ITV

Tag: UTV Action

  • UTV action packs in more power for fans

    UTV action packs in more power for fans

    MUMBAI: Home to a wide-range of high-octane movies across Hollywood, Bollywood, Asian and Regional cinema, UTV ACTION is the go-to linear channel offering uninterrupted dhamakedar entertainment to film aficionados. Now, the channel is all set to offer 100 plus new, adrenaline-rushing titles to its robust library to enhance an action lover’s movie watching experience further this month.

    UTV ACTION is already home to Marvel and offers the largest collection of titles from this universe in Hindi, featuring everyone’s favourite Super Heroes including The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man and more. Now, the channel has licensed rights to a diverse range of action flicks across genres.

    For fans who enjoy high-voltage drama, there’s a new, stellar line-up of dubbed versions of ‘South Indian hits’ featuring some of the biggest stars like Darshan, Dhanush, Sai Dharam Tej, Naga Chaitanya, Sudeep, Dhruva Sarja and more.

    In the ‘Martial Arts’ genre, there’s a slew of super hits by action legends Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and latest titles in the ‘Fantasy Action/ Adventure’ series is Stephen Chow’s Journey To The West 2, whose previous films, The Mermaid and Journey To The West 1, are among the most popular movies on UTV ACTION.

    That’s not all. Be prepared for more action as thrilling titles from popular franchises like Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Men in Black and Star Trek will be added to the extensive collection of UTV ACTION to keep action lovers glued to their cushy couches.

  • B4U Media Ventures to handle sales duties of Housefull Movies

    B4U Media Ventures to handle sales duties of Housefull Movies

    MUMBAI: The new 24×7 Free-To-Air (FTA) Hindi movie channel Housefull Movies launched by Triumph Media Vision Private Limited, has assigned its sales responsibilities to B4U Media Ventures.

     

    The channel has achieved almost four per cent viewership share in the northern market within a span of eight weeks since its launch and competes with the likes of Zee Classic, Zee Action and UTV Action.

     

    Housefull Movies MD Harish Patil said, “Being a new player with a content mix similar to the likes of second line Hindi movie channels and strong distribution, we aim to place Housefull movies as a full on filmipanti movie channel in the mind of the viewers and advertisers. The collaboration with B4U Media Ventures will aid in monetising our advertising inventory better, as we have seen the team’s ability to position the B4U group of channels in India within the minds of advertisers in a way that benefits both the advertisers and the channel.”

     

    B4U Media Ventures director Sandeep Gupta added, “With B4U Media Ventures we focus on creating a value proposition for the broadcasters and advertisers. We are proud to officially announce our first account and have faith in our team that they would be able to create new success stories. We are looking forward for a successful growth of the new association.”

     

    B4U Media Ventures CEO C. F. Moses said, “We are pleased to have Housefull Movies’ revenue mandate, which will be a strong contender in the movie genre in the coming months. Besides the exciting growth plan of Housefull Movies, the collaboration would help them in leveraging our domain knowledge, revenue management skills, and our industry relationships making it mutually beneficial.”

     

    B4U Media Ventures business head Amar Dixit said, “Despite the clutter in the movie genre, viewers have welcomed new launches last year. The robust content strategy of Housefull Movies, wide spread distribution and the consistent BARC numbers will give good returns to the advertisers and help in benefiting the channel revenues. Housefull Movies has tremendous potential and we are glad to be associated with it.” 

  • Disney India terminates distribution agreement with IndiaCast

    Disney India terminates distribution agreement with IndiaCast

    MUMBAI: Disney India has terminated its agency contract with IndiaCast Media Distribution, and has set up an internal team to manage the distribution for all eight of its channels.

     

    The channels under the company are Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Hungama TV, bindass, bindass PLAY, UTV Movies and UTV Action.

     

    All subscription and placement deals will now be done directly by its internal team with all platforms.

     

    “With the No.1 kids network, the No.1 youth network and one of the leading movie channel networks in the country, Disney India provides an exciting and diverse mix of high quality content for kids, youth and family audiences. Today’s dynamic distribution market and increasing pace of digitisation provides us with a huge opportunity for growth and scale. With a robust internal distribution team now in place, we believe we can drive significant value and further strengthen our already well-established relationships with MSOs, DTH Platforms and distribution partners,” said Disney India VP and head – revenues, media networks Nikhil Gandhi.

     

    It can be noted IndiaCast had filed a case against Disney India with The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) for wrongful termination on 28 July, 2015. TDSAT, on the other hand disqualified the case and asked IndiaCast to withdraw the case in 24 hours or it would dismiss it on 29 July. IndiaCast asked for an extension of another 24 hours to discuss and today (31 July), the case has been dismissed as withdrawn.

  • The whole movie acquisition game has gone for a toss

    The whole movie acquisition game has gone for a toss

    MUMBAI: In recent times, quite a few International as well as regional films have been dubbed into Hindi to wide commercial acclaim. Why are the channels acquiring the rights to air these foreign films or south Indian films, dub in Hindi and air on their channels at primetime? What might be the reason behind it?

     

    Bollywood blockbusters have become too expensive. These films revolve around just the top four to five male actors. Plus, a Bollywood blockbuster comes with a baggage. Bollywood producers have become aggregators. When they sell a blockbuster film, four to five smaller-budget films come in the package.

     

    For example, when Karan Johar sells television rights for his blockbuster, he sells it as a package along with a few of the films made under his banner by other directors. The smaller-budget films make no commercial sense for television channels.

     

    When Sony MAX bought the television rights for Dhoom 3, reportedly paying a very high price, the movie channel had to buy yet-to-be-released film like Bewakoofiyaan as part of the package.

     

    Also, the recall value of bollywood blockbusters now is low. A bollywood blockbuster which was aired on a television channel for the second time, the viewership rating was more than 75 per cent lower than the ratings garnered by the film at its television premier in October 2013.

     

    The big budget films being made now make their money in the first and second weekends. The films do not qualify for a second viewing.

     

    The economics of acquiring bollywood blockbusters first drove movie channels to dubbing English and south Indian languages films, largely action movies, in Hindi.

     

    Sony MAX, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Neeraj Vyas, has an interesting take on the matter. He says, “it is because acquisition of Hindi films has become so expensive. It is virtually impossible to keep buying those films. Everybody everybody has a limited budget. There is a cost that you incur for renewing your existing library. So there is very little money to keep buying those films.”

     

    “The whole movie acquisition game has gone for a toss,” says Vyas.

     

    Even the Hollywood action blockbusters do not come cheap. These films too are packaged by the studios along with older movies. Aggregation happens even when television rights are sold for Hollywood movies. And, a substantial part of the movies acquired along with blockbusters add to the worthless movie library.

     

    In an interesting turn of events, the south Indian films being dubbed into Hindi are gaining more traction as compared the international films.

     

    Disney India Director, Programming, Movie Channels, Kunal Mukherjee says Disney has witnessed a preference towards regional films, specifically south Indian language films dubbed in Hindi. “While certain international titles do work wonderfully with the audiences, south Indian films, if taken average, certainly work better.”

     

    Do the channels tend to follow a particular timeslot, for example, airing Chinese films dubbed in Hindi on weekends and south Indian films dubbed in Hindi on weekdays? On that Mukherjee states, “We understand our audiences and there is no specific viewing pattern that is followed for dubbed movies. UTV Action brings in content as per the audience preferences and entertains them with movies in the manner and language that is relevant to them.”

     

    What is the selection process of the films? “We are constantly listening to our viewers’ choices and for UTV Action, we consider the star cast of the movie along with the number of action scenes and the date of release for our library.”

     

    Regarding the audience demographic being aimed at, Mukherjee stated that, UTV Action is a movie channel which entertains audiences across all age groups with content which is acquired through various partners  and associates who own the intellectual properties of the film.

     

    Sony MAX’s Vyas says, “Almost 25-30 per cent of everybody’s FPC in a week comprises of south Indian dubs. South Indian dubs are very integral reality of composition of every Hindi movie channel. Those guys completely enjoy south Indian cinema.”

     

    Another up and coming movie channel &Pictures also has some exciting projects lined up. The channel is launching ‘Hollywood Sundays’ at 12:00 pm, starting 2 March, 2014, to bring the Asli Desi flavour.

  • Marvel Superhero debuts on UTV Action with the premiere of Iron Man I and 2

    Marvel Superhero debuts on UTV Action with the premiere of Iron Man I and 2

    MUMBAI: Gear up for an intense ride with Marvel’s highly anticipated epic superhero Iron Man in his armed suited glory with the premiere of ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Iron Man 2’ on UTV Action, India’s Home of the Warriors. Known to showcase the best of action flicks starring the world’s biggest heroes, UTV Action presents Marvel fans with their favourite legendary hero in action once more.

     

    Produced by Marvel studios, Iron Man is a superhero film about the billionaire philanthropist and industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who uses his intelligence and ingenuity to develop an invulnerable robotic suit to fight evil after a life-threatening incident.  Stark discovers a deadly conspiracy that could destabilize the entire globe, and dons his powerful new suit on a mission to stop the villains and save the world.

     

    In the high octane sequel Iron Man 2, the world is now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man and billionaire inventor Tony Stark faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts, and James Rhodes at his side, must forge new alliances – and confront powerful enemies who are on a quest to destroy Iron Man.

     

    Starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson this  Oscar nominated super hero sequel  and winner of the People’s Choice Award promises exhilarating action, smart comedy, fast-paced aerial stunts, dramatic energy and jaw dropping sequences.

     

    Don’t miss the thrilling action and catch the premiere of ‘Iron Man’ on 6th February and ‘Iron Man 2’ on 7th February at 8.45pm on UTV Action.

  • Prashant Madan bags Piyush Pandey Scholarship for Creative Leadership

    MUMBAI: Disney-UTV India creative director – marketing and on-air promotion Prashant Madan has been awarded the Piyush Pandey Scholarship for Creative Leadership.

    He will receive full tuition support in the amount of €53,000 to participate in the Berlin School of Creative Leadership EMBA Program starting in March 2013.

    Ogilvy & Mather India chairman Piyush Pandey said, “I am delighted that Prashant Madan has been selected by the Berlin School for the Scholarship. It was a very keenly contested process and it was extremely difficult to make the choice. It was Berlin School‘s robust procedure that made the final decision. I wish Prashant great success at the Berlin School. Make India proud boy!”

    The scholarship, which was only eligible to candidates of Indian descent and currently residing in India, was an opportunity established to honour Pandey‘s service and support of the Berlin School. The scholarship was designed to help support leadership in the creative industries in India and emphasises the importance that effective leadership has in achieving creative excellence.

    Berlin School Director Sheridan Johns said, “We‘re thrilled to welcome Prashant to the Berlin School. As the first EMBA program participant from India Prashant will add to the diversity of the global Berlin School community as well as provide a wealth of experience and exciting ideas that will enrich the learning experience for the whole class.”

    According to the official statement, this is the first scholarship the Berlin School has offered specifically aimed at the Indian creative industries.

    Madan has over 12 years in on-air promotion and original content creation in genres including Youth Entertainment, Reality Television, English and Hindu movies, Business News, Events, Game Shows and Sports. He has been responsible for the launch and on-air branding of entertainment channels like Sony PIX, UTV Bindass, UTV Stars, UTV Action and UTV Movies.

    “I am honored and delighted to have won a scholarship instituted in honor of Piyush Pandey, a leading light in India and a huge inspiration for all creative leaders. Attending the Berlin School will offer me a tremendous opportunity to sharpen my skills for leading creative communication and strategy change in India, and ultimately across the globe,” Madan said.

    Madan will begin his EMBA program studies in Berlin on 10 March 2013, joining participants from over 45 countries as they complete five specially designed interdisciplinary two-week modules held in Asia, Europe and North America.