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Tag: Sony

  • ‘Indian Idol’ set to return with season 13 from 10 September on Sony

    ‘Indian Idol’ set to return with season 13 from 10 September on Sony

    Mumbai: Sony Entertainment Television is all set to launch season 13 of its flagship singing reality show, Indian Idol. The show will premiere on 10 September and will air every Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 p.m.

    This year’s campaign “Phir saath aane ka bahana hai, ab mausam musicana hai” brought alive the celebration of music and togetherness.

    The show will be hosted by Aditya Narayan and the ultimate trio – Himesh Reshammiya, Neha Kakkar and Vishal Dadlani – will reprise their roles as judges once again. The channel noted that they are here to make the ‘mausam musicana!’

    SET head-programming (non-fiction), channel Sonal Yadav said, “Indian Idol is a revolutionary show that has set a precedent since its launch. The platform has given recognition to many aspiring singers who have always dreamt of making it big in the world of music. With Season 13, our core focus is to highlight real and aspirational singers who bring out variety and uniqueness. Through the multi-city on-ground auditions this year, we have truly managed to scout some exceptional talent. With the expertise Himesh Reshammiya, Neha Kakkar and Vishal Dadlani bring to the table, Indian Idol is ready to make the ‘mausam musicana.’ Also, collaborating with Fremantle has always been a pleasure, and with season 13, we yet again look forward to a successful season of Indian Idol.”

    Under the production of Fremantle, the singing reality show has brought families together, making it a wholesome viewing experience. With incomparable voices and inspiring stories, the show is the one-stop singing platform that provides unlimited entertainment and caters to viewers across age-groups.

    Fremantle India managing director Aradhana Bhola commented, “Indian Idol isn’t just a show for us, it is a promise of limitless talent, opportunities, and lives changed for the better, forever. We can’t wait to bring forth the diverse singing talent and inspiring life stories of this season to the viewers and continue our legacy of having them find a special place in the hearts of millions of Indians.”

    Also, this year, the show hosted the multi-city on-ground auditions in 11 cities after a gap of two years and witnessed overwhelming participation. Like every year, in its 13th season, the show is set to bring to the fore diverse musical talent from across India, bringing forth the country’s rich multi-cultural background. Right from genres like pop, classical, fusion, folk, opera, and more, this season will see some exceptionally talented Davedaars bring out versatility, rhythm, and soul through their singing talent.

  • Sony-Zee to create $10 bn TV company; likely to hurt competition in the market: CCI

    Sony-Zee to create $10 bn TV company; likely to hurt competition in the market: CCI

    Mumbai: According to an official notice seen by Reuters, the country’s antitrust watchdog the Competition Commission of India (CCI) found in an initial review that a merger between the Indian unit of Japan’s Sony and Zee Entertainment to create a $10 billion TV company will potentially hurt competition because it will have “unparalleled bargaining power.”

    CCI notice to the two companies sent on 3 August stated the watchdog is of the view that a further investigation is merited. It gave the two companies 30 days from 3 August to respond.

    Sony and Zee in December decided to merge their television channels, film assets, and streaming platforms to create a powerhouse in a key media and entertainment growth market of 1.4 billion people, challenging rivals like Walt Disney Co.

    According to the three lawyers familiar with the process mentioned, the CCI’s conclusions will delay regulatory approval of the acquisition and might require the companies to propose changes to its structure.

    They also added that if that doesn’t satisfy the CCI, it can result in a drawn-out approval and inquiry procedure.

    Zee in a statement said it continues to take all the required legal steps to complete all the necessary approval processes for the proposed merger.

    According to the CCI’s 21-page notice, the proposed deal would place the combined entity in a “strong position” with around 92 channels in India, citing Sony’s global revenue of $86 billion and assets of $211 billion.

    “Such apparently humongous market position would enable the combined entity to enjoy an unparalleled bargaining power,” the CCI said in its notice, adding the combined entity could increase the price of channel packages.

    The initial review shows the deal is likely to cause an “appreciable adverse effect on competition,” the watchdog said. “Thus, it is considered appropriate to conduct further inquiry into the matter.”

    In a media interview held in December last year, Zee’s managing director Punit Goenka stated that the combined entity’s relative value is “potentially close to $10 billion” and that all necessary approvals are expected by October of this year.

    Classic Merger Case

    According to industry executives, the deal will allow the two companies to compete with Disney’s Star India network, which has dozens of popular entertainment and sports channels, by attracting more advertising revenue from streaming services and TV broadcasts.

    The combined company would have a share of almost 45 per cent of the Hindi language market, which attracts the greatest viewership in the nation, according to the preliminary CCI competition assessment, with Star coming in a “distant second.”

    This would further concentrate such segments at the cost of the competition, the CCI said in its notice.

    Sony and Zee had already responded in June and July to two so-called “defect” letters issued by the watchdog inquiring about the deal.

    After reviewing submissions about advertising revenue, the CCI concluded that the combined company would probably raise the price of some advertisements in order to take advantage of its dominant market position.

    “The combined strength of the parties is likely to be used to entrench their presence and earn higher profits,” the CCI said.

    “This merger is a classic case of the first or second largest player, integrating with the third largest competitors, to become the strong market leader.”

  • Did Disney-Star make the right decision by paying an exorbitant price to buy broadcasting rights for ICC tournaments?

    Did Disney-Star make the right decision by paying an exorbitant price to buy broadcasting rights for ICC tournaments?

    MUMBAI: The year 2022 has been action-packed for cricket lovers. It was a busy year with several interesting things happening throughout that appealed to fans.  The renewal of rights, e-auctions, tender process and so on were some of the important events that occurred recently. In a recent development, the broadcaster Disney-Star drew immense public attention for winning the media rights to telecast International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments till 2027. It has been one of the top bidders and for availing this opportunity it had to pay a huge moolah.

    Disney Star has paid around $3.04 billion for the ICC rights for India for four years. This is substantially more than the $2.02 billion it had paid for eight years for the global rights earlier. Disney-Star’s bid was almost double the amount and the highest among all bidders. The deal includes both digital and television rights for men’s and women’s ICC tournaments. On Tuesday, Disney Star also entered into a strategic alliance with Zee Entertainment Enterprises  under which Disney Star will licence ZEE for four years the television broadcasting rights of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men’s and Under 19 (U-19) global events.

    The deal is a first-of-its kind partnership in the Indian media & entertainment space. Through this agreement, Zee will provide a good experience to the fans of the gentlemen’s game and a huge return on investment for its advertisers through its network spread across India and globally. After securing the IPL television broadcast rights for 2023-27 and deciding to only retain digital rights for ICC tournaments for 2024-27, Disney Star is going to have a balanced and robust cricket offering for the audiences across linear & digital platforms.

    Earlier, the media conglomerate had retained the TV rights for the cash-rich Twenty20 League IPL for Rs 57.5 crore per match though it had to do away with the digital rights to Viacom18. Disney-Star is also said to have paid around $255 million for the seven-year rights for Cricket Australia, which is a substantial jump compared to what the previous rights holder Sony Pictures Networks India had paid.

    In 2020, Disney-Star took the rights for Cricket South Africa till 2024. It is currently airing the Asia Cup. The next big property that will come up for renewal will be the BCCI rights next year for which Disney-Star is the incumbent.

    Pointing out his views, an industry observer said, “What I heard is that after Disney-Star, the next highest bid offered was $1.3 billion. The ICC had set a base price of $1.44 billion. Disney-Star should have offered not more than $1.5 billion. The issue is not whether Disney-Star will regain back the reported $3.04 billion but the condition is they have completely misread the market. A tender process works in two different ways. First, it is to figure out what is the worth of the rights to me as a company. This is not a five-minute job.”

    “This takes months of preparation. There are many levers. For instance, when Star went aggressive on the IPL it was not only about how much the IPL can earn for them. It was also about protecting distribution income across the network. Losing the IPL might have put some of its distribution income under threat. This is another aspect. It is not just about money. It is about the revenue the rights can generate and other strategic value that rights can deliver. Everyone does this calculation and so, the number & strategic value differ,” the industry observer added.

    “The second part is what is the least I can pay to get the rights? You try to buy for as low as possible. This is irrespective of how much money you think you can earn. That is how you maximize profit & business performance. It is in the second part where there was a massive failure on the part of Disney Star. They could have won the rights for $1.5 billion. Paying so much premium is unheard of in the world of sport. Even if they make the $3.04 billion that they are paying the ICC the bid is a failure. They could have made a profit of $1.5 billion. If they had read the market properly and decided that $1.5 billion was the upper limit, other broadcasters would bid then they would not have bid the reported $3.04 billion,” he added further.

    Now the ICC will go and sell the rights in other territories like England, Australia, and the US. The expert doubts that a jump in valuation will happen similar to what was seen in India. “Countries like England are going through a difficult economic period. The other markets like New Zealand are small. In the US, many people are interested in cricket. Australia is going FTA,” he said.

    Speaking on similar lines, another media expert and observer also said that Disney-Star’s strategy is futile. “They are the largest media company in the world with the largest balance sheet. A few billion dollars does not worry them as they never justify decisions based on an individual network but as a global company.” He mentioned that India is still in an investment phase for them. Cricket on a standalone basis is not viable. However, for a large network like Disney-Star, it is a must-have as it can drive the network as a whole both for TV and OTT. In fact, for digital Disney-Star had to overpay for the ICC rights, the media expert opined and said this has steeply pushed the value of digital cricket rights. On the ad sales front, Disney-Star could try to monopolise ad sales by offering IPL and other cricket properties only to those advertisers who place ads on the whole network for the year. “That is partly how paying a premium could make economic sense,” he added.

    The media expert noted that Sony & Zee, which are in the middle of a merger, have to be financially prudent. “They have to focus on cost efficiencies. It is also about their ability to monetise the content. Maybe their ability to monetise was relatively limited and so the ability to pay might also have been limited.” For the record, Sony renewed the rights for England cricket this year. It also has the rights for Sri Lanka cricket.

    As far as Viacom 18 is concerned, the media expert noted that they probably did not see a lot of value in the ICC rights. “Unlike the IPL, in ICC tournaments, there are too many non-India matches in the package. Almost 80 percent of people only watch India play.” He expects Viacom18 to put up a fight for the BCCI rights next year. He also conceded that Star perhaps viewed Viacom as a major threat to the ICC rights given the competitive auction that had taken place for the IPL.

    For the record, the big properties under the new ICC deal are:

    * 2024 T20 World Cup in the US, Caribbean.

    * 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

    * 2026 T20 World Cup in India.

    * 2027 50-over World Cup in South Africa.

    D&P Advisory managing partner N.P. Santosh said that having cricket content is important for a large network. “Maybe on a standalone basis Disney-Star will not make money from these cricket acquisitions but on a network, cricket will drive value. Cricket can make the GEC business, which is already profitable, a little stronger. Sports is a loss leader. Also if you look at it beyond ICC, IPL and BCCI rights there is limited quality cricket of value. The value is significantly smaller when one talks of the fourth biggest property. The next big thing of value after these three is Cricket Australia which Disney-Star went after aggressively.” He is sure that India playing a five-test series in Australia in 2024-2025 will prove to be a big draw. After Cricket Australia comes England cricket rights (with Sony) and Cricket South Africa (with Disney-Star). He added that IPL rights went for a 15-20 per cent premium over what he had expected.

    For the record, a few of the less expensive cricket properties are with OTT platforms. For instance, Prime Video has the rights to New Zealand Cricket. FanCode has the rights for West Indies cricket.

  • Rohit Gupta moves on from Sony Pictures Networks

    Rohit Gupta moves on from Sony Pictures Networks

    Mumbai: Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) advisor Rohit Gupta has made the decision to leave the organisation entirely. Gupta has worked for SPN since 2002.

    Indiantelevision.com received confirmation of the news from a Sony Picture Networks source.

    In July 2021, he assumed the advisory role and advised senior management on industry trends and developments. He was working closely with the CEO on various industry issues.

    Gupta was previously in charge of SPN’s revenue streams from sales and international business.

    He previously held key leadership positions with Xerox.

  • Sony Sports Network announces to broadcast Commonwealth Games, launches new campaign

    Sony Sports Network announces to broadcast Commonwealth Games, launches new campaign

    Mumbai: Sony Sports Network gears up to live broadcast the XXII Commonwealth Games starting from 28 July 2022 at 11:00 pm. To celebrate the occasion, Sony Sports has also launched a campaign ‘Birmingham mein Jitega! Hindustan Hamara’.

    The campaign aims to rally support for the Indian contingent. The film features the prime minister Narendra Modi and minister of information and broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur along with several Indian athletes with a rallying call to win medals at the games and celebrate our 75th Year of Independence in England.

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    The marquee event will mark the return of Sony Sports Network’s Live wraparound studio show ‘Sports Extraaa’ featuring eminent panelists and guests. The global event which will see participation from over 200 Indian athletes, will be telecast live across Sony Six, Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 2, Sony Ten 3 & Sony Ten 4 channels, as well as live-streamed on its on-demand OTT platform SonyLIV.

    Sony Sports Network will telecast the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with two-language feeds across its channels. In addition to this, they will also have their live studio show, ‘Sports Extraaa’ return for the games. Legendary Indian athletes like Viren Rasquinha, Somdev Devvarman, Trupti Murgunde, and Veda Krishnamurthy along with sports journalists Ayaz Memon and Siddharth Pandey will be part of the star-studded panel for the show and will be seen sharing their insights around the happenings throughout the games. It will also host eminent guests from the sports fraternity like Vijender Singh, Anju Bobby George, Satish Shivalingam, Kripashankar Bishnoi and more who will weigh in and analyse the performances of athletes from across the participating commonwealth nations.

    As part of the build-up, Sony Sports Network also launched an eight-episode show titled ‘The Torchbearers’. The first episode of the show featured the Minister of Youth Affair and Sports, and Minister of Information and Broadcasting along with Olympians Lovlina Borgohain, Nikhat Zareen, Hima Das, Lakshya Sen, Dutee Chand, Noah Nirmal Tom, Srabani Nanda, and Lakshya Sen, among others. And three episodes of the show will be telecast again on 28 July leading up to the opening ceremony which will witness the proud Indian contingent of over 200 athletes. The grand ceremony will have a live audience of over 30,000 at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

    The quadrennial event will mark the debut of the Indian Women’s cricket team led by Harmanpreet Kaur for the Women’s Cricket T20 event. Banking on the likes of Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, and Jemimah Rodrigues, team India will play against Pakistan, Australia, and Barbados to qualify for the play-offs. While Indian women cricketers will look to exert their dominance in Birmingham, the heroes of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Lovlina Borgohain, PV Sindhu, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, Mirabai Chanu, and the Indian hockey team will enter the marquee event with high expectations from the nation. After impressing viewers with their brilliant performances across various events, new athletes like DP Manu, Annu Rani, and Manpreet Kaur, among others will also look to increase the medal count of India.

    Sony Pictures Networks India chief revenue officer, distribution and head – sports business Rajesh Kaul said, “After the huge success of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, it gives us immense pleasure to broadcast the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The broadcast rights for the Birmingham 2022 positions Sony Sports Network as the home for international multi-sporting events in India. Armed with a single goal to put our country on the global sporting map, our athletes have been training incessantly and it is our endeavor to showcase the stories of these national heroes. Keeping this goal in mind and to rally our support for the Indian contingent, we have also launched the ‘Birmingham Mein Jeetega Hindustan Hamara’ campaign. In addition to this, to provide a holistic viewing experience, our studio show, sports extraaa will feature stellar panelists who will provide real-time insights into various games.”

  • Rachin Khanijo joins Sony Entertainment Television as marketing head

    Rachin Khanijo joins Sony Entertainment Television as marketing head

    Mumbai: Sony Pictures Networks India has appointed Rachin Khanijo as the marketing head. Earlier, he was associated with Beginnen Media as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). He was responsible for on-air promotions, marketing, and corporate & digital communications. Beginnen Media runs Hindi GEC Azaad TV.

    He has over 17 years of experience in the industry. Prior to this, he has worked with Eros Now as vice-president-marketing; Zeel as marketing head; Viacom18, Ogilvy & Mather and SET.

  • Rainshine Entertainment to foray into regional footprint, launches Tamil original show ‘Meme Boys’

    Rainshine Entertainment to foray into regional footprint, launches Tamil original show ‘Meme Boys’

    Mumbai: Rainshine Entertainment on Thursday announced the launch of a Tamil original show, Meme Boys, with the aim of strengthening its presence in the Tamil regional market. The new show will be exclusively available on SonyLIV from 22 July, 2022.

    The show will be a hilarious eight-episode series starring Guru Somasundaram of Minnai Murali fame and Aadhitya Baaskar of 96 fame. Produced by Rainshine Studios (formerly CM Studios), created by Rajiv Rajaram & Drishya, directed by Arun Koushik and A. Gokul Krishna, the show will revolve around a college and its playful students who make viral memes on an anonymous social media page to tackle their authoritative dean! Meme Boys is the latest title to join Rainshine’s array of shows and franchises that have kept audiences across the country hooked to their streaming screens.

    Speaking on this launch, Rainshine Entertainment (India) CEO Anuraag Srivastava said, “This show exemplifies what we, as a studio, wish to stand for: hyperlocal, contemporary, and young. We worry about engagement a lot – be it the story or episodes. And as far as we are concerned, so-called “regional” is mainstream. We neither take our clients nor our audience for granted—and therefore see no reason to classify them as less or more important. With an excellent line-up of titles, we are building our reputation as a powerhouse in entertainment. We are excited about our partnership with SonyLIV as we push the envelope on content in India together.”

    Rainshine Studios vice president – content – originals and & creator of Meme Boys Rajiv Rajaram said, “Memes are an intrinsic part of our lives in this post-social media world. Through Meme Boys, we hope to capture the zeitgeist with a story about a motley crew of misfits armed only with humour and self-awareness. We hope that Meme Boys on SonyLIV will make viewers love original content more than ever.”

    Rainshine Entertainment’s rapidly growing roster of regional content includes the massively popular Kannada series Humble Politician Nograj streaming on Voot, the National Award-winning documentary film Amoli, and the Tamil medical drama series Emergency, to name a few. Rainshine’s upcoming regional projects include the Telugu feature film Sangeet, written and directed by Saad Khan and produced by Chandru Manoharan of Lahari Music and Nikhil Kumarswamy.

  • Sony YAY! enters in Malaysian market, and expands its presence in South Asian region

    Sony YAY! enters in Malaysian market, and expands its presence in South Asian region

    Mumbai: India’s leading kid’s entertainment channel Sony YAY! launches on Telekom Malaysia Berhad (unifi TV). With a lineup of fan-favorite shows, the channel debuted in the Malaysian market on 1 July 2022 to expand its presence further across the South Asian region.

    Sony YAY! launched in Tamil with a total of seven popular kid’s entertainment shows including Sab Jholmaal Hai (Honey Bunny), Guru Aur Bhole, Taarak Mehta Ka Chhota Chashma, Kicko & Super Speedo, Paap-O-Meter, Prince Jai aur Dumdaar Viru and HaGoLa.

    Sony YAY! is expected to tap into the prominent Tamil-speaking population of the region which comprises a total of 1.8 million people – the third highest in the world, after India and Sri Lanka. Considering the significant size of the Tamil-speaking audience in this region, the launch is a perfect opportunity for the channel to extend its content offerings to an expanded audience base across the South Asian market. 

    With notable titles and the top two shows such as Sab Jholmaal Hai (Honey Bunny) and Paap-O-Meter, Sony YAY! will cater to the Tamil speaking audience of Malaysia along with the Indian diaspora of the region which accounts for close to 6.8 percent of its population. The launch of the channel in Tamil on one of the largest platforms Telekom Malaysia Berhad (unifi TV) is further set to aid the channel in terms of reach and access. Sony YAY! will be accessible to the subscribers of unifi TV under the Varnam Plus Pack and the Ultimate Pack.

    With a growing audience base of around 43 million, Sony YAY! has grown exponentially since its inception in 2017 and the expansion into newer markets in South Asia strengthens the channel’s commitment to providing world-class entertainment to young audiences across the globe. This foray into Malaysia further accelerates the consistent drive to transform the global entertainment sector for Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN). 

    Speaking on this, Sony YAY! EVP and business head Leena Lele Dutta said, “Over the span of five years since we launched Sony YAY! the channel has rapidly risen to become the #1 kid’s entertainment channel in India. The current Indian channel portfolio in Malaysia has a huge potential and with the launch of Sony YAY! In Malaysia, we will be leveraging this opportunity and extending our diverse range of enthralling kid’s entertainment options to an extremely new and vibrant set of audiences. The launch has made us optimistic about newer opportunities that we can explore to reach young audiences across geographies.”

    Sony Pictures Networks EVP and head of international business Neeraj Arora commented, “As one of the fastest-growing kid’s entertainment channels in the Indian subcontinent, Sony YAY! has consistently made efforts to become the ultimate entertainment solution in the kid’s genre. The channel has curated and brought a bouquet of international shows and IPs to Indian audiences. This partnership with Telekom Malaysia Berhad will help us cater to the appetite of the rapidly growing audience across the Malaysian market and solidify our position in the global kid’s entertainment segment by bringing popular Indian shows to global audiences.”

  • Anish Mehta moves on as CEO of animation studio Cosmos-Maya

    Anish Mehta moves on as CEO of animation studio Cosmos-Maya

    Mumbai: Anish Mehta has decided to move on from his role as CEO of animation studio Cosmos-Maya after a ten-year stint. He built the studio from a 30-member team to a 1200+ powerhouse.

    He will be soon announcing his new venture sometime this year.

    Under Anish’s leadership, the studio has grown multifold owing to his strong ability to maintain a fine balance between business and creativity. He is credited with achieving quite a few milestones not only for the studio but also for the industry at large. Anish had been the CEO and minority shareholder of Cosmos-Maya since 2012.

    He led the studio’s foray into original Indian animation IP creation with the launch of Motu Patlu, India’s most successful animation series.  Post that, the studio created over 10,000 half hours of kids’ animation content across 20+ shows; maintaining a 50 per cent+ market share of the original Indian kids and family content space for a decade. The studio’s key clients include – Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network, Sony, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix, Discovery Kids, Facebook and YouTube.

    During his tenure, the company grew with four different business streams globally and revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth of 25x+ from 2012 to 2022. Globally he spearheaded efforts towards co-productions with European and other international players, which were able to sell in 100+ countries the world over.

    His most notable achievement was to steadily attract organized investment into the business and consistently give investors a profitable exit through a higher valuation of the company. He played an instrumental role in getting private equity investors into the Indian animation business, first with KKR backed Emerald Media and later with TPG affiliate NewQuest Capital Partners.

    Commenting on his exit, Anish Mehta said “I would like to thank Ketan and Deepa, the promoters of Cosmos-Maya for trusting me with the opportunity of growing the company. I would also like to extend gratitude to our previous investors KKR backed Emerald Media, Rajesh Kamat and angel investor Tilak Sarkar for providing the right guidance and support on this journey. It has been a great pleasure working with the current investor, TPG affiliate NewQuest Capital Partners and I wish them and the team of Cosmos-Maya all the very best for future growth and to carry the legacy forward.”

    He also led the initiative of building the company’s YouTube network, WowKidz with 35 channels, which achieved 80 million+ subscribers, and 41 billion+ views worldwide across 10+ languages in a short span of 5 years. “I feel very passionately about content creators and believe that digital media has offered a rather egalitarian and equalizing platform to all creators. I find the best way to express my appreciation is to be able to support and mentor the new generation of digital content creators as they set out to create path-breaking content that will have a positive impact on countless lives of kids & family audiences. The intention is to partner with global investors and pioneers to achieve this vision”, said Mehta.

  • Sony YAY! partners with KidZania to begin pet rescue agency

    Sony YAY! partners with KidZania to begin pet rescue agency

    Mumbai: Sony YAY! has partnered with KidZania, an award-winning global edutainment theme park to launch a unique pet rescue agency.

    With this, Sony YAY! aims to empower kids to love and secure animals. At the Pet Rescue Agency KidZania Mumbai, kids will get to play a role as “rescue agents” and go on an adventure of finding and rescuing pets in KidZania city.

    With the help of exciting cues and indicative maps, kids will learn about the nitty-gritty of pet-rescuing operations alongside gaining knowledge about the diverse breeds and kinds of pets. The team-based activity will see kids be sharp and alert to follow set instructions as well as seek out clues to the whereabouts of the missing pets.

    Speaking on this, Sony Pictures Networks India, Kids’ Genre head of marketing Sujoy Roy Bardhan said, “Pet welfare is extremely close to my heart. At Sony YAY! It has been our constant endeavour to empower kids and further serve the purpose of reaching out to our audiences. The launch of the Pet Rescue Agency not just helps us to take another step in the same direction, but also helps us inculcate the right approach into the future citizens of the country.”

    Talking about this partnership, KidZania India chief partnership officer Prerna Uppal said, “KidZania has always envisioned providing children with an all-rounded multi-dimensional edutainment that contributes to the overall growth of their personality. By partnering with Sony YAY!, a brand that believes in business with purpose, we not only aim at enabling children to explore what it is like being a pet rescuer but also instil in them values like care and compassion as well as a sense of responsibility towards pets. We believe that inculcating such crucial values at a young age can go a long way in empowering kids to build a better world for themselves in the future.”

    Cyrus Broacha added, “Animals are man’s best friends, and I am very happy to see Sony YAY! taking the initiative to bring awareness towards their safety and security. With this initiative, I hope the kids develop more empathy towards animals and bring a positive change at large towards animal welfare”