ITV

Tag: Partnerships

  • Archita Jasani joins Jojo app as VP – strategic growth & partnerships

    Archita Jasani joins Jojo app as VP – strategic growth & partnerships

    MUMBAI: In a major move within the OTT industry, Archita Jasani has been appointed as vice president – strategic growth & partnerships at Jojo App, a leading platform dedicated to premium Gujarati content. Known for her expertise in media, content strategy, and OTT growth, Jasani brings her vast industry experience to help steer Jojo App toward a dynamic and expansive future.

    Expressing her excitement, Jasani stated via Linkedin, “Jojo OTT App is reshaping the entertainment landscape for the Gujarati-speaking community, and I am thrilled to be part of this journey. The opportunity to collaborate with such a talented team and contribute to making Gujarati content more accessible, engaging, and globally relevant is truly inspiring.”

    With Jasani’s appointment, the company aims to further drive strategic expansion, forge impactful partnerships, and explore innovative opportunities to elevate the platform’s offerings and reach a broader global audience. She also aims to collaborate with industry leaders, content creators, and partners to build a platform that fosters a deep appreciation for Gujarati culture and storytelling.

    Jasani’s career is a rollercoaster of media milestones. She kicked off in 2003 at Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance before diving headfirst into the world of entertainment. From Hungama, Times Group, and Eros Now, she mastered strategy, distribution, and partnerships with a knack for innovation.

    At V Hunt Digital Media, she put Chana Jor OTT on the Gen Z map, ensuring their binge needs were met. Now, with 20+ years of experience, she’s got the strategy, the vision, and the hustle to push Jojo App into uncharted success.

    As she embarks on this exciting new chapter, Jasani extended her gratitude, saying, “Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my journey. Here’s to new beginnings and exciting times ahead!”

  • Zee5 expands Manish Kalra’s role to CBO, global

    Zee5 expands Manish Kalra’s role to CBO, global

    Mumbai: Zee5 has announced the expansion of Manish Kalra’s role, extending his responsibilities to oversee Zee5’s business across global markets. In his new capacity, Kalra will spearhead the strategic growth of Zee5’s global footprint, alongside India, focusing on international audience engagement, partnerships, and market expansion.

    This leadership expansion aligns with Zee5’s vision of strengthening its position in a dynamic digital landscape by providing high-quality, relevant content to a diverse global audience. In his new role, Manish will focus on broadening the platform’s reach, enhancing user experiences, and boosting engagement. By utilizing data-driven insights, he aims to optimize content relevance, advance brand and platform metrics, and bolster both subscription and ad-based video-on-demand segments.

    With more than 20 years of experience in the online business and marketing sectors, Manish has held key leadership roles across prominent organizations. Before joining Zee5 in 2020, he spent the last decade in roles such as chief marketing officer, chief business officer, and CEO at companies like Amazon, MakeMyTrip, HomeShop18, Dell, and Craftsvilla. Manish holds a master’s in business administration from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh.

    This expansion of Kalra’s role reflects Zee5’s commitment to meeting the growing global demand for high-quality, culturally relevant content.

  • GroupM India names Ashwin Padmanabhan as president – investments, trading and partnerships

    GroupM India names Ashwin Padmanabhan as president – investments, trading and partnerships

    Mumbai: GroupM India announced on Wednesday that Ashwin Padmanabhan will be promoted to president-investments, trading, and partnerships. Padmanabhan, who earlier led ‘Trading’ and ‘Partnerships’ will now also be taking on the ‘Investments’ portfolio from Sidharth Parashar. Parashar will be joining the APAC Mindshare leadership team as chief investment officer, Mindshare APAC, and will now be based out of Singapore.

    Padmanabhan will continue to report to GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar and be based out of the Gurgaon campus. Over the next three months, Parashar and Padmanabhan will work closely to ensure a seamless transition into their respective new roles along with their key leadership team.

    GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar said, “Sidharth has had a phenomenal career journey where the organisation has witnessed his evolution from a practise expert to a leader over the last 18 years with GroupM. He has successfully led investment mandates across all media, elevating the practise through innovative products and exceptional value for our clients. I would like to wish him the very best and will continue to work closely with him as he drives the regional investment strategy for Mindshare.”

    “I am also excited to see Ashwin taking over this additional role. He has a deep understanding of the business, and we continue to benefit from his knowledge of the media ecosystem. Focusing on cutting-edge innovation backed by his solid process orientation is a value-add for clients. His ‘start-up’ mindset has helped GroupM venture into new practices, deploying creativity to our products and solutions, keeping client delight at the helm,” he added.

    Parashar will report to Mindshare APAC chief executive officer Helen McRae, and work on enhancing Mindshare’s local market investment strategy and driving thinking on the opportunity of good growth and intentional investment for the region.

    Helen McRae said, “I am very pleased that Sid will be joining our regional team. He brings a tremendous depth of expertise and will be a great champion of good growth for our clients.”

    Sidharth Parashar said, “It has been an amazing journey at GroupM, and I am delighted to now take over this new Mindshare APAC investment role. I look forward to this opportunity in new markets to build value for our client’s business.”

    Ashwin Padmanabhan said, “GroupM has been a fertile ground for innovation and creating value in a highly entrepreneurial environment. This expanded remit motivates me to renew my focus on the GroupM value proposition for our clients, media partners, and technology partners. We want to keep the momentum up with these relentless efforts toward improving today for a better tomorrow.”

  • OTTplay forays into streaming aggregation in partnership with 12 OTTs

    OTTplay forays into streaming aggregation in partnership with 12 OTTs

    Mumbai: Over-the-top (OTT) content recommendation platform OTTplay forays into streaming with the launch of its premium service in partnership with 12 Indian and international OTTs.

    The OTT aggregator has partnered with platforms such as Sonyliv, Zee5, Lionsgate Play, Sun Nxt, ShemarooMe, Curiosity Stream, ShortsTV, Docubay. It has also launched four international streaming services in India with Hallmark Movies Now, Dust, Fuse+ and Tastemade+.

    It offers five premium subscription plans which offer five Hindi OTTs, eight English OTTs, four OTT focused on South languages and five assorted OTTs.

    The pricing platform starts at Rs 50 per month to be paid annually. A user that purchases an OTTplay premium subscription pack could save anywhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,500 per year, claims the platform.

    OTTplay has a user base of five million who navigate the complex OTT landscape with AI-based personalised recommendations every month. Users can discover titles across multiple OTT platforms as well as get relevant content by OTTplay’s editorial team in terms of ratings, reviews, interviews and news.

    “We specialise in curation, aggregation, recommendation and hence personalisation. With the launch of subscriptions on the OTTplay app, we now have a better understanding of our viewer’s preferences through not just their stated preferences, but also their actual consumption patterns, and we are very excited to see the upgrade in the accuracy of our personalized OTT recommendations across platforms, genres and languages,” said OTTplay’s founder Avinash Mudaliar.

    He further said, “Our aim is to enable consumers to spend time watching their favourite content, not searching for it; according to a recent Accenture report, close to 70 per cent of Indian OTT consumers find the process of navigating different OTT apps ‘frustrating’, and that is the precise problem we had set out to solve with OTTplay.”

    “Our partnership with OTTplay is an exciting opportunity to expand our international footprint as we bring Hallmark Movies Now to India for the first time,” said SVP international distribution Francisco Gonzales. “Indian audiences now have a one-stop destination to access a curated mix of signature Hallmark content.”

    “Our endeavour has been to ensure that viewers are provided with a curated line-up of content for the best viewing experience. Taking this forward, we are excited to partner with OTTplay to reach a large and diverse sector of consumers with a digitally-driven offering enabling consumers to spend more time watching than searching – this is in-line with our ethos of ‘play more, browse less’. We look forward to a successful partnership with the end user discovering the best of content, said Lionsgate Play EVP Amit Dhanuka.

    “We are excited to be a part of this endeavour aimed at broadening the horizons of digital content consumption and improving online entertainment experiences for consumers,” said a spokesperson from Zee5. “At Zee5, we passionately believe in and have been democratising content for the country’s diverse entertainment seekers through innovative offerings with an added value proposition. With this collaboration, we aim to strengthen our connect with the wider audience base and enable them to enjoy Zee5’s extensive and diversified content library.”

    “At Curiosity, we know our audiences want to know more and our factual content and documentaries satisfy that need. We are very pleased to partner with OTTplay as they optimize valuable insights to superserve their consumer with the factual content they are searching for, providing for the ultimate customer experience,” Curiosity Inc.  managing director and head of international Bakori Davis.

    OTTplay premium offers content across 12 OTT platforms, 10 Indian languages, a host of international languages, 18+ genres and 20,000+ shows. The platform works seamlessly across all operating systems and does not need any additional hardware to be installed. OTTplay is available as a website as well as on iOS and Android apps.

    “I am delighted to direct Kanda Naal Mudhal. It has an eccentric plotline with significant characters who have their set of dreams and desires,” said director Radha Krishnan. “How each of the characters fulfil their dreams while also balancing their relationships is the crux of the story. Furthermore, it was a treat to direct such a terrific ensemble with tremendous acting prowess, with the rustic locations serving as a complement. I am grateful that Colors Tamil has given me the opportunity to be a part of the show where all characters represent an important facet of society.”

  • InMobi expands partnership with Microsoft Advertising into Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa

    InMobi expands partnership with Microsoft Advertising into Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa

    MUMBAI: The leading provider of content, marketing, and monetization technologies InMobi on Tuesday announced an expansion of its partnership with Microsoft Advertising to support enterprise and strategic advertisers in southeast Asia, middle east, and Africa. They will offer marketers an integrated solution to power their campaigns built on the search and native display capabilities of Microsoft Advertising and the mobile ad tech capability of InMobi’s advertising platforms.

    InMobi and Microsoft have been in a strategic partnership since July 2018 to help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation by providing them with insights, audience, and engagement platforms for a connected world. The partnership was expanded in 2019 as InMobi added the Microsoft Advertising products and solutions to its offerings in India.

    Speaking of this association, Microsoft Advertising APAC vice president Nick Seckold said, “Over the last two and a half years InMobi has done a wonderful job establishing Microsoft Advertising’s Indian footprint while doubling revenue over the same period. InMobi’s extensive knowledge and expertise of the digital advertising ecosystem in India combined with their trusted client relationships has delivered significant growth despite the effects of the pandemic. InMobi’s successful track record in India has led Microsoft Advertising to extend their coverage across southeast Asia where they will be tasked with building close relationships with advertisers and agencies to grow the business in the region.”

    Microsoft Advertising’s EMEA and LATAM vice president Mark Richardson said, “Microsoft Advertising are thrilled that InMobi will further expand their representation of our full suite of advertising offerings to strategic and enterprise clients in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa as part of our continuation to expand our sales and marketing efforts into this region. Microsoft Advertising offers advertising solutions that reach people across Microsoft properties including Bing, Microsoft News, Edge, and Outlook as well as on partner sites like AOL and Yahoo.”

    As part of the expansion, the Microsoft Advertising business at InMobi general manager Rohit Dosi will take up additional responsibilities for growing the Microsoft Advertising business across southeast Asia, middle east, and African markets and leading the global relationship with Microsoft.

    “The extended partnership between Microsoft Advertising and InMobi will enable marketers to deliver a unified brand experience to customers by bringing together the best of search and native display platforms across both organisations,” he said.

    “We are positioned uniquely to bring Microsoft Advertising to marketers in southeast Asia, middle east, and Africa through our deep appreciation of marketers’ needs, a keen understanding of the markets, and a customer-obsessed team,” Dosi added.

    Talking about the benefits of this partnership, Angara vice president of marketing Ankit Maheswari said “The InMobi team is pivotal to the success that Angara witnesses with Microsoft Advertising. Their proactive approach has time and again enhanced campaign efficiency, driven innovation, and delivered healthy returns for the brand. We are looking forward to replicating this success across multiple geographies and markets and going from strength to strength with InMobi as a partner.”

    On the promise of the expansion, Commerce Pundit digital marketing head Anand Mistry shared, “In the last two years, the partnership with the InMobi team has consistently enabled us to grow business and maximise ROI for our clients on the Microsoft Advertising platform. The strategic inputs and executional excellence from InMobi have not only added value to our client’s business but also deepened Commerce Pundit’s relationship with them. The comprehensive insights shared by the InMobi team on search, shopping and native display have been pivotal in exploring and scaling our business across new locations globally. We are excited to see the partnership reach new heights in the future!”

  • Vice India raring to break into a sprint

    Vice India raring to break into a sprint

    MUMBAI: Vice India is betting big on its creative agency Virtue Worldwide, which has helped provide solutions to brands in several markets.  Among the brands under its banner are ABInBev, Samsung, Uber, Airbnb and Google.

    Now, the agency within the Shane Smith, Suroosh Alvi-founded outfit is rolling out its suite of brand solutions in India.  Among the first partnerships, it has announced, is the one with PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew.

    The collaboration will see the Vice crew follow and explore the journey of a real-life hero Arjun Vajpai as he attempts to climb Mt Kangchenjunga – one of the most difficult summits to conquer.

    “We are excited to be the first to work with Vice India, that aims to be the vehicle and voice for the Indian youth. This partnership represents the convergence of two brands coming together to tell an inspiring story of courage to millions of young consumers across the country,” says Pepsico India associate director –Mountain Dew Naseeb Puri.

    Adds Vice India chief executive officer Chanpreet Arora:  “We are happy partnering with PepsiCo on one of our first content pieces in India so that the stories we want to tell reach out to the country with the help of one of India’s biggest and most recognisable brands.”

    Arora, along with head of content Samira Kanwar, has been working on roping in more than 40 young journalists, editors, producers and creatives in India to focus on content production, editorial, creative services and content distribution. The focus, according to a Vice India release has been to put in place “a local, young and experienced leadership team, deeply embedded in the culture of India.”

    She hopes that other brands will sign on with Vice India, which is being positioned as a full-scale media company with content at its centre and a multi-platform distribution plan – producing scripted, film, news and culture content from India for television, SVOD, OTT and digital platforms. The launch date is planned for April, and the teams in both the cities have been working at a frenetic pace to get things up and running by D-Day.

    Points out the Delhi-based Arora: “We are committed to building a company that speaks to a generation that is defining today’s cultural conversation in India and that is based on values of empathy, equality and inclusion. All our decisions, including choice of partners, must reflect this core belief.”

    Vice India’s planned local content will span conversations across topics like food, music, sex, identity, nightlife, arts, politics, literature, and comedy, showcasing the realities and diverse aspects of India without conforming to the boundaries set by multiple languages or cultures.

    Reveals the Mumbai-based Kanwar who is spearheading all the content offerings that Vice will dish out: “Content sits at the centre of everything we do. We hope to create content and experiences that matter to India’s youth irrespective of the language or regions we come from. Vice India will be a platform for young people to speak up, be heard and also feel at home about their own identities and ideas.”

    Adds Vice CEO Asia Pacific Hosi Simon: “Vice India’s goal is to be deeply locally relevant for youth across all parts and cultures of India. We are very thankful for our partnership with The Times of India, led by Times Bridge. Together, we have architected as ambitious a launch as Vice has put together anywhere in the world.”

    The Times Group investment arm Times Bridge CEO Rishi Jaitly, highlights that Vice India is poised to delight millennial and GenZ audiences across the country from day one. Says he: “The stories and experiences produced by Vice India will engage youth culture here in a manner not previously seen. We’re proud of our team and look forward to a breakthrough 2018.”

    For Vice globally, one of the big changes that happened earlier this month was the elevation of Shane Smith as executive chairman from CEO and the stepping in of former A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc as his replacement. A&E was one of the earliest investors in Smith’s vision for Vice.  Smith was kicked upstairs to focus on content creation and forging strategic deals and partnerships to grow the company. 

    Also Read :

    Chanpreet Arora appointed CEO of Vice Media India

    Vice Media to launch Vice India on April 2

    Vice Media to build largest OTT platform, expand to 80 markets by early ’18

  • ESPN India and Twitter launch #TwitterPostbox for sports lovers

    ESPN India and Twitter launch #TwitterPostbox for sports lovers

    MUMBAI: ESPN India and Twitter have come together to launch #TwitterPostbox, a daily utility service for sports fans. Sports enthusiasts can subscribe for free to their favourite sport to get a Daily Direct Message on the day’s best sports stories by simply sending a Tweet.

    To subscribe to #TwitterPostbox, fans have to follow @ESPNIndia and Tweet to @ESPNIndia with #Cricket or #Tennis or #Football or #Olympics or #F1 to know the latest on their favourite sport. They can also subscribe to multiple sports at a time by Tweeting with multiple hashtags in a single Tweet. This one-time subscription will ensure fans receive a Direct Message from @ESPNIndia on Twitter everyday. The Direct Message will contain @ESPNIndia’s Top Tweet of the Day on the sport a user has chosen; the Tweet will include a link to a published article that users can click on and read more.

    Twitter India head of sports partnerships Aneesh Madani said, “Twitter is the best place to wake up to and see what is happening in the world, and we are very excited to partner with ESPN India to launch a first-of-its-kind daily utility service for fans to be served directly with the best news of the day from their favourite sport.”

    ESPN India business development director Gaurav Thakur too added, ““ESPN India website and app will offer the entire spectrum of sports of interest to Indian sports fans and launching #TwitterPostbox in partnership with Twitter resonates with our mission to serve every sports fan anytime anywhere. We’re thrilled to be the first partner globally to launch a daily sports utility service via Direct Messages on Twitter.”

    @ESPNIndia’s partnership with #TwitterPostbox will ensure that Twitter continues to be a fan’s live connection to the world of sports every day — bite-size news, pushed directly, for the sports fan on the go, so that you don’t miss a thing.

  • ESPN India and Twitter launch #TwitterPostbox for sports lovers

    ESPN India and Twitter launch #TwitterPostbox for sports lovers

    MUMBAI: ESPN India and Twitter have come together to launch #TwitterPostbox, a daily utility service for sports fans. Sports enthusiasts can subscribe for free to their favourite sport to get a Daily Direct Message on the day’s best sports stories by simply sending a Tweet.

    To subscribe to #TwitterPostbox, fans have to follow @ESPNIndia and Tweet to @ESPNIndia with #Cricket or #Tennis or #Football or #Olympics or #F1 to know the latest on their favourite sport. They can also subscribe to multiple sports at a time by Tweeting with multiple hashtags in a single Tweet. This one-time subscription will ensure fans receive a Direct Message from @ESPNIndia on Twitter everyday. The Direct Message will contain @ESPNIndia’s Top Tweet of the Day on the sport a user has chosen; the Tweet will include a link to a published article that users can click on and read more.

    Twitter India head of sports partnerships Aneesh Madani said, “Twitter is the best place to wake up to and see what is happening in the world, and we are very excited to partner with ESPN India to launch a first-of-its-kind daily utility service for fans to be served directly with the best news of the day from their favourite sport.”

    ESPN India business development director Gaurav Thakur too added, ““ESPN India website and app will offer the entire spectrum of sports of interest to Indian sports fans and launching #TwitterPostbox in partnership with Twitter resonates with our mission to serve every sports fan anytime anywhere. We’re thrilled to be the first partner globally to launch a daily sports utility service via Direct Messages on Twitter.”

    @ESPNIndia’s partnership with #TwitterPostbox will ensure that Twitter continues to be a fan’s live connection to the world of sports every day — bite-size news, pushed directly, for the sports fan on the go, so that you don’t miss a thing.

  • CNN International Commercial forges two new partnerships

    CNN International Commercial forges two new partnerships

    MUMBAI: CNN International commercial has expanded its arms in the English language learning and international money transfers through two new partnerships. The channel is all geared to launch a learning service titled CNN Learn English.

     

    The subscription based digital service will provide English language learning by overlaying CNN video content with Papagei.com, a Germany based learning solutions provider, by its unique translation and learning aids.

     

    The content is focused on finance and business, spanning a range of subject matters and a variety of dialects. The new service will be available globally to the consumers directly or to companies wishing to up skill its workforce.

     

    The brand is also being licensed to launch CNN Money Transfers in partnership with international payments and foreign exchange specialist Moneycorp. CNN Money Transfers will be a payment tool managed by Moneycorp, offering consumers a highly competitive service to transfer money without paying commission and the higher exchange rates often charged by mainstream banks.

     

    “These initiatives are yet more steps in our ambition to take the CNN brand to wider audiences by entering into smart partnerships that enhance our footprint. In a changing media landscape, these partnerships add new revenue streams to our business, but more importantly launch new CNN services that will be valued amongst our audiences. We look forward to working closely with Papagei.com and moneycorp to develop these propositions,” said CNN International Commercial chief commercial officer Rani Raad.

     

    The two new initiatives will be marketed across CNN International digital platforms, giving the audience the opportunity to benefit from both the products.

  • Datawind enters into partnerships with CricHQ

    Datawind enters into partnerships with CricHQ

    NEW DELHI: To satisfy the needs of a fanatic cricket nation, Datawind – the maker of Aakash PC Tablets – has signed a long term partnership with global cricket technology company CricHQ.

    This partnership will see Datawind pre-installing the CricHQ app on all its tablet devices. With the ability to score matches, watch training videos and receive live ball-by-ball updates from cricket around the world the CricHQ app will give Datawind customers across India an enhanced way to interact with the game they love.

    This initiative between CricHQ and Datawind is aimed at bridging the digital gap between professional and grassroots cricketers across rural and urban India by providing them with a cricket technology usually reserved for the games elite.

    Commenting on this partnership, DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said, “From an amateur gali cricketer in a small town to a professional player, anyone can afford our low cost PC Tablet. This Rs 4999 device not only allows you to make phone calls, access high speed internet, study with preloaded NCERT e-books, but now, with the CricHQ app coming preloaded, it also allows you to live score your own cricket matches, receive live ball-by-ball updates from cricket around the world and even access cricket coaching videos.”

    CricHQ co-founder Stephen Fleming and former captain of the New Zealand‘s national cricket team said, “At CricHQ, our goal is to provide a cricket technology platform that enhances the way the entire cricket community experiences the game we all love. With the CricHQ app now coming pre-installed on DataWind devices it marks an important step in achieving this goal. We are especially excited at the opportunity our DataWind partnership provides of connecting cricket fans across India with the content they love to consume.”