ITV

Tag: RED FM

  • UTV launching youth-centric entertainment channel in JV with Astro

    UTV launching youth-centric entertainment channel in JV with Astro

    MUMBAI: Ronnie Screwvala has swung back into action. After selling off kids channel Hungama TV to Walt Disney in July, he is making a re-entry into the broadcasting space.

    Screwvala’s UTV Software Communications Ltd. is forming a 50:50 joint venture with Malaysia-based Astro for launching a Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) aimed at the youth. An investment of Rs 2 billion will be earmarked towards this.

    The new venture will operate across multiple platforms, including a television channel, gaming, mobile, licensing and merchandising, ground events and the internet.

    The first television channel in Hindi is slated for launch in the second quarter of 2007, supported by a huge multimedia campaign and multi-city ground events. UTV is currently conducting extensive research on this target group as an input to its programming and marketing designs.

    The plans for the venture include the launch of multiple channels across languages in India and Southeast Asia. UTV had earlier entered into a business co-operation arrangement with Astro to set up kids channels in Malaysia and Indonesia, which launched on the Astro platform earlier this year.

    Screwvala is looking at creating a channel targeted at audiences between the age group of 15-25 years. In Hungama TV, the core audience was 4-14 years.

    Walt Disney has acquired 14.9 per cent stake in UTV, offering the multinational giant to participate in expansion opportunities in India. With the buyout of local Hindi channel Hungama TV in a combined purchase deal, Disney has already consolidated its position in the kids segment.

    UTV recently received the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) and other regulatory approvals for the sale of stake to Walt Disney. It may be recalled that Astro had signed the MoU with UTV to acquire 26 per cent in Hungama TV but with Disney later making a combined purchase offer, the deal didn’t sail through.

    Astro has ambitious plans in India and, along with Value Labs and NDTV, bought out the operations of Radio Today, the radio division of Living Media Group, which runs under the Red FM brand.

    The GEC segment is poised to see further activity with NDTV planning to make an entry. Star Plus continues to lead the space but is being challenged by Zee Telefilms. Sony TV hopes to stage a comeback with Big Boss.

    Screwvala’s attempt, analysts say, will be to carve out a specific target audience as he so successfully did in the kids space.

    Meanwhile, Disney’s acquisition of Hungama TV has concluded with the final approval from the FIPB. This was followed by the inflow of Rs 1.4 billion ($ 31.125 million) from Disney to UTV within a week. Disney has also invested Rs 670 million ($ 14.5 million) towards a 14.9 per cent stake in UTV. The two companies are now working out synergies in areas across television content production, movie production and broadcasting.

    “We will be working along with Disney in the areas of TV, animation and movies,” says UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala.

    Areas of common involvement have been identified including the launch of niche channels, movie co-productions and television content creation by UTV for Disney channels.

    UTV scrip slipped 2.7 per cent in the BSE to end today at Rs 258.70.

  • Red FM joins Greenpeace in attempt to protect Mumbai from dramatic climate changes

    Red FM joins Greenpeace in attempt to protect Mumbai from dramatic climate changes

    MUMBAI: Red FM, which positions itself as India’s station of expression has announced its support for ‘Switch for Mumbai’.

    This is an initiative by Greenpeace to protect the city of alarming climate changes such as Global Warming and subsequent results such as Flash floods and Cloud Bursts.

    The station gives the example of Pirates of the Arabian initiative. the aim was to visit locations using the high-energy guzzling bright light bulbs (regular light bulb we see all around). The aim was to switch them with energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). CFLs consume five times less energy and last 10 times longer in energy conservation and cost savings.

    Red FM COO Abraham Thomas says, “Switch for Mumbai initiative by Greenpeace is an attempt to look beyond the role of government and question ourselves on the root causes of these unusual climatic changes in the region. This initiative is our attempt to positively contribute towards the awareness of global warming and our environment.”

    Greenpeace India executive director Ananthapadmanabhan said, “Switch for Mumbai is a call to all Mumbai citizens, especially the youngsters to come forward to demonstrate their willingness to guard our city against adverse climatic changes. I am very happy that Red FM has taken the lead in making sure that the Switch For Mumbai message reaches million of Mumbaikars. We as Greenpeace couldn’t have done it by ourselves.”

    Greenpeace says that an initiative at such a mass scale required a platform like Red FM to spread awareness amongst common people. Red FM’s interesting take on the campaign was to involve the people into making small changes in their daily lives to help save the environment. So be it RJs endorsing and accompanying the Pirates in their Raids, or celebrities like Vasundhara Das, Nikhil Chinappa, Sushma Reddy endorsing the cause and talking about it on-air to the listeners, Red FM is doing its very best to involve the masses.

    The station says that hundreds of callers are calling in everyday to talk about the change CFL has made in their lives such as decreasing electricity usage, and reducing electricity bill amounts. There have also been cases of complete colonies of more than 12,000 families having switched to CFL resulting in a huge reduction in energy consumption for the colony.

    Red FM has also started its recruitment for Pirates. For more details regarding how to apply, one can tune in to it call in to` Red FM at 66935935 or SMS “Switch” to 4646.

  • RED FM’s Festive Bonanza for Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata

    MUMBAI: Red FM, brought alive Navratri festivities on radio for their listeners in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. The station with a ‘Bajaate Raho’ attitude, in an endeavour to build greater connect with listeners, covered the celebrations extensively in each city.

    From reporting live from the biggest dandiya events in Mumbai to covering the major Puja pandals across Kolkata, RED FM captured it all for its listeners.

    Speaking on the marketing activities around the festival, RED FM COO Abraham Thomas, said, “RED FM aims at providing its listeners a complete feel of the festive season. Various innovative on-air programming initiatives and marketing tie-ups were undertaken to reach masses and build greater listener engagement with the radio station.”

    In Mumbai, RED FM’s on ground activities included an exclusive tie-up with Sankalp ’06, Mumbai’s most rocking Dandiya Raas presented by none other than the Dandiya Queen Falguni Pathak.

    RED FM listeners were given free passes for mega events like Sankalp ’06, Manthan Luster Dandiya, Growel’s 101 Navratri Event and Dandiya with ‘King the Beaters’ at Wadala as part of the on air and on spot contests. Designer Dandiyas, Celebration Hampers and opportunities to interact with the RED FM’s RJ’s were part of RED FM’s rocking Navratri celebrations in Mumbai.

    Along with on-ground activations and tie-ups, RED FM presented ‘Majaa Ma,’ a special on-air segment on Navratri. A complete Gujarati fare, the ‘Majaa Ma’ specials had segments like ‘Majaa Ma’ Jokes; ‘Majaa Ma’ interviews with eminent Gujarati theatre and television personalities and ‘Majaa Ma’ Movies-one minute hilarious and witty movie capsules.

    RED FM brought alive the Durga Puja on Kolkata’s Puja Dhamaka at city centre on the 23rd September with live Remix Show by Jimmy Tangree and the entire RED FM Kolkata Team. It associated with almost all major Durga Puja events in Kolkata that included over 748 puja pandals and 42 puja specific events.

    RED FM had a host of special, fun filled segments and contests all set to capture the mood of listeners. Celebrity chats, live Puja updates and news from the top Dandiya festivities in the city added more colour to the festive fervor and made Durga Puja memorable for RED FM listeners.

    In Delhi Red FM brightened the festivities by associating with Hindustan Times Dandiya Masti at the Garden of Five Senses with RJ Neeti of Mera Wala Gaana fame. Contests like “Mera wala dancing couple”, “Mera wala style award”, “Mera wala best choli award”, “Mera wala non-stop Dandiya award”, “Mera wala little champion” were devised to involve participants. Live polls were conducted for the best Dandiya song and celebrity guests were chosen to play that song for the winners. RED FM ‘Phal-Haar’ contest was conducted along with ‘Ravan Jalaao’ wherein listeners spoke about one evil thing like poverty, pollution, bad roads and eve teasing that they would like to burn.

  • Red FM’s Valentine’s special ‘Date with Dino’

    Red FM’s Valentine’s special ‘Date with Dino’

    Valentine’s round the corner and as part of the celebrations RED FM, India’s most popular FM station, is bringing to its listeners a Valentines’ Week Bajaate Raho style.

    Red FM gives Mumbai girls 2 fun options for Valentine’s Day :

    “Date with Dino” As part of a weeklong programming initiative, RED FM will give-away – ‘a date with one of the sexiest men in Mumbai – Delicious Dino Morea’.

    This Valentines don’t stick at home watching those old romantic films on television or try to jostle for space in overcrowded malls. Just tune into Red FM 93.5 from 7th February 2006 and write a four-line poem proposing to the delicious Dino Morea. If he likes a poem, the girl gets a Valentine’s Day Date with Dino. And even if you don’t make it to the lucky three, your poem still gets aired on Red FM 93.5 and who knows, someone else might just ask you for that magic date.

    THE RED FM LOVE TEST
    How loyal is your love? This will be the Red Fm’s Love Test.
    Red FM 93.5 will run promos inviting listeners to take part in this test – all they have to do is nominate their Boyfriend or Husband. RED FM will call up their Boyfriend / Husband – LIVE ON AIR

    Watch out – Dangerous Mamla Hai ! RED FM will do this all day on the 14th of FEB – ONE BOUQUET PER HOUR.

    Says, Abe Thomas, COO – RED FM, ” These are two very ‘bajaate Raho Ideas’ that Mumbai has come to expect from RED FM. RED FM, 93.5 is differentiating itself from the other stations on the basis of its “we play only hit music” promise and a youthful attitude that stimulates the people of the city on issues that concern them.”

  • NDTV clocks 24.5 % growth in FY06; revenues Rs 2.24 billion

    NDTV clocks 24.5 % growth in FY06; revenues Rs 2.24 billion

    MUMBAI: Prannoy Roy’s NDTV has recorded 24.49 percent growth in fiscal 2005-06 with total revenues of Rs 2.239 billion.

    NDTV’s revenues were up from the Rs 1.798 billion recorded in fiscal 2004-05, the company has stated.

    Q4 FY’ 06 saw NDTV hitting its highest ever revenues at Rs 704.4 million versus Rs 497 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, representing a 41.73 per cent year-on-year growth.

    Expectedly, the rise in personnel costs took a huge chunk out of the company’s net with profit after tax after ESOP for Q4 FY’ 06 standing at Rs 20.1 million. If ESOPs are discounted then net profit for Q4 has increased 22 per cent to Rs 125.5 million as against Rs 102.9 million in Q4 FY’ 05. There were no ESOPs granted last year.

    Following the results, NDTV has declared a dividend of 20 per cent.

    BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

    During the year the company made significant investments in building new businesses and strengthening and consolidating its existing business.

    NDTV’s advertising base has seen an impressive growth this year. The network has added 637 new advertisers and 810 new brands in its portfolio, taking its advertising universe to over 2000. A reflection of the group’s marketing strength is also the strategic tie-up with the Microsoft Network, under which NDTV’s subsidiary, NDTV Media Ltd represents and carries out all marketing activity for MSN exclusively in India.

    The reach of the NDTV News Network’s unduplicated reach amongst C&S households has increased to 90.8 per cent, the highest amongst all news networks. NDTV has also extended its global presence across Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. This year it entered into strategic tie-ups with DirecTV, BskyB and ATN to launch NDTV 24×7 in the US, UK and Canada respectively.

    NDTV’s website ndtv.com has emerged as India’s number one news and television portal, attracting over 200 million page views and 1.2 million unique visitors every month. The focus on monetizing the website by adding transaction based portals – Travel, Gadgets, Shopping, Commodities, Profit, Movies and Music, has begun to drive revenues this year.

    “In this year the company has put in significant investments into building new businesses and going forward we are committed to maximizing shareholder value by capitalizing on these investments,” NDTV chairman Dr Prannoy Roy was quoted in the statement as saying.

    Additionally, NDTV has entered into an agreement with Genpact a leading business and technology services company, to jointly offer outsourcing services to the global media and entertainment industry. This is the first of its kind Media Process Outsourcing company in India which will focus on providing cost effective, high quality media services.

    This year also heralded NDTV’s entry into high end-consultancy for news services. The company has entered into a joint venture agreement with Astro Broadcast of Malaysia to provide consultancy for setting up news channels in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Indonesian channel will be launched shortly.

    The NDTV Group, together with other strategic investors, also acquired a minority shareholding in 3 radio companies that hold licenses for FM radio broadcasting in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata under the brand name of RED FM. The company sees tremendous cross media synergies in extending its presence in the radio sector.