ITV

Tag: Regional

  • DD Free Dish woos regional channels with special reserve price of Rs 2 crore in 26th e-auction

    DD Free Dish woos regional channels with special reserve price of Rs 2 crore in 26th e-auction

    MUMBAI: With Doordarshan’s free to air (FTA) direct to home (DTH) service DD Free Dish expected to acquire the capacity to carry more channels, the pubcaster has made a conscious effort to attract regional television channels.

    For the very first time, DD has reserved regional language DTH slot to attract regional channels to its bouquet and has fixed a lower reserve of Rs 2 crore even as the price for the other channels remains Rs 4.3 crore in its 26th e-auction, which is scheduled to take place on 15 February.

    The Online e-auction will be held for filling up of slot reserved for regional language channels and the general slots for DD Free Dish. This has been done considering the tremendous reach of DD Free Dish in semi-urban and rural areas all over the country.

    The reserved slot for regional language channel includes only non-Hindi channels (news or non-news). Bhojpuri channels and Hindi regional channels have been kept as part of the general slots.

    The participation amount (EMD) of reserved slot for regional language channel is Rs 50 lakh. Incremental amount will be Rs 5 lakh for reserved slot and every e-auction will be of 15 minutes duration as in previous auctions.

    The participation amount (EMD) of general DTH slot is Rs 1.5 crore and incremental amount of general DTH slot will be Rs 10 lakh.

    The non-refundable processing fee will be Rs 10,000 for reserved regional language DTH slot and general DTH slot.

    Currently, DD Free Dish has 64 channels including its own channels, and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV. But with acquisition of its new technology by the end of next month, it hopes to have a capacity of carrying 112 TV channels.

    The successful regional language channels are required to deposit Rs 50 lakh (first instalment) of reserve price within one month from the placement of the TV channel on DD Free Dish along with service tax at 14.5 per cent on the total bid amount. The second instalment amounting to Rs 50 lakh has to be deposited by the successful channel in the second month from the placement of the channel. 

    The successful general DTH channel is required to deposit Rs 1.10 crore within one month from the placement of the channel on DD Free Dish along with service tax at 14.5 per cent on the total bid amount. The second instalment of Rs. 1.10 crore has to be deposited by the successful channel in the second month from the placement of the channel.

    The balance bid amount for both the regional language and general DTH channels should be deposited on or before six months from the placement of the channel on Free Dish platform failing which the deposited amount will be forfeited and channel will be discontinued from the platform after serving 21 days discontinuation notice.

  • Colors Kannada, Asianet, Sarthak TV & Sun TV gain: BARC week 1

    Colors Kannada, Asianet, Sarthak TV & Sun TV gain: BARC week 1

    MUMBAI: Though genre leaders like Star Jalsha, Zee Marathi, Bhojpuri Cinema and ETV Telugu witnessed a fall in ratings, they continued to dominate their respective genres in week 1 according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) all India ratings.

     

    On the other hand, channels like Colors Kannada, Asianet, Sarthak TV and Sun TV saw a rise in ratings and secured leadership position in their respective genres in week 1. 

     

    Bangala GECs

     

    Though the Bangala GEC leader Star Jalsha witnessed a fall in ratings, it grabbed the top position in the genre with 240378 (‘000s) in week 1 as against 265939 (‘000s) in week 52 followed by Zee Bangla in the second place with 153485 (‘000s). Jalsha Movies was perched on the third rung with 65645 (‘000s), while Zee Bangla Cinema grabbed the fourth berth with 31141 (‘000s) and Colors Bangla was fifth with 31118 (‘000s).

     

    Bhojpuri GECs

     

    Bhojpuri Cinema led the Bhojpuri genre with 19073 (‘000s) followed by Big Magic Ganga in the number two position with 17787 (‘000s) and Dabangg on third spot with 9118 (‘000s). Dangal TV with 7801 (‘000s) and ETV Bihar Jharkhand with 4141 (‘000s) grabbed the fourth and fifth slot respectively.

     

    Kannada GECs

     

    Colors Kannada continued to lead the Kannada GECs genre and was in the first position with 276078 (‘000s) followed by Udaya Movies in the second slot with 154322 (‘000s). On the other hand, Uday TV fell to the third spot with 140487 (‘000s). On the other hand, Suvarna stood in the fourth position with 134771 (‘000s) and Zee Kannada was down to the fifth position with 133458 (‘000s).

     

    Malayalam GECs

     

    Witnessing a rise in ratings, Asianet led the genre and came out on top with 378813 (‘000s) in week 1 as against 327333 (‘000s) in last week of 2015 followed by Mazhavil Manorama in the second position with 99669 (‘000s) and Surya TV in the third spot with 74005 (‘000s). Flower TV grabbed the fourth spot with 73816 (‘000s), whereas Asianet Movies stood in the fifth position with 52852 (‘000s).

     

    Marathi GECs

     

    In week 1, Zee Marathi saw a fall in ratings but maintained its top position with 165110 (‘000s). Colors Marathi grabbed the second slot with 93040 (‘000s), while Zee Talkies stood at number three with 66102 (‘000s). Star Pravah garnered the fourth slot with 44311 (‘000s) and Maiboli was at number five with 22545 (‘000s).

     

    Oriya GECs

     

    Sarthak TV saw a rise in ratings and secured the leadership position in the genre with 109578 (‘000s) in week 1 as against 94391 (‘000s) in week 52. Tarang TV followed behind to grab the second spot with 61413 (‘000s), while Colors Oriya came third with 18882 (‘000s). Odisha TV fell to the fourth position with 17010 (‘000s), while Prarthana with 11380 (‘000s) grabbed the fifth berth.

     

    Tamil GECs

     

    Market leader Sun TV led the Tamil regional genre and grabbed pole position with 1046602 (‘000s) followed by KTV with 277982 (‘000s) in the second spot. Star Vijay with 181191 (‘000s) stood in the third position. Polimer grabbed the fourth spot with 96146 (‘000s), whereas J Movie with 72131 (‘000s) grabbed the fifth spot.

     

    Telugu GECs

     

     

    ETV Telugu emerged as the number one channel in Telugu GECs genre with 413525 (‘000s) followed by Maa TV in the second spot with 373558 (‘000s). Zee Telugu captured the third place with 359755 (‘000s), while Gemini TV with 281966 (‘000s) bagged fourth place. Gemini Movies with 187321(‘000s) stood at number five. 

  • 2014: An astonishing year for regional cinema

    2014: An astonishing year for regional cinema

    2014 was an interesting year. It started with a great deal of promise but at the end there is a feeling of unfulfillment too.

    What started with new films of different and interesting genres doing well at the box office ended slightly unsatisfied with some big film with a lot of expectation underperforming slightly.

    English content though continued to perform well with a lot of Hollywood’s big films doing really well at our BO. There is an increasing anticipation for these films and every year we are seeing more dubbed languages adding to the size of the release.

    Regional cinema, especially Marathi, has had an astonishing year. Audiences have clearly chosen to enjoy these films because they are telling intimate stories close to their heart. Still lessons were learnt and I think 2015 again holds great promise.

    There were also various trends in content in 2014; perhaps these trends didn’t follow through that well in the second half of the year. Content is certainly king right now and audiences are becoming very selective of the films they see. This is something that will continue, I think as prices for the content rise, people will become more and more elastic, choosing only films that they really want to see.

    I think next year has a lot of terrific looking films lined up and I expect films to build on this expectation to push audiences to the cinemas.

    Social media and the connected mediums will continue to drive a lot of reaction and indeed influence content. This trend will continue to get stronger as more and more people join the medium. Content viewing online is something that will also grow strongly. Without doubt this is an area where mobile internet will help greatly and the promise of 4G will fuel the need for content and the desire to consume it.

    I also think the trend of over-marketing films will also continue. Maybe for a short term but at the moment I truly feel marketing budgets are out of sync with the feasibility of a lot of the films they are being spent on and this is a slightly worrying trend. Sadly, there are no trends this year that have died out! I think there are always trends that die out and then slowly re-emerge as a ‘new’ trend again a few years later but I don’t think trends die out completely.

    Old wine in a new bottle is what our films are based on and I don’t think our audience will tire of that anytime soon.

    (These are purely personal views of Mukta Arts MD Rahul Puri and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • NBA gets a regional competitor

    NBA gets a regional competitor

    NEW DELHI: Even as the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) is looking after the affairs of larger news broadcasters, an All India News Broadcasters Association (AINBA) has been established by regional news players to ensure ethical journalism.

     

     

    Azad News chairman MS Walia is the chairman of the new organisation, with Total TV chief managing director Anil Gaba as vice chairman.

     

     

    However, it was clarified that this is the interim committee of office bearers and fresh elections will be held within six months to form a permanent committee.

     

     

    The other office bearers are: general secretary Tejinder Pal Singh of Patiala based Channel 2, treasurer S K Gupta of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh channel TV100 and joint secretaries Dr Prakash Sharma (Jabalpur’s SMBC Insight Channel) and Amit Agarwal (Raipur’s Channel TSN).

     

     

    Members of the governing body are: I D Garg (Gurgaon’s Khabrein Abhi Tak), Pushpendra Singh Baghel (Khabar Bharti, Noida), Vikram Newaar (Tazaa TV, Kolkata), A K Sama (Fast News, Rohtak), and Naresh Mehta (Khoj India, Gurgaon).

     

     

    A spokesperson told indiantelevision.com that a number of Indian news channels had tied up with the government and various agencies to put together a unified platform to look at a collective solution for ridding the industry of the various problems that continue to plague it without a workable solution in sight.

     

     

    The AINBA comprising of heads/owners of small and medium news channels held its first meeting in Delhi where it elected the interim committee of founding office bearers. The office will be located in the national capital. Currently having about 15 or 16 members, it will soon start approaching other broadcasters to join.

     

     

    This is the first such association or representative body of regional news players in the country, which will work towards creating a level playing field in the country at par with the national news channels.

     

     

    Apart from focusing on the problems of the industry, the association will work towards ensuring clean and ethical journalism, work towards curbing paid news and ensuring guidelines for self-regulation.

     

     

    The association will also work towards creating a platform for news syndication and exchange amongst member organisations, collective marketing and distribution.

     

     

    The AINBA will also act as a unified body working in conjunction with the government and representing the views, issues and concerns of the broadcasting industry, and play an exemplary role in finding workable solutions.

     

     

    The current body that exists is the NBA that has 57 news channels including a few regional ones such as Sakshi TV, ETV, Mathrubhumi, People TV, Kairali, Odisha TV, Sun network news channels and others.

     

     

  • Sri Adhikari Brothers to raise Rs 100 crore

    Sri Adhikari Brothers to raise Rs 100 crore

    MUMBAI: It is one of the more successful Indian-origin companies in the media industry that delved into the comedy genre with SAB TV, which it sold to the Sony Entertainment Television in India. It followed that up with niche channel forays, the most recent of which is a Marathi comedy and music channel Maiboli. Now, Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd (SABTNL), has once again drawn up ambitious expansion plans and has decided to raise funds of upto Rs 100 crore to bankroll them.

     

    In a disclosure to the Bombay Stock Exchange, SABTNL  says that it will be offering 100 lakh warrants with an option to subscribe for equivalent number of equity shares of Rs 10 each at a price that may be determined by SEBI regulations. The warrants are to be issued on a preferential basis to the persons in the promoter group and others.

     

    The purpose of the fund raising exercise, says SABTNL, is to meet general long term financial and working capital needs and also to expand its successfully growing broadcasting business. The plans are subject to shareholder approval  which it will be seeking through postal ballot.

  • ETV Marathi’s Crorepati eyes double bonanza in Season II

    MUMBAI: Viacom 18 took its first bold step in the regional space after acquiring a clutch of ETV channels by introducing one of India’s biggest and boldest non-fiction shows on its Marathi channel. Thus, Kaun Banega Crorepati became Kon Hoeel Marathi Crorepati on ETV Marathi. Now back for a second run, just four months after the last season ended, the channel is looking at increasing its cash inflow as well as eyeballs from the flagship show.

     

    The second season will see Sachin Khedekar back as host but facing not one, but two contestants as the theme this year is about couples or jodis. The prize money has also been doubled to Rs 2 crore. “The dynamic of two people changes a lot of things. These two people may be anyone in a family,” says BIG Synergy MD Siddhartha Basu.

     

    A huge marketing campaign had rolled out on TV and radio about four weeks ago emphasising on the number ‘two’ that is the theme. 

     

    The print campaign will strike on 13 January, the day the show launches. A digital app is expected to roll out soon after the launch of the show that will try to engage the younger audiences through social media. With the response it received from season 1, this time the channel has gone overboard on its marketing, spending nearly about Rs 4 to Rs 5 crore.

     

    Airing on Monday and Tuesday from 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm, it will replace two shows on these two days, which will now air four times a week. The current season is expected to run for three months with 36 episodes in all. According to sources, the cost of production is approximately Rs 8-10 crore for season two.

     

    The studio set up was created in Film City in December and six episodes have been shot so far with average shoot hours daily totting up to 12 hours.

     

    Last season, KHMC garnered about 3 TRPs and this time the channel is looking at starting off at that and doubling it amongst Marathi speaking audiences.  “It is worthy to say that nonfiction shows don’t really get such high ratings in languages,” says Viacom 18 EVP and business head Anuj Poddar. Last year KHMC doubled the channel’s overall ratings.

     

    Conversations are on with a slew of advertisers and sponsors, with Lever brand Clinic plus already coming on board as the presenting sponsor and the target is to reach about five to six advertisers, this time. The average per 10 second rate for commercials has been pegged at Rs 70,000 that is about 60 to 70 per cent higher than last year.

     

    Although only Marathi speaking people are allowed to participate in the show, it has seen a 50 per cent increase in the participants claims the channel.

     

    “The show is a very generous one. Our average pay out per episode is about Rs 6.5 lakh,” says Basu. “With growing viewership not just broadcasters but also advertisers and sponsors are also putting their money into such formats. A broadcaster takes it as a game changer and it is a huge investment for him as well.”

     

    The targets it has set for itself are high but will the channel be able to live up to its own as well as the people’s expectations? We will soon find out as it launches this Monday.

  • 14 more regional TV channels soon

    14 more regional TV channels soon

    KOLKATA: At a time when sections of both national and regional media are shutting shop or laying off staff as cost-cutting measures, former minister of state for parliamentary affairs in the PV Narsimharao government and senior Congress leader of Assam, Matang Singh, has plans to launch as many as 14 regional channels pan-India.

    Singh already owns television channels including NE TV, Focus TV, NE Bangla, NE Hi Fi, Hamar TV, HY TV and Radio Oo la la, and controls them through holding companies like Positiv Television and Positiv Radio.

    A highly-placed industry source said, “Singh plans to launch regional television channels in a big way soon.” The source hinted that Naveen Jindal, MP from Kurukshetra, Haryana, and chairman of Jindal Steel and Power, was likely to be part financier on this ambitious project.

    While Singh did not respond to repeated queries by this correspondent, a media manager revealed, “Though the existing channels have a huge reach in the north eastern region, they are not doing well.”

    Meanwhile, there have been reports that Jindal may also buy a majority stake in Assam’s NE TV, which is one of the north east’s leading channels run by Singh through his family and associates. Indiantelevision.com has also learnt that NE Bangla, the 24×7 Bengali news channel owned by Singh, has appointed Biswa Majumdar as editor-in-chief. Before taking on this assignment, Majumdar was at the helm of the channel’s Kolkata TV operations and affairs. Apparently, the search is on for a big studio for NE Bangla at EM Bypass. A company official on condition of anonymity revealed the venue to be near Science City.
    While a cross-section of the media may have been adversely impacted by the ongoing economic slowdown, media analysts predict that the next five to six months will see a spate of news channels mushrooming across the country, what with companies betting big on them thanks to the impending Lok Sabha elections.

  • ETV Marathi: Changing the rules of the game

    ETV Marathi has been one of the pioneers in regional entertainment and to our credit, we‘ve been visionaries.

    The way I see it there have been three phases of content. The first was the evolution of content. ETV Marathi, when it started out, was not on par with national TV channels but it was locally unique and culturally closer. The next phase was when Star Pravah came into being, and the quality and nature of programming took a leap. The third phase is what ETV Marathi has done since Viacom 18 came into the picture. We‘ve taken the current entertainment to its next phase.

    KHMC gets a lot more visibility and helps signify that change at multiple levels such as scale of programming, quality, production values or benchmark impacts the kind of audiences we draw.
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    Kon Hoyil Marathi Crorepati (KHMC) was one of the first steps to signify that. The kind of shows we were doing before and after KHMC signify the extent of change in the genre.

    KHMC gets a lot more visibility and helps signify that change at multiple levels such as scale of programming, quality, production values or benchmark impacts the kind of audiences we draw.

    The kind of programming that we have lined up is going to bring in more audiences from outside the genre. These are audiences that were not watching much of our Marathi programming but because of the quality and diversity, they would be looking at it. These are the younger audiences or more contemporary and educated in English or Hindi medium schools and therefore, are not watching regional Marathi entertainment. So it has to be the language and content that has to appeal to them. The content more than the emotional attachment to their language should pull them in.

    ETV Marathi‘s legacy is very strong but we were stuck in the past where it pulled in a certain kind of audience. We are now bringing in content that is far more vibrant, younger, contemporary and fresh in order to pull in a whole new segment of audiences to Marathi GEC.

    We had to change our FPC (Fixed Point Chart) but we didn‘t have the luxury to create content and wait because it was a running channel. We started replacing shows in a certain priority. We started by replacing some fiction shows. We brought contemporary drama on the channel. We created a completely original show called Vivah Bandhan while another was a remake of the popular show Uttaran called Asawa Sundar Swapnache Bandhan. We thought of taking something that worked nationally and serving it in a regional language with a setting that‘s closer home.

    Post that, we worked on the fiction vs. nonfiction mix. Previously, E TV Marathi had nonfiction during a late night time band post 9:30 pm or 10:00 pm, which we pulled to the 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm band. We launched three shows; one was Natya Rang, another was Comedy Expressthat we reworked on and third was another popular ETV Marathi show called Crime Diary that we brought back in a new avatar.

    E TV‘s legacy is very strong but we were stuck in the past where it pulled in a certain kind of audience.
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    Traditionally, ETV Marathi was not known for marketing. Now we have changed that and there is cross-channel marketing; outdoor, print, ground activities-pretty much 360 degree. We used KHMC to amplify our marketing because in a GEC space, a channel is never marketed, the show is. We did many on-ground activities for KHMC. We had vans going from city to town and organising a game play on the ‘hot seat‘. So people in a small town would gather and get an opportunity to answer five questions and get the feel of it. So we did a lot of these things that may not ultimately give an ROI on a specific show but will help to create a lot of buzz for the channel. KHMC did manage to shake people up as it came as a disrupter.

    Incidentally, KHMC is just about 20 per cent of our ratings while the rest comes from our other shows.

    We‘ve not only started doing a lot of marketing but we started just letting people know that ETV Marathi was undergoing a change.

    The consumer would take time to realise a change was happening. After carrying out some changes till March, we launched KHMC in May as our flagship program. That brought us a lot more visibility. What we have noticed is that every new show‘s launch has beaten the record of the previous show‘s launch. We brought on board better quality and differentiated nonfiction programs this year. The channel now has something for everybody.

    As a channel, for us, it is important to know what is happening in every age group. We track that by age or by SEC. Every single age group is showing growth in reach and time spent on ETV Marathi . We want to make sure that a lot of our old and loyal audiences have reason to stay on the channel as well as the younger audiences come back to the channel because our audiences don‘t sit in Mumbai and Pune. So we target the rest of Maharashtra in both ground activities and print.

  • ABP’s Punjabi foray on hold, for now

    ABP’s Punjabi foray on hold, for now

    MUMBAI: Everyone is feeling the pinch of the bad economic conditions in the country and news channels seem to be hit hard by it.

    According to sources, the Punjabi news channel that MCCS was planning to launch has been postponed to sometime in end-2013, due to the difficult phase that the industry is going through Although no date was fixed, sources had told indiantelevision.com, that it would be sometime in September or October.

    “News media is going through difficult and painful times and we are waiting for things to settle down,” says a source from the organisation. ABP already has a foothold in Hindi (ABP News), Marathi (ABP Majha) and Bengali (ABP Ananda).

    The news network had decided to expand into regional languages or Tier II cities as it felt it had saturated the potential in the metros. It had identified Punjabi as the first of the languages that it would launch. Sources in MCCS say that the company is reaping good profits and the delay is due to the overall financial conditions of the genre and the fact that it was still waiting to be granted an uplink license from the ministry of information and broadcasting.

    Recently, Network 18 laid off more than 350 employees and Bloomberg slashed its rolls by 30 as well. Tough times are peeling off the skin from the news sector.

  • HP teams up with Universal Music & Hungama.com to launch music service

    HP teams up with Universal Music & Hungama.com to launch music service

    MUMBAI: HP has joined forces with entertainment giants Universal Music and Hungama.com to launch subscription-based music service in India called HP Connected Music.

    The service provides unlimited rental downloadable music free of charge for one year. This brand new service is available on selected HP notebooks with the imbedded Windows 8 launcher.

    With the new range of HP consumer notebooks featuring Windows 8, consumers can now enjoy music on the move – with acess to their favourite music anywhere, anytime. HP Connected Music is available in India on selected consumer notebooks.

    HP Connected Music has been introduced in India to provide HP customers exclusive content and access to Hungama.com’s and Universal Music‘s diverse catalogue which includes over 1 million songs from more than 20,000 artists from different genres inlcuding Bollywood, Devotional, Rock, Classic, Hip Hop, Jazz, Regional, R&B, Country and others.

    Consumers will have access to unique content such as previews, behind the scenes, VIP events and many more, to connect with their favourite artists, including the likes of A. R. Rehman, Sonu Nigam, Priyanka Chopra, Anoushka Shankar, Euphoria and international artists like Justin Bieber, Lady GaGa, Aerosmith, Akon among others.

    Speaking about the service, HP PPS India Head, Marketing Ranjivjit Singh said, “Our consumers have told us they want a seamless music experience, while using their device and this is exactly what HP Connected Music provides. Through its subscription service, it allows people the chance to explore a whole new world of music and exclusive content, while using their HP device.”