ITV

Tag: Times now

  • Romedy Now’s yellow spreads sunshine

    Romedy Now’s yellow spreads sunshine

    MUMBAI: The latest addition to the existing bouquet of English entertainment channels is Romedy Now; launched by the Times Television Network (TTN) just yesterday.

    Despite being the Times Network’s fourth offering after Times Now, ET Now and Movies Now, Romedy Now is unique in terms of its logo and packaging as well as what it stands for.

    For a channel that summarises ‘love and laughter’, the logo is apt – a deep sunshine yellow; a colour that would appeal to both male and female audiences.

    London-based digital agency Weareseventeen that has done the entire packaging of the new entrant claims a lot of thought went into designing the logo. “The tone we wanted to convey was not specific to any genre, but rather just a positive and upbeat feel,” says creative director Stephen Simmonds. The logotype aims at a balance between sophistication and legibility, with subtle playfulness.

    English Entertainment Channels CEO (TTN) Ajay Trigunayat too is happy with what the agency has created for them. “Our colour signifies cheerfulness. It’s got a lot of joy and happiness in it,” he says. The OSP (on screen presentation) has been created in such a way that every time a viewer tunes in, he/she will be met with depth and sophistication.

    It was around May this year that TTN took its idea to Weareseventeen, leaving it to them to create a package for Romedy Now. In the course of a study the agency undertook, they found that movies with romance and laughter usually have a man and woman meeting and then parting ways due to differences, but ultimately join again. They used this to create the on-air package. “This core theme of 'coming together' would influence our entire on-air system, with tune-in type and backgrounds joining together in every OSP item,” says Weareseventeen strategic director George Alexander.

    The two sides put their heads together to try out new innovative ideas for the OSP. “The extensiveness of the OSP kit is also unique with top line tune-in versioning being built into the package as opposed to versioned after delivery,” adds Simmonds.

    The project was helmed by a core team of six people comprising the creative director, strategic director, design director, senior designer, animator and executive producer. Other members included 2D and 3D animators and producers. Neon TV assisted as the VFX provider for the post-production of the idents while music and sound designing was done by Boys of Toys Audio.
    George Alexander and Stephen Simmonds have applied their creative liberty to Romedy Now

    “We essentially wanted Romedy Now to have its own contemporary take on gloss and glamour, leading the field when it comes to sophisticated and innovative on-air design,” says Alexander, adding that the newbie is ready to experiment with new ways of delivering on-screen information.

    While the channel with its distinctive yellow stands out from its sister channels with their generous splash of red, it remains to be seen whether it will connect with people the way it claims to…

  • When Arnab vanished, almost

    When Arnab vanished, almost

    What happens when the nation’s most vociferous, most articulate news show anchor goes missing? Well, the nation goes into overdrive, demanding to know the whereabouts of the host it has come to love, or hate, as the case may be.

     

    We’re talking about Arnab Goswami, Times Now Editor-in-Chief and presenter of The Newshour, one of the most widely-watched and debated shows on the channel. Goswami’s disappearing act last week, though brief, was enough to set off a cacophony of telephones ringing at the Times Now office. And much like Arnab’s familiar rant on the show ‘The Nation wants to know’, viewers wanted to know where in God’s name was Arnab?

     

    Unable to deal with so many telephone calls, The Newshour even put out a tweet saying: “Our viewers have been asking about Arnab. To them, we would like to say that he will be back on Monday at 9pm on show again”. However, the calls continued unabated. A Times Now employee described the number of calls and emails inquiring whether Arnab had taken ill as ‘astonishing’ and that “Only celebrities get such calls, don’t they?”

     

    ________________________________________________________________________

    Forget the cold vibes between BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and the party’s tallest leader LK Advani, it was Arnab who was the topic on social media.
    _____****________________________________________________________________

    The twitterati took to their favourite website with a vengeance, sending out both love and hate tweets for the man who loves to play devil’s advocate on The Newshour. Some went on to draw parallels between Arnab’s absence from The Newshour with that of say a Salman Khan from Bigg Boss or Amitabh Bachchan from KBC. Others made unfavourable comparisons with other news anchors in tweets like: “Barkha Dutt to undergo a face implant to look like Arnab Goswami to boost NDTV TRPs” and even derided tongue-tied panellists as: “Panellists on The Newshour speechless as they’re used to speaking for just 10 seconds with Arnab around…”.

     

    Still others heaved a sigh of relief as “they could finally turn up the volume of their television sets rather than turn down.” Forget the cold vibes between BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and the party’s tallest leader LK Advani, it was Arnab who was the topic on social media. So with such an iconic presence missing, did the channel lose out on TRPs or did other news channels make most of the opportunity. Only next week will tell… that is when the TAM ratings are out…

     

    The collective impact of regulation and the creeping tyranny of the minority have stifled innovation in our industry and, dare I say, in the economy as whole. At 15 per cent, we may grow at thrice the rate of the GDP but that is more a reflection of our topline economic growth than the health of our industry. At this rate, it will take us another 15 years to hit $100 billion in value and by then, we will be just three per cent of the world media market. This is just unacceptable.

     

    Till then, both those who love and hate Arnab can sit back and watch his shenanigans as he returns today same time same show on your favourite news channel…

  • News X strengthening its editorial team

    News X strengthening its editorial team

    MUMBAI: Well known anchor on Headlines Today, Rahul Shivshankar, is packing his bags back to his favourite news channel – News X – with a mission in mind. From 2 September, he will be seen as managing editor with the channel and will be hosting the primetime show. Diptosh Majumdar, former National affairs editor with DNA, also joins the team in the same capacity. Majumdar will be reporting to Shivshankar while Shivshankar will report to Karthik Sharma, the owner of the channel.

     

    Shivshankar has years of experience. He was associated with News X as editorial director for a year between February 2011 and 2012 and six years with Times Now before that. He was also one of the members of the core team that launched Headlines in 2003. “I am emotionally involved with News X and my plan is to consolidate and give the channel a new direction and focus, which I have successfully done for Headlines Today as well,” says Shivshankar. He will be filling a vacant position.

        
    Majumdar has been political affairs editor with CNN-IBN and editorial director with News X in 2010 after which he left for DNA and now he’s back with News X. Recently, News X was acquired by India News. Financial constraints at the channel had led to Shivshankar leaving for Headlines but now since it seems stable he is back with it. One of the things Shivshankar plans to do is build the weekend news programming. This is one affinity to a channel!

     

    Three months ago, Priya Sehgal joined them as political editor from India Today magazine.

     

    When the whole industry seems to be laying people off, News X seems to be doing the opposite. More people are expected to join the channel in the coming months.

  • Anupam Kher to anchor The Power of Shunya – Quest for Zero! on Times Now

    Anupam Kher to anchor The Power of Shunya – Quest for Zero! on Times Now

    NEW DELHI: Times Now has linked up with DuPont for the series Power of Shunya – Quest for Zero which commenced telecast over the weekend.

     

    This path breaking show is being anchored by the much celebrated Padma Shri awardee Anupam Kher. The series will examine the critical challenges facing a growing India, and showcase the various companies, individuals who have done pioneering work to find practical science based solutions for the same.

     

    The Power of Shunya: Quest for Zero is telecast on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. and repeated on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

     

    In its journey across 16 episodes, the Power of Shunya will explore among various disciplines sustainable science based solutions to core issues plaguing a growing economy like A quest to feed a growing population with zero hungry mouths, a quest to build a new infrastructure with zero construction casualties, a quest to provide electricity to villages with a zero carbon footprint and a quest for zero nutrition deficiency while showcasing companies and everyday individuals who are in their own way striving to unlock the power of zero to deliver maximum growth at zero impact.

     

    Speaking on the initiative DuPont South Asia and ASEAN president Rajeev A Vaidya stated, “At DuPont India, we identify with this powerful idea; it is very close to DuPont’s philosophy that the way to make progress against a goal . . . a safer workplace, for example . . . is to embrace a commitment to zero workplace accidents. The Power of Shunya expresses both that commitment and our ambitions as a company to help find collaborative, science-powered solutions tailored to India’s unique challenges. We are delighted to be partnering with Times Now to showcase companies and individuals epitomising the spirit of Indian ingenuity that is already making a difference to the lives of millions of Indians every day and for generations into the future.”

     

    Speaking on his association, Kher stated “I personally believe that Shunya is the most powerful number. I have constantly gone back to ground zero and reinvented myself. To innovate you have to constantly unlearn and infuse new energy and thinking. I am excited to be a part of this path breaking initiative as I believe that scientific solutions showcased in the show truly have the power to solve India’s problems.”

     

    Speaking on the launch of the series Times Now, ET Now and Zoom CEO Avinash Kaul said “Times Television Network is proud to collaborate with DuPont on this quest. At Times Television Network we consistently strive to bring differentiated content to the viewers and the Power of Shunya series is a glowing example of it. The series is backed with extensive research and high production standards and has been meticulously put together in a slick format giving it a very international appeal.”

     

    Times Now, ET Now and Zoom business head branded content Hemant Arora, added: “The journey of making Project Shunya a reality has been simply fantastic. DuPont and Ogilvy entertainment teams brought unmatched passion to the table and that drove us to create something that would stand the test of any world class benchmark in terms of content as well as the desired impact.”

     

    Each episode will outline the key challenges through three unique case studies. The focus will be on devising sustainable solutions and will reiterate the problem that requires to be addressed, the power of science and innovation in addressing the challenge and the impact of these innovations on companies, individuals and Indian society.

  • Amagi raises Rs 31.25 crore from Mayfield Fund

    Amagi raises Rs 31.25 crore from Mayfield Fund

    BENGALURU: Targeted TV ad network Amagi Media Labs (Amagi) has raised Rs 31.25 crore from Mayfield Fund and its existing investor Nadathur Investments. Mayfield India‘s Vikram Godse would be joining the board of directors at Amagi.

    Amagi had earlier raised Rs 37.5 crore from Nadathur Investments. With this new investment, Amagi has raised a total capital of Rs 69.25 crore from investors till date. The company intends to use these funds to invest in its R&D and expand its presence in India as well as international markets. Amagi was recently adjudged the second fastest growing tech company in India by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

    “We have grown by over 4500 per cent in the last four years and we are looking at accelerating this growth with the new investments,” said Amagi co-founder S Baskar to indiantelevision.com.

    The company plans to buy some exciting inventory from channels in India. Its Indian broadcast partners include Times Now, India TV, CNBC Awaz, IBN7, UTV Movies, Maa, Zoom and Udaya Movies and Udaya Music. Its DTH partner is Tata Sky.

    “Internationally, Amagi is already present through partnerships and dealerships in the US, UK, Europe, South America and Singapore. We have already gone live on two television networks in Singapore. We want to expand our growth globally,” added Baskar.

    Amagi enables advertisers to target their spends effectively on TV. With Amagi, brands can advertise in select cities or regions on pan-India TV channels. For example, an advertiser can target only Mumbai or only Gujarat on a national TV channel at a fraction of the national rate. This is similar to ‘split runs‘ on print media – while brand A ad runs in Gujarat, brand B can advertise in Punjab on the same channel at the same time using Amagi platform.

    Also read:

    ‘TV is the only medium that does not have geographic targeting for advertisers‘

    Amagi Media Labs ropes in LS Krishnan

    Amagi reaches for the cloud at IBC 2012

  • BARC appoints Partho Dasgupta as CEO

    BARC appoints Partho Dasgupta as CEO

    Mumbai: It has been in the making for around three years now. But the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) – the Indian media sector‘s riposte to the government‘s irritation with ratings agency TAM – finally seems to be gathering some momentum. It today announced the appointment of Partho Dasgupta as its first chief executive officer.

    The announcement was made by BARC chairman and Zee MD and CEO Punit Goenka. He said: “We are delighted to have Partho on board. BARC is moving ahead aggressively with its plans. Partho has an excellent background in leadership, in successful start-ups, in broadcast, in research, in consumer products and in other industries. He will help us put the organisation in place and roll out BARC’s services in a tight time frame.”

    On his appointment Dasgupta said, “The foot is on the pedal – we have to just start accelerating. On a serious note, I am happy to do another start-up in broadcast and media. The Board is full of friends from the industry and I am looking forward to working with them and make BARC happen.”

    A general management professional having experience in diverse consumer industries and media management experience in print, television and out of home.

    A keen observer of consumer and media trends, Dasgupta is now in the leadership team of Educomp,an education company. His career has been in media and consumer industries where he did large and small startup media projects.

    He also had an entrepreneurial stint where he cofounded a media company. He also advised media startups and venture firms and their invested companies on brand strategies earlier.

    Dasgupta has led startup teams and management teams of Times Now, Future Media, The Economic Times and Times Multimedia.

    IPG Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha is the chairman of the technical committee of BARC.

    BARC was officially launched in March 2012. It aims to set up a transparent and credible television audience measurement system in India, which is expected to give out its first report by March 2014.

    It would be the umbrella body and television audience measurement service providers like TAM Media Research, a joint venture of Nielsen and Kantar, will function under it for the purpose of providing ratings.

    BARC is 60 per cent owned by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and 20 per cent each by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA).

  • Rajit Desai joins Mindshare as partner – consulting

    Mumbai: Mindshare has strengthened its consulting and analytics discipline in the west with the appointment of Rajit Desai as partner – mindshare consulting.

    In his new role, Desai will actively contribute towards developing and restructuring Mindshare‘s business consulting offering for clients in west region.

    He will be reporting to the Mindshare consulting and analytics head of practice Sandeep Pandey.

    In his last stint, Desai served as the VP and head of Lab center (research and strategy hub) at Lodestar UM.

    Pandey said, “Our nature of work requires people from strong consulting and business strategy profile and Rajit has a combination of both. It is part of our larger talent restructuring within consulting discipline and you will hear soon about many senior profiles joining from different industries.”

    Desai said, “This exciting role is a logical next step for me. I see this as a big opportunity and I look forward to help address client‘s marketing and business problems and grow the practice along with the high quality team at Mindshare.”

    Having worked in the marketing vertical and as media consultant for various companies like HTA, Sony, Times Now, Loadstar, Media e2e and Turner Broadcasting, Desai comes with 16 years of work experience in the media function.

  • Times Now ups ad rates amidst slowdown

    MUMBAI: English news channel Times Now has taken up the challenge of upping its ad rates when the advertising economy is in the midst of a slowdown. Buoyed by ratings, the channel has hiked ad rates by 30 per cent across all time bands and its prime time 9 pm property ‘News Hour‘, anchored by Arnab Goswami, by 50 per cent.

    Times Now, ET Now and zoOm CEO Avinash Kaul explains the rationale behind the move. “Times Now has had a high base of loyal viewers through its focus on hard-hitting and incisive news analysis. We continue to reign supreme in the English news genre for the 5th consecutive year and look forward to setting higher benchmarks for ourselves and for the industry. With our ever-increasing viewership share, we are positive that Times Now will always be the primary choice for the advertisers,” he says.

    But how much does Times Now charge advertisers? “The channel charges Rs 3000 to Rs 3500 on an average for a 10 second spot and Rs 20,000 for News Hour,” says Times Now, ET Now and Zoom chief sales officer Hemant Arora.

    Media buyers are not too sure that the revised rates would succeed. Several senior executives Indiantelevision.com spoke to believed that the targets were too aggressive without taking into account the ground reality.

    Platinum Media CEO Basabdutta Chowdhury offered a mixed reaction. “News Hour, going by its popularity and perception, may be able to attract the rates the channel is targeting. It is a case of demand and supply and in this case, the demand is there. But when it comes to the average rate increase by 30 per cent, I am not so sure. Considering the current economic climate, the advertisers may be reluctant to pay extra.”

    Kaul believes this is a calculated move. “We have not revised our ad rates in a long time. We are only correcting the rates. When it comes to increasing the rates, there is never a ‘good’ time, but one has to make a start. We have just come out of a bad (economic) year and the budget looks optimistic. We expect the year to be better and hope to capitalise on the good sentiment.”

    News broadcasters, who are struggling to post modest ad revenue growth, consider this as a bold move. “While the ad rates are the purview of individual news channels, it is a fact that they have been undervalued until now. It has been the effort of news broadcasters to increase the ad rates on their channels. I believe it is a bold move on the part of Times Now and we need to wait and watch how it pans out for them. It is not going to be easy,” says the chief executive officer of a rival network.

  • Times Now and Zoom launch in Canada on Cogeco

    Times Now and Zoom launch in Canada on Cogeco

    MUMBAI: Times Television Network (TTN) Tuesday said it has launched Times Now and Zoom in Canada on Cogeco Cable to take the international reach of the two channels to 45 countries across four continents.

    TTN will be extending its international presence further this year with its launch in Europe.

    With a mix of localised marketing and programming events in respective international markets, TTN aims to strengthen connect with the Indian diaspora.

    TTN MD and CEO Sunil Lulla said, "Times Television Network has found great resonance with the viewers from the Indian Diaspora. Despite having launched only quite recently in some of the markets, the brands have gained the same stature and respect as they have here. We expect to penetrate more geographies shortly."

    TTN is also in discussion with other content owners and broadcasters in India and South Asia for alliances that will see TTN taking its content and channels to other markets.

  • Marketers should understand the principles of guerilla marketing: Gibson

    Marketers should understand the principles of guerilla marketing: Gibson

    MUMBAI: Indian marketers have started adopting the “Guerrilla social media marketing”, an unconventional marketing strategy intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. It is about achieving conventional goals by unconventional means. Instead of investing huge sums of money, people and time, it uses innovation, information, creativity and community to succeed. Social media is often referred to as a guerrilla media, but that‘s only true if the people and their organisations understand the principles and processes of guerilla social media marketing. These were the thoughts shared by International speaker and author Shane Gibson, while his keynote at the World Brand Congress (WBC) 2011 that began here today.

    “Building community helps messages go viral over social media. However it is a messy media and people are looking for us to be authentic and engaging. The companies should have the ability to run marathon to stay in the game. Social media is an earned media. Many people want to know you. One should build a community so that people can talk to each other, share thoughts and practices. Social media marketing is about listening to what consumers say. It is a real time feedback. You need to know your customer, discover them. By listening and monitoring customer, you get to know more about them,” he said.

    “Its time to nano-cast through Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups and sub-group for B2B markets, offline events and seminars, Webinars and podcasts, #tags and Twitter lists, one-to-one dialogue and fusion partnership,” he added further.

    Later, there was a panel discussion on ‘Application of guerrilla marketing in businesses‘ with speakers- Nita Kapoor (EVP-marketing and corporate affairs, Godfrey Philips India), Sandeep Sharma (Sr VP -marketing and sales, Times Now and ET Now), Sanjeev Kotnala (VP-brand communication and national head, Dainik Bhaskar Group), Neeraj Sanan (EVP-marketing and distribution, Media Content and Communications Services) and Rohan Vaidya (GM-strategic sales, Wipro Infotech).

    Kapoor emphasised on three key points – firstly, culture of social media, language, and interface, all is guerrilla. Secondly, one can deliver messages of integration with social media and third, today there are very good measurements to be able to track your target group, activities and responses on social media. “Organisations in India must look at these perspectives. One has to understand that social media is media, it can‘t take over your brand strategy, distribution strategy and production strategy,” she averred. 
     
    Kotanala, meanwhile, felt that none of the media can work in isolation. He said, “There should always be a right mix of media to deliver the message to the audience. There is a lot that can be done on social media but there has not been enough education about it.”

    However, for Sanan, social marketing is a complement and not a substitute to marketing. “It is far more a PR tool than an advertising tool”, he said.

    Kapoor also feels that when a brand has to address the regional audience, it has to go regional way, engage them in their own language.

    Sharing his views on social media, Sharma said, “Social media is big. You should be there all the time.”