ITV

Tag: Sony Television

  • Colors snaps ‘Box Cricket League’ rights; slots it on Sundays at 4.30 pm

    Colors snaps ‘Box Cricket League’ rights; slots it on Sundays at 4.30 pm

    MUMBAI: Colors has joined hands with Balaji Telefilms and Marinating Films to bring together television and cricket in a power packed season 2 of Box Cricket League (BCL). The first season of the property was aired on Sony Entertainment Television. 

     

    Season 2 of Box Cricket league will be a long six month reality show, which will be aired every Sunday. The channel will start shooting for the show in the second week of February.  

     

    With a stellar line up of 200 celebrities in 10 teams, the one and a half hour show BCL will be aired on Colors and Colors HD from 28 February, 2016 every Sunday at 4.30 pm with a repeat telecast on Rishtey. 

     

    It may be recalled that on Sony, BCL season 1 had 150 celebrities and eight teams. The weekly show was aired at 7:30 pm.   

      

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Colors CEO Raj Nayak said, “We had a talk with Ekta (Ekta Kapoor) one day and we were discussing on how we can do better with BCL and she felt that the show can be better on Colors. We genuinely believe in the format and felt that if it’s strategically positioned well, packaged and marketed with a creative tweak to the format, then it has the potential to make it big this time.” 

     

    Talking about the late afternoon time slot for the show, he says, “About 99 per cent of people are at home from 4:30 – 6 pm on a Sunday. This is also the time when women who watch different shows on television want to see a different side to their celebs. Cricket is just a backdrop, it has drama, emotions and passion. BCL can be a great reality show. We air movies in the 4:30 evening slot and we garnered the maximum ratings. I think if the content is good then people will follow it.” 

     

    This star-studded cricket league will have 10 teams named after 10 cities namely Ahmedabad Express, Kolkata Babu Moshayes, Chandigarh Cubs, Delhi Dragons, Jaipur Raj Joshiley, Chennai Swaggers, Mumbai Tigers, Pune Anmol Ratan, Rowdy Bangalore and Lucknow Nawabs led by celebrities like Sunny Leone, Nandish Sandhu, Ajay Chaudhry, Mrunal Jain, Anita Hassandani, Kamya Punjabi and others.

     

    The high point of the game is the mix of men and women in every team. The inclusion of males and females across all teams, makes it a battle of equals where the celebrities will be fully charged to kick the dust up.

     

    Commenting on the time slot, Balaji Telefilms joint managing director Ekta Kapoor said, “The slot has seen ratings earlier. It’s a movie slot and also and Sunday evening is family time when the entire family can watch cricket together specially the ladies of the house. Therefore we think it’s the perfect time band for BCL.” 

     

    With a huge number of television stars vying to play this season of BCL, the league owners have had to set new guidelines for player qualifications. 

     

    The strict diktat ensures only top lead actors (who’ve starred as main leads for a minimum of 250 episodes) and second lead actors (who’ve had at least 500 episodes to their credit) can partake in this season. Besides popular fiction faces, GEC reality show winners and top contestants are also qualified to play. 

     

    Marinating Films managing director Sunny Arora asserted, “I used to organise cricket tournaments since my childhood. So one night this idea crossed my mind to have a cricket league and I discussed it with my partner Anand that we should have men and women playing together. We announced on Whatsapp that we were coming up with this league and since sending that message, the next three days were the most busiest days of my life. So that’s how the idea came about.”

     

    Arora also added, “Colors is one of the leading channel in India and no one can compete with them when it comes to non-fiction series. Also Colors has a very strong team including Raj Nayak, Manisha and Sheetal, they are so clear in their thought and every show on Colors works and we believe that BCL will also work.”

     

    With 200 celebrities in one show, BCL is no doubt an expensive proposition. Talking about the same, Arora informed, “This year the production cost of BCL has increased three times compared to last year. This time we are using a bigger venue, larger crew and more technicians. We have also incorporated more software to make the show as good as international matches. So yes, it’s an expensive show and we have invested much more than last year. And we are confident that the cost will be recovered because we are on Colors.”

  • Sony’s Power Couple to launch on December 12; five sponsors roped in

    Sony’s Power Couple to launch on December 12; five sponsors roped in

    MUMBAI:  After Indian Idol, Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa and Khatro Ke Khiladi, Sony Entertainment Television is all set bring another international format – Power Couple, to India. Hitting Indian television screens from December 12 onwards, Power Couple will be a one and half hour show and will be aired on Saturday and Sunday at the 8.30 pm time slot. Indiantelevision.com had reported earlier that SET would bring the Israeli reality show produced by Colosceum Entertainment to India.

     

    The channel has roped in Ponds as the presenting sponsor and Priyagold Snakker and Ching’s Secret – I love Desi Chinese as powered by sponsors.. Besides, Power Couple also has Iodex and Dettol as the co- sponsors for the show.

     

    The channel will also be airing strips of the show from Monday – Friday at 10 pm for 30 minutes, to run viewers through the journey of the contestants. Power Couple will be a 26 episodes series that will run for 13 weeks.

     

    Power Couple will be hosted by Bollywood couple Malaika Arora Khan and Arbaaz Khan. The show celebrates the essence of true love as it gauges how far couples will go to prove their undying affection for each other. Pratyusha Banerjee-Rahul Raj Singh, Naved Jaffrey-Sayeeda, Jesse Randhawan-Sandeep Soparkar, Apoorva Agnihotri-Shilpa Saklani, Aamir Ali-Sanjeeda Sheikh, Delnaz Irani-Percy Karkaria, Salil Ankola-Ria Banerjee, Shawar Ali-Marsela, Ashmit Patel-MehakChahal, and Rahul Dev-MugdhaGodse will among the participants.

     

    Speaking about the show, Multi Screen Media (MSM) CEO NP Singh said, “The good thing about Sony is whether we bring a show for the domestic market or for the international market, we are known for the bringing the best shows to the country. Sony has introduced some of the best reality to India like Indian Idol, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, Khatro Ke Khiladi and Dus Ka Dum which become very popular. Power Couple, our next international offering, was originally produced by Israel-based Dori Media. The producers plan to launch the show in US and UK as well. One of Sony’s greatest strengths in programming is that we’ve led right from the front in non-fiction content and in fiction as well. We have recently launched season two of Parrvarish and initial response is good.”

     

     

    Talking to Indiantelevision.com about the promotional activities, SET SVP and head marketing Anup Vishwanathan, said, “We have planned a 360 degree campaign to promote Power Couple. It will be 8 week campaign for us including digital, radio, television and print outside and inside the network. We are also running a contest on social media where we are asking people to upload their and pictures and tell us about why they want to be the part of the show. We have already received 7000 entries for the same and shortlisted 400 couples.” SET has roped in Leo Burnett as the creative agency which worked with SET’s internal creative team for the show.

     

    Colosceum Entertainment CEO Lalit Sharma said, “Basically we have been doing all sorts of reality shows from Splitsvilla to Roadies to Masterchef. This is a reality show in the positive space and this is an answer to any negative warrism kind of show. It’s high time that one should get into the positive mode and that’s made us believe that this will work.”

     

    The production house has tweaked the format for its Indian audiences. Talking about the same, Sharma added, “The Israelis are more into showing skin, while Indian culture doesn’t allow that and that is one of the major changes we have made in this show. Besides, we have also changed the task format according to our needs.”

     

    Power Couple has been shot in Goa in beautiful villa named Power Couple Villa.  While Sharma did not mention figures, speaking about the production cost he said, “Power Couple is an expensive show. It’s cost is three times the Roadies cost.”