ITV

Tag: R K Singh

  • Shakeup at Siticable

    Shakeup at Siticable

    Siticable is going through a bout of restructuring what with Zee Telefilms chief executive R.K. Singh and president (distribution) Tony D’silva, putting their imprint on the MSO, which boasts a penetration of 5.5 million homes.

    For starters, Zee Telefilms has restructured its distribution operations into four units – Siticable (distribution and development), Direct to operator (its digital bouquet package), ad sales, and Internet through cable.

    Changes are taking place even as far as the people heading some activities is concerned. Hari Goenka, who headed Siticable’s northern operations for quite some time, has been shifted along with C.S. Arora, another senior executive into the HFC (hybrid fibre coax cable project). Sunil Khanna, who was heading ad sales for Siticable, for more than half a decade has resigned from the company. The company is on the lookout for a replacement.

    The operations of the northern and central regions of Siticable have been merged into one with the regional director (north and central) being R. Marwah.

    In the south, the operations have yet to be rationalised with two regional directors, one looking after Andhra Pradesh, one after Karnataka. The western region has D.K. Pandey, spearheading Maharashtra while A. Jain looks after Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The company does not have a regional director looking after the west as a whole. Neither does it have one for the east. Again, efforts are being made to fill the vacancies.

    Singh and D’silva will have to move fast just to stay in place. The reason: even rival Star TV has its eye on the same target, getting lots more cachet with Indian cable TV operators through distribution initiatives.

  • Zee to start Rs 10 crore game show

    Zee to start Rs 10 crore game show

    In an interview given to a business television channel, R K Singh, CEO of Zee Telefilms has said that Zee will soon launch a new game show offering Rs 10 crore as prize money to counter Star TVs Kaun Banega Crorepati. The show is likely to be aired in the same time slot as that of KBC and will directly compete with it.

    The show will have a high degree of viewer interaction along with a very transparent elimination round. There will be around thirty participants who would be gradually eliminated to pick out a winner. Each elimination round is expected to reward the participants who made it till there.

    Apart from the game show, Zee will be adding quite a few new shows of different genres to their channel

    This move shows the pinch that Zee was facing from Star’s KBC and the money that can be staked in these cable wars having fierce competition. However it is the Indian viewer who will eventually benefit from these one-upmanship moves.

  • Zee Telefims announces H1 results even as scrip plunges

    Zee Telefims announces H1 results even as scrip plunges

    On the balance, the first half results of the Zee Network (of which Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) is a part) are not something worth shouting about.

    The network has chalked up a total income of Rs 1861 million which is a 45 per cent increase over the previous corresponding half. Operating income is up 68 per cent to Rs 901 million, while profit after tax has risen 59 per cent to Rs 588 million.

    While the results for the half year seem impressive, its quarter to quarter performance is most abyssmal, with advertising revenue falling to Rs 1382.4 million as against Rs 1591.3 million in the first quarter this year. This indicates that the company is losing advertising market share to nippier rivals like Sony, Star (what with its KBC), and the plethora of new channels that have cropped up. Expenditure too quarter to quarter is down from Rs 1566 million to Rs 1413.4 million. Total income for the network is down to Rs 2274.1 million from Rs 2298 million in the previous quarter. However, profit after tax for the network is up from Rs 320 million to Rs 543.5 million.

    ZTL on its part has notched up an income of Rs 1049.6 million in the quarter ended 30 September 2000, with net profit at Rs 320.5 million and its earning per share at 78 paise per Re 1 share.

    According to ZTL chief executive R.K. Singh, the results could have been better. But he is optimistic of a turn around in Q3.

    “We have taken the number of IRDs in the market to 21,000 for our pay TV operations. We will take it up further to 30,000 by end November. Additionally, we are also starting new programming initiatives like the Rs 100 million game show and are taking our channels into new markets like Australia and the Caribbean. These should start showing up in the third quarter results. We will be back with much better numbers,” he says.

    The markets on the whole do not seem to be buying ZTL chairman Subhash Chandra and his team’s reassurances. The share plunged at the end of the day’s trading to Rs 297, after drifting around in the Rs 310 range. To be fair to ZTL, the market too took a dive as players booked profits before the weekend and the coming Diwali season.

     

     

  • Zee TV lets go of MD Vijay Jindal by partnering him; promotes new team

    Zee TV lets go of MD Vijay Jindal by partnering him; promotes new team

    When ZTL chairman Subhash Chandra brought in R.K. Singh as chief executive and created a caucus of senior executives like Deepak Shourie, Dev Naganand, Uma Ganesh, everyone said that managing director Vijay Jindal had fallen out of favour with the mediapreneur and his days were numbered with ZTL. However, Jindal stayed put and the wags stopped wagging their tongues.

    Today, it become clear that it was only a matter of time. The company sent out a press release saying that “it has now been decided between the Company and Mr.Vijay Jindal that in order to harness his entrepreneurial capabilities the Company will support him to set up his own media investment company.”

    Jindal is slated to hold 60 per cent of the Rs 100 million equity capital of the new company with 40 per cent being held by ZTL. The press release additionally states that “following this Mr.Vijay Jindal will be relieved from the executive responsibilities of the company and would be Advisor to the promoter shareholder for a period of next three years.”

    The release quotes Chandra as saying “that the Group encouraged executives to graduate and become entrepreneurs. We are with them in their pursuit to realise their dreams.”

    The press release quotes Jindal as saying that he was “looking forward to getting into film production and various media related activities which will not be in conflict with the business interest of ZTL.”

    The decision was taken at the board meeting held yesterday to decide on the company’s Q2 results. Following the acceptance of the new order, the board abolised the post of managing director with Deepak Shourie, R.K.Singh and Dev Naganand being appointed as wholetime Directors.

  • Zee international business head Tony D’Silva departs

    Zee international business head Tony D’Silva departs

    After Playwin Infravest CEO R K Singh’s departure from the Zee group, it is the turn of Tony D’Silva, president – international business, Zee Network, to follow suit.

    D’Silva’s fate was finally sealed on Friday according to industry sources. It followed meetings spread over Thursday and Friday with chairman Subhash Chandra where group broadcast CEO Sandeep Goyal was also present. 

    D’Silva has since returned to the UK. There is no word yet as to who might be replacing him. 

    D’Silva came to Zee in December 1999 from Modi Entertainment Networks where he was CEO. Before his stint at Modi, D’Silva was with tobacco major Godfrey Phillips.

  • Entertainment industry to converge at ICE summit

    Entertainment industry to converge at ICE summit

    Kolkata will host the ICE (Information Technology, Communications and Entertainment) summit on 18-19 November this year.

    Organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Summit will try to forecast the period of the ongoing global slowdown and the effects of the events of September 11.

    The summit will focus on ways in which Indian companies can shift their focus away from the USA and reduce our dependence on the superpower. The Convergence Bill will be discussed with respect to its benefits to consumers and suppliers. The consequences of the bill and the role of the proposed regulator will be examined. It will also look at the viability of the bill, given the shifting media scenario in the country.

    Broadband, the new mantra of the Indian entertainment sector, will also be tackled head on. Other topics that will discussed include business ideas and latest technologies for the Internet as well as the increasing importance given to wireless. It will also analyse consumer and producer trends. The dotcom collapse will be looked into, and new markets that infotech companies can tap will be explored. The summit will showcase corporate conglomerates which are using the web to expand their customer base.

    Some personalities expected to put across their point of view include actor Aamir Khan, RPG vice chairman Sanjiv Goenka, Reliance Telecom president Subodh Saxena, Bharti Enterprises MD Sunil Bharti Mittal, SET CEO Kunal Dasgupta, Zee CEO R K Singh, Balaji creative director Ektaa Kapoor, and UTV Net Solutions CEO Biren Ghose.

  • Zee TV says it needs time for results to show

    Zee TV says it needs time for results to show

    The media has been pretty critical of the performance put up by Zee Telefilms in Q1 of FY 2001-002. And it has also been going hell for leather about Zee Telefilms chairman’s alleged money manipulations within group companies.

    Zee Telefilms CEO R.K. Singh agrees the company appears to be going through rough times. However, he is sanguine that “we are going to ride them over and obtain the accolades in future,” he says. “You can’t forget that this is a media enterprise which is nine years old. Every corporation has its share of hiccups.”

    He adds that Zee Telefilms results should be seen in light of the macroeconomy on account of which times are tough for all businesses. “Give us a break, we are aiming to come back, and come back with a vengeance within six months,” he says. “Our new programming push will come up trumps.”

    Singh told CNBC India that the company had booked revenues roughly amounting to Rs 120 million on account of its blockbuster Bollywood success “Gaddar” as minimum guarantees for theatrical distribution. Add to that RS 50 million for music rights. Singh added sale of overseas distribution rights and satellite television rights could bring in RS 250 million to RS 300 million in Q2 Y2K1.

    He additionally said that domestic subscription revenues – ever since Zee TV went pay on 10 June – have gone up by RS 35 million to RS 85 million in the Q1 Y2K.

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Singh adds that the figure is going to go up further in the next quarter. He points out that Chandra is committed to bringing back the money which had earlier been given to other Essel group companies. “We have received more than RS 1,000 million. The remainder will come in shortly,” he says.

    Referring to Zee Telefilms’ lower profitability he says that was on account of investments in new channels, programming, in Siticable, and further rollout of digital boxes in the UK under the BSkYB platform.

    “The scenario is looking bright for us. We are No 2 in prime time. We are leading in the afternoon slot,” he says. “Our new programming has received a very good response from advertisers. So we can only go up from here.”

  • Zee TV says it needs time for results to show

    Zee TV says it needs time for results to show

    The media has been pretty critical of the performance put up by Zee Telefilms in Q1 of FY 2001-002. And it has also been going hell for leather about Zee Telefilms chairman’s alleged money manipulations within group companies.

    Zee Telefilms CEO R.K. Singh agrees the company appears to be going through rough times. However, he is sanguine that “we are going to ride them over and obtain the accolades in future,” he says. “You can’t forget that this is a media enterprise which is nine years old. Every corporation has its share of hiccups.”

    He adds that Zee Telefilms results should be seen in light of the macroeconomy on account of which times are tough for all businesses. “Give us a break, we are aiming to come back, and come back with a vengeance within six months,” he says. “Our new programming push will come up trumps.”

    Singh told CNBC India that the company had booked revenues roughly amounting to Rs 120 million on account of its blockbuster Bollywood success “Gaddar” as minimum guarantees for theatrical distribution. Add to that RS 50 million for music rights. Singh added sale of overseas distribution rights and satellite television rights could bring in RS 250 million to RS 300 million in Q2 Y2K1.

    He additionally said that domestic subscription revenues – ever since Zee TV went pay on 10 June – have gone up by RS 35 million to RS 85 million in the Q1 Y2K.

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Singh adds that the figure is going to go up further in the next quarter. He points out that Chandra is committed to bringing back the money which had earlier been given to other Essel group companies. “We have received more than RS 1,000 million. The remainder will come in shortly,” he says.

    Referring to Zee Telefilms’ lower profitability he says that was on account of investments in new channels, programming, in Siticable, and further rollout of digital boxes in the UK under the BSkYB platform.

    “The scenario is looking bright for us. We are No 2 in prime time. We are leading in the afternoon slot,” he says. “Our new programming has received a very good response from advertisers. So we can only go up from here.”