ITV

Tag: Sahara’s

  • Sahara’s listed company to undergo name change; to incorporate ‘SaharaOne’

    MUMBAI: Sahara Group is planning to change the name of its listed entity, Sahara India Mass Communication Ltd, to reflect the SaharaOne brand.

    “The company’s new name will have SaharaOne in it so that it brings out the identity of our entertainment business,” Sahara India Mass Communication CEO Shantonu Aditya tells Indiantelevision.com.

    Sahara is also considering the merger of its broadcasting company with the listed entity. Sahara India TV Networks is an unlisted company which is the broadcasting arm for the Group’s entertainment and news channel operations. “We are looking at possibilities of the structure,” Aditya said, on being queried whether plans were afoot to merge the broadcasting company with Sahara India Mass Communication Ltd.

    The listed company, which earned a net profit of Rs 65 million on a total income of Rs 1.68 billion in 2004-05, produces software and licenses it to SaharaOne. The earnings from the movie business also get reflected in the company’s revenues. Sahara India TV Network, however, is a loss-making company.

    Aditya is confident that Sahara’s entertainment business including TV and film would turn around by April 2006. “Whatever gap there is, the two companies as a whole will turn around during this period,” he said.

    Sahara’s motion pictures business is doing extremely well while ad rates for SaharaOne has gone up by 5-10 times, Aditya added. Movie channel Filmy is likely to be launched this December.

    SaharaOne will launch in the UK and the rest of Europe by the end of this fiscal, Aditya said.

  • Mega-promotions to ring in Sahara’s ‘Karishma’

    MUMBAI: Pick up a MTNL land line anytime on Monday, 12 May, and you won’t get the dial tone. What you will get instead is a recorded voice reminding you of a television appointment with Karisma Kapoor in Sahara Manoranjan’s magnum opus Karishma – The Miracles of Destiny that premieres the same day at 9:30 pm.
    Sahara is obviously not sparing any effort to promote what is arguably the costliest TV series on Indian television and consequently, the largest programming risk in the channel’s three-year old existence. The innovative tie-up with MTNL for the day is just part of a multi-pronged multi-media strategy that is slowly being unleashed on an unsuspecting nation. 
    First to go visible were huge hoardings that dot the metros, with Karisma’s triple role staring out at passersby. Since yesterday, 20 suburban trains on the Western Railway in Mumbai have been painted with the show’s advertisements. 
    Come Monday, the channel will have helicopters spraying pamphlets covered with Karishma… advertisements in targeted towns and cities. In smaller towns in interior India, where Sahara is an accepted and appreciated channel, vans fitted with Karishma…… promos are doing the rounds.
    In cities, which is where the viewership counts when it comes to ratings, Sahara has tied up with prominent shops like Shoppers’ Stop and Provogue outlets, and customers will walk out with shopping bags on which will be printed Karishma….. ads. Contests are also part of the deal, say sources. 
    The channel did attempt a similar exercise, although on a slightly smaller scale, when Mission Fateh launched earlier this year. Mock army parades, artificial bunkers at railway stations all aimed at popularising the serial among the citizens.