in the show. For the past 11 seasons, judges took over the power to select the contestants. This year, the channel has given the power to the audience as well. “There is the power to the audience and young people believe that they have the power to drive change more than ever,” states Swamy.

     

    4) Another change in the format is the journey itself. Roadies X2 gangs will ride along the scenic route from the holy city of Varanasi to the birthplace of The Ganges in Nepal.

     

    “Like always everyone expected the journey will start from Goa but this time around it is starting from Varanasi and goes all the way to the Himalayas. It is going to be a visual delight in terms of locations and the feel of the show,” Swamy says.

     

    Let the game begin…

     

    The auditions were held in four cities – Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and Chandigarh in December. Thousands of hopefuls showed up at each audition venue, some even camping over night to get an early entry into the auditions.

     

    According to Swamy, auditions are an event in themselves. He believes that the confidence is growing in the youth every year. “The views of youth are becoming much broader and liberal today. I see less lack of judgments and much more acceptance happening with young people. To top it all, I also see more and more girls coming in for auditions, which is very positive sign.”

     

    In the game, participants will not just compete against each other to become the ultimate ‘Roadie’ but will compete in gangs too. Each ‘gang leader’ – Rannvijay, Vijender, Kundra and Esha – will pick five participants for their own gangs.

     

    These gangs and their leaders will then compete against each other through a series of tasks to eliminate each other from the show. The gang leader and the gang member that stays through the end, winning the maximum number of tasks will be adjudged as the winner.

     

    Roadies X2 will see participation of 20 contestants (five members in each of the four gangs) and will air for 17 episodes.

     

    Behind the scenes

     

    Swamy shared his thoughts on how tough it is to make a reality show in this country. He reveals that out of 12 months, July is the only month of break for the channel.

     

    The channel starts planning for the show sometime in August followed by audition rounds that takes place in September till November. And the shoot begins in the month of December followed by the edit etc. The show goes live in the month of January with the season ending in the month of June.

     

    “People say that Roadies is the longest running reality show in the country, but what people don’t think that it is tough to make a reality show in this country. It is our labour of love. Every member of the crew has to embody that Roadies spirit because they live in the toughest of conditions, work with really challenging situations. A lot of the tasks are actually done by the crew themselves to check whether it is safe and do-able.”

     

    Swamy says that everybody has a role to play. Nobody is a celebrity and nobody is a worker, all are Roadies. Each one comes back wiser, stronger and more confident every season.

     

    Big pockets

     

    This season Hero MotoCorp continues to be the title sponsor and Vivo Smart Phone has come on board as the associate sponsor along with traditional long term partners like Mountain Dew, Ciat tyres etc. In all, the channel has roped in 12 sponsors this season. Swamy believes it is a big magnet for advertisers as well to connect with the youth.

     

    The show is all set to hit the television screens on 24 January with expected 20 per cent higher advertising revenues in its 12th season. It will be aired on Saturdays at 7 pm.

     

    According to media analysts, the channel expects 15 per cent higher ad-rates for its 10-second slots, while the title sponsor, Hero has spent about 22-25 per cent higher to get the association.

     

    While the channel chose to remain tight-lipped about the financial details, the analyst has also informed that a single 10-second slot on the show is being offered at Rs 25,000 – Rs 30,000.

     

    Along with this, unlike many other successful properties on television, Roadies demands Rs 15,000 – RS 17,000 for a 10-second slot on the repeats of the episodes too, which is close to 50 per cent of the original telecast.

     

    Marketing buzz

     

    The channel has targeted top colleges in the country to promote the event. It has also got on-board few Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Akshay Kumar to talk on how excited they are that the show is coming back on television.

     

    Roadies is also very popular on the online platform and has high viewership. Digital auditions too will help the channel attract eyeballs from the youth.

     

    According to a media planner, even in the 12th season, the show is going to work for the channel. “It’s become a youth icon now. There is no chance of the show seeing a fatigue as it has already made a strong base for itself in the crowd. Every year there will be newer audiences coming in to watch the show. Moreover, on the digital front too, the channel gets good traction. To top it all, it’s fun and popular.”

  • Vikas Gupta bids adieu to MTV India

    Vikas Gupta bids adieu to MTV India

    MUMBAI: It was almost after a decade when MTV India got on-board a programming head in Vikas Gupta in January this year.  Tagged as the youngest creative director of the industry, Gupta has now decided to move on. Currently he is serving his notice period and his last day in the office will be January 2015.

    When contacted, Gupta confirmed the news to indiantelevision.com. “Yes I have put down my papers at MTV India. I had given myself a year with the channel and it turned out to be a brilliant year. The channel topped the ratings chart; we have the number one fiction and non-fiction shows so it has been an exciting achievable year. Now I am looking for newer challenges,” he said.

    “Thankfully, I am getting a lot of opportunities and will lock on something very soon,” he added.

    Though he refused to divulge further information, sources indicate that his next move will be to the big screen with Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms.

    He started his career as a trainee with Balaji Telefilms and then moved on to DJ’s Creative Unit as an associate creative head where he worked for four months. He went back to Balaji Telefilms for a successful stint as an associate creative director and was associated with shows like Kis Desh Main Hai Meraa Dil and Kitni Mohabbat Hai.

    Interestingly, the TV fraternity also recognises him as the youngest creative director of the industry. He entered the industry at a young age of 19. After getting enough experience, he turned to production and started his own banner – A Lost Boy Productions – almost three years ago. In the last three years, the production house has come up with entertaining and critically acclaimed shows like Channel [V]’s Gumrah and The Serial (co-produced with Balaji Telefilms); and Bindass’ Yeh Hai Aashiqui.

    He has also worked with Max New York Life Insurance for almost a year.

     

  • Partha Thakur appointed as Essel Vision non-fiction head

    Partha Thakur appointed as Essel Vision non-fiction head

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) has announced the appointment of Partha Thakur as non-fiction programming head for Essel Vision Productions. He will take charge from 3 November.

    Zeel is looking at strengthening its content and develop different genres of production. Thakur will report to Essel Vision Productions business head Akash Chawla. With over 15 years of experience in media and entertainment, he has produced content for broadcasters such as Zee TV, Star plus, Star World, Sony Entertainment Television, Colors, MTV, Sun TV, Vijay TV, NDTV, Pogo, Disney Network, UTV and Fox Traveler.

    He has worked with Wizcraft Television, Miditech Productions, Optimystix Entertainment, Searchlight Productions and MTV India. He has worked on multiple seasons of shows such as Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega, Indian Idol, Fame Gurukul, IIFA Awards, GIMA Awards, Apsara Awards, Zee Rishtey Awards, Dare to Dance, amongst others.

    Thakur has also worked on shows in South Africa, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. His last assignment was at Sol Productions as the non-fiction head and creative director.

    Essel Vision’s objective is to be a one-stop shop for all film, television, digital, events and IP creation related services where it will produce, co-produce, market and distribute.

     

  • Rentrak sings TV ratings agreement with Viacom 18 Media’s IndiaCast

    Rentrak sings TV ratings agreement with Viacom 18 Media’s IndiaCast

    MUMBAI: Rentrak, one of the leaders in measuring movies and TV everywhere, has announced an agreement with Viacom 18 Media’s IndiaCast for its two networks, Aapka Colors (known as Colors outside of the US) and MTV India.

     

    As part of the agreement, IndiaCast will utilise Rentrak’s TV ratings currency for programming research, as well as a business tool for its advertising sales initiatives.

     

    “Aapka Colors and MTV India are extremely popular services, not only in the US, but around the world,” said IndiaCast head of Americas business Sameer Goswami. “With expanded distribution and focused marketing, we are now getting into the next phase of our business in the US for these brands, which is where measurement systems such as Rentrak play a big role.”

     

    “Rentrak is happy to continue to serve the south Asian category and prove the value of these networks thorough our unique advanced demographic targets,” added Rentrak president of national television sales Chris Wilson.

     

    Rentrak’s television ratings service is the only fully-integrated system of detailed satellite, telco and nationwide cable TV viewing information from more than 29 million TVs and Video on Demand from more than 114 million TVs, including granular information for TV stations in all 210 markets projected to the US population.