ITV

Tag: New Delhi

  • ‘Indian Idol’ with a cricketing spin

    ‘Indian Idol’ with a cricketing spin

    MUMBAI: This would be right up Sony Entertainment Television India’s street, more so considering the fact that reality television and cricket are such key programming ingredients for the network. The cricket board today announced a reality TV show ‘Cricket Star India’ that purportedly aims to find the best young cricketer in the country.

    The show, on the lines of ‘Indian Idol’, is being launched by UK-based firm Investors in Cricket (IIC) in association with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

    Both organisations are in final negotiations with two television partners and a final decision is expected in July. One of the partners will screen the cricket matches, while the other will screen the tests and selection process. In addition, IIC has signed up a leading reality TV production house in India and has agreements with a number of high profile corporate sponsors, according to an official release.

    Cricket Star India is the first programme in a 5-year international roll out, with Cricket Star UK already slated for Summer 2007. The winner of the first series, Cricket Star India, will earn a place at the Indian national trials, a year’s expenses paid contract with Leicestershire County Cricket Club (one of 18 professional first class teams in the UK).

    The initiative will kick off in August, when young cricketers in India can apply on-line and by post. A nationwide application and screening process will lead to a shortlist of talented candidates being invited to attend auditions in one of several regional centres under the auspices of local cricket boards.

    There they will be assessed by celebrity cricket judges, including national selectors, and BCCI technical and cricket staff, who will select the final group to attend the Cricket Star Academy, the release adds.

    The Cricket Star Academy begins in November, where the successful finalists will spend up to 10 weeks. The students’ progress will be tested each week through televised cricket matches against, variously, state XIs, the Indian Under-19 XI ,and celebrity XIs which will include some of the game’s leading names and many current Indian stars.

    Apart from the cricketing abilities, the coverage promises to uncover the candidates’ human sides, portraying life at the academy, the interaction between the hopefuls, and insights into their passion for the game. The final selection will be informed by millions of television viewers voting by phone, online or by text, states the release.

    The anouncement of the launch was made in New Delhi today and was not without some controversy. Press trust of India quotes Cricket Star CEO Fraser Castellino as saying the programme would serve as a selection trial for the board and the winner would be fast-tracked into the national side. However, when it was pointed out to him that there had never been trials to pick the Indian team per se as players were picked on the basis of their performances in domestic tournaments, Castellino made a volte face. “We will use the board’s facilities and draw on the coaching staff but there is no guarantee of selection into the state or national team,” PTI quoted Castellino as saying.

    The release quotes BCCI V-P and marketing committee chief Lalit Modi as saying, “Cricket Star is a ground-breaking TV format we have developed with Investors in Cricket that will showcase the best of India’s unsung cricketing talent, and compliment the BCCI’s growing portfolio of media properties. This exciting project supports our aim of unearthing and developing talent to produce the future stars of the game.” Modi was not present at the press conference though

  • Sesame Workshop to set up NGO in India

    Sesame Workshop to set up NGO in India

    NEW DELHI: In order to develop strategies and partnerships that ensure Galli Galli Sim Sim – an alliance between Turner India and Sesame Workshop – delivers, Sesame Workshop will be forming a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in New Delhi.

    In addition, the Workshop has named Sashwati Banerjee to become Executive director of the NGO once it is established, while Shari Rosenfeld, vice-president, developing and emerging markets, Sesame Workshop, will oversee it.

    Galli Galli Sim Sim’s mission is to educate and engage pre-school children throughout India and is a joint effort of Workshop and Time Warner company Turner India, which has contributed corporate social responsibility funds toward the establishment of the NGO.

    The India office will drive Galli Galli Sim Sim’s outreach projects and manage its network of collaborative partnerships with other NGOs, funding partners, consumers, government agencies, educational institutions, broadcasters, and production team members.

    “Sashwati, with over 15 years of experience in creative and management positions is deeply committed to children’s and women’s rights issues,” said Rosenfeld in a statement today.

    “We are thrilled that she will be joining our team to lend her expertise in raising the profile of Galli Galli Sim Sim, an initiative aimed at promoting joyful learning of basic life skills for India’s young children and celebrating the diversity that is a part of their every day lives,” she added.

    Galli Galli Sim Sim is a broad-based, multi-platform educational Initiative for young Indian children. A television show of the same name will debut later this year (the date being bandied around is 15 August) on India’s leading kids’ channels, Cartoon Network and Pogo.

    The outreach campaign will extend the educational impact of the show by reaching out particularly to underprivileged children and the adults who care for them, through materials and programs in various media.

    Congratulating Banerjee on her appointment, Soumitra Saha, senior VP, regional advertising sales and marketing, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia and project director, Sesame India, said, “With her Experience and well-honed skill set in the niche segment of social sector, Sashwati Banerjee is well-positioned to spearhead and successfully extend the long term educational objectives of Galli Galli Sim Sim to reach millions of young kids through the specially designed outreach campaign.”

    Most recently, Banerjee was the programme director and communications Advisor with Abt Associates, for the private sector partnership One Project, funded globally by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

    Prior to this position, Banerjee worked with the leading communications agency Ogilvy & Mather, where she was instrumental in setting up their healthcare division. In her capacity as the Business Manager, she designed and led successful campaigns for her clients in the pharmaceutical 
    industry.

    Sesame Workshop is a US-based nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children around the world. Founded in 1968, the Workshop changed television forever with the legendary Sesame Street.

    Today, the Workshop continues to innovate on behalf of children in 120 countries, using its proprietary research methodology to ensure its programs and products are engaging and enriching. Sesame Workshop is behind award-winning programs like Dragon Tales, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat, Pinky Dinky Doo and groundbreaking multimedia productions in South Africa, Egypt and Russia.

  • IPTV India 2006 to be held in New Delhi on 7 April

    IPTV India 2006 to be held in New Delhi on 7 April

    MUMBAI: New Delhi will host a conference IPTV India 2006 on 7 April. It will witness key global industry players with a sharp focus on Indian market to examine the range of technology issues, alternatives and challenges facing the industry today as well as successful business strategies & solutions for the future.

    The inaugural session will discuss IPTV in India: Opportunities & Challenges. Session I will focus on Why IPTV: Market & Business Drivers and session II will talk of IPTV: Examining & Implementing Best Practices in India. And, Session III will discuss Operational Challenges Facing The Service Providers In Transforming To An IPTV Business.

    Some key speakers at the conference include Trai fromer member Dr Devendra PS Seth, Airtel CTO Mobility Jagbir Singh, Sun Microsystems Telecom director Kapil Sood, BSNL planning & new services director RL Dube, DoT, ministry of communications & IT Sr. deputy director general, Telecommunication Engineering Centre R N Padukone.

    UTStarcom Inc. MD South Asia Vijay Yadav, Siemens Public Communication Networks (Pvt.) Ltd. MD Michael Kuehner, Alcatel South Asia Ltd. Vice President & Head Sales – India, Fixed Communicatins Group, Anuj Kapur are few other speakers participating in the conference.

    In an ever changing scenario service providers are fast realising the importance of shifting from a voice-centric model to an IP centric model in which video and other content rich interactive services play a key role.

    Service providers and leading global players are aggressively eyeing the booming Indian market for delivering the triple play of voice, video and data services in an integrated wireless context.

    At the seminar, various issues will be analysed including DRM, security, billing and the acceptable business model for all the parties involved in Indian context, from access networks to services control and delivery to QoS and customer experience to content and multimedia applications.

    Insights to Indian content owners and aggregators to understand their requirements for putting premium video on the Indian service provider’s broadband network and examining the developed India specific success factors for the IPTV value chain will be given.

    The seminar will also analyse different India specific IPTV service delivery models, concerns and requirements of the Indian content industry for working with the Indian service providers.