ITV

Tag: Television

  • China celebrates 80th birthday of cartoon & animation industry

    China celebrates 80th birthday of cartoon & animation industry

    MUMBAI: The second edition of the China International Cartoon and Animation Festival was kicked off in China on Thursday. The highlight of the festival is the 80th birthday celebrations of China’s cartoon and animation industry.

    The week-long festival has chosen “cartoon and animation make life wonderful” as its theme. The event is co-sponsored by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and Zhejiang provincial government.

    Eminent cartoon producers from France, Japan, the United States, Hong Kong and Croatia are participating in the festival.

    The festival will take a look at the progress made by China international cartoon and animation industry, apart from debating on the prospect the industry. A competition on cartoon and animation works in China will also be held.

  • Discovery Travel & Living redefines primetime with new Theme Weeks series

    Discovery Travel & Living redefines primetime with new Theme Weeks series

    MUMBAI: Entertainment via television is competitive and viewer-driven. Last season’s strategy of Theme Week series on weekdays prime time has worked for the lifestyle channel Discovery Travel & Living. The channel’s current quarterly plan for April to June will continue to focus on promoting appointment viewing in the Monday to Friday 9 pm time slot.

    Accepting the truism that weekday viewing differs from weekend viewing, the channel first introduced the concept of Theme Weeks in January this year. During the week, people have more consistent and routine living patterns: They get up, go to work, come home, eat and watch TV. And, tapping these viewers by appointment with its Q1 Theme-Week strategy, Discovery Travel & Living will present thirteen new captivating themes in the next three months.
    Starting today (3 April), the channel will present the best and latest of lifestyle programming, offering viewers a better understanding and control over their television viewing. London Week is the first to be aired as part of the Theme Week series from 3 to 7 April.

    Here, viewers follow the hidden trails into London’s most renowned historic and cultural destinations. Starting with a journey deep inside the world’s most luxurious department store, Harrods, to the never before tour into Madame Tussad’s Wax Museum. Get a glimpse of London as a secret destination for high rollers and big spenders, where millions are won and lost in minutes. It’s London like you’ve never known before.

    Discovery Networks India vice president – Lifestyle Aditya Tripathi said, “Discovery Travel & Living has witnessed a considerable surge in viewership in the first three months of 2006 reflecting viewers’ endorsement of the concept of theme weeks. The strategy has also allowed us to successfully communicate the channel’s diverse programming.”
    Apart from London Week being aired this week, the Theme Weeks line-up from 10 April to 23 June includes the following:

    Miami Ink Week from 10 to 14 April: Miami Ink is a specialised tattoo shop on South Beach, Miami. This reality series showcases the ordeals of four friends and their apprentice as they try to build a thriving business based on their extraordinary art.

    American Casino Week from 17 to 21 April: This series chronicles the high pressure, high stakes world of brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and their crack management staff tasked with running the day-to-day operations of their ultra-exclusive Green Valley Ranch Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Fashion Week from 24 to 28 April: The week is all about high-end designers and models. Filled with attitude and visual treat, this series will have viewers hooked to their television sets.

    Jeremy Clarkson Meets The Neighbour Week from 1 to 5 May: Armed with little more than his prejudices, Jeremy heads off to continental Europe to discover some surprising insights about fellow nationals – as well as his own neighbouring Brits. His liking for some and strong dislike for others is worth watching as he indulges in friendly banters. The series is at its cynical and sarcastic best.

    King of The Road Week from 8 to 12 May: This series is all about the mean beasts on the road. From Harley Davidson to Mustang, the week will uncover some of over-the-top muscle machine.

    15 to 19 May will feature the Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen Week: The mother of all reality shows, Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen is about famous chef Gordon Ramsay and his no-nonsensical and at times brutal training of contesting trainees in inculcating culinary perfection.

    France Week from 22 to 26 May will take viewers from Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame, from Moulin Rouge to Bordeaux and all through France and the historic landmarks of the country.

    Viva Las Vegas Week from 29 May to 2 June: The series encapsulates the lifestyle of the rich and famous and where they go to party.

    5 to 9 June features the Faking It Week: It tells the stories of real people who take on the challenge of transforming themselves into someone entirely different. Our “Faker” is plucked from their natural habitat and given three to four weeks to master an alien skill well enough to fool a group of industry judges. It is a nail-biting journey as our hero tries to survive and compete in a foreign world.

    Anthony Bourdain Week from 12 to 16 June: The Indiana Jones of the culinary world is at your doorstep. Travel with Anthony Bourdain as he visits countries, meets people, learns new recipes while mastering the art of cooking them.

    And, from 19 to 23 June the channel will air the Celebrity Week: Be it Madonna’s Hollywood hideaway or Paula Abdul’s private retreat or joining Jennifer Lopez for a Cuban cuisine meal, Celebrity Week will provide viewers with the passport to the life of these icons.

    With these series, Discovery Travel & Living will offer an eclectic mix of lifestyle programming to help viewers filter the clutter of prime time television to make the best use of their leisure time.

  • Hong Kong to launch digital TV next year

    Hong Kong to launch digital TV next year

    MUMBAI: The Hong Kong Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau has set up working groups with Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) to ensure timely and smooth launch of digital services next year.

    Led by the Hong Kong office of the Telecommunications Authority, the groups will work with the TV stations to solve technical issues related to the transmission and reception of digital terrestrial TV, and facilitate inter-departmental coordination to ensure successful migration from analogue to digital TV at different stages.

    Media reports indicate that a new website has also been launched as part of a major publicity drive to raise awareness and improve understanding of digital TV. Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games are the driving force speeding up the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Hong Kong. The administration will require the territory’s two terrestrial television broadcasters to start digital transmissions by next year.

    In July 2004, Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority announced the implementation framework for digital TV in Hong Kong.

    The bureau approved the investment plans of ATV and TVB for their digital TV programme service and network rollout.

    According to the blueprint, ATV and TVB will start broadcasting their existing services in both analogue and digital format (simulcasting) and launch a new digital service on the respective additional frequency channel assigned to them by 2007.

    The government has yet to decide its transmission standard. If the mainland has not promulgated a national standard before the end of 2006, ATV and TVB will adopt the European digital video broadcasting – terrestrial standard which has been widely adopted internationally.

    The government has set up two working groups, led by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, to work with the two broadcasters to ensure an integrated launch of digital TV.

    According to the government timetable, ATV and TVB shall provide their existing services in both analog and digital format by 2007.

    Subject to further market and technical studies, the government will direct ATV and TVB to cease analogue broadcasts by 2012, Lai said.

  • Warner Bros. TV Group ups Karen Miller as SVP

    Warner Bros. TV Group ups Karen Miller as SVP

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Television Group has promoted Karen Miller to the position of senior vice president for its Worldwide Television Creative Services. It was announced today by the company’s executive vice president Lisa Gregorian. Miller will be reporting to Gregorian.

    In her new position, Miller will manage the day-to-day operations of the Creative Services department, overseeing the conceptualization and design of all print, digital and on-air advertising and promotional materials for the Studio’s worldwide television marketing, sales and publicity initiatives, states an official release.

    She will work closely with the Studio’s internal marketing executives, providing creative counsel on the promotional campaigns for programming produced by Warner Bros. Television, Telepictures Productions and Warner Bros. Animation.

    Also, Miller and her department will guide the creative efforts of the Studio’s television distribution entities–Warner Bros. International Television Distribution, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution and Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution–enhancing their marketing efforts for television series and the pay, cable and broadcast windows of theatrical titles.

    Said Gregorian, “Karen has proven herself to be an invaluable executive who is able to combine her creative vision with business acumen. She is the perfect person to direct the efforts of the creative services department as it continues to meet the challenge of focusing consumer attention in an ever-competitive global television marketplace.”

    A 10-year veteran of the Studio, Miller most recently served as Warner Bros. Television Creative Services vice president, having been promoted to that position in 2005. Previously, she had been an art director in the Warner Bros. Television Creative Services department for five years. She joined the Studio in 1996 as a graphic designer for Warner Bros. International Television Distribution. Prior to joining the Studio, Miller spent more than a decade with Conde Nast Publishing as associate art director for Architectural Digest magazine.

    In her distinguished career, Miller has been honoured with 18 PROMAX-BDA Awards, most recently receiving the 2005 BDA Design Award in the Magazine category for her efforts on behalf of The O.C. Insider.

  • ‘Our primetime viewership has increased 78%, revenues by 400%’ : Purnendu Bose – Sahara One Television COO

    ‘Our primetime viewership has increased 78%, revenues by 400%’ : Purnendu Bose – Sahara One Television COO

    After joining Sahara One Television in April last year as COO, Purnendu Bose has been able to steer the channel through a period of growth and turnaround. Bose has been responsible for Sahara One Television’s new fresh look and content.

     

    Bose was also a part of the team that launched Radio City, Star News and Hungama TV.

     

    Under his leadership, Sahara One has seen an almost 400% jump in revenues and a 78 per cent rise in primetime viewership. In this interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Hetal Adesara, Bose speaks about cricket, the new shows lined up on the channel and more…

     

    Excerpts:

    Let’s start with the current hot topic of cricket. What do you expect cricket to do for the channel?

    With cricket we found a lot of synergy. First of all, rival channels do not carry our ads and the second thing is that housewives don’t read newspapers. And cricket is religion in our country. With cricket we hope to increase the sampling of the channel and it has all the ingredients — drama, excitement, highs and low — that we aim to offer viewers with our soaps.

     

    Apart from this, post cricket, our viewership in prime time has gone up by 78 per cent.

    How much has the switch of Sahara One signal to Filmy impacted the connectivity of the channel considering the fact Filmy has just launched?

    There is no loss of connectivity post the switching of signals. We have encrypted our channel and in fact we have almost 99 per cent connectivity in Tam towns. Earlier it was 94 per cent. We just had 48 hours to do the needful and the team did a fantastic job of ensuring availability of the channel across the country.

    Since you have encrypted your channel, are there any plans of going pay?

    Going pay is very much on our agenda but not immediately. Maybe in the next six – seven months, we will go pay.

    Your afternoon band has completely gone off with cricket coming in. Doesn’t that bother you since after cricket gets over, it will have to be brought back and viewers may not come back?

    Our afternoon band comprised repeats of our primetime shows – Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan and Kituu Sabb Jantii Hai. We did not have an afternoon band where we showed other new soaps. Now with cricket on, our loyal viewers are watching those shows on primetime. When cricket does get over in April, we are sure that they will come back to our channel in the afternoon.

    How is cricket being used to build other properties of the channel? One of the things one would expect would be to make a big noise around a new or existing property during this time?

    We already have our key leading ladies from our primetime shows in an ad campaign around cricket. That is being aired on our channels (Sahara One and Filmy) and we also have online ads on the same theme. Apart from that, we keep promoting these shows during the match ad breaks.

     

    As far as launching new shows is concerned, we do have a few in the pipeline, which will go on air in April – May. These are fiction shows and are tentatively titled Sati and Kya Socha. Sati is most likely to replace Buniyaad when it ends its run in May.

    How would you define 2005 for Sahara One in terms of the programming and marketing initiatives taken? How much has the channel grown in the last one year in terms of viewership and revenues?

    Last year has been good for us in terms of programming. We had success with our shows like Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan, Kituu Sabb Jantii Hai and Kohinoor. Buniyaad is also doing well on the channel. As I already mentioned, our primetime viewership has increased by 78 per cent. On the other hand, our revenues have increased by 400 per cent. We have more than 260 advertisers on board. Clients are also seeing value in our programming and hence are advertising more with us.

     

    Recently we have divided our programming into two blocks and moved away from classifying shows as fiction and non-fiction. The first time band we will focus on will be the 7 pm – 9 pm one and the second will be from 9 pm – 11 pm.

     

    These two time bands will be overseen by two programming heads. Naina Toor Singh will be looking after the 7 – 9 pm band and for the time being, I will be looking after the 9 – 11 pm band — until we find a replacement for Kumud (Chowdhary).

    What was the reason behind bringing about this change?

    It’s quite simple. Viewers don’t classify shows as fiction or nonfiction They focus more on the timings of the shows that they want to watch or are interested in. Our aim will be to look at programming from the viewers’ eyes.

     

    Hence we will be looking at strengthening programming in these time slots. That’s where our new shows will also come in a couple of months.

    Apart from ‘Sati’ and ‘Kya Socha’, another property will be the game show ‘Mission Ek Crore’ with Sanjay Dutt as host. When is it likely to launch and how is the production progressing?

    We will launch Mission Ek Crore some time around the end of April or beginning May. The initial plan was to launch it before the end of this fiscal year. But we have stalled it. One of the main reasons behind this is that we first want to build our programming lineup in the 9 to 11 pm time band.

     

    Currently we have Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Kittu Sabb Jaanti Hai and re-runs of Virasaat and Kadam in this time band. We will be introducing new shows and once that is done, we will launch Mission Ek Crore.

    After the launch of Filmy, how much importance will the movie band on Sahara One hold? Will the premiers be on Filmy now? Would you take off movies from Sahara One and place shows in the weekend or will movies remain a part of the weekend lineup?

    Movies are an integral part of our weekend lineup and they will continue to remain so. We have introduced the concept of multiple premiers wherein the movie will be premiered on Sahara One at 12.30 pm and on Filmy at 3.30 pm and then again on Sahara One at 7.30 pm. So we will be airing the movie premier three times in a day. It’s on the model of a film airing in a theater at different time slots. The idea is that maximum number of people can watch it at whatever time is suitable for them.

    In the GEC space where would you rate Sahara One and why?

    Let the viewers say the same. Recently we did a survey with 2000 general entertainment TV viewers across five cities. And they personified Sahara One Television as the Abhishek Bachchan of Indian television – a star with the potential of becoming a super star. That’s how viewers rate us. And this is a strong endorsement and a matter of satisfaction for us.

    What has contributed to the growth at Sahara One in the last one year?

    It’s not one big thing that matters, but doing thousands of small things behind ever big decision, separates the winners from the others. It is a team effort that has resulted in the change we see on the channel.

     

    I’ll attribute this to the programming, on-air promos, off air marketing, sales and distribution of the channel. The program strategy of women are real on Sahara One, we have consciously stayed away from stereotypical programs and portrayed the real women that we see all around us.

     

    The on-air promos strategy has been cutting edge to the brief with simple and crisp messages communicating the channel differentiator. Marketing has burnt the mid night oil to evolve below the line strategies / activities to increase sampling and using mass media to reinstate the differentiator and driving traffic to the channel.

     

    Sales backed it up with exceptional revenue growth, through innovation thus creating value for money for advertisers leading to over 260 brands advertising with the channel resulting in a 425 per cent growth, in last six months over the first six months of this fiscal. Distribution ensured that we are available in over 96 per cent of 60 million cable viewing homes. All being a team effort.

    Despite the fact that individual shows are doing well on the channel, why does it not reflect in the ratings?

    We have seen an improvement in ratings over the last few months. But the reason why ratings of shows that are doing well are not reflected remains a mystery to us.

    Sahara One was due to launch in the UK before the end of this fiscal. Has that happened as yet?

    No, we have not yet launched in the UK. We want to ensure that we launch in this market with the best partner in order to ensure the maximum reach of the channel from the very beginning. We are in active talks with leading potential distributors which we would close shortly. We will be looking at launching Sahara One there in early 2007, not before that.

    How is the channel faring in the US?

    We have got a good response from our viewers in the US. We get letters from all over the States. In the first six months, we have close to 70,000 subscribers there.