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Tag: UK

  • Liberty-owned MSO Virgin Media to axe 900 jobs over 2 years

    Liberty-owned MSO Virgin Media to axe 900 jobs over 2 years

    MUMBAI: Liberty Global owned MSO Virgin Media is planning to axe as many as 900 jobs in the UK over the next two years.

     

    In this business reorganisation exercise, the company said it will now focus on network expansion. As a part of the restructuring, some employees will also be moved to other roles within the company.

     

    Virgin Media CEO Tom Mockridge “Over the last three years Virgin Media has been transformed. We’re expanding, investing and growing our business. The proposed reorganisation will give us an even sharper focus on the customer, network expansion and business growth.”

     

    Virgin Media, which is one of the UK’s biggest telecommunications brands, providing fixed and mobile telephone, TV, and broadband internet services, was bought by American tycoon John Malone’s Liberty Global in 2013 for ?15 billion.

  • ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ takes biggest ever opening weekend

    ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ takes biggest ever opening weekend

    MUMBAI: The opening weekend for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is officially the biggest in North American box office history, ahead of its India release on 25 December.

     
    The movie’s first weekend in theaters, the seventh film of the franchise brought in $238 million. The previous record-holder was Jurassic World, which made $208.8 million during its debut weekend over the summer.

     
    Globally, Star Wars brought in $517 million, coming in just under the $525 million that Jurassic World made. However, the latter had the advantage of opening in China as well; The Force Awakens doesn’t come out there until 9 January, 2016.

     
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted the highest Thursday preview gross ($57 million), the highest single-day and Friday gross ($120.5 million), and it is the first film to surpass $100 million in a single day. It also posted the highest theater average for a wide release with $57,568.

     
    Marking the biggest opening weekend ever in numerous key territories, including the UK, Germany, Australia, and Russia, Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted an estimated international opening weekend of $279 million (third highest reported opening weekend in industry history, behindJurassic World at $316 million including around $97 million China and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 at $314 million) and topping the previous December record held by Avatar ($164.5 million).

     
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens storm-trooped its way across the global landscape (except for China) this weekend to post an amazing estimated $517 million global gross.

     

    Star Wars: The Force Awakens also generated a record-breaking estimated $48 million from Imax screens globally, beating the previous Jurassic World record of $44 (which included China).

     

    Star Wars: The Force Awakens was on over 30,000 screens internationally this weekend. It opened at #1 in all markets throughout the world with the exception of Korea and Vietnam, where it was the #1 western films.

     

    In the Asia-Pacific, the movie raked in $75.7 million, whereas in Latin America, it totted $36.0 million.

     
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens is directed by JJ Abrams and stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

     

    The movie opens in India on 25 December in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

  • BBC inks partnership with Hull City of Culture 2017

    BBC inks partnership with Hull City of Culture 2017

    MUMBAI: The BBC has inked a new partnership with Hull City of Culture 2017. It will mean the BBC will provide significant regional, national and international coverage of Hull’s year as the UK’s City of Culture.

     

    The BBC will also commission a substantial raft of new content to showcase the arts and produce a major programme of activity in 2017.

     

    BBC director general Tony Hall said the BBC would play a crucial role promoting UK City of Culture in 2017.

     

    Hall said, “I’m proud to announce our partnership today. The BBC is going to be unashamedly ‘Hull-centric’ in 2017. We are really looking forward to working with the city to create something very special for audiences across the UK and around the world. I recently set out our case for an open, enabling BBC that supports creativity in all kinds of ways. I want the BBC to be at the heart of Hull’s big year because I recognise that by working closely together as equal partners we can achieve so much more.”

     

    The BBC’s activities for 2017 will include:

     

    1) A world-class celebration of poetry, performance and the spoken word – shaped and made in Hull and inspired by the city’s rich poetry heritage, which includes the likes of Andrew Marvell and Philip Larkin.

    2) BBC Learning will be working with schools and organisations across Hull to deliver targeted projects to inspire and create educational opportunities for the city’s young people.

    3) BBC Writers Room will be looking for writers – new and established – to develop stories inspired by Hull.

    4) Some of the BBC’s biggest events will go to Hull during 2017 and the BBC will create new ones.

     

    Further details will be released in the coming year.

     

    The BBC has already begun building its presence in Hull. On 31 October and 1 November, CBBC Live and Digital will take place in Hull city centre. It will be a weekend of live broadcasts and digital activities aimed children and their families. The event is part of BBC Make it Digital – the BBC’s initiative to inspire a new generation to get creative with coding, programming and digital technology.

     

    Earlier this year, the BBC’s Make It Digital roadshow attracted 17,000 visitors at the Hull Freedom Festival. BBC Radio 4 is currently broadcasting Hull comedian Lucy Beaumont’s first radio project, To Hull And Back, which also stars Maureen Lipman. Earlier this month, BBC Four broadcast a documentary about Philip Larkin, which formed part of the BBC’s poetry season.

     

    The BBC’s Hull-based regional platforms, including BBC Radio Humberside and BBC Look North, are already providing comprehensive coverage of plans for Hull 2017.

     

    Hull City of Culture CEO Martin Green said, “It’s wonderful to have the BBC, the world’s greatest cultural organisation, on board for Hull 2017. Our partnership with the BBC will allow us to engage the entire country and encourage people across Britain to look again at Hull and think again about what culture really is.”

  • Sky is UK’s best-performing pay TV provider in Q2 2015: Ofcom

    Sky is UK’s best-performing pay TV provider in Q2 2015: Ofcom

    MUMBAI: Of all the pay TV providers in the UK, Sky is the only company to generate fewer complaints than the industry average (0.01 per 1,000 customers) and was named the best-performing pay TV provider according to independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries – Ofcom.

     

    TalkTalk became the most complained about pay TV provider. Their complaints volume increased to 0.14 per 1,000 customers, compared to 0.12 in Q1 2015. The main reasons for TalkTalk complaints were fault, service and provision issues (36 per cent), billing, pricing and charges (28 per cent) and issues relating to complaints handling (17 per cent).

     

    In Q2 2015, BT saw a reduction in complaint volumes, generating 0.11 complaints per 1,000 customers, compared to 0.15 in Q1 2015. Virgin Media’s complaints volume increased to 0.05 per 1,000 customers, compared to 0.04 in in Q1 2015.

     

    In landline telephone services, EE continued to generate the highest volume of landline complaints as a proportion of its customer base (0.34 per 1,000 customers). Others like Post Office HomePhone, Plusnet and TalkTalk also generated landline complaint volumes above the industry average, whereas BT was broadly in line with the industry average. Sky and Virgin Media were the only providers with complaints volumes below the industry average.

     

    For broadband services too, EE generated the most complaints. BT and Plusnet both saw reductions in their complaint volumes since Q1 2015, Virgin Media complaints were below the industry average, whereas Sky had the lowest complaints volume for broadband.

     

    In mobile pay-monthly services, Vodafone continued to be the most complained about mobile provider in Q2 2015. The main drivers of Vodafone complaints were problems with billing, pricing and charges (34 per cent), complaints handling (27 per cent) and concerns around faults, service and provision (17 per cent).

     

    Ofcom published data on the volume of consumer complaints made against the major providers of telecoms and pay TV services. The latest report covers the three-month period from April to June 2015 (Q2), and includes complaints made about 13 providers of fixed line telephone, fixed line broadband, pay monthly mobile and pay TV services.

     

    The total volume of telecoms and pay TV complaints made to Ofcom continued to decrease in Q2 2015, even as the number of consumers taking up these services increased.

     

    Broadband, mobile pay-as-you-go and mobile pay monthly services saw the most notable reductions in total volume of complaints.

     

    Total complaints volumes for fixed line telephone and pay TV services remained at similar levels to Q1 2015. Broadband services continued to attract the most complaints, albeit at lower levels than previously.

     

    Ofcom Content and Consumer Group director Claudio Pollack said, “Our complaints data allow consumers to make meaningful comparisons that can be useful when looking for a new provider. While it’s encouraging to see a continued decrease in the total number of complaints, there is still room for improvement. We expect providers to make customer service and complaints handling top priorities.”

  • Will Apple’s iOS 9 adblocker kill mobile ads?

    Will Apple’s iOS 9 adblocker kill mobile ads?

    With online privacy becoming a growing global concern, adblocking has risen in popularity among consumers over the past couple of years. To date, adblocking has largely been confined to desktop, but this week it comes to mobile with the release of iOS 9, which will come with integrated options for Content (read ‘advertising’) Blocking built-in.

     

    The issue of online privacy is not just about brands seeing what consumers are up to online; people are also concerned about their family knowing what they are doing online. Predictably, this is largely about pornography. According to Thinkbox research last year in the UK, 16-34s now spend 15 minutes a day watching porn and don’t want to reveal this private browsing behaviour.

     

    But it is the issue of advertising personalisation, targeting and retargeting that concerns our industry, and various desktop tools and systems have emerged to counter these activities. ZenithOptimedia’s recent research with GlobalWebIndex across 34 markets and 200,000 panellists highlights the take-up of privacy products:

     

    1. Almost half the global internet population (46 per cent) has used ‘private browsing’

    2. 40 per cent have deleted cookies so that websites can’t track their behaviour

    3. 27 per cent have used an adblocker so that brands can’t track and serve personalised advertising

    4. 15 per cent have used anti-tracking software that combines all three of the above into one.

     

    So, adblocking is a clear issue for our industry. iOS 9 will enable people to switch on adblocking at the device level. The effect though will be to block ads that appear within the browser. As well as keeping a person’s mobile web activities private, mobile adblocking will have the added twofold benefit of speeding up page-load times (important on mobile) and reducing data charges (even more important).

     

    Understandably there is much consternation among the advertising fraternity, particularly on the publisher side. However the concern is somewhat misplaced, certainly from a marketer’s perspective. The reason for this is that the majority of mobile adblockers will work on mobile browsers but not in-app. And 84 per cent of mobile time spent is in-app (source: Flurry). With that in mind the initial impact of iOS9 will be limited. In the longer term, though, we see the impact of iOS9 Content Blocking being threefold:

     

    1. It will accelerate the demise of the mobile web banner. This no bad thing and it is frankly surprising that the banner (a legacy format of the desktop environment) ever made its way onto mobile devices in the first place.

     

    2. It will accelerate the growth of native in-app mobile advertising (e.g. newsfeed advertising). This advertising is by definition integrated with the user interface and therefore a better experience, generally yielding better results for advertisers too. We have adjusted our spend forecasts based on the Apple announcement: native to represent 25 per cent of display advertising by 2017 globally (source: ZenithOptimedia).

     

    3. As a result of points 1 and 2, the creative/production process will need to adapt to take account of the rise of native formats and the move away from standardised formats.

     

    DISCLAIMER: The author of this article is ZenithOptimedia chief digital officer. The article has been sourced from ZenithOptimedia’s website. The views expressed here are purely personal views of the author and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to them.

  • FremantleMedia picks up 25% stake in Simon Andreae’s Naked Entertainment

    FremantleMedia picks up 25% stake in Simon Andreae’s Naked Entertainment

    MUMBAI: FremantleMedia has taken a 25 per cent stake in Simon Andreae’s newly formed production company Naked Entertainment.

     

    Based in London, Naked Entertainment will develop original entertainment, factual, and factual entertainment formats, with series and one-off specials. The deal will further strengthen FremantleMedia’s content pipeline for the UK and global distribution market.

     

    FremantleMedia CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz said, “We are actively looking for the right companies and talent to expand and strengthen our business. Simon is one of the industry’s preeminent factual entertainment producers with a long history of delivering hits with global appeal. He already has a strong development slate and I’m really pleased to be partnering with him to bring his projects to audiences around the world.”

     

    Andreae added, “I’m excited to be back in the UK and delighted to be partnering with FremantleMedia, whose depth of experience and breadth of reach in entertainment programming is unrivalled. Naked, as the name suggests, aims to be provocative and risk-taking – but also kind of simple and straightforward –  producing content designed to attract, surprise, and I hope delight audiences both in the UK and overseas.”

     

    Andreae was most recently at Fox Broadcasting’s Alternative Entertainment as executive vice president in the US. Here, he oversaw all the network’s unscripted series and specials, including MasterChef, Hell’s Kitchen, So You Think You Can Dance, World’s Funniest Fails, Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution, and Hilary Swank’s Cause for Paws.

     

    Prior to Fox, he was senior vice president, development and production, for Discovery, where he developed ratings hits Naked and Afraidand Fast N Loud, as well as supervised the multi-award winning Curiosity series hosted by Stephen Hawking, Donald Trump, and Samuel L Jackson, among others.

     

    He was also a founding partner of UK indie Optomen Television, helping grow it into one of the UK’s largest non-scripted prod-cos with a broad mix of programming including Police, Camera, Action!, The Naked Chef, Anatomy of Desire and Gore Vidal’s American Presidency.

  • Akshay Kumar supports the Global Goals campaign

    Akshay Kumar supports the Global Goals campaign

    MUMBAI: Actor Akshay Kumar is the first Indian personality to get behind the #dizzygoals challenge in support of a campaign to make the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development famous. 

     

    Global Goals, which will be launching its campaign on 26 September, are a series of ambitious targets to end extreme poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change for everyone by 2030 which will be agreed at the United Nations General Assembly by 193 world leaders. 

     

    Using the connection of ‘goals’, the dizzy goals challenge invites personalities and the public to run around a ball until they’re dizzy and then to try score a goal.  

     

    The #dizzygoals for The Global Goals campaign is already breaking the internet as some of the world’s leading footballers were challenged to shoot a dizzy penalty. Real Madrid FC and Wales national football team’s Midfielder Gareth Bale took the first dizzy penalty challenge for The Global Goals. He was followed by former footballer Gary Lineker OBE, former England striker Alan Shearer OBE and Liverpool Football Club players Jordon Ibe and Joe Gomez. 

     

    In India, Abhishek Bachchan’s Indian Super League (ISL) team Chennaiyin FC also took the dizzy goals challenge. 

     

     

    This was the second time Kumar took the hilarious challenge, this time in Dorset, UK whilst shooting for Housefull 3. The #dizzygoals challenge left India’s undisputed action hero no less than dizzy. In the video Jacqueline Fernandez is also seen cheering him along.  

     

     

    The Global Goals campaign, aims to make the Global Goals the most famous Goals on the planet by sharing them with seven billion people in seven days from the moment they are adopted (26 September – 2 October). The more people that know about the Goals, the more people will work to ensure global leaders drive change and the more young people will be inspired to join a new generation of Global Citizens.

  • Viacom18 broadens reach with Rishtey Asia launch; rebrands channel in UK, US

    Viacom18 broadens reach with Rishtey Asia launch; rebrands channel in UK, US

    MUMBAI: Viacom 18 has launched the Asian version of its Hindi variety entertainment channel Rishtey, which will be beamed across 20 countries in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region.

     

    Additionally, the network has also rebranded Rishtey in the UK and US to Rishtey Europe and Rishtey Americas. 

     

    The content on the channels is specially curated with shows catering to the specific needs of the viewers in the respective regions.

     

    IndiaCast group CEO Anuj Gandhi said, “After receiving an encouraging response from viewers in the UK and US, we are now looking at expanding our reach in the APAC, Middle East & Africa regions. Rishtey Asia is a wholesome entertainment channel, which connects everyone in the family making it a preferred entertainment destination for viewers. With the channel now being available across twenty countries, we are strengthening our ties with distribution networks to engage with a larger audience segment.”

     

    In Australia and New Zealand, Rishtey Asia will be available on Vision Asia, Yupp TV, Lebara Media Sevices. The channel will further be available on Eitisalat, Du and Yupp TV in the Middle East, Azam TV, Space TV and Mauritius Telecom in Africa, Digital System of Nepal in Nepal, and Scan International Company in Thailand.

     

    IndiaCast business head – Middle East & Africa Sachin Gokhale added, “We have thoroughly studied the content need gaps existing in the South Asian TV space in Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions and through Rishtey, have created a unique channel with carefully handpicked content that will fill those gaps and deliver never before seen entertainment to our viewers. The channel has carefully put together the best content across various genres ranging from drama, lifestyle and kids, to youth and blockbuster Hindi movies, giving the discerning viewer access to new and exciting content options. Our content is conducive to creative marketing campaigns, and through the insights provided by our research team, we hope to mobilize and engage audiences online and offline.”

     

    Speaking on the re-branding of Rishtey Europe and Rishtey Americas, Gandhi said, “Through the rebranding exercise, we have carefully aggregated a diverse programming line-up across genres, bringing together an eclectic mix of shows not only from the Viacom18 bouquet of offerings, but also syndicated from broadcasters across the globe. We are confident that geo-targeting the content for Rishtey Europe and Rishtey Americas will enable us to further engage with our viewers.”

     

    Rishtey Europe is currently available on Freeview, Sky, Virgin, Freesat and leading OTT platforms, whereas Rishtey Americas is available on Dish and Sling in USA, Flow in the Caribbean region (Trinidad & Tobago) and Bell and Rogersin Canada.

     

    “Our business has grown more than four times in last three and half years, and 30 – 35 per cent of our revenue comes from global business,” Gandhi informed.

     

    Colors & Rishtey CEO Raj Nayak added, “Since its inception in 2012, Rishtey, as a brand, has adapted its content, to regional viewer preferences, which has struck a favourable chord in UK, USA and Canada. We are confident that the new content line-up will appeal to our regional viewers in the respective markets and further add to the success of the channels given the widespread appeal of the channel across-age groups. We believe that the time is right for us to elevate the positioning and programming line-up of Rishtey Europe and Rishtey Americas.”

     

    The content line-up on Rishtey Europe and Rishtey Americas includes young love stories Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan, Turkish drama Pabband Ishq, period drama Siyaasat and the Pakistani show Nail Polish.

     

    The channel will also offer kids’ content Luv Kush and Krishna Balram giving regional viewers a flavour of Indian mythology. Bollywood films like Hasee Toh Phasee, I Love New Year, and Bombay Talkies amongst others will also be available for viewers.

     

    If consumers want only regional content of a particular language, they need to subscribe to the base pack first and then choose the specific pack, a system that can certainly get disrupted by the OTT development. “OTT players will bring in huge change in the ecosystem as it gives consumer the total control of paying for particular content. Australia is an example of that where in people have shifted to OTT and IPTV. Niche channels will see a huge growth with the establishment of OTT players,” informed Gandhi.

  • Vision247 acquires Synapse TV; Mike Alexanxder named MD

    Vision247 acquires Synapse TV; Mike Alexanxder named MD

    NEW DELHI: Broadcast services expert Vision247 has acquired interactive TV application and services specialist Synapse TV.

     

    Vision247’s Connected Freeview services, including the VisionTV multi-channel portal, are operated by Synapse TV. The two organisations have been working closely for some time now. 

     

    Synapse – previously a subsidiary of Strategy & Technology (S&T) – has developed a sophisticated suite of technologies that allows interactive TV applications to be deployed quickly and cost-effectively. The majority of Synapse’s TV applications have been for MHEG-based platforms such as UK Freeview, but Synapse also now provides solutions for browser-based technologies such as HbbTV that are used in a growing number of markets worldwide.

     

    Vision247 CEO Petra Oblak said, “We took a lead in OTT delivery of linear content via Connected Freeview over three years ago, so we fully understand the unique opportunity this provides broadcasters to deliver their services via Freeview – the UK’s largest TV platform – at a fraction of the cost associated with traditional over-the-air (OTA) broadcasting. Knowing the class-leading technology, unwavering customer focus, supreme professionalism and unique expertise within Synapse, it was a natural move to bring the company under the Vision247 umbrella.”

     

    Synapse will operate as an independent business and continue under the leadership of Mike Alexander, who has been named managing director of Synapse TV.

     

    The existing Synapse engineering team will be based at Vision247’s brand new facility at Chiswick Park, London. In addition to his Synapse role, Mike Alexander will also take up the position of commercial director at Vision247. 

     

    Alexander said, “I’m hugely excited by the combined opportunities resulting from this acquisition. Not only will we continue to provide broadcasters and media owners with the ability to deliver content to many millions of Connected Freeview homes in the UK, together we can provide a complete, fully-integrated end-to-end service and are ideally placed to serve the growing market for delivery of content to TVs and mobile devices.”

     

    S&T will maintain a minority interest in Synapse while continuing to focus on its world renowned carousel generation solutions as well as its well established business supplying MHEG engines to digital TV receiver manufacturers around the world. 

     

    S&T co-founder and MD David Cutts said, “Vison247 and Synapse are service-orientated operations with significant synergies and complimentary offerings. I know that the TV application business we have built up over recent years will flourish under Vision247’s ownership.”

     

    Synapse-operated services on Freeview currently include VuTV (channel 238), TVPlayer (241), VisionTV (244) and Planet Knowledge (245) with a number of additional services in the pipeline and scheduled to launch over the coming months.

  • BBC Global News rolls out ‘Be Everywhere’ campaign; targets advertisers

    BBC Global News rolls out ‘Be Everywhere’ campaign; targets advertisers

    MUMBAI: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Global News will take campaign launches to another level when it premieres its new trade campaign ‘Be Everywhere’ during ongoing Cannes Lions’ Lion Innovation to be held on 25 – 26 June.

     

    Using the latest in virtual reality technology, the channel will launch a dramatic new interactive trade campaign to showcase how it delivers personal, portable and on-demand news for the digital age. The campaign illustrates the innovative digital opportunities available to advertisers in a new and unique way.

     

    BBC Global News sales and marketing director Chris Davies tells indiantelevision.com, “The key message of the ‘Be Everywhere’ campaign is that we are undertaking a complete transformation of the BBC news experience; putting video and personalisation at the heart of what we deliver. And what better way to highlight our enhanced digital offer to potential and existing clients than to showcase how we use the latest technology. This is a first burst which we can build upon later in the year.”

     

    “The ‘Be Everywhere’ campaign positions BBC World News and BBC.com/news in a changing media landscape. It looks at the trends that have driven (and will continue to drive) the way people consume content and then provide insights into how BBC is developing its offer for audiences,” he adds.

     

    India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world and advertisers are focusing on the digital platforms to grab eyeballs. “In India bbc.com remains the #1 international news site reaching 3 million unique users, while clocking 13.7 million page views across desktop and mobile according to the latest Omniture data (April 2015 traffic). And we are among the top general news category websites in India which includes competition from India’s domestic sites. On TV we are available in more than 385 million households, globally. So as you can see this provides many opportunities for advertisers looking for a seamless multiplatform, innovative solution,” informs Davies.

     

    BBC will be targeting agencies and clients across UK, France, Central and Eastern Europe, UAE, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, USA and Canada, Latin America and Africa with the campaign.

     

    Emphasising on the target group for the campaign, Davies asserts, “Advertisers and agencies are our major target. We are sending out more 700 (cardboard) VR viewers via direct mail, along with an electronic direct mail to around another 15000 targets sharing the video. We have also developed more than 40 experiential (plastic) VR headsets offering the full immersive experience for use at global events.”

     

    The ‘Be Everywhere’ campaign was orchestrated by GNL’s trade marketing and proposition teams, with external creative support from gyro London, Inition and Wiseyeti.