ITV

Tag: Oxygen

  • Comcast to spin off cable TV networks into new company SpinCo

    Comcast to spin off cable TV networks into new company SpinCo

    MUMBAI: The reshaping of legacy behemoth media and entertainment companies continues. US media megacorp Comcast today announced its intent to create a new publicly traded company comprised of a strong portfolio of NBCUniversal’s cable television networks, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel along with complementary digital assets including Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine, through a tax-free spin-off. 

    The well-capitalised independent company (SpinCo) will have significant scale as a pure-play set of assets anchored by leading news, sports and entertainment content. Over the past twelve months ended 30 September 2024, SpinCo generated approximately $7 billion in revenue.

    It will be an industry-leading news, sports and entertainment cable television business with a focused strategic direction. SpinCo’s stable of marquee brands will provide a diverse and differentiated content offering that will reach approximately 70 million US households. 

    Comcast is targeting to complete the spin-off in approximately one year, subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, including obtaining final approval from its board, satisfactory completion of SpinCo financing, receipt of tax opinions and receipt of any regulatory approvals. 

    “When you look at our assets, talented management team and balance sheet strength, we are able to set these businesses up for future growth,” said Comcast chairman & CEO Brian L. Roberts. “With significant financial resources from day one, SpinCo will be ideally positioned for success and highly attractive to investors, content creators, distributors and potential partners.” 

    The planned spin-off will also strategically position NBCUniversal with its leading broadcast and streaming media properties, including NBC entertainment, sports, news and Bravo – which all power Peacock – along with Telemundo, the theme parks business and film and television studios.

    “This transaction positions both SpinCo and NBCUniversal to play offense in a changing media landscape,” said Comcast president Mike Cavanagh. “Taken together, the entirety of NBCUniversal will be on a new growth trajectory, fuelled by our world-class content, technology, IP, properties and talent – all working in concert with each other as an integrated media company.”

    The company said in a press release that “as a global media and technology company, Comcast will be well-positioned to continue to invest in its strategic core growth businesses across its content & experiences and connectivity & platforms businesses, including residential broadband, wireless, business services, streaming, studios and theme parks. The transaction is expected to be accretive to revenue growth at Comcast and approximately neutral to Comcast’s leverage position.”

    While SpinCo will operate as an independent business, it will enter into a transition services agreement with NBCUniversal to allow SpinCo to operate seamlessly from day one. 

    The new firm will be led by CEO Mark Lazarus, the current chairman of NBCUniversal Media group. Anand Kini who is the current chief financial officer of NBCUniversal and EVP of corporate strategy at Comcast, will serve as SpinCo’s  chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Together, the press release said, the duo will lead the development of an independent strategy, while also establishing SpinCo as a potential partner and acquirer of other complementary media businesses.

    “As a standalone company with these outstanding assets, we will be better positioned to serve our audiences and drive shareholder returns in this incredibly dynamic media environment across news, sports and entertainment,” said Mark Lazarus. “We see a real opportunity to invest and build additional scale and I’m excited about the growth opportunities this transition will unlock. Our financial strength will also provide capacity for an attractive capital return policy while allowing for investment in the growth of these businesses.”

  • L’oréal stands in solidarity with India’s fight against Covid

    L’oréal stands in solidarity with India’s fight against Covid

    Mumbai: To address the acute shortage of oxygen being faced by India in combating the Covid2019 pandemic, L’Oréal has lent its financial support to the French government’s initiative to provide oxygen generators, liquid oxygen containers and specialised respirators to the country. In addition, the global cosmetic brand is working with a network of NGOs across India, including GiveIndia, United Way Mumbai, Hemkunt Foundation, ActionAid Association, the Akshay Patra Foundation etc to supply critical oxygen equipment, medical supplies, food, education and hygiene kits across the country.

    L’Oréal will provide oxygen concentrators and cylinders to hospitals in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and distribute over 100,000 units of sanitisers to government hospitals, police forces, municipal corporations, and those on the frontline of the pandemic across the country. The company said it will also give care packages to approximately 2000 nurses who have become the primary caregiver and family to many.

    With schools closed indefinitely, underprivileged children have not had access to education or food provided by schools. To aid their requirements, L’Oréal has partnered the Akshay Patra Foundation to provide 4,000 food and education kits for children. As women have been amongst the most severely impacted by the pandemic, L’Oréal is working with Action Aid India to provide livelihood training and infrastructure support, there by empowering them to restart their livelihoods.

    L’Oréal India managing director Amit Jain said, “We are deeply concerned with the severity of the second wave of the pandemic and committed to working closely with the government and our NGO partners to support the country’s collective efforts to fight the crisis.”

    L’Oréal employees will also be contributing toward Covid relief to an NGO of their choice via the fundraising platform GiveIndia.

  • Cred enables users to redeem their points to donate Oxygen

    Cred enables users to redeem their points to donate Oxygen

    MUMBAI: As India struggles to keep up with the growing demands for oxygen and healthcare amid the second Covid wave in the country, several start-ups and corporates have pitched in to aid the efforts. Kunal Shah-led Credit payment platform Cred too has come up with one such initiative. The fintech announced Monday that it will allow its app users to donate their Cred coins to help send oxygen for those in need. The start-up stated that it has partnered with Milaap, India’s leading healthcare fundraising platform for the cause.

    It may be noted that Cred coins are points earned as reward by its users for paying their credit card bills on time. Each of these coins represent every rupee in credit card bills that the customers pay using the app. Trading in 10,000 Cred coins lets you donate 1,000 litres of oxygen, 25,000 Cred coins gets 2,500 litres of oxygen, and so on. Cred says that for every donation made by users, Milaap will channel the funds raised to their partners, and will buy as well as deploy oxygen concentrators for hospitals and healthcare non-profits across India.

    The payment app announced the initiative on its social media platforms :

    Cred founder Kunal Shah shared, “We have seen how mobilisation of ordinary people, their time, resources, and energy has created change and action.”

    He went on to add, “You can also help by sharing ideas on streamlining oxygen supplies on oxygen@cred.club. The Cred Oxygen Fund will consider all ideas, evaluate and provide support needed.”

    Update: CRED members can now donate CRED coins towards buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals, healthcare orgs across India. With a goal of 1 billion litres, we’ve partnered with Milaap to ensure contributions reach hospitals in need.

    — Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) April 26, 2021

    Shah shared his donation certificate from Milaap, post donating CRED points:

    The gesture won lots of appreciation and plaudits, with many welcoming such an initiative when the country really needed it. Many users tweeted they would willingly and happily give up their CRED coins, for such a noble cause, with some even adding tongue-in-cheek that they “anyways did not have much use for them”.

    The news was received with some scepticism too.

    Some called it “Undoubtedly the best use of cred coins”!

    Many Twitterati felt the exercise should be more transparent to build trust and confidence in it:

    Several sought to know how the scheme works: “How are the cred points acting as a currency to purchase/donate oxygen concentrators (esp when they are in such short supply) and if the cred points are able to purchase it, why aren’t they available via INR in different points of sales.”

    Another netizen pointed out : “Sir- With all due respect- we have an availability problem. Please urge all your customers to donate plasma if they have survived the infection.”

    While quite a few wondered how Cred would implement this cause, considering that there’s oxygen shortage, many netizens termed it a marketing gimmick to increase engagement on the app.

    One netizen even criticised the action saying, “If free coins can buy oxygen, please generate as many as you can, and buy the damn oxygen. Why ask people to donate theirs?”

    Others tweeted :

    Some users hoped that there would be a report published at the end of this on how effective these contributions are and what difference it has made, while a few canny netizens pointed out: “Off late, many marketing campaigns are only created to create traction with users but no significant impact.”

    Well, for all the sceptics and for those who are worried that this will be just another fund which has no transparency, the company has put out a notification. The firm says that starting 3 May, there will be daily updates published in the Cred app giving you the status of exactly how the oxygen concentrator deployment is happening across India.

    Meanwhile, Milaap co-founder Anoj Viswananthan took to Twitter to share an update on the initiative: “UPDATE: We are incredibly grateful for the tremendous support shown by the CRED community  @CRED_club towards  @milaapdotorg initiative for  oxygen concentrators in the last 24 hours.”

    You can read the complete update here:

     

     

  • FremantleMedia acquires stake in 495 Productions

    FremantleMedia acquires stake in 495 Productions

    MUMBAI: FremantleMedia, has signed a deal to acquire a majority stake in 495 Productions, a US-based production company, known for its cutting edge reality programming.  Under the terms of the deal, FremantleMedia will have a 75 per cent holding with the opportunity to acquire the remaining shareholding in the future.

     

    This acquisition adds another strong and prolific US production companies into FremantleMedia’s increasingly diverse group of North American holdings, alongside its subsidiary FremantleMedia North America (“FMNA”) and previous acquisition Original Productions.

     

    Founded in 2006 by SallyAnn Salsano, one of the preeminent US entertainment producers and creators, 495 Productions is a formidable hit factory specialising in riveting unscripted character-driven reality series with colourful personalities at their heart.  The company developed and produced the pop-culture phenomenon series Jersey Shore, which went on to become MTV’s highest-rated show in its history and a global hit with multiple spin-offs including Snooki and JWOWW, The Show with Vinny and The Pauly D Project.

     

    Other ground-breaking productions include Spike TV’s Tattoo Nightmares, which FremantleMedia already distributes internationally, and Repo Games; MTV’s dating show Friendzone and the daytime syndicated talk show The Real for which SallyAnn Salsano is the executive producer. 

     

    The company also produces recent ratings hits Jerks with Cameras for MTV, Tattoos After Dark for Oxygen and Party Down South, which has quickly established itself as CMT’s highest-rated series ever.

     

    FremantleMedia  CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz in a press statement said, “495 Productions is undeniably one of the US’s leading reality production companies with a unique approach to formatted character-driven reality shows which have proved compelling TV in the US and around the world.  This deal will allow us to expand our share of the valuable US cable market and will complement and diversify our existing portfolio of content and clients.  Together, our ambition is to continue to grow 495 Productions in the US and to broaden its global footprint even further through our extensive distribution and production network.”

     

    FremantleMedia North America CEO Thom Beers added: “SallyAnn is a brilliant leader, an unstoppable creative force and one of the most successful producers in the entertainment industry. Since founding the business 2006, she and the talented creative team at 495 Productions have built the company into a powerhouse responsible for some of the most watched and talked about programming on TV at the moment. This is a key strategic acquisition for FMNA which, with both Original Productions and 495 Productions in the fold, now commands a best-in-class production slate across all family, male and female demos, and for network, cable and syndication platforms.”

     

    495 Productions has enjoyed great success in the US with shows airing across major broadcast and cable networks including a long-standing relationship with MTV and other Viacom channels such as Spike, CMT and VH1 and more recently with Fox, TLC, SyFy, Oxygen, National Geographic, TV Guide, A&E, Lifetime and History Channel.  Additionally, the company has recently signed a multi-year deal with Warners’ Telepictures Productions for SallyAnn’s services as executive producer on new shows for syndicated television, the first of which, The Real, launches this fall.  The company’s production team and the casts of its shows have been nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards and People’s Choice Awards and have won Teen Choice Awards for two years in a row.

     

    495 Productions founder SallyAnn Salsano commented: “This is a huge moment for me and the entire team at 495. That said, the decision of who to partner with and where to make my new home was easy because of my long term relationships with both Cecile and Thom. They know me, they understand how I run my business and they appreciate the way I produce my shows. I started this company with nothing in 2006 and this is proof that if you love what you do, work your ass off and want it bad enough someone will notice and it will pay off.”

  • NBCUniversal renews carriage deal with NCTC

    NBCUniversal renews carriage deal with NCTC

    MUMBAI: NBCUniversal has renewed its carriage deal with National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) that encompasses broad distribution for the programmer‘s full portfolio of cable and broadcast services, as well as a first-ever retransmission consent deal for NBC and Telemundo Owned Stations.

    With completion of this renewal agreement, NBCUniversal‘s national cable networks, including Bravo, cloo, Chiller, CNBC, CNBC World, E!, G4, Golf Channel, MSNBC, mun2, NBC Sports Network, Oxygen, Sprout, Style, Syfy, Telemundo, Universal HD and USA will be carried by NCTC‘s nearly 1,000 independent cable operator members nationwide.

    Included in the deal are rights to carry the Olympic Games, as well as on-demand content from NBCUniversal‘s cable and broadcast network portfolio, and access to live channels across multiple platforms, both in and out of the home.

    NBCUniversal EVP Content Distribution Matt Bond said, "NCTC‘s members will continue to have access to the best English and Spanish language cable network and broadcast programming. This agreement reflects NCTC‘s understanding of the value that NBCUniversal delivers to their members."

    NCTC EVP of Programming Judy Meyka said, "NCTC is pleased to extend our long relationship with NBCUniversal and provide members continued access to their linear networks. In addition, we are excited to add NBCU‘s broad portfolio of on-demand content for multiple platforms to the agreement. We had over 80 members participate in delivering the 2012 Olympics to multiple platforms, demonstrating that members have both the capability and interest in serving customers on new platforms. Including retransmission consent for NBC and Telemundo owned stations are another valued addition to this agreement."

    The agreement with NCTC follows NBCUniversal‘s recent distribution agreements with Cablevision, Mediacom, Suddenlink and Verizon.

  • AT&T and MobiTV launch live TV subscription service for broadband

    AT&T and MobiTV launch live TV subscription service for broadband

    MUMBAI: AT&T Inc. and MobiTV, Inc., the global leader in television and music services for all things mobile and broadband, have inked an agreement to offer a mobile television service to broadband users in the United States, including AT&T Yahoo High Speed Internet and AT&T WorldNet subscribers.

    The browser-based service, which will be called AT&T Broadband TV, will enable subscribers to use a computer to access a wealth of live programming while at home, at work, or on the go using wired and wireless broadband technologies.

    Through the deal, AT&T becomes the first U.S. broadband provider to offer a live TV subscription service with MobiTV to consumers through any broadband connection. The service expands upon an earlier agreement that enables AT&T to offer MobiTV to customers who use thousands of AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots, states an official release.

    The AT&T Broadband TV service will initially have approximately 20 channels of live and made-for-broadband television content spanning national news, sports, entertainment and full-length music videos from top artists. Among the channels included in the initial channel lineup is Fox News, Bloomberg, Oxygen, History Channel, Comedy Time, Toonworld, Maxx Sports and the Weather Channelm, the release adds.

    The industry-leading, browser-based service features desktop integration for easy access, fast channel-changing, full-screen functionality and quality video playback. Subscribers can quickly access AT&T Broadband TV through a hyperlink or desktop shortcut.

    Users will have access to a comprehensive channel lineup for a flat monthly subscription of $19.99. And soon, additional television channels will be offered to ensure that AT&T customers have access to the broadest range of entertainment content. The subscription can be used with nearly any broadband connection, at home, work or on the road.

    Consumers can test-drive and order the new service at http://att.mobitv.com. The companies will also market the AT&T Broadband TV offering on the AT&T WorldNet portal at www.att.net.

    “The AT&T Broadband TV service offers our customers the ability to watch live television programming beyond the TV screen, increasing our capabilities to provide compelling content to consumers who are seeking information and entertainment when, where and on the device they desire,” says AT&T Entertainment Services EVP Scott Helbing. “The deal helps further enhance AT&T’s broadband service and three-screen initiative by offering differentiated broadband-enabled content that consumers are increasingly demanding.”

    “Television is officially available on the PC now and will reach television fans in their home, office, college dorm, at the airport or anywhere they happen to be,” says MobiTV chairman & co-founder Dr. Phillip Alvelda. “MobiTV and AT&T will deliver premium quality content seamlessly across all broadband networks, making entertainment, wireless and technology history.”

    Through this agreement, AT&T, the nation’s largest high speed DSL Internet provider with more than 7.8 million DSL lines in service, will give its customers and other broadband users a new avenue for entertainment and information, enabling them to take control of their viewing options. In addition, the company recently launched AT&T Homezone, a groundbreaking new service that integrates AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet, AT&T | DISH Network satellite television and AT&T Home Networking services via a single device.

    The new AT&T Homezone service provides Internet-based video with satellite TV programming in a seamless in-home experience, giving consumers a powerful new way to extend the best of the Internet beyond the desktop to bring entertainment content to their TV screens and stereos. It features digital videorecording, movies on demand, photo- and music-sharing, storage for both, and it whets the anytime/anywhere generation’s appetite with remote, Web-based access to the system.

  • Oxygen puts a new twist to the relationship reality genre

    Oxygen puts a new twist to the relationship reality genre

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster Oxygen will put a twist on the relationship reality genre with Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty.

    The television star comes to the rescue of men and women who are unable to muster up the courage to break off their toxic relationships with bad boyfriends/girlfriends, frenemies, or tyrannical bosses.

    Doherty joins forces with people in relationship peril who want to get out but just cant seem to do it on their own. She will listen to the plight of her new client and put their mates to the test by creating a fictitious situation caught by a hidden camera – to determine the true character of the relationship.

    If the test is failed, Doherty then helps put the relationship out of its misery. In each episode, Doherty will then help mastermind the break-up, and be on the scene to deliver the news and resolve the break-up. The goal at the end is for both parties to agree that its all for the best and its time to move on.

    Oxygen says that Doherty is the ideal addition to its roster of funny and fascinating women.

  • US women’s network Oxygen is following an unconventional path

    US women’s network Oxygen is following an unconventional path

    MUMBAI: US women’s network Oxygen is looking to innovate with its most ambitious development slate to date for 2007

    The network is collaborating with producers such as Lynda Obst, Working Title Television, Lionsgate Television, Escape Artists, September Films, Lovespell, Fox TV Studios, and New Line Television for a diverse mix of comedy and reality series and original films.

    Projects that have gone to pilot for the network include Once More With Feeling The reality series takes peoples big announcements and turns them into Broadway caliber musical productions.

    Capitol Hill Girls is a docu-soap that focusses on the lives of young women working on Capitol Hill. Tease is a competition reality series in which world renowned hair stylists compete against talented challengers.

    Other projects in development include the animated series Angry Little Girls from Hollywood actress Jennifer Love Hewitt. Then there is a single camera comedy series Bastards! from Fox TV Studios, an hour long series of Robin Hudson Mysteries from Lynda Obst, limited drama series Serial from Lionsgate and original film MK Ultra.

    In addition to these new projects, Oxygen is gearing up for a premiere packed summer of new original programming. In June, the channel premieres The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, a reality series that chronicles the exploits of Americas Over the Top Supermodel, Janice Dickinson, as she launches her own modeling agency.

    Banshee is a movie starring Taryn Manning in the title role as a car thief on the run from a killer whose car she has stolen. In July, Oxygen premieres MoNiques F.A.T. Chance; the second annual beauty competition for plus sized women. In August comes a reality series Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty and there’s Fight Girls, a reality movie that features the countrys best female fighters as they train to compete with the toughest women on earth in a battle for the Muay Thai World Championship.