ITV

Tag: TV

  • YuppTV set to close Rs 100-crore plus funding

    YuppTV set to close Rs 100-crore plus funding

    MUMBAI: The OTT video space is slated to get hyper-competitive with a slew of broadcaster-led players and even deep-pocketed telcos haring into it. YuppTV, one of the early movers, has now decided to fortify its financial resources in a bid to face the onslaught.

    The company – led by Uday Reddy – says it is on the threshold of closing its second round of funding which will see it adding funds running into three digit crore to its kitty. Speaking to Hindu BusinessLine, Reddy said that the company has already pocketed $15 million in its Series A, and was about to close its next round of fund-raising.

    Reddy sees the market heading toward consolidation. “We are contemplating acquiring a firm to strengthen our leadership,” Reddy informed BusinessLine. YuppTV has also appointed the Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu as its brand ambassador.

    It offers a bouquet of services including 200 TV channels, seven-day catch-up TV, 100-plus TV shows, and 5,000 plus movies as a VOD service. Its subscription packages vary from Rs 5 a day to Rs 30 a week to Rs 99 a month.

    YuppTV is taking a major step with making Babu the ambassador. Babu is a big name of Tollywood, and it is sure that the collaboration will work great for the promotion of the channel.

    The web portal of YuppTV was established in 2006, offers more than 898 Indian TV Channels in 13 languages that include Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sinhalese, Urdu and English. The best part of YuppTV is it allows access through 25 devices to six screens, Internet STBs, connected TVs, PCs, smart phones, smart BluRay players, gaming consoles and tablets.

  • YuppTV set to close Rs 100-crore plus funding

    YuppTV set to close Rs 100-crore plus funding

    MUMBAI: The OTT video space is slated to get hyper-competitive with a slew of broadcaster-led players and even deep-pocketed telcos haring into it. YuppTV, one of the early movers, has now decided to fortify its financial resources in a bid to face the onslaught.

    The company – led by Uday Reddy – says it is on the threshold of closing its second round of funding which will see it adding funds running into three digit crore to its kitty. Speaking to Hindu BusinessLine, Reddy said that the company has already pocketed $15 million in its Series A, and was about to close its next round of fund-raising.

    Reddy sees the market heading toward consolidation. “We are contemplating acquiring a firm to strengthen our leadership,” Reddy informed BusinessLine. YuppTV has also appointed the Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu as its brand ambassador.

    It offers a bouquet of services including 200 TV channels, seven-day catch-up TV, 100-plus TV shows, and 5,000 plus movies as a VOD service. Its subscription packages vary from Rs 5 a day to Rs 30 a week to Rs 99 a month.

    YuppTV is taking a major step with making Babu the ambassador. Babu is a big name of Tollywood, and it is sure that the collaboration will work great for the promotion of the channel.

    The web portal of YuppTV was established in 2006, offers more than 898 Indian TV Channels in 13 languages that include Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sinhalese, Urdu and English. The best part of YuppTV is it allows access through 25 devices to six screens, Internet STBs, connected TVs, PCs, smart phones, smart BluRay players, gaming consoles and tablets.

  • BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    MUMBAI: BBC Bangla will present a series of programmes and events with audiences in Bangladesh and India to mark 75 years of broadcasting. A part of BBC World Service, BBC Bangla will engage with audiences via Facebook Lives and radio to discuss the global and national issues that are of special relevance to them. The theme of The BBC and Bangladesh will be discussed at a seminar at Dhaka University, with a panel and students, and will also be the focus of new programmes commissioned to mark the anniversary.

    BBC Bangla editor Sabir Mustafa, said: “Since the very first transmission on 11 October 1941, the BBC’s broadcasts in Bangla have delivered to its audiences much-needed accurate and impartial news and information. It has earned the trust of Bangla-speakers, wherever they were over the tempestuous decades – and wherever they are today. This anniversary is a great opportunity for us to check how in tune we are with what they expect and need from us.”

    Between 7 and 14 October, BBC Bangla will hold broadcast events in Bangladesh – in Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna – and in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal from where a significant proportion of the BBC Bangla digital audiences come. Starting as informal discussions with the BBC Bangla audiences, these events will transform into Facebook Lives on the BBC Bangla Facebook page. The focus of the conversations will be how the BBC can engage with younger audiences and meet their news and information needs.

    Throughout October, BBC Bangla journalists will travel to various parts of Bangladesh to debate critical issues with local residents. The following topics will be debated in these locations:

    • Khulna – the survival of mangrove forests
    • Sirajganj – the safety of migrants
    • Rangpur – revival of the rural economy
    • Sylhet – the role of expatriates in the country’s development
    • Rajshahi – the plight of rivers
    • Barisal – the threat of river erosion
    • Chittagong – how to preserve the country’s ethnic diversity.

    The conversations will be broadcast live on radio with simultaneous discussion for those who connect with BBC Bangla on social media.

    On 19 October, the conference, The BBC and Bangladesh, co-hosted by BBC Bangla and Dhaka University’s Department for Journalism and Mass Communications, will look at the role of the BBC in covering Bangladesh and the region, asking the panel and the audience of over 100 students how they want to engage with the BBC in the digital age.

    To celebrate the anniversary in October, the weekly TV programme, BBC Probaho, will feature audience members looking back at their own special BBC Bangla moments. An event page on Facebook, Hirok Joyonti (Diamond Jubilee), will display archive photos and comments from fans. BBC Live! will showcase contributions from the BBC Bangla teams – past and present – looking back at key moments during their time at the BBC, and will be available for download at bbcbangla.com. BBC Bangla radio will also broadcast selected extracts from some of the key programmes from its archives.

  • BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    MUMBAI: BBC Bangla will present a series of programmes and events with audiences in Bangladesh and India to mark 75 years of broadcasting. A part of BBC World Service, BBC Bangla will engage with audiences via Facebook Lives and radio to discuss the global and national issues that are of special relevance to them. The theme of The BBC and Bangladesh will be discussed at a seminar at Dhaka University, with a panel and students, and will also be the focus of new programmes commissioned to mark the anniversary.

    BBC Bangla editor Sabir Mustafa, said: “Since the very first transmission on 11 October 1941, the BBC’s broadcasts in Bangla have delivered to its audiences much-needed accurate and impartial news and information. It has earned the trust of Bangla-speakers, wherever they were over the tempestuous decades – and wherever they are today. This anniversary is a great opportunity for us to check how in tune we are with what they expect and need from us.”

    Between 7 and 14 October, BBC Bangla will hold broadcast events in Bangladesh – in Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna – and in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal from where a significant proportion of the BBC Bangla digital audiences come. Starting as informal discussions with the BBC Bangla audiences, these events will transform into Facebook Lives on the BBC Bangla Facebook page. The focus of the conversations will be how the BBC can engage with younger audiences and meet their news and information needs.

    Throughout October, BBC Bangla journalists will travel to various parts of Bangladesh to debate critical issues with local residents. The following topics will be debated in these locations:

    • Khulna – the survival of mangrove forests
    • Sirajganj – the safety of migrants
    • Rangpur – revival of the rural economy
    • Sylhet – the role of expatriates in the country’s development
    • Rajshahi – the plight of rivers
    • Barisal – the threat of river erosion
    • Chittagong – how to preserve the country’s ethnic diversity.

    The conversations will be broadcast live on radio with simultaneous discussion for those who connect with BBC Bangla on social media.

    On 19 October, the conference, The BBC and Bangladesh, co-hosted by BBC Bangla and Dhaka University’s Department for Journalism and Mass Communications, will look at the role of the BBC in covering Bangladesh and the region, asking the panel and the audience of over 100 students how they want to engage with the BBC in the digital age.

    To celebrate the anniversary in October, the weekly TV programme, BBC Probaho, will feature audience members looking back at their own special BBC Bangla moments. An event page on Facebook, Hirok Joyonti (Diamond Jubilee), will display archive photos and comments from fans. BBC Live! will showcase contributions from the BBC Bangla teams – past and present – looking back at key moments during their time at the BBC, and will be available for download at bbcbangla.com. BBC Bangla radio will also broadcast selected extracts from some of the key programmes from its archives.

  • MIP China Hangzhou to be held in May next year

    MIP China Hangzhou to be held in May next year

    PARIS: Reed MIDEM, the organiser of MIPTV/MIPCOM, has launched MIP China Hangzhou, the first ever MIP in China. The new event is designed to foster content development between Chinese and international production companies, as well as provide an intensive educational forum for Chinese media professionals to learn more about international TV markets and trends.

    MIP China Hangzhou will run May 23-25, 2017, in Hangzhou, the lakeside city that hosted the G20 Summit in September 2016.

    MIP China Hangzhou is organised in partnership with China Media Management Inc (CMM-I), the official representative for MIPTV/MIPCOM in China, and Zhejiang MegaMedia, organiser of the Zhejiang Provincial pavilion at the MIP markets in Cannes.

    MIP China Hangzhou will combine two formats into one event. The Partnership Forum will bring together leading executives from up to 40 international television production and distribution companies with 40 senior level Chinese media executives for pre-scheduled, 1-to-1 meetings devoted to forging partnerships for global content development and production.

    The attendees of the Partnership Forum will also have the opportunity to visit production studios based in and around Hangzhou – a major production and media centre in China that is home to companies such as Alibaba, Huace TV & Film.

    The second element of the event will be a gold-standard professional training conference to share best practices in creating international TV and online hits, international distribution, and to explore content development in new entertainment sectors such as Online Video and Virtual Reality. 150 delegates are expected to attend the conference.

    “MIP China Hangzhou will provide a much-needed platform for international programme professionals to meet with their counterparts from companies throughout China,” notes Dong Yue, Hangzhou mayor’s representative.

    “Cross-border content development is more than ever a strategic choice for entertainment production companies looking to capture local and global audiences,” adds Reed MIDEM chief executive Paul Zilk.

    Founded in 1963, Reed MIDEM is an organiser of professional, international markets that are essential business platforms for key players in the sectors concerned. Reed MIDEM is a division of Reed Exhibitions, the world’s leading event organiser, with over 500 events in 43 countries.

  • MIP China Hangzhou to be held in May next year

    MIP China Hangzhou to be held in May next year

    PARIS: Reed MIDEM, the organiser of MIPTV/MIPCOM, has launched MIP China Hangzhou, the first ever MIP in China. The new event is designed to foster content development between Chinese and international production companies, as well as provide an intensive educational forum for Chinese media professionals to learn more about international TV markets and trends.

    MIP China Hangzhou will run May 23-25, 2017, in Hangzhou, the lakeside city that hosted the G20 Summit in September 2016.

    MIP China Hangzhou is organised in partnership with China Media Management Inc (CMM-I), the official representative for MIPTV/MIPCOM in China, and Zhejiang MegaMedia, organiser of the Zhejiang Provincial pavilion at the MIP markets in Cannes.

    MIP China Hangzhou will combine two formats into one event. The Partnership Forum will bring together leading executives from up to 40 international television production and distribution companies with 40 senior level Chinese media executives for pre-scheduled, 1-to-1 meetings devoted to forging partnerships for global content development and production.

    The attendees of the Partnership Forum will also have the opportunity to visit production studios based in and around Hangzhou – a major production and media centre in China that is home to companies such as Alibaba, Huace TV & Film.

    The second element of the event will be a gold-standard professional training conference to share best practices in creating international TV and online hits, international distribution, and to explore content development in new entertainment sectors such as Online Video and Virtual Reality. 150 delegates are expected to attend the conference.

    “MIP China Hangzhou will provide a much-needed platform for international programme professionals to meet with their counterparts from companies throughout China,” notes Dong Yue, Hangzhou mayor’s representative.

    “Cross-border content development is more than ever a strategic choice for entertainment production companies looking to capture local and global audiences,” adds Reed MIDEM chief executive Paul Zilk.

    Founded in 1963, Reed MIDEM is an organiser of professional, international markets that are essential business platforms for key players in the sectors concerned. Reed MIDEM is a division of Reed Exhibitions, the world’s leading event organiser, with over 500 events in 43 countries.

  • Idea Cellular to offer live TV, music services

    Idea Cellular to offer live TV, music services

    MUMBAI: It’s the charge of the telco brigade. First Airtel and Reliance Jio hared into the content space by announcing their Wynk, Wynk Video and Wynk Games and JioGames, JioCinema, JioTV, JioPlay, JioOnDemand services offering an array of video, music, game chat apps. Now it’s the turn of another telco major – the Aditya Birla group owned Idea Cellular – to do the same. In an investor presentation, the company says it is planning its own range of mobile digital services right from live television to videos to music to games to music to news/magazines to chat and even money transfers.

    First off the blocks will be Idea Game Spark (Q3 FY 2017), Idea Videos and Idea Music before the last quarter of FY 2017 (January-March 2017). Idea TV, Idea News/magazines, Idea storage and Idea chat will follow in FY 2018 (April 2017 onwards).

    In the presentation, Idea says it expects mobile data usage to sky rocket just like voice over mobile did in the growth phase of wireless telephony. About 1.1 billion Indians will get access to wireless broadband by 2019-2020 (250-300 million in March 2015), and the subscriber base of 3G/4G services is expected to rapidly swell from 130 million in March 2016 to 540 million by 2021. Idea expects data consumption per user to more than treble from the current 475 MB per month in the same period.

    In March 2016, it had 22.8 million wireless broadband subs each of whom consumed 642 MB of data per month. Idea explains that its broadband services today are available to 400 million Indians; it is targeting to expand that 500 million by March 2017. It’s on course to have nearly 100,000 data sites active in 17 circles by the end of FY-2017.

    With the launch of its digital content and other apps, mobile subscribers are likely to be spoiled for choice and competition is expected to hot up between Jio, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. For television channels and content creators, however, it’s going to open up new worlds of opportunity.

  • Idea Cellular to offer live TV, music services

    Idea Cellular to offer live TV, music services

    MUMBAI: It’s the charge of the telco brigade. First Airtel and Reliance Jio hared into the content space by announcing their Wynk, Wynk Video and Wynk Games and JioGames, JioCinema, JioTV, JioPlay, JioOnDemand services offering an array of video, music, game chat apps. Now it’s the turn of another telco major – the Aditya Birla group owned Idea Cellular – to do the same. In an investor presentation, the company says it is planning its own range of mobile digital services right from live television to videos to music to games to music to news/magazines to chat and even money transfers.

    First off the blocks will be Idea Game Spark (Q3 FY 2017), Idea Videos and Idea Music before the last quarter of FY 2017 (January-March 2017). Idea TV, Idea News/magazines, Idea storage and Idea chat will follow in FY 2018 (April 2017 onwards).

    In the presentation, Idea says it expects mobile data usage to sky rocket just like voice over mobile did in the growth phase of wireless telephony. About 1.1 billion Indians will get access to wireless broadband by 2019-2020 (250-300 million in March 2015), and the subscriber base of 3G/4G services is expected to rapidly swell from 130 million in March 2016 to 540 million by 2021. Idea expects data consumption per user to more than treble from the current 475 MB per month in the same period.

    In March 2016, it had 22.8 million wireless broadband subs each of whom consumed 642 MB of data per month. Idea explains that its broadband services today are available to 400 million Indians; it is targeting to expand that 500 million by March 2017. It’s on course to have nearly 100,000 data sites active in 17 circles by the end of FY-2017.

    With the launch of its digital content and other apps, mobile subscribers are likely to be spoiled for choice and competition is expected to hot up between Jio, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. For television channels and content creators, however, it’s going to open up new worlds of opportunity.

  • Prasar Bharati looks at digitizing archives; to seek Rs 250 crore from govt

    Prasar Bharati looks at digitizing archives; to seek Rs 250 crore from govt

    MUMBAI: Pubcaster Prasar Bharati is taking another stab at digitizing and monetising the huge archival content catalogue that is lying in the shelves of All India Radio and Doordarshan. And it is all set to make a formal request to the ministry of broadcasting and broadcasting (MIB) for nearly Rs 250 crore to help it achieve what it intends to do. It says included in this archive are prominent speeches of national leaders, popular programmes and music.

    Prasar Bharati officials recently made a presentation to the MIB enumerating why it needs to do this. Sources say both Doordarshan and All India Radio have millions of hours of both audio and video content. In fact, All India Radio had digitized some of its content around a decade ago and even monetized some of it by selling CDs. The UK pubcaster BBC is amongst the world’s largest exporters of TV content with worldwide sales of around 400 million Euros. If Prasar Bharati manages even 10 per cent of that, it will more than recover its digitization costs.

    The problem, however, is that its archive has not been maintained in the best manner and is on beta and VHS tapes, many of which could be damaged or unrecoverable. And some of it could be have been stolen or lost.

    It is also looking at drafting a syndication policy to sell its content worldwide to other media outlets or online directly to consumers.

    Says a media observer: “Hopefully, it takes up the task seriously this time and the MIB helps it see it through to conclusion. DD is in danger of becoming a dinosaur; digitisation will allow it to bring new legs to old content which a generation has not seen. It could be put out online or on mobile for consumption apart from finding customers for its clips worldwide.”

  • Prasar Bharati looks at digitizing archives; to seek Rs 250 crore from govt

    Prasar Bharati looks at digitizing archives; to seek Rs 250 crore from govt

    MUMBAI: Pubcaster Prasar Bharati is taking another stab at digitizing and monetising the huge archival content catalogue that is lying in the shelves of All India Radio and Doordarshan. And it is all set to make a formal request to the ministry of broadcasting and broadcasting (MIB) for nearly Rs 250 crore to help it achieve what it intends to do. It says included in this archive are prominent speeches of national leaders, popular programmes and music.

    Prasar Bharati officials recently made a presentation to the MIB enumerating why it needs to do this. Sources say both Doordarshan and All India Radio have millions of hours of both audio and video content. In fact, All India Radio had digitized some of its content around a decade ago and even monetized some of it by selling CDs. The UK pubcaster BBC is amongst the world’s largest exporters of TV content with worldwide sales of around 400 million Euros. If Prasar Bharati manages even 10 per cent of that, it will more than recover its digitization costs.

    The problem, however, is that its archive has not been maintained in the best manner and is on beta and VHS tapes, many of which could be damaged or unrecoverable. And some of it could be have been stolen or lost.

    It is also looking at drafting a syndication policy to sell its content worldwide to other media outlets or online directly to consumers.

    Says a media observer: “Hopefully, it takes up the task seriously this time and the MIB helps it see it through to conclusion. DD is in danger of becoming a dinosaur; digitisation will allow it to bring new legs to old content which a generation has not seen. It could be put out online or on mobile for consumption apart from finding customers for its clips worldwide.”