ITV

Tag: Nalini Singh

  • Sahara Samay Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh awarded as best news channel

    Sahara Samay Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh awarded as best news channel

    MUMBAI: Sahara Samay Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh has won the Madhav Jyoti Alankaran award for the best news channel for the second time in a row.

    The Madhav Jyoti Alankaran Sanstha, named after Late Madhavrao Scindia , gives out awards to notable contributors in the field of journalism every year.

    .Dignitaries present in the function were parliamentarian Jyotiraditya Scindia, BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla and Sahara Samay Bhopal bureau chief Ramesh Sharma. Secretary of the organising committee Mukesh Agnihotri applauded Sahara Samay MP-CG contribution through its electronic media, a release said.

    The channel’s Ujjain bureau correspondent Manoj Saini won the best reporter award. Madhav Jyoti Sanstha also honoured actor Ashutosh Rana, TV reporter Nalini Singh and Sumit Awasthi.

  • Private producers shifted off prime time slots on DD News

    Private producers shifted off prime time slots on DD News

    NEW DELHI: To have them, or not? Failing to answer the question fully, Doordarshan News has gone in for a compromise formula regarding the private producers who had been farmed out programmes.

    All those private producers, who have been producing programmes for the news channel under the sponsored category, and had been given prime time slots initially, have been asked to vacate those time slots.

    So, a Nalini Singh with her Ankhon Dekhi will move to a 6 pm slot from next week after being on air at
    11:30 pm for some time. When DD News had been re-launched, Singh was given a 10 pm time slot.

    Similarly, another news and current affairs show Rozana, produced by Anurradha Prasad’s BAG Films,
    would move out of a 8:30 pm time slot to an early evening timing. On weekends, BAG-produced Bollywood Batein would occupy the slot that airs Rozana on weekdays.

    DD News has justified shifting private producers out of prime time by saying that attractive packages to advertisers and big clients cannot be given if part of the prime time advertising time was in the hands of private producers.

    Since the private producers like Singh and Prasad (earlier, Rajat Sharma too did a show for DD News
    before opting out to concentrate on his own channel) have got programmes under the sponsored category, they also control several hundreds seconds of advertising time that come to them under the scheme after payment of a minimum guarantee money to DD, which can be sold by them at rates they prefer.

    Earlier in the year, DD and All India Radio’s parent organization, Prasar Bharati, was considering a proposal to do away with outsourcing of programmes totally. It had stopped giving extensions to shows produced by outside producers for the news channel after their mandatory run.

    Though the private producers have not taken verykindly to the new move on the part of DD News, publicly they are keeping their counsel. “We have received the letter communicating a change in timing (of the programme Ankhon Dekhi) today only. Since 6 pm is a bit early for a current affairs show, I guess advertising rates per 10 seconds would be comparatively lower,” Nalini Singh told indiantelevision.com.

    Singh claimed that the popularity of the show might reduce the attrition of viewers because of change in timing and described the move as one from a “revenue-driven DD”.

    Meanwhile, DD News is introducing several new shows on prime time soon, including a show at 8 pm, and a weekly wrap up of events and news on weekends. A senior official of DD News claimed that barring those “very high-end products that prefer to be on NDTV, most big advertisers (like Airtel, Hutch and Honda) have returned to DD News.”

    It seems that DD News is making an extra effort to go those extra miles amidst speculation that the new Congress-led government would down its shutters.

  • Sarma takes on critics on eve of DD News relaunch

    NEW DELHI: With a bit of brashness, if one can term it that, and taking a swipe at critics, India’s pubcaster Prasar Bharati today formally announced that Doordarshan News will relaunch on Monday.
    Quoting Woody Allen’s famous lines – “In Beverly Hills they don’t throw out their garbage, but turn them into TV programmes” – Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma said, “We’d 
    make garbage out of others,” referring to the second inning of DD News.
    On cue, Prasar Bharati chairman and veteran journalist MV Kamath justified DD and All India Radio (AIR)’s late reaction to events in the past – (like the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi, which was put out on AIR and DD almost eight hours after the incident had happened) – and said, “Prasar Bharati and DD are responsible organisations. No one needs to tell us or remind us of our responsibilities.”
    Kamath also criticised the coverage of Gujarat riots by some private satellite channels, stating that sensationalism should not be made more important than protecting the sensibilities of people.
    Signifying that Prasar Bharati is doing everything to make its news channel work this time, Sarma said that part of the additional financial assistance of about Rs 200 million, granted by the government, would be used to “poach known faces and talents” from private satellite channels. The government has granted the amount to DD News for the remaining period the current financial year.
    Though Sarma side-stepped a query on the exact nature of poaching being done – saying there would be people like Rajat Sharma and Nalini Singh on the channel – TV industry sources indicate that some people from Aaj Tak have already shown interest in joining the channel.
    DD News has already got Deepak Chaurasia of Aaj Tak as its consulting editor.
    Hammering in the point that DD News’ reach would be increased rapidly not only through “good content”, but also with the help of technology, Sarma said that 12 more high-powered transmitters would be pressed into service over 
    the next six months to increase the terrestrial coverage of the channel by 50 per cent.
    If that was not enough, Sarma demonstrated rare aggressiveness when questioned by a cable operator – who is also editor and publisher of a cable magazine – whether it was correct to thrust DD News down cable operators’ throats, with the help of notifications.
    “The law has given me the power and why shouldn’t I use it?” Sarma retorted, adding that even the notification is not enough.
    Quoting a report on BBC 4, the BBC’s domestic news and current affairs channel, Sarma said that a news channel is the very essence of an existence of a broadcaster, especially public service broadcaster. “This new venture 
    (DD News) would be a flagship of DD,” Sarma said, adding, “We are starting this with some preparation.”
    The career bureaucrat, who is really enjoying his stint at Prasar Bharati, also pointed out that as per the latest TAM data, news on DD has 37 per cent reach in cable and satellite homes, as against 9.7 per cent of Zee News and NDTV.
    Aside from the hype, does Prasar Bharati have a business plan for DD News or will taxpayers’ money go up in smoke again, while some experimentation is done?
    According to Sarma, the government has agreed to give an assistance of Rs 540 million per year for the news channel and “it would be be DD’s endeavour to generate at least 50 per cent of that in revenues for the year 2004-05”. He added, “For the year 2005-06, we’d like to raise the amount (Rs 540 million) on our own.”
    For this, Prasar Bharati’s gameplan includes attractive commercial terms for spot buys and sponsorships, good content from the likes of Rajat Sharma, Nalini Singh, 
    Rajiv Mehrotra, Deepak Chaurasia’s team and sundry editors of newspapers and aggressive distribution.
    Thirty minutes at non-prime time can be had for Rs 5,000, while during prime time the amount would double. For advertisers committing Rs five million on the news channel, various sops will be offered like co-sponsorship of evening 
    news/samachar and two DD in-house produced programmes for three months, among others, Prasar Bharati sources said.

    Also Read:
    Notification issued that DD News be put in prime band

    EC okays DD News relaunch in November

  • Ramayan finds markets overseas

    Ramayan finds markets overseas

    MUMBAI: Ramayan, the epic that created history on Indian television in the late 1980s, has found new markets abroad.

    Improved, dubbed versions of the epic were launched on ITV and Nepal 1 channels in London and Nepal respectively on the ocasion of Ram Navmi (11 April).

    “The Nepalese dubbed version of Ramayan went on air on the recently launched Nepal 1 (promoted by Nalini Singh) and has received an astounding response. We have also launched the Tamil dubbed version with English subtitles on ITV channel in London. This was primarily to cater to the demands of the Sri Lankans viewers,” says Sagar Arts’ marketing director cum producer Prem Sagar.

    “We have spent Rs 20 million in redesigning Ramayan. The digitized version has a contemporary sound track, look and feel. We have also released VCDs and DVDs of the epic which have shown record sales so far ,” he adds.

    The improved version of Ramayan , is also having a re-run on Doordarshan Metro channel . “Even during its re-run, Ramayan on DD-2 gets a TRP of 8 plus in the 8 pm to 8:30 pm slot on Mondays,” informs Sagar.

    The demand for the epic indicates that old popular serials, specially mythologicals, still have a market value. However, what remains to be seen is if the new version of the epic is able to spin the same magic abroad as it did in India in the late 80s, when it launched.

  • Nalini Singh’s Nepalese-Hindi channel to launch in March

    Nalini Singh’s Nepalese-Hindi channel to launch in March

    NEW DELHI: At a time when the focus of the industry is on news channels and their uplink from India, a Nepalese-Hindi entertainment channel has quietly prepared the ground for its launch next month. An endeavour of TV personality Nalini Singh, the channel has quietly gone about getting the necessary permissions.
     

    “We have got the permission to uplink from India and are soon set to launch an entertainment channel Nepal One that, I am sure, would become the No. 1 channel for Nepal,” Nalini Singh told indiantelevision.com. The venture will be done through her company, TV Live India..

    The permission for uplinking from Indian government was sought sometime in November and the permission came through recently without the prying media able to sniff out the information.

    Nepal One, primarily targeting the Nepal cable homes and people of Nepalese origin in India, would be beamed via Thaicom 3 satellite and uplinked from Delhi, Singh said.

    Nepal One would have a mix of music, entertainment and news and current affairs programming, including Nepalese and Hindi films to attract viewers in Nepal and across the border in India in places like the North-East. As an added sop, the channel would also have some programming in Bhojpouri language that is predominantly spoken in the erstwhile Bihar state, which has now been broken up in three smaller states.

    However, Singh was not willing to talk money and avoided questions on the investment being made, though indiantelevision.com learns from reliable industry sources that a Nepalese businessman is putting in money in the venture.

    “There are talks in the industry that the Nepal One venture may cost Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion). There is also the mention of a Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) figure, but I am not telling anything on the investment side,” Singh said, adding, however, the “necessary investments” would be made with the effort being to avoid the “razzle dazzle” that is generally associated with satellite channels.

    The cable TV market in Nepal is still not as mature as its Indian counterpart, though the Himalayan kingdom does receive 20-odd satellite channels, including Zee TV, Star, CNN, HBO, BBC and private Nepalese satellite channels, apart from the national broadcaster, Nepal TV. 

    Even as Nepal passes through economic difficulties, there has been a spurt of investment in the newest fad in town, private television channels. Pushed by tens of millions of rupees of investment, three metro channels and three satellite channels, of which one is already running, are preparing to beam their signals to households within the next six months or so. Though the market is small, the half a dozen new entrants and already established NTV will be vying to lure the attention of couch potatoes. Nepalese viewers, particularly the urban ones, whose current staple is the foreign channels, will now have the option of trying homegrown channels. Whether the arrival of domestic private TV channels would force them to stop surfing foreign channels, remains to be seen, wrote a Nepalese magazine recently (Private TV Channels: Watching The Small Screen Grow Up).

    Meanwhile, Singh is busy tying up the TV software and private producers in India and Nepal have been sounded out on this. Though, one producer that indiantelevision.com spoke to was a bit sceptical as Singh is not regarded as a good paymaster in the industry and is very tough to please where quality and content is concerned.

    But advice and guidance is available within home only for Singh. One of Singh’s brothers, Deepak Shourie, has ample experience in media companies having worked with the likes of Living Media, Outlook, Hindustan Times and now as the managing director for Discovery India. Her other brother is Arun Shourie, a powerful minister in the Indian government and, at present, has under his charge the telecom and IT ministry, apart from the disinvestment ministry, and broadcasting infrastructure does fall under the telecom sector.

    “I am taking it bite by bite,” a cautiously optimistic Singh observes. But there is no denying the fact that India will soon witness another TV production house turn into a broadcaster, a la NDTV.

  • DD may commission news shows from panel of producers

    DD may commission news shows from panel of producers

    NEW DELHI: The Prasar Bharati board, which met here yesterday, has decided that Doordarshan should go in for narrowcasting by tying up with organisations like NGOs and agriculture universities.

    The board also decided that while commissioning of programmes should be started again, a panel of producers should be set up to whom news and current affairs programming can be commissioned. This panel is likely to include those who have produced N&CA-based programming for DD like BAG Films, Rajat Sharma’s IMPL and Nalini Singh. 

    The board also discussed other issues that included recovery of money from those private agencies and producers who owe DD money running into crores of rupees and the sponsorship-related controversy that is threatening the cricket world, and the bonus scheme for bulk advertisers. 

    Where narrowcasting is concerned, DD has floated this scheme where it will tie up with agriculture universities like the Hissar Agriculture University (negotiations completed) for agriculture-related programmes to be made by these organisations for telecast on DD’s various regional channels or meant for local viewing. “A DD centre ready for such narrowcasting is Bellary,” a member of the Prasar Bharati board told indiantelevision.com, adding that this is part of Prasar Bharati’s efforts to live up to its image of a pubcaster.

    The board, according to Prasar Bharati sources, took note of the sponsorship controversy which has engulfed the cricketing world and its implications if some top cricketers from India like Sachin Tendulkar and other countries do not participate in the ICC-organsised cricket tournaments because of their personal sponsorship deals.

    “What can bother DD is that if top cricketers do not participate in the upcoming cricket tournament, then the commercial value of such matches may go down and the marketing of such matches may become a problem,” the Prasar Bharati board member said. 

    Though DD is fairly protected against such upheavals, the Board nevertheless took note of the controversy and its financial implications if any.

    On the recovery of money owed to DD, the errant producers had suggested that DD adjusts the outstanding against them for new programming. However, a final decision on this issue could not be taken by the board at its meeting yesterday. 

  • DD may commission news shows from panel of producers

    DD may commission news shows from panel of producers

    NEW DELHI: The Prasar Bharati board, which met here yesterday, has decided that Doordarshan should go in for narrowcasting by tying up with organisations like NGOs and agriculture universities.

     

    The board also decided that while commissioning of programmes should be started again, a panel of producers should be set up to whom news and current affairs programming can be commissioned. This panel is likely to include those who have produced N&CA-based programming for DD like BAG Films, Rajat Sharma’s IMPL and Nalini Singh.

    The board also discussed other issues that included recovery of money from those private agencies and producers who owe DD money running into crores of rupees and the sponsorship-related controversy that is threatening the cricket world, and the bonus scheme for bulk advertisers.

    Where narrowcasting is concerned, DD has floated this scheme where it will tie up with agriculture universities like the Hissar Agriculture University (negotiations completed) for agriculture-related programmes to be made by these organisations for telecast on DD’s various regional channels or meant for local viewing. “A DD centre ready for such narrowcasting is Bellary,” a member of the Prasar Bharati board told indiantelevision.com, adding that this is part of Prasar Bharati’s efforts to live up to its image of a pubcaster.

    The board, according to Prasar Bharati sources, took note of the sponsorship controversy which has engulfed the cricketing world and its implications if some top cricketers from India like Sachin Tendulkar and other countries do not participate in the ICC-organsised cricket tournaments because of their personal sponsorship deals.

    “What can bother DD is that if top cricketers do not participate in the upcoming cricket tournament, then the commercial value of such matches may go down and the marketing of such matches may become a problem,” the Prasar Bharati board member said.

    Though DD is fairly protected against such upheavals, the Board nevertheless took note of the controversy and its financial implications if any.

    On the recovery of money owed to DD, the errant producers had suggested that DD adjusts the outstanding against them for new programming. However, a final decision on this issue could not be taken by the board at its meeting yesterday.

  • Death-knell for DD News?

    Death-knell for DD News?

    The news does not seem too good. Today’s speculative leak that DD News is to be shut will come as a shocker to many. Especially to the high-profile producers who were commissioned to produce shows for DD News, ranging from Nalini Singh, Rajat Sharma and Anuradha Prasad’s BAG Films (along with husband Rajiv Shukla) to Harish Thawani’s Nimbus Communications which provides six hours of business news to the channel daily. 

    Especially considering that the channel came up as a step child on 15 August 1999, and drifted around for a year. An agreement was signed with Modi Entertainment wherein it offered a minimum bank guarantee of Rs 48.1 million for every quarter until September 2005 for distributing boxes and collecting subscriptions from cable ops for DD News and DD Sports, which were both digitally encrypted. The deal was signed to increase the two channels’ visibility in Indian homes. 

    But apparently that has not happened (reportedly, the agreement fell through), neither have advertisers or sponsors come on board. The result reportedly: the Prasar Bharati board has started discussing whether DD News is a candidate for euthanasia as it is bleeding with no signs of the haemorrhaging stopping. 

    Sources indicate the discussions are very preliminary, and no decisions have been taken. DD News currently gobbles up RS 300 million a year, a large chunk of which is doled out to private producers. 

    Earlier this year, DD had asked these producers to promote their programmes on DD News to create awareness for the service. Apparently, the circular met with a lukewarm response with the channel failing to generate enough viewer awareness.

    Reports are that the Prasar Bharati finds DD News too expensive to maintain and that it will gradually be phased out over the next six months. Replacing it will be a new channel offering a mix of kids, arts and literature related show. 

    The board has also reportedly proposed that DD National will have 30 per cent of its programming devoted to news as a compensation for DD News blanking out. 

    The announcement of a reported closure comes at a time when news and current affairs channels have taken centre stage following the terrorist attacks in New York. Viewers have been increasingly surfing into news channels to get an update on the latest developments, be it on CNN, BBC or Star News or DD News.