ITV

Tag: Star News

  • Sudip Roy is Neo Sports Broadcast senior VP, ad revenue

    Sudip Roy is Neo Sports Broadcast senior VP, ad revenue

    MUMBAI: Neo Sports Broadcast has appointed Sudip Roy as senior VP advertising revenue. He has over 16 years of broadcast ad revenue experience.

    He replaces Raju Udupa. Prior to this, Roy was working with Media Content and Communications Services India (MCCS) as business head events and special features. He was responsible for ad revenue for all the news channels (ABP News-formerly Star News, ABP Ananda-formerly Star Ananda and ABP Majha-formerly Star Majha)

    His career began with Zee Telefilms where he quickly rose to become the youngest branch head for all Zee Channels in Kolkata in 2001 and subsequently grew into the role of ad sales head for Zee Bangla in the Western region.

    Post this, he moved to MCCS, where he was the part of the team that launched Star Ananda and was the top regional head from 2005-2008. He also conceptualised the uniform rate card for Star News, Star Ananda and Star Majha and was the rate card president for three years.

    He then took over as the first business head of events, special features for these three channels and ensured that all events conceptualised were profitable.

    Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasana Krishnan said, “With his impressive track record in the broadcast industry and focus on profitability, Sudip is the ideal candidate to grow our business further and I welcome him into the Neo family.”

    Roy said, “With multiple long term rights deals with leading global sports federations, Neo Sports is poised for growth in an exciting new era for sports broadcasting in India. It‘s been an exciting ride for me in the broadcast industry so far, and I look forward to working with the team to lead advertising revenue at Neo to new heights”.

  • Nilesh Thakkar moves on from GS TV to launch The Real Media People

    MUMBAI: Media veteran Nilesh Thakkar, whose latest stint was with Aas Paas TV (the television wing of Gujarati daily Gujarat Samachar), has turned entrepreneur with his media venture – The Real Media People (TRMP).

    The media agency will focus on providing media solutions to the real estate sector which is heavy on print and out of home media. It will also help players in the sector capitalise on the use of electronic media, which has not been used effectively by the builder community as yet.

    Thakkar, the founder CEO of TRMP, said, “At TRMP, we shall give 360 degree solutions to builders who are still heavy on print and will generate additional revenue for all regional and national news channels by way of spot/non FCT/advertiser paid feature. Real estate is huge sector for print and this sector requires a personalised touch. We shall not operate like an ad agency but will act as consultants in promoting the clients.”

    TRMP was inaugurated on the pious occasion of Vasant Panchami and will start full-fledged operations from 1 April. Thakkar will be joined by two more partners, whose identities will be revealed in due course of time. There are already some new channels that have tied up with TRMP.

    Thakkar further said, “I started working at a very early age, practically during my school days. I always thought I shall retire early and start something on my own by the time I enter the early forties.”

    Thakkar has 20 years of experience in the media business having spent seven in years in print with publications like Manorama, Abhiyaan and Chitralekha and 13 years with Zee, Star News, Star Ananda, Star Majha, Tv9 and Gujarat Samachar (GS Tv).

  • Sudipto Chowdhuri to lead ad sales function at India TV

    MUMBAI: India TV has roped in Sudipto Chowdhuri as senior vice president, sales. He will be responsible for leading the advertising revenue function of the business nationally. He will report to India TV MD Ritu Dhawan.

    Chowdhuri‘s last stint was at TV9 Kannada as a national head.
    India TV strategist Paritosh Joshi said, “We are happy to welcome Sudipto and expect that his depth of experience will be catalytic for the strong revenue team. We are confident that this will further accelerate the aggressive growth path Independent News Service is following.”

    With nearly 21 years of experience, Chowdhuri has worked with brands like India Today, Zee Network, INX Network and Star News.

    Chowdhuri said, “I feel proud to be associated with India TV, which is one of the most credible media brands in this country. I am sure it would be quite challenging and equally exciting to do business differently in a fiercely competitive genre like Hindi news.”

  • TV news coverage of corruption issues up 11 times: CMS study

    TV news coverage of corruption issues up 11 times: CMS study

    MUMBAI: Television news channels are crusading against corruption as never before. Corruption coverage in primetime bulletins by the six television news channels during 2005 to 2011 have grown over eleven times in terms of percentage, a research study by CMS (Centre For Media Studies) Media Lab reveals.

    Though the coverage of corruption-related issues by TV news channels as well as newspapers have increased substantially, especially during Anna Hazare‘s fast in August, petty corruption involving vulnerable sections of people are yet to become a concern for the media.

    The study – ‘Face of Corruption in News Media 2011‘ – says that the priority is for scams and scandals rather than for systematic issues and correctives that need to be pursued. The far off and grassroots level corruption hardly figured.

    It said the coverage related to corruption issues was well over eight per cent of primetime and six per cent of front pages from January-June 2011, but during Anna‘s fast the coverage overall went up to over 60 per cent of primetime of news channels and mostly live coverage.

    “Reporting on corruption in news media between the year 2010 and 2011 has doubled. However, during July – September of 2011 alone the coverage has more than tripled,” noted CMS director PN Vasanti in the report. “Since the Anna Hazare crusade, there are initiatives all around and all across the states towards curb, contain corruption and the compulsions. With the kind of spread of e-seva and e-governance services, and transparency movement gaining ground, hopefully news media would take up reporting these in 2012 and expedite the process of decline of corruption.”  
         
      Mainstream news media attached priority to scams and scandals involving high-profile personalities. “Most of the corruption covered in 2011 involved individuals, but with high profiles and of high scams. English channels focused relatively more – both on institutions and individuals; while Hindi news channels focused relatively more on individuals in their coverage of corruption,” the report stated.

    The study pointed out that there were seven scandals, which were reported more often in the stories of news media – channels, newspapers and radio – during the period of the study. Of these, four were to do with government (2G, CWG, Adarsh, Bofors), two were to do with civil society (Ramdev and Anna Hazare) and two (Hasan Ali and Citi Bank) were from private / corporate.

    “The news channels focused more on scams referring to politicians and bureaucrats and to big public utilities / services (like CWG, DGCA, GNDA, etc). CNN-IBN had only 21 percent for covering such corruption against as high 90 percent of Aaj Tak and 81 percent by Star News. Even DD News had 42 percent coverage to do with corruption involving or referring to bureaucrats. In all, major stories covered by news media were analysed. By and large they were all chasing the same stories, and even same way,” said the report.

    This CMS Media Lab study for January – June 2011 involves analysis of primetime (7– 11 pm) coverage of corruption by news media. It includes front pages of six newspapers (Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasjar, Hindustan, The Hindu, The Times of India and Hindustan Times), six news channels (NDTV 24×7, CNN-IBN, Zee News, Star News, DD News and Aaj Tak) and AIR news.

  • Narayan Rao re-elected NBA president

    Narayan Rao re-elected NBA president

    MUMBAI: NDTV Group executive vice chairman KVL Narayan Rao has been re-appointed president of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) for 2011-12.

    In the Annual General Meeting held today, Zee News Ltd CEO Barun Das has been re-elected as vice president, while Media Content and Communications Services (which manages news television channels Star News, Star Majha and Star Ananda) CEO Ashok Venkatramani is the honorary treasurer.

    The other members on the NBA board are Independent News Services chairman Rajat Sharma; Times Television Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla; and Network18 Group COO B Sai Kumar.

  • Anna obsession boosts TV news channels

    Anna obsession boosts TV news channels

    MUMBAI: Anna Hazare’s indefinite hunger strike has not only created a stir among the political class and the common man but has also gripped the news industry. The obsession is so complete that the news television channels have forgotten about the existence of other news.

    Anna’s movement against corruption hogged the limelight, occupying 88.5 per cent of primetime content on news channels for the period between 16-24 August, according to data from Centre For Media Studies’ TV news monitoring division CMS Media Lab.

    The data consists of total per day news average of four channels – NDTV 24X7, CNN-IBN, Star News and Aaj Tak.

    Among these channels, Star News gave maximum footage to Anna’s fast –97.1 per cent or 1,310 minutes in the week; its focus on other news was just 2.9 per cent.

    On Aaj Tak, news coverage on Anna was as high as 92.2 per cent, while 7.8 per cent was other news. NDTV 24X7 and CNN-IBN gave 85 and 81 per cent of their primetime to Anna’s cause.

    Interestingly, on 24 August all the four channels aired news related to Anna only and no other news was covered, CMS Media Lab’s data revealed.

    The whole news genre, which is under tremendous revenue stress, has seen a dramatic rise in viewership, thanks to Anna. As per TAM data for the week ended 20 August, the genre share of Hindi news channels has seen an 87 per cent jump in the viewership, while the English news genre saw a boost of 74 per cent.

    In the Hindi speaking market (HSM), the share of Hindi news genre grew to 11.02 per cent compared to 5.9 per cent in the preceding week.

    The genre share of English news channels stood at 0.54 per cent, as against 0.31 per cent in the trailing week.

    TAM data also suggests that not just more people viewed the news channels but they watched it longer. The average daily time spent on Hindi news channels increased to 16.9 minutes from 8.5 minutes in the HSM. The time spent on English news channels rose to 0.72 minute (from 0.30 minute earlier) at a pan India level.

  • NDTV gains on Star deal; market expects equity partnership

    NDTV gains on Star deal; market expects equity partnership

    MUMBAI: A day after NDTV announced its five-year ad sales deal with Star India, the scrip of the news broadcaster has gained for the second consecutive day.

    Shares of NDTV rose 5.35 per cent today to Rs 74.80 till the filing of this report (1 pm). The scrip had gained 2.82 per cent on Tuesday, the day NDTV said it had given the mandate to Star to manage the ad sales of its news channels.  
         
      NDTV was the biggest gainer among the news broadcasters. Incidentally, barring IBN18, all the listed players in the news broadcasting business are seeing an upsurge.

    Shares of Zee News Ltd rose 5.07 per cent to Rs 11.60 till the filing of this report. TV Today also saw a 2.35 per cent surge with the scrip trading at Rs 60.85.

    BAG Films and Media gained 2.98 per cent to Rs 7.25.

    TV18 gained 0.60 per cent and was trading at Rs 75.75, while IBN18 lost 0.92 per cent (Rs 91.65).

    “NDTV has seen a rally because of the ad sales deal. But the scrip will sustain momentum only if an equity deal is announced between NDTV and Star. The market is expecting it as they feel that the deal is a conflict of interest with MCCS, the company which runs Star News, Star Anand and Star Majha where Star has a 26 per cent stake,” says a media analyst.
     

  • NDTV hands over ad sales duties to Star

    NDTV hands over ad sales duties to Star

    MUMBAI: In a cluttered environment where news channels are struggling to up advertising rates, NDTV has assigned Star India to exclusively handle the airtime sales of all its news channels – NDTV 24×7, NDTV India and NDTV Profit.

    The five-year deal will come into effect from 1 April, bringing together two broadcasting companies that would fight it out in a marketplace that is unfriendly to ad rate hikes.

    For Rupert Murdoch’s Star India, the commercial alliance will mean that it has news in its bouquet mix. The network had earlier handled the ad sales of MCCS, the news broadcasting company where it owns 26 per cent stake with ABP Group as the senior partner, but that got separated and is now managed independently.

    Said Star India CEO Uday Shankar, “The combination of the NDTV news brand and Star’s leadership should be able to unlock significant value for NDTV. The presence of NDTV news shall strengthen Star’s sales bouquet and enable Star to offer a comprehensive option to advertisers and agencies.”

    NDTV, which has seen a slowdown in its advertising revenue from news operations, will continue its ad sales arrangement with Raj Nayak‘s Aidem Ventures for lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times, while pulling out all its news outfits from the media consulting, marketing and advertising sales company.

    NDTV will focus on content and business development, areas where it is more comfortable with. For consolidating its revenues, it will adopt the outsourcing model. While Star will handle its ad sales, NDTV will depend on Star Den, a 50:50 joint venture between Star India and Den, for its subscription income.

    Prannoy Roy has worked with Murdoch earlier before they split in 2003. After the divorce, Roy went on to launch his news channels and got the company listed in 2004.

    Said NDTV chairman Roy, “Star, India‘s leading and most successful television network, has been a trusted partner in the past and NDTV looks forward to this new initiative which we are certain will be of mutual benefit. In many ways, it‘s a perfect fit.”  
         
      Will the alliance jack up ad rates for the news business? “The deal does not necessarily mean that ad rates will go up for NDTV. News is a cluttered market and all will depend on the demand and supply equation,” said Madison Media group CEO Punitha Arumugam.

    Star India, however, believes that the getting together of the two broadcasting companies will help create value. Said Star India EVP – business development Nitin Kukreja, “There is value to be unlocked with proper packaging. We can command a premium for the news genre.”

    Selling airtime for NDTV will help strengthen Star‘s offering for male targeted advertisers. “We have a bouquet of English channels including Star World, Star Movies and National Geographic. We, however, haven‘t yet decided which of our channels we are going to package with the NDTV news channels and offer to advertisers,” Kukreja added.

    Some senior executives, however, believe that the outsourcing model is not a good strategy. “The reality in today‘s world is that in the news business, there is a lot of healthy interaction between business and content. There is overlap in events and sponsorship. So it is better to have the ad sales functions handled internally,” the CEO of a news broadcasting company said on condition of anonymity.

    Some experts also feel that it won‘t be possible to club general entertainment channels with news channels. “The advertisers are different. The target segments are also different,” a media analyst said.

    Will Star‘s relationship with ABP be strained? Will MCCS, which owns and operates Star News (Hindi), Star Majha (Marathi) and Star Anand (Bengali), be impacted?

    When contacted, MCCS CEO Ashok Venkatramani did not want to comment on the new deal between Star and NDTV.

  • Distressed, news channels seek rescue in digitisation

    Distressed, news channels seek rescue in digitisation

    NEW DELHI: Stung by high carriage costs and a slump in advertising rates, television news channels are looking at tapping subscription revenues to drive growth.

    The subscription income of news channels is pegged at around Rs 2 billion, but is restricted to only a few players like CNBC TV18, NDTV, TV Today Network and Zee News.

    “We have to open up subscription revenues. There is a future there,” said TV Today Network CEO and executive director G Krishnan, while speaking at the 4th News Television Summit organised by Indiantelevision.com.

    News channels are struggling, as they depend heavily on advertising revenues, and media buying agencies do not give them a fair ad price commensurate to their reach.

    “We are not given a premium for the impact that we have. We are treated like commodities by the media buying agencies,” Krishnan said.

    Madison Media CEO Basab Datta Chowdhury, however, did not agree. “The news channels deliver a genre share of 7 per cent while they command a revenue share of 11 per cent. So there is a premium that is given to them. The problem is that there is a plethora of news channels and it is very difficult to differentiate. News is commoditised today,” she said.

    The rise in advertising revenue, though, has come from more inventory utilisation than an increase in ad rates.

    “The 10-second rates have come down. Ad revenue is growing because news channels have flooded the market with inventory. That’s a mistake we have done,” said Krishnan.
            
      News channels have as high as 20-22 minutes of commercial time per hour of telecast, a path they do not prefer to follow, but are led to by a softening of ad rates.

    MCCS (which owns and operates Star News, Star Ananda and Star Majha) CEO Ashok Venkatramani said the value of the content of news channels does not get realised by the agencies. “Media buyers do not look at the profile of audiences. On the cable TV front also, we do not have transparency. There is no proper mechanism at all,” he added.

    BAG Films & Media CMD Anurradha Prasad urged the news broadcasters to get together to fight against “unreasonable carriage fees” demanded by the multi-system operators (MSOs).

    “It is a rat race out there and broadcasters should collectively fight against high carriage fees. And on the advertising front, we are not paid for the reach that we have. We are not getting the kind of revenues that we had anticipated,” Prasad said.

    Media Network and Distribution (India) Ltd (a joint venture with Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd) Yogesh Radhakrishnan believed at the crux of the problem was the rapid growth of the media industry in a short span of time. “The Indian TV market had grown too fast too soon. But post digitisation, news channels can drive subscription revenues and up ad rates as they create differentiated content,” he said.

    Krishnan, however, is bullish about the TV news industry. “Currently the ability to grow is limited. But five years down the line, we will see strong growth. Digitisation will lower our carriage fees and we can fetch more pay-TV revenues,” he said.

    The challenge for the news broadcasting industry, thus, is to cap ad inventory, aggressively chase subscription revenues and create value for advertisers.

  • Dibang joins Star News

    Dibang joins Star News

    MUMBAI: Former NDTV India managing editor Dibang, best known for his talk show Muqabala on NDTV, has joined Star News.

    “I joined Star News last week and will be doing some shows for the Hindi news channel,” Dibang told Indiantelevision.com.

    Dibang also added that he is in talks with the channel on the formats of the shows.

    Dibang had left Aaj Tak to join Dr Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV way back in 2003 as executive editor. Later, in 2005 he was promoted as managing editor of the Hindi news channel.

    However, in a sudden and shocking development, he stepped down as NDTV managing editor in August 2004.

    Prior to TV news, Dibang was associated with The Sunday Times of India. He started his career in journalism with The Illustrated Weekly of India.