ITV

Tag: Spike

  • Viacom to roll out mobile TV apps suite across 180 countries in Q4-2015

    Viacom to roll out mobile TV apps suite across 180 countries in Q4-2015

    MUMBAI: Viacom has launched a suite of mobile TV apps under the brand name Viacom Play Plex, which will allow its distribution partners to offer smartphone and tablet users around the world access to the best content from all its international TV brands, anytime and anywhere.

     

    Starting in the fourth quarter of 2015, the Viacom Play Plex apps will be available to launch in every one of the 180 international territories in which Viacom owns and operates TV channels, including India.

     

    There will be a separate mobile Play app for each of Viacom’s international TV channel brands namely Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Channel, Spike and BET – offering video-on-demand (VOD) access to a range of current and library content, as well as a live, local linear stream of the relevant channel, and other content including games for Nick Play.

     

    Viacom is exploring a number of different distribution options for Viacom Play Plex, with the suite of apps being offered on both a collective and standalone basis to existing pay TV partners in every territory to integrate into their TV Everywhere services where available. A number of pay TV providers have already signed deals with Viacom to offer subscribers authenticated access to the Nick app, including NOS in Portugal, while Viacom is collaborating with a number of other providers on upcoming launches including Foxtel in Australia and OSN in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Nick app, which has been rolled out in five international markets since 2013, is being updated and rebranded as Nick Play internationally to become part of Viacom Play Plex.

     

    Viacom will also look for new distribution partners for the Viacom Play Plex apps, including mobile network operators.

     

    Viacom International Media Networks president and CEO Bob Bakish said, “Viacom Play Plex offers us maximum flexibility in distributing our content as the way viewers consume their favorite TV shows continues to evolve. These apps are designed to complement our linear pay TV channels and to allow our existing distribution partners to deepen and improve the entertainment experience they offer their subscribers. But, Viacom Play Plex also opens up new distribution opportunities for us, particularly in the fast-growing mobile TV sector, and, ultimately, positions us to succeed in a world of more personalised entertainment services and greater consumer choice.”

     

    Each branded Play app will be localised for each country in which it is made available, both in terms of language and available content, giving users more ways to access Viacom’s shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Catfish: The TV Show and Lip Sync Battle, as well as local productions.

     

    Mobile TV viewers everywhere will enjoy an intuitive, video-focused user interface and enhanced video player, which reduces loading and buffering times, as well as an algorithmic menu that adapts to their tastes. Apps will include social and sharing components, and will be available in both iOS and Android to download from the Apple App store and Google Play store respectively.

     

    Bakish added, “Viacom Play Plex allows viewers across the globe to watch the TV shows they love from their favorite Viacom brands anytime and anywhere. We believe no other international entertainment company is offering this type of innovation at this scale, serving every major demographic in every major TV market.”

  • Viacom launches ‘Vantage’ ad sales data product

    Viacom launches ‘Vantage’ ad sales data product

    MUMBAI: Viacom has launched an innovative, data-driven ad product called Viacom Vantage that enables advertisers to reach their custom targets at the program level across the Viacom Media Networks portfolio.

     

    The new approach transforms traditional media planning and offers advertisers more choice, more flexibility and increased accountability. Through a combination of enhanced consumer targeting and a deep understanding of how various audience segments consume content across our platforms, Viacom Vantage predicts, which content will perform the best for our clients across MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Nickelodeon, CMT, Spike, TV Land and Logo.

     

    “Our guiding principle is to offer best-in-class and client-centered products for our advertising partners. Viacom Vantage is our latest cutting edge product to deliver on that promise by enabling our clients to close the gap between how they define their true segments and where their messages can work best in reaching that audience on our shows,” said Viacom Media Networks head of sales Jeff Lucas.

     

    Developed in-house over a year ago, Viacom Vantage’s beta version was successfully piloted with a select group of national partners including Horizon Media. Viacom Vantage offered each of these clients deep data integrations, customized capabilities and took on operational and inventory management efforts to drive unique media plans and help set new industry standards.

     

    “When Viacom came to us with this new ad solution, we recognized immediately it was a novel approach that could greatly build upon the effectiveness of our client’s investment. The results far exceeded our expectations by directly identifying and reaching our targeted consumers and providing us with precisely the right programming that would generate the highest return,” said Horizon Media senior vice president, director of national television Dave Campanelli.

     

    Now in its second year and available at scale to clients, Viacom Vantage is the result of years of strategic investment in data, proprietary research and ongoing optimization to build out new predictive models. It goes far beyond the traditional age and gender demographics and provides the capability to integrate attitudinal and behavioral segments with other off-the-shelf segments by using a unique algorithm that is custom fit to each advertiser’s goals.

     

    “Our holistic and highly customizable approach to data is far ahead of the industry curve and leverages the unparalleled social and digital reach of our programming to help unlock insights into the commercial and digital behaviors of our audiences. By effectively merging our expansive data footprint with syndicated research, we can continuously optimize media plans to integrate our advertisers’ messaging on the exact right shows at the exact right time,” added Viacom Media Networks executive vice president, data strategy and consumer intelligence Kern Schireson.

  • DirecTV offers 100+ channels on portable devices in US

    DirecTV offers 100+ channels on portable devices in US

    NEW DELHI: Twenty-two new channels have been added to DirecTV’s mobile app making it possible for American subscribers to see more channels out of home on smartphones and portable devices.

     

    DirecTV already has 90 ‘out-of-home’ channel on its app. The new channels include MTV, Comedy Central, TBS, Spike, OWN and TNT. 

     

    The full list of new DirecTV Everywhere live streaming channels includes BET, Cartoon Network, CMT, CNN, Comedy Central, Galavision, HLN, MTV, MTV2, Nickelodeon East, OWN, Palladia, Smithsonian Channel, Spike, TBS, TCM, TNT, truTV, TV Land, UniMas, Univision East, and VH1.

     

    Thus, viewers who install the DirecTV free app will now have access to more than one hundred TV channels on portable modes.

     

  • Spike to launch as FTA channel in UK

    Spike to launch as FTA channel in UK

    MUMBAI: A new free-to-air TV channel will launch with a bang in millions of UK homes on 15 April, when Spike goes on air offering a mix of British commissions and big-name talent alongside a range of acclaimed drama and entertainment.

     

    Original commissions will feature prominently on Spike from launch. Police Interceptors Unleashed marks a return to British TV screens for actor and former professional footballer, Vinnie Jones, who will front the series, following the work of the high-speed police interception unit. Another new series, Tattoo Disasters UK, will seek out some of the most painful examples of British body art and the individuals having to learn to live with their inky mistakes.

     

    Spike’s launch line-up will also feature some of the most acclaimed and talked about TV drama of recent times, including Breaking Bad, which will be broadcast from start to finish for the first time on British TV. The latest and fifth series of The Walking Dead will also be available on Spike, the first time it will be accessible free-to-air to British TV viewers.

     

    Other acquired dramas that will broadcast on Spike from launch include the British TV premiere of mythological blockbuster, Olympus, Emmy nominated Justified and crime thriller Sons of Anarchy.

     

    Lip Sync Battle, hosted by two-time Grammy Award-winner LL COOL J, will be the entertainment flagship of Spike’s launch schedule. The half-hour original series – based on the cultural phenomenon of lip sync battling seen by millions on television and online – has been created by Jimmy Fallon and his Eight Million Plus Productions, Stephen Merchant, John Krasinski, Matador and Casey Patterson. Merchant also features on-screen as one of the many A-list musical combatants in the series.

     

    Social media comedy phenomenon, Fail Army, has also been reworked for television and will be introduced to UK TV audiences by Spike.

     

    Spike will also be the UK TV home of mixed martial arts. The channel will televise Bellator MMA, the emerging sports franchise featuring many of the world’s greatest fighters including British champion, Liam McGeary, and Paul Daley. Spike has also signed an exclusive deal with the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA) for its tournaments, which will feature in a Saturday ‘Fight Night.’

     

    The channel will also offer a range of reality series from Spike in the US, including Catch a Contractor and Frankenfood, as well as repeats of some of Channel 5’s most popular factual output.

     

    The 24-hour network will be available from launch on the majority of the UK’s digital TV platforms, including Sky TV, Freesat and Freeview, on which it will occupy channel slot 31.

     

    Channel 5 programme director Ben Frow, whose editorial team will oversee commissioning, scheduling and acquisitions for the new channel, said, “Spike is a driven, high-energy channel offering a point of view and programme mix I think is different from anything else on British TV right now. I can’t wait to see our viewers embrace this exhilarating new channel.”

     

  • DD’s Q1 revenues see spike thanks to new primetime programming

    DD’s Q1 revenues see spike thanks to new primetime programming

    NEW DELHI: With new initiatives that have helped to add spice to the national prime time telecasts, Doordarshan managed to push up its gross quarterly revenue from just over Rs 322.4 million in the last quarter of 2012 to above Rs 503.4 million in the first quarter of 2013.

    The monthly revenue for this time slot shot up from just Rs 9.21 million in October last year to more than Rs 197.1 million in March this year.

    Doordarshan additional director general Raj Shekhar Vyas told Indiantelevision.com that this had been achieved by adding variety to the programmes and not necessarily getting stuck to the same series from Monday to Friday as most private television channels tend to do.

    He said DD was set to break new ground with the telecast of Hollywood blockbusters in English from midnight onwards daily from mid-May. He said negotiations were on with the American studio Lionsgate Films. It was expected that the films would initially be offered without any payment. This slot was until now reserved either for old films or repeat telecasts, he said.

    However, on account of a decline in national mid-day prime time slots between noon and 3.00 pm, the quarterly revenue went down from Rs 177.9 million in the last quarter to just about Rs 156.7 million.

    Asked about this, Vyas said he was currently concentrating on re-vamping the evening prime time but would also overhaul the mid-day prime time since around 240 proposals had been received for various programmes.

    Following an initiative by Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Jawhar Sircar, DD had for the first time decided to go in for out-of-home publicity and also advertised in newspapers, Facebook and Twitter about its new programmes. An initial sum of Rs 20 million had been set aside since Republic Day this year for this. Advertising in cinema houses will form the second phase of the advertising binge.

    Vyas claimed that following directions from DD director general Tripurari Sharan, he had given the national prime time a youthful look with programmes like ‘Bharat ki shaan’, ‘Yahan ke hum Sikandar,’ ‘Ek Kiran Roshni ki’ and ‘Yeh hai India Meri Jaan’ by the renowned Saeed Akhtar Mirza remembered for the path-breaking ‘Nukkad’ series. The channel also had its share of interpretation of classics like ‘Krishna Kali’, ‘Gora’ and ‘Sarsaswati Chandra’, apart from old favourites like ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ and ‘Ek tha Rusty.’