ITV

Tag: Times of India

  • Times Network announces Movies Now 2 launch

    Times Network announces Movies Now 2 launch

    MUMBAI: The Times of India has been hogging the media headlines over the past couple of days. Yesterday, courtesy its joint venture with Vice Media. Today, it announced that it is launching its fourth English movie channel christened Movies Now 2. The differentiator: Movies Now 2  will show films and content which will be targeted at the Indian youth. Viewers can expect a clutch of  new age/offbeat edgy indie and mainline movies to air  on the channel.  

    The Times Network has labelled Movies Now 2 as a channel with  a ‘rebellious’ personality, meaning it will be home to Hollywood’s wild content. .

     

    Click here to know more:

    Hollywood’s wildchild Movies Now 2 HD to launch by July end

     

     

  • Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    MUMBAI: So iconic youth brand Vice Media CEO Shane Smith is making good his commitment to enter the Indian market.

    Shane had told Indiantelevision.com in April this year that “India is one of the most important markets for Vice. What we needed was platform, capital, navigation of bureaucracy, waters of media. We went into China and it took us longer than it should have. For India we said if we went in our own, it would take a long time to get to the scale we needed to be. So we took our time looking at a bunch of joint venture partners.”

    Amongst them was Star India, Reliance and The Times of India group. And Smith and his team have finally decided on Vice’s Indian partner: it is the Times of India group, which runs TimesNow, ET Now, MagicBricks Now, Movies Now, Zoom and RomedyNow,

    Additionally, the prowess of the Vijay-Ajay Nair run OML also impressed him and Vice executive vice-president international & corporate development James Rosenstock. OML, has over the past year reportedly – according to sources in investor circles – also come into the Times of India fold with Paul Aiello and Rajesh Kamat of Emerald Media (and formerly CA Media), divesting their holding in favour of arguably India’s largest media firm.

    Vice Media is partnering with the Times of India group to launch and distribute its Viceland channel in India, apart from producing digital and online, mobile, and TV content. Shane made the announcement at the Cannes Lions Festival earlier today.

    The plan is to set up new production facilities – new studios in Mumbai – and to hire scores of journalists, film makers, editors et al to roll out the signature Vice content for the Indian market. Additionally, a core management team is to be put in place to keep a tab on content creation, keeping the local sensibilities in mind.

    What is not clear at the time of writing what OML’s role, if any, is going to be in Viceland and in content creation for Vice’s India foray. .

    But what’s exciting Shane and his company, which has attracted investment to the tune of $700 million from 21st Century Fox and Disney, is the rollout of 4G services in India.

    “The hottest thing is going to be growth of 4G in India, the mobile for young people. It’s not there now, but India has the youngest population. Cheaper smart phones from China and India. So we want to get in build our audience, make our mistakes. So that when traction hits, we are there,” says Shane.

    Details of the joint venture were not available at the time of writing. Shane says that the Indian foray is the company’s largest investment in a country overseas.

    According to media reports, the joint venture will also spawn Vice Media’s in-house creative agency as Virtue India, which will help deliver native and branded content to its swathe of advertising partners. Shane says that the creative agency is an important pivot of his India play. “It will help us offset some of our risk. Existing brands and new brands want us to produce content for them. We discuss brand strategy with them and speak and understand their language,” he explains. “And they love what we do.”

    Shane announced a clutch of other partnerships during the Cannes Lions Festival which would see the debut of Viceland across 51 different territories and countries worldwide.

    For West Asia and North Africa, Vice has signed on The Moby Group as its partner even as it is set to open local production offices in Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has got into bed with Econet Media in sub-Saharan Africa to roll out Viceland into 17 countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone by end-2017.

    It has lined up SBS Australia as its cohort for a free to air service for Aussie viewers, while Kiwis in New Zealand will be able to tune into Viceland as part of the basic tier on Sky. Vice Media has charged Singapore-based Multi Channels Asia with rolling out the channel into 18 territories in south east Asia with programming being developed by its in-house creative teams. The company’s home base – as is well known – is Canada and it has inked an agreement with GroupeV Media to launch Viceland in the French speaking part of the country.

    Shane and the Vice team sure know how to do things with a big bang. Now, the challenge for them will be to make the global push work and deliver both to the top line and the bottom line.

  • Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    MUMBAI: So iconic youth brand Vice Media CEO Shane Smith is making good his commitment to enter the Indian market.

    Shane had told Indiantelevision.com in April this year that “India is one of the most important markets for Vice. What we needed was platform, capital, navigation of bureaucracy, waters of media. We went into China and it took us longer than it should have. For India we said if we went in our own, it would take a long time to get to the scale we needed to be. So we took our time looking at a bunch of joint venture partners.”

    Amongst them was Star India, Reliance and The Times of India group. And Smith and his team have finally decided on Vice’s Indian partner: it is the Times of India group, which runs TimesNow, ET Now, MagicBricks Now, Movies Now, Zoom and RomedyNow,

    Additionally, the prowess of the Vijay-Ajay Nair run OML also impressed him and Vice executive vice-president international & corporate development James Rosenstock. OML, has over the past year reportedly – according to sources in investor circles – also come into the Times of India fold with Paul Aiello and Rajesh Kamat of Emerald Media (and formerly CA Media), divesting their holding in favour of arguably India’s largest media firm.

    Vice Media is partnering with the Times of India group to launch and distribute its Viceland channel in India, apart from producing digital and online, mobile, and TV content. Shane made the announcement at the Cannes Lions Festival earlier today.

    The plan is to set up new production facilities – new studios in Mumbai – and to hire scores of journalists, film makers, editors et al to roll out the signature Vice content for the Indian market. Additionally, a core management team is to be put in place to keep a tab on content creation, keeping the local sensibilities in mind.

    What is not clear at the time of writing what OML’s role, if any, is going to be in Viceland and in content creation for Vice’s India foray. .

    But what’s exciting Shane and his company, which has attracted investment to the tune of $700 million from 21st Century Fox and Disney, is the rollout of 4G services in India.

    “The hottest thing is going to be growth of 4G in India, the mobile for young people. It’s not there now, but India has the youngest population. Cheaper smart phones from China and India. So we want to get in build our audience, make our mistakes. So that when traction hits, we are there,” says Shane.

    Details of the joint venture were not available at the time of writing. Shane says that the Indian foray is the company’s largest investment in a country overseas.

    According to media reports, the joint venture will also spawn Vice Media’s in-house creative agency as Virtue India, which will help deliver native and branded content to its swathe of advertising partners. Shane says that the creative agency is an important pivot of his India play. “It will help us offset some of our risk. Existing brands and new brands want us to produce content for them. We discuss brand strategy with them and speak and understand their language,” he explains. “And they love what we do.”

    Shane announced a clutch of other partnerships during the Cannes Lions Festival which would see the debut of Viceland across 51 different territories and countries worldwide.

    For West Asia and North Africa, Vice has signed on The Moby Group as its partner even as it is set to open local production offices in Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has got into bed with Econet Media in sub-Saharan Africa to roll out Viceland into 17 countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone by end-2017.

    It has lined up SBS Australia as its cohort for a free to air service for Aussie viewers, while Kiwis in New Zealand will be able to tune into Viceland as part of the basic tier on Sky. Vice Media has charged Singapore-based Multi Channels Asia with rolling out the channel into 18 territories in south east Asia with programming being developed by its in-house creative teams. The company’s home base – as is well known – is Canada and it has inked an agreement with GroupeV Media to launch Viceland in the French speaking part of the country.

    Shane and the Vice team sure know how to do things with a big bang. Now, the challenge for them will be to make the global push work and deliver both to the top line and the bottom line.

  • Times Internet forays into content marketing with ‘Spotlight’

    Times Internet forays into content marketing with ‘Spotlight’

    MUMBAI: When conventional modes of communication are failing marketers, they are increasingly looking to reinvent the old formulas in a new light, content marketing being one of them. Not just the media and creative start-ups but digital media behemoths like Times Internet have invested in the content game. Times Internet has recently launched a one stop digital content solutions studio -‘Spotlight.’ With an aim to be strategic partners with brands, Spotlight will cater to branded content needs of the clients.

    “Spotlight will help marketers define their content strategy, create it and distribute it, not only on our platforms but across their own and others. We will also help them understand how to measure their return on their branded content efforts by helping them translate them into traditional marketing metrics. What makes Spotlight stand out will be its ability to create branded content not only in English, but 9 other Indian regional languages across 150 million users,” said Times Internet, CRO, Gulshan Verma.

    The company is banking on its massive reach in the country through multiple content based platforms like Times of India, Economic Times, NavBharat Times, iDiva Gaana, MagicBricks, and many more. Spotlight intends to tap into the interest graph of its client’s target audience and drive brand recall and preference through contextualizing reach.

    “It’s been on our mind for a while and we finally had a robust plan together and got all the experts we needed to start the process and we did! With some of the best minds in the business across genres it’s makes absolute sense to give the very best we have to offer to our clients. Neha Gupta, who comes from NDTV Convergence will be heading the operations at Spotlight and I’m positive she will do a stellar job,” he added.

    When it comes to production, Verma informed that Spotlight will produce a huge chunk of the content in-house backed by capabilities in terms of photos, videos and articles, while also exploring commissioning options as well. “We have our in-house team of experts with in-depth knowledge across industries who work with the brand to understand the key result areas and building content with them, and thereafter they ideate and create the final product with the production team, who have been specially brought in the Spotlight team. We provide end to end solutions,” he said.

    Though digital videos are often synonymous with short form content, Spotlight will explore a ‘bit of both.’ With an intention to go beyond engaging audience over snack-sized content, Verma shared that they don’t mind investing in long term projects that may give rise to an extended storyline or even a web series.

    “We would prefer to work with marketers on a comprehensive plan and sometimes that may involve building a long term story including a video web series, but also articles, questionnaires, photo shoots. As to whether it would be long or short form – it depends on what the goal is – initially, the focus for a marketer is to do bite size content that can be consumed quickly and spark interest, but as you draw audiences in, it could be taken forward. We even partner with our brands to create on the ground events such as the one we recently did with GE at the ET Health World launch where CEOs and decision makers in that space got together for an evening,” explained Verma.

    Since the video boom, advertisers are jumping on the content marketing bandwagon. However, more often than not they make one time small investment that doesn’t give them the promised result from the medium, which in turn affects the adopt-ability of the marketing form.

    When asked how Verma intends to handle this trend within advertisers, he shared, “It’s a complicated and tedious process to coordinate one activity for a marketer and get content producers, execution and promotion across to a large audience in one place today. The power of content marketing is being realized through increasing adoption of native advertising already. The slower adoption rate is a function of lack of content experts who can create meaningful and qualitative content on a large scale and engage mass audience within the defined TG. Most marketers need to connect with one unit for content and another for reach. Spotlight intends to bring every aspect of content marketing as a one stop creative powerhouse.”

    With its brand new content marketing arm, Times Internet plans to become an umbrella under which all types of brands can seek solutions, rather than taking the specialisation route.

    “In the Industry we can see the first movers being mostly consumer brands but education, finance and real estate are also getting into content space extensively. Times Internet can help you along every stage of the sales funnel. From creating awareness, to driving trials, to point of sale conversions and re-targeting loyal consumers. This makes Spotlight the partner of choice for most industry categories. We have the capability of combining content marketing with the desired impact at any stage of sales process,” Verma shared, adding that they already are in talks with several brands to sign deals.

  • Times Internet forays into content marketing with ‘Spotlight’

    Times Internet forays into content marketing with ‘Spotlight’

    MUMBAI: When conventional modes of communication are failing marketers, they are increasingly looking to reinvent the old formulas in a new light, content marketing being one of them. Not just the media and creative start-ups but digital media behemoths like Times Internet have invested in the content game. Times Internet has recently launched a one stop digital content solutions studio -‘Spotlight.’ With an aim to be strategic partners with brands, Spotlight will cater to branded content needs of the clients.

    “Spotlight will help marketers define their content strategy, create it and distribute it, not only on our platforms but across their own and others. We will also help them understand how to measure their return on their branded content efforts by helping them translate them into traditional marketing metrics. What makes Spotlight stand out will be its ability to create branded content not only in English, but 9 other Indian regional languages across 150 million users,” said Times Internet, CRO, Gulshan Verma.

    The company is banking on its massive reach in the country through multiple content based platforms like Times of India, Economic Times, NavBharat Times, iDiva Gaana, MagicBricks, and many more. Spotlight intends to tap into the interest graph of its client’s target audience and drive brand recall and preference through contextualizing reach.

    “It’s been on our mind for a while and we finally had a robust plan together and got all the experts we needed to start the process and we did! With some of the best minds in the business across genres it’s makes absolute sense to give the very best we have to offer to our clients. Neha Gupta, who comes from NDTV Convergence will be heading the operations at Spotlight and I’m positive she will do a stellar job,” he added.

    When it comes to production, Verma informed that Spotlight will produce a huge chunk of the content in-house backed by capabilities in terms of photos, videos and articles, while also exploring commissioning options as well. “We have our in-house team of experts with in-depth knowledge across industries who work with the brand to understand the key result areas and building content with them, and thereafter they ideate and create the final product with the production team, who have been specially brought in the Spotlight team. We provide end to end solutions,” he said.

    Though digital videos are often synonymous with short form content, Spotlight will explore a ‘bit of both.’ With an intention to go beyond engaging audience over snack-sized content, Verma shared that they don’t mind investing in long term projects that may give rise to an extended storyline or even a web series.

    “We would prefer to work with marketers on a comprehensive plan and sometimes that may involve building a long term story including a video web series, but also articles, questionnaires, photo shoots. As to whether it would be long or short form – it depends on what the goal is – initially, the focus for a marketer is to do bite size content that can be consumed quickly and spark interest, but as you draw audiences in, it could be taken forward. We even partner with our brands to create on the ground events such as the one we recently did with GE at the ET Health World launch where CEOs and decision makers in that space got together for an evening,” explained Verma.

    Since the video boom, advertisers are jumping on the content marketing bandwagon. However, more often than not they make one time small investment that doesn’t give them the promised result from the medium, which in turn affects the adopt-ability of the marketing form.

    When asked how Verma intends to handle this trend within advertisers, he shared, “It’s a complicated and tedious process to coordinate one activity for a marketer and get content producers, execution and promotion across to a large audience in one place today. The power of content marketing is being realized through increasing adoption of native advertising already. The slower adoption rate is a function of lack of content experts who can create meaningful and qualitative content on a large scale and engage mass audience within the defined TG. Most marketers need to connect with one unit for content and another for reach. Spotlight intends to bring every aspect of content marketing as a one stop creative powerhouse.”

    With its brand new content marketing arm, Times Internet plans to become an umbrella under which all types of brands can seek solutions, rather than taking the specialisation route.

    “In the Industry we can see the first movers being mostly consumer brands but education, finance and real estate are also getting into content space extensively. Times Internet can help you along every stage of the sales funnel. From creating awareness, to driving trials, to point of sale conversions and re-targeting loyal consumers. This makes Spotlight the partner of choice for most industry categories. We have the capability of combining content marketing with the desired impact at any stage of sales process,” Verma shared, adding that they already are in talks with several brands to sign deals.

  • Twitter introduces Times Twitter Impact List: Shah Rukh Khan is most influential Bollywood actor

    Twitter introduces Times Twitter Impact List: Shah Rukh Khan is most influential Bollywood actor

    MUMBAI:  For the first time, Twitter has come up with new matrix to judge the impact created on the social media platform based on engagement scores – and actor Shah Rukh Khan has emerged a clear winner.

    Twitter in partnership with Times of India has compiled lists of rank well-known politicians, Bollywood actors, TV actors, musicians, sport stars, and media brands based on their new measuring unit.

    “Over time, it becomes important to understand what impact these personalities have on their audience and what the true criterion on which their impact depends is. We thought it was important to put out the variety and the breadth of the creators and content producers on twitter who have the maximum impact on their lives,” said Twitter head of TV partnerships – India Viral Jani, adding that the list has been compiled based on absolutely organic reach and does not take into account any paid engagement.

    Since its inception, Twitter has been a powerful platform and tool to gauge popular opinion, breaking news and bridging the gap between celebrities and popular personalities and their fans or start a social campaign. The number of followers any personality has always becomes the benchmark for their importance on the platform and their level of influence.

    “We created a new index by measuring the engagement coming from an handle based on the number of replies, re-tweets and favourites the handle’s content gets and aggregating that into an impact score. It is the true extent of how much impact the person have on the platform, how viral their content gets, and their impact beyond twitter as several media organizations follow Twitter closely and report from information available on the platform, what is noticed in twitter travels to television, print and other digital platforms as well,” Jani added.

    Going by the new Times Twitter Impact List that has been compiled for the year of 2015, Amitabh Bachchan is the Bollywood actor with the most number of followers but it is Shah Rukh Khan who rules the platform when it comes to engagement and impact, Actor Aamir Khan does not even feature in the top ten lists. Similarly the Quantico starrer Priyanka Chopra emerged as the Bollywood female actress with the most impact on her audience.

    “It doesn’t necessarily mean that if one has a higher number of followers they also command the most amount of impact on their audience. The focus is on how they engage with their audience, how they keep them interactive to their profiles, etc,” Jani pointed out.

    Among Television personalities, actor-comedian Kapil Sharma and actor-dancer Gauhar Khan steal the show.

    When it comes to most influential politicians on Twitter, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tops the list, followed by Subramaniam Swamy and Arvind Kejriwal. The most impactful business leaders are Mahindra Group’s chairman and MD, Anand Mahindra followed by Colors TV CEO Raj Nayak.

    In sports, Sachin Tendulkar is the undisputed king of engagements among men, while Sania Mirza tops the list among women.

    Based on the growing importance given to measurability of one’s social media influence, Twitter’s new ‘Impact Index’ may become the new currency to quantify virality, which makes the measurement and the list far more powerful for brands to map their social media presence. Brand managers and advertisers are sure to keep an eye on the lists as well.

    Asked if Twitter is considering partnering with brands to share their impact scores with them, Jani said, “The key differentiator for this list is that it is meant for our users and the consumer. We may consider it if we want to get into the brand space later, but for now the lists are strictly consumer facing.”

    Twitter is considering to add few more categories of lists the the current few depending on the reception of this new initiative.

    Lists:

    Bollywood Male Actors

    Bollywood Female Actors

    Directors

    Music Artists

    Indian Politicians

    Cricketers and Other Sports personalities

    Business Leaders

    TV Male and Female personalities

    TV channels

  • Twitter introduces Times Twitter Impact List: Shah Rukh Khan is most influential Bollywood actor

    Twitter introduces Times Twitter Impact List: Shah Rukh Khan is most influential Bollywood actor

    MUMBAI:  For the first time, Twitter has come up with new matrix to judge the impact created on the social media platform based on engagement scores – and actor Shah Rukh Khan has emerged a clear winner.

    Twitter in partnership with Times of India has compiled lists of rank well-known politicians, Bollywood actors, TV actors, musicians, sport stars, and media brands based on their new measuring unit.

    “Over time, it becomes important to understand what impact these personalities have on their audience and what the true criterion on which their impact depends is. We thought it was important to put out the variety and the breadth of the creators and content producers on twitter who have the maximum impact on their lives,” said Twitter head of TV partnerships – India Viral Jani, adding that the list has been compiled based on absolutely organic reach and does not take into account any paid engagement.

    Since its inception, Twitter has been a powerful platform and tool to gauge popular opinion, breaking news and bridging the gap between celebrities and popular personalities and their fans or start a social campaign. The number of followers any personality has always becomes the benchmark for their importance on the platform and their level of influence.

    “We created a new index by measuring the engagement coming from an handle based on the number of replies, re-tweets and favourites the handle’s content gets and aggregating that into an impact score. It is the true extent of how much impact the person have on the platform, how viral their content gets, and their impact beyond twitter as several media organizations follow Twitter closely and report from information available on the platform, what is noticed in twitter travels to television, print and other digital platforms as well,” Jani added.

    Going by the new Times Twitter Impact List that has been compiled for the year of 2015, Amitabh Bachchan is the Bollywood actor with the most number of followers but it is Shah Rukh Khan who rules the platform when it comes to engagement and impact, Actor Aamir Khan does not even feature in the top ten lists. Similarly the Quantico starrer Priyanka Chopra emerged as the Bollywood female actress with the most impact on her audience.

    “It doesn’t necessarily mean that if one has a higher number of followers they also command the most amount of impact on their audience. The focus is on how they engage with their audience, how they keep them interactive to their profiles, etc,” Jani pointed out.

    Among Television personalities, actor-comedian Kapil Sharma and actor-dancer Gauhar Khan steal the show.

    When it comes to most influential politicians on Twitter, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tops the list, followed by Subramaniam Swamy and Arvind Kejriwal. The most impactful business leaders are Mahindra Group’s chairman and MD, Anand Mahindra followed by Colors TV CEO Raj Nayak.

    In sports, Sachin Tendulkar is the undisputed king of engagements among men, while Sania Mirza tops the list among women.

    Based on the growing importance given to measurability of one’s social media influence, Twitter’s new ‘Impact Index’ may become the new currency to quantify virality, which makes the measurement and the list far more powerful for brands to map their social media presence. Brand managers and advertisers are sure to keep an eye on the lists as well.

    Asked if Twitter is considering partnering with brands to share their impact scores with them, Jani said, “The key differentiator for this list is that it is meant for our users and the consumer. We may consider it if we want to get into the brand space later, but for now the lists are strictly consumer facing.”

    Twitter is considering to add few more categories of lists the the current few depending on the reception of this new initiative.

    Lists:

    Bollywood Male Actors

    Bollywood Female Actors

    Directors

    Music Artists

    Indian Politicians

    Cricketers and Other Sports personalities

    Business Leaders

    TV Male and Female personalities

    TV channels

  • BARC India issues notice to Raj TV

    BARC India issues notice to Raj TV

    MUMBAI: The Tamil Nadu based satellite television network Raj TV has been issued a legal notice by audience measurement body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India. As per media reports, in the show cause notice BARC alleged that certain ‘sample’ homes with BARC meters “have been approached and have been asked to watch your channel “Raj TV”, against payment of consideration.”

    “The network, in order to garner higher ratings, was perusing households with the meter boxes to tune in to its channels. BARC found this as a criminal offense and hence have issued a legal notice to the broadcaster,”a source close to the development informed. 

    However M Ragunathan, director of marketing at Raj Television Network termed the allegations as ‘baseless’ he told Times Of India, “Somebody has made a false complaint. We are meeting BARC over the same,” he said.

  • BARC India issues notice to Raj TV

    BARC India issues notice to Raj TV

    MUMBAI: The Tamil Nadu based satellite television network Raj TV has been issued a legal notice by audience measurement body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India. As per media reports, in the show cause notice BARC alleged that certain ‘sample’ homes with BARC meters “have been approached and have been asked to watch your channel “Raj TV”, against payment of consideration.”

    “The network, in order to garner higher ratings, was perusing households with the meter boxes to tune in to its channels. BARC found this as a criminal offense and hence have issued a legal notice to the broadcaster,”a source close to the development informed. 

    However M Ragunathan, director of marketing at Raj Television Network termed the allegations as ‘baseless’ he told Times Of India, “Somebody has made a false complaint. We are meeting BARC over the same,” he said.

  • Times Internet acquires Willow TV International to live broadcast ICC World Twenty20 in the US

    Times Internet acquires Willow TV International to live broadcast ICC World Twenty20 in the US

    MUMBAI: Times Internet, the digital arm of The Times of India Group, has acquired Willow TV International. Expanding the ICC tournament’s reach beyond the traditional and expensive pay-per-view distribution method, Willow will provide an exclusive live US television broadcast and live stream of the ICC World Twenty20.

    This will be the first time an ICC tournament will be available on a US television broadcast channel.Willow TV is one of the leading cricket broadcasters in the US.

    Willow is the only channel that is dedicated to cricket in the US, with an aligned direct-to-consumer digital service.

    Times Internet director Satyan Gajwani says, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Willow to The Times Group. Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world, and has the potential to become a major sport in the US. We are excited to expand and strengthen our offerings for South Asians living in the US and to grow interest in cricket across the US, both with loyal fans and new consumers”.

    The channel and its associated TV Everywhere service is widely distributed by the largest satellite, cable, IPTV and OTT platforms in a variety of subscription packages, including sports packs and South Asian targeted packages. 

    On the other hand, Cricbuzz will exclusively deliver pre-match, in-match, and post-match highlights and coverage of the entire tournament to its US based digital audiences.

    “As a bootstrapped company, we launched the Willow cricket channel just over 5 years ago, and we are extremely proud of where it has reached. With the backing of The Times of India Group and its assets, I am confident that we can jointly build one of the premier sports businesses in the US”, adds Willow TV founder and CEO Vijay Srinivasan.

    For Times Internet, Willow is complementary with its recent acquisition of Cricbuzz, the world’s largest online cricket destination. During the ICC World Cup 2015, Cricbuzz claims to have 1 billion visits in a span of 40 days with 96 percent available on mobile.

    Between Willow, Cricbuzz, and Times of India’s digital assets, the group estimates to reach about 15 million Americans with an interest in cricket. Willow is the first international acquisition by Times Internet, and the first US acquisition for The Times of India Group.

    The channel is available on 7 of the top 10 pay television platforms in the US, and also plans many more launches currently in the pipeline.