ITV

Tag: Sony

  • Sony firms up 10 pm slot with new thriller ‘Akela’, 2 more shows to follow

    Sony firms up 10 pm slot with new thriller ‘Akela’, 2 more shows to follow

    MUMBAI: After launching the one-hour weekly drama Vaidehi in the 10 pm slot on Mondays, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) India will now launch a thriller cum drama – Akela – on Tuesday at 10 pm.Akela, which will launch on 4 July as an hourly show, will soon be followed by two new shows at 10 pm slotted for Wednesday and Thursday. With these, the new programme launches at Sony, which began with the Friday lineup revamp, will culminate.

    SET India COO NP Singh said, “We have always taken pride in giving our viewers very distinctive and innovative programming that makes for wholesome family entertainment. With Akela, we are dealing with supernatural along with drama, an entire new genre that will throw new insights on the topic that has never been dealt with on television. The show comes from Fireworks and BP Singh, who have given successful thrillers like CID and Aahat, only reiterates our faith and confidence in the project. With Akela, we plan to take suspense dramas and thrillers to a different level.”

    Producer director BP Singh added, “Akela will be a soap with a difference. We are trying to break new grounds with a combination of soap and supernatural element. We have done popular thrillers in the past, but with Akela we are attempting to move into other areas.”

    Sony has tied up with cinema halls where Akela trailers will run along with movie trailers like Krissh. The channel has unleashed a 360 degree multimedia campaign comprising print, television, outdoor and internet. “The print campaign for Akela will begin on 4 July. The campaign will also have an extensive outdoor presence via railway stations, bus backs, bus shelters and malls. We have also tied up with radio and cable channels for cross promotion,” said SET India senior vice president and programming head Anupama Mondloi.

    Akela stars Sudhanshu Pandey, Sumeet Raghvan, Ashka Goradia, Pankaj Dheer, Mihir Misra, MAhii Vij, Nandita Puri, Navni Parihar and Viju Khote amongst others.

  • Musicnotes inks deal with Sony

    Musicnotes inks deal with Sony

    MUMBAI: The online digital sheet music, Musicnotes.com, has announced a new, long-term distribution agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. 

    According to an official release, Musicnotes.com will produce and sell digital sheet music and guitar tablature for songs from throughout Sony/ATV’s extensive catalog.

    Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a joint venture between Sony and Michael Jackson joins an impressive list of music publishers and administrators already offering sheet music for their artists on the Musicnotes.com web site. These publishers include Alfred Music Publishing (encompassing the Warner/Chappell catalog), BMG, Zomba, EMI Christian, Word Music and dozens of additional publishers.

    Musicnotes.com will offer digital sheet music downloads for songs from Sony/ATV’s impressive roster of songwriters. This sheet music includes songs written by Beck, Sarah McLachlan, Richie Sambora, Gretchen Wilson, Stevie Nicks, Oasis, KT Tunstall and Fall Out Boy — as well as the seminal rock and roll group, The Beatles.

    “As a music publisher, we are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote our songs and songwriters,” said Sony/ATV chairman and CEO David Hockman. “We are delighted to work directly with Musicnotes.com, whose expertise and large, loyal customer base makes them the clear leader in the digital sheet music marketplace.”

    As a result of the agreement, the official release adds that Musicnotes will also be offering guitarists a wide selection of interactive lessons for Sony/ATV’s songs in Musicnotes’s popular Guitar Guru Sessions(TM) format.

    “The addition of Sony/ATV’s song catalog to our site is wonderful news for our customers,” said Musicnotes CEO, Kathleen Marsh. “These songs represent some of the best-known and adored works of all-time, and we are extremely excited to work with Sony/ATV in allowing musicians to learn to play these works using our market leading format.”

  • Sony takes Dish TV basic tier pricing up by Rs 38

    Sony takes Dish TV basic tier pricing up by Rs 38

    NEW DELHI: Subhash Chandra’s Dish TV has increased the price of its basic tier of DTH service by Rs 38 after Sony-Discovery One Alliance came on board earlier this month.

    The basic tier would now cost a consumer Rs 180, plus taxes. Earlier it was priced at Rs 142, exclusive of taxes.

    The new pricing is a fair indicator as to the money that Dish TV is paying One Alliance for its channels per subscriber.

    However, AXN has been kept out of the basic tier, which includes all the other One Alliance fare and the likes of Zee TV, HBO and three sports channels (ESPN, Star Sports and Ten Sports).

    Dish TV’s other packages include Dish Plus package, which comes packed with a wide selection of national and international channels at Rs 125 per month and offers channels like Zee Studio, HBO, TCM, MCM, Reality TV; Dish Bioscope, which features Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic and Pakistani film channel Filmazia and costs Rs 55 per month. News is packaged in Dish News with Zee Business, Euro News, Euro Sports News, NDTV 24×7, CNBC TV18, Awaaz and CNN Headlines News. The cost: Rs 60 per month.

    Dish Pick is an a-la-carte package that allows subscribers to pick and choose extra regional channels. Two channels come for Rs 30 per month, five channels for Rs 50 per month and all regional channels come for Rs 100 per month. (All the prices listed here are exclusive of taxes.) Channels included in this package include Zee TV, Sahara One Zee Punjabi, ETV – Rajastan, ETV – UP, ETV – Bihar, Geo TV, Zee Telugu, Jaya TV, Jeevan TV, Akash Bangla, Zee Bangla, Zee Gujarati and Marathi, India TV and NDTV India.

  • Fox garners billion dollars in overseas film revenues

    Fox garners billion dollars in overseas film revenues

    MUMBAI: It pays to make sequels in Hollywood. Fox has become the first studio this year to cross the billion dollar mark in film revenue earned outside the US.

    Two sequels Ice Age 2 and X Men 3 helped achieve this result.A report in Hollywood Reporter states that Ice Age 2 has made $441 million. This is more than double the $192 million made in the US.

    X Men 3 made $160.1 million, the Oscar winner Walk the Line made $64.8 million. Even the critically lambasted The Pink Panther made a decent $64.3 million. In the pipeline for the studio are potential box office hits including a Garfield sequel and a Meryl Streep film The Devil Wears Prada.

    It is the second year in a row that Fox has been the first studio to hit the billion dollar mark abroad. Last year, the Star Wars movie helped it cross the mark. Meanwhile, Sony Pictures has made over $800 million, mainly due the critically panned The Da Vinci Code.

  • Sean Connery, magic & opera on Star World next month

    Sean Connery, magic & opera on Star World next month

    MUMBAI: Next month, Star World will air the felicitation ceremony of the original James Bond, Sir Sean Connery, with a lifetime achievement award from The American Film Institute (AFI).

    The ceremony, will also have a videotaped tribute from the newest Bond, Daniel Craig. It will also showcase magic by Criss Angel Supernatural. And, on the music front, there will be an opera performance by Andrea Bochelli: Amore Under The Desert Sky.

    Directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and actors Andy Garcia, Harrison Ford and Mike Myers were among those who feted the Scottish star.

    AFI Board of Trustees chairman Sir Howard Stringer who is also Sony CEO says, “Sir Sean Connery is an international film icon. Though best remembered for creating one of the great film heroes of all time, his talents transcend typecasting, and his body of work not only stands the test of time, but illuminates a career more extraordinary than James Bond himself. Sir Sean is an artist of the highest order, and AFI is honoured to present him with its 34th Life Achievement Award.”

    Considered to be the most influential name in magic today, Criss Angel’s visionary approach to the art escapes the confines of tradition and gives birth to a new breed of modern mysticism. Viewers can delve inside Criss Angel’s world.

    The Tuscan-born Andrea Bocelli seduces audiences everywhere with moving melodies and passionate performances. He is considred to have set the standard for ‘crossover’ classical tenors. This special was recorded in Lake Las Vegas from a concert venue that floats in the resort’s signature 320-acre lake.

    Bocelli will perform songs from his current CD, Amore including Autumn Leaves and It’s Impossible and is joined by special guest Heather Headley in a duet of The Prayer.

    Fans of pop music can enjoy the documentary For The Record – Take That. Take That was one of the biggest pop groups in the early 1990’s. After splitting a decade ago, each of the band members break their silence and reveal the truth about the band. One of its members Robbie Williams is now a big superstar.

  • India now a focus market for Animax

    India now a focus market for Animax

    MUMBAI: Until now India was not as important a market for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s (SPE) anime channel Animax and that reflected in its poor and negligible ratings. But now, with the repositioning of Animax Asia, which took place on 1 June, 2006, the network will be pushing it in India will renewed vigour.

    Animax Asia has been repositioned as a lifestyle channel for the youth and will target the age group of 15 – 24-year-olds. One of the reasons for this shift was the fact that animation from Japan was moving towards a more youth-driven demographic. Hence, keeping with the pace of change, Animax too was repositioned.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, SPE Networks Asia vice president Animax programming and production Betty Tsui says, “In the last couple of years, we were not very focused on the Indian market because we underestimated the Indian youth’s consumption of animation. Our focus initially was on the kids’ but now we will be targeting the youth and the Indian market with renewed focus.”

    “We are not a kids’ channel and we’re not competing with the likes of Cartoon Network and Pogo. Animax will be creating a category of its own. We are not followers. Animax will be charting out its own path,” she adds.

    Apart from the re-positioning, Tsui also informed that Animax will also be looking at targeting the youth with the gaming and mobile platforms. “We will be connecting with the youth not only with animation but also with gaming and mobile. However, it is still too early to talk about it,” she says.

    Animax is also undertaking an extensive lifestyle survey of their target audience in order to understand what’s important to them and where they get their messages from. Once the results of the survey are out, the channel will be analyzing the responses received and accordingly bring about changes in the channel and its promotions.

    Queried whether the channel was looking at going totally Hindi, unlike the Hinglish feed that it has now, Tsui says, “One of the questions in the lifestyle survey that we will be conducting will be Animax’s language preference of our target audience. Based on the results, we will take the necessary changes. South Indian languages may also be a possibility as we are open to everything.”

    The channel has streamlined its programme structure to target the youth segment and has also introduced an on-air creative campaign – Imagine Nation – to capture the minds of the youth. Imagine-Nation features popular personalities that are connected to the creative world of games, film, anime and design from the Asian region to share with viewers their success stories, aspirations and passion for their work. For starters, F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan and Indian Idol 2 winner Sandeep Acharya will be featured on this from India.

    “We will be featuring people who are successful but not necessarily in the conventional sense of the term. Our aim is to inspire our viewers to pursue their dreams, whatever they may be,” says Tsui.

    The programming line up will be spruced up with popular anime that have garnered massive followings in Japan and around the world. Animax features programmes of various genres, from action (Blood+, Trinity Blood) to sci-fi (Ghost in the Shell), romance (Paradise Kiss and Honey & Clover) to drama (Black Jack, Jigoku Shojo), and also favorites like (Dragon Ball).

    A new integrated brand campaign in India will also be rolled out in a couple of weeks.

  • SET-Discovery announces sign-on to Dish TV

    SET-Discovery announces sign-on to Dish TV

    MUMBAI: It’s now official. The Sony-Discovery One Alliance today announced a distribution tie-up with India’s first direct-to-home service Dish TV to carry their channels.

    The announcement confirms the exclusive report put out by Indiantelevision.com last week (7 June) that the two parties had arrived at a memorandum of understanding and the official signing would happen withinin the next few days.

    The official signing of the deal means that all the channels from ‘TheOneAlliance’ bouquet – SET, MAX, Discovery Channel, Ten Sports, SAB, Discovery Travel & Living, AXN, Animax, MTV, PIX, Animal Planet and Nick – will be available on the Dish TV DTH platform by today. Currently, Dish TV carries more than 120 channels and is available across the country.

    Commenting on the tie-up, SET India CEO SET-Discovery chairman Kunal Dasgupta said, “We expect significant growth in the subscriber base for Dish TV and for the DTH market in India due to this tie-up between SET Discovery and Dish TV.”

    “We welcome the SET Discovery channels on Dish TV. We have been growing at a healthy rate in the last year and the addition of ‘TheOneAlliance’ bouquet of channels will enable us to offer our customers a complete family package at affordable prices.” said Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna.

    Elaborating on the SET Discovery – Dish TV tie-up, Deepak Shourie, EVP & MD, Discovery Networks India and Director, SET Discovery said, “We are extremely pleased with this arrangement as we believe that it would enhance a Dish TV consumer’s television viewing experience and take it to a new level.”

  • Sony-Discovery reach agreement with Dish TV

    Sony-Discovery reach agreement with Dish TV

    NEW DELHI / MUMBAI: It’s been a long time coming but after endless rounds of discussions, India’s first direct-to-home service Dish TV has finally reached mutually agreeable terms with the Sony-Discovery One Alliance distribution bouquet to carry their channels.

    The two parties arrived at a memorandum of understanding today and the official signing will happen anytime in the next few days, sources close to the developments tell Indiantelevision.com.

    The One Alliance channels will begin beaming off the Dish platform within the next few days and the billing cycle is effective from 1 July on. The financial terms that the two parties have agreed to were not available at the time of filing this report.

    For Dish TV, this resolves one half of the problem it has been facing ever since its launch – its inability to offer subscribers channels from the One Alliance and Star bouquets.

    With the addition of the Sony bouquet, Dish TV can look forward to a major ramp up in subscriber numbers. Two key events that are expected to drive acquisitions in the immediate term are the ongoing India-West Indies Test series and the Fifa World Cup. The Word Cup kicks off in Munich, Germany, on 9 June while the second Test in St Lucia, West Indies, will take place between 10 and 14 June. ESPN Star Sports (already on the Dish network) has exclusive rights to the World Cup while Ten Sports – part of the One Alliance bouquet – is exclusively airing the cricket in the Caribbean.

    A contentious issue that automatically gets resolved with Sony’s sign-up on Dish is the legal spat that Subhash Chandra’s DTH service has been having with Viacom channels MTV and Nick since last year. Both channels are part of the One Alliance.

    In a letter sent to the information and broadcasting ministry last month, Dish TV had petitioned that despite the sector regulator’s directive on making available content to all platforms and a favourable judgement from disputes tribunal TDSAT, the “conduct of MTV” has been “clearly in violation” of the interconnection regulation of 2004.

    Dish TV’s parent ASC Enterprises’ contention was that despite carrying on commercial negotiations with MTV Networks India for several months, the content provider and its distributors in India (One Alliance) had stalled any fruitful conclusion of such talks.

    ASC Enterprises, an Essel Group company, holds the licence for a DTH service in the country, which is marketed under the brand name Dish TV.

  • Sony begins 10 pm band revamp with ‘Vaidehi…’

    Sony begins 10 pm band revamp with ‘Vaidehi…’

    MUMBAI: Sony is all set to launch a new show Vaidehi… Ek Aur Agni Pareeksha. Produced by Aroona Irani, the show will be launched on 5 June and will be aired on Mondays at 10 pm.

    After revamping their 8 to 9 pm band, Friday line up and their afternoon band with new shows, Sony is now targetting the 10 pm slot. New one hour weeklies will be launched at 10 pm, the first of which is Vaidehi… The channel will be introducing a couple of more shows in the coming days.

    After Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi went off the airwaves last month, Sony had introduced a new limited episode show – Khauffnaak in the 10 pm slot.

    Vaidehi… is a story of a middle class girl with stars in her eyes and dreams in her heart but who eventually gets caught in an unusual situation.

    Sony Entertainment Television (SET) India COO N P Singh said, “After Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi, the 10 pm slot on the channel will have a variety of interesting genres — drama, real life stories, thriller and detective series, which make for wholesome entertainment. Vaidehi Ek Aur Agni Pareeksha at 10 pm is a show that will find echo in millions of women across the country who spend their life in subjugation and despair. Adding strength and vitality to the story is the suspense, thrill and romance that makes for prime time viewing. Also, working with a successful producer like Aroona Irani, we look forward to an involved audience with Vaidehi…”

    “I am glad that Sony Entertainment Television has liked the concept and I hope that Vaidehi… will match up to Sony’s expectations. Vaidehi is a story of a girl, her dreams and the reality and also has a social message for viewers. It is all about living life to the fullest and following your own dreams,” said Irani.

  • MGM to consolidate its home entertainment biz with Fox

    MGM to consolidate its home entertainment biz with Fox

    MUMBAI: Revitalised by the recent reinvigoration of its motion picture distribution and marketing organisation as well as by the formation of its new media division, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) continues along the path of controlling its library.

    Moving in that direction, MGM will be re-establishing its worldwide television distribution efforts by bringing the business back in-house. Similarly, the studio will no longer divide its home entertainment releases between Sony Pictures Entertainment and 20th Century Fox home entertainment divisions. Instead, MGM will consolidate its home entertainment business with Fox. Additionally, MGM and Fox will continue their international theatrical distribution relationship.

    MGM’s library, recognised as the largest in the world, encompasses 4,000 movie titles and 10,000-plus episodes of television programming. A large number of such titles and episodes are available for home entertainment release.

    MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan said, “MGM’s motion picture distribution business is growing rapidly as we will release some 80 new feature films in North America over the next four years. We are now ready to turn our attention to our television and home entertainment distribution businesses. In so doing, we have identified another important opportunity to build out our business by returning our worldwide television sales operations in-house and by consolidating our home entertainment releases with a single distributor.”

    The changes do not affect Sony’s distribution of the upcoming James Bond release, Casino Royale, due out in theatres this November. Additionally, MGM and Sony have extended their relationship in regards to the Bond franchise with both MGM and Sony agreeing to co-produce and co-distribute the next Bond movie, as well as Pink Panther and others to be determined. MGM and Sony, along with Revolution Studios are also teaming up in a co-financing arrangement on Rocky Balboa, which will be released by MGM on 22 December 2006.