ITV

Tag: TV

  • Content creators see value in social media data

    Content creators see value in social media data

    MUMBAI: Twitter, Facebook and television go hand in hand these days. The relationship between television and social media has been growing over the years. But does it have the potential to turn into a major revenue stream?

    Discussing this was a panel at TV.Nxt 2014 comprising Viacom18 Media VP and Colors commercial and digital head Vivek Srivastava, CNN International New Delhi bureau chief Ravi Agrawal, Nielsen India MD Prashant Singh, GroupM South Asia managing partner Tushar Vyas and Star India VP and digital marketing and CRM head Venke Sharma. The session was headed by Provocateur Advisory principal Paritosh Joshi.

    Firing up the session, Joshi asked Agrawal to share some insights as to how CNN evolved and now functions with the proliferation of social media since it was one of the early entrants into it. Agrawal highlighted that in the early 2000s, CNN had created a website called ireport.com where it invited people to click pictures and post from places where a journalist couldn’t be. “That’s when we saw that regular citizens can get the story before anyone can. We saw this even in the 2008 attack on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, when the first few images that came were from the common people which were of superb quality. That became a great tool for us to tell stories from places unreachable to us,” he said. He went on to add that the notion of TV and social media being a new marriage is actually an old one in many parts of the world.

    While the possibility of getting a return path was natural for news, how does it work for fiction makers? Sharma started off by saying that there are people for whom entertainment is defined by buzzing topics and a fear of missing out. Talking about Star Plus’ hit show Diya Aur Baati Hum, he said that although it rates high on TAM ratings, it doesn’t garner the same on social media vis-a-vis Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Du which doesn’t get the ratings but gets the buzz.

    Joshi went on to ask Vyas about the translation of social media into a source of revenue. Vyas said that social media works as a surrogate and is also an incremental data point. “We capitalise on the second screen behaviour and try and reach out to all set of audiences on various platforms. Social media is an incremental data over TV data,” he said.

    Nielsen had recently launched its Twitter TV ratings in the US for calculating data on TV shows on the social networking platform. Said Singh, “In this, we don’t count the number of tweets but rather the impressions. It is the GRP equivalent. Whether the market will decide to trade on it or to use it as another dimension against TV ratings is to be seen. But we believe that being able to measure impressions would be more and more important.”

    Talking about how the medium works in sync with the TV, Srivastava said that it is mostly important from a catch-up stand point in the media space. Facebook was to interact while not watching TV while Twitter was an accompaniment while watching TV. This was agreed upon by Sharma who said that Star had used Facebook to sharply target and get viewers to sample its latest Pro Kabaddi League.

    However, Agrawal pointed out that the capability of knowing how people react to your stories also puts the onus on journalists to be more careful and responsible.

    Joshi said that content makers are worried about the fact that the value of a viewer on TV is 100 times more than on digital. To this Vyas said that although it might be true in terms of absolute value, the audience on a platform like YouTube is higher than many other TV monetisation that is happening today. “If you look at advertising money, then digital is slowly reaching the top of the pyramid,” said Vyas.

    Star has set up its own listening hub to understand trends and draw actionable insights, highlighted Sharma. Agrawal ended the session by stating that drawing data from social media is also a danger. “It isn’t always a reflection of reality. The demographics that use social media are of a certain type and especially globally I would be slightly vary about extrapolating data from there,” he concluded.

  • Tata Sky launches the first ever Scholarship on television

    Tata Sky launches the first ever Scholarship on television

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky, the leading digital Pay-TV player in the country, has taken edutainment to the next level by announcing the launch of the first ever Scholarship for kids that can be availed through television. Author & motivational speaker Chetan Bhagat has been roped in to promote the Tata Sky Scholarship Quiz – a gratifying concept of edutainment.

    For the first time ever television will be the medium of participation for children to win the edutainment based Tata Sky Scholarship. Tata Sky subscribers will be able to participate in the quiz on 15th August’14 by simply answering questions on television, with a click of their Tata Sky remote control, from the comfort of their homes.

    Vikram Mehra, Chief Commercial Officer at Tata Sky explained, “The varied range of learning channels and interactive services for children on Tata Sky has been an apt medium to deliver edutainment and knowledge based content, as kids always grasp more from what they see and hear. Now with the Tata Sky Scholarship Quiz we look forward to quizzing and rewarding children across the country, for their vast exposure to educative content.”

    Tata Sky will roll out scholarships worth Rs. 20 lakhs with top 10 winners being entitled to a scholarship worth Rs. 2 lakhs each. Tata Sky is also launching a kid’s campaign titled – ‘Ab Bachchey Seekhein TV se…’, conveying the fact that television is a good learning aid for children.

    Promoting the TataSky Scholarship Quiz, Chetan Bhagat said, “It gives me great pleasure to be associated with Tata Sky. Their unique edutainment platform gives a great opportunity for children to learn through television. The scholarship provides an impetus to fulfil their future dreams and aspirations.”

  • ZooZoos as TV stars this IPL!

    ZooZoos as TV stars this IPL!

    MUMBAI: Those waiting with bated breath for the Indian Premiere League (IPL) have one more reason to hoot. The funny eggheads of the balloon bellies, gibberish and idiosyncratic ways will be back and how!

     

    Vodafone’s ZooZoos, which first appeared during IPL 2009, will take charge for the fifth time this season. This time round, they will be seen participating in television shows of different hues even as they peddle the mobile services provider’s value-added products.

     

    The latest campaign, also created by Ogilvy & Mather, comprises 10 TVCs depicting the ZooZoos in a creative and engaging manner; each promoting a unique Vodafone product/service.

     

    O&M national creative director Rajiv Rao, who, along with his team, started working on the creatives in March this year, said, “Television has become a part of popular culture so we thought of using it as the background. However, it is a challenge for the whole team to keep reinventing ZooZoos and whether we succeed in conveying the brand’s message through these films.”

     

    The first two TVCs releasing on 16 April revolve around two product propositions of Vodafone – Choose your Number and Chhota Credit – and feature a reality TV show and a quiz show, respectively.

     

    Will this result in a ZooZoo overkill? “The street hawkers started selling ZooZoo merchandises at least a month back. This is proof enough of how much people love these characters. On the digital front, the ZooZoos have millions of fans and since they come once a year, I think it’s quite the opposite of overdose,” said Rao.

     

    According to Vodafone India brand communications and insights senior vice president, Ronita Mitra, “Like every year, this year too, Vodafone India has planned a high decibel 360-degree campaign around IPL. The ZooZoos are back during IPL 2014 to communicate Vodafone’s differentiated customer experience that offers unique products and services to make the customer’s life simple and convenient.”

     

    Mitra added that apart from TV, Vodafone’s campaign during IPL 2014 would be supported by OOH, digital and other mediums.

  • UK TV ad market reached record high in 2013

    UK TV ad market reached record high in 2013

    MUMBAI: According to last year’s complete revenue figures released by Thinkbox – compiled on the basis of figures provided by UK’s commercial broadcasters – the total TV advertising revenue in UK rose 3.5 per cent in 2013 to ?4.63 billion ($7.75 billion).

     

    Last year marked the fourth consecutive year that TV ad revenue had growth in the UK. TV ad investment is forecast to increase again this year, boosted by the World Cup in Brazil. The Advertising Association/Warc predicts growth in revenue for the TV ad market of six per cent in 2014.

     

    There were 737 new or returning advertisers to TV for the year, accounting for two per cent of total TV ad revenues. TV advertising prices for the year were also the cheapest on record, some 38.5 per cent less expensive than 20 years ago.

     

    Commercial impressions (the number of TV ads watched at normal speed) during 2013 were up 1.6 per cent on 2012, and have grown by 10.4 per cent over the last five years. The average viewer watched 47 ads a day. This is four ads more a day than five years ago. Collectively UK watched an average of 2.8 billion ads a day in the first half of the year.

  • Zee to bring bachchagiri with DID L’il Masters

    Zee to bring bachchagiri with DID L’il Masters

    MUMBAI: Dancing isn’t just about mean moves; it’s also about attitude. This is the reason why Zee TV is all set to bring back DID (Dance India Dance) L’il Masters, now in its third season, to replace the ongoing DID season four.

     

    Starting 1 March, children aged five to 12 years will mesmerise audiences with their awe-inspiring performances every weekend at 9 pm. This time round, the show positioning is: ‘from dadagiri to bachchagiri’.

     

    Zeel content head (Hindi GECs) Ajay Bhalwankar, who recently resigned from his post, explains: “Though the world is heavily borrowed from dadagiri, bachchagiri in no way gives any leeway to over-smartness or cockiness. Kids aren’t show-offs but they do have a ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude when it comes to dance. They aren’t afraid of a little competition and stage fear means nothing to them.”

     

    Says Nitin Keni of Essel Vision Productions, producer of the show: “These are genuinely gifted children and little powerhouses of talent who astonished us with their unimaginable talent. Along with entertainment, Zee and Essel Vision have always endeavored to become the most coveted platform for aspiring youth and women in the country and with the third season of DID L’il masters, we only hope to strengthen that conviction of ours.”

     

    Season three will follow a similar format with 16 contestants divided into four teams led by skippers including Sanam Johar, Raghav (Crockroaz) and Swarali Karulkar (DID 4 contender) with the fourth name still under consideration. Masters Geeta Kapoor, Ahmad Khan and Mudassar Khan will judge the performances while veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty (Mithun Da) will once again lend his characteristic wit to the platform. Hosting the show would be popular television actor Jay Bhanushali.

     

    So what’s the talking point of this season? “We, as a channel, don’t have to do anything new. Of course, we have plans to think about new dance forms, acts and visuals but what is really new is a fresher mind, fresher and more original talent. Kids are typically very informal; they have a mind of their own and when they perform, they completely rock the stage,” says Bhalwankar before adding, “I couldn’t have imagined some of the steps they ended up doing during the auditions.”

     

    He lavishes praise on the talent possessed by these kids. “They can change the format and mould it; they can mould their performance… We have to give them a format which allows them freedom. Bachchagiri is a format for us, and the entire control has been given to the kids,” he says.

     

    According to Zeel new programming head Namit Sharma, who assumed responsibility only yesterday, season three is a lot about evolution. “Lil masters is a very unique show. It is fun, engaging, heartwarming and at the same time, inspirational, because you are watching these kids doing all the fantastic moves. This year, we are keen on seeing the kids grow and evolve rather than just contestants in a reality show,” he says.

     

    Already, dancing fever has gripped the nation with auditions being held in 15 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Vadodara, Jaipur, Raipur, Indore, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Patna, Jammu and Lucknow. The number of participants has risen 25 per cent from last year’s one lakh contestants. After more than four months of auditioning, 100 children have been selected, of which, 16 finalists will be selected in mega auditions being held this week.

     

    Speaking of her experience, Kapoor said: “Judging kids was a tough call. We had to be easy with them. However, each and every child is a winner for us. We don’t treat them as contestants but as normal kids.”

     

    While Khan felt their main job was to console the kids who’d been rejected in the auditions phase.  “Somewhere down the line, they are conditioned to the fact that they are here to get popularity. They don’t come with a positive mind that they will get selected,” he said.  

     

    On their part, the skippers said they enjoyed choreographing the ‘patakas’

     

    Johar, a contestant of DID season three, said: “It’s very interesting to choreograph kids. After becoming a skipper, you can’t show or teach them moves which are repetitive; we have to do something new. Instead of getting scared, we have to be prepared to do something innovative.” Raghav, who is famous for his slo-mo style said: “It is all in nature. You get to learn a lot from your surroundings. We don’t have to teach anything to the kids creatively. Get them on stage, and they will burn the dance floor. They are very smart. Plus, they come prepared.”

     

    Industry sources say the channel is looking at anything between Rs 180 and Rs 190 crore from DID L’il Masters season three with anything between Rs 1,20,000 and Rs 1,80,000 for every 10 seconds.

     

    Marketing and promotion

     

    A 360-degree marketing plan is on the anvil comprising outdoor, print, television and radio to sustain audience interest in the property. As part of on-ground, children will form special ‘Dhating Naach Tolis’ and visit various housing societies in Mumbai and Delhi to play Holi with the residents as a mark of the festival.

     

    Vignettes have been created for television where kids will sometimes be seen talking about a show before it starts and encouraging the audience to see it. On the digital side, there are plans to create a hashtag #DIDLM for greater engagement with the viewers.

     

    No doubt the show will face tough competition from the ongoing India’s Got Talent on Colors and the upcoming Mad in India on Star Plus. While Mad in India is a 75,000 per 10 sec slot, IGT is 1.25 lakh. But with the last season having opened at 5.8 TVR, Bhalwankar remains unfazed. “When kids come to the show, they have a ball. I don’t think we will need masala to get ratings or eyeballs. Other people can worry,” he laughs.

  • 786 licensed Indian channels as on 31 January

    786 licensed Indian channels as on 31 January

    MUMBAI: The MIB has released the list of permitted private satellite TV channels in India as on 31 January, 2014.

    According to a report published by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry (I&B Ministry), as of 31 January, 2014, the number of permitted private satellite TV channels in the country stands at 786; out of which 389 are news and current affairs channels, while the remaining 397 are non-news and current affairs ones.

    An earlier report published by the I&B Ministry pegged the number of permitted private satellite TV channels in India as on 2 December, 2013 at 784, with 395 of these being non-news and current affairs channels, implying two non-news and current affairs channels have been added to the list between 2 December, 2013 and 31 January, 2014.

    Out of the 786 channels, 664 TV channels have been permitted for uplink as well as downlink from India. 31 TV channels permitted for uplink but not downlink in India and 91 channels have been permitted only to downlink into India (uplinked from aboard).

     

    Of the 786 permitted private satellite TV channels in the country, 369 news channels and 295 non-news channels have both up-linking and down-linking permission, four news and 27 non-news channels have permission only to uplink, while 16 news and 75 non-news channels have permission just to down-link

    Sometime ago, indiantelevision.com had reported how the I&B Ministry – already under the scanner for being too liberal in issuing licenses to broadcasters – was exercising restraint in a damage control exercise of sorts.

    It doesn’t come as a surprise that the Ministry official list released on 20 December, 2012 had 848 permitted private satellite TV channels which has gone down to 786 in the latest list.

  • Friends’ Ross Geller is making a comeback on TV

    Friends’ Ross Geller is making a comeback on TV

    MUMBAI: David Schwimmer, best known for his role as Ross Geller, the insecure paleontologist in the hit 90’s sitcom, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. has just signed on to play the lead in an upcoming comedy pilot called Irreversible by American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

     

    Based on the hit Israeli series Bilti Hafich, the comedy centers on an eccentric, self-absorbed couple and the trials and tribulations they often bring upon themselves. Schwimmer will play one half of that couple, a pessimistic writer named Andy.

     

    In addition to F.R.I.E.N.D.S., Schwimmer has guest-starred on 30 Rock and Web Therapy. He also lent his voice to the hypochondriac giraffe Melman in the hugely popular Madagascar film franchise. If Irreversible is picked up to series, this would make his first series regular role since F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The actor will also serve as a producer on the comedy, written by Segahl Avin, co-creator of the original series. Peter Tolan (Rescue Me) and Michael Wimer (10, 000 B.C., Rake) will executive-produce the show.

  • MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MUMBAI: Paris-based Reed Midem, which produces the world’s biggest and most successful content markets MipTV and MipCom in the French Riviera seaside town of Cannes, is all set to begin a series of road shows in India which will feature seminars and interactions in three cities  – Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai – explaining how India’s content community can build its international sales and presence.

     

    The first of these will be hitting Chennai on 20 Januray 2014. To be held at the Hotel Benzz Park in the T. Nagar business area,  it is slated to be attended by a select group of invited professionals  from the southern India city’s animation, TV, film distribution and value-added services sectors.

     

    The theme of this year’s roadshows is “Content without boundaries.”

     

    Down for the second time in about six months from the Paris headquarters  of Reed Midem are director of new market development Ted Baracos and Asia sales head Paul Barbaro. Accompanying them is Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO Anil Wanvari, who is MipTV, MipCom and Midem India representative.

     

    Says Baracos: “We were quite delighted with the response from  India’s talented content creators when we had road shows in Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai last year.  Our theme then was: Can Indian content leave its stamp on the world? And India responded with a big yes. Attendance from the country was up almost 20 per cent as Indian companies came to MipCom in October 2013 to strike deals and pursue international market opportunties. So we decided to come back once again to connect with the community here.”

     

    Adds Barbaro: “Several Indian companies such as Shemaroo, Green Gold, Viacom18, Zee TV, DQ Entertainment, AVCGI have understood the power of MipCom and MipTV and have  successfully been using the platforms we provide to expand their content syndication, production and co-production businesses. We would like India’s  new content creators to understand, be a part and exploit the new entertainment economy in which content is likely to cease having borders, it will travel everywhere. Hence we  are here continuing our conversation with them through these road shows.”

     

    “I have been attending Mipcom and MipTV for more than 14 years and have seen Indian broadcasters, animation studios, service providers simply grow thanks to the contacts and deals they strike there,” says Wanvari. “The entrepreneurialism and hunger to conquer new markets can only see India’s content being consumed and even co-produced in markets never thought about before. It is important that more and more Indian firms understand and exploit this opportunity. It can bring home hundreds of millions of dollars in much needed forex into the Indian economy and probably grow the next Endemol or Fremantle out of India.”

     

    From Chennai, the team will then move to Bengaluru on 22 January and to Mumbai on 24 January. The entire road show has been put together and organised by Indiantelevision.com’s ITV 2.0 Productions division.

  • When ads are better than soaps!

    When ads are better than soaps!

    By Ramanujam Sridhar

    It’s that time of year when we reflect on the old year, As an avid television viewer (and may my tribe flourish), I continue to find TV commercials often more entertaining than the soaps and serials my wife seems glued to. The advertising industry realizes that the remote control is an even more potent destroyer of poor advertising than clients and is hence pushing the envelope more and more to ensure that we don’t switch channels. Social issues have been sensitively portrayed and subtle brand messages conveyed. What better tribute to creativity than the Tanishq remarriage ad. Beautifully shot, it shows a woman doing the saat phere with her husband even as a child keeps calling her and trying to join the holy walk. We realize that it is the woman’s daughter from her first marriage perhaps, and the husband cheerfully asks the child to join in. Commercials like these need a lot of courage to create and more importantly, run, and I doff my hat to my friends in advertising and marketing who have the guts to push the envelope in more ways than one. The Google ad for Tanjore paintings is another one that created ripples as did some of the commercials for Idea Cellular and the latest Vodafone video streaming ad is as cute as advertising can get.

    Advertising which sucks

    And yet, I find a lot of advertising quite convoluted, where the idea seems to be stretched needlessly like some of the TV soaps that have long outlived their sell by date. The new campaigns for Fevikwik – a brand that had great advertising for years – seem to be that of an agency and a creative team which is too full of itself. Equally annoying are the new five star commercials. Some of the big budget ones like Pepsi’s much touted ‘Yes Abhi’ too hardly set the Indian pulse racing. While celebrity endorsements keep multiplying, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount paid to the celebrity by way of fees and the creativity of the commercials that they are involved in. Why are advertising agencies giving up so easily on celebrity scripts and coming up with such inane stuff?

    What’s with the programming?

    I am not a great follower of TV programming so I really should be the last person to complain, but our big anchors are becoming quite insufferable as they play God, passing judgments on people and events with impunity. They also seem to flit from topic to topic with the attention span of a few days and issues are just buried as they worry least about sensitivities and only about TRPs. Soaps are extended mindlessly for ages on end, timings are changed, characters dumped, and just about every possible character mayhem is managed with ease. The sports programming that I watch a lot is really cloying as India is shown to be the greatest superpower of all time based on a few home series wins and it seems really weird given the poor performances abroad.

    To hell with editorial responsibility

    The old issues of ‘paid editorials’ and ‘irresponsible journalism’ continue to haunt poor viewers like me. Unfortunately, the TV channels don’t seem to care as they keep outwitting each other in their quest for TRPs and viewer eyeballs. Self regulation will never work and I guess, the time is right for viewers to be more discerning, more militant even, and when their sensitivities are not respected, we must exercise our rights and instead of switching channels, maybe the channels will learn only if we switch off the TV set entirely!

    May that never come to pass however! Here’s wishing you all a wonderful year of TV viewing!

    (Ramanujam Sridhar is the founder CEO of brand-comm and director of Custommerce. The views expressed in the above article are the author’s personal views)

  • English entertainment that tickled TV viewers in 2013!

    English entertainment that tickled TV viewers in 2013!

    MUMBAI: Life would be so boring without TV, ain’t it? As we bid adieu to the year 2013, we look at the comedy shows that kept us entertained throughout the year.

     

    Modern Family

    The show, presented in the mockumentary style, has become almost complacent in its greatness. The writing and acting are so consistent and good that one can’t think of missing the episodes. It’s almost disappointing that the show can’t seem to get any better. But that’s the trouble when you set such a high bar of quality.

     

    The Big Bang Theory
    Many awards have been given to Jim Parsons (and for good reason). The supporting performances are just as good. Simon Helberg has kept his comedy while becoming far less creepy now that he’s married and has also been to the outer space. Raj’s romantic woes were a surprisingly serious spiral of depression all season. And the women have been fantastic, especially when they spend time together. There’s a good reason for this to be one of the most-watched comedy on TV.

     

    2 Broke Girls

    In its third season, the life of the two waitresses in their mid twenties—Max Black and Caroline Channing , seems to have become more interesting. From the selection of the cast to the writing is simply outstanding. In addition to Kat Denning’s brilliant comic timing, her character’s chemistry with Caroline is worthy of a mention.

     

    Two & A Half Men

    Finally, the show went back to its old days with good jokes. Walden finally turned into a fan character, while Jon Cryer’s remains irrestible as Alan.

     

    How I Met Your Mother

    After a lackluster season eight, HIMYM rebounds magnificently with this ninth season. Criston Meloti as The Mother is perfectly cast, and adding her to the cast is a shake-up that the show desperately needed.