ITV

Tag: Sony

  • Grey India appoints Vishal Ahluwalia as Bangalore head

    Grey India appoints Vishal Ahluwalia as Bangalore head

    MUMBAI: Grey Group India has appointed Vishal Ahluwalia as vice president and office head of its Bangalore ops. He will be reporting to Grey Group India chairman and managing director Sunil Lulla.

     

    Ahluwalia joins Grey with two decades of marketing communications experience, across various geographies and disciplines. In his various avatars, he has headed businesses and has been an entrepreneur. Until recently, he worked as a member of the Board of IRIS Worldwide, in which he spearheaded the digital and retail verticals. Prior to that he was TBWA South India head; JWT -Taipei head for Unilever business and has also had stints with Contract and JWT.

     

    “Vishal brings a great blend of advertising savviness and digital smarts to Grey. His experience across geographies and diverse categories, will strengthen the leadership team at Grey. He will take further our integrated offerings to various clients and enable their brands to be famous and effective,” said Lulla.

     

    Ahluwalia added, “I am very excited about the prospect to bring my skills across various stream to Grey Group’s rich and diverse client roster. I do believe the future requires us to be able to deliver services in a wholesome and integrated fashion. I am delighted to return to Bangalore which has always been a springboard for my learning and my success.”

     

  • Star Sports-Sony spar over World Cup, IPL performances

    Star Sports-Sony spar over World Cup, IPL performances

    MUMBAI: Even as the national sides are battling it out on the pitches in Australia-New Zealand to decide who will take home the World Cup in the quarter final stage, a behind the scenes slugfest is taking place between two rival broadcasters, which have both laid big bets on the sport. We are referring to Star India and Multi Screen Media (which runs the Sony Entertainment Television network in India).

    The former is telecasting the World Cup and has the rights to India cricket internationally, while the latter is gearing up to telecast the cricket league – the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the next two months, apart from Euro 2016 qualifiers, FIFA International friendlies and various Fight sports. At stake is close to Rs 4,500 crore that is likely to be spent by advertisers on sports television this year. Of this ginormous pie, approximately Rs 2000-2,200 crore is estimated to be spent on the World Cup and IPL. It’s no wonder then that the two are resorting to sledging within the confines of advertisers’ and media agencies’ cabins and to journos.

    Star India began its World Cup innings just about three weeks ago – rather shakily. A Sony spokesperson reveals that the Star ad sales team had just about managed to raise Rs 100 -150 crore or so in ad and sponsorship deals before the once-in-four-years tourney began. “They were really desperate,” he says. “India were performing abysmally on their tour overseas.”

    The Star spokesperson is quick to respond, “In the first two weeks only, the advertiser as well as sponsor count for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was 50 per cent higher than 2011 edition as well as the IPL.”

    The Sony spokesperson’s rejoinder to this is that India’s stupendous display against Pakistan in their opening encounter helped bail out Star Sports. Advertisers flocked to its doors, cash in hand ready to pay premium to air their TVCs. Estimates are that Star India will raise anywhere from Rs 800 – 900 crore from this year’s contest, which ends late in March.

    And even as Star has been screaming that this year’s edition has generated the highest ratings ever, and in its trail ad revenues, Sony’s spokesperson has been rubbishing the numbers. Says he: “The ratings in this edition have seen a substantial decline when compared to the 2011 edition. Moreover fans had to wait for a week to witness an India match; the decline is constant in the non-India matches too. Whereas in IPL, each and every match is entertaining and is showcased on prime time.”

    He adds, “After 31 matches, the bouts involving India are generating 6.1 TVRs, which was 10.3 during the 2011 edition and the decline is constant in non-India matches too wherein it has dropped from 3.6 TVRs to 1.3 TVR.”

    Terming those figures as absolute no-balls, the Star India spokesperson asserts, “The cumulative reach of the ongoing World Cup touched 534 million viewers after the first 29 matches (TAM data CS4+ extrapolated to the universe using a standard conversion factor). In terms of TVRs, the India vs Pakistan match garnered 14.9 TVR, India vs South Africa got 12.7 TVR, and India vs West Indies managed 13.1 TVR and the non-India match ratings are fluctuating from 2 to 2.5.”

    Media observers also point out to the fact that the reporting of the ratings has also changed since 2011. “In those days, LC1 towns were not factored into the ratings. Hence, a pure comparision is also not possible,” says a media expert. “It’s like comparing apples and oranges.”

    The Star India spokesperson in turn takes a dig at MSM’s telecast record of the IPL, saying the trend is clear. “The IPL reach has declined continuously since season one and sharply in the last three years. Post World Cup in 2011, the tournament suffered as both foot fall and engagement dropped.”

    Terming these allegations as “baseless,” the MSM official shared the cumulative reach of IPL since its inception.

     

     

    The official also added, “Not only in terms of cumulative reach every year but also in terms of ad revenue we witnessed an eight – 10 per cent increase.  IPL is an established entity and considering the fact that the tourney has survived through many ifs and buts in past years, the asset is now beyond question.”

    The Star spokesperson says that MSM has a major challenge on its hands over the next few weeks. It is going to telecast the IPL very soon after the World Cup ends; at a time when the sports ad spends appetites of some advertisers may have been satiated courtesy the World Cup. However, to MSM’s advantage is the fact that most big spenders are beginning new financial years (the year end for most large corporates in India is 31 March) and hence will have fat wallets. Nonetheless, Sony has to raise anywhere from Rs 900 to 1,200 crore to make this year’s IPL outing pay off.

    The Sony spokesperson quickly reverts that this is a given. “While we don’t comment on internal financial figures, we will meet and maybe even beat the revenue target we have set for this year’s IPL,” he says. “Advertiser interest is rising thanks to the excitement that is building around cricket.”

    Even as they are taking digs at each other’s performances, the fact remains that both broadcasters are well aware of the importance and valuation of the two flagship tournaments. Moreover the fact that Star’s Hotstar platform is the digital partner of IPL and Max was the destination of the World Cup not long back, proves that the two desire both the tournaments equally. Star India probably is hungry for growth in sports. Its CEO Uday Shankar has outlined the broadcast network’s intentions very clearly: it wants to pitch in a big way to grow the sports ecosystem in India. And in the process, also bring in mountains of revenues for his network.

    When the next bidding process for the IPL begins by next year or so, you can be sure Shankar and his team will be on the frontlines making a definitive attempt to acquire its rights. Of course MSM’s NP Singh will be up front too. The rivalry will continue.

  • LAFF inks film licensing deals with Sony, Disney, Miramax

    LAFF inks film licensing deals with Sony, Disney, Miramax

    MUMBAI: Continuing to assemble impressive programming assets as it prepares to debut on 15 April, over-the-air broadcast television network devoted to comedy – LAFF – has inked three individual film licensing agreements with Sony Pictures Television, The Walt Disney Studios and Miramax. The deals will bring the network some of the biggest comedic stars and performances of recent times.

     

    Stars and titles headed to LAFF from the Sony Pictures Television library include: Jerry Maguire starring Tom Cruise; Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle, Punchline and Nothing in Common, which co-stars Jackie Gleason; Gleason’s classic pairing with Richard Pryor in The Toy; Pryor and Gene Wilder teaming for Stir Crazy; Steel Magnolias starring Julia Roberts; Robin Williams in The Fisher King and Moscow on the Hudson; Steve Martin in Roxanne and Mixed Nuts; John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Neighbors and also This is Spinal Tap, About Last Night and St. Elmo’s Fire.

     

    Library movies from The Walt Disney Studios include: Splash, starring Tom Hanks; Robin Williams and John Travolta in Old Dogs; Ellen DeGeneres chasing Mr. Wrong; Jungle 2 Jungle, starring Tim Allen and Martin Short; Eddie Murphy as The Distinguished Gentleman; John Cusack in High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank as well as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Cool Runnings, Mr. 3000 and The Ref.

     

    Films and stars from the Miramax library include: Kevin Smith’s breakthrough comedy Clerks; Flirting With Disaster, starring Ben Stiller; Keeping Up With The Steins with Jeremy Piven and Cheryl Hines; Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, and Bill Hader in Adventureland; Robert Altman’s Pret-A-Porter, with Julia Roberts and Tim Robbins; an all-star cast in Beautiful Girls; Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and Jason Biggs in Jersey Girl; Matthew Broderick in The Night We Never Met and William H. Macy and Steve Zahn in Happy, Texas.

     

    LAFF will feature a mix of contemporary off-network sitcoms and popular theatrical motion pictures, with a target audience of adults 18-49.

  • Turner Broadcasting partners Sony for PlayStation Vue

    Turner Broadcasting partners Sony for PlayStation Vue

    MUMBAI: Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. has inked a deal with Sony to offer their entire portfolio of networks on the new PlayStation Vue service. PlayStation Vue offers live and on-demand TV content over the Internet and is available beginning today in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, starting at $49.99 per month.

     

    Turner Broadcasting believed that with the progression and growth of new viewing options in the expanding distribution universe, it’s important to put its leading brands and content in a position where as many consumers can access them as possible. 

     

    “The more options we give audiences to access content from TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, CNN, Adult Swim and Turner’s other popular networks the greater opportunity we have for exposure and consumption from a variety of audiences. Over-the-top services like Sony’s Playstation Vue create new paths for distributing our leading brands and provide another opportunity to have Turner’s award-winning and highly popular content accessible through a new delivery platform,” the company said.

  • &TV gains big with 100 GVM mark; Colors reclaims second spot

    &TV gains big with 100 GVM mark; Colors reclaims second spot

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ newest baby &TV is riding high on success. With a brilliant opening of 90.6 GVMs last week, the channel further went on to create a mark for itself in the Hindi general entertainment space. In week 11 of TAM TV ratings, the channel crossed 100 GVM mark with 105 GVMs.

     

    For the rest Hindi GECs, it was a ‘bad’ week as almost all of them witnessed a drop in viewership. Colors turned out to be the only winner in the week 11 of TAM TV ratings for two reasons. Firstly, it was the only channel to gain and secondly, it jumped back to number two spot with 428 GVMs, up from 424 GVMs.

     

    Zee TV slipped to number three with 407 GVMs, down from 427 GVMs. Star Plus observed a huge drop and reported 592 GVMs, down from 604 GVMs. Life OK continued to enjoy its stability at fourth position with 307 GVMs, down from 314 GVMs.

     

    Both the siblings from the MSM stable, Sab and Sony too discovered loss in ratings at number five and six positions respectively. Sab generated 288 GVMs, down from 312 GVMs and Sony registered 221 GVMs, down from 247 GVMs.

     

    Big Magic reported a marginal rise and noted 42 GVMs, down from 40 GVMs. It seems re-runs of old shows from the Sony stable is working wonders for Sony Pal. It stood at 42 GVMs, up from 38 GVMs. Zindagi scored 23 GVMs, up from 22 GVMs.

  • Nike emerges as ‘Social Star’ during ICC World Cup: TO THE NEW

    Nike emerges as ‘Social Star’ during ICC World Cup: TO THE NEW

    MUMBAI: Events like the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2015 are becoming opportunities for brands to leverage the euphoria generated by cricket crazy fans.  A lot of these brands have launched innovative campaigns on social media channels, by spending oodles of money and engaging social users especially the millennials. 

    Digital analytics company TO THE NEW Digital has come up with an innovative framework that helps brand measure their “Social Impact Index” to gauge the effectiveness of their digital media campaigns. The report also mentions the social media strategies they can use to reinvent and recalibrate their campaigns to ensure a visceral brand connect with their target groups.

    The Social Impact Index of Brands has been calculated by plotting a bubble chart of social media mentions and social sentiment score of various campaigns run by 14 brands* across four categories namely FMCG, Consumer Electronics, Auto and Sports. It has considered only B2C brands in its sample study to facilitate a like to like comparison. (*If a brand is running more than one campaign then the consolidated numbers of those campaigns have been considered for the analysis.)

    For example, if Pepsico has a total of 33,024 social media mentions and **Net Sentiment of 18 per cent, then the Social Sentiment Score is 59,44,32. 

    **Net Sentiment = Positive Segment – Negative Segment

    -Some of the insights from the framework are as follows:

    Nike is a “Social Star” as it enjoys a huge number of social media mentions as well as a high net sentiment in those mentions. It recommends that Nike has everything going in the right direction for its campaign but it can work on further optimising its ROI from social media spends to maintain its status quo of a “Social Star.” 

    It further says that Star Sports and Pepsico are “Social Question Marks” as they have done fairly well on the social mentions front but their net sentiment is low. The recommendation for these two brands in this category is that they have done well but can invest in online reputation management exercise to converge from Social Question Marks to Social Stars. 

    A large number of brands like Cadbury, Castrol, Hyundai, Sony, Intel and MRF have been categorized as “Social Laggards” category as they enjoy a high net sentiment. It is recommended that these brands have done well but can invest in online reputation management exercise too, so that they converge from Social Laggards to Social Stars.

    Meanwhile a few players like LG, Reebok, Nestle and Dominoz have fizzled out in their social media campaigns and have been put into the category of “Social Duds” as they have low number of social media mentions as well as a low net sentiment.

    TO THE NEW CEO Deepak Mittal stated that brands in this category need to invest heavily in improving their outreach in the form of mentions by investing in paid campaigns and also engage in online reputation management exercise to improve their net sentiment. “They can also think about evaluating their campaign further and move to a new positioning for their brand on social media front,” he added.

    Category Scorecard

    Evaluation Framework- The Social Impact Index of all the 14 brands were plotted on a X-Y axis Bubble Chart. The average of Social Media Mentions of all the 14 brands has been used as a demarcation for High-Low social media mention score. Similarly the average of Social Media Sentiment of all the 14 brands has been used as a demarcation for High-Low social media sentiment score. Therefore a bubble chart is divided into four quadrants to evaluate the success of the campaigns run by these brands.

  • &TV opens big with 90.6 GTVMs

    &TV opens big with 90.6 GTVMs

    MUMBAI: With only five and half days in the opening week, the newly launched flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) &TV from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) stable has emerged as a major gainer in the ratings game.

     

    This is for the first time that a GEC as new as &TV has opened at 90.6 GTVMs creating waves in the Hindi GEC space. The high octane flagship shows saw both critics and audiences appreciating the progressive and relatable content of the channel.

     

    Be it &TV’s flagship show hosted by Shah Rukh Khan, India Poochega – Sabse Shaana Kaun? or the strong fiction line up with shows like Razia Sultan, Bhaghyalakshmi, Gangaa, Begusarai, Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai!, and the weekend offering with Killerr Karaoke and Tujhse Naaraaz Nahi Zindagi; the programming seems to have struck a chord with the audience.

     

    On the other hand, week 10 witnessed Sab emerging as the biggest gainer. At number five, it registered 312 GTVMs, up from 265 GTVMs. Moreover, the week also saw the channel competing closely with Star Plus’ sister channel Life OK, which reported 314 GTVMs, up from 312 GTVMs at number four.

     

    At number six, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) too observed a huge hike in viewership and noted 247 GTVMs, up from 235 GTVMs. 

     

    Amongst the first three leading players on the ratings chart, Star Plus saw a drop and garnered 604 GTVMs, down from 638 GTVMs. Despite a drop, Zee TV continued to secure number two position with 427 GTVMs, down from 442 GTVMs. Colors remained stable at number three with 424 GTVMs, up from 419 GTVMs. 

  • Online VOD platform The Viral Fever gains one million subscribers

    Online VOD platform The Viral Fever gains one million subscribers

    MUMBAI: The recent past has seen a large number of video on demand (VOD) mushrooming in the country, with each of them trying to differentiate itself from the other with unique content. Youth entertainment network The Viral Fever (TVF), which is one of these platforms, scored a recent milestone. The platform has gained one million subscribers on its online network. 

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, The Viral Fever founder and CEO Arunabh Kumar says that it is a very special achievement for the online network because India is globally known as the least subscriber savvy country. “No matter how much content you produce, audiences and viewers generally do not have the tendency to subscribe,” he says.

     

    When quizzed about the reason for success, Kumar says, “Besides great content, we were also able to evolve with our content and stay relevant. Our attitude is to stay new.”

     

    Kumar says the number holds significance as usually it is established names such as Sony, T-Series and Yash Raj Films who have 5,000 to 10,000 videos that gain million plus subscribers, but TVF as a small network has just 126 videos for now.

     

    Close to 30 videos of the network have gone viral so far. Sharing an interesting insight, Kumar says, “One of TVF’s shows titled Rowdies, (which is a spoof on the popular MTV Roadies show) received more than a million views sometime back, but it took 36 months before the network saw one million subscribers latching onto the online network.”

     

    The network currently has close to two to three million unique visitors lapping up its content every month. “Additionally three to five million also come on board who visit our site regularly and are not subscribers,” he adds.

     

    Going forward, the company is looking at strengthening their non-fiction property, Recycle Bin. “I wish that TVF’s Live Shows reach the magic figure of one million too. I would also want one million to register on TVF InBox, which showcases films,” Kumar says.

     

    The company’s next target is to get at least five to 10 million viewers every month.

     

    The Viral Fever’s subsidiary network TVF 1 is looking at breaking even and making a profit this year. Currently the company operates out of the profits from its parent company The Viral Fever Media Labs.

  • Zee TV clinches back second spot from Colors

    Zee TV clinches back second spot from Colors

    MUMBAI: It’s been a continuous game of tug-of-war between Zee TV and Colors, each vying for the second and third spot on the TAM TV ratings chart.

     

    Week nine saw Zee TV overtaking Colors and occupying the second spot. Zee TV gained the maximum viewership as it recorded 442 million GVTs, up from 418 million GVTs. On the other hand, Colors moved back to the third spot with a huge decline and noted 419 million GVTs, down from 444 million GVTs.

     

    Apart from Zee, the numero uno in the Hindi general entertainment space, Star Plus witnessed a growth in the viewership. It observed a marginal rise from 636 million GVTs to 638 million GVTs this week. 

     

    Talking about the losers this week, Life OK retained its number four position with 312 million GVTs, down from 316 million GVTs. Sab, at number five, stood at 265 million GVTs, down from 286 million GVTs. Sony Entertainment Television (SET), at the bottom of the chart scored 235 million GVTs, down from 254 million GVTs.

     

    Other players like Big Magic too lost some numbers and noted 40 million GVTs, down from 47 million GVTs.

     

    Sony Pal dropped from 39 million GVTs to 38 million GVTs this week, while Zindagi reported 20 million GVTs, down from 22 million GVTs.

  • TV channels celebrate the colourful festival

    TV channels celebrate the colourful festival

    MUMBAI: It’s that time of the year when you say, ‘Bura na maano, holi hai’ and smear your friends’ faces with vibrant colours. It’s that time of the year when you drop your inhibitions and get drenched in the colours of the season. 

    TV channels, over the years, have been a reflection of the type of content the audiences can relate to. From the popular saas-bahu on Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) to your cartoon characters, all have celebrated festivals in tandem with Indian audiences.  

    On Holi, several channels in the entertainment space have rolled out special shows to spread the festive vibe. 

    One of the leaders in the GEC market, Zee TV celebrated the colourful festival this year with Holi Bemisaal- Jamai Raja Special. Bringing together the entire Zee family, the Holi special showcased television’s favorite on-screen couples frolicking in the spirit of Holi on 1 March at 5 pm. 

    Amidst the dramatic twists and turns and action, television’s favorite couples enthralled the audiences as they performed to some memorable Holi numbers in this entertainment extravaganza.

    As for Colors, it was a double treat for the viewers as the channel showcased an hour long holi special maha sangam episode of Shastri Sisters and Sasural Simar Ka on 2 March at 7 pm. 

    On the other hand, Star Plus’ sister channel Life OK will showcase an evening filled with extravagant celebration. Adding a sprinkle of stardust to the viewers celebration this year, Life Ok’s Holi Hai… Life OK hai brings you breathtaking performances by actor Arjun Kapoor and the Baby Doll singer Kanika Singh. The duo along with the star studded cast of Life OK will be seen burning the dance floor.

    Hosting the festival of colours along with a dash of music, dance and comedy, will be Karan Veer Grover. The stage will be set on fire by Elli Avram and her special water act. The event will air on 6 March at 8 pm. 

    Sony Entertainment Television (SET) too is integrating the festival of colours in one of its popular show – Itna Karo Na Mujhe Pyar.

    Kids channels are also not shying away from the festival. With Holi around the corner, Pogo is showering kids with loads of colour, prizes, movies and excitement. The channel has lined-up the Filmy Holi Aayi Re stunt from 5 to 8 March featuring the best of Chhota Bheem movies and specials to entertain kids throughout the festive weekend.

    The celebrations begin with a four-day line-up featuring Chhota Bheem with Bollywood celebrities. Tune-in to Bang Bang with Bheem, Dholakpur ka Singham, Bade Dilwale Bheem aur Indiawale and Bheem aur Salman ki Kick from 5 to 8 March at 11 am.

    Last but not the least, kids stand a chance to win exciting Holi-themed prizes like Inflatable Pools, Water Sprayers, Digital Cameras and much more by participating in the Filmy Holi Aayi Re contest.

    To top it all, Zoom celebrates Holi with the stars. The channel will be hosting the annual festivities on the day itself (6 March), in the presence of well-known television celebrities and Sunny Leone.

    In an on-going contest, viewers are encouraged to tune in to the channel between 9 am to 12 noon and 4 pm to 7 pm daily and ‘Guess the Celeb’ to win exclusive passes for Zoom’s Holi Party 2015.

    Moreover, viewers will need to keep a close eye on the channel during the timeslots and identify the celebrities which will be shown on the screen. The face of the celebrity will be coloured and a new face will be shown every 15 – 20 minutes. 

    Once identified, participants will have to give a missed call on 088205 88205. Participants with the highest number of correct answers get a chance to win passes to the Zoom Holi Party 2015. Hundred such lucky winners will be able to celebrate one of the biggest festivals in India with their favourite celebrities.