ITV

Tag: TV18

  • Network18’s Vinit Jain calls it a day

    MUMBAI: After a stint of more than three years, Network18 media and investment group head commercial Vinit Jain has resigned from the company.

    A source close to the development informed www.indiantelevision.com that Jain has already served his notice period and last day at work.

    Jain joined Network18 in August 2013 as the group head – commercial where he was responsible for strategic financial planning, budgeting and management reporting, business and transaction restructuring and integration and new set-ups and business support.

    Prior to this, he worked as the chief financial officer at Indiacast Media and Distribution, a joint venture with Viacom 18 and  TV18 broadcast for more than two years.

    Jain also worked with Zee Learn as the chief financial officer for six months. Earlier, for more than 12 years, he worked as the director fo ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd.

    Also Read

    Network18 appoints Sachin Tagra as vice president – Capital18

    YourStory’s Ashish Rana joins IdeateLabs as business head

    CNN-News18’s editorial and programming refresh

  • BBC rewards TV18 factual for digital initiative

    MUMBAI: A+E Networks | TV18 won two awards at the BBC Knowledge National Digital Marketing Conference & Awards. HISTORY TV18 was declared the winner under the ‘Best Use of Video Series’ category and FYI TV18 won under the ‘Best Use of Digital Media in Advertising and Marketing’ category.

    A+E Networks | TV18 Vice President & Head Marketing Sangeetha Aiyer, ‎said, “We ‘ve always worked hard at being pioneers in the digital space and the awards are a reaffirmation of our belief in our “Digital First Strategy”. With the OMG! Yeh Mera India video series we have created a digital property that has not only engaged millions of Indians but also has cultivated a sense of national pride. And with the FYI TV18’s Kuch Bhi Poochofy campaign we managed to create awareness about FYI TV18 through tapping on the insight of people asking questions. Winning these accolades only inspires us to push the envelope even more.”

    History TV18 won the award for OMG! Yeh Mera India, best known for showcasing the mindboggling facts of India and Indians. The series featured Kalaripayattu maestro Meenakshi Amma also fondly known as “Samurai Amma” who received over 10 million views on Facebook within three months. The buzz generated by the videos help propel the Kalaripayattu exponent to internet sensation to Padma Shri winner.

    FYI TV18 was rewarded for their interactive social media campaign called AMA (Ask Me Anything) – ‘KuchBhiPoochhofy’ by Chetan Bhagat and Chef Vicky Ratnani, a platform for all the impending answers to the viewers’ questions. The campaign ‘KuchBhiPoochhofy’ was trending nationwide for over 5 hours where the hosts answered 40,000 questions and attracted 8.34 million people online.

    The BBC Knowledge Digital Marketers’ Awards are designed to recognize exceptional work done by the marketing fraternity to take their brands into the digital era. These awards recognize and reward leaders for the pioneering job of online asset creation amongst their peer-set for their brands. The entries are judged by an exceptional jury who not only look at results but also the leadership ability in creating an innovative marketing environment that has the ability to change the game for the branding and marketing industry.

  • Times TV gets into a gunfight with CNBC TV18 on Budget Day claims

    MUMBAI: There’s a gunfight on in Indian news television town. And, the gunslingers are: Times Television Network and TV18’s CNBC TV18.

    CNBC TV18 drew its gun first claiming that the channel had created unprecedented highs in viewership on budget day (1 February) cornering almost 86 per cent of English business news channel viewership as against 10 per cent for arch rival ET Now and four per cent by the others. And it made a lot of noise about it online and in print and outdoor media.

    Times Television Network has retaliated crying foul and has written letters to the sheriffs of news TV town – that is the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), BARC, the Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Indian Society of Advertisers. (The letters are in the possession of indiantelevision.com).

    According to Times Television Network, its ET Now team observed a sudden spike in CNBC TV18’s reach to 2,289,000 as against an average of 289,000 over the previous thirteen weeks. This points to a manipulation of its viewership, states Times TV in a communication with indantelevision.com.

    How did CNBC TV18 allegedly achieve this?

    ET Now says its fiercest competitor allegedly “resorted to replacing the feeds of its network/bouquet channels with the feed of CNBC TV18, in the networks of MSOs like GTPL, InCable, E-Infra, Kaizen, Digicable, Manthan, Barasat, Meghbela.”

    And its communication has a list of cable TV networks detailing the channels that were allegedly replaced in each territory with CNBC TV18.

    “This helped it get an unfair advantage over the other competing channels… such an unnatural increase in the rating was not due to the channel’s coverage or the relevance of the day’s programming,” it further alleges in the email to indiantelevision.com. “The rating system of BARC captured the ratings of all the parallel LCNs on various networks and reported the same collectively as ratings for CNBC TV18. This was not just an addition to the regular and normal rating of the existing channel, but also a multiplication of the ratings, causing a sharp and unnatural spike. This fact could be corroborated by comparing the ratings of the regional channels – Colours and ETV, especially in the territories of Delhi, Bengaluru, Maharashtra, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, as these channels saw a drop in their ratings on Budget day.”

    Times Television Network has urged the associations “to investigate and take action against TV18 and direct them not to indulge in such practices as it doesn’t only damage the reputation of broadcasters, but also causes disruption among them. Let’s hope this case serves as a precedent against using such unwarranted methods in the industry.”

    Indiantelevision.com reached out to the corporate communications team at Network18 and got a point-blank denial on the allegation that it resorted to dirty tricks on Budget Day.

    “We are not aware of any such complaint, nor have we received any communication in this regard. CNBC-TV18 has always been at the forefront when it comes to the Union Budget coverage and has been a leader on the Budget day even in the past. Viewers chose to watch our channel because of the content and we believe in investing in our channel to ensure quality is maintained. Any suggestion that we have used unfair means is a false propaganda by competition to justify their dismal performance. We disapprove of anyone spreading rumours about us and accept the viewer’s choice.”

    TV viewership monitor BARC acknowledged that it had got a letter from Times Television Network highlighting the alleged CNBC TV 18 Budget Day tactics.

    A spokesperson explained that “broadcasters may opt to make their channel (s) available on more than one slot/frequency on a particular distribution platform for a variety of reasons: such decisions are entirely within the domain of the broadcaster and distribution platform (DTH, cable etc). Regulatory issues pertaining to this, if any, would lie within the domain of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) and/or the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Pre-empting or stopping broadcasters from making efforts to raise visibility of their channels is not within our remit. Our mandate is to measure what people watch and for how long. We strictly follow Government of India guidelines on the matter.”

    “By virtue of its mandate, and the technology deployed, BARC India measures viewership of a watermarked channel, irrespective of the platform it is available on, and also the number of instances within that platform. As long as all/multiple feeds carry the same unique watermark, BARC India’s Bar-o-Meters would read all of them as one channel and we would report its ratings as a single channel. In effect, multiple instances of a channel on a single platform is not very dissimilar to its availability across multiple platforms, or distribution modes.”

    In the past, networks such as Star India have simulcast cricket on many of its channels. It did the same for its Aamir Khan hosted show Satyamev Jayate which was also aired on Doordarshan and in different languages on its various regional channels as well as on Eenadu TV.

    Will Times TV Network take BARC’s response at face value? Or will it go further and seek to change the way the latter monitors and reports viewership? Or will it continue its fight by going to TRAI and the MIB? Or will the Times TV Network and other broadcast network managements learn from CNBC TV18’s Budget Day tactics and also go for roadblocks on distribution platforms for select events on a channel?

    Clearly, the last of the bullets has not been fired in this gun battle.

    Also Read:

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/viewership/news-channels-across-genres-see-rise-in-ratings-cnbc-tv18-leads-in-viewership-170203

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/news-broadcasting/barc-india-suspends-three-errant-channels-review-161125

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/viewership/whether-barc-action-can-stop-unethical-practices-161021

    http://www.indiantelevision.com/specials/year-enders/barc-india-gets-thumbs-up-for-2016but-challenges-remain-170111

  • Goel & Dhoot speak Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger

    Goel & Dhoot speak Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger

    MUMBAI: It was earlier this year that mainstream media was going berserk with the speculation that India’s largest pay TV operator Dish TV was going to acquire the the Dhoot family run rival DTH service Videocon d2h. Repeated denials by Dish TV did nothing to restrain hacks from reporting that an acquisition was almost done. But the facts are out now. Speaking to CNBC TV18 last weekend Dish TV India managing director Jawahar Goel said that “the arrangement of the scheme is merger and we never envisaged a buyout.” Which is probably why most journos got it wrong.

    Goel informed CNBC TV18 that he would be chairman & managing director of the new entity, while Saurabh Dhoot will be the deputy managing director. The Dhoot family can also appoint another nominee as vice-chairman of the board. The merger will result in a new pay TV operator with 27.6 million subscribers, commanding 16 per cent or so of the Indian pay TV market.

    “The two brands Dish TV and Videocon d2h will continue to operate as distinct brands in the market,” Dhoot clarified to the business news channel.

    He added that “both the families – the Goel family and the Dhoot family are very closely associated since a decade, this is really a family affair.”

    Post the merger, Dish TV and the public will end up with 36 per cent equity each, while Videocon d2h will have 28 per cent of the equity of Dish TV Videocon. Dhoot further clarified that “Dish TV shareholders would comprise of in terms of ownership of the new entity of 55.4 percent and so around 45 percent would be owned by Videocon D2H shareholders. Dish TV shareholders would own something like 1066 million shares, Videocon d2hshareholders would own 857 million shares and this is an all stock combination swap ratio reflecting the relative values of each business across operating like financial and trading metrics. So subscribers and subscriber addition is factored in, revenue, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and growth is factored in and trading metrics are also factored in, so the combination combine Dish’ scale and profitability with d2h scale and growth and the scale and efficiency benefit emanating from such a combination will be a win-win for all stakeholders.”

    Goel pointed out that the merger will likely take around seven to eight months and the benefits of the reasonably debt cost that Dish TV enjoys will be passed on to the merged entity. Said he: (The debt) will be around Rs 2,100 crore and EBITDA as reported in the last financial numbers in the past it is around Rs 1,800-1,900 crore…. and the debt will definitely will be the Dish TV debt, which will be coming at the same price or a better price going forward – – so the problem of high cost of debt should not be there.”

    But, most importantly, added Dhoot that “the merger would lead to significant cost synergies as well as enhance our ability to grow alternate revenue streams like carriage, advertising, value added services, new channel launches and these are all highly margin accretive. So the proposed combination shall create scale benefits for all stakeholders. There will be better growth opportunities for employees, sales and service networks, larger distribution network, but from an economic standpoint for our shareholders, which includes the existing Dish TV and Videocon D2H shareholders the merged entity will drive value unlocking from combine sourcing, purchasing, product development, improved distribution, customer service and net support, network and infrastructure consolidation and capex. “

    Clearly, one plus one could end up being more than two in this case.

  • Goel & Dhoot speak Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger

    Goel & Dhoot speak Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger

    MUMBAI: It was earlier this year that mainstream media was going berserk with the speculation that India’s largest pay TV operator Dish TV was going to acquire the the Dhoot family run rival DTH service Videocon d2h. Repeated denials by Dish TV did nothing to restrain hacks from reporting that an acquisition was almost done. But the facts are out now. Speaking to CNBC TV18 last weekend Dish TV India managing director Jawahar Goel said that “the arrangement of the scheme is merger and we never envisaged a buyout.” Which is probably why most journos got it wrong.

    Goel informed CNBC TV18 that he would be chairman & managing director of the new entity, while Saurabh Dhoot will be the deputy managing director. The Dhoot family can also appoint another nominee as vice-chairman of the board. The merger will result in a new pay TV operator with 27.6 million subscribers, commanding 16 per cent or so of the Indian pay TV market.

    “The two brands Dish TV and Videocon d2h will continue to operate as distinct brands in the market,” Dhoot clarified to the business news channel.

    He added that “both the families – the Goel family and the Dhoot family are very closely associated since a decade, this is really a family affair.”

    Post the merger, Dish TV and the public will end up with 36 per cent equity each, while Videocon d2h will have 28 per cent of the equity of Dish TV Videocon. Dhoot further clarified that “Dish TV shareholders would comprise of in terms of ownership of the new entity of 55.4 percent and so around 45 percent would be owned by Videocon D2H shareholders. Dish TV shareholders would own something like 1066 million shares, Videocon d2hshareholders would own 857 million shares and this is an all stock combination swap ratio reflecting the relative values of each business across operating like financial and trading metrics. So subscribers and subscriber addition is factored in, revenue, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and growth is factored in and trading metrics are also factored in, so the combination combine Dish’ scale and profitability with d2h scale and growth and the scale and efficiency benefit emanating from such a combination will be a win-win for all stakeholders.”

    Goel pointed out that the merger will likely take around seven to eight months and the benefits of the reasonably debt cost that Dish TV enjoys will be passed on to the merged entity. Said he: (The debt) will be around Rs 2,100 crore and EBITDA as reported in the last financial numbers in the past it is around Rs 1,800-1,900 crore…. and the debt will definitely will be the Dish TV debt, which will be coming at the same price or a better price going forward – – so the problem of high cost of debt should not be there.”

    But, most importantly, added Dhoot that “the merger would lead to significant cost synergies as well as enhance our ability to grow alternate revenue streams like carriage, advertising, value added services, new channel launches and these are all highly margin accretive. So the proposed combination shall create scale benefits for all stakeholders. There will be better growth opportunities for employees, sales and service networks, larger distribution network, but from an economic standpoint for our shareholders, which includes the existing Dish TV and Videocon D2H shareholders the merged entity will drive value unlocking from combine sourcing, purchasing, product development, improved distribution, customer service and net support, network and infrastructure consolidation and capex. “

    Clearly, one plus one could end up being more than two in this case.

  • Q2-17: New initiatives lower TV18 operating profit

    Q2-17: New initiatives lower TV18 operating profit

    BENGALURU: The Mukesh Ambani group-owned TV18 Broadcast Limited (TV18) reported operating profit of Rs 9.1 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2016 (Q2-17, current quarter) as compared to Rs 10.8 crore in the corresponding year-ago quarter. The company says in its earnings release that excluding the impact of new initiatives, the operating profit for the quarter was Rs. 21.2 crore.

    The company’s consolidated gross revenue including proportionate share of joint ventures (JV) in Q2-17 increased 8.6 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 653.47 crore as compared to Rs 608.53 crore. TV18’s total income from operations (TIO) in the current quarter increased 5.3 per cent y-o-y to Rs 239.83 crore as compared to Rs 227,68 crore.

    Consolidated media operations segment revenue (including share of JV) in the current quarter increased 14.4 per cent to Rs 647.19 crore as compared to Rs 565.91 crore in the corresponding year-ago quarter. The segment’s operating profit was just a fraction of the corresponding year ago period at Rs 1.33 crore as compared to Rs 19.75 crore.

    TV18 says that during the quarter the group remained in investment mode to position it well for the future. The information and entertainment bouquet was revamped with new launches, talent pool beefed up and accent was placed on creating/curating high quality content for both TV and digital media. Segment loss before interest and tax on a consolidated basis including the performance of joint ventures stood at Rs. 3 crore for the quarter versus. segment profit of Rs. 24.7 crore in Q2-16. Excluding the impact of new initiatives and one-time expense, the segment profit for the quarter was Rs.70.1 crore

    Film Production and Distribution segment reported 79.8 percent y-o-y drop in revenue at Rs 8.60 crore in Q2-17 as compared to Rs 42.62 crore. The segment reported operating loss of Rs 2.90 crore as against an operating profit of Rs 1.90 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2015.

  • Q2-17: New initiatives lower TV18 operating profit

    Q2-17: New initiatives lower TV18 operating profit

    BENGALURU: The Mukesh Ambani group-owned TV18 Broadcast Limited (TV18) reported operating profit of Rs 9.1 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2016 (Q2-17, current quarter) as compared to Rs 10.8 crore in the corresponding year-ago quarter. The company says in its earnings release that excluding the impact of new initiatives, the operating profit for the quarter was Rs. 21.2 crore.

    The company’s consolidated gross revenue including proportionate share of joint ventures (JV) in Q2-17 increased 8.6 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 653.47 crore as compared to Rs 608.53 crore. TV18’s total income from operations (TIO) in the current quarter increased 5.3 per cent y-o-y to Rs 239.83 crore as compared to Rs 227,68 crore.

    Consolidated media operations segment revenue (including share of JV) in the current quarter increased 14.4 per cent to Rs 647.19 crore as compared to Rs 565.91 crore in the corresponding year-ago quarter. The segment’s operating profit was just a fraction of the corresponding year ago period at Rs 1.33 crore as compared to Rs 19.75 crore.

    TV18 says that during the quarter the group remained in investment mode to position it well for the future. The information and entertainment bouquet was revamped with new launches, talent pool beefed up and accent was placed on creating/curating high quality content for both TV and digital media. Segment loss before interest and tax on a consolidated basis including the performance of joint ventures stood at Rs. 3 crore for the quarter versus. segment profit of Rs. 24.7 crore in Q2-16. Excluding the impact of new initiatives and one-time expense, the segment profit for the quarter was Rs.70.1 crore

    Film Production and Distribution segment reported 79.8 percent y-o-y drop in revenue at Rs 8.60 crore in Q2-17 as compared to Rs 42.62 crore. The segment reported operating loss of Rs 2.90 crore as against an operating profit of Rs 1.90 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2015.

  • Arun Thapar joins A+ENetworks|TV18

    Arun Thapar joins A+ENetworks|TV18

    MUMBAI: The factual entertainment genre in India is observing some flux with new channel launches as well as professional movements. Last week, indiantelevision.com reported that Discovery Networks programming head Arun Thapar had resigned from the network he was associated with for five years.

    Now, the news is that Thapar is hopping on board A+ENetworks|TV18. He will serve the network as executive vice president programming with immediate effect.

    Thapar will be heading the creative content of the network’s two factual entertainment channels- History TV18 and FYI TV18. According to sources, his initial main focus will be on building a strong and localised content library for the recently launched channel, FYI TV18.

    At Discovery he led a cross functional team for programming strategy and planning, content sourcing including acquisitions, scheduling, commissioning and executive production of all local India productions. He also played a role in contributing towards ad sales solutions, language customization and new channel launches with a view to grow the Discovery portfolio and strengthening its leadership in nonfiction entertainment.

    Stay tuned for more updates……

  • Arun Thapar joins A+ENetworks|TV18

    Arun Thapar joins A+ENetworks|TV18

    MUMBAI: The factual entertainment genre in India is observing some flux with new channel launches as well as professional movements. Last week, indiantelevision.com reported that Discovery Networks programming head Arun Thapar had resigned from the network he was associated with for five years.

    Now, the news is that Thapar is hopping on board A+ENetworks|TV18. He will serve the network as executive vice president programming with immediate effect.

    Thapar will be heading the creative content of the network’s two factual entertainment channels- History TV18 and FYI TV18. According to sources, his initial main focus will be on building a strong and localised content library for the recently launched channel, FYI TV18.

    At Discovery he led a cross functional team for programming strategy and planning, content sourcing including acquisitions, scheduling, commissioning and executive production of all local India productions. He also played a role in contributing towards ad sales solutions, language customization and new channel launches with a view to grow the Discovery portfolio and strengthening its leadership in nonfiction entertainment.

    Stay tuned for more updates……

  • TV18 Q1 2016-17: New investments lead to losses

    TV18 Q1 2016-17: New investments lead to losses

    MUMBAI: When you invest in new launches, relaunches, on talent and digital products without additional cash being pumped in, it obviously is going to hurt your bottom-line.

    That’s exactly what’s happened to TV18 Broadcast, which has reported a consolidated segment revenue (including proportionate share of joint ventures considered for segment reports) of Rs 606.7 crore in Q1 to June 2016 as compared to Rs 596.7 core in the year ago period. But it has turned out a loss of Rs 14.1 crore as against a profit of Rs 8.6 crore in the same period last year.

    Rebranding and relaunching of CNN-IBN as CNN-News18 cost the company Rs 3.5 crore. Three new news channels – News18 Kerala, News18 Tamil, News18 Assam/NE were flagged off in April 2016 and contributed Rs 13.9 crore to its operating losses. Rishtey CinePlex and over the top service Voot, which were launched in May 2016, and HD channels in Marathi, Kannada and Bangla that made a debut under Viacom18 in the quarter helped add to the aggregate operating losses to the tune of Rs 29.2 crore. Finally, factual entertainment channel FYI from the AETN18 stable launched 10 days ago reported a loss of Rs 5.4 crore which has been included in the April-June quarter.

    The company says that the segment loss before tax and before interest including performance of the joint ventures stands at Rs 19.1 crore. If one were to exclude the impact of these new initiatives , the segment profit for the business is at Rs 32.9 crore.

    TV18 has also moved to the Indian accounting standards (Ind-AS) from 1 April 2016 and it has restated its comparative results. Under this, its joint ventures Viacom18, Indiacast, and IBN Lokmat have been accounted under the equity method, the company says.

    Additionally, the company had included the financials of Prism TV Private Ltd as a subsidiary in the previous corresponding quarter but which have now been reported as a joint venture from August 2015 when it ceased to be an offshoot.

    Under Ind-AS (accounting for JVs under equity method), TV18’s consolidated revenue stands at Rs 210.7 crore in Q1 2016-2017 as against Rs 273.1 crore in the previous corresponding quarter.

    The company states that if one were to consider the operations of TV18 on a like for like basis, after factoring the change in status of Prism TV from a subsidiary to a joint venture, the growth in revenue is 18 per cent even as the operating loss is down to Rs 19 crore from Rs 22.2 crore in Q1 June 2015.

    TV18 chairman Adil Zainulbhai states in the earnings release that it is bullish about the media business – both linear and digital – and is investing heavily in it to position it for leadership. “…to be ahead of the curve…The results of these investments are starting to bear fruit and will help in healthy revenue growth and profits in the near future,” he says.

    The stock market seems to have taken the financial results and statements with a pinch of salt during trading hours. The TV18 stock shed some 13.5 per cent and closed at Rs 40.70 when trading ended.