ITV

Tag: MTV

  • MTV gets socially interactive with Tata Nano’s Drive with MTV II

    MTV gets socially interactive with Tata Nano’s Drive with MTV II

    MUMBAI: Viacom18’s music and youth entertainment channel MTV is vrooming back onto your screens with the second season of its digital show, ‘Drive with MTV’ presented by Tata Nano.

    The channel aims to make this season double the fun, double the adventure with some of the craziest and passionate drives. The show’s format is that of a web show spanning 21 days across 3,000 km and over a 100 snapshots. The webisodes will then be telecast across six episodes on television (half an hour), with the key sponsor as Tata Nano on board.

    Users will be required to register on drive.mtvindia.com and submit their video entries which showcases their passion for travel. The channel will shortlist entries that are fun, quirky and showcase the road-tripper amongst the contestants. From all the entries they receive, 24 contestants will be short-listed and 12 will be chosen to go on the road trip of their lifetime. The entire journey will be documented and will enfold live on various social media platforms and the Drive with MTV website.

    MTV India digital head Eklavaya Bhattacharya elucidates, “They (the contestants) will experience 21 days of non-stop fun, adventure, discovering new places and cultures as they travel across the length and breadth of the country in the Tata Nano. The contestants will be divided into four groups and will start journey from a particular point to four different destinations.”

    MTV executive vice president & business head Aditya Swamy further explaines about the format, “Each team will get a budget of Rs 4,000 per day and within the budget the contestants will have to take care of their food, fuel, stay and every expense one can imagine.”

    While on the trip, participants will share their experiences live with their friends, followers and the online audience using social media platforms. They will tweet, post updates, share pictures and videos every hour, every day.

    Speaking on some changes which will be in place this year, Bhattacharya reveals, “This time the fourth player of each team will remain undecided until the rest of the three players pick him/her up on their way during the journey.They will pick up or select their fourth teammate according to preference or choice. And auditions will take place anywhere and any point of time.”

    The idea behind the show is to connect with over eight lakh people on Twitter and more than 15 million on Facebook , and to channelise with the fan club of MTV India. “We have already got over 2500 tweets and has been trending nationally,” states Swamy.

    Unlike any reality show, it would be bereft of any judge, and winners would solely be decided on the basis of amount of likes they generate on digital platforms.

    “Activities on the road and on the web will get the contestants points. Each at the end of the journey, the team with maximum points will take home a Nano each,” concludes Swamy.

  • Netflix has 36 mn subscribers; posts $3 mn profit

    Netflix has 36 mn subscribers; posts $3 mn profit

    MUMBAI: OTT subscription service Netflix has reported better than expected first quarter results resulting in its stock appreciating by over 20 per cent. It now has 36 million subscribers. During the first quarter three million were added.

    For the first time the company‘s revenue in a quarter touched $one billion. The company managed to record profits of $ one million compared to a loss of $five million during the same period last year.

    Netflix added a million streaming subscribers in its markets outside the US. It plans to launch in a new European market in the second half of the year. In the US it added 2.02 million new customers. On the content side it has discontinued its deal with Viacom. Netflix will stream content from Nickelodeon, BET and MTV till the end of next month. After that it will let the deal expire. But the company is looking at a deal where it can stream some of Viacom‘s shows. The focus of Netflix is on exclusive content.

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells in a letter to shareholders wrote, “The launch of ‘House of Cards‘ provided a halo effect on our entire service. Customer response to the show increased our confidence in our ability to pick shows Netflix members will embrace and to pick partners skilled at delivering a great series”.

    Netflix‘s share price has crossed $200 compared to a 52 week low of $52 in August.

  • “We will focus on compelling sports content, across multiple sports and languages”

    “We will focus on compelling sports content, across multiple sports and languages”

    By the end of 2011, Star had clearly established itself as the premier entertainment network in India and for Indians worldwide, with 400 million people watching our drama and movie channels in seven languages every day. In one of the most competitive markets in the world, we had established substantial leadership in every genre and in most geographies.And while Star and Fox had built an attractive franchise in entertainment, in sports, very unlike our traditional approach, we had tucked the business away in a joint venture with ESPN that was not managed or controlled by us.
     

    Starting in April 2012, this started to change. We acquired the rights to India’s international cricket calendar that month; a few months later, our parent company bought out its partner from the ESPN Star Sports joint venture in Asia with the intent to roll the Indian part of the joint venture into Star; we launched two new domestic leagues in university cricket and hockey; and we renewed the rights to English Premier League football with a substantive bid. All in all, we invested a billion dollars in less than six months.As a result, by the end of 2012, we had established ourselves as India’s leading sports broadcaster.

    So, why did we get aggressive on a business where the traditional wisdom is that no one makes money?

    Many experts mused loudly that Star had found a way to quickly kill a highly profitable franchise built on leadership in entertainment across genres and languages. I still run into these questions every day. Just two days ago, a leading Indian business daily ran a big story wondering why Star had entered a business that usually never makes money. After all, one sports broadcaster had gone bankrupt trying to pay the bills for the Indian cricket rights, another is struggling to break even and yet another is trying to run a sports business without much sports content. Why would Star make such a big, bold move particularly at a time when the overall

     sentiment on the India story has gone cold?

    So, again, why did we do this? Did we lose the plot?

    In order to answer this question, it is important to take a close look at a few facts, some conventional wisdom and many myths that surround the Indian sports business.

    Everyone in this industry knows one thing. India is a single sport country. It is a country where cricket is a religion, where passion for the game is deep and where the country shuts down when the national team is playing.

    And yet, this is only half the truth. Even for a big match where India plays arch rival Pakistan, consumers do not view the entire match, they view only 15 per cent of the match on an average. The reality outside of really big tournaments is even starker. Out of more than 1000 hours that an Indian viewer spent watching television last year, only 20 hours was on cricket, about 2 percent.This is actually less than the time spent on a single successful show on Star Plus!Consumption of domestic cricket is even worse. Although matches are played round the year, only 50 matches are broadcast on television in a year.And very often, the best of the country’s talent do not participate in these games.

    Imagine if soccer crazy England manifested its interest in the game only by watching the FIFA World Cup once in four years and only really paid attention when England played Spain or Italy. That is the equivalent of India’s current state in cricket viewership. In fact, until the Board of Control for Cricket in India introduced the Indian Premier League, there was not even a domestic league, the equivalent of an EPL or an NFL.

    So, India is not a single-sport country, it is at the moment a zero-sport country that occasionally follows 11 Indian cricketers when they play a big marquee tournament.

    For us, though, the more interesting question is why this happened, and what has led to the current state of affairs. We believe that the biggest culprit is the Indian sports broadcaster. Let me explain why.

    A big shift happened in the last twenty years in cricket in the profile of its followership. It moved from being a sport for the urban elite to one that has a mass following across the country.The BCCI deserves credit for this transformation by making substantial investments to improve the quality of stadiums and infrastructure around the country.Today, some of the country’s best cricketers come from outside the large cities; and small towns host international matches on a regular basis. It is also a country where less than 1 per cent of the population has actually watched any sport in a stadium.

    And, yet, sports broadcasters have not made any effort to make their programming more relevant to the new audience.

    In a country where less than 10 per cent of the population understands English, and a much smaller number are native speakers, sports broadcasters programmed only in one language: guess which one? English. This, despite the fact that everyone knew that the big growth in entertainment consumption in the country came when programming on satellite switched to Hindi and other local languages. And even for the very few that actually understand English, it is quite a world they have to navigate to understand the diversity of commentator accents on television: from the Westernised Indian accent to the local Indian accent to the Aussie accent to the Kiwi accent to the Scottish accent to the West Indian accent. It is almost as if the sports broadcasters were not relaying sports, they were running extraordinarily painful accent training programs on television for the very small English speaking audience that came to watch in the first place.

    The pain did not stop there. Around the world, sports graphics is used to bring the game closer to the viewer and to help the viewer understand the game. Yet, in cricket, graphics is more a nuanced tool meant to tickle the sensibilities of the few deep masters of the game, not the 99 per cent of the country that has never even been to a stadium. The same story extends to television commentary too. Rather than being the anchors of the game who explain the game and bring the excitement of the stadium to the viewer’s living room, the cricket commentator is invariably an expert talking to his peers.

    It is no surprise then that the Indian viewer does not spend much time on sports on television.

    But, it would be unfair to put all the blame on just the sports broadcaster. The broadcaster has had many fellow partners-in-crime in ensuring that sports viewership remains miniscule.

    It’s biggest partner has been the cable and satellite platform. Around the world, sports have been a huge driver of revenue and profit for pay television operators. In India every operator complains about the low ARPUs they get from the business. And yet, instead of using compelling sports content to get more money from consumers and reduce churn, the cable and satellite operators make it difficult for their subscribers to discover and develop a habit of consuming sports.

    And this attitude shows up in the distribution of sports channels, which are treated less like the mass product that they should be, and more as premium add-on products for a small, rich, niche audience.

    To make matters worse, these platforms turn off the channel when a marquee event is not on. While this may have made sense in the old, bandwidth-limited analog world where you could only put 20-30 channels, it makes no sense that even DTH operators are employing the same tactic when they have 300 channels to offer. Compare this to other content categories. They do not switch off a news channel when a breaking news event is not on; they do not turn off the movies channel when a blockbuster is not on. But this is exactly what they do in sports. It is the worst kind of behaviour that limits the ability to build habit for the sports fan.

    Even worse is the behaviour of a few platforms that have created their own channels that switch to the most marquee sports events of multiple broadcasters. While they hide under the pretence that they are addressing a consumer need, what they are really doing is illegal piracy. But what is distressing is that they do not understand the long term damage they are doing to the business. Instead of multiplying choices and triggering demand, they are creating a structure that will ensure that viewers only watch a few cricket events.

    Put together, it is therefore not a surprise that the reach of sports channels lags that of even niche channels like Discovery and MTV!

    So in a zero-sport country, sports broadcasters and pay-TV platforms have worked very hard to make sure that it is only the deeply committed, rich expert fan comfortable with English that actually watches a match on television.

    Of course, if the sports broadcaster and the platform have done their part in eroding the value of sports franchise, the regulator and the government have not been far behind.

     
    For the regulator and the government, the overwhelming objective must be to further consumer interest. It is in the interest of consumers to have more and more sports available for them. It is in the interest of any country to have more and more people play sports. And the reality is that people play sports only when they passionately follow games and teams. If India has to break its poor status in international sports and use sports to create a virtuous cycle for the larger society, then the regulator and the polityhave a powerful role to play.

    I am reminded of an incident that happened in Canada last year. When the hockey union went on strike, the prime minister of the country got involved because his fear was that a prolonged strike would have an adverse impact on the GDP of Canada! More than anything, it showed the power of sports and its ability to be a huge economic growth engine. It also shows the lens with which politicians and executives approach sports globally.

    However, the regulator, the bureaucracy and the political class have not shown such an enlightened approach to sports in India.

    Of all things, the regulator has imposed a cap on prices. A price cap is never good for the long term health of a business but it is especially absurd in the context of sports, where the market we operate in is truly global, where the acquisition costs for rights reflects a global market.

     What is even more absurd is that a news channel, a general entertainment channel, an education channel and a sports channel are all capped at the same level, without any linkage to the underlying cost of content or the relevance of its shelf life. Shockingly, Star Sports which has the most compelling portfolio of content in the country can charge no more than the country’s weakest sports channel with practically no sports on it.

    To make matters worse, the government has mandated that the most expensive sports events are events of national importance that need to be made available to the public broadcaster – who in turn not only retransmits an unencrypted signal to all its subscribers for free, but also makes it available to private platforms to carry the content under a statutorily mandated ‘must carry’ law. So even as you are making no effort to ensure wider coverage for all sports for the long term, you are killing the economics of the sports broadcaster by forcing it to share the most popular content today without adequate compensationand also legitimizing piracy by permitting access to sports content by platforms for free.

    The entire eco system has therefore unwittingly conspired to ensure that sports broadcast is unprofitable, sports consumption is limited and sports followership is minimal.

    So, the question comes back to: if things are looking so bad, why did Star decide to make a big push into sports?

    For only one reason.The current state of affairs is just not right, is not sustainable and is not good for anyone. Somebody needs to change this unhealthy equilibrium which is hurtingthe country, the consumer and the media industry.

    And as the country’s media leader, and as a company that has faced such hurdles before and still managed to build an outstanding franchise, we believe that we can shape this change.

    Clearly, change will not happen overnight. It will require a lot of effort to break the status quo. We will have to ensure that we create compelling sports content, across multiple sports, across multiple languages, with an economic structure that will add value for all.

    But, we are patient, as we always have been in India. And our history, our parentage and the coherence of our approach gives us confidence that we will build India’s first successful and profitable sports franchise.

  • Techzone gets exclusive mobile rights for Honey Singh’s ‘Bring me back’

    Techzone gets exclusive mobile rights for Honey Singh’s ‘Bring me back’

    MUMBAI: Continuing its efforts to bring authentic mobile music and entertainment content to its consumers, aggregators, developers, publishers and distributors of entertainment Techzone has clinched the exclusive rights for the song-track ‘Bring Me Back’ by Honey Singh.

    The company has entered exclusive right agreement with MTV for providing the song content on mobile and desktop internet. Through this right, Techzone will provide music tracks downloads, videos, ringtones, caller ring back tones and other digital entertainment formats for the song.

    ‘Bring me back’ is the controversial rapper’s latest single hit. Unlike Honey Singh’s other famous party song tracks which have a fun theme to their lyrics, ‘Bring me back’ touches the soul with a hard hitting message, the premise of MTV Spoken Word.

    Techzone MD Naveen Bhandari said, “Yo-Yo Honey Singh is an extremely famous Indian artist and his songs have a mass appeal. Acquiring the exclusive songs for Honey Singh’s ‘Bring me back’ is a very exciting moment for Techzone. The song has already gauged a record of mobile downloads on the first day of the availability which is phenomenal.”

    MTV, India’s leading music channel has a great youth appeal and is followed by youngsters across the country. ‘Bring me back’ was launched by Honey Singh at MTV‘s brand new music show, MTV Spoken Word.

    MTV EVP and business head Aditya Swamy said, “Bring Me Back is a very special collaboration between Honey Singh and MTV and is the opening track on our latest music project MTV Spoken Word. We have always been successful at leveraging platforms beyond television and this partnership with Techzone will ensure the track is available across every single mobile VAS vertical.”

  • Viacom18 sets up unit for brand solutions across the network

    MUMBAI: Viacom18 has started a new division by the name of Integrated Network Solutions (INS) which will look at partnering with clients to create large format IPs and brand solutions across the network’s brands.

    The INS team will work with teams across the network from the television to motion pictures business and explore ways to best optimise their relationship with their clients. The division had a soft launch around a month back and the first project it worked on was the MTV Video Music Awards India (VMAI) where it partnered with cell phone manufacturer and marketer Micromax.

    INS is headed by Jaideep Singh in the role of Viacom18 – Integrated Network Solutions SVP and business head. Singh has been with Viacom18 for nearly six years now and has contributed extensively in developing MTV as a brand in India.

    Singh says, “Over the past five years or so, the individual brands of Viacom18 have established their presence with the audiences and the advertisers. We thought it was now time to leverage the strength of the individual brands at the network level.”

    Singh reveals that the network has relations with nearly 400-500 clients and the intent is to identify 20-30 like minded ones and create IP properties with them so that the network and the client benefit.

    INS will conceive and deliver strategic, creative solutions that will leverage the Network’s media assets and expertise from both a creative and business perspective. The scope of INS’ portfolio spans across live events, broadcast properties and digital and mobile media.

    INS operates under two verticals – Viacome18 Live which deals with the experiential part of business, and BE Viacom18 (globally known as BE Viacom) which will look at broadcast side of things. Further, BE Viacom18 has been divided into three function areas – motion pictures, multichannel IPs and international business.

    Under Viavom18 Live, the division plans to develop nearly 20 properties across the youth, comedy, kids and regional verticals. In case of youth and comedy, INS has already zeroed in on events like concerts and comedy festivals. “For the kid’s genre, the idea will be to leverage on the huge brand presence that Nick has in terms of Dora the Explorer and Spongebob Squarepants. We want to bring the Dora theatricals to India. We have already started work on bringing the Nick Kids Choice Awards, which are a huge success in the US, to India.”

    For the regional aspects, Singh believes that while award shoes remain the strongest prospect, there is huge potential in the culture music and art across India. INS, thus, will focus on creating events like cultural festivals, folk music events and art exhibitions.

    BE Viacom18’s motion picture vertical will look after the brand association for films produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures. “The idea will be to identify brands that are willing to associate with our movies and then integrate the brand into the movie through placement, promotion and on ground activities. If the fit allows, we may even look at embedding the brand in the movie’s script,” explains Singh.

    The team will also work on creating properties which can be telecast across channels on the network (like Big Boss). Apart from this, INS will work with the global team to bring international properties to India and also take a few Indian properties to the global stage.

    “With MTV VMAI, we have accomplished out first project. We hope to continue doing good work through INS so that our clients and audiences benefit. For now, our goal is to make a scalable and sustainable business out of the brand network solutions initiative and I am glad things have taken off on the right note,” concludes Singh.

  • ‘Sharper market segmentation a must in digital India’ : CEO of Viacom18 Sudhanshu Vats

    ‘Sharper market segmentation a must in digital India’ : CEO of Viacom18 Sudhanshu Vats

     Sudhanshu Vats couldn’t have walked into the crease at a better time to start his innings as the Group CEO of Viacom18, a 50:50 joint venture company between TV18 and Viacom. Colors had settled as one of the leading Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) while MTV was also sustaining growth.

    Vats’ task was to grow Colors to a new level, chalk out expansion plans and clock faster growth for the company. His focus was also on profitability and a step in that direction was to shelve the launch of a Hindi movie channel.

    Viacom18 saw opportunity in launching segmented channels at a time when India’s cable TV networks were asked by the government to digitise. So Sonic, Comedy Central and Nick Jr. were launched in quick succession.

    Vats’ next big growth pillar could be the addition of the ETV GECs. TV18 Group has offered Viacom the option to acquire the remaining 50 per cent stake in ETV’s five GECs and 24.5 per cent equity interest in ETV Telugu.

    This is a follow-up to the acquisition deal inked by TV18 in January 2012 to acquire 50 per cent stake in ETV‘s Marathi, Bangla, Kannada, Gujarati and Oriya entertainment channels, along with the option of picking up the balance 50 per cent interest. It also has 24.5 per cent stake in ETV Telugu and can add a similar equity interest in the Telugu GEC.

    After getting Viacom’s equity participation, the ETV GECs will get housed under Viacom18. The new owners will, thus, get full ownership of the five ETV GECs (ETV Marathi, ETV Bangla, ETV Kannada, ETV Gujarati and ETV Oriya) while half of ETV Telugu’s equity will get transferred.

    An FMCG industry veteran with over 21 years of experience, Vats feels that the Indian broadcasting industry has huge growth potential with the onset of digitisation and opportunity to correct advertising rates.

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Sibabrata Das, the Group CEO of Viacom18 talks about the company‘s portfolio of channels and its growth plans in the backdrop of digitisation.

    Excerpts:

    Q. Has TV18 Group offered Viacom the option to buy the remaining 50% stake in five of ETV’s regional general entertainment channels and 24.5% equity interest in ETV Telugu? 

    Viacom has the option to acquire stake in ETV’s entertainment channels. A due diligence is being conducted.

    Q. Will the ETV GECs be housed under Viacom18?

    That will depend upon Viacom’s approval to pick up equity in the ETV assets.

    Q. So the next pillar of growth for Viacom18 will be the regional channels?

    We have been aggressive all along. We have launched three channels (Sonic, Comedy Central and Nick Jr) within a year’s time to take our total bouquet offering to seven. When the ETV channels integrate, we will have a new growth area in regional-language entertainment broadcasting.

    Q. Will we see regional movie channel launches as well?

    We are not looking at that at this stage. We will, however, be acquiring movies for the regional GECs when they come our way.

    ‘We will definitely evaluate the regional music broadcasting space. We are entering into regional movie production’

    Q. Even the launch of the Hindi movie channel was shelved. Does this mean that there is a focus on segmented products rather than mass entertainment channels that consume huge capital?

    We are committed to most of the genres. We have no immediate plans to look at sports or movies in the broadcasting space.

    The business case for a Hindi movie channel from us looks weak at this stage. We can’t come out with a product that is differentiated enough. The other question we ask ourselves is whether we have the right library. The answer is in the negative. The acquisition prices have also climbed steeply. And our studio business, which can provide captive content for the channel, is growing but needs to size up more.

    Q. So the growth strategy at this stage also fits into your overall philosophy of segmentation and psycho-graphic market approach which you carried out so well during your long stint at HUL?

    We have been sharply segmenting the market, particularly in the kids television space. We have Nick Jr, which targets the preschool segment. Nick addresses the 4-14-year-olds while Sonic has a skew towards young boys. MTV appeals to the youth and so does Vh1. You could probably see us working immediately on more segmentation as the market moves towards digitisation.

    Q. Have the early results of digitisation shown any benefits?

    Digitisation has actually been a shot in the arm for channels like MTV. We are also bullish on the kids TV space as it is a low-powered ad index category. Besides subscription gains, we can build in ancillary revenue streams by developing the ecosystem.

    Having Viacom as a partner also helps as we can leverage on the international parent in terms of content and research. Kids internationally is a hugely researched category and the best part is that the segment is more universal in nature.

    Q. Is the youth genre like MTV showing a particular level of saturation on the ad revenue front?

    Apart from the organic ad growth, an ecosystem can be created to build ancillary revenues. There is scope for live concerts and advertisement-funded programmes. We are taking MTV Block Party to five towns. MTV Video Music Awards India is taking place on 21 March. The youth-cum-music genre will also be able to increase subscription revenues in a digitised environment. But yes, the genre will see more of youth than music content.

    ‘Viacom has the option to acquire stake in ETV’s entertainment channels. A due diligence is being conducted’

    Q. Will Viacom18 also explore the regional music broadcasting space?

    We will definitely evaluate this space.

    Q. Don’t you have to work on the English content side as Comedy Central has a long way to go?

    English entertainment is better indexed on both the revenue counts – ad as well as subscription. Segmentation will happen in these genres. Comedy Central is picking up well.

    Q. What is the growth path for Colors in a digitised climate?

    We will have more genres to widen the appeal of the channel. Colors is more urban now; we are making it all inclusive. We are rounding up the genres for the channel – crime, comedy and mythology. We have already demonstrated that we can come out with good fiction and non fiction shows.

    Q. Is there scope for correction in advertising rates?

    I am bullish over a five-year horizon. India is one of the cheapest ad markets in the world. The time regulation on commercial time (as defined by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) will have a positive impact on rate inflation. However, it should be introduced after digitisation matures. I also see media buyers differentiating between reach and quality reach.

    Q. At a macro level, what are Viacom18’s key thrust areas?

    Sharper segmentation is a must as India moves from a collective to an individualistic content consumption habit. Technology and multiple screens will be available to consume that content. The third force will be digitisation. With the distribution pipe becoming broader, the system will allow a channel to launch and at a lower cost of carriage. This will make the business model viable. The dependence on advertising revenue will reduce as an alternative income system grows.

    The fourth area is something we have to shape up and, to my mind, is more difficult to execute. This is what I call behavioural research, which allows us to move from just idea and gut feel to something more scientific. No doubt the first two are very important to have and will always remain core to the media business. But we need to also have a system that can develop and test the power of that idea.

    Within Viacom18, we are also keen to drive in internal synergies. The challenge is to develop the different lines of businesses into one company – family entertainment channels, music content and movies. We are also seeing experimentation in TV properties like Bigg Boss which are moving across regional channels.

    Q. How much is Viacom18 investing on its movie production business and what is the plan to scale up?

    For us the issue in the film production business is not funding but profitability. The risk-reward ratio today is heavily skewed towards the stars than the studios.

    The peak funding requirement for our movie business is Rs 1 billion. We have a slate across small, medium and big-budget movies. We have decided to do more co-productions and to get early involvement into the project. This will allow us to have control on costs, influence to some extent the creativity of the product, understand the movie better and, hence, be able to market it better.

    We are also looking at entering into regional film production. For starters, we will be doing a few Punjabi and Bengali movies.

  • MTV, Lenovo launch integrated social platform

    MTV, Lenovo launch integrated social platform

    MUMBAI: Lenovo has collaborated with MTV to launch Lenovo-MTV CO:LAB, an integrated social platform that will enable talented youths from seven countries – India, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – to share stories about their communities through music.

    Winning participants will connect and collaborate using their different skill sets in order to showcase their talents through an original MTV music video production relating to the theme of the ‘Pulse of the World”.

    Leveraging the resources provided by Lenovo and MTV, the concept of the six-month platform is to enable Gen-Y in the seven countries to connect with like-minded individuals with different artistic skills across DJs, Vocalists/Instrumentalists, Film Makers or Motion Graphic Artists, where the winning talents across these four categories are determined by public votes through the Lenovo-MTV CO:LAB website and regional mentors.

    The platform that will go across TV and online will be run simultaneously across the seven countries.
    Building on Lenovo’s “For Those Who Do” brand campaign, and MTV’s deep knowledge of music, lifestyle and the Millennial generation, Lenovo-MTV CO:LAB will inspire and encourage audiences to take action, connect, collaborate and create music using technology.

    To help support participants, Lenovo and MTV have assembled a panel of local and regional mentors, each of whom are established leading individuals in their respective areas of expertise. Mentors will play an important role throughout the entire campaign, sharing their valuable experience and knowledge in order to guide and inspire country and regional winners.

    Acclaimed contemporary design and art collective, PHUNK and renowned international DJs, Brendon P (The DJ Dispensary) and Matty Wainwright (The DJ Dispensary) will act as regional mentors throughout the campaign, as the public vote for their favourite talent.

    “Lenovo-MTV CO:LAB aims to inspire Millennials to take action and turn their dreams to reality,” said Lenovo Asia Pacific & Latin America VP Marketing and Communications Howie Lau. “Both Lenovo and MTV are innovative companies, with dynamic brand personalities, that are focused on the Millennial generation who don’t just dream about achieving, but go out there and do. We chose to collaborate with MTV because it is the iconic destination for global Millennials and represents the sweet spot for music and entertainment for this unique target audience.”

    “We take pride in making the right connections as we engage with the Millennials, the youth today. The collaboration with Lenovo on Lenovo-MTV CO:LAB, reflects a clear brand synergy between us as we continue to promote and reflect local cultural tastes and music talents. MTV’s wealth of research has shown that technology is an enabler for our audience. Technology doesn’t make Millennials who they are, but it lets them be who they are. Lenovo-MTV CO:LAB is a great initiative that shows how we make that happen as we bring together technology and creative, talented young people,” said Viacom International Media Networks Asia VP of MTV & Comedy Central Brands Tan Sian Ju.

    In order to engage and excite audiences across the seven countries, a full-scale promotional campaign will be run by Lenovo and MTV throughout this collaboration. This will culminate in MTV airing the final music video as a showcase of the winners’ talents for a period of eight weeks over the participating countries. In addition to having access to mentors, attending a five-day workshop and being part of a regional promotional campaign, regional finalists will also have the opportunity to be profiled in local and regional media.

  • Viacom launches four channels on mio TV

    Viacom launches four channels on mio TV

    MUMBAI: Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Asia, a division of Viacom, has launched MTV Southeast Asia, Nickelodeon Southeast Asia, Nick Jr., and Comedy Central Asia on SingTel mio TV‘s subscription TV service.

    The partnership also includes Nickelodeon-branded on-the-ground events that will further strengthen its brand experience with its audience. Details about launch dates and price plans will be announced in the coming weeks.

    “Expanding the reach of MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and the recently-launched Comedy Central with mio TV, enables us to meet the growing demand for our channels, and deliver high quality programming services to mio TV subscribers,” said VIMN Asia EVP and MD Indra Suharjono.

    “We are delighted to bring all four of our linear channels to the channel lineup, particularly given the significance of Comedy Central becoming the first English entertainment channel brand to be across all three subscription TV platforms in Singapore.”

    “We are excited to collaborate with VIMN and welcome their channels onto our platform. The kids segment, in particular, is one that we have been working hard to address so our younger viewers and their parents will be delighted to know that Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. will soon be available on mio TV. The addition of these channels marks a significant step which brings mio TV ever closer to our goal of meeting all the key content needs of our subscribers,” said SingTel MD of Television.

  • MTV partners with Swipe to launch co-branded tablet MTV Volt

    MUMBAI: Viacom18‘s music and youth channel MTV has furthered its licensing and merchandising portfolio by associating with Swipe Telecom to launch a co-branded ‘fablet‘ (derived by combining fabulous and tablet) named MTV Volt. The two companies have signed a two-year licensing agreement and intend to launch an array of eight to ten products aimed at the technological and entertainment needs of the Indian youth.

    The device has a 6 inch screen along with an exclusive inbuilt TV-player, offering viewers on-the-go access to MTV. It has a touch screen and can be used as both a portable TV set and a fully functional high-definition Android tablet with wi-fi, dual cameras, FM player and GPS functionality offering the youth information, communication and entertainment (ICE) on the move.

    Dedicated teams from Swipe and MTV got together to design all aspects of the tablet from the look and apps to the packaging. Priced at Rs 12,999 and weighing 239 gms the ‘MTV Volt‘ sports a white velvet body with specially designed textured back for better use, comfort handling and high aesthetic value.

    The fablet comes with in-built apps that allow one to network on Facebook, LinkedIn and allows downloading videos backed by a 2 x 1 GHz dual core processor, HD display and Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1. The MTV Volt has an 8 mega pixel rear camera with flash and 1.3 MP front camera and uses an internal rechargeable marathon battery Li-Ion Polymer 3200 mAh that provides a talk time of 8-10 hours.

    While the design has been created in India using insights and inputs from contemporary Indian youth, the manufacturing has been done in china and the distribution will be handled by Swipe Telecom.

    Viacom18 SVP and business head – consumer products Sandeep Dahiya said, “In Swipe we found a partner who shares our vision and take on the portfolio. MTV VOLT is a ‘made to order‘ product for the generation that‘s constantly communicating, entertaining and socializing. In the future, we also hope to develop exclusive apps for MTV Volt and create an eco-system around the brand itself.”

    Swipe Telecom founder and CEO Shripal Gandhi said, “We at Swipe Telecom are excited to be associated with a youth centric brand like MTV. In the recent past we have seen a paradigm shift in the usage of technology like tablet PCs and Fablets amongst the youth in India which has witnessed a CAGR of 59 per cent. The MTV Volt promises to be a perfect muse for tech enthusiasts of the generation next. In partnership with MTV, we will be launching an array of revolutionary products over the next few quarters; which will be truly disruptive.”

    MTV Volt will be available across 10,000 retail points across India, Swipe e-store and also leading online portals like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Infibeam and eBay amongst others and other youth centric platforms. The offline campaign consisting of launches, banners, hoardings, posters will be complimented by an interactive an engaging campaign in the digital space as well.

    MTV Consumer Products today extends into more than 15 categories, with presence in both, conventional as well as unconventional categories like innerwear, adventure bikes, footwear, lingerie, eye-wear, bags, stationery and paper, debit cards, deodorants and EDTs, mobile phones and tablets. MTV‘s key licensees include Bwitch, Citibank, Crusoe, Firefox, Aureole-Inspecs, BILT, PLG, J K Ansell, Mochi, Swipe Telecom and Global Fragrances.

  • Schwarzenegger comeback film flops at the box office

    Schwarzenegger comeback film flops at the box office

    MUMBAI: Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s promise to come back with a bang with his latest film The Last Stand seems to have boomeranged when the film fell flat on its face at the box office during its opening weekend, and ranking ninth in total Friday grosses.

    The film stars the 65-year-old former California governor as a sheriff in a sleepy Arizona town in his first leading film role in nearly a decade. According to estimates, the film earned a meager 1.9 million dollars on Friday.

    The film also stars Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker and Johnny Knoxville, of MTV‘s ‘Jackass‘ fame.