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Tag: The Quint

  • The Quint forays into documentary making with film on UP

    The Quint forays into documentary making with film on UP

    MUMBAI: The Quint has forayed into the space of documentary film making with The Wild West of Uttar Pradesh – Rise of Radical Hindu Vigilante Groups.

     

    The main idea behind foraying into such a documentary is to unearth news that is underground.

     

    The Quint will travel to the interiors of western Uttar Pradesh to meet members of these groups, their sympathisers and young Hindu recruits who are being trained and indoctrinated in this emerging brand of religious extremism.

     

    Speaking about the proposition The Quint CEO Ritu Kapur said, “The QuintDocu will have a raw, gritty, provocative feel. It will be up-close, intimate, honest and un-filtered. Our documentaries will have energy, pace; we pack in a lot in a short time. We believe we are addressing an audience that is well-informed and knows how to ‘join the dots’. We will also publish related opinion pieces written by The Quint’s top-notch contributors; all this to give our audience a real 360 degree view of the subject.”

     

    The documentary will be produced in stand-alone two – four minute segments, which will be posted independently on The Quint. These documentaries are focused for an audience that accesses news and information mainly on the mobile phone. The Quint will also post raw interviews, key documents, maps, infographics, photo essays, detailed information about the protagonists and phenomenon and issues that are taken up in the documentaries. The Quint’s documentaries will also feature on the festival circuit. 

  • The Quint’s BitGiving campaign for Choti Nirbhaya raises Rs 5.28 Lakhs

    The Quint’s BitGiving campaign for Choti Nirbhaya raises Rs 5.28 Lakhs

    MUMBAI: The Quint’s bid to raise aid for four-year old through the crowd funding platform BitGiving, saw phenomenal success.

    On 9 October, 2015, a four-year old girl was raped and assaulted by a man known to her family. She has now been christened as ‘Choti Nirbhaya’. One of the leading digital content platforms, The Quint, started a BitGiving campaign that ran from 17 October to 16 November 2015, to collect funds in support of the child’s medical treatment and to ensure a stable future for her.

    The Quint received heart-warming response to its initiative. It raised Rs 5.28 lakhs from 256 contributors in India, with an average ticket size of Rs 2,000, excelling their target of Rs 5 lakhs by flying margin. The raised funds will be allocated towards the girl’s recovery and to support her family in this time of need.

    Sharing her delight over the success of the campaign, The Quint CEO and co founder Ritu Kapur said, “The ‘Choti Nirbhaya’ case has turned the spotlight yet again on the deplorable state of women’s safety in India’s capital. The four-year-old girl has undergone a series of surgeries at New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital but her parents have been told that she will not be able to bear a child as an adult. The parents are anxious that she should emerge out of this incident as a self-sufficient adult and to ensure this it is imperative that the child is educated well. Our fund-raising efforts were primarily targetted to this end and we are pleased at the generous contributions that have been made to help Choti Nirbhaya have a better and brighter future.”

    The Delhi government also acknowledged The Quint’s reportage of the incident and applauded its efforts to raise funds for the girl’s education and recovery. “The Delhi government is working to cut short the procedure, so that the victim and her family can get the help at the earliest. We are thankful to The Quint for bringing this issue to our knowledge. We complement the organisation for pursuing the case diligently,” said Nagendra Sharma, a spokesperson of the Delhi Government.

    Choti Nirbhaya’s story struck a chord with renowned personalities from across various fields. Singer Anupam Roy, actor Raveena Tandon, director Mahesh Bhatt, musician Raghu Ram, and TV anchor Richa Anirudh appealed to the readers of The Quint to come out and donate generously so that the victim could aspire for a financially secure future as an adult. Their pleas, along with those of the girl’s family, have elicited a positive response from the people of India as they made significant contributions on the crowd-funding platform, BitGiving.

  • Da Vinci Learning and The Quint launch India’s 1st Kids HD Educational Channel

    Da Vinci Learning and The Quint launch India’s 1st Kids HD Educational Channel

    MUMBAI: With a vision of building its global footprint and further extending across 100+ territories spanning three continents, HD Educational channel Da Vinci Learning announced its formal launch in India. Its HD Educational channel will offer award-winning knowledge programming and documentaries to Indian audiences, with a special focus on curious young minds.  The channel aims to offer safe and quality entertainment for the entire family.

     

    Da Vinci Learning is entering India through a 50:50 joint venture between Da Vinci Media GmbH and Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd. (The Quint).

     

    Da Vinci Media founder and CEO Ferdinand Habsburg said, “It is an exciting phase in the journey of Da Vinci Learning. India has always been a key priority market for us and the time has now come to showcase our differentiated programming, aimed at triggering creative young minds bubbling with talent and curiosity to do more. Our association with The Quint will help the channel to effectively increase and strengthen our foothold in the country by offering meaningful and creative content to the Indian audiences.” 

     

    The Quint co-Founder and Chairman Raghav Bahl said, “While Da Vinci Media brings expertise in knowledge-based programming content, this joint venture helps us to further expand, drive synergies and diversify our digital content portfolio.”

     

    The Quint co-Founder & CEO Ritu Kapur asserted, “The Quint will help consumers access Da Vinci Learning content through our digital distribution capabilities. I am confident that the differentiated content of Da Vinci Learning will bring about a transformation in the knowledge and education based content space in India; and I look forward to seeing this transformation take shape.”

     

    Da Vinci Learning, India Managing Director Mohit Anand added, “Arousing the curiosity of our viewers is our mission and we take pride in offering completely safe, non-violent, soft skills-based knowledge programming for the whole family. This has been our USP and we believe that there is a huge demand for such content in India as well. Our commitment is to find the best knowledge programming and make it available to Indian viewers because we understand the rush of inspiration, the thrill of discovery and the pleasure to know.”

     

    The company says that its channel’s programming covers a wide array of topics, ranging from physics and chemistry to history and nature, and makes complex subjects understandable in an entertaining way. Da Vinci Learning turns TV watching from passive observation into a meaningful experience, helping children develop various skills early on, encouraging older viewers to keep asking questions and inviting families to take their learning journeys together.

     

    Da Vinci Learning is targeted at the 6-12 year olds and their families; the channel aims at offering programming and content that makes astounding scientific ideas understandable, arouse curiosity, spark conversation and motivate viewers to continue uncovering the mysteries of the universe.

  • The Quint is Facebook’s Indian digital partner for instant articles

    The Quint is Facebook’s Indian digital partner for instant articles

    MUMBAI: Social media giant Facebook’s has partnered with The Quint in India to launch Instant Articles. Quint is Facebook’s only fully digital partner in the country

     

    Instant Articles loads videos and photos up to 10 times faster claims a release from The Quint. Auto-play videos come to life on scrolling through an article. High-resolution photos can be tilted to explore in detail, to see the location where the photo was clicked with interactive maps  and even hear the author’s voice with embedded audio captions.

     

    “We quickly saw that this was going to lift the user experience to an altogether different level. So when Facebook reached out, they had us at hello. We fast-tracked the implementation and had The Quint’s Instant Articles (test) out in a few weeks. We’re still fine tuning the experience, but we’re very happy with the results so far’’, shared The Quint CEO Ritu Kapur. 

     

    Facebook’s News and Global Media Partnerships director Andy Mitchell said, “We’re seeing great responses from readers who are enjoying the fast and interactive experience of Instant Articles and are excited to bring that to readers Quint in India. Since its launch in April this year, The Quint has grown really quickly on Facebook and given Quint’s focus on mobile-first journalism and publishing, it is a great fit for Instant Articles.” 

     

    Prior to this, Facebook had launched Instant Articles in the US with partners like New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, NBC and National Geographic.

  • Raghav Bahl invests $3.25 million in Quintype

    Raghav Bahl invests $3.25 million in Quintype

    MUMBAI: Indian entrepreneur Raghav Bahl is invested $3.25 million in the California based data-driven publishing company Quintype.

     

    The company will use the capital raised to enhance product and business development. Specifically, the funding will be used to grow the product engineering, and sales teams, across locations in the US Bay Area, as well as in Bangalore, India.

     

    Bahl’s Quintillion Media runs a news site in India called The Quint, which was launched earlier this year on the Quintype platform.

     

    Quintype founder Amit Rathore said, “We are excited to have Mr. Bahl support our company as he has, and are looking forward to using the funds to grow the company even more, particularly from a business standpoint. At Quintype, our goal is to make it just as easy to start a non-trivial media operation, as it is to start a blog. So, if you want to start a new online magazine, or a news site or app, or any other high-velocity content property, you’ll be able to do it in minutes.”

     

    The Quintype platform is a seamless, end-to-end SaaS service that brings together all the functionality you need to run a modern media business, including everything needed to create and distribute content, understand and grow your audience, and also monetise that content. Because they’re all seamlessly integrated, these various functions work together extremely well, letting publishers focus on their content business, while the Quintype platform manages all the technology heavy lifting. It includes functionality like cardification, collaboration and team workflow tools, advanced semantic analytics, personalisation and recommendation systems, an advanced monetisation engine, and several other modules.

     

    This SaaS offering lets media organisations reduce technology costs, while at the same time, leveraging big data and predictive analytics to increase revenue and profits. In fact, Quintype’s business model is unique. The entire state-of-the-art platform is available to anyone, free of cost. Quintype partners with publishers by making money through a revenue-share model, effectively aligning their interests with that of the publisher. Quintype only makes money when the publisher does.

     

    Quintype also allows publishers to define more-nuanced audience segments, an attractive proposition for advertisers as well. Quintype takes this first-party data to the next level.

     

    Bahl, who launched his company Quintillion Media, after selling Network18 to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, has been investing in multiple ventures. Most recently he invested Rs 4 crore in the media platform Youth Ki Awaaz as well as in the women-oriented job portal Sheroes.

  • Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media invests Rs 4 crore in Youth Ki Awaaz

    Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media invests Rs 4 crore in Youth Ki Awaaz

    MUMBAI: Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur led Quintillion Media, has invested Rs 4 crore in an angel round in Youth Ki Awaaz, a media platform for the youth to address some of the world’s most pressing issues – through thoughtful opinions and reportage.

     

    Kapur will join the board of the Youth Ki Awaaz parent – YKA Media Private Limited. BMR Advisors acted as transaction advisors to Quintillion Media and Novistra Capital acted as transaction advisors to Youth Ki Awaaz.

     

    Youth Ki Awaaz is a completely crowd-sourced digital media company, which aims to break the top-down, one-way approach of traditional media, making news creation and dissemination a collaborative/community led model. The platform’s approach to media is founded on the idea that public opinion is the new superpower, and that the media can do more to engage the current generation. From analysis and opinions on politics, to the latest on art and culture, Youth Ki Awaaz is a smorgasbord of personal stories, issue-centric writing and rights based interventions. The website receives over a million readers a month, and has contributions from over 30,000 writers from across India and the world.

     

    Youth Ki Awaaz founder Anshul Tewari said, “The last one year has seen a sudden rise in digital news and opinion platforms. With millions of dollars pouring into new startups, the growth is phenomenal. However, similar to traditional media, digital media too seems to be veering away from being people-focused. YKA on the other hand is a completely people driven digital media platform. With veterans like Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur on board as partners, we feel both privileged and excited to start a new and even more adventurous phase in pushing this generations opinions to the front. The capital will be invested in expanding our team, tech and business model.”

     

    The Quint co-founder Ritu Kapur added, “We were impressed by the idea conceived by Anshul and the team in creating Youth Ki Awaaz. In a short period of time, they have managed to carve a niche for themselves in the digital media space by creating a people driven digital media platform. We find their content to be high on both appeal as well as quality, which is a fine balance to strike. We are confident that they will continue to grow to greater heights in the coming future.”

  • Da Vinci Learning, Swadesh News get I&B clearance; total channels touch 832

    Da Vinci Learning, Swadesh News get I&B clearance; total channels touch 832

    NEW DELHI: During April and May this year, two new channels received permission to launch from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

     

    The first is Da Vinci Learning – a non-news channel owned by Da Vinci Media India Pvt. Ltd, which has got downlinking permission in English and in selected cases dubbed in local languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali. As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, Raghav Bahl’s The Quint and Da Vinci Media are jointly launching the edutainment channel.

     

    The second channel is Swadesh News owned by Sri Sai Media Pvt Ltd, which has received uplinking permission in Hindi, English and all Indian scheduled language.

     

    With this, a total of six new channels have received permission in the first five months of 2015, taking the total number of television channels in the country to 832.

     

    The other four channels that received permission earlier this year were all non-news channels, which received uplinking permission.

     

    Thus, Da Vinci Learning is the only channel to get downlinking permission in 2015 until the end of May.

     

    By the end of December 2014, the number of permitted satellite television channels in the country was 826.

     

    Statistics show that 698 channels (including 382 news channels) are permitted to uplink and downlink from within the country, and 41 (including eight news channels) are uplinked from India for beaming overseas and not in the country. There is no change in channels uplinked from overseas and downlinked into India with the number remaining static at 93 (including 16 news channels). 

  • The Quint inks JV with Da Vinci Media to launch edutainment channel

    The Quint inks JV with Da Vinci Media to launch edutainment channel

    MUMBAI: Raghav Bahl’s digital news platform The Quint and Da Vinci Media have inked a 50:50 joint venture to launch the latter’s television channel Da Vinci Learning in India.

     

    Continuing with its commitment to provide the best in educational entertainment, Da Vinci Media’s association with The Quint will effectively amplify the channel’s presence across the country along with developing widespread and integrated relationships with media and advertisers.

     

    With this move, the company aims develop a foothold in the Indian television market prior to its launch and create awareness about the content it will offer to its Indian audience.

     

    The venture will target 6 -12 year olds and their parents.

     

    Da Vinci Media founder & CEO Ferdinand Habsburg said, “We are delighted to partner with Raghav Bahl and his organization The Quint, a company renowned for its strong media presence. We are confident that this engagement will definitely help us carve a strategic roadmap to increase visibility in the Indian market. We aim to provide innovative and engaging educational content to children helping them to think productively while simultaneously developing their thinking, reading and self -confidence skills througha meaningful and fun experience.”

     

    Bahl added, “While Da Vinci Media brings expertise in the programming content, this JV helps us to further expand, drive synergies  and diversify our media portfolio. The Quint will aid consumers in accessing Da Vinci Media’s Da Vinci Learning channel’s content through our distribution capacity.”

  • Digital is the next big medium for news telling & selling: Raghav Bahl

    Digital is the next big medium for news telling & selling: Raghav Bahl

    MUMBAI: The media and entertainment sector is one of the most dynamic sectors prone to rapid change. In order to survive, one must simply re-invent and adapt to the landscape. Raghav Bahl is unarguably one such man, who knows how to build himself from scratch, as he moved from the television space to the digital environment.

     

    After selling the Network 18 Group for a tidy sum to Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries, Bahl did not stop there. Through his digital venture The Quint, he has now launched a mobile focussed digital news website. Speaking at an interactive session at the ongoing FICCI Frames 2015, Bahl touched upon the key points as an entrepreneur in the digital domain.

     

    “The smartphone has revolutionised the media ecosystem,” Bahl’s voice booms in the packed auditorium as he begins sharing his thoughts.

     

    Consumer Habits

    Bahl says that consumers today are increasingly looking out for content that is personalised, “I, Me, Mine” as he called it. Consumers are always looking for content that leads to instant gratification as audiences resort to uploading, sharing, finding and following data points on their smartphones. Increasingly, users also want data sans baggage.

     

    Content

    Content in the digital space, according to the media baron, is moving from exclusive and breaking news to news pieces that are re-purposed with stronger in-depth analysis. “Now it’s also about the creation of content versus the packaging of content,” he adds. There is also an emerging section in the digital news media segment called the “Light-Fun-Weird,” which is the new news category where news is narrated far different from the traditional form. People increasingly are also looking out for ‘nearby’ content where local information, news and content is being sought. In the social media space, content is also about discovering news, as people used various platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. “Close to 1.8 billion photos are uploaded and shared everyday on Instagram, while around 50 billion messages are sent via Whatsapp each day,” Bahl informs.

     

    Impact on the Landscape

    As massive content is bombarded on the cyberspace, Bahl says that “except for community news and large scale entertainment format on the static screen, it will completely change the landscape. Language will now have to become edgier and it will have to become the language of the young because the audience today has a point of view. Quicker, shorter and strong opinions,” Bahl sums up.

     

    Content in the next three years will move more exclusively to hand held devices.

     

    Quint’s Approach to News Telling

    As a digital product, Bahl informs that he doesn’t need to send a reporter on field. Providing an example on how he would approach a plane crash story, he informs that he would prepare “multiple smaller packets” of news than one lengthy story that will not buy the audience’s attention. He would come up with stories like the age of the aircraft, the mindset of the airplane pilot and so on. “I am investing more in the technology than a TV channel network spends on ground reporting,” he stated.

     

    Financing and Costs

    When he started with his news channel CNBC TV18, it drew in a revenue of Rs 2 crore. However, today the channel draws in revenue to the tune of Rs 300 crore. “As audiences come in, buyers will come in too. If the content is receiving traction, advertisers would come in too.”

     

    According to Bahl, three kinds of advertising models will be hot selling properties in the digital domain: 1) Complete programmatic advertising, 2) Native advertising and 3) Display ads. “However, display ads will have to be modified for mobile screens,” he said.

     

    Assessment of Indian media and leaving Network 18

    “I am an optimist and I believe the sheer plurality of the Indian media would ensure cards are not stacked in one direction,” Bahl assessed. He went on to reveal that he was in no way ready to become a paid employee. “Today the Network 18 group is in strong competitive hands. If I was not a majority stakeholder anymore, I would have to re-invent myself,” he said.

     

    Conclusion

    In his concluding remarks, Bahl highlighted a few points. For instance, he said that primetime is dead as audiences today are always connected via their multiple screens to receive content. The very short lifespan of news was taken over by “curated explainers,” who would summarise a story with in-depth analysis. “Journalists today will have to be expert in their field. You cannot cover financial markets or terrorism,” he remarked.

  • Raghav Bahl’s new venture The Quint makes its debut

    Raghav Bahl’s new venture The Quint makes its debut

    MUMBAI: Months ago he introduced his digital baby The Quint on Facebook. Since January after publishing stories on the social media platform, Indian media mogul turned entrepreneur Raghav Bahl’s latest venture The Quint has finally made its online debut.

     

    After their stint with television, Bahl along with his wife Ritu Kapur, co-founded a digital company called Quintillion Media. The mobile focussed digital platform covers a wide array of news sections. These include politics, opinion, technology, world, entertainment, life, India, business and sports. A photo section dedicated to mostly Hollywood and Bollywood content, besides a video and podcast section is also a part of the new-born website. To lend a lighter tone to the content, a WaterQooler section features humourous and interesting anecdotes that are popular from around the world. The website is currently running in its BETA version.

     

    The content for the website is being created by the in-house content team of editorial writers as well as wire stories. A separate section on the website called “QuintEssential” has stories that are exclusive and personal posts that have been written by the founder duo, including the making of The Quint. Another section featuring on the home page, “Trending” includes stories and videos that are have been going viral in the cyber domain.

     

    The website is seeing a growing traction on its social media platforms. For example, its Twitter handle currently has more than 3,000 followers and more than 7,000 Facebook likes. Access to these two media is available above on the top right hand corner of the webpage.

     

    As reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the company was registered on 23 August, 2014 with an authorised capital of Rs 130 crore. It invested in a start up venture known as Quintype, based in the San Francisco Bay Area with entrepreneur Amit Rathore as CEO and chief product officer. The website has been powered by Quintype offers cloud based solutions for editorial assignments as well publishing formats for mobile phones, tablets, desktop etc.

     

    Most of those in the news team include former staffers of Network 18, Bahl’s former company that was sold to Reliance Industries for Rs 700 crores. Former Web18 VP Roshan Tamang is the digital media consultant for the venture.