ITV

Tag: TV

  • Tele-wise Bangla to bring together top names from media and advertising

    KOLKATA: Several players including big broadcasters have a strong presence in the West Bengal market. Zee Entertainment and Star TV Network were among the fast movers in the Bengali entertainment industry, followed by Sony, Viacom18, and Sun TV. Over the years, the market has grown to be one of the most important ones for those planning to expand their national footprint.

    The increase of original content, viewership, and advertisers also led the industry to turn its eyes towards the market. Several local brands, pan-India advertisers also began investing in the market. Even amid the pandemic, Bengali GEC and Bengali News continued to contribute three per cent of total volumes each in 2020. Regional growth is here to stay, at least for some time now.

    This Tuesday, 29 June, Indiantelevision.com is all set to bring together some of the industry’s biggest names from the world of advertising, advertising, broadcasting, and production to understand the potential of the market. The leading b2b publication will host the inaugural edition of Tele-Wise Bangla, presented by Zee Bangla.

    The day-long virtual summit will open with a welcome note by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari. BARC India client partnership and revenue function head Aaditya Pathak will share insights on the viewership trends in the market. Kantar Insights Division director Puneet Avasthi will give a glimpse into the consumer profile in West Bengal.

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    In the session ‘Gauging the Might of the market’, representatives from Big Bazar, Godrej, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, Shyam Steel, Wavemaker India will discuss questions like what are the opportunities leveraged by brands on Bengali channels, how different are the approaches to strike a chord with Bengali audience, what are the most lucrative genres to invest in along with many other pertinent issues.

    As the regionalisation of TV channels has made it easier for the local brands to reach a specific audience, advertising spends on the channels have also risen. Leaders from Rollick Ice Cream, Ajanta Shoes, Initiative Media, Keya Seth Aromatherapy will deliberate on the growth of media spends in the last few years, challenges post-Covid, media spend ratio of local to national brands in the session ‘New Bastions for Growth’.

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    From a content perspective, the market has always seen progressive shows and experimentation with new concepts. With more formats of content now available, the audience has grown to accept content that is pushing the boundary of creativity. The panel will focus on the evolving content consumption trends, innovations, content investment in the West Bengal market in presence of spokespersons from Zee Bangla, Colors Bangla, Shashi Sumeet Productions, Acropolis Entertainment.

    To register: https://www.indiantelevision.com/events/telewise-bangla/

    The virtual event will begin at 3:00 pm on 29 June and will be live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. 

    Join us for an insightful discussion! 

  • ZEE Media to launch Season 2 of Real Heroes with Sonu Sood & Kailash Kher

    New Delhi : ZEE Media has announced Season two of its successful IP – Real Heroes. The first season was launched last year by ZEE Media where it brought actor Sonu Sood at the forefront along with other real heroes from across the nation who were inspired by his work and were going out of their way to help the society to get through the challenges of this pandemic.

    This 26 and 27 June, major channels of ZEE Media that includes ZEE Hindustan, ZEE 24 Ghanta, ZEE Rajasthan, ZEE Bihar Jharkhand, and ZEE Odisha will launch Season two of Real Heroes with a panel of actor Sonu Sood, Singer Kailash Kher, local celebrities and the corona warriors from across states to discuss their drive and inspiration to help people in need and to recognize their selfless efforts towards the society.

    ZEE Media, CEO, Purushottam Vaishnava said, “Real Heroes is a very special initiative by ZEE Media and is very close to the values of the organization. We believe that media being the fourth pillar of democracy has an important role in the betterment of society and hence the Real Heroes Season 2 will be way beyond the daily news bulletin as it will educate, inspire and motivate the viewers to deal with the pandemic with a positive attitude and empathy which are much needed in the current situation of uncertainty and chaos.”

    ZEE Media, CRO, Manoj Jagyasi said, “We started Real Heroes last year with a simple thought of bringing light to the great work by the heroes of society during pandemic. But due to such great response from viewers we had to bring Season 2. Along with an engaging content we also had multiple ways to integrate our clients and we are extremely thankful to all our clients for believing in this initiative.”

  • Viacom18 and Zeel eyeing a merger?

    New Delhi: It’s the season for mergers. Following in the footsteps of  big media mergers globally, two entertainment giants back home- Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) are now reportedly looking to join hands to create a large firm, according to an unconfirmed news item in Mint on Monday.

    If  the reports are to be believed, the owner of the GEC Colors, Viacom18, and Subhash Chandra’s Zeel have initiated talks of a potential merger. It is too early to say, but, if the deal fructifies, the combined entity will end up owning and managing the largest number of TV channels in India, and probably globally. The combined media firm’s interest will span across broadcast, OTT, live entertainment, and movie production.

    However, it is not the first time that such talks of coagulating companies in the television business have floated. The buzz has been proven to be unfounded in the past.

    Last year,  similar talks of a  merger  between Viacom18 and Sony Pictures Network fell apart, after the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd pushed for a majority stake in the combined entity as well. RIL owns a majority stake in Viacom18, which is a joint venture between TV18 Broadcast Ltd and US-based ViacomCBS Inc. While Network18 owns a 51 per cent stake in Viacom 18, Viacom holds the remaining 49 per cent.

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd was founded by Essel Group’s Subhash Chandra and is majority-owned by foreign institutional investors – Investco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund and Ofi Global Fund China LLC. The company is run by Chandra’s son and CEO & managing director Punit Goenka.

    A Zeel spokesperson refused to confirm or deny the speculative news item. Said a Zeel corporate official:  “The company does not comment on speculation and rumours.” 

  • ALTBalaji subscription up by 42% y-o-y in FY21

    KOLKATA: ALTBalaji seems to be driving the growth of Balaji Telefilms with a 42 per cent growth in subscriptions for FY21. The platform sold a total of 4.7 million subscriptions for the year, compared to Rs 3.4 million in FY20.

    Despite the speedy growth of ALTBalaji, overall financial performance for the year was impacted by the pandemic-led restrictions on the TV and movie business. Balaji Telefilms’ consolidated revenue stood at Rs 293.7 crore for FY21, compared to Rs 573.6 crore. TV business returned to more normal production in Q4 With 223 hours content produced in the quarter, the company stated in a statement.

    Four shows were on air during the quarter. Hourly realizations remained soft at Rs 30 lakh per hour and it is expected to remain soft as broadcasters continue to assess Covid 19 impact, the company stated.

    “ALTBalaji continues to drive subscription growth and we added 4.7m subscriptions during the year, the highest since our launch four years ago. We have also done strategic content-sharing deals with two large OTT players to drive creative synergies. We will continue to see strong subscriber additions with over 40 shows greenlit,” Balaji Telefilms managing director Shobha Kapoor said.

    “After the initial setback in the first half of FY21 our TV business has shown good recovery in terms of production hours and we hope to maintain this momentum. In the movie business, production for some of the exciting projects are at various stages of completion. We are closely monitoring the availability for theatrical releases as well and direct to digital launches. Overall, the business has performed well in very challenging conditions and I am confident we will build from the base created,” Kapoor added.

    Meanwhile, the Board has considered and approved a dividend of ten per cent (Rs 0.20 per share) subject to shareholder approval. It is going to highly focus on maintaining liquidity and balance sheet strength through the year with the current cash and cash equivalent balance at Rs 144 crore.

  • SPNI acquires broadcast rights for 2021 MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE

    New Delhi: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has acquired the exclusive television & digital rights for the 29th season of Japan Professional Football League – MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE, till December 2021.

    The broadcast territories will include India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The matches will be aired LIVE on SONY TEN 2 channels in India and livestreamed on SonyLIV, SPN’s OTT streaming platform.

    Football is the second most popular sport in Japan and that can be witnessed through the lens of the Japan Professional Football Association who manages their professional football league – MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE. The 29th season began in the month of February with 20 clubs participating in the league.

    The league has made improvement in competitiveness through events such as the Fuji Xerox Super Cup and YBC Levain Cup which helped the country in nurturing great football talents like Shinji Kagawa, Takumi Minamino, Yuto Nagatomo and many more. These players can now be seen playing for some of the biggest teams across Europe.

    MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE is the top division of MEIJI YASUDA J. LEAGUE and also one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. The league has been home to some of the most exciting players from across Europe such as Diego Forlan, Lukas Podolski, Hulk, Jorginho and Andreas Iniesta among others, said the network in a statement on Thursday.

  • TV show Shree Ganesh returns to Doordarshan after 19 years

    New Delhi: Mythological shows gained immense popularity among television viewers during the pandemic. After Ramayan’s dream run in 2020, another mythological show – Shree Ganesh is all set to return to the small screen this summer. 

    The show produced by Zuby Kochhar and directed by Dheeraj Kumar was first launched on Sony in 2002. Starting 21 June, viewers will be able to watch the reruns of the show on Doordarshan. 

    “The show gained a peak rating of 3.4 and maintained an average of 2.5 ratings in its original telecast on Sony on Sunday morning slot,” recalled the director of the show, Dheeraj Kumar. “People did not miss a single episode because of thorough research and great content and making. We are glad that viewers will get to see the show again on Doordarshan national network.” 

    JageshMukati played the lead role of Ganesh, Vishal Lalwani as child Ganesh, Sunil Sharma as Shiva, and Priyanka as Parvati in the show. Created by Creative Eye Ltd, the show is a Namah Shivay venture. It will also be re-telecast daily from Tuesday to Saturday at 9 am on Doordarshan.

    In 2020, Ramayan went on to shatter all records when it came to the TRP game and led to a golden, albeit brief, dream run for the state-run Doordarshan channel on which it aired. It managed to beat the worldwide popular series Game Of Thrones to become the most-watched TV show. According to reports, 7.7 crore viewers watched Ramayan, breaking the record of GOT which had 1.9 crore people watching the show together in 2019.

  • Sun TV Network’s outlook for FY22 remains positive despite short-term headwinds

    KOLKATA: Sun TV Network has navigated the pandemic well through the FY21 despite initial setbacks as it ended q4 with Rs 449.88 crore profit, 80 per cent up year-on-year. While there could be short-term headwinds in ad revenue due to the second wave of the pandemic, the company remains positive that the performance would be much better than the last lockdown.

    The broadcaster saw its ad revenue bounce back in the January to March quarter. However, the second wave hit the performance in the first quarter of FY22. It is still not known if a third wave would be more fatal. Hence, the company has not given any definite guidance for the coming year but its endeavour for the year is to at least reach the levels of FY20, a company spokesperson said in an earnings call.

    In FY 21, the company’s subscription revenue grew by about 11 per cent in FY21. The company is confident to maintain double-digit growth in FY22 as well, especially as it hopes to see a higher purchase of set-top boxes by a related party distribution company. Despite uncertainty around NTO 2.0, the company sees enough visibility on the subscription side.

    The company has improved primetime viewership in the Tamil market from 37 per cent to 42 per cent. As it is eying to come close to 50 per cent, it is taking steps to improve content quality, the overall narrative of storytelling. On the other hand, its overall fiction share has gone up by 36 per cent in the Kannada market as compared to the last two, three quarters. Hence, Sun TV wants to stay focused on gaining market share in these two markets.

    Additionally, it has lined up “some huge launches” in Telugu and Malayalam market in the next one-two months.

    However, its plans for Sun NXT, the over-the-top arm, have been pushed back again, albeit it has seen 40-50 per cent growth in the last six months. Although the company is in talks with a lot of potential producers for OTT originals, it is not going to start anything on that front at least before Q2. But the company can continue with small-medium movie digital premiers on the platform. Whenever the platform uploads a new movie on the platform, the subscription goes up immediately.

    For this financial year, the company has ambitious plans for movie production. It is looking at eight movies, costing nearly Rs 1200 crore. Four movies are under production as shooting has started and in multiple stages and one among those is almost nearing completion, a company spokesperson said. Because of the delay in the first four movies being completed, the remaining might be taken up in the second half of the year.

    Despite the strong performance in q4, the company’s dividend payout policy has attracted sharp criticism from investors in the conference call. For FY 21, the dividend payout dropped to Rs 5 per share from Rs 25 per share in FY20. The investors raised the question around management taking regular commission but not looking at shareholders’ interest. Sun TV Network management has not been able to give any forward-looking statement but has assured that it would share the concern with the board.

  • India’s ad-revenue to rebound over 2020-25 with 13 % CAGR : MPA

    New Delhi: After a 27 per cent plunge in 2020, ad revenue in India is forecast to rebound strongly over 2020-25 with a CAGR of 13 per cent, said a new report released by Media Partners Asia (MPA) on Monday.

    According to the report- Asia Pacific Advertising Trends 2021, digital advertising is expected to benefit from India’s expanding digital economy across online gaming, ed-tech, food and delivery platforms, outgrowing television to become the largest advertising segment by 2024.

    Overall, APAC advertising expenditure is forecast to grow at 5.4 per cent CAGR to reach $245 billion by 2025, powered by growth across key markets such as China, India, Japan, and Korea, says the report.

    Digital ad-revenue most resilient

    According to the report, digital ad revenue remained most resilient through the pandemic, with consumers across APAC spending more time online and brands accelerating digitization efforts. The medium is projected to contribute 67 per cent of APAC ad revenue in 2025, eating into TV’s share (18 per cent), it said.

    The role of e-commerce in advertising surged in 2020, with e-commerce contributing an estimated 39 per cent of China’s ad revenues, while growing significantly, albeit from a small base, in India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. Search and social advertising benefited as well. As per MPA’s projections, digital advertising’s share of net advertising spend is likely to grow from 59 per cent in 2020 to 67 per cent in 2025.

    TV ad-spend to rebound in 2021 growing 4.6 per cent Y/Y

    Television advertising faced further pressure in 2020 as advertisers accelerated their transition to digital, declining 15 per cent Y/Y to $43.3 billion.

    While the dips in TV ad spend are expected to be permanent in mature markets such as Australia and Japan, the medium remains important in key markets like India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand where it retains its position as the largest ad segment as of end-2020. Overall, TV advertising is expected to rebound in 2021, growing 4.6 per cent Y/Y, before secular decline sets in again in 2023, according to the report.

    MPA projects total Asia Pacific TV advertising spend to grow at a CAGR of 0.7 per cent over 2020-2025 to reach $44.8 billion in 2025.

    Online video advertising to grow $ 33.3 billion in 2025

    TV broadcasters are growing online video ad market share through catch up and dedicated AVOD streaming services, particularly in connected TV markets such as Australia, Japan and Korea. MPA estimates online video advertising, led by YouTube, contributed 16 per cent to APAC digital ad revenue in 2020. With various local and regional AVOD and freemium platforms, including broadcaster-led platforms driving growth, online video advertising is forecast to grow to $33.3 billion in 2025, representing 20 per cent of the APAC digital ad pie while topping 40 per cent in emerging markets such as India & Indonesia.

    Ad-spend to exceed $ 200 billion by end-2021 in Asia-Pacific

    According to the report, net advertising expenditure in Asia Pacific, calculated after discounts, declined 4.3 per cent Y/Y in 2020 as Covid-19 ravaged the countries across the globe. Pandemic-induced macroeconomic uncertainty softened advertiser demand in the first half of 2020.

    However, as economies rebound, recovery is underway with ad spend forecast to exceed $200 billion by end 2021, topping pre-pandemic levels for the region. China was the single largest contributor to advertising expenditure, with 55 per cent share of APAC ad spend. The growth was largely led by digital advertising, which accounted for 70 per cent of China’s total ad spend, anchored to short video, live streaming, social, and e-commerce platforms. Ad markets in Korea and Vietnam will also return to pre-pandemic net ad spend levels by end-2021.

    Most other countries including India will follow in 2022, bolstered by the growth of digital advertising; TV advertising will return to pre-pandemic levels in India, Thailand and Vietnam, it said.

    KOREA: Ad spend fell one per cent in 2020, with a 9 per cent decline in TV advertising and bolstered by 12 per cent growth in digital advertising, led by mobile, display and search ads. The Korean advertising market is forecast to grow at 6 per cent CAGR over 2020-25. TV has bounced back strongly in Q1 2021 and digital advertising, including video, continues to maintain double digit growth levels.

    JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA: Ad spend is projected to grow by 2 per cent over 2020-25, led by digital. TV remains scalable in both markets. Video’s share of digital advertising is growing in both markets with global tech majors dominant though broadcasters are growing rapidly from low base through dedicated streaming platforms.

    SOUTHEAST ASIA (INDONESIA, PHILIPPINES, THAILAND AND VIETNAM): Ad markets are recovering rapidly with TV & online benefiting. Indonesia remains Southeast Asia’s largest advertising market and is projected to grow at 4 per cent CAGR over 2020-25, powered by digital (including video) and free TV.

  • RIL’s M&E biz EBITDA margin rises to 17% in FY21

    RIL’s M&E biz EBITDA margin rises to 17% in FY21

    KOLKATA: Despite all odds, Reliance Industry Limited’s (RIL) media & entertainment business has recorded profitability during the pandemic-hit financial year. According to the company’s latest annual report, Network18’s consolidated operating margins expanded to 17 per cent in FY 21, up from 11.5 per cent in FY 20, RIL’s annual report said.

    Consolidated EBITDA of the business rose 29 per cent y-o-y to Rs 796 crore despite the pandemic impact dragging revenue down by 12 per cent y-o-y. The company’s overall profitability was attributed to cost controls and concerted efforts to increase annuity-style revenue streams, including subscription and syndication.

    The margins of the news business expanded all through the year, despite pandemic-linked logistics constraints and blackout of BARC ratings in the second half of the financial year, the report added. Overall news segment’s operating margins expanded to 13 per cent. The TV News operating margin expanded to 16 per cent, marking four years of continuous improvement. In addition to that, digital news broke even on a full-year basis, driven by accelerated revenue growth.

    Despite the Covid-19 impact, entertainment margins went up to 19 per cent thanks to operating leverages. TV Entertainment grew viewership share by two per cent to 10.9 per cent. One in two Indians watch Network18 television channels that reach more than 95 per cent of TV homes in India annually, as per the report.

    The entire M&E industry started on a weak note in FY21 due to the onset of the pandemic, but there was a turnaround during the second half of the year. For Network18, TV News advertising recovered by the second quarter itself growing across the year. Entertainment advertising revived fully by the third quarter, led by a full content roster. Strong viewership trends for Hindi GECs, both pay, and FTA, drove underlying ad growth into high-single digits by the fourth quarter.

    Digital media platforms witnessed an increase in content consumption. Digital advertising gained momentum from the platforms’ inherent advantages of being able to target audiences, drive personalisation, and lower costs.

    “Digital engagement continued to grow due to the volume of high-quality content and key events. Industry sources indicate a ten per cent y-o-y increase in OTT video consumption. Increased propensity to pay has been witnessed, amidst domestic OTTs increasing prices selectively, while global players create India-specific cheaper offerings. Digital subscription revenue continued to rise sharply, albeit off a low base, both from B2C (direct) and B2B (telco-driven) distribution of OTT platforms,” the company stated on Thursday. The company was also satisfied with domestic subscription revenue in the M&E segment which remained strong, despite the stress in international. Improved distribution tie-ups for TV and Digital have driven the subscription growth.

    The leading OTT platform under RIL’s M&E bouquet, Voot, garnered 12 billion minutes of watch time during FY21 and was the number two broadcaster-OTT, it said in its report. According to the company, Voot Select was the fastest to reach one million D2C subscribers, thanks to original content, digital-first TV content, and digital-only spin-offs.