ITV

Tag: Network

  • TV Today not selling 3 FM stations to ENIL; seeks MIB nod for migration

    TV Today not selling 3 FM stations to ENIL; seeks MIB nod for migration

    MUMBAI: TV Today Network shall not undertake the agreement, entered into with Entertainment Network (India) Limited, to sell three Metro FM Radio stations, as was earlier approved by the board in its meeting held on 13 November 2015, according to a BSE filing.

    TV Today had inked a deal to sell seven Oye FM radio stations to ENIL which operates Radio Mirchi. However, MIB did not approve sale of three stations and the matter went before the Delhi High Court.

    Such sale agreement was subject to the approval of the MIB or an order from the Delhi High Court allowing the sale of Metro Radio stations whichever is earlier.

    TV Today said it would now reorganise the radio business. The company would approach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to seek permission to migrate its radio business from phase II to phase III.

    “The committee of senior officials in their meeting held on 19 December, 2016 has approved the initiation of procedural modalities w.r.t proposal of migrating its radio business from phase II to the FM radio phase III, that would enable the company from reorganisation of its radio business,” TV Today said in a BSE filing.

    “The migration fee will involve a total net capital expenditure of Rs 71.36 crore excluding other charges/interest and will be completed within three months,” it added.

  • Idea rolls out 3G network in Kolkata

    Idea rolls out 3G network in Kolkata

    MUMBAI:  Idea Cellular, one of the largest telecom operators in the country announces the launch of its own 3G services in Kolkata metro on 2100 MHz spectrum band that was acquired through auction earlier this year. Idea is committed to provide superior customer experience on both voice and data services and has started rolling out its own 3G network, in a phased manner, while continuing to offer 3G ICR, to give its customers a seamless and superior mobile broadband experience.

     

    As committed at the beginning of the financial year, Idea managed to launch its own 3G services in Kolkata, within a short duration of spectrum allocation.

     

    With this, Idea’s 3G network has expanded to 13 major markets in India, covering 79% of Idea’s revenue and 60% of industry revenue. Additionally, Idea offers 3G services through ICR arrangements with other telecom operators in 9 circles, providing its users seamless connectivity pan-India (except Orissa).

     

    According to  Idea Cellular COO Corporate Lakshminarayana, “Idea’s continuous investment in spectrum acquisition, network infrastructure, and brand building in the Eastern market is a testimony to our commitment to the region. With the launch of 3G services in Kolkata, it has now become the 2nd metro after Delhi where Idea has set up its own 3G network. I am confident that this will drive data usage amongst our existing users and further strengthen brand pull resulting in more customers opting for our superior network.”

     

    Idea 3G users will now experience ease of service while accessing content like mobile TV, video on demand, music downloads, online gaming, amongst many others.

     

    Idea Cellular, COO- East Anish Roy  said, “Idea has nearly 20 lakh customers in Kolkata with approximately 20% being Data users. With the launch of our own 3G network in the metro, the existing Idea 3G users will experience enhanced services, products and offerings and the new subscribers will benefit from our affordable 3G tariffs and superior network. Our strengthened 3G network will further spur our marketshare growth in Kolkata metro”.

     

    Idea has registered the highest growth in Revenue Market Share (RMS), in Kolkata and Rest of Bengal, in Q2FY16 on a YoY basis, as per the TRAI quarterly report. Its Incremental RMS for the same period was the highest amongst all players in the region, a demonstration of the faith the customers have reposed in the Idea network.  

     

    Idea has significantly bolstered its infrastructure in the state over the last few years. By the end of FY16, it will have a network of 7400 2G cell sites in the state, in addition to 1300 3G sites in Kolkata metro. The company has also increased the number of Idea service centres in the state to more than 250. With its focus on providing a world-class customer experience, Idea Cellular continues to expand and grow its presence in the state.

  • Amagi expands TV ad network to international markets

    Amagi expands TV ad network to international markets

    Indian advertisers can reach more than 200 million viewers worldwide on B4U Network and Zee Bangla across to US, Europe, Asia, GCC, Canada, Africa and Australia.

     

    MUMBAI: Amagi has expanded its India ad network to key international markets like North America, Canada, Africa, Australia and Asia. Amagi will now offer an advertising platform to Indian advertisers with B4U Network and Zee Bangla in these international markets. The company’s move will now enable Indian advertisers to reach more than 200 million viewers on these channels.

     

    The company’s ad network will be extended to Zee Bangla and the entire B4U network including B4U Movies, B4U Music, B4U Plus and B4U Aflam. This opens up doors for several brands within India to expand their advertising footprint across the globe in markets of their choice. While this will instantly help in expanding the consumer base of Indian brands, television networks will also benefit from increased ad revenues.

     

    Amagi co-founder and head of global operations KA Srinivasan said, “Our endeavor is to serve as a global TV ad platform for brands within India, helping them to penetrate and capture international markets essential for business growth; and collaborating with widespread networks like B4U and Zee Bangla, who are our long-standing partners, allows us to do just that. Indian advertisers, who were earlier restricted to Indian audiences alone can now advertise worldwide and reap the benefits of global exposure. Amagi hopes to see more such partnerships with TV channels and continue to bring more Indian brands on board for international advertising.”

     

    Amagi’s global ad network allows advertisers to target audiences across regions, while optimising ad budgets and increasing their return on investments. Advertisers can buy ad spots through Amagi across its international network and target consumers across markets.

  • O&M wins CLIO Network of the Year for 4th consecutive year

    O&M wins CLIO Network of the Year for 4th consecutive year

    MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather was named Network of the Year at the 56th Annual CLIO Awards held recently at the American Museum of Natural History. This is the fourth consecutive year the O&M network has topped the CLIOs.

     

    “Great creative should engage, challenge, celebrate and educate. Ogilvy & Mather continues to set the bar very high with work that encompasses these characteristics time and time again. Congratulations to the entire team on a fourth consecutive CLIO Network of the Year win,” said CLIO president Nicole Purcell.

     

    The Grand CLIO for Print went to the campaign “It Happens Here” on behalf of the anti-female genital mutilation organisation 28 Too Many, which also was named Advertiser of the Year, while the Grand CLIO for Direct was awarded for the Burger King “Proud Whopper” campaign.

     

    In addition to the two Grand CLIOs, the awards included 10 Gold, 27 Silver, 23 Bronze and 24 Shortlists across the categories of social media, audio and film technique, branded content, branded entertainment, direct, innovative, design, out of home, integrated, engagement, experiential, print and film. O&M was also awarded three Silver Healthcare CLIOs in the design, direct, and out of home categories.

     

    O&M worldwide chief creative officer Tham Khai Meng said, “I am delighted the work and results produced by Ogilvy & Mather agencies around the world on behalf of our clients have once again been recognized by our peers, the judges, and CLIOs. We couldn’t have done it without the verve of our talented people and the huge support of our courageous clients.” 

     

    Gerry Human, chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather London, which led the creation of “It Happens Here,” added, “Thank you CLIOs. I hope these awards inspire even more people to reach out and help 28 Too Many in their brave fight against this horrendous crime inflicted on young girls across the world. Please go to their site and donate.”

     

    Anselmo Ramos, chief creative officer and founder of David, a WPP company that is part of the Ogilvy & Mather network, said of the “Proud Whopper” campaign that his agency created, “Proud Whopper is young, smart and brave work. I thank our client for being fearless in helping to bring its message to life, our team for creating it and the CLIOs for celebrating it.”

     

    The CLIO Awards is one of the world’s most recognized international awards competitions for advertising, design, digital and communication.

  • DD appoints Tauquir Zaidi as ad sales head

    DD appoints Tauquir Zaidi as ad sales head

    MUMBAI: The public broadcaster has added another executive to strengthen its advertising and sales division. Tauquir Zaidi has been appointed as network sales head.

     

    The move is in coherence with its aim to roll out its full fledged professional advertising and sales team. Zaidi will be based in New Delhi.

     

    He said, “Most of us have grown watching DD and the programs are still fresh in our minds. Serials like Buniyad, Mahabharat, Humlog, Nukkad and so many others are still a cult of this industry. This is the only organisation that believes in ‘finite fiction’ without falling into the trap of TVTs. Today all GECs start a fiction without planning its end /climax. The length of the serial depends on the ratings it gets, which does no justice to the story. Call of the hour is to put an effective strategy and recruit right team to implement those strategies.”

     

    He will be first developing a promotional strategy to identify core target markets and setting measurable goals to multiply revenue. According to him, the success of an organisation is to implement a well-thought marketing plan by providing feasible solutions to clients.

     

    Zaidi has over 17 years of experience in the field of ad sales with companies such as Star India, NDTV and Times Television Network

  • Raj TV looking at raising Rs 200 crore through stake sale

    Raj TV looking at raising Rs 200 crore through stake sale

    MUMBAI: Raj TV Network is keen on further strengthening its presence in its core market of south India and also expanding its reach to the diaspora from the four states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

     

    The television network is on the lookout for equity investors – financial or strategic – to fund its growth plans. The company has appointed Destimony Securities as its advisor for the equity stake sale.

     

    “By getting in investors, we are looking at raising approximately Rs 200 crore,” Destimony Securities MD and CEO Sudip Bandhopadhyay told Indiantelevision.com.

     

    Raj TV Network plans to revamp its clutch of south Indian GECs, music and news channels and also on furthering its brand in the Telugu market.

     

    The network operates 12 channels – four in Tamil, three in Telugu, two in Kannada, two in Malayalam and one in Hindi.

     

    Raj TV Network also has a large library of Tamil movies which has not yet been tapped gainfully.

     

    “We have a huge inventory of Tamil movies that needs to be monetised. Alongside, the large diaspora of the four states in the South needs to be captured,” Bandhopadhyay said.

     

    Ernst & Young had in 2007 valued Raj TV Network’s movie collections at Rs 325 crore.

     

    The network is currently busy revamping its Telugu channels  —  Raj Musix Telugu, Raj Telugu News and Vissa.  The relaunch of the Telugu channels is expected sometime next month. Raj TV Network also plans to rebrand Vissa to prefix the Raj brand.

     

    Apart from this, Raj TV Network has ambitious plans to make its presence felt in northern parts of the country.

     

    “We don’t just want to build the brand name in the south but also move to other regional markets as well,” says Raj TV MD M Raajhendhran.

     

    The network is already present in a few Hindi speaking markets with Raj Parivar, which currently features only songs. It has long term plans to start GECs and other regional music channels as well in north India. Bhojpuri is one of the markets Raj TV Network is considering. Additionally, it is also looking at the Bengali market.

     

    In the third quarter ended 31 December 2013, Raj TV Network reported a 53.98 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 4.99 crore (20.01 per cent of revenue during the quarter) from Rs 3.24 crore (18.55 per cent of revenue of that quarter) a year ago.

  • News Express brings Sanjeev Kumar as network sales head

    News Express brings Sanjeev Kumar as network sales head

    MUMBAI: After quitting India TV and joining News Express as CEO, Vinod Kapri has been working on getting his A team together. The latest to be recruited is  media professional Sanjeev Kumar who will be heading  the channel’s network sales.

     

    Kumar has over seven years of experience, the last being as the country head for ANN7 in South Africa. He has also worked as a vice president of sales at Zee News handling the channels Zee News, Zee UP/UK, Zee Punjabi, Zee MPCG. He was also associated with the Outlook group and Bennet Coleman and Co.

     

    Kapri says, “Sanjeev Kumar has a very rich experience of media sales and is a step further in our endeavour to build a team of best professionals in media.”

     

    He has already beefed up the channel’s editorial and managerial teams and is also focusing on improving  its distribution.  Amit Tripathi was earlier roped in as COO, Satish K Singh as the editor, Ravikant Mittal as managing editor and Jacob Matthew as executive editor.

     

    While the channel isn’t available on a lot of platforms as of now, it has struck a deal with one of India’s  biggest DTH operators – Tata Sky – recently. Close to 11 million subscribers will get to watch News Express from 5 February onwards.

  • ‘Galli Galli Sim Sim’ back on Doordarshan

    ‘Galli Galli Sim Sim’ back on Doordarshan

    MUMBAI:  Sesame Workshop in India (SWI) has launched the sixth season of Galli Galli Sim Sim, the popular children’s programme, on Doordarshan with a brand new message, “Hasaye Zabardast, Seekhaye Mast’.

    The show aimed at children aged 0-8 years believes in harnessing the power of television to provide a strong early childhood educational foundation to preschoolers. Season six being aired on Doordarshan, which reaches out to 13 million children, focuses strongly on literacy and numeracy. Aprt from it, it will also focus on other areas of child development such as problem solving, caring and sharing, giving a head start to a significant number of children with little to no access to early childhood education.

    Doordarshan director general Tripurari Sharan said, “As a public service broadcaster, we have to always look out for a holistic programming mix as we have a vast and diverse viewership.  With Galli Galli Sim Sim we are able to reach out to children from all strata of society and we are extremely glad to continue its broadcast on our network.”

    The show was first aired in 2006. “As India’s first educational programme on TV, Galli Galli Sim Sim has played a pioneering role in imparting high quality early childhood learning and providing children with a head start in understanding and communicating in the world around them,” said Sesame Workshop India MD Sashwati Banerjee. “We believe we have a critical role to play in making early childhood education take center stage in India and by being on Doordarshan this takes us closer to our goal.”

    The show started airing from 14 December, 2013 at 9 am and will run every Saturday at the same time, a total of 52 episodes of 22 minutes each.

  • Cartoon Network to distribute Asia-Pacific developed series globally

    Cartoon Network to distribute Asia-Pacific developed series globally

    MUMBAI: Cartoon Network that has started production on a new Asia Pacific-made series that is being developed for global distribution.

     

    Exchange Student Zero, a series where fantasy becomes reality when the dark forces from a tactical anime card game are unleashed on our world, will be ready to air in 2015. The series would be the first one to be developed in the Asia-Pacific region and telecast across the world. However, the Network’s movies develop in the region has been released on a global level earlier.

     

    Another new project in the pipeline for the leading kids’ network is Monster Beach, an original TV special that will also be available internationally.

     

    “Since the very early days at Cartoon Network in Asia Pacific we have produced local content,” says Cartoon Network Chief Content Officer Mark Eyers. “Exchange Student Zero confirms our continued commitment to producing exclusive and compelling creator-driven local content with export potential.”

     

    The show’s director, Patrick Crawley from Bogan Entertainment Solutions (BES) in Australia, adds, “It’s fantastic that we’ll be able to turn this character-driven, inter-dimensional story into a complete Cartoon Network series. Our Australian animation creative team is a formidable talent and we’re thrilled to have the chance to work with an international broadcaster to bring Exchange Student Zero to a global audience.”

  • Raj TV reports flat q-o-q revenue for Q2-2013; 26 per cent lower q-o-q PAT

    Raj TV reports flat q-o-q revenue for Q2-2013; 26 per cent lower q-o-q PAT

    BENGALURU: Television network Raj Television Network Limited (Raj TV) reported almost flat revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs18.35 crore as compared to the Rs18.29 crore reported for Q1-2014. Y-o-y revenue was however higher by 12.3 per cent (about Rs 2.01 crore higher) than the Rs 16.34 crore for Q2-2013.
    Raj TV’s PAT for Q2-2014 at Rs 3.46 crore was about 26 per cent lower than the Rs 4.67 crore for Q1-2014, but 50 per cent higher than the Rs 2.31 crore y-o-y (Q2-2013).

    Despite a 23 per cent lower cost of revenues at Rs 5.18 crore for Q2-2014 as compared to the Rs 6.75 crore for Q1-2014 and lower by almost a third (32 per cent) cost of revenue for Q2-2013 at Rs 7.58 crore, higher employee benefits, higher depreciation and amortisation expense and elevated administrative expenses have increased the total expense by about two per cent to Rs 13.09 crore as compared to the Rs 12.85 crore for Q1-2013. Raj TV’s total expense at Rs 13.55 crore for Q2-2013 was higher by 3.3 per cent as compared to Q2-2014.

    Administrative cost at Rs 3.06 crore for Q2-2014 was a whopping 13.5 per cent more than the Rs 2.69 crore for Q1-2014 and almost 26 per cent more than the Rs 2.43 crore for Q2-2013.

    Further, the network paid almost 17 per cent higher finance cost at Rs 97.15 lakh (Rs 0.9715 crore) as compared to the Rs 83.34 lakh (Rs 0.8334 crore) for Q1-2014 and almost 28 per cent higher finance cost than the Rs 76.02 lakh (Rs 0.7602 crore) for Q2-2013.