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Tag: Sandeep Gupta

  • Shemaroo hires Sandeep Gupta to head broadcast business

    Shemaroo hires Sandeep Gupta to head broadcast business

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment, India’s leading content powerhouse, has announced the appointment of Sandeep Gupta as COO – broadcasting business. This comes at a time as the company announced its strategic entry into broadcast business with two channel launches – Shemaroo TV, the flagship Hindi GEC and the Marathi movie channel Shemaroo MarathiBana.  With this move, Shemaroo will consolidate its entire broadcast offerings under the able leadership of Sandeep Gupta.

    Sandeep has played an instrumental role in Shemaroo’s entry into the broadcast business to power its next growth phase. Before joining Shemaroo Entertainment, Sandeep has been the India CFO & COO – broadcasting business at B4U Television Network India Limited, where he played a significant role in scaling up and turning around the broadcasting business with improved market credibility and brand image, along with a couple of television channel launches.

    Shemaroo also announced key appointments and restructuring to focus on the broadcast business.

    Subhash Somani, deputy vice president, has helped scale Shemaroo DTH VAS business to newer heights and will now take additional charge of Shemaroo TV. Subhash will oversee the entire business for Shemaroo TV – content production & planning and channel distribution among others. Subhash comes with a rich experience of 10 years in the media sector, where he has driven business strategies, alliances and partnerships along with content production and other building block functions for many organizations. Prior to making a move to Shemaroo, Subhash was associated with Videocon d2h.

    Vivek Koka, assistant vice president, who heads the Bollywood category, will now be given additional responsibility of leading the Marathi movie channel ‘Shemaroo MarathiBana’. As a business professional of 17 years, Vivek has varied experience across broadcasting, DTH & telecom. In his last assignment, he led the marketing function for channels such as &pictures, &pictures HD, Zee Classic & Zee Anmol. Prior to Zee, he worked with leading brands such as Tata Sky & Tata Docomo handling leadership roles across key strategic functions.
    With a clear focus in the broadcast business, its agenda will be led by some of the finest minds in the television space and hence on the programming front Shemaroo has announced key hires. 

    Rakesh Jain, programming head, will be responsible for the programming and creative development of the Hindi GEC, Shemaroo TV and will work closely with the team to strengthen the channel’s position. He comes with over 18 years of experience in the media space where he has led the programming teams from inception stage and launched two successful Hindi GECs. He has also been instrumental in creating channel driver properties for Star group, ZEE group and Turner group from the broadcasting ecosystem. 

    Yojana Bahalkar Bhave, deputy general manager, will lead programming for Marathi movie channel Shemaroo MarathiBana. She comes with over 15 years of experience in the GEC and non-GEC space and has worked with leading brands like Zee Talkies, Colors Marathi, 9X Media, Music India, ETV Marathi etc. She was instrumental in launching 9X Jhakaas, first Marathi music channel and revamping of Zee Talkies. Yojana has vast experience in non-fiction programming and has worked on various TV show formats like music shows, reality shows, adventure and youth shows, multi-entertainment television shows and film award shows.

    Both the progamming leads bring on board an in-depth experience and a strong understanding of content curation that will be crucial in developing the broadcast portfolio for the company. With these new hires, Shemaroo has elevated the entertainment quotient for their newly launched Shemaroo TV and its audiences.

    Shemaroo Entertainment CEO Hiren Gada said:  "Shemaroo’s DNA has been to constantly evolve with the changing times and pre-empt market shifts and adopt unconventional approaches for an accelerated growth. Our endeavor has always been to build a future ready organisation with distinct capabilities and a distinctive culture with an emphasis on developing internal talent. This new structure will power us as we enter our next growth phase.” While congratulating Sandeep Gupta on the appointment, he said, “Sandeep  is one of those rare leaders in our industry who possess a sharp business acumen coupled with great insights on the pulse of the audiences. I am confident that he will be able to take our television offerings to greater heights as he leverages his experience of successfully building large scale television businesses.”

    Sandeep Gupta said: "Shemaroo is an established and homegrown name in the entertainment industry, entertaining consumers from the last 57 years. The company is constantly experimenting and tapping into many new businesses, and has always disrupted the archaic norms. It’s an exciting time to be a part of such a dynamic team at Shemaroo, while embracing the culture and bringing the best to the vision and leadership. I look forward to working with the teams here, and make significant contribution by making the category a household name. “

    Shemaroo is all set for a new innings in the broadcast space and has laced itself with all the ingredients required to be the top choice of the viewers.

     

  • Shemaroo TV adjusts break even parameters to account for Covid2019 crisis

    Shemaroo TV adjusts break even parameters to account for Covid2019 crisis

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd's (Shemaroo) entry into the Hindi GEC space comes at a time when the TV industry is fraught with unprecedented challenges. Content consumption is up but GECs haven't seen fresh content in over a month even as advertising revenue has dipped due to the Covid2019 crisis. 

    The 57-year-old legacy brand’s new venture, Shemaroo TV, which will go live on 1 May, has entered the space with 6.5 hours of programming each day with shows like Devon Ke Dev…Mahadev, Dil Se Di Dua Saubhagyawati Bhava, Great Indian Laughter Challenge, etc. As the current crisis has halted all production, the channel will look at original content once this phase is over.

    A channel launch is generally accompanied by a 360-degree marketing plan, but in this peculiar situation, Shemaroo will optimise TV and digital media as much as possible to make consumers aware of its presence, explains Shemaroo Entertainment broadcast business COO Sandeep Gupta. 

    It is also looking at a number of partnerships with like-minded brands inside and outside the media industry to ensure the message reaches to the target audiences. Shemaroo Entertainment marketing and communication head Rahul Mishra added that a lot of its marketing campaigning will be scheduled along with original programming roll out.

    Shemaroo Entertainment CEO Hiren Gada also explained the rationale behind making the new channel FTA. According to him, post the new tariff order, there has been a great opportunity for FTA channels. Moreover, the Hindi GEC segment is not well served in the space. He also added that they chose a low-cost entry strategy to lower the risk while the market has seen a few GEC channels failing lately.

    While there are some logistical issues in terms of distribution, the company is confident to make its new channel available to 80 per cent of Indian diaspora and the HSM. It is eying to be present on all DTH platforms except Sun DTH and on all leading MSOs. 

    “Being a GEC content channel, you have to get eyeballs quickly. If you don’t board your bus soon, the audience will not want to see our content midway. We are aiming to be at par or slightly lower-than-top competition in FTA channels in the next 45 days in terms of viewership,” Gupta said.

    While brands are now tightening their purse strings amid the Covid2019 crisis, ad rates have also fallen down. Shemaroo has not on-boarded any advertisers yet. Gada is optimistic that by the time they will be out in the market pitching ad-rates, the industry may go back closer to normalcy with ad rates bouncing back from pressure.

    The company is aware of the fact that the revenue might be affected for one-two years but also confident that it will be normalised later since it is a long-term product. “ While the pandemic has changed many things including revenue outlook in the ultra short term, we have also adjusted our investment, cost structure for a faster break-even or a better ROI,” he added.

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  • IDOS 2016: The DD FreeDish alternative for TV channels & advertisers

    IDOS 2016: The DD FreeDish alternative for TV channels & advertisers

    GOA: Has the pubcaster DD’s free to air platform FreeDish emerged as a viable proposition for advertisers? What are its expansion plans, going forward? These were some of the questions posed by the Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO & Editor in chief Anil Wanvari at IDOS 2016 in Goa during the session on FTA channels to SAB Group CEO Manav Dhanda, B4U broadcasting division COO and CFO Sandeep Gupta, Starcom India group CEO Mallikarjun ‘Malli’ Das, and DD’s FreeDish deputy director-general (engineering) AK Jha.

    Jha started out by saying that the DTH platform has 55 private tenants including those from the majors – Sony Pictures Television Networks, Star India, and Zee TV – as well as from smaller broadcast networks such as B4U and the SAB group. “We want more such customers to come on our platform,” he expressed. He, however, confessed that getting an exact count of the number of subscribers was difficult as FreeDish was only a platform and the STBs were distributed by recognized vendors. “But, by extrapolating TRAI DTH data, conversations with STB manufactures and chipset suppliers, our estimates are that it could be anywhere between 20 million and 40 million. We would safely put it at about 25 million,” said Jha.

    Gupta and Dhanda explained why the two networks have taken the FTA route on the DTH platform.

    “As a broadcaster, we wanted to be on every platform. Since our focus was to be present everywhere, we got on to it very early when there were very few tenants. Although we were pay channels, we were FTA on DD FreeDish. B4U Movies was the Star Plus of DD direct is what MSOs told us. Only after BARC data rolled out did we come to know that rural has got so much of weightage. Otherwise, FreeDish was only one of the means of getting ourselves available everywhere,” said Gupta.

    Added Dhanda: “We wanted to build the maximum reach. We have five channels. We are also on cable, DTH and other platforms. It was not triggered by the advent of BARC data which suggests you need to be there. There is a cost for entry. Distribution and content are major costs for broadcasters. As a broadcaster, we want ROI. Syndicated content channels like us have not managed to build a compelling pay TV channel proposition. Hence, it is safe to go to FTA.”

    But, is it good to go FTA on DD FreeDish? Since the only revenue stream is from advertising, is the platform attracting advertiser interest?

    “FTA has just come into focus as BARC gave a new set of lenses. Earlier, TAM used to measure LC1 but media planners did not take it seriously as they were urban focused. Now with the 6,000 metres under BARC’s rural sample, it has taken on a different hue,” said Malli. “There are three segments advertisers look at from an audience segmentation – HD – 9 million-10 million homes; the fat middle with all the pay channels. And, there is the rural which is FTA. For brands, which are purely rural, it makes sense to go FTA. Distribute the spends over 30-40 weeks on an FTA media outlet, rather than finish it over eight to nine weeks on the more expensive pay channels. Some money is going into FTA from existing TV channel spends, some is coming from local cable, wall paintings and OOH.”

    But, are media buyers buying air time on channels on FreeDish purely for the rural audiences or for urban and rural audiences as defined by BARC? “When media planners are buying for rural, it makes sense,” he said. “When they look at rural+urban, they start looking at old currencies, and things don’t move. There’s still some confusion. Once these old data currencies are exhausted, and some new benchmarks are set for rural, the ad dollars will start flowing in aggressively. HD channels have only nine to 10 million subscribers, yet planners are putting the advertiser’s money into them. Whereas FTA has a larger reach, but the currency dynamics need to be taken care of.”

    Is there a ROI coming in for advertisers? “It’s a little too early. The plane has to yet land,” opined Malli. ”Retailers, distributors and sales people say, take Star Plus. The rural sample is 6,000 metres. We have to triangulate what the trade says with the BARC data, as they will want the spectacular as they will want the ads to be in the biggest properties. Currently, we have put the money for our clients on FTA. We have to get a larger body of evidence.”

    Jha said that DD FreeDish is augmenting its capacity by 24 channels and gearing up for this by moving to MPEG4 STBs, which are going to be made available to subscribers soon. “Currently, we are empanelling the STB manufacturers for MPEG4 boxes,” he explained. “Within four months, the STBs will roll out. Post that, the existing subscribers will be able to receive the 80 channels, whereas the new subscribers with MPEG 4 boxes will get 104 channels after the auctions conclude and tenants got on board.”

    Malli expressed that this was good news, it was not something that the advertising community would put its money immediately on .”At least, we know what we are investing in with the MPEG-2 boxes now,” he said. “We will have to see how many MPEG4 STBs roll out, how they are accepted before we put our might behind them.”

    Jha responded to this by saying that, in the new regime of MPEG4, DD FreeDish will be able to tell the advertiser community, exactly how many subscribers there were because the conditional access was being built in to the STBs. “Over time, we hope the entire universe of FreeDish will migrate to the new boxes,” he said.

    Jha is bullish about the prospects of free TV. “Customers in rural areas cannot afford the high sticker prices of Rs 3,000-7,000 per year that commercial DTH players are charging consumers,” he said. “Customers need to pay just Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 for the STBs once to be able to receive a bouquet of good channels free. Hence, we are quite confident of DD FreeDish and the alternative we offer to Indian TV viewers.”

  • IDOS 2016: The DD FreeDish alternative for TV channels & advertisers

    IDOS 2016: The DD FreeDish alternative for TV channels & advertisers

    GOA: Has the pubcaster DD’s free to air platform FreeDish emerged as a viable proposition for advertisers? What are its expansion plans, going forward? These were some of the questions posed by the Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO & Editor in chief Anil Wanvari at IDOS 2016 in Goa during the session on FTA channels to SAB Group CEO Manav Dhanda, B4U broadcasting division COO and CFO Sandeep Gupta, Starcom India group CEO Mallikarjun ‘Malli’ Das, and DD’s FreeDish deputy director-general (engineering) AK Jha.

    Jha started out by saying that the DTH platform has 55 private tenants including those from the majors – Sony Pictures Television Networks, Star India, and Zee TV – as well as from smaller broadcast networks such as B4U and the SAB group. “We want more such customers to come on our platform,” he expressed. He, however, confessed that getting an exact count of the number of subscribers was difficult as FreeDish was only a platform and the STBs were distributed by recognized vendors. “But, by extrapolating TRAI DTH data, conversations with STB manufactures and chipset suppliers, our estimates are that it could be anywhere between 20 million and 40 million. We would safely put it at about 25 million,” said Jha.

    Gupta and Dhanda explained why the two networks have taken the FTA route on the DTH platform.

    “As a broadcaster, we wanted to be on every platform. Since our focus was to be present everywhere, we got on to it very early when there were very few tenants. Although we were pay channels, we were FTA on DD FreeDish. B4U Movies was the Star Plus of DD direct is what MSOs told us. Only after BARC data rolled out did we come to know that rural has got so much of weightage. Otherwise, FreeDish was only one of the means of getting ourselves available everywhere,” said Gupta.

    Added Dhanda: “We wanted to build the maximum reach. We have five channels. We are also on cable, DTH and other platforms. It was not triggered by the advent of BARC data which suggests you need to be there. There is a cost for entry. Distribution and content are major costs for broadcasters. As a broadcaster, we want ROI. Syndicated content channels like us have not managed to build a compelling pay TV channel proposition. Hence, it is safe to go to FTA.”

    But, is it good to go FTA on DD FreeDish? Since the only revenue stream is from advertising, is the platform attracting advertiser interest?

    “FTA has just come into focus as BARC gave a new set of lenses. Earlier, TAM used to measure LC1 but media planners did not take it seriously as they were urban focused. Now with the 6,000 metres under BARC’s rural sample, it has taken on a different hue,” said Malli. “There are three segments advertisers look at from an audience segmentation – HD – 9 million-10 million homes; the fat middle with all the pay channels. And, there is the rural which is FTA. For brands, which are purely rural, it makes sense to go FTA. Distribute the spends over 30-40 weeks on an FTA media outlet, rather than finish it over eight to nine weeks on the more expensive pay channels. Some money is going into FTA from existing TV channel spends, some is coming from local cable, wall paintings and OOH.”

    But, are media buyers buying air time on channels on FreeDish purely for the rural audiences or for urban and rural audiences as defined by BARC? “When media planners are buying for rural, it makes sense,” he said. “When they look at rural+urban, they start looking at old currencies, and things don’t move. There’s still some confusion. Once these old data currencies are exhausted, and some new benchmarks are set for rural, the ad dollars will start flowing in aggressively. HD channels have only nine to 10 million subscribers, yet planners are putting the advertiser’s money into them. Whereas FTA has a larger reach, but the currency dynamics need to be taken care of.”

    Is there a ROI coming in for advertisers? “It’s a little too early. The plane has to yet land,” opined Malli. ”Retailers, distributors and sales people say, take Star Plus. The rural sample is 6,000 metres. We have to triangulate what the trade says with the BARC data, as they will want the spectacular as they will want the ads to be in the biggest properties. Currently, we have put the money for our clients on FTA. We have to get a larger body of evidence.”

    Jha said that DD FreeDish is augmenting its capacity by 24 channels and gearing up for this by moving to MPEG4 STBs, which are going to be made available to subscribers soon. “Currently, we are empanelling the STB manufacturers for MPEG4 boxes,” he explained. “Within four months, the STBs will roll out. Post that, the existing subscribers will be able to receive the 80 channels, whereas the new subscribers with MPEG 4 boxes will get 104 channels after the auctions conclude and tenants got on board.”

    Malli expressed that this was good news, it was not something that the advertising community would put its money immediately on .”At least, we know what we are investing in with the MPEG-2 boxes now,” he said. “We will have to see how many MPEG4 STBs roll out, how they are accepted before we put our might behind them.”

    Jha responded to this by saying that, in the new regime of MPEG4, DD FreeDish will be able to tell the advertiser community, exactly how many subscribers there were because the conditional access was being built in to the STBs. “Over time, we hope the entire universe of FreeDish will migrate to the new boxes,” he said.

    Jha is bullish about the prospects of free TV. “Customers in rural areas cannot afford the high sticker prices of Rs 3,000-7,000 per year that commercial DTH players are charging consumers,” he said. “Customers need to pay just Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 for the STBs once to be able to receive a bouquet of good channels free. Hence, we are quite confident of DD FreeDish and the alternative we offer to Indian TV viewers.”

  • B4U Media Ventures to handle sales duties of Housefull Movies

    B4U Media Ventures to handle sales duties of Housefull Movies

    MUMBAI: The new 24×7 Free-To-Air (FTA) Hindi movie channel Housefull Movies launched by Triumph Media Vision Private Limited, has assigned its sales responsibilities to B4U Media Ventures.

     

    The channel has achieved almost four per cent viewership share in the northern market within a span of eight weeks since its launch and competes with the likes of Zee Classic, Zee Action and UTV Action.

     

    Housefull Movies MD Harish Patil said, “Being a new player with a content mix similar to the likes of second line Hindi movie channels and strong distribution, we aim to place Housefull movies as a full on filmipanti movie channel in the mind of the viewers and advertisers. The collaboration with B4U Media Ventures will aid in monetising our advertising inventory better, as we have seen the team’s ability to position the B4U group of channels in India within the minds of advertisers in a way that benefits both the advertisers and the channel.”

     

    B4U Media Ventures director Sandeep Gupta added, “With B4U Media Ventures we focus on creating a value proposition for the broadcasters and advertisers. We are proud to officially announce our first account and have faith in our team that they would be able to create new success stories. We are looking forward for a successful growth of the new association.”

     

    B4U Media Ventures CEO C. F. Moses said, “We are pleased to have Housefull Movies’ revenue mandate, which will be a strong contender in the movie genre in the coming months. Besides the exciting growth plan of Housefull Movies, the collaboration would help them in leveraging our domain knowledge, revenue management skills, and our industry relationships making it mutually beneficial.”

     

    B4U Media Ventures business head Amar Dixit said, “Despite the clutter in the movie genre, viewers have welcomed new launches last year. The robust content strategy of Housefull Movies, wide spread distribution and the consistent BARC numbers will give good returns to the advertisers and help in benefiting the channel revenues. Housefull Movies has tremendous potential and we are glad to be associated with it.” 

  • B4U launches B4U Media Ventures; CF Moses to head

    B4U launches B4U Media Ventures; CF Moses to head

    MUMBAI: B4U has launched a new company called B4U Media Ventures, which will provide one-stop media related solutions to broadcasters and other new media players in India and the overseas.

     

    The company will be headed by CF Moses and will provide sales, marketing, research, distribution and traffic management services.

     

    Currently, Moses heads the sales vertical of B4U Network channels.

     

    B4U Group Companies in India CFO Sandeep Gupta said, “The group has evidenced growth in revenues since Moses had taken over as the head of sales. We believed in the team and it has delivered yet again. I am confident that Moses and his team will be able to identify and address the primary issue of revenue for any broadcaster.”

     
    B4U Media Ventures CEO Moses added, “I am extremely thrilled with the new opportunity. I am thankful to the management for continuing to place their faith in me and my team & giving me more opportunities and responsibilities to continue with their business. This would not had been possible without the team, especially Amar Dixit, VP North / East and Shrikrishna Prabhu AVP – West. I am looking forward to one of the most exciting and challenging assignments of my career.”

     

    According to the company, while a few broadcasters have shown interest in signing up for specialized services, B4U Media Ventures is also in advanced stages of negotiations with a few niche channels, which are proposing to launch in India.

  • B4U partners Amagi for content delivery, playout operations

    B4U partners Amagi for content delivery, playout operations

    MUMBAI: B4U Television Network India has signed on Amagi, the cloud-based broadcast infrastructure and targeted TV advertising company, for a range of end-to-end cloud-based playout services.

     

    Through its flagship channel playout platform, Cloudport 2.0, Amagi’s services will include playout, 24/7 monitoring, conditional access and measurement systems leveraging satellite distribution from satellite operator AsiaSat.

     

    The development marks a step in the adoption of cloud-based managed playout services by TV networks in India and Amagi’s growing expertise in this area. It also demonstrates increasing adoption of the Amagi’s next-generation channel playout management services by TV networks worldwide to monetise their content delivery and distribution.

     

    Amagi is known in the Indian market for geo-targeted advertising. It has served over 30 million ad seconds for more than 2,500 clients including names like HUL, Reckitt & Benckiser, Britannia, and Wipro.

     

    “Amagi’s playout services offer us improved flexibility, transparency, and channel control at very cost-effective rates. We are also delighted with the excellent technical support delivered by Amagi in transitioning from our earlier playout infrastructure in just under two months,” said B4U Network chief financial officer Sandeep Gupta.

     

    “With all our content assets on the cloud, we are in a position to efficiently expand to new geographies and target specific markets as the business demands. It also makes us future-ready, as Amagi’s platforms are extendable for content regionalization, ad monetization, and OTT platform integration,” he added.

     

    The content and playlist is contributed by B4U in Mumbai, India, and the United Kingdom, while playout is uplinked in Hong Kong via AsiaSat. The entire workflow is stitched through Amagi’s cloud infrastructure and monitored by Amagi at its headquarters in Bengaluru.

     

    “Cloudport is rapidly becoming the preferred platform of choice for channel playout and management as TV networks look to leverage new efficiencies available through virtualized playout models,” said Amagi co-founder Srividhya Srinivasan.

     

    “By supporting multisite workflows and collaboration, our Cloudport platform dramatically enhances playout and distribution efficiencies for B4U Television Network India while enabling them to deliver a world-class entertainment experience to customers,” he added.

     

    “We are pleased to continue to support our client, B4U, with high availability ground and space integrated monitoring/control and up-linking service from our Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong, along with Amagi who provides end-to-end playout services, enabling B4U to enjoy a total transmission solution for access to Asia-Pacific-wide audiences via AsiaSat,” said AsiaSat VP sales and business development Philip Balaam.

  • Dish TV adds B4U on its platform

    Dish TV adds B4U on its platform

    MUMBAI: Music channel B4U will now be available on Dish TV in all packs that the DTH platform offers.

     

    With this move the music channel aims to strengthen its position in the entertainment world.

     

    The channel’s CFO Sandeep Gupta said, “We are extremely excited to get access on the Dish DTH platform which has more than 11 million active subscriber base. This will facilitate the music loving Indian audience with more choice to entertain themselves. The demand for Indian music across the world has been encouraging us to offer our content through various mediums so that they can entertain themselves with their own choice.”

     

    With a rich film and varied music library, B4U is a strong platform for Bollywood film soundtracks and latest blockbusters to classic old time movie’s which is now contentedly accessible for all the Bollywood music and old classic movie lovers.  

     

    B4U music channel will be available on channel number 668 while B4U movie channel will be available on channel number 207.