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Tag: Viacom18

  • Confluence Media appoints Rajeev Chaurasia as chief business officer

    Confluence Media appoints Rajeev Chaurasia as chief business officer

    New Delhi: Confluence Media has roped in seasoned media professional Rajeev Chaurasia as chief business officer. He was earlier working with Viacom18 as senior media consultant.

    Confluence Media, the platform agnostic media entity was founded by journalist-writer Josy Joseph in 2019 to produce deeply researched, and engaging stories from South Asia in the form of scripted series, feature films, documentaries, podcasts, and books. The entity is backed by several investors including Jim Swartz.

    Confluence Media founder Josy Joseph said, “Rajeev brings his vast experience in India and abroad to strengthen our efforts in the market. He is a very valuable addition to the Confluence Media team. Over the last two years, we have created a content hub for edgy, deeply researched and engagingly told stories, and now has an advanced pipeline of a couple of dozen large projects in both India and abroad.”

    In his previous role at Viacom 18, Chaurasia helped set up and scale Voot Studio, the branded content wing of Voot, bringing in large advertisers interested in brand solutions. He also delivered on conversions along with award-winning campaigns for Voot Studio.

    Prior to Viacom 18, Chaurasia has consulted with Network 18, and headed Programming & TAR for MTV India, a Viacom company.

    “He has extensive background in television (both GEC and Niche) and OTT space. His acute understanding of TV and OTT platforms will help his transition into the new role as chief business officer (CBO) at Confluence Media, developing new business opportunities with OTT platforms as well as brands,” the organisation said in a media statement.

    Talking about his new role, Chaurasia said, there has never been a more opportune time in the history to unleash the power of gritty and untold stories based on real life incidents from India and South Asia to global audiences. “The Confluence Media team has some of the sharpest minds and exceptionally high standards of research in journalism with an uncanny ability to weave visual stories. I am looking forward to this new and exciting journey,” he said.

    Apart from his professional stints, Chaurasia has directed a full-length documentary on his father the legendary flautist Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, licensed to Discovery Networks. His documentaries on the ecological imbalance in North East India and the Man-Elephant conflict have been screened by History TV Digital.

  • Balaji Telefilms elevates Sunanda Gupta Jenna to VP, digital originals

    Balaji Telefilms elevates Sunanda Gupta Jenna to VP, digital originals

    Mumbai: Media and entertainment company Balaji Telefilms has promoted Sunanda Gupta Jenna to vice president – digital originals. She joined the media conglomerate in August 2019 as a creative producer for ALTBalaji originals.

    Prior to joining Balaji Telefilms, Jenna was associated with the ZEE network as programming head weekend for &TV. In her earlier stints, she has worked with Viacom18 and Endemol India.

    Jenna is a broadcast media professional who has experience in spearheading programming, content selection/creation, management, and television production. She has been a part of various projects including channel launches (COLORS, &TV), long format reality shows (IGT, Bigg Boss, Voice ), live TV shows (LMI), finite fiction (The Mentalist Agent Raghav, Darr horror series, Crime Series), and live events.

  • Voot announces eight sponsors for ‘Bigg Boss OTT’

    Voot announces eight sponsors for ‘Bigg Boss OTT’

    Mumbai: Viacom18’s Voot on Thursday announced that it has brought on board eight sponsors for “Bigg Boss OTT”. After Swiggy and CoinDCX joined as ‘co-powered by’ sponsors, the OTT platform roped in Vimal Elaichi, MX TakaTak, Netmeds, H&M, Durex, and Lotus Herbal as sponsors.

    Vimal Elaichi has come on board as ‘presenting’ partner, MX TakaTak as ‘social media’ partner, H&M as ‘style’ partner, Netmeds as ‘pharmacy’ partner, Durex as ‘special’ partner, and Lotus Herbal as ‘beauty’ partner for the show.

    Voot has driven deeper brand integration for sponsors of the show. For example, the sponsor Vimal Elaichi will leverage the ‘Bigg Boss’ fandom to connect and interact with viewers through IPs like ‘Video Vichaar’ and ‘Extraa Masala’ giving the brand more exposure throughout the reality series, said the platform in a statement. “While ‘Video Vichaar’ will enable viewers to share thoughts and opinions around daily developments within the house, ‘Extraa Masala’ is a successful content around content IP that traditionally attracts hordes of fans who can’t keep away from the ‘Bigg Boss’ phenomena,” it added.

    “Bigg Boss has grown to become a celebrated proposition for brands to connect and engage with viewers. Given the multi-touchpoint offering, the interest the show generates is unlike any other,” said Viacom18 Digital Ventures’ chief operating officer, Gourav Rakshit. “The diverse brands that have come on board as sponsors, some of whom have joined the Bigg Boss family for the first time in this exciting edition, is testimony to the popularity of the show.”

    “We are delighted to come on board as the presenting partner of Bigg Boss OTT – a new, pioneering idea for an OTT platform in India. Vimal has always been associated with shows and IPs that have a large mass audience connect; testimony to that are our brand ambassadors Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan,” said Vimal Elaichi in a statement.

    “With this exciting partnership, we bring reality television to short videos as well! Bigg Boss OTT shows the real side of celebrities to its viewers while MX TakaTak offers a great platform and encourages users, creators, digital enthusiasts to showcase their real talent across different genres. The natural content synergies that both platforms drive make it a win-win for us and we believe this will make for a great content fit for our users,” said MX TakaTak, business head, Janhavi Parikh.

    With Karan Johar as the host and 13 contestants, the show launched on 8 August exclusively on the digital platform. The season premiere episode witnessed viewers tuning in from across India registering the highest numbers of subscriber tune-in for a ‘Bigg Boss’ opening to date, according to the OTT player.

    “Bigg Boss OTT” airs every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m and on weekends at 8 p.m exclusively on Voot. 

  • Bigg Boss OTT to significantly impact overall digital revenues on Voot

    Bigg Boss OTT to significantly impact overall digital revenues on Voot

    Mumbai: At a time when film producers are tentatively considering direct-to-OTT releases, broadcaster Viacom18 boldly launched its biggest property – Bigg Boss- on its digital platform Voot with an impressive line of sponsors.

    ‘Bigg Boss OTT’ debuted on its streaming platform on August 8 with film producer Karan Johar hosting the show. There were 13 contestants brought exclusively for the digital platform. The OTT special edition will stream on Voot for the first six weeks following which it will be aired on Colors TV.

    “This strategic move can help with an asset like ‘Bigg Boss’ which already has a loyal following on television, which coupled with targeted marketing, made available by performance marketing, can greatly help increase subscriber revenue and user base on the OTT platform,” said Starcom, managing partner, Gautam Surath.

    The broadcaster has roped in ‘presents’ sponsor Vimal Paan Masala, while the food delivery platform Swiggy and cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDCX were brought onboard as ‘co-powered’ by sponsors.  The overall sponsorship is estimated to be upwards of Rs 15 crore.

    According to Voot, season 13 has so far garnered 20 billion minutes of watch time, 1.5 billion views and reached 40 million viewers. Industry estimates suggest Season 13 of the show has earned around Rs 180-200 crore in advertising revenues from nine sponsors and about 100 advertisers.

    “The OTT space is growing at a pace of nearly 35 per cent CAGR as per recent industry reports. Last year due to lockdown and also limited programme choices available on TV, we saw the total paid subscribers going up by 30 per cent in the initial months of FY 21. In the recent months we have also seen a huge growth in original content being released on OTT first,” said dentsu X India’s partner – client leadership, Saurabh Shrivastava.

    The launch of the digital property was no less than any TV launch. A full-page jacket ad was splashed on the Sunday edition of Times of India Mumbai, alongwith TV and OOH campaigns.

    The digital viewership for reality TV show has been steadily growing at 30-50 per cent since season 10. While reach data for season 14 has not been made available by Voot, media planners estimate that it has grown by 40 per cent. “Purely from the Voot streaming app perspective, season 14 has seen a 40 per cent increase in viewership over last year, garnering 1.5 billion minutes of watch time in the launch week”, observed Starcom’s Surath.

    “As an OTT platform, Voot has been growing YoY. It was estimated that Voot reached over 100-110 million MAU at the end of season 14. ‘Bigg Boss’ on Voot clocked close to ~1.5 Bn views during season 13 and it certainly crossed 2.2-2.5 billion views in season 14”, said Havas Media India’s head – digital services, Rohan Chincholi.

    The six week-long digital reality series could also act as a launch pad for ‘Bigg Boss season 15’ that will air on television, and contestants from the digital show may make an appearance on the TV reality series.

    “With Big Boss getting released on OTT, it will have a lot of traction from young consumers in terms of the time spent and content engagement. A particular mention for Karan Johar as host, as well as participants Shamita Shetty, Neha Bhasin, and Moose Jattana, who are already social media sensations, would bring in new viewers and give this version of the show a lot more eyeballs” added Shrivastava.

    Apart from its sponsors, ‘Bigg Boss OTT’ may also attract a lot of advertisers for its digital inventory, according to industry experts. In the past, telcos, mobile handsets, e-commerce, fitness, food delivery, internet companies, insurance, consumer electronics, apparel, home services, fast food, auto and tyre brands have been active advertisers on the digital stream of the show.

    Advertising demand on OTT platforms has also essentially doubled in the post-Covid era as more and more viewers have turned to streaming platforms. “This greatly increases the advertising competition, which paves the way for smarter performance marketing strategies that dive deeper into audience targeting, creative intelligence and data analytics. And, in turn, lead to greater RoI, according to agency experts.

    Commenting on the cost per mile (CPM) for the digital inventory of the show, Performics’ director of app marketing, Almog Ramrajkar said, “The average cost comes to about Rs 0.12 per impression so the CPM comes to about Rs 120. ‘Bigg Boss’ offers video ad ranges starting from up to 6-seconds to 45 seconds ads which come at a CPM of Rs 120 to Rs 690 respectively.”

    The digital stream of the show had a pan India presence reaching over 1200 towns and cities. Internal data shared by Voot in 2019 showed that viewers from NCT of Delhi and Maharashtra saw the highest levels of engagement for the show, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka and light levels of engagement from Gujarat, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, West Bengal.

    “Female audience under the age group of 18-24 has the highest engagement rate for the show with more than 95 per cent completion rate of every unseen clip. A major part of the ‘Bigg Boss’ audience on Voot are tech-savvy urban millennials especially women with high purchasing power and propensity to buy online. Advertising to such an affluent audience is the perfect fit for e-commerce and digital-first brands,” said Ramrajkar.

    “Usually, it is an equal split between male and female audiences. The 18-34 age bracket is the most engaged on the platform. More than 50 per cent of the engagement comes from Tier 2 and 3. Mostly youth brands from lifestyle, retail, FMCG, entertainment and automobile categories, associate with this property”, added Havas Media’s Chincholi.

    Considering that Voot roped in eight sponsors for season 13 and 11 advertisers for season 14 and the significant growth in viewership of the show year-on-year, ‘Bigg Boss OTT’ will likely have a significant impact on overall digital revenues for the AVOD business. 

  • Viacom18 names Viraj Raje the head of programming for Colors Marathi

    Viacom18 names Viraj Raje the head of programming for Colors Marathi

    New Delhi: Viacom18 on Wednesday announced the appointment of Viraj Raje as head of programming for Colors Marathi. He will be responsible for managing the channel’s content strategy and creative framework.

    Raje comes with over 25 years of experience in the industry, having led creative teams across Marathi television and films. Prior to joining Colors Marathi, he has worked with Disney+Star India, Reliance – Big Productions, and as a freelance film director, wherein he revolutionised Marathi entertainment by creating novel and engaging content, said the channel in a statement.

    Welcoming Raje on board, Viacom18, head – regional entertainment (Kannada and Marathi clusters), Ravish Kumar said, “Marathi entertainment, especially on television, caters to audiences with extremely varied preferences – connecting viewers in both urban metros as well as rural parts of the state. Colors Marathi has been paving the path for content that resonates with this diverse audience, bringing stories that are modern yet seeped into the culture of the land. Viraj’s rich experience in the entertainment industry and knowledge about the pulse of the Marathi viewer will help us further enhance the channel’s footprint and bring delight to our audiences.”

    Elaborating on his new role, Raje said, “Content creators today need to be subservient to the fact that to captivate the audience’s interest, one needs to bring the right balance of novelty and mass appeal. I am excited to embark on this exciting journey at Colors Marathi and look forward to creating unique stories that truly reflect the ethos of the Marathi audience.”

    In his career spanning 25 years, Raje has been honoured with numerous awards like the Maharashtra State Award: Best Director for the feature film “Shyamche Vadil“, Best Social Film and Screenplay for “Babanchi Shala“.

  • MTV, Unacademy set to bring music show ‘Unacademy Unwind’

    MTV, Unacademy set to bring music show ‘Unacademy Unwind’

    Mumbai: Ed-tech platform Unacademy has partnered with MTV to launch a music show ‘Unacademy Unwind’. Starting from 13 August, the show will feature performances by prolific musicians from India every Friday at 7 p.m.

    The programme will bring artistes across ten genres of music and will span ten episodes. The line-up comprises of musicians including Lucky Ali, Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher, Badshah, Darshan Raval, Arjun Kanungo, Benny Dayal, Papon, Armaan Malik- Amaal Mallik, Harshdeep Kaur, Monali Thakur, Rochak Kohli, Asees Kaur, Sneha Khanwalkar, Aastha Gill, Reet Talwar, Lijo and King. The musicians that appear on the show will conduct recreations and original compositions, designed to cater to the tastes of a young audience.

    “As a brand that touches millions of youths, it has always been our endeavour to explore newer avenues of connecting with them,” said Unacademy’s associate vice president – marketing, Sonal Mishra. “The pandemic has been difficult for everyone and our learners have had to face the brunt of academic disruptions and uncertainties. Learners love music and use it as a mechanism to unwind. With ‘Unacademy Unwind’, we want to leverage the rejuvenating powers of music to infuse some soothing and magical moments into their lives.”

    “In these trying times, there is no better balm for the soul than music. Every single performance in this property is an MTV masterpiece by itself. We hope that each song will become a lifelong companion to young South Asians across the world as they navigate through life’s twists and turns,” added Viacom18’s head – youth, music and English entertainment, Anshul Ailawadi.

    “At MTV, we have always focused on creating properties that connect with the youth of India and provide a great opportunity for brands to engage with our large and diverse audience base,” said Viacom18’s head – sales, Mahesh Shetty. “We are extremely happy to partner with Unacademy to create this unique music property that will see India’s best musicians descend on one platform to create musical magic and what better for the youth of the country to unwind in these stressful times than soulful music.”

    Viewers can also watch all episodes and songs on the Unacademy Unwind YouTube channel.

  • Kaizzen wins Viacom18’s PR mandate following multi-agency pitch

    Kaizzen wins Viacom18’s PR mandate following multi-agency pitch

    Mumbai: PR and digital agency Kaizzen has won the PR mandate for Viacom18’s corporate brand communication, film business and regional entertainment, following a multi-agency pitch. 

    The mandate encompasses providing strategic communications support to Viacom18 covering corporate reputation management, strengthening brand and leadership visibility, as well as network initiatives led by the media giant.

    Commenting on winning the account, Kaizzen CEO, Vineet Handa, said, “Viacom18 has cemented itself as a pioneer in the media and entertainment segment by offering groundbreaking content and innovative concepts. We are thankful to the management team at Viacom18 for believing in our vision, ideas and entrusting us with the responsibility to drive their communication strategy for the corporate brand, regional entertainment, and filmed entertainment. Our team is excited at the opportunity of working collaboratively with the team at Viacom18 to execute innovative, disruptive high-impact PR campaigns that positively impact the business.”

    With over 25 years of experience in PR, brand communication and outreach, Handa’s venture at Kaizzen aims at bringing a new dimension to the communications realm, thereby providing value to companies through this function. “Over the last decade, Kaizzen has seamlessly driven impactful campaigns, generating maximum ROI for our clients. I am hopeful our expertise in the corporate domain and understanding of the business will be helpful in driving the brand’s narrative to achieve our desired output,” he added.

  • Nickelodeon to launch month-long campaign celebrating friendship day

    Nickelodeon to launch month-long campaign celebrating friendship day

    Mumbai: Kids entertainment channel Nickelodeon has come up with an initiative #ToastYourDost to celebrate Friendship Day. Represented by Nick toons, the campaign will give its young viewers a chance to celebrate the entire month of August as an ode to friendship with banter between friends, and a whole lot of pranks and fun.

    Starting 1 August, the month-long campaign will go on till 3 September during which, Nickelodeon will premiere the #ToastYourDost online awards that will be given under categories such as Chindi Friend, Selfie Obsessed Soul, Lazy Daizy, Late Lateef, Biggest Bhukkad, Biggest Ditcher and more.  The 12 award categories will allow young viewers to choose a toasting template and add the name of the friend along with a reason to ‘toast that dost’ after logging on to Nickindia dot com.

    Nickelodeon will also launch another on-air campaign where millions of kids will be able to watch episodes of their favorite toon BFFs like Rudra, Motu Patlu, and Golmaal Jr, while participating in a contest that will give them an opportunity to win cool gaming consoles.

    Speaking on the initiative, Viacom18, head – marketing kids TV network, Sonali Bhattacharya, said, “At Nickelodeon, we celebrate kids and all that is of importance to them. Friendship and all the wonderful emotions that it sparks form a pivotal part of kids’ lives. Keeping this in mind, we have curated our initiative #ToastYourDost that will allow kids to toast their friends all month long and make some fun memories. The unique initiative spans all screens and is full of quirky digital innovations that will keep kids happy and positive.”

    The channel has devised a robust digital plan to boost the initiative with swipe-up games, AR filters, mash-up reels, and gamified stories along with promotions on Voot, Voot Kids, social media platforms, and YouTube channels. Nickelodeon will also reach out to kids through tickers running on the channel as well as through billboards and digital screens across Mumbai. Additionally, specially curated music playlists on friendship will be available across music streaming apps.

  • Fifth edition of Content Hub 2021 all set to get underway on 28 July

    Fifth edition of Content Hub 2021 all set to get underway on 28 July

    New Delhi: Change is the force of nature. More so, when it’s catalysed by digital technology, that not only transforms the way we live, but alters the way we envision the world. The last few years have done exactly that, disrupting the world of media and entertainment and heralding a new era where content is the king.

    Streaming has taken its rightful place as the go-to option for the new-age audiences worldwide. The voracious appetite for visual content has led to a fierce competition among media businesses – both traditional and digital to look for ways to deliver the best quality content in the least possible time.

    This content revolution will take centre-stage at the much-awaited fifth edition of The Content Hub 2021- ‘TV, Film, Digital Video, and Beyond’ being organised by Indiantelevision.com from 28-30 July, 2021. The mega annual event which brings together some of the biggest names from the world of media and entertainment industry together will go virtual this year.

    The three-day summit is co-presented by IN10 Media Network and ZEE5, and co-powered by Applause Entertainment and Tipping Point, the digital content unit of Viacom18 Studios. PTC Network is the supporting partner.

    Centred on the theme – ‘The New Dynamic’, The Content Hub 20201 will witness insightful sessions with industry stakeholders deliberating on how the new forces are transforming the way content is created and stories are told. It will also delve upon the impact of these changes on the business models for the world of films, TV and OTT.

    The three-day event will provide an opportunity to people from across the media industry to know and understand the new trends. So, whether they are content creators, broadcast/OTT professionals, advertising and marketing professionals, technology content providers, writers, directors, producers, content studios, and production houses, the event line-up promises engaging sessions for all.

    There will be over 25 virtual sessions, key notes, fire-side chats, and master classes from the best in the content ecosystem spread over three days, starting Wednesday. It will also give an opportunity to the participants to listen to successful content stories in both TV and digital format from the makers themselves!

    There will be a master-class with director Amit Masurkar and writer Aastha Tiku on ‘What went into the making of Sherni’. The movie featuring Vidya Balan in the lead role debuted on Amazon Prime in June. The event will also host a special masterclass with creators of the popular web-series Scam, with director, writer, producer Hansal Mehta, co-director Jai Mehta,  filmmaker Sumit Purohit, writers Karan Vyas, Saurav Dey and Vaibhav Vishal.

     

     

    Day One will begin with invigorating discussions on the challenges and opportunities before India’s content creators, the growth of OTT, the growing relevance of language personalisation in OTT advertising and the surge of real-life programming. There will also be a session on Factual Entertainment- The rising surge with Discovery Inc, South Asia, managing director, Megha Tata.

    Day Two will begin with presentations on content and consumption trends. There will be an interesting session on building a writer’s room, and creating engaging audio content. It will also witness conversations between industry stakeholders on the new creative regime, and how remote working has altered the way production takes place now.

    Some of the key speakers include : 

    Join us on 28 July for one of the biggest annual get-togethers of content creators from across the industry.

    To register visit: https://thecontenthub.in/index.html

  • Hyderabad-based IT engineer arrested for copyright violation of Viacom18’s content

    Hyderabad-based IT engineer arrested for copyright violation of Viacom18’s content

    New Delhi: Maharashtra Cyber Police has arrested a 28-year-old Hyderabad-based IT engineer for alleged copyright violation of Viacom18’ content using a standalone pirated application called Thop TV.

    According to police, the accused named Satish Venkateshwarlu was allegedly relaying and transmitting the network’s content without authorization at a discounted price through a mobile app called ‘Thop TV’, and thus causing a substantial revenue loss to the network.

    The accused was arrested under Sections 43, 66 and 66B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, Section 63 of Copyright Act, and Section 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was produced before the court which remanded him to six days of police custody for further investigations.

    The probe was initiated after Viacom18 filed an official complaint with Maharashtra Cyber against the “rogue, standalone” mobile application, which was relaying and transmitting their copyrighted content such as movies, TV shows and VOD content at a discounted rate, thus causing substantial revenue loss to the company.

    Superintendent of police, Sanjay Shintre said, “After the initial technical investigation, it was noticed that the accused, a highly educated IT engineer from Hyderabad developed a mobile application named ‘Thop TV’ and pirated Viacom18’s content through Telegram, a social media intermediary. The app has lakhs of viewers, including 5,000 paid subscribers, thereby generating massive revenue for the app.”

    Speaking on this development, a Viacom18 Spokesperson said, “Piracy is a matter of grave concern for the media industry and one that needs to be addressed constantly. It is important to acknowledge that digital piracy is a serious offence which causes huge losses to the digital economy. Viacom18 will continue to fight this menace and secure its content through all means available under law. We are grateful to the Office of the inspector general of police Maharashtra Cyber for their constant vigilance and timely support towards curbing piracy and copyright violation.”